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Main » Articles » A Standard and Legacy Roundup

A Standard and Legacy Roundup

Jarvis Yu
Posted on May 23, 2012
 Reddit

This past weekend we finally were able to see the full effect of Avacyn Restored on several formats!

First, I’d like to congratulate Christian Calcano for his win at Grand Prix Minneapolis with one of the oddest looking decks I have seen in quite a while:

"Christian Calcano’s U/R Delver"

The deck certainly seems to have potential, and the Nassif-esque sideboard seems somewhat baffling. I’m not really sure I like two Invisible Stalkers with only two Equipment (Runechanter's Pike) to go along with it, but I will try to get some games in with this deck to tell you if has any promise or not.

The most exciting thing about the maindeck is the sheer quantity of burn. Eight burn spells—with three of them being scalable—means that it is pretty easy to close a game out assuming we’ve put in a few early hits with our creatures.

Josh “wrapter” Utter-Leyton also had a solid showing with his version of Delver:

"Josh Utter-Leyton’s W/U Delver"

I expect a build like this to replace most of the Spirits decks that people have been playing since Hero of Bladehold is a great way to actually play against R/G ramp with all of its Slagstorms and Whipflares. Honor of the Pure boosts most of your creatures. Mana Leak as a three-of makes some sense since this deck operates much more at sorcery speed but is also much better at putting the pressure on.

His sideboarded twenty-second land makes a lot of sense when he wants to board in Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Sword of Feast and Famine, both of which essentially cost 5 mana. Besides that, the rest of the sideboard looks normal.

It’s important to note that I don’t think there is an optimal build of Delver; rather, it depends on your play style and preferences.

Consider and compare it to Ben Friedman’s U/w Delver:

"Ben Friedman’s U/w Delver"

Friedman chose to continue playing a very Costa/Ford-ish list with the Restoration Angel tech courtesy of them (and possibly Charles Gindy; I’m not sure of the exact timeline here). Invisible Stalker was always one of the weakest cards, so cutting it for Restoration Angel in a field of expected ramp makes a lot of sense—it easily dies to Slagstorm and Whipflare. Angel fills in a lot of gaps that Delver previously had (not having a good blocker for opposing creatures), and it also has flash to make playing into four untapped lands very awkward.

Or consider Taylor Laehn’s U/w:

"Taylor Laehn’s U/w Delver"

This is a slight variation on U/w Delver that emphasizes Runechanter's Pike alongside Thought Scour. The list seems pretty solid, although I am not a huge fan of Dungeon Geists—it is a tempo sinkhole in the mirror match (costing 4 mana and easily answered by Vapor Snag). I also dislike only having one Gitaxian Probe since not all of us can figure out what our opponent has based on making perfect reads. The sideboard seems reasonable, although I'm not sure Corrosive Gale is still necessary—we see very little of Esper Spirits nowadays.

Spagnolo's Grand Architect deck got Brad Nelson to the finals of the Grand Prix and Lewis Laskin to the Top 4 of SCG: Orlando:

Brad Nelson's list:

"Brad Nelson’s Grand Architect"

Lewis Laskin's list:

"Lewis Laskin’s Grand Architect"

Both of these decks share the same core of eight Clones, four Wurmcoil Engine, and four Grand Architect. The basic idea is that Wurmcoil Engine is a great card when you aren't playing it on turn six. Decks like this have been floating around for quite a while, but they really need the correct metagame to thrive in (seems reasonably good against a ramp strategy, although it's probably nearly even, and it seems great against any G/r or G/r/w aggressive deck). Of the two sideboards and maindecks, I think Brad Nelson's is a little bit tighter, but that's mostly personal preference since there seem to be a few floating slots (the Devastation Tide and Dungeon Geists slots in Lewis Laskin's list).

Last but not least is Stephen Bishop's take on ramp:

"Stephen Bishop’s R/G Ramp"

We see a heavy emphasis on Titans (a whopping eight of them!) and no Green Sun's Zenith. He also eschews Huntmaster of the Fells for Thrun, the Last Troll, which is something that other writers have been advocating. Seven sweepers and two Devil's Play round out the removal spells here, while Devil's Play also doubles up as an integral part of your plan against blue control decks. It's also worth noting that he decided that Glimmerpost is better maindeck than Cavern of Souls, which I tend to agree with at the moment.

Pillar of Flame is the only real new sideboard card—it is a good answer to Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger, and mana creatures. I'm not really sure I like Ratchet Bomb as a one-of since I think you might gain more utility from the fourth Whipflare.

 

In Legacy, the breakout deck this weekend had a huge focus on an Avacyn Restored mechanic: miracles.

Shawn French chose to play W/U miracle control at SCG: Orlando:

"Shawn French’s W/U Miracle Control"

There're a few things that are confusing about this list. Only having twenty lands in a control deck that has a lot of things to do with its mana every turn and five 4-mana planeswalkers seems questionable. I would probably add three more lands and the fourth Sensei's Divining Top. Spell Pierce seems out of place because any opposing deck can almost certainly wait out the Spell Pierce due to how ponderously slow this deck is, so that's probably the cut for two more lands.

Terminus does seem quite good since it kills all of the creatures in Legacy at instant speed with a Sensei's Divining Top or Brainstorm. Entreat the Angels does a very good Decree of Justice impression with Sensei's Divining Top and Brainstorm.

Here's how I would update the W/U list:

"W/U Legacy Miracles"

This is only slightly different—I do think the core of the deck is quite strong. With twenty-three lands, four Sensei's Divining Top, and four Ponder, you can be relatively sure that you will not be stuck on lands, which is the most probable way for this deck to lose a game. Repeal is another instant-speed cantrip that also incidentally buys you time to find your miracles. It's possible you want another utility land instead of a Glacial Fortress.

Griselbrand also made quite a showing in Sneak / Show as well as Dredge. Both of those decks seemed extremely impressive with those additions since the ability to draw seven on command is quite strong. Especially in Dredge, that probably means the rest of your library flips into your graveyard, which wins the game on the spot.

 

To summarize, the decks for Standard that I would consider playing are U/w or U/w/b Delver, Ramp, G/r aggro, an updated list of Calcano's U/R Delver, or Grand Architect.

For Legacy, I think the decks to play at the moment are R/U/G Delver, Esper Stoneforge, W/U miracle control, Dredge, Sneak / Show, High Tide, or Maverick.

Just figure out the next step in evolving any of these decks, and as usual, play every game while thinking about what card choices could be better or worse.

As usual, I welcome any constructive criticism or comments on here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Jarvis

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, review, analysis, deck lists, legacy, jarvis yu

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