That's a Pieing!

Last weekend saw the world's best Magic pros battle it out in Pro Tour, Khans of Tarkir.
The decks played were their takes on the still forming new standard format and will form the baseline for standard for at least the next few months.

The top 8 lists for the event can be found here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptktk/top-8-decklists-2014-10-11

There were several popular decks but the clear winners in the format were UWR Tempo and Junk Midrange/Agro with UB Control also rearing its ugly head, almost keeping up with the field.

To me, the UB control list looks like a pile of I don't know what but several very high ranking players (basically those that are nostalgic for the UW or Mono Black lists they played last season) were running the deck and Ivan Floch even managed to sneak one copy of the list into the top 8 so there might be something there going forward.
Ultimately, I feel that the lack of playable planeswalkers, no wrath and no real available finishers is going to keep this list from becoming particularly dominant in the general meta, particularly in places where people play agro.
That said, it is at least an indication that there might be a control deck out there for people willing to do actual nothing other than kill creatures and counter things.

The UWR and Junk decks were fairly clearly going to be a dominant force going in based on the early open series results and while the lists being played did vary a lot, the general principle behind them is the same as before.

The variance of the Junk lists was very apparent throughout the weekend and even for the 3 lists that made the top 8, the rage was from a two and three drop based argo deck (notably not running mana dorks or Coursers) in Mike Sigrist's list to the grindy planeswalker, approaching control, version that Ari Lax eventually piloted to overall victory with Thiago Saporito being somewhere in the middle.
While their colours were the same, the only non-removal cards that all three lists actually shared were Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor.
This is interesting as it indicates that at least the Junk colours are dense in high quality cards which allows players to build their decks in a variety of ways, catering to their personally preferred play styles.
This makes for a far more interesting format as more decks mean more play variety which means more fun for everyone.
This is already a vast contrast to the identical 75s of 3-4 decks that we had last season in basically every event that would fluctuate 0-2 cards week to week.

When all is said and done, the real hero of the event for me was Ari Lax and his excellent card choices.
Namely, this guy:

My Hero!

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is in my opinion a highly undervalued planeswalker that has not seen the play time he deserves.
He saw some amount of play in the Junk midrange lists that were popular on the open series toward the end of last season but I think his best times are yet to come.

The quality of the card aside, the reason I was very happy to see Ari include two copies of this walker in his main deck is that I may have had a little something riding on Ajani seeing top 8 play before the next set comes around.

The background is that when Ajani first came out, I did a set review of Journey into Nyx with a friend of mine, Byron, on his YouTube channel and we had some, shall we say disagreement regarding the quality of this Ajani.

The review discussion can be found here:
 http://youtu.be/UF0WU1LMIfo?t=58m45s

I liked this card a lot immediately but Byron was very down on it.
We borrowed a solution to this kind of dispute from Evan Erwin and Brad Nelson who make pie bets regarding cards they disagree on in their reviews.

The Bet:  Ajani, Mentor of Heroes will see top 8 play with 2 or more copies in the main deck at a GP or PT level event before the second set in Khans block comes out.
The Participants:  Tom for, Byron against.
The Prize:  Winner gets to pie the loser in the face.

Well thanks to Ari Lax, THAT'S A PIEING!
And not for me :)

Byron originally offered to up the stakes to 2 pies for top 8 at a PT but I was not up for that one so it will be only 1 pie this Friday at our local game store.

As for the actual card itself, I still believe it is very powerful and I was very impressed with what it was doing in Ari's deck and other Junk decks that brought him in from the sideboard.
Every time Ajani was in play on camera over the weekend he was doing serious work and quickly swinging games.

The decks that he ended up seeing play in were basically exactly where I originally saw him fitting.
He saw play in the Junk lists of last season, fetching up underworld connections, and now in a PT winning Caryatid/Courser/Elspeth deck.

Here is Ari Lax's PT winning Junk Midrange list for reference:

Creatures(16):
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Wingmate Roc
4 Siege Rhino

Planeswalkers(7):
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Spells(13):
4 Abzan Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Utter End
4 Thoughtseize

Lands(24):
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Silence
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard(15):
1 End Hostilities
1 Duneblast
1 Mass Calcify
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Bile Blight
2 Murderous Cut
1 Unravel the Æther
1 Liliana Vess
2 Nissa, Worldwaker

Ari clearly skewed his deck to the upper end of the mana curve available in Junk and I have to say that I am a fan.
There's so much gas at the top end of this deck that I don't see any other decks keeping up with it when the game goes long.
This could be seen in a lot of Ari's matches where he was playing against other junk lists where the board would grind out a bit and then Ari would take over the game with his heavy hitting planeswalkers.

The other interesting side of the PT is looking at what cards and decks were absent.
I think the two most notable deck absences were Green based devotion/monsters and all of the delve/reanimator decks.
I was not particularly surprised by this since in my experience, neither of these decks have enough power or upside in them to compete with the Junk or BWR midrange lists.
There was also a distinct absence of Polukranos anywhere near the top 8 (not counting the sideboard of the combo deck...) which is something I predicted early on when the spoilers for Khans were coming through.
I've never really liked Polukranos.  To me it's not much more than a vanilla 5/5 for 4 mana which is not standard playable and now that there are real creatures to replace him with, I don't see the World Eater seeing anywhere near as much play as he did previously.

Anyway, this week I'll be battling it out in the top 4 of the Highlander league on Wednesday and then taking another look at my standard list to iron it out a bit more for Game Day this weekend.

Congratulations again to Ari Lax on his win and my whole hearted approval of his deck building choices.

Durdle: The Format

Khans standard has been upon us for two weeks now and it has already begun to form shape with several very distinct decks and strategies rising to the top in the first few opens.
The big winners so far have been UWR tempo, Junk midrange and Green based devotion with BWR midrange, RUG monsters, BUG delve (not to be confused with BUG Delver) and some stupid combo deck also making space for themselves.

Unsurprisingly, at least to me, all of these decks are based heavily around their three colour creature card of choice and filled in with a supporting act.
These cards are Mantis Rider, Siege Rhino, Butcher of the Horde, Savage Knuckleblade and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.  There is obviously more to each deck than just these powerful creatures but these are all very good magic cards that play a big part in enabling these decks.
Green devotion is the outlier here as it is not based on playing a few very good magic cards and supporting them but rather it is based on playing an overwhelming number of bad magic cards and overrunning their opponents with them.  Personally I think that the best magic card in mono green is likely Elvish Mystic.
(Yeah ok, Courser durdles pretty well, I get it.  I prefer killing my opponent.)
Obviously the format is very young and far from settled.  I expect to see a bunch of sweet new decks from the Pro Tour just like we did with PT Theros except hopefully the PT decks won’t be the only decks played for the entire season like they were last time...

Of all the cards in Khans, Mantis Rider was by far the most underrated and undervalued.
It started off at a measly 2$ bulk rare price tag and being called 'probably playable' and 'ok but not great' by the vast majority of sites and reviewers.
Did people not read the card?  Did they look at it and go 'oh, UWR are control colours, creature must be bad'? 
Whatever the case may be, just in case anyone is still confused, the card is very obviously insane.

The insanity of Mantis Rider aside, it is unfortunately in the wrong colours for the type of deck I like to play so for me, Khans standard became all about this guy:

The power level on this bad boy is through the roof.  I played a lot with Falkenrath Aristocrat and Hell Rider back in their days and hasty 4 drops with evasion/reach is exactly where I want to be.
Now granted, Butcher needs a little bit of work to gain haste but given it's a 5 powered flier, I'm willing to let it slide.  The guy hits harder than Stormbreath Dragon or Sarkhan and only costs 4 mana to their 5, even without haste, the card is fine in my books.
I immediately started putting together agro lists that curved into Butchers and my initial attempts had a creature base that looked something like this:

4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Chief of the Edge
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde

Which I was supporting with a couple Sarkhans, removal and burn.
The synergy between Butcher and Rabblemaster/Bloodsoaked Champion is very real as both provide an endless supply of food for the demon, more or less for free.
Unfortunately it became very clear that even the best 2 powered 1 drops are not playable in a world where 85% of people are on midrange with at least two thirds of them running the Courser + Caryatid durdle special.
I removed the 1 drops entirely and eventually ended up and the same creature base as the list piloted to a second place open finish by Jon Goss which can be found here:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=73384

The creature base I was left with was this:

4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Goblin Rabblemaster can win games on its own and doubles here are food generation for Butcher, Brimaz is a house, Butcher is my boy and Dragon? Well everyone loves dragons.
Originally the rest of my deck looked like this:

2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
1 Hammer of Purphoros
25 Assorted lands

Towards the end of last season, a few people in my play group were working on a 'RabbleCats' deck which worked on the principle of having Rabblemasters and Brimaz as your creatures and running a ton of removal and burn to clear the path for them to win you the game.
I was not a fan of this deck before rotation as it had an extremely low threat count in a format full of 2 mana removal spells which meant you had issues actually killing your opponent.
Now we are in a 3-4 mana removal spell format and with the addition of Butcher, the time has come for RabbleCats II:  The Butchering.  (Div came up with the name, blame him ;) )

I'm a red mage at heart and so had initially leaned the deck heavily into burn for removal but Stoke the Flames is actually pretty bad if you're not convoking it and it also doesn't kill the green fatties you need it to so Hero's Downfall is the correct card in that slot.
The Charms played fine but they were a little too cute.  Hammer of Purphoros is one of my favourite cards in standard and was an all-star against control in the red devotion decks I played last season but control doesn't really exist (at least yet) in Khans standard and with the low creature count it didn't really do much in a lot of matchups.
Realistically, Thoughtseize is the clear choice for this deck but I was avoiding it because I hate the card and don't like playing with it.  In the end I decided I do like winning games so I cut the weak cards and pulled my play set of Thoughtseizes out of my folder.
The final changes where swapping out the Elspeths for Sorins (taken from Jon's list) to lower the curve a little while gaining access to some life gain and finding room for a Chandra as the card is super powerful in midrange fights.
My sideboard ended up a bit different as I tuned it for my local meta and personal play style.
I ended up pulling the mana base entirely from Jon's list as it checked out fine.

The final list I've been running looks like this:

Creatures(14):
4 Butcher of the Horde
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Planeswalkers(5):
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Spells(16):
4 Crackling Doom
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Lightning Strike
4 Thoughtseize

Lands(25):
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
4 Nomad Outpost
2 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard(15):
1 Hushwing Gryff
2 Bile Blight
2 Magma Spray
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Whip of Erebos
1 End Hostilities
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Despise


The deck has been playing very well in testing and I went undefeated with it at the first two sanctioned weekly events I played with it last week as I have finally acquired all the new cards I needed.
I feel the deck is very well positioned to battle against other midrange decks while also having enough early interaction to deal with aggressive decks.

Cracking Doom is a personal favourite and is definitely the Honeybadger removal spell of the format; it doesn't give a fuck.  Oh you have pro white? Dead.  Indestructible? Still dead.  Hexproof? Definitely dead.  Nice regen shield brah! You're dead. 
Oh, and you take 2.
Seriously, the card is gas, don't leave home without it in a BWR deck.

I wasn't sold on Sorin going in but the man has earned his price tag in my eyes.  Sure, he doesn't do anything super broken on paper but in play he supports the rest of the deck extremely well and he's a must kill threat that will win you the game if your opponent decides to ignore it.
Firstly, making a 2/2 flier for -2 is almost worth a card which ensures a 2 for 1 every time unless your opponent crackling dooms you, in which case you are sad but it's still a 1 for 1 trade which is fine.
It is however his +1 that makes Sorin good.  Even in this low creature count deck, the +1 swings the game hugely in your favour if you start hitting your opponent for 10-12 point swings with Butcher or Dragon/Sarkhan.  The +1 is also super hard to beat with Brimaz for agro decks.
In my match against a mono red agro opponent, I was a reasonably low life and had a Sorin on my otherwise empty board.  My opponent decided to attack me with his creature rather than kill the Sorin as he had just scried 2 burn spells to the top with a Magma Jet on my vampire token and would be able to burn me out the following turn but I followed up with a Sarkhan on my next turn, plused Sorin and gained 5 life, firmly sealing the deal.
You also want the life gain against the Junk midrange decks as the drain on Siege Rhinos is something you can't keep up with if you're trading 1 for 1.
Siege Rhino is the reason I've included a Hushwing Gryff in the sideboard as the Helix Rhino sees a lot of play in my local meta and it can be difficult to keep up.  Card also has nice interaction with Hornet Queen.

I have been thoroughly enjoying Khans standard so far, even though it is a gigantic midrange grind fest.
One of my matches last week was against a Junk reanimator/dredge deck which I ended up winning 1-0-1 with us going to time in game two.
I didn't draw enough threats to close the game but the reanimator list is super threat light, even more so than my deck, and I was able to keep up with an active Whip of Erebos easily as I had an active Chandra in play for probably 10+ turns that my opponent was unable to deal with through my removal.

The one major concern I had coming into this season was the viability of 3 coloured mana bases but they seem to check out fine.
This deck requires RR, BB and WW and apart from the game when I mulled to 5 with my hand being Strike, Chandra, Rabblemaster, Swamp, Swamp (yes I lost that game), I have not had any significant mana issues.
I've even messed with the Idea of cutting Brimaz for Mantis Rider but that might be pushing it slightly... we'll see...

Anyway, I'll be sticking with the Yemen Midrange list for the foreseeable future and look forward to tuning it further once the meta game fully shapes up and settles.