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By: TheWolf, Shane Garvey
Oct 21 2015 12:00pm
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 It's that time of the week again - time to take a look at some of the interesting decks doing the rounds of tournament Magic! Battle for Zendikar Standard is now in full swing and we have some good data from Magic Online to work with. So, let's take a look!

This week we have three Standard decks, two of which are loaded with Battle for Zendikar cards (Grixis Devoid and Aristocrats), and one of which is an updated version of an old deck (Temur Dragons); a Legacy Burn deck splashing black, and a Mill deck in Pauper.
 

(As a side note, I'm going to start including sideboards from this week on).

 


First up is a deck that makes use of a LOT of cards from Battle for Zendikar, as it is based around the Devoid mechanic:

 

Grixis Devoid
3-1 Standard Daily, by Manu S

Creatures
3 Blight Herder
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Herald of Kozilek
4 Mist Intruder
4 Ruination Guide
4 Salvage Drone
Ulamog's Nullifier
25 cards

Other Spells
3 Processor Assault
2 Brutal Expulsion
3 Wild Slash
4 Ghostfire Blade
12 cards

Lands
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
5 Island
2 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Shivan Reef
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
23 cards

3 Wasteland Strangler
1 Brutal Expulsion
3 Dust Stalker
15 cards
Ghostfire Blade

 

Half the main deck cards from Battle for Zendikar in this deck, and all of them (except the lands) have the Devoid mechanic (as a quick refresher, this makes the spells they are on colourless). This means that this card becomes quite powerful:

Just one of these cards on the battlefield is quite good already, but imagine having 2 or 3 out at a time, especially if you draw a Hangarback Walker. There is also a slight Ingest / Processor theme happening here, allowing you to counter a spell Ulamog's Nullifier, get some Eldrazi Scions Blight Herder or kill a creature Processor Assault. Of course, the Ingest mechanic means that this is a deck that wants to attack, which is good, as that makes Ghostfire Blade and this card much better:

So, yeah, you want to be attacking with this deck. 

Currently, this deck will cost you between 150-175 tix (and between $300-$325 in paper). 

 


 

Let's have a look at another deck full of Battle for Zendikar cards. This one has the name 'Aristocrats', which is based on a similar deck from a previous standard format. Check it out:

 

Aristocrats
SCG Atlanta, 28th place, by Stephen Sloan

Creatures
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Grim Haruspex
4 Nantuko Husk
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Blisterpod
4 Carrier Thrall
4 Catacomb Sifter
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Liliana, Heretical Healer
33 cards

Other Spells
4 Collected Company
4 cards

Lands
7 Forest
7 Swamp
4 Llanowar Wastes
Jungle Hollow 
1 Mortuary Mire
23 cards

2 Ultimate Price
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
15 cards
Nantuko Husk

 

This deck is all about abusing this card:

Having played against this card many times so far, I can say it is an absolute pain.  Watching your opponent sacrifice their Eldrazi Scions with this guy out, or sacrifice any of their creatures to Nantuko Husk with the Cutthroat on the battlefield, is kind of annoying. You can be drained for a lot of life by this guy; and hopefully they never get two on the battlefield...

The deck can also beat down pretty well with Nantuko Husk, which combines with Hangarback Walker and Blisterpod for value.

The deck will currently cost you between 125-150 tix (or $150-$175 in paper).

 


Magic Online user JackfromStateFarm has updated the old red/green dragons deck from Magic Origins Standard by taking advantage of the great mana base in Battle for Zendikar Standard to add blue to the deck:

 

Temur Dragons
3-1 Standard Daily, by JakefromStateFarm

Creatures
2 Dragonlord Atarka
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Savage Knuckleblade
4 Hangarback Walker
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Thunderbreak Regent 
Whisperwood Elemental
22 cards

Other Spells
3 Kiora, Master of the Depths
3 Sarkhan Unbroken
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Draconic Roar
12 cards

Lands
5 Forest
4 Frontier Bivouac
1 Island
4 Mountain
1 Shivan Reef
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Yavimaya Coast
3 Cinder Glade
2 Lumbering Falls
26 cards

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

 

Unfortunately the deck lost some cheap ramp in Elvish Mystic, but kept Rattleclaw Mystic and upped the land count to 26. It also added some pseudo-ramp in Nissa, Vastwood Seer, Kiora, Master of the Depths and Sarkhan Unbroken. I'm not sure how viable this will be in the long run, but it worked in this event, at least.

The deck then tries to curve into some efficient beaters in the form of Savage Knuckleblade, into Thunderbreak Regent, into Whisperwood Elemental and finally into Dragonlord Atarka. These are some of the best creatures for their mana costs. Throw in four different Planeswalkers and you have the making of a powerful deck.

Temur Dragons currently costs around 250 tix online (and around $400 in paper).


 Next up is Legacy. I don't cover Legacy much in the Sweet Brews articles, but this deck caught my eye during the week. It's not from Magic Online, but it did top 8 a 60 player Legacy event recently.

 

 

As red players (myself included) well know, a lack of card advantage in the colour is a glaring weakness, and the worst thing that can happen to you is running out of gas before you are close to winning. Dominik Eigner has tried to shore up that weakness by adding Dark Confidant to the deck and, for his trouble, managed to get a top 8 finish.

The deck plays exactly like a normal burn deck would; run out early creatures, then reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0 as quickly as possible. However, Dark Confidant will hopefully help you refuel should the game run slightly longer than you hoped, drawing you extra cards without doing a heap of damage to you in the meantime (try not to draw a Fireblast with him...)

Dark Burn will set you back 250-275 tix on Magic Online (and will cost you $600-$650) in paper.


Our last deck for this week comes from Pauper and is an old favourite strategy of many of my friends: mill.

 

Mill
3-0 Pauper Daily, by Milkk
Creatures
4 Whirlpool Rider
4 cards

Other Spells
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Serum Visions
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Gush
4 Snap
4 Thought Scour
4 Jace's Erasure
38 cards
Lands
18 Island
18 cards

Jace's Erasure

 

This deck's strategy relies a lot on the signature card, Jace's Erasure. The deck plays very much like the Sphinx's Tutelage decks we saw in Magic Origins Standard, except Jace's Erasure is only half as powerful. However, the quality of card draw and cantrips in Pauper are a lot better than what we had for the Tutelage deck, so this kind of makes up for it. When you look at Brainstorm, Gush and Whirlpool Rider and compare it to what we saw in Standard, you'll see what I mean. Add to that that cheap, high quality cantrips in Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, Preordain, Serum Visions and, even better, Thought Scour, and you have the makings of a good deck.

The deck seems very week to the fast aggro decks in the format like Stompy and Goblins, with only the 4 copies of both Counterspell and Snap being able to deal with them. The sideboard kind of helps with this, but I'm not sure if I knew the meta was aggro-heavy that this deck would do well.

On Magic Online, this deck is expensive for a Pauper deck, costing between 35-40 tix (and $55-$65 in paper).


That wraps up another week of Sweet Brews. I haven't had a lot of time to play lately, though I really want to try out the Pauper Infect deck from last week (and am quite glad the Pauper 8-player events have come back). I also wouldn't mind trying out the Dark Burn deck from this article. If I get the chance I will let you know how it goes.

If you are thinking about buying any of these decks, check out mtgotraders.com - they have a good range of stock and good prices.

Until next week, keep on brewin'!

You can follow Shane on Twiiter @CrymsonKnight