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By: TheWolf, Shane Garvey
Feb 03 2016 1:00pm
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Hello there, and welcome to this installment of Sweet Brews. With Oath of the Gatewatch standard season in full swing now, we will take a look at three interesting decks from that format that caught my eye this week, as well as one from Modern, and one from Pauper. Let's great straight into it, shall we?


Bant CoCo

The SCG open on the weekend was won by 4-colour Rally (which made up almost 16% of the top 32), but the second place deck, ran by Andy Ferguson, was much more interesting:

Bant CoCo
 
Creatures
4
Deathmist Raptor
4
Den Protector
4 Bounding Krasis
4 Reflector Mage
4 Sylvan Advocate
1
Warden of the First Tree
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

8 cards

Other Spells
4 Collected Company
4
Dromoka's Command
2
Ojutai's Command
11 cards
Lands
2
Forest
1
Island
3
Plains
4
Flooded Strand
4
Windswept Heath
1
Wooded Foothills
2
Yavimaya Coast
2 Canopy Vista
4 Lumbering Falls
2 Prairie Stream

17 cards

 

 

It’s a Collected Company deck, using the powerful instant from Dragons of Tarkir. The creatures in the deck are all ‘hits’ for the spell, and the creatures are packed full of value that gain you a lot of tempo. Bounding Krasis allows you to tap an opponent’s blocker or attacker, or untap your (Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy); Reflector Mage bounces your opponent’s best creature and stops them from recasting it for a turn; Sylvan Advocate is good in either or the early game or the mid game; and everyone knows how good Den Protector and Deathmist Raptor are.

Rounding out the deck are the highly flexible pair of (Dromoka’s Command) and (Ojutai’s Command), giving you the right answer when you need it.

Play-wise, the idea is to disrupt your opponent’s creatures and game plan, all the while building your board and attacking in when you can. Andy managed 2nd place, so the game plan obviously worked!

Cost:

Magic Online:  541 tix (from mtgotraders.com)

Paper: About $630


 Orzhov Control

 

Another deck from the SCG open this weekend gone, this one also finished in the top 8 and was used by Raja Sulaiman:

Orzhov Control
 
Creatures
4
Seeker of the Way
4 Matter Reshaper
4 cards

Other Spells
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1
Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Silkwrap
3 Stasis Snare
3
Secure the Wastes
1 Spatial Contortion
1
Utter End
2
Duress
4
Read the Bones
1 Ruinous Path
19 cards
Lands
5
Plains
2
Swamp
2
Battlefield Forge
4
Caves of Koilos
1
Llanowar Wastes
2 Foundry of the Consuls
4
Scoured Barrens
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Shambling Vent

14 cards

Utter End

The lack of creatures makes it rather obvious that this is a control deck, though there is a tokens theme going on here as well. Let’s break the deck down.

There are ten removal spells found here, in Silkwrap, Stasis Snare, Utter End, Ruinous Path and the new one from Oath of the Gatewatch, Spatial Contortion. There is also a pair of Duress for getting rid of those pesky Rally the Ancestors or other spells that could ruin your day. Note that eight of the ten removal spells exiles the creature.

Next we have a pair of creatures, with Seeker of the Way and Matter Reshaper. Three copies of Secure the Wastes, four Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and one copy of Sorin, Solemn Visitor give us our token theme, as well as a way to buff our tokens and get in for some damage.

Based on this, our game plan with this deck is to control the board, removing our opponent’s threats, while slowly building up our own board and then attacking in when we can. If you like control decks, you should like this one.

Cost:

Magic Online:  184 tix (from mtgotraders.com)

Paper: About $225

 


Esper Aggro

The Super Sunday Series was held last weekend and there were a few interesting decks that came out of it. One such deck, piloted by Yukihiro Shimokobe, went 3-0 during the Standard portion:

 

Esper Aggro
 
Creatures
4
Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Mardu Woe-Reaper
3 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
3 Bearer of Silence
2 Wasteland Strangler
4 Matter Reshaper
3 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Reflector Mage

4 cards

Other Spells
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Silkwrap
3 Stasis Snare
8 cards
Lands
4
Flooded Strand
3
Polluted Delta
4
Caves of Koilos
1
Swamp
2
Plains
1 Prairie Stream
1 Sunken Hollow
2 Shambling Vent
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Ruins of Oran-Rief
3 Crumbling Vestige

14 cards

1 Wasteland Strangler
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Stasis Snare
3 Transgress the Mind
1 Hallowed Moonlight
8 cards
Mardu Woe-Reaper

It’s not very often we see three-colour aggro decks (Jeskai being the most well-known exception), but Yukihiro had some success with this one. In some ways – at least as far as deck building is concerned – it can be thought of as four colour due to the presence of cards requiring colourless mana to cast: four copies of Matter Reshaper and three of Thought-Knot Seer.

Most of the deck is white or black, using some of the more aggressive creatures in each format, starting with the one drops in Bloodsoaked Champion and Mardu Woe-Reaper, and adding some of the new Oath of the Gatewatch creatures in Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Bearer of Silence, as well as splashing blue for my favourite card of the set, Reflector Mage.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is a no-brainer in this deck; every single one of its abilities is useful here. Rounding out the deck is some removal in Silkwrap and Stasis Snare.

Attacking is the name of the game here, but there is also a lot more going on. Many of the creatures have interesting abilities; Thought-Knot Seer Thoughtseizes your opponent, so choosing the correct card is vital. When to activate Eldrazi Displacer is also important, and when to leave mana up for Ayli as well. It looks like quite a fun deck to try!

Cost:

Magic Online: 234 tix (from mtgotraders.com)

Paper: About $330


Mono Red Burn

Who says Modern has to be expensive? Magic Online user duskblader certainly doesn’t think it has to be, as evidenced by his 5-0 run in Modern league with this budget burn deck:

 

This deck is highly an efficient and effective burn deck, without a lot of the subtleties of its more expensive, Naya –coloured cousin. Gone are the Eidolon of the Great Revels and instead we have Hellspark Elemental, which has the potential to hit for 6 (and doesn’t damage you in the process). (Atarka’s Command) and Boros Charm are not find here, but instead we have Magma Jet, Skullcrack and (Flames of the Bloodhand).

With lifegain being the bane of mono red decks no matter the format, duskblader added more (Flames of the Bloodhand) and four copies of Leyline of Punishment in the sideboard – the latter of which also stops any Kor Firewalker shenanigans from your opponent. With Magma Jet being probably the weakest card in the main deck, you can sub it out for Searing Blood vs creature decks, Spark Elemental against decks with few creatures, or Smash to Smithereens vs Affinity decks, increasing the power of the deck quite a bit in these match ups.

The concept of the deck is simple – deal 20 damage as quickly as possible. As I said, many of the subtleties of the Naya Burn deck are gone here – you only have Mountains as our mana base, so you don’t need to sequence your land drops correctly, and even if you are just getting into Modern, you should be able to put up reasonable results with this deck.

Cost:

Magic Online: 65 tix (from mtgotraders.com)

Paper: About $250


Dimir Control

Blue/black control has been around in Pauper for quite some time, most of them based around Mystical Teachings and Gurmag Angler, and running lots and lots of permission and self-mill cards. Magic Online user alaskamatt17 went a different direction with his deck, which he went undefeated with in League:

Rather than permission-based control, this deck looks to control the game in multiple zones. Cards like Fume Spitter and Crypt Rats are used to control the board; while Chittering Rats and Augur of Skulls are used to control the hand. Because a lot of these creatures die to use their ability, alaskamatt17 included copies of Undying Evil and Grim Harvest to help get them back, as well as Sylvok Lifestaff to gain some extra value when they die.

With all these creatures hitting the graveyard, including Tragic Slip seems like a no brainer, as it can kill just about anything, except maybe hexproof creatures – which is where Diabolic Edict comes in to it.

The rest of the deck is all about card advantage, with copies of Mulldrifter, Trinket Mage and Sign in Blood to help dig to the cards you need. Finally, a lone copy of Gurmag Angler is included to stomp your opponent to death once you have gained control of the game.

Cost:

Magic Online: 62 tix (from mtgotraders.com)

Paper: About $20


Well, that's another week done! We should start seeing some more data from Magic Online standard events this week, and I plan on running my new version of Atarka Red through some Standard matches. I'll also likely be doing some Oath of the Gatewatch drafts after winning a bunch of packs during the Magic Online pre-release. Until next week, keep on brewin'!