Starting with today’s blog post, I will be delving more into a detailed Magic: the Gathering strategy and not only sharing updated Standard decklists. This is on leaning more on describing the deck’s game plan like in certain deck matchups, and early and late-game scenarios. The strategy that I was using back in the paper Magic events.

I am kicking this off with a Standard deck archetype in which the colors are a personal favorite. What I liked about it is that it utilized more cards from the recent two sets in which I will detail later on. First, we look at the decklist.

Maindeck
24 LANDS
4 Branchloft Pathway
4 Cragcrown Pathway
1 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Needleverge Pathway
3 Overgrown Farmland
1 Plains
3 Rockfall Vale
3 Sundown Pass

22 CREATURES
3 Briarbridge Tracker
3 Brutal Cathar
4 Elite Spellbinder
4 Goldspan Dragon
4 Prosperous Innkeeper
4 Reckless Stormseeker

3 INSTANTS and SORC.
3 Fateful Absence

11 OTHER SPELLS
4 Esika’s Chariot
4 Showdown of the Skalds
3 Wrenn and Seven

SIDEBOARD
2 Burn Down the House
3 Burning Hands
2 Reidane, God of the Worthy
1 Skyclave Apparition
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Thundering Rebuke
2 Tovolar’s Huntmaster

This was played by username atarka711 in the recent MTGO Standard League with the record of 5-0. The other deck archetypes with the same record as his are still composed of the same top-tiers in the Standard metagame. I’d expected also that his matchups were a few of those decks.

Now, we see that the deck is semi-midrangeish with most of the creatures’ mana costs are on three. A playset of Prosperous Innkeeper is the only two-drop that can ramp and fix the colors with its Treasure Token.

Looking at the specific card choices, most of them deliver card value and are not only efficient attackers. Worth the mention are Elite Spellbinder, Brutal Cathar, Reckless Stormseeker, and Goldspan Dragon. This bunch works well in disrupting opponents’ board and with the Haste granted by the Stormseeker gets you to attack right away.

The inclusion of three copies of Wrenn and Seven along with the playset of Showdown of the Skalds means that the late-game plan is powerful enough to finish the game in the case that the early aggression was dealt with. Wrenn generates a Treefolk that gets bigger as you control more lands which are already got you the value as they now needed to deal with two threats.

Fateful Absence supports the Cathar in dealing with opponents’ creatures but the instant also can instakill troublesome planeswalkers.

The sideboard list is more on the switching of inefficient cards for certain matchups. One example is Mono-White Aggro wherein Wrenn, Showdown and the Dragon can be pretty slow to cope up with them. Thus, you can switch them to Burn Down the House, Skyclave Apparition, and Thundering Rebuke. As more Mono-Green, you have Burning Hands to kill their fatties.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Reidane, God of the Worthy can be disruptive to Izzet and Dimir Control but you have to play around with their counterspells and removals while trying to optimize your damage as much as possible. I call it “Spell baiting”, to see if they got the counter available. Carefully check the untapped lands on the possible spells that they got to deal with your threats. They can Dragon’s Fire your creature or Divide by Zero your Chariot or planeswalker.

In this build, you can just maximize one spell per turn early on until you build your mana so it is important not to miss your land drops. I see Izzet as a tougher matchup as they have Spikefield Hazard to deal with your Thalia but try to play threats after threats each turn. Of course, familiarization with the usual cards these decks play is also important.

To conclude, I would recommend this build of the Naya Aggro deck in its current list. In which case you’d feel that your local metagame is composed more of the aggro decks, then you can just replace a card or two in the three-drops or cut one Wrenn and Seven for a lower cost creature or additional spot removal.

That is a wrap, thanks for your time reading this post and until the next one.

The Azorius Aggro deck appeared in one of the deck choices in the recently concluded Magic: the Gathering World Championships XXVII last weekend. This was piloted by the Japanese Pro Player Noriyuki Mori. Having to go through the Mono-White aims for consistency while splashing colors can make your deck become even more powerful.

Going for the deck build update, having Blue as the splash color for disruption and counterspells looks to be the better choice going to the current Standard format metagame. Their drawback though is that they aren’t much pressuring with only two to three power on the board, and they are vulnerable to burn and spot removals. I have seen the deck that is running out of gas against the Izzet control matchups when their draw is not consistent & which their initial assault is stopped.

I have found a similar decklist at the event posted named “Nationals 2021 Weekly Challenge @ Japan” where it finished in 2nd place. Check out the full decklist below.

Maindeck
24 LANDS (26)
4 Cave of the Frost Dragon
2 Deserted Beach
4 Hengegate Pathway
9 Island
5 Plains

28 CREATURES
3 Brutal Cathar
4 Elite Spellbinder
4 Intrepid Adversary
2 Legion Angel
4 Luminarch Aspirant
2 Malevolent Hermit
2 Reidane, God of the Worthy
4 Spectral Adversary
3 Usher of the Fallen

8 INSTANTS and SORC.
2 Concerted Defense
4 Fading Hope
2 Jwari Disruption

Sideboard
1 Alrund’s Epiphany
1 Brutal Cathar
1 Concerted Defense
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Fateful Absence
2 Legion Angel
2 Loyal Warhound
2 Malevolent Hermit
3 Portable Hole

Reference: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=32743&d=451093&f=ST

Looking upon the results of this weekend’s Magic: the Gathering Standard tournaments online, we discovered a deck that preyed on the dominance of the aggro decks in the metagame. The deck is Rakdos Sacrifice, which the build is more inclined in dealing, and turning opponents’ threats into your own. It was piloted by John Alexander wherein he finished first place after defeating the various aggro matchups such as Boros Winota, Mono-Green, Gruul Aggro, and Temur Lukka in the playoffs.

Check out the full Magic: the Gathering Standard decklist below.

Rakdos Aggro – John Alexander

Maindeck
25 LANDS
4 Blightstep Pathway
1 Castle Locthwain
1 Den of the Bugbear
4 Fabled Passage
1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
5 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

20 CREATURES
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Immersturm Predator
2 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
4 Mire Triton
2 Valki, God of Lies
4 Woe Strider

12 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Claim the Firstborn
4 Heartless Act
4 Village Rites
3 OTHER SPELLS
3 The Akroan War

Sideboard
1 Jegantha, the Wellspring
3 Duress
2 Elspeth’s Nightmare
2 Kaervek, the Spiteful
2 Nighthawk Scavenger
1 Shadowspear
4 Skyclave Shade

Reference: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=31656&f=ST

Winning one game rather than the traditional Best-of-Three match makes the deck build look like having a taste of innovation. That is because of certain matchups wherein you’d need answer cards to counter their deck strategy.

I am a bit used to the usual sideboarded gameplays where you won’t really mind if you lost the first game, as your sideboard cards can help in the goal of winning by shifting your deck strategy that can handle a certain deck archetype. For example, for control decks, you have discards spells like Duress and counterspells such as Negate.

Going back in the BO1 scenario, you can have generic cards that are usual answers, for example, Thrashing Brontodon, where you have 3/4 body that can destroy the opponent’s artifacts and enchantments. That said, you tend to be considering more of these kinds of cards rather than having Duress in the deck which can be awkward when drawn against an aggro deck.

My current BO1 deck in Standard Ranked in MTG Arena is Red-Green Adventures and so my adjustment in the decklist somewhat reflects on my persona of being a fan of one-of cards. The Standard sideboarded build also has a few one-ofs in their main deck so I think it won’t really affect much of the gameplay but there are a few cards that are only counted two but I would add another copy.

One example is the Scorching Dragonfire, where I’ll have three copies in the deck as I expected more aggro matchups in my current rank and also that it can deal with planeswalkers.

My one-of card choices at the moment are Vivien planeswalker, The Akroan War, Radha, and Terror of the Peaks. I make sure my spot removals are enough in the probability of drawing them on the starting hand.

The next concern here is when the metagame would lean more on the midrange and control deck and so another adjustment will be made by cutting out the dragonfires for more two-drop creatures. We will see if that happens in the coming weeks.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next blog post.