All-In Red by higdur
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Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt formatIt’s pretty common to see Legacy decks do well in Classic, but it’s not nearly as common to see a straight-up Extended deck do well in Classic. Higur’s list above is an Extended deck from last season that you can read more about here if you’re interested. This deck definitely has some serious weaknesses – but it also has a lot going for it. All-in-Red can be put together on a serious budget, turn one Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon shuts down a whole bunch of decks, and turn one Deus of Calamity or ten Empty the Warrens tokens is no joke – no matter which format you’re playing.
Smallpox by tommsrok
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Click the arrow to download the above deck in .txt formatIn the past, mono-black Pox decks were popular in Classic, but as time passed the addition of green and/or white has furthered the archetype. The core of Tommstok’s deck starts with the powerful threat core of Tarmogoyf and Tombstalker and then adds discard/control elements in Duress, Hymn to Tourach, Smallpox, Thoughtseize, and Vindicate. Balance, Swords to Plowshares, Pernicious Deed, and Pithing Needle provide additional control ability while Demonic Tutor helps to search up the correct solution to your current problem. Life from the Loam combines with Wasteland and Strip Mine to form a long game land destruction package.
You may be wondering why Tommstok stretches farther into white for Vindicate instead of running Maelstrom Pulse, which fits easier into the mana of his deck. If you’re a newer player or mainly interested in Standard, then it can be easy to underestimate how valuable the ability to target land with your general-purpose removal truly is. While Maelstrom Pulse can take down double Tarmogoyf in a single blow, Vindicate can take out your opponent’s remaining land after you’ve crippled his manabase with Wasteland and/or Strip Mine. Vindicate also targets Bazaar of Baghdad or Forbidden Orchard if you’re up against one of the big two.
Wrap Up
So that’s a whole bunch of different decks! I had a lot of fun putting this list together, and I think it’s a pretty decent resource to give an idea of just which decks are running around Classic tournaments these days. I tried to give commentary on what makes each deck unique, as well as how it stands up to the heavy hitters in our current metagame – hopefully this information is useful in determining your plan of how to attack the format. classicquarter.com’s ‘tournament section‘ is an invaluable resource for this task.
Join me next time when I go more in depth on a specific strategy instead of covering a huge, wide variety of decks.
Thanks for reading!
Steve Gargolinski
spgmtg@gmail.com
twitter.com/spgmtg
Mox Aggro by whiffy penguin is just the type of deck I was trying to build! But I was doing it wrong, because I don’t have any Mox Diamonds. Doh. About that same deck, what are the Null Rods in the sidebaord for? I noticed that the smallpox deck had them too.
Thanks for the decklists and summaries!
Null Rod can shut down Painters Servant/Grindstone, Helm of Obedience, Skullclamp/Cranial Plating/Umezawas Jitte, Lotus Petal/Mana Crypt/Lion’s Eye Diamond, Goblin Charbelcher, and others. Sure it isn’t the powerhouse that it is in Vintage (just yet), since it can’t prey on Black Lotus or Moxes – but it still has its uses.
Although it does shut down the deck’s own Mox Diamonds, Jittes, and Tormods Crypts – so be careful about that.
Null Rods were a hold over from the original vintage deck. in classic they function as a further way to beat up on combo decks. The uses are exactly as spg said. They do turn off your own Mox Diamonds, however turning off every win condition in painter/stone and helm line, while also slowing belcher and storm to a crawl from turn 1 make it worth it.
@Katastrophe – Mox Diamond is essential to the decks performance. In vintage these four slots are 3 moxen and a Lotus, obviously better then Diamond but i work with what i have. They with the help of Elvish Spirit Guide it allows you to be fast enough to actually disrupt decks that don’t play “fair”. In addition to this they turn off Wasteland and Strip Mine in the decks that do play “fair”. In essence they give you the speed that “fair” decks lack to actually compete against dredge oath and combo.
Also you side out the Jittes if u side in the Null Rods, but anyone who follows “Decks of the Week” or mtgonline will notice that I dropped them from the sideboard for the 1st event of the new year.