Wait for it… Wait for it… We’ll get to Emeria Shepherd…

Pro Tour Champion Patrick Chapin and onetime Resident Genius Michael J. Flores return to the world of the Star City Games Open Series for one more pass at Standard before this week’s Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar.

“I love that we live in a day and age when he Top 32’d a major event with three Siege Rhinos and it didn’t even derail the sentence.”
-Patrick Chapin

What a weird Standard this is!

The Top 8 of the Atlanta Open was all G/W Megamorph variants and Jeskai variants. Literally every deck in the Top 8 had either four Den Protectors or four Mantis Riders.

At the same time we have decks that either cut the fourth Siege Rhino… Or can loop lots of Siege Rhinos with cards like Kolaghan’s Command.

Speaking of Siege Rhino, Ali Aintrazi improved his performance week over week, missing Top 8 on breakers (9th place). Patrick in particular likes the move away from Eldrazi; Mike likes moving Siege Rhino to the main, and the top-to-bottom stack of just super premium cards.

Five-color Control by Ali Aintrazi

2 Hangarback Walker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

2 Dig Through Time
4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

4 Abzan Charm
4 Catacomb Sifter
1 Dragonlord Atarka
2 Dragonlord Dromoka
4 Siege Rhino
1 Utter End

1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

3 Draconic Roar
4 Radiant Flames

4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Island
2 Lumbering Falls
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
1 Shambling Vent
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Murderous Cut
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Exert Influence
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Sultai Charm
2 Fiery Impulse
1 Radiant Purge
2 Surge of Righteousness

Our intrepid hosts go over tons of Top 32 decks — all flavors of G/W, Jeskai, Abzan, and Red Decks — until which point Patrick makes the point that 28/32 were white decks.

And yet…

We haven’t seen the emergence of certain cards yet; like…

Emeria Shepherd.

In typical Top Level Podcast fashion Patrick leaves the podcast with quite the first falling domino. Just imagine playing the card Emeria Shepherd in a format with Sakura-Tribe Elder.

Think about that for a sec.

Depending on the configuration of your deck, this combination can get quite a few lands out of your deck; maybe not all of them, but then again…

Maybe.

All this and more in “Emeria Shepherd Makes HOW MUCH Mana?”

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