Post Rotation part 2

Ok. First off, an apology. Technically this article is a week later than I first promised, but with all the awesome Commander 2019 stuff that was being previewed, we decided to move this piece forward a week to allow Sam Waters’ piece on the upcoming Commander pre-cons time to shine before the entire thing was spoiled. If you haven’t read it yet, you can catch up with his work here. If you’re a fan of the best multiplayer format I’d certainly give it a look over. Now we have that bit of house keeping out of the way, lets get back on track – looking at post-rotation decks for the upcoming Standard metagame.

Following on from my last article, we’re going to be looking at some week one/rotation-proof decks that you can build now that will be usable after rotation. If you have a tournament coming up or just want to do well at your local FNM without having to worry about getting your hands on all the new cards, we got you covered. If you want to see how to build rotation-proof Temur Gates or U/W Flyers, you can check out my last article on the subject right here. But without further ado, lets get to the decks.

 

U/G Flash

There are some things that are just plain fun when it comes to Magic the Gathering. One-shotting your opponent with a giant Fireball, cheating out a solid threat on turn one, and Deflecting Palm-ing an Eldrazi titan’s attack just brings a smile to my face. But what I love to do more than anything is else is stick it to control players by playing all my creatures at instant speed.

Flash decks (as they are known) play all their threats at instant speed while also protecting them with bounce effects and counter magic. This allows them to play around sorcery-speed removal and stop control players from being able to hold up mana in their end step. The last time I played such a deck (back during Eldritch Moon Standard with Bant Spirits) I was able to win myself a store championship (which was nice).

So, when players started to post results with Blue/Green flash decks upon the release of Magic 2020, I was keen to put it through its paces. However, after looking at different builds of the deck, I discovered that the deck was already most of the way to being completely rotation proof, so I made the necessary tweaks and came up with this spicy number.

Creatures (20)
Spectral Sailor
Faerie Duelist
Brineborn Cutthroat
Nightpack Ambusher
Frilled Mystic

Spells (16)
Unsummon
Negate
Essence Capture
Sinister Sabotage
Lands (24)
Forest
12 Island
Breeding Pool
Temple of Mystery

With a solid counter magic package of spells like Negate, Essence Capture, Sinister Sabotage, and Frilled Mystic, you can out-tempo most opponents and decks you should come across, making use of early threats like Spectral Sailor, Faerie Duelist, and Brineborn Cutthroat to chip away at your opponent’s life total. Add in a fantastic finisher in the form of Nightpack Ambusher (that can quite frankly win games on its own) and you have a deck that has some real sticking power.

Red Deck Wins/Goblins

Now, if you have been reading my articles for any length of time, you’ll know I love me an aggressive red deck. Whether it’s Modern or Legacy Burn or RDW and Goblins in Standard, it has to be said that when I can play red, I am a very happy chappie. In fact, the last year or so of the metagame has been really great for red mages, with cards like Lightning Strike, Wizard’s Lightning, and Goblin Chainwhirler taking pride of place in many deck lists.

As a result, many players were hoping that with rotation just around the corner, red decks would soon be on the way out and the format would slow down. Well, while the current version of RDW is unlikely to survive rotation, I’m afraid to say that red decks are ready for the new Standard season with their oldest and most faithful tribe. Goblins.

Creatures (24)
Torch Courier
Tin Street Dodger
Chandra’s Spitfire
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
Legion Warboss
Goblin Ringleader

Spells (14)
Shock
Cavalcade of Calamity
Heartfire
Goblin Gathering
Lands (22)
22 Mountain

Making use of a constant stream of 1/1 threats produced by Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin and Legion Warboss, this deck already has the ability to overwhelm the board. However, when you combine all of the deck’s one power creatures with Cavalcade of Calamity, you suddenly have a way of doing damage no matter how many blockers your opponent might have. Add in playsets of Torch Courier and Tin Street Dodger to put on some early game pressure and Goblin Ringleader to help refill your hand, and you have the start of a pretty solid deck.

However, it’s the addition of Chandra’s Spitfire that really pushes the deck over the top in terms of its power. Let’s say you have three one-power creatures on the board, including the aforementioned Chandra’s Spitfire. You also have but a single copy of Cavalcade of Calamity in play, and it is your turn. If you attack with all your creatures, Cavalcade of Calamity will trigger three times and deal three damage to your opponent. This will also trigger your Chandra’s Spitfire three times, boosting your one-power flyer to a deadly 10/3. Even if the two goblins you attacked with end up being blocked, that is upwards of thirteen damage in a single swing, and that’s before we have even cast a spell for the turn.

Add in a playset of Shock and some number of Heartfire to finish off the job, and you have a deck that can easily pull out the win. The great thing about the deck is that it is currently super cheap to build up in paper, as most of the cards are either common or uncommon in rarity. That also means the deck is pretty easy to build on Arena, only requiring eight rare wildcards. So, if you’re not ready to say goodbye to playing red just yet, you’re in luck.


If you’re not a fan of RDW or Simic Flash, however, don’t fear. I’m still working on more rotation-proof decks. If you don’t want to miss out on them, make sure you like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics.

We also have a Patreon, so if you want to support future content for the site, consider becoming one of our Patrons. Just $1 a month would do so much to help us create more of the content you enjoy. If you have any ideas for new and exciting decks you want me to look at, you can contact me directly @MTGTengu over on Twitter. But until next time, remember: no matter the game you play or where you play it – good luck and have fun.

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