Howdy folks, it’s that time of the week where we take a look at the weekend just gone and see what morsels of information  we can extract from the results of the major constructed events. This weekend saw the release of Shadows Over Innistrad and the first Standard came courtesy of the SCG Tour from Baltimore.

Before we dive in to the Standard action, I want to take a look at the Modern classic, this is the first chance that players have had to play and construct decks following the updates to the Banned and Restricted list. Most of the talk, following the banned list announcement, has been around the resurgence of blue control decks with the unbanning of Ancestral Visions, the best basis for Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek combo and whether Eldrazi, or even Tron, could continue to be a player with the banning of Eye of Ugin? So which of these decks took down the classic? The answer;

1st Place – SGC Modern Classic, Baltimore

Scapeshift – Daryl Ayers

Creatures:

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

Spells:

4 Prismatic Omen

4 Cryptic Command

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Remand

4 Explore

2 Farseek

4 Scapeshift

4 Serum Visions

Lands:

1 Forest

3 Island

1 Mountain

1 Breeding Pool

4 Flooded Grove

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Steam Vents

4 Stomping Ground

4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sideboard:

3 Obstinate Baloth

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

2 Dispel

2 Nature’s Claim

2 Sudden Shock

3 Ancestral Vision

2 Shatterstorm

I must admit, I am not too surprised to see an pre-existing archetype won the Classic in Baltimore. Whilst other players are scrabbling about trying to assemble the best 75 cards for the recently unbanned cards, having the knowledge and practice with your deck will often overcome the sheer power of newer decks. There is nothing innovative or exciting about the main deck, with the exception being the inclusion of Prismatic Omen. An enchantment that sets all of your lands in to play to being a mountain is certainly powerful in a deck that cares about the number of mountains in play, but the downside is it can just be a card that gets stuck in your hand or a card that has no impact when it hits the battlefield.

I am, however, quite surprised that there were no cards from the recent unbanning in the entire Top 8! The best performing deck was the 10th Place Grixis Control deck, featuring 4 Ancestral Visions, with the highest placed Thopter-Sword deck finishing in a respectable 19th Place:

19th Place – SCG Modern Classic, Baltimore

U/W Foundry – Fred Edelkamp

Creatures:

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Spells:

4 Chromatic Star

3 Conjurer’s Bauble

4 Ichor Wellspring

4 Krark-Clan Ironworks

4 Prophetic Prism

4 Sword of the Meek

2 Terrarion

4 Thopter Foundry

3 Ghirapur Aether Grid

4 Mox Opal

4 Open the Vaults

Lands:

4 Darksteel Citadel

2 Island

2 Plains

4 Flooded Strand

3 Glimmervoid

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Mystic Gate

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Academy Ruins

Sideboard:

1 Engineered Explosives

1 Ancient Grudge

4 Erase

3 Hurkyl’s Recall

3 Path to Exile

1 Silence

2 Surgical Extraction

This version of the Thopter-Sword combo is exactly that, a combo! The decks looks to play out the early game and assemble the Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek in play, usually with the sword in the graveyard. Then, through Krark-Clan Ironworks, the deck is able to make an infinite amount of colourless mana by:

Step 1 – Make a Thopter, return the Sword of the Meek to play

Step 2 – Sacrificing the Thopter token to the Krak-Clan Ironworks and adding 2 mana

Step 3 – Sacrificing the Sword to the Foundry to make a Thopter, using the floated mana, and return Sword

Step 4 – Repeat the above steps for infinite tokens, life and mana

Step 5 – ?????

Five simple steps to win the game, sounds easy right? Well not exactly, the deck requires set-up through the initial turns and needs to draw the combo pieces through Chromatic Star, Ichor Wellspring and Terrarion. The deck also needs to survive the splash damage from dedicated artifact hate and any graveyard hate, luckily the deck can fight these answers with sideboard cards of its own in the form of Erase, Silence and Engineered Explosives.

So there is a brief look at the first results from a modern tournament post B&R announcement. So now, it’s time to look at SOI Standard for the very first time.

One of the most talked about, potential, archetypes leading up to the weekend was Black/Red vampires, with cards like Olivia, Mobilised for War, Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet shouting out for attention, however it was the humans who stood loud and proud at the SCG Tour and dominated the day 2 metagame. The 10 biggest archetypes, of 134 players, were;

Archetype               No. of Players                          Metagame %

W/U Humans         23                                              17.2%

W/B Midrange       15                                               11.2%

Bant Company      13                                                 9.7%

G/R Eldrazi             11                                                 8.2%

W/B Eldrazi            10                                                  7.5%

Esper Dragons        7                                                   5.2%

W/G Humans          7                                                   5.2%

R/W Eldrazi             6                                                    4.5%

G/W Tokens            5                                                    3.8%

Mono-Red Eldrazi  4                                                    3.1%

W/U Humans – Collin Styles

6th Place SCG Tour, Baltimore

Creatures:

4 Archangel of Tithes

3 Consul’s Lieutenant

4 Knight of the White Orchid

4 Reflector Mage

4 Thalia’s Lieutenant

4 Thraben Inspector

2 Archangel Avacyn

2 Dragonlord Ojutai

2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros

Spells:

3 Always Watching

4 Declaration in Stone

Lands:

12 Plains

2 Meandering River

4 Port Town

4 Prairie Stream

2 Westvale Abbey

Sideboard:

2 Stasis Snare

1 Dispel

3 Negate

2 Ojutai’s Command

2 Surge of Righteousness

1 Dragonlord Ojutai

3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 Tragic Arrogance

I should start by noting that the Mono-White Humans deck finished in 2nd place, however that is a more ‘all-in’ strategy and I’ve chosen to look at one of the other Human decks because I think it can be more customisable from week to week. The archetype, as a whole, looks to use the synergy between cheap Human creatures and creating an imposing presence through Thalia’s Lieutenant and Always Watching. This deck has access to one of the best removal spells in the format, Declaration in Stone, and arguable one of the strongest creatures from the last season of Standard in Reflector Mage.

Kytheon, Hero of Akros gets the nod over his bigger BFZ brother as he can attack earlier in the game and is often flipped a turn earlier. Dragonlord Ojutai and Archangel of Tithes team up with Always Watching to creature one heck of a vanguard, with Angel taxing your opponent to attack and block.

The biggest weakness to the archetype is going to be sweepers, cards like Languish, Kozilek’s Return and Radiant Flames are going to be able to wipe away the majority of the board whilst spot removal takes care of Dragonlord Ojutai and Archangel of Tithes.

I think the deck was a good week one choice, given the lack of a good aggressive red deck, but it will certainly have put a target on it’s head leading in to the Pro Tour. The deck that won the SCG Tour was one that was rising to prominence, in the face of Rally the Ancestors, towards the end of the last Standard season:

Bant Company – Jim Davis

1st Place SCG Tour, Baltimore

Creatures:

4 Bounding Krasis

1 Den Protector

4 Duskwatch Recruiter

1 Hidden Dragonslayer

4 Reflector Mage

4 Sylvan Advocate

2 Tireless Tracker

2 Archangel Avacyn

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

Spells:

4 Collected Company

3 Dromoka’s Command

1 Ojutai’s Command

Lands:

3 Forest

2 Island

3 Plains

3 Canopy Vista

4 Evolving Wilds

1 Fortified Village

4 Lumbering Falls

1 Port Town

4 Prairie Stream

Sideboard:

1 Den Protector

1 Hidden Dragonslayer

2 Lantern Scout

1 Tireless Tracker

2 Invocation of Saint Traft

2 Clip Wings

3 Negate

1 Ojutai’s Command

2 Declaration in Stone

In the culminating weeks of spoiler season we were told that 3 colour decks were over, the mana was simply not there to support them anymore, well….. it seems that was wrong! Being in a ‘shard’ such as Bant, Jund, Grixis, Naya or Esper gives you access to the Battle Lands and the Shadow Lands (whether you want all of them in your deck is another question altogether), but it seems that 3 colour mana-bases are fairly reliable. Having watched the coverage I did not see many players struggle for coloured mana, and those who did had often mulliganed at least once.

The Bant Company deck is an exciting and powerful deck that looks to take advantage of the 3 CMC (or less) creatures that are in Standard and wants to play on its opponents turn as much as possible. A lot of the creature base has ported over from the previous iteration of the deck, with cards like Bounding Krasis, Sylvan Advocate, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Reflector Mage having shown us their muscles plenty of times. However Jace and co. have decided to bring along some new friends to party such as Tireless Tracker and Duskwatch Recruiter and do they know how to party!

Duskwatch Recruiter and Tireless Tracker are both card advantage creatures, a combination that often screams playability! Tireless Tracker can get really big in the mid to late game as he helps you piece together the clues on how to beat your opponent, whilst Duskwatch Recruiter allows you to pass the turn, transform him and use your mana in your opponents end step.

With access to cards like Declaration in Stone in the sideboard, as well as Lantern Scout, Clip Wings and Negate, the deck can change after sideboard to combat a variety of threats! An interesting sideboard card in Innvocation of St Traft, with the card included as a way to greatly increase your clock against the ramp decks.

So we now know what two of the biggest archetypes are, so how do we beat them? Personally I think Jeff Hoogland might have had the start of something here:

119th Place – SCG Tour, Baltimore

G/B Midrange – Jeff Hoogland

Creatures:

2 Deathcap Cultivator

1 Den Protector

4 Matter Reshaper

4 Sylvan Advocate

4 Thought-Knot Seer

1 World Breaker

3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

3 The Gitrog Monster

Spells:

1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited

2 Pulse of Murasa

2 Spatial Contortion

2 Ultimate Price

2 Languish

3 Ruinous Path

Lands:

4 Forest

3 Swamp

1 Wastes

3 Blighted Fen

2 Drownyard Temple

4 Evolving Wilds

4 Hissing Quagmire

4 Llanowar Wastes

1 Warped Landscape

Sideboard:

2 Virulent Plague

2 Clip Wings

1 Ultimate Price

2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

2 Duress

1 Languish

4 Transgress the Mind

Hoogland’s list is an excellent starting point, and bears many similarities to the Jund list that I wrote about last week. I believe the best place to be in the current format is with a deck that has Languish, spot removal such as Ultimate Price, To the Slaughter and Ruinous Path and resilient threats such as Mindwrack Demon, Den Protector, The Gitrog Monster and World Breaker.

Next week gives us limited Grand Prix and the SCG Invitational in Columbus, so there will be even more constructed data to review ahead of the Pro Tour. What are your plans to beat the Humans and Company? Or do you plan on joining ranks with them?

Let us know in the comments below!