GW Beats

Alex Stephenson
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - 15:15

I’ve been goldfishing around with a couple decks that I want to play in standard post-rotation. My previous article describes the UR Delver-Red Deck Wins list, which has a lot of damage potential, but has some definite shortcomings: a weakness to Thragtusk and Reanimator decks. This time around I’d like to present to you a much more consistent strategy that isn’t too hard to buy components for and isn’t difficult to navigate. Presenting GW Beats:

4x Arbor Elf
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Call of the Conclave
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Deadbridge Goliath
4x Wolfir Silverheart

1x Garruk, Primal Hunter

4x Revenge of the Hunted
4x Rancor

4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Temple Garden
3x Plains
11x Forest
1x Gavony Township

Sideboard:
2x Selesnya Charm
4x Thragtusk
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Prey Upon
1x Pithing Needle

This list capitalizes on the most efficient creatures in the format: Call of the Conclave – two mana 3/3, Loxodon Smiter – three mana 4/4, Deadbridge Goliath – four mana 5/5, and Wolfir Silverheart – five mana for a potential 12 power added to battlefield. The beauty of this deck is that it has fast pressure, a good amount of resilience, and consistent keepable opening hands. Ideal openers involve a mana dork and any number of the beef in the deck, but even hands without dorks can be ok if there is any combination of the power two drops in the deck. Both Strangleroot Geist and Call of the Conclave equate to plenty of turn two pressure. I’m speculating that Deadbridge Goliath is actually a great card, and if you have any interest in playing it I would recommend picking them up now at the mere cost of 75 cents apiece preorder on Ebay. Prey Upon out of side is a test to see if the card is actually playable in constructed. Delver of Secrets is still a card, so having a one mana out for it seems like a good idea. Thragtusk also comes in for the Delver match and Zombies as well. I have a feeling Thragtusk comes in a lot, but in matches where there will be a lot of creature combat, Wolfir Silverheart feels like it will be a better maindeck choice. This deck currently has a price tag of around $100, and the bulk of that is from Thragtusks and Temple Gardens, so if you’re looking for a cheap, fun, beatdown deck, consider this list as a foundation.