About
Samuele Estratti

26 year old
Italian player
Studies economy
PT Philadelphia winner
4 GP top 8s
Italian nationals top 4.

More Posts (20)

Hi everybody,

Today we will talk about something unusual for me : constructed.
I want to introduce to you some standard thoughts due to the new and dynamic metagame.
Theros brings new exciting cards and deck-builders are working a lot to find all the good strategies, anyway it’s too early and every deck-list can be improved.
How can we face a totally new standard?
First of all we can find some initial ideas thanks to the last Pro Tour, it is a good starting area even if it lacks two expansions.

Craig Wescoe managed to win that event with this list:

Lands

9 Forest
9 Plains
1 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden

Creatures

4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Judge’s Familiar
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Voice of Resurgence

Spells

4 Advent of the Wurm
4 Call of the Conclave
1 Civic Saber
4 Rootborn Defenses
4 Selesnya Charm

Sideboard

2 Druid’s Deliverance
1 Gift of Orzhova
2 Glaring Spotlight
4 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
4 Unflinching Courage
2 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

 

 

What are the new possibility for this kind of deck?
In M14 we can find some good cards:

Scavenging Ooze is an all-star card for any format and even in Standard it works properly;

Ajani, Caller Of The Pride is a good card for this strategy: it allows a nice end-game with the second ability and a good way to make our guys attack through the opponent’s defenses with the first one;

Brave The Elements can be useful especially if we adapt our list playing more white dudes, it helps us avoid removals, and even Anger Of The Gods.It can kill our opponent suddenly if a stall was created;

Elvish Mystic can be really efficient, especially if you want to build a more green based deck. Imagine a turn 2 Loxodon Smiter followed by an Advent Of The Wurm

Archangel Of Thune could be an incredible plan post sideboard, it can be combined with Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice working for the midrange plan in the attrition situations against other aggressive decks.

In Theros we have other good additions:

Soldier of The Pantheon is a good choice if you want to make a super aggressive deck, thanks to this guy you can improve your 1-drops easily;

Boon Satyr improves the number of flash menaces in your deck, this means that you can play around mass removal easier or add a sudden threat, putting your opponent in a bad spot when he/she needs to calculate exactly the current race. Consider it as another good response against Blood Baron Of Vizkopa, together with Advent Of The Wurm

Fleecemane Lion is one of the best cards, WG really needed another good 2-drop and this one is awesome. It works properly against any deck and, against other midrange or aggressive decks, could be fatal with just an Unflinching Courage on it;

Glare Of Heresy is a strong and efficient card for your sideboard, it shines in mirror matches where Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice, or a well suited Unflinching Courage, could write an end on the game. Detention Sphere is out there and thanks to this instant we could release the removed Voice Of Resurgence

As you can see there are a lot of options here and most of them must be considered, if you want to succeed in your own build!
There is a lot of work behind any good deck but we can reduce our job examining tournaments around the world. Let’s get in and look at the well placed decks:

G/W Aggro
Paul White
5th Place at Miscellaneous on 9/29/2013

Creatures

4 Experiment One
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Boon Satyr

Lands

8 Forest
8 Plains
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden

Spells

2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Advent of the Wurm
2 Rootborn Defenses
4 Selesnya Charm

Sideboard

3 Fiendslayer Paladin
3 Unflinching Courage
2 Plummet
2 Rootborn Defenses
2 Sundering Growth
3 Glare of Heresy

 

 

This event took place a week ago.
I emphasize the chronological issue to make clearer how the metagame evolves in a really short time.
Here we have a normal WG aggressive deck with some new cards.
It is aggressive and, the only card that could be classified as edge against other WG decks is Scavenging Ooze
The Sideboard plan is acceptable for mirror matches but not a definitive one.
Let’s see what happened the week after….

GW Aggro
Erik Finnegan
1st Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 10/6/2013

Creatures

3 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Boon Satyr
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

Lands

10 Forest
7 Plains
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden

Spells

3 Unflinching Courage
4 Advent of the Wurm
3 Rootborn Defenses
3 Selesnya Charm
4 Call of the Conclave

Sideboard

2 Pithing Needle
1 Centaur Healer
1 Unflinching Courage
2 Druid’s Deliverance
1 Rootborn Defenses
2 Sundering Growth
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
3 Glare of Heresy
1 Hunt the Hunter

 

 

This list is not an average WG aggressive deck, it has an effective edge against other aggressive decks, like monored or mirror match.
One copy of Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice, instead of the 4th Dryad Militant, and 3 Unflinching Courage make the deck stronger against attrition situations but a way worst against a control deck.
In the same event we can find another GW:
GW Aggro
Ryan Gerhart
8th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 10/6/2013

Creatures

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Experiment One
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Boon Satyr

Lands

9 Forest
7 Plains
1 Rogue’s Passage
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden

Spells

2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Advent of the Wurm
3 Gods Willing
4 Selesnya Charm

Sideboard

3 Archangel of Thune
4 Unflinching Courage
4 Rootborn Defenses
3 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Plains

 

 

This time we face a different way to edge aggressive decks: Elvish Mystic substitutes Dryad Militant to get the advantage of playing really big threats before our opponent does; this means every card 1 turn before, or even 2 on the play, assuring always having the biggest menaces in a small amount of time.
The elf helps a lot for the sideboard plan too, it grants the mana we need to cast cards like Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice quicker or an Archangel Of Thune
Archangel takes the Glare of Heresy slot, it is a threat, it is slightly better than a response for this kind of decks , and it is strong even against mono red! The only problem is the heavy cost of this white mythic.
As you can see in just 1 week WGs begin to run maindeck hate for mirrors and aggressive decks, a deck like the first one we took in consideration will have a hard time against those new selection of cards.
Now it is time to evolve the aggressive list into a midrange one to gain a lot of edge:

WG By Samuele Estratti

Creatures

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Experiment One
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Boon Satyr
3 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

Lands

9 Forest
8 Plains
2 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Temple Garden

Spells

3 Unflinching Courage
4 Advent of the Wurm
4 Selesnya Charm

sideboard

3 Archangel of Thune
1 Unflinching Courage
4 Rootborn Defenses
1 Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice
1 Boon Satyr
2 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Rogue’s Passage
2 Heliod, God Of The Sun

 

 

This list should be one step ahead of each other WG deck you can find.
In Maindeck you are already running some incredible cards such as Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice able to win the match alone.
Post sideboard you will obtain 4 Unflinching Courage 3 Archangel Of Thune and 4 Trostani those are a lot of cards against aggressive decks!
Every sideboard plan we want needs the additional land, even against control decks to make it easier playing cards like Heliod, God Of the Sun or Mistcutter Hydra
Try this deck to overwhelm any aggressive strategy and still capable of playing against mid-range and control decks.

See you in Dublin , let’s make it rock!
Samuele Estratti