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Main » Articles » Standard Gauntlet Post Scars

Standard Gauntlet Post Scars

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Posted on November 1, 2010
 Reddit

This gauntlet was constructed prior to this weekend's StarCityGames Open, so be sure to check what did well there for any surprises! -- Trick

Scars of Mirrodin is upon us, and has now been incorporated into the new metagame. One of my theories is that the more sets in Standard, the more diverse the metagame. For example, if you look at Alara-Zendikar Standard, you'll notice relatively few decks, and the same with Lorwyn-Shards Standard.

That theory has been blown out of the water.

SoM has taken many decks out of the metagame but even more have popped up, and my gauntlet was so large I was forced to go to drastic measures.

Therefore, for today, I'm going to be providing two gauntlets. The first is the "essentials" gauntlet: six decks that you need to be ready to face at your next big tournament. The second is the "non-essentials" (Aren't I imaginative?) gauntlet, featuring five other decks, that are either not too popular or quite similar to decks in the first gauntlet. This is the gauntlet you should run through if you have the time, but is not as crucial as the first one.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the essentials gauntlet. All the important decks in Standard at the moment are one of three archetypes: Ramp, Control and Aggro. Let's start with ramp.

"R/G Valakut"

If you haven't heard of R/G Valakut by now, you probably haven't been playing much Standard at the moment. While I'm pleased that ramp is now a top tier archetype, many are already sick of this deck for good reason: It's very powerful, quite consistent, and probably the best deck in Standard right now. (remember when we used to laugh or smile politely at the ramp decks people would come up with that never worked? Those were the days.)

If you're building, use this deck as a litmus test. If you can't beat this, give it up and move on to the next deck, because you won't win a tournament otherwise.

Our next ramp deck is U/G/R Destructive Force, a very catchy name that belies a powerful deck that runs a lot of planeswalkers and ramp. The deck aims to resolve Destructive Force, putting it so ridiculously far ahead that it generally wins the game after. Let's look at the list:

"U/G/R Destructive Force"

Picture the following situation: It's Turn 6. Your opponent has a board of 2 lands, a Garruk Wildspeaker on 3, and a 3/3 beast. You have one (or even zero) land as your only permanent. Seem bad? It is. This is the other ramp deck you should watch out for. Eldrazi Ramp is popular, but it's so similar to Valakut Ramp in the way you fight it that it's in the second gauntlet.

Now that the ramp decks are dealt with, let's move on to Control. There are three primary control decks at the moment, White-Blue, Blue-Black, and Blue-Red. Blue: once again the best color in Standard. (Though Green's up there, which is very strange, but fun!)

We'll start with the most popular list, an archetype that you could probably play without pause for the last twelve years and do well for about ten and a half of them: White-Blue Control. Here's our list:

"White-Blue Control"

There doesn't seem to be a standard W/U list yet, so there's plenty of room for innovation. I did the best I could with this list, but I don't know if I'm altogether happy with it.

Our next list is a deck that won New York States: U/B Control. It runs Memoricide and a better removal suite over Day of Judgment and Gideon, and it seems a fine trade. Here's the list:

"U/B Control"

And now we come to our aggressive lists. The first one has swept the SCG Opens thus far, and looks to be a deck that's always tried to bust through and become Tier 1. Last year, it succeeded as a Combo deck and this year it seems to be taking another angle. I talk of course of Elf Aggro. Let's check out the list with Scars powerhouse Ezuri, Renegade Leader.

"Elf Aggro"

Yes, that is eighteen lands. With it's low curve and mana accelerators, 2-3 land is all the deck needs to play all it's cards.

For the last deck in the first gauntlet, we have another deck that's remained consistently strong throughout the years: Red Deck Wins. The decklist we'll be looking at is being championed by Cedric Phillips, and it seems very strong.

"Red Deck Wins"

With Spikeshot Elder, Koth of the Hammer, Molten-Tail Masticore and Kargan Dragonlord, this deck is the red deck of the future, with a strong mid to late game as well as the possibility of a wave of fire simply wiping out the opposition.

And that's our essentials gauntlet. If you're strapped for time, this is the gauntlet you should run for your next tournament. If however, you have time to spare and would like to put your deck through it's paces some more, there are a few more decks you should be looking at.

The first of these decks is one of the most popular strategies in the current Standard. The only reason this deck isn't in the essentials is because if you know how to fight Valakut Ramp, it's only a minor adjustment to fight this deck. Presenting Eldrazi Ramp.

"Eldrazi Ramp"

Eldrazi Ramp is similar to Valakut Ramp: A few key lands (Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle / Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple), big, game-winning cards (Avenger of Zendikar, Eldrazi) and plenty of ramp spells to get you there.

Next we'll move on to the third control list today, U/R Control. Packing Frost Titan, lots of counters, and burn, this is still a fairly rogue way to play control today if you'd rather hit opponents from out of left field. (But not you guys, because you'll test all these decks thoroughly, right? I believe in you!)

"U/R Control"

This deck is an EXCELLENT deck in a control heavy meta. 10 counterspells, 7 Jaces, and Frost Titan, a Titan that can stop a finisher while acting as one itself. I like it a lot, though I think the burn might not be effective enough in the late-game. However, I'm not the one doing well at States (mostly because I'm living in Australia) so I shall take it for granted that it's perfectly fine.

Our next deck is one that probably isn't fully optimized, and will take some time to get there, but once it is, watch out! Vengevine is one of the best cards in Standard, and his stock will be rising over the months that follow. A few brave souls did battle with their creations, however, so let's look at one:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

6 Forest

6 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Scalding Tarn

3 Tectonic Edge

4 Verdant Catacombs

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Fauna Shaman

2 Frost Titan

4 Lotus Cobra

1 Molten-Tail Masticore

2 Nest Invader

3 Sea Gate Oracle

1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

4 Vengevine

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

3 Garruk Wildspeaker

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Mana Leak

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

1 Acidic Slime

2 Flashfreeze

3 Obstinate Baloth

2 Sleep

4 Spreading Seas

1 Tajuru Preserver

2 Volition Reins

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Our next deck is a balls-to-the-wall aggro deck that abuses Quest for the Holy Relic. Most of you have heard of it, and probably swore at it in your heads / to your computer screens as it gets a T3 Argentum Armor and starts blowing up your stuff. Let’s take a look at it:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

4 Arid Mesa

4 Marsh Flats

12 Plains

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Glint Hawk

4 Kor Duelist

4 Kor Outfitter

4 Kor Skyfisher

4 Memnite

4 Ornithopter

4 Stoneforge Mystic

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Adventuring Gear

2 Argentum Armor

2 Mox Opal

4 Quest for the Holy Relic

1 Sword of Body and Mind

1 Trusty Machete

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

1 Argentum Armor

2 Emerge Unscathed

1 Kemba, Kha Regent

4 Kor Firewalker

3 Revoke Existence

4 War Priest of Thune

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The last deck is a deck that I've been playing online and having a lot of fun with. It was written about by Patrick Chapin himself, so let's look at Pyromancer's Ascension:

"Pyromancer's Ascension"

  • Creatures (0)

The deck runs no creatures, so every deck has some dead cards against it Game 1. In Game 2, it can improve it's percentages with counterspells and removal, or side in Frost Titans, Jace Beleren and Negates and become a U/R Control deck!

One warning about the deck though, it takes a lot of decision making. I've never skirted with the clock before, but on MTGO I'm consistently ending matches with less than 10 minutes on the clock with this deck.

And those are our gauntlets for this month. I'm now going to be writing these once a month, so in four weeks you should expect another gauntlet (probably with even more decks, knowing the current Standard). Until then, test wisely, play strongly, and good luck in your tournaments!

-Jay (@mtgsalivanth on Twitter)

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