Hello, everyone!

There wouldn’t be a rise in counterspells if there weren’t a new blue deck on the block, right? Well, it’s not exactly new, but many of the top writers have been hyping it up like the second coming of Delver. I can agree that it’s the second coming of Delver in the sense that it can be beaten. Don’t get me wrong: It’s a good deck, but the hate is prevalent in Standard.

Regardless of my thoughts on the deck, it performed very well last weekend on the Grand Prix circuit. This means you can still expect to play against it a fair amount.

When I was looking through the Daily Event decklists, I noticed a resurgence of Zombies because the tribal theme can take advantage of Cavern of Souls the best. It’s not that fast decks beat W/U Flash, but the decks that take advantage of Cavern happen to be aggressive.

Magic Online has started to consolidate with real life as Zombies made a great showing on the Grand Prix circuit as well. Watch out for this deck!

"B/R Zombies"

• Creatures (26)
• 3 Hellrider
• 3 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 4 Knight of Infamy

• Spells (10)
• 2 Brimstone Volley
• 2 Victim of Night
• 4 Searing Spear
• 2 Sign in Blood

• Lands (24)
• 1 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Rakdos Guildgate

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Appetite for Brains
• 3 Bonfire of the Damned
• 2 Cremate
• 3 Pillar of Flame
• 2 Underworld Connections
• 1 Victim of Night
• 2 Zealous Conscripts

Buy This Deck

Jon Bolding made an impressive run at the Grand Prix with this strange take on Zombies. Rather than reverting to the old days of B/G, Jon teamed up with RDW to take down some wins. Grand Prix Charleston had plenty of rounds, which meant his mana base was able to support Geralf's Messenger, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Hellrider across multiple days. If you like aggro, I would give this a look.

/end beatdown aside

I initially began playing Junk because my cousin’s account was missing some of the money rares for each tier-one deck due to prices. This meant I had to try something different. By different, of course, I mean taking a bunch of mythics on the account and turning them it into a deck.

Here’s what I came up with:

"Mythic Concoction"

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Angel of Serenity
• 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 2 Centaur Healer
• 3 Armada Wurm
• 4 Restoration Angel
• 4 Thragtusk

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Garruk Relentless
• 2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Spells (15)
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 4 Farseek
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 3 Oblivion Ring

• Lands (25)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 1 Gavony Township
• 2 Vault of the Archangel
• 4 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 3 Terminus
• 1 Ray of Revelation
• 3 Deathrite Shaman
• 3 Duress
• 1 Loxodon Smiter
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 2 Other Cards

Buy This Deck

I ran this deck in the MTGO tournament practice room to great success and also went 3–1 in a Daily Event (which you unfortunately can’t find after the new deck-posting policy).

In general, I don’t consider decks further if they can’t hold their own in the tournament practice room because the field is very random. If I can’t defeat random decks, my matchups against established decks have to be incredibly high to compensate (and they usually aren’t in Standard).

Issues with the Deck

Centaur Healer has been gaining popularity due to the synergy with Restoration Angel, but I think it’s a weak card in the current format. The 3/3 body trades with Beast tokens from Garruk, Primal Hunter and Thragtusk. Don’t even get me started on attacking into open mana since you should be afraid of Restoration Angel. If you can’t be aggressive with your creature against untapped mana, it’s probably useless against a majority of the slower archetypes (Bant and W/U Flash).

I like the numbers on Avacyn's Pilgrim because I don’t want to be too afraid of Bonfire of the Damned and Supreme Verdict. It can be argued that the better configuration of the deck involves fewer lands and more mana dorks, but I can’t stand playing too many of them. You need to hit land drops, so drawing a Pilgrim instead of that land you need to cast a big spell is bad news.

The mana base could also use some work because I was drawing too many hands with Innistrad and M10 duals that had to come into play tapped. Unlike Naya, I can take advantage of casting the Pilgrim on turn one because of Lingering Souls and Centaur Healer. This tri-color combination is worse for the core set/Innistrad duals because I actually want to play Gavony Township and Vault of the Archangel. Since I have powerful colorless lands, it makes playing Cavern of Souls more difficult as well.

After many games, here’s the list with revisions:

"Junk Revised"

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 3 Armada Wurm
• 3 Loxodon Smiter
• 4 Restoration Angel
• 4 Thragtusk

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter

• Spells (14)
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 4 Farseek
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 3 Oblivion Ring

• Lands (25)
• 1 Plains
• 3 Forest
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 2 Gavony Township
• 2 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sever the Bloodline
• 2 Deathrite Shaman
• 1 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Duress
• 2 Centaur Healer
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 Angel of Serenity
• 1 Golgari Charm
• 1 Underworld Connections
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

Buy This Deck

Lingering Souls is vulnerable to Bonfire of the Damned, but players are moving away from Jace, Architect of Thought, which makes the Spirits a tad more powerful (Reid Duke had zero in his Bant deck from Charleston). Since W/U Flash is replacing some of the R/W/U Geist players, the number of Hellkites is also going down. The addition of Sorin makes the tokens better, but I have been happy with the Spirits even when I have just Gavony Township to pump them.

In general, I like to play Lingering Souls conservatively because of Sever the Bloodline and Detention Sphere. In most cases, you can attack an opponent for 2 a couple of times, and he will become forced to deal with the pesky tokens. If you want to resolve a Garruk on turn five, it might be all right to overextend in order to make the opponent tap out. Remember that with 6 mana available, you can flash back Lingering Souls and hold up for Restoration Angel to counter Sever or Sphere by blinking out the original target.

I made a complete switch from Centaur Healer because the 3 life is basically irrelevant against midrange and control decks. Thragtusk gains you plenty of life, so the extra boost from the Healer wasn’t necessary. It’s also very good against RDW because Healer rarely blocks due to Searing Spear and Brimstone Volley. With Loxodon Smiter, you are able to block and kill any creature (even the token from Hellion Crucible). It’s very important to kill Hellrider and be able to survive since that’s the deck’s primary threat.

It’s also not irrelevant that it attacks through opposing Beast tokens and Centaur Healers. The discard ability may come up, but this deck is already solid against Liliana of the Veil due to Lingering Souls. It could come into play against a Rakdos's Return, which is nice because that card is good against Junk.

I also find it ironic that I was complaining about not having enough copies of Angel of Serenity in my initial list, yet I only play one in the sideboard after making changes. Armada Wurm was originally designed to be a placeholder for Angel, yet it turned out to be quite impressive.

Another plus with Armada Wurm is that the token doesn’t have the same name, so it doesn’t get blown out by Detention Sphere or Sever the Bloodline. In addition, you can also draw five cards off Garruk, Primal Hunter or generate an extra 2 power from Gavony Township. This card is amazing, and you should give it a second (or third) look if you were also skeptical.

I recently faced a G/W deck at a local tournament, and it also played Armada Wurm. It’s another creature that must be answered before you can continue assembling your initial plan. Broodmate Dragon was awesome in Standard, and this Wurm is pretty close.

Against the more agile beatdown decks such as B/R Zombies and Red Deck Wins, I want to reduce my mana curve because the easiest way to lose is to be greedy with expensive spells. Thragtusk is as high as I go after boarding because it will typically clean up the game. Loxodon Smiter and Lingering Souls create a tremendous advantage, which means your impactful spells can be less expensive. Don’t be afraid to play Deathrite Shaman against aggro because it blocks Stromkirk Noble and can also gain life.

It may look strange that I have one Rest in Peace and two Deathrite Shaman, but there’s a good reason. Not only does the second Rest in Peace do nothing, but I also found myself wanting to sideboard in two Deathrite Shaman against RDW as a blocker for Stromkirk Noble and Lightning Mauler. The life-gain in that matchup was also important. If I only wanted access to two copies of the more versatile graveyard-hate spell, I might as well play a single copy of the more narrow and powerful one against reanimator (also good against W/U Flash since it turns off Pike and many other cards).

Underworld Connections moved to the sideboard because was difficult at times. I made this worse by taking out a couple copies of Isolated Chapel for two Forest. If I’m going to play this enchantment, I only want it against opposing midrange decks.

More Junk

If you’re unsure about Junk in the current format, take a gander at the second-place deck from Grand Prix: Charleston:

"Second Place at GP: Charleston"

• Creatures (14)
• 3 Arbor Elf
• 3 Borderland Ranger
• 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 4 Thragtusk

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Garruk Relentless
• 2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Spells (18)
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 3 Midnight Haunting
• 3 Selesnya Charm
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 1 Collective Blessing
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (23)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 4 Forest
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 2 Sunpetal Grove
• 3 Gavony Township
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Temple Garden

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 3 Centaur Healer
• 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 2 Restoration Angel
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 1 Garruk Relentless
• 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1 Slayer of the Wicked
• 1 Intrepid Hero

Buy This Deck

I like everything about this deck except the copies of Arbor Elf. Many of the hands I drew had too many non-Forest lands. During the finals of the Grand Prix, the weakness to Bonfire of the Damned was exposed. Rather than play twenty-three lands and seven mana dorks, I would add some extra noncreature mana sources.

As you can see from decks at Grand Prix: Charleston, W/U players are moving toward more and more copies of Sphinx's Revelation. Sam Black was correct in his assessment that it should be the main engine in Bant and W/U Flash to some extent. For this reason, I can see an argument for splashing Slaughter Games.

Watch out for Reid Duke’s Bant deck from the Top 8:

"Reid Duke’s Bant"

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Restoration Angel
• 4 Thragtusk

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

• Spells (28)
• 2 Azorius Charm
• 4 Dissipate
• 4 Sphinx's Revelation
• 4 Think Twice
• 2 Amass the Components
• 4 Farseek
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Ground Seal
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Pithing Needle

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 3 Island
• 1 Nephalia Drownyard
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 3 Centaur Healer
• 2 Terminus
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Negate

Buy This Deck

Since aggro decks have inevitably returned to Standard, we’re left at a crossroads. On one side, we must go big in order to win the midrange mirrors. The other end of the spectrum leaves us high and dry with a ton of expensive spells in hand as we are dead by the fifth turn. I think the days of trying to play as many expensive spells as possible are over because Standard is starting to establish decks with coherent game plans. This is great news for many, as it means the number of Thragtusks will start to decrease (but it’s still very good).

That’s it for me this week. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on the current metagame. Remember that Standard is finally taking shape, and we’re seeing a rock-paper-scissors metagame between midrange, aggro, and W/U Flash.

Thanks for reading,

Kyle