Just a few hours earlier today, Wizards officially unveiled the complete card set of Dark Ascension. After checking each of the new cards, my general reaction regarding the set is a big “mehh…” Dark Ascension is good flavor-wise but most of the cards are not Standard-worthy.

I’ll make a separate post sometime this week for my top fave cards on the set. Meanwhile, here is the link for the complete card image gallery at the mothership:

Dark Ascension Complete Card Image Gallery

Last weekend was a really busy one for Magic communities around the globe. A few countries held their National Championships (including here in the Philippines) and the US had two major events, the SCG 5k at Richmond and the TCGPlayer 75k Champs in Chicago. It seems that more pros attended the latter event, with deck techs featured on the site. Let us check out a few of them.

Since TCGPlayer covered most of the discussions (including videos) and functions of the decks, I’ll just present here the decklists. First up,

Unreal Illusions by Griffin Corrigan
Finished 9th – 16th Place
Maindeck
4 Lord of the Unreal
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Phantasmal Dragon
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Renegade Doppelganger

4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Spell Pierce

1 Halimar Depths
19 Island
4 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard
4 Flashfreeze
3 Mental Misstep
4 Neurok Commando
4 Spellskite

Deck details can be found here.

Twins with Crabs by Kyle Sanchez
Finished 33rd – 64th Place
Maindeck
3 Deceiver Exarch
4 Hedron Crab
3 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Lotus Cobra

4 Archive Trap
2 Explore
2 Into the Roil
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
3 Spell Pierce
2 Splinter Twin
4 Visions of Beyond

2 Forest
8 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard
1 Deceiver Exarch
3 Dispel
1 Into the Roil
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Pyroclasm
3 Spellskite
1 Splinter Twin

Deck discussion is on this article.

Lastly, our favorite Brian Kibler.

Blade Breaker by Brian Kibler
Finished 17th – 32nd Place
Maindeck
3 Acidic Slime
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Inferno Titan
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Manic Vandal
4 Skinshifter
3 Thrun, the Last Troll

2 Arc Trail
2 Dismember
3 Sword of War and Peace

4 Copperline Gorge
4 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Mountain
3 Raging Ravine
3 Rootbound Crag
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard
2 Act of Aggression
2 Arc Trail
1 Dismember
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Goblin Ruinblaster
1 Naturalize
1 Nature’s Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
2 Tectonic Edge

Discussion and video here.

These three probably merit in the latest techs in Standard (though Kyle’s tech was already exposed last US Nationals, though I couldn’t find the actual decklist). Anyhow, hopefully, I can start working on my Philippine Nats tourney report. See you in the next post.

*header image from steveargyle.com

The banning surely had opened up the Magic: the Gathering Standard metagame to new decks and punished a few old ones. Cawblade is the one primarily affected though based on the recent results of big events in the US and various National Championships, the deck is still a powerhouse even without the mind sculptor and the mystic. That would be another topic though as this article is about the other deck affected by the banning, the Boros aggro.

As previously observed, Red White aggro is still a common deck choice before the bans due to the power of the Stoneforge Mystic. With similar plans to Blue White regarding fetching equipment, this version is the Bash-type (Blue White is the Fish type).  Let us check a regular decklist and see what the M12 Core set can offer to replace the old/banned parts.

Boros Landfall by Chikara Nakajima
Finalist, GP Singapore 2011

Maindeck
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
6 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Goblin Guide
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Batterskull
3 Dismember
3 Koth of the Hammer
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Sword of War and Peace

Sideboard
2 Arc Trail
3 Divine Offering
1 Gideon Jura
4 Kor Firewalker
3 Spellskite
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

The list above is straightforward and has seen success in defeating the pre-banning Cawblade. Let us tweak this list a bit to fit the meta. The cards needing changes are:

Stoneforge Mystic – obviously, on Xmen (the tone if you’re watching that late 90’s cartoon show).

Mirran Crusader – the effectiveness of this knight has lessened without the mystic fetching swords for him.

Batterskull – this is a good five-drop but it fits more for the control rather than the aggro decks.

My updated post-banning M12 Standard list would look like this:

Boros Aggro by Mark Ian Alloso

Maindeck
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
6 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Blade Splicer
4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Hero of Bladehold
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Stormblood Berserker

2 Dismember
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth Tirel
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Sword of War and Peace

Here are my explanations of the card choices:

Blade Splicer – This I think is the popular three-drop card of the current Standard. It forces you to deal primarily with the 3/3 Golem and the 1/1 which gives first strike and ruins most combat shenanigans. I’ve played with and against this card and it definitely can stop most aggro decks to a halt.

Stormblood Berserker – With ten one-drops in the deck, this surely will come out as 3/3 at most on your second turn. With its evasion bonus, it gets to connect most early damage until you can finish off your opponent with a burn spell or the lavamancer.

Grim Lavamancer – One of the popular drop-guys in Magic gets a return on stage with the M12 reprint. He works well with the fetch lands and is also a late-game finisher and a burn source.

Hero of Bladehold – Also a popular choice in recent Cawblade lists, this chic curve out your four drops and pumps out the rest of the guys if left unchecked. Suggest it to cast post-Day of Judgement or Black Sun Zenith.

Ajani Goldmane and Elspeth Tirel – Ajani what? I know this is an odd choice but based on the number of critters on the deck, a +1 on Ajani Goldmane gets you way beyond other aggro decks. It also annoys RDW too. Elspeth is a good post-mass removal drop and also a source of critters to carry the swords.

Inkmoth Nexus – Replacing Terramorphic Expanses, I’d go with these man lands as another evasive source to connect Sword damage. They can also function as Bloodthirst enablers for the berserkers.

The sideboard would be pretty much meta-based and it would look like the following:

1 Act of Aggression
2 Arc Trail
2 Divine Offering
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Spellskite
2 Timely Reinforcements

I am obviously a fan of one-of and two-ofs so yeah, you can see it there. The only complete set would be the firewalkers as Pyroclasm is definitely a problem against this deck and it can stem the bleeding against RDW. The spellskites are the added sideboard for Blue Red Twin (with Dismembers maindeck) and O-rings in particular are generic for other various matchups.

For comments and suggestions, just post them below. I’d really like to hear your opinions.

Until the next post.