It’s that time of year again.
A brand new block is just around the corner, and spoilers aplenty are floating around the internet, teasing us with the awesomeness to come. Gamers the world over are speculating on just what this new visit to Mirrodin will mean and what new decks will spawn from the Phyrexian invasion.
But the addition of three-hundred new cards to Standard pales in the comparison to the big change to come. As Mirrodin joins the fray once again, all of Alara disappears, along with M10, as M11 takes its place. Rather than focus on the shiny new toys we’ll have to play with for the next few years, I want to take a look at what we’re losing and what that means moving forward.
The first and most obvious departure is the core of
Jund
and all its cascading goodness. Never again will someone Bituminous Blast into a Bloodbraid Elf into a Blightning in Standard, unless for some godforsaken reason Wizards of the Coast decides it’s a good idea to reprint all three of them. Jund’s stranglehold on Standard loosened drastically over the last
few months, but its impact on Standard was as profound as that of
Affinity
.
The departure of Jund as a strategy has significant implications for what kinds of decks stand to be viable in the new Standard.
The existence of Jund was tremendously oppressive to creature decks that weren’t either incredibly resilient to removal, or incredibly explosive. The sheer quantity and quality of removal that Jund had, combined with its creatures that gummed up the ground, made it nearly impossible for any kind of “fair” creature decks to compete. The departure of the likes of Bloodbraid Elf, Bituminous Blast, Sprouting Thrinax, Terminate, and Maelstrom Pulse opens the door for decks that actually rely on creatures staying in play to win.
Creature fans aren’t alone in celebrating the death of Jund. Black removal-based decks like
Vampires
hated dealing with Bloodbraid Elf and Sprouting Thrinax, though it’s unclear whether the loss of Vampire Nocturnus isn’t a bigger blow to them. I’m sure Patrick Chapin has been longing for the day that he could cast Jace, the Mind Sculptor without fear of Blightning or Bloodbraid Elf hitting it the following turn. Jace has already shown himself to be perhaps the best planeswalker ever printed, and the brave new world we’re about to enter has none of the cards that kept him in check.
Along with Blightning and Bloodbraid Elf goes Maelstrom Pulse – and Oblivion Ring and Pithing Needle, at that. All of the best answers to Jace – along with his planeswalker friends – gone, in one fell swoop. It’s a good thing that Jund isn’t around any longer to squash every upstart creature deck that comes along because creatures are the last line of defense against Jace taking over Standard once and for all.
The loss of Oblivion Ring and Maelstrom Pulse is quite interesting, even apart from the fact that it leaves Standard bereft of efficient answers to planeswalkers. Without such catch-all answers to fall back on, players will be forced to consider much more carefully what sort of removal they’re going to play in their decks. Previously, Pulse and Ring kept all kinds of permanents in check, from planeswalkers to enchantments, but now you’re going to have to decide just what you’re preparing for.
This is particularly interesting as we move into an artifact block. Last time we came to Mirrodin, artifact removal was at such a premium that we saw decks packing cards like Oxidize in the maindeck. While I doubt anything in Scars will be nearly as dominant as Affinity was back then, it’ll be interesting to see the decisions players make when they need to choose their removal.
Will Naturalize start to find its way into maindecks like Disenchant did back in the earliest days of the Pro Tour?
But it’s not just Jund that’s leaving us. Gone, too, is the core to the deck that took Jund’s place as the top dog of the format in its waning months –
Mythic
. Eldrazi Conscription will go back to the bargain bin, as Sovereigns of Lost Alara is no longer around to power it out obscenely quickly. Knight of the Reliquary and Noble Hierarch have served me admirably, but it’s time to say good-bye to them, along with my fair lady Elspeth, Knight-Errant, who never got the respect from most players that she deserved.
The loss of Noble Hierarch will power down multicolored green creature decks somewhat, as now they have only Birds of Paradise and Lotus Cobra for reliable fast mana and color-fixing. More subtly, it’ll also make Wall of Omens better. How? Because the loss of exalted as a whole makes blocking easier, and specifically makes it easier to predict how a particular creature you include in your deck will match up against your opponent’s creatures. I remember specifically sideboarding out Wall of Omens when I was playing Next Level Bant against Naya. I couldn’t reliably expect them to be able to stop Bloodbraid Elf or even Lotus Cobra simply because my opponent could have multiple copies of Noble Hierarch in play. It’s a very subtle shift, but it matters.
Knight of the Reliquary is another card whose departure has the potential to impact the way players think during deck construction. Knight was a must-kill creature the turn it entered play because of its ability to grow out of control. It also presented the threat of searching for manlands or protecting itself and your other creatures with Sejiri Steppe. Knight of the Reliquary largely invalidated cards like Mind Control, since they were simply too slow to deal with a Knight before it became active and stranded the enchantment in hand due to the mere threat of Sejiri Steppe. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mind Control and similar cards pop up much more often in order to answer large creatures now that Knight’s gone. As anyone who’s been fortunate enough to Mind Control a Titan in M11 Limited knows – it’s a great feeling.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant is the card whose departure perhaps saddens me the most. Elspeth had an interesting run in her time in Standard, seeing little to no play prior to the release of Zendikar. The oppressive effect Bitterblossom had on planeswalkers was partially to blame. Even after that, players
were slow to adopt her and often played only a copy or two, and even
then
generally only in decks like
White Weenie
. It wasn’t until well into the format’s life cycle that players really wised up to just how powerful Elspeth was and started including her in control decks and beatdown decks alike.
Elspeth was another card that helped keep Jace in check because the Jace player could never be sure whether that an innocuous-looking Sea Gate Oracle might not suddenly go to the air with a little help from the Knight-Errant. This helped make Elspeth the absolute best card in control mirror matches, particularly since she trumped Luminarch Ascension. The departure of Elspeth will make it much easier for control decks to beat creature decks via attrition, and will also make it much easier to rely on creatures like Wall of Omens to block. Not only will they not have exalted, but they won’t go flying overhead.
It’s not all rosy for control decks, though. Jace may have seen all of his worst enemies take the last train out of town, but some of his best friends are on board, too.
Path to Exile is gone, which was perhaps the best way to protect Jace from incoming haste creatures or manlands. While it can be easily be replaced by Condemn for that specific purpose, that opens up vulnerabilities to utility creatures like Fauna Shaman.
Also gone are the powerful X spells: Mind Spring and Martial Coup. These fell out of favor when U/W decks started to move in the direction of Sun Titan, since they no longer needed the same help closing out a game, but Martial Coup in particular was a nice safety net to have against Vengevine decks that could recover immediately after a Day of Judgment.
The other flavor of control deck –
Titan Ramp
– remains mostly intact, losing only Rampant Growth among its key spells but retaining Explore and Cultivate. The deck thus remains quite explosive. The Valukut versions that used Siege-Gang Commander will need to find a replacement, but he was hardly central to the deck’s strategy. I expect Titan Ramp to be among the top contenders at the start of the next season. The strategy loses very little, and many of its toughest matchups, like Mythic and Mono-Red, are either completely gutted or lose many key cards.
Mono-Red
‘s losses are substantial. Hellspark Elemental, Hell’s Thunder, and Ball Lightning are all gone, forcing anyone who wants to play a red beatdown deck to do so with real creatures that actually stay in play. Goblin Guide is still around, but its supporting cast will change dramatically.
Thankfully for Patrick Sullivan and other Mountain men, creatures like Plated Geopede and Kiln Fiend are much more likely to live long enough to connect with the opponent without Jund waiting around every corner with a Terminate or Lightning Bolt. I’d be shocked if red beatdown decks aren’t out in force at the beginning of next season, especially given how much people are drooling over Koth of the Hammer. They’re just going to have to look a bit different.
The other Goblin Guide deck,
Boros Bushwhacker
, hasn’t seen much
success in a while and likely won’t anytime soon with the loss of Ranger of Eos. Ranger’s stock rose tremendously with Boros, then took a dip until
Boss Naya
revived it somewhat, and rose and fell with
Next Level Bant
and finally
Soul Sisters
. Ranger was a tremendously powerful card across formats, but just couldn’t compete with the sheer power level of four-casting-cost spells in Standard by the end.
Ranger helped fight attrition wars against removal, but was ultimately outclassed by Vengevine and Elspeth for that purpose because of their greater immediate impact on the board. Ranger was also one-upped by Squadron Hawk as a tag team with Vengevine. Six months ago, it’d have been a major loss to Standard, but now it only sees play in a fringe deck like Soul Sisters. It does mean that future one-drops won’t be nearly as exciting as they might’ve been with Ranger around. However, Antoine Ruel has had his day in the sun already.
It’s strange saying good-bye to Shards block, since it’s with Shards that I really started playing Magic again. I’ve finally been back long enough to see cards I love rotate out of Standard!
It’s been a blast, Noble Hierarch. I’ll miss you, Knight of the Reliquary. And Elspeth – oh, my darling Elspeth – don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll find a way to fit one of you into an Extended deck again sometime soon…
Have fun at your Prerelease, and if you’re in the area, come say “hi” to me at Misty Mountain Games in Minnesota, where I’ll be gunslinging this weekend! I’ll be back next week with a look at what the new set will mean to Standard…
Until next time,
bmk