After I placed Top 8 at the SCG Atlanta Standard Open, the following comments were made on my Facebook wall by fellow Phyrexian Arena writers.



Jeremy’s comment is an allusion to Peyton always choking in the playoffs.  I played Islands and choked in the playoffs.  The second line is simply Jeremy being in love with both Forests and Tim Tebow.  It is weird, I know.

However, Brad’s comment makes perfect sense if you know anything about American football and if you look at the Top 8 results from the Standard Open.  Tom Brady is known for making the playoffs almost every season.  When you look at the Top 8 of the Standard Open, you will see a recurring theme.  Except for my deck, every one of them played red cards:  seven out of eight decks.  That is a pretty good percentage.  And if you expand your view to the Top 32, it is a repeated there as well.  Red seems to be the color on everyone’s mind in the early days of this new Standard.  Let’s take a look at some of these decks and the cards they played and see why red was so popular.




We will start with the winner.

Joseph Herrera
Naya Humans

3 Frontline Medic
3 Selesnya Charm
3 Searing Spear
3 Restoration Angel
3 Nearheath Pilgrim
4 Silverblade Paladin
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Champion of the Parish
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Rootbound Crag
2 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
Sideboard
2 Boros Charm
2 Rest in Peace
2 Centaur Healer
1 Zealous Conscripts
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Fiend Hunter
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Ray of Revelation

While Joseph is not playing very many red cards, the ones he included are quite powerful.  Searing Spear seems to be the go-to removal spell for red these days.  It does a good job of removing most of the aggressive threats in the format.  And in a pinch, can be pointed at the dome to finish an opponent off.

The only other red card in the main here is Huntmaster of the Fells.  This guy has been seeing play pretty consistently since he was printed and is one of the most efficient creatures in Standard.  He provides two bodies, which makes things difficult for the opponent when it comes to blocking.  And the 2 life really helps in a racing situation.  We also cannot discount the value if this guy ever flips.  In an aggro mirror, the odds are high that you are going to kill one of their creatures plus deal 2 to them.  That’s going to put you far ahead in the race.

Joseph does bring in a few more red cards from the sideboard.  Pillar of Flame is an obvious inclusion to help against other aggro decks, especially Zombies or anything playing Strangleroot Geist.  Boros Charm is another card I expect to see frequently.  Making your whole team indestructible has many applications, including sweeper protection and allowing you to alpha strike without fear.


Human Reanimator
Brian Braun-duin
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Grisly Salvage
4 Angel of Glory's Rise
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Cathedral Sanctifier
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Unburial Rites
2 Clifftop Retreat
4 Woodland Cemetery
3 Sunpetal Grove
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
4 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
4 Farseek
4 Mulch
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Faithless Looting
Sideboard
3 Slaughter Games
4 Appetite for Brains
3 Cathedral Sanctifier
2 Purify the Grave
3 Ray of Revelation

This deck is also lite on the red cards, but it uses them well.  Faithless Looting is one of the primary enablers for this deck, allowing you to fill your graveyard with all of the creatures you need.  Here, we see Huntmaster again, but this time with a different plan.  The focus of this deck is to create an infinite loop using Huntmaster to gain infinite life and create infinite Wolf tokens.

I have seen this loop up close and personal, as it beat me in round 4, so I will give you a breakdown of how it works.  You need an Angel of Glory’s Rise, a Fiend Hunter, a Cartel Aristocrat, and a Huntmaster in your graveyard.  (The Huntmaster and Aristocrat can be in play, it does not matter.)  You return Angel to the battlefield using Unburial Rites.  The Angel then brings the Fiend Hunter back, with whatever other humans are in your graveyard.  The Fiend Hunter ability will be used to exile the Angel of Glory’s Rise.  Then, you sac the Huntmaster and the Fiend Hunter to the Cartel Aristocrat.  This will cause the Angel to come back on to the battlefield and bring the Fiend Hunter and Huntmaster back with it:  lather, rinse, repeat.


R/W Aggro
Andrew Schneider

4 Boros Reckoner
2 Boros Charm
4 Ash Zealot
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Searing Spear
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Lightning Mauler
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Stonewright
4 Hellrider
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Stromkirk Noble
1 Brimstone Volley
15 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
Sideboard
4 Skullcrack
2 Boros Charm
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Volcanic Strength

Now we are talking.  Here we see the red cards in full action.  I believe this is the face of what Red Deck Wins will look like for the next few months.  Boros Reckoner is definitely not something I want to be seeing across from me in an aggro mirror.  If you block it, there is a good chance you are losing two creatures in the process.
Boros Reckoner also sets up a nice curve with Lightning Mauler allowing you to attack with both on turn 3.  This really puts pressure on a lot of the slower decks out there.  I think you will start to see those decks play cards to adjust to this situation.  I found Blind Obedience to be an excellent way to curtail these types of situation.  You may even see more Feeling of Dread in the coming weeks.

You can see how Andrew was expecting the popularity of Tom Brady, I mean Mountain.  He has four Volcanic Strength in his sideboard.  The mountainwalk would have let him walk through all the blockers in the top 8, except for me.  I’m not sure if it’s worth the 2-for-1 potential but it definitely has merit.

Jund Aggro
Tyler Lindsey
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Experiment One
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Searing Spear
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Flinthoof Boar
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Hellrider
2 Tragic Slip
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Abrupt Decay
Sideboard
3 Skullcrack
2 Gruul Charm
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Deathrite Shaman
2 Golgari Charm
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Rolling Temblor
2 Abrupt Decay

Ah Jund.  This is not last month’s Jund Midrange, though.  This is a new version of Jund made possible by the release of Stomping Ground.  We do not see the familiar Farseek into Huntmaster or Olivia plan here, just straight beats.

Flinthoof Boar is a card I expected to see this weekend with the release of Stomping Ground and we see Tyler playing 3 here.  In some of the testing my friends and I did before the set was released, we found Flinthoof Boar to be very good.

We also see the full 4 Rampager here.  A lot of talk has been made about this card, and I think it fits here perfectly.  If you get an aggressive opening hand, the bloodrush can be used to quickly punish the opponent.  And , if the game does not end quickly, it is an efficient beater in the mid game.  We also see the use of Searing Spear again here as the removal of choice.

Just from looking at these decks, it is clear that red has a lot of diverse cards in the format.  The numbers we are seeing may be skewed because of a fresh format, though.  History has shown that new formats tend to see aggro decks come out on top in the first few weeks.  Control decks are inherently weaker, because the new threats are unknown.

I think we will continue to see decks like the ones above shine for the next few weeks as the control decks adapt.  I am very eager to see what comes out of SCG Edison this coming weekend and see how the format takes shape.  And then we have Pro Tour Gatecrash the week after, which is also Standard.  We will see if red continues to dominate the format.

Eddie Walker