3 Major Tournaments, 3 Different Strategies...Charleston, Bochum, and Seattle Wrap-Up
Not just for Tempo anymore! |
This guy crashed onto the scene in a BIG way... |
Finally, control did rear its ugly head in Seattle, as a Bant Control deck successfully took down the field at SCG Open Series: Seattle. Jacob Thiessen took note of the rise in the use of Cavern of Souls and decided to forego the use of counter-spells in favor of more board-wipes and late-game presence with cards like Garruk, Primal Hunter and Sphinx's Revelation. Geist of Saint Traft may show up in more maindecks now that fewer counter-spells may be used, but it's not like Geist really left, right? Prepare for board wipes and planeswalkers, and you should be in good shape...Jund, where are you?
Aggro, The Comeback Kid
I'm BAAACCCCKKK! (And not from the graveyard, this time!) |
Simple solution to this? Board wipes. Control decks need to realize that their game isn't over after turn 5 Thragtusks and be able to hold more solutions to mid-game aggro threats. Terminus and Supreme Verdict will be on the rise, and UW-style decks will adapt to face this rise of Aggro.
Soul Searching - How Viable is Cavern of Souls?
Only as good as you want it to be. |
The Inevitability of Tempo, and the Flexibility of Control
Jusssst when we thought Tempo was dead... |
3-color tempo decks have also been popular as of late, opting primarily to splash red in favor of Pillar of Flame, the occasional Mizzium Mortars, and everyone's favorite dragon, Thundermaw Hellkite. While they have kind of fallen out of favor, expect these styles of decks to pop back up, especially as Zombies returns to the spotlight.
A necessary inclusion? |
You Got #hoof'd - Reanimator, Reanicrater and Blue?
Did I mention this guy was BIG? |
Sleepers of the Week!
Did I say instant-speed removal for #hoof? Sometimes, going rogue can prove useful, and I know of one useful burn spell that can be cast in response to a Craterhoof Behemoth...Magmaquake! Sure, it costs XRR, but, it can be used to at least wipe out all of the mana dorks powering Craterhoof and allow you to survive. Late game, it can be as useful as a Bonfire. Just be careful if you're running creatures of your own - Magmaquake hits your side of the field, too!
Key word: Instant. |
I kill dorks. You like that. |
My Deck du Jour!
Well, I've turned to the dark side, folks. I was tired of getting out-played by control opponents, but I still wanted to turn to Thragtusk and friends to power my deck. So...I turned to Bant Control. The deck is quite similar to Thiessen's from Seattle, but employs a Tamiyo maindeck in order to hit enemy Thragtusks. It also drops to 3 Detention Sphere in order to play an Oblivion Ring...it can hit a Sphere, and more often than not, that Sphere is holding a Thragtusk or a Planeswalker...a useful substitution, if you ask me. Finally, I opted to drop to 3 Azorius Charm to add another board-wipe in the form of Terminus #3. If Zombies are back, Supreme Verdict only does so much. Putting Zoms onto the bottom of the library is much more effective, and I want to try out the 5th board wipe.
This will make waves this week, I hope. |
Here's the deck (via TappedOut)...feel free to provide suggestions for future improvements, but I'll be slinging this over the weekend at a few Standard tournaments.
And that's it for this week...hopefully this helped you all realize some of the decks in the format, and maybe helped you think of a strategy or two to fight the meta. In any case, I'll catch you all in a few weeks with another primer. Until then - may the cards tap in your favor. Cheers!
-tom
Twitter: @wingmanmtg
Reddit: wingman2011