Do you like Future Sight?
I can’t help being excited when I open a minty-fresh booster pack. With Future Sight, I’m more excited more usual. There are so many cards that affect the Standard environment, and more than one that can make up the core of a new deck. Therefore, I would like to share my ideas about the role of the Future Sight cards in the new Standard metagame.
In this article, I’ll look at the cards that will be played in current Standard decks. I’ll write about new decks another time, but not now. Today, I will analyze Aggro decks (Boros, Gruul, Mono Green, Mono Black, Simic, Project X), Control decks (the Trons, Angelfire, Solar Flare, Dralnu du Louvre, Pickles), and Dragonstorm.
I hope this article will be of great help for your Regionals. Okay, let’s go!
Aggro Decks
Boros
If you would like to play Boros, you should first consider the danger of Sulfur Elemental. Boros seems to have died a death recently through this single card. It’s powerful enough to kill the King of Beatdown Decks. From Future Sight you could run Knight of Sursi, as Shade of Trokair doesn’t really fit in a Boros metagame that isn’t rife with the mirror match. You need some mana to play burn spells at instant speed, after all. Knight of Sursi could be played instead of Icatian Javelineers.
Alternately, you could build your deck with an emphasis on the Red cards, thus avoiding the damage wrought by Sulfur Elemental. As we know from Block, there’s Blood Knight… and the lauded Magus of the Moon. If you give up playing Soltari Priest and Knight of Holy Nimbus — a tough decision – you may find the solution for your Red/White aggro deck.
Gruul
First, everyone agrees that Magus of the Moon can be played in the Gruul maindeck. If you expect many Urzatron decks in your local meta, you should play it instead of Call of the Herd. Magus of the Moon means that everyone packing control must rethink their manabase before rolling up to a tournament. Thus, Magus of the Moon will have a big impact on the Standard environment.
If your Gruul deck has more Stone Rains and Cryoclasms than most, Tarmogoyf is a fantastic two-mana creature. Just play Stone Rain on turn 3 and you will give your Tarmogoyf +2/+2. As Scab-Clan Mauler is not good in those kinds of deck, it is clear you should play four copies of Tarmogoyf as replacements.
Tarox Bladewing is interesting. I’ve seen many Japanese Gruul players play Spectral Force and Scryb Ranger, though it is not easy to get both of them out without any draw spells. These have great applications against minimal sections of the metagame. However, Tarox is great against any deck (except Angelfire) even if it is alone, while the much-preferred Giant Solifuge is killed by Court Hussar. A judgment call, I feel.
Mono Green
Cheap and easy, Mono Green can be one of the most popular Standard decks around. From Future Sight, try Heartwood Storyteller. Mono Green has more creature cards than any other deck. Your opponent will wonder whether to play even a Signet, which is important in order for them to play and early Wrath of God. In other words, Heartwood Storyteller can delay Wrath of God.
Magus of the Vineyard is also worth considering. Everyone says “What if your opponent plays Signet on turn 1?” Indeed, it doesn’t cause mana burn as Eladamri’s Vineyard did, but of course it is true your opponent doesn’t always have Signet. In such a case, Magus of the Vineyard is ridiculously strong. Test it before giving up on it.
Mono Black (The Rack)
Black received many cards from Future Sight. First of all, I expect you found Nihilith and Tombstalker are both great with Smallpox. It is true that these cards are no good with Dark Confidant, but as we have Phyrexian Arena, you should test them instead of Dark Confidant.
Augur of Skulls is a nice creature that can take more cards than Ravenous Rats, and it can block fatties. It is nice with Cry of Contrition as well. I can tell you it is much better than Ravenous Rats.
Other than these, I find Slaughter’s Pact to be a really good card. I know everyone plays Cruel Edict instead… they aren’t satisfied at all. Slaughter Pact means you can deal with Spectral Force very easily, or other troublesome creatures. You may not rate this card highly, but I’m sure you’ll be convinced that this is awesome after you’ve tested with it.
Simic (Scryb & Force)
I have a good news for Simic aggro. Delay is one of the best answers for Wrath of God. If you have played Scryb & Force, you know Mana Leak isn’t very good against Wrath of God, as recent control decks have a lot of mana acceleration that enables them to get seven mana easily and quickly. However, Delay is not phased with such matters. Of course, you may play Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir too. We know that he’s really good with Delay.
We could even run Venser, Shaper Servant rather than Mystic Snake in this deck. I’m sure Mystic Snake is good against control builds, but Venser’s “comes into play” ability is really nice against both control and aggro. I have often had Mystic Snake in my hand against Boros creatures, where it did very little.
Project X
It is really sad that no one plays Project X on Magic Online. This deck turned out to be the best aggro deck in the pre-Future Sight Standard of GP: Kyoto. You must plan on dealing with this deck before you roll up to Regionals, because it will be there.
From Future Sight, Glittering Wish will be an obvious boon. It can fetch both Saffi Eriksdotter and Teysa, Orzhov Scion, which are essential for the combo. Of course, it provides you with other good stuff like Glare of Subdual, Crime/Punishment, Orzhov Pontiff, and so on. You know how the “Wish-board” was awesome when Judgment was legal? It can be so again.
To tell the truth, I found little else to add to Project X from Future Sight, though it is great enough. Just look through the card list and splash cards you like in your sideboard… you’ll be able to fetch them at will.
Control
The Trons
I’m sure everyone expects that the Tron decks will play Tolaria West, and I agree. However, how many Tolaria Wests would you play? Before building your deck, you should not count this card as a land. Treat this as a 1UU Sylvan Scrying that is rarely played as an Island. In fact, it is not too easy for Tron decks to get 1UU, And usually playing Compulsive Research is much better than transmuting Tolaria West. All things considered, you shouldn’t play four copies of this. Play two or three, and that would be enough.
If you play Tolaria West, Pact of Negation is nice. You might think 3UU costs too much, but I’ve been on the receiving end of this spell… 3UU is not expensive at all. In any case after you assembled your Tron, it goes without saying that this is really good.
Take Possession is also nice, especially in the mirror match. You have Annex, but we all know how Annex sucks in the latter half of the game. Annex is not very good after turn 4, because your opponent is wary of it and always ready to counter it. Besides, imagine using Take Possession to steal your opponent’s Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. All of a sudden, your opponent is pretty much unable to play spells.
You may not find Coalition Relic good, but it has possibility. It can produce two colored mana at once, and it is really nice for Tron decks. Every Tron deck except Cell (Simic Tron) plays Signets that don’t match the color of the deck, so you could run this instead of such cards.
Foresee is really nice draw spell in Tron decks. It is difficult to decide which is better, Tidings or Foresee, but I would rather play Foresee than Tidings because I love seeing new cards. I assume you have all seen four lands on top of your library many times. In such cases, Foresee is ridiculous.
Delay is nice of course, as you have Teferi in your deck. It is clear that you play four copies of Remand, so Delay can be your fifth and sixth Remand. I don’t know whether it is better than Mana Leak in Tron decks, but playtesting will answer this question.
The cards above can be played in any Urzatron decks. Next up is River of Tears. As Dimirtron doesn’t need Black mana on an opponent’s turn, this land may actually be better than Underground River. You can play Damnation without taking pain.
I would like to write about Cell, my favorite Tron deck, but then the article would run really long. I promise that I will write it in another article. There are many Future Sight cards for Cell! After Future Sight, Cell will change its name to become “Ultimate Perfect Form.” More on this is a future article!
Angelfire
I guess Angel of Salvation can be played. It is good with Lightning Angel or Court Hussar. Some say its ability is crap, but you know this card is quite a bomb by playing with it in Limited.
Aven Mindcensor is really nice against Dragonstorm. Before Future Sight, Angelfire was really bad against Dragonstorm, but this can change the match up. It doesn’t care about Gigadrowse, while Trickbind does.
The cards that I mentioned about Tron will be good in Angelfire too. Especially Foresee, as it’s better than Careful Consideration for Angelfire, which can’t always get double Blue on turn 4. What is more, Coalition Relic is amazingly strong in this deck. Even if you can’t make a Signet on turn 2, you will have six mana on turn 4 with this. It means you can Suspend Aeon Chronicler or Detritivore with X=2. Also, it helps you to get WW or UU or RR. Why don’t you put this in your Angelfire decks? Trust me, it’s worth it!
Solar Flare
In my opinion, you don’t need double White early when you play Solar Flare because of Damnation, so Solar Flare should contain more Black mana. This means Korlash, Heir to Blackblade can be played. Imagine you play Angel of Despair on turn 4. As Solar Flare needs a lot of mana, both Korlash’s Grandeur and Power/Toughness is very acceptable.
Foresee may be good if you don’t play Zombify, for the same reason as Angelfire. If you love to reanimate Angel of Despair, you should play Compulsive Research or Careful Consideration instead. I can’t say which is strictly better, but again, playtesting will prove it.
If you play the control decks listed above, be wary of Magus of the Moon. You will see your lands become basic Mountains in game 1 more than ever. Do not forget to put basic lands into your deck. Too many non-basic lands will screw you.
Dralnu du Louvre, and Pickles
Dralnu du Louvre got a great many cards from Future Sight, starting with Delay. As Dralnu du Louvre is a deck that best showcases the power of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Delay works as a basic Counterspell. Before Future Sight, Mana Leak or Rune Snag was played, but I guess Delay is much better than those because the former is often crap against Urzatron decks.
It is also clear that River of Tears is nice for Dralnu du Louvre. Why do you need Black mana on your opponent’s turn? Sure, if you have Sudden Death on turn 3… but that is all. For this reason, River of Tears is much better than Underground River. Reducing damage taken from your lands will lead to more wins against aggro.
Slaughter Pact and Pact of Negation are nice, as you have Mystical Teachings to fetch them. The former is really good against Magus of the Moon. The latter is really good against control decks. Just keeping in mind that you have to pay the cost, and your deck will be better than ever against all the troublesome decks in Standard.
Feel free to test Venser, Shaper Servant as well. I’m not sure if he is good in Dralnu du Louvre, but it is true that Venser can be good against the mirror – it can bounce a Dreadship Reef or a Dimir Aqueduct.
Pickles really resembles Dralnu du Louvre, but you shouldn’t play River of Tears in this deck as it’s not an Island. Instead you could play Zoetic Cavern. Your opponent will really wonder what the morph is, and thus it may snag some countermagic or a removal spell.
For both deck, Magus of the Future can play a big role. It is really ridiculous when you have Teferi. You can just put one into your deck, and your deck will be much better. Especially in Pickles, Dralnu himself isn’t very good, so Magus of the Future is nice.
Finally, it’s the turn of the best combo deck in Standard.
These days, Dragonstorm is still the most popular deck on Magic Online, though I don’t like an almost luck-based metagame choice such as this.
Anyway, I have a bad news for Dragonstorm… Pact of Negation. You know that, against control, Dragonstorm always fires off a huge Gigadrowse before they start? Well, Pact of Negation nullifies this avenue of attack. Of course Dragonstorm can play it as too, but you know Dragonstorm doesn’t need to be given new cards as the list is pretty tight as it stands.
In order to shoehorn some Future Sight cards into Dragonstorm, it is necessary to move the deck away from the core strategy that made it such a success. In other words, you can play not only Dragonstorm but also Empty the Warrens or Ignite Memories. If you do this, Grinning Ignus may be nice to make a big storm count… but is it worth tampering with the deck? Will the diluting effect mean the deck loses power? Surely it will.
In regular Dragonstorm, we must decide whether to play Tarox Bladewing or Hunted Dragon. I see many Dragonstorm players crying out in exasperation when they draw Hunted Dragon. It is clear Tarox is much better in such a case. However, unless you don’t draw Hunted Dragon, the token-spawning 6/6 is better than the legendary dragon. I guess you should weigh up the argument and run with the one you like.
That’s about all from me this time… but I assume everyone will claim I’ve forgotten about the Dredge deck. I guess Dredge will be one of the best decks in Standard, but I believe it is too premature to call. My friends and I are now testing many versions of the deck, and when the results come in I will write about it. Needless to say, I will write about Cell, too.
Until then, good luck at Regionals.