First of all, I should point out that I haven't played any Standard in 3 or 4 years. All I really know is that vehicle aggro is the big thing right now, but I don't want to play that. My local store just started a Standard League on a night that I can actually play, so I put this together. I don't need something Tier 1, just good enough to play in that local League that I actually enjoy playing. The meta seems to be mostly aggro, with one or two midrange/Planeswalker decks and one guy on Aetherflux Reservoir combo.
New Chandra would fit perfectly in here, and I intend to replace the Hedron Archive if I can get her cheap enough.
I know 24 land seems light for this kind of deck, but I seem to be flooded more often than not. I just cut the 4th Attune to add a 3rd Thing.
The fact that aggro is so good right now has been a problem for me because people are packing more removal than I have threats. Even if they spend removal on my Servants, they still have something ready in hand for my 8/8 or awakened land. I haven't been able to actually attack with anything yet. I'm thinking that I want to find room for a 3rd Dynavolt Tower, I just need to figure out what I should cut for it.
I would like to get some sort of artifact hate into the board, but Appetite for the Unnatural looks like the best option and I'm not sure if its actually good.
I can't decide if Jaddi Offshoot is good yet, or if I should just play more removal in that space. I think if I keep it I should fit a few Evolving Wilds in the deck.
I like the deck you have and I have been working on a similar "energy ramp" type idea. Mine is slightly more combo but it plays like a traditional control deck with inevitability built in. Here is my current list minus the land base:
The idea is to keep the early threats off of the board with your burn and mass removal and countering everything that threatens to stop you from winning in a single shot once you are ready to kill your opponent. The deck plays similar to counter-burn or draw-go and most of the cards provide extra value. The real kills come from either a steady ping from Dynavolt Tower plus other "burn" type cards, a combination of Era of Innovation and Fateful Showdown chaining to build your hand up and hit the opponent for 7+ damage (considered/ing Mirror Pool to copy it for more combo fun), or just ticking up Chandra to her ultimate and win through playing any spell(s). The Marvel Works may be too cute but if you have enough energy built up you can chain Tower activations, Era sac's, another Marvel and possible activation, or Fateful showdown for a final kill - and all of that can happen on your opponents turn.....again though, it may be too cute.
I went 3-1 last night with the list I posted above. I beat U/R Spells, then G/B Delirium to start with. Lost to a budget R/W humans aggro that just came out too fast with a bunch of 1-drops for me to stabilize, then beat a more normal R/W Vehicle aggro. All the spot removal seemed to perform better against the vehicle decks, because I could kill the real creatures and ignore a couple vehicles long enough to hit my late game stuff.
I haven't come to any new conclusions so far, my first impressions seem to still be mostly accurate for this week. I still want to fit another Dynavolt Tower somewhere - I think the combination of Tower and Thing In the Ice/Octopus tokens works out well, because the aggro decks can't really spare enough space for both creature removal and artifact hate without diluting their own game plan and getting slower. Fall of the Titans has been great for me, even when it's just for X=2 to get a couple small creatures out of the way. I was on the fence with Nissa's Renewal, but the life gain added onto the extra mana has made a huge difference.
The mana base needs some work, but that's just going to take some more playing and tweaking. There have been a couple games where too many lands come into play tapped, but between Attune, Servant, and Aether Hub I've always had the colors I need so far.
I've brought Offshoot in a few times but have not actually drawn it yet, so I still can't say how good it is. I think I want to replace it anyway, as soon as I figure out what should go in those spots. I probably want the 4th Radiant Flames, but I'm not sure what else. I haven't played any matches where I wanted to bring Visions in, so I might look into switching at least one of those out as well. My main issue with the board so far has been figuring out what to take out against aggro, since there are so many cards to bring in. I need to work out an actual plan for what swaps I need to make in each matchup so that I can line things up better, but that's just going to take more testing. I don't get a lot of play time, so that's going to take some time to figure out.
Your list looks interesting, but I feel like you're going for something different. That looks closer to a combo deck than what I'm looking for, where you're just trying to stall long enough to set up a specific thing that ends the game almost on the spot. I'm trying to play more of a board-control strategy, where I block my opponent from doing anything and resolve a threat that they can't deal with. I don't have nearly enough artifacts for Era of Innovation, and I run too low on cards for Fateful Showdown to be worth 4. Aether Marvelworks doesn't work for me, because my big spells rely on Surge or Awaken so they lose a lot if cast through Marvelworks. I'm not saying it's bad, I honestly have no clue since I've only played the format a couple times, but I can tell that it's a different deck than I'm working towards.
Nice decks. I went a slightly different route, Using the spells and Tower to build up Energy and then drop a hydra and finish with him. I was thinking Aethersquall Ancient may be a solid choice as a finisher in this as well.
Nice decks. I went a slightly different route, Using the spells and Tower to build up Energy and then drop a hydra and finish with him. I was thinking Aethersquall Ancient may be a solid choice as a finisher in this as well.
HurleyV- Looking at what is currently being played, which seems to be mostly aggro decks currently, I think 6 is enough. It would take 9 energy to get the Hydra out of range, and by then I should be able to cast Part with Awaken and end the game on my extra turn. THe hydra should always be ahead of the number of Islands and be safe from the bounce.
It is entirely possible to cut some of the red sources and add an Island or two.
Bristling Hydra is something I skipped over since I was building a mostly-spells deck, but it looks like something that might work well in my sideboard for removal-heavy decks. I usually build up enough energy by the time I would play it that I could give it hexproof two or three times right away, so it might be exactly the resilient threat that I'm looking for in those matchups. I'll have to test that one out when I get a chance.
The hydra works rather well. I'm often able to play him and Part. Pump him twice and Engulf then start swinging for the win. I'm thinking I will run this at Game Day this weekend.
I haven't been able to play any in the last week or so, but here's what I can say about it based on my last couple times out.
Personally, I feel like if you're going to run green it might as well add to your mana fixing. If you're not using energy at all, I might go with Traverse the Ulvenwald, plus one or two Torrential Gearhulk to find if you hit delirium. But even with just Lightning, Attune With Aether would really help to kill some x/4 or 5 stuff.
If your only green is for Nissa's Renewal, it may not be worth stretching your mana base when there are things like Hedron Archive available. That said, dropping green also means that Radiant Flames probably has to go (Aether Hub alone isn't enough to rely on hitting for 3 early), and Flames seems to be the best sweeper against the red aggro decks as well as any Zombie decks that may be around. Caravan could be enough to help with the Converge, and you also run more spot removal than I do, but I still would look into other options if you decide to cut green. If you do go two colors then you might add enough basic Islands to run Engulf the Shore
Metallurgic Summonings is something I looked at, but in my list I feel like I can't afford to spend turn 5 or 6 playing something that doesn't effect the board. Again, the extra spot removal might make a difference, but I would still be worried about my hand being clogged up with more than one copy in the early game. If I ran it at all, I certainly wouldn't want the full 4.
Crush has never felt like a bad draw for me, but I've only played in my local meta, which is virtually all aggro and midrange. I've cast it without Surge a few times just to clear the board - sometimes it buys me the time I need to stabilize, sometimes it just stalls because I don't draw anything else in time. I'm not saying 100% that it's a staple, I could end up moving more into a full-on Dynavolt Tower build that doesn't worry about a board reset, but until I play a game where I'm unhappy to draw at least one copy I'm going to stick with running 3.
Thing in the Ice is great in the deck. He's an excellent early blocker, survives a Flames on 3, and becomes a significant win condition pretty quickly. I've found that having 3 TitI along with 3 Crush has made a big difference in being able to get/keep a good threat on the board before the opponent has time to rebuild from early removal.
The full 4 Part the Waterveil seems like a lot. I see what you're going for with that and Summonings, but I'm sure that between 8 copies of those two cards you're going to have a lot of very slow opening hands that just fold to aggro. Even with just two in my list I've already had games where I draw more copies than I want to see. Eight draw spells should be enough that you can cut at least one copy of each and still be able to find them once you're stabilized and ready to start winning.
Played in a small Game Day today, only 10 people. I went 3-1, which was good enough for the cut to top four.
Round one I beat U/B Zombies. Lost game one, because the deck is just a bad matchup for me. After sideboard I get exile effects and lower my curve, which makes a big difference. After stabilizing in a long game, I won game two with Crush of Tentacles surged, next turn hit for 8 and Part the Waterveil awakened, then Chandra on my extra turn to hit for everything. I expected to draw game 3 because we started with like 4 minutes on the clock, but my opening hand had Thing in the Ice, Dynavolt Tower, and Fall of the Titans. After ignoring a couple creatures to burn his face with Fall and a Tower activation, I top-decked Attune with Aether on Turn 4 after time, which was just the right card to flip Thing, give me enough energy to use Tower, and attack with a Lumbering Falls for 13 with him at 12 life.
Round two I beat the same zombies list. Exact same 60, the first guy built this guy's list right before the tournament started but just threw together a sideboard of what he had in front of him. I got lucky in this match because he just kept two slow hands, and both times I stuck an early Chandra while I had a Tower up to keep her alive and hitting for 6. Second game I used a Part without awaken after he tapped out trying to kill Chandra, so attacking with her twice plus activating Tower finished him off.
Round three lost to G/W midrange. His creatures just got too big for my removal, and in a couple games I was stuck on 5 lands and drawing nothing but 6-cost spells. At one point the four cards in my hand were Crush, Part the Waterveil, 6-drop Chandra, and Nissa's Renewal while I had five lands in play.
Last round I was paired against a guy playing an unfinished Aetherworks Marvel deck that wasn't planning to stay for the top 4 cut, so he agreed that if he won we could call it a draw which (I think) would have put me into the top 4. After going 1-1 and using up most of our time he just conceded to me, which put me into 2nd place.
First round of the top 4 I played against the same zombies deck as round two. Unfortunately, this time he got good opening hands and I couldn't do anything. Game three I kept a hand with 2 Thing in the Ice, which has been my best way to the game against that deck so far, but every draw step after that was land-land-3rd Thing-land-one spell that was entirely too late. I got all three of my Things, but was only able to cast one actual spell the whole game.
So it looks like there are more Zombies lists showing up locally, which means I really need to figure out how to beat them. I may need to move some Incendiary Flows to the main for a better game one, and I would like to find some kind of decent graveyard hate for the sideboard. I'm not sure if that exists right now.
Aetherworks Marvel also seems like a rough matchup. This is the first time I've played against it, but it seemed like most of my answers lined up pretty poorly. I'm thinking I either need more counterspells to stop their thing from going off, or I need to be able to go more aggressive after sideboarding. I'm pretty sure Longtusk Cub is the way I would go aggro if that's the angle I take, just have to play more matches to figure that out.
I played in Gameday with my version from above and went 1-3. Two losses to G/W midrange and one to Esper control. I lost three games to mana screw, one of the Esper games to a misplay on my part and the G/W just got set up way to early.
The field was a fair mix of decks, vehicles, midrange, and some homebrews.
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Here's where I'm at right now -
4 Harnessed Lightning
3 Anticipate
1 Aether Meltdown
2 Scatter to the Winds
3 Radiant Flames
3 Crush of Tentacles
2 Part the Waterveil
1 Nissa's Renewal
1 Fall of the Titans
4 Servant of the Conduit
3 Thing In the Ice
2 Dynavolt Tower
2 Hedron Archive
4 Forest
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Aether Hub
2 Wandering Fumarole
3 Lumbering Falls
2 Botanical Sanctum
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Game Trail
1 Cinder Glade
4 Incendiary Flow
3 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Weaver of Lightning
3 Fevered Visions
2 Negate
1 Deadlock Trap
New Chandra would fit perfectly in here, and I intend to replace the Hedron Archive if I can get her cheap enough.
I know 24 land seems light for this kind of deck, but I seem to be flooded more often than not. I just cut the 4th Attune to add a 3rd Thing.
The fact that aggro is so good right now has been a problem for me because people are packing more removal than I have threats. Even if they spend removal on my Servants, they still have something ready in hand for my 8/8 or awakened land. I haven't been able to actually attack with anything yet. I'm thinking that I want to find room for a 3rd Dynavolt Tower, I just need to figure out what I should cut for it.
I would like to get some sort of artifact hate into the board, but Appetite for the Unnatural looks like the best option and I'm not sure if its actually good.
I can't decide if Jaddi Offshoot is good yet, or if I should just play more removal in that space. I think if I keep it I should fit a few Evolving Wilds in the deck.
I like the deck you have and I have been working on a similar "energy ramp" type idea. Mine is slightly more combo but it plays like a traditional control deck with inevitability built in. Here is my current list minus the land base:
2 Disappearing act
2 Negate
3 Dynavolt tower
2 Harnessed Lightning
3 fateful showdown
3 era of innovation
4 Attune with Aether
4 Galvanic Bombardment
3 Radiant Flames
2 Fall of the titans
3 Chandra Torch of Defiance
2 Aether Marvelworks
The idea is to keep the early threats off of the board with your burn and mass removal and countering everything that threatens to stop you from winning in a single shot once you are ready to kill your opponent. The deck plays similar to counter-burn or draw-go and most of the cards provide extra value. The real kills come from either a steady ping from Dynavolt Tower plus other "burn" type cards, a combination of Era of Innovation and Fateful Showdown chaining to build your hand up and hit the opponent for 7+ damage (considered/ing Mirror Pool to copy it for more combo fun), or just ticking up Chandra to her ultimate and win through playing any spell(s). The Marvel Works may be too cute but if you have enough energy built up you can chain Tower activations, Era sac's, another Marvel and possible activation, or Fateful showdown for a final kill - and all of that can happen on your opponents turn.....again though, it may be too cute.
Let me know your thoughts.
I haven't come to any new conclusions so far, my first impressions seem to still be mostly accurate for this week. I still want to fit another Dynavolt Tower somewhere - I think the combination of Tower and Thing In the Ice/Octopus tokens works out well, because the aggro decks can't really spare enough space for both creature removal and artifact hate without diluting their own game plan and getting slower. Fall of the Titans has been great for me, even when it's just for X=2 to get a couple small creatures out of the way. I was on the fence with Nissa's Renewal, but the life gain added onto the extra mana has made a huge difference.
The mana base needs some work, but that's just going to take some more playing and tweaking. There have been a couple games where too many lands come into play tapped, but between Attune, Servant, and Aether Hub I've always had the colors I need so far.
I've brought Offshoot in a few times but have not actually drawn it yet, so I still can't say how good it is. I think I want to replace it anyway, as soon as I figure out what should go in those spots. I probably want the 4th Radiant Flames, but I'm not sure what else. I haven't played any matches where I wanted to bring Visions in, so I might look into switching at least one of those out as well. My main issue with the board so far has been figuring out what to take out against aggro, since there are so many cards to bring in. I need to work out an actual plan for what swaps I need to make in each matchup so that I can line things up better, but that's just going to take more testing. I don't get a lot of play time, so that's going to take some time to figure out.
Your list looks interesting, but I feel like you're going for something different. That looks closer to a combo deck than what I'm looking for, where you're just trying to stall long enough to set up a specific thing that ends the game almost on the spot. I'm trying to play more of a board-control strategy, where I block my opponent from doing anything and resolve a threat that they can't deal with. I don't have nearly enough artifacts for Era of Innovation, and I run too low on cards for Fateful Showdown to be worth 4. Aether Marvelworks doesn't work for me, because my big spells rely on Surge or Awaken so they lose a lot if cast through Marvelworks. I'm not saying it's bad, I honestly have no clue since I've only played the format a couple times, but I can tell that it's a different deck than I'm working towards.
2 Bristling Hydra
Spells (33)
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Engulf the Shores
4 Natural Connection
3 Radiant Flames
4 Glimmer of Genius
4 Dynavolt Tower
1 Nissa's Renewal
1 Seasons Past
4 Part the Waterveil
3 Cinder Glade
2 Aether Hub
5 Forest
6 Island
2 Lumbering Falls
4 Mountain
2 Wandering Fumarole
3 Natural State
3 Negate
3 Clip Wings
2 Ceremonious Rejection
4 Fevered Visions
6 islands worth playing engulf?
It is entirely possible to cut some of the red sources and add an Island or two.
Personally, I feel like if you're going to run green it might as well add to your mana fixing. If you're not using energy at all, I might go with Traverse the Ulvenwald, plus one or two Torrential Gearhulk to find if you hit delirium. But even with just Lightning, Attune With Aether would really help to kill some x/4 or 5 stuff.
If your only green is for Nissa's Renewal, it may not be worth stretching your mana base when there are things like Hedron Archive available. That said, dropping green also means that Radiant Flames probably has to go (Aether Hub alone isn't enough to rely on hitting for 3 early), and Flames seems to be the best sweeper against the red aggro decks as well as any Zombie decks that may be around. Caravan could be enough to help with the Converge, and you also run more spot removal than I do, but I still would look into other options if you decide to cut green. If you do go two colors then you might add enough basic Islands to run Engulf the Shore
Metallurgic Summonings is something I looked at, but in my list I feel like I can't afford to spend turn 5 or 6 playing something that doesn't effect the board. Again, the extra spot removal might make a difference, but I would still be worried about my hand being clogged up with more than one copy in the early game. If I ran it at all, I certainly wouldn't want the full 4.
Crush has never felt like a bad draw for me, but I've only played in my local meta, which is virtually all aggro and midrange. I've cast it without Surge a few times just to clear the board - sometimes it buys me the time I need to stabilize, sometimes it just stalls because I don't draw anything else in time. I'm not saying 100% that it's a staple, I could end up moving more into a full-on Dynavolt Tower build that doesn't worry about a board reset, but until I play a game where I'm unhappy to draw at least one copy I'm going to stick with running 3.
Thing in the Ice is great in the deck. He's an excellent early blocker, survives a Flames on 3, and becomes a significant win condition pretty quickly. I've found that having 3 TitI along with 3 Crush has made a big difference in being able to get/keep a good threat on the board before the opponent has time to rebuild from early removal.
The full 4 Part the Waterveil seems like a lot. I see what you're going for with that and Summonings, but I'm sure that between 8 copies of those two cards you're going to have a lot of very slow opening hands that just fold to aggro. Even with just two in my list I've already had games where I draw more copies than I want to see. Eight draw spells should be enough that you can cut at least one copy of each and still be able to find them once you're stabilized and ready to start winning.
Round one I beat U/B Zombies. Lost game one, because the deck is just a bad matchup for me. After sideboard I get exile effects and lower my curve, which makes a big difference. After stabilizing in a long game, I won game two with Crush of Tentacles surged, next turn hit for 8 and Part the Waterveil awakened, then Chandra on my extra turn to hit for everything. I expected to draw game 3 because we started with like 4 minutes on the clock, but my opening hand had Thing in the Ice, Dynavolt Tower, and Fall of the Titans. After ignoring a couple creatures to burn his face with Fall and a Tower activation, I top-decked Attune with Aether on Turn 4 after time, which was just the right card to flip Thing, give me enough energy to use Tower, and attack with a Lumbering Falls for 13 with him at 12 life.
Round two I beat the same zombies list. Exact same 60, the first guy built this guy's list right before the tournament started but just threw together a sideboard of what he had in front of him. I got lucky in this match because he just kept two slow hands, and both times I stuck an early Chandra while I had a Tower up to keep her alive and hitting for 6. Second game I used a Part without awaken after he tapped out trying to kill Chandra, so attacking with her twice plus activating Tower finished him off.
Round three lost to G/W midrange. His creatures just got too big for my removal, and in a couple games I was stuck on 5 lands and drawing nothing but 6-cost spells. At one point the four cards in my hand were Crush, Part the Waterveil, 6-drop Chandra, and Nissa's Renewal while I had five lands in play.
Last round I was paired against a guy playing an unfinished Aetherworks Marvel deck that wasn't planning to stay for the top 4 cut, so he agreed that if he won we could call it a draw which (I think) would have put me into the top 4. After going 1-1 and using up most of our time he just conceded to me, which put me into 2nd place.
First round of the top 4 I played against the same zombies deck as round two. Unfortunately, this time he got good opening hands and I couldn't do anything. Game three I kept a hand with 2 Thing in the Ice, which has been my best way to the game against that deck so far, but every draw step after that was land-land-3rd Thing-land-one spell that was entirely too late. I got all three of my Things, but was only able to cast one actual spell the whole game.
So it looks like there are more Zombies lists showing up locally, which means I really need to figure out how to beat them. I may need to move some Incendiary Flows to the main for a better game one, and I would like to find some kind of decent graveyard hate for the sideboard. I'm not sure if that exists right now.
Aetherworks Marvel also seems like a rough matchup. This is the first time I've played against it, but it seemed like most of my answers lined up pretty poorly. I'm thinking I either need more counterspells to stop their thing from going off, or I need to be able to go more aggressive after sideboarding. I'm pretty sure Longtusk Cub is the way I would go aggro if that's the angle I take, just have to play more matches to figure that out.
The field was a fair mix of decks, vehicles, midrange, and some homebrews.