It is back to regular standard tourneys again for us after a successful finish at Theros Block Gameday in Bacolod last weekend. Since I am still in charge of editing the card pool’s Standard decks, I checked MtG sites for updates or techs for the current Tier 1 decks. I found a list from the Pinoy Planeswalker’s post on recent tournament coverage at Alphaland. The list is Blue Devotion with a touch of Black, and was played by Michael Jeffrey Uy. He finished Top 4 and here is his list:

Lands (25)
4 Mutavault
4 Watery Grave
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Mana Confluence
12 Island

Creatures (28)
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Judge’s Familiar
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Master of Waves

Spells (7)
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Domestication
1 Far/Away
2 Rapid Hybridization

Sideboard (15)
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
4 Duress
2 Gainsay
2 Negate
1 Jace, Memory Adept

The main deck’s only Black splash was the half of Far/Away whereas the sideboard’s composed of Black cards Duress, Devour Flesh, Ultimate Price, and Dimir colored walker Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver.

While I am somewhat okay with the card distribution in the main deck, the card choices in the sideboard looked a bit underpowered. Duress should become Thoughtseize and Devour Flesh should be more copies of Far/Away as it can two-for-one creatures like Pack Rat tokens in the late game. Additional copies of Domestication are also a better choice, and which also gets you devotion benefits.

This will be my list if ever I get to play the deck this coming Friday Night Magic:

Blue splash Black Devo by Mark Ian Alloso

Lands (25)
4 Mutavault
4 Watery Grave
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Mana Confluence
12 Island

Creatures (27)
4 Cloudfin Raptor
3 Judge’s Familiar
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Master of Waves

Spells (8)
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Domestication
2 Far/Away
2 Rapid Hybridization

Sideboard (15)
1 Doom Blade
1 Far/Away
1 Dissolve
2 Domestication
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Negate
2 Prognostic Sphinx
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Prize

The four drop Jace is a better card choice since it gets you to dig on your deck versus control and protects you from fast Red aggro decks. Prognostic Sphinx is now my preferred board card versus control as you can get to cast it earlier and you don’t need extra mana for protection. It also filters your draws via Scry 3 and deals with planeswalkers effectively as it has Flying to get past token blockers.

Thoughtseize is your standard sideboard for control and midrange decks like Jund Monsters though if Boros Burn is your expected metagame, then you can revert back to Duress.

That is about it for this Standard deck update. Until the next post.