The SCG Tour goes to Worcester this weekend for the first week of Standard with Core Set 2020. Here’s where the team lands right now. We have Mono Red, White Weenie, Boros Feather, and two flavors of Nexus!
Harlan
Mono Red
| Creatures (20) 4 Fanatical Firebrand 4 Ghitu Lavarunner 4 Runaway Steam-Kin 4 Viashino Pyromancer 4 Goblin Chainwhirler Spells (20) 1 Chandra, Fire Artisan 3 Experimental Frenzy 4 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 4 Light Up the Stage 4 Wizard’s Lightning | Lands (20) 20 Mountain Sideboard (15) 3 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator 2 Fry 4 Lava Coil 3 Dire Fleet Daredevil 1 Chandra, Fire Artisan 2 Rekindling Phoenix |
I won’t be in attendance at SCG Worcester this weekend, but if I were going I’d be slamming Mono Red. Week one Standard is always the old decks with some updates and new brews, and nothing exploits those better than the well-oiled machine that is Experimental Frenzy.
Best of luck to all those with the courage to pull the trigger on Red. Something tells me you won’t need much though.
Chad
White Weenie
| Creatures (26) 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 4 Law-Rune Enforcer 4 Skymarch Aspirant 2 Snubhorn Sentry 4 Adanto Vanguard 4 Benalish Marshal 4 Venerated Loxodon Spells (14) 2 Gideon Blackblade 4 Legion’s Landing 4 History of Benalia 3 Conclave Tribunal 1 Spell Pierce | Lands (20) 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Glacial Fortress 12 Plains Sideboard (15) 3 Tocatli Honor Guard 1 Conclave Tribunal 1 Ixalan’s Binding 2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants 4 Baffling End 1 Spell Pierce 3 Dovin’s Veto |
Risen Reef? Meet Tocatli Honor Guard.
It’s week one; for me that means being quick and proactive. White Weenie has the tools to beat Nexus and the clunky mid-range spells that people are bringing. On top of that, you’re unlikely to face any Kaya’s Wraths this weekend because playing Esper feels like an exercise in futility.
Show your opponents what some Savannah Lions can do.
Ally Warfield
Simic Nexus
| Planeswalkers (4) 3 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales 1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World Spells (31) 4 Search for Azcanta 4 Wilderness Reclamation 4 Nexus of Fate 4 Opt 4 Growth Spiral 4 Root Snare 4 Chemister’s Insight 1 Blink of an Eye 1 Callous Dismissal 1 Drawn from Dreams | Lands (25) 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hinterland Harbor 2 Temple of Mystery 3 Blast Zone 2 Memorial to Genius 5 Island 5 Forest Sideboard (15) 2 Narset, Parter of Veils 3 Shifting Ceratops 2 Negate 3 Cerulean Drake 2 Aether Gust 3 Veil of Summer |
Nexus of Fate girl once again recommends Simic Nexus for week one Standard for SCG Worcester. The main deck resembles the stock lists played prior to the release of M20. It’s no surprise that this continues to be a powerful strategy in Standard due to a number of decks struggling to interact well with the combo.
I especially like it for this weekend is that people are pivoting to aggro decks that aren’t fast enough to beat Nexus and don’t interact well with Nexus. A huge issue with Simic Nexus was the Mono-Red Aggro matchup because it was too fast to deal with. Now with everyone moving to Elementals, Vampires, and other decks, Simic Nexus appears to be positioned well. Even if people do bring Mono-Red or even Mono-Blue, Simic Nexus got a lot of new sideboard cards to deal with a lot of previously hard matchups.
Aether Gust and Cerulean Drake are two new sideboard cards that help Nexus in various matchups, but specifically Mono-Red. Sometimes, Nexus just needs one or two more turns to be able to combo off to kill Mono-Red. Both of these cards delay your opponent killing you for a handful of turns, which is hopefully enough to set up your combo and win the game. Aether Gust is also powerful in the mirror, and you can essentially Time Walk your opponent but casting Aether Gust targeting a Wilderness Reclamation on the stack or in play at the end of their second main phase.
But that’s not all, there are even more sideboard cards that Nexus gained from M20! My two favorite additions are Shifting Cerotops and Veil of Summer. Both of these are great counters to Esper strategies, which is probably why these are my favorite additions. Shifting Cerotops gets the added bonus of making Mono-Blue an unplayable archetype, because they have absolutely no way to interact with this card. (You can even give it reach!)
Overall, I think this is the best choice for SCG Worcester. Obviously the deck gets better when no one is expecting it, but is still a powerful option as a known entity. I hope to see lots of Vampire and Elemental strategies, and hopefully avoid Mono-Red, as it’s still an unfavored matchup with all the new sideboard cards.
Matt Dilks
Mono Red
| Creatures (19) 3 Fanatical Firebrand 4 Ghitu Lavarunner 4 Runaway Steam-Kin 4 Viashino Pyromancer 4 Goblin Chainwhirler Spells (21) 4 Light Up the Stage 4 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 3 Wizards Lightning 2 Chandra, Fire Artisan 4 Experimental Frenzy | Lands (20) 20 Mountain Sideboard (15) 2 Dire Fleet Daredevil 2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator 2 Rekindling Phoenix 3 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame 2 Fry 4 Lava Coil |
Full disclosure, I played no Standard as I am not attending this open. But I know exactly where this deck will be going into the open. The elementals deck may struggle with some of your strong draws, and decks like Nexus and Scapeshift variants tend to have a tough red matchup as I understand it. If people are sleeping on red and they build decks to beat the new hot decks, then red is in a great position to steal week one again.
Drake Sasser
Nexus of Gates
| Creatures (12) 2 Aboreal Grazer 4 Gatebreaker Ram 2 Cavalier of Thorns 4 Gate Colossus Spells (22) 4 Growth Spiral 4 Guild Summit 4 Gates Ablaze 1 Deafening Clarion 4 Circuitous Route 3 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales 2 Nexus of Fate | Lands (26) 2 Forest 3 Azorious Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 4 Gruul Guildgate 1 Boros Guildgate 3 Selesnya Guildgate 4 Simic Guildgate 1 Breeding Pool 4 Plaza of Harmony Sideboard (15) 2 Aether Gust 2 Negate 3 Fry 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 2 Knight of Autumn 1 Planar Cleansing 2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 1 Blast Zone |
Oh yeah, I’m back. I tested a wide range of decks for this tournament, and was overall pretty unimpressed with all of them. Naturally the deck I felt the most comfortable with was Gates, and the Esper and Mono Red matchups felt very favored with this build. Since I think those two decks are going to be popular this weekend, it was only natural to lock it in.
Gates got some pretty significant sideboard upgrades from M20. Fry specifically solves the Narset problem, which is why Gates faded away entirely after War of the Spark was released. Tamiyo and Cavalier are also recent adaptations to the deck that help find Guild Summit while providing a great supporting cast for Gates Ablaze.
Dom Harvey
Boros Feather
| Creatures (18) 4 Dreadhorde Arcanist 4 Adanto Vanguard 4 Tenth District Legionnaire 4 Feather, the Redeemed 1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist 1 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice Spells (20) 1 Gideon Blackblade 4 Shock 4 Reckless Rage 4 Defiant Strike 4 Gods Willing 2 Samut’s Sprint 1 Gird for Battle | Lands (22) 4 Temple of Triumph 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Clifftop Retreat 4 Mountain 6 Plains Sideboard (15) 3 Demystify 3 Tocatli Honor Guard 2 Gideon Blackblade 2 Legion Warboss 1 Prison Realm 2 Fry 2 Dual Shot |
My head says Breeding Pool but my heart says Feather. It’s hard to nail down the exact metagame for week one, making this a somewhat risky choice. Feather’s matchups are quite polarized: the deck is excellent against aggro and midrange decks light on interaction but struggles to stay afloat against Esper or keep pace with Nexus.
The deck is surprisingly customizable—there are enough good threats that you can target specific matchups (Sam Black suggests maindeck Tocatli Honor Guard over Adanto Vanguard, for instance) and enough playable tricks that you can play a mix to keep your opponents guessing (Infuriate and Sheltering Light come to mind).
I expect Feather to catch people off guard this weekend. It’s hard to play around everything correctly even if you know the configuration of the deck, and less experienced players often time their removal poorly or make dubious attacks against you.
I want to talk myself into this. The Heroic decks from five years ago were some of the best fun I’ve had playing Magic, and this scratches the same itch. I may end up trusting my teammates and playing Nexus or tricking myself into something else, but my heart lies here.