A few weeks have passed since the Pro Tour, and we are finally seeing the floodgates open and innovation spill out. Last week, I talked about a number of decks that debuted and did well in Vancouver. This week, I want to focus on one such deck and take that list beyond a Pro Tour metagame and update it for Standard play, at least until rotation.

As it so happens, Kyle Boggemes, the pilot of the deck in question this week, also wrote a detailed rundown of the current format and what he would have done to change it moving forward. I am going to start with his updated list and move from there. His entire write-up can be found here along with sideboarding options and matchup breakdowns.

G/W Constellation ? Magic Origins Standard| Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 4 Herald of the Pantheon
• 4 Nyx-Fleece Ram

• Spells (19)
• 4 Kruphix's Insight
• 1 Starfield of Nyx
• 2 Frontier Siege
• 4 Banishing Light
• 4 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 4 Silkwrap

• Lands (25)
• 5 Plains
• 8 Forest
• 4 Blossoming Sands
• 4 Temple of Plenty
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Starfield of Nyx
• 4 Suspension Field
• 4 Boon Satyr
• 3 Arashin Cleric
• 3 Plummet [/Sideboard]

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This is where Kyle left us with his list, and though this is clearly tuned and a great choice in the current field, I want to change some things up a bit. I can see the reasoning for staying two colors, but there are so many cool interactions this deck can find with almost any splash. That is the first place I want to explore, and from there, we’ll see what we can do over the next few months to prepare this shell—or at least Starfield of Nyx—for rotation. I am hoping losing cards like Courser of Kruphix does not pull the plug on this deck, but until then, it is time to focus on there here and now.

4 Courser of Kruphix — This card seems to tie everything the deck wants to do together, and it’s what first made me latch onto such a shell even before the Pro Tour. I was probably going far too gimmicky at that point, but the Pro Tour results cannot deny that this deck has legs to stand on, and Courser is probably the base for all of this. A full set should probably be the start to any deck looking to play green in this archetype, so at least in that regard, we are not deviating.

2 Eidolon of Blossoms — Though the ability to draw half of your deck is always appealing, I want to focus on helping some of the more aggressive matchups that I feel we will see over the next few weeks. I still very much want to draw this card over the course of the game, but always having one in the opener does not feel great with Mono-Red being so popular. I will probably stash the last two in the ’board, as any attrition matchup is where this one truly shines, and I still want access to them.

4 Herald of the Pantheon — This new addition from Magic Origins revitalized the Constellation theme, and next to Courser, the life will add up. It’s a good start at shutting down the aggressive deck, and I want to add more to the overall theme of the main deck and push some of the control cards to the ’board; luckily, this seems fine in both, and it still stays in as a set. Though I feel this card does force you into almost all of your other permanents being enchantments, I want to explore how much of that we can give up for the potential to play better cards for some matchups. For now, we will stick to the main theme, but I may diverge at some point and drop the full enchantment suite to allow your Starfield to operate as a card-advantage engine more than as a kill condition in a control shell.

4 Nyx-Fleece Ram — This card is probably the best early defense we are offered in these colors, and since it does not have defender, it still works well with the new direction I am looking to take the deck.

4 Satyr Wayfinder — Perhaps it is my deep love of this card that forces me to attempt to jam it in every deck I can—or perhaps it really is that good. When I first looked at this deck, I wanted to identify any other strategies the deck may be able to take, and one thing I noticed while playing Kruphix's Insight is that we already have a reasonable self-mill card being played, so if we can jam Wayfinder into the mix, we may be able to make something a little more aggressive happen. The added benefit of better mana also means the potential for a splash is that much easier.

3 Boon Satyr — I want to see this main deck have some more aggression, and though the late-game card advantage does suffer from this, we also have the potential to close out games before some decks can outmaneuver us with something like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. This card also combos nicely with the new approach I am taking.

4 Kruphix's Insight — I want to make sure to keep enough enchantments in the shell for now to keep this count up, but if I move toward a control shell, this will probably have to get the axe. For now, it is probably among the best cost-to-card-advantage cards we have seen in a long time for green.

4 Banishing Light — This is still among the better removal choices for the deck, and I cannot see any replacement for this even if we are splashing. I am not as sold on Silkwrap; though it is clearly great against many decks, the times it is bad, it is terrible, and I want to minimize those cards.

2 Font of Fertility — I really like ramping into some of these more powerful spells, and since we cannot really justify Sylvan Caryatid on this build, this works wonders at both upping the enchantment count and ramping early. I can understand wanting Frontier Siege in this place, but I want to bring the curve down while thinning the deck late game in the face of rebuilding after an Ugin or Back to Nature.

3 Starfield of Nyx — I can understand not wanting to rely on this solely for your win condition, but with the new direction of the deck, you are going to have more choices with what to grab and a few new cool tricks the previous version did not have. I really do not want to take away from the star card, so I cannot cut these down; after all, we have to mix things up or it will feel as though we are just playing Constellation from a few seasons ago, and at that point, why be white and not black?

3 Strength from the Fallen — I have toyed around with this card a ton over the past year, and I have to believe Starfield can make something happen. I like it in this shell as a way to offer aggression even without a live Starfield—even a pump of 4 or 5 can be plenty to threaten your opponent. I like Sigil of the Empty Throne as well, and that may prove to be better than Starfield, but given that Strength and Starfield play into the graveyard subtheme, I am going to give that a shot to start.

G/W Constellation ? Magic Origins Standard | Ryan Bushard

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 3 Boon Satyr
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Herald of the Pantheon
• 4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder

• Spells (16)
• 4 Kruphix's Insight
• 2 Font of Fertility
• 3 Starfield of Nyx
• 3 Strength from the Fallen
• 4 Banishing Light

• Lands (23)
• 5 Plains
• 8 Forest
• 2 Blossoming Sands
• 4 Temple of Plenty
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 4 Font of Vigor
• 4 Suppression Field
• 3 Tragic Arrogance
• 2 Eidolon of Blossoms

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I am sure this build has some work ahead of it; currently, the two themes coincide very well but also draw a lot of the same hate. After looking through all of the cards that could work across colors with Starfield, I also want to take a look at a Mardu control list in the coming weeks to see if anything could possibly come of that. Using the Starfield for card advantage probably forms a shell I will continue to bring up even after rotation—this card, like Séance in the past, calls to me. I love these types of card-advantage engines, but for now, I decided to keep it simple and look toward just making a stronger early game rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

With all of the directions this deck could take, I am curious to see what else people have been working on with Starfield of Nyx. I had a few lists submitted last week, and over the next few weeks, I will cover a few of those shells as well, but so far, nothing has sent my inner Johnny into a fit, so I am still awaiting that list that does me in—I know one of you out there has it!

Next week, we will be jumping back to some mainstream Standard action, putting the brewing to the side for the week. I will be looking at exactly what has happened since the Pro Tour and what our last few months of Standard look to be shaping up as before we return to Zendikar. As always, thank you for reading, and leave any comments below.

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand