The current stop of the StarCity Games Open series is in St. Louis, MO. It is the usual Day One Standard Open and the second day for the Legacy Open. The preliminary ten rounds of Swiss have recently ended and the Top 8 playoffs will be held Sunday 8am ET. Here is a wrap up of the top 8 Standard decks:

1 Mono Red Aggro
3 Jund Planeswalkers
1 Mono Black Devotion
1 G/W Aggro
1 B/W Midrange
1 R/W Burn

Here is the link of the decklists:
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/2839_top_16_standard_decklists.html

The coverage page of the event:
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/060914_stlouis.html

We welcomed Chord of Calling in Standard and expected it as a powerful card to include in the top decks. Unfortunately, we only have Green Devotion as its primary deck. We do have versions of this archetype though and one of them that I’d suggest is of the Bant colors.

Here is my Standard deck tech, Bant Chord:

Maindeck
Lands
4 Breeding Pool
4 Forest
3 Temple of Mystery
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Yavimaya Coast

Creatures
3 Courser of Kruphix
1 Hornet Queen
1 Nylea’s Disciple
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Hornet Nest
4 Elvish Mystic
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Lyev Skyknight
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Arbor Colossus
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 AEtherling

Spells
3 Chord of Calling
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Rapid Hybridization

The notable targets of the chord in these colors are Lavinia of the Tenth, Prime Speaker Zegana, AEtherling, Lyev Skyknight and Hornet Queen. The rest of the Green card choices are pretty much standard in Green Devotion decks.

Voice of Resurgence protects you from early aggression, counterspells and later on can be tapped to power out Chord whereas Selesnya Charm for dealing with opposing Demons and random fatties and for the usual alpha strike trample damage. Rapid Hybridization is another pseudo-spot removal which at times can be used to turn irrelevant creatures into 3/3 frog attackers.

We’d be saying farewell to Ravnica in a month so I think paying tribute to the set is a good thing. Give the deck a trial run in your next tournament. Suggestions on the list are also welcome.

Leaving this decklist here, referenced from Tom Ross’ article on potential decks with Goblin Rabblemaster.

Lands
4 Shivan Reef
3 Island
4 Mountain
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Mutavault
4 Steam Vents

Creatures
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Goblin Electromancer
2 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Keranos, God of Storms

Spells
2 Magma Jet
2 Searing Blood
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Dissolve
3 Turn/Burn
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike
3 Izzet Charm

The recently held major MtG event here in the Iloilo was the Magic 2015 Gameday last Saturday. The format was Standard in which there were 22 participants. The deck I piloted for that tournament was Black Devotion with a splash of Red.

I went 3-1-1 in the preliminary rounds, won my quarterfinals against Jund Monsters and then lost to Jund Planeswalkers 2-1 in the semis. I am still happy with that result even though I am not that of a fan of the deck.

Here is my list:

Maindeck
3 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Lifebane Zombie
4 Pack Rat

2 Bile Blight
2 Devour Flesh
2 Dreadbore
3 Hero’s Downfall
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Rakdos’s Return
1 Silence the Believers
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Price
3 Underworld Connections

4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Mountain
4 Mutavault
9 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard
1 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
4 Duress
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Magma Spray
1 Rakdos’s Return
1 Slaughter Games
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Underworld Connections

The recent Pro Tour Magic 2015 in Portland saw a few Standard deck innovations from the pros that also made a decent finish in the constructed portion of the event. One of which is a Mono Green aggro deck with cheap pump spells.

Here is the deck list played by Tamas Nagy.

Main deck

Creatures
4 Experiment One
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Dryad Militant
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Kalonian Tusker
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Brushstrider
4 Boon Satyr
2 Reverent Hunter

Spells
4 Aspect of Hydra
4 Gather Courage

Lands
4 Mana Confluence
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Forest
2 Mutavault

Sideboard
4 Setessan Tactics
4 Ultimate Price
4 Golgari Charm
3 Thoughtseize

It looks like a straight forward beatdown deck that can swarm the board early and finish the game with a huge pump of Aspect of Hydra or a bestowed Boon Satyr on an unblocked creature.

The sideboard is also decent, with removals for big blockers and Golgari Charms versus sweep spells. In the current meta of slow Blue White Control and Black White Midrange decks, I think this list fits well to win against those decks.

The pool will be building this deck for this weekend’s M15 Gameday so we will check its performance on various matchups.

I have previously piloted this archetype on last year’s Mtg Iloilo Year ender tourney and finished fourth place. That version splashed White for access to Chained to the Rocks and Boros Charm as well as the late game card Assemble the Legion. The version that I am currently working on uses Black as the splash color. This lets me use Dreadbore for spot removal and Rakdos’s Return for hand blowout and also discard spells like Thoughtseize.

I have checked a forum in MtG Salvation for reference build on this deck and found that they uses Generator Servant to ramp into Stormbreath Dragons and Underworld Cerberus. Here is a list by forum user Nintura.

Devotion Red w/ Black
Standard

Creatures: 26
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Generator Servant
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Fanatic of Mogis
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Underworld Cerberus

Spells: 9
3 Dreadbore
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Twinflame

Land: 25
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Mana Confluence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
10 Mountain

Sideboard: 15
3 Peak Eruption
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Rakdos’s Return
2 Doomblade
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Sire of Insanity

Underworld Cerberus is looking as a good threat in this deck as it is nearly unblockable and lets you return your guys from graveyard if its dies. In my version, I would add Scuttling Doom Engine as it can benefit on explosive Nykthos draws as early as turn 3 without worrying on colored mana cost.

Here is my current list:

Lands
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Temple of Malice
11 Mountain
4 Blood Crypt
1 Mana Confluence

Creatures
2 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Fanatic of Mogis
3 Generator Servant
2 Frostburn Weird
2 Scuttling Doom Engine
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Spells
2 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Mizzium Mortars
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Dreadbore

This version does not necessarily rely on Generator Servant to ramp into the dragons and engine as it can curve out aggressively well while maintaining the devotion count. Following their list, I would cut Purphoros, God of the Forge for Underworld Cerberus or maybe a maindecked Sire of Insanity. That would be insane, no pun intended.

Nintura’s other version looks like this, which I would also like to test:

This Thursday and Friday will be my final playtest sessions so I’d better decide for a final list and just adjust the sideboard for the metagame.

This tournament result just came in: Ivan Floch is the champion of Pro Tour Magic 2015. He piloted a control-ish Blue White deck as he pummeled through the Sunday Top 8 playoffs. He first defeated Matt Sperling’s Boros Burn in the quarters and followed to win against Team Channel Fireball pro Owen Turtenwald’s Black White Midrange. In the Finals, he faced Jackson Cunningham’s Green White Aggro and the match took to a decider game 5 wherein he won by the unusual play of pumped Nyx Fleece Ram with Archangel of Thune trigger.

Here is Ivan Floch’s winning Blue White Control list:

Maindeck
4 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Dissolve
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Azorius Charm
3 Planar Cleansing
3 Divination
4 Quicken
2 Last Breath
2 Syncopate
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Elixir of Immortality

4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Azorius Guildgate
2 Mutavault
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Triumph
6 Island
6 Plains

Sideboard
2 Archangel of Thune
2 Last Breath
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Deicide
2 Dispel
2 Gainsay

The coverage of the Pro Tour Magic 2015 can be found here.

I am taking Black & White Aggro into another spin in M15 Standard. I have posted before a Humans list. This time, the M15 reprint that I am trying to build around is Ajani’s Pridemate. Here is the decklist I have come up with:

Lands
5 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Temple of Silence
2 Mana Confluence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Creatures
4 Ajani’s Pridemate
1 Banisher Priest
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Herald of Torment
4 Pain Seer
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Tithe Drinker
4 Underworld Coinsmith

Spells
1 Ultimate Price
2 Orzhov Charm
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Blind Obedience
4 Thoughtseize
1 Hero’s Downfall

Sideboard
SB: 2 Fiendslayer Paladin
SB: 1 Banishing Light
SB: 2 Doom Blade
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 1 Keening Apparition
SB: 1 Last Breath
SB: 2 Lifebane Zombie
SB: 3 Sin Collector
SB: 1 Profit/Loss
SB: 1 Ultimate Price

A few of the card choices looks subpar, but I wanted cheap-casting aggressive creatures that at the same time interacts with the cat soldier.

One of the key interacting cards here is Underworld Coinsmith. Its Constellation trigger gives a +1/+1 counter on the pridemate and you have ten more enchantments in the deck to do it again. Another card for the lifegain trigger enabler is Extort and Tithe Drinker looks to be right creature for that, not to mention that it has also Lifelink. Blind Obedience, another Extort enabler, as a one-of can at times benefit on delaying opponents’ blockers by making them tap.

Herald of Torment is deck’s late game drop with bestow on your best creature. As a bonus, Orzhov Charm can save it and the enchanted creature from spot removals. The rest of the Instant removals in the deck are variance on certain matchups. Thoughtseize is of course the one-mana removal and in effect gets you knowledge on your plays on the next turns.

The deck’s current sideboard list is not that refined and is solely based on what the expected local metagame will become. I think the generic card inclusions would be Doom Blade, Lifebane Zombie and Sin Collector.

Your suggestions on the deck will be surely appreciated so just feel free to comment below.

That is about it for BW Ajani Lifegain Aggro, until next post.

Here is a quick update on the possible decks in M15 Standard. Last weekend were the major tournaments in the updated format and in the SCG Standard Open, Black Devotion dominated and finished first place. As for this post, I made a possible decklist of the Mono Red Aggro post-M15. Here is the list.

Lands
2 Mutavault
20 Mountain

Creatures
2 Frenzied Goblin
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firefist Striker
4 Firedrinker Satyr

Spells
4 Lightning Strike
2 Searing Blood
2 Stoke the Flames

Sideboard
SB: 2 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Harness by Force
SB: 3 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 1 Ratchet Bomb
SB: 2 Searing Blood
SB: 2 Seismic Stomp
SB: 4 Skullcrack

The M15 cards I have added are Frenzied Goblin and Stoke the Flames, replacing Chandra’s Phoenix. I added the goblin to complete the ten one-drop critters and also help to get through blockers. Stoke the Flames is the new burn that works well with the thirty creatures in the deck.

No M15 changes in the sideboard though I have wanted to tech Ratchet Bomb to deal with Elspeth’s Soldier buddies or that of Master of Waves’ Elementals.

Is this list looks promising for Standard? Let me know what you think.

Last Friday was the first day that Magic 2015 became legal to play in Standard and the first event in our local community to have that format update was the FNM. In that event, I have decided to pilot Mono Black Aggro and slightly updated it with M15 cards that were available.

I added Sign in Blood which I thought the deck needed gas for late game and also a pseudo finisher for opponents sitting on two life. It turned that it was not that relevant and I changed to another possible M15 card. I initially compiled some reprint cards in the set and saw in the pile that I had some Phyrexian Revokers available.

Here is my list edited after FNM(with deck reference from Gabe Carleton-Barnes StarCityGames.com Standard – Portland list):

18 Swamp
4 Mutavault

4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Herald of Torment
4 Pain Seer
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Tormented Hero
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis’s Marauder
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Rakdos Cackler

2 Bile Blight
4 Hero’s Downfall
4 Thoughtseize

I have decided on adding the Phyrexian Revokers as this two drop beater can mess up important cards like Planeswalkers, Pack Rat and even Sylvan Caryatid. Thoughtseizes and Lifebane Zombie also help in setting up what to name on the Revoker.

Here is my current sideboard:

1 Devour Flesh
3 Doom Blade
4 Duress
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Mogis’s Marauder
2 Ultimate Price
1 Whip of Erebos

The few of the card choices was again adjusted for the local metagame, expecting Boros Burn as the worst matchup.

My record for the two events this weekend was:

-FNM 2-0-1, 2nd place
-Saturday Standard 3-1, 4th place

The only loss was due to mana flood and a color screw on the second game (got stuck on one Swamp and two Mutavaults). Overall, the deck performed very well whereas the revokers did not quite did its job well with a few mistakes in my part. The deck can place well in the current Standard meta, if it will be the same deck Mono Black Devotion and a few control decks on the top of the food chain. We shall see in the coming weeks if there are changes which I am sure there will.

Until the next post.

For another deck brew in the Standard format M15 legal, I have decided to check on an old favorite and to see what the latest coreset has to offer. The deck was Red Devotion splashed with Blue for Keranos and Turn/Burn. Scanning through the visual spoiler, I looked upon the Blue column card-by-card as I wanted new cards from that color to add and because Red already looks complete in the deck.

There are two cards that caught my attention: Illusory Angel and Quickling. The angel which is a reprint from Planechase 2012 Edition, is a cheap 4/4 Flying beater and works well with BTE for a consistent turn-three drop. Quickling on the other hand gets you lots of combat trick option and a cheap costing and flying 2/2 is also relevant for damage and can bypass Sylvan Caryatids and coursers.

Here is a decklist of the updated Red splashed Blue Devotion in Magic 2015 Standard:

Lands
1 Mana Confluence
11 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
3 Temple of Epiphany

Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Fanatic of Mogis
3 Frostburn Weird
3 Illusory Angel
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Quickling
4 Rakdos Cackler

Spells
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Disperse
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Turn/Burn

Stormbreath Dragon and Keranos were cut to lower the curve and replaced by Rakdos Cackler. Also, Disperse was added as a cheap bounce spell for any nonland permanent the opponent may cast. Nykthos was also removed as the deck needed consistent colored mana for it to work and you don’t need the huge mana boost late game aside from just pumping with Purphoros and overloading Cyclonic Rift which is rarely relevant.

There are a lot of options for the starting turns depending on your matchup. Cackler is obviously the best Turn one but on your second turn, you either go more beats with the zealot or you can switch to the flyer Quickling bouncing the cackler. You can later on cast it on your fourth turn to satisfy Illusory Angel’s casting condition.

Quickling can also save your best creature or my ideal move would be to bounce Fanatic of Mogis for another trigger. Given that if Purphoros God of the Forge is also in the field, that would be huge chunks of damage or can be a finishing blow.

The deck’s sideboard may again include walkers like Ral Zarek and Chandra Pyromaster, though I am also considering counterspells like Dissolve or Negate since the deck has twelve sources for Blue Mana. If ever I would play the deck on Friday, the sideboard cards would be these:

2 Ætherize
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Dissolve
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Harness by Force
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Negate
1 Ral Zarek
2 Searing Blood
1 Turn to Frog
1 Turn/Burn

I am still consistent with my one-of card choices as these will just fix and replace irrelevant cards in certain matchups. Ætherize is still my top choice sideboard card for Auras and can also be used for Hasty Red matchups.

The four copies of counterspell make sure I would not get resolved by Elspeth or a Sphinx’s Revelation, though playing around Supreme Verdict can be crucial.

Overall, the deck is an interesting variance of Red Devotion and if you do want try Standard decks with the new M15 cards, I would personally recommend this build. If you have questions and suggestions, just post them on the comment box below.

Thanks for reading and until next post.

PS. Bonus Decklist! Here is an Izzet Aggro that you might like:

Lands
11 Mountain
2 Temple of Epiphany
1 Mana Confluence
4 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents

Creatures
4 Ash Zealot

4 Burning-Tree Emissary
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
4 Illusory Angel
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells
1 Disperse
1 Cyclonic Rift
4 Lightning Strike
2 Searing Blood
1 Turn/Burn

The Magic: the Gathering Iloilo Community did not hold a Prerelease event for Magic 2015 but instead will be having a Release Party tournament on this coming Saturday, June 19th. The format will be the usual Sealed, with six M15 booster packs to utilize and create the deck with. A promo foil card, In Garruk’s Wake, will also be distributed to each participant. Additional details of the event can be found on this poster image below.