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Hello, everyone! Last weekend, when many eyes were watching Modern at the Mythic Championship IV that took place in Barcelona, a Standard event was taking place in Columbus, OH at the SCG Classic. The winner was Chris Andersen, who was playing a Bant Scapeshift deck. Congratulations, Chris! I've already talked about Bant Scapeshift and how good it is, but there are a few decks from this tournament that just missed out on winning. This week, we'll take a look at those decks. Let's get started.

Jeskai Hero

The first deck we'll take a look at came in second place. It was piloted by Adam Martin. Let's take a look at Jeskai Hero:


Lightning Stormkin
Hero of Precinct One has usually been seen in Esper decks lately, so seeing it here in this Jeskai build is refreshing. With twenty-six spells in this deck that are multicolored, building up an army of 1/1 Human tokens should be relatively easy. The only monocolored spells you have are Hero of Precinct One itself, Tomik, Distinguished Advokist, Lyra Dawnbringer, and Shalai, Voice of Plenty. Shalai is especially important to get into play whenever possible because of the protection she offers for you, your planeswalkers, and your other creatures.

This deck uses a couple of uncommon cards very nicely. The first is Lightning Stormkin. A 2/2 flyer with haste can definitely spoil an opponent's plans. The first time you play Lightning Stormkin, you'll be able to catch your opponent off-guard, potentially attacking a planeswalker and reducing its loyalty to zero. After that, your opponent will know you have the potential of playing another Lightning Stormkin whenever you have the 2 mana needed to cast it available, so they can hold back ways to deal with it. You can use that to your advantage, potentially making them use their answer on a different creature or risk wasting that mana altogether.

The other uncommon that this deck uses to great effect is Empyrean Eagle. Twenty-one creatures in this deck have flying (counting Empyrean Eagle itself), so the +1/+1 bonus that Empyrean Eagle grants them will quickly add up as extra damage you're able to deal to your opponent. Empyrean Eagle boosts Shalai, Voice of Plenty to be a 4/5, putting her out of range of nearly every single burn spell in Standard. While there are some untraditional choices that could be used (like the Response side of Response // Resurgence), if your opponent wants to remove Shalai with direct damage spells while you have a single copy of Empyrean Eagle in play, they'll need to use a minimum of two spells. It only gets more difficult if you get multiple copies of Empyrean Eagle on the battlefield.

Four-Color Elementals

The next deck I have for you this week was piloted by Terren Huck and came in third place. It adds a little Black mana to the Temur Elemental deck to create something a little bit stronger. Let's take a look at it:


Yarok, the Desecrated
The addition of Black mana allows Yarok, the Desecrated to be included in this deck. Yarok allows you multiple triggers of abilities that happen when a permanent you control enters the battlefield. That lets your Risen Reef to look at multiple cards when an Elemental enters the battlefield under your control. It also offers additional cards to be drawn when you play Cavalier of Gales and additional lands to be found with Cavalier of Thorns.

Thunderkin Awakener is a great addition to any Elemental deck. When Thunderkin Awakener attacks, you'll be able to bring back a Risen Reef from your graveyard temporarily, allowing you either to draw an additional card or to put an extra land onto the battlefield. You can do this turn after turn, as long as Thunderkin Awakener remains on the battlefield and Risen Reef remains in your graveyard. If Risen Reef isn't available, a great second choice to bring back is Scampering Scorcher. You'll end up keeping the two 1/1 Elemental tokens Scampering Scorcher creates when it enters the battlefield, which allows your team to quickly outnumber your opponent's forces.

Jund Dinosaurs

The final deck I have for you this week was piloted by Wes Williamson and took home fifth place. Let's take a look at his Jund Dinosaurs deck:


Rotting Regisaur
Gruul Dinosaurs has been a thing for a while now. It uses hard-hitting dinosaurs to deal out massive chunks of damage. Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Regisaur Alpha are two of its biggest and best creatures for this. Ripjaw Raptor is also included in this deck, not only as a good attacker, but also as a way to draw additional cards. Marauding Raptor was the latest addition to this style of deck, and it allowed a way to cast your creatures easier as well as a way to trigger enrage abilities. This Gruul Dinosaur deck had proven it had what it takes to compete in today's Standard.

Now, by adding Black mana and making this deck Jund, you have increased the lethalness of this deck. That Black mana is only used for one card, and what a card it is. Rotting Regisaur is a massive threat that you can play as early as turn three. Its 7/6 body does come with a drawback; you have to discard a card at the beginning of your upkeep. However, if you're able to play every card in your hand each turn, you won't have any cards to discard at the beginning of your upkeep. There's no penalty if you can't discard a card. You'll then draw your card for the turn, making sure to play it during that turn and continue the carnage. It gets especially gross when you get multiple Rotting Regisaur on the battlefield at the same time.

Wrapping Up

Congratulations to all of the players I mentioned in today's article for doing so well at this SCG tournament! These decks prove that even existing archetypes such as Esper Hero, Temur Elementals, and Gruul Dinosaurs can be shaken up and tweaked with new cards from Core Set 2020.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below or you can reply to me directly on Twitter (@mikelikesmtg), or email me directly at mikelikesmtg@gmail.com. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

- Mike Likes

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