Weekend Review
Howdy folks! After a few weekends away the Weekend Review is back with a look at the two Grand Prix’s that happened this past weekend. Whilst Star City Games took their show to Atlanta to cover the Battle for Zendikar limited action, over in Belgium the European pros were trying their best to shift the Standard metagame in GP Brussels.
Battle for Zendikar limited was the name of the game in Atlanta, where Tom Martell showed that Green was not to be trifled as he took down the Top 8 draft beating Owen Turtenwald in the finals.
Across the pond, Grand Prix Brussels presented a huge shift in the Standard metagame with Lukas Blohon and Simon Nielson deciding the final with their Esper Dragons and 4-Colour Rally decks. These two decks were looking to take advantage of the upswing in the popularity of Abzan.
With a whopping 62 Abzan decks out of 226 players on Day 2, representing 27.4% of the field, the Siege Rhino’s were looking to trample their way to another GP title. Abzan was, by far, the most popular deck choice on Day 2, with the second most popular deck being Dark Jeskai with 25 pilots, and an 11.1% share of the metagame, sandwiched by the blue variety of Abzan which had a further 18 rhino riding pilots. Combined, between just these two varieties, there were 80 pilots sleeving up their Forests, Plains and Swamps! That is a massive 35.4%, so the odds were not good of avoiding the deck on the road to the Top 8.
So let’s have a look at what made Esper Dragons and 4-Colour Rally the decks to be playing in Brussels.
Esper Dragons – Lukas Blohon
1st Place GP Brussels
Creatures: Sideboard:
2 Dragonlord Silumgar 1 Ultimate Price
3 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy 3 Arashin Cleric
Lands: 2 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
1 Shambling Vent 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Flooded Strand 1 Surge of Righteousness
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon 1 Horribly Awry
2 Swamp 1 Infinite Obliteration
4 Polluted Delta 1 Virulent Plague
Spells:
2 Duress
Traditional Esper decks look to control the early game with counter spells and cheap, efficient removal, whilst making their land drops and building towards the late game and this Esper Dragons deck from Blohon was no different. Utilising one of the most powerful blue two-drops to grace the standard game, in Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, the Esper Deck can loot their way to the answers that they need. Eventually they build to a point in the game where they can cast, and even ‘flashback’ Dig Through Time to build an insurmountable amount of card advantage.
Key cards in the Esper Dragons deck are, well, dragons! Dragonlord Ojutai and Dragonlord Silumgar team-up to make a deadly due, both as must-answer threats and give the Esper decks differing points of attacks. Dragonlord Silumgar can help you to catch-up from behind by taking their best threat and making it yours, whilst Dragonlord Ojutai can end games swiftly and add to your cards to ensure that stay ahead.
Silumgar’s Scorn and Foul-Tongue Invocation have always been powerful by doing their best imitations of Counter Spell and a really powerful edict and life-gain effect. Esper Dragons rewards a player who can quickly analyze a match-up and think turns ahead of the opponent, all whilst pivoting and reacting to any surprise top-decks. It’s this flexibility that allows the Esper Dragons deck to shine in the match-ups against Abzan. By controlling their game and building small, incremental advantages, the Esper deck is favoured to win any long-game.
If you prefer a quicker way, and some would say more fun way, to beat Abzan then look no further than Rally the Ancestors:
4-Colour Rally – Simon Nielson
2nd Place Grand Prix Brussels
Creatures: Sideboard:
4 Sidisi’s Faithful 4 Murderous Cut
4 Elvish Visionary 1 Valorous Stance
4 Catacomb Sifter 4 Arashin Cleric
4 Grim Haruspex 2 Dispel
4 Nantuko Husk 2 Duress
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy 2 Abzan Ascendency
Spells:
Lands:
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest
Whilst the deck may resemble a very solid draft deck, with notable commons in the form of Nantuko Husk, Elvish Visionary and Sidisi’s Faithful , if you take these cards and team them with some powerful uncommons in Catacomb Sifter and Zulaport Cutthroat and the powerful Rally the Ancestors, well you have yourselves a COMBO!
What the deck lacks in interaction it makes up for in resilience, the deck is often able to perform a small combo in order to refill the hand and graveyard for a full-blown combo kill a turn or two later. Add in the power of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy to dig you to your combo pieces and you’re looking a solid deck that narrowly missed out on GP title. I would definitely recommend sideboarding some number of Hallowed Moonlight or Infinite Obliteration if you are planning on heading out to an event this coming weekend.
The sideboad Abzan Ascendancy is an interesting choice, and a card I tried myself in this style deck, as it allows you further resiliency when trying to combo by giving you additional creatures to sacrifice. You, also, cannot underestimate the power of giving your whole team +1/+1 counters, suddenly that group of innocuous looking commons becomes a lethal attack.
This is a fun deck, although I would definitely recommend play testing it at home before sleeving it up for your FNM. The version I played last week had no Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, instead I had Gather the Pack and I played Abzan Ascendancy and Liliana, Heretical Healer over the Collected Company. With Gather the Pack over Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy I had less creatures to hit with CoCo and changed my game plan accordingly. Do not let a £200 play-set of one creature stop you playing this deck if you’re a combo lover!
That’s it from me for now folks! Let me know in the comments what your thoughts on the GP were, what will you be playing for FNM or your local PPTQ?
Bonus Deck!
Jund Elves – Love Rask
Day 2 Grand Prix Brusells
Creatures: Sideboard:
4 Gnarlroot Trapper 4 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Dwynen’s Elite 3 Rending Volley
4 Beastcaller Savant 3 Eyeblight Massacre
4 Elvish Visionary 2 Ultimate Price
Spells:
Lands:
3 Forest
3 Swamp
One of my first articles on TrollTraderCards.com was a Jund Elves deck, I liked the idea of swarming the board with a collection of creatures that gave you incremental advantages and finishing with a game-winning Atarka’s Command. It was fantastic to see this deck doing well on Day 2, there were 3 copies out of the 226 players, and would appear that Beastcaller Savant and the Battle lands may have given the deck the extra push that it needed. I know I’ll be looking to sleeve this up for some FNM fun!
