Friday Night Magic recap for December 5

Welcome back to another Dave and Adam’s Friday Night recap. We had two new winners this week, starting with our Standard winner, Tyler Bajer.

1x Mana Confluence

1x Shivan Reef

2x Temple of Epiphany

4x Yavimaya Coast

4x Wooded Foothills

2x Mountain

4x Frontier Bivouac

3x Forest

2x Ashcloud Phoenix

4x Boons Satyr

4x Polukanos, World Eater

4x Rattleclaw Mystic

2x Stormbreath Dragon

4x Savage Knuckleblade

3x Elvish Mystic

2x Temur Charm

4x Crater’s Claws

3x Lightning Strike

1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Sideboard

1x Nissa, Worldwaker

1x Chandra, Pyromaster

1x Reclamation Sage

1x Lightning Strike

1x Back to Nature

3x Disdainful Stroke

3x Stubborn Denial

2x Anger of the Gods

2x Magma Spray

Tyler ended up going 4-0 with his Temur Monsters list. Red/Green/x Monsters has been very popular in the competitive Magic scene for the last few years, and Khans of Tarkir has offered a new color combination for people to try out. Monsters looks to constantly have the biggest creature in play and use that advantage to close out the game in the middling turns. The light splash of Blue allows the deck to play Savage Knuckleblade, a card that, when it was first spoiled, everyone thought was going to be a powerhouse but has yet to find a home elsewhere. On top of that, the deck plays big, resilient threats like Ashcloud Phoenix, Polukranos and Stormbreath Dragon to finish off the opponent once they have the advantage.

Moving on to Modern, our winner from this week was Joe Santini:

4x Young Pyromancer

4x Monastery Swiftspear

1x Snapcaster Mage

4x Misty Rainforest

3x Scalding Tarn

1x Polluted Delta

1x Arid Mesa

1x Sulfur Falls

3x Steam Vents

4x Island

1x Mountain

3x Gut Shot

3x Mutagenic Growth

4x Gitaxian Probe

4x Lightning Bolt

3x Serum Visions

2x Vapor Snag

2x Thought Scour

2x Spell Snare

1x Electrolyze

1x Izzet Charm

1x Mana Leak

3x Treasure Cruise

Sideboard:

2x Dispel

2x Sudden Shock

2x Vandalblast

2x Spell Pierce

2x Blood Moon

1x Negate

1x Batterskull

1x Spellskite

1x Izzet Staticaster

1x Bonfire of the Damned

Joe took Blue/Red Delver to the top of the Modern standings this week. Delver is what’s considered a tempo deck, meaning it plays an early threat and uses removal and evasion to keep punching damage through. It uses Lightning Bolt, Izzet Charm and Electrolyze early to clear blockers out of the way of Monastery Swiftspear or uses Vapor Snag to temporarily clear anything that his burn spells can’t. Joe seems to have set his deck up to use Young Pyromancer as much as possible, running a full 10 “free” spells in Gut Shot, Mutagenic Growth and Gitaxian Probe (even if casting all of them for “free” would cause him to lose the game). Maindecking Gut Shot also implies that Joe was expecting a lot of 1-toughness creatures, which isn’t unreasonable in a world with U/R/x Delver and Robots being two of the most popular decks. Blood Moon also comes out of the sideboard to give opponents a difficult time if they have greedy mana bases.

Stop in to our Transit Rd. location this and every Friday night for even more Standard, Modern, drafts and now even Commander.