Standard - WU - Hexproof Aggro

Deck Rating (at time of initial publication):

 ★★

"Can be fairly explosive. Hexproof creatures are extremely resilient."

      What This Deck Does

• Puts out an hexproof creature then loads it up with enchantments.
• Controls the board with yet more enchantments.

     Features Worth Noting

• Very strong hate exists for a deck like this, but it is fairly unlikely that hate will be encountered.
• This deck can be very fast, but because you are only running 8 creatures that cost 3 or less, you may find yourself stuck without a creature.
• Strong synergies.

     Deck List

Artifact - 1 1 x Silver-Inlaid Dagger Creature - 12 4 x Geist of Saint Traft 4 x Invisible Stalker 4 x Lone Revenant Enchantment - 19 4 x Curiosity 4 x Detention Sphere 4 x Ethereal Armor 3 x Oblivion Ring 4 x Spectral Flight

Land - 22 4 x Glacial Fortress 4 x Hallowed Fountain 8 x Island 6 x Plains Instant - 6 3 x Azorius Charm 3 x Think Twice

     I've seen similar decks spring up all over the place, typically running Bonds of Faith or other pacifism effects. These enchantments do allow you to shut down some decks, but more than likely they'll just lead to a slower match loss.
     The one-of Silver-Inlaid Dagger is entirely replaceable, and is mostly a throw-back to another deck I built for the format. Silver-Inlaid Dagger is a great equipment for Invisible Stalker, however it does not have very good synergy with the deck. I would strongly advise against adding more than one, even if you find it to be useful in the deck.

     This deck was originally built before Return to Ravnica came out, as a Bant deck. It had an amazing potential to explode, but it also had a lot of early game mana problems, even with Abundant Growth.


     What A Good Hand Might Look Like

• Land and an Invisible Stalker or Geist of Saint Traft with practically any enchantment is a good hand.
• Land and Ethereal Armor with a few draw cards is a mediocre hand.

• Land and Lone Revenant is not a good hand. Lone Revenant is a good deal too slow to be your first creature.
• Land and any number of good enchantments is not a good hand. With only 8 cheap creatures in the deck, you may never draw into something worth playing.

     Match Ups Worth Noting
     Board wipes are annoying but don't really spell out a game loss for this deck. Rolling Temblor and Mutilate are to be feared, but there's a very good chance you'll outrace both cards without trying. If not, you can delay yourself a turn to play your creatures--after all, if they're hoping to wipe the board, they aren't trying to race you for early game damage (and that's your trickiest match-up).
     Zombies and other aggro decks typically go about 50/50 with this deck. This is due in-large to the random nature of having so few hexproof creatures. Luckily those decks have a hard time removing your creatures without a very lucky Bonfire of the Damned, and if Bonfire is a card that gives you a lot of trouble, you can go so far as to sideboard in a Redirect for one of the funniest interactions in the standard format.
     Be sure to board in Pithing Needles against planeswalkers that can give you trouble (notably Jace, Architect of Thought and Lilliana, of the Veil).

Standard - WUR - Reforge (Mill)

Deck Rating (at time of initial publication):

 ★★★★

"A good counter to much of the current standard meta. Surprisingly powerful."

     Foreword: One of my major goals with this website will be to bring really a-typical decks into the light. This deck is a fairly extreme example of that idea. A lot of the cards in this deck are seeing no play--and for good reason! If you give this deck a shot, you'll be surprised at how well something that seems this janky can actually work.

      What This Deck Does

• Stalls the game. 
• Mills out the opponent.
• More in-depth: This deck aims to wipe the board over and over and cycle out your and your opponents hands. Every Reforge the Soul you play effectively mills your opponent 7 cards (and an additional 7 cards later when Psychic Spiral resolves). Late game, when you are able to cast Epic Experiment for a good bit (if it comes to that) then you can stack Devastation Tide followed by Reforge the Soul for a complete wipe, or Reforge the Soul followed by Psychic Spiral for extremely heavy amounts of mill.

     Features Worth Noting

• Although this is a mill deck, it wins very consistently.
• Far more interesting than your average mill deck.
• So much of the deck is cycled through that it retains some form of consistency, even with the horrid random factor that miracle cards bring to Magic.
• It actually wins via milling!
• Several one and two-ofs, which means games appear to be fairly different.
• Epic Experiment ultimately puts itself in the graveyard before any cards it casts can be on the stack--and you can stack your spells to make interesting combos and mill for huge amounts by putting Psychic Spiral at the very end.
• Also, Codex Shredder finally has a home. It can actually save you if you draw an important card far too early in the game.
• Against graveyard shenanigans decks you have the option of milling yourself over milling your opponent for effectively the same end result.

     Deck List

Artifact - 2 1 x Codex Shredder 1 x Sands of Delirium Instant - 8 2 x Azorius Charm 2 x Psychic Spiral 2 x Thought Scour 2 x Unsummon  Sorcery - 22 1 x Bonfire of the Damned 4 x Devastation Tide 2 x Entreat the Angels 2 x Epic Experiment 4 x Reforge the Soul 3 x Rolling Temblor 2 x Supreme Verdict 4 x Terminus

Land - 26 4 x Glacial Fortress 4 x Hallowed Fountain 4 x Island 3 x Mountain 3 x Plains 4 x Steam Vents 4 x Sulfur Falls Planeswalker - 2 2 x Jace, Architect of Thought

     What A Good Hand Might Look Like

• Lots of land. Few miracle cards.

     There's really no room for variation on this. Luckily, this hand is pretty simple to achieve with 26 lands. You want to have a land out that can produce white mana turn one, and a source that can produce red mana by turn two.

     Cards that draw you additional cards are also highly advantageous, but make sure you remember to use them wisely. For example: I may save my Thought Scour until I have 3 mana available and then use it on my opponent's turn. This allows me to hit a miracle card that can really change the game. It is still unfortunate to hit an Entreat the Angels this way, so if the game is progressing slowly enough you should wait an additional turn.

     Match Ups Worth Noting

     More testing is needed, but it appears like this deck works well against everything except for counterspells. This includes low aggro, mid range, and combo decks. This certainly includes reanimator decks and life gain decks.
     If burn becomes viable, this deck will not work.