Why I’m Done with Standard (Online) until DKA Releases
So I had the day off today and decided to enter a Standard PE on MTGO. I still had the “Conley Woods special” built and ready to go, but I remember wanting to make some slight modifications. So I made my changes and entered the event. I could have also titled this post “why black needs some card drawing.” Here’s the list:
| 1 Dragonskull Summit |
| 7 Forest |
| 4 Woodland Cemetery |
| 1 Ghost Quarter |
| 1 Glissa, the Traitor |
| 1 Mountain |
| 5 Swamp |
| 2 Kessig Wolf Run |
| 4 Inkmoth Nexus |
| 4 Grave Titan |
| 4 Primeval Titan |
| 1 Viridian Emissary |
| 4 Solemn Simulacrum |
| 2 Acidic Slime |
| 1 Ratchet Bomb |
| 1 Doom Blade |
| 2 Go for the Throat |
| 2 Green Sun’s Zenith |
| 2 Tribute to Hunger |
| 3 Black Sun’s Zenith |
| 4 Rampant Growth |
| 4 Sphere of the Suns |
| Sideboard |
| 1 Acidic Slime |
| 1 Black Sun’s Zenith |
| 1 Doom Blade |
| 1 Garruk, Primal Hunter |
| 1 Life’s Finale |
| 1 Liliana of the Veil |
| 1 Ratchet Bomb |
| 1 Tree of Redemption |
| 1 Tribute to Hunger |
| 2 Curse of Death’s Hold |
| 2 Naturalize |
| 2 Nihil Spellbomb |
Basically, I felt like the deck was running out of removal spells and time versus the Blue/White Humans decks. This led me to replace Geth’s Verdict with Tribute to Hunger (which was good when I used it). Also, the number of mirror matches had me turn 1 Doom Blade into 1 Go for the Throat. The Birds became a Viridian Emissary, which I later realized was a mistake, but that’s another story. The only other changes I made were to add a Life’s Finale and Tribute to Hunger in the board for the Tree (never faced red), and the Thrun (useless 90% of the time).
The event started out promisingly enough, I was 3-0 at the halfway point (61 people meant it was 6 rounds) and it looked like smooth sailing. I had beaten one U/W Humans, one U/W Control, and I think it was a Red/Green Wolf-Run. Then in round 4 I had my first loss to U/W Spirits (I’m calling it spirits instead of Humans because it relies far more on spirits than humans). But you know, the standard Doomed Travelers, Snapcasters, Geists of St Traft, etc, etc. One loss? No problem. Then in Round 5 I played vs. the same stupid deck and once again I couldn’t beat it. I didn’t necessarily misplay, I just started drawing lands at some point and he didn’t. Then the crushing blow came in Round 6 (which I played to keep my dignity), when I lost to the same stupid deck. Three times in a row. In one tournament. I have played tons of U/W matches before today and I almost always beat it. I guess today probably just wasn’t my day, but three times in a row is ridiculous!
Aside from that, there isn’t another Standard deck I even want to touch right now other than Kibler’s R/G deck, which I’m sure is terrible in the hands of anyone but Kibler. So for the time being I’m going to shy away from Standard and think about ISD Block Constructed and Modern. Yay for Modern!
