Friday Night Magic Recap: December & January

Hello everybody! It’s been quite some time since we last took a look at the goings on of our Friday Night Magic tournaments, and we’ve had many new winners and decks in that time. Why don’t we jump right in and take a look at what’s been doing well:

Standard:

Brittany Brown:

Creatures:
4x Bloodsoaked champion
3x Chief of the edge
1x Chief of the scale
1x Tymaret, murder king
3x Goblin rabblemaster
3x Brimaz, king of oreskos
2x Iroas, god of victory
3x Butcher of the horde
1x Ankle shanker
1x Zurgo, helmsmasher
2x Stormbreath dragon

Spells:
3x Thoughtseize
3x Crackling Doom
2x Banishing Light
1x Trumpet Blast
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Utter End
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Sideboard:
3x Drown in Sorrow
1x Circle of Flame
4x Phyrexian Revolker
2x Mardu Ascendancy
2x Dark Betrayal
3x Deicide

Scott Conway:

19x Mountain

Creatures:

4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Foundry Street Denizen
3x Frenzied Goblin
4x Akroan Crusader
4x Monastery Swiftspear

Spells:

1x Hall of Triumph
1x Coordinated Assault
4x Hammerhand
2x Stoke the Flames
2x Titan’s Strength
2x Magma Jet
1x Trumpet Blast
3x Dragon Mantle
2x Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard:

2x Searing Blood

2x Arc Lightning

2x Harness by Force

2x Peak Eruption

Hunter Godding:

1x Soul of Innistrad

1x Reclamation Sage

4x Sylvan Caryatid

4x Satyr Wayfinder

2x Hornet Queen

4x Courser of Kruphix

4x Sidisi, Brood Tyrant

2x Pharika, God of Affliction

3x Doomwake Giant

4x Murderous Cut

3x Whip of Erebos

2x Thoughtseize

2x Sultai Charm

1x Evolving Wilds

1x Island

4x Llanowar Wastes

3x Forest

1x Temple of Mystery

1x Mana Confluence

2x Temple of Malady

2x Swamp

2x Polluted Delta

4x Opulent Palace

1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2x Yavimaya Coast

That’s quite a lot of information to go through. The big takeaway here is that Standard is a quickly evolving format, something that would have been unheard of in years past. We can see a list like Brittany Brown’s midrange-ish Mardu warriors deck, then have Scott Conway’s super low-to-the-ground Mono Red list do well the next, and then have Hunter Godding’s Sidisi-Whip deck do well after that. Wizards seems to have built an extremely deep format into Theros/Khans of Tarkir Standard, allowing for many more viable decks than in the past.

Modern:

Modern, on the other hand, hasn’t changed a whole lot since Khans of Tarkir burst onto the scene and warped the format with the (now banned) Delve cards Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise. Steven Browne took what was then the consensus best deck in the format, Blue/Red Delver to a 4-0 finish, running the full four of the sometimes-8-mana-usually-1-mana sorcery:

Steven Browne

4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Young Pyromancer
1x Snapcaster Mage

4x Treasure Cruise
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Serum visions
4x Gitaxian Probe
2x Vapor snag
2x forked bolt
2x Spell snare
3x Thought scour
1x Mana leak
1x Electrolyze
1x Remand
1x Izzet Charm

4x Steam Vents
4x Flooded Strand
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Polluted Delta
1x Sulfur Falls
4x Island
1x Mountain

SIDEBOARD:
2x Electrickery
2x Dispel
2x Spell Pierce
1x Negate
1x Flashfreeze
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Flame Slash
1x Smash to Smithereens
1x Shattering Spree
1x Magma Spray
1x Blood Moon
1x Hibernation

While Modern doesn’t change as quickly as Standard has been, that’s not to say there’s no room for improvement. Cale Fryer also went undefeated recently with a new take on a pillar of the format:

4x Snapcaster Mage

4x Geist of St. Traft

2x Vendilion Clique

1x Aven Mindcensor

3x Restoration Angel

1x Stormbreath Dragon

4x Path to Exile

4x Lightning Bolt

4x Remand

3x Electrolyze

2x Dig Through Time

4x Flooded Strand

4x Polluted Delta

1x Plains

1x Mountain

2x Island

1x Eiganjo Castle

3x Steam Vents

1x Hallowed Fountain

2x Sacred Foundry

4x Celestial Colonnade

1x Bloodstained Mire

Sideboard:

1x Engineered Explosives

2x Wear//Tear

2x Magma Spray

1x Aven Mindcensor

2x Counterflux

1x Negate

1x Batterskull

1x Spellskite

2x Kor Firewalker

2x Relic of Progenitus

Cale was running what appeared to be a fairly stock Blue/White/Red control list, until you see the singleton Stormbreath Dragon hiding in there. Stormbreath is an interesting choice, and it makes sense for the format. With Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt being the go-to “unconditional” removal spells in the format, there are only a few non-white spells that would be able to remove the dragon from play. Along with the surprise factor, it seems like an interesting choice going forward.

Zach Lomas:

4 x Blight Mamba

4 x Glistener Elf

4 x Necropede

4 x Ichorclaw Myr

2 x Apostle’s Blessing

4 x Giant Growth

4 x Mutagenic Growth

4 x Groundswell

2 x Might of Old Krosa

4 x Vines of Vastwood

2 x Phytoburst

4 x Rancor

16 x Forest

4 x Sejiri Steppe

Zach went 4-0 with a mostly mono-Green Infect list. Infect is a popular archetype in Legacy at the moment, and it also does well for itself in Modern. With the right combination of creatures and pump spells, the deck is capable of killing an unprepared opponent out of nowhere.

What new innovations will we see from our players in the coming weeks? Will the banning of Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time and Birthing Pod drastically change the Modern format? And what will Fate Reforged offer for all our offered formats? Find out for yourself every week at our Transit Road store at Buffalo’s largest Friday Night Magic tournament.