M14 Standard: The First Weekend

On the first weekend of M14 Standard I went out to Empire Games and played in a TCG Player Platinum. I did...poorly. Which I can attribute to having both a less than stellar sideboard and to generally being unfamiliar with playing an aggressive deck. I played a Naya aggro deck that topped out at 5 with Thundermaw Hellkite. I also made some mistakes building it, like putting Domri Rade in the maindeck. Not everyone I knew at the tournament did poorly as Mike Lannigan managed to take second with what looked like an ugly BW Humans deck. The other big event this weekend was the StarCity open in Richmond where BW Humans took down the room, beating Jund in the finals.

I don't think it should have won.

This is the type of deck that Jund is supposed to prey on, especially staring in Game 1. Instead we saw the match go to three with the final game being decided on a risky keep. even with that a green mana or a bonfire miricled within the first 4 turns still would have turned things around for the Jund deck. I think that if they played that match out ten more times then Jund would come out on top at least 6 or 7 times. It just doesn't look favorable at all to me.

But we did get some really sweet decks in the top 8. Like Mono-Green Ooze! More imporantly we had Bant Hexproof taking 10th, 11th and 12th. And finishing just outside the top 8 of the TCG player event. This is a deck we should sideboard for. It does exist. It is angry. And it might not be top eighting but if you ignore it you will loose to it. Pay the tax people.

The deck I like the looks of the most is the Naya aggro, although its more of a big naya deck. Unfortunatly for me to play it I'd need to get Bonfires, Thundermaws, and huntmasters, all of which are nearing the end of thier time in Standard. I'm just not willing to do that. I mean we've gotten some Theros information!

Dibs for Commander!