There are a lot of exciting, new angles in Eldritch Moon Standard. There’s also the tried and true Collected Company into Reflector Mage. Any new strategies are going to have to have a plan to overcome any Reflector Mage or Spell Queller shenanigans out of the best deck in the format. In the previous format, the way to beat up on Collected Company nonsense was to go bigger with Cryptolith Rite. This enabled you to either cast Dragonlord Atarka or combo out with Brood Monitor and Eldrazi Displacer. In this new format, emerge creatures may just be a better trump than Dragonlord Atarka.

Blue-Green Emerge ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Dan Jessup

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Decimator of the Provinces
• 1 It of the Horrid Swarm
• 1 Reality Smasher
• 3 Foul Emissary
• 3 Sylvan Advocate
• 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
• 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
• 3 Eldrazi Skyspawner
• 4 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Loam Dryad
• 4 Matter Reshaper

• Spells (4)
• 4 Cryptolith Rite

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Lumbering Falls
• 4 Sanctum of Ugin
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

Buy This Deck

This deck is very similar to the Four-Color Collected Company decks we saw in the previous Standard. The strength of this deck is that you don’t mind cards like Elvish Visionary, Foul Emissary, and Eldrazi Skyspawner getting bounced with Reflector Mage, since you can rebuy them for more value. Loam Dryad helps you get out of the gates more quickly, but the deck really starts going off once you get a Cryptolith Rites online.

Cryptolith Rites allows you to start activating Duskwatch Recruiter multiple times per turn while still casting cards, which is going to be difficult for most fair decks to overcome. Once you start finding emerge creatures, you can go way over the top of whatever your opponent is doing. It of the Horrid Swarm gives you even more bodies to gum up the ground and generate mana. Elder Deep-Fiend plays the flexible role of ambushing creatures in combat, tapping down opposing creatures if your life total is low, or tapping your opponent out to clear the way for your trump in midrange mirrors.

The real card that makes this deck possible is Decimator of the Provinces. There may only be one copy, but don’t be fooled. This is the card that lets you win midrange mirrors. You don’t mind letting the ground stall out and just chaining together your cantrip creatures. Eventually you’ll find a Decimator of the Provinces and go way over the top of whatever your opponent happens to be doing; that’ll generally be enough to kill them.

The other big advantage to this deck is that you get to play four copies of Sanctum of Ugin to function as a spell-land that also casts Matter Reshaper and Reality Smasher. Sanctum of Ugin allows your first Elder Deep-Fiend to find either additional copies or, if you can tap your opponent out, you can go for the throat with Decimator of the Provinces.

This deck may be a little soft to the Languish decks that are cropping up in an effort to beat other Collected Company decks, but I’m certainly not one to turn down the opportunity to play with Cryptolith Rites and giant monsters. If you’re looking for a way to go big in the new Standard format, this seems like a fantastic place to start.