The Current Standard #5

Planeswalker(2)

2x Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sorcery(9)

1x Entreat the Angels

4x Farseek

4x Mizzium Mortars

Enchantment(2)

Sideboard

3x Boros Charm

2x Triumph of Ferocity

Card Selections

2x Angel of Serenity - Good old angel. Pretty standard in these midrange builds, and 2 is the perfect number due to the triple white mana cost. Love this card.

4x Arbor Elf, 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim - 8 dorks. The point of this deck is to try to get a 5-drop out on Turn 3. These guys are essential to this, so we want as many as we can get.

3x Loxodon Smiter - 3 mana. 4/4. Can’t be countered. Amazing against Liliana of the Veil. If only he had Trample, he’d be the perfect 3-drop.

4x Restoration Angel - After 4 articles writing about this girl, she should be fairly straightforward at this point. 3/4 Flying Flash that Flickers is useful.

4x Thragtusk - The “King” of standard. 5/3 for 4G is meh. 5 life on ETB helps. Losing the 5/3 turning into a 3/3 is extremely useful, and the fact it’s on “Leave the BAttlefield” is what makes this card amazing.

2x Aurelia, the Warleader - 3/4 Flying Vigilance Haste for 2WWRR. Pretty good. Now add an extra attack? Worth playing. Aurelia works well with all of the large creatures in our deck, but works especially well with Assemble the Legion.

2x Garruk, Primal Hunter - Prime Time V. 2.0? Not really, I’d say he’s even better. +1 - reasonable body. -3 Draw a TON of cards in GREEN? Definitely getting in. His -6 usually doesn’t happen, but it is still a good card for when it does.

1x Entreat the Angels - This is a test card of mine. XWW off the top for an army of 4/4 Flying Angels is worth running as a 1-of in my book. Fits nicely in this ramp deck.

4x Farseek - What may or may not be the best card in standard. Color Fixing and ramp for 2 mana. I’ll take 4.

4x Mizzium Mortars - 1R for a usually dead creature’s nice. But it’s the potential for a one-sided whipe that makes this card as good as it is. 3RRR to kill the enemy’s board? I’ ll take 4 as this is the best removal spell I can find for this deck.

2x Assemble the Legion - 3WR for an enchantment is pretty hefty. Getting a 1/1 haste is kinda bad. Getting 2 1/1 hastes is a little better. Getting 3? Definitely getting better. 4? 5? 6? 12? Damn, this card does a TON of work when it has to, especially against control.

Sideboard

1x Angel of Serenity - More Angels for the midrange and control matchups. Against midrange, you wipe their board for the alpha. Against control, you use Angel mainly as a recursion engine. All-around great card.

1x Assemble the Legion - Sometimes we just need more soldiers. Assemble the Legion helps us fight through the problematic control decks: Wolf Run Bant, Esper Control, etc.

3x Selesnya Charm - With Reanimator, Thragtusk, Wolfir Silverheart, Olivia, Ghost Daddy and Thundermaw all seeing a large amount of play, this card comes in for it’s versatility. Being able to exile against midrange and reanimator is a useful tool, while being able to put a surprise blocker in Aggro’s way is the reason this card makes the cut.

2x Rest in Peace - Pretty standard Graveyard hate. I hate reanimator.

3x Boros Charm - Our “control bane” card #2. A lot of control decks will try to kill Assemble the Legion on sight, and sometimes making it indestructible until EOT is all we need to do in order to close out the game. Read the card, it says permanents, not creatures ^.^

2x Triumph of Ferocity - Yet another card for control, giving us the ability to stay even in the Card-Battle while still having the ability to play however we want. 2G for the potential for 4-5 cards? Definitely.

3x Centaur Healer - Our Aggro Hate-Bear. 3/3 is larger than a lot of the aggro creatures pre-bloodrush, and the 3 life that the Healer gives allows us the time to get a Thragtusk out there.

Onto the Good, Bad, and Ugly!

The Good:

Owlus here, (with matt doing sideboarding).

Hyperaggro (The Current Naya Blitz, Madcap Rush and The Current Gruul)

Super Smiter is back again! Hyper aggro is a pretty easy matchup for this deck. We ramp hard and fast into Thragtusks, Restoration Angels and Garruk, Primal Hunters. Big blockers like Loxodon Smiter keep them at bay, and eventually our bigger, better creatures over power them.

Out(5):

In(5):

2x Selesnya Charm

Jund Aggro

This game goes a lot like the hyper aggro games. They are a time bit more resilient and consistent, while being a bit slower as well. However, our creatures our still bigger than anything they can spit out, and Thragtusk puts us way ahead of them.

Out(5):

In(5):

2x Selesnya Charm

UWR Flash(The Current Flash)

Colonel Muster really shows it’s power here. Sticking an Assemble the Legion basically wins us the match, because they have very little answers to enchantments, and Assemble the Legion is literally the best engine in standard. Other than our ace, the cant be countered Super Smiter, the board wipe resilient Thragtusk and the creature recurring Angel of Sernenity all give us a huge edge over UWR flash.

Out(3):

In(3):

2x Triumph of Ferocity

Jund Zombies(The Current Jund Zombies)

Jund Zombies is one of those decks that everybody grits their teeth over and just finds a way to deal with. Our way is Rest in Peace and life gain. Thragtusk and Restoration Angel keep them in check game one, but they can push through with Falkenrath Aristocrat. However, with Rest in Peace ruining their undying and scavenge, and Centaur Healer giving us an early game advantage, we can get ahead and stay ahead games 2 and 3.

Out(5):

In(5):

RB Zombies(The Current BR Zombies)

Rakdos zombies is less consistent but faster than Jund Zombies. We have to be wary of burn, especially Skullcrack. However, if we can keep them in check with enough early game life gain, then we have the game in the bag. After Centaur Healers come in, we gain a pretty big advantage over the zombie cult.

Out(5):

In(5):

BW zombies(The Current BW Zombies)

The zombie syndicate draws its power from Obsedat, Ghost Council and Restoration Angel. Fortunately, we have answers to both. Mizzium Mortars eats Restoration Angel, and Selesnya Charm will gladly exile ghost dad. Other than those two trouble cards, Super Smiter and King Thragswag keep us ahead for the whole game.

Out(5):

In(5):

Grixis control(Bolas for a Better Tomorrow)

Assemble the Legion shows its worth once again in this control matchup. Their only real response is Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, but by the time he hits the field Assemble the Legion has already given us a huge advantage. On top of that, Garruk, Primal Hunter and Angel of Serenity give us extra resilience against their insane removal set. Eventually, we can overpower them by swarming the field.

Out(3):

In(3):

2x Triumph of Ferocity

The Bad:

Esper Control(augur-of-control)

Unfortunately, this control deck has a nice clean answer to Assemble the Legion, Detention Sphere. Most versions also run enough counterspells to keep us under control, and 4x Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation is always hard to beat through. Gavony Township helps a lot in this matchup, and Entreat the Angels can be an insane top deck, but Esper is made to do well against decks like Colonel Muster.

Out():

3x Arbor Elf

2x Avacyn’s Pilgrim

2x Mizzium Mortars

In():

3x Boros Charm

1x Assemble the Legion

2x Triumph of Ferocity

1x Angel of Serenity

Junk Midrange(The Current Desecration Junk)

In this midrange showdown, it comes down to who can get the bigger threats out faster. It is a war of Thragtusks, Desecration Demons and Aurelia, the Warleaders. Assemble the Legion helps a ton, but it could be just too slow against a deck like this.

Out():

2x Arbor Elf

In(4):

Wolf Run Bant(the-current-wolf-run)

This control deck has enough answers to deal with us, but might be overpowered by Assemble the Legion. Sphinx's Revelation and Supreme Verdict are great cards against us, and Detention Sphere deals with our muster counters effectively. However, Thragtusks and Aurelia, the Warleader can help overpower the opposition, making this a bad matchup not an ugly one.

Out(1):

1x Avacyn's Pilgrim

In(1):

Junk Rites(The Current Junk Rites)

The big bully of standard. Luckily, Aurelia, the Warleader and Angel of Serenity can pretty much over power them. However, Craterhoof Behemoth is still a card, and if he hits the field, we are pretty much done for. Angel of Serenity helps remove them from the grave, and sometimes we can outrace them with ramp, but if the beast of standard hits the field, we can’t do much.

Out(2):

In(2):

RG Sage (RG Aggro)

R/G Sage is a new variant of the Typical Burning-Tree Aggro, taking heavy advantage of Boros Reckoner being on an all-time low by running Wolfir Silverheart, Gyre Sage, and Thundermaw Hellkite, simply going through your opponent with massive creatures in order to win. With 32 creatures, 21 lands, and 7 spells, Domri Rade is the card advantage machine they needed.

Now, how does this affect us? For one, we have to go through their 8/8’s, 7/7’s, and Turn 4 Mizzium Mortar Overloads. This gives them a much better Midrange matchup, while costing them the explosive draw of T1 Rakdos Cackler, T2 Burning-Tree Emissary, Lightning Mauler, swing 6.

Sideboarding is relatively simple, as Selesnya Charm is best friends with Silverheart decks. Charm all of the things.

Out(3):

1x Mizzium Mortars

1x Avacyn's Pilgrim

In(3):

The Ugly:

Aristocrats, Act II

In a deck that uses Assemble the Legion as one of the main win-conditions, this deck is killer against us. Blasphemous Act, Boros Reckoner, and Blood Artist are all major must-answer threats. Moreso, their ability to simply play Reckoner into Blasphemous act punch your opponent for 13 hurts. A lot.

Out(5):

In(5):

Bant Hexproof

Bant hexchant can easily out race us and overpower Assemble the Legion. A consistent turn 2 Geist of Saint Traft is hard to deal with, no matter what deck you are playing. We have almost nothing that can block their creatures, and even Restoration Angel is just too slow in this matchup. All in all a horrendous matchup.

Out(3):

1x Aurelia, the Warleader

In(3):

Dark Naya(The Current Dark Naya)

Dark Naya does much of the same things we do, with the exception that they get 3 trumps we do not have: Undying Evil, Falkenrath Aristocrat, and Rakdos’s Return. These 3 cards turn this from an otherwise even midrange matchup to a slaughter. We send a removal spell at their thragtusk? Now it’s a 6/4 and they’re 5 life higher with a beast spawn. Turn 3? We’re playing ramp or something still, they’re smashing our faces with Falkenrath Aristocrat. Turn 6, when Midrange decks start to get enough mana to empty our hand? Rakdos’s Return says we have none. The things this deck does is just atrocious, and they even have their own Assemble the Legion when they need it. This is, however, a deck that Assemble the Legion shines against, flooding the field with enough hasty attackers to keep them on the defensive, and hopefully end the game before they do.

Out():

In():

2x Selesnya Charm

Prime Speaker Bant(The Current Bant)

Colonel Muster is almost the naya version of PSB. They are both built around the same idea. 12 ramp pieces, efficient midrange spells, and then a card advantage engine to back it all up. Unfortunately, their engine is just that much better in this matchup. They can swarm the board very effectively with all their creatures and draw spells, and Cyclonic Rift easily takes care of Assemble the Legion. Selesnya Charm is our dying wish here, being able to hit all of their relevant creatures, and give ours the pump to stay alive.

Out():

2x Mizzium Mortars

In():