Hardened Scales may be the new boogeyman

Number One Owen Turtenwald may have won Grand Prix Houston (with his Rally the Ancestors variant) but the hot new deck in Standard has to be Hardened Scales!

The new version of Hardened Scales takes advantage of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as a source of +1/+1 counters. Faster than Undergrowth Champion (as Undergrowth Champion is essentially a four drop), the newest Nissa synergizes with namesake Hardened Scales itself, buffs any and all creatures on your side… And even gives the Rally deck fits.

I mean, once you start ticking up Nissa’s [+1] what is the Rally player supposed to do? Their creatures are relatively dorky, so they might have problems getting through the seemingly innocuous 0/1 Plant tokens (believe it or not). They can’t let this go on for very long before, you know, Nissa just goes Ultimate!

What is particularly unusual about the current incarnation of Hardened Scales is how homogenous the deck is. The reality is… There just aren’t that many cards outside a core number that anyone wants to play! So even people who haven’t worked with one another will often end up with seemingly related or even identical lists. This is a representative Hardened Scales list:

Chapman Sim

4 Endless One
4 Hangarback Walker

4 Dromoka’s Command

4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Hardened Scales
4 Managorger Hydra
4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4 Servant of the Scale

4 Abzan Falconer

2 Canopy Vista
2 Flooded Strand
10 Forest
2 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sideboard:
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Abzan Battle Priest
3 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 High Sentinels of Arashin
2 Silkwrap
2 Valorous Stance

Patrick and Michael talk about tons of new and reinvigorated Standard decks in this one, including Jeskai Black, Rally the Ancestors, Standard Eldrazi… And even a Grixis Dragons build! Check them all out in “Hardened Scales is Deceptively Explosive”

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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

Thopter Engineer was a surprising addition to Tom Ross’s Top 8 deck

While Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors won the Star City Open in Columbus, OH last weekend, one of the best performing decks — played by good friend of Mike and Patrick — was B/R Dragons played by Tom “the Boss” Ross:

B/R Dragons by Tom Ross

4 Hangarback Walker

2 Duress
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murderous Cut

4 Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury

4 Draconic Roar
2 Fiery Impulse
3 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Thopter Engineer
4 Thunderbreak Regent

4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
3 Smoldering Marsh
4 Swamp
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Crux of Fate
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Kozilek’s Return

And in typical Tom Ross style, there was a little something extra going on in The Boss’s deck.

And that something was Thopter Engineer!

Thopter Engineer what the?!?

Thopter Engineer might just look like a random draft uncommon from Magic Origins, but it is actually quite well positioned in a deck like Tom’s. Consider…

Thopter Engineer essentially takes the “Hordeling Outburst” slot in this deck. Hordeling Outburst makes three points of power and three points of toughness “3/3” for three mana… Thopter Engineer is not much worse; its two points of power and four points of toughness “2/4” are spread over only two bodies but the two cards are at least somewhat comparable. On balance, the 1/1 token on Thopter Engineer both can fly and has haste, which are advantages relative to Hordeling Outburst.

It probably goes without saying that Thopter Engineer can be a superior card defensively, given the additional two points of toughness when leaving a body back.

Thopter Engineer gives artifact creatures haste. Hangarback Walker — a card that Tom plays four of main deck — happens to be an artifact creature! Playing Thopter Engineer allows Tom to save a mana later in the game whenever he topdecks or plays a Hangarback Walker. Instead of spending four mana, say, for a 2/2 Hangarback Walker he can pay only two mana (1/1) and then tap it with one mana (three mana total) for the same 2/2 size.

A dying Hangarback Walker can attack immediately with all of its tokens thanks to the Thopter Engineer’s haste; and Thopter Engineer into Pia and Kiran Nalaar three-into-four is also offensively effective.

Interested in a visit to Magical Christmas Land? How about playing a Hangarback Walker, adding a counter at a discount (with haste), sacrificing it to Pia and Kiran Nalaar for two… And then attacking with all your Thopters? Like you do.

Tom’s deck — perhaps unsurprisingly with eight main-deck Dragons + Draconic Roar — plays three copies of Haven of the Spirit Dragon. What does that have to do with Thopter Engineer.

Hordeling Outburst costs 1RR.

Thopter Egineer costs 2R.

Just cutting one red mana off of the three mana cost makes it much more convenient to cast in even a two-color deck with nineteen sources of red mana (not counting Dragon-red). Imagine you open with Duress and follow up with Grasp of Darkness; that’s Swamp and then Swamp-Swamp. You wouldn’t even be able to cast Hordeling Outburst from that spot, but Thopter Engineer is cake!

Mike and Patrick talk tons and tons about Thopter Engineeer and B/R Dragons, but also Rally the Ancestors, Reflector Mage, and Collected Company decks various and more in “Thopter Engineer Secrets”

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Check out Patrick’s new card game, Eternal!

Find out why more decks should play more copies of Gather the Pack

2 Murderous Cut

4 Abzan Charm
4 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Dromoka’s Command
4 Siege Rhino

4 Den Protector
2 Heir of the Wilds
4 Warden of the First Tree

4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Wingmate Roc
2 Silkwrap

2 Canopy Vista
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

SIDEBOARD
3 Duress
1 Painful Truths
2 Rising Miasma
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Ultimate Price
1 Silkwrap
1 Wingmate Roc

“Let’s talk about Abzan for a change!”
-Patrick

Michael and Patrick don’t focus on Abzan for too-too long… There are just too many sweet decks to talk about!

Here are three that Patrick (and especially Michael) really loved from the TCGPlayer Championship and the Standard Open in Denver…

U/G Ramp by Ali Aintrazi

3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

3 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
4 Part the Waterveil

3 Den Protector
3 Explosive Vegetation
2 Gather the Pack
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
3 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
2 Nissa’s Renewal
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Winds of Qal Sisma

1 Blighted Cataract
8 Forest
6 Island
4 Lumbering Falls
3 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
3 Skyline Cascade

SIDEBOARD
2 Void Winnower
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Stratus Dancer
3 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Winds of Qal Sisma

“I know for damn sure I want to click on this link.”

Ali played “an Eldrazi deck with no actual Eldrazi” … And boy is this deck sweet! The most interesting card in his deck (or at least the least intuitive) is Gather the Pack. Gather the Pack is most commonly played in decks with high concentrations of creatures; here Ali played it in a deck with only thirteen creatures.

In this deck, Gather the Pack — when it hits — will often get a powerful planeswalker like Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy or Nissa, Vastwood Seer… But even when it wiffs, it helps to set up Dig Through Time or Nissa’s Pilgrimage (due to Spell Mastery).

Esper Tokens by Vikram Kudva

4 Duress
2 Murderous Cut
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Ruinous Path
1 Ultimate Price

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
2 Treasure Cruise

2 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Utter End

4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Silkwrap

4 Caves of Koilos
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Prairie Stream
4 Shambling Vent
2 Sunken Hollow
2 Swamp

SIDEBOARD
2 Infinite Obliteration
1 Languish
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
1 Ultimate Price
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Dispel
2 Stratus Dancer
1 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Planar Outburst
2 Surge of Righteousness

There are lots of super cool deck lists in this episode, plus the return of the Transformers transformation sound; because, you know, Hasbro cross-branding.

Listen to “Gather the Pack is Underplayed” now:

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