Most promising deck in Amonkhet standard?

[G. Moto]

  Now that sounds like fun

[robort]

LOL you ask what is the most promising in "amonket" standard? didn't ask for the pros, didn't ask for EDH, or for entire standard.
Yet since we are nitpicking.. lets look completely at the zombies. I have already mentioned the 3 cards that do pump up your zombies. Yet lets look at these 3 zombies that work well with each other from this set and previous.

Dread Wanderer, Relentless Dead and Prized Amalgam will continuously bring one another back. Since I was sticking in black and white. The 4 top removal spells of fatal push, stasis snare, grasp of darkness and cast out are in those colors as well. Not to mention what better way to deal with Gideon then Time to Reflect.

Now we also have wayward servant for when you are continuously bringing back zombies.
Let's see what else.. hmmm.... Sacred Cat when embalmed is also a zombie.. nothing wrong with getting more life especially early game.. Then how about Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.. and for more recursion.. Lets see hmmmm...

Oh yeah all 3 Liliana.. Liliana, Death's Majesty, Liliana, Death's Wielder, and Liliana, the Last Hope.. Plus if you can't pay 2 to constantly give your zombies menace, just play Graf Harvest for 1. I could go on with other zombies or other cards that put out zombie tokens as well... Blue has embalm and puts out zombie tokens, black has gravedigger and cards that put out zombie tokens and oh yeah even use this angel of sanctions in the later stages of the game.

But other promising is the -1 counters with the snakes with deathtouch. Constantly taking down your opponents creatures while constantly putting out snakes will definitely be interesting.

[G. Moto]

 @robort, you do have a point with all of your comments. I think that looking at this set in particular however does has its merits. Reason being is that you have so many ways to interplay between blocks, especially when it comes to tribal based decks. For example; Combo Voracious null with nest of scarabs. Whenever you play a spell to put a -1/-1 counter on an opponent's creature make a scarab token. Sac the token you just made to boost up the null. Use the null for attacking and blocking. Best part is that the null is a zombie so it works in a deck that has plague belcher or even wayward servant. What do you think about that as far as inter-set play goes?

[Kingofmottinos]

LOL you ask what is the most promising in "amonket" standard? didn't ask for the pros, didn't ask for EDH, or for entire standard.
Yet since we are nitpicking.. lets look completely at the zombies. I have already mentioned the 3 cards that do pump up your zombies. Yet lets look at these 3 zombies that work well with each other from this set and previous.

Dread Wanderer, Relentless Dead and Prized Amalgam will continuously bring one another back. Since I was sticking in black and white. The 4 top removal spells of fatal push, stasis snare, grasp of darkness and cast out are in those colors as well. Not to mention what better way to deal with Gideon then Time to Reflect.

Now we also have wayward servant for when you are continuously bringing back zombies.
Let's see what else.. hmmm.... Sacred Cat when embalmed is also a zombie.. nothing wrong with getting more life especially early game.. Then how about Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.. and for more recursion.. Lets see hmmmm...

Oh yeah all 3 Liliana.. Liliana, Death's Majesty, Liliana, Death's Wielder, and Liliana, the Last Hope.. Plus if you can't pay 2 to constantly give your zombies menace, just play Graf Harvest for 1. I could go on with other zombies or other cards that put out zombie tokens as well... Blue has embalm and puts out zombie tokens, black has gravedigger and cards that put out zombie tokens and oh yeah even use this angel of sanctions in the later stages of the game.

But other promising is the -1 counters with the snakes with deathtouch. Constantly taking down your opponents creatures while constantly putting out snakes will definitely be interesting.

I didn't explain myself well enough, sorry for that: what I meant was the most promising deck in standard now that amonkhet has been released (so there are new cards, and new archetypes)

[Nickadimoose]

I just had the chance to play with some of the Amonkhet cards at length this weekend and man...Nest of Scarabs is one of the most disgusting cards I've had the pleasure of playing with. I made a deck primarily using Amonkhet cards as a test, ended up going Green/Black. A buddy of mine was doing a very mean Sultai Deck, barely using anything from Amonkhet (made me sad!)

I won 2 out of 4 games, using a deck that probably cost less than $30.00 to make (2 Westvale Abbey lands as a win-con paired with Nest of Scarabs). Ended up doing a crazy amount of battle tricks with the -1/-1 tokens stuff, which is fantastic!

Soulstinger is incredible paired with Splendid Agony. Soulstinger came in, put -1/-1 counters on itself, went down to a 2/3, generated 2 scarabs. Ended turn. Friend attacked with Torrential Gearhulk, Noxious Gearhulk, Grim Flayer with Delirium and Ishkanah Grafwidow and 1 spider token with reach. Blocked Torrential Gearhulk with Soulstinger, ended up using Splendid Agony on Torrential Gearhulk, generated 2 scarab tokens--took it down to 4, hit it for 2 with Soulstinger, down to 2, placed the -1/-1 counters on Soulstinger on it, generated 2 more scarab tokens and killed it off. Used the newly generated Scarab Tokens to flip Westvale Abbey and block Noxious Gearhulk paired with another scarab! Lifelink got me out of burn range. At the end of his turn he was just out of the game. He had a disallow but was tapped out at the time and couldn't deal.

It really made me appreciate the versatility of the -1/-1 deck. Every-time I managed to get out Nest of Scarabs the game went incredibly well. I lost the last game due to a really crappy draw. I hit Hapatra, Vizier of Poison 2 times in a row with my draws and aside from Festering Mummy I didn't have any other creature in my hands (already had a Hapatra). The snake token generation didn't pan out like I'd hoped, but it was still a lot of fun to use the deck! I'm trying to refine it right now and was debating pairing it with a lot of the other zombie generation/embalm mechanics from Black/White. Gotta say, Amonkhet feels good.

[G. Moto]

  I do agree it is a fun block to play in. Have you considered making the deck Jund or Abzan? If you make it jund you can do combos such as Soulstinger + consuming fervor (which will give you a scarab token every turn). Or you can make the deck abzan and have anointer priest give you loads of health every turn simply by making scarab tokens. That would combo exceedingly well if you get your hands on some copies of anointed procession.

[Nickadimoose]

I'm very interested in using Consuming Fervor--we opened a full box, but only managed to pull 1 somehow? That confused me to no end. Anoiter Priest is one I haven't considered yet, awesome idea!

I'm debating more going black/red, both for Consuming Fervor (we're heading to our LGS to pick up cards we want for our decks and Soul-Scar Mage. Unfortunately I don't play very often, so attempting to decipher the wording on Soul-Scar Mage confused me a tiny bit. Actually going Black/Red/Green sounds fantastic to me as well. I can't make up my mind lol. I've been going through Deckstat's card database to try and narrow it down before I play this upcoming Friday.

Any recommendations from your experience?

[Firegriff]

Red has a lot of nice cards, including Harsh Mentor and Pathmaker Initiate.  You might look atadding some cycling options such as Deem Worthy, to partner with Archfiend of Ifner.  Each time you cycle or discard with him, every creature your opponents control get a -1/-1 counter on it.

[G. Moto]

 Also with Soul-scar mage his ability reads: "If a source you control would deal non-combat damage to a creature an opponent controls, put that many -1/-1 counters on that creature instead (also it has prowess)."

 So lets break it down for you even more now...... if a SOURCE you control (any card or effect that you play or have on the board) would deal NON-COMBAT DAMAGE (card effects that deal damage such as deem worthy or blazing volley) to a creature your opponent controls, put THAT MANY -1/-1 counters on that creature instead (so basically if your deem worthy at full power deals 7 points of damage to target creature then you'll be placing 7 (-1/-1) counters on that creature instead). And as you know very well, whenever you place a -1/-1 counter on any creature it triggers nest of scarabs. That means every single time YOU place a -1/-1 counter on any creature you get a 1/1 scarab token for every single counter placed. Make sense now?

Also as far as the deck goes I personally think that you should play a JUND (R/B/G) deck. It'll have more versatility, you'll have more play options and it'll give you more synergy among the colors that you use. Also a majority of your spells and creatures in this block focus on -1/-1 counters so it won't be too hard to build the deck around that. If you want a more visual example you can look under my deck page on my main page. There are two decks I would like for you to look over: GROWING PAINS (Abzan) and A BURNING BURDEN (Jund). I think these decks should give you some good inspiration for what you might want to play.

[Nickadimoose]

I think you both definitely just convinced me to go for a full Jund build this upcoming weekend. I've always been a bit wary of tri-colors, but I'm going to give it a shot when I play on Friday.

Yeah, Soul-Scar Mage makes a lot more sense now. I thought Source implied something static on the board, like a permanent or something to that effect. I was thinking Glorybringer or Walking Ballista triggers would be the thing to apply the -1/-1 counters. I guess they technically count but the conditions to apply the -1/-1 counters are a lot easier to meet when I can factor in the utility of instants or sorceries! It just made Soul-Scar Mage much more palatable.

I took a look at both of your decks, G. Moto! Definitely gave me some inspiration about how to format my own, thanks. I have quite a bit of building/modifying today and tomorrow. Ironically my friend is dropping the blue in his Sultai deck, now he's back to just straight Jund Delirium. Boo.

[G. Moto]

 Well I'm glad that we were able to give you some good inspiration and help on your deck building strategies. If you ever need any other help let us know. Also I haven't built it yet but Esper (U/W/B) Mummy control can be pretty fun too.

[Kingofmottinos]

Sooo... I'm seeing a weird amount of zombies deck in the top 8 of mtgo. Could it be that finally zombies are ready to make it to tier 1? I'm brewing a decklist in the meanwhile, just to see if they can be as dangerous as it seems... also, we shouldn't forget that if they're strong now, they'll probably be even better in hour of devastation since the zombie theme will be carried over to the next set.

[NathanJ]

Honestly, I think Mardu Vehicles is going to continue to be a severe pain. Especially if players implement some of those blasted exert creatures into the deck. As far as new decks though... Hapatra does show a lot of promise really, as do the two new zombie builds. I'd seen good zombie builds before this set and would not be surprised at these additions really pushing them over the top. I personally really like B/W aristocrats though, built around Bontu. I also can't help but feel there is a very strong R/G aggro deck just waiting to be built. All that said though, I have to believe that R/W exert is going to be the big thing though. At least from what I've experienced. I was trashed pretty hard by Glorybringers at Pre-release. Card is savage.

Also, I want to see someone actually try Gideon tribal... For real.

[G. Moto]

   Zombies are definitely shambling to the fore front nowadays. As for that R/G aggro deck I'll build one later and see what people think of it. I'll post it up so everyone can see it later on and get some ideas ff of it. My only thing with exert though is that if you don't have a solid defense before you swing out you'll be left defenseless for an entire turn. That's why if I do play a R/W exert deck (like the Gideon intro deck I just got) I can play spells that untap my creatures.

[NathanJ]

No doubt about leaving yourself defenseless, but isn't so much of brewing finding ways around weaknesses to abuse strengths? I watched a guy play a control deck a little bit ago that was built around Ghirapur Orrey and Gitrog Monsters. I don't know who beat him finally but once that went off he just dominated the poor guy I watched him play. Point is: he built the deck to abuse those strengths. If it works to give those exert creatures vigilance then Always Watching will do the trick. Blessed Alliance comes to mind as well. It may even be best to build exert in U/R or Jeskai. I think there's a lot of potential there and blue and white are great at suppressing the other guy's board while red goes all in.

And by all means, leave a link to that R/G deck. I'd like to see what you come up with. I may throw one together as well.