Standard Decks vs TAV Decks

I know I promised you the top 5 cleric spells, but let's save that for next time.

Sometimes people wonder if they can just use their standard Spellfire decks to play the Antigonish variant. The answer is yes, if you want to lose badly.

The two formats are pretty incompatible from a deck construction viewpoint. In Standard you want to load up on champions, since you are going to be attacking numerous times each turn, and you can't raise a realm unless your opponent is out of defenders. Since each champion (with rare exceptions) can only attack once per turn, you need to fill your deck with a good assortment of potential attackers.

In TAV, on the other hand, you only need to defeat ONE defender to raze the enemy realm. Therefore you can put less champions in, and instead load the deck with a wide assortment of instant-kill cheese. Even though you only need to win one round of combat, you only get one round per turn, so you have to make the most of it. Instant-kill cards give you the best bang for your buck, so to speak.

Now TAV decks are not great at all in Standard. Too few champions, for one thing. Also, the cheese doesn't work, because all you've done is beat one measly defender, which incidently doesn't get you a spoils with which to restock your hand. So a TAV deck dies a slow, painful death against a good Standard deck when playing by that format's rules.

That having been said, however, the average Standard deck gets completely defenestrated against a TAV deck when playing by TAV rules. There's just no answer for the firepower that can be brought to bear in one combat round. And all those extra champions in the Standard deck just end up clogging the pool with useless "chumps" (to borrow a term from Magic: The Gathering).

Take a look at this (very good) Standard deck. 

http://www.claymore.co.za/spellfire/sfomigod.html

The owner of that deck says it's basically undefeated in its current form. Now take a look at my last post detailing my Gib deck...or back a few posts to my Tournament deck list. Not to brag, but either of those TAV decks would absolutely destroy his deck. It would be all over in seven turns, maybe eight. 

But should I dare to play Standard against him with either of mine...I'd lose.

So which format is "superior"? Obviously I'd say TAV, but that's because I love a fast-paced, exciting game of Spellfire, where realms are razed easily and the spoils flow like wine...

Next time: The Top 5 cleric spells...for real this time!