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Diversity in Standard
Kyle Boggemes
7/2/2012 12:20:00 PM Hey everybody! Last weekend we witnessed another spectacular tournament for Standard - Delver had another terrible showing. Maybe the deck isn't good enough to be banned or perhaps people just want to have fun with different archetypes. A third explanation is Grand Prix Atlanta taking the big names out of the event to compete for pro points. Let's jump right into the breakdown! SCG Open Seattle Top 16 Breakdown 2 RG Aggro 2 UW Delver 3 Naya Pod 1 Zombie Pod 1 RUG Pod 2 Esper Midrange 1 Monoblack Control 2 Esper Control 1 Wolf Run Ramp 1 Naya Aggro Birthing Pod took more slots in the Top 16 than Delver of Secrets! Ban Birthing Pod! But seriously, this is great news for Standard. RG Aggro took down another SCG Open - congrats Nate Anderson!
This deck is pretty straightforward and will be a great choice until people start playing Zombies to keep Birds of Paradise in check. Mage-Blade didn't run away with the title or even show up in ridiculous numbers, but it did manage to make the finals.
Nic Harlow decided to play the American version with Sword of War and Peace over Runechanter's Pike. After playing around with the Pike version, I think it's a close call. I didn't like that my Runechanter's Pike was neutered by Nihil Spellbombs from Esper Control decks. In my local event at Get Your Game On, I battled against BW Tokens and wish I had Sword of War and Peace because of maindeck Nihil Spellbomb and Lingering Souls. The real question is if Sword of War and Peace is better than feast and famine because Birthing Pod decks play green or black. Delver was always warped for the mirror, but it's finally going down in popularity and we can build for other matchups. Cavern of Souls has been very unimpressive for me because Esper Midrange plays a maximum of three Mana Leaks and the mirror anticipates it anyway (so they board out Mana Leak). This card was very frustrating to draw because casting Ponder in the early turns is crucial. Following suit with LSV and Gerry Thompson, I enjoy playing an aggressive deck post board with Delver. Sideboarding into control used to be the cool thing to do, but now I want nothing but Hero of Bladehold. My plan with Yuuya's pike list was to jam some heros and add a 20th land (Plains) to reasonably cast it. It won me multiple games and I'm confident it's the best plan for any Delver list. With that being said, expect it over a control switcheroo in your next event. I wouldn't mind a third Gut Shot in this deck over the Dismember because mana dorks are making a huge comeback. Even though Delver was hands-down the most successful archetype since two weeks ago, Birthing Pod will catch on like Wildfire. These decks can be modified in about a thousand different ways and lets players choose amongst their favorite spells in Standard. What's not to like about that!? Ryan Kubin was the other Delver player in the Top 16:
Ryan's playing the third Gut Shot which is nice to see - it's great against green decks as well as the mirror. I also won a match in my last event by burning them out with Gut Shots. Ryan and I are synchronized this week as he also cut the Cavern of Souls. I don't hate the card, but I just don't like it in the short run. The Divine Deflection is interesting, but it looks like a ton of work to set up. It's also very awkward when you have to reveal it to Delver (I guess you could bluff and just draw it) and your opponent plays around it all game. Notice the large amounts of Celestial Purges in both Delver sideboards - people want Zombies dead for good! If you play Zombies, be sure to have a plan against this card (it's very annoying!). I don't like Dungeon Geists because they're pretty weak against Birthing Pod despite it being a creature deck. There was a time I was in love with Dungeon Geists and boarded it in against Pod - that didn't go over well. I know the logical response is to just not side them in against Pod, but that's the prevailing creature deck at the moment. It had a great run in the last two weeks and I would be surprised if it went away overnight. Hero of Bladehold is awesome against Pod because you need to be very proactive (Pod kills you when you play the waiting game). Next up we have the most prevalent deck in the Top 16 - Naya Pod. Dustin Whelan in 3rd place:
Evan Arkin in 8th:
Last, but not least, Angel Lopez in 10th:
The major difference between Naya Pod and the rest is the amount of the namesake artifact. When you try to emulate the success of Naya Pod, remember to keep in mind the context of the deck. For example, RUG Pod is traditionally slower and more combo-oriented, while Naya focuses on bringing the beats. Nearheath Pilgrim isn't a card I want to pod away because it has no leaves the battlefield trigger, but an efficient two drop is the right call for this aggro deck. Again, this is a difficult archetype to critique each card because there are so many options. If you play this deck in the next couple of weeks, beware of an increased amount of Gut Shots. My friend, Alex John played a Dungrove Aggro deck at SCG Detroit and lost three matches to Gut Shot. Green decks are very powerful in Standard and will only get better because of Rancor (don't be skeptical of this card since it's completely insane). The two easiest ways to lose with green is to draw too many land sources and not enough mana sinks (example: Gavony Township) or keep a hand that relies heavily on a bird or elf. When I play green decks, I go through hands that I would keep or mulligan on the play and draw against unknown opponents. In the context of a big tournament against unfamiliar opponents, you need to make difficult choices each round and you can reduce thinking time by being prepared. Example: would you keep forest, forest, and bird on the play against an unknown deck? How about the draw? The converted casting costs are important for this exercise and there isn't a right answer because you can build your deck many different ways. I bring this up because I played Birthing Pod and came across these close calls almost every round because of the nature of the deck. It seemed like thinking about this beforehand was the best way to make informed decisions in the tournament. Always be prepared! Keeping on track with Birthing Pod, we have the man with two first names, Sean Adam playing RUG pod to a 5th place finish.
With a card like Deceiver Exarch, you know he isn't kidding around. I find it strange he's only playing three Birthing Pods when the deck is so mid-rangey (that's a word). I could see cutting a Garruk Relentless for the fourth copy of pod since not drawing it is bad news. The real question is why you would go down to three pods when the earlier incarnations of the deck wanted to draw it so badly they played Ponder? This deck is allowed to be more combo-oriented because Phantasmal Image is perhaps the most synergistic card for the deck. I find it surprising that RUG and Naya are making waves, but Bant is hiding on the sidelines. Restoration Angel and Blade Splicer are awesome, but so is the Phantasmal Image and Sun Titan synergy. This type of thinking is how we got Reece's Peanut-Butter Cups and I think we all know how that turned out. The Birthing Pod action doesn't stop with green; Zombies get some love in the Top 8, too. Glen Ray finished in the Top 4 with a cool list:
If you love Birthing Pod, but want to kill mana dorks, this is the deck for you. I see this deck - as well as the Zombie tribe - getting much better as a result of so many Birds of Paradise. Remember that we're playing in an environment where we have seen most of the powerful strategies already. Many decks have come and gone which means we know how to beat them. During new Standard formats (example: when Avacyn Restored was released), we're still adapting to new cards and unfamiliar strategies take longer to Demolish. At this stage of the game, players try to Reanimate existing archetypes that haven't been in the limelight for a while in order to take a tournament by surprise. I bring this up now because we all know that RG Aggro and green-based Pod decks have a weakness to spells that deal one damage to creatures for one or less mana (examples: Gut Shot, Fume Spitter, Tragic Slip). If you play RG Aggro in a ten round event, you can bet your mana dorks will die and get land screwed in about two matches on average. That doesn't leave much room for error considering you can also get games where you flood out or just get a bad matchup. Zombie Pod can kill the mana dorks that are rising in popularity and they also don't rely on them. In my opinion, this makes Zombie Pod one of the more attractive options if Birthing Pod is your game. As Zombies inevitably get more popular, cards like Dross Hopper go up in value to combat Celestial Purge and Pillar of Flame. I tested some games with various Zombie decks and the core of Diegraf Ghoul, Gravecrawler, and Geralf's Messenger is very powerful. Cards like Blood Artist were also pretty impressive even if I wasn't building around him. Blood Artist had a huge target on his head so I think playing it as a powerful card is the way to go. When I built around him in versions such as the one that won SCG Detroit, the artist didn't stay around long enough to interact with the combo spells. Killing Wave was perhaps the most unimpressive card because those games where Blood Artist kills your opponent Disciple of the Vault style just don't happen that often. I would also advise against playing Ponder in Zombies because with only eight ways to cast it, the variance is very high. Dross Hopper may not be a zombie, but his sacrifice ability can also end a game in the same was as Killing Wave. I do like Blood Artist in the Pod version because you need life gain while aggressively using the namesake artifact. I could also see a BUG version of this deck that plays more Clones instead of red for expensive creatures. Phyrexian Obliterator is a great 4 drop so not having access to Falkenrath Aristocrat isn't a huge deal. Zealous Conscripts is also a great card in pod, but you can play something else over him in blue, black, or green. With that said, I think Jund colors are the way to go because the pod targets do flow very nicely and Phyrexian Metamorph addresses the issue of not having Phantasmal Image. To sum up the popularity of Birthing Pod, make sure to have access to Celestial Purge, artifact removal, or mana dork-killing spells if you can help it. Esper Control had a dilemma last week at SCG Detroit - to beat down or not to beat down - that was the question. This week we see the same problem as Esper Midrange is here to stay, but the Superfriends and Solar Flare versions fill a niche in the metagame, too. Let's begin with Esper Control piloted by Casey Pordes and Isaiah Monroe (in that order):
Monroe went with a list inspired by Shaheen Soorani:
Once again we have an archetype with multiple ways to build. I would go with the Solar Flare version because of personal preference. That was the deck I played in Ravnica Standard to great success and always loved to Reanimate fatties in a control shell (who doesn't love fatties?). Casey's list is very straightforward and powerful. Phantasmal Image is great in the metagame because it's great against Birthing Pod as well as being able to kill Geist of Saint Traft (because he's still important!). Isaiah on the other hand went with a more grindy deck in Superfriends. Terminus went up in value thanks to the metagame calling for additional Zombie decks (thanks to the resurgence of RG Aggro). Bloodline Keeper wasn't in Shaheen's original list, but I like what it does in here. It can serve as a lightning rod for removal when it comes to sticking a Consecrated Sphinx. Control is powerful enough to play if you enjoy it, but not strong enough to just hop on the bandwagon (it never is). Despise has been seeing play strictly in Superfriends, but it doesn't seem bad in Solar Flare either. Make sure to play around it if you see Liliana of the Veil since new versions of Flare don't play it anymore. Notice the Torpor Orb in the sideboard; this card is going to get much more useful. I don't know about you, but I hate losing to Blade Splicer + Restoration Angel and this is a perfect answer. It also shuts off Snapcaster Mage from Esper Midrange. Let's not forget how great it is against Birthing Pod decks! The split of removal spells would still lean toward Doom Blade because Blade Splicer is very popular, but Zombies will come back and demand Go for the Throat. I would want to play a mix as well because you might run up against this bad boy:
Even though I'm a competitive player, I'm still happy decks like this can win. Phil Johnson made the Top 8 with this deck, but didn't make it to the next-day elimination rounds. I can see this deck getting much better with Mutilate out of M13. This deck is very similar to the BW Control deck I played before Avacyn Restored was released and it worked well. You can play Massacre Wurm if Grave Titan doesn't get it done at your shop (kills Geist of Saint Traft and Lingering Souls very well). Before I got excited and went off on a tangent, I was talking about Esper decks. Raid Alawar made Top 8 and Dylan Bundy got Top 16 with decks remarkably similar to the version played by Ari Lax last weekend in Detroit. Raid Alawar's list:
Some subtle differences in Dylan's list:
Last week I was left debating if Chris Anderson's list was optimal. It felt as if it was slightly ahead on power because it played four copies of Lingering Souls. After playing more with the deck, Ari's version appears stronger for the metagame. There were many games where I would cast Ponder with powerful cards on top and shuffle because they were redundant. Example: Turn 1 Ponder: I see Restoration Angel and Lingering Souls on top with mana to cast them in hand. I shuffle because my hand already has a Blade Splicer and Restoration Angel. The lists that made it to the elimination rounds this weekend didn't worry about that coming up as much because cutting Lingering Souls made the deck less vulnerable to what the opponent was doing. Do you really need two three-drops and two four-drops in your hand? If RG Aggro is making a comeback, I don't want a bunch of white chump blockers anyway. I also like that this version plays Gut Shot because killing early mana dorks with Doom Blade is miserable. It's more useful than you might think because it still kills opposing Restoration Angels after combat or can make a Golem Token with first strike take it out before dying (an important interaction). Wolf Run Ramp made the Top 16 and I'm still surprised it doesn't do better:
Lucas Jamison was the lone pilot of Wolf Run Ramp last weekend. He plays Pillar of Flame over Galvanic Blast to handle Strangleroot Geist which will be a good call for the time being. It will become even better when green gets more popular thanks to Rancor. The recurring theme with ramp the last few weeks is to play Glimmerpost and Cavern of Souls in the maindeck. I would assume my ramp opponents will have access to both in the near future because there haven't been many different lists out there. The last list to discuss was piloted to a Top 16 finish by Mr. Butterworth.
There isn't much to say about this as it did well last weekend and I think it remains to be a great choice. If you like green aggro decks, but don't want to play Birthing Pod because it's on the radar, this is the deck for you. What to look out for before M13 is released Since M13 is coming out in less than two weeks, expect the Standard format to stay pretty much the same until the release. People will begin to focus on implementing the new cards so here's what you need to worry about until then: 1. Birthing Pod is growing in popularity and M13 will only make it more popular. 2. Zombies is well-positioned to kill mana dorks, but watch out for Celestial Purge and Pillar of Flame. 3. Delver has been doing relatively poor lately so you don't have to warp your deck for the matchup as much as you did in the past. 4. Esper Midrange and Esper Control are very different decks so make sure to practice against both.
Spoiler Alert! Next week I'm going to do more with M13, but I'll leave you with some cards to think about. Rancor Ajani, Caller of the Pride Augur of Bolas Rewind Talrand, Sky Summoner Mutilate Ravenous Rats Sign in Blood Vampire Nocturnus Vampire Nighthawk Thundermaw Hellkite Farseek Elvish Archdruid Elvish Visionary Arbor Elf Mwonvuli Beast Tracker Quirion Dryad Ranger's Path Thragtusk Yeva, Nature's Herald Cathedral of War Hellion Crucible I see a tremendous amount of opportunity in this core set as it has been completely spoiled. Rather than highlight Standard tournaments next weekend, it will be an M13 extravaganza! I hope you enjoyed the article; if you want to see something discussed, give me a holler in the comments. Until then, Kyle |
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