Haste Is the Place

Posted on October 29, 2015

This past weekend has had me playing more Magic than I have in a long while. Normally, I would queue up some Drafts on my days off and play some Standard between rounds, but this week has gotten me in the mode to break through this Jeskai oppression. Not every deck I worked on this weekend was a success, but this week, I have three lists I tuned and have played each through at least a few eight-mans. I am still moving forward with two of the lists, as they both have a great Jeskai Black matchup, but the third would be great against the rest of the field if you do not expect much Jeskai locally. Since we have so much to cover this week, I am going to jump right in—I really was hoping to play this weekend in Indianapolis, but it appears work is winning over, so I will unfortunately be grinding the dealer booths over the main event.

I started this endeavor last week—I had hoped to explore where Temur was within the metagame. I quickly ended up on a Dragon shell so I could include Draconic Roar, and from there, the next two decks were born. One relies heavily on the Dragon theme but gains a great 2-drop against the aggro deck right now that also keeps the cards flowing to find your removal or threats in the form of Dragonlord Ojutai. This shell still needs some work and is slightly weaker to Jeskai Black than the other lists, though it does follow the overarching theme, which is to slam potent threats with efficient bodies or haste to keep your opponent’s mana stretched, giving him or her few ways to also present threats of his or her own.

Ojutai Temur ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Ryan Bushard

This deck is a blast to play, and after the first time I played a Swift Warkite, I fell in love. Sadly, the other spots for Dragons are tied up, and I had to lower the curve slightly to allow for another 2-drop, so the second ended up in the ’board. Returning either Orator of Ojutai or Savage Knuckleblade ends up being a huge push in their respective matches, and combined with a 4/4 flying body, it is a lot of value even for 6 mana.

Jeskai can keep up with this shell, but Temur Ascendancy is usually the key to beating that deck in the long game. Temur Ascendancy is among the most underrated cards in this format right now, providing two resources that are instrumental at pulling apart the control and midrange strategies. Having so many options out of the ’board also allows this deck to diversely prey on the weaknesses of many decks in the format. Flyers are a major issue for Megamorph—even dwarfing Mantis Riders can put a wrench in many of the midrange strategies.

The next deck relies more on the efficiency of creatures without slaving to the Dragon theme. The main weakness this deck has is the 2-drop spot. While Rattleclaw Mystic is fine, it is difficult to fix mana without a second option in that spot. Beastcaller Savant is not the right answer, but it will do for now. This list came when I finally figured out how to build the five-colored mana base, and as much as I would love to play some creature lands, it is also fun to slam all of the best creatures in the format together and see what happens. As it turns out, Jeskai usually runs out of answers, and outside of the weakness in the curve, this deck handles most of the field really well.

Five-Color Midrange ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Ryan Bushard

While this mana base was a nightmare to figure out, it has seemed to work well—this deck is probably the one I have played the most, and it feels great when you can cast a turn-three Mantis Rider into a Siege Rhino and back it up with Crackling Doom. While this deck does suffer from a lot of the same weaknesses Dark Jeskai has, it does consistently force more threats while also granting the mana for those threats to bring them ahead of the curve. This also allows you to make it to those critical turns during which you can answer a threat and play on of your own faster than some other variants looking to play these same creatures. A five-colored shell like this is inevitable, and though I am hoping it has a much better card than Beastcaller Savant in the end, it has done the trick for now.

The last deck goes in a very different direction—still working with the card-advantage-and-haste theme, I looked toward another way to attack Jeskai. This deck has a rough matchup against Megamorph if the opponent has multiple Commands, but it does provide some longevity against control decks while also attacking the opponent’s hand, while Atarka Red does not.

The idea started when I was looking through potential discard options—a Thoughtseize Duress is not. I locked onto Kolaghan's Command as a great way to cover a lot of bases in matchups and also provide additional discard. Decks that stretch their mana like Jeskai have much harder times discarding early game—many times, the sequence of lands against aggro decks is more important than keeping a threat or removal spell. Forcing early discard supported by cards like Duress and Despise allows you to put enough pressure on both the opponent’s hand and on the board that you can usually strip a key spell to drive home the victory.

Jund Battle Rage ? Battle for Zendikar Standard | Ryan Bushard

The ability to Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense people is still too good to pass up, but I want to focus on a less token-based strategy than Atarka Red that could make use of Kolaghan's Command in almost any situation. Mardu Skullhunter is ’boarded out against any midrange matches for more aggression, as you look to go wide but against decks that falter early on mana—sinking even a small threat that comes with bonus discard can really put pressure on the opponent’s hand. Duress won out in the main deck, but many times, the Skullhunters will come out for Despise to fill the discard package against midrange. Knowing your opponent's hand also ensures more free victories from the combo, which is always a bonus.

Taxing resources and life totals at the same time can prove difficult, as the opponent can usually resolve at least one big threat in time, which is where my favorite card in the deck comes in—and that’s Touch of Moonglove. This Limited dud does so much work in the format and has flown under everyone's radar, it seems. Only an extensive Gatherer search led me to it, and I am glad it did—some of the sweet plays this card can provide include Temur Battle Rage and either Monastery Swiftspear or Abbot of Keral Keep to gain the double strike, trample, and deathtouch; in addition to the trample, the extra 2 life the opponent loses is extremely relevant. Now imagine a line in which your opponent is blocking a Swiftspear with three Hangarback Walker Thopter tokens. The stories I can tell from this card already amaze me. I don't feel that this card will become a staple in aggressive strategies down the road, but right now, with all the tokens running around, it has been an all-star.

After a long weekend of testing, I am looking forward to seeing how we further adapt to the few decks that have risen to the top. I still feel this format is wide open, and while it may not seem so compared to last year, we are still in the early stages of mana bases, meaning what we do moving forward will only grow riskier and riskier, allowing another chance for these aggro decks to shine. Check back in next week as we have some new results roll in. I will be moving forward with at least one of these decks and hope to have it tuned further, so feel free to share below or on Twitter any advice or experience you may have with strategies like this.

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand