Ok, let's get the ball rolling with a look at the card choices.

The Walkers

4 Domri Rade
4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
2 Xenagos, the Reveler

This merry band of brothers is what makes this deck go. They keep the board loaded, your hand full, and your opponent crying. Domri is great against the aggressive decks, while Xenagos and Garruk give the control players some real issues, and I'm talking like, "Hey, you see that guy with no pants on ordering his Taco Bell and trying to pay with paper clips? He's got issues." All in all, these guys are what help fuel the crazy unfair advantages this deck can create.

The Threats

4 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Arbor Colossus
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
2 Scavenging Ooze

Beef!!! It's what your opponent is about to be force-fed for dinner. First in the line-up we have Polukranos. This guy not only eats worlds but also eats aggro alive. Slam this guy on turn 3 with the help of a little acceleration and creature decks come to a screeching halt.

Arbor Colossus is an all-star versus Mono-Blue Devotion and Desecration Demons but also gets you GGG for devotion. If you ever untap with Nykthos and this guy in play, you usually will just vomit your hand onto the table the following turn.

The one-of Ruric Thar is just a house against any kind of midrange or control deck, and Nylea helps you get through stalled board states. The two Scavenging Oozes are probably the weakest cards in the deck, but they are kind of necessary as a follow-up to any kind of mass removal effect. The minimal life gain is ok, and eating cards in your opponent's yard to counteract a Whip of Erebos isn't the worst interaction.

The Mana Producers

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voyaging Satyr
4 Burning-Tree Emissary

We have the full set of Elvish Mystics, Sylvan Caryatids, and Voyaging Satyrs. Having the full set of all of these is super necessary to get way ahead of your opponent. Turn 1 Elvish Mystic sets you up for turn 2 Domri Rade, which is still fantastic against most decks in Standard. The Caryatids do a nice job of helping you out with the red source and stopping you from getting hit in the face early, and the Voyaging Satyrs are an obvious combo with Nykthos but not one to take lightly

The Matchups

Now let's take a look at some of the matchups.

Mono-Blue Devotion

I believe this to be one of the tougher matchups. An early Tidebinder Mage on your mana guys can really stall you out and deal some serious damage. Your goal in this matchup is to get as much mana acceleration out as possible and stick an Arbor Colossus to stabilize. Polukranos is also sick against them since for only three mana he can take out a Master of Waves (just beware of Cyclonic Rift or Rapid Hybridization in response to the monstrosity activation). Domri also provides a good way to deal with their creatures; try to use the fight ability as aggressively as possible to keep their devotion count down.

-4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts; -2 Xenagos, the Reveler; -1 Scavenging Ooze

+4 Mistcutter Hydra; +3 Wasteland Viper

Mono-Red, B/R, & W/R Aggro

These matches all go about the same for us. Burning-Tree Emissary and Sylvan Caryatid are amazing at mucking up the board and letting you survive to a Polukranos or Arbor Colossus. Domri is important here since fighting things early and often allows you to stabilize. These are the decks that we prey on and want to get paired against the most.

-4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts, -2 Xenagos, the Reveler, -1 Voyaging Satyr

+3 Wasteland Viper, +4 Nylea's Disciple

Esper & U/W Control

Game 1 is all about the planeswalkers. Garruk is an absolute nightmare by refilling you grip and putting creatures into play that can't be countered, Xenagos makes an endless supply of threats, and an early Domri can threaten to ultimate before they can find an answer. Try to do your best to play around Supreme Verdict by not playing all your mana guys out at once. The goal is to get an early threat into play like Polukranos or Xenagos to start applying pressure, but don't overdo it so that Verdict doesn't wreck you too badly. Also, remember if you have Domri in play to attack first so if they Azorius Charm your guy you can just +1 and replay it.

-3 Arbor Colossus, -4 Sylvan Caryatid, -1 Scavenging Ooze

+4 Mistcutter Hydra, +3 Burning Earth, +1 Destructive Revelry

Obviously the Burning Earths aren't the best against U/W, so you can leave in the Colossus and singleton Scavenging Ooze.

Deck Changes Going Forward

As a whole, the deck is pretty solid as is. The only two flex spots are the Scavenging Oozes, and I'm not even sure what I would replace them with. I would, however, like an additional Ruric Thar in the board because it was great for me all weekend. It's possible to cut one Nylea's Disciple from the board if you don't expect to see as much aggro, but I would keep everything else the same as is.

Well, it's been fun guys and gals; I had a blast winning the Standard Open in Dallas and getting the opportunity to write an article for StarCityGames.com. Give the deck a spin if you like making tons of mana and attacking with jolly green giants. If you've got any questions or comments, fire away in the comments.

Beezy out!









Zbyněk Křípal
I'd probably remove the two oozes in favor of additional copy of ruric thar and a singleton clan defiance. Originally I wanted to add second Nylea, but Clan Defiance should allow the deck to steal some games as well as being another way of dealing with opponent's threats. I would even consider cutting Nylea altogether as she feels like win more card, but I probably want one copy somewhere in the 75 and she doesn't feel like SB material for this deck. As for the sideboarding, I'm glad I got it about right in my games yesterday.

For MBD/C, with my changes to the deck I'd probably go with:
-1 Nylea (in that MU it is strictly win more card and it can lead to some ugly blowouts when they shut her down in the worst moment possible)
-3 elvish mystic (I was really pondering what to get rid of here, but this probably makes the most sense. You can't rely on killable manadorks as much in this MU anyway, as when they see you need them they just kill 'em anyway and you need all the threats you can muster, so cutting the card drawing engines - Planeswalkers - is not an option)
+3 Viper (attack with random guy, postcombat domri, ping your demon for deathtouch is pretty good)
+1 Revelry (no comment)
Reply · Like · Follow Post · Edited · 7 hours ago

Alexandre Baiotto · Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
Hi Hal.
I´m playing for some time a 75 very similar with yours, excluding 3x Wasteland Viper from Sb.
I would like to know how do you use this card in games to be an important sideboard.
You use it like a creature? Bloodrush? To trade creatures with opponent?
For example, against mono Blue devotion, how would Wasteland Viper be usefull?

Congratulations for your prize.
Really happy to see this list winning tournaments. Give me hope some hope in mine.

Thank you for your help, anyway.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 3 hours ago

Zbyněk Křípal
Either for bloodrush (attack with polukranos, bloodrush this, monstrosity polukranos to kill their guys), or you could just slap it on table and fight it with something you don't like using Domri's -2
Reply · 1 · Like · 3 hours ago

Hal Brady · Follow
Yea what that guy said. He isn't the best but I wanted something else vs creature decks. Mortars might be better.











My sideboard doesn’t include much for Mono Black or B/x Devotion decks. I do:
-1 Voyaging Satyr
+1 Destructive Revelry
Revelry can kill Underworld Connections, Whips, or Needles if they side them in to stop your walkers. Black devotion ended up being one of my better match ups over the weekend.

Against Mono U Devotion:
-2 Xenagos, the Reveler
-1 Voyaging Satyr
-1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
+4 Mistcutter Hydra
Xenagos doesn’t do much against them. Nylea can be hard to get devotion for. They can easily bounce/hybrid your creatures to knock your devotion down or attack pass her with Thassa to make her indestructible not that great. I feel in this match up you need threats that are aggressive and hard to answer. I feel that with Nylea they have many options/answers to make her not exciting. I also like the cutting one mana creature.