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Main » Articles » The Standard Overview

The Standard Overview

Rudy Briksza
Posted on August 28, 2017
 Reddit

With Grand Prix DC around the corner, players everywhere are trying to scramble and figure out what the next level of Standard is. Let’s take a look at the decks in Standard currently to try and figure it out.

Temur Energy

Temur Energy ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Brad Nelson, 1st Place at Grand Prix Denver on 8/20/2017

The talk of Denver was the dominance of this Temur Energy deck. Even more impressive was three copies of the same 75 had the best tournament they could, making Top 8 and only losing to the mirror on route to winning the tournament.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an article on Temur Energy lining up well against most of the format; and, while my version wasn’t the cleanest, it was on the right track. The individual threats are great at either taking over the game or giving you enough time to set up for your powerful threats. The biggest question on my mind is which version of Temur Energy is going to be better moving forward.

Let’s take a look at the 75 Alex Majlaton used to qualify for the PT at his RPTQ

Temur Energy ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Alex Majlaton 1st Place at RPTQ on 8/20/2017

The Scarab God
This version eschews some of the consistency and cleanliness for a more powerful end game. The Scarab God is a fantastic way to win any midrange battle. Being a 5/5 means it’s always able to get into combat; and, if your opponent kills it, it’s coming right back to your hand for some more battles. Being able to reanimate your own creatures provides all sort of extra value, but in mirrors it’s a way to ensure victory. God-Pharaoh's Gift deck s have been on the rise recently and The Scarab God is a potentially great way to prevent their slow draws from ever getting anywhere.

The Temur deck is going to start picking up in popularity and figuring out how to win the mirror will be important, especially for the Grand Prix in DC this weekend. The Scarab God seems like a great place to start. The downside is being forced to play, at a minimum, a basic Swamp. This land comes at a huge cost. Trying to play a three color deck with a land that is essentially colorless can lead to a lot of awkward draws. Trying to cast Whirler Virtuoso and Harnessed Lightning when you have Swamp, Botanical Sanctum, and Forest is a real feel bad. Luckily, Attune with Aether and Aether Hub can provide some leeway, but it isn’t a permanent solution.

Overall: Temur Energy is the perfect kind of deck to take to a GP. Not overtly powerful but has a ton of tools to beat every deck in the format.

God-Pharaoh’s Gift

God-Pharaoh's Gift has been steadily increasing in popularity on MTGO and made a powerful debut at GP Denver taking four of the top sixteen slots.

Jeskai Gift ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Mike Sigrist 12th Place at Grand Prix Denver on 8/20/2017

Angel of Invention
Gift is fantastic at tearing through its deck and trying to put a God-Pharaoh's Gift into play. Angel of Invention is an incredibly powerful card on its own and making it a 6/6 lifelink and vigilance flier is usually too much for any deck to come back from. One of the major innovations was adding four Inspiring Vantage to the deck as a way to actively cast Angel of Invention. With graveyard hate mostly non-existent, it is unsurprising to see a deck like this flourish. For the Grand Prix this weekend, I expect there to be a few more Abrades and graveyard hate pieces to combat this deck. Cataclysmic Gearhulk seems very well positioned on the weekend. Lining up well against creature decks that go wide like Temur or bg while still being relevant against decks like Red.

The sideboard plan here of boarding in Planeswalkers and Glorybringer adds a new dimension to try and dodge artifact hate and graveyard hate. While this plan is great; the deck does contain some weak creatures, and the “attack you” plan can fall apart pretty easily.

Overall: Well positioned if folks forget their sideboard cards. You can beat the hate and can dodge it completely as well. The power level of the deck is very high but it is also difficult to play. Would recommend for the GP if you are familiar and have spent time play-testing the deck.

Mono-Black Zombies

Mono-Black Zombies ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Collin Rountree 5th Place at Grand Prix Denver on 8/20/2017

Liliana's Mastery
Zombies made a huge impact on the format after the Pro Tour but didn’t make waves at the Grand Prix. Collin Rountree, however, dominated the swiss rounds of the GP, achieving an undefeated record of 13-0-2 into the Top 8. Zombies looked like it had a great matchup against a lot of the format and walked in boasting a fantastic Mono-Red matchup. With main deck Scavenger Grounds, this deck boasts some answers to the God-Pharaoh's Gift deck. Post board, the addition of Dispossess and Transgress the Mind provides even more answers. Zombies is an impressive aggro deck, as it is designed to be able to close games out early but has no fear playing the midrange role. Liliana's Mastery and Dark Salvation can provide a small army out of nowhere. While lords have traditionally been weak due to their soft bodies, Mastery provides a long standing pump that turns all future creatures into major threats.

Overall: The deck is great but seems really weak against lots of spot removal and sweepers. With Mono-Red moving to Sweltering Suns in the board, it’s going to only get harder for Zombies in the future. The deck is going to be a good choice no matter what, but be prepared to fight uphill.

Ramunap Red

Ramunap Red ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Sam Pardee 6th Place at Grand Prix Denver on 8/20/2017

Hazoret the Fervent
Despite dominating the Pro Tour, Mono-Red seems to have fallen off the map, hard. However, this open format appears to be cyclical, and Red is once again a deck to beat. After placing three copies in the GP Denver Top 8, the deck looks to be close to back on top. Like previous iterations of Mono-Red, the deck is fantastic at punishing any deck that stumbles. Unlike previous iterations of Mono-Red, though, the deck is fantastic at going long with the inclusion of Ramunap Ruins and Hazoret the Fervent. Having repeatable sources of damages allows you to keep strong into the long game. What is fantastic about the deck is even with people building their decks to beat you, things don’t end up that bad. Every match feels winnable; and, for me, Red is the best deck because of that. Red doesn’t feel unbeatable, though, which is quite fantastic.

Overall: The Red deck is a fantastic choice for any tournament. After its fantastic performance at GP Denver, I would recommend being prepared to fight against some hate; but, it’s hard to go wrong.

Well, that’s not very helpful. Standard seems to just have a ton of good decks here! Even wu Monument made Top 8 of the GP and everyone had written that deck off. Monument seems like it lines up well against Temur Energy; so, if you expect that deck to be popular, you can’t really go wrong. Do remember the Mono-Red matchup is pretty bad and that’s part of the reason the deck fell off. Though, the most important thing for Standard is to pick a deck that you’re familiar with.

Four-Color Ramp

The next deck is the one I think could potentially be good right now and it’s certainly a weird one.

Four-Color Ramp ? Hour of Devastation Standard | MTGmulligan 5-0 Competitive Standard League on 8/22/17

Fumigate
Ramp has tons of interesting tools at its disposal to build a deck in some weird ways. This variant plays one of the best cards in Standard against Temur and Zombies, Fumigate. Past that, Ramp is distinguishable from some of the other decks due to its ability to have an almost unbeatable end game with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and, unimpeded, has a great goldfish.

The one card I think is missing from this variant is Neheb, the Eternal. A large body that can add extra mana seems perfect for this kind of deck. The mana created in your second main phase can lead to some busted turns.

While Mono-Red is a very tough match for the Ramp deck, if that deck is hated out, I expect to see this deck start to pick up a little bit. Kozilek's Return, Gift of Paradise, and Abrade all do some work against the Red deck but we see here in the sideboard up to ten cards that can be boarded to fight the Red deck.

The Temur matchup seems favored but it could be tough trying to beat an early Longtusk Cub with lots of Energy behind it. After that, the deck doesn’t put on a ton of immediate pressure, so you’ll generally have time to set up your late game. While Confiscation Coup post board can be troublesome, it feels beatable.

I got the chance to play essentially this list on my stream (www.twitch.tv/notoriousbza) and came out of two Leagues with a 4-1 and 5-0 record. I think it’s safe to say the deck has a lot of power behind and I’m interested in exploring it more before GP DC.

Until next time.

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TAGS articles, metagame, constructed, analysis, standard, decklist, hour of devastation standard, rudy briksza, 08282017

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