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By: ricklongo, Rick Longo
Mar 15 2012 12:26pm
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The MOCS format for this month is Standard, which is very fortunate for three reasons. First, I am much more comfortable tackling a Standard format than I am trying my hand at larger ones like Modern (the format for the first MOCS of the year, and no, I don't like eternal formats much). Secondly, it's a constructed format rather than limited, which means that maybe (just maybe) this month people won't face problems entering the MOCS due to the tournament being full. Lastly, the vast majority of available daily events are actually Standard, which means we can earn those QPs and practice at the same time.

Elesh Norn, Grand CenobiteUnburial Rites

A little more than a week ago, when I stopped playing Block Constructed to focus on Standard, my first thought was to play Solar Flare. Not only control decks have traditionally been my favorite, the prospect of casting Unburial Rites for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite plays right into what I love doing in this game. Much to my chagrin, I found out that playing control is still too risky in this format. Sure, resolving an Elesh means GG a good portion of the time... but in the other games, I'd just get mauled mercilessly. My other wrath effects didn't even matter since all I was facing was Strangleroot Geists, Geralf's Messengers, and Loyal Cathars.

So I did what I've been doing for the past months whenever I wanted to play Standard: I turned to white weenie.

I loaded up my most recent Humans list, updated it, and started hitting the 2-man queues. This is what I ended up with.

 

Before we get to the videos, I feel like talking a bit about two of my card choices:

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben over Grand Abolisher
I believe Thalia is better for two reasons. First, it has first strike, which has proved to be very important in a creature-dominated metagame. Second, it just hoses control in a more brutal way than the Abolisher did, since it affects stuff like Day of Judgment and Unburial Rites, while making it very hard for them to get full value of their Snapcaster Mages in time.

Loyal Cathar over Gather the Townsfolk
The card that impressed me the most in this deck so far was the Cathar. Not only is it a human, which makes him a nice follow-up to a turn one Champion of the Parish, it's also incredibly annoying for control and aggro opponents alike, thanks to its free reanimation. Along with workhorse Doomed Traveler, the Cathar just makes opposing wraths laughable, while ensuring combat trades end up in your favor. It also has vigilance, which, like Thalia's first strike, has proved to be invaluable when you're facing creature races match after match.

So let's get to the daily!

ROUND 1

 

ROUND 2

 

ROUND 3

 

ROUND 4

 

So there we go: 4-0, playing against four different archetypes! I feel like this list is in a very good position in the current metagame, and I've worked hard on the sideboard to guarantee that otherwise bad matchups like Tempered Steel and Tokens can actually become favorable. Please use the comments to tell me if you agree, and whether you would change anything.

Thanks for reading/watching, and see you next time.

1 Comments

The winning wennies is going by sandra_me123 at Mon, 06/03/2013 - 20:37
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The winning wennies is going to be awesome. They need to know how to use it anyway. - Brenda Lee Reed