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By: MarcosPMA, nn
Feb 11 2013 1:50pm
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The Gatecrash Prerelease is coming up on Magic Online followed immediately by Release Events and the ushering of a new Standard for Magic Online users.  With that said, we're not interested in that Standard but rather Standard Silverblack.  With the new influx of cards breathing some new life into the format, let's see what new decks might come out in once we're in a Gatecrash Silverblack.

Boros Aggro

 

This deck is pretty powerful due to it maximizing the chances you'll have an attacking Battalion on turn 3.  The gameplan is to set up our Battalion as quickly as possible and take a huge chunk of life with our first attack, then clean up the rest with another attack backed up by burn.  With our low curve, we can ensure that our Battalions will outnumber our opponents blockers, therefore increasing our chances at a successful attack.  These are a few possible Battalions you can have on turn 3:

3x Boros Elite

2x Boros Elite 1x Dryad Militant

1x Boros Elite 1x Daring Skyjek 1x Skyknight Legionnaire

1x Boros Elite 1x War Falcon 1x Skynight Legionnaire

1x Dryad Militant 1x War Falcon 1x Boros Elite 1x Skyknight Legionnaire

The deck is not without weaknesses however.  Just looking at our one drops there's a glaring flaw of going all in on a Battalion on turn 3 and these 2 cards are the reason why:

                                                       

An overloaded Electrickery before we declare attackers or a Flames of the Firebrand on our opponent's turn is basically a Wrath of God against us.  Now, this won't be a problem if we're facing a non-red deck, but if we are we do have a main deck answer to that:

                                                                           

Boros Charm's middle mode gives us protection from Electrickery and Flames of the Firebrand while allowing us to attack into other creature decks and have insurance in case they have tricks.  Faith's Shield is a possible main deck worthy card, if not definitely a sideboard card for matchups that will try to attack our Battalion before combat.

 

 

While I don't think this is better than Izzet Delver, it's certainly an option to consider if you're a Dimir mage.  This deck is more of a control version of Delver as opposed to Izzet Delver, which is as Aggro-Control as one can be in Standard Silverblack.  It's a rough sketch, so the numbers on the spells are more scattered as opposed to concentrated (more 2 ofs than 4 ofs).  The removal suite is 11 spells: Dimir Charm, Tribute to Hunger, Ultimate Price, Murder, Victim of Night, and our counter suite is 12 spells: Dimir Charm, Syncopate, Essence Scatter, Negate, and Dissipate.  The game plan is to either stick either a Delver of Secrets or Deathcult Rogue and ride it to victory, or take control of the game and use our Dimir Keyrune to whittle down their life total.

The deck does have weaknesses, and it shows up against hyper-aggressive decks such as Boros.  Dimir Delver's ability to one-for-one with their opponents only works if the opponents only present one threat at a time.   With Boros Aggro, the Boros player will try and drop as many creatures as possible to set up their Battalion and Dimir Delver can't one-for-one Boros when they go 2 1-drops turn 2.  Against Izzet Delver, the match-up is in Izzet Delver's favor due to it having reach with cards like Searing Spear and Pillar of Flame.

If you're looking for Dimir Delver to be Aggro-Control then I recommend you try out these two cards together:

             

 Tap all the things!

Simic Tempo
 
Creatures
3 Arbor Elf
3 Welkin Tern
2 Archaeomancer
4 Drakewing Krasis
4 Elusive Krasis
4 Mist Raven
4 Druid's Familiar
24 cards

Other Spells
3 Simic Charm
2 Farseek
3 Hydroform
2 Ghostly Flicker
2 Rancor
12 cards
Lands
11 Forest
10 Island
3 Simic Guildgate
24 cards
 
Mist Raven

 

In my previous article, I said Simic wouldn't have much of an impact because a new archetype would have to be made, and I think this is the one.  Using powerful cards from AVR Limited such as Mist Raven and Druid's Familiar, we can use new Simic cards to create a tempo strategy in Gatecrash Silverblack.  This is primarily a deck that attacks through the air while keeping the opponent's creatures off the battlefield with bounce effects or making them useless by making it difficult to get through our ground creatures.  If you're able to get Mist Raven and Archaeomancer out at the same time, you can use Ghostly Flicker to flicker both of them to allow you to bounce a creature and get back the Ghostly Flicker for 3 mana. Simic Charm has a lot of utility in the deck, allowing you to have an Unsummon effect, a Giant Growth effect, and a way to "counter" targeted removal all in one card.

The deck is more of a midrange deck, and will find itself taking some damage early on against aggressive decks, but once it has an Elusive Krasis in play and is able to start evolving, it'll be quite the attacker and defender.  Fog Bank is a possible consideration for the main deck if the format is too aggressive that maindeck Fog Bank would be an appealing option.

I'm quite excited for Gatecrash to be released so that I can play with some of the new cards.  I think going into Gatecrash Silverblack, Boros Aggro will be the most powerful strategy but there are tools in the format to keep it from being too dominant.  I'll likely play Boros Aggro if I find my Jund Aggro to be too slow against that strategy.  Speaking of Jund Aggro, here's what I'm looking at for Gatecrash Silverblack:

 

 

The biggest Gatecrash additions to the deck are the Gruul Guildgates and the Ghor-Clan Rampager, while I added Rancor from M13 and Lightning Mauler from AVR for more explosive attacks while cutting Rakdos Ragemutt and Gore-House Chainwalker.  

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to do so!  If you want to use any deck listed here, go right on ahead!  

Props - Boros Charm for being absolutely insane.

@MarcosPMA on Twitter, MarcosPMA on MTGO