Block Constructed is always a nice predictor of future Standard. What can we learn from Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx?

Junk (or Abzan)

Patrick Chapin won the Pro Tour with a Junk deck. At GP Manchester, it was already a very popular deck. Understandably.

[cardlist]
[lands]
4 Forest
4 Mana Confluence
2 Plains
3 Swamp
4 Temple of Malady
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Temple of Silence
[/lands]
[creatures]
4 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Fleecemane Lion
2 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Sylvan Caryatid
[/creatures]
[spells]
1 Banishing Light
4 Hero’s Downfall
1 Read the Bones
4 Silence the Believers
3 Thoughtseize
[/spells]
[planeswalkers]
4 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
[/planeswalkers]
[sideboard]
2 Arbor Colossus
1 Bile Blight
2 Boon Satyr
2 Deicide
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Feast of Dreams
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Gods Willing
1 Read the Bones
1 Thoughtseize
[/sideboard]
[/cardlist]

With the Khans being a wedge set (although wedges won’t be the theme of the whole block), this deck should gain some additional cards to work with. Especially in the land base. Thusfar I haven’t seen anything I’d want to put into this deck from the new set, but depending on the metagame, its quite possible that you’d want to play Anafenza, the Foremost or Ivorytusk Fortress in your deck.

Monoblue (Different Kind of) Devotion

At GP Manchester, there was a pretty strange concoction with blue. You can find the list on Mothership. I had my own, very different looking monoblue deck, you can find here.

The first one did pretty good (I did 5-4 without byes, which is pretty good too, but you can’t really make any broad conclusions based on one performance, whereas the other deck was apparently played by several people, and one of them even won a trial), so what can we do with that.

[cardlist title=as played in Manchester]
[creatures]
4 Dakra Mystic
4 Master of Waves
4 Omenspeaker
4 Prognostic Sphinx
3 Scourge of Fleets
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Dictate of Kruphix
3 Hubris
2 Retraction Helix
1 Thassa’s Ire
2 Thassa’s Rebuff
3 Whelming Wave
[/spells]
[lands]
21 Island
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
[/lands]
[sideboard]
3 Dissolve
4 Gainsay
2 Nullify
3 Perplexing Chimera
2 Retraction Helix
1 Whelming Wave
[/sideboard]
[/cardlist]

How about [scryfall]Jalira, Master Polymorphist[/scryfall]? She can sack an elemental or [scryfall]Dakra Mystic[/scryfall] to potentially get a [scryfall]Scourge of Fleets[/scryfall] on the table at instant speed. Another instant speed way to get a [scryfall]Scourge of Fleets[/scryfall] onboard? [scryfall]Fated Infatuation[/scryfall]. I don’t know whether the designer missed it, or just didn’t find it that good, but one would seem to be pretty good. The problem, of course, is what to take out? I think the format is going to slow down considerably, so we can probably go a little easier on the bounce… There’s also [scryfall]Aetherspouts[/scryfall]. Is it better than [scryfall]Whelming Wave[/scryfall]? Maybe… In some situations. Not sure though.

Does Khans bring anything new to the table? Not right now, although I might try out Thousand Winds.

Anyhow, this is a deck I would definitely try out. And I will.

The Sarkhan Discussion

Is Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker stronger than [scryfall]Stormbreath Dragon[/scryfall]? I don’t really know. Right, with the cards we have available right now, it would seem, no. Its not. However, this is simply because it seems to me that the premier removal in the coming format right now are [scryfall]Hero’s Downfall[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Banishing Light[/scryfall]. They can both kill Sarkhan, but only one of them can kill [scryfall]Stormbreath Dragon[/scryfall]. This is the key question. Sure, the minus ability can be handy, too, but the ultimate is going to be very marginal, as I don’t see a situation coming up very often, where Sarkhan reaches six loyalty and its not better just to attack with it.

Also, you can have two Stormbreaths on the table at the same time. That will come up.