With much of my recent focus being on Theros Limited, it’s been a while since I’ve checked in on what’s going on in Standard. Now that Grand Prix Toronto has come and gone, it’s time to shift gears to sixty-card decks. Usually, I go to Magic Online to data-mine, but with Premier Events being on hiatus, I’ll have to rely on paper Magic tournaments. Fortunately, there have been three Standard GPs in the past month along with the usual StarCityGames tournament series, so I have a decent amount of data to work with.

It’s not a surprise that devotion decks are still dominating Standard, although there are a fair number of non-devotion strategies in the mix as well. With Thoughtseize and Duress being in the format, there is a distinct lack of combo decks or decks that otherwise rely on having specific cards. Control decks are holding their own, usually backed by Sphinx's Revelation, but as we saw with Dallas last weekend, you don’t necessarily need Islands in your deck to win with a controlling strategy.

Using data collected from Top 16s at SCG events and GPs dated November 24 forward, here’s what the overall metagame looks like:

The top three decks, namely mono-blue devotion, blue control, and mono-black devotion, collectively account for roughly sixty percent of the metagame. Along with the various flavors of aggressive red decks, a huge portion of the metagame is concentrated into a very small number of categories. This is both a bad thing and a good thing. It’s bad in that it can be a bit boring to face the same three or four decks over and over, but it’s good in that you know exactly what to expect every round. This allows you to be better prepared for what your opponents have in store for you. The vast majority of Standard decks can be lumped into one of five categories:

• Blue devotion
• Blue control
• Black devotion
• Red
• White weenie

What I find a little surprising is the near-total lack of green decks. It wasn’t that long ago when it felt that you had to play green just to be competitive, and with amazing cards such as Thragtusk, it wasn’t exactly a Holmesian mystery as to why that was the case. In my last Standard review, I noted how poorly G/r devotion performed, and since then, it’s nearly disappeared from the metagame. There’s still a smattering of B/G and R/G decks, but few players are sleeving up Forests these days.

I’ve already talked about blue devotion and black devotion in previous articles, so I won’t go into them in detail here. They haven’t changed all that much anyway. Let’s look at the other three major archetypes instead, starting with blue control:

"William Jensen – W/U Control – Second at Grand Prix Dallas"

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 3 Jace, Architect of Thought

• Spells (30)
• 2 Quicken
• 2 Syncopate
• 4 Azorius Charm
• 4 Dissolve
• 4 Sphinx's Revelation
• 4 Divination
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 4 Detention Sphere
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Ratchet Bomb

• Lands (26)
• 8 Island
• 8 Plains
• 2 Mutavault
• 4 Azorius Guildgate
• 4 Hallowed Fountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 3 Fiendslayer Paladin
• 3 Gainsay
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 3 Last Breath
• 2 Negate
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 1 Ratchet Bomb

Buy This Deck

Jensen’s list is as close as we’re ever going to get to a pure draw-go control deck. It doesn’t play a huge number of counterspells, at least not in the main deck. That’s more of a concession to the lowered effectiveness of counterspells in general, relative to, say, ten years ago, when actual Counterspell was a thing. What it loses in its ability to counter threats, Jensen’s deck does gain in its ability to answer threats that do resolve. Detention Sphere is an elegant catch-all answer, and the full four copies of Supreme Verdict do wonders against any sort of creature strategy. Like control decks of old, this list is very light on actual win conditions. It relies more on inevitability, which is to say that once you have control of the game, actually winning is usually trivial. I say “usually” because time is a factor you have to consider. If you plan to play something like this, it is absolutely imperative that you win Game 1 because winning games quickly isn’t something this deck is good at. At the very least, if you’re going to lose Game 1, at least do it quickly.

W/U control should be receiving some new tools when Born of the Gods comes out (Temples at the very least), so expect this deck to stick around for a while. I’m really hoping some sort of R/W/U deck is viable, mostly because I’m dying to cast Steam Augury.

If attacking is more your style, the next few decks should suit your fancy. Let’s start with the white weenie decks.

"Boros Aggro – Christopher Barone – Second at SCG Open Providence"

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Azorius Arrester
• 4 Boros Elite
• 4 Daring Skyjek
• 4 Dryad Militant
• 4 Frontline Medic
• 4 Precinct Captain
• 4 Soldier of the Pantheon

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ajani, Caller of the Pride

• Spells (8)
• 4 Boros Charm
• 4 Brave the Elements

• Lands (22)
• 10 Plains
• 4 Mutavault
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Temple of Triumph

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Banisher Priest
• 3 Fiendslayer Paladin
• 2 Pacifism
• 3 Skullcrack
• 1 Wear // Tear
• 2 Flames of the Firebrand

Buy This Deck

"Orzhov Aggro – Ben Stark – Fourth at Grand Prix Dallas"

• Creatures (29)
• 2 Xathrid Necromancer
• 3 Imposing Sovereign
• 4 Banisher Priest
• 4 Boros Elite
• 4 Daring Skyjek
• 4 Dryad Militant
• 4 Precinct Captain
• 4 Soldier of the Pantheon

• Spells (9)
• 3 Orzhov Charm
• 4 Brave the Elements
• 2 Spear of Heliod

• Lands (22)
• 1 Swamp
• 8 Plains
• 1 Orzhov Guildgate
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Mutavault
• 4 Temple of Silence

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Dark Betrayal
• 3 Doom Blade
• 1 Orzhov Charm
• 2 Profit // Loss
• 2 Sin Collector
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 2 Xathrid Necromancer

Buy This Deck

Both of these decks have very similar game plans: Play a bunch of cheap, white creatures, and attack your opponent to death. The red version has more reach in the form of Boros Charm, but the black version is a bit more resilient because of Xathrid Necromancer. Other than that, they’re more or less identical. I like the black version a bit more, as it’s more able to deal with opposing creatures and can recover a bit better from a Supreme Verdict. Either way, white weenie is among the few decks in the format that has game against both mono-black and mono-blue devotion, so if you’re sick of losing to either one of those decks, feel free to give it a try.

Finally, let’s look at some of the latest incarnations of The Red Menace:

"R/g Devotion – Carlos Reyes – Third at Grand Prix Dallas"

• Creatures (26)
• 4 Ash Zealot
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Fanatic of Mogis
• 4 Frostburn Weird
• 4 Stormbreath Dragon
• 2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Chandra, Pyromaster
• 4 Domri Rade

• Spells (3)
• 3 Mizzium Mortars

• Lands (25)
• 12 Mountain
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Temple of Abandon
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Anger of the Gods
• 2 Destructive Revelry
• 3 Mistcutter Hydra
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 2 Plummet
• 2 Xenagos, the Reveler

Buy This Deck

"R/w Devotion – Robb Miknus – Second at SCG Open Oakland"

• Creatures (26)
• 4 Ash Zealot
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Fanatic of Mogis
• 4 Frostburn Weird
• 4 Stormbreath Dragon
• 2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster

• Spells (8)
• 3 Mizzium Mortars
• 3 Chained to the Rocks
• 2 Hammer of Purphoros

• Lands (25)
• 12 Mountain
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Temple of Triumph
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Chained to the Rocks
• 4 Boros Charm
• 3 Warleader's Helix
• 2 Wear // Tear
• 3 Anger of the Gods

Buy This Deck

Again, these two decks are nearly identical. The green version has Domri Rade, and the white one has Chained to the Rocks, but that’s about it, really. I like the white version a bit more in this case. Domri Rade is just okay, while Chained to the Rocks is a reliable way of getting rid of most of the problem creatures in the format. The white version also has access to Assemble the Legion, a tough card for mono-black to beat. The green version does have Mistcutter Hydra, which is quite good against mono-blue, so you’ll just have to make a judgment call as to which deck you prefer. And if you just want to send burn spells to your opponent’s dome, you can check out the following list:

"Boros Burn – Darin Minard – Eighth at Grand Prix Dallas"

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Chandra's Phoenix
• 4 Young Pyromancer

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Chandra, Pyromaster

• Spells (28)
• 4 Boros Charm
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Magma Jet
• 4 Shock
• 4 Skullcrack
• 4 Warleader's Helix
• 4 Chained to the Rocks

• Lands (22)
• 10 Mountain
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Temple of Silence
• 4 Temple of Triumph

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Assemble the Legion
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 3 Spark Trooper
• 4 Unknown cards

Buy This Deck

I’m not huge fan of decks like these, but if this is what you like, don’t let me stop you from playing it. With eight lands that enter the battlefield tapped, this isn’t the fastest burn deck in history, but the large number of scry effects make the deck quite consistent. There are too few lands for my liking for a deck that wants to play 4- and 5-mana cards, but who am I to argue?

I’ll wrap up with my win-percentage table for the tournaments I sampled. The usual caveats about small samples sizes apply.

The big winner here is blue control, with its dominating performance across all matchups except for white weenie. However, that matchup only occurred once in the data, so I would take that number with a grain of salt. What’s surprising to me is that both black and blue devotion posted lower than 50% win rates. Blue is just barely below 50%, and it is entirely due to its unfavorable matchup against blue control. It has a 50% or better win rate against the rest of the field, so it’s still a good choice. Black devotion, on the other hand, underperformed, posting a 50% win rate against blue devotion and failing to beat anything else. White weenie was the best-performing aggressive deck, doing well in all matchups except for blue devotion.

It will be interesting to revisit these matchups if and when Magic Online events start up again, as that gives me more to work with. The more tournaments there are, the more reliable these numbers will be. As for now, my recommendation is to play W/U control if you are comfortable with that type of deck; otherwise, play white weenie with the black splash. If you have a ton of experience playing either blue or black devotion, it’s fine to stick with it; just be conscious of the growing popularity of the decks I discussed above.

Good luck in your upcoming Standard tournaments, and I’ll see you guys again next week.

Take care,

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

www.youtube.com/nketita