While this isn’t the most original topic–I assume everyone’s writing about new decks this week–I think I can offer some pretty sweet original decks. Let’s just hop right in.
Spirits
Spirits got a huge portion of the overall power level in Eldritch Moon. When I predicted that they wouldn’t be bothering with Spirits a few weeks ago, I was wildly mistaken. For reasons that are completely indiscernible to me, Wizards somehow decided we needed another Faeries in Standard, and they gave us some amazing tools. I’m thoroughly pumped for Spirits in Modern, based mostly on Eldritch Moon, so you’d better believe I think it’ll be a serious player in Standard.
Judge’s Familiar catches a lot of flak; people would talk about how it was one of the filler cards you had to put in your Blue Devotion deck to make Thassa, God of the Sea work, but that’s just wrong. Part of the problem is that it’s hard to know how good Judge’s Familiar is while you’re playing with it.
It has what I call the “Privileged Position Problem.” It was really hard to figure out how good Privileged Position was in Limited because you never knew if it was stopping your opponent from casting spells or not. Similarly, you don’t really see the advantages Judge’s Familiar is generating because the info is hidden by not seeing your opponent’s hand. What we do know about Judge’s Familiar is that it’s a multi-format all-star with multiple Pro Tour wins.
Mausoleum Wanderer puts Judge’s Familiar to shame. A one-mana 1/1 flier that gets bigger when you play other cards of its tribe is already pretty solid; there aren’t any one-mana two-power fliers that can attack, and this gets to function that way in the early-game. The fact that it triggers off Spirits specifically makes it even better, because Spirits in multiples are easy to come by. “Spectral Procession, attack for four” is something this card is capable of…not in Standard, but that’s not the point.
Getting +1/+1 until end of turn when a Spirit enters the battlefield is a big deal, big enough that it would make the card interesting, not great but fringe-playable on its own. To just throw Judge’s Familiar’s ability on as a bonus, well, now you have an outrageous card, but that’s not even all this offers! It’s not just Judge’s Familiar’s ability; they have to pay equal to its power.
Ordinarily, so what? It’s not like you’re going to be casting Giant Growth to turn this thing into a counterspell, and its pump ability only triggers when you cast a creature, which generally isn’t at a useful time for this ability, except that there are tons of instant-speed Spirits in Standard, which means that, even if you don’t have one, as long as you have mana up, your opponent has to expect that they’re going to need at least two extra mana if they don’t want to turn their spell into a removal spell for Mausoleum Wanderer.
Okay, so you get it, Mausoleum Wanderer’s great, but it’s not even just that. We live in a format largely defined by a four-mana instant. If you have this one-drop, your opponent probably needs two extra mana if they want to cast Collected Company, and that’s assuming you haven’t done anything to permanently increase its power, like casting Always Watching or bolstering onto it with Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit (Kin-Tree Spirit).
In other words, this might as well be a Meddling Mage for Collected Company, except that you can still play your own. This one-drop is basically powerful enough to warrant building a deck around, and it might not even be the biggest draw to the deck!
All right, I have a lot to get to, and I’m not just trying to talk about Spirits. Honestly, I’d imagine you already know how great these cards are anyway and you’re basically skimming to get to the list. Just imagine me gushing with similar intensity about all the other rare Spirits here, even Rattlechains–they’re all absurd.
Creatures (28)
- 2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 2 Bygone Bishop
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 4 Rattlechains
- 2 Elder Deep-Fiend
- 4 Spell Queller
- 4 Selfless Spirit
- 4 Mausoleum Wanderer
Lands (25)
Spells (7)
Sideboard
Elder-Deep Fiend and Archangel Avacyn aren’t Spirits, but they have flash and they play really well with Spirits. Selfless Spirit allows you to trigger Avacyn at any time or protect your other creatures from Avacyn’s wrath. Elder Deep-Fiend is an absurd card. It’s rightly compared to Mistbind Clique, but playing against it actually feels like playing against Mistbind Clique and Cryptic Command in the same card. The ability to tap all of your opponent’s creatures and attack for the win is absolutely a devastatingly effective part of this card.
Bygone Bishop has underperformed whenever I’ve tried to play it in the past, but things are different here. Mausoleum Wanderer, Selfless Spirit, and Rattlechains can all protect it, and with Rattlechains you can cast it in your opponent’s end step and then immediately untap and start making Clues. It could be a whole new world for Bygone Bishop, but I’m starting out conservatively.
This deck is by far the closest we’ve seen in Standard to Faeries since Faeries, and I expect it to have as warping an influence on the metagame. The once-ubiquitous 0/1 Plant tokens are now much worse at defending planeswalkers and Collected Company is much harder to resolve. If your deck operates entirely at sorcery speed, a deck like this will usually walk all over you. Be prepared.
Zombies
This tribe simply doesn’t seem to have as much power as Spirits. It desperately wants another two-drop, it doesn’t have one, and after Cryptbreaker the only good one-drop is Sidisi’s Faithful, so we just can’t think of this deck as looking anything like the old Gravecrawler / Geralf’s Messenger decks.
That might be okay. Zombies is a mindless aggro deck. Maybe it can be something else.
Here’s my take:
Creatures (24)
- 4 Relentless Dead
- 4 Diregraf Colossus
- 4 Prized Amalgam
- 1 Gisa and Geralf
- 4 Haunted Dead
- 4 Cryptbreaker
- 3 Advanced Stitchwing
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
If you don’t like the three-color mana, you can potentially replace the green cards with Contingency Plan; Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; and an extra Gisa and Geralf or two.
This deck is all about digging for your good Zombies, Cryptbreaker and Diregraf Colossus, while filling your graveyard to make the Diregraf Colossus strong and then going very wide by triggering Diregraf Colossus and returning Zombies from the graveyard that bring Prized Amalgam with them. This gives you an awesome one-mana removal spell. We make up for the lack of early plays by spending the second turn filling our graveyard to get set up.
Not an aggro deck, not a control deck. This deck is about being relentless. This is an attrition deck, a strategic archetype we rarely discuss in Constructed, but it’s attacking in some very powerful and unusual ways.
The card quality of these cards is actually pretty high, and we really maximize the few great Zombies we have by playing the green cards to find them, and they synergy here is on the extremely high end.
If you forgot how much you wished Standard had some kind of graveyard hate after Rally the Ancestors rotated, this deck might remind you.
Splendid Reclamation
While we’re taking advantage of the fact that no one can mess with our graveyards, let me introduce you to one of the weirdest Ramp decks I’ve ever seen.
Creatures (9)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
This is a dedicated Ramp deck with only a single ramp spell. Splendid Reclamation is a messed-up card. The only reason I’m not almost completely sure it’ll get banned in Commander at some point is that I don’t think the people managing that list think about Magic the way that I do, but I still think they might find themselves forced to at some point. This card might have been printed as a gift to multiplayer players, as not taking it seriously is kind of the only reason I can imagine them putting this in the set. Take the above list as an example of how I think this card’s busted.
Here’s how it works:
Spend your first two turns getting lands into your graveyard with Evolving Wilds, Magmatic Insight, Tormenting Voice, Gather the Pack, and Grapple with the Past. On turn 3, evaluate how much pressure you’re under. If you need to, cast Nahiri’s Wrath or Kozilek’s Return to buy time; otherwise, keep filling your graveyard.
On turn 4, if you didn’t need to react on turn 3, you might be ready to cast Splendid Reclamation, but more likely, you did, so there aren’t many lands in your graveyard or you haven’t found Splendid Reclamation yet.
No problem! Cast another two-mana spell, and at this point, you can probably cast Bedlam Reveler for two mana, and between Grapple with the Past and Gather the Pack, you’ve probably found one. If you don’t have Splendid Reclamation or Shreds of Sanity in your hand, cast Bedlam Reveler to draw three to look for it. Don’t worry if you discard cards. You really didn’t need them.
When you have a chance, cast Splendid Reclamation after buying time with Bedlam Reveler and sweepers; this should put around seven extra lands onto the battlefield. Untap, sacrifice one of them to return the World Breaker that’s in your graveyard to your hand, use some of your remaining mana to cast it, and trigger Kozilek’s Return, clearing your opponent’s battlefield. Trigger two of them if you have to. While you’re at it, also trigger your Sanctum of Ugin and use it to find Ulamog. From there, your opponent should concede.
Your big weakness is discard, which can rob you of your Splendid Reclamation. Fight this by siding in Den Protectors and Deathmist Raptors. Drown your controlling opponent in 3/3 deathtouch creatures.
Emerge
Emerge is a very powerful mechanic, but what really puts it over the top in Standard is Sanctum of Ugin. The first time you cast Elder Deep-Fiend and use it to find another one and lock your opponent down for two turns in a row, you’ll kind of wonder how anyone can justify doing anything else. The trick is finding a deck with a lot of good creatures to sacrifice and mana to support Sanctum of Ugin. That brings up to my take:
Creatures (32)
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 2 Eldrazi Skyspawner
- 4 Matter Reshaper
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 4 Loam Dryad
- 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
- 1 Decimator of the Provinces
- 4 It of the Horrid Swarm
- 4 Foul Emissary
Lands (23)
Spells (5)
Sideboard
Here, an even simpler plan: cast creatures on turns (1), 2, and 3, and then sacrifice your three-mana creature to emerge Elder Deep-Fiend or It of the Horrid Swarm. If you cast It of the Horrid Swarm, you’ll probably want to sacrifice Sanctum of Ugin if you have one to find Decimator of the Provinces, which will likely be lethal the following turn. If you cast Elder Deep-Fiend, it’s more likely that you’ll just want another of those. Sometimes you might not have one of those right away, but between Duskwatch Recruiter and Foul Emissary, they should be pretty easy to find. If all else fails, you might just go wide and activate Westvale Abbey.
Bant Company
In talking about other busted cards, I may have lost focus on Tamiyo, Field Researcher, which is likely the most powerful card in the set. Finding the right home for Tamiyo is going to be a big part of the upcoming Standard season, and the first place to look is Bant Company.
Tamiyo is best with creatures, and best in decks that have the right colors of mana, so Bant Company checks off the most important boxes. Recently, Bant Humans has become the Bant Company deck to play, but the strength of Spell Queller really helps call into question the decision to focus on a single tribe. Maybe it’s better to just play all good cards:
Creatures (25)
- 1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
- 4 Spell Queller
- 3 Selfless Spirit
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Selfless Spirit offers the deck a cheap flying creature, something it’s always wanted, and that along with Spell Queller make Tamiyo, Field Researcher much better, as you can both defend against fliers and more easily make an easy attack to draw cards. Selfless Spirit offers insurance against sweepers and, more importantly, makes it very difficult for opposing creature decks to attack on a large battlefield, as you can just block with all of your creatures and only ever lose your Selfless Spirit.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar really punishes opposing flash creatures, which should make attacking much easier in this format.
My criterion here is pretty simple: I just chose the creatures that I thought were best regardless of synergy. The most unusual part is probably the four Mausoleum Wanderers in the sideboard. The idea there is that I think they might be the best card in the mirror, letting you get ahead on the battlefield and stopping your opponent from resolving Collected Company in a matchup that has historically favored whoever casts Collected Company more.
Planeswalkers
There’s a lot going for planeswalkers right now. We have the complete cycle of Oaths to make them a little better, and we’ve reached critical mass of a wide diversity of great planeswalkers with different names. Possibly more importantly, they all dodge Mausoleum Wanderer. Oath of Nissa potentially lets us do some crazy things. With a deck like this, there’s really an abundance of options, so it’s not easy to build, but here’s a start:
Creatures (9)
- 1 Dragonlord Atarka
- 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
- 1 Linvala, the Preserver
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Planeswalkers (11)
- 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
- 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
- 1 Chandra, Flamecaller
- 2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
- 2 Nahiri, the Harbinger
- 1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
- 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
This deck takes the “Superfriends” concept further than any successful deck in Standard has done before, but I think it might actually work here. Sylvan Advocate and a bit of cheap removal stop you from falling behind on second turn, and then on the third turn you start playing Oaths or planeswalkers. Once your opponent falls behind a planeswalker or two, things rapidly spiral out of control.
Liliana, the Last Hope defends for the other planeswalkers while picking off troublesome Spirits. Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar provide early defense. Nahiri, the Harbinger quickly threatens any of Linvala, the Preserver; Dragonlord Atarka; and Emrakul, the Promised End. Sorin, Grim Nemesis; Ob Nixilis Reignited; and Chandra, Flamecaller all offer removal and access to more cards.
Terrarion, Traverse the Ulvenwald, and Oath of Nissa make the mana amazingly easy, and Descend upon the Sinful is incredible in this deck. It’s also very nice to use a sweeper that isn’t countered by Spell Queller (like Languish) or Selfless Spirit (like Planar Outburst).
The sideboard can have almost anything, but I’m particularly happy with some of my choices. Oath of Chandra makes it much easier to fight opposing planeswalkers. Gnarlwood Dryad stops you from falling behind against Humans. Early on it trades, and if you draw it later, it might completely blunt their assault.
The Golden Age
Standard is never as fun for me as it is when a new set’s out and I’m preparing for the upcoming Pro Tour, and this is just a sample of some of the awesome decks I’ve started testing to help Team UltraPro prepare for the final PT of the year. So far, this format looks awesome, as Eldritch Moon has provided a ton of exciting options.