Jordan Pollack: The Big Picture After the Pro Tour

Finally we have a Standard format where all three types of decks are viable and extremely competitive.

Aggro, control, and combo are all very different decks, but can all win in our nice little utopia.aetherworksmarvel Do you want to be slamming Emrakul on Turn 4? You can do that thanks to Aetherworks Marvel! Do you want to be attacking your opponent to 19 before they draw their first card? You can do that thanks to Bomat Courier! Do you want to be killing and negating anything that hits your precious battlefield that you try to keep clean every turn? You can do that thanks to … well … Negate. Or counterspells such as Void Shatter and Summary Dismissal, then Torrential Gearhulk to rinse and repeat.

Let’s dig deeper. Aggro decks like W/U flash (8th place) and B/R Madness (39th place) had some sweet wins on camera. Look at Dredge decks in Modern compared to Standard. Standard decks have some very important pieces like Prized Amalgam, Insolent Neonate, Haunted Dead, and Cathartic Reunion. (Obviously Golgari Grave-Troll would push it to Tier 0, but we must keep Standard balanced, right?)

This deck is blistering fast with plenty of Turn 1 plays like Insolent Neonate or Cryptbreaker or Lightning Axe, if you must. No Evolving Wilds or creaturelands means the manabase is always coming in untapped and consistent. Flyers such as Smuggler’s Copter and Voldaren Pariah come over the top of everything and finish the job. You can even transform Pariah quite easily if you are deadlocked on board. The deck is super cheap to build, with no mythics needed. If you bought into Copter before it was $15 you did good. The Copter machine might come down in price a bit in the future and level out, but is probably the No. 1 card on every Standard buy list right now. It can be played in many decks thanks to it being colorless, and it’s just plain great, like some rich vanilla ice cream. If you haven’t lost to it yet, you haven’t played enough Standard matches.

Combo decks in Standard are very rare. But when they exist, they do nasty things. Aetherworks Marvel is a busted magic card. It also tripled in price in a week. I’m sure Yuuya Watanabe understood its power by piloting Bant Aetherworks to a 17th place finish, and Matt Nass took the Temur build to the Top 8. Landing an Emrakul or Ulamog on the early turns demands answers. If none are presented, you win. Fair is fair. Maybe people will start playing more artifact removal like Fragmentize or World Breaker.

I hate losing to a combo deck like all the other Timmys, but this deck is consistent, fairly cheap to build, and plays Emrakul. Seems good. I also really like the R/G Aetherworks deck list by Ryosuke Urase that placed 155th. Not a top finish, but Chandra, Torch of Defiance in this deck seems like a good fit. It can accelerate your game plan, or kill something that needs to be answered that turn. Chandra finding a home in this deck along with a red aggro deck means its price point is here to stay. It’s dropped down to $20, so everyone that bought in at $50 feels bad. Some people were saying it was in the top 3 best planeswalkers ever printed. C’mon people, it’s nowhere near Brainstorm Jace, Liliana of the Veil or Karn. No comparison, end rant.

Control decks are more popular during the Pro tour because, well … Pros play control better than anyone. If you watched Shota Yasooka pilot his Grixis control deck you would think he has only ever played one deck in his life. No mistakes, take advantage of any small edge his opponent gives him, and of course flashing in Torrential Gearhulk at the perfect times.torrentialgearhulk

Odds of getting 1st place at a Pro Tour: 1 in 459 million. Odds of Torrential Gearhulk carrying a hefty price tag for a while: 1 in 1. Which bet do you want? Everyone thought Verdurous Gearhulk was the best. That’s a fair conclusion based on an initial reading of the cycle, but right now, blue decks reign supreme. I see the similarity to Snapcaster Mage, but with one big difference. People like attacking with Snapcaster Mage for 2 power? Really, control player, that’s all you could muster? How about flashing in a 5/6 on your opponent’s end step, kill their biggest threat with Unlicensed Disintegration (for free!), then attack them for 5. Talk about a major swing. The blue Gearhulk is the new king of Standard.

Two major targets right now for all you Standard aficionados: The Shadows over Innistrad lands are really cheap right now. Port Town and Game Trail were used in a lot of decks on the Pro tour. Many people need these to complete their decks, and are easy to get in trade as throw ins at $1-2. I wouldn’t even mind buying a few sets at a buck each then trading for value to get something higher end.

Also, Transgress the Mind seems really good right now. Name me a card that is relevant in standard that is two or less mana. I’ll give you a clue: NOTHING! Except Smuggler’s Copter. But still almost nothing. Black isn’t that popular, but a discard spell at the right time is very important. Even splashing black for Unlicensed Disintegration or Painful Truths isn’t difficult. Sunken Hollow and Smoldering Marsh help, but let’s not forget the cheapest fetch land ever, AKA Evolving Wilds. Throw a Swamp or two in your control deck and you are all set.

To conclude, I will briefly discuss the Ask the Audience from my last article. Most of you people went with the Sol Ring P1 P1. I don’t question you for it, but I just want to burn people to death. I think red is a good color in this draft format, so I personally like Chandra, but that’s just me. In a competitive draft, I like to pick my color early, kick everyone else out of it, and have my way. Sol Ring is very good, and making big plays early is very strong in draft. But if you can keep Chandra alive and you get three different abilities to choose from every turn, whoa, look out world.

Jordan Pollack is a Tax Accountant and Magic player from suburban Chicago. He holds an accounting degree from the University of Kansas and is currently pursuing CPA certification. He enjoys watching the Blackhawks and doing manly things like fixing a leaky sink, grilling, and making sure his girlfriend has everything she needs (and wants).

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Jordan Pollack