Bant Hexproof Deck with Unflinching Courage
May 17, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Bant Hexproof, or Bant Auras, is a great example of The 13% Rule of Deck Building. It got two powerful cards from Dragon’s Maze, Unflinching Courage and Voice of Resurgence, and it’s done well in the first couple of high-profile tournaments of the new Standard season.
There have been three high profile tournaments so far and the deck has finished seven times in the top 16 including a top 4 finish in each tournament. Bant Hexproof was easily the best performing deck out of the ones that didn’t see much play in Gatecrash Standard.
Green/White Populate Deck with Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
May 15, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Ever since Return to Ravnica became legal for Standard, it’s been unfortunate that two of the best token cards, Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue, do not play that well with the Selesnya populate mechanic.
Casting Rootborn Defenses to get a 1/1 flyer is okay but it’s not that powerful. I’d much rather populate a 3/3 Centaur or Beast token. However, Intangible Virtue is better with the multiple Spirit tokens from Lingering Souls than the one 3/3 you get from Call of the Conclave.
Bant Flash Deck with 4 Advent of the Wurm
May 13, 2013 | Posted by Dee
One of the interesting developments in these early days of Dragon’s Maze Standard is the emergence of Bant Flash and the disappearance of Blue/White/Red (U/W/R) Flash.
It seems like Flash players are moving to the version with green instead of red. Two weekends ago at the first big tournament of Dragon’s Maze, there was a Bant Flash deck in the top 16 and a U/W/R Flash deck in the top 25.
But this past weekend, U/W/R Flash didn’t show up at all in the top 16 of the two high-profile Standard tournaments, the Starcitygames Open in Charlotte and TCG Player’s 5K in Austin.
Metagame Analysis of the First Big Tournament with Dragon’s Maze
May 7, 2013 | Posted by Dee
The first high-profile Standard tournament with Dragon’s Maze, the Starcitygames Open in Somerset, happened this past weekend so we can get a good look of what the new metagame looks like.
Here’s a link to the top 25 decklists. Note that the 15th place deck was incorrectly labeled. It should be Dark Naya instead of Jund.
Based on those 25 decks, the metagame looks pretty diverse. I created a table and pie chart to make the metagame more clear.
Black/Green Control Deck with 4 Desecration Demon
May 4, 2013 | Posted by Dee
One of the surprise decks from Gatecrash Standard on Magic Online is Black/Green (B/G) Control. In the past seven days, it was one of the top 10 performing decks.
I did some digging on the card choices to see why the deck did well. It turns out cards like Desecration Demon, Mutilate, and Liliana of the Veil are pretty good against the metagame.
By splashing green, you gain access to Thragtusk, one of the best cards in the format, and you can play Abrupt Decay, a solid creature removal spell that also hits Detention Sphere and opposing Lilianas.
Jund Aggro Deck with 4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
May 3, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Varolz, the Scar-Striped is one of the most interesting cards in Dragon’s Maze because he has such a unique ability. His scavenge ability adds value to every creature that hits your graveyard.
In a creature-heavy deck, if he’s left unchecked, he can dominate the board by buffing your creatures with the ones that have died. By playing creatures with high power relative to their casting cost, you can make sure that Varolz’s ability adds many +1/+1 counters to your creatures at low cost.
Plus, Varolz can protect himself with regeneration so he’s very resilient compared to most other creatures.
Junk Tokens Deck with 4 Voice of Resurgence
May 2, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Two weekends ago at the Starcitygames Standard Open in Seattle, Eric Thompson got fifth place with a Junk, or Green/White/Black (GWB), Tokens deck.
It was cool to see the deck do well in the last Standard Open of Gatecrash Standard because the deck was basically non-existent throughout the season.
With the addition of Voice of Resurgence, Putrefy, and Sin Collector in Dragon’s Maze, Junk Tokens has a good chance of being a force in the new Standard environment.
Jund Aggro Deck with 4 Gyre Sage and 4 Bonfire of the Damned
April 27, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Last weekend, Cedric Phillips got third place at the Starcitygames Standard Open in Seattle with a Jund Aggro deck featuring 4 Gyre Sage and 4 Bonfire of the Damned.
The deck looks really solid. After the tournament, it took off on Magic Online and became a top ten deck.
You may be wondering why I’m talking about a deck with zero cards from Dragon’s Maze. Well, I actually don’t think the Standard metagame will change too much with the new card set. Therefore, this deck should still be pretty good post-Dragon’s Maze.
Bant Delver Deck with 4 Advent of the Wurm
April 26, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Dragon’s Maze was fully spoiled earlier this week so I’ve been doing a lot of Standard playtesting to see how the new cards perform.
So far, a Bant Delver aggro deck with 4 Advent of the Wurm has had the best results. Advent of the Wurm gave the deck a huge finisher that interacts well with Delver of Secrets, Rootborn Defenses, Cloudfin Raptor, and Snapcaster Mage.
Also, the instant card fits the mana curve pretty well so it has been a great addition.
Top 10 Standard Cards in Dragon’s Maze
April 23, 2013 | Posted by Dee
Well, it’s that time again. Wizards released the full spoiler of Dragon’s Maze yesterday so I looked at every card in the set and tried to figure out the best ones.
After some deliberation and reviewing the Gatecrash Standard metagame, here are my picks for the best cards in Dragon’s Maze for upcoming Standard.
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Recent Posts
- Bant Hexproof Deck with Unflinching Courage
- Green/White Populate Deck with Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
- Bant Flash Deck with 4 Advent of the Wurm
- Metagame Analysis of the First Big Tournament with Dragon’s Maze
- Black/Green Control Deck with 4 Desecration Demon
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