The Obligatory States Article

I'm going to apologize up front that this article does not contain decklists. If you were planning on straight copying a 75 with some sideboarding advice, I recommend you legitimately learn how to compete in large events.

1st, what is the correct deck for me to play is definitely not the correct deck for certain others (eg. Kurtis) to play, and vice versa, based on play styles and preference. 2nd, I feel like pretending that this site is real enough that leaking my tech would be a bad idea.

With that out of the way, the new standard format is a fairly interesting one to crack. As is the norm after a rotation, the new set only makes up a small percentage of the card pool, and therefore the artifact themes in scars are overshadowed by the cards we have already had. However, unlike when major block constructed strategies like Faeries and Jund took over, no such overwhelming force existed in Zendikar block. Instead of powerful linear strategies based around set mechanics, we are presented with a lot of powerful cards that either synergize with playing magic (landfall) or are simply more powerful than anything else we've seen in a while (Jace, Lightning Bolt).

In reality, the standard format is simply defined by a lot of 1 card combos. There exist a lot of cards that, when playing in the right deck at the right time in the game, should win almost by themselves. Think about decks like Scapeshift or Ad Nauseam Tendrils. Resolving a scapeshift with 7 lands in play, or Ad Naus with enough life/mana floating should win the game on the spot. To allow this, the rest of your deck must be support cards designed to either reach the game state where your combo card is lethal, help draw the combo card, or help you not die. Therefore the trade-off comes from having a lot of relatively underpowered cards in your deck, making top decks worse and making your deck less resilient to hate.

As for this standard format, here is a list of cards which I would consider the major 1 card combos right now:
Primeval Titan
Avenger of Zendikar
Jace the Mind Sculptor
Eldrazi Monument
Destructive Force
Quest for the Holy Relic
Summoning Trap
Goblin Guide

All of these require you to build your deck correctly in order to be effective, but by themselves should impact the outcome of the game more than any other card. A Titan or Avenger threatens to immediately end the game if not answered, and Summoning Trap can become either of those cards, or something bigger like an Eldrazi. Monument and Destructive Force actually end the game on the spot when played assuming you have enough of a board presence. Jace provides enough gas that you can essentially trade 1 for 1 with anything your opponent does for the rest of the game, and you'll still be way ahead. Lastly, Goblin Guide and Quest on turn 1 provide so much pressure that your opponent is forced to completely change their game plan to deal with them.

The decks that are best positioned to use these cards:
Valakut
Mono Red
Elves
UG Monument
UG Turbo-land
White Weenie
UW Control
UGR Destructive Force
Mono-Green Eldrazi

As for which of these is the best choice, I'll repeat my above statement that it differs from person to person based on play style. However, I do believe that some of the above decks are simply inferior based on speed and consistency. The Quest for the Holy Relic decks are far too weak if they don't have the quest early and are still extremely vulnerable to removal. The Destructive Force decks simply don't end the game as well as before since titans and opposing planeswalkers are difficult to beat. UW control lacks good enough answers to the titan decks, and can't provide enough of a clock to end the game before the opponent draws into too many threats. Lastly, the mono-green Eldrazi decks don't win any more efficiently than Valakut decks, since the Valakut deck is built so that a titan does even more damage than an Emrakul, and the mono-green decks lack the ability to deal with aggressive creatures.

The three remaining pillars which I believe will define states are Goblin Guide, Primeval Titan, and Jace. There are multiple options as to what to do with these cards, and I highly encourage innovation. I'm excited to see what awesome new decks arise this weekend, though I fear that many of the matchups between the top decks with degenerate into a race to the finish, as the titan decks are too difficult to disrupt effectively.

Whatever deck you do decide to play, you definitely need to have a plan for how to beat the decks I've listed. While it is certainly possible to answer the specific cards that the deck is built around, hoping to always have the answer for the strategy you're up against isn't the most solid plan. Trying to race is another option, but mono-red and the titan nut draws are pretty much impossible to race. For an event like states, where a lot of people will show up with random untested decks, I recommend trying to be as fast and proactive as possible. If you can ignore as much as possible of what your opponent is doing, you don't have to worry when your opponent plays Turn 1 Vampire Lacerator or something along those lines.