Release weekend has been and gone. The results of the first major Standard tournament are in. The SCG circuit over in the US often provides the sole data sets with which to work from moving towards the Pro Tour. This aspect is further accentuated this time around as the number of 5-0 league decklists from MTGO published on the magic.wizards.com website has been reduced from 10 random lists a day, to 5 random lists a day with the added caveat that there must be at least 10 cards different between each list.
So let’s dive right in to the decks.
Taking home the trophy is Michael Hamilton’s “Four-Colour Control”.
4 Glimmer of Genius
3 Supreme Will
2 Essence Scatter
2 Magma Spray
2 Negate
2 Abrade
2 Censor
2 Cast Out
2 Dovin Baan
2 Fumigate
2 Harnessed Lightning
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Pull from Tomorrow
1 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Radiant Flames

4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Spirebluff Canal
3 Wandering Fumarole
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Aether Hub
2 Port Town
1 Fetid Pools
2 Island
3 Plains
2 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Spell Queller
3 Glorybringer
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Jace’s Defeat
1 Chandra’s Defeat
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Confiscation Coup
1 Radiant Flames
1 Dispel
1 Essence Scatter

It is highly unusual for a control deck to win on week 1. The consensus normally is, that with new untested strategies being fielded, consistent aggressive decks will rise to top as evidenced by the winner of last season’s first SCG Open in Mardu Vehicles as well as others besides. Furthermore, control decks typically rely on tailoring their suite of answers to beat a known metagame.
Not so here.
To put it lightly, this list is rather all over the place. For control, this deck still operates with a reasonably proactive gameplan with a total of 5 planeswalkers to deploy to battlefield. Michael Hamilton has opted for, barring lands, 8 1-ofs and only 1 playset, Glimmer of Genius in his deck perhaps choosing to simply ensure that he has a copy of every card he thinks he may need in the unknown metagame. To this end, Glimmer helps both find relevant cards and scry away those that aren’t needed. Additionally, the energy provided helps fuel Harnessed Lightning (part of a 2/2 split with Abrade) and Aether Hub.
The name Four-Colour Control is a little misleading given that the deck is Jeskai barring the presence of a single Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh as the only black card coming off an essentially free splash due to 4 Aether Hub and 1 Fetid Pool

Hour of Devastation (the card) was the talk of the town coming into the tournament and beyond killing your own Dovin Baan’s (another interesting inclusion), I’m not sure why it isn’t in this list over Fumigate. Sure Fumigate gains you life and perhaps if 6th place Jonathan Job’s Mono-Red Aggro list is to become a mainstay of the format that is what you want in a boardwipe but it’s a stretch.
Hour of Devastation not only kills Gideon amongst other opposing planeswalkers, gets around Avacyn/Selfless Spirit and keeps your Torrential Gearhulk alive but it also deals no damage to your Nicol Bolas, it allows you to play out Nahiri and Jace on curve and they aren’t destroyed by it. Killing your own Gideon post board isn’t even that great of an issue as typically, you’ll side out your 5 mana sweepers when you choose to bring in Gideon.
I do not expect this archetype to become a pillar of the format moving forward. I personally do not believe the incentives are there to warrant playing 3-4 colours. I take nothing away from Michael Hamilton though. He knew his strategy, had a well thought out sideboard plan and played well throughout the tournament. Probably had something to do with why he won.
Moving on.
In 2nd place, we have Jonathan Rossum on W/U Monument.
4 Oketra’s Monument
4 Cloudblazer
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
4 Hanweir Militia Captain
4 Bygone Bishop
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Dusk // Dawn
2 Stasis Snare
2 Metallic Rebuke

4 Prairie Stream
4 Port Town
3 Westvale Abbey
1 Irrigated Farmland
9 Plains
4 Island

Sideboard
3 Angel of Sanctions
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Negate
2 Fragmentize
2 Stasis Snare
2 Nimble Obstructionist

In stark contrast to the previous list, here we see a list with no nonland 1-ofs. A deck brought to the attention of the masses by Todd Anderson’s and Gerry Thompson’s strong Standard runs with the archetype in the SCG Invitational last season, here we see a list with only 2 new cards in the 75 in Nimble Obstructionist in the sideboard.

Unlike the previous list which perhaps should have included Hour of Devastation, this list was touted (by Gerry himself) to have a lost a significant amount of ground due to the release of the card. Destroying wide board states, trumping Selfless Spirit and dodging Spell Queller were all supposed to put this deck on the ropes. But with the deck’s ability to grind out value through cheaper Cloudblazers, Oketra’s Monuments and Dusk // Dawn, it is well positioned against large midrange decks and control with early plays and a midgame stream of chump blockers giving it game against aggressive decks too. I expect this deck to remain a player moving forward in some form or another, even though its gains from Hour from Devastation appear to be minimal.
In the 3rd, we have Zan Syed piloting Four-Colour Emerge.
4 Champion of Wits
4 Grim Flayer
4 Elder Deep-Fiend
4 Haunted Dead
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Vessel of Nascency
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Kozilek’s Return
3 Grapple with the Past
2 Strategic Planning
1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow

4 Evolving Wilds
4 Botanical Sanctum
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Hissing Quagmire
1 Lumbering Falls
4 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Fatal Push
2 Bontu’s Last Reckoning
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Negate
1 Never // Return
1 Manglehorn
1 Distended Mindbender

The Emerge decks gained a lot from Hour of Devastation.

Champion of Wits has breathed new life into an archetype that hasn’t seen major play since the release of Eldritch Moon.
It provides the deck with:
A body for emerging off with Elder Deep-Fiend.
A way of setting up Delirium for Traverse/Grim Flayer/Ishkanah.
A way to put Kozilek’s Return into the graveyard for Elder Deep-Fiend.
A way to put Prized Amalgam and Haunted Dead into graveyard to help facilitate powerful midgame turns.
More targets for your Grapples
The ability to put copies of itself into the graveyard for additional value.
Digging enabling you to reach your payoff cards quicker.
All-in-all it is a great addition to the deck. The deck is at its heart a Sultai deck though calling it Four-Colour here is less of stretch given the playset of Kozilek’s Return off 5 sources. This deck, or perhaps some variant of it, looks well poised for a resurgence in the metagame.
In 4th place, we have a B/G Energy deck. This list is mostly unchanged from last season barring the inclusion of 2 copies of Dreamstealer in the main, 2 Crook of Condemnation in the board and an above average planeswalker count. I question whether Dreamstealer is better than Rishkar, Peema Renegade in a deck including Winding Constrictor but this will likely prove a metagame call. Crook helps fight Delirium and Emerge shenanigans. All of the planeswalkers survive an Hour of Devastation through a natural curve on the play and with no damage taken (relatively normal when playing against control).
5th place Ben Wienburg also piloted W/U Monument, bringing a slight variation on Rossum’s 2nd place list but still with the only new card being Nimble Obstructionist.
6th place Jonathan Job brought Mono-Red Aggro to the party.
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Falkenrath Gorger
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Magma Spray
3 Incendiary Flow
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Eldrazi Obligator
2 Reality Smasher
2 Glorybringer
1 Hazoret the Fervent

4 Sunscorched Desert
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Dunes of the Dead
15 Mountain

Sideboard
2 Abrade
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Invigorated Rampage
2 Hanweir Garrison
1 Incendiary Flow
1 Reality Smasher
1 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Magma Spray
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Glorybringer
1 Hazoret the Fervent

Taking advantage of the newly printed Ramunap Ruins, Job brought an innovative take to Mono-Red to the tournament. Eschewing the normal gameplan of small creatures and burn, Job as gone slightly bigger taking advantage of colourless-producing lands (that also damage his opponent) in order to facilitate Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher in the maindeck. This along with 2 Glorybringer and 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance allow him to play a slightly bigger game. These adaptations and the further addition of Earthshaker Khenra, which allows for chip damage early in combination with Ahn-Crop Crasher, puts the opponent on the backfoot allowing the bigger cards and Eternalize of the Khenra to take over the game.

Rounding out the top 8 we have a fairly stock Mono-Black Zombies list in 7th and in 8th, a Temur Energy list choosing to run 2 copies of a synergy-lite Champion of Wits seeing it as powerful enough even in a non-abusive deck as well as 2 Rhonas the Indomitable (*mutters incoherently about the impact of Hour of Devastation on the format*).

Some old faces and some facelifts but no new faces as yet.
Unless you count Mono-Red.

Which I don’t.

Where do you see the format going? What decks should I looking at going in to the Pro Tour? Let me know in the comments below.