Deck Price Tag: Grixis Control (Standard)
May 16, 2010
As a new feature, I’ll be figuring out the price tags of winning decks. I’m curious to see which decks are good bargains and which ones are super expensive. Hopefully, this feature will help you as you choose a deck to play and buy and trade MTG cards.
The first deck is Grixis Control. I used today’s eBay prices from Black Lotus Project. Updated on 6/9/10: We have a new program that calculates the deck price tags using the latest eBay price guides from MagicTraders.com. This means the deck price tags change everyday to reflect the latest card prices. Learn more about our program.
Grixis Control Deck (1st Place and 7th Place Finish)
May 16, 2010
If you’re looking for a strong Standard deck that’s under the radar, you might want to consider Grixis Control. This deck has a 1st place PTQ finish.
The decklist I’ll be examining has done well in two premier tournaments on MTGO (Magic Online). The player with the user name Money got 1st place on May 11 and 7th place on May 13. He used the same deck in each tournament.
Here is his list.
Mythic Conscription With 4 Dauntless Escort
May 13, 2010
I think one of the best decks in Standard is Mythic Bant with Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Eldrazi Conscription, and Dauntless Escort. Sovereigns and Conscription gives you a game winning combo at six mana that can’t be chump blocked like Finest Hour and Rafiq of the Many. For six mana, you get a 4/5 creature and give another creature +10/+10 and trample. That’s a really good deal. Plus, Sovereigns can’t be killed by Lightning Bolt like Rafiq.
Some people are still playing Rhox War Monk but Dauntless Escort is much better unless you have a lot of Red aggro decks in your metagame. Dauntless Escort stops Day of Judgment, which is good against the deck and is widely played in the white control decks like UW and UWR. Plus, Escort protects the most important creature on the battlefield. This creature could be the one enchanted with Conscription, Sovereigns, Baneslayer Angel, or Knight Of The Reliquary. Oftentimes protecting a key creature is enough to win the game. For example, it’s hard to lose versus Jund if you keep Baneslayer alive. If you haven’t tried out Escort in the main deck, you should. He single-handedly makes Mythic Bant much better.
This deck is doing well with two PTQ wins already. Here is a list that got 1st place last weekend. That deck is very similar to Matt Sperling’s 1st place deck from two weekends ago. Matt saw a successful list from German Regionals with the Sovereigns + Conscription combo. He added the Escort tech.
Below is Matt’s winning deck.
Jund Decklist for Worldwake Standard
April 18, 2010
Jamz left a comment and wanted to know what an ideal Jund deck looks like. The best Jund deck for you will depend on your metagame but I’ll share my list so you have a starting point to work with. I’ve been doing well with this list going 11-4 in matches. I mostly play on Magic-League.com where the meta is pretty diverse but there are still some popular decks. The popular decks seem to be Jund, UW Control, and Red Deck Wins.
I haven’t incorporated any Rise of the Eldrazi cards but in my opinion, Jund will not change much because of the new set. There are not really any additions from Rise of the Eldrazi that will make Jund much better whereas the manlands from Worldwake fixed a lot of Jund’s weaknesses. I know some people really like Vengevine and its a good addition but is it really that much better than Garruk or Master of the Wild Hunt?
It takes awhile for players to choose the best cards from a new set, so my Jund list should still be strong for the next few weeks.
Blue/Green Polymorph Decklist
April 15, 2010
Three weekends ago, an interesting Polymorph deck got 9th place in a big StarCityGames.com Standard tournament with over 400 players. The deck was piloted by Isaiah Ley and he went 8-2 in the swiss rounds.
I had seen Polymorph decks before but they looked pretty bad. They didn’t do very well in tournaments and they were easy to beat. Those decks paired blue with red. But it looks like green/blue is the way to go.
Here’s the decklist.
Naya Allies Deck (1st Place Out of 60 Players)
March 30, 2010
I know I just wrote about allies in my last post, but I think I found a better ally decklist. Last week, on March 23, a Naya Allies deck won a Magic Online Standard Premier Event. The event was six rounds. The deck went 5-1 in the swiss and then swept the top eight. In the elimination rounds, it beat a Red Deck Wins, UW Ramp Control, and Jund to take home the top prize. Not bad for a rogue deck, taking out three top archetypes in a row.
Another player took the same exact list and got 5th place yesterday in a 57 person tournament. This player also went 5-1 in the swiss rounds.
Based on these results, this deck seems pretty good.
GWB Allies Decklist
March 22, 2010
When Worldwake was released, I wondered if allies could be a viable contender in Standard. I’m a big fan of rogue decks and Worldwake had new allies that seemed powerful enough to make the archetype good.
For example, Hada Freeblade is an aggressive one-drop that gives the deck explosive starts. Harabaz Druid provides mana acceleration and fixing. Acceleration allows you to play multiple two-drops or a four-drop on turn three and fixing helps a lot if you want to play more than two colors.
I searched through the MTGO tournament results and I was happy to find a couple ally decks doing well.
Here is one of them, a green/white/black decklist, that features Bala Gad Thief. This list went 3-1 in a Standard Daily on March 16.
MTG Koros Deck for Worldwake Standard
March 11, 2010
Gerry Thompson is on a roll building new winning decks. He broke the Extended format with Thopter Depths and now he has a sweet new list for Standard.
Dubbed “Koros” by the ggslive viewers, his Boros Bushwhacker update with Kor creatures, Stoneforge Mystic, and equipment took him to a top 8 finish at a 5k tournament with over 230 players.
Gerry wrote about the deck and his tournament experience here. Here is the decklist.
Winning With Chapin’s UW Jace Control
February 25, 2010
I didn’t buy the hype with Jace, the Mind Sculptor when he was first spoiled. Don’t get me wrong, I knew he would be a Standard Constructed staple. He is powerful, but I didn’t think he would be insane.
Well, I was wrong. I’ve been playtesting Pat Chapin’s UW Jace Control deck from last weekend’s Pro Tour and Jace has been a monster. Chapin built the following decklist that makes Jace insane.
PT San Diego Deck Tech: Boss Naya Zoo (0 Baneslayers!)
February 20, 2010
In the following video, Tom Ross talks about Boss Naya Zoo, his new Standard deck that incorporates a couple Worldwake cards. He played it at Pro Tour San Diego along with Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (PV) and Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV).
You know the deck has to be very good when LSV plays it at a Pro Tour instead of a Jace, the Mind Sculptor deck. LSV likes playing blue control and Jace is the best control card since Cryptic Command. It might even be better than the Lorwyn rare.
Boss Naya Zoo bears a passing resemblance to Naya Lightsaber. However, it has 0 Baneslayer Angels. Instead, it plays a Stoneforge Mystic package of Basilisk Collar and Behemoth Sledge.
Also, it runs Knight of the Reliquary instead of Woolly Thoctar. The Knight is much better since it can fetch the new Worldwake lands: Raging Ravine, Tectonic Edge, and Sejiri Steppe.
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