Fresh Standard Results, and Where to Go From Here

Matt Morash
May 01, 2018
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Every time a new expansion drops every competitive Standard player gets to try their hands at solving the meta. Based on different mechanics being introduced in these expansions and certain blocks rotating out, the standard metagame could either remain pretty similar or evolve, allowing many new deck choices to become viable. One of the first meta defining events in the Magic community in an expansion’s release is the first Magic Online Standard PTQ.

When Hour of Devastation was released many debated what the best deck would be but, Zac Elsik had a sweet brew ready to show off at the new PTQ. The infamous engineer of Modern’s Lantern Control, Elsik was forced to reveal his Blue White God-Pharaoh’s Gift list when he won the first Magic Online PTQ of that season. Losing only to a deck from the previous meta, Red Green Pummeler, Zac Elsik set the competitive Standard community’s sights and hearts on God-Pharaoh’s Gift.

While there weren’t any crazy new strategies to invest in with this PTQ, there are few cards that were lacking presence in the standard meta that have allowed to stand out over the weekend and those are Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, and Heart of Kiran. All of these cards are pretty powerful but didn’t quite have homes before but now, in their respective decks, are meta defining in the first days of Dominaria standard.

You ever play legacy Elves? Playing Gaea’s Cradles feels like cheating. And now with the help of some saprolings and servos, I can play with one of my favorite legacy toys in standard.

GW TokensGerschi15th Angel of Invention Llanowar Elves Lyra Dawnbringer Merfolk Branchwalker Rishkar, Peema Renegade Shalai, Voice of Plenty Thrashing Brontodon Walking Ballista Scattered Groves Shefet Dunes Sunpetal Grove Tranquil Expanse Plains Forrest Saproling Migration Sram's Expertise Cast Out Growing Rites of Itlimoc Lyra Dawnbringer Thrashing Brontodon Ajani Unyielding Authority of the Consuls Heroic Intervention Ixalan's Binding Karn, Scion of Urza Nissa, Vital Force Settle the Wreckage Thopter Arrest

Magic Online player Gerschi placed 15th with a Green White tokens list featuring a playset of Llanowar Elves and Growing Rites of Itlimoc. Using Saproling Migration, a new and kickable Servo Exhibition in green, this tokens list can flip the legendary enchantment as early as turn three. This allows an earlier Shalai, Voice of Plenty or Angel of Invention than other token decks are putting up, giving you a snowballing lead.

 

 

While finding a previous home in Red Green Dinosaurs as two or one of, Ghalta, Primal Hunger was certainly threatening but never meta defining. However alongside mana accelerants like Llanowar Elves and the new cheap and aggressive Steel Leaf Champion, Ghalta is now the all star of a new mono green stompy list. Magic Online player Nayaoka took one interesting take on green stompy to 9th in the online PTQ.

Green Black StompyNayaoka9th Ghalta, Primal Hunger Greenbelt Rampager Llanowar Elves Rhonas the Indomitable Scrapheap Scrounger Steel Leaf Champion Woodland Cemetery Blooming Marsh Hashep Oasis Forest Rhonas's Last Stand Blossoming Defense Aethersphere Harvester Heart of Kiran Karn, Scion of Urza Aethersphere Harvester Crushing Canopy Deathgorge Scavenger Hour of Glory Nature's Way Thrashing Brontodon Vraska, Relic Seeker Walking Ballista

Nayaoka’s list looks to cheat out a hungry 12/12 with creatures like Steel Leaf Champion and Rhonas the Indomitable as well as vehicles like Heart of Kiran and Aethersphere harvester. Nayaoka even capitalizes on the Innistrad check lands reprint, allowing him to freely splash for a few sideboard options as well as Scrapheap Scrounger, Heart of Kiran’s now-second best friend.


Who’s Heart of Kiran’s best friend now that Domaria has dropped? None other than Karn, Scion of Urza. Four mana Karn is a draw engine and a threat if left unanswered. After a minus two, Karn is still left with more than half of its loyalty left which allows you to activate Heart of Kiran on your turn and on your opponents. While it was quite innovative for Nayaoka to include this perfect pairing, (name a better couple, I’ll wait.) the best home for this synergy is in an artifact list that hasn’t been too popular since Gideon, Ally of Zendikar rotated out.

Mardu VehiclesAnssi A 28th Bomat Courier Pia Nalaar Scrapheap Scrounger Toolcraft Exemplar Walking Ballista Aether Hub Canyon Slough Clifftop Retreat Concealed Courtyard Inspiring Vantage Mountain Plains Swamp Spire of Industry Abrade Unlicensed Disintegration Heart of Kiran History of Benalia Karn, Scion of Urza Abrade Aethersphere Harvester Cast Out Chandra, Torch of Defiance Doomfall Duress Fragmentize Fungal Infection Magma Spray Scavenger Grounds

Placing 28th in the standard PTQ, Magic Online user Anssi A took a mardu vehicles list into the top 32. Featuring playsets of Heart of Kiran, Karn, Scion of Urza, and Toolcraft Exemplar, this aggressive artifact list is complemented with good removal options in Abrade, Unlicensed Disintegration, as well as pseudo-removal in Walking Ballista. While I’m not sure if it’s correct to run a full playset of Karns as they could clutter your hand and lists almost never ran the full four Gideons, the card advantage from its one and zero is something a deck like Mardu Vehicles could gain a lot from.

This very synergistic deck not only decided to capitalize off the Heart of Kiran and Karn, Scion of Urza combo but also touched upon another idea I had about this new standard meta, History of Benalia is a good Magic: The Gathering card.

Like a frat boy flexing his biceps in this long-awaited warm weather, Annsi A proudly crammed a playset of this new mythic saga into this artifact heavy list. Does the playset belong there? If the sun's out, If History of Benalia is standard legal, Guns out. The inclusion into this vehicles list is a testament to the saga’s power level by itself. With no other synergy with their deck, this player decided History of Benalia played off itself so well, it was worth building their manabase to support double white on turn three.

 

With all of these lessons from the Standard PTQ decklists, I wanted to build an original list that would do well against my analysis of the meta and it looks like the best things you can be doing in standard is removing Llanowar Elves off the battlefields, delaying Ghaltas coming down and Growing Rites flipping, and winning outside of combat. After some inspiration from MTGGoldfish’s combo deck based around Mox Amber, Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle, Yaheni, Undying Partisan and Aviary Mechanic, I decided to slim down the number of combo pieces and slot it into a white Black control list. Here’s what I came up with and a brief summary of the choices I made.

 

Black White ComboMatt Morash Yahenni, Undying Partisan Kambal, Consul of Allocation Weaponcraft Enthusiast Marionette Master Aviary Mechanic Walking Ballista Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle Plains Swamp Field of Ruin Concealed Courtyard Shefet Dunes Isolated Chapel Seal Away Fatal Push Hidden Stockpile Settle the Wreckage Mox Amber Primevals' Glorious Rebirth Phyrexian Scriptures Dark Bargain Cast Down Fragmentize Duress Moment of Craving History of Benalia Divest

 

Combo Package

Having the ability to eventually Infinitely make mana with some tools I’m already using to control the board with felt like a really powerful game strategy. As long as I am able to keep a Teshar on the board, I can regularly recur smaller threats like Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Kambal sometimes for free by playing Walking Ballista on zero.

 

Removal

I chose a lot of instant speed removal because I thought it paired really well with Hidden Stockpile. With access to White and Black, the best removal spells included Fatal Push, Seal Away and Cast Down. I polished off the list with a couple of copies of Settle the Wreckage and Phyrexian Scriptures for sweepers. While unconvinced of its standard powerlevel, I thought phyrexian scriptures complimented my gameplan as I just wanted Teshar on the field as long as possible and before I’m ready to combo, I can use an early-drawn Aviary Mechanic to bounce the saga back to my hand for further uses.

 

Card Advantage

 

In this list my sources for card advantage include Hidden Stockpile, Dark Bargain and a one of Final Parting. Based on the time I can buy with Servo tokens off Hidden Stockpile and how I can force my opponents into over extending into Settle the wreckage; I figured I didn't need too much card advantage after those scenarios. I was looking into Dark Bargain as an instant speed draw three because a lot of my combo pieces can just be discarded into the grave for Teshar to recur. When I found Final Parting, I thought a tutor for two cards for five mana wasn’t a bad deal and could certainly lead me well into a Primeval’s Glorious Rebirth resulting in my combo pieces returning to the battlefield allowing me to combo off.

 

Win Conditions

As an alternative win condition to my infinite combo set up through Primeval’s Glorious Rebirth, I also included two Marionette Masters as they pair well with Hidden Stockpile as well as the ability to chain two Ballistas for free off Teshar for two triggers from the Master.

 

Sideboard

 

Divest/Duress

One of the best reasons to play black is to have dominion over a player's hand. This was improved with the printing of Divest which allows you to pick the biggest unstoppable artifacts out of players hand as early as turn one. Similar to Divest, Duress allows me to attack a control player’s hand to clear the air for my combo

 

Fragmentize

Fragmentize allows you attack smaller problematic artifacts including Gate to the Afterlife and Heart of Kiran, two boogeymen in the format. As I’ve explained previously, Heart of Kiran is easier to crew than ever with Karn, Scion of Urza everywhere and, The God-Pharaoh’s Gift list has only gotten scarier and more explosive with the addition of Skirk Prospector.

 

Moment of Craving

A way to get around Dauntless Bodyguard keeping small important threats alive, Moment of Craving is an important answer to many threats in standard and Champion of Wit’s worst nightmare.

 

History of Benalia

Now we’ve got a spicy sideboard! I was thinking some control matchups where I would have to win faster like Blue White Approach would require me to speed my clock up a bit and I figured the best most resilient way to do so would be with the grand slam of a saga, History of Benalia. Allowing me to play both defense and offense, the saga will give me a degree of flexibility around midrange and up decks without relying on my combo for the victory

 

Overall this deck seems very promising to start navigating this format with. Now that we know as a community what we need to answer in the meta, new control decks can start reshaping this rather unsolved meta.

 

Thank you for reading my second article here on Flipside Gaming! As always I’d love to hear your thoughts both on this new meta as well as the list I’ve drawn up. Do you think Phyrexian Scriptures is garbage? Am I overhyping History of Benalia? Are you mad that a Mono Red Gift deck playing Rowdy Crew placed in the top 32 and I didn’t talk about it? Let me know in the comments below!