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Main » Articles » Pro Tour Decks, Part 2

Pro Tour Decks, Part 2

Jarvis Yu
Posted on February 24, 2012
 Reddit

In this Part 2, I’d like to go over what I think are the best performing decks from the Pro Tour.

The biggest winners were Delver Spirits and R/G Ramp. But under that, there were quite a few decks that also performed extremely well. Here’s the list Finkel played:

Delver Spirits – Samuel Black (19 points), Jon Finkel (20 points), Michael Jacob (18 points), Tom Martell (27 points), Matt Sperling (19 points), Gerry Thompson (22 points), Jelger Wiegersma (24 points)

"Delver Spirits"

It’s going to be very difficult to justify only two Mana Leaks now that everyone knows that you only have two—and because R/G is a major player again. If Sword of War and Peace also loses favor this weekend, it is very possible to shave the Revoke Existence or Divine Offering from the main. Demystify seems unnecessary in his ’board, and Dungeon Geists is only great if we expect a lot of mirrors (since it is a larger guy). Gerry Thompson did mention an updated list for this deck in his SCG Premium article this week, so you might want to check that out for more information. However, there is also a slight confounding effect (from player skill) since every person who played this deck is an extremely solid player.

R/G ChannelFireball Ramp – Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (27 points), Martin Juza (18 points), Brian Kibler (22 points), Ben Stark (18 points), Josh Utter-Leyton (18 points)

"R/G ChannelFireball Ramp"

The list is extremely solid and seems to be built under the assumption that the metagame would mostly be Delver and Humans (note the five maindeck sweepers and four Galvanic Blasts for a total of nine removal spells maindeck). Looking at the caliber of player who chose to play this deck, I am a bit shocked that three of the five here only managed a 6–4 record with it (and I know Luis Scott-Vargas managed to run into a streak of bad luck, accomplishing the 1–4). This implies that only having twenty-five lands is suspect. Faithless Looting is a consideration for decks like these because you really want to see a mix of lands, ramp, and a fatty. Regardless, expect to see this deck in large numbers since it has a good, proactive game plan against most decks.

Naya Birthing Pod – Lukas Blohon (22 points), Ivan Floch (19 points), Mates Vantuch (19 points)

"Naya Birthing Pod"

I saw this deck in action against Shouta Yasooka’s Tezzeret deck in a late round of the Pro Tour. It looked impressive. While we classify this deck as a Pod deck, it is certainly very capable of functioning just as a Naya tokens deck with Blade Splicers, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Gavony Townships. The most out-of-place cards here seem to be Mortarpod in the maindeck, Ray of Revelation, and Autumn's Veil in the sideboard. I would definitely have a Stingerfling Spider somewhere in the seventy-five—and possibly a Primeval Titan (it lets you find two Townships). Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is still a format-defining card—it shuts down so many opposing decks. I would definitely enjoy giving this deck a spin, although I suspect the R/G matchup could use some work.

Delver Humans – Kenny Oberg (21 points), Denniz Rachid (20 points)

"Delver Humans"

This hybridized list of Humans and Delver can be traced to Sam Black at GP: Orlando. Having more 1-drops to curve out lets you play as a much more aggressive Delver list than the Delver-Blade variants. In general, this list is much more threat-dense compared to Delver-Blade, although it has a comparable number of threats against Illusions (which was played by a contingent of people whom I talked to).

Speaking of which:

Illusions – (Tommy Ashton (21 points), Alex Majlaton (18 points), Ben Wienburg (24 points))

"Illusions"

Tommy Ashton managed to convince both Alex and Ben to play this deck, and Ben was even in Top 8 contention for some of the tournament. This is the same old, solid list that is very capable of putting people on the back foot. It certainly had reasonably good matchups for that tournament, and it will probably remain a reasonable choice for this weekend at the Grand Prix—Corrosive Gale, the go-to sideboard card, does nothing against this deck. Here’s Nakada’s list from the PT:

B/r Zombies – Toshiyuki Kadooka (19 points), Eric Meng (18 points), Naoki Nakada (18 points)

"B/r Zombies"

This archetype seems that it should have performed better since it seems solid against Delver and Humans. Skirsdag High Priest is an interesting piece of technology that plays surprisingly well. Falkenrath Aristocrat does a reasonable Giant Solifuge impression and serves as a sacrifice outlet for High Priest and Brimstone Volley to enable morbid. Manabarbs seems somewhat suspect here (against ramp) while Phyrexian Obliterator seems quite good against ramp.

There were actually two different branches of R/G aggro, but I am choosing to go over the American list rather than the German one.

R/G Aggro – Brandon Nelson (18 points), Adam Reiser (18 points), Jason Schousboe (21 points), Ricky Sidher (18 points), Kyle Stoll (18 points)

"American R/G Aggro"

Strangleroot Geist is obviously quite exciting here. Three Daybreak Rangers means that Sidher was ready to fight Delver decks pretty heavily, and I suspect he also has a reasonably good matchup against Delver Spirits with all the Huntmasters, Incinerates, and the three Daybreak Rangers. Traditional R/G ramp is a problematic matchup for this deck, which is why he’s ’boarding two Manabarbs (much better here when you can play it on turn three against them) and two Sword of Feast and Famine. Blasphemous Act lets him clear up clogged boards against Humans—and potentially Zombies as well. Combust solidifies his removal against Delver and Humans.

5-Color Mulch/Unburial Rites – Raphael Levy (22 points), Timothee Simonot (19 points), Lucas Terrier (24 points)

"5-Color Mulch/Unburial Rites"

This deck does seem quite exciting. The deck seems very synergistic and has two primary plans. Plan A: Unburial Rites a giant fatty early (on turn three or four). Plan B: Cast said giant fatty with the nine mana-generating creatures the deck has. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is among the best fatties to cheat out against the current field. It is only dead against a pure control deck. Many decks are going to have to ’board three to four graveyard-hate cards if they want to beat this. It is kind of baffling that it only has two Unburial Rites maindeck. Also, with the way this deck operates, I’m not sure three Ray of Revelation is necessary. Four Ancient Grudges are needed to kill a Grafdigger's Cage. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is an alternate large fatty against both control and ramp decks.

In summary, the decks I would consider playing this weekend (in no particular order) are:

Delver Spirits, Illusions, Delver Humans, B/r Zombies, R/G ramp, 5-color Mulch/Unburial Rites, and Naya Birthing Pod.

I do expect an uprising in sideboard hate for Delver Spirits and R/G ramp given the results of the PT, so be prepared to adapt if you choose to play those decks. The other decks were much further under the radar, and they can potentially take people by surprise.

Good luck to everyone playing in tournaments this weekend!

Again, any comments that you might have are appreciated (either here or on Twitter@jkyu06).

TAGS articles, pro tour, grand prix, standard, constructed, analysis, deck lists, grand prix baltimore, jarvis yu, pro tour dark ascension

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