Top Cards from Dragon’s Maze for Standard pt. 1

Welcome everyone to this edition of “My top cards from Standard” pt.1 for Dragon’s Maze.
We see a diverse meta starting to form with the exciting new release of Dragon’s Maze and decks have evolved a lot since my last Top cards from Gatecrash.  It’s a small set, but it has a lot of powerful multicolored cards adding tools to decks like Jund, Bant, Junk, and Grixis.  Although we see a few two colored decks, three colored decks are preferred as we can see with the results put up so far.  We’ll take a closer look at some of the top cards I’ve found for Standard and I’ve pulled up some of this weekends top decks to see them in action.  There are more cards then just these that will get played in standard, but this is already quite a lot to look at.  I’ll be continuing in part 2.

Gaze of Granite:  Finally a decent sweeper for Jund and BUG, kind of like a new Pernicious deed that you need to pay for all up front.  It’s starting to see some play in some Jund sideboards like this one:

Jund

Danny Li
6th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Deadbridge Chant:  I’ve heard a few people wanting to brew with this card.  For now we’ve seen copies in Jund sideboards like this next list.  They want to abuse it by exiling their graveyard to make sure that they always recur the same spell, like a Rakdos’s Return for instance, each turn.  This is a sick card and I’d love to see more decks abusing it.

Jund
Kyle Thomas
4th Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013

Voice of resurgence:  This badboy 2-drop should see a lot of play in this standard meta coming up and those to follow.  Will it become on par or even better than others like Tarmogoyf, Dark confidant, Stoneforge mystic and Snapcaster Mage?  Only time will tell.

First off two versions of Junk Reanimator, one from Ali Aintrazi with an Angel of Serenity plan using 4 Voice of Resurgence in it’s sideboard in the list right below.  The other reanimator uses Immortal Servitude as tech using all 2 drops including Voice of Resurgence.

Next we have  two Bant versions: Bant Auras and Bant Flash.  Replacing an old favorite one-drop Delver of Secrets with Voice of Resurgence in Bant Auras in the third list.  Combining Geist of Saint Traft and Invisible Stalker with Voice of Resurgence in the auras deck makes opponents options awkward when trying to answer your auras.  Bant Flash however is also keeping it in its sideboard with the fourth list.  You will see further below that Bant Auras and Bant Flash are also using other Dragon’s Maze cards that had high expectations.

Reanimator
Ali Aintrazi
9th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Immortal Servitude
Elliot Smith
2nd Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013

Unflinching Courage: This new Loxodon Warhammer style aura is quite powerful.  When played at the right time you can take over a game even in limited.  We find it here in Bant Auras as an easier to cast replacement to Gift of Orzhova.  Scroll down a bit and you’ll see another version of Naya blitz using it in it’s side.

Bant Auras
Robert Rusch
4th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Advent of the Wurm: This Awesome 5/5 4-drop is one of my favorite new cards from Dragon’s Maze, except you’re summoning this badboy at instant speed.  It allows you to abuse cards like Augur of Bolas and Snapcaster mage like in this Bant Flash list.  Who said Sphinx’s revelation was dead yet?  I also added a sweet G/W Token list with Advent of the Wurm and Voice of Resurgence.

Bant Flash
Zachery Byrd
7th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Renounce the Guilds: Interesting new removal tool we see in Bant control’s sideboard, the only permanent you might lose is your Wurm token.  This is good against Planeswalkers like Ral Zarek or used like Devour Flesh against Geist of Saint-Traft .

G/W Tokens
Ben Suddueth
17th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Viashino Firstblade:  It’s an aggressive 3-drop as a 4/4 when it comes out with haste.  This can get hard to manage when you’re facing a deck like this Naya Blitz version.

Naya Blitz
Daniel Battle
5th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed: I imagine this guy must be a beast against decks like Bant Auras and Bant Flash, making it awkward to remove anything once he’s on the board especially if you’re behind at all.  This next Naya list went on to win 1st place.

Naya
Justin Tracey
1st Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 5/12/2013

We see another version of the Naya Blitz list here with 4 Frontline Medic in the main instead of Viashino Firstblade.  He also opted for 3 Unflinching Courage in the side, the new Loxodon Warhammer-style aura from Dragon’s Maze.

Naya Blitz
Ben Ragan
8th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Sin Collector: This is a weaker Duress on a stick.  We see him in some of the new Junk Reanimator lists.  Also used in The Aristocrats deck where he makes a good sacrifice to Falkenrath Aristocrat since he’s human.

Reanimator
Wayne Polimine
12th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Profit // Loss: Can be used as a combat trick for all of your creatures or a sweeper against opponents opposing Falkenrath Aristocrat, their Invisible Stalker or if you prefer take out all there dorks like Arbor Elf and Avacyn’s Pilgrim.  You can always fuse it for best results with that all out swing.  We see The Aristocrats with one in the sideboard.

Wear // Tear: This versatile fuse card is an answer for artifacts like Staff of Nin or if you prefer to remove an enchantment like Unflinching Courage you can too. This is the second fuse card we’ve found in an Aristocrats deck like this one:

The Aristocrats
Dylan Farmer
13th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013

Ral Zarek: The newest Planeswalker in the roster which has neat abilities.  His first one can be used to tap an opponents blocker or a land to screw up his answers, then it gets interesting where you can untap a land to ramp up or a permanent to get his effect a second time, like Izzet Staticaster in this next Grixis Control list.  Ral Zarek’s second ability is probably one of the most played cards in Magic a Lightning Bolt with two bolts before he croaks.  His ultimate ability with an average of 2.5 Time Walk  each time will get you so far ahead it will be hard for opponents to recoup, but not impossible.

Far // Away: Another great split card.  In this current meta I believe you want to use Far against Bant Auras to bounce an enchanted creature and then Away against his  Geist of Saint Traft.  Here’s the Grixis Control deck using it in sideboard probably for exactly that.

Grixis Control
Andrew Schneider
83rd Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/12/2013