Well it’s that time of week again! The time of week where I get to tell you a little bit about what’s happening in the world of Magic, and give you some insights on it. On the docket for this week are the results from Pro Tour San Diego and some of the decks that we see emerging in the game of Magic. So with that, let’s take a look at the top 8 Standard decks from the Pro Tour:





From these lists we can see that aggro is still the main focus in the current Standard environment. We have a healthy representation of Jund in the final eight, and only one non-aggro deck. One thing that is noticeable, however, is that instead of a format running rampant with fast aggro such as the RDW, WW, or Boros Bushwacker decks, we are seeing them start to scale back (although they are certainly still there) and instead moving more to mid-range decks. This is definitely more noticeable out of the Top 8, where decks such as Big Naya, Jund, and Vampires dominated the top 75 slots. The Top 8 can be a little misleading though. So let’s get into a few of these Top 8 deck lists and do a little analysis.


This deck, the only non-aggro deck to make it into the Top 8, is really an interesting list. It plans on dumping some creatures in the graveyard using cycling, Sphinx of Lost Truths or just breaking over the hand limit, and then casting an Open the Vaults to bring all these guys back on the cheap. Usually among this list is a Filigree Angel to provide a beat-stick as well as shooting your life total into a safe range while you get in there.

I’ve been waiting for this deck to make an appearance for a long time now. Niels Viaene had a fairly poor Standard showing at the Pro Tour, going 6-3-1 with the deck - his break into the Top 8 was off of his stellar Limited play at the end of Day One and the beginning of Day Two. I will say that looking at this list, I don’t see this deck ever making the breakout past a Tier 2 deck. It’s cute, it looks fun, but that’s about it. The deck has a lot of moving parts, and with these expensive spells, and even a mediocre draw, it just doesn't get there.

Next up are the two fast aggro decks. Even though they look remarkably different, I’m going to lump them together as they are really quite similar.



Both of these decks are quite simple, so I’m not going to discuss how to use them too much. They both share the same goal; get your opponent from 20 to 0 as fast as you can. The White Weenie list relies entirely on creatures to get there, and as such we a deck packed full with early drops such as the explosive Steppe Lynx as your one drop, and then a slew of powerful two drops all with some sort of useful ability. The Red Deck, on the other hand, you see has less of a set of low drops, but is more balanced to utilize its mana development to the fullest. Because it has the burn over the top in Burst Lightning, Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, and Quenchable Fire (or over the top while you get in there in the case of Searing Blaze, your theory is that you’re just going to get there, so you just want to do it as fast as you can. One thing that is certainly true with both decks is that you generally don’t care about their side of the board, you don’t care about your own life. You just get in there over and over and over until they’re dead.

Next up on the list is Jund. As much as I still dislike this deck and am enjoying watch its dominance recede, it certainly is still kicking around in the metagame.


One thing I’ve found is that this deck is really no longer a “fast” deck in this format. As such it’s starting to beef up with more long game in Siege-Gang Commander and Explore/Rampant Growth so they start to play more towards their Rock side than their aggro. I would like to take a second to look at the Rampant Growth/Explore addition to the deck.

While people used to try to play Rampant Growth (in pre-Worldwake Jund), I found that with all of the Cascade effects in the deck, hitting a late game Growth was never what you wanted to do. Explore fixes this problem by not being completely dead in the end game, while still giving you acceleration in the early game. When you have nothing in your hand and you’re hit topdeck mode, ripping a Bloodbraid Elf into Explore is still okay, where as hitting the Growth when you already have eight lands is just not going to do anything for you. I certainly agree that the deck enjoys (and maybe needs) the ramp effect, but I would pick Explore for the spot hands down over Rampant Growth. It is what allows the deck to get a leg up in the game, and keeps it as a viable option in this metagame.

Last in the top 8, I want to talk about one of my new favorite archetypes that is emerging in the format. There are a few variants, but they are all G/W/x decks, usually playing with Knight of the Reliquary and a land toolbox that you can build into the deck. Most lists usually splash for Red, but I have also seen Blue and Black splashes (as seen in Daniel Grafensteiner’s deck). Here is Luis Scott-Vargas’s list, which helped him set a new world record by winning 17 games in a row in the Pro Tour:


This deck is finally a really solid Naya build that I’ve been waiting for since Shards of Alara came out. It even is using the Stoneforge Mystic engine that I was describing last week. This deck not only uses the Knight of the Reliquary land toolbox, but it also has the four Ranger of Eos and a toolbox that it can fetch, with more options that you can add post sideboard. Additionally, one of the coolest parts of this decklist is the 4 Cunning Sparkmage in the board. While this card hasn’t been used outside of Limited until now, combine it with the Basilisk Collar and those two cards can single handedly mow down many of the other creature decks in this format. The deck is flexible, powerful, and innovative, and I’m excited to see where it goes and the upcoming season.

Well, once again I have managed to go a bit more involved in my analysis than I had originally planned, so I’m going to stop here for now and just leave you with these Top 8 decks. But come back by next week as I have a few other decks from the Pro Tour that I want to take a closer look at and discuss how they offer a new look at the Standard format!

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