Today I want to take a look at a few interesting brews with the new set that I put together and feel like could be good in the upcoming standard format.
First, I wanted to explore the option of pretty much cutting the black from Mihara’s Esper Midrange and run it straight UW with help of some of the new cards:

UW Midrange

Creatures

4 Soldier of the Pantheon

4 Precinct Captain

2 Imposing Sovereign

2 Keening Apparition

4 Lyev Skyknight

3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

3 Ephara, God of the Polis

1 Heliod, God of the Sun

Spells

4 Detention Sphere

1 Godsend

2 Spear of Heliod

3 Dictate of Heliod

2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

Lands

4 Azorius Guildgate

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Mutavault

4 Temple of Enlightenment

8 Plains

1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

 

I really like the idea of Dictate of Heliod together with Mutavault versus control decks. The one of Godsend is mostly to try it out. Since the deck doesn’t run a ton of creatures but has some ways to produce tokens Godsend is a sweet option to make that one threat you have in play really matter. By now it seems like there should be enough enchantment permanents in any deck that some maindeck Keening Apparition seem like a solid option. I borrowed the idea from Saito after pondering over Deicide, realizing it is clearly a much better more versatile option in most cases with enough removal for gods in Detention Sphere. It could be worse running a few Banishing Light in addition.
The sideboard also gets a bunch of nice options with the new set. I can see running any number of Nyx-Fleece Ram against aggressive decks like Mono Red. Deicide is a nice option in low numbers versus decks with gods such as the mirror or Blue Devotion. Reprisal is a great option mainly to fight green decks. Ajani’s Presence is a nice alternative against removal and sweepers at the same time likely being better than something like Rootborn Defenses
I already liked Mihara’s Esper Midrange deck although the mana was very shaky and painful so being able to cut the black thanks to Dictate of Heliod might make it more consistent and competitive as a result. Also, getting to run two more Mutavaults especially with Dictate of Heliod is huge.

The next deck I want to take a look at is a revisited version of the Naya Hexproof deck I wrote a bout a few months ago:

Naya Hexproof

Creatures

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Gladecover Scout

4 Bassara Tower Archer

3 Voice of Resurgence

2 Mogis’s Warhound

4 Witchstalker

2 Boon Satyr

Spells

4 Ethereal Armor

3 Boros Charm

4 Madcap Skills

4 Unflinching Courage

Lands

4 Mana Confluence

4 Stomping Ground

4 Temple Garden

4 Temple of Plenty

2 Temple of Abandon

2 Sacred Foundry

2 Forest

 

I like to try a split of Mogis’s Warhound and Boon Satyr since the hound is cheaper but less powerful and Satyr is generally the better more powerful and flexible card especially versus control decks. I felt the 4th charm might be better in the sideboard or cut since drawing two will be lackluster in a lot of games. The deck also received a few nice sideboard options such as an upgrade to Mending Touch in Ajani’s Presence and Banishing Light to answer problem cards and Nyx-Fleece Ram to help versus really aggressive decks such as mono red. Additional Boon Satyr, Voice of Resurgence and Mistcutter Hydra and maybe even Skylasher should help fight control and Blue Devotion. This deck looks better and more real than ever. It still has no Geist of Saint Traft but it has a lot of great tools good mana and Boros Charm to help with the clock lost by Geist. Give it a try and see what you can do with the archetype. Mono Black Devotion certainly won’t like to face this deck.

Next on the list is one of my favorites from the middle of last Standard PTQ season: Selesnya Aggro.
Most of the upgrades seem minor but actually help the deck a lot in the department it was lacking most: consistency.

Selesnya Aggro

Creatures

4 Soldier of the Pantheon

4 Experiment One

4 Fleecemane Lion

4 Voice of Resurgence

4 Loxodon Smiter

2 Boon Satyr

Spells

4 Selesnya Charm

4 Banishing Light

2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride

4 Advent of the Wurm

1 Dictate of Heliod

Lands

4 Mana Confluence

4 Temple of Plenty

4 Temple Garden

2 Mutavault

5 Forest

4 Plains

Sideboard

3 Ajani’s Presence

1 Celestial Flare

3 Gift of Orzhova

2 Last Breath

4 Mistcutter Hydra

2 Setessan Tactics

 

This is the only list I feel comfortable about giving a sideboard for since I know it pretty well from before and a lot of the upgrades were to the sideboard. Mana Confluence makes the once so inconsistent mana a lot more stable for turn one plays and also for turn 2 double colored spells. It even should allow at least two Mutavault making the manabase a lot more useful helping with flood. It is possible that three confluences is the right amount because drawing two is a lot of pain to take. I feel like Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is too slow and clunky for the deck while also not fitting the aggressive curvy nature of the deck and I rather run some Boon Satyr and try a singleton Dictate of Heliod which fit the one, two, three drop, flash game plan better and also makes you even harder to predict when you have mana open. The curve is fairly low so twenty-three lands should be enough. Regarding the sideboard: Ajani’s Presence is a great upgrade to Gods Willing while not protecting from exile effects like Detention Sphere and Banishing Light it can act as a combat trick or protection from Supreme Verdict and the like. Setessan Tactics allows you to cut some of the less flexible Last Breath and improve the overall ability to deal with stale board states in creature matchups or control the devotion count of decks like red and blue devotion. I think this deck looks great again with all the improvements from the new set. Give it a try.

The last deck I want to talk about is a GR aggro deck similar to the Jund Aggro deck I made top 16 of PT GTC with:

RG Beats

Creatures

4 Experiment One

4 Rakdos Cackler

4 Burning-Tree Emissary

4 Firefist Striker

4 Gore-House Chainwalker

3 Mogis’s Warhound

4 Fanatic of Xenagos

3 Prophetic Flamespeaker

4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells

4 Domri Rade

Lands

4 Mana Confluence

4 Stomping Ground

4 Temple of Abandon

5 Forest

5 Mountain

 

It may be that running Experiment One is a bit greedy but it is just really good and the mana should be fine with barely any double casting cost cards in any color. Prophetic Flamespeaker has nice synergy with Ghor-Clan Rampager and Mogis’s Warhound while providing additional grinding power on top of Domri Rade. It could be that the deck wants to fit four Lightning Strike to have additional removal to Domri Rade especially to control the devotion count of blue, red and green devotion decks. Another spell worth running a few of is Armed // Dangerous as a replacement for Boros Charm that similar Naya versions of the deck would run to combo with Ghor-Clan Rampager. Not more than two though. I think the deck looks sweet and could be a resurgence of red (green) aggro roughing up all the devotion decks and control. It is also possible that the manabase can support around two Mutavault over some of the basics but for now I rather went for the consistency. Also, consider trying Skylasher as two drop of choice since it is awesome versus control and Blue Devotion which might need some extra help.

That’s it for this time. I hope you liked the ideas. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, remarks or criticism.

Thanks,
ManuS