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Temur Ascendancy and other Standard Breakouts


Good news everyone! Week One of Fate Reforged Standard is finally in the books, and it was an interesting weekend to say the least. Gerard Fabiano took down the first Standard SCG Open of the season with a Sultai Control deck, and Luis Salvatto took down the Super Sunday Series with RW Midrange. While it may be a little too early to say this, but Standard looks like it is going to continue to be a very diverse and interesting format. The open consisted of 5 or 6 different decks in the Top 8. I myself attended a PPTQ this weekend, which saw 8 different archetypes in the Top 8. Fate Reforged looks like it injected lots of new and interesting plays for decks, but I don't think too many people expected this to come out so early into the new format.

 

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That's right, another combo deck enabled by an Ascendency. This deck is crazy, and looks like it is a blast to play. The combo itself is focused around Temur AscendancyTemur Sabertooth, and a way to produce lots of mana from one source like Karametra's Acolyte or Voyaging SatyrNykthos, Shrine to Nyx. To combo off with the deck, you activate your mana source to generate enough mana (usually 7) to bounce it with Temur Sabertooth, and have enough leftover to replay it. Since it has haste from Temur Ascendancy, you can tap it again and keep the loop going to create infinite mana. You then use this on your payoffs like Genesis Hydra which allows you to make a giant dude with haste that can go find you a Nylea, God of the Hunt to give it Trample and end the game, or a giant Polukranos, World Eater which will allow you to wipe your opponent's board. Add in some card draw from Temur Ascendency and Eidolon of Blossoms to allow for some additional redundancy, and Singing Bell Strike as an alternative way to untap your mana source instead of bouncing it, and you have a bonkers deck. I expect this to rise in popularity, so at least know what the deck is doing so you know how to fight it.   

Breakout Cards from Fate Reforged

 

I think that it is safe to say that Tasigur, the Golden Fang continued the legacy of Delve cards being very good. He is cheap, big body that is able to tussle with the likes of Siege Rhino and live to tell the tale, as well as provide a source of card advantage. I expect him to see some play in Modern and Legacy as well, as casting a 4/5 for 1 seems pretty good. He has doubled in price since Saturday. His ability works very well with delving cards away, as you can just exile the cards you don't want back before you activate his ability. I expect Sultai and Abzan decks to be slotting a few of these into their decks in Standard. I expect this to be the best card from Fate Reforged.

 

 

To the Surprise of no one, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon made his presence felt. He proved that he is going to be the trump card for midrange and control decks. He's already seeing enough play that some people were playing Garruk, Apex Predator as an answer for Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He either kills him if he's already on the board, or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon has to -7 to get Garruk, Apex Predator off the table. He's another card that will allow Sultai and Abzan decks to go big, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ugin, the Spirit Dragon be the new upper limit of the format. If you haven't won the game by the time he comes down, you are probably done.

 

 

This card gives the white decks in Standard exactly what they needed. The flexibility of it is awesome! I played in a PPTQ this past weekend, and this card was a big reason I made it to the Semifinals.

This card does it all! It's never going to be dead in your hand.

Choosing a Deck Moving Forward

The metagame is starting to take shape, and while we are far away from it being stable (if it ever gets there before Dragons of Tarkir comes out in two months), we can make some deck decisions to attempt to attack the metagame. In the two big tournaments of the weekend, there was a wide variety of decks but if you break it down, decks are basically doing three things. When considering your deck for the weekend, it needs to be able to do two of the following three things for it to be a legitimate choice, which hasn't really changed since Khans of Tarkir Standard. Obviously something similar to this is true of almost any format, but these are the specific to this current iteration of Standard.

  • Against Aggressive Decks: You need to be able to beat a turn 2 or 3 Goblin Rabblemaster or a turn 1 or 2 Heroic Creature (RWx Aggro, UW Heroic)
  • Against Midrange Decks: You need to have enough speed and be redundant enough to survive removal / discard before these decks  can grind you out. (Abzan Aggro/Midrange, Mardu Midrange)
  • Against Controlling Decks: You need to be fast or disruptive enough before they can lock you out with counterspells or destroy the world with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. (UBx Control, Mono-G Devotion)

Moving forward, this is where a strategy like Temur or Jeskai Ascendancy combo may thrive, as it is doing something completely different than the rest of the format. I don't think either will end up as a Tier 1 deck because they have so many moving parts, and Standard is full of decent removal and sweepers. However, the potential is there if the lists are refined. If you do decide that comboing off is the best strategy, I would get as much testing with the deck in as you can. It's a known entity now and people won't be as surprised by it.

One particular strategy that I think is going to be on the down swing is Whip of Erebos reanimator decks. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is only going to see more play. Whip decks just want to flood the board and out-attrition you but will have a difficult time when their board is wiped and none of it goes to the graveyard. Pilots of the deck will either have to adapt to handle Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, or it may just fall out of the format, which may already be happening (there were zero copies of Whip of Erebos in the top 16 at SCG DC). With cards like Doomwake Giant possibly on the decline, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jeskai Tokens make a comeback. It is another deck that attacks from a different angle, and with less Whips around, players will be packing less enchantment hate for Jeskai Ascendancy.

Conclusion

It may be a few weeks before we the true definition of the Standard metagame, as there will be a lack of big exposure Standard tournaments over the next few weeks. Legacy and Modern will be taking the big stage in coverage with SCG Indy and Pro Tour Fate Reforged in Washington DC. I'm really excited to see what happens in Modern with the recent bans. Until then, I had a pretty successful weekend, losing in the semi-finals of a PPTQ to one of my buddies. I'll be most likely running back the same deck this weekend at the PTQ in Madison, WI. I was a little unsure going into it, as a friend took my list to FNM the night before and went 1-3. He decided not to play it in the end, but I decided to trust my testing and stick with it, which turned out to be the correct decision for me. In the end, always make the correct decision for yourself and remember that knowing a deck inside and out can be more of an advantage than playing that hot new combo deck that looks like so much fun... ok, where did I stash my Temur Ascendancys?  



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