Hello guys

On my quest to achieve gold this season, I am going to GP Madrid this upcoming weekend. I have been trying out different strategies, but haven’t found my weapon of choice yet – so I will talk a bit about the 4 decks I think are the best choices this upcoming weekend.

The 4 decks I will have on display for you are in my opinion decks in the categories Control, Aggro, Combo and Tempo – so a little of all worlds for you guys.

On magic online Jaberwocki has been the end-boss of most league endeavors, having more than 30 undefeated trophies (5-0 a league). This made me test and sleeve up the following RG Marvels deck for the MOCS the other day:

This is a mean competitor for what I would consider playing at GP Madrid. Not only does it operate with the engine off 《Aetherworks Marvel》 and 《Emrakul, the Promised End》 but it also has the best deck for 《Chandra, Torch of Defiance》. This planeswalker has been bad-mouthed ever since she was released, but she is really putting up some value alongside 《Ishkanah, Grafwidow》. The deck suffers from the UW Match-up, but thrives in the BG Match-up, but with red and green being the sideboard colors, we get to fight all the different strategies pretty well with both artifact/enchantment removal and burn.

If you think that the meta will be all Marvels and BG, you can Pre-board into 《Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger》 or 《World Breaker》 main deck.

This deck is one of the boogiemen in the current meta. Not only does it have access to 《Thraben Inspector》 and 《Smuggler's Copter》 but it also get access to 《Spell Queller》 and 《Reflector Mage》 – whom with the right timing, can close out a game really quickly. Depending on what you think you will play against, it can cut down on some of the 《Archangel Avacyn》 or even play larger effects like Bruna and Gisela. This is also one of the best decks to play 《Gideon, Ally of Zendikar》 in who is really on a tear lately, fighting perfectly against midrange or control decks with all 3 abilities. The UW deck destroys the Marvel deck and fights everything else pretty evenly with a lot of 50/50 MU.

This decklist is a fair bit spicier! I got this list from a friend of mine, Mads Utzon, who had been playing it for a while, with decent results. I picked it up and jammed it in a couple of leagues, and it was actually quite good. The deck almost never loses to Marvel and it fights both UW and BG delirium decks pretty good. The only problem is, that it loses against the several of the aggro strategies that just goes under it, so if we don’t have 《Galvanic Bombardment》 or 《Harnessed Lightning》 early, they tend to swarm us too much and things tend to get out of control. There isn’t really much to say about this deck other than, that it is good in the tier 1 meta, and it is very fun to play (depending on your definition of fun that is).

Last but not least…

At the Pro Tour Thomas Enevoldsen, Craig Wescoe and I made a MonoWhite deck splashing black for 《Scrapheap Scrounger》 and 《Shambling Vent》. This is an evolution of that deck, trying to go under the current metagame, due to RW and similar decks are a bit on the decline. Having so many 1-drops, that are also humans and being able to swarm and follow up with cards like 《Thalia's Lieutenant》 and 《Always Watching》 makes it almost impossible for decks to get to interact before they are dead. This is especially good in the meta right now, because there isn’t that much mass removal running around, and decks simply don’t have time to interact with us. This is in my opinion a bit more risky than the more established decks, but it is definitely a high risk – high reward scenario, cause the deck can really overpower your opp.

Those were the 4 decks that I wanted to tell you some about. I still haven’t decided what to play, but I think I am closing in on one of the four. The 5th deck I would like to mention briefly is BG delirium. I haven’t talked about it, but you should know that it is definitely among the 2-3 best decks of the format, so my intent with posting these list, is because I think that this is a good way to deal with a meta that has a lot of BG delirium.

So until next time, I hope you all crack some expeditions in your Standard Showdown Boosters and win some long and interesting games!

If you want to follow my progress at GP Madrid, I will be tweeting between rounds – so add me at @Lampalot 🙂

May the top decks forever be in your favor.

Cya,

Michael Bonde
Top 4 at Grand Prix Strassbourg 2013 & Grand Prix Madrid 2015. Followed by a 5th place with the Bonde-Saito-Thiago Team at Grand Prix Sao Paolo 2016. A veteran of the magic pro scene aiming ever higher. His strengths lie in his ability to reach complicated game states where he is able to grind out a win.

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