Like the rise and fall of some emperors or kings, Mono Black Devotion has come back with a vengeance. For the last few weeks we saw a decline in players playing the deck and winning, while other decks started peeking through the dust of its explosive start. This week it dominated the Star City Games open in the hands of Zach Jesse. Not only that, but 3 other Mono Black players made it to the top 16, one of which came in second. I know a MBD mirror isn't what everyone wanted to see in the finals, but as a fellow black spellslinger I enjoyed watching and learning from these players.

The Open wasn't the only event this weekend. While almost 700 people battled it out in Baltimore, Vancouver hosted this month's GP. This week we will be looking at both events. This week for a 3rd time out of 7 GPs Alexander Hayne wins the trophy, piloting a U/W Control deck with a small splash of black in the sideboard.

Let's take a look at the Open first:

Top 2 of SCG Baltimore

Like I said before, a Mono Black mirror in the finals might not be what everyone was wanting, but seeing as a lot of different people play the deck, i find it very beneficial to watch and learn just in case you ever find yourself playing the deck in similar situations. Again we look at Owen Turtenwalds list from weeks back and notice a huge similarity in both decks. Owen set an example for all MBD players out there, and a lot took that example as one to imitate. Zachs list; However, was a tad bit different and in my opinion put him at an advantage to other MBD players. There are a few odd cards added to the list, and I honestly believe it gave him a better chance against decks that even the Boogeyman has trouble with.

Black has never really had an answer to certain spells. Enchantments and artifacts are something that you either ignore or lose to. Ratchet Bomb isn't a black spell, but is ultimately one of the few cards that can help remove those pesky enchantments. in the UW match-up, Ratchet Bomb can remove Detention Spheres, planeswalkers and Elspeth tokens, If the control player has multiple Detention Spheres exiling some of your permanents; G/R match-ups sometimes have cards with the same CMC; Ratchet Bomb in the mirror can help turn off their Underworld Connections before you cast your own, or can take out a Pack Rat army. ( Pharika's Cure) is a good card, and a powerful tool against small creature decks and Mutavault s, but Zach decided a Ratchet Bomb in one of the Cures place was better.

The other change to the Turtenwald list is an extra Duress in the place of one of the Hero's Downfalls. That being said, it seemed he was less expecting creature decks and more decks using instants, sorceries, and planeswalkers. Adding a 5th hand disruption spell to the usual 4 gives slightly a better chance game one against control. Card draw and hand disruption are very important in that match-up, and adding more main means you have to take less out after sideboarding.

Aside from changing a few quantities in the sideboard, not much has changed. More Duress for hand disruption is a given. Erebos, God of the Dead is another tool against decks where card advantage is key. Dark Betrayal for the mirror, and Lifebane Zombie for green match-ups. An extra Ratchet Bomb and Pithing Needle share the extra spots in Zachs sideboard in place of the Duress moved to main, and a Dark Betrayal.

Top 2 of GP Vancouver

For the third time out of 7 GPs, Alex Hayne has won the trophy. This time, like I said before, on the back of a U/W Control deck. This deck, like most control decks of its kind, rely on controlling the board until one of their few win conditions can take over the game.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Aetherling show to be the win conditions here. Only 4 out of 60 cards are supposed to win the game? Yeah. It does seem a bit strange. Usually these control matches go long, because of the fact of only have 4 cards that could win the game.

This list is a bit different than the typical U/W deck. Some of the cards you would normally see in the sideboard, are in the mainboard instead. 4 copies of Last Breath mainboarded show me Alex was expecting a lot of Mono Blue and Mono Black decks. That prediction probably came true, seeing as the top 8 had 3 MUD and 2 MBD. That fact alone helped propel him forward to top 2, and in the end to victory.

Some of the more prominent cards are found in the sideboard. Usually Last Breath is a card found in sideboards seeing as it is so restrictive. Since those copies obviously have been removed from the sideboard, it leaves spots open for better cards that can help in certain match-ups.

Archangel of Thune is a powerhouse against aggro decks. Not only does it give you life, but it continues to grow the more life you gain. Once outside of burn range, she can then turn on the offensive to beat your opponent down while you gain more and more life. Multiple attacking Angels count as multiple instances of gaining life, so it triggers for each angel your attacking with.

(Soldier of Pantheon) is an interesting card in the sideboard as well. Some creature based decks run a lot of multi-colored spells. With the ability to gain you a little extra life, serve as a multi-colored blocker, and a possible attacker I can see why Alex chose him to be included in the 75.

Dark Betrayal is something you don't expect from a U/W Control deck, seeing as it isn't an Esper deck. 6 lands in the deck include black mana, so it can be a bit risky to run cards of that color. Of course, with the ability to cycle though your deck it becomes that much easier to find that black mana source to cast it if you needed it.

As far as the Mono Blue deck that took second, for the most part it is the same as most you would see. A few additions or subtractions are made for each version, but seeing as they don't have too much to change and still be super consistent. This version does feature 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx which I find a bit weird. Sure it helps to accelerate and empty your hand, but this list doesn't include Cyclonic Rift so Nykthos loses some of its power here in my opinion. The sideboard sees the most change though, so lets look at the updated cards:

Ratchet Bomb is a card proving to be better and better as standard progresses. Seeing as a lot of mono colored decks are loaming around, some of the colors don't have answers to things like enchantments, or artifacts. Ratchet Bomb serves as a broad answer to those things, for the colors that don't have the answers at their disposal.

Jace, Memory Adept is usually drowned out by his cheaper version, Jace, (Architect of Thought). Both are powerhouses, but Memory Adept has the ability to end the game on its own. About 5 turns with him milling 10 each turn, leaves your opponent without a library to win with.

Honorable Mentions:

This week at the GP a rogue Maze's End deck was doing considerably well in the first day. I've always been a fan of Maze's End, and can say that I've played it quite a few times both in paper, and online, In fact, me and PureMTGO Manager Joshua Claytor have opted to pick the deck up and give it a go. Here's the list:

Like I saw saying, I love Maze's End decks. I love the ability to win without your opponent really being able to stop it. This decks tactic is to Fog out your opponents attacks, then blow up the field and remove any threat they may have. Once Born of the Gods is released I will be playing a Maze list I've been working on including Kiora, The Crashing Wave. This list actually has 61 cards. My personal opinion, and something I tell my friends all the time while I deckbuild; "Anything over 75 is irresponsible." Not saying it wouldn't work, but for me it throws the numbers off just enough. The 61st card included in this deck is in fact Bow of Nylea, which in his defense is a better card to include as anything higher than 60. Bow of Nylea gives the ability to gain a bit of life per turn, and if your gates get blown up you can cycle them back into your deck to search out. I like having maybe more than one version of this mainboard, but the bigger question is; What would you take out?

Notable Cards of the Week:

This week I am basing the best cards a little differently. One will be the best of GP Vancouver, the other SCGBaltimore. The first card I believe did tons of work this weekend at GP Vancouver is Archangel of Thune. Before Mono Black was a huge contender, I used to see Archangel in a lot of control deck sideboards. With the rise of this standards Boogeyman, I saw a decline because the need to deal with the best deck was greater. I like that so many UW decks have started using this powerful angel again, because it truly can win games by itself. Archangel is going for 20 tickets even online right now, so the 5 drop mythic already has a bit of a price tag. The paper version is also up there a little bit, sitting at 24.99. Archangel of Thune was chosen as the best card out of the top 5 in the tournament this week by Wizards, which you can see here. It seems that a slight increase in price was caused by this event, because all weekend they were selling out of the mythic angel.

The second card of the week isn't a creature, or enchantment, or even a planeswalker. It is Ratchet Bomb. It isn't a card that does a whole lot for the game, or can even win it for you; but it is a card that I see as a good answer to a lot of troublesome cards some of the best decks right now have. Underworld Connections, (Detentions Sphere), Pack Rats and more can be answered by this 2 drop artifact. Right now online, they are only going for about .40 tickets. Online, they are 2 dollars each. I believe we might see a slight increase in prices even my a little bit over the next week or so.

Last Week's Notable Cards:

A lot of times, paper cards don't change too much week by week. Sometimes we will see a huge spike in card prices depending on how the need for that card grows. If a ton of people buy up a card one week and it sells out, the next week the price might go up on that card. Last week we looked at Purphoros, God of the Forge and Stormbreath Dragon.

Like I was saying, the price for either of these cards didn't move at all in paper. Online; however, changes more often. This week we see a slight increase in Purphoros, but Stormbreath actually dropped a bit in price.

Impacts on Magic: Online:

This week was no different than last week as far as what decks were doing the best. We saw Mono Black, Mono Blue, Esper Control and Humans making huge appearances in the top 8. G/R Monsters is another deck that makes appearances, but not as much as the other decks.

I'm not going too deeply into this segment this week for 2 reasons. First I am better looking to improve it and tie in these paper events closer to the digital counterparts. I have yet to find a better way to do that, and am hoping for some insight from the viewers on PureMTGO.com and from my Tumblr, where I post daily movements in my life in Magic. Have an idea how to tie them together in a great way? I Implore you to send me a message through me email, or on Tumblr. You can also comment here, because I check for comments every day.

The second reason is this weekend is prerelease. Since there won't be an event to look at for next week's article, I will be looking at online events only next week. And I plan on recording and hopefully watching some of these events over the next week to record how they go and which decks are prominent. Next week we will also be looking at what cards have been released that will benefit the best decks of standard, and what cards will cause new decks to rise higher. Until then, thanks for joining me in this weeks, Topping the Charts!

Twitter

Tumblr

Youtube

MTGO Username: kriskurse

kriskurse@gmail.com