MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Two-Card Standard
I've been thinking a lot about a format I created called Two-Card Standard. Here are the rules: build a deck using Standard-legal cards. The minimum deck size is 60. Instead of a 4-card limit, there's a 40-card limit! However, the catch is that you may only play two unique cards. For example, a deck might look like this:
20x Mountain
40x Shock
From now on, I will refer to this as the Shock deck. (Lands are assumed to be the appropriate basic land for monocolor and Unclaimed Territory for multicolor creature decks. Otherwise I'll include the land.)
What might the metagame of this format look like? I've been thinking about the different viable decks, which I've grouped into archetypes. I have never played this format (and it seems boring to play), so I don't know which are better than the other. The matchups are a bit complicated.
Burn: for players who don't even need an opponent
Shock
Lightning Strike
Aggro: I can't think of a tagline
Skymarcher Aspirant
Gutterbones [thanks @LyndonF]
Diregraf Ghoul
Fanatical Firebrand
Lightning Mare [thanks @LyndonF]
Dreadhorde Butcher [thanks @LyndonF]
Fireblade Artist [thanks @LyndonF]
Old-Growth Dryads [thanks @LyndonF]
Hydras: the only deck with a mana curve
Hungering Hydra
Hydroid Krasis
Ugin's Conjurant/Blast Zone
Ugin's Conjurant/Mobilized District
Ugin's Conjurant/Karn's Bastion
Ugin's Conjurant/Arch of Orazca
Banefire: burn and hydras had a flame child
Banefire
Tribal: because teamwork!
Growth-Chamber Guardian
Legion Conquistador
Rat Colony
Persistent Petitioneers
Elvish Clancaller [strictly better than Merfolk Mistbinder and Legion Lieutenant]
History of Benalia
Charmed Stray [thanks @MemoryHead]
Drowned Secrets [thanks @MemoryHead]
Forerunner of the Coalition [thanks @MemoryHead]
80-Card Control/Turbo-Fog: it doesn't actually have any win cons, but neither will you
Healing Grace
Cast Down [strictly better than Essence Scatter]
Negate
Root Snare
Ixalan's Binding [thanks @LyndonF]
60-Card Sanguine Sacrament [thanks @MemoryHead]
Midrange: good cards make good decks
Tempest Djinn
Steel Leaf Champion
Gruul Spellbreaker
Thief of Sanity
Gigantosaurus
Nullhide Ferox
Sphinx of Foresight
Plague Mare [thanks @MemoryHead]
Any other nonlegendary bomb rare you can think of
Tempo: we'll mess with your plans, but actually win this time
Hostage Taker
Frilled Mystic
Ionize/Steam Vents
Deputy of Detention [thanks @LyndonF]
Kitesail Freebooter [thanks @Brainifyer]
Split Cards: two spells are better than one
Thrash//Threat [thanks @MemoryHead]
Warrant//Warden [thanks @MemoryHead]
Bedeck//Bedazzle
Carnival//Carnage
Expansion//Explosion
As far as matchups, there are definitely some rock-paper-scissors interactions. Example: Tempest Djinn (Midrange) beats Skymarcher Aspirant (Aggro), Hostage Taker (Tempo) beats Tempest Djinn (Midrange), and Skymarcher Aspirant (Aggro) beats Hostage Taker (Tempo). But I'm not really sure in general.
Another note is that of all these cards, mono-blue only has Tempest Djinn, Sphinx of Foresight, Persistent Petitioneers, Drowned Secrets, and Negate. (Negate seems like a bad deck.) That might be because blue's good cards tend to be reactive and don't win on their own.
I probably missed some perfectly good decks, so comment if you can think of any. Also any other comments you have are welcomed.
20x Mountain
40x Shock
From now on, I will refer to this as the Shock deck. (Lands are assumed to be the appropriate basic land for monocolor and Unclaimed Territory for multicolor creature decks. Otherwise I'll include the land.)
What might the metagame of this format look like? I've been thinking about the different viable decks, which I've grouped into archetypes. I have never played this format (and it seems boring to play), so I don't know which are better than the other. The matchups are a bit complicated.
Burn: for players who don't even need an opponent
Shock
Lightning Strike
Aggro: I can't think of a tagline
Skymarcher Aspirant
Gutterbones [thanks @LyndonF]
Diregraf Ghoul
Fanatical Firebrand
Lightning Mare [thanks @LyndonF]
Dreadhorde Butcher [thanks @LyndonF]
Fireblade Artist [thanks @LyndonF]
Old-Growth Dryads [thanks @LyndonF]
Hydras: the only deck with a mana curve
Hungering Hydra
Hydroid Krasis
Ugin's Conjurant/Blast Zone
Ugin's Conjurant/Mobilized District
Ugin's Conjurant/Karn's Bastion
Ugin's Conjurant/Arch of Orazca
Banefire: burn and hydras had a flame child
Banefire
Tribal: because teamwork!
Growth-Chamber Guardian
Legion Conquistador
Rat Colony
Persistent Petitioneers
Elvish Clancaller [strictly better than Merfolk Mistbinder and Legion Lieutenant]
History of Benalia
Charmed Stray [thanks @MemoryHead]
Drowned Secrets [thanks @MemoryHead]
Forerunner of the Coalition [thanks @MemoryHead]
80-Card Control/Turbo-Fog: it doesn't actually have any win cons, but neither will you
Healing Grace
Cast Down [strictly better than Essence Scatter]
Negate
Root Snare
Ixalan's Binding [thanks @LyndonF]
60-Card Sanguine Sacrament [thanks @MemoryHead]
Midrange: good cards make good decks
Tempest Djinn
Steel Leaf Champion
Gruul Spellbreaker
Thief of Sanity
Gigantosaurus
Nullhide Ferox
Sphinx of Foresight
Plague Mare [thanks @MemoryHead]
Any other nonlegendary bomb rare you can think of
Tempo: we'll mess with your plans, but actually win this time
Hostage Taker
Frilled Mystic
Ionize/Steam Vents
Deputy of Detention [thanks @LyndonF]
Kitesail Freebooter [thanks @Brainifyer]
Split Cards: two spells are better than one
Thrash//Threat [thanks @MemoryHead]
Warrant//Warden [thanks @MemoryHead]
Bedeck//Bedazzle
Carnival//Carnage
Expansion//Explosion
As far as matchups, there are definitely some rock-paper-scissors interactions. Example: Tempest Djinn (Midrange) beats Skymarcher Aspirant (Aggro), Hostage Taker (Tempo) beats Tempest Djinn (Midrange), and Skymarcher Aspirant (Aggro) beats Hostage Taker (Tempo). But I'm not really sure in general.
Another note is that of all these cards, mono-blue only has Tempest Djinn, Sphinx of Foresight, Persistent Petitioneers, Drowned Secrets, and Negate. (Negate seems like a bad deck.) That might be because blue's good cards tend to be reactive and don't win on their own.
I probably missed some perfectly good decks, so comment if you can think of any. Also any other comments you have are welcomed.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
How do you rule outside the game cards? A Mastermind's Acquisition might work
Sanguine Sacrament is going to be quite annoying for burn
Lightning Mare seems bonkers when matched uo against Frilled mystic. (Banefire decks are great against Frilled Mystics as well)
And how good do you all think Unmoored Ego is in the format? (Land is Watery Grave)
@Je_Suis_Oluwa Here are some random things I came up with. They aren't necessarily good:
Krenko Please no removal, please no removal...
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
Tionalli's Crown
or
See Red
or
Samut's Sprint
or
Burn Bright
Elves You got boardwipes? NO?
Llanowar Elves
Elvish Clancaller
The Undying It's all in the name.
Angel of Grace
Amulet of Safekeeping (This might seem like a super-weird choice, but it's one of the best burn-slowers I could think of and burn is one of your biggest problems.)
MAYBE Blazing Hope for consideration. Maybe.
Freeze Burn but colder! Ah, forget it.
Creeping Chill
Stitcher's Supplier
or
Persistent Petitioners
or
Doom Whisperer
In terms of balance, I'd say that Burn and Freeze would be the most meta-defining decks. You'd have to have an out against burn otherwise you'd be done, and because it only deals direct damage then that out would need to be lifegain. Burn v Burn matches would be the coin flip of "Who goes first?" most of the time. Burn v Freeze would probably go to Freeze. Freeze v Freeze would be a war of "Who can draw fewer Chills and more enablers?"
Just ignore all of my decks, everybody! Nothing to see here!
Times 40 and 20 islands.
...
Wait, that's modern, so... ok then.
@LyndonF I'm adding Deputy of Detention to tempo, Ixalan's Binding to control, and Lightning Mare to aggro. Deputy seems like a fine addition that's better than Frilled Mystic against the creature decks but worse against spells. Ixalan's Binding is overpowered against any creature deck but just loses to all of the spell decks, so that's probably fine. (It would lead to unfun gameplay, but I doubt this format is fun to play.) Lightning Mare is probably on similar powerlevel to Skymarcher/Diregraf/Fanatical Firebrand but just has slightly different matchups. As far as Unmoored Ego, since it lets them draw more cards, it will occasionally replace spells with lands or lands with spells, but overall it lets the other deck do their thing and doesn't mill them nearly fast enough, I think.
@Sanjaya666 In modern the good decks are, to my knowledge:
Simian Spirit Guide/Surging Flames [beats Chancellor]
Chancellor of the Dross/Soul Spike (you aren't allowed to play 60 chancellor because of the 60 card limit) [beats Memnite]
Leyline of Sanctity/Memnite [beats ripple]
Also, I'm adding Beacon Bolt/Steam Vents to burn and Ionize/Steam Vents to tempo.
+ 25
+ 23
1. Play a Ral
2. Explosion for 0
3. Expansion targeting Explosion
3. Expansion targeting Expansion
4. Infinitely target Expansion with Expansion, infinite Ral triggers.
If that is how the format works.
($188.73)
Or,
23 Island
37 Tempest Djinn
($65.49)
@Je_Suis_Oluwa Maybe Narset's Reversal, Augur of Bolas and Drowned Secrets for mono-blue? I'm not totally sure against any of them, but Narset's Reversal has potential in some matches and Drowned Secrets is horrible to play against.
15x Contentious Plan
15x Flux Channeler
20x Islands
35x
25x Island
Right, time for more ideas. I suspect that some of them are notably better than others:
Exploration Sage Here goes nothing.
Evolution Sage
Enter the Unknown
It may be worth noting that this deck would have more lands than normal to increase the chance of exploring into a land.
Simic Merfolk This seems ridiculous.
Deeproot Champion
Benthic Biomancer
or
Silvergill Adept
or
Kumena's Speaker
or
Merfolk Skydiver
or
Literally any good, low cost merfolk
Breeding Pool for the land if blue is being used.
Heartburn Better or worse?
Heartfire
Footlight Fiend
or
Grim Initiate
or
Anything else with a decent death trigger in red. Alternatively, Hunted Witness with Sacred Foundry for the land.
White Marshals White weenies with a lategame.
Haazda Marshal
Benalish Marshal
For example:
20x Forest + 40x Elvish Clancaller: Legal.
20x Forest + 10x Llanowar Elves + 30x Elvish Clancaller: Illegal.
(As an irrelevant tangent, it's probably better to play Pelt Collector over Llanowar Elves here, as it's basically a 3/3 if you can T1 Pelt Collector T2 Clancaller, whereas with Elves you aren't really curving into anything. Now Elves/Steel Leaf is a different story. (And to be clear, these decks *do not work* in this format.))
If the four card limit was abolished what would happen are some outrageous combo decks, like Ral+Expansion//Explosion, that suddenly gain a lot of consistency. This isn't that. The point is you have to find a card that works well with itself, and a lot of copies of itself. (Or, if you're a midrange player, just works well.)
@Brainifyer, @MemoryHead: Adding Kitesail Freebooter for tempo and Drowned Secrets for tribal (since that's what mill really is...not sure if this is a different archetype. Please weigh in on this, commenters.) Not adding Chupacabra just because, while not strictly better, there aren't many reasons to play Chupacabra over Hostage Taker. (If you're worried about the mirror or the Cast Down matchup maybe?)
In unrelated news, I'm also curious if there are decks that are just always (or almost always) better than other decks, so the list can be narrowed down, or if anyone can figure out the "Tier 1" of this format.
A suggestion for aggro is Gutterbones. Seems better than Diregraf Ghoul in most situations.
Another one for aggro is Dreadhore Butcher (w/ Blood Crypt). Seems better than Fanatical Firebrand in some cases.
I think you can sort off compare the decks as such:
Ixalan's Binding > creatures without hexproof and aren't Frilled Mystic
Root snare > creatures except Frilled Mystic
Burn > Ixalan's Binding, Root Snare, Cast Down
Banefire > Control, Ionize
...
Cutting Beacon Bolt and Diregraf Ghoul for Gutterbones and Dreadhorde Butcher.
One thing a lot of people forget is that Unclaimed Territory is better than shocklands for multicolor creature decks. I think that's because they associate Territory with tribal, but if you only have one creature, your deck will all be the same tribe anyway.
Maybe Fireblade Artist. It isn't as good for aggro as some other cards, but the fact that it can convert itself into a face-shock during your upkeep seems surprisingly good.
Forerunner of the Coalition has some sort of vague potential.
Old-Growth Dryads could beat some decks.
Plague Mare counters some forms of aggro.
Sanguine Sacrament has a nearly 100% win rate against control (it never mills unless the opponent gets a good draw with counterspells), always draws against itself and has a chance against burn-style decks.
Thrash // Threat and Warrant // Warden both have their uses, the latter more than the former.
@MemoryHead
Adding Fireblade Artist and Old-Growth Dryads to aggro.
Adding Forerunner of the Coalition to tribal, yet I suspect it's not good enough.
Adding Plague Mare to midrange (though that might be the wrong category) and readding Diregraf Ghoul to aggro since it's way better in the Plague Mare matchup.
Adding Sanguine Sacrament to control. It's probably the best control deck since it can play a 60-card deck.
Creating a new category for the split-card decks: two spells are better than one
I've just searched up all the split cards in standard and am adding the ones that are decent. They deserve a new category because their two "cards" are often good in two different matchups. The one problem is they have to play shocklands.
Bedeck//Bedazzle (good in splitcard mirror and Unclaimed Territory decks)
Carnival//Carnage (also a good reason to play Diregraf Ghoul over Gutterbones)
Expansion//Explosion
Thrash//Threat
Warrant//Warden
Unrelated, adding Gatebreaker Ram/any green guildgate and Gate Colossus/any guildgate to midrange.