Vampire Army's Post-Ro Deck Kickstarter

Meta Opinion

VampireArmy

28 March 2016

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VampireArmy's Post-Ro Deck Kickstarter

The start of the new season is upon us folks. Say your fond farewells to the days of four color good stuff and hello to the land of flavor! Many of us feel a loss of direction during the rotation season. What deck should we play? Will my deck survive? Should we all just jump on mono red and hope for the best? Well forget that, I've been looking around at the possibilities and today I'll share just a few I've noticed around to get you started on your own road to success down at the FNMs! You'll notice that I left out the sideboards. This was done purposefully. The meta is fresh and new so sideboarding will be a little choppy for the time being.


AGGRO/MIDRANGE


Let's get through the elephant in the room to start us off. Eldrazi decks aren't going away. The core of the deck backed up by origins colorless line up will still make up for some powerful decks. We could discuss the endless possibilities for color splashing but I trust by now, we've seen it all. Instead I offer you this savvy mono-red list. The deck loses only one card main board which does hurt a bit but that can easily be rectified with Spawning Bed Sea Gate Wreckage or any other colorless land.


4x Hangarback Walker 4x Hedron Crawler 4x Reality Smasher 4x Thopter Engineer 3x Thought-Knot Seer 4x Vile Aggregate 3x Pia and Kiran Nalaar 4x Chandra, Flamecaller 10x Mountain 2x Battlefield Forge 4x Foundry of the Consuls 2x Ruins of Oran-Rief 4x Shivan Reef 3x Spawning Bed 2x Spatial Contortion 3x Roast

Madness/Vampires

The resident new aggro deck for those who love to live on the more flavorful side. The deck aims to deploy your smaller vampires as fast as possible and use their discard abilities to value out your bigger guys or cast your removal for cheaper. Most of the deck can play at instant speed if needed using the wording of madness so it suffers less from extending too hard. The only True change you will likely want from the linked list is to replace Cinder Barrens with Foreboding Ruins for faster mana.


4x Evolving Wilds 4x Smoldering Marsh 3x Foreboding Ruins 7x Mountain 5x Swamp 3x Falkenrath Gorger 4x Asylum Visitor 4x Heir of Falkenrath 4x Ravenous Bloodseeker 4x Incorrigible Youths 3x Olivia, Mobilized for War 3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir 4x Lightning Axe 4x Fiery Temper 4x Tormenting Voice

Control

A view into the "value" way to control without relying on the token plan. The deck wants to simply 1 for 1 everything the opponent plays until they're out of things to play at which point you can begin to go to town at their life total with your own manlands or Angry Archangel. That isn't to say the deck isn't capable of its own aggressive draws.


4x Shambling Vent 4x Caves of Koilos 1x Evolving Wilds 4x Forsaken Sanctuary 6x Plains 6x Swamp 2x Sorin, Grim Nemesis 4x Fleshbag Marauder 3x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 4x Transgress the Mind 4x Silkwrap 2x Relentless Dead 2x Declaration in Stone 1x Anguished Unmaking 3x Ruinous Path 2x Read the Bones 4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 1x Tragic Arrogance 2x Archangel Avacyn 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited

Madness Control

Possibly one of the strongest control decks to emerge from the new meta. If you like decks dripping with synergy, this is for you. Combining the powerful graveyard filling draw effects blue opens up and the synergy of madness in red and black, you get a full range of options from turn 1 onward. Use and reuse every spell with jace at your side.


1x Island 3x Mountain 1x Shivan Reef 3x Smoldering Marsh 3x Sunken Hollow 6x Swamp 4x Wandering Fumarole 4x Evolving Wilds 4x Incorrigible Youths 2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 4x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy 4x Heir of Falkenrath 1x Elusive Tormentor 2x Chandra, Flamecaller 2x Duress 2x Transgress the Mind 3x Painful Truths 1x Roast 2x Lightning Axe 2x Fiery Impulse 4x Fiery Temper 2x Grasp of Darkness

Weenies

If you're looking for traditional style beats, here's a deck you can certainly get behind. This deck offers a fast clock and ways to combat the beefier midrange decks with premium removal and ways to turn your weak 1 drops into heavy hitting monsters in the matter of only a few turns.


4x Bygone Bishop 4x Consul's Lieutenant 4x Hanweir Militia Captain 4x Knight of the White Orchid 2x Sigarda, Heron's Grace 4x Thalia's Lieutenant 4x Tireless Tracker 4x Collected Company 2x Dromoka's Command 2x Eerie Interlude 2x Briarbridge Patrol 4x Canopy Vista 2x Den Protector 2x Forest 4x Fortified Village 11x Plains

Control

For those of you wanting to play a draw-go traditional style control without the dragons, here's your deck. I can't imagine why this user didn't decide to play 4 Thing in the Ice  Flip in his/her list but It's probable that more successful lists include that card. Other styles include having a heavier lean on tokens or possibly jamming whatever planewalkers have your fancy. Esper possibly offers the most customization of all the control decks out there.


1 Anguished Unmaking 4 Caves of Koilos 2 Clash of Wills 2 Dead Weight 2 Dragonlord Ojutai 3 Epiphany at the Drownyard 4 Evolving Wilds 3 Grasp of Darkness 5 Island 1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 2 Languish 1 Negate 3 Ojutai's Command 2 Painful Truths 1 Plains 3 Prairie Stream 3 Shambling Vent 2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis 1 Submerged Boneyard 4 Sunken Hollow 2 Swamp 1 To the Slaughter 2 Transgress the Mind

Ramp

Yep, this deck just won't die will it? For those interested in unleashing your inner timmy's for a little while longer. Not much has changed about this list as of the writing of this article but it still packs every pit the punch it used to. You lose out on Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which was quite the blow but still have access to Chandra, Flamecaller and Dragonlord Atarka to clear the board. The newest tech for this deck being Arlin Kord to clog the board or simply over take it. In the world of post Siege Rhino this should be a welcome treat.


9x Forest 2x Mountain 4x Sanctum of Ugin 2x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods 3x Cinder Glade 4x Evolving Wilds 3x Deathcap Cultivator 3x Sylvan Advocate 3x Dragonlord Atarka 4x World Breaker 2x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 4x Oath of Nissa 4x Nissa's Pilgrimage 2x Kozilek's Return 4x Explosive Vegetation 2x Arlinn Kord 2x Hedron Archive 3x Chandra, Flamecaller

Hopefully this has whet your appetite for a new standard season! These decks look really exciting and there appears to be a lot of synergy in this set - with a nod towards the new (old?) Madness mechanic in particular. It appears as if the days of 3/4 colour goodstuff are starting to trickle away and leave behind a meta that seems very non-creature based. Variety is the spice of life folks! Enjoy it!


Small disclaimer: I may have missed a few decks here and there, and obviously I’m not a psychic so I can’t actually predict what the new meta will look like, but hey, this should get you going. Good luck and happy brewing!

Dalektable says... #1

Nice read and glimpse at what may be. Ive been having a blast brewing, so many options, so much flavor. And in general ive enjoyed playing against these new decks, there is one of which i feel you really missed out on. Jund seems to be big, to say the least. We're back to the days of grindy standard Jund, and the deck is good. Play removal, good solid threats along the curve and powerful planeswalkers.

I'd also like to say this format hasnt even began and I can't wait for Jace to rotate...lol. Baby Jace and madness is...disgusting, honestly. If you havent played against the UB Reanimator deck it is pretty disgusting.

March 28, 2016 10:28 a.m.

VampireArmy says... #2

Dalektable thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately with jund i was unable to locate a "pro" list as i had tried to shy away from using individual's list as much as possible and the ub seens...gross. If anything, a testament to the real power of young jace in this year's standard.

March 28, 2016 12:57 p.m.

Ohthenoises says... #3

On the G/W list.

I'd be hard pressed to have Den Protector without Deathmist Raptor, It's value with Dromoka's Command is filthy. Aside from Sigarda I don't see much of a reason for him not to be in as a 2x somewhere.

It's also interesting to note that Kytheon, Hero of Akros  Flip is pretty hilarious with Sigarda.

March 28, 2016 1:09 p.m.

I think that Jund will be a major player. I've been testing out a few brews, and it's absolutely disgusting versus quite a couple decks. You think you could throw a sample list in?

Apart from that, this is great. It's nice to have some idea where the meta is going with rotation.

March 28, 2016 2:23 p.m.

VampireArmy says... #5

I'll see what i can do. If i can find a solid, competitive list I'll add it.

March 28, 2016 2:49 p.m.

kengiczar says... #6

So when I see Kickstarter I think of Kickstarter...

March 28, 2016 2:57 p.m.

GearNoir says... #7

Really hoping to come out of the prerelease with some bones for a vampire deck. Thanks for the info post!

March 28, 2016 9:09 p.m.

6tennis says... #8

rip Atarka Red

March 29, 2016 8:43 a.m.

clayperce says... #9

VampireArmy,
Just wanted to say thanks so much for gathering these up!

So: THANKS!

March 29, 2016 12:19 p.m.

BoCaliv says... #10

Weenie is so my JAM! Esper Control too looks fantastic to try out. Ohhhhh flavor town how I love thee!

March 31, 2016 2:09 a.m. Edited.

Me confused, if it's a new dawn, how do you mobilize your vampire army?

March 31, 2016 11:36 a.m.

VampireArmy says... #12

OutspokenFerret lots of sunscreen.

March 31, 2016 11:38 a.m.

So that's why Olivia looks so pale?

March 31, 2016 noon

VampireArmy says... #14

Yes.

March 31, 2016 12:59 p.m.

Guftders says... #15

Hey dude- thanks for collating all of these potential meta lists :D

casually uses them all for testing

By the way, out of interest, do you think that A Blue/Black zombie deck is possible in this meta (or even Mono Black)?

March 31, 2016 1:36 p.m.

VampireArmy says... #16

Guftders not yet but by the time eldrich moon drops it might be. Your best bet is to not focus so hard on a theme unless the pay off is super easy to manage (like madness for example) if anything mono black aggro with zombies as a Subtheme might go better but I'm guessing aggro isn't very well positioned right now since a lot of people will likely opt for the eldrazi lists which all pack high toughness fatties

March 31, 2016 1:44 p.m.

Ashockfan says... #17

VampireArmy

Great job! only one little nitpick: in testing, Ravenous Bloodseeker is just a BAD card... It dies to literally everything and cant attack through even some 1 drops.

Anyway, some other decks I think will be prevalent are CoCo lists (Mainly Bant) and Humans. Humans was sort of highlighted with GW weenie, but Tom Ross's Mono White human tribal has been destroying the vs series lately :D

March 31, 2016 9:02 p.m.

VampireArmy says... #18

Not my lists broski :P. Pro made it

March 31, 2016 9:12 p.m.

Ashockfan says... #19

Yea ik just saying. The card is like REALLY bad

March 31, 2016 10:28 p.m.

clayperce says... #20

Ashockfan,
Depends on what you're trying to do with it. If you need a reliable discard engine for your Madness deck, especially one that complicates the heck out of combat math, Ravenous Bloodseeker is, well, not great. But better than bad. :-)

March 31, 2016 10:45 p.m.

I only have one thing to say...

And that is "Carpe Jugulum."

March 31, 2016 11:17 p.m.

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