Interesting Lists from the SCG Invitational Weekend
The first big weekend of the new standard environment is in the books, and while Dragons of Tarkir hasn't spawned new archetypes as of yet, lots of the new cards are seeing play. So far the big winners of the weekend?
As you can see, every color has new toys to play with. While it's only week one, I don't expect to see these cards to lose popularity as they are all very powerful for the decks that want them. For me, the big winner was Sidisi, Undead Vizier with 4 copies of her split between the two finalists of the SCG Invitational. Generally a 4/6 body with Deathtouch tacked on seems like it could be very good. Add in the bonus of being able to sacrifice a worthless creature, such a Satyr Wayfinder or Sylvan Caryatid to cast Demonic Tutor is pretty awesome. If you watched coverage of the Invitational, you saw her power when games get drawn out as she can find you the silver bullet needed to put you ahead.
Zurgo Bellstriker rings in the return of Mono-Red Aggro being a possible top tier deck. It's very rare we see 2/2's for one, and now this allows red aggressive decks to put even more pressure on opponents. When Anticipate was revealed, blue players everywhere rejoiced. A card that gives them something to do in the early game which also can fuel Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise is exactly what control decks wanted. While players everywhere lament that it isn't Impulse, it doesn't mean this card isn't powerful. It will see a lot of play in a wide variety of decks. Most blue decks moving forward will be running multiple copies of this. Dromoka's Command in my opinion has single handedly put the final nail in the coffin of the RW Aggro deck. A two mana instant with 4 options that will be live against almost every deck is exactly what a deck like Abzan Aggro wanted. The deck already had some hard to handle threats, and being able to deal with any enchantment while making your threats bigger could be a nightmare for the rest of the format.
At this point, we all know about the cards I listed above; having them see play is a surprise to no one. They are good cards, and slot right into established decks that are already known entities. In week one of a new standard, this is pretty par for the course. It takes time for players to build a brand new archetype, but we did have a few decks that are either brand new or old decks empowered by new cards. The first of these I want to talk about is Abzan Constellation.
While Constellation decks aren't new, it has been awhile since we've seen one that doesn't include Whip of Erebos do well. In addition to that, I don't think I've seen Brain Maggot finish highly since Return to Ravnica rotated out. Lots of decks have been getting some press from the invitational, but this is one that isn't. This deck is all in on the Constellation plan running 21 main deck enchantments and it finished 7-1 during the standard portion of the invitational. While it doesn't really use many DTK cards (only 3 Silkwrap in the sideboard), it does have an engine that is hard to match in the current standard. Having access to both Chord of Calling and Brain Maggot gives the deck a way to fight against Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, the card that has pushed the deck out of popularity. Moving forward, if I was going to pick up the deck, I would start out with it built as-is and move from there. I wouldn't be in a hurry to add Whip of Erebos to the deck, as that isn't the gas this engine wants. I would see if Sidisi, Undead Vizier could fit in the deck somewhere, but it may just be worse than Chord of Calling. However, a 4/6 body that blocks Siege Rhino all day is tough to say no to.
This may be the most interesting deck from the weekend. This deck appears to rely on the reprint Explosive Vegetation to power out a bunch of huge threats. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Dragonloard Atarka are some giant bombs that allow the deck to catch back up. Soul of Theros and Hornet Queen provide you with some creatures which make combat really awkward for opponents. The queen of Standard herself, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, is also included. This deck has a lot of raw power; instead of lowering its curve it runs 2 maindeck Anger of the Gods to buy itself time against aggressive decks. Secure the Wastes at first looks very out of place, but it is a card that can be flexible. It can be an early game play trying to buy you time to make it to the late game, or a late game mana sink allowing you to flood the board with a horde of Warriors. This deck has some potential, but it likely needs some fine tuning. Many cards seem out of place and the deck isn't really focused on a particular gameplan other than getting lots of mana.
The second Shorecrasher Elemental was spoiled, everyone speculated the return of Mono Blue Devotion. Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea had been very successful in the past for a lot of people (myself included), and a lot of players went right to the drawing board hoping for a resurgence of their favorite God. Evan Sheres was the most successful of those players this weekend with a build that was a little different from what most people were brewing. He combined Master of Waves, Thassa, God of the Sea, and Ensoul Artifact in an attempt to attack people from multiple angles. In addition to these big threats, he also ran 8 counterspells in his main deck to protect these threats. While Ensoul Artifact can be powerful, the 4 Ornithropters can be dead draws without the animating enchantment. Darksteel Citadel in a deck with Shorecrasher Elemntal makes the manabase slightly awkward. I don't think this deck is going to end up dominating Standard like its previous iterations, but it is something I would be aware of and have a game plan against.
Conclusion
The format hasn't made too many strides; hopefully that will change over the next few weeks. A lot of the cards from Dragons of Tarkir look very powerful and I'll be surprised if we don't get a new archetype or two out of the Pro Tour. For most of us, PPTQ season is back and we will all be jamming at our local shops. I played in one this past weekend and while I didn't win, I felt like I learned a lot about the format. I will be playing in another one here in Madison this weekend and hopefully I have a little better luck. I still expect Abzan to be the most played deck in the room, so whatever you play, make sure to have a decent matchup against them. With SCG Syracuse this weekend, we should get another glimpse at how the format continues to evolve, and hopefully someone will finally figure out how to consistently crush Siege Rhino.
