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EMN Standard
Eldtritch Moon Standard
Adam Koska
About Adam Koska
Adam is an experienced player from the Czech Republic who has a number of high-profile finishes under his belt:
14th at Pro Tour Portland 2014
9th at Worlds 2009
9th at Pro Tour Kyoto 2009
64 Lifetime Pro Points
Three times Czech Nationals Top 8
Analyzing the First Eldritch Moon Standard Results
Hey everyone!
Today, I'm going to talk about the new set - Eldritch Moon - and its implications in Standard. The first major tournament, an SCG Open in Columbus, has already taken place, so we have the first batch of data to analyze. Several cards have already over-performed, some other ones will take more time to figure out, as usual. This is the so called "week 0" of the new Standard format and the most relevant tournament will be the PT in Sydney, which takes place next week, but even now, at the very beginning, we have a lot of interesting decks and data to work with.
To have a clear picture of what the week 0 stage looked like in Columbus, it's best to check the metagame of the top tables - and fortunately, we do have access to these statistics. This is the day 2 metagame of Columbus, for archetypes represented by three or more decks:
34x Bant Company
18x U/W Spirits
10x Bant Humans
7x W/R Humans
6x B/W Control
4x B/G Delirium
4x U/R Eldrazi
3x G/W Tokens
3x Bant Spirits
Versions:
Eldritch Moon (Foil)
The archetypes in bold are the "newcomers" to the Standard format, the ones that were not playable (or at least not close to being tier 1) before Eldritch Moon. A few things might be surprising about this breakdown. First of all, Bant Company seems to be stronger than ever, making up over 30% of the day 2 field. Even before Eldritch Moon, it battled for the title of the "deck to beat" in Standard with G/W tokens, and the new set contains several cards that are almost a natural fit for the deck (more on that later). If Bant Company was one of the decks to beat before EMN, it's certainly the deck to beat before PT Sydney. And what happened to its rival, G/W tokens? Only three appearances out of almost 90 decks, that's miserable. The reason for that seems to be that it's biggest competitors got upgrades from Eldritch Moon, which are also naturally great against G/W. One weakness of the token strategy has been defense against flyers, and the Bant Company decks now have two more excellent flying creatures in Spell Queller and Selfless Spirit. This has really shifted the balance in the matchup - tokens don't do anything to defend planeswalkers against flying threats, which is why G/W is not positioned very well right now. Also, the top-performing new archetype is basically just all flying creatures and countermagic, which doesn't help either.
One notable thing about the summary above is just how many decks have white cards. Out of the 89 total lists, just eight (!) didn't run white - only B/G Delirium and U/R Eldrazi didn't have access to white cards. On the contrary, more than 90% of the day 2 field did play white, which is simply insane.
The B/G Delirium list looks quite promising - maybe a bit rough, but the synergies do look strong. I still think Liliana, the Last Hope is a very good Magic card - a three-mana planeswalker with two relevant abilities and a powerful ultimate will always be good in Standard (see Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Domri Rade, or Jace Beleren). Thanks to Liliana, Dead Weight, and Evolving Wilds, you should have access to Delirium at a reasonable number of times, at which point Grim Flayer, Gnarlwood Dryad and Ishkanah, Grafwidow become a lot more powerful than most things that you can be doing in Standard right now. Because of how popular flying as a keyword is, I would perhaps consider some number of Noose Constrictors - they allow you to activate delirium almost at will and, thanks to reach, can wreak havoc on U/W Spirits, the second most popular deck in day 2 of Columbus.
It's always interesting to see how new cards fare when they're put into the line of fire for the first time. I took the liberty of counting which EMO cards were played in the top 32 decks in Columbus and in what numbers - this is the result (numbers in brackets mean cards in sideboards).
74 Spell Queller 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3
38 (1) Selfless Spirit 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 2 (1)
26 (1) Thalia, Heretic Cathar 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 (1)
16 Mausoleum Wanderer 4 4 4 4
12 (4) Tamiyo, Field Researcher 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 (2) (1) (1) (1)
9 (2) Liliana, the Last Hope 4 2 2 1 (1) (1)
Versions:
Eldritch Moon (Foil)
8 Nebelghast Herald 4 4
6 (4) Elder Deep Fiend 4 2 (4)
4 Foul Emissary 4
4 Grim Flayer 4
3 Gnarlwood Dryad 3
3 Noose Constrictor 3
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade 3
2 (5) Ishkanah, Grafwidow 1 1 (2) (2) (1)
2 Thalia's Lancers 2
1 (7) Blessed Alliance 1 (2) (2) (2) (1)
1 (1) Bruna, the Fading Light 1 (1)
1 Emrakul, the Promised End 1
1 Murder 1
1 Scour the Laboratory 1
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium 1
(15) Summary Dismissal (3) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (1) (1)
(4) Decimator of the Provinces (2) (2)
(4) Repel the Abominable (2) (1) (1)
(1) Collective Brutality (1)
The numbers of the highest finishing card are simply mind-blowing - Spell Queller is a great card, but to see it take the format with such a force, that's just absurd. To put the "74" into perspective: nineteen out of the top 32 decks played the card, almost all in a full playset. This is even more impressive when you take into account that Spell Queller is a two-colored card, meaning not everybody can run it. And yet, the top three finishing archetypes all had access to it. As I've already mentioned, the fact that Bant Company was one of the best decks in the pre-EMO format and now it got Spell Queller, really pushes the archetype squarely into the "deck to beat" position. Responding to a spell with a Collected Company gives you a solid chance to hit one of your four Spell Quellers, and having CoCo give you two threats AND a counterspell is simply ridiculous. Going into the Pro Tour, I believe that Bant Company has a target on its head and that it's not going to be an easy prey.
Another archetype that received a major boost in Eldritch Moon is U/W Spirits, which explains both the insane numbers of Spell Queller and also Selfless Spirit coming second with an impressive eleven appearances among the 32 highest finishing players. Basically, there were two types of U/W Spirit decks that did well in Columbus. The first approach was more aggressive, with Nebelghast Herald and Reflector Mage. Harrison Fang, who finished 25th in the tournament, even ran three copies of Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit in the main deck, and a full playset of Essence Flux to protect the fragile threats. Nebelghast Herald can do wonders when racing, especially when you draw multiple copies, since the triggers stack, so you can then tap down your opponent's whole team with a single spirit.
The second approach to U/W Spirits was more controlling, heralded by Jeff Hoogland (among others), who finished 13th. This version is less creature-heavy and packs more countermagic, like Broken Ambitions, Ojutai's Command and even Scatter to the Winds - this way, you can capitalize even more on the fact that almost all your creatures have flash. What I like about Hoogland's version is the "mini-combo" of Selfless Spirit + Planar Outburst, which allows you to deploy creatures and then wrath away only the Selfless Spirit, together with all of the opponent's board. The same goes for Archangel Avacyn - Selfless Spirit is priceless when protecting your fragile creatures from Avacyn's wrath. And thanks to Ojutai's Command being able to bring the Spirit back from the dead, you should have access to indestructibility on a regular basis.
It's worth mentioning that not only U/W Spirit lists run a playset of Selfless Spirits, but also many Bant Company decks did, including the winning list piloted by Devin Koepke. I like the decision, as the Spirit can protect you from Planar Outburst and Avacyn's flip trigger, both of which otherwise tend to be "trump" cards against Bant Company. Also, Selfless Spirit is a natural fit to Spell Queller, since you want to protect the Queller from dying and giving the opponent their card back. I wouldn't be surprised to find some number of Selfless Spirits fighting alongside Spell Quellers in many decks.
The rise of U/W Spirits has also resulted in the rise of the stock of another card, although not from the new set - Aerial Volley. This one-mana instant can be devastating against the more aggressive versions of the archetype with Nebelghast Herald. The Hoogland version of the deck is not that soft to the card, because it has fewer X/1 flyers, but still, even against this deck, Aerial Volley is great.
Versions:
Eldritch Moon (Foil)
Going further down the list of top performing cards, it's clear that Bant Company didn't receive only Spell Queller and Selfless Spirit, but also a lot of other goodies. Thalia and Tamiyo seem to have proven their worth in this archetype as well - the former usually as a 3-of or 2-of, the latter as a 2-of or 1-of. The fact that the numbers of Thalia are high and will likely remain that way (with white being the best color in Standard now by far) should have an impact on both deck-building and the way you play against decks that have her. While before Eldritch Moon, it was often correct to play your basics first and then the lands that need two basic lands in play to come into play untapped, I think that you should start rethinking this process in a lot of matchups. This means that the value of BfZ dual lands goes down, since they can't reliably be cast untapped in the mid-/late-game against a significant portion of decks. As far as deck-construction goes, I think we need to see more data to make any final conclusions, but the fact that white is everywhere and Thalia is the third most played card of the new set makes me want to go back to two-color control decks, possibly ramp, rather than those relying on pain-lands and BfZ duals.
What's left when we look at the list of most played EMO cards and ignore the profound influence of Bant Company? Several things:
1) Liliana, the Last Hope proved its worth in Standard - she appeared in several different archetypes and is a key to achieving delirium in Standard.
2) There's a lot of potential in the "emerge" mechanic - while Elder Deep-Fiend, Decimator of the Provinces and Distended Mindbender didn't end up being the winners of the weekend, they were played in several decks at the top tables and even propelled Foul Emissary to the top tables in one case.
3) Summary Dismissal and Blessed Alliance are so far the best sideboard cards from Eldritch Moon. The first one is useful not only when you need an additional hard-counter (Confirm Suspicions took up this challenge fairly successfully in several cases), but also for fighting problematic stuff like emerge triggers, planeswalker ultimates, etc. Blessed Alliance is a very good anti-aggro tool - killing an attacking creature and gaining four life is a huge swing against certain decks.
4) Old and well-tuned archetypes sometimes work even without any new updates. Matthew Voltz and Kasey Walton both top-8ed the SCG Open in Columbus with a deck that included zero Eldritch Moon cards, main deck or sideboard. Matthew did so with R/G Goggles Ramp and Kasey with a B/G Seasons Past control. Both run a lot of basic lands, which is great against Thalia, and both completely avoided the Company hate and could prey on decks designed to beat Bant Company.
5) Noose Constrictor is an interesting way how G/W tokens can fight flying threats. It might look strange to have a Wild Mongrel in a deck with zero graveyard interaction, but when your 2-drop can block opposing Spell Quellers and Selfless Spirits, it might just be worth adding over Sylvan Advocates (also because G/W tokens have zero manlands) - or in addition to Sylvan Advocates, which is exactly what Andrew Boswell, who finished 9th, did.
6) There's a number of cards that can be hidden gems, as we head towards the Pro Tour. Thalia's Lancers searching up Bruna, the Fading Light, who in turn resurrects Gisela, the Broken Blade to form a gargantuan monster which devours the world... such a turn of events might just be part of Standard in the upcoming weeks, for example. Ronnie Ritner with his B/W Angel control was turning heads with his concoction sporting these cards all weekend long.
Despite the week 0 dominance of Bant Company, the format still remains a riddle waiting to be solved. Adding Tamiyo and Spell Queller into an existing Bant deck doesn't require the most exquisite deckbuilding finesses and many people probably saw it coming. What I'm really looking forward to, though, are the next steps of the format, seeing what else Eldritch Moon has up its sleeve. We'll see about that in the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Adam
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