SCG Indy & BFZ Standard

This was day one of the new format, so with no established metagame, I put my trust in Brad Nelson and played a reasonable Siege Rhino deck at the StarCityGames Open in Indianapolis this past weekend. I managed to pilot it to a 9th place finish (yay tiebreakers!), and I'm pretty happy with how things played out. Before diving into any more details, here are some links to decklists and coverage from the event, as well as the 75 I ran:

Top 64 Decklists

SCG Indianapolis Coverage Page

This is 74 of the exact same cards that Brad Nelson posted in his article the Thursday prior to the event. The one change I made was removing one Anafenza, the Foremost and adding a Warden of the First Tree. I felt like the deck needed more early plays, especially since Knight of the White Orchid was often a 3-drop instead of a 2-drop when on the draw. Given that the deck is trying to have double white in the early turns, I felt like it wouldn't be able to cast Anafenza on turn three consistently, and Warden rewards you for having lots of white mana. It only showed up in a few games, but I did like it. I thought I was on to something, and it looks like I wasn't the only one. Compare my list to the one created by BBD:

Much of the SCG crew played decks very similar to this, including Tom Ross, Todd Anderson, Brad Nelson, and Steve Rubin, who all placed in the top 40. Even though I finished higher than any of them in the standings, I'm confident that this deck is vastly superior. I came to my conclusion about Warden too late, but it looks like BBD managed to figure it out and sculpt the deck to support the lower curve. The most important changes here are the exclusion of Knight of the White Orchid and the complete overhaul of the manabase. While the tapped-lands and painlands combination allowed for me to play Shambling Vent, it's probably not as good as having most of your lands coming in untapped and--most importantly--being able to fetch for black mana. While I wouldn't claim that the manabase of my deck was inconsistent, there were games in which I didn't have a tapped land early, and finding an untapped black source was difficult. Neither Knight of the White Orchid nor Windswept Heath can go find a black source, so it was impossible to actively smooth out those draws. BBD and friends solved this by ditching tapped lands altogether and playing what I heard Gerry Thompson call "fetchtables." This gives three major advantages:

1. Most of your lands come into play untapped.
2. You can sequence your land drops and fetches to find all of your colors (instead of being at the mercy of your draw steps to provide you with the lands you need).
3. You get to play blue for free!

This article isn't going to be all about new decks, but I wanted to point this one out for anyone who is looking to play Abzan moving forward. I would ignore my deck entirely and use the BBD list as a starting point. I'm not yet privy to all of the individual card choices and sideboard plans in his version, but he did do a deck tech, which you can watch on the coverage page linked above.

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The Good, The Bad, and The Medium

Now I'd like to talk about the individual cards in my deck that stood out to me as being either good or bad in the new format. One of the most important things to remember when dealing with a format rotation is that there are hundreds of cards in the existing sets whose value may have gone up. Only looking at the cards from the new set (BFZ in this case) will allow you to miss most of the important cards from the rest of Standard (Khans block and Magic Origins). The deck I played is proof of this, so let's start there.

Knight of the White Orchid (Medium Bad)

Much of this deck is based around curving Knight of the White Orchid (KotWO) into 4- and 5-drops like Gideon and Wingmate Roc. Knight is one of those cards that was completely blanked by the existence of cards from Theros block such as Sylvan Caryatid, Courser of Kruphix, Fleecemane Lion, Lightning Strike, Magma Spray, and Bile Blight. Now that the creatures people are casting on turns 2 and 3 aren't guaranteed to be bigger than Knight, even if you're not getting a land with its trigger, having a 2/2 with first strike can at least hold its own in combat, right? Well, kind of. The popularity of Soulfire Grand Master and 2/2 Gideon tokens meant that it matched up well against some of the Jeskai cards, and it's obviously solid against the red aggressive decks now that they aren't all packing 8 burn spells that kill it during the early turns. Unfortunately, this is probably some level 0 thinking, since the absence of Lightning Strike, Bile Blight, and Stoke the Flames also led to an increase in people playing cards like Mantis Rider, Deathmist Raptor, and Warden of the First Tree (after it uses some mana to put on its best Fleecemane Lion cosplay).

The effectiveness of KotWO in combat was very inconsistent. If it got to attack alongside Anafenza or pick up a counter from Abzan Charm or Dromoka's Command, it was suddenly stellar, but barring those scenarios, it was pretty lackluster. It still doesn't block Den Protector, and Hangarback Walker doesn't care whether it actually trades or not since it's just there to buy time until bigger guys can come down and blank it.

The power of KotWO is also highly dependent on whether you're on the play or the draw. It's great on the draw. Ideally, I got to play a spell on turn 2, my opponent played their third land, which allowed me to cast KotWO on turn 3 before playing a land from my hand. In some awesome scenarios, I could use this extra land to cast a Dromoka's Command right away. Sometimes it fixed my colors by grabbing Canopy Vista. If I was lucky enough to have played Hangarback Walker on my previous turn, it could fetch up an untapped land, allowing me to play a Shambling Vent while still adding a counter to my Hangarback. All of those scenarios sound pretty great on paper, but I think they're all just worse than casting a 3-drop instead. Keep in mind that these also can only ever happen on the draw. I boarded him out just about every single game in which I was on the play, often leaving me with too few things to do during the early turns. Because of the reduced number of early creatures, this also made Dromoka's Command worse, so I ended up sideboarding some very different strategies between game 2 and game 3. It was rather mentally taxing, and that does have an impact over the course of 9 rounds.

I wouldn't play Knight of the White Orchid unless you have some very specific things you can do with the extra mana on the turn you cast it. It does help break serve when on the draw, but it's unclear whether it's better than just casting stronger cards on time.

Reave Soul (Good)

Brad Nelson was right on the money with this one. Reave Soul was excellent for me all weekend. It kills everything you need it to. Here's a list of common creatures you'll face that are answered by a timely Reave Soul:

• Soulfire Grand Master
• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• Mantis Rider
• Den Protector
• Any face-down morph/manifest
• Rattleclaw Mystic
• Beastcaller Savant
• Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• Warden of the First Tree
• Wingmate Roc
• Every mono-red creature

Being able to kill Jace before it can activate once (even while on the draw) was hugely beneficial in the Jeskai matchup, which I played against more than any other archetype over the course of the weekend. Given that I was playing a version with Hangarback Walker, Knight of the White Orchid, and Gideon, the -2/-0 ability on a flipped Jace was often enough to prevent me from killing it or attacking profitably. Jace is a powerhouse, and he is certainly earning his new $80 price tag. Having enough kill spells between Reave Soul and Dromoka's Command helped me get it off the table before it generated too much of an advantage.

Wingmate Roc (Good)

The whole point of this deck is maximizing your ability to curve Gideon into Wingmate Roc. Gideon (which I will discuss in more detail later), gives you two ways to get the raid trigger on Wingmate Roc. Most commonly, he makes a 2/2 token the turn that he lands, and on the following turn you can either attack with the token or +1 Gideon to attack with the planeswalker himself. Even without other creatures, this is a pretty reliable way to get yourself another 3/4 bird when the Roc lands. Given that you're also playing resilient cards like Hangarback Walker, triggering Raid was almost never an issue for me this weekend. So aside from an extra card to help trigger raid, what changed to make Wingmate Roc better than it was before rotation?

The simple answer is the disappearance of Stormbreath Dragon. The Roc couldn't do anything to that card on offense or defense. Protection from white was just too strong. The ubiquitousness of Stormbreath Dragon also helped determine how many Languishes people would play on any given weekend, which is another card that Wingmate Roc is notoriously weak against. More dragons also meant more Languishes, which is a disastrous formula for anyone trying to play white 3/4s.

With Stormbreath Dragon out of the way, Wingmate Roc inherited the sky. Languish does still exist, but let's not forget about Gideon's third ability. The +1/+1 emblem conveniently gets your birds out of Languish range. As you can see, each one of Gideon's abilities is very beneficial for Wingmate Roc, so if you're looking to cast Roc, make sure you bring along its new ally from Zendikar.

It's a little unclear to me why BBD and company weren't playing it in their decks. Perhaps it just isn't necessary in order to win the creature battles, given that Anafenza and Siege Rhino are already bigger than everything else. From my experience, Wingmate Roc was the best way to tighten the noose against decks you're trying to beat in combat. It might end up being a "win more" card in those matchups. Hopefully they'll write about it in some upcoming articles.

Evolutionary Leap (Good)

This card is great. I only boarded it in a handful of times, but it completely dominated the games when I did. It's obviously great against control, but it also did work against some of the Jeskai decks due to their ability to out-card me in the late game thanks to Jace and Dig Through Time. In addition to drawing extra creatures, it also helps convert Hangarback Walker into an army of fliers, which is especially powerful if you can get a Gideon emblem online alongside them. That's a ton of extra damage out of nowhere. It also stops your creatures from getting exiled by Abzan Charm, Stasis Snare, Utter End, etc. This is obviously great with Hangarback Walker, but putting your other dudes in the graveyard is also important since Den Protector can buy them back later in the game. You know what they say, "A Rhino in the yard is worth two in the exile zone."

On more than one occasion, I got to sacrifice my blocked creature that would have died in combat. When playing an aggressive deck, this is beneficial because it allows you to get in damage without losing cards to good blocks from your opponent. You do sacrifice a bit of board position to achieve this, but it was situationally very strong.

Beyond just getting in extra damage, I also got to "get" a few people by sacrificing my creature before their lifelink creature could deal combat damage, which essentially damages them. Two of my matches ended in exactly that fashion. Even if my opponents realized what could happen, it still puts them in a really rough spot if they're relying on lifelink to keep them alive.

While it never came up in my matches, preventing your cards from going to exile might be relevant if decks with Eldrazi Processors become a thing. All of those cards are incredibly weak unless they can get their process trigger online. Evolutionary Leap might be a good solution for that.

Despise (Bad)

The absence of Thoughtseize opens up the ability to play Duress and/or Despise to suit your discarding needs. While I found Duress to be as good as it's always been, Despise was incredibly lackluster. When playing an aggressive deck, I find that it's much more helpful to strip their answers than to strip their threats. Despise doesn't really remove any answers. All of my other cards either kill creatures or attack, which are already effective ways at dealing with creatures and planeswalkers. Despise does trade 1-for-1, but it's a mana disadvantage (I lose one mana and they lose zero mana because they didn't use any on the card they discard). It also doesn't affect their board presence. Barring the situations in which you take their only permanent, they will still be able to spend their mana to cast a different card.

Despise is probably much better when playing as a control deck against a creature deck, since you can take the most pressing threat and plan to sequence the rest of your answers around their remaining cards. That isn't part of my deck's game plan, so I wouldn't recommend it if you're planning on attacking.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (Maximum Good)

Gideon is as real as the streets. I've already touched on some of his strengths in the areas dedicated to other cards. That fact that Gideon seems to "synergize" with everything really just means that it's a good fucking card. I will say that despite its obvious power level, it is also a skill-testing card. Because he has 3 abilities that you can and should use on the first turn he's in play, he can adapt to whatever the board state calls for. The most common play will be to make a 2/2, reminiscent of Xenagos, the Reveler. If creature combat is the name of the game, immediately sacrificing him to make an emblem is also very strong. In the actual mirror, this allows your Rhinos and Birds to attack through your opponent's, which is great at breaking board stalls.

Now, using his +1 right away might seem like you're missing value, but there are some situations and matchups where this is worth serious consideration. The presence of Gideon himself will increase the value of cards that deal with him effectively. Jeskai Charm gains a new mode that says "destroy target Gideon" if you're not careful. I ran into a situation where I played Gideon and made a 2/2, hoping to use him to deal with my opponents' active flipped Jace. Unfortunately, Jeskai Charm stopped me cold. Even though I got a 2/2 out of the deal, Jace was happy to sit there and +1 on its ass as long as he pleased. Had I simply put Gideon up to 5 loyalty, the combination of Jeskai Charm and Jace wouldn't deal with him nearly as efficiently, since Jace can't ever +1 to target Gideon himself. Sure, my opponent could potentially cast and flashback the Charm, but that costs them much more mana, tempo, and loyalty counters.

Beyond Jeskai Charm, there's another planeswalker that Gideon should be worried about: Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. That guy will swoop in and immediately ruin your day. Given that both Stormbreath Dragon and Stoke the Flames are gone, Sarkhan does a decent job of filling both of those holes. I expect to see him with greater regularity going forward.

All told, Gideon is the nut. He makes all of your other cards better while still being a powerful and proactive standalone threat. Your deck better have a plan to deal with him, because he's here to stay.

Shambling Vent (Medium)

During the previous standard format, playing a creature-land would be 100% free. In this brave new battle-land world, however, having your lands come into play tapped is a significant cost, both in terms of the speed at which you are able to cast your spells, and the damage you'll take from painlands you're force to play in order to have the colors of mana you need for your deck to operate. It's not a bad card by any means, but there is a real tradeoff when choosing to play this over different, inanimate lands.

Assuming it didn't cost you too much during the early turns of the game, its board presence is certainly real. It's obviously strong against control decks, given that it's nearly impossible to kill with the same cards that kill the rest of your creatures. In the matches I played against control this weekend, it enabled me to use my mana on turns where I didn't want to play into their counterspells. A Den Protector plus an active Shambling Vent almost single-handedly killed one of my Esper opponents in game 1 on Saturday.

In other creature-based matchups, it doesn't shine quite as bright. It's often too small to fight effectively alongside the rest of your army, and gaining 2 life here and there isn't going to swing any races in your favor. Once you get to 5 mana, you can make a cool play of animating the Vent, declaring blocks, and then using it and your fifth land to cast Dromoka's Command, which both buffs your otherwise-weak 2/3 and allows you to get double-duty out of its lifelink when it fights. This is a great way to follow up a turn 4 Siege Rhino or Gideon against the red aggressive decks, and it can often turn the game around entirely from that point.

Basically, it looks like you can play Warden of the First Tree or Shambling Vent in your Abzan deck, but probably not both.

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Skill-Testers

I already mentioned that Gideon is a skill-testing card. There are a few other aspects of the new format that have a big influence on whether you get to win a game of Magic or not.

Land Sequencing

This is important in any format, but it's not often as punishing as it is right now. Especially for players with 3, 4, and 5-color decks, knowing what order to play your lands and which basics/duals to grab with the specific fetchlands you have can really make or break your ability to cast your spells on time. People will get used to it as time goes on, but the sooner you practice this skill, the sooner you'll be able to take advantage of opponents who stumble. I imagine that a lot of players this weekend grabbed decklists from articles or from friends without playing it too much, and then they would fall into a trap where they can't fetch the color they need or realize they should have gotten a different land on turn 1 so they could have all their lands untapped on turns 3 and 4 instead of turns 2 and 3. Don't go into a tournament with a "fetchtables" manabase without the requisite amount of solitaire games.

Here's an example: let's say you're playing one of these Jeskai + Black decks with Wild Slash, Jace, Soulfire Grand Master, Mantis Rider, and Crackling Doom. You have to decide how you want to sequence those spells before playing your first land on turn 1. If you want to be able to play a spell on each of your first three turns, you need to get basic, basic, dual. Your first basic needs to be a Mountain for Wild Slash. Your second basic can be either Plains (for Soulfire Grand Master) or Island (for Jace). If you get an Island on turn 2, you're committed to not casting Crackling Doom on turn 3. If you get a Plains on turn 2, you get to play Soulfire Grand Master, and then on turn 3 you can fetch for Sunken Hollow and have the option of casting either Mantis Rider or Crackling Doom, but you're sacrificing some turns that you could have been looting with Jace. If you want to cast Jace on turn 2 AND leave your options open between Mantis Rider and Crackling Doom on turn 3, you need to fetch Sunken Hollow on turn 1 and lock yourself out of casting Wild Slash until probably turn 4. The optimal sequencing is likely different for different matchups, so try not to make a habit of taking the same line every single game.

You can't expect to sequence your lands at random and have everything work out. A crafty opponent will know exactly what you can and can't cast during the opening turns of the game based on what order you play your lands, and they can then sequence their own spells in a way that ensures you won't have the proper card for it on turn 3. For instance, if you're on the draw and choose to go the route of basic, basic, dual and your turn 2 play is Island into Jace, they know they can safely jam their Anafenza, the Foremost and likely get an attack in with it since you have prevented yourself from being able to cast Crackling Doom on your third turn.

Don't be shocked when people go into the tank on turn 1.

The Vancouver Mulligan (a.k.a. The Scry Mulligan)

I got a lot of free game wins this weekend from people keeping sketchy 6-card hands, and I suspect that is due in large part to the existence of the new mulligan rule. Prior to being able to scry, it would be easy to mulligan a hand with only 2 lands and a bunch of spells that cost 3 and 4 mana, but time and time again I sat across from an opponent who missed their third land drop and didn't even have a great play when they eventually hit 3 mana. Don't lean on the scry as a crutch. You can't count it as an extra card. Yes, it will help those hands some percentage of the time, but not enough that it's worth keeping an obviously bad hand. Until you've played enough games to really get a feel for what cards your hand needs in order to be a keep in any given matchup, I would try to avoid factoring the scry into your decision of whether or not to mulligan. Especially this early on, it's a lot safer to think of it as a small, free advantage rather than the weight that tips the scales.

Also, remember to use your scry! Most players were really excited to use it, so on average people didn't miss their scry as often as other new rules changes have affected people in the past, but even so, I did have an opponent forget during one of our games. It may have had no impact on the game whatsoever, but it also could have been the difference between an extra spell or an extra land. It's a free advantage, so get used to saying, "Keep, scry."

Sideboarding

Don't over-sideboard.

This isn't specific to the BFZ Standard format, but it is an important thing to remember going into any new and unexplored format. It's way better to sideboard too few cards than to sideboard too many cards. Generally, every card you take out of your maindeck to replace with a situational sideboard card dilutes your deck and reduces its ability to consistently execute its primary game plan. You better make sure the cards you're boarding in will have a high impact when you draw them, because even a 2/1 is better than a spell you can only cast when your opponent plays one specific scary card. I had more than one opponent bring in Negate against me and my mostly-creatures deck. I do not recommend it. I think one guy brought in enchantment removal after seeing Evolutionary Leap in game 2. It was crazy. Don't be crazy.

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Other "Oldies But Goodies"

Beyond the cards I discussed from my deck, these are some of the other cards whose stock went up following rotation, in no particular order (note that I'm not going to list previously good cards that are still good like Siege Rhino and Ojutai):

• Mantis Rider
• Soulfire Grand Master
• Fiery Impulse
• Crackling Doom
• Silkwrap
• Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
• Titan's Strength
• Arc Lightning
• Utter End
• Surge of Righteousness
• Murderous Cut
• Gilt-Leaf Winnower
• Silumgar's Command
• Jeskai Charm
• Treasure Cruise
• Self-Inflicted Wound
• Kolaghan's Command
• Duress
• Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

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That's all I have for now. Hopefully you learned something. Now go forth, scrying and fetching like the I-barely-made-day-2-of-the-open-series player we all know we can be.