Eldritch Moon has arrived. That means it’s time to dritch those old decks and make an impact forging the new Standard format.
The first and best chance you’ll have to do so will be by attending or watching the SCG Tour® at #SCGCOL this weekend.
There are plenty of powerful decks from the previous Standard format that should make a showing. You can expect to be facing G/W Tokens, Bant Company, and Humans decks in all forms. You can also expect tribal strategies that got a boost from Eldritch Moon to be strong choices, including Spirits, Zombies, and Vampires.
Of course, there will also be plenty of brews. Today I’ll be going over some decks that I think will be capable of shooting for the moon and ending up in Standard. Let’s get to brewing!
Creatures (12)
- 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 2 Thing in the Ice
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 2 Stromkirk Occultist
- 3 Spell Queller
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
Is it time for Jeskai to make a comeback in Standard? I’m certainly willing to give it a try.
Modern Jeskai has been revitalized by Nahiri, the Harbinger and it’s time for her to start heralding Emrakul into Standard battlefields around the world, this time in the form of Emrakul, the Promised End.
Nahiri, the Harbinger still threatens to ultimate very quickly, although when she does so in this deck it obviously won’t be nearly as world-consuming as when Emrakul, the Aeons Torn makes an appearance. Thirteen flying trample damage to the face is still nothing to laugh at, and being able to recast Emrakul, the Promised End after it gets returned to hand, assuming the game has gone on long enough, is also a nice option. Just be careful about going full ultimate with Nahiri, the Harbinger if you’ve already drawn Emrakul, the Promised End and you’re only running one, since it doesn’t shuffle back into your library.
Nahiri, the Harbinger is going to be much more than just a tentacle tutor; she’s going to be an absolute value machine. Madness Jeskai is great an enabling madness, not only thanks to Nahiri, the Harbinger but also Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Lightning Axe or even Chandra, Flamecaller; Collective Defiance; and Nahiri’s Wrath. We then have Fiery Temper, Stromkirk Occultist, and Avacyn’s Judgment to get value from discarding cards.
Spell Queller is great. I know this. You know this. That dog knows this. The biggest surprise will be if it doesn’t end up being-format defining and one of the best cards in the set.
Deckbuilding with Spell Queller in mind will be important. You can play more instants and flash creatures, cards with more than four casting cost, trying to go under Spell Queller, or have ways to remove Spell Queller cheaply…anything that allows you to not play right into Spell Queller.
This deck isn’t exactly abusing Spell Queller, but it does have things to do if your opponent passes their turn to not play into Spell Queller, like casting Anticipate. Take Inventory could be nice in the deck, except it doesn’t play nicely with (or against) Spell Queller and it seems like there isn’t enough room.
This version of Jeskai is mostly focused on clearing the battlefield so it could have trouble dealing with noncreature strategies. Counter magic like Clash of Wills could help in that regard.
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (21)
Spells (27)
Next up we have a Ramp deck that gets some new tools, Splendid Reclamation being the most notable and perhaps the most powerful if you’re willing to build around it.
Splendid Reclamation is going to be great on turn 4 if you’ve dumped two or more lands in the bin, and it adds a massive amount of mana late in the game. Remember to crack your Evolving Wilds during your upkeep after you’ve returned them with Splendid Reclamation to help thin your deck.
Hedron Crawler is going to help you ramp while also being one of the key cards that will enable reducing Emrakul, the Promised End’s cost by being a creature and an artifact.
The other major Emrakul, the Promised End cost reducer is Vessel of Nascency, which can also act as a Splendid Reclamation enabler by flipping lands in the graveyard.
Emrakul, the Promised End can get down to costing a measly six mana fairly easily by filling up your graveyard, but Splendid Reclamation will occasionally ramp a massive amount so that it doesn’t have to be reduced much.
Nahiri’s Wrath is one of the biggest question marks from Eldritch Moon. It has plenty of potential, being capable of clearing out your opponent’s battlefield of pretty much everything at the cost of cards. That advantage can be more than recouped thanks to Splendid Reclamation. Discarding lands becomes a major plus if you’re preparing to cast Splendid Reclamation, and you can even discard more than you need, since they’re better off in your graveyard than your hand if Splendid Reclamation is involved.
Be careful, though, because Nahiri’s Wrath gets blown out by Spell Queller (and other countermagic) if you’re discarding cards a bunch of cards as you cast it.
Chandra, Flamecaller is another great card to ramp into for battlefield control and can also dump lands into your graveyard for Splendid Reclamation.
Grapple with the Past is reasonable but unexciting as a green Anticipate that enables Splendid Reclamation or returns Emrakul, the Promised End in the late-game.
One issue this deck could encounter is that casting Emrakul, the Promised End might not end up being enough to win if its Mindslaver aspect falls flat and you don’t have anything to back it up.
Creatures (17)
- 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 1 Linvala, the Preserver
- 1 Archangel Avacyn
- 2 Bruna, the Fading Light
- 4 Gisela, the Broken Blade
- 1 Thalia's Lancers
- 4 Spell Queller
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are clearly very powerful, but it’s not clear where they fit in. Are they going to be stuck in the outfield, or do we just start jamming them in decks until they meld?
Gisela, the Broken Blade is competing with powerful four-drops like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Collected Company and it’s not certain she quite stands up. But on the surface she seems amazing, like an upgraded Baneslayer Angel. Brisela, Voice of Nightmares is literally horrifying and figuratively horrifying for any opponent, since there isn’t much that deals with her and the removal and bounce in the format is so undercosted. Watch out for Collected Company into Reflector Mage, though.
This deck isn’t quite tempo and isn’t quite control, but it has a bunch of powerful cards crammed in. Stasis Snare plays nicely with Spell Queller, allowing you to keep up and cast Stasis Snare at the end of your opponent’s turn if they don’t play anything.
Creatures (32)
- 3 Nantuko Husk
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 1 Liliana, Heretical Healer
- 3 Catacomb Sifter
- 4 Zulaport Cutthroat
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 4 Loam Dryad
- 1 Decimator of the Provinces
- 4 Distended Mindbender
- 4 Foul Emissary
Lands (21)
Spells (7)
Here we have another revitalization of an old archetype that looks very promising.
Elder Deep-Fiend is on a lot of radars as the hottest emerge card, but Distended Mindbender looks like one of the most exciting cards in the set to me. It’s easy to compare it to Thought-Knot Seer, since every three-drop in the deck helps Distended Mindbender pop out on curve for four mana and pick away at your opponent’s hand. The upside is that it doesn’t give your opponent a card when it leaves the battlefield, it has a bigger body, and it can nab two cards.
It seems like it will hit multiple targets most of the time you cast Distended Mindbender on turn 4, and it’s impossible to whiff unless your opponent is holding nothing but land anyway. It’s great at protecting itself from removal, since you can bin your opponent’s goodies before it even hits the battlefield.
Foul Emissary might not look like much but is secretly just amazingly synergistic with plenty of cards and chock-full of value. It’s a great creature to find with Collected Company and continue the chain of looking at the top of your library for creatures. The dream is of course casting it, finding Distended Mindbender in your top four, and then sacrificing it for Distended Mindbender’s emerge, giving you a 3/2 body as well. Downright filthy.
Sanctum of Ugin is going to allow you to continue chaining Distended Mindbenders or just tutor up Decimator of the Provinces to completely pig out on your opponent’s life total and end the game.
Zulaport Cutthroat and Nantuko Husk give the deck solid inevitability and a way to win the game without having to interact with anything happening on your opponent’s side of the battlefield. Decimator of Provinces giving Nantuko Husk Trample is appealing as well.
The deck doesn’t interact much with your opponent’s permanents, but its proactive plan seems solid and might be able to push through whatever gets thrown your way.
Full Moon
There doesn’t seem to be any dark side to Eldritch Moon. It looks like a set with plenty of powerful cards that will hopefully enable plenty of new archetypes. I look forward to trying them all and trying to break things wide open.
What do you think will be the breakout deck at #SCGCOL? Will any new cards be able to match and surpass the power of Bant Company with Spell Queller or the raw power of G/W Tokens? Will a new boogeyman emerge?