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The Many Flavors of Snake: BG Constrictor decks in Current Standard - Massdrop East/West Article #29

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Two weeks ago, I took BG Winding Constrictor to an 8-2 record and 24th place finish at the Pro Tour in Kyoto. I was thrilled with my best PT finish to date, and exactly enough Pro Points to keep me on the train as a Gold level pro. Black-Green was the most popular deck among Team Massdrop. Our process leading us to choose the deck involved the creation of a full standard metagame spreadsheet, with evaluations of every matchup. This led us to evaluate which decks were doing well and we would expect other good players to bring the tournament. Then we decided what we would use to fight the expected metagame, and our BG Energy deck looked well-placed. Hard matchups that were previously popular like UW Monument or UR Control were not looking good in the meta. We knew Red would be present, but were surprised how popular it ended up among pro teams, so I was even happier with my deck choice than expected on the first day of the tournament.
Here is the list I registered: Maindeck:
21 Creatures
  • 2 Greenbelt Rampager
  • 4 Longtusk Cub
  • 4 Walking Ballista
  • 4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
  • 4 Winding Constrictor
  • 3 Verdurous Gearhulk
17 Other Spells
  • 4 Attune with Aether
  • 2 Oath of Nissa
  • 4 Fatal Push
  • 2 Grasp of Darkness
  • 3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
  • 2 Aethersphere Harvester
22 Land
  • 4 Blooming Marsh
  • 4 Hissing Quagmire
  • 4 Aether Hub
  • 6 Forest
  • 4 Swamp
Sideboard:
  • 1 Appetite for the Unnatural
  • 2 Dissenter's Deliverance
  • 2 Doomfall
  • 2 Fleetwheel Cruiser
  • 2 Grasp of Darkness
  • 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  • 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
  • 1 Never // Return
  • 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
The core of the deck is the counters package of Winding Constrictor, Walking Ballista, Verdurous Gearhulk, and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, alongside black removal spells. Our list had an Energy subtheme, with Longtusk Cub, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Greenbelt Rampager, Attune with Aether, Aether Hub, and Aethersphere Harvester. The main draw was the explosive power of Longtusk Cub alongside Winding Constrictor. Curving Cub into Snake will often leave you with a 6/6 cub on turn 3. The first 2 Energy comes from an Attune or an Aether Hub after Constrictor on turn 3, then Cub attacks as a 4/4 and grows to a 6/6. Greenbelt Rampager was another workhorse in this combo, letting you pay G for 2 counters on Longtusk Cub with a Constrictor. It also easily enables revolt for Fatal Push, and can hop into play to crew an Aethersphere Harvester, and is a cheap hard to remove blocker against Red. This list excels at exploding onto the board, which helps give a better chance to win against the unfair decks like UW Gift or RG Ramp that would prey on a slower version of BG. While Aethersphere Harvester is not very helpful in this regard, it was key to our great Red matchup that weekend, and also does work against other Black decks, flying over clogged boards while dodging the removal. The Energy package is also the best way to maximize Winding Constrictor, as we have even more cards that improve alongside the snake. One danger of this, however, was the backbreaking impact of the sideboard card Solemnity. We hoped to never face it, but teammate Ben Weitz did have multiples in the sideboard of his White Eldrazi deck, so the Appetite of the Unnatural in the board was a small hedge against it. Sam Pardee made the finals of that tournament with a different take on the deck, featuring the same core, but rounding it out with a Delirium package of Grim Flayer and Traverse the Ulvenwald, and generic powerful cards like Tireless Tracker and Liliana, the Last Hope. While we were very unimpressed with Grim Flayer, Traverse is a huge perk, since late-game flood is the single biggest weakness of our Energy list.
Moving to the post-Pro Tour metagame, things have shifted slightly worse for the Energy build. There has been a huge uptick in black removal with BG and Zombies become the main contenders, pushing back against Red’s PT dominance. Fatal Push makes growing a Longtusk Cub a worse proposition, and Walking Ballistas in the mirror punish the 1-toughness of Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. Some of the most successful BG lists from the following GP Minneapolis eschewed either an Energy or Delirium sub theme, as was seen in Corey Baumeister’s 2nd Place list: Maindeck:
21 Creatures
  • 4 Winding Constrictor
  • 4 Sylvan Advocate
  • 4 Catacomb Sifter
  • 2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
  • 4 Walking Ballista
  • 3 Verdurous Gearhulk
15 Other Spells
  • 4 Oath of Nissa
  • 4 Fatal Push
  • 3 Grasp of Darkness
  • 3 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
  • 1 Aethersphere Harvester
24 Land
  • 4 Blooming Marsh
  • 4 Hissing Quagmire
  • 9 Forest
  • 7 Swamp
Sideboard:
  • 1 Crook of Condemnation
  • 1 Dispossess
  • 2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
  • 2 Lost Legacy
  • 2 Never // Return
  • 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
  • 3 Transgress the Mind
  • 2 Yahenni's Expertise
He filled the gaps with Sylvan Advocate and Catacomb Sifter. Both seem like excellent roleplayers. They are cheap high-toughness blockers vs Red, which was the deck to beat of the weekend, but also give the deck late game power, via Advocate pumping itself and all the Hissing Quagmires, and Sifter scrying away lands to mitigate flood in the late game. With neither subtheme, the full set of Oath of Nissa is the green cantrip effect. I dislike having this many Oath, as their presence lowers how many hits they have, plus they don’t find many important sideboard cards like Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. I would rather play Traverse in that spot, as Sam Pardee did that weekend in the MOCS Quarterly: Maindeck:
21 Creatures
  • 4 Winding Constrictor
  • 4 Sylvan Advocate
  • 3 Catacomb Sifter
  • 2 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
  • 4 Walking Ballista
  • 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  • 3 Verdurous Gearhulk
16 Other Spells
  • 4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
  • 4 Fatal Push
  • 4 Grasp of Darkness
  • 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
23 Land
  • 4 Blooming Marsh
  • 4 Hissing Quagmire
  • 2 Evolving Wilds
  • 7 Forest
  • 6 Swamp
Sideboard:
  • 4 Transgress the Mind
  • 2 Dispossess
  • 2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
  • 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
  • 2 Never // Return
  • 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
  • 2 Yahenni's Expertise
Although these lists with Sylvan Advocate and Catacomb Sifter are the best place to be for the current meta, I feel the next step in the evolution of standard will be hostile towards this more midrange BG builds. Decks like Ramp or UR Control will resurface to fight BG and Zombies, since these black decks are starting to suppress Red. In the weeks to come, I could see an Energy build of BG again being a better build of the deck, since it will be better against the decks trying to beat BG and Zombies with over the top strategies or red sweepers. Longtusk Cub does a great job closing the game against ramp and dodging red removal, but I need to wait for the number of Fatal Pushes to die down a little before sleeving it back up. The BG shell is powerful and adaptable. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses to the different builds of the deck, BG can be well tailored for a given metagame: be it to beat the Tier 1 flavors of the week at an upcoming GP or RPTQ, or to better fight your local FNM metagame.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out our previous and future weekly content from Team Massdrop.
Please post any questions or feedback below!
If you are curious about our team, check out our intro: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1117/announcing-team-massdrop-east-west or, read our previous weekly articles:
1. How to Prepare for an MtG Pro Tour by Ben Weitz (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1158/how-to-prepare-for-an-mt-g-pro-tour)
2. Approaching New Magic Drafts by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1193/approaching-new-magic-drafts)
3. Constructed Testing for Pro Tour Aether Revolt by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1213/recap-of-constructed-testing-for-massdrop-east-west-for-pro-tour-aether-revolt)
4. Breaking into Eternal Formats - Case Study: GP Louisville by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1240/breaking-into-eternal-formats-case-study-gp-louisville-massdrop-east-west-article-4)
5. In Good Company - Top 8 at GP Vancouver by Eric Severson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1285/in-good-company-top-8-at-gp-vancouver)
6. Adapting to Full Block Kaladesh Limited by Jiachen Tao (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1323/adapting-to-full-block-kaladesh-limited-massdrop-east-west-article-6)
7. Sorry My Felidar Guardian Ate My Homework by Mark Jacobson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1364/sorry-my-felidar-guardian-ate-my-homework-massdrop-east-west-article-7)
8. Taking a Mardu Vacation - Top 8 in New Jersey and Heading to an Eternal Extravaganza by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1401/taking-a-mardu-vacation-top-8-in-new-jersey-and-heading-to-an-eternal-extravaganza-massdrop-east-wes)
9. A Guide to the Grind by Pascal Maynard (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1448/a-guide-to-the-grind-massdrop-east-west-article-9)
10. Asking Aggro-vating Questions by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1493/asking-aggro-vating-questions-massdrop-east-west-article-10)
11. The Meat and Potatoes of Jund by Paul Dean (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1534/the-meat-and-potatoes-of-jund)
12. Hidden Values in Magic: The Gathering for Kids and Parents by Scott Lipp (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1572/hidden-values-in-magic-the-gathering-for-kids-and-parents-massdrop-east-west-article-12)
13. The Importance of Preparation in Competitive Magic: The Gathering by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1606/the-importance-of-preparation-in-competitive-magic-the-gathering-massdrop-east-west-article-13)
14. How to Find Amonkhet's Star Players by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1643/how-to-find-amonkhets-star-players-massdrop-east-west-article-14)
15. Top is No Longer on Top by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1692/top-is-no-longer-on-top-massdrop-east-west-article-15)
16. Casual Multiplayer Fun by JC Tao (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1731/casual-multiplayer-fun-bang-magic)
17. Monoblack Zombies at Pro Tour Amonkhet by Eric Severson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1764/monoblack-zombies-at-pro-tour-amonkhet)
18. To Puzzle or to Puzzleknot by Paul Dean (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1793/to-puzzle-or-to-puzzleknot)
19. The Evolution of Vehicle Aggro Decks by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1822/the-evolution-of-vehicle-aggro-decks-massdrop-east-west-article-19)
20. Putting down My beloved Bant Eldrazi by Ben Weitz (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1863/putting-down-my-beloved-bant-eldrazi-massdrop-east-west-article-20)
21. Breaching into Grand Prix: Las Vegas by Scott Lipp (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1895/breaching-into-grand-prix)
22. Tim’s Top Ten Tips for Team Trips by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1934/tims-top-ten-tips-for-team-trios-massdrop-east-west-article-22)
23. Breaking Through to the Next Level by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1983/breaking-through-to-the-next-level-massdrop-east-west-article-23)
24. Teaching New Dogs New Tricks by Mark Jacobson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2005/teaching-new-dogs-new-tricks-massdrop-east-west-article-24)
25. The Bug Lords of Amonkhet by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2033/the-bug-lords-of-amonkhet-massdrop-east-west-article-25)
26. Fervently in Love with Affinity by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2067/fervently-in-love-with-affinity-massdrop-east-west-article-26)
27. Let's Go Camping by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2092/lets-go-camping-massdrop-east-west-article-27)
28. Zombie Strategy Guide by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2126/zombies-strategy-guide-massdrop-east-west-article-28)
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