It may be hard to believe, but there are only two weeks left until we bid farewell to 2024 and welcome in 2025 with a bang at SCG CON Atlanta.
In addition to our usual lineup of exciting trading card game events and offerings, SCG CON Atlanta will also be the host of Magic: The Gathering’s first ever Spotlight Series event featuring Foundations Standard!
Magic Spotlight: Foundations marks Magic’s long awaited return to large-scale, Open-style tournaments, where anyone is welcome to play – no pre-qualification required! The main event features a $50,000 prize pool, 8 Pro Tour Invites, exclusive promos, and more.
In case the prize pool wasn’t reason enough to sign up, the event’s format – Standard Constructed – has one of the healthiest and most diverse metagames Magic has ever seen! In addition to nearly a dozen Tier 1 decks, Foundations Standard also has a thriving contingency of Tier 2 “rogue” decks, which happen to be the focus of today’s article.
While many rogue decks spend their Standard lifetime in Tier 2 without breaking into the format’s top echelon, some are diamonds in the rough, just waiting for the right piece or tuning to make their mark on the big stage, or in this case, Magic Spotlight: Foundations. Without further delay, let’s take a look at five of Standard’s most promising Tier 2 decks, poised to make a splash at the first major Magic event of 2025.
Creatures (25)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 2 Skrelv, Defector Mite
- 4 Sanguine Evangelist
- 3 Sandstorm Salvager
- 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
- 2 Pawpatch Recruit
- 4 Overlord of the Mistmoors
- 4 Skyknight Squire
Lands (24)
Spells (11)
Collector’s Cage decks have been around for several sets now, but the mythic rare artifact from Outlaws of Thunder Junction‘s The Big Score has flown mostly under the radar up until the release of Foundations and the addition of Llanowar Elves, which can lead to some explosive starts. Cards like Skyknight Squire can also play into the Collector’s Cage gameplan, but also scales to grind out matchups where you don’t see the deck’s namesake card.
While the early game for Cage decks has remained mostly the same – aiming to land a few smaller creatures and resolve Collector’s Cage – the top end of the deck has changed significantly. Previous versions wanted to skip the midgame as much as possible and just follow up an early Collector’s Cage with homerun cards like Moonshaker Cavalry, but it quickly became clear that swinging for the fences every time wasn’t consistent enough, thus the homerun package was replaced with a lower-curve, value engine with cards like Beza, the Bounding Spring, Virtue of Loyalty, and Overlord of the Mistmoors.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
- 4 Evangel of Synthesis
- 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
- 4 Urborg Scavengers
- 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
- 4 Overlord of the Balemurk
- 4 Kiora, the Rising Tide
Lands (25)
Spells (11)
Reanimator is one of my all-time favorite archetypes in Magic, and any time there is a viable build in Standard I’m down to give it a shot. With each new set release, there’s almost always either a big new powerful creature or a new effect that returns a big creature from the graveyard. These cards often ignite a deckbuilding frenzy on release, but most of these builds fall just short of Tier 1 status for one reason or another.
With the release of both Duskmourn: House of Horror and Foundations however, reanimator has been given not just one, but two powerful reanimation spells in Rite of the Moth and Zombify, plus a prime reanimation target in Valgavoth, Terror Eater to go along with Atraxa, Grand Unifier.
Before the release of Foundations, reanimator decks were priced into Esper in order to play white for Rite of the Moth and blue for various self-mill enablers like Founding the Third Path. Fast forward to present day, the reprinting of Zombify has changed the deck significantly. With white no longer needed for Rite of the Moth, the deck can go down to just Dimir, making the mana base significantly more stable and able to support cards like Beseech the Mirror, which functions as four additional copies of Zombify and can search for other cards in a pinch.
This one is definitely worth keeping an eye on, especially heading into a large field that may be caught lacking on graveyard hate.
Creatures (2)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (27)
Spells (26)
Azorius Control being on this list might surprise some, as the deck is almost always Tier 1 in Standard, but it took a big hit after the last rotation, losing cards like The Wandering Emperor and March of Otherworldly Light, and it has taken some time for the archetype to rebuild. And rebuild it has.
While it may be one of the most vanilla picks out of Standard’s current rogue decks, Azorius Control has slowly started pushing its way back into the spotlight despite Mono-White Control being the format’s go-to control deck. Due to its vast, dedicated fan-base, Azorius Control has no shortage of great minds constantly testing and tuning various lists and I believe it’s in a great position to break out in a big tournament like Magic Spotlight: Foundations.
Creatures (22)
- 4 Fynn, the Fangbearer
- 2 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
- 4 Venerated Rotpriest
- 3 Glissa Sunslayer
- 4 Bilious Skulldweller
- 2 Preacher of the Schism
- 3 Tinybones, the Pickpocket
Lands (21)
Spells (17)
- 3 Audacity
- 1 Anoint with Affliction
- 4 Infectious Bite
- 3 Drown in Ichor
- 4 Royal Treatment
- 2 Innkeeper's Talent
Sideboard
Golgari Toxic might just be the silent metagame killer in the room for Magic Spotlight: Foundations. Despite a shallow pool of results, the deck has an impressive core that can deal those 10 points of poison quite fast while also retaining some resiliency – a quality that many of Standard’s past toxic builds struggled with.
The biggest addition to the toxic/poison archetype in Standard is the reprinting of Fynn, the Fang Bearer in Foundations. A lot of the toxic cards already come with deathtouch, but cards like Glissa Sunslayer, Priest of the Schism, and Tinybones, the Pickpocket do as well. Thanks to Fynn, your creatures not only trade favorably, but also threaten to stack up the poison if not dealt with. Add in Golgari’s powerful removal suite plus Innkeeper’s Talent and you’ve got the makings of something very scary.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Voldaren Thrillseeker
- 4 Scorn-Blade Berserker
- 3 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun
- 3 Vadmir, New Blood
- 4 Heartfire Hero
- 4 Fear of Missing Out
- 2 Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
Surprise, surprise – Agatha’s Soul Cauldron is a good Magic card! While it may have taken awhile for it to find the right supporting pieces in Standard, the shell is quite strong.
Being in Rakdos gives access to black’s cheap spot removal, while cards red cards like Voldaren Thrillseeker, Heartfire Hero, and Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate add to the cast of creatures with strong abilities for Agatha’s Soul Cauldron to consume and contribute to fast clocks and explosive turns.
Overall, I think Rakdos Cauldron has one of the highest chances of breaking out of Tier 2 and could be a real contender.
Bonus Decks
These decks haven’t had a tremendous amount exposure, but I thought they were just too cool to not include!
Creatures (13)
Lands (24)
Spells (23)
Creatures (17)
- 4 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
- 4 Urborg Scavengers
- 4 Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel
- 2 Floodpits Drowner
- 3 Kiora, the Rising Tide
Lands (22)
Spells (21)
Creatures (13)
Lands (19)
Spells (28)
- 4 Unsummon
- 4 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Opt
- 4 Timely Interference
- 4 Vesuvan Duplimancy
- 4 Splash Portal
- 4 Unable to Scream
Sideboard
While I personally haven’t locked in my deck for Magic Spotlight: Foundations yet, I do believe there will be good amount of off-meta decks aiming to prey on the format’s most popular strategies. With just under three weeks left before the event, there is still time for the metagame to shift, but if you’re planning to bring a brew, something that has a favorable matchup against Dimir Midrange, Mono-White Control, and/or the various Red aggressive builds is probably the way to go.
Whatever route you choose, I hope to see you there and wish you best of luck at Magic’s first Spotlight Series event!
