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Despite Pro Tour Shadows Over Innistrad being won by a deck that is mostly just a collection of generically powerful cards, the metagame for the tournament was super diverse. Eight different decks made Top 8, after all. The innovation doesn't stop there though, and there are a few sweet ones hiding in the 8-2 or better decklists from the event. The control decks that Top 8'd the event were of the Esper and Golgari variety, though there were other flavors to be found in the winning decks.
Jeskai Control by Rob Pisano
The only successful madness deck we had seen to this point was Goggles control, and much like that deck this one is mostly a selection of mostly generically powerful spells with a few madness synergies. The madness spells are all fine to cast on their own, with the swingiest one being Avacyn's Judgment. This card is totally serviceable and sometimes great against human aggro, and you're also happy to point it at an opposing Jace or Duskwatch Recruiter // Krallenhorde Howler. When you madness it, you're casting a Rolling Thunder at a discount that more or less reads "draw a card", which is absolutely a powerful effect.
This was a great weekend for Languish with all the creature based decks and the prevalence of Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier, and this deck features Descend upon the Sinful for that reason. It's a bit slower, but it also doesn't care about indestructibility and also generates a 4/4 flier for you a good amount of the time.
It's been a minute since we've seen a four Ojutai's Command deck, though the card has certainly demonstrated its power level. There's no shortage of creatures to counter, and this deck also features four Jace and a Dragonmaster Outcast to rebuy in the vein of Jeskai Black. The maindeck Rending Volley is a nod to the power level of white in Standard, and in the off chance that there are no targets, you could always discard it.
Nahiri was a card that I liked going into the PT due to its synergy with madness and the ability to tutor up Pyromancer's Goggles. In this deck, it can only find Jace or Outcast, though more often you'll just be using Nahiri to rummage away extra lands or enable madness. It's telling that the list features four, and I think that the card is currently underrated. Only one copy made the Top 8 of the PT, and as such the price of the card has only slightly increased over the weekend. I don't know if there will be great opportunities for Nahiri to have a big weekend before the next PT, though I'd be surprised if she didn't get even better with the next set release. I'd look to pick up cheaper copies in the interim.
