Hello! I’m so excited to be writing to you this week about the Khans of Tarkir Standard metagame! We have a lot of data to go over this week, so lets get right on into it.
By now, many of you have already seen the top performing decklists from the SCG Open in Edison, New Jersey. The Jeskai Tempo deck in particular, piloted to an open series victory by Kevin Jones, is considered by some to be the ‘breakout’ deck of the open. Backed by 16 burn spells, including Jeskai Charm, and a few card advantage spells in Dig Through Time, Steam Augury, and Chandra, Pyromaster, Kevin’s deck maximized it’s small creature base — and in this case, the new powerful planeswalker Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker — to pressure his opponents by attacking with must-answer threats and then burning his opponents face for the kill.
In case you’ve been living under a rock:
Jeskai Tempo
Seeker of the Way is an interesting card choice here. The prowess ability is powerful and best suited in tandem with a critical mass of spells. And if those spells can clear the way for Seeker to connect, prowess provides mana efficiency in extra damage and lifelink to help you race, all while giving your opponents tricky combat math, and headaches over their life total crashing down from out of nowhere. Mantis Rider proved itself to be a difficult card for green devotion decks to manage, as they have only a few real answers to it with Arbor Colossus and Hornet Queen. And unless they quickly find and cast either answer, Mantis Rider will have connected for a substantial amount of damage. Only a three mana investment, Mantis Rider puts real pressure on the green ramp deck to quickly come up with a way to combat the pesky insect-man. Maybe we will see Plummet in green sideboards going forward?
This Jeskai deck used some cool Khans of Tarkir cards to great effect, and that was exciting to watch this past weekend. This deck is fresh and powerful, but only one of the interesting lists we came across the many standard events. And with only one weekend under our belts, and a Pro Tour imminent, it would behoove us to not consider the wider picture.
For starters, here is the top 8 breakdown, by archetype, for each standard tournament published on SCG this past weekend:
- Aggro — 23 (22.1%)
- Tempo — 12 (11.6%)
- Midrange, Green Devotion — 20 (19.2%)
- Midrange, other — 41 (39.4%)
- Graveyard — 2 (1.9%)
- Control — 6 (5.8%)
I grouped each midrange deck together, but between them all are Abzan, Mardu, Temur, G/R Monsters, and even Sultai was in the mix. The aggro decks were mostly mono-red and mono-black, with a few R/W and U/W Heroic decks, and a few one-of lists, one of which i’ll be going over in a minute. Tempo is obviously only grouped by Jeskai. Devotion decks ranged from mono-green to green-blue, green-red, and green-black.
One thing that immediately stands out for me is the lack of control decks at the top tables, as well as the difference in control builds within the grouping. They range from Sultai builds, to Esper, and even a Mardu and Boros build across the six lists. It seems many mages were sick of playing control in the previous format and wanted to capitalize on a format freed from Supreme Verdict. Not only that, aggro and midrange strategies picked up a great mix of new cards to play around with! Moreover, when considering the most powerful cards already in standard pre-rotation were Goblin Rabblemaster and Courser of Kruphix, it makes absoulte sense to focus on these strategies for week one. Typically, when a format is fresh, aggressive strategies dominate the beginning of a format, which often will set the stage for how a control deck can effectively react. It did not appear to be the best weekend to be jamming End Hostilities into your control deck.
Now let’s look at some some lists that caught my eye amongst the sea of usual suspects.
Boros Control
| Creatures (4) 4 Brimaz, King of Oreskos Spells (31) 3 Chandra, Pyromaster 4 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion 4 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker 4 Banishing Light 4 Chained to the Rocks 4 Anger of the Gods 4 Magma Jet 2 Last Breath 2 Fated Conflagration | Lands (25) 10 Mountain 3 Plains 4 Battlefield Forge 4 Temple of Triumph 4 Wind-Scarred Crag Sideboard (15) 3 Goblin Rabblemaster 4 Stormbreath Dragon 1 Deicide 1 Fated Conflagration 3 Magma Spray 2 Hammer of Purphoros 1 End Hostilities |
This list is really cool. David Fulk’s big Boros deck only runs 4 copies of Brimaz for creatures and leans on his 11 planeswalkers to end the game. Notably, Brimaz dies to neither Elspeth, Sun’s Champion nor Anger of the Gods, making the cat king an ideal creature to both pressure an empty board and survive the decks board wipes. His sideboard is almost entirely dedicated to opposing control decks, having the capability to sideboard into a deck full of Rabblemasters, Stormbreath Dragons, and Hammer of Purphoros once the opponen sides out their spot removal. It looks perfectly suited to prey upon devotion decks.
Sultai Planeswalkers
| Creatures (10) 4 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Courser of Kruphix 2 Prognostic Sphinx Spells (25) 2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 1 Garruk, Apex Predator 2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave 1 Nissa, Worldwaker 4 Bile Blight 2 Dig Through Time 4 Hero’s Downfall 3 Sultai Charm 2 Sign in Blood 4 Thoughtseize | Lands (25) 4 Forest 2 Swamp 3 Island 3 Opulent Palace 4 Polluted Delta 4 Temple of Malady 4 Temple of Mystery 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) 3 Nylea’s Disciple 2 Dissolve 2 Negate 2 Pharika’s Cure 1 Liliana Vess 1 Nissa, Worldwaker 4 Drown in Sorrow |
This is a similar list the one i’ve been working on these past few weeks. It was good to see one that made it to the top tables. This list has many more card selection spells than mine, running Sultai Charm, Sign in Blood, and Dig Through Time to find the right answer. Often the problem with my list was the lack of velocity, which this list more than makes up. Also, the Nylea’s Disciples in the sideboard is a cute idea against red-based decks that like to race, so i’ll be keeping an eye out on that idea as well.
Another Sultai list that cuaght my eye was Dylan Farmer’s ramp deck.
Sultai Ramp
| Creatures (12) 4 Embodiment of Spring 4 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Courser of Kruphix Spells (25) 3 Kiora, the Crashing Wave 4 Dictate of Karametra 3 Aetherspouts 2 Dig Through Time 2 Sultai Charm 4 In Garruk’s Wake 4 Read the Bones 3 Villainous Wealth | Lands (23) 3 Forest 2 Island 2 Swamp 3 Llanowar Wastes 4 Opulent Palace 4 Polluted Delta 4 Yavimaya Coast 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) 2 Hornet Queen 3 Mistcutter Hydra 2 Sultai Ascendancy 1 Empty the Pits 1 Murderous Cut 2 Silence the Believers 1 Sultai Charm 2 Drown in Sorrow 1 Stain the Mind |
This deck is wacky and looks really fun to play! The combo of end-step Dictate of Karametra, untap and Villainous Wealth for a ton seems hilarious, awesome, and surprising as a kill condition. Also, it combo’s so well with In Garruk’s Wake! Once you untap with Dictate out, its very likely you’ll be doing more powerful things than your opponent with all your mana. All you have to do is get there and untap, which makes the matchup against aggro decks pretty weak. It’s definitely a one-trick pony, almost a combo deck, which I find very exciting and is a deck i’d love to try in the near future. But is it good enough to be consistently competitive? It might depend upon the metagame.
One more I think is worth mentioning as a fun odd-ball deck is DJ Keesee’s Izzet Artifact Aggro.
Izzet Artifact Aggro
| Creatures (18) 4 Ornithopter 2 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Scuttling Doom Engine 4 Generator Servant 4 Goblin Rabblemaster 3 Illusory Angel Spells (19) 2 Ghostfire Blade 4 Springleaf Drum 4 Ensoul Artifact 2 Lightning Strike 4 Shrapnel Blast 3 Stoke the Flames | Lands (23) 4 Darksteel Citadel 4 Island 6 Mountain 4 Shivan Reef 4 Temple of Epiphany 1 Temple of Triumph Sideboard (15) 2 Phyrexian Revoker 4 Magma Spray 3 Negate 2 Chandra, Pyromaster 2 Arc Lightning 2 Harness by Force |
This is the best M15 draft deck i’ve ever seen. No, wait, it’s in Standard! But man, is it close to being fully comprised of M15 cards! I’m shocked this deck made it to a top 8 finish, but perhaps the combination of fast starts and an unexpected decklist gave him quite a bit of advantage. The deck can be ridiculously explosive with the right draws, mostly centered around cracking a generator servant for some combination of Illusory Angel, Goblin Rabblemaster, Ornithopter, and Ensoul Artifact on turn 3. So it hits real hard real fast, and there’s something to be said for that. But you can probably hear it between these words that i’m skeptical. After all, i’m not an Affinity guy in moder, and this list reminds me of the modern metal menace.
So, there you have it. Some data, some lists, and hopefully a few ideas off the beaten path from the big finishers this weekend. It’s going to be very exciting to see what happens at the Pro Tour, what the best minds in the game come up with. I for one can’t wait, and until then, i’ll be running some of these lists in a gauntlet.
After a ten-year lapse from Magic, where his favorite combo was Tradewind Rider with Stasis, Derek is back to learn the new-border variant of the game. While less frustrating cards have been printed, he now has to get used to planeswalkers, and people rolling dice when he resolves Hymn to Tourach. He qualified for the Junior Super Series in 1999 at Pro Tour New York, then used his collection to finance his college education. Years later, he works in the fashion industry as a stylist, consultant, and sometime-matchmaker for brands. He loves all things black leather, and is out to journal his level-ups with hopes of playing at the highest competitive level of the game. You can reach him at derek.gallen@gmail.com.