I’m in Magical Christmas Land right now. I have a thing to confess. Listen, as a self-diagnosed Durdle Magus, this gonna sound a little weird. Here goes:
I LOVE ME SOME CHAOS!!!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. Right now my room is in an extremely disorganized state. I’m in a brewing frenzy. With Dragon’s Maze’s Standard meta so open, there are so many good strategies that it hard for me to settle on a deck. I’ve taking apart all my Standard decks, inventoried them, and started building new decks from the wreckage. My girlfriend is not impressed. (As of this writing, I have cleaned my room and even organized my collection a little.)
Monday night I went 3-1 at Montasy with this guy:
Bant Wolf Run + Plasm Capture
2 Temple Garden
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
1 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
25 lands
2 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
4 Centaur Healer
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
1 Ætherling
14 creatures
2 Plasm Capture
3 Supreme Verdict
4 Azorius Charm
4 Farseek
2 Selesnya Charm
2 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm
21 other spells
Of course this deck has been proven already. Wolf Run Bant is my control deck of choice right now and, oh man, can I just tell you how bonkers Advent of the Wurm is? Between Plasm Capture and Advent, really, what is a good idea on turn four? Attack into a 5/5 Wurm? Cast a spell into Plasm Capture? These both seem like terrible ideas. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage was pretty sick in the deck too, demanding immediate removal or dominating the board. Populate is a real thing, kids. The real dream though is Plasm Capture on an opponent’s Sphinx’s Revelation and cracking them back with a Wolf Runned… ANYTHING. Oh the humanity. I think I’d rather have a Stomping Ground in the place of of the Sacred Foundry, though.
I’ll be tweaking that in the next week but I still want to try this next deck.
Insanity Jund
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
3 Rootbound Crag
25 lands
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Blood Scrivener
4 Thragtusk
3 Sire of Insanity
2 Olivia Voldaren
16 creatures
1 Dreadbore
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Farseek
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Ground Seal
2 Tragic Slip
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Putrefy
1 Deadbridge Chant
19 other spells
Taking second at Summerset proves Sire of Insanity is a powerhouse. Why not win more with a Blood Scrivener? You’re guaranteed to draw two cards a turn while your opponent has to lose everything. Jund is an attrition deck I see this archetype really taking over. This kid of unfair card advantage is just the sort of thing that pushes decks from top tier to dominating the format. Playing with Deadbridge Chant is a pleasure. Imagine drawing an extra card each turn but if its a creature you get to play it for free…I was in removal paradise.
Okay, this one is still under construction but let me get a little time to tweak this and I have something really special here.
Enter the Omni Blast Flare: Enraged
3 Steam Vents
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Mountain
2 Sulfur Falls
3 Breeding Pool
1 Desolate Lighthouse
2 Watery Grave
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Blood Crypt
4 Forest
1 Island
3 Stomping Ground
25 lands
2 Borborygmos Enraged
2 creatures
4 Faithless Looting
4 Obzedat’s Aid
4 Thought Scour
3 Blast of Genius
2 Thoughtflare
3 Enter the Infinite
4 Omniscience
4 Izzet Charm
1 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Farseek
33 other spells
The dream here is to loot out an Omniscience, Farseek for the Black/White source you’re missing, and then Flashback Looting. And on turn four Obzedat’s Aid the Omniscience and either have Enter the Infinite, cast Borborygmos and toss land at your opponent, or Blast of Genius into omniscience/enter the Infinite. I think with a bit of tuning this deck could be a contender. Undiscovered Clues might find its home here. There’s a lot of disruption in standard right now so maybe now’s not the time.
Finally, I wouldn’t be the Durdle Magus if I didn’t offer you some kind of dedicated American Control deck. Here we see a deck that’s gonna be a bit more playable once the meta settles away from aggro decks.
American Genius Control
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Mountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Steam Vents
4 Clifftop Retreat
1 Island
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
2 Cavern of Souls
25 lands
2 Ætherling
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 creatures
1 Release (Catch/Release)
1 Thoughtflare
1 Blast of Genius
1 Izzet Charm
1 Counterflux
2 Think Twice
2 Ral Zarek
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Terminus
4 Azorius Charm
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Dissipate
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Sphinx’s Revelation
2 Syncopate
31 other spells
I’m trying Thoughtflare here and Blast as a one of. Everyone is taking about Turn/Burn on Thragtusk, but what about on Angel of Serenity? I’m pretty sure those creatures you exiled with Angel are gone forever. It’s not always good to exile what’s under AoS forever but you can stop a double AoS stranglehold this way. Ætherling was lackluster for me last week in Bant but I think that this deck is a better fit for him than in Bant. I suspect that is a great control breaker against Esper. Being about to play an extra blue mana to keep it around after a Verdict or Terminus seems like a pretty sweet deal. The amount of counter magic you run will largely depend on whether Cavern of Souls is good.
So that’s it for now. Four decks for the new meta. A few cute synergies and one combo deck. Let me know what changes you’d make to these decks. I’m brewing like a Mad Scientist all this week—at least until I find one that I like. Still, this week my advice is to stay the course with an aggro deck. Punish the enemy for not having all the new cards and stumbling on mana, and take your wins easy this early in the meta. Let the pros grind midrange and control matches until something stable emerges.
Zac Clark, Durdle Magus