Post Lorwyn Standard - Noah Whinston
Okay, so with pro tour Kyoto recently over, and the Lorwyn block-Shards-Conflux standard finally set in, let’s hypothesize about October. Although we have no idea yet about the contents of “Live” from the “Live-Long-Prosper” block, we know that the traditional painlands rotate out in july with the release of M10, as well as the filter lands when “Live” rotates in, bouncing Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block. Not only this, but tribal will be gone (finally) unless wizards decides to be stupid about what they put into M10. While Aaron Forsythe DID say there would be tribal themes in M10 in a recent interview with MTGCast host Tom Gustafson, we can hardly expect it to be as dominant there as it was in Lorwyn. Thankfully, all our favourite Planeswalkers will be remaining with us in type 2 as reprints in M10. And so, if you have as much free time as me, you should start hypothesizing about what your pet deck will be once October rolls around.
Last October, the type 2 community simply reverted to their Lorwyn block decks to use in the new type 2 until the first large standard event could determine the metagame (i.e, Kyoto). However, because of the lack of large Shards block events, the October type 2 is going to be a very uncertain thing. Our only option is to prepare early, so I am going to cover the three main decks that I think will be the front runners of “Shards block type 2”
Up this time is Esper. Now Esper is, without a doubt, going to be made the most played deck in October’s standard, mainly because of its affinity reminiscent interactions. I’m going to propose an Esper block list now, which can be added upon when “Live” is released. My list will be very aggressive, with a highly stable curve because of the rotation of many counterspells from type 2, including cryptic command and broken ambitions. This will punish control decks so severely, that aggro decks will swarm FNMs for weeks until the intricacies of “Live” and M10 are fully explored.
My list:
25 Land:
4 Arcane Sanctum
7 Island
7 Plains
7 Swamp
31 Creatures:
4 Court Homunculus
4 Esperzoa
1 Ethersworn Adjudicator
3 Faerie Mechanist
4 Master of Etherium
3 Parasitic Strix
3 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Sphinx Summoner
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Tower Gargoyle
4 Others:
2 Courier’s Capsule
2 Path to Exile
Some notable cards that didn’t make the cut:
Salvage Slasher: much as I would like to have a 4/1 for 2, given the probable popularity of the Bant deck come October, which runs Deft Duelist, a first striker than can easily deal with the Slasher, it has been left out.
Ethersworn Canonist: since I predict Esper to be the major archetype of October’s standard, this fits as more of a sideboard card than maindeck
Executioner's Capsule: again, against Esper or Grixis, Executioner’s Capsule seems poor compared to the other options.
Etherium Sculptor: if this guy cost one mana, he would be in here, in order to be able to have a turn 2 Master of Etherium, but at 2, I really don’t need to rush through my curve, and am perfectly content to play 1 spell per turn.
I hoped you enjoyed my prediction for October, this deck is also very useful for any block events you care to bring it to. I’ll continue in another article about a Bant block deck poised to seize its opportunity when Lorwyn block is gone.
