After a mediocre performance at GP Kansas City where I limped into Day Two with an unexciting sealed deck only to lose over and over to bombs in draft
as well, I feared that my article this week was fated to have the same negative tone as all of my writing has lately. After all, in my round-the-world
journey over the past month, I’ve done a whole lot of losing, which hasn’t left me all that much to be excited about. Then, as I was on my
way out to Kansas City’s Power and Light district to party with a whole crew of gamers on Sunday night, I checked my Twitter just as the clock
struck midnight on the east coast. There it was, the announcement that so many hoped for, so many feared, and so many never thought would happen.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is banned.
I had been among the most vocal defenders of Jace when people were calling for his head months ago, before New Phyrexia, but even I am happy to see the
banning now. While I maintain that Jace wasn’t fundamentally the problem, it’s more important for these bannings to be effective than to be
precise. As Aaron Forsythe said on Twitter, if WotC is going to suffer the hit of having to ban cards, they better make sure they effect real change.
It’s better that they cast their net too widely than be too careful. If they banned just Jace, or just Stoneforge, and come July 1 we saw Caw-Go
decks with just Hawks or Caw-Blade decks with Beleren over Mind Sculptor dominating, would those who had drifted away from the game thanks to the last
six months really come back?
Remember Affinity? Remember how many bannings it took to finally defang that beast? First there was Skullclamp, which was the engine on which the
entire Standard format ran at that point, but axing the card drawing Equipment did nothing to rein in Affinity. Then WotC printed various Affinity
hosers in the upcoming blocks, but it turned out to be too little too late, and with tournament attendance slipping, WotC decided to go ahead and nuke
Affinity from orbit, banning Ravager, Disciple, and all six of the artifact lands.
Was Standard so bad then that all of those cards needed to go? By the numbers, maybe not, but it’s not all about the numbers. Here’s what
Aaron Forsythe had to say back when the final decision was made to totally gut Affinity:
But in the past three months R&D and the DCI have been reminded that Magic is not a series of balanced
equations, spreadsheets of Top 8 results and data of card frequencies. Magic is a game played by human beings that want to have fun.
It’s possible that either Jace or Stoneforge could have been spared, but it was more important that the bannings made a difference than that they
were exactly what had to happen. For months, the Magic world has lived in the shadow of Caw-Blade, and whether it was Jace or Stoneforge casting the
most of that shadow doesn’t matter. What matters is that people were fed up and weren’t having fun, which meant they weren’t playing
the game anymore, and that meant something had to change.
I maintain that Stoneforge was the bigger problem from a balance perspective, especially in the wake of Batterskull, but I accept that Jace was likely
the bigger culprit when it comes to trampling on fun. “The Jace Test” made so many otherwise interesting cards and strategies essentially
non-viable (which is something we’ll return to shortly), which really put a damper on the brewing spirit.
On top of that, an unanswered Jace was so demoralizing to play against because of how quickly it caused the game to spiral out of control. The Unsummon
and Brainstorm abilities may have been what put games most directly out of reach for the opponent, but the Fateseal ability was perhaps the least
pleasant to have used against you. If your opponent put a card on the bottom, it felt like a violation—like they were taking your options away
from you—but if they left it on top, you knew you weren’t drawing anything useful. That lose-lose sense of helplessness made Jace an
unpopular fellow with players the world over.
On top of all of that, I think a very real motivator behind these bannings was WotC proving to the community that they’re willing to do what it
takes. Many people claimed that Wizards would never ban Jace because of his status as a flagship mythic, as well as his price tag, and others insisted
that they wouldn’t ban Stoneforge Mystic right after printing it in an event deck. Wizards proved those detractors wrong and showed that
they’re willing to do what it takes to set the ship aright again, even if it means upsetting some players in the meantime.
To be honest, I was pretty surprised by the bannings. Not because I didn’t think something needed to be done to correct the state of Standard,
but because banning anything felt like a dangerous business decision. It would have been very easy for Wizards to sit back and wait a few months to let
Jace and Stoneforge rotate out naturally and not have to worry about ruffling anybody’s feathers. Banning any card is a big deal, let alone
banning a card as iconic and central to the game’s current branding as Jace has become.
And yet Wizards did it. They banned the Black Lotus of the modern era, the card that had come to represent the divide between the haves and the
have-nots in the game. It had gotten to the point that the forums on any article about a deck containing Jace were like a broken record with complaints
about the cost of playing Standard—and, given the state of the format, that meant virtually every article about any deck. I’m sure many of
those forum denizens saw the bannings as a victory for the little guy.
For me? I’ve owned my playset of Jaces for months and never felt like he was the real problem card in the format. In fact, I haven’t played
Jace TMS in a sanctioned event since PT Paris—and I’ve played blue in every Standard event I’ve competed in. And yet I’m still
happy to see both Jace and Stoneforge get the boot.
Why? Because it’s like Standard is a whole new format! My favorite time as a Magic player is block rotation, since it makes for an enormous shift
in the Standard environment. The most important thing about every rotation is what is leaving, since the departure of format staples causes the biggest
upheaval as new cards fill the power void that is left behind.
This banning is like rotation coming early! So many cards and decks have been oppressed by Jace and Stoneforge Mystic, and now is their chance to
shine! It’s like Christmas is coming twice this year, and I get two chances to brew decks for entirely new formats—once with the bannings
and once when Zendikar block actually rotates. Now that’s exciting!
What do the bannings mean for the new format? A lot of people have claimed that the result will just be a Valakut-dominated world all over again, but I
don’t buy it. Valakut may have ruled Standard for a time last year, but one must remember that was in a time when everyone else had to fear Jace
as well. We’ve had multiple sets since then, many of which were packed with cards intended as answers to Titans and the like.
Not only that, but remember when I said earlier that I’d be coming back to the creatures that failed “The Jace Test?” How many decks
that matched up well against Valakut were built around creatures that simply couldn’t compete with Jace? That was the first thing I started
thinking about when I heard about the bannings—what powerhouse cards have been forced to live in obscurity because of the oppressive effect of
Jace on the format, or suffered from splash damage from the reign of Caw-Blade?
Here’s a short list of creatures that seem like they have potential that have suffered from Jace’s long shadow
Phyrexian Obliterator
Phyrexian Vatmother
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Hero of Bladehold
Consecrated Sphinx
Admonition Angel
Blightsteel Colossus
Cyclops Gladiator
Ezuri’s Brigade
Lodestone Golem
Blade Splicer
Moltensteel Dragon
Molten-Tail Masticore
Necrotic Ooze
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Obsidian Fireheart
Phyrexian Hydra
Sphinx of Magosi
Steel Hellkite
World Queller
Wurmcoil Engine
Certainly not all of these are going to be superstars, but how many of them even saw any serious play while Jace was in the format? A few may have
shown up here or there, but by large, all of these powerful creatures have been relegated to the sidelines ever since Jace made Standard his own.
Now, we can’t just go building mono-fatty decks just because Jace is gone. There’s still another serious threat in Standard that punishes
tapping out for a giant monster. Splinter Twin decks may not have quite the same quality backup plan now that Jace is gone, but their A-game is still
just as lethal for anyone who doesn’t come prepared and foolishly taps out for something that doesn’t immediately win the game.
If anything, I’m more worried about Splinter Twin decks than I am Valakut. If Valakut is rock, Splinter Twin is a huge poster board–sized
paper. Valakut is a deck that is hard pressed to win without tapping huge amounts of mana on its own turn, and Splinter Twin harshly punishes that kind
of thing. While Valakut can play answers to Splinter Twin like Dismember, Combust, or Nature’s Claim, these are all likely to be sideboard cards,
especially in a format that’s certain to be much more diverse than what we’ve seen over the past few months. Valakut’s fundamental
strategy just matches up incredibly poorly against Splinter Twin, and savvy Twin players are likely to find answers to whatever hate might be out
there.
These two decks certainly won’t make up the whole field, but I feel like they’ll define it. We’ll see Mono Red and Vampires,
certainly, and perhaps Boros sans-Mystic, so we can’t focus entirely on Valakut and Twin, but any deck without a plan against these two will be
hard pressed to find success in the new Standard, I think.
Without further ado—the brews!
The very first card that sprung to mind when I heard about the Jace banning was Phyrexian Obliterator. Perhaps it was because I’d just been
brutalized by it in the Grand Prix (where I had to kill it twice in one game, no less—with damage!) , but Obliterator seems like the sort of
creature that has been oppressed by Jace and has a lot of potential to do some serious damage in the new world order.
Sure, Obliterator still dies to cards like Dismember and Go for the Throat, but that’s a whole lot less damning than failing the Jace Test for
viability. Besides, I have a feeling that with Batterskull no longer available at bargain basement prices and Mono Red sure to surge in popularity,
Dismember won’t be the same kind of auto-include that it has been lately. Valakut decks will be hard pressed to stop an Obliterator, since their
big plan is to wipe away your creatures with damage; backed up with disruption, this next stage in Negator evolution can put the game away quickly.
Phyrexian Obliterator is like an Abyssal Persecutor that’s actually good. Sure, it doesn’t fly, but what are they going to do, block it?
So many people always seem to want Mono-Black Control to come back with every set, but I think between Obliterator and Lashwrithe, there might just be
the tools for a mono-black deck to be competitive. Jace was the force most staunchly keeping a deck like this from ever seeing the light of tournament
play, since a deck without countermagic that only ever plays one threat per turn doesn’t fare well against said planeswalker.
Consider this rough list:
This is mostly just a compilation of ideas rather than a tuned list, of course, but represents something that might be possible now that Jace and
Stoneforge for Sword of Feast and Famine aren’t in the picture. The core of the deck here is clearly Phyrexian Obliterator and Lashwrithe,
providing threats that are seriously difficult for decks relying on damage-based removal to deal with. Inquisition helps clear the way for the
creatures, while Despise gets rid of Primeval Titans or Exarchs before they can come down. Keep in mind that without Jace around, discard spells become
a lot better because your opponents are much less likely to be able to undo all of your work quite so easily. It’s also worth noting that if
people turn to Jace Beleren for their card advantage needs that you can hit him with both Inquisition and Despise—not to mention any of your
creatures.
The departure of Jace also makes a play like T3 Nighthawk, T4 Lashwrithe, pay four life, and equip much more threatening. In fact, that could even be
enough to race against an opposing Titan if you’ve got a little disruption to back it up! Lashwrithe seems like a card that gives opposing decks
fits, no matter whether they’re a control deck or a creature deck, but just hasn’t really been able to fit anywhere before thanks to the
state of Standard. Now, though, might just be its time to shine—especially since cards like Spell Pierce and Divine Offering are likely to fall
out of favor.
Next up—Forgemaster Tezzeret!
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
For those of you who followed PT Paris, this one probably looks familiar. Martin Juza went 5-0 on Day One with a Forgemaster Tezzeret deck, but the
deck never really caught on in the real world. One reason for that was the rise in artifact hate aimed at Caw-Blade, and the other was likely a poor
matchup against Caw-Blade itself. Kuldotha Forgemaster was not far below Phyrexian Obliterator on that list of creatures oppressed by Jace, and this
deck was quite fragile to the Mind Sculptor, though the original version played the card itself.
With Jace gone, and much of the artifact hate likely to be going back into people’s binders, this strategy has a lot more
potential—especially with Spellskite to provide another cheap artifact that protects the Forgemaster on top of everything! Tezzeret and
Forgemaster both get value out of more low-cost artifacts, so Torpor Orb becomes a totally reasonable maindeck inclusion, a card that can
singlehandedly shut down Splinter Twin decks and seriously put the brakes on Valakut’s clock. The departure of Jace also makes the Blightteel
Colossus plan much more reasonable as a win condition, although it does mean that the deck loses the only way it had to put the various Tinker targets
back into the deck if it should happen to draw them.
Speaking of giant poison creatures—I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I think U/B Infect might be able to make a comeback in the new
format. It really depends on the way the metagame shifts. If Mono Red is the aggro deck of choice, Phyrexian Crusader and friends are thrilled. If
Vampires becomes the dominant beatdown deck, things look a whole lot worse. That said, the departure of Jace makes Phyrexian Vatmother a more realistic
maindeck card, so it might be possible to build something that matches up better against it.
Creatures (18)
- 2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
- 4 Phyrexian Crusader
- 4 Phyrexian Vatmother
- 4 Plague Myr
- 4 Whispering Specter
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
I’m not really optimistic about the potential of Infect in a world filled with Dismembers, but I’d probably start with something like this.
Whispering Specter is a card that seems like it has potential, and Plague Myrs seem like a decent option to accelerate into Vatmothers in a world of
Valakut decks. That said, the Magnet/Clasp engine is a lot less impressive when Equipment decks aren’t all the rage and certainly does very
little against Splinter Twin, so it might be better to go back to the drawing board completely.
I have some other brews floating around in my head—like a Tezzeret deck that plays Phyrexian Obliterator itself! But these are what jumped out
first and most fully formed. I know that I, for one, am truly excited about the potential of the new format and am even strongly considering booking a
flight to the SCG Open in Seattle to take a shot at it next month. It’s a whole new world out there, and I just can’t stop brewing new
decks for it!
Until next time,
bmk