{"id":5280,"date":"2015-08-02T15:43:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-02T20:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/?p=5280"},"modified":"2015-08-02T15:46:31","modified_gmt":"2015-08-02T20:46:31","slug":"pro-tour-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/?p=5280","title":{"rendered":"Pro Tour Preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EN_ORIPRE_Header\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With Pro Tour Magic Origins just a few days away I am getting very excited to see what the pros will make of this new standard format. Star City Games has had two standard tournaments since the release of Magic Origins which have introduced some interesting changes in the metagame.\u00a0\u00a0Let’s take a look at some of the new decks and take some guesses at what the pros will bring out of their testing boot camps.<\/p>\n

Rally decks:<\/p>\n

In both the Chicago and the Richmond Open, there were decks that utilized\u00a0Rally the Ancestors<\/a> to exciting, combo filled goodness. Matthew Tickal brought a Five Color Rally deck to Chicago. Though he only placed 34th, the deck was awesome to watch. Ray Tuatic won the Richmond Open with an Abzan Rally deck. The plan of both decks is to fill their graveyard with three or less casting cost creatures, bring them all back with\u00a0Rally the Ancestors<\/a>, then use\u00a0Mogis’s Marauder<\/a> to give\u00a0Nantuko Husk<\/a> intimidate and haste. The excess creatures are sacrificed to pump\u00a0Nantuko Husk<\/a> into a big threat that hopefully can not be blocked. The\u00a0\u00a0Nantuko Husk<\/a> can then sacrifice himself to be back in the graveyard for the next rally. Like most combo decks, this deck will be weak against decks that are ready for them, whether it be hate cards like\u00a0Hallowed Moonlight<\/a> or decks that happen to have black or artifact creatures.<\/p>\n

Artifact control decks:<\/p>\n

Speaking of artifact creatures, there is a\u00a0control deck that is making great use of them. A\u00a0blue white version was seen in the top 8 of Chicago and a blue black version was seen in the top 16 of Richmond. Both use Darksteel Citadel<\/a> and Hangarback Walker<\/a> to turn on Thopter Spy Network<\/a> and get their Bitterblossom<\/a> on. Both decks rely on planeswalkers for a more consistent win condition, but chipping away with 1\/1 fliers is not totally out of the question.<\/p>\n

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Constellation decks:<\/p>\n

Abzan constellation is an updated version of the old green black version. John Taylor piloted it to an 8th place finish in Richmond. Herald of the Pantheon<\/a> makes all but two of the other main deck spells cheaper. The new cards white offers to the deck are Sigil of the Empty Throne<\/a> ,\u00a0Starfield of Nyx<\/a>, and Banishing Light<\/a>. The enchantment density of this deck is very impressive. Not many decks can run 25 enchantments.<\/p>\n

Parting thoughts:<\/p>\n

We will probably see a good amount of Green Devotion decks and conventional Abzan decks which both did well in Chicago and Richmond. Jeskai and Blue White Heroic will probably make a strong showing too. I am hoping to see either a goblins deck use Goblin Piledriver<\/a> or a white deck make use of Archangel of Tithes<\/a>. And fingers crossed that some brewer shows up in the feature match area with a Demonic Pact<\/a> or Pyromancer’s Goggles<\/a> deck! Thanks for reading and happy watching!<\/p>\n

Chicago Open deck lists<\/a><\/p>\n

Richmond Open deck lists<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Pro Tour Magic Origins just a few days away I am getting very excited to see what the pros will make of this new standard format. Star City Games has had two standard tournaments since the release of Magic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7903,"featured_media":5297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,25],"tags":[55,258,38,257,19],"class_list":["post-5280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-magic-the-gathering","tag-decklists-2","tag-magic-origins","tag-mtg","tag-pro-tour-magic-origins","tag-standard","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5280"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}