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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Nov 01 2007 12:46pm
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The New Standard - Lorwyn Edition          
 
I spent a lot of last weekend involved with the Wisconsin State Champs tournament. I set it up, head judged the thing, then took the decklists home and analyzed the metagame. Standard has changed – what you played last week won’t work next week. Only part of that change is because Ravnica rotated out. 
 
It’s a whole new metagame.
 
For one thing, I did not see any successful combo decks. The format was all aggro verses aggro control verses mid-range control. The closest thing to combo was mid-range control with the Pickles lock: Brine Elemental and Vesuvan Shapeshifter
 
Let’s start with the winning deck – which was indeed a midrange deck with the Pickles lock.   Mike Jones piloted this deck to first place. This deck has one advantage over the second place deck: fewer Lorwyn chase rares. 
 
UG Pickles - Mike Jones - Winner
Sideboard
2  Spell Burst
1  Academy Ruins
3  Tormod's Crypt
Sower of Temptation
3  Dodecapod
3  Unsummon
1  Remove Soul
Sower_of_Temptation.jpg
 
If you play this deck, consider removing the Remove Souls. At the very least, test it a lot. Remove Soul only works in a very creature-heavy environment. On the other hand, the current Standard might just be creature heavy enough.
 
Note the three chase cards from Lorwyn: Garruk Wildspeaker, Cryptic Command and Sower of Temptation. You will see a lot of those three cards. 
 
Let’s move on to the second place deck: BK’s Con-Troll ’07. I like this deck.
 

Brian Kowal – 2nd– Con-Troll ‘07

Yavimaya Coast
Llanowar Wastes
River of Tears
Treetop Village
Faerie Conclave
Vivid Creek
Island
Forest

4  Tarmogoyf
4  Wall of Roots
4  Shriekmaw
4  Mulldrifter
Sower of Temptation
3  Venser, Shaper Savant
Call of the Herd
4  Rune Snag
3  Cryptic Command
3  Garruk Wildspeaker

Sideboard
3  Quagnoth
3  Razormane Masticore
3  Krosan Grip
2  Extirpate
2  Grim Harvest
Sower of Temptation
Garruk_Wildspeaker.jpg
 

BK’s deck runs green for creatures and mana acceleration, blue for cards drawing and counters, and black for Shriekmaw – a really, really good removal spell. I will play this deck, once I can get the Garruks and Shriekmaws. That might be a but difficult. Garruk is insane, and rare, while Shriekmaw is probably the new Flametongue Kavu.   For those that don’t remember Invasion block, FTK was this amazing removal spell on legs that made red worth splashing everywhere. In this deck, BK splashed black for Shriekmaw and some sideboard cards. 

The mana acceleration is green – Garruk Wildspeaker. Garruk makes it weasier to get double blue and to cast the spells with five casting cost. More importantly, it can also provide a series of 3/3s, and Overrun for the win. Garruk is the best of the Planeswalkers, and it may be the new Tarmogoyf.   
 
This next deck also splashes black mainly for Shriekmaw, and also uses it for some additional removal. 
  
 
 
This is a fast, powerful elves deck. Elves were quite potent worldwide last weekend. Once again, this deck splashes green for powerful creatures (Wren’s Run Vanquisher is a 3/3 for 1G – even better than Watchwolf.) It runs black for removal and some targeted discard. Thoughtseize is the new Duress – and it is better than Duress in very format except Vintage. (Vintage routinely plays cards that can redirect spells, but Duress targets “an opponent.” In Vintage, Thoughtseize often hits its caster in the face. That’s not a problem in Standard.)
 
 
 
Mono-blue Pickles is still around. This version, designed by Ronny Hein, is similar to the old standard deck, but the counterspells have been changed. Look at Cryptic Command. Choose two is a new spin on charms – and all of these choices are good.   Being able to choose wisely is one thing that distinguishes the players who make top eight.  
 
Here’s a scenario: you are playing against a similar deck. You have lethal damage on the board, provided the opponent does not block with his Morph creature. Your opponent is untapped, but has no cards in hand. You cast Cryptic Command.   Do you choose bounce target creature plus draw a card? Obvious, right? 
 
I saw this happen twice. The top eight player cast Cryptic Command choosing bounce and tap. That player won. Another player, in almost the exact same situation, cast Command choosing bounce and draw. The opponent unmorphed Willbender, changing the target of Cryptic Command to bounce an attacker. Why didn't that happen to the top eight player? Tap plus bounce has two targets, so Willbender cannot affect it.  
Winning is not a function of luck - or at least not all luck. 
 
 
Doran is a very interesting card. I love the fact that Doran means that Wall of Roots deals five damage when it blocks. I’m not a thrilled with the mana base – especially without running Birds of Paradise. (Hey, with Doran out, Birds can beat for one!) Still, Lukas did make top eight with his build, so the mana base cannot be that far off.
 
The other advantage white brings is Mystic Enforcer out of the sideboard. With Shriekmaw everywhere, having a creature that cannot be Terrored is pretty good.
 
 
 
Lorwyn is a Tribal block - is built around the concept that members of tribes work together. Jasper’s deck was one of the few clearly tribal decks to do well. Jasper’s deck has Wizened Cenn to pump Kithkin, Gaddock Teeg to stop Wrath of God and Damnation, and Militia’s Pride to crank out more Kithkin. It also has Mirror Entity, which can make all his creatures quite large for a very small cost.   
 
 
 
Here’s another Tribal deck – this one is all goblins. Goblins, in this case, are partly black nowadays. It almost makes me want to pick up a playset of Dralnu’s Crusades for Extended and Classic – but I have far too many other cards to buy soon. Including Lorwyn boosters and tournament packs for the release events. 
 
I’m not saying a lot about the last two decks – mainly because I rarely play weenie beatdown decks. I really don’t know that much beyond the obvious.    
 
 
 
Stuffy Doll?!? Stuffy Doll? WTF? Bill Stark designed this deck, and it is an interesting metagame choice. In a metagame full of creatures, Stuffy is not bad. This deck is really good at killing creatures. It is not quite as powerful against the control decks – and almost nothing in the format is capable of destroying Stuffy. Decks can counter or bounce it, but about the only thing that can kill it is Profane Command, which can give it -1/-1. 
 
Another advantage of this deck is that it is cheap, and it uses almost nothing from Lorwyn. 
  
 
 
Mike ran a pretty standard Kavu Predator deck. It should be familiar to most Standard players. For those on a budget, it has nothing from Lorwyn except a pair of copies of Garruk Wildspeakers. That is, however, a huge “except.” I just checked, and MTGOTraders was sold out of Garruks, and the price was pushing $25.   MTGOTraders will get more soon – but the price is not likely to drop anytime soon. The card is ridiculous.
 
I am going to close with a deck that did not make T8 – did not even come close. However, this archetype was heavily discussed on message boards, and the pre-Lorwyn version showed up frequently in the various practice rooms. I’m not sure it can win a PE, but it is worth looking at.
 
 
Turbofog is an interesting archetype. It has been around for years: the first time I played against it was in Masque / Invasion standard, when Invasion was brand new and MODO, version one, wasn’t even in beta. TurboFog basically plays Fog effects (attackers deal no combat damage) plus Howling Mines and other card drawing. The win condition is, generally, forcing the opponent to draw their entire deck. The archetype can work – but it is heavily dependent on drawing the Howling Mines to ensure a steady stream of Fogs and Holy Days. 
 
Lorwyn brings one new addition: Hoofprints of the Stag.  Hoofprints creates an alternative win condition for the deck, since a couple Howling Mines and/or Rites of Flourishing can mean drawing four cards a turn – which means that Hoofprints can produce a 4/4 flier every turn. You can win games that way. 
 
Or maybe not. TurboFog decks spent most of the day on the bottom tables. I did see one TurboFog mirror match. The players were drawing eight cards per turn – and the game was over quickly. 
 
This is not a complete list of all archetypes in what looks to be a really healthy format. There are a lot more. However, this should give you a place to start.  
 
Now you should drift over to MTGOTraders and buy your Shriekmaws and so forth, then start testing. 
 
PRJ
 
“one million words” on MTGO.

9 Comments

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.180.70.236 (not verified) at Fri, 11/02/2007 - 13:54
Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.180.70.236's picture

peppersmoke might see play

Inversion by walkerdog at Fri, 11/02/2007 - 18:11
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Nameless Inversion is also being run in the Haakon decks... but those haven't put up much in the way of results, so I dunno if it's something to be concerned about.

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 70.113.1.32 (not verified) at Fri, 11/02/2007 - 20:57
Anonymous (Unregistered) 70.113.1.32's picture

Bill Stark didn't invent that Stuffy deck, I did. I just don't have any readers. :)

Garruk FTW by Pyrosin at Thu, 11/01/2007 - 15:03
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Great article, lots of information.

I'm glad to see the planeswalkers are seeing play.

Stuffy Doll by iceage4life at Thu, 11/01/2007 - 16:17
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Nameless Inversion on Stuffy Doll ftw?  Stuffy Doll is good against some creatures, it is not good against Garruk's overrun ablity or huge swarms of 2/2 and 1/1 Kithkin.

And yeah I have no idea why people think TurboFog could be good.  Thanks for the article, good info can't wait to see how Standard shakes out on MODO over the next month or so. 

Thoughtseize in Classic by hamtastic at Thu, 11/01/2007 - 16:28
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I'd be surprised if Thoughtseize saw play in Classic any time soon.  Decks with shocklands are having a hard enough fight against RDW the way it is, paying two life in the format right now is dangerous.

Great article though! 

by one million words at Fri, 11/02/2007 - 09:08
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I remembered Nameless Inversion, added it to my note for editing, but forgot about it again.  Yes, Nameless Inversion does kill Stuffy, but that is mainly being run in Elves decks - and Molten Disaster seems good against Elves.

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