Good people of MTGSalvation, I need your resources and intellects.
Background: There was a time I played standard. I would diligently show up every Friday with my swanky swanky deck, I would play, I would argue tech with the guys at the LGS, and it would be glorious. But then a dread confluence of life events, depression, and Theros block happened, and I stopped doing Standard. In fact, except for my weekly EDH group and prereleases, I largely stopped playing Magic.
But as I stare down this conclusion of the schoolyear and all of its related responsibilities, I find that life has settled down; the depression is in remittance; and oh curses, my EDH playgroup is about to scatter. I now have the time and intellectual energy for a Standard season that everyone and their mom is calling the cat's pajamas.
I want in.
MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL: Where do you go to learn about Standard? Specifically, where do you go to find the decklists, and where do you go to make sense of the decklists? I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT I "SHOULD" PLAY, I want to know what there is *to play* and its viability. I'm trying to avoid situations where I walk in to FNM just to get laughed out because LOL Jeskai Tokens was so 3 months ago.
I watch a lot of SCG's videos on YouTube. Watch their SCG open series feature matches and the deck techs. The deck techs usually focus on non-meta decks though, but you can still get an idea for what might work or find a deck that you personally really like.
There are plenty of viable decks. If you wanted to play something like Jeskai Tokens, it wouldn't be unreasonable to do so. The current standard meta game rotates a lot, so while tokens may not be as good now as it was, there's a chance it will be very good again. Other than that just read through threads in the competitive section.
general youtube browsing is also good. There are many "Unknown" channels in the sense they don't have a large following that also produce good deck techs and stuff that would be good.
Read forums; on here at least the decks are split into "Tiers" of competitiveness.
Read articles from MTG sites. A lot of grinders and pros write articles about standard.
Look at deck statistics for GPs and even MTGO. Being able to look at the meta can give you a good indication of what is being played (and the results their putting up), what is doing well and sometimes you can then make a "metacall" if a deck has enough popularity.
I would start listening to Marshal Sutcliffe's podcast Constructed Resources. Though I do quite strongly disagree with Marshall and E-Fro's vehement disapproval of brewing (they think brewing is a waste of time), other than that the strategy and metagame content is pretty great. They dip into other formats but the vast majority is about Standard.
The other place to look is video series' on Channel Fireball's youtube, particularly Reid Duke, Owen Turtenwald, Caleb Durward and Conley Woods, for the maximum understanding of the play by play and the card choices.
I think the most important thing above deck choice (ie playing a top tier deck like abzan) is sticking with one deck and knowing it inside and out. Your opponent may come with a top tier deck but if they don't know how to play it and you know how to play your deck, you will win (outside of the random lucksack draws of course).
You obviously want your deck to have some form of synergy and competitiveness but the amount of times you win just by knowing how to play your deck can be substantial. That's why someone like Owen Turtenwald does so well; he sticks with a deck until he masters it and in the process garners a high win rate as opposed to someone at your local fnm who switches decks every week.
Background: There was a time I played standard. I would diligently show up every Friday with my swanky swanky deck, I would play, I would argue tech with the guys at the LGS, and it would be glorious. But then a dread confluence of life events, depression, and Theros block happened, and I stopped doing Standard. In fact, except for my weekly EDH group and prereleases, I largely stopped playing Magic.
But as I stare down this conclusion of the schoolyear and all of its related responsibilities, I find that life has settled down; the depression is in remittance; and oh curses, my EDH playgroup is about to scatter. I now have the time and intellectual energy for a Standard season that everyone and their mom is calling the cat's pajamas.
I want in.
MY QUESTION TO YOU ALL: Where do you go to learn about Standard? Specifically, where do you go to find the decklists, and where do you go to make sense of the decklists? I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT I "SHOULD" PLAY, I want to know what there is *to play* and its viability. I'm trying to avoid situations where I walk in to FNM just to get laughed out because LOL Jeskai Tokens was so 3 months ago.
My thanks.
There are plenty of viable decks. If you wanted to play something like Jeskai Tokens, it wouldn't be unreasonable to do so. The current standard meta game rotates a lot, so while tokens may not be as good now as it was, there's a chance it will be very good again. Other than that just read through threads in the competitive section.
Read articles from MTG sites. A lot of grinders and pros write articles about standard.
Look at deck statistics for GPs and even MTGO. Being able to look at the meta can give you a good indication of what is being played (and the results their putting up), what is doing well and sometimes you can then make a "metacall" if a deck has enough popularity.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
The other place to look is video series' on Channel Fireball's youtube, particularly Reid Duke, Owen Turtenwald, Caleb Durward and Conley Woods, for the maximum understanding of the play by play and the card choices.
You obviously want your deck to have some form of synergy and competitiveness but the amount of times you win just by knowing how to play your deck can be substantial. That's why someone like Owen Turtenwald does so well; he sticks with a deck until he masters it and in the process garners a high win rate as opposed to someone at your local fnm who switches decks every week.
Knowledge of the format is certainly key though.
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