New Set, New Meta
Standard forum
Posted on May 6, 2014, 7:33 p.m. by Dalektable
With Journey Into Nyx being released we now have a slew of new cards to work with, a lot of them being very playable as opposed to what was given to us in Born of the Gods. But with all these new cards to work with we have to be prepared to see how the meta changes. Certain decks will be hurt by new cards, and some will get some more power for them. A few decks I see seeing some more play are...
Mono Black Aggro
Mono Black Aggro was already a deck beforehand, and now with Journey into Nyx we have some sweet new cards for the deck. Master of the Feast is a freaking 5/5 flyer for 3 mana, which is crazy. Also, we've been given yet another 2 power for one mana creature in Gnarled Scarhide . Expect to see more of this deck around your meta.
Orzhov Humans
This is my personal favorite deck on this short list, and it is what I will attempt to build. (Here is my list for reference) Athreos, God of Passage is debatably the best god to be released as of yet. It forces your opponent to make a choice that won't really be good for them either way, and it is a three drop! This card would be playable for 4 mana, but three is insane! We also had many already existing great humans to work with, including Precinct Captain , Pain Seer , Soldier of the Pantheon and the backbone of the deck Xathrid Necromancer . With Athreos, God of Passage , Xathrid Necromancer and Cartel Aristocrat we get a glimpse into an incredibly powerful deck of standard past.
B/W Enchantments
Okay, hear me out on this one. Now we have a slew of enchantments from this block, and with the addition of Athreos, God of Passage I think there is a strong deck here. It has access to amazing removal, Banishing Light being the most important in my opinion. And with Ethereal Armor ...things can get very fun. With JOU we were given a few cards that make this deck even viable besides the god, including Gnarled Scarhide , Brain Maggot , Underworld Coinsmith and Master of the Feast . Here is my take on what the deck may look like.
So, what decks do you expect to see in this new meta? As you can tell, I think white and black are both very strongly positioned to become tier one decks. But these are all the opinions of one slightly-educated magic player, and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!
Black will definitely be most of the meta, if not all.
I don't expect much else to arise.
G/R monsters should be safe though, but most other decks are going to die.
May 6, 2014 8:06 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #4
Multi-colour aggro out the wazoo, Mana Confluence enables so many aggro decks, expect to see a lot of variation for a while. Myself i'm going to run a Jund Blitz deck, which can and will empty half the deck onto the field by turn 10, that's if it doesn't win on turn 4.
And you can check that out here:
Revel In The Power Of A Jund Blitzkrieg Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 78 | 13 COMMENTS | 14744 VIEWS.
I think Grixis Control has promise, having access to very powerful removal, counters, win cons and draw power. And with a large chunk viable post rotation as well.
May 6, 2014 8:06 p.m.
Dalektable says... #6
Ohthenoises Those are both very fun tricks. Not looking forward to playing against Dictate of the Twin Gods , burn scares me.
May 6, 2014 8:07 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #7
May 6, 2014 8:09 p.m.
The_Darkhorse says... #8
I would hesitate to say Dictate of the Twin Gods should be going into burn decks. Most burn decks don't want 5 mana on the field, much less waste a turn plopping down an enchantment that they have to un-tap to use. By the time they've gotten to that, they should have won already. I would say it would be better suited for a Big Red kind of deck, one that might utilize Burning Earth to good effect, especially with the greedy mana bases people seem to be buying into
May 7, 2014 12:58 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #9
The_Darkhorse the fact that it has flash can't be ignored. The turn you are plopping it down is their EoT meaning that you untap immediately.
May 7, 2014 1:16 a.m.
Ultimaodin says... #10
Why is everyone ignoring the power of American control coming into this set? If I don't see at least 1 American deck list top 8 I will be damn amazed.
Also, Dictate of Twin Gods is amazing, lets all agree on that.
May 7, 2014 11:56 a.m.
The_Darkhorse says... #12
Ohthenoises True, however, that still means on your turn before you flash it down you're most likely taking no action, holding up 5 mana. This probably doesn't even occur on your 5th turn, as burn isn't know for consistently making land drops. Taking no/delayed action with at least 5 mana up is never a winning recipe for fast decks like burn. Burn should be finishing the game out before Dictate become a live card.
May 7, 2014 1:37 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #13
The_Darkhorse Burn DOES however need a long game plan to make their burn count for something if the game goes that way. Otherwise Sphinx's Revelation could spell a blowout for Burn archetypes.
To each their own.
May 7, 2014 1:43 p.m.
For Standard, there is clear reason why burn currently needs a card like Dictate of the Twin Gods
.
The format is currently slow (although JOU seems to be speeding it up a bit)... I'm only guessing, but I feel most people who dismiss Dictate of the Twin Gods , are probably doing so for the sake of what it would be like in Modern or Limited.
In those formats, you are likely to win (or lose) by turns 3-5. In Standard (currently), you will be hard pressed to find any games that do not go to at least turn 7-8. Even missing 2 land drops in that time, Burn will have the 5 mana it needs...
...at the same time, it will often be facing 8/8 or larger Polukranos, World Eater
(or other such large beast). - This is why Dictate of the Twin Gods
is an important Enabler. You aren't playing with Burn that can do 8 damage to the 8/8 Monsters.
Playing with Boros Reckoner
, or Satyr Firedancer
can easily turn a Magma Jet
into 8 damage... (turns into 4 to either the opponent or Boros Reckoner
, then turns into 8 to the Monster.). There's just nothing that can deal that type of damage in Standard currently... no Blasphemous Act
or other large hitting spell... except Aurelia's Fury
, which would take even more mana. - Without this, burn is not going to last in any form of drawn out game (using the spells currently available in Standard).
May 7, 2014 2:03 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #15
I'm curious to see if Constellation decks catch on. B/W, B/G, and Junk all seem quite viable, albiet probably not tier 1. I also like the B/W aggro deck, but instead of White-heavy Humans, I'm liking a Black-heavy approach that makes Dark Prophecy a possibility, plus Dictate of Erebos .
May 7, 2014 2:09 p.m.
Ultimaodin says... #16
Rasta_Viking29 - called it.... a little late here though but called none-the-less.
Ohthenoises says... #2
Dictate of the Twin Gods makes boros devotion/boros burn VERY scary. At opponent's EoT drop the Dictate, untap on your turn and drop a Fanatic of Mogis for 6-8 devotion netting 12-16 damage. Talk about scary.
Don't forget, Master of the Feast has a best friend in Notion Thief if you decided to do either U/B or Esper.
May 6, 2014 8:04 p.m.