The first deck is Mono-Red Aggro. This deck is super-popular online, and it stands to be one of the most played decks at PT Hour of Devastation. This is the biggest pole in the format right now, and for good reason. The deck plays solid aggressive creatures, a super-low curve, and enough reach in Ramunap Ruins, Sunscorched Desert, Hazoret the Fervent, and a smattering of four to eight burn spells to close things out. Whether you’re rocking a Bushwhacker version, Consuming Fervor, heavier sideboard plan with Chandra or Glorybringer, a Black splash for Scrapheap Scrounger, or even a few Eldrazi, the deck has a solid base and enough customizability that it pays off to work through the options.
Tom Ross’s list from last week’s StarCityGames Open should be a great starting point for anyone interested in a dirt-cheap deck to bash the expensive piles other folks are bringing to the table:
Mono-Red ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Tom Ross
- Creatures (24)
- 1 Hazoret the Fervent
- 1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
- 2 Soul-Scar Mage
- 4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
- 4 Bomat Courier
- 4 Earthshaker Khenra
- 4 Falkenrath Gorger
- 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
- Instants (11)
- 3 Magma Spray
- 4 Abrade
- 4 Built to Smash
- Lands (23)
- 11 Mountain
- 1 Smoldering Marsh
- 3 Foreboding Ruins
- 4 Ramunap Ruins
- 4 Sunscorched Desert
Like any Ross list, Tom’s Red deck has a few interesting choices. Harsh Mentor? Blazing Volley? Invigorated Rampage? Come on, Tom. Those are just all over the place. There is value in getting creative, having a huge array of possible tricks and traps for your opponent to fret over, but this may be going too far. If you are going to play the Red deck this weekend, start here and don’t be afraid to tinker to your heart’s content. Be aware, though, folks will be gunning for you hard from the start. The best mainstream cards in the format against Red are Kozilek's Return, Fatal Push, Magma Spray, Aethersphere Harvester, and the 2-drops, but there are a ton of options if you want to go deep. Speaking of going deep, there’s another piece of this format, a Gift, if you will, that bookends Mono-Red as the other linear that you need to beat if you want to succeed.
W/U God-Pharaoh?s Gift ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Olivetti
- Creatures (22)
- 3 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
- 3 Mausoleum Wanderer
- 4 Angel of Invention
- 4 Champion of Wits
- 4 Minister of Inquiries
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- Sorceries] (8)
- 4 Refurbish
- 4 Strategic Planning
- Artifacts (7)
- 3 God-Pharaoh's Gift
- 4 Gate to the Afterlife
- Lands (23)
- 4 Island
- 5 Plains
- 2 Irrigated Farmland
- 4 Ipnu Rivulet
- 4 Port Town
- 4 Prairie Stream
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Crook of Condemnation
- 3 Void Winnower
- 4 Dispel
- 1 Linvala, the Preserver
- 3 Declaration in Stone
- 2 Fragmentize
Olivetti’s list from the MTGO PTQ is not even close to tuned, but the shell is powerful and unexpected enough that it came out of left field to dominate an event. Strategic Planning is too “do-nothing-y”, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk is so much worse than Angel of Sanctions it isn’t even funny. Play more Declaration in Stone maindeck, and consider playing Authority of the Consuls in the sideboard to attack Mono-Red. This deck also needs a better sideboard juke plan to dodge hate in the form of Crook of Condemnation and Scavenger Grounds. I’d recommend boarding a few Planeswalkers, possibly maindecking a few Spell Quellers and putting some number of Wharf Infiltrator back in there, or even playing Walking Ballista and Glint-Nest Crane. Play more interaction, don’t just rely on the power of your top end combo to pull you back from the brink of defeat.
Speaking of decks that should be playing more interaction rather than praying that their top end gets there . . .
R/G Ramp ? Hour of Devastation Standard |Andrew Hollingsworth
- Creatures (10)
- 3 World Breaker
- 3 Walking Ballista
- 4 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
- Planeswalkers (3)
- 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
- Instants (9)
- 2 Natural Connection
- 3 Kozilek's Return
- 4 Abrade
- Sorceries (10)
- 2 Hour of Devastation
- 4 Beneath the Sands
- 4 Hour of Promise
- Enchantments (3)
- 3 Oath of Nissa
- Lands (25)
- 3 Mountain
- 7 Forest
- 1 Drownyard Temple
- 1 Game Trail
- 2 Cinder Glade
- 3 Sanctum of Ugin
- 4 Sheltered Thicket
- 4 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
- Sideboard (15)
- 4 Thought-Knot Seer
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Kozilek's Return
- 2 Magma Spray
- 1 Struggle // Survive
- 1 Chandra, Flamecaller
- 2 Crumble to Dust
- 1 Hour of Devastation
Andrew’s list is interesting, but ultimately too full of ramp spells to catch up to aggressive decks like Mono-Red. Gerry Thompson himself has mentioned the need to play as many interactive spells as possible, rather than hoping that you can skip turn after turn and catch up right before you would die via a big Ulamog on an unstable board. As he put it, an Ulamog on an unstable board on turn five may not be enough to win. An Ulamog on a stable board on turn eight is certainly enough to win. Curving a few interactive spells into an Hour of Promise into an Ulamog is better than racing with Beneath the Sands, hoping to string together the perfect curve. Hell, against Mono-Red Aggro, you’ll slam down that Ulamog just in time to get hit with an Ahn-Crop Crasher and six points of Incendiary Flows to the face. Like almost every list in the format thus far, this Ramp deck is a bit untuned, but it makes up the third pole of the format, pushing the control and midrange decks from yet another angle.
The next deck up is the first in a long chain of smear-together decks. Emerge is powerful, but inconsistent, and suffers from “do-nothing” syndrome as much as (if not more than)
God-Pharaoh's Gift. It’s not a deck I predict will see much play in this format, but it deserves a spot on this metagame analysis specifically because it belongs on one end of a continuum of decks that stretches all the way through various emerge shells, through Delirium, and down to
Energy. Confused? Try to follow the thread here.
This:
U/R Emerge ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ben Friedman
- Creatures (20)
- 4 Advanced Stitchwing
- 4 Champion of Wits
- 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
- 4 Prized Amalgam
- 4 Stitchwing Skaab
- Instants (11)
- 3 Fiery Temper
- 4 Kozilek's Return
- 4 Lightning Axe
- Sorceries (6)
- 2 Tormenting Voice
- 4 Cathartic Reunion
- Lands (23)
- 5 Mountain
- 7 Island
- 1 Highland Lake
- 2 Sanctum of Ugin
- 4 Spirebluff Canal
- 4 Wandering Fumarole
- Sideboard (15)
- 4 Fevered Visions
- 2 Drake Haven
- 4 Negate
- 3 Abrade
- 2 Hour of Devastation
This Emerge deck is about as all-in on its emerge plan coming together as a deck can be. It suffers from being basically a worse deck than
God-Pharaoh's Gift, as it is susceptible to the same interaction and hate while being less consistent and easier for a control deck to contain. Disallow is annoying against
God-Pharaoh's Gift, but there is a high density of must-counter spells in the deck. Disallow can be absolutely backbreaking for
Emerge, countering a Skaab activation and buying at least two turns for the control deck to assemble a Gearhulk to flash it back. This is aside from the fact that Cathartic Reunion is about as bad against countermagic as possible. Zan Syed recognized this fact, and he tweaked and tuned a four-color version of Emerge to the tune of back to back SCG Open Top 8 finishes in the last two weeks.
Zan’s most recent list, with updates:
Four-Color Emerge ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Zan Syed
- Creatures (21)
- 1 Scrapheap Scrounger
- 4 Champion of Wits
- 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
- 4 Grim Flayer
- 4 Haunted Dead
- 4 Prized Amalgam
- Instants (10)
- 2 Grapple with the Past
- 4 Fatal Push
- 4 Kozilek's Return
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
- Enchantments (3)
- 3 Vessel of Nascency
- Lands (22)
- 1 Mountain
- 2 Forest
- 2 Island
- 2 Swamp
- 1 Hissing Quagmire
- 2 Sunken Hollow
- 4 Blooming Marsh
- 4 Botanical Sanctum
- 4 Evolving Wilds
- Sideboard (15)
- 1 Distended Mindbender
- 2 Manglehorn
- 1 The Scarab God
- 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- 3 Festering Mummy
- 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
- 2 Yahenni's Expertise
- 3 Collective Brutality
Festering Mummy is a pretty nice one against Mono-Red, but other than that this list is consistent, powerful, and resilient. Unlike the




B/G Delirium ? Hour of Devastation Standard |Ooter37
- Creatures (20)
- 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- 1 Manglehorn
- 1 Tireless Tracker
- 2 Mindwrack Demon
- 2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
- 2 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 3 Walking Ballista
- 4 Grim Flayer
- 4 Winding Constrictor
- Planeswalkers (4)
- 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
- 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
- Instants (10)
- 2 Blossoming Defense
- 4 Fatal Push
- 4 Grasp of Darkness
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
- Lands (22)
- 6 Forest
- 6 Swamp
- 2 Evolving Wilds
- 4 Blooming Marsh
- 4 Hissing Quagmire
- Sideboard (15)
- 3 Transgress the Mind
- 1 Doomfall
- 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- 2 Yahenni's Expertise
- 1 Manglehorn
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 3 Never // Return
Ooter’s list is consistent, to be sure, but without a metagame to attack, it’s hard to play a midrange pile like this knowing that some players are going to go above or under you, and there’s little you can do about it. Next week, or the week after, look for a well-tuned midrange Delirium list (or a four-color Emerge list with options of boarding into a Delirium midrange deck) to dominate the format.
For our team, the solution was to stay low to the ground and aggressive, which led me to register Energy (or as we started calling it for fun, “A Green and Black Aggression-based Strategy with both Energy and Counters sub-themes”, which kind of sounds like a description you might find on a Japanese restaurant menu). Here’s the list!
B/G Energy ? Hour of Devastation Standard | Ben Friedman
- Creatures (21)
- 2 Greenbelt Rampager
- 3 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
- 4 Longtusk Cub
- 4 Walking Ballista
- 4 Winding Constrictor
- Planeswalkers (3)
- 3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
- Instants (9)
- 2 Blossoming defense
- 3 Grasp of Darkness
- 4 Fatal Push
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Attune with Aether
- Artifacts (2)
- 2 Aethersphere Harvester
- Lands (21)
- 4 Swamp
- 5 Forest
- 4 Aether Hub
- 4 Blooming Marsh
- 4 Hissing Quagmire
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Fleetwheel Cruiser
- 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
- 3 Dissenter's Deliverance
- 1 Grasp of Darkness
- 1 Dispossess
- 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
- 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
- 1 Never // Return
- 2 Doomfall
Aggressive, powerful, consistent, just the way I like my Pro Tour decks. The thinking here is that Energy is the most overall strong deck that also sports a solidly favorable matchup against the Mono-Red menace, which stands to be the most popular deck at the event. Sure, Mardu, Zombies, and
Monument were also strong considerations that could be just as powerful in the hands of the right players, but in the end, time pressures won out and the simplest aggressive deck is the one that we’re hoping will carry me to the first PT Top 8 of my career. Wish me luck this weekend, as I’m going to need it!