What Standard Will Be Like

Well it’s that time again.

Fate Reforged is knocking at our doorsteps with the Prerelease this weekend. This set has the potential to shake up Standard with so many aggressive and
powerful cards, but finding exactly what we want out of the set looks to be much more difficult than previously anticipated. Under layers of activated and
triggered abilities comes a slew of cards that have the potential to be good, but not all of them will have the impact we think they will. Instead of
looking at the glass half-full and hyping everything, I’m going to see past my hyperbolic tendencies and try to deduce just what this set is going to do to
Standard.

The best thing to do when looking through a new set is to find the best home for new cards. Not just where they look the best, but to find what decks need
them to exist. Obviously this set is filled with potential all-stars, but many of the cards are highly situational. The reason for this is to try to find
holes the new cards are trying to fill as opposed to complementing existing strategies. The best example of this is Goblin Rabblemaster.

This card has proven itself to be one of the most powerful cards in the format, but it has one clear weakness. The card is much better on the play than on
the draw. This means that new cards like Shaman of the Great Hunt and Brutal Hordechief will only exacerbate the problems that Goblin Rabblemaster has when
on the draw as opposed to helping the card catch up. The actual cards that will help Goblin Rabblemaster are Flamewake Phoenix, Wild Slash, and Valorous
Stance. All three of these cards either give you more options to execute on turn 3 or help kill creatures before deploying the warren-in-a-can. With this
same logic, we can go through each archetype and look at potential upgrades that will help them accomplish the things they set out to do.

To kick this process off, let’s take a look at Red Devotion. This deck has always had so much potential but just didn’t have the correct cards to fully
function. Fate Reforged brought many new toys for this deck to try out, and I have to say they make the archetype look fully functional.

Mardu Scout alongside Eidolon of the Great Revel gives the deck eight double red two-drops. Not only does Mardu Scout help out with devotion, but the
ability to dash seems right up this deck’s alley when trying to deal a ton of damage or trigger Purphoros, God of the Forge multiple times when things are
going poorly. The card is poised to see Standard play, mostly because the deck gets more than just Chained to the Rocks to bust through pesky Courser of
Kruphixs and Siege Rhinos.

This “white Doom Blade” is poised to be the highest impacting card in the entire set. Not only does it protect creatures like Goblin Rabblemaster from
removal spells, but it helps R/W decks bust through the Abzan creatures that have been holding them back this entire season. This card may see so much
maindeck play that the metagame slowly shifts against it. I do know that some players may have that in mind for the first couple weeks of the format, but
the majority of players will continuously get blown out by this card early on.

The last upgrade this deck got was a big one. Not only does Flamewake Phoenix get some damage in from the skies, but it also keeps coming back to help
trigger Purphoros, God of the Forge and enable larger Fanatic of Mogis triggers. All of these cards combined makes for a nasty new R/W Devotion deck that
has a strong chance of becoming a big contender in Standard.

R/W Devotion

Brad Nelson

Test deck on 01-15-2015

Standard

Creatures (28)

Lands (25)

Spells (7)

Sideboard

The next aggressive cards on the list are some of the most talked about. Soulfire Grand Master and Monastery Mentor have skyrocketed in price over the past
week and for good reason. Both of the cards seem to be the most influential for new Standard, but the shells surrounding them seem a little off. Do they
simply just get jammed into Jeskai Tokens and call it a day? Let’s take a deeper look at these two cards before even trying to find which decks may want
them.

The scariest part about this card is how efficient it is at all avenues of the game. Of course, the coolest thing about it is how well it works with Stoke
the Flames, but that is just scratching to surface of what this card could do. For starters Soulfire Grand Master is a cheap lifelinking threat that needs
to be dealt with. Aggressive decks don’t want to ignore it for a couple turns since it will gain anywhere from 2-8 life given the possibility of burn-based
removal spells. At the same time, midrange and control decks don’t want the card to give any card advantage.

What this says to me is that this card wants to be in a deck that can play a longer game and one that can use extra lands even if Soulfire Grand Master
isn’t in play. Having actual burn cards in the deck is an added bonus due to the lifelink, but it’s not a necessity unless the format is hyper aggressive.
Gaining fifteen or more life with Anger of the Gods is about as exciting as the second ability gets in my book.

This card is getting thrown into so many decklists for no reason. Of course this card is good, but it doesn’t just go anywhere. The format is already
positioned to fight against small creatures and tokens such that it will not shine in anything that it wasn’t built for. I say this even after I played
with Jeskai Tokens with this card and absolutely fell in love with it. I just know there is more potential somewhere else.

Monastery Mentor also loves the idea of having tons of resources and mana to cast multiple spells a turn. I guess the trick then is to find a shell for
both it and Soulfire Grand Master.

So why did Jeskai Aggro turn into Jeskai Tokens? Some would say it was due to the fact that Yuuya Watanabe is a genius and we all should follow him like
lemmings, but there is more to it than that. The deck shifted gears to be able to combat Hornet Queen. Hornet Queen has been one of the most frustrating
cards for many decks to handle ever since Whip of Erebos found its footing, but that dominance is about to crumble thanks to Valorous Stance. Now that
these Jeskai decks have a great answer to the best threats from these green decks, we can finally see Jeskai Aggro come back from the dead.

Jeskai Aggro

Brad Nelson

Test deck on 01-15-2015

Standard

Creatures (18)

Lands (24)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

This version of Jeskai ignores the token-producing spells so it can focus on good creatures and burn spells. All of the creatures in this deck benefit from
not only cheap removal spells but having them deal actual damage. This lets the deck go back to its roots and play many different roles but also to carry
the capability to simply go for the throat without grinding through impossible boardstates to do so. This is something Jeskai Tokens has had difficulty
doing.

Next up on the list is Sultai Reanimator decks and all the potential inclusions this set has to offer this dominant archetype. Fate Reforged is full of
Sultai cards, which makes me think that the archetype wasn’t supposed to be good until now. The problem is that I don’t even know if I want many of these
cards moving forward. I guess we can go one-by-one so that it will be easy for you guys to tell me how wrong I was in a month or two.

This card is mediocre at best. Of course it reads “as long as it or you don’t die, this card will win you the game,” but almost every good card in Standard
reads that. All I see when I look at this card is something I have to dump mana into that gives my opponents decisions and doesn’t affect my board
position. What I look for in a card for Whip of Erebos-based decks are things that tighten the noose. I want my opponent to feel that they are losing board
position and the war on card advantage all at the same time. I want to constrain their decisions and not give them more while also having some breathing
room to get back on the board.

This card feels extremely aggressive and a great answer to Hornet Queen, Perilous Vault, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but that’s about it. The body doesn’t
help too much when on the defensive, and takes multiple turns to get back into a combative stance once dealt with. I feel that games will be too volatile
for this to consistently have a positive effect on a game. I will be looking into Torrent Elemental if the format moves into a control-heavy environment,
but I do not want to deal with the hassle as long as people have white cards on the brain.

This is a card I can get behind. Not only does Whisperwood Elemental give you inevitability, but it has the ability to fight through mass removal. Getting
a 2/2 every turn is nothing to scoff at as well. These manifested morsels will help stem the bleeding or clock the opponent extremely quickly. The only
issue with this card is that it sits on top of Doomwake Giant, which might be a necessity given how many people want to play with Jeskai Ascendancy and
Monastery Mentor.

Edict effects have always been good against decks trying to produce one large creature, and Heroic is exactly that. Sometimes Merciless Executioner will
not do exactly what you want it to, but the ability to Whip it back for a Chainer’s Edict effect makes this a potentially great card for the archetype.
This is definitely a card I am going to be testing extensively before the Standard Open in Washington DC next weekend.

Black Wrath!
I never thought I would see the day again that they printed a wrath effect in black after how dominant Damnation was years ago. Seriously, I have no idea
how this card could slip through. Now Crux of Fate initially looks like it belongs in U/B Control, and that is exactly where Damnation ended up early on
when it was printed. The secret to this card is not how well it acts as a control card, but how nicely it fits midrange strategies. Sultai Reanimator
should not be given the ability to bring in wrath effects! You think Mardu was difficult to sideboard against when they had access to a controlling game
plan. You better stock up on Advil, because Sultai Reanimator just got a nice addition to make it the most agitating deck to play against.

Directionally, Sultai is the most difficult deck to predict. You can go down the path I chose for the Players’ Championship with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, or
the more controlling version that Reid Duke and Gerard Fabiano did. Both have potential to be great, but games will be the only indicator which one is best
starting off.

Let’s try one with a control deck in mind, and another with a more midrange trajectory.

Sultai Reanimator

Brad Nelson

Test deck on 01-15-2015

Standard

Creatures (23)

Lands (24)

Spells (13)

Sideboard

Sultai Reanimator

Brad Nelson

Test deck on 01-15-2015

Standard

Creatures (23)

Lands (24)

Spells (13)

Sideboard

For the rest of the cards, I guess I am just going to save my breath for the set reviews I do with Evan Erwin. We have a couple exciting weeks ahead of us,
but one thing that is for certain: things are going to be getting a good shake up. It will just take some time to see where all the chips have fallen and I
can do what I do best: metagame. I hope you all have a wonderful Prerelease; have some fun this weekend!