Field of the Dead Banned means THIS deck could shine?

Decklists News

TitanSmashMTG October 22, 2019 3 min

October 21st, 2019 is a day that will go down in Magic The Gathering history. Yesterday was the day we've been waiting for now for quite some time. Some with baited breaths and open arms, others with snarls of disgust. Yesterday marked the "Not an Emergency" emergency banning of Field of the Dead. When the B&R announcement got pushed up early, we knew something was coming. Though rumors of other cards swirled around, it was pretty clear to most that Field was getting the ban. Whether or not that was warranted is a whole other discussion that you'll find hundreds of opinions on in the MTG community.

But we're not here today to talk about that. Field is gone. It's done. What we can do however, is prepare for the new meta. With such an impactful card gone, what is to come now? Many believe that Oko, Thief of Crowns is going to run rampant. To their credit, it probably will. There's no denying that the card is extremely powerful. Whether it's the low mana cost, the high loyalty, or the never ending value on offense and defense it provides, the card is nuts. Is it beatable though? You're darn tootin' it is!

DECKS WE KNOW

How we go about that and this new meta requires a few schools of thought. (No, not like the school of thought about what kind of bear is best. I see you Office fans.) First let's look at what we know is good currently. Simic Food had a huge showing in the Mythic Championship. Oko, Gilded Goose, Nissa, Who Shakes the World ran wild. The deck was wonderful at using it's early resources to consistently ramp up and get out big threats like Oko on turn two, and Nissa on turn 3. That kind of pressure is hard to avoid. Early Oko makes many aggro decks crumble. Nissa allows you to go big so things like Hydroid Krasis chain together to provide immense value that's hard to beat.

Simic strategies aren't all that's here. We can't skip over Gruul Aggro which won the Championship in the hands of Javier Dominguez. Embercleave was the real MVP here allowing huge amounts of damage to get pushed through. Mardu Knights also looked good and had a big showing at the MCV, busting out the gates with big damage and doing absolutely awful things like equipping Embercleaves on Rotting Regisaurs. These decks looked to go over Field decks with trample damage while still putting a clock on other aggresive strategies.

DECKS THAT CAN MAKE IT POST BAN

There are two decks that stick out to me however, that get a big boost from Field of the Dead being banned. The first of which is Esper Control/Esper Stax. I list both of these because I think both are viable. If any control mages are out there, I guarantee today is a glorious day for you, as Field has made traditional control shells unplayable. Control decks like to go big and long (gross) and no other deck could do that like Field of the Dead decks did. Boardwipes be damned, it was a feel bad to wipe a board just to see the other side make a few landdrops and have you dead yet again. Don't be surprised to see some variant of Esper make it back into the spotlight here. But that's not my main pick here. One deck that I think can really have some fun here.....Simic Flash.

Simic Flash - POST Field of the Dead ban

Main 60 cards (17 distinct)

Lands - 22

Side 15 cards (6 distinct)