Welcome back to another Ideas Unbound. We have reached the pinnacle of Standard where the most cards possible are legal before the Fall release cuts our card pool almost in half. This is always an exciting time because more cards available means more options. Unfortunately last summer, it was Delvers as far as the eye can see, and the summer before that it was Squadron Hawks and Batterskulls. This summer we still have a couple of heavy hitters but there is a larger range of decks available. Let’s take a look at what Standard looks like at the moment.



Last weekend, we had a plethora of standard events to look at. We had two different SCG Opens, an SCG Classic, and a Grand Prix, all Standard. And each event posted their Top 16 decks lists:

SCG Classic - Albany, NY
SCG Open - Saturday - Salt Lake City, UT
SCG Open - Sunday - Salk Lake City, UT
Grand Prix - Warsaw

So let’s take a look at how those 64 decks break down.

Jund	32.81%
GR Aggro	21.88%
Naya Midrange	10.94%
UW/R Flash	10.94%
Bant Hexproof	6.25%
WBR Aristocrats	4.69%
BG Midrange	3.13%
Junk Aristocrats	3.13%
Other	6.25%

Looking at these numbers Jund is clearly Public Enemy #1. As I’ve said in the past, Jund is a favorite of mine. It is just a deck full of good cards, and the addition of Lifebane Zombie has really helped this deck. It allows you to have game against the aggressive decks and the midrange decks when you don’t have a Farseek draw. The deck can now curve Scavenging Ooze, into Lifebane, into Huntmaster/Olivia and be in good shape.

There has been a lot of talk about Lifebane Zombie with some people even comparing it to Vendilion Clique. While Vendilion Clique is a stronger card, the comparison is not that farfetched. Ripping a Restoration Angel, Thragtusk ,or Obzedat out of an opponent’s hand as you develop a board with a hard to block aggressive creature is certainly something Jund can get behind.









With Jund being this popular, it is no surprise that Brian Kibler’s GR Aggro deck is seeing so much play. It is an excellent aggressive shell with the ability to play Burning Earth. Burning Earth was originally considered to be THE answer for Jund. In practice though, while it is a good card against them, it doesn’t get the job done by itself. However, the card is absolutely fantastic against the UWR decks, which is why we see a lot of those decks dropping the red component and going straight UW. This allows them to play more basics so the Burning Earths are less effective. However, they do lose all of their burn spells doing this, making them a little weaker to the quick aggro decks.

The next two in the list are the Naya Midrange and the aforementioned flash decks. The Naya decks are poised to prey upon the increase in GR Aggro decks being able to bring Unfliching Courage out of the sideboard. The GR Aggro deck has a hard time beating this card. In addition, Domri gives them game against Jund allowing them to keep up in card advantage when he is nice enough to succeed on his +1. Plus, they have Loxodon Smiter turning Liliana of the Veil and Rakdos’s Return into a potential liability.

If you look at the Flash deck lists, you will see many of them abandoning the red component. This is because it is practically impossible for UWR flash to beat a resolved Burning Earth. The UW builds have a much larger number of basics available, allowing to play around the Burning Earth. They do lose some of their better removal, but the deck because a little more controlling playing for a longer game at that point.

The only other deck above 5% is The Devil Itself. I think I made my feelings about this deck clear enough last week. This deck is very draw dependent. Either you draw the nuts and win, or you don’t and fall apart. That’s why its performance has been so varied over the weeks, and is hard to place in the metagame. It is there though, so you need to be prepared to handle it in some capacity.

With more than 50% of the metagame being Jund and GR Aggro, it is important that we be prepared to face these two decks. It is certainly going to happen. The problem is that the decks are doing two similar but different things, so it’s not exactly easy to prepare for both. I know that I am not looking at playing any 3-color decks in the near future unless they are easily capable of dealing with Burning Earth.

With the decline in Aristocrats-style decks, I’m also becoming a bigger fan of sweepers. Both Supreme Verdict and Terminus are good ways of dealing with Jund and GR Aggro as well as the benefit of beating The Devil Itself if you can hit them early. Sphinx’s Revelation is still a ridiculous card, so I think the UW Flash or Control decks may be the way to go forward. Lifebane Zombie cannot get Aetherling or Snapcaster Mage.

I found a UW list that LSV played in a recent SCG IQ. I’m probably going to give it a run at FNM this week and see how it plays. I also have a BG Midrange deck on Magic Online that I’m going play around with as well this week and next. I will be sure to let you know my results.

Speaking of Magic Online, I am still working on getting video content going. However, technical issues have gotten in the way, but I am still working on it. Hopefully I will have some videos to post on her soon. Right now, I have a Standard deck, a Modern deck, a Momir Basic deck, and a Pauper deck (though this needs work) so I should be able to generate some variety. I’m not generally a fan of drafting on Magic Online because of the loss of value, but I may do one from time to time as well.

Also, if you go look at Paul Cheon (HAUMPH)’s stream archives from Tuesday night (link starts at 3:36:00), at the very end of the stream, you can see me beat him in Momir Basic. It was awesome.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. I just wanted to give you guys are quick rundown of the results from last week and where I think things stand with Standard. As always, feel free to leave me questions or comments and I will be glad to answer.

Eddie Walker
Twitter: @praethus
MTGO: praethus