Tom Koson: The Age of Emrakul

This Standard season started out a lot like the last Standard season: With Bant Company as the “best deck,” and a few other decks fighting for the right to be second-best. But, just like last season, the Pro Tour proved everyone wrong.

At Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad, only one Bant Company deck was to be found in the Top 8. At Pro Tour Eldritch Moon, Bant Company was 19 percent of the field, but put only two copies into the Top 8.

What went wrong?emrakulthepromisedend

Emrakul, the Promised End absolutely dominated coverage throughout the entirety of the PT, and for good reason. She is great against midrange decks like Bant Company or GW Tokens, and has a strong late game against other ramp or control decks. With W/R Humans – the best aggro deck in the format right now —being outclassed by the midrange decks of the format, it left the door wide open for slower ramp strategies to run, well, rampant. It’s only fitting to analyze these decks first and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each archetype.

R/G Delirium Ramp

R/G Delirium Ramp is aiming to use card selection to find the lands or spells that it needs, while also fueling its graveyard with Gather the Pack and Grapple with the Past for Emrakul and various delirium cards. It uses some ramp spells such as Nissa’s Pilgrimage and Hedron Archive to get ahead on mana early, and board control spells such as Kozilek’s Return and Ishkanah, Grafwidow to live until it can cast Emrakul or other payoff cards such as World Breaker and Dragonlord Atarka.

Reid Duke’s Top 8 Decklist:

 

The biggest issue I can find with this deck is when its main game plan fails, it has no backup plan. I would move toward a build that is better against aggro decks and can also stabilize the game by establishing a board presence when you are stuck on lands, something Kozilek’s Return fails to do. ReturnI would be interested in seeing more Sylvan Advocates and Tireless Trackers in this strategy, but B/G does that strategy better.

If you want to attack R/G Delirium, you can play something faster than it, such as W/R Humans or Bant Company. Alternatively, you can try a more controlling route and use hand disruption via a control deck like B/W, but I think B/G Delirium (see below) may be a perfect mix of smaller creatures, removal, and hand disruption against it. I would not play this deck moving forward, as it seems too all-in on the ramp plan. I would be looking for a ramp deck that has a better midgame, which may mean turning to Sylvan Advocate or Tireless Tracker. While B/G may be a better shell for those cards, both benefit from a lot of land being in play early.

Temur Emerge

Temur Emerge’s game plan is similar to that of R/G Delirium, but instead of trying to ramp withelderdeepfiend spells it wants to stall the board with value creatures such as Gnarlwood Dryad and Pilgrim’s Eye, and then use Elder Deep-Fiend; Chandra, Flamecaller; or Emrakul, the Promised End along with Kozilek’s Return (which this deck is particularly good at cheating into the graveyard) to finish the game out. This deck doesn’t use a Traverse the Ulvenwald package, but still has some graveyard synergies. It is mostly trying to leverage the Emerge mechanic.

 

 

Owen Turtenwald’s 2nd Place Decklist:

 

This deck seems more powerful than the R/G Delirium Ramp deck. It cuts ramp spells for creatures that it can use with Emerge. It has many of the same weaknesses, namely that if it has a slow mana draw, it isn’t doing much. It can cheat out a huge creature because of Emerge, casting Elder Deep-Fiend as early as turn 4, but if it fails to draw many creatures and instead has just lands and selection, it also isn’t doing much, as evidenced by Owen’s games in the finals. With only 21 lands in the deck, it is also susceptible to mana screw, even with all the ways to dig for lands.

This deck wants a good mix of lands, early creatures, and late game threats. When all of that comes together it is great, and just better than R/G. That risk is worth taking, but it is also trying to do more things and can lose to itself, which is typical of this type of strategy. Attacking it is about the same as the R/G deck — play something fast. But, with the ability to clog up the board, it has a better Bant Company matchup. Summary Dismissal may be the secret tech against this deck, countering not only its threats, but also their cast triggers. If you are looking for the best ramp deck, this would be the one to play. But it is not the best Emrakul deck.

B/G Delirium

BG Delirium takes a more midrange-control approach to the game, functioning more like agrimflayer Rock deck than a ramp deck. It uses Grim Flayer and Liliana, the Last Hope to fuel the graveyard, and removal to stay ahead in the game. Delirium not only helps cast Emrakul or turn on Ishkanah in this deck, it also turns on a Traverse the Ulvenwald package to tutor up whatever is needed, including Ishkanah; Nissa, Vastwood Seer; Emrakul; and Den Protector to loop it all back. There are also 1-of targets in the sideboard which can be useful, and Dark Petitions for even more recursion. The interesting thing about this deck is it still has a very strong mid-game with Grim Flayer, Sylvan Advocate, and Tireless Tracker as opposed to the other Delirium strategies.

 

Sam Pardee’s Top 4 Decklist:

 

 

This looks to be the Emrakul deck of choice moving forward. It has a sweet early game, establishing which lands and spells it wants to put into its hand and getting some very good creatures onto the board. Moving into the mid-game, Liliana and Tireless Tracker start to accrue value. In the late game it has the most powerful spell from Eldritch Moon.

It is also worth mentioning that the removal suite is very good, featuring Grasp of Darkness, Ultimate Price, Murder, and Ruinous Path (which can actually kill opposing Emrakuls). I would not be surprised if this is the best deck in the format, and it is hard to effectively attack it.

Usually I would say use a ramp deck against a deck like this, but B/G Delirium uses the same late game finisher that the ramp decks use. It can block and kill fast creatures from aggro as well as grind out midrange battles. It’s possible that in the future a heavy control deck may be the best thing against this deck. It turns off most of B/G Delirium’s removal, and on the flip side, the amount of removal that is has can actually deal with the threats B/G Delirium is presenting. Cards like Transgress the Mind or Infinite Obliteration can hit Emrakul and severely damage the late game for this deck.

I don’t know what iteration of control is the best, with B/W, Grixis, and Sultai all making appearances at the Pro Tour. However, there seems to be one common thread among them …lilianathelasthope

B/W Control

With BW Control making the top 8 when other control decks couldn’t, it may possibly be the best Liliana deck. We have seen this deck perform well in the past season and it seems to be showing up again. The plan is pretty simple: Kill some stuff with efficient removal, then gain value with planeswalkers and good creatures, constantly 2-for-1’ing your opponent. This deck functions much like a Jund deck in Modern would.

Lukas Blohon’s 1st Place Decklist:

 

Every time I have seen this deck lose, it is just because it has fallen behind too quickly. If it ever goes into the late game, it is heavily favored. With access to Duress (for enablers), Infinite Obliteration, Transgress the Mind and Ruinous Path, Emrakul isn’t as big of a deal as it may usually be. It has plenty of removal for the threats coming from Bant Company or B/G Delirium. Languish hoses decks like U/W Spirits and W/R Humans, and can also wipe out a lot of hard work for Bant Company and G/W Tokens.

It seems like a pretty solid choice going forward, but my main concern is sometimes it just doesn’t do anything. It consists of removal and threats which means sometimes you draw the wrong half of your deck and die from being too far behind. Standard is slow right now and this is a deck very prone to going to time. With mental endurance being a considerable factor, this isn’t for everyone. However, if you can adeptly maneuver through complex game states and use Avacyn, Liliana, Sorin, and Kalitas to your advantage, I think you’ll find yourself in good company.

Bant Company

The boogeyman. The deck everyone was afraid of. collectedcompanyBant Company’s day 1 performance at the Pro Tour was actually not all that good. It had a huge target on its head, and inspired some teams such as Channel Fireball to brew decks that would specifically tear it apart. While U/B Zombies ended up not performing very well due to having bad matchups against other decks, it goes to show why Bant Company was only able to do well in the hands of very skilled players such as Luis Scott-Vargas and Yuta Takahashi.

Still, it ended up putting two copies into the Top 8, and is an undeniably powerful deck. It uses early threats like Duskwatch Recruiter and Sylvan Advocate to apply pressure and set up blockers, and develops into a more tempo-based game with cards like Reflector Mage and Spell Queller. Tireless Tracker and Avacyn ensure that the deck always has something to do in the late game. While it typically folds to things like Emrakul, cards like Ojutai’s Command, Declaration in Stone, and Tamiyo, Field Researcher can buy enough time for Bant to win.

Luis Scott-Vargas’s Top 4 Decklist:

 

The biggest tweak I can see is more maindeck answers to Emrakul. Luckily Bant has access to plenty of tools, whether it is shaving some number of Avacyn for Ojutai’s Command, or cutting a couple Dromoka’s Command for some number of Declaration in Stone. Out of the sideboard, both Clash of Wills and Summary Dismissal can be effective. This deck having blue in it allows it to fight Emrakul from a different axis.

The deck doesn’t seem like it will be a bad choice as long as Collected Company is legal. It reminds me of the Abzan decks sporting Siege Rhino from past seasons. While it might not be the best deck of the weekend in future events, it is still very solid and it is a deck that rewards being experienced with it. Just like how LSV and Takahashi defied the odds and managed to Top 8 because of how good they were, with some tweaks for the metagame, people comfortable with this deck will continue to see success.

Honorable Mentions

Pedro Carvalho’s U/R Thing in the Ice/Fevered Visions deck had a 9-1 record in Standard:

 

Benjamin Nikolich’s W/R Humans deck also managed a 9-1 record in Standard, so maybe aggro isn’t dead:

 

The New Normal

B/G Delirium and B/W Control are great decks to be playing, as basic Swamp is powerful against Emrakul and Bant Company. Maybe if everyone starts playing control and ramp to defeat midrange, that means aggro will be the best thing to play in the coming weeks.

Bant Company was not as dominant at the Pro Tour as everyone thought it would be. It was largely hated out, and it took some luck and skill to secure victory for the deck’s pilots. It goes to show that Emrakul was the promised end to Bant Company’s reign.

Personally I didn’t attend SCG Regionals this Pro Tour weekend, and I had good reason not to. Usually we don’t know how much the format has warped until top 8 decklists are posted on Saturday night, but with Sydney being on the other side of the globe, decklists were available before the event even began. All I had put together was Bant Company and G/W Tokens. So I would either play the mirror all day and lose to Emrakul or beat Bant all day and still lose to Emrakul.

While I have put up results with Bant before, I’d much rather be on a black deck right now. The only other big Standard event I have within the next month is the RPTQ, and after the results of the SCG Open in Syracuse I’ll lock in a choice. But, it’s probably just Bant Company regardless.

Until next time, watch out for flying spaghetti monsters.

Tom Koson is an up-and-coming grinder from Missouri who has been playing Magic since Return to Ravnica. He has made a name for himself with notable finishes such as making Top 8 of WMCQs and RPTQs, and he won SCG Standard and Modern States on back-to-back days earlier this year. He prefers tempo and combo decks, but enjoys playing many different archetypes.

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Tom Koson