It Begins: Standard Ideas

Brian Kibler

And so it begins. My favorite time of the Magic year, when the very foundations of everything we believe are shaken as if by a massive quake way off the Richter scale. It's a time of creation and discovery, a time when old maxims are turned upside down and new ones rear their ugly heads. It's a time when Masticores and Grim Monoliths are gone for good, and suddenly dragons and Armadillo Cloaks rule the skies. It's a time when we have to relearn everything we once knew, and start building again from the ground up.
No more free spells, no more Rebels, no more Ritual, no more Port, no more Blastoderm, no more Saproling Burst. It's a whole new world out there.

The introduction of new sets into existing environments is one thing, but the rotation of full blocks is another animal entirely. Not only is there the scrambling to learn what new cards are good, but also the need to completely reevaluate old cards and old strategies as half of the former Standard environment suddenly disappears. Gone are old staples and old power cards, and with them go complete deck types out the window. One can scarcely play Counterrebels without a single rebel in the format, and Opposition-Orb decks take a real blow with the loss of Thwart and Foil. Tom Van de Logt gave Dark Ritual a fitting swan song at Worlds, piloting its broken power to the gold in what was likely the last major tournament at which it will ever be legal. So much can change in a few short months. No more free spells, no more Rebels, no more Ritual, no more Port, no more Blastoderm, no more Saproling Burst. It's a whole new world out there.

The dawn of this new era, for most of the Magic world, is just over the horizon in the form of State Championships. These tournaments serve to shape the Standard environment in the months to come, and their impact cannot be taken lightly. Last year's Standard Pro Tour was defined largely by the Fires decks that first found success at the State Championships, and while there will not be any premier events using the Standard format for quite some time, States nonetheless stand to define the environment for most of the foreseeable future.

For this year's State Championships, however, the tables have been turned. While last year the pros found themselves competing in a format sketched out by amateurs around the world, so will the metagame for this year's State Championships be heavily influenced by the pros. Odyssey block's debut in Standard came - albeit briefly, and with scarcely enough data to be considered statistically significant - in Cape Town at the Magic Invitational. By the numbers there, g-r decks yet again ruled the day, with Scott Richards posting an impressive 3-0 performance with an extremely aggressive version including a plethora of direct damage, including Shock, Urza's Rage, Barbarian Ring, and even the oft-forgotten Volcanic Hammer, while Dave Price and Chris Pikula both posted respectable results with a more conventional build.

My own performance in Standard was fairly disappointing, rounding out a resoundingly mediocre performance at the Invitational altogether, with a record of 1-2 in the format. In the first round I was completely demolished by Scott Richards and his barrage of direct damage, while I handily dispatched Antoine Ruel in the second before losing an extremely frustrating match to Scott Johns. Chris Benafel did somewhat better with my deck, losing to Finkel but defeating Pustilnik and Van de Logt with relative ease.

Brian Kibler
Main Deck
	
Sideboard

10 Island
10 Forest
4 Yavimaya Coast
	
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Spellbane Centaur
4 Mystic Snake	
	

	

4 Call of the Herd
4 Beast Attack
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Counterspell
4 Opposition	
	

	

4 Kavu Chameleon
3 Gainsay
3 Dodecapod
2 Persuasion
3 Wash Out
	

The g-u flashback/Opposition deck I played was more a product of intuition than of testing. With the Masques Block power cards gone - no more free counters, no more Dark Ritual, no more Nether Spirit - there are few contenders remaining for the title of the most powerful cards in the format. Head and shoulders above the rest stand the diminutive Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise. In a format without horribly undercosted (or even free!) spells, without thoroughly broken mana acceleration, these bad boys are where the smart money is, providing that extra boost to put you a full turn's worth of mana production ahead of your opponent. It's no wonder why, of the cards in the current Standard environment, Llanowar Elves is one of the few that sees consistent play in Extended - it's that good.

So I'm playing Birds and Elves - now what? The cards in Odyssey that first caught my eye - besides the obvious, our lovable Jonny Magic himself, were Call of the Herd and Beast Attack. Much has already been said singing the praises of these card-advantage machines, but I'm here to say more. Call and Beast Attack are absolutely phenomenal. Not only are they fairly efficient creatures to begin with, with 3/3s for three and instant 4/4s for five being entirely playable from the get go, but the fact that they have flashback makes them absolutely amazing - you WILL win every war of attrition. Opposing creature decks can only trade for so long before they run out of gas, and traditional control decks simply can't keep up with the constant stream of threats. Besides, blocking an attacking Raging Kavu with a Beast token is up there with the greatest feelings in the world.

Elves, Birds, Beasts and Elephants - what's next in our menagerie? My initial build of the deck I played in the Invitational was modeled after Satoshi Nakamura's deck from APAC's this year, where he piloted an extremely unusual aggro Opposition deck to a Top 8 finish, but with the rotation of Masques Block, many of the cards he played, such as Gush and Saproling Burst, were no longer live options. Taking a page out of IBC, Mystic Snake joined the lineup. Providing an additional set of counters, Mystic Snake solidified the deck's game plan against control decks, allowing me to sit back after an initial Elephant rush and counter any effort my opponent takes to deal with it, all the while firing off Beast Attacks and Fact or Fictions at the end of their turn.

Ahhh... Fact or Fiction. Truly the card that makes the g-u deck hum, Fact or Fiction - while already clearly a tremendously powerful card - really shines in this deck, where you can turn over some of the most painful five-card piles your opponent has ever had to split. In my match against Antoine Ruel, at one point I played Fact or Fiction and revealed two Calls of the Herd, Beast Attack, Persuasion, and a land. Antoine chose to concede rather than waste his time figuring out just how many Elephants and Beasts he was going to let me beat him with. Extremely important against beatdown as well as control, Fact or Fiction lets you "reload" after trading off with your opponent's initial assault. Never sideboard them out.

The most peculiar looking card in the main deck is Spellbane Centaur, a card which found a place in many other players' sideboards. Even in matchups where his special ability isn't relevant, he's still a 3/2 body for 2 ManaGreen Mana, which is nothing to scoff at, especially when he can be played on turn two with a little help from an Elf or Bird. In matchups where his special ability IS relevant, he often completely dominates the board, shutting down an opponent's ability to use Opposition to contain your creatures, as well as protecting your Elephant and Beast tokens from targeted bounce effects like Repulse and Recoil. The Centaur's biggest downside is his vulnerability to Spectral Lynx - unlike your Elephants and Beasts, who can charge into the pesky cat with impunity, Spellbane Centaur's toughness of two makes him easy pickings. This often isn't as bad as it may seem, as your Centaur's inability to swing is generally offset by his nullification of your opponent's bounce spells which would otherwise be picking your tokens off one by one - a price I am generally willing to pay.


It isn't as important as you think.
And lastly, for the final card in the main deck, I'm going to say something that will likely surprise you - this isn't an Opposition deck. In fact, it's quite possible that Opposition doesn't belong in the deck at all. Unlike Kai's Infiltrator-Orb deck, or Opp-Orb decks of the past, Opposition in this deck plays the role of a utility card rather than a cornerstone of the deck's larger plan. Your intention is not to "lock" your opponent by tapping down all of his or her land - it's to disrupt them sufficiently to finish them off with your creatures. Opposition is at its best against other creature decks, where you can use your Birds and Elves to pin down their Spectral Lynxes, Infiltrators, and Shivan Wurms - against control decks, it's almost always sideboarded out, as its contributions in those matchups are slim to none. If you expect my decision to main deck Spellbane Centaur to be a popular one, it's a perfectly reasonable decision to remove Oppositions from the deck entirely.

The sideboard I played at the Invitational, to be perfectly honest, was absolutely abysmal. Some of the cards were correct, but some were completely off the mark. Scott Richards completely destroyed me with fast creatures because my sideboard was geared toward beating big creatures g-r decks, with Persuasions to steal their Kavu Titans and Shivan Wurms, rather than Jungle Barriers, which would've been tremendously effective at holding off Wild Mongrels and Raging Kavus, and which also don't become entirely useless if your opponent resolves a Spellbane Centaur. Wash Out was a safety net against white weenie decks, which threatened to make an appearance but didn't show. Kavu Chameleon and Dodecapod, however, were phenomenal choices, not only because of their particular special talents of uncounterability and becoming huge whenever your opponent Recoils something, but simply due to their ability to stand off against Vodalian Zombies and Finkels without being entirely ineffectual.

Many people have asked me if I'd play the deck again, and my answer is a resounding yes, but I'd likely make a number of changes before giving it another go. The most interesting change would be the addition of red, first and foremost for the awesome power of Flametongue Kavu. Behind Elves and Birds, this ugly lizard is likely one of the biggest keys to the success of g-r decks, with its massive ability to swing the tempo of a game while providing card advantage as well. The addition of red would make pro: green creatures far less of a problem, as well as providing a rough and ready solution to Infiltrator that isn't as fragile as Opposition. An amusing idea I've toyed around with is simply removing the Oppositions and Spellbane Centaurs altogether and playing Flametongue Kavu and Fire/Ice in those slots, turning the deck into nothing but mana production, Counterspells, and card advantage - all the while maintaining an extremely tight aggro-control strategy that is very efficient.

Like I said at the beginning, it's a whole new world out there. This sort of tinkering with ideas hardly scratches the surface of the vast iceberg of possibilities the new Standard environment has in store. Consider splashing black instead of red - can you imagine your opponent's reaction to a first turn Bird, second turn Infiltrator? Or black AND red - Flametongue your opponent's own Infiltrator and keep sending with your own. As bizarre as these ideas may seem, you'll never know if they can work unless you try. There's no better time than the dawn of a new format to test out such crazy ideas. Who knows? Maybe they'll work out, and you'll find yourself attacking with a Cloaked Dragon in the Top 8 of a Pro Tour.

As always, questions and comments are welcome at majesk@aol.com.