Ally Warfield
Ally Warfield's Standard Simic Nexus
| Planeswalkers (4) 4 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales Spells (23) 1 Callous Dismissal 4 Growth Spiral 4 Opt 2 Sinister Sabotage 4 Chemister’s Insight 4 Nexus of Fate 4 Root Snare Enchantments (7) 3 Search for Azcanta 4 Wilderness Reclamation | Lands (26) 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Memorial to Genius 3 Blast Zone 5 Island 6 Forest Sidboard (15) 3 Negate 3 Biogenic Ooze 2 Crushing Canopy 2 God-Eternal Kefnet 2 Spell Pierce 3 Arboreal Grazer |
It isn’t surprising to anyone that the “Nexus Girl” is recommending a Nexus of Fate deck for week one Standard in SCG Richmond.
I have spent most of my time testing Temur Reclamation and Simic Nexus variants, and I have settled on Simic Nexus being the correct choice for Week 1 of War of the Spark Standard. Without an established metagame, Nexus of Fate decks will likely over-perform this weekend, especially with the powerful War of the Spark additions to this already established and powerful deck.
Blast Zone is one of the most powerful additions to the deck. Blast Zone deals with a lot of problems Simic Nexus struggled with in the past, such as dealing with fast creature strategies. Additionally, Blast Zone has proven to be one of the most effective ways in dealing with other problematic cards out of Esper Control, such as Thief of Sanity and Teferi, Time Traveler. Blast Zone is something that the Temur Reclamation decks are lacking in the new format.
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales is another new all-star for the Simic Nexus decks. She fills the graveyard for a quick transformation of Search for Azcanta, quickly finds Nexus of Fate or Wilderness Reclamation to enable or continue the combo, and returns any key cards from your graveyard to hand. On top of all of this, her passive ability also helps protect against a popular strategy against Nexus decks: discard. Her passive ability is often overlooked, and many of my opponents have forgotten that they could not make me discard or sacrifice permanents with her under my control.
For the sideboard, my notable cards are Narset’s Reversal and God-Eternal Kefnet. Narset’s Reversal is a spell that has grown on me and I have found increasingly powerful in counter wars and sometimes Dovin’s Veto. God-Eternal Kefnet is a good alternative win-con that is hard to get rid of permanently and synergizes well with Tamiyo. I would like to find space in the sideboard for Narset, Parter of Veils, however I still need to test that card more before committing to it for Richmond.
Drake Sasser
Drake Sasser's Standard Simic Nexus
| Planeswalkers (4) 4 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales Spells (23) 1 Commence the Endgame 4 Opt 4 Growth Spiral 1 Sinister Sabotage 4 Chemister’s Insight 4 Root Snare 4 Nexus of Fate 1 Blink of an Eye Enchantments (8) 4 Wilderness Reclamation 4 Search for Azcanta | Lands (25) 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Breeding Pool 3 Memorial to Genius 2 Blast Zone 6 Forest 6 Island Sideboard (15) 2 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Narset’s Reversal 4 Arboreal Grazer 3 Murmuring Mystic 2 Crushing Canopy 3 Negate |
The cat is pretty much out of the bag.
Simic Nexus was one of the top contenders of the previous format and I believe it got the biggest upgrades out of War of the Spark. Despite my affinity for Nexus of Fate decks, I was originally thinking they would not be very well positioned due to the printing of Dovin’s Veto. However when Emma played the deck on VS Live I thought the inclusion of Tamiyo was genius and had to give it a try. The deck was incredible and I found myself wanting Tamiyo more and more until I ended up playing four.
Notably, I still have the Commence the Endgame in my deck despite the general shift towards Callous Dismissal. I believe Dismissal to be a much worse card in most games than Commence and I would much rather have a six mana uncounterable draw two that makes a large creature in my deck than a sorcery bounce spell that makes a 1/1. Overall, listening to Emma has been a winning strategy pretty consistently and I plan to do so again. Tamiyo is broken.
Chad Harney
Chad Harney's Standard Azorious Aggro
| Planeswalkers (2) 2 Gideon Blackblade Creatures (26) 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 2 Hunted Witness 2 Snubhorn Sentry 4 Law-Rune Enforcer 4 Skymarcher Aspirant 4 Benalish Marshal 4 Venerate Loxodon 2 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist Enchantments (12) 4 Legion's Landing 4 History of Benalia 4 Conclave Tribunal | Lands (20) 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Hallowed Fountain 12 Plains Sideboard (15) 4 Baffling End 2 Disdainful Stroke 2 Dovin's Veto 3 Tocatli Honor Guard 1 Island 2 Deputy of Detention 1 Teferi, Time Raveler |
I won’t be attending SCG Richmond, but if I was I’d be sleeving up Savannah Lions. I
‘m never one to get fancy for Week 1 Standard. While everyone else is bringing out their clunky three color piles, or trying to cast Nexus of Fate, you get to cast 2/1s. It’s not exciting, but this deck is consistent, fast, and just got a great new pickup in Gideon Blackblade. I want to be asking the questions Week 1, not the one trying to bring all the answers.
Harlan Firer
Harlan Firer's Standard Simic Stompy
| Creatures (36) 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Pelt Collector 4 Departed Deckhand 2 Kraul Harpooner 3 Merfolk Branchwalker 2 Thorn Lieutenant 4 Steel Leaf Champion 2 Thrashing Brontodon 3 Frilled Mystic 4 Nullhide Ferox 1 God-Eternal Rhonas 3 Ghalta, Primal Hunger Spells (2) 2 Spell Pierce | Lands (22) 4 Breeding Pool 7 Forest 4 Hinterland Harbor 1 Island 2 Simic Guildgate 4 Unclaimed Territory Sideboard (15) 2 Prey Upon 2 Disdainful Stroke 1 Kraul Harpooner 2 Negate 2 Exclusion Mage 2 Thrashing Brontodon 1 Frilled Mystic 3 Vivien Reid |
I’ve settled on Simic Stompy for SCG Richmond this weekend. With the Open being Week 1 Standard, I know I want to be playing a proactive strategy, and what’s more proactive than a turn two Steel Leaf Champion? The real appeal of this deck is how well you can develop your own board each game and press your early advantage, making your control and midrange opponents play into your countermagic, or just slamming monster after monster against your aggro opponent.
I was immediately drawn to this deck because of its positive matchups against Simic Nexus and Mono Red, both of which are strong Week 1 contenders. Registering this specific deck certainly comes with a good bit of risk though—if Mono-White shows up in force, I may be dead in the water, but that’s what the Classics are for right?! I’m hoping the metagame shakes out in my favor, but if not, I’ll still have fun attacking with giant Green creatures backed up by mediocre Blue spells!
Will Pulliam
Will Pulliams' Standard Rakdos Aristocrats
| Creatures (35) 4 Dreadhorde Butcher 4 Lazotep Reaver 4 Judith, the Scourge Diva 4 Gutterbones 2 Rekindling Phoenix 4 Priest of Forgotten Gods 2 God-Eternal Bontu 4 Mayhem Devil 2 Plaguecrafter 4 Grim Initiate 1 Ravenous Chupacabra Spells (2) 2 Lava Coil | Lands (23) 4 Blood Crypt 4 Dragonskull Summit 7 Swamp 8 Mountain Sideboard: (15) 3 Legion Warboss 4 Duress 1 Finale of Eternity 3 Chandra, Fire Artisan 1 Midnight Reaper 1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained 2 Moment of Craving |
I am playing Rakdos Aristocrats at SCG Richmond.
This deck is something I enjoyed playing at the beginning of the last Standard format but it just wasn’t quite there. With War of the Spark, this deck got an entire new engine. God-Eternal Bontu is everything this deck was missing, not only is it a powerful sacrifice outlet, but in combination with Mayhem Devil it is also a powerful finisher in the late game.
Another great addition to this is great is the sideboard cards, cards like Chandra, Fire Artisan and Finale of Eternity, which allow us transform into a midrange deck in post board games. I believe this deck had favorable matchups versus Simic Nexus, Esper Control, and Mono-White, while having the tools to play long games against midrange decks. One thing I can say is that this deck is very complicated so I recommend getting your reps in beforehand.
Brad Carpenter
Brad Carpenter's Standard Azorious Aggro
| Planeswalkers (1) 1 Gideon Blackblade Creatures (27) 3 Adanto Vanguard 4 Benalish Marshal 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 4 Skymarcher Aspirant 4 Snubhorn Sentry 4 Tithe Taker 4 Venerated Loxodon Spells (1) 1 Unbreakable Formation Enchantments (11) 3 Conclave Tribunal 4 History of Benalia 4 Legion’s Landing | Lands (20) 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Hallowed Fountain 12 Plains Sideboard (15) 2 Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants 4 Baffling End 1 Demystify 2 Disdainful Stroke 3 Dovin’s Veto 1 Gideon Blackblade 2 Unbreakable Formation |
This is what I am leaning towards at the moment for the first weekend of War of the Spark standard. The way the format sits, there are too many powerful strategies and too many overall unknowns in the meta. This puts you in an awkward of position of having to pick your matchups. At the moment I believe there are four major checks to the standard meta: Esper/Grixis Control, Simic Nexus, Mono-Red/Wx Aggro, and BGx Midrange decks.
So what are you supposed to do in this position? How do you decide where to take your lumps in this new landscape? It’s in these positions where I like to lean towards one thing: attacking. At the end of the day, being linear and just bashing you’re opponent seems far more appealing than trying to navigate the abysmal Simic Nexus mirror, or trying to figure out what the answers are to questions I don’t even know yet.
I’m opting to play White-based aggro over something like Red as I think White tends to be a little more substantial in the card quality department. The addition of Dovin’s Veto also gives the deck big game vs the control/Nexus decks since they can’t just buy time and wait until they hit six mana to play a Kaya’s Wrath or Wilderness Reclamation with counterspell backup. Gideon Blackblade also ends up being the perfect card against the decks that are great against you.
Even in the worst case scenarios you can always just attempt to beat down and hope its good enough. With a bit of minor disruption and powerful cards like Benalish Marshall and History of Benalia to carry you, I feel pretty comfortable registering Azorious Aggro this weekend.
Austin Collins
Austin Collins's Standard Esper Control
| Planeswalkers (7) 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General 2 Narset, Parter of Veils 4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria Spells (25) 1 Cry of the Carnarium 3 Kaya’s Wrath 4 Thought Erasure 4 Absorb 2 Cast Down 2 Chemister’s Insight 1 Despark 1 Dovin’s Veto 2 Moment of Craving 2 Mortify 3 Vraska’s Contempt Enchantments (2) 2 Search for Azcanta | Lands (26) 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Godless Shrine 4 Hallowed Fountain 1 Island 4 Isolated Chapel 1 Swamp 4 Watery Grave Sideboard (15) 2 Cry of the Carnarium 1 Despark 1 Dovin’s Veto 3 Duress 1 Enter the God-Eternals 2 Hostage Taker 1 Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty 4 Thief of Sanity |
Over the course of the last week I’ve played a lot of Standard, but no deck has felt better than Mono-Red or Esper Control. I expect the monster in this room to likely be UG Nexus, but I think both Red and Esper Control have good matchups against it. Esper has access to very strong cards against Nexus, like Narset, Parter of Veils and Teferi, Time Raveler. I also think Esper now boasts a good Red match up with cards like Enter the God-Eternals. The list that Zarutha, aka Kazu Negri, 5-0ed with looks pretty good, and is pretty close to where I want to be this weekend.