Played this tonight at my fnm. I got stomped by mono blue twice. I also had 4 turn 4 wins. The crusader almost always has to be in your hand to start the game along with mantle or madcap second turn.
Mono U is still a really tough deck, and since it plays with weirds and tidebinder mages I think the matchup is likely fairly tough.
That said, this deck has a good matchup against a lot of the field. Mono B, Esper, U/W control and anything mid-range has a hard time because it's just so explosive. Turn 4 kills are pretty common, if you're on the play it's even worse.
I like this deck and it cost me about $15 dollars to sleeve up. The legion loyalists surprisingly jumped a little in price though - but otherwise it's a bunch of stuff you'll usually only find in a draft or sealed event. Overall its' pretty cool and I can see why it does so well. So much synergy with the heroic's and haste creatures makes very similar to Naya Blitz. Sometimes you'll just draw horribly, sometimes the deck will beat itself, or just run out of gas - and forget any late game. Still, if your going to a big tournament and want something you can play that will end games quick (one way or another) this is it.
I'm no expert so take my advice with a grain of salt. I have all the cards in most of these decklists but I don't play it competitively (though I do other formats) but I'll chime in on your questions to what I have experience in
Buried Alive was most certainly best when you could use Loyal Retainers, I still run it but not sure if it's really worth it.
Pattern of Rebirth is awesome IMO. Get Pattern (Tutor for Academy works), put it on ANYTHING, smile Your opponent knows whats coming - drop Iona and win.
Grand Abolisher - I run him still, he's been good to me against things like Wizards, probably not needed against every decktype but I play Gaddock Teeg for similar reasons.
I play Iona and Elesh Norn. As you said, podding off a Karador for Iona is usually game.
Wood Elves - great question, don't know... really thinking about cutting them in my deck myself.
I haven't tested spore frog at all, but I think Ill try it out. For 1 mana it could be really worth the slot.
Some idiot online was running this deck. I was wondering what the heck was going on, now it makes sense. I smashed him, this is a pathetic pile of cards.
You're not understanding how synergetic decks actually work. This isn't just a "huge pile of crap cards", they all interact well together with an insane curve. You can potentially kill before your opponent has a chance to play even one spell.
But alias... like the stigma of all aggro decks, it'll be deemed junk until proven. I remember reading how Mono U was a PT wonder as well, NEVER would it last in a big tournament.
Just got to say I would HATE to have to put underworld connections on a Nyx just to get around having Pithered your opponents swamps (and thus your own) in a mirror. So if you HAVE to go that route, make sure you've got an alternate land in your deck, like a pain or scry land. In a mono color situation, generally a scry land to fix your draw is the better option.
You cannot use the needle on swamps. Well, technically you can but since it's a mana ability nothing happens.
You can call underworld connections but then couldn't use your own.
Hello everyone, I am a returning player looking to get back into the game. I have played 2 stints of magic and have figured out my problem of why I keep quitting. I get burned out playing the same standard deck for months on end. So I have decided to play standard in addition to some pauper, drafting, and maybe commander. I plan to do everything on MTGO since my LGS is 45 mins away. So I have a few questions:
1) I have an initial investment of $250 that I'd like to make the most of. Any suggestions for a standard deck that would leave me with some left to build a few pauper decks? I HATE playing the mirror so I refuse to play mono black or blue since the meta seems to be full of them and RDW doesn't interest me. Brad Nelson's deck (Naya control) looked cool and cheap enough but idk. I loooove playing with PLaneswalkers.
My very first question is, how competitive do you want to be? Planeswalkers in particular are pretty expensive, you can build a deck for that price but it could be hard if you want to specifically play with planeswalkers. Also, non mono colored decks are the most expensive to build. I really only say this because the land base in 3 color decks in particular are expensive if you are starting out fresh with no card pool. If that's not the case and you have a full set of shocklands then the sky is the limit on what you want to build within your price point.
2) where can I learn to draft decently? I'd like to get into it starting next month.
I go to my local card store but I'm a paperback player, so I unfortunately cannot help you out with this
3) how do people stay in standard when cards rotate without losing all your money? Trade a month ahead? I don't want to have to plop down x$250 every 6 months to stay relevant.
You can't even wait until a month ahead of rotation, you really need to sell off all your rotating cards 3-4 months ahead if you want to make any real profit from them.
Unfortunately, if you want to play in competitive standard you'll pretty much have to throw down some coin whenever a new set comes out if you want to get playsets of the top cards. I would suggest pre-ordering them as soon as they're on sale, so you can get the better prices before they show up in decks and their price skyrockets. Standard is not cheap, not if your starting from scratch with no card pool. That said, you can make it on a budget, especially if you wanted to play mono U/B/R, which are all competitive decks. None of these decks cost a real lot of money to build, even from scratch, and you don't need a bunch of shocklands costing you a ton of money without even getting to your actual spells.
4) when is the next major rotation?
Thanks for any answers!!!
Luckily, a major rotation JUST happened, so you have perfect timing. Theros isn't even a month old, it's a great set and there's a lot of tier 1 decks currently in play. Mono U, Mono B, G/R Devotion, RDW, Esper and perhaps U/W control are all definitely talked about as top dogs with a long list of others not too far behind.
My personal advice? G/R Devotion is likely the deck you want to start building. Sadly, you're going to have to shell out cash for cards like Domri, Garruk, and Shrines, to name a few, but there's also a bunch of mana dorks that are cheap and it only uses 4 Stomping Grounds/4 scry lands. It also sounds like something you want to play (ramp up with big mana and play a lot of planeswalkers). I don't know if you can do it on your budget however, as I don't know much about prices on MTGO but you can work towards it if that's what interests you. I'd also advise you to research and playtest with proxies (or equivalent online) to see if you actually LIKE a particular deck before actually shelling out the cash. That way, you can build towards the one particular deck you like and still keep within your budget.
So what you guys are sayingv is that only playing mono blue or black is fun?
Therec aren't many variations and the matches are predictable.
Just thoughts......
If those were the only two decks being played, then that would be true and I'd definitely agree.
Though, people are playing G/R Devotion, G/R Monsters, Esper, U/W Control, and even a few other decks like B/W Midrange and Naya control this week have popped up from time to time. That doesn't even include the red decks.... Abnd of course, that's in addition to Mono U and Mono B devotion decks which are indeed very popular as you said.
Still, lots of variation IMO - the top 8's usually have 1-2 of each of the top devotion decks, a few control decks and usually a wildcard or two. I wouldn't say that's completely one sided to one or two specific decks.
Board wipes/removal and game ending threats is pretty controlish.
as far as people saying its not stale - heres my point:
Basically you either play mono blue or mono black and just let the deck do the work.
I know ill get yelled at but i just feel currently standard is boring. Sure there's cool decks but realistically they aren't true winners.
What do you mean? Are you saying there's no true elite deck that wrecks every other deck in the format? Then, you'd be correct and thank God for that.
Well for starters he played a deck that was wayyyyy under the radar as you can see from the top 8. Yea assemble is a great card but the decks that play it dont do squat vs the field.
Whethe or not the deck was his idea it takes a pair to run that into the current meta.
So its cool to see a deck noone expected go this far i hope he wins. Standard is already stale i hope it doesn't stay they way.
Wait, what?? I guess everyone differs but Im loving this standard so far.
The decklist was on Magic Online earlier this month in a Standard Premier and took first. Having said that he did tweak it a bit and I like his final list better.
Ah I didn't realize that. Still, gotta give him credit for taking advantage and piloting a winning list, I would suspect very very few people played a Naya control deck today. Likely a sea of devotion and esper instead lol
I really have to give props to Brad Nelson, that's a very original decklist and he did very well with it.
It's not something I don't think I could ever pilot, at least not well... not my style of deck, but sure did a nice job with it.
I love seeing all the devotion decks still doing so well.... seems it's not a fad at all, they're here to stay, so is Esper but I'm a little surprised not seeing more G/R devotion hitting into the top 8's. This deck just looks like a beast, but doesn't seem to get into the top of the tournaments apart from the 1 top 8 at the pro tour.
I'm quite the fan of Mono Blue devotion, but there's an argument to be made Mono Black is the deck to beat.
Well he did notice it the second time. Just shows that running on autopilot can sometimes work against you.
He noticed it after he attacked. He could have killed Max twice but played the familiar post combat knowing he had a way to blink the Aetherling in his hand.
Chas won the game anyways, but he was lucky to do so. Think this one is in the books anyways.
Mono U is still a really tough deck, and since it plays with weirds and tidebinder mages I think the matchup is likely fairly tough.
That said, this deck has a good matchup against a lot of the field. Mono B, Esper, U/W control and anything mid-range has a hard time because it's just so explosive. Turn 4 kills are pretty common, if you're on the play it's even worse.
I like this deck and it cost me about $15 dollars to sleeve up. The legion loyalists surprisingly jumped a little in price though - but otherwise it's a bunch of stuff you'll usually only find in a draft or sealed event. Overall its' pretty cool and I can see why it does so well. So much synergy with the heroic's and haste creatures makes very similar to Naya Blitz. Sometimes you'll just draw horribly, sometimes the deck will beat itself, or just run out of gas - and forget any late game. Still, if your going to a big tournament and want something you can play that will end games quick (one way or another) this is it.
Happen to have a link handy?
Buried Alive was most certainly best when you could use Loyal Retainers, I still run it but not sure if it's really worth it.
Pattern of Rebirth is awesome IMO. Get Pattern (Tutor for Academy works), put it on ANYTHING, smile
Grand Abolisher - I run him still, he's been good to me against things like Wizards, probably not needed against every decktype but I play Gaddock Teeg for similar reasons.
I play Iona and Elesh Norn. As you said, podding off a Karador for Iona is usually game.
Wood Elves - great question, don't know... really thinking about cutting them in my deck myself.
I haven't tested spore frog at all, but I think Ill try it out. For 1 mana it could be really worth the slot.
Yeah.. Bad player is bad nothing more to see here.
Mono U
G/R Devotion
Mono Red
Mono Black
BRW Control
Esper Control
U/W Control
That's basically it right now - though we should probably start to think about adding Naya and Red devotion to this list as well.
So you won against one deck, one time, and you just automatically deem "it sucks".... without any real knowledge of how it works.
Gotchya.
I'm glad we had this conversation, helps me "filter" out posts in the future.
But alias... like the stigma of all aggro decks, it'll be deemed junk until proven. I remember reading how Mono U was a PT wonder as well, NEVER would it last in a big tournament.
You cannot use the needle on swamps. Well, technically you can but since it's a mana ability nothing happens.
You can call underworld connections but then couldn't use your own.
My very first question is, how competitive do you want to be? Planeswalkers in particular are pretty expensive, you can build a deck for that price but it could be hard if you want to specifically play with planeswalkers. Also, non mono colored decks are the most expensive to build. I really only say this because the land base in 3 color decks in particular are expensive if you are starting out fresh with no card pool. If that's not the case and you have a full set of shocklands then the sky is the limit on what you want to build within your price point.
I go to my local card store but I'm a paperback player, so I unfortunately cannot help you out with this
You can't even wait until a month ahead of rotation, you really need to sell off all your rotating cards 3-4 months ahead if you want to make any real profit from them.
Unfortunately, if you want to play in competitive standard you'll pretty much have to throw down some coin whenever a new set comes out if you want to get playsets of the top cards. I would suggest pre-ordering them as soon as they're on sale, so you can get the better prices before they show up in decks and their price skyrockets. Standard is not cheap, not if your starting from scratch with no card pool. That said, you can make it on a budget, especially if you wanted to play mono U/B/R, which are all competitive decks. None of these decks cost a real lot of money to build, even from scratch, and you don't need a bunch of shocklands costing you a ton of money without even getting to your actual spells.
Luckily, a major rotation JUST happened, so you have perfect timing. Theros isn't even a month old, it's a great set and there's a lot of tier 1 decks currently in play. Mono U, Mono B, G/R Devotion, RDW, Esper and perhaps U/W control are all definitely talked about as top dogs with a long list of others not too far behind.
My personal advice? G/R Devotion is likely the deck you want to start building. Sadly, you're going to have to shell out cash for cards like Domri, Garruk, and Shrines, to name a few, but there's also a bunch of mana dorks that are cheap and it only uses 4 Stomping Grounds/4 scry lands. It also sounds like something you want to play (ramp up with big mana and play a lot of planeswalkers). I don't know if you can do it on your budget however, as I don't know much about prices on MTGO but you can work towards it if that's what interests you. I'd also advise you to research and playtest with proxies (or equivalent online) to see if you actually LIKE a particular deck before actually shelling out the cash. That way, you can build towards the one particular deck you like and still keep within your budget.
Good luck!
If those were the only two decks being played, then that would be true and I'd definitely agree.
Though, people are playing G/R Devotion, G/R Monsters, Esper, U/W Control, and even a few other decks like B/W Midrange and Naya control this week have popped up from time to time. That doesn't even include the red decks.... Abnd of course, that's in addition to Mono U and Mono B devotion decks which are indeed very popular as you said.
Still, lots of variation IMO - the top 8's usually have 1-2 of each of the top devotion decks, a few control decks and usually a wildcard or two. I wouldn't say that's completely one sided to one or two specific decks.
What do you mean? Are you saying there's no true elite deck that wrecks every other deck in the format? Then, you'd be correct and thank God for that.
Wait, what?? I guess everyone differs but Im loving this standard so far.
Ah I didn't realize that. Still, gotta give him credit for taking advantage and piloting a winning list, I would suspect very very few people played a Naya control deck today. Likely a sea of devotion and esper instead lol
It's not something I don't think I could ever pilot, at least not well... not my style of deck, but sure did a nice job with it.
I love seeing all the devotion decks still doing so well.... seems it's not a fad at all, they're here to stay, so is Esper but I'm a little surprised not seeing more G/R devotion hitting into the top 8's. This deck just looks like a beast, but doesn't seem to get into the top of the tournaments apart from the 1 top 8 at the pro tour.
I'm quite the fan of Mono Blue devotion, but there's an argument to be made Mono Black is the deck to beat.
He noticed it after he attacked. He could have killed Max twice but played the familiar post combat knowing he had a way to blink the Aetherling in his hand.
Chas won the game anyways, but he was lucky to do so. Think this one is in the books anyways.