Decks of the Week - 8/9/16

Now that we’ve swapped to this 2-week format for Decks of the Week, I get to talk about a whole bunch more decks every week. Cheers!






Standard

1. WB Control by Lukas Blohon – 1st Place Pro Tour Eldritch Moon
This is a more of a grinded from the WB Angels deck that got some early play in this Standard season. Pretty basic WB Control deck. Piles of removal ([mtg_card]Anguished Unmaking[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Grasp of Darkness[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Ruinous Path[/mtg_card], and [mtg_card]Ultimate Price[/mtg_card]) that plans to ride planeswalkers ([mtg_card]Liliana, the Last Hope[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Ob Nixilis Reignited[/mtg_card], and [mtg_card]Sorin, Grim Nemesis[/mtg_card]) or a bomb ([mtg_card]Archangel Avacyn[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet[/mtg_card]) to victory.

2. WG Tokens by Osyp Lebedowicz – 1st Place SCG Open Baltimore
I don’t have anything to add here. This is pretty much no change between this deck and the WG Tokens decks before the new set. But it won an SCG Open, so it must be good.

3. Temur Emerge by Owen Turtenwald – 2nd Place Pro Tour Eldritch Moon
This Delirium based deck relies on flipping the board on resolving an [mtg_card]Elder Deep-Fiend[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Emrakul, the Promised End[/mtg_card], or [mtg_card]Wretched Gryff[/mtg_card]. With that the deck is likely to trigger [mtg_card]Kozilek’s Return[/mtg_card] from the graveyard with all the self mill effects like [mtg_card]Gather the Pack[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Grapple with the Past[/mtg_card], and [mtg_card]Vessel of Nascency[/mtg_card]. Keeps the board clean and you in charge.

4. Grixis Crush by Sami Karluoma – 1st Place SCG IQ Burnsville
First obvious note, this is UB Crush base and not the currently popular UG Crush. This deck smashes a [mtg_card]Demonic Pact[/mtg_card]/[mtg_card]Harmless Offering[/mtg_card] package into a [mtg_card]Crush of Tentacles[/mtg_card] deck. It supports with a giant pile of black removal and blue counter magic. Seems like a fun deck to play, and more importantly it was good enough to take an IQ so kudos to Sami.

5. Mono-Red Midrange by Mark Vicars – 3rd Place SCG IQ Kingsport
So this deck plans to smash your face with big red cards and a few eldrazi and dragons. What intrigues me in this deck is the introduction of new cards that haven’t seen much play such as [mtg_card]Mirrorwing Dragon[/mtg_card], [mtg_card]Collective Defiance[/mtg_card], and the [mtg_card]Hanweir Garrison[/mtg_card]/[mtg_card]Hanweir Battlements[/mtg_card] combo. There is quite a bit to digest with this deck. It also runs a full set of [mtg_card]Reality Smasher[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Sin Prodder[/mtg_card]. Both make sense as Reality Smasher is a big fatty that can hit face and be a general pain in the ass. Sin Prodder give the deck more evasion and range. It’s good in the deck with contains a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 drops. Might have to do testing on this deck.




Modern

1. Dredge by Nathaniel Snyder – 1st Place SCG Super IQ Columbus
I’m not going to say too much about this deck. Enough ink has been spilled about Dredge and more soon will. This deck won 3 separate SCG IQ events over the past 2 weeks. Unless something changes, this deck is going to explode. Watch out for [mtg_card]Bloodghast[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Golgari Grave-Troll[/mtg_card]. They may be primed for massive price jumps.

2. WR Control by Christopher Scheuermann – 2nd Place SCG IQ Winston-Salem
This is another one of those smash two decks together to see if it works. This one combines Jeskai Kiki-based control decks with the Jeskai Nahiri-based control decks. To fit both in the deck cuts out most of the blue counter magic spells for more aggressive removal like [mtg_card]Lightning Helix[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Anger of the Gods[/mtg_card]. Best of all, it gets to fit 3x [mtg_card]Blood Moon[/mtg_card] in the main deck. The most disruptive and game winning card in the format without taking much damage to it as a normal Jeskai deck take, since it cut out the blue cards. May have to do some testing on this deck.

3. Jeskai Aggro by Carlos Lloreda – 1st Place PPTQ Ludorama
This deck looks fun. It’s a Jeskai Delver deck that decided to leave the [mtg_card]Delver of Secrets[/mtg_card] at home. Instead of play the more tempo oriented Delver of Secrets, it plays the more aggressive [mtg_card]Stormchaser Mage[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Mantis Rider[/mtg_card]. Add in [mtg_card]Monastery Swiftspear[/mtg_card] and you notice a theme to these creatures in that they all have Haste. This is probably my favorite deck to showcase this week. The deck becomes much faster than typical Delver decks. The biggest question mark is Mantis Rider. Playing a 3 toughness creatures in a format where the most played card is [mtg_card]Lightning Bolt[/mtg_card] seems very risky. Not sure how much better it is over Delver of Secrets.

4. BR Midrange by Justin Couch – 3rd Place SCG IQ Athens
This is an ancient deck from the way back when machine. The primary path to winning is to get a whole bunch of [mtg_card]Demigod of Revenge[/mtg_card]s into play and quickly nail a killing blow off it. The problem with this strategy is that it’s slow, and needs help to setup the combo and not die until you do. So, the deck carries a bunch of low cost removal and discard to help fill the yard with instant and sorceries early. Then after it stabilizes it can work to get a bunch of Demigod of Revenges into the graveyard with [mtg_card]Bedlam Reveler[/mtg_card] or [mtg_card]Faithless Looting[/mtg_card]. Another deck that I would need to do some testing with.

5. Mono-White Human Soldiers by Bobby Kelly – 2nd Place SCG IQ Terre Haute
There was talk awhile back if [mtg_card]Thalia’s Lieutenant[/mtg_card] would have an impact in Modern. How does 2nd Place in an IQ sound? The deck takes all the fun humans and soldiers in Modern and smashes 30 of them into a deck. The deck fills nicely with 22 lands (feels like too much) and utility of [mtg_card]Honor of the Pure[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Path to Exile[/mtg_card]. I do think this deck even has room for improvement. [mtg_card]Field Marshal[/mtg_card] is a good find, but there might be better or might be more useful in a deck that plays [mtg_card]Lightning Bolt[/mtg_card]. Also, [mtg_card]Cavern of Souls[/mtg_card] may prove useful. I image Thalia’s Lieutenant and Honor of the Pure are huge targets for [mtg_card]Spell Snare[/mtg_card]. That all said, this deck is swinging for around 10-14 damage on T3, which will win many games.

Legacy
1. Grixis Delver by Ben Friedman – 1st Place SCG Classic Baltimore

2. Enchantress by Thomas Parker – 4th Place SCG IQ Columbia
A rare Enchantress sighting in the Legacy lists this week. Nothing to fancy here. Basic win condition with the [mtg_card]Helm of Obedience[/mtg_card]/[mtg_card]Rest in Peace[/mtg_card] combo.

3. Natural Order by Richard Shade – 2nd Place SCG IQ Springfield
Resolve [mtg_card]Natural Order[/mtg_card]. Get [mtg_card]Progenitus[/mtg_card]. Win the game.

4. Colorless Eldrazi by Bradley Vass – 1st Place SCG IQ Springfield

5. Esper Deathblade by Michael Sol – 7th Place SCG Classic Baltimore

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