April Standard Deck Compendium: Know Your Enemy

By Jacob Van Lunen

Jacob Van Lunen began playing Magic in 1995. He has participated in organized play at every level of competition and was a member of the winning team at Pro Tour San Diego in 2007, thanks to an innovative draft strategy. As a writer, Van Lunen has had more than three hundred Magic strategy pieces published

Hello and welcome to Perilous Research, DailyMTG.com's exclusive Magic Online column. Over the course of the last week I played more than seventy-five matches of Standard on Magic Online. I played with every deck I deemed tier one in an effort to understand each archetype's strengths and weaknesses. With massive preparation under my belt, I traveled to Philadelphia to try my luck in the PTQ. There, 226 players showed up to battle with their favorite Standard decks and I managed to go undefeated throughout the entire day and secure a spot at Pro Tour Theros, which will be my first Pro Tour since 2010. Knowledge is power.

Today, I'm going to talk about the current state of Standard in an effort to arm my readers with the same knowledge I used to take down the PTQ. In my opinion, there are six tier-one decks in Standard right now: Aristocrats, Junk Rites, Red-White-Blue, Esper, Naya Blitz, and Red-Green. Last Sunday's Magic Online Standard Premier Events give us an excellent snapshot of the current state of Standard. Let's dive right in and take a look at some decklists.

Junk Rites

Junk Rites is the current boogeyman of the format. The deck plays like a midrange deck, but the endgame is nothing short of spectacular. Thragtusks and Lingering Souls create an impenetrable board state that can be broken wide open with Angel of Serenity or Craterhoof Behemoth. The two-pronged attack that Junk Rites brings to the table is difficult for most decks to deal with, especially in Game 1. I like bringing in a bit of graveyard hate and board sweepers to deal with Junk Rites' engines. They can easily ramp into their Angel of Serenity or Thragtusk, so it's unwise to overload on graveyard hate, but two or three copies of Tormod's Crypt, Rest in Peace, or Purify the Grave should be in heavy consideration when playing against this matchup. The Junk Rites deck also plays little in the way of spot removal, even post-board, so high-power two-drops that are weak to spot removal like Skirsdag High Priest are extremely well positioned in this matchup. I played against Junk Rites three times in the Swiss of the PTQ, but I had friends who had to face the matchup as many as five times over the course of the day. This is the most important matchup to test going forward.

Initial versions of the deck have been evolving. It's becoming common for cards like Obzedat, Ghost Council or Lotleth Troll to be given main-deck consideration. Loxodon Smiter makes an appearance in some lists for his power against Red-White-Blue, Esper, and Naya Blitz. I like saving my spot removal against Junk Rites and not just firing it off at the first mana creature I see. Here are up-to-date versions of Junk Rites that Top 8ed Standard Premier Events on Magic Online last Sunday.

infamousvko's Junk Rites

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (22)

3 Angel of Serenity 2 Arbor Elf 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 2 Craterhoof Behemoth 2 Deathrite Shaman 4 Lotleth Troll 1 Restoration Angel 4 Thragtusk

Sorcery (12)

4 Lingering Souls 4 Mulch 4 Unburial Rites

Instant (4)

4 Grisly Salvage

Land (22)

2 Gavony Township 2 Godless Shrine 2 Isolated Chapel 4 Overgrown Tomb 3 Sunpetal Grove 4 Temple Garden 1 Vault of the Archangel 4 Woodland Cemetery

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Deathrite Shaman 4 Abrupt Decay 2 Acidic Slime 3 Duress 1 Elderscale Wurm 1 Rhox Faithmender 2 Sever the Bloodline

Deal Another Hand

kuchinawa's Junk Rites

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (21)

2 Angel of Serenity 2 Arbor Elf 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Centaur Healer 1 Craterhoof Behemoth 1 Disciple of Bolas 1 Obzedat, Ghost Council 2 Restoration Angel 4 Thragtusk