Friday Night Magic Recaps for the Month of August: Part 1

Hello everyone! It’s been a little while since we last saw each other, so we have a little catching up to do. We’ve been hard at work catching up from our adventures at Gen Con in Indianapolis, but that hasn’t stopped us from keeping tabs on the interesting decks that continue to pop up at our weekly Friday Night Magic tournaments. This time we’re going to look at the state of Standard from the month of August by sampling a few of the decks that came out on top of our biggest tournament of the week.

To start things off, let’s take a look at Brandon Kohorst’s Black/White midrange deck:

Brandon Kohorst (Standard):

4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Precinct Captain
4x Fiendslayer Paladin
2x Obzedat, Ghost Council
2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1x Athreos, God of Passage
1x Soul of Theros

18 Creatures

2x Whip of Erebos
4x Banishing Light
3x Hero’s Downfall
2x Celestial Flare
2x Read the Bones
2x Glimpse the Sun God
2x Spectra Ward
1x Devour Flesh

18 Non-Creature Spells

11x Plains
9x Swamps
4x Temple of Silence

24 Lands

4x Sin Collector
3x Geist of the Moors
2x Stain the Mind
2x Devouring Light
1x Hero’s Downfall
1x Deicide
1x Necrobite
1x Ajani’s Presence

15 Sideboard Cards

Brandon battled the field with a Black/White midrange deck. His list is chock full of resilient creatures and removal spells, all of which should be able to keep his life total high enough and the board clear enough that he can play a Blood Baron of Vizkopa or a Obzedat, Ghost Council and it should clean up the rest. He seemed to make a metagame choice, maindecking Fiendslayer Paladin to try to gain an advantage against red and black decks.

Another of our winners from back in August was Peter Bloomingdale. Peter’s been featured here before, but this time he ran something a little different, Bant Control:

3x Breeding Pool
4x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
2x Plains
4 Temple Garden
4x Temple of Enlightenment
3x Temple of Mystery
3x Temple of Plenty
2x Yavimaya Coast

26 Lands

3x Courser of Kruphix
3x Sylvan Caryatid

6 Creatures

2x Azorius Charm
3x Dissolve
2x Last Breath
3x Quicken
4x Sphinx’s Revelation
1x Syncopate
2x Planar Cleansing
4x Supreme Verdict
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
3x Kiora, the Crashing Wave

27 Non-Creature Spells

2x Archangel of Thune
1x Deicide
1x Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1x Gainsay
1x Jace, Memory Adept
2x Last Breath
2x Negate
4x Nyx-Fleece Ram
1x Elixir of Immortality

15 Sideboard Cards

Bant Control has been hanging around for a long time, occasionally gaining popularity in the competitive Magic scene but hasn’t really broken through. This deck looks like a typical White/Blue control deck that includes Green for Sylvan Caryatid, Courser of Kruphix and includes Kiora, the Crashing Wave as the maindeck win condition instead of Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. It looks like Peter had the deck set up to beat aggressive decks in game one, while being able to bring in Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, Gainsay, Jace, Memory Adept and other cards should he encounter a control matchup. One interesting part of Peter’s list is the 3 maindeck Quicken. The only two cards that can be quickened are Supreme Verdict and Planar Cleansing, making it a build-your-own Fated Retribution.

With Khans of Tarkir right around the corner and rotation looming, what will we see come from the final weeks of Standard? How big of an impact will the highly anticipated Onslaught fetch land reprints have on the environment? Come find out at Buffalo’s biggest FNM and at the Khans of Tarkir prerelease next weekend!