a take on the meta for standard
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Dec. 1, 2011, 3:01 p.m. by burkek
So, I half expect no one is going to read this, but if you do, please feel free to leave a comment or something.
My goal is to write my take on what the strengths and weaknesses to all the main decks in standard are and hopefully by doing so help someone be able to make a new deck that beats them. I have my own attempt which I will share later in the article, but I guess I should actually start writing the body now.
Wolf's Run Ramp
strengths:
- A lot of threats: between Dungrove Elder , Thrun, the Last Troll , Inkmoth Nexus + Kessig Wolf Run , Primeval Titan , and Inferno Titan this deck packs quite a large punch. Any one of the above cards can win the game by itself, and often they are all part of wolf's run.
- A great variety in types of threats: You have hexproof threats, land threats, plain old huge creature threats, and even instant threats (as was proved in the final game of worlds where Jun'ya Iyanaga killed an opponent who was at 16 life with 4 Galvanic Blast s with metal craft active in a single turn). The sheer number of threats to worry about here makes the deck very powerful.
- individual card analysis
Thrun, the Last Troll : hexproof and uncounterable, also read a control player's worst nightmare
Slagstorm : beats tempered steel and tokens, also some to some degree it beats rdw, not much else to say
Inkmoth Nexus + Kessig Wolf Run : inkmoth nexus + kessig wolf run can kill in a single turn, also there is only 3 ways to deal with this, block with another flying creature, instant speed removal, or the nonexistent land destruction. This makes this combination very dangerous, and both are fetch-able with a primeval titan.
Primeval Titan : Its big, it fetches win conditions, and it ramps. It is good
Inferno Titan : 3 damage attacking or when entering the battlefield means death to all aggro decks unless they remove this card very very quickly
ok so there are more good cards in this deck, but this covers most of them, so now on to the weaknesses
weakness:
there isn't many, but removal and key land destruction is very useful here
cards to use to capitalize on this are:
day-of-judgement: for Dungrove Elder and Thrun, the Last Troll if they are tapped out
Doom Blade : works on Inkmoth Nexus and all creatures without hexproof in this deck
Ghost Quarter : use it to target their Inkmoth Nexus es and Kessig Wolf Run s
Despise : make them discard their creatures so they can never play their Primeval Titan to fetch Inkmoth Nexus es
card:Geth's Verdict: its a way to get around hexproof, though any Diabolic Edict effect will do
Go for the Throat , Dismember , Wring Flesh , Galvanic Blast , etc: just more miscellaneous removal to remove specific parts of their deck at instant speed
So yeah... this actually isn't really a lot to go on, but it is what I have, any other suggestions are very welcome...
Tempered Steel
this is a very powerful and fast aggro deck capable of playing its entire hand on turn 1. It focuses on artifacts, which is both its strength and its weakness.
Strengths:
It can have insane first turn plays, it is hard to stop once it gets enough cards out, and it is very very fast.
individual cards:
Tempered Steel : once one or two of these gets out, the game can essentially end within a couple turns. It is very hard to defeat all the artifacts after they become a minimum of a 3/3 body
Glint Hawk : this card is a 2/2 for 1 mana in a deck where its draw back is no big deal at all, you can just bounce an artifact creature that costs 0 mana, or even better, a Mox Opal
Mox Opal : this card is very powerful, allowing you to accelerate your mana curve on turn 1 or 2 and providing for most any of your needs
Glint Hawk Idol : This card doesn't die to board wipes and attacks for at least 2 essentially every tun
Dispatch : an exile with essentially no drawbacks in this deck, its a very powerful card
Signal Pest : it boosts all your creatures so they are doing even more damage every turn and it is relatively hard to kill
Vault Skirge : Lifelink and a lot of things that boost power can be very dangerous, it also doesn't die to either Doom Blade or Go for the Throat
Etched Champion : this card is very powerful. He will usually have protection from every color when you play him and his body isn't too small after you add the tempered steels or signal pests, especially since he is almost unblockable
Inkmoth Nexus : it is hard to kill and becomes a 3/3 infector with tempered steel
Hero of Bladehold : this is an overall white powerhouse, it is immune to slagstorm, and it creates attackers and battle cries them. However it is not an artifact, so its home is generally the sideboard.
Weaknesses:
It is almost entirely reliant on artifacts and low p/t creatures (at least until tempered steel is played)
cards to capitalize on this:
Ancient Grudge : arguably one of the best artifact removal spells in the game
Slagstorm : it kills almost every creature in the tempered steel deck
general creature removal: It works, its not quite as powerful as artifact removal here, but it still helps (e.g. Doom Blade
insert your favorite artifact removal card here: yeah... so this is pretty much the way to beat this deck
If anyone wants me to finish this and write up more decks I will, but before I write more on something no one will read, I want to make sure someone actually wants to read this.
I quite agree with you about Wolf Run having a ton of threats and that being why it is such a good deck.
I haven't actually seen any recent pro decks run Clone effects, but you are right that might work as a countermeasure versus Thrun, the Last Troll .
Evil Presence is another thing I hadn't thought of but might work fairly well. I completely agree with Doom Blade , though Dismember or Wring Flesh or something similar would work also.
Come to think of it, Phyrexian Metamorph would be an interesting sb plan for wolf run decks in general, since you are almost guaranteed to have an opportunity to copy something, I might have to try that out actually.
December 1, 2011 7:13 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #4
I actually run Evil Twin nowadays. It's a great efficiency play and also kills Thrun dead.
December 1, 2011 7:39 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #5
Evil Presence just isn't good enough, I think. Part of the reason I loved Spreading Seas so much was that it WAS a worthwhile tampering card.
December 1, 2011 7:43 p.m.
Phantasmal Image is cheaper to cast and does the same job. And dont for get human deck with Geist of Saint Traft and good old township token deck. Not to mention the up and coming u/w illusions.
December 1, 2011 8:13 p.m.
I just read the article and loved the concept of it, burkek. My suggestion for a deck to write about how to beat is a deck that was being played almost as much as Wolf Run Ramp until recently. And that deck is Solar Flare.
December 1, 2011 8:28 p.m.
I am actually really glad (and somewhat surprised) that people liked this article so much and I will definitely be writing follow up articles soon about the other decks people have suggested here. Thanks to everyone who has commented on this.
December 1, 2011 9:57 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #9
@burkek- I used to run a constant series of analyses of current standard decks. Maybe this is a project we could revive?
December 1, 2011 10:47 p.m.
that actually sounds like a great idea, especially since that doesn't mean just analyzing cawblade anymore
December 1, 2011 11:21 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #11
The great debate: 4x Jace? Or 3x Jac--hahahaha, just kidding. Of course 4x Jace. I'll post on your wall in a bit and we'll talk about kicking this into gear.
December 1, 2011 11:23 p.m.
@KrazyCaley - I don't see how Evil Twin kills Thrun, the Last Troll .
December 2, 2011 8:38 a.m.
@Miasma - Evil Twin enters the battlefield as a copy of Thrun, the Last Troll . After it resolves, state-based actions are checked and both creatures die per the legend rule.
704.5k If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, all are put into their owners graveyards. This is called the legend rule. If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesnt apply.
KrazyCaley says... #2
Wolf's Run ramp is blowing up big time, it seems like. The problem is that it has so MANY ways to kill you. Control decks are its main problem, but it has a few ways to dodge them.
1- Thrun. Thrun is actually not too much of a problem for anything that runs blue thanks to the 8 million clones that are now in standard.
2- Inkmoth/Wolf Run itself is the main problem. They are lands and can't be hit with Memoricide, et. al. Inkmoth evades Go for the Throat . They can't be countered. The only real answer is a good solid Doom Blade or a boarded Evil Presence , etc.
December 1, 2011 5:38 p.m.