Nissa, Voice of Zendikar was just one of the surprising innovations to appear in the MOCS Top Decks.

Pro Tour Champion and Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin joins MichaelJ in a discussion of the Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) Standard decks.

Our intrepid duo hits all the MOCS decks in the Top 8 (and some of the sweet Top 16 ) but each of them has a favorite…

Mike’s Favorite:

Atarka Red by wrapter*

4 Atarka’s Command

4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Outnumber
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker

4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
1 Forest
11 Mountain
1 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sb:
3 Den Protector
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
2 Yasova Dragonclaw
2 Arc Lightning
3 Windswept Heath
1 Cinder Glade

What’s so great — and what’s so different — about wrapter’s take?

First of all, wrapter went heavier on the tokens theme than most Atarka Red decks, main deck. In addition to Dragon Fodder and Hordeling Outburst (which aren’t always played as four-ofs, each), wrapter ran Pia and Kiran Nalaar in his MOCS main deck.

Keying off the likelihood of having a ton of small token creatures in play… wrapter played Outnumber as a main deck removal spell! This might be the first appearance of Outnumber in a serious Constructed deck, let alone in an offense-oriented red beatdown deck.

What makes this deck really interesting, though, is wrapter’s sideboard.

Check out those four copies of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar!

In order to hit the GG in Nissa’s top-right corner, wrapter bolstered his mana base with an additional Cinder Glade and not one, not two, but three additional copies of Windswept Heath out of the sideboard! Presumably those eight cards all come in together (Nissa actually needs a little help hitting GG). Even if wrapter sides out some basic Mountains, with 4 Bloodstained Mire (which can get Cinder Glade), 3 Cinder Glade, 1 Forest, 4 Windswept Heath, and 4 Wooded Foothills he has a fat sixteen sources of green, making GG reliable and possibly even on-curve in a largely mono-red deck.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can make tokens of her own, build to a Control-esque advantage, or go Crusade style for all of wrapter’s other token creatures. This is a truly inventive and exciting innovation in terms of Red Decks.

Patrick’s Favorite:

Jeskai Black by beena**

4 Duress
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Murderous Cut
4 Painful Truths

2 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

4 Crackling Doom

3 Fiery Impulse
2 Roast

2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Soulfire Grand Master

1 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Mountain
2 Needle Spires
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Prairie Stream
2 Shambling Vent
2 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp

sb:
1 Transgress the Mind
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Exert Influence
1 Negate
1 Ojutai’s Command
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Radiant Flames
1 Roast
2 Arashin Cleric
1 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Surge of Righteousness

Patrick loves not only Jeskai Black, but this style of Jeskai Black!

He is currently enamored of decks that play Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; the graveyard-hosing on Kalitas is appropriate for a world full of Rally the Ancestors, but the lifelink is also relevant for a deck that is planning to get ahead with Painful Truths.

Speaking of Painful Truths, all that card drawing makes a ton of sense with so many quick interaction cards like Duress, Fiery Impulse, and so on… And all of those cards of course work beautifully with Monastery Mentor. Anyone who has been listening to the podcast for the past several months knows how Patrick feels about Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; Monastery Mentor; Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; Painful Truths; and of course Dig Through Time.

… And this deck even makes room for a copy of Chandra, Flamecaller.

It hits a lot of bases for Patrick; so beena’s MOCS build might be one you might want to take a closer look at.

For our commentary of the entire MOCS Top 8 (and more), check out “MOCS to the Max!”:

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* wrapter = Josh Utter-Leyton

** beena = Yuuya Watanabe