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Zendikar is finally here! The new Standard metagame is just shaping up. It has been 3 weeks since the rotation happened and that left us with fewer card choices for deck building. Let’s say goodbye to our Bitterblossoms, Cryptic Commands and other Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block cards as we embark to explore what Zendikar has to offer.

There was a big time tournament held last October 11 at Philadelphia the SCG $5000, where Jund dominates the fresh format as 5 people were able to navigate it into the top 8 which can be found here. It is apparent that the Shards of Alara Block powerhouse is dominating the Standard format for it is also the most played and believed to be a consistent deck during the Shards Block season.

Jack Wang’s Jund Aggro
Champion, StarCityGames.com $5,000 Standard Open
Lands
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Swamp
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax

Spells
2 Terminate
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Resounding Thunder
4 Blightning
3 Bituminous Blast

Sideboard
4 Duress
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Jund Charm
1 Pyroclasm
2 Thought Hemorrhage

How did Zendikar influence the deck? Well it’s off course the mana fixing, featuring the new enemy fetchland Verdant Catacombs made an awesome job in making Routbound Crag and Dragonskull Summit so consistent. One of the best additions in the sideboard for mirror or control matchup is Goblin Ruinblaster, he may be an Avalanche Riders version 2.0 or maybe better but the only difference is that this dude destroys non-basic lands in which almost all decks in Standard runs it for mana fixing and consistency. He is also great with Bloodbraid Elf since he can be cascaded to and you still have the ability to pay for the kicker cost. The best shard in Alara also felt their presence at Magic-League where almost all trials were won by the current best deck in the format, Jund! You can see it here.

Other Decks

Vampires

The new deck that I think will have a great impact in Standard and has a potential to be tier 1 would be Vampires! These bloodsuckers are so cheap, fast and effective. Thanks to Vampire Nocturnus, wherein this vampire lord pumps up your tiny vampires like Vampire Lacerator (Carnophage 2.0), Bloodghast, Vampire Hexmage, Vampire Nighthawk and Gatekeeper of Malakir to evasive monstrosity with the 8 black fetch lands and Sign in Blood guarantees that it’s always prime time nights for the vampires.

Now with the return of Mind Sludge, this helps improves the control matchups, as well as Sorin Markov, the vampire planeswalker who can easily put control players to low life by using its second skill, and with the presence of Tendrils of Corruption that can out race other aggro matchups.

A typical Vampire Deck…

Llowle’s Mono Black Vampire
Magic League Standard Trial October 21
First Place 7-0
Lands
16 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats

Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Vampire Nocturnus

Spells
1 Sorin Markov
2 Mind Sludge
3 Disfigure
4 Sign in Blood
4 Tendrils of Corruption

Sideboard
4 Duress
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Vampire Hexmage
3 Marsh Casualties
3 Deathmark
2 Mind Sludge
1 Disfigure

Strength: Fast, consistent and punishes slow decks like that of control types.
Weakness: Can easily be color hosed by any other decks such as using Celestial Purge, Devout Lightcaster, Great Stable Stag, and other pro Black dudes.

Boros Bushwhacker

This deck is absolutely fresh and was first introduced at Quietspeculation.com were it abuses the coolest mechanic in Zendikar, the Landfall! The name “Boros” was actually not in standard anymore but was dubbed like that due to the deck’s colours of white and red. By simply dropping lands, you’ll earn cool bonuses from cheap creatures like Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede. They may look cute from the start but after you’ll crack your fetchlands they will turn naughty, capable of killing the opposition as fast as third turn. The deck seems to be very hungry with fetches that it was able to abuse the landfall mechanic twice. Another great bonus land card is the Teetering Peaks which goes along with the landfall theme and offers a free additional benefit as well.

It is also pack with great synergies like with Ranger of Eos, fetching more dudes while you’re out of it and with Kor Skyfisher, a cheap creature that utilizes its drawback by feeding your landfall crits and abuses Ranger of Eos by bouncing it back and is a great offense as well. Finally Goblin Bushwhacker, the namesake of the deck, ready to finish off your opponent with a surprising mini lord bonus plus haste, ouch!

An updated Boros Bushwhacker Deck from Quietspeculation.com…

Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Elite Vanguard
3 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Steppe Lynx

Spells
3 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile

Lands
4 Arid Mesa
4 Teetering Peaks
4 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Mountain
7 Plains

Strength: Very fast that can kill opponents in early turns.
Weakness: Once stopped by early kills or sweepers, the deck finds it slow to recover.

Red Deck Wins

Red Decks never dies! In all times when a block rotates out and new ones sprout, this deck came up in different versions. Now with the departure of Demigod of Revenge, Figure of Destiny and Flame Javelin, Zendikar still has some new explosive weapons to deliver. Like that of Goblin Guide, which I think is one of the best one drop for red after Figure of Destiny for this dude can deal a lot of damage early on given that it can swing once he arrives in first turn. Although it gives your opponent card advantage when if it showed lands, yet that doesn’t even matter in this deck since it can crush the opposition in a swift manner and delaying them to set up their defense. It also features the appealing Elemental Appeal, a nice follow through after Ball Lightning and Plated Geopede that get along very well with the red fetch lands.

For the burns, there is a great utility for red that Zendikar brought to it and that is Burst Lightning! It maybe a Shock early on but once you have the mana, it can turn itself into a Lightning Blast by paying the kicker cost or I may say if it was “kicked”, weird terminology for Wizards.

An example of a sizzling hot Red Deck Wins…

Zach Barker’s Red Deck Wins
3rd Place, StarCityGames.com $5,000 Standard Open
Lands
12 Mountain
4 Teetering Peaks
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa

Creatures
4 Ball Lightning
4 Plated Geopede
1 Obsidian Fireheart
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Goblin Guide

Spells
3 Earthquake
3 Elemental Appeal
1 Resounding Thunder
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning

Sideboard
2 Mark of Mutiny
1 Earthquake
2 Act of Treason
2 Chandra Nalaar
4 Unstable Footing
4 Goblin Ruinblaster

Strength: Too fast too furious! It can deal a tremendous amount of damage in no time. It also avoids sweepers since most of its dudes have haste and can deal a lot of damage in one swing.
Weakness: Life gain (gain pronounces as “gay-n”) combined with card advantage.

Sphinx Control

The exit of Cryptic Command really downgrades control decks. Zendikar is not that kind for blue mages since it doesn’t give any spectacular cards for them, especially for control decks. Lack of permission spells and high quality card drawers cannot be seen on the set but in another angle, there is Sphinx of Lost Truths aka “Bob Marley with wings”, a comfortable defender and card filter, once you can pay for its kicker cost, then it’s totally awesome! Card advantage at its best, Yeah Man!

One of the best finisher I saw since Meloku the Clouded Mirror was Sphinx of Jwar Isle. This dude means business, swing for the kill. A perfect finisher for control decks since it is untouchable and has a big body or a fatso for just six mana.

The deck features the controlling nature of Grixis, still remember Cruel Ultimatum? Yeah! and it’s still kicking some ass although 5 Color Control is gone. I kind of like the Refuge lands for control deck since it gives you life as well as fixing your colors.

Peter Franz Yap’s Sphinx Control
MagicIloilo Standard Tournament Oct. 17, 2009-10-24
Champion
Lands
4 Mountain
4 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Island
5 Swamp
4 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Akoum Refuge

Creatures
3 Sphinx of Lost Truths
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Spells
3 Wretched Banquet
4 Pyroclasm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chandra Nalaar
3 Jace Beleren
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
3 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Courier’s Capsule
2 Terminate
3 Negate

Sideboard
2 Terminate
1 Negate
3 Countersquall
3 Essence Scatter
1 Liliana Vess
1 Twincast
2 Double Negative
2 Mind Control

Strength: Contain aggro decks with cheap kills and card advantage, and can guarantee you a win in a long run.
Weakness: Quite slow that can be outclassed by super fast aggro deck with burns.

The Expectations

The domination of Jund decks in standard will surely affect the way we tune up our decks. We will be forced to build decks that could cripple Jund and at the same time will also do good against other matchup’s. I expect a lot of control decks will be rising, like the return of Angelfire or maybe the 5 Color Control Cascade that once showed in Shards Block.

Aggro plan has plenty of options may it be Naya, Bant or the WG Beatdown. We could even see the potential of Lotus Cobra to fuel up Baneslayers in turn three. In the combo department, Warp World could have a shot as well as the Archieve Trap plus Twincast of Blue White Turbo Mill. The format is still fresh and Zendikar offers lots of powerful tools to use and experiment.

The metagame is indefinite since there is no big events in standard that shows what decks are most used by the pros. It’s time to innovate and improve our deck building skills!

1. 

   Mao

   October 27, 2009 at 8:11 am

   very nice article… kudos…
2. 

   Elena

   October 28, 2009 at 8:35 am

   Baw a pisan gd ya si Owen basta MTG nga article..ambot na lng da a hehe