Best Standard Magic Decks: Week of 10/31/16

In the wake of Halloween, there are some really impressive decks ranking high in tournaments. In this article, I will show you White-Blue Flash, a very fast control deck; a mid-range Black-Green Delirium Deck; and an aggressive Blue-Red Fevered Visions.

There are quite a few variations of White-Blue Flash. The key term in this deck being Flash implying speed and fluidity. That is absolutely the case because the purpose of the deck is just that, speed. By and large, this isn't just a quick deck but it also has a large degree of control as well.
The main plan here is to maximize the mana curve by casting round 1 Thraben Inspector, round 2 Smuggler's Copter, round 3 Reflector Mage or Spell Queller, and a round 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. From then on it's all about just conquering your opponent as swiftly as possible.
One of the biggest aspects of this deck is the mechanic indestructible which is provided by both Archangel Avacyn and Selfless Spirit alike. Think about it, let's say that by turn 6 or 7, you've dropped two Spell Queller's and have those countered spells suspended, the opponent decides to attack and you can either take the damage or lose those Queller's. Now when they attack, you sack a Selfless Spirit and you can block that attack without fear of losing any other creatures. Alternatively, if you have the mana, you could just drop an Archangel Avacyn and have the same effect of making your battlefield army indestructible. The Reflector Mage is pretty fantastic, let's say your opponent is running an Emerge deck for example and drops some huge Eldrazi smasher, pop that Reflector Mage and you know you're safe from it for another round. A more extreme and permanent version of this is Declaration in Stone; kind of like a very focused Wrath of God.
The sprinkling of Instant spells serves as added control. The Stasis Snare is a non-creature version of Spell Queller, serving the exact same purpose although is a little more difficult for the opponent to destroy.
Note that the version of this that I use, I swapped out 1 of the Gideon, Ally of Zendikar's with a Jace, Unraveller of Secrets for a little additional control. Realistically you could manipulate this deck in so many ways; you could have fewer creatures and add a bit more control; reduce a few Thraben and add some token generation to feed Westvale Abbey; reduce Smuggler's Copter and add some Scrapheap Scroungers; or really any number of minor adjustments.

Planeswalker (4)
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Creature (20)
4 Archangel Avacyn
4 Reflector Mage
4 Spell Queller
4 Selfless Spirit
4 Thraben Inspector

Sorcery (1)
1 Declaration in Stone

Instant (3)
1 Skywhaler's Shot
1 Spell Shrivel
1 Negate

Artifact (4)
4 Smuggler's Copter

Enchantment (3)
3 Stasis Snare

Land (25)
6 Island
10 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
4 Port Town
1 Westvale Abbey

Sideboard (15)
2 Spell Shrivel
1 Negate
2 Declaration in Stone
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Linvala, the Preserver
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Fragmentize
1 Summary Dismissal

Black-Green Delirium has been a staple in most tournaments and Friday Night Magic events for some time now. I'm not personally a fan of this deck and its variants, playing with or against. But it is a very popular deck that a lot of people use, and when you learn to use it effectively, it can be an extremely formidable deck.
The purpose of a delirium deck generally speaking is to feed your graveyard. Once the graveyard has the necessary ingredients, your other cards become more powerful with added features and advantages as a result of being powered by the graveyard. The key aspect here is obviously Liliana, the Last Hope. She is a tough Planeswalker who can smear out small creatures, feed your graveyard and her ultimate is a token creature creation engine.
This variation of a midrange delirium relies heavily on Grim Flayer as the primary source of not just damage, but also optional graveyard feeding. When his delirium effect is active, he becomes a 4/4 with trample, a high assurance that even if blocked, some damage will roll over to the player, activating his ability to effectively scry the top three cards of your library. Not only do you get to effectively scry, but you have the option of putting 0-3 of those cards into the graveyard. Grapple with the Past, Vessel of Nascency and Sinister Concoction also provide graveyard feeding.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is a zombie generator while Ishkanah, Grafwidow is a powerful spider generator when the delirium is active. Tireless Tracker is pretty fantastic because each land played generates a clue, crack a clue and Tireless Tracker gets a +1/+1 counter. Many variations of delirium decks rely a bit more heavily on Tireless Tracker, this one not so much. Pilgrim's Eye, Traverse the Ulvenwald and Evolving Wilds are in there for land fetching purposes which are particularly helpful if you're getting land stalled. Transgress the Mind is present for annoying discard purposes, I don't personally like its presence in this variation, but apparently it must have its uses.
Just in case you needed to overrun your opponent just that much more, you can use the likes of Dead Weight, Grasp of Darkness and Murder to thin the opponents heard even more. Speaking of running over, this variation also has Noxious Gearhulk which is a pretty big fella with Menace but also kills a creature upon casting while providing the only source of like gain in the deck. His gigantic and much scarier big brother is Emrakul, the Promised End. This is the reason there is so much land fetch in this deck. Ideally, you would draw this beast around turn 4 or 5 rather than sooner. This deck contains 6 different card types, assuming one of each is in your graveyard at the time of casting, and you've had a few land fetches go off, you could have this titan in play for just 7 mana. Emrakul is tremendous if for no other reason than it's a 13/13 with flying, trample and protection from instants. In case you are reading the card and you get to the part about "controlling your opponent's next turn" and you are very confused, go read this article as it explains everything better than I can here.
Some of the more popular variations of Black-Green Delirium rely a little bit more on cards like Mindwrack Demon and Seasons Past. But almost all of them have Liliana as the foundation.

Planeswalker (4)
4 Liliana, the Last Hope

Creature (14)
4 Grim Flayer
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
2 Tireless Tracker

Sorcery (5)
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Transgress the Mind

Instant (10)
4 Grapple with the Past
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murder

Enchantment (4)
2 Vessel of Nascency
1 Dead Weight
1 Sinister Concoction

Land (23)
5 Forest
3 Evolving Wilds
7 Swamp
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Hissing Quagmire

Sideboard (15)
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Transgress the Mind
1 Pick the Brain
1 Nissa, Vital Force
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Plummet
1 Natural State
1 Ruinous Path
1 To the Slaughter
1 Gnarlwood Dryad
1 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Lost Legacy

I have not personally used Blue-Red Fevered Visions but in looking it over, it looks like a potentially strong deck definitely at regional events and Friday Night Magic events. It obviously has enough pizzazz to make it into a Grand Prix top 8, that's obvious.

The namesake of the deck, Fevered Visions, is a kind of unusual enchantment because it essentially allows each player to draw two cards per turn with the additional being at the end step. However, the fun part is that if you have Fevered Visions under your control, your opponent will suffer 2 damage if they have four or more cards. It's pretty nice actually, all benefit for you and only sorta benefit for them.

Additional firepower in this deck includes Chandra, Torch of Defiance, the queen of direct damage, and Thermo-Alchemist who's a defender who punches back. 18 of the 22 sorcery's and instant's are all direct damage. Unsubstantiate for spell bounce-back and Tormenting Voice for card drawing power. Lastly, Wandering Fumarole is a lovely land that can change over to a 1/4 or 4/1 critter.

Planeswalker (2)
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Creature (8)
4 Thermo-Alchemist
4 Stormchaser Mage

Sorcery (10)
4 Incendiary Flow
4 Collective Defiance
2 Tormenting Voice

Instant (12)
4 Fiery Temper
2 Lightning Axe
4 Galvanic Bombardment
2 Unsubstantiate

Enchantment (4)
4 Fevered Visions

Land (24)
9 Mountain
3 Island
4 Wandering Fumarole
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
3 Highland Lake

Sideboard (15)
2 Lightning Axe
4 Negate
1 Summary Dismissal
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
2 Nahiri's Wrath
3 Bedlam Reveler

So these are my top three decks from two different Grand Prix events from the weekend of 10/31/16. If these selections don't seem interesting enough, you can visit the rest of the top 8 decks from both Grand Prix Santiago and Grand Prix Warsaw.