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Standard with M11 and the Romanian Nats

Sorry for the delay again. I just came back from the Romanian seaside, where I had no Internet access for one whole week. The good news is, we’ve started the new Standard season, and we’ve started getting decklists for all kinds of events, including Romanian Nationals. So, let’s get down to the discussion!

Following the release of Magic 2011, everyone was excited to see the impact of “the best core set ever” on Standard. It turns out, not strangely, that the impact is extremely large, even larger than that of Rise of the Eldrazi three months earlier. Let’s see some of the main archetypes that arose in the wake of Magic 2011.

The highest valued card in the set, Primeval Titan, is apparently far more powerful than people have imagined. In combination with the previously underrated Wildfire version 2.0, namely Destructive Force, they make the basis for the archetype known as D-Force. This is a classic RG land destruction deck, taken to the next level, where everything is bigger. Instead of the old-school approach of destroying lands and gaining advantage through cards like Reap and Sow and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, the deck accelerates into large amounts of mana, using the aforementioned titan, and then drops the D-bomb, which kills pretty much everything that matters (read “Baneslayer Angel”), and more than that, leaves your opponent with 5 fewer lands, preferably with one or less. Of course, you feel the effects of D-Force much less, due to the extreme acceleration provided by the titan, and the fact that he’s 6/6 and survives. The decklist is fairly simple, including other elements of mana acceleration, such as Explore and the new Cultivate. Another powerful combination with Primeval Titan is Avenger of Zendikar. Drop Primeval Titan on turn 4 (not all that hard with all the acceleration available) and get two fetchlands. The following turn, play a land, drop Avenger of Zendikar, getting nine 0/1 Plant tokens, attack with the titan, get two lands, break the two fetches you got earlier, and bam! You suddenly have nine 4/5 Plant tokens. The trick to D-Force is that it says “Each player sacrifices five lands”, and so I wonder when people will start to employ Tajuru Preserver as a countermeasure against this archetype. If they do, remember, I called it!

The other card everyone is talking about is another green gem, namely Fauna Shaman. For those of you who don’t know, this is Survival of the Fittest on a 2/2 body. The first reaction is “a creature is so much more vulnerable than an enchantment”, which is partly true, but remember that Survival of the Fittest appeared in Exodus, followed immediately by Urza Block, where destroying enchantments was a trendy thing to do. That being said, tutoring for certain creatures, namely Stoneforge Mystic and Ranger of Eos, is awesome. Also, it gives you the ability to include one-of countermeasures in your main deck, liberating your sideboard for those unexpected match-ups. But where this card truly shines is in Next Level Bant and Naya decks, where not the tutoring, but the discarding is the key element, getting everyone’s favourite elemental, Vengevine, in the graveyard, and fetching a second one in the process. Repeat turn after turn, then search for a Bloodbraid Elf or Ranger of Eos, and you’re ready for the kill. Add the aforementioned Stoneforge Mystic, a couple of Sun Titans, a single Linvala, Keeper of Silence, just for the fun of it (actually, it’s there to stop the opponent’s Fauna Shaman), and you’ve got yourself a decklist.

However, the strangest change brought about by the cards from Magic 2011 is the re-emergence of Jund. This archetype just won’t stay down, and I love that. Looking at Jund, it’s changed so much throughout these past two years, and it won’t give up until it rotates out (I believe I said this very same thing in my first article). I want to emphasize this, because Next Level Jund (I think we can call it that) won the Romanian Nationals, piloted by Raoul Trifan, and not only that, but 3rd and 5th places were also Jund:

Romanian Nationals 2010 Top 8:

1. Jund
2. Naya PW-Force
3. Jund
4. RDW
5. Jund
6. UWr PWS
7. Grixis Control
8. RDW

So, what made it different from previous versions of the deck? First of all, and all too expected, the inclusion of Grave Titan. This card is awesome on so many levels, I won’t even begin to talk about it. Play either with it or against it, and you’ll know what I’m talking about (to think it’s starting price was $10). Besides that, we can see that the cost of spells is significantly lowered (getting rid of Broodmate Dragon and Siege-Gang Commander), making the deck more aggressive, with Grave Titan being the only 6-drop. Here’s the decklist:

The sideboard also has some interesting additions, most notably 4 copies of Overgrown Battlement, apparently to help against Red Deck Wins, which is personally satisfying, since I considering using this same strategy in my first article.

Well, that’s all about the new archetypes for now. I’ll see what deck I’ll choose to pilot in the future, and come up with some thoughts on it. Also, I didn’t forget about my promise to pin Progenitus against Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Due to temporal constraints it didn’t make it this time, but I’ll do that in my next article. Until next time, don’t forget to put some Standard in the Mix!

Tags: jund, m11, magic 2011, nationals, romania, standard, Standard in the Mix