Standard Decks - Waste Not

Hi Everyone!


Standard is currently a format with many, many viable decks. I think Wizards is making the game very much a tempo game that makes each game more based on chance than on skill. I don't like that aspect of the game, but that's how Wizards has made Magic so successful.

The thing I do like is that there are many viable decks and it's a more diverse environment than Modern (that's pretty sad that the new non-rotating format is less diverse than standard). I played a deck this week featuring Waste Not. It's a little silly and relies a lot on Waste Not, but is still a neat deck.

Here's the decklist for the video posted above.

4 Dismal Backwater
1 Island
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Thoughtseize
4 Waste Not
4 Sign in Blood
2 Bile Blight
4 Dark Deal
4 Rakshasa's Secret
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Empty the Pits
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta




2 Bile Blight
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Drown in Sorrow
4 Murderous Cut

It's mono-black with blue for Treasure Cruise.

The match above was great because it was against UB control and they tend to hold a lot of cards in hand so it made any discard spells awesome when I had Waste Not. I think I had to discard at least a couple times to hand size because I had so much card advantage.

Later in the week, I was playing a GW devotion and my opponent was playing the Waste Not deck. I thought the game was a lock to win because my opponent had double Waste Not and 6 zombies but had a Whisperwood Elemental, Polukranos, several manifested creatures, and a couple of other creatures and could have just attacked for the win on my next turn.

Well, it didn't go that way, my opponent played Whelming Wave!!!! I had to return all my stuff to my hand and he played dark deal so I discarded all my creatures for an awesome opening hand with a Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid for the turn 3 Whisperwood Elemental. The unfortunate thing was that my new hand was not prepared to win versus 15 zombie tokens that would be attacking next turn.

Next time you're sleeving up your Waste Not deck in Standard, remember that Whelming wave pretty much turned a game from un-losable for me to un-winnable. It was quite the swing.

There is a drawback to whelming wave that it doesn't return certain types of creatures. If you look around standard, none of those are a problem. In fact, I think the only time I had seen one of those creatures in play is when Kiora ultimated, so don't let that little drawback steer you away from adding a sweet card to your deck that could make Waste Not into a real deck.