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5K Options They Don't Want You To Know About
Conley Woods
10/30/2009  this article! - or -
[Article discussion now available to all readers!] While the limited PTQ season trucks on, one format who has equally important implications seems to have been written off as solved; Standard. As I wrote about last week, everyone seems to be conceding that Jund is this all powerful deck that has no bad matchups. While I gave no specific decklists last week, we did discuss more abstract ways of attacking the Jund menace, but this week I would like to get some more ideas flowing in decklist form to begin working on. Some, more likely most, of these lists have not had the extensive testing that I would recommend for something like a GP or PT, but they are a good starting point for those looking for something off the beaten path. With enough work and innovation, one of these lists could very well lead to a win at the TCGplayer.com Philly 5K or States in the near future. Control decks seem to be lacking right now for a few reasons. The first being that everyone is trying to make 5 color control work again, but the mana fixing is not there to be able to compete with these hyper-aggressive decks. Cruel Ultimatum is still good, but if you cannot get to turn 7, it really doesn't matter. I feel like mana consistency is more important right now than abstract power level on cards. Take for example, the following Esper list, that theoretically could run Cruel, but suffers when it does:
The sideboard for this list is unfinished but would obviously include some number of Celestial Purge, the 4th Negate, and the 4th Day of Judgment. This deck utilizes Identity Crisis as its Cruel Ultimatum replacement which allows the deck to have much better mana in the early game. 11 Basic lands is obviously a lot, but they help to turn on the M10 Duals and are really the best we have right now. There is the possibility that the Zendikar gain life duals can be tried in here, but I fear that may be too many ETBT lands. With 8 Spot removal spells, some Wall of Denials, and the Wraths, you have quite a bit of removal to get you to turn 5 where your card advantage should just take over. Agony Warp is especially good here as it acts like a Lightning Helix and nearly every deck out there looks to drop multiple guys into play ASAP. Soul Manipulation allows you to run more threats without actually running them. Granted there is Path in the format, but they can only run 4 of those and most of the decks in the format can't even support Path right not. Soul Manipulation also makes running Wall of Denial with Day of Judgment a little less of a nonbo. With 9 cards that draw cards, you should be able to muscle your way past other control decks or decks looking to create some form of card advantage against you. Negate is awesome against Blightning which is one of this decks biggest pains but is hardly backbreaking. The beauty of a deck like this is that it is simple and straight forward, but still enough out of left field that people will not know how to play against it properly. There are no cards that make you feel like your playing a rogue deck (outside of Soul Manipulation I guess) but you are still able to play rogue. Some of the cards people can mess with in here include Sorin Markov as an Identity Crisis replacement. He is pretty good against control while usually being better against aggro and fits the same spot in the curve. Sphinx of Jwar Isle is another option, although with the Soul Manipulations I assume Baneslayer Angel is just better. Moving on to another control deck, we arrive at something that looks to be a little more focused on Planeswalkers. As I said last week, the draw spells in the format are pretty mediocre, which makes card advantage found in Planeswalkers that much better.
I am still working on the mana for this one, so please partake in the exercise yourself as there is little chance this is the right configuration. Eight fetches are your best source of fixing when looking at non-allied 3 color decks which is a bit awkward but at least has some nice synergy with the Sphinx. This list is similar to the last one in that it looks to take over as the game goes long, but the difference is that this list looks to use Planeswalkers to do so. You end up having to run four Jace simply because he is your sole source of actual card draw outside of one-per-turning it. Occasionally this will make for some poor top-decks but I feel like the times where it wins the game more than makes up for that fact. Seven creatures all with shroud make opponent's Path to Exiles, Terminates, and Doom Blades pretty bad. Sure they can always go to an Elspeth token, but you are generally going to be pretty happy if that happens. One card that definitely stings here is Gatekeeper of Malakir, but luckily there is only one deck in the format running him and he is easy enough to play around if you know what your doing. Losing a Wall of Denial is not fun, but is much better than having to toss away a Sphinx. The Swerves can be a bit strange at times, as with all of your creatures having shroud, they will rarely redirect a removal spell outside of Maelstrom Pulse. That said, they are excellent against Blightning, Time Warp, Pulse, Mind Sludge, and burn spells. Still, if you want to change them to Negates or something else for that matter, that is a completely reasonable move to make. Pyroclasms tag teaming with the six burn spells work pretty well together, taking down big guys in conjunction with one another and coming down fast enough to stop decks like Boros Bushwhacker from getting out of hand. Day of Judgment once again does not play very well with Wall of Denial which is why we are running the two Clasms, but generally if you are in a position where you need to Wrath with a wall out, you are still getting good value. Most of the time you will still only be doing one or the other With a few control decks out of the way, let us now revisit the Bant idea that I hinted at last week. This is bound to be more of a midrange deck and will probably not fair too well against control decks, but it should be able to take care of the aggro infestation running around right now.
This list has a ton of different directions to take it, with this version being more of a slug-it-out style of Bant. The goal here is to present your opponent with too many must-answer threats making them run out of those answers pretty quickly. Along the way, you have some answer-all removal spells that can hold back aggro decks, along with the 8 life gain creatures you are packing. There are ten total sources for a turn one Noble Hierarch which is not the greatest but about the best we can do with the current mana in Standard. Alongside the Hierarch mana is a bit of a rough spot in the White mana department, meaning turn 2 White Knight will not happen as often as we like, but the beauty of the Knight is that he is solid later on in the game as well. Being able to hold off entire Jund swarms as well as going toe to toe with most of Boros Bushwhacker, taking down Bloodbraid Elfs, and absolutely annihilating Vampires, you are pretty happy to have him anytime. Rafiq of the Many helps to fill the 4 drop slot while giving you some card advantage and post-Wrath recovery. Scute Mob is still very underplayed which is understandable given how fast the format is. Still, in a deck like this, which doesn't mind going long and doesn't rely on the Mob in the short game, he seems to make a perfect fit. Early on he will usually be a Lighting rod ( quite literally thanks to Bolt) which is fine as that just means some other sick guy gets through, where as in the late game, he picks up a Behemoth Sledge like no other. Speaking of the Sledge, between the two of them, four Rhox War Monk, and four Baneslayer Angel, you have a pretty good recovery system should you take some early damage and have now stabilized. It is never fun to take control of a game but always be on the edge of your seat because a top decked burn spell will kill you. Noble Hierarchs help to expedite the life gain as they both provide it earlier and in greater amounts. Two of the cards I would like to try in this list include Finest Hour and Stoic Angel. The Angel seems pretty excellent against Boros assuming they don't have a path ready. Four toughness has become a huge bonus in the current standard for obvious reasons. Finest Hour on the other hand acts like a Rafiq replacement although doing slow a bit slower. I wanted to keep the creature count high, which is why it didn't make the deck, and to be fair, it is probably more suited to a different style Bant deck, but is an option to consider none the less. For all three of the above decks, there are a ton of card choices that can be tried out that I haven't talked about. As an example, Wall of Reverence may be pretty good in the Wall of Denial slot for the Esper list. As I mentioned, all of the lists are just rough drafts and should be used more as starting points to Tinker around with rather than to carbon copy them and run off to your local cash tournament. Each one should have pretty good game against Jund however, showing that it is not impossible to beat that deck by any means. I will be playing with these, among other lists, in the near future as preparation for Worlds and will of course update you guys on their performances as well as any quirky cards I find for them along the way. If there are any other ideas floating around out there, feel free to drop them off in the comment section below and I will definitely give them a look over. There is still a little over a month of time to prepare for the Philly 5K, with a few other cash tournaments and the state championships along the way so keep an open mind. It is never a good thing to latch onto a deck so early and disregard all other options. Try everything out and eventually the right deck will always emerge. Alright, that's it for this week. I have a bit of a break until Worlds which is nice, as I won't be able to make it out to Minneapolis. Luckily, I managed to secure level 6 last weekend at Grand Prix Tampa which was a nice feeling to say the least. Until next time, keep building and keep playing! --Conley Woods-- |
  
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