Hello fellow Looters! We are in the midst of the final week before Shadows Over Innistrad (SOI) releases. The pre-release was this past weekend, and I hope you all had fun playing with the new cards! So with SOI so close, I figured it is time to talk about Standard. There are going to be a lot of changes from this last season and this is one of the benefits, (or detriments, depending on who you ask,) of the Standard Format. Obviously, we won’t know until the cards hit the table (hopefully in sleeves…) but hopefully this will get you thinking about the format.
The biggest way we will see standard change during this rotation is the power reduction of available mana. Now, we are not losing the ability to play multiple colors as there are still plenty of lands in the format (Pain Lands, Battle Lands, Man Lands, The new SOI land cycle, etc.). Let me put it in perspective, though. Currently, with fetch lands and battle lands, it is possible to use one fetch to get one of any four colors and even untapped a good portion of the time. This allowed four color decks like Abzan Blue, Mardu Green, Four Color Rally, and every other deck with an uncreative name to run rampant. To put it in the words of Patrick Chapin, “You don’t have to ask yourself if you can afford to play this card, you have to ask yourself, why not?” Why not splash Jace or Siege Rhino? With the loss of the fetch lands, we are now losing the ability to have such a streamlined mana base. In addition, tri-lands and gain-a-life duels are out the door as well. It is still very possible to run that many colors but you run a heavier risk of stumbling and your deck will be a lot slower with more lands entering tapped. I fully expect to see many more two to three color decks during this standard format, which will be a welcomed change for me.
KHHAAAAN!’s of Tarkir is parting ways with standard and ushering in the slow climb of fetches until Wizards decides to reprint them. It is taking its buddy Fate Reforged with it and, between the two of them, that is a lot of cards (454 to be exact). The most notable cards we are losing from standard, aside from fetch lands, are the hyper-efficient three-color cards. This includes things like Siege Rhino, Mantis Rider, Abzan Charm, Crackling Doom, Big Knucks, and a bunch of other cards loved by these four-color decks. There was nothing stopping decks from jamming these cards for almost no additional effort and it really crushed the playability of some otherwise great cards. Mana is supposed to be a restriction and I am glad we are returning to a world where more tough deck-building choices need to be made.
Oh yeah and I guess Ugin is leaving too… Maybe he wasn’t too happy with Jace over that whole Eldrazi thing?
Abzan Aggro – Will Abzan completely disappear? Probably not, but with the loss of Khan’s of Tarkir, they are losing a lot of the cards that make the deck super powerful. Warden of the First Tree, Siege Rhino, Anafenza, and Abzan Charm are all rotation which leaves the wedge less supported.
Rally – When a deck loses its namesake, it is usually not going to survive rotation. That being said, most of the other pieces remain short of Grim Haruspex. Depending on what graveyard synergy we see, from Eldritch Moon and with Collected Company still in the format, we could see an efficient creature combo deck remain strong. Plus we still have to deal with Reflector Mage…
Hardened Scales – Same goes with this namesake card. Khans also housed a good number of counter’s matters cards which will squish counter strategies until they are better supported. Counters will go from being a combo to just being… regular I guess. There are still plenty of powerful counter strategies that could make their way into standard.
Most 4/5 Color Decks – They won’t be impossible to build but we definitely will not see as many of them moving forward. That being said, I could probably 100% see a 4 color super friends deck or something similar being in the format.
Tribal (Vampire, Werewolves, and Zombies Oh My!) – There are so many awesome tribal cards that we are seeing from this set. I would not be surprised at all to see Zombies, Spirits, or Werewolves become a playable Standard deck. This being said, I don’t see any of them being top tier. The simple fact is, you limit yourself when building around a specific tribe which at times can cost you a slot that would have gone to a slightly better creature. This won’t stop people from building tribal decks as they are some of the most fun decks to play and they are really well-supported this time around! I could fully believe a Humans, Vampire, or Werewolf deck taking down a GP at least once as well. Eldritch Moon should make this category even strong as it will add cards without causing a rotation.
Reanimator – This was a deck that saw a lot of play in the original Innistrad Standard environment and was very powerful. Ever After and Necromantic Summons are two very powerful spells that bring things straight from the graveyard to the battlefield. I think we need to figure out some better targets as currently most of the powerful effects trigger on casting the creature rather than entering the battlefield. That being said, I am all for another Reanimator deck, (assuming there is hate for it in the format, of course).
Artifact – Color me crazy, but this archetype is something to investigate. Origins is host to all sorts of Artifacts with a high power level. Cards like Thopter Spy Network could take over an entire game and with the introduction of Clues, I think there could be something here. There are not too many constructed playable clue producers, however, in my head I have delusions of tapping six Clues with Ghirapur Aether Grid to have a repeatable Lightning Bolt. You never quite lose that ecstatic brewer in the back of your head. We also still have creatures like Hangarback Walker and all of the various thopter producers as well.
I think the format is going through a well needed change. Normally when a new block rotates in, it has a theme and it is supposed to have hate cards that weakens previous strategies to allow new cards to shine. Battle for Zendikar fell short as it failed to bring much to the table and did little to break the hold that Khan’s of Tarkir had over the format. There was little punishment for player playing tons of colors. Aggro was in too weak a spot as removal was everywhere. Now that Khans is rotating, I am not sure how Standard will look but I am a big fan of keeping things new and exciting which is why I love the Standard format.
Roy Anderson
@Sockymans on Twitter
One of my favorite things about Magic: The Gathering players is our unwavering interest in what lies ahead. No sooner is a new set spoiled than speculation begins for the next one, and the next, and the next.
I’m right there with all you speculators. To me, there’s nothing more fun than trying to guess the theme of the next set, or which mechanics they might use, or whether we’ll see yet another version of Jace.
So, without further ado, let the Speculation begin…
I hate to start with a downer, but I’m pretty certain of this one.
Why? Well, for one, let’s think of the enemy fetches from a marketing standpoint. Wizards is trying to make as much money as they can with their new products, which means they’re more likely to print cards that they know people will want to go out and buy.
Thing is, because of the success of original Innistrad, Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) already knows that the sequel will sell, regardless of what they put in there. So why would they add must-have items to an already must-have set? I think it’s much more likely that these cards will appear in a new, unfamiliar world, similar to what they did in Khans of Tarkir. That way, WoTC can be sure that players will buy the new set, even if the world is unfamiliar.
Furthermore, they’ll never allow all ten fetches to be in Standard at the same time. I mean, at that point, you’d have to think of a reason not to play five-colour good-stuff…
Wouldn’t you want to see the story behind Karn‘s creation of Mirrodin, or a set exploring the formation of Ravnica‘s original guilds, or the true story behind Nicol Bolas‘s summer reading projects? Enter the prequel block.
This is not totally unprecedented. Just look at Fate Reforged, which depicted Tarkir 1,200 years before the Khans, or Magic Origins, which told the stories of the core planeswalkers before they were planeswalkin’. Personally, I think a prequel block would be super fun–so long as there’s no equivalent character to Jar-Jar Binks, that is.
The fact that Emrakul wouldn’t appear in the new Zendikar block was probably the worst kept secret since Oath of the Gatewatch (because of all the leaks…get it?). It seemed like every other flavor text on Battle for Zendikar cards read something like, “Hey, haven’t seen that freaky jellyfish in a while. Wonder where he is.” Also, it’s been hinted that he has the ability to travel to different planes.
We get it. He’s not on Zendikar. Which would mean he’s on another plane. Which would mean he’s a planeswalker.
Well, not so fast. Wizards has said that Emrakul isn’t actually a planeswalker. But if the dude’s walking from plane to plane, how else do you express that in-game if not with a planeswalker card?
Was Gandalf really dead? Or Captain Barbosa? Or any character in any comic book? The only thing more fun than killing a beloved character is bringing them back in glorious fashion, which is exactly what they’re going to do with Elspeth. ‘Nuff said!
WoTC has already played with this aesthetic a little bit with the Izzet guild of Ravnica, but I think there’s still plenty of interest among players. I mean, ever since William Gibson’s Neuromancer, this has been a popular subgenre of speculative literature. Who wouldn’t want to see a set full of cities in the clouds, airships, complex contraptions, and ridiculous goggles? If enough players are interested, they’ll make it.
Of all the predictions on this list, this one’s my favourite.
First of all, let’s look at this from a story standpoint. We’ve already established that gods can be made and gods can be destroyed––just ask Xenagos. So when we return to Theros, what if we find that all the previous gods have been overthrown and replaced with new gods, gods that represent not just one or two colors of magic, but three?
Come on. You know this would be awesome. They’d have something like 10 devotion in order to turn into creatures, and then another bunch of wacky abilities to go with it.
Furthermore, players love the wedge theme. Head Designer Mark Rosewater said in his podcast that a wedge set was one of the most requested sets around, which is why they made Khans of Tarkir. Plus, the original Commander set featured wedge commanders, many of which are still very popular today. This prediction might not pay off for a while, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.
The new two-block paradigm proves one thing to me: we’ll see a lot more return blocks. Heck, we’ll already have back-to-back returns this year alone. And that’s awesome––with so many amazing worlds in the backlog, why not revisit them?
But you might be wondering this: why Kamigawa? That block wasn’t quite so amazing.
I’d have to agree with you there. It was sort of a train wreck, only with ninjas, samurais, and weird anthropomorphic rat people. The cards don’t play well outside of the block, and there are so many legendary creatures that it almost ruins the whole point of legendary creatures.
However, purely from a worldbuilding standpoint, there’s a rich template there. And, just when you thought they’d abandoned that world altogether, Kaseto comes along in the new Commander product. To paraphrase the great Bill Engvall: “There’s your sign.”
Sigh. This is probably my least favorite prediction on the list, but also the most likely. Actually, when asked about this very subject on his blog, Mark Rosewater wrote, “the question is ‘when’ and not ‘if.'” They did enemy colors in 2015, so I’m guessing they’ll do allies for 2016, and then off to four colors.
EDH is my favorite format, so I’ve got to admit, I’m a little nervous for this one. The flavor for quad-colored cards seems exceedingly difficult to get right. Case and point: the Nephilim from Dissension. In my opinion, the Nephilim kind of capture the feel of three of their colors, but there’s always that fourth color that might as well not be there.
On the bright side, I think we’re in a golden age of Magic. Design and story have never been better than they are now, which gives me hope for this one. Let’s see what happens.
I’m talking Lorwyn versus Zendikar, New Phyrexia versus Ravnica, Dominiaria versus Innistrad––stuff like that. War of the Worlds, Magic style.
Okay, I know it’s wacky. But this sort of thing isn’t totally unprecedented in Magic’s history, either. Time Spiral block played with older sets and planes converging. With New Phyrexia, we’ve also seen that old planes can reappear in new places.
And come on. Wouldn’t you want to see Squee take on Grimgrin? You know you would.
Just to troll us.
Hope you enjoyed this article! Am I a visionary genius or simply insane? Let me know what you thought of the predictions in the comments below! And remember… always Play the Ten Drop.
By Kyle A. Massa – Play the Ten Drop
You can reach Kyle at @mindofkyleam on Twitter or through his site www.kyleamassa.com
