Eternal in Closing

Posted on June 10, 2016

Over the past few weeks, I have been for the most part shying away from Standard. Not much has been happening and the PTQ’s have been Sealed, stealing more of my gaming time. While I am ready to get back to Standard after this week I am also anticipating the next set. In truth, the fall cannot arrive soon enough as I am ready for Collected Company to find its way out of the format. That being said, we do have more results this week; and, though CoCo is certainly present, there are some other options to tickle your fancy until Eldritch Moon gives us more to work with.

U/R Eldrazi ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Michael Segal, Top 4 SCG Atlanta

While the GP didn’t offer much new insight into the format, the SCG open in Atlanta this weekend brought some really awesome lists. Not all of them did well enough to make Top 8, but this gem did. It seems like a perfect place to start this week. I am a huge fan of any deck where I get to ramp and have counterspells, so as soon as I saw this list I fell in love. I am not sure how this deck does against Infinite Obliteration given your lack of threats, but Drowner of Hope compliments Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger on the top end very well and further buys you time to take over the game. It is also worth noting how well this card can take down an opposing Chandra, Flamecaller, both on offense and defense. Another huge push for Eldrazi to move toward Blue.

The board contains Fevered Visions, which I have made clear in the past how much I like, though I don’t know if this deck does the best job of abusing the card. It is great in control mirrors, forcing your opponent to proactively threaten you or just die in the long game as you are able to build up counters and Eldrazi to finally smash through once the shields are down. Spatial Contortion also plays a huge role right now, allowing you to deal with Sylvan Advocate early without having to have all of your colors online. It also plays off Hedron Archive nicely, giving you something to do on four while keeping your opponent from getting too far ahead while you set up.

Overall, I am really impressed with the list, and, though I prefer to be slightly more aggressive in this particular format, this deck looks to be a great option if you enjoy control. However, I also want the ability to close out games quickly.

U/W Aggro ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Hugo Terra, Top 8 SCG Atlanta

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

The other interesting list to break into the top eight was this gem, sporting copies of Invocation of Saint Traft, a bulk rare, in the main. I have seen copies in the board but up until now this card has flown relatively under the radar as being even remotely playable. This shell looks like it has no problem getting a creature in play and strapping it up while also protecting it once the race has begun.

The only card I am not sold on here is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. It just doesn't feel like it meshes with the rest of the deck, but I also understand how powerful the card is on its own. Even if the card’s impact is just an emblem most of the time, that may be enough to still keep a set in the main over pushing more counterspells or aggression. My biggest problem is this deck plays the Gideon subgame fairly well but the opponent can just emblem to keep the flyers from wrecking him and their sprawling strategy will likely overrun yours. I am curious to test this deck out this week, and, even if I do not play Gideon, I can certainly get behind the rest of the deck and am stoked to try it out.

Mono-Blue Prison ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Joshua Dickerson 32nd Place SCG Atlanta

Lands (24)
24 Island

Normally I don’t focus on the decks placing outside of the Top 16, but this week I make an exception as this new concoction hits all of the main points I like to see in a brew: it is creative, fun, wins through an original method, and is relatively cheap to build. With the mana base being covered already, the only real value in the deck is Part the Waterveil and the boarded playset of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, which I am sure we could find a substitute for if you are not interested in incinerating money. While he is playable in eternal formats, Jace is by no means a fixed staple at this point which leads me to stay away from him as I have in the past when coming up with lists. This deck already plays them in the board so I feel even less bad finding a replacement. It really comes down to what the role of Jace is when he comes in and what most mimics that given advantage.

I am not sure this is a deck I would be racing to buy the cards for. From a speculation perspective, it is unlikely any other deck will be looking at Jace's Sanctum any time soon; but, if you are interested in having an enjoyable FNM experience, I fully am on board building this deck. It is almost all bulk rares and will certainly confuse some number of opponents.

As much as I would love to dig further into Standard, I didn't see anything else inspiring this week. This still allows me a little room to cover the basics of week one Eternal Masters. WIth the set truly putting a lot of pressure on the top cards such as Force of Will and Mana Crypt there is a good chance we see a number of those cards, Force being the frontrunner, rebound nicely, making them ideal to pick up week one. Other cards have a ways to fall as Supply will certainly out-do Demand in short order.

The top ten list of cards I don't mind picking up the first weekend are as follows:

Force of Will

Wasteland

Sensei's Divining Top

Shardless Agent

Deathrite Shaman

Daze

Hymn to Tourach

Heritage Druid

Cabal Therapy

Toxic Deluge

While not every card on here will go up immediately, they should all recover better than a great deal of the set, and the rarity bump on Heritage Druid leads me to believe, if you open one per box on average and Natural Order’s reprinting drives Elves at all, this card’s demand may actually overtake the new supply on the market. The alternate art cards are easy to identify as pickups as most of the time they will be the first to recover. It is unclear how Daze’s future looks, but it will likely be so cheap release weekend, as most people will focus on the rares and mythics, you can get them for next to nothing. Toxic Deluge is likely the most risky of the set and will dip some before it goes back up. However, the rate of growth on this card should be able to sustain a reprint at this level and not get absolutely crushed as many of the commander cards will. The biggest key is just evaluating what cards will need to be played in sets rather than singletons and focusing on those.

That’s all for this week. I unfortunately will not get the chance to draft Eternal Masters this weekend as I will be working at GP Columbus. The true test of how much this helps Legacy will come later, but I am excited to see the general reaction of players a little less jaded than what I am seeing online. Either way it should be a great time, as Legacy always is. If you cannot make it yourself be sure to keep up with coverage all weekend long and check back in here next week as we briefly discuss what prices have shifted. Then we’ll focus ourselves back on Standard. If you saw any other lists from the weekend that caught your eye, feel free to share them below or find me on Twitter. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand