Worldwake Standard Throwback Standard Gauntlet League
| Worldwake Standard Throwback Standard Gauntlet League | |||||
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| Magic: The Gathering Online | |||||
| Event Details | |||||
| Event date | August 30 to September 6, 2017 | ||||
| Format | Standard | ||||
| Themes and mechanics | Historical decks from Zendikar block Standards. | ||||
| Number of decks | 10 decks | ||||
| Deck size | 75 cards | ||||
| Magic Online Gauntlets | |||||
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| Digital preconstructed decks | |||||
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The Worldwake Standard Throwback Standard Gauntlet League was about the Standard environments of Alara block/Zendikar block and Zendikar block/Scars of Mirrodin block, with a particular focus of the time around Worldwake. That expansion had seen the printing of Jace the Mindsculpter and Stoneforge Mystic, which became the first cards banned in the format since 2005.
The event ran between August 30 and September 6, 2017[1]. There were ten phantom preconstructed decks available, from which players were randomly assigned one.
Blue-Black Control
A 
control deck.
| “ | The Guillaumes Matignon and Wafo-Tapa, battled for the 2011 World Championship with this archetype, with Matignon winning and thereby forcing the legendary Player of the Year tiebreaker playoff match at the next Pro Tour (which was won by Brad Nelson). This specific list is from Grand Prix Barcelona, just after the Caw Blade era began at PT Paris, and Wafo-Tapa also Top 8'ed.[1] | ” |
Boros Stoneblade
A 
deck as played by Chikara Nakajima to a runner-up finish at Grand Prix Singapore.
| “ | Again, I kind of wanted to use the list that the Hall of Famer used to make the finals of Pro Tour Paris. In this case, it was Paul Rietzl double-queuing a Grand Prix. However, the list became better once Batterskull was published. So we're going with the version from Grand Prix Singapore, which Chikara Nakajima piloted to a semifinal victory over Owen Turtenwald's Caw Blade before losing in the finals to Paulo's almost-identical version of Caw Blade.[1] | ” |
Planeswalkers (3)
Creatures (21)
Sideboard (15)
Boros Stoneblade was the second best performing deck in the Gauntlet.[2]
Caw-Blade
A deck as played by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.
| “ | So you remember that Pro Tour Paris that was dominated by Caw Blade? Yeah, that was one set before Batterskull was printed. Ben Stark won the PT with Sylvok Lifestaff in his deck! The version we're using here is from a Grand Prix won by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa after New Phyrexia came out. For what it's worth, the deck continued to win even after Jace and Stoneforge Mystic were banned, including a Yuuya Watanabe win at Grand Prix Pittsburgh 2011. Simply one of the most ridiculously dominant decks ever legal in Standard.[1] | ” |
Caw-Blade, despite its reputation, was only the third best performing deck in the Gauntlet.[2] It later featured in 2021’s Standard: Through the Ages Gauntlet event[3].
Conscription
A 
deck built around Eldrazi Conscription, as played by Josh Utter-Leyton.
| “ | The Jace deck that I am including is the one Josh Utter-Leyton used to win US Nationals in 2010 with a beautiful 10-0-1 record in Standard. In addition to Gideon, Rise of the Eldrazi also gave us Eldrazi Conscription, and for the four months when it overlapped in Standard with Sovereigns of Lost Alara, you could do some naughty things. This deck is designed to summon a "Sovereigns" as soon as possible and attack with whatever mana dork is left over. You get to search your deck for Eldrazi Conscription, which promptly gives that creature +10/+10 and trample. Your annihilator 2 does not trigger that turn, but whatever! It will trigger the following turn when you attack again, in case the +10/+10 and trample (and potentially a second copy as well) aren't good enough. Jace is the backup plan in this deck, which is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated Standard decks of all time. I think most people have forgotten this combo ever existed, presumably because there was no Pro Tour when it was legal, but in my mind it's good enough to brawl with Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull.[1] | ” |
Jund
A midrange deck. The version used in this event is the one Simon Görtzen won Pro Tour San Diego with.
| “ | There were three Jund decks in the Top 8 of Worlds a few months earlier, and then Pro Tour San Diego was Jund versus Jund in the finals. Simon Görtzen won the PT with the list we are using here. The deck then went on to dominate Standard Grand Prix during the next month as well, with the only real difference in the lists being that most people preferred two main deck Terminates, where Simon ran Rampant Growths.
For Gauntlet events like this one, players can change the deck configuration before playing any league matches, if they want to play the Terminates main instead of the Rampant Growths. Let the record show that it took quite a few months before Jace, the Mind Sculptor, started to throw his weight around. Worldwake was legal for Pro Tour San Diego, but only three copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor made the Top 8. Even those were in a copy of the long-forgotten Open the Vaults "combo" deck. Even Luis Scott-Vargas surprised himself by choosing to shuffle up Wild Nacatl and Bloodbraid Elf at the Pro Tour instead of Jace.[1] |
” |
There was a Jund deck in the 2021 Standard: Through the Ages Gauntlet, but it was different from this one.
Monored Shrine
A monored aggro deck.
| “ | Of course, even with all those powerful cards available, some people just like to watch the world burn.[1] | ” |
Creatures (17)
Artifacts (4)
Naya
A deck as played by 2009 World Champion André Coimbra.
| “ | Andre Coimbra won Worlds 2009 with a strategy not all that different from the one Brian Kibler used to win the Extended-format Pro Tour Austin a month earlier: when everyone else is playing Zoo, go bigger and bring on the Baneslayer Angels! Coimbra was also able to go over the top of the Jund decks as well, helped out by having his own Bloodbraid Elves.
Apologies in advance to Luis Scott-Vargas, whose Boss Naya deck helped him go 16-0 at Pro Tour San Diego. His was probably a slightly more powerful list overall than this one, since Worldwake got printed between these events, and he had two Stoneforge Mystics. However, four main-deck Baneslayers is just cooler than two in the sideboard, plus Coimbra did win Worlds, so the "scoreboard" defense is in full effect here.[1] |
” |
Splinter Twin
A combo deck as played by Matt Nass.
| “ | Lots of versions of this archetype were floating around. This is the one Matt Nass used to Top 8 GP Pittsburgh, and it pretty closely resembles the basic strategy that became dominant in Modern.[1] | ” |
This deck later featured in 2021’s Standard: Through the Ages Gauntlet event[3].
Twinblade
| “ | Jace and Stoneforge were not the only crazy-powerful options running around during this iteration of Standard. You could also play the Splinter Twin combo, which many people ran in a shell that also included Stoneforge Mystic.[1] | ” |
Twinblade was the best-performing deck in the Gauntlet. Its' 59% win rate narrowly beat out the 58% of the Boros Stoneblade deck. Consequently, it was featured in the Best of Throwback Standard Gauntlet[2].
Valakut Ramp
A deck as played by Pat Cox.
| “ | Speaking of strategies powerful enough to get (briefly) banned in Modern, Valakut was one of the defining decks of the format despite not having either Jace or Stoneforge Mystic. Pat Cox won a StarCityGames.com Open with this version, which invested heavily in improving the matchup versus blue via Summoning Traps and Oracles. For what it's worth, Eduardo Sajgalik Top 8'ed GP Barcelona with a very similar list, just with the Traps starting in the sideboard.[1] | ” |
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Randy Buehler (August 23, 2017). "Throwback Standard Gauntlet 7: Worldwake (website)". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved on May 21, 2025.
- ↑ a b c Randy Buehler (November 29, 2017). "Best of Throwback Standard Gauntlet (website)". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved on May 20, 2025.
- ↑ a b David McDarby (October 5, 2021). "Standard: Through the Ages (website)". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved on May 13, 2025.