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Main » Articles » SCG Atlanta's New Standard Decks

SCG Atlanta's New Standard Decks

Ari Lax
Posted on April 7, 2011
 Reddit

Based on the results of recent American events, Caw-Blade is currently exhibiting a stranglehold on Standard. With it usually taking up around half of every Top 8, it is clearly Public Enemy Number One, and the current metagame is not able to keep it down.

Innovation of new and restoration of old strategies is a prominent way people are trying to fight this menace. Before I dive into some of the latest ways people are fighting the birds, here is what they have to come up against.

Gideon Jura, Day of Judgment, and spot removal: The U/W shell that Caw-Go came from still exists, and if you want to be the beat-down, you are going to have to punch through this set of resistance. The current best option is to pack heavy-hitting Haste creatures or have enough early-game pressure to put them in range of a hand full of burn. Red Deck Wins is a popular deck that represents both, but can easily fall behind to Kor Firewalkers post-board.

Squadron Hawks, Stoneforge Mystic, and cheap counters: If your plan is to become the bigger control deck against Caw-Blade with better end-game threats, this package can throw a wrench into your game plan. You need to make sure that you can handle this aggressive Fish package. To beat this, you have to make sure your end-game gets online before their Sword does. R/U/G is a current deck that alleviates this issue by making its better end-game happen as fast as the Stoneforge plan with Lotus Cobra and Explore, but is hindered by its reliance on having a 2-mana accelerator (though admittedly only mildly).

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Gideon Jura: Finally, if you think you can just attrition down their creatures while bombing out their removal, you still have to answer these two Planeswalkers as long-term card-advantage engines. There really isn't a deck that fits this profile just yet, which is mostly a testament to the power of Jace.

Let's take a look at few atypical decks from the past couple of weekends and see how they stack up against these threats:

"No Hawk! (Shaheen Soorani)"

Superficially the least interesting of these new options, Shaheen decided that Squadron Hawks was the weak point in the Caw-Blade list; it was simply a random body for the Fish plan and not actively contributing to the other lines. While I see his point, I can't say I agree here. Hawk, even as just a 1/1 body, represents a significant threat against the mid-range decks that force them to unprofitably trade removal, and also is a solid roadblock on the way to Day of Judgment against the aggressive decks.

However, even if cutting Hawk is incorrect, moving other bodies to the main is an interesting idea. It lets you solidly set a position in the mirror by being the beat-down, at which point you can force them to play otherwise unappealing cards like Day of Judgment to not lose to your threats.

The first threat Shaheen has added is Elspeth Tirel. While this card is slightly awkward against the Spell Pierces of U/W Caw-Blade, the move to Inquisition of Kozilek has made it better-positioned. In addition to providing Soldiers for your weaponry, in a list with Squadron Hawks, I can see it functioning as a way to reset board states where you are behind in the mirror due to how fast it goes ultimate. This assumes you can control Creeping Tar Pit, but that should not be a huge issue with Tectonic Edge.

Hero of Bladehold is a strong addition as another body to carry Swords. While it still falls to Tumble Magnets, there has been a definite shift away from spot removal such as Go for the Throat that would allow your opponents to interact with Hero. The main reason I would be wary of this card is how poorly it matches up against Jace, the Mind Sculptor like any other four-drop creature without an immediate board impact.

On the subject of Jace, Shaheen has taken a route to addressing that issue I'm a huge fan of: Jace Beleren. While it would certainly be better with a wall of Hawks to defend it from theirs, landing an earlier Jace puts you extremely far ahead going into the mid-game as they have to remove it to land theirs. Even though Mind Sculpting is more powerful in the abstract, in Blue mirrors, the baby of the family is more influential on the outcome. If you are looking to gain an edge in the Jace mirrors that are flooding Standard, this configuration might be what you are looking for.

Moving forward, this is the deck Lewis Laskin has eschewed his old Super Friends for:

"Santa Claus Attack (Lewis Laskin)"

My first thought on this deck is that it is very promising . . . assuming the mana works out. It has a critical mass of Haste creatures to punish a Day of Judgment, lots of high-power guys to punch down a Gideon from a usually comfortable 8 loyalty, and the aggression to run over the typical assortment of Birds and Swords.

On the high end, Precursor Golem is particularly awesome against Caw-Blade. Most lists are rolling on to Tumble Magnets to fight Swords, and the Black builds only have two to three answers to a resolved Golem. It can't even be Spell Pierced, unlike some other typical five-drops. On its own, it represents enough power to lethal a fresh Gideon, and it ignores the protection abilities that allow their Swords to brick-wall other creatures. It loses some value against the Red builds due to Lightning Bolt, but those appear almost nonexistent in the current metagame. If you want a high-end threat against Caw-Blade, this is your go-to robot.

Unified Will is a card I've always liked since playing it in Block constructed. While I'm not sold on it being always at the ready in a world of Hawks, the effect it represents is strong enough to deserve the slot. Mana Leak is always an option if you find yourself being out-board-presenced, but Unified Will is usually good enough against Gideon and Day of Judgment when you want it.

The cards I am skeptical of are Signal Pest and Goblin Bushwhacker. I'm not sure Signal Pest is where you want to be against 1/1 fliers, and Goblin Bushwhacker seems to strain your mana, though I might be mistaken on the latter.

In the same vein, we have Lewis's previous creation:

"Jumanji (Harrison Greenburg)"

In addition to Lotus Cobra as a must-kill, this deck has Fauna Shaman. Precursor Golem likely has a place here as well, and there is probably a strong middle ground between the two to keep in mind. As is, I can see the lack of Haste creatures being detrimental to this deck's success in the matchup.

Moving on to the third major deck archetype discussed above, we have a true mid-range deck from Donnie Noland. It appears Jund was gone, but not forgotten.

"Jund (Donnie Noland)"

Could the previous format-dominating menace be the solution to the current one? This list certainly has a lot of game, at least against the Dark-Blade builds. Your threats are all Inquisition-proof, you have removal to survive the early assault, and you can legitimately go over the top of a Jace or Gideon with Titans or match them with your own Planeswalkers. Looking at the early game, you have Lotus Cobra to punish them for not keeping an otherwise irrelevant answer, and the same backup plan of Explore that R/U/G has. If the metagame returns to Spell Pierces, this deck will likely lose ground, but with the Black builds of Caw-Blade appearing to have an edge in the mirror, this shell is a good place to start. Just be sure you aren't losing to the rest of the world.

Finally, a deck that appeared dead is actually feeling much better.

"U/B Control (Martin Scheinin)"

After PT: Paris, it was determined that U/B control was dead in the face of Caw-Blade's emergence, despite Adam Yurchick's 9–1 performance (and Kyle Boggemes going 4–1 with a similar list only to fall short of Day 2 in the draft). The general consensus was that the advantage provided by the aggro-control plan of Caw-Blade was too much to overcome for a traditional control deck.

GP: Barcelona made a statement to the contrary. Just looking at it, you can start to see why. Inquisition of Kozilek was one of U/B's primary weapons and is what Caw-Blade has turned to for the mirror. You have the same sequencing of cheap spot removal and powerful threats that trumps the aggro plan in other decks, and can fight them card-for-card on their Jaces (possibly better with Duress). You even have Tumble Magnet to beat Swords.

This is not a deck I would dismiss moving forward. Death by zombies is something that is just as realistic in Standard as Legacy. Similarly, U/B Infect as championed by Caw-Go creator Brian Kibler has a lot of the same tools, merely replacing the Grave Titan end-game with a more tempo-conscious plan of Phyrexian Crusader and Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.

There is still plenty of room to innovate in Standard, especially as the metagame shifts so heavily to one deck. Even within the known quantities, there is room for cards like Tumble Magnet to pop back from relative obscurity to become format-exploiting answers. Keep looking. Caw-Blade is still at its core a control deck, and for once in Standard, the right answers or threats might be right in front of your face.

TAGS articles, constructed, standard

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