In my quest to qualify at the upcoming regional PTQ, today I will be taking a look at the decks that did well at the Pro Tour and analyzing the metagame shift that will likely happen as a result. The Top 8 decks were all decks you might imagine would make an appearance.

No one could have predicted that three U/B Control decks would have made it into the Top 8 but the fact that the rest was two green devotion decks, Abzan Control, G/R Dragons, and an almost Mono-Red Aggro was not surprising at all. I’ve seen a lot of writers discussing how surprising the return of U/B Control was, but honestly that should have been expected and in higher numbers than any other event because pros love their control decks.

While there was some innovation to these Top 8 decks, they were mostly the same as decks that have been doing well recently. Certainly taking note of the exact configuration of removal spells being played by the control decks is important, but U/B Control is still U/B Control. They might have an Aetherspouts and a couple Silence the Believers to play around, but overall, the deck is going to play the same basic way that it has been playing for a while now.

You will need to make sure you can beat this deck because players will rally behind this deck just like they did the last time it did well. The same goes for the green devotion decks. They may be ramping to Dragonlord Atarka instead of Hornet Queen, but the two cards function similarly. None of the Top 8 decks showcase new or innovative strategies, but they are all tweaked solid decks.

Of the Top 8 decks, I will be focusing on none of them today. That’s right, the Top 8 decks are important, but it’s the ones that did well that didn’t receive all the press that I’ll be discussing today. There are four decks that stood out to me from the 24-27 point Standard decks. These decks were the ones that overperformed in the Standard portion. Being able to achieve a 9-1 or 8-2 record at the Pro Tour is no easy feat, but all of the decks I’ll discuss managed to accomplish that goal.

First up, we have one of the most fun looking decks from the event, Green Devotion Aggro! This deck features so many unconventional heroes that it’s compelling to bring this to battle. My experience with green devotion of any type has not been positive but how can you resist playing Avatar of the Resolute in a deck where he can actually get the extra counters?

There is a lot of synergy going on in this deck and it mostly relies on having green symbols in play. This deck features some of the same great lines of play as Abzan Aggro and these potent aggressive starts can be tough for any deck to overcome. Instead of pairing these aggressive creatures with black removal spells though, we are looking to just end the game as quickly as possible. Aspect of Hydra can provide some blowout wins because it’s cheap and unexpected.

Removal spells are particularly good against this deck and in a format filled with good removal, I’m not sure how confidant I would be to bring this to an important event like the Pro Tour. Hall of Famer Bram Snapvangers certainly did well with the deck though. If this fits your play style, it is a honed weapon ready to strike down any foe.

Thinking about updates to the deck going forward, there are a few ways that the deck can utilize its mana in the midgame but I might want a couple more. Somewhere in the 75, I would probably want some copies of Whisperwood Elemental. That card can get out of hand rather quickly and often if one manifest token is made, the game is nearly won. I would probably add in a couple copies of the card even before I tested the deck, but sometimes it’s better to test the successful deck before making adjustments to it.

Overall, the deck seems like tons of fun and is certainly capable of winning out of nowhere. Surprise victories are always great and hard for your opponent to play around. If this deck is for you, figure out how to sideboard with the deck because that’s one of the hardest parts.

Next up is G/R Dragons! Well, almost. Just like many other decks in Standard, this one also features the great green cards available in the format. We all know how solid Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, and Courser of Kruphix are, and they are still good in this shell.

Besides sharing half the deck in common with G/R Dragons, the other half is spicier than most can handle. How many aggro decks are prepared to fight against an army of hornet tokens? Based on his results, I’d say not many. This deck is basically a build your own mini-Hornet Queen strategy. Once you have your Hornet Nest in play, call your swarm by casting Roast, Setessan Tactics, Chandra, Pyromaster, or even Dragonlord Atarka. Any of these ways to deal damage will generate you a pile of hornet tokens to use as you see fit.

The problem with this strategy is that control decks tend to have a good matchup against midrange decks like this. It’s not as bad as it could be because assembling a board state of Hornet Nest plus Chandra, Pyromaster will force your opponent to use an actual removal spell on one or both of your permanents. Getting a control deck to kill your Hornet Nest is like winning the lottery. Not only does it feel good to force your opponent to spend a card on your zero-power creature, but these lines often lead to your victory.

One of the best aspects of this deck is that it utilizes one of the most powerful yet underplayed cards in Standard: Chord of Calling. The creatures in Standard are so powerful it often seems as if you don’t have time to cast a tutor spell like Chord, but it is perfect for this deck.

R/G Bees is a midrange combo deck. The difference between this deck and other combo decks though is that all of the combo pieces are solid spells on their own. We don’t have to play any Briber's Purses in this deck. We get to play Roast as a solid removal spell and sometimes combo piece.

Originally created by Caleb Durward over at Channelfireball, this deck fills a unique role in the metagame of being well positioned against every deck. My main concern would be beating decks with black removal, because they are going to trump your ability to make deathtouch tokens, and strict control decks because there are a lot of your draws that don’t match up with how many removal spells they have. I think this deck is great and I want to test it out. If you have played this deck before, tell me about your experience with it in the comments.

Now this is a control deck you need to learn to play against. While it does share many cards in common with the other successful decks, it also attacks you from different angles thanks to some help from your friendly neighborhood dragonlords. Playing against either of the two dragons once they’re in play is a nightmare for most decks. You can’t attack through them and you usually can’t kill them. So you’re left trying to overextend and end up getting blown out by their wrath effect.

This deck has solid counters and removal spells as well as hard-to-deal-with threats to back them up. Still, red aggro and Abzan Aggro can be tough for this type of a deck to beat depending on each deck’s draws. I would be concerned about the ability to win control mirrors with this deck and I’m surprised that the deck didn’t feature something like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver to shore up these matchups.

Last up on the list is the deck I am the most excited about. I’ve had a lot of success with Abzan Aggro and Brad and his team showed why the deck is still the real deal. I spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks working on a green-white centered version of the deck, but what I found was that the black removal was essential to your success. You need cards like Bile Blight and Hero’s Downfall in order to find victory over a number of current strategies. Hornet Queen in particular was terrifying when I faced it repeatedly without my black cards backing me up.

In this version, Brad supported a belief that I’ve had for a while now: don’t play Thoughtseize. He did squeeze a couple copies into his sideboard, but there are zero copies main deck. This is a concept I have been championing since I started playing the deck a couple months ago.

In theory Thoughtseize is amazing and should be an automatic inclusion, but in practice, the cards in players’ decks are too replaceable. You could look at someone’s hand and they have multiples of the same type of effect. This is quite common which makes Thoughtseize underperform.

What I learned from my G/W Abzan deck was that Surrak, the Hunt Caller was pretty amazing. It was one of the only things I liked about the deck. Brad uses Surrak in the exact way I wanted to test out, as his five-drop. If you notice, Surrak took the place of Wingmate Roc in the main deck. That not only lowers the curve a bit but also adds a whole new dimension to the deck.

Players still don’t know that Surrak can trigger other creatures you control. There were plenty of times where I cast Surrak and then gave another creature haste. One example was when the board was clogged up, I made a 2/2 flyer with Sorin, Solemn Visitor and gave it haste. Even if that situation never comes up, you can always follow up your next turn by giving haste to your follow up creature. Just having Surrak in play adds a ton of pressure to your opponent to remove it otherwise they’ll be facing a hasty threat every turn.

The only aspect of the deck I don’t like is his sideboard. The way he is set up to deal with the other decks in the format doesn’t seem optimal to me and I will probably work to see if I can find a better combination.

This version of Abzan Aggro is sleek, consistent and with its 26 lands will never miss a land drop. I’m excited to use this to springboard my testing.

Top Sellers

One of my strengths as a writer is that I am the co-owner of a shop. This gives me real time data to work with and I want to pass it along to you, my readers. In this section, I’ll be highlighting the top selling cards, cards that I am buying at a higher percentage than normal, as well as cards I’ve identified that might increase in price based on the demand I’m noticing. Today, I have a couple of cards from Dragons of Tarkir to talk about.

[cardimage cardname='Thunderbreak Regent']

This efficient dragon was one of my top ten best cards in the set and it sure has been selling that way. This is the only card I’ve been consistently out of stock on. I offer crazy high buylist numbers on this card as well, but it’s so strong that players don’t want to unload them. We all know that this card is seeing tons of play and I could definitely see this card climbing to $15 in the near future. My difficulty keeping this in stock tends to mean a price bump is coming soon. This is a great card to trade into because it’s price isn’t going to drop.

Dragonlords

Hopefully you preemptively were stocking up on all the Dragonlords because they are great stock. Not only are these from one of the most popular creature type, they are also actually Constructed playable, and to top it off they can all be used as commanders! How much better an investment are you looking for?

I doubt you want to get in on Dragonlord Atarka or Dragonlord Ojutai because they are likely at their ceiling. Dragonlord Silumgar is questionable but is also likely at his ceiling. The other two, Dragonlord Dromoka and Dragonlord Kolaghan, are great investments though, because if this cycle ends up playing out similar to the titan cycle, we should see each Dragonlord have their time in the spotlight.

No matter what, these will always trade and sell very well. We are going through a lot of copies at the shop and I expect that to be the case for most of the time they are Standard-playable.

Until next time,
Unleash the Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com