Hello! Dragon’s Maze is about to open its Guildgates for champions, and it’s time for my favorite type of set review—the review of older cards that might become better. Yes, there are some good reasons why these cards don’t see play right now, but sometimes the reasons are far from actual card quality. It may be lack of a proper neighborhood, which may be built with new cards, or simply lack of effort.
Do you remember Reanimator’s long way from Craterhoof Behemoth to Cartel Aristocrat to Undercity Informer to Craterhoof Behemoth again? Or Caw-Blade’s dominance at Pro Tour Paris when all the deck’s pieces were Standard-legal at Worlds a few months earlier? Dragon’s Maze could easily change the neighborhood of many good old cards or shift the metagame in the proper direction, so let’s look at what’s going on.
Older Standard cards fall into one of two categories: ones from Return to Ravnica block and ones from Innistrad block. Forgotten Innistrad cards have their last chance to see play now, while Return to Ravnica ones have a full year to shine—and many of them surely will. There’s a chance that M14 will shake the format again, but that only happens if two nearly identical cards occur simultaneously (like Farseek and Rampant Growth), so let’s neglect it for now.
Innistrad forgotten card number one is Delver of Secrets. Once the king of Standard, he’s s total miser now—the lack of Ponder is even more brutal than pessimists thought. However, there are still some ways to use Insectile Aberration profitably. You could build a classic tempo deck, which would be well positioned against any non-aggro deck in Standard.
However, there are two problems: the lack of cheap value spells and the "can’t be countered" written on Supreme Verdict. I was a huge fan of Spell Pierce as an anti-Wrath card, but we have only Syncopate and Spell Rupture now, so building a successful tempo deck is a tricky quest. Nevertheless, there are successful attempts like Joseph Pinkley:
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Joseph wrote great primer that you should check out here if you like playing Delver of Secrets. I should also mention Quirion Dryad as a card with high potential that hasn’t seen much play. The reasons are the same—the lack of proper spells and Azorius Charm. The latter is, by the way, one of the most annoying removal spells for aggro players because it’s such a clear manifestation of the uselessness of pumping efforts. Experiment One, Cloudfin Raptor, Quirion Dryad are much better dead than being put on top of your deck.
Another creature good with +1/+1 counters and thus vulnerable to Azorius Charm is Nivmagus Elemental. His proper place would be later in the article, but Nivmagus Elemental is one of the few possible ways to create a Delver of Secrets deck. I want to remind you about the deck used by Petr Brozek for 79th place at Grand Prix Bochum half a year ago. The deck didn’t see even fringe play, but if U/G Delver is capable of winning a PTQ, this one is worth mentioning too.
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Sideboard
The deck should obviously be updated to include Spell Rupture, but the rest is still fine. The duet of Delver of Secrets and Nivmagus Elemental deserves one more chance before rotation, though Nivmagus Elemental may have other chances later since it saw play in Modern. U/W Nivmagus Elemental is a mix of tempo and combo, so I’ve thought about adding red for more combo potential.
There is not only tiny Goblins Guttersnipe and Goblin Electromancer but also the fresh new Nivix Cyclops for counter-burn. There is unfortunately no Phyrexian mana spells in Standard, but the 1/4 is still a very flexible creature; it’s hard to outperform Geist of Saint Traft in the three-mana slot of a similar deck, but there are Nightbird’s Clutches and maybe Feeling of Dread to swing through blockers.
Speaking of blockers, it’s interesting that Lingering Souls sees a lot of play in Standard while Intangible Virtue is a card used by no one. The same is true of Favorable Winds and may easily become true for Legion’s Initiative. The problem with Anthems is that token decks are midrange decks with very limited space for reactive cards.
Tokens is probably worse than midrange Jund and comparable to "fair" midrange Naya, sharing the same problems and the same unfortunate position in the metagame of better midrange and aggro. However, Intangible Virtue was banned in Block Constructed for a good reason, which was just proved by Eric Thompson.
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Geist-Honored Monk? Is it still Standard-legal? What a hero for the old set review, and what a strange choice for non-Birthing Pod deck! Legion’s Initiative’s effect is somewhat similar to Birthing Pod since its best with enters-the-battlefield effects but bad with tokens. It’s strange to have an Anthem effect that’s bad with tokens, and it doesn’t really fit into any slot in an aggressive deck’s mana curve.
The best card to combine with Legion’s Initiative is probably Boros Reckoner—which means midrange with powerful creatures and without Jund’s amazing pack of removal or, in other words, "a bad idea." Do you have any good ideas about how to break Legion’s Initiative?
The next card is one that was valued very high at the time of Innistrad’s release but that you probably don’t think much about now. Bramblecrush was overestimated due to its ability to deal with planeswalkers. The same was the reason for Vraska, the Unseen to see play. However, such an ability is mostly important for control decks, which generally don’t include green, and green decks are normally able just to attack opposing planeswalkers to death.
Ral Zarek’s main advantage over Vraska, the Unseen is not that Izzet walker has more relevant abilities but the fact that he puts the "deal with target planeswalker" effect into the right colors. This is why he will probably see play while Vraska, the Unseen and Bramblecrush will end their days as marginal role-players. Can you lend me five coins?
Ral Zarek seems to have potential in Standard not only due to his abilities but also because of extensive hate for Sphinx’s Revelation. Revelation is still very powerful, but there will be a shift into Grixis Control or a change of focus in existing Revelation decks.
An older card that could take advantage of fewer Sphinx’s Revelations around is Lone Revenant. It’s weak compared with the powerful instant, but he’s a source of advantage in control mirrors and against midrange. It doesn’t die to flashy Restoration Angel and provides ways to beat opposing Council of the Absolute (who are truly nightmare as you must beat them very fast, but can’t draw may cards to find an answer).
The last older card that could benefit from Dragon’s Maze Heartless Summoning. This card has amazing combo potential in a format with Griselbrand and other powerful fatties. Unfortunately, it’s hard to back up Heartless Summoning with another mana ramp engine. Farseek is just not enough on its own, and Crypt Ghast isn’t as fast as it should be for good backup.
However, there are some Crypt Ghast only decks, and there were some Heartless Summoning only decks in Scars-Innistrad Standard. There is no Ponder or other good cheap digging, so I’m afraid of playing only one engine and would combine Heartless Summoning and Crypt Ghast before solving other problems. The most important of them seems to be the lack of early game; I miss Solemn Simulacrum very much, and Borderland Ranger doesn’t really replace it.
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There’s a good chance that green is not needed at all and that there is a better BUG with Havengul Lich (a long-time favorite of mine that didn’t become good) and Forbidden Alchemy. I didn’t have a chance to test different versions extensively, but they all were very interesting to play even if not really good. There are some unknown cards in Dragon’s Maze, and Deadbridge Chant may fit into the deck to increase the chances of hitting Griselbrand in the late game.
Are there more interesting and deserving cards in Innistrad block? Are there Dragon’s Maze cards able to change old cards’ fates? Share your opinions and suggest ideas in comments!