Finally! Journey into Nyx is out, and we are no longer stuck scouring the Born of the Gods spoiler for that one forgotten playable card (Born of the Gods was kind of terrible). Even better: we don’t have to scour over the Journey into Nyx spoiler for playable cards either, because someone already did for us!

If you are on Twitter, and don’t follow Tomoharu Saito (@TomoharuSaito), you might want to reconsider. Right after the full spoiler was released, this great brewer posted close to twenty lists on Twitter, filled with great ideas for the new Standard format. If you were watching the coverage for SCG Cincinnati, you might’ve already seen one of his decks: UWR control with Keranos and [card]Firemind’s Foresight[/card]. In this article, I’ll take a look at a few of the other lists he posted on Twitter and go over what makes the lists special.

Let’s start with one of the top decks of the previous Standard format: Mono Blue Devotion.

[deck title= Mono Blue Devotion by Tomoharu Saito]

[Creatures]
4 Hypnotic Siren
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Master of Waves
2 AEtherling
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Cyclonic Rift
4 Dictate of Kruphix
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
[/Spells]
[Lands]
12 Island
2 Mutavault
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Epiphany
[/Lands]
[/deck]

This list cuts the one-drops that were in previous lists ([card]Judge’s Familiar[/card] and [card]Cloudfin Raptor[/card]) for a different one-drop in [card]Hypnotic Siren[/card] and a playset of the [card]Dictate of Kruphix[/card]. This [card]Howling Mine[/card] effect is an interesting choice, and I would not often recommend playing [card]Howling Mine[/card] effects in a Standard aggro deck. However, in this deck, having a permanent that adds UU to your devotion while helping you draw to your Thassa and [card]Master of Waves[/card] seems fairly good.

Mono-Blue Devotion is one of those decks that has two extremely powerful cards in Thassa and [card]Master of Waves[/card], and it is a huge favorite in matches where they go unchecked. Allowing your opponent to draw extra cards isn’t too big of an issue when your game is almost unbeatable if you draw your best cards. With Thassa, this certainly feels like it is the case.

The other addition, [card]Hypnotic Siren[/card], is the reason that this deck is moving away from the full playset of [card]Mutavault[/card]s and towards more [card]Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/card]. With Nykthos and the number of cards you’ll be drawing, getting to seven mana to bestow the Siren shouldn’t be too hard.

Nykthos also lets you add another card that, like Thassa, that is capable of just winning the game: [card]Aetherling[/card]. While [card]Aetherling[/card] is normally a tad expensive for this type of strategy, this particular build can easily generate the amount of mana to turn it into just another unblockable threat. Another card that profits a lot from playing more mana generating shrines is [card]Cyclonic Rift[/card]. When you can easily overload this card on your fifth turn, it really isn’t fair. I’ve played a bunch of games with this deck already and would recommend upping the amount of Rifts to three at least, probably moving a Jace or a Dictate to the sideboard.

Saito also added a bunch of Temples to the manabase, which help scry away extra lands later in the game and help you get the most out of the extra draws with [card]Dictate of Kruphix[/card]. Thassa helps here too. This is another reason why Dictate works in this deck: the quality of your draws is often higher than those of your opponents, as you probably have more ways of scrying towards non-lands.

After seeing the potential new build of Mono Blue, what can we expect out of the other big Devotion deck? We’ve already seen the Bg Devotion deck that [card]Temple of Malady[/card] makes possible win an SCG Open in the hands of Andrew Tenjum, but Saito has a different plan:

[deck title= BW Control by Tomoharu Saito]

[Creatures]
3 Brain Maggot
3 Pack Rat
3 Lifebane Zombie
4 Desecration Demon
3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Devour Flesh
1 Deicide
3 Banishing Light
2 Hero’s Downfall
4 Read the Bones
2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Godless Shrine
4 Mutavault
3 Plains
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
4 Temple of Silence
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Instead of green, Saito has a controlling build that tops its curve with the incredibly powerful planeswalker Elspeth and builds towards her with some new tools. [card]Brain Maggot[/card], the “fixed” reprint of [card]Mesmeric Fiend[/card], is the first Journey into Nyx card we come across in this list. [card]Mesmeric Fiend[/card] was often seen in the Mono-Black Control lists back in 2002 or so, when Odyssey block was in Standard (when people played [card]Tarnished Citadel[/card] in their two-color block decks because it was the only mana fixing available; you people and your shocklands have it easy!). Like the Fiend, [card]Brain Maggot[/card] takes any nonland card, so it often feels like a [card]Thoughtseize[/card] on legs. Of course, if they spend a removal spell on the 1/1, they get their spell back, but who wants to spend removal on a 1/1? Plus, maybe you’ll just take the removal! Combined with [card]Thoughtseize[/card] and [card]Lifebane Zombie[/card], this deck can really rip someone’s hands to shreds.

The other Journey update to this deck is [card]Banishing Light[/card], the “fixed” [card]Oblivion Ring[/card]. No more “in response to the enters the battlefield-trigger,” this one is just fair. Still, is can exile any nonland permanent, whether it’s a creature, planeswalker or enchantment. This is obviously great in the black mirror, as you now have a removal spell that takes an Erebos, a [card]Desecration Demon[/card], or an [card]Underworld Connections[/card]. However, if people start playing with [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] in their black decks, this might be a bit tricky.

One choice that might surprise you in this deck is [card]Read the Bones[/card] where most of these decks have [card]Underworld Connections[/card]. Despite Underworld Connections’ becoming worse because of the increased amount of maindeck removal that hits it ([card]Abrupt Decay[/card], [card]Banishing Light[/card], and to a lesser degree, Deicide are the culprits here), I doubt it was excluded here because of that. I think fairly often [card]Underworld Connections[/card] isn’t all that great compared to [card]Read the Bones[/card]. [card]Read the Bones[/card] can look four cards deep immediately, whereas Connections is more something that provides you an advantage when the game goes long and when you can spend the life. This is definitely not the case in every matchup, and when you don’t have [card]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/card] to provide you with some life to spend, the card gets worse.

From two variations on decks that we all know and love (or hate), let’s take a look at something very new:

[deck title= GW Enchantress by Tomoharu Saito]

[Creatures]
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Font of Fertility
4 Nylea’s Presence
4 Banishing Light
2 Karametra, God of Harvests
4 Sphere of Safety
3 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
2 Primeval Bounty
[/Spells]
[Lands]
10 Forest
4 Plains
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Vaguely reminiscent of the old GW Enchantress decks that someone you know probably still plays in Legacy, this Standard variant aims to ramp into a bunch of strong Enchantments, flood the board with them to prevent the opponent from attacking because of [card]Sphere of Safety[/card], and draw a bunch of cards in the process thanks to [card]Eidolon of Blossoms[/card]. Then, you land an Elspeth, Karametra, or [card]Primeval Bounty[/card] and generate value until you win with a bunch of tokens or a big indestructible god.

While the deck looks very interesting and fun to play with, there’s not much to say about it, as it looks fairly straightforward. (If you disagree, let me know in the comments, and I’ll try to explain which part you feel needs some more attention.) So, we’ll quickly move on to another interesting list, this time on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to durdling versus attacking:

[deck title= RG aggro by Tomoharu Saito]

[Creatures]
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Mogis’s Warhound
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Dragon Mantle
4 Lightning Strike
4 Domri Rade
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Gruul Guildgate
9 Mountain
3 Mutavault
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandonment
[/Lands]
[/deck]

This deck is headlined by two cards from Journey into Nyx: [card]Mogis’s Warhound[/card] and [card]Prophetic Flamespeaker[/card]. Out of these two, the flashier is obviously the Flamespeaker. A cross between [card]Warren Instigator[/card] and [card]Shadowmage Infiltrator[/card], this mythic is hard to evaluate without seeing it in play.

The big drawback to Flamespeaker is that if it connects, the cards you “draw” will have to be cast immediately. This means a few things:

A) You don’t want to play a land precombat if you have one in your hand.
B) You don’t want to play spells precombat in general, if you can help it.
C) You want to pack you deck with as many cheap spells as possible, to make sure you can always cast them if you want to.

Where [card]Shadowmage Infiltrator[/card] drawing you into [card]Cruel Ultimatum[/card] is always awesome, [card]Prophetic Flamespeaker[/card] flipping over a seven drop is only great late. In this deck, the Flamespeaker excels; it is filled with cheap spells and pump effects that work great with double strike (“No blocks? Rampager my Flamespeaker-take ten. Do I need to cast these other spells still, or are you dead already?”), and it can easily cast the Flamespeaker on turn three.

This deck does have a few spells it wants to cast precombat, like [card]Ash Zealot[/card] and the two pump auras: [card]Dragon Mantle[/card] and [card]Mogis’s Warhound[/card]. Those last two are great for setting up future turns with Flamespeaker however, so that’s not all bad. Plus, you can always flip land and play it if you are tapped low.

What I disagree with in this particular list is the lack of [card]Mana Confluence[/card]. I would easily play two [card]Mana Confluence[/card] over the two Guildgates. Generally, the damage you take if you have to play it early outweighs the tempo loss of having more lands that enter the battlefield tapped than absolutely necessary.

The next list is one that does use [card]Mana Confluence[/card], and it is a deck that will surely make a lot of opponents unhappy. With the printing of another two drop with everyone’s favorite ability, everybody welcome back Hexproof Auras.dec!

[deck title= Hexproof by Tomoharu Saito]

[Creatures]
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Bassara Tower Archer
4 Mogis’s Warhound
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Witchstalker
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Boros Charm
4 Madcap Skills
2 Banishing Light
4 Unflinching Courage
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Forest
4 Mana Confluence
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
2 Temple of Abandonment
4 Temple of Plenty
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Here too we see the [card]Mogis’s Warhound[/card] playing a great support role. It’s a creature to throw enchantments on in a pinch, and it’s an aura that leaves you with a creature after a [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]. It’s easy to cast and can even be used to clear a blocker out of the way in a pinch. That might happen more often in the RG Aggro deck than in this deck, but it could happen, especially if you pack [card]Reprisal[/card]s in the sideboard, helping your opponent’s creatures a little bit might not be bad for you.

This is one of the decks that I expect will be a serious contender in Standard. If we look at SCG Cincinnati, which was won by Bg Devotion, we can expect a rise of that deck, which should lead to a decrease in UWx Control decks. The blue control decks have a really hard time against Bg Devotion, because they simply don’t have working answers. Between [card]Golgari Charm[/card] and [card]Abrupt Decay[/card], neither [card]Supreme Verdict[/card] and [card]Detention Sphere[/card] are reliable answers, and those are the main ways for blue-white control players to defend themselves. A decrease in UWx decks means that it will soon be a great time to be playing decks like Mono-Blue and Naya Hexproof, decks that are traditionally weaker against [card]Supreme Verdict[/card] decks.

I hope you all liked this look at some new and exciting decks for Standard, and I wish you all good luck trying to break the new format!

Jay Lansdaal
iLansdaal on Twitter and MTGO