Justin Vizaro
7/16/2012 10:20:00 AM
M13 is spiteful, and it has most certainly filled standard with
Venom. This new format we will have until October is turning out to be one in which cards are good and decks are not. Those of you that don't understand the statement should evaluate the state of your decks as well as the cash-prize lists that will be pouring in over the next few days. The facts are simple, but the conclusion is a bit muddled by the sense of similarity to previous formats. While it is obvious that there are always a select crop of 10-15 cards that rise above the rest each season, it's much more consistently true that those cards rise above the rest because they are good in conjunction with any number of cards in a given deck. In the current standard format, however, decks aren't exactly greater than the sums of their parts, but rather, are about as good as the best card(s) in the deck. It is my conjecture that it cannot be argued that
Thragtusk,
Restoration Angel,
Lingering Souls,
Huntmaster of the Fells,
Bonfire of the Damned, nor
Cavern of Souls are cards that require a dedication to purpose. These cards quite simply make entire archetypes unviable, leading to a format dominated by matches whose winners are the players who cast the greatest number of the aforementioned spells.
Each card considered independently fits into the shell of so many different decks, which partially elaborates upon the point made above; that each of these cards is more powerful than the deck in which it finds itself. Let's examine the cards not on the basis of how good they are, but rather from the perspective of support requirements and home-wrecker status (how many archetypes it effectively nullifies).
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Where it Appears:
This card goes into decks that have Red mana, and in most cases, that is its most limiting selection criterion. Most of the other considerations are (1) number of
Bonfire of the Damned in player's collection, (2) likelihood on a scale of 1-10 of said player wanting to kill opponent's creatures, and (3) number of
Bonfire of the Damned in the deck that the player has chosen to copy. For most players, the formula for determining the number of
Bonfire of the Damned to put into a deck is:
2 * (Maximum Number of Copies Allowed in Deck)
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
- Humans
- Tokens
- Zombies (to an extent)
- Other aggressive decks that commit more than 1 creature to the board at once
The most obnoxious thing about
Bonfire of the Damned is playing around it, as you can either assume that the opponent has one in hand, and can therefore maintain a tight grasp on whether or not you can be blown out by the card based on the amount of available mana, or you can play as if the top card of your opponent's library is always
Bonfire of the Damned, in which case, you likely won't do anything with any of your turns except cast creatures whose toughness constantly exceeds the number of lands your opponent has in play. Of the cards on this list, however,
Bonfire of the Damned is actually among the least restrictive of deck building, as it's the most conditionally powerful card of the lot, so let's look at the others.
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Where it Appears:
This card doesn't look to be as bad as the others, but when you consider the fact that just about every deck that is both Red and Green wants this guy's slew of abilities, it becomes pretty obvious that his selection criteria are about as limited as Bonfire's. This card is good against all archetypes, forcing slow decks to play spells, thwarting early aggression, and punishing decks that operate at sorcery speed. Limiting the playability of this card are only a few things, which include its very aggressive casting cost of 4, which puts it in contention for space with a multitude of ridiculously powerful spells, and its double-color requirement, which necessitates a color scheme or color-fixing plan. This card fits into aggressive decks, midrange decks, ramp decks, and slower control decks, so its playability in terms of whether it fits the strategy of a deck will always be the same, making it a card that is better than its containing deck's focus.
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
- Draw-go
- Humans (to an extent)
- Zombies (to an extent)
- Other aggressive decks without closers
While this card hurts aggressive decks primarily, it also has quite the effect on slower decks that don't cast spells that often. Four power for four mana is a decent bargain, but the punishment associated with sleeping for a turn is pretty steep for most control decks.
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Where it Appears:
Assuming it's simply not rough enough to have
Huntmaster of the Fells in the format,
Thragtusk elevates the game by providing nearly all of Huntmaster of the Fells' headaches at an amplified level, but with less restrictions placed on its list of potential homes. Requiring only one color, and only one colored mana of that color,
Thragtusk is the definition of a splashable home-wrecker.
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
- Zombies
- Delver
- Aggressive decks that can't win by poison or end the game before turn 5 (sometimes 4)
Thragtusk has the shortest list of nullified decks, but his effect on the aggressive ones is so extensive that he ought to be considered a shut-down condition for those decks. His body is sizeable, and the fact that he gains back 25% (often two turns worth) of the caster's life and has a leave-behind makes him the ideal card for turning aggro upside down at the most important point in the game. He's actually more effective in terms of turning games against aggro than
Baneslayer Angel, and his value is so incredible that it's felt outside of the aggro matchups when he serves quite like a giant
Doomed Traveler.
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Where it Appears:
This card isn't Red or Green, which makes it the first card on the list of things we're discussing today that doesn't belong in a deck of those colors. Prior to the release of M13,
Lingering Souls was quite possibly the most unfair card in both the block and standard formats (ending up banned in one of them), delivering four evasive creatures timed in such a way that best suits its caster, with the ability to be used as both a stall condition and a pressure condition. Fitting aggressive, midrange, and control strategies,
Lingering Souls is certainly a card that is capable of operating outside the bounds of the other cards in a given deck, and as such, fits the pattern of cards we have discussed today.
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
- Humans
- Delver
- Midrange beats
- Control
The value gained by having a million flying guys is different for each archetype into which it fits, but the value against each archetype is pretty apparent. Delver decks pitch a fit because of the number of blockers available that prevent the pressure of the 3/2 from becoming overwhelming. Humans have trouble beating through the wall as well without help from
Sword of War and Peace or
Riders of Gavony, and Human decks don't much appreciate being slowed down in their pursuit of victory. Midrange decks struggle with getting their single large creature in for damage, and Control decks can't adequately accumulate card advantage against it.
I've put together a list that I will discuss in two weeks, but the point of including it today is to demonstrate the multiplicity of Lingering Souls' power.
Lingering Souls being in this deck proves that a deck with split focus can actually work, even if only because of the fact that
Lingering Souls is in it.
If you like the deck above, please check out The Brewery on July 30
th to get an inside look at the reasons I have chosen particular cards, and to find out whether or not the deck can work in a competitive setting.
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Where it Appears:
Decks that like to cast creatures typically want to have this card, and I find myself casting creatures quite a bit in this format. I also find that I now pay closer attention to creature type across formats (like when I was looking at Modern cards and discovered the fact that
Anathemancer fits very well into Zombies as
Geralf's Messenger 5-8 because he is in fact a zombie himself). Oddly enough, many of the decks that want to use this card for supreme value get crushed by the other cards on the list, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that this card would be on this list unless you consider the fact that this card is good regardless of its intended use. In a deck with only one creature, this card is good enough to warrant consideration because of the fact that it can make your one creature that much more clutch when it shows up in hand.
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
While not completely dead, both of these decks took a tremendous hit in the past few months, and while it's not purely because of the Cavern, it has certainly been a contributing factor. If having perfect information about countermagic is valuable enough to make
Gitaxian Probe playable in pre-cavern aggressive decks, then being irreverent of it entirely is generously more powerful. The color fixing provided by this card also alleviates the stress of finding ways to cram multiple double color requirement spells into tribally-themed decks.
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Where it Appears:
The final card on the list today is, in my opinion, the ring that ought to be thrown into Mordor.
Restoration Angel is a card so powerful and splashable that it gets discussed for any deck that can potentially touch White and cast other creatures before turn four. Much like
Snapcaster Mage,
Restoration Angel is a card that will never be weaker than it currently is, and one that only gets more powerful as more new creatures enter the mix. As a 3/4 Flying creature with Flash for only four mana, it's even among the best bargains for its cost, not only in its color, but across all colors as well.
Otherwise Viable Archetypes Neutered:
This card doesn't appear to belong on this list, but a case can be made for this card existing in just about any list of 75 for the competitive scene. Much like
Cavern of Souls, Angel only wants to be in a deck whose focus is having creatures in play, and playing Angel in many of those decks results in those decks immediately rising to the power level granted by Restoration triggers.
Restoration Angel is, in itself, an entire support package for even the most mediocre of creatures, and it helps each of them neuter the playability of other decks.
Next week's Brewery list (below) demonstrates the raw power level of a card like
Restoration Angel by forcing it into a deck that turns its usefulness away from its intended purpose and more toward helping deliver as much damage as possible. In this capacity, it seems as though it might even be more powerful to ignore the creature's first ability and cast it on the main phase.
Perhaps the cleanest 9x4 list I have seen in the past 6 months, the above decklist is the one that will be featured in next week's Brewery article. In addition to discussing the deck and how it performs (extremely fast by the way), we will also be looking at the cards from this list and how they measure up when played against one another. Is the format up for grabs, with a plethora of viable decks battling for supremacy, or will the format shake out to be a smattering of decks with little focus outside of casting the most copies of the spells on this list?
Only time will tell what happens in standard between now and October, but it is certain that many games will be won because of the five spells mentioned here today. My guess is that because of the fact that these spells are typically better than the decks that contain them, the most successful deck over the next few months will be the one that packs the most of them. Brewing becomes more difficult in an age in which focus isn't as relevant as the cards in the deck, but rest assured that I will be doing my best to show you ways around playing Naya every week. Two decks have already emerged as dark horses in an attempt to not care about the spells above (Turbo
Fog and Infect), so we will soon find out whether or not the viability of decks built without these cards is real.
Thank you all for reading, good luck, and check out the next two articles to see more information about each of these decklists.
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