Standard: Now and Then

By Aaron Forsythe

Whenever a big Standard tournament like Regionals happens, I can't wait to see all the new decklists, as are most fans of the format. Of course, most people are trying to get an accurate read of what the metagame will look like going forward, but I'm interested in how R&D did with their own internal metagame a year ago.

Below I'm going to compare seven decks that finished highly (second or better) in Regionals this year with their vague analogues from the R&D labs—the “Future Future League”—of a year ago, when Guildpact and Dissension were in development.

A reminder about what we try to do as developers: The FFL wants to understand future metagames in a general sense. We want to know what colors are powerful and which are weak, how many cards each set looks to be contributing to the environment, and what we'll need to push in future sets to shake things up or balance them out. To that end, we build and play tons and tons of decks, of which the seven I chose are but a small sampling.

We generally come close to what ends up really happening a year later once the cards hit the streets. For example, we knew that Zoo and Gruul beats would be defining decks, but we never made a great “Steam Vents” deck at all—we couldn't tweak the numbers quite right, and didn't try the Urzatron in two-color builds. We had “Ghost Husk” pegged as a major player for the Orzhov, but couldn't get our Early Harvest combo decks to be consistent enough. In every case, the decks that you took to Regionals were better than the decks we had internally, so I wouldn't look to this column for much in the way of “tech” - instead look at it as a glimpse into the world of development. We walk a fine line—know too little, and the environment could be a train wreck; know too much and it feels hyper-engineered and “pre-built.”

I'll present the “real” deck first, and then follow it up with R&D's decklist pasted exactly as it appeared in our email folder where we collect competitive deck ideas during development. Our decklists are full of playtest names and shorthand, but they'll give you an accurate view of how we communicate with one another. I'll follow up each R&D deck with some notes explaining our card choices and how our decks influenced how cards were printed.

1) Ghost Husk

Brett Blackman

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (25)

1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails 3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda 2 Kami of Ancient Law 4 Nantuko Husk 3 Ghost Council of Orzhova 4 Dark Confidant 4 Plagued Rusalka 4 Orzhov Pontiff

Sorcery (4)

4 Castigate

Instant (4)

4 Mortify

Enchantment (4)

4 Promise of Bunrei

Land (23)

6 Swamp 5 Plains 2 Orzhov Basilica 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse 1 Eiganjo Castle

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Mindslicer 2 Pithing Needle 3 Cranial Extraction 2 Wrath of God 2 Grave Pact 4 Shining Shoal

Deal Another Hand

“Ghost Husk”—Orzhov decks featuring Nantuko Husk and Promise of Bunrei—were the big stars of Regionals. Many pundits call it the best deck because it is resilient, has good threat diversity, and can win out of nowhere.

Internally, our version of the deck was very good, winning a couple small tournaments. The following list features Soul Warden as the one-drop of choice (over Isamaru) simply because the card is more “combo-riffic.”

Wilt-Free Zone – FFL – Aaron Forsythe

4 Jack Spicer
4 Soul Warden
4 Bob
4 Hand of Cruelty
1 Trent
4 Pontiff
4 Husk
3 Ghost Council

4 Jitte
4 City of Kids

1 Eiganjo
1 Shizo
4 Caves
4 WB2
6 Plains
8 Swamp

SB
4 Castigate
3 Terashi's Grasp
2 Shortfang
2 Seize the Soul
2 Darkblast
2 Moratorium Stone

What's going on with that decklist:

Some call her....Trent.

“Wilt-Free Zone” refers to the fact that this is an Orzhov deck without Mortify. The playtest names of Putrefy and Mortify were “Wither” and “Wilt” respectively, and this deck oddly didn't pack the latter. I believe my earlier attempts at this deck had Wilts instead of Jittes, as I figured I could handle opposing Jittes with all my sacrifice outlets. I ended up relenting and playing Jittes anyway. It's interesting to note that the real-world version of Ghost Husk played Mortifies but no Jittes.
All the Guildpact Rusalkas had playtest names taken from the kids cartoon Xiaolin Showdown; Jack Spicer is Plagued Rusalka.
Everyone should know that “Bob” is Dark Confidant, named after Bob Maher, Jr. Bob's mana cost was changed from BB to 1B so that decks like this one would be enabled.
“Trent” is Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Her design name was “Trent, Goth Executioner.” I had no idea at the time that I was designing the card that was meant to be the Guildpact novel protagonist, which is why her abilities aren't a great match for her character.
Orzhov Pontiff was an interesting card in development. It took us a long time to come up with an ability we liked for it (his art was commissioned based on a previous ability that wouldn't fit on a card). We eventually came up with a 1WB 2/1 that had haunt and did both of the Pontiff's current abilities instead of being modal. He got taken down a couple notches and still ended up being a powerful card.
The Ghost Council used to cost zero mana to activate. He was really dumb. The funny thing is that we left him that way for a long time.
I had several versions of this deck that featured multiple copies of Belfry Spirit. Hence, the Spirit's mana cost was increased from 2WW to 3WW. As you can imagine, he was ridiculous at four mana.
“City of Kids” is shorthand for Promise of Bunrei's playtest name—“City of Lost Children.” The City was one of development's pet cards; we expected it to show up a lot in Standard. Until recently, it never really delivered. And yes, I had to find out the hard way that creative and/or templating made the tokens colorless. That's why there's only one Teysa left in the deck.
“WB2” is shorthand for “white-black dual land that costs me two life,” otherwise known as Godless Shrine. It is not Orzhov Basilica.
Grave-Shell Scarab, Firemane Angel, Soulless Revival, and Life from the Loam were all very heavily played internally, hence the Moratorium Stones in the 'board.

2) Zoo

Caleb Parry

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (20)

3 Burning-Tree Shaman 3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda 4 Kird Ape 3 Savannah Lions 4 Watchwolf 3 Kami of Ancient Law

Instant (10)

4 Char 4 Lightning Helix 2 Bathe in Light

Artifact (3)

3 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (3)

3 Seal of Fire

Land (22)

4 Stomping Ground 1 Forest 4 Temple Garden 1 Karplusan Forest 4 Battlefield Forge 4 Sacred Foundry 2 Plains 1 Eiganjo Castle 1 Brushland

58 Cards

Sideboard (13)

1 Kami of Ancient Law 1 Bathe in Light 2 Giant Solifuge 3 Loxodon Hierarch 3 Giant Growth 3 Flames of the Blood Hand

Deal Another Hand

Zoo, popularized by Craig Jones at PT--Honolulu, seems to have outlasted “Heezy Street” (Gruul) as the beatdown deck of choice. With a fabulous suite of burn spells and a horde of super-efficient creatures, the deck can win blazingly fast.

Internally, lead developer Brian Schneider first put forth the idea that RGW beatdown had to be insane with Guildpact, even if the deck's mana did 14 damage to its controller. Paul Sottosanti built the “touchstone” version that we all used to bounce our other decks off of. If a deck couldn't hang with RGW, it probably wasn't a “real” deck.

Three-Deuce – FFL – Paul Sottosanti

4 Kird Ape
4 Isamaru
4 RG 3/3
4 WG 3/3
4 Jitte
2 Baloth
2 Kids
4 Stone Rain
4 Char
4 Shambling City
4 RG Land
4 WG Land
4 RW Land
1 R Legend Land
1 G Legend Land
1 W Legend Land
3 WG Pain
2 RW Pain
4 RG Pain
---
3 Position
4 Creeping Mold
2 Naturalize
3 Pink Bolt
3 Terrarion

What's going on with that decklist:

“RG 3/3” and “WG 3/3” are Scab-Clan Mauler and Watchwolf, obv.
“Baloth” is Loxodon Hierarch, also obv. Note that most of these cards had real names by this point, but we generally take the path of least effort when writing decklists.
“Kids” is, again, Promise of Bunrei (I told you we liked it), and “Stone Rain” is, well, Stone Rain. Paul's version wasn't as burn-heavy as the successful real-world Zoo builds; instead, it was more of a fast, disruptive, three-color beatdown deck. (“Three-Deuce” was the name of a popular RGW Extended deck that packed efficient creatures and disruptive elements.)
“Shambling City” was going to be the name of Rumbling Slum until someone reminded Matt Cavotta that there was already a card named Shambling Shell in the block. The Slums only lasted a week or so in the deck before they were replaced with the faster “Christmas Ants,” now known as Giant Solifuge.
Why no Burning-Tree Shaman? Simple… it didn't exist yet. We created the Shaman relatively late in Guildpact development as a foil to some of Kamigawa's annoying hallmarks—Sensei's Divining Top, Umezawa's Jitte, and Meloku. Later versions of this deck contained the Shaman.
In the sideboard you'll see “Position” and “Pink Bolt.” The former is Glare of Subdual—it has the name “Position” because it wasn't quite “Opposition.” The latter is Lightning Helix, given this cute moniker because, well, red and white make pink.
The Terrarions in the board are part of the “I'm scared of Blood Moon” package that Paul devised. The Creeping Molds can up the number of LD spells to eight; we loved playing Karoos in the FFL and Paul frequently made us pay for it.