The post-Dominaria Standard metagame seems to be taking shape, with U/W Control decks and Red Aggro decks facing off in tournament halls and local game stores alike. Having covered both decks thoroughly in previous installments of Deck of the Week, we tuned into this week’s Team Standard Super League to see what else the format had to offer.
Tuesday’s episode pitted a team of accomplished SCG Tour regulars against the underdog “Brew Crew” of Todd Stevens, Saffron Olive, and Corbin Hosler. As expected, the Crew brought some fresh brews to the table, along with some fresh memes. After demonstrating their prowess with song references and winning an unlikely match-up thanks to the prowess of Adeliz, the Brew Crew closed out the night with a deck featuring the internet’s favorite frog spirit – Yargle!
Brew Crew’s “The One Desire” – Team Standard Super League Week 2
4 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty
4 Dread Shade
4 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Walking Ballista
2 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
3 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1 Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering
4 Fatal Push
4 Vraska’s Contempt
4 Treasure Map
3 Cabal Stronghold
1 Field of Ruin
21 Swamp
Sideboard:
1 Liliana, Death’s Majesty
1 Battle at the Bridge
2 Doomfall
2 Golden Demise
1 Torment of Hailfire
2 Arguel’s Blood Fast
1 Bontu’s Last Reckoning
4 Duress
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
As great as it feels to bring Yargle back from the ‘yard with Liliana, Death’s Majesty, it isn’t always easy for a 9/3 to get through on the ground. While the Brew Crew’s “one desire” was a nine-point swing, the real star of this deck was Karn, who can provide invaluable card selection to decks of all colors. Karn has some neat synergies with Treasure Map, which can both enable better +1 activations and add treasure tokens to the battlefield to pump up Karn‘s constructs. You can even bring Karn back from the graveyard thanks to a singleton Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering – surprisingly castable with ten legendary permanents in the deck.
Creature-wise, this deck has plenty of speed bumps, including Gonti and Gifted Aetherborn, but its creature suite matches up poorly against Goblin Chainwhirler and three-damage burn spells. Fortunately, this deck can avoid one-for-one trades by buying back its creatures with Liliana, and it has solid answers of its own with Fatal Push and Vraska’s Contempt in its arsenal. With the right amount of maneuvering, this deck has the potential to set up big Walking Ballista plays and get tremendous value out of its graveyard.
If you think this deck might be for you, pick it up from Card Kingdom and try it out at your next FNM, and let us know what you’d like to see featured in the next Deck of the Week!
Header design: Justin Treadway
Header image: “Yargle, Glutton of Urborg” by Jehan Choo