Crush of Tentacles – Beyond the Top 8

crush-of-tentacles
Two different Crush of Tentacles decks were top performers at the New Jersey Invitational (though neither made Top 8, due to Modern)

“Send to Sleep”
-Patrick Chapin

Patrick is half-referencing one of the cards in one of the two 7-1 (or better) U/G Crush of Tentacles decks from last weekend’s Star City Invitational in New Jersey… But he’s also kinda sorta playing on words.

Is Standard super boring right now?

Mike moves to convince his podcast partner that Standard is in fact super open, interesting, and ripe for optimization. Here are some decks that might get your creative juices going…

U/G Crush by William Moore

4 Den Protector
4 Elvish Visionary

4 Anticipate
2 Summary Dismissal
4 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Crush of Tentacles
4 Part the Waterveil
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
2 Nissa’s Renewal

3 Blighted Woodland
4 Lumbering Falls
9 Forest
8 Island

Sideboard
4 Jaddi Offshoot
4 Revealing Wind
3 Dispel
4 Negate

U/G Crush by Zac Elsik

4 Den Protector
4 Elvish Visionary
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

3 Anticipate
4 Crush of Tentacles
2 Oath of Nissa
1 Nissa’s Renewal
3 Part the Waterveil
3 Send to Sleep
4 Nissa’s Pilgrimage
1 Sight Beyond Sight
4 Explosive Vegetation

1 Blighted Woodland
8 Island
9 Forest
4 Lumbering Falls
1 Skyline Cascade
1 Yavimaya Coast

Sideboard
1 Summary Dismissal
3 Noose Constrictor
2 Clip Wings
1 Void Shatter
4 Jaddi Offshoot
1 Orbs of Warding
1 Display of Dominance
2 Dispel

Esper Control by Shaheen Soorani

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Emrakul, the Promised End

1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Narset Transcendent
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Coax from the Blind Eternities
4 Oath of Jace
1 Ruinous Path
3 Transgress the Mind
2 Dark Petition
4 Languish
1 Silumgar’s Command
1 Ultimate Price
4 Grasp of Darkness
1 Descend upon the Sinful

4 Choked Estuary
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
4 Shambling Vent
4 Sunken Hollow
5 Swamp
2 Island

Sideboard
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Summary Dismissal
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Fathom Feeder
1 Ruinous Path
2 Infinite Obliteration
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Murder
2 Negate
2 Duress

Shaheen Soorani — sometimes touted as the most successful Invitational player in Star City history — might not have made Top 8, but he did go undefeated in Standard. Unsurprisingly, Shaheen’s “Esper” solution is actually two decks mashed up with two different decks (i.e. right in Mike’s wheelhouse). It’s also basically a B/W board control deck — an established quantity in Standard — splashing for Jace, Oath of Jace, and… Coax the Blind Eternities?!?

Find out why Coax the Blind Eternities is more than just a three mana tax in Shaheen’s deck (despite there being all of one Eldrazi card in his sideboard) in “Crush of Tentacles – Beyond the Top 8”:

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