Why Jace, the Mind Sculptor Should NOT Be Banned From Standard

There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter lately on banning Jace, the Mind Sculptor from standard. The movement has seemed to have been started by Starcitygames own Evan Erwin aka "Misterorange" on Twitter and there is now a lot of people joining him in #banjace. The major causing of this movement was Grand Prix Dallas/Fort Worth, where the top eight had 32 copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, all in the main board I believe. (for those of you who can't do basic math, that means every deck contained four Jace the Mind Sculptors.) While a lot of tournaments that have been happening lately have been pretty close to that, no top eights have actually had such ridiculous results. In addition to being insanely powerful, Jace is also hard to obtain since he has around a $100 dollar price tag, another almost unheard of phenomenon since he was far and above the best card in a small set full of not very good rares/mythic rares (or at least none that compared to Jace.)

Despite all this, I am here to say that Jace, the Mind Sculptor should NOT be banned from Standard (or any other format for that matter) for a lot of reasons. I am only going to cover the main one, balance, as I'm not a master of the market and I'm not going to go into a debate as to why its unhealthy to ban a card that's so expensive; I'll leave that to someone else. On an aside, to Mr. Evan Erwin, your discussion on Twitter caused me to write this. I really like you and the work that you do and I read and watch a lot of your content on SCG but I simply cannot agree with the idea of banning Jace, so I have written this as an attempt to make you and everyone else who wants to ban Jace to perhaps think again.

Lets start with balance concerns. I'm going to really put my neck on the chopping block for this one.

The main reason to not ban Jace: Jace is NOT the most defining card in standard.

There, I said it. You might call me insane for thinking such a thing when the 32 copies in a top eight event just happened, but that is what I believe. There is no dispute to Jace being in every deck with blue; Jace is simply the best thing you can do with four mana. This is no different from when Cryptic Command was in standard (and even in this extended season, Cryptic Command counts often trumped Jace counts in most decks.) However, whats up for debate here is not why Jace is in every blue deck, but rather why every deck has blue in it. The reason is not actually because of Jace, but because of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.

If we go back to Scars of Mirrodin Standard before Mirrodin Besieged, the top deck for a majority of the time was Valakut. It took most of the world a while to figure out how to beat it, and eventually the biggest consensus most people could agree on was that counter-magic is pretty effective. Other things, such as hand disruption and constant pressure were also found to be effective. These are all things that are good against combo decks, as history has shown. It was pretty quickly decided that fast aggro actually can't beat Valakut, because none was fast enough to stop it before turn four where it pretty much wins the game.

Fast forward to now, we have a top eight consisting of four Caw-Blade decks and four RUG decks. Caw-Blade really is the anti-Valakut, as it has everything to beat a deck like Valakut; counter-magic, hand disruption, and early pressure. RUG, while less suited to beat Valakut, still has counter magic and Titans to end the game fast when the time is right. RUG was this popular in the Top 8 mostly because of its strong game vs. Caw-Blade more so than Valakut where it actually has an even to bad match up (though not un-winnable.)

The point here is that only blue decks can really beat Valakut with our current card pool in standard. Without counter magic, you cannot reliably stop Valakut as it is more like a combo deck and they can goldfish faster than aggro decks 90% of the time. Jace has absolutely nothing to do with this. It just so happens that he's a very strong blue card with a lot of utility, and since blue is required, there is no reason to NOT jam him into your blue deck. The same can be said for preordain, which also had 32 copies in the top 8, or the Mana Leaks and Spell Pierces that had similar numbers. Because Valakut is so degenerate towards the aggro decks that would normally have a much better time beating the Jace decks, these decks cannot exist due to the prominence of Valakut, and we have a dominance of Jace control decks that stop the Valakut decks. Take a look at this chart I souped up.

If you have played any Legacy at all, you'll notice this chart to be quite familiar to you. While it isn't exactly precise as there are lots of diverse decks, the combo decks destroy the fast aggro decks (like zoo, goblins, etc.), the aggro decks beat up on the Counter-top decks, and the Counter-top decks stop the Combo decks. In Legacy, Combo is so degenerate that fields are often flooded with blue decks. In Standards case, despite its recent top showings, Valakut is such a degenerate deck that blue decks are the only ones that can stop it. Because most aggro is not strong enough to stop the control decks however, we are stuck with a world dominated by blue mages. The only decks that are strong enough to beat the control decks (aka almost anything with Vengevine) are the ones that really fold to Valakut because Valakut is just way faster.

This is my main point and the one I want to get across. There are numbers to show these facts too; there is an article that was written recently (on SCG I believe, still trying to track down the source) that shows the match win % across the field. Valakut has a dominant game over everything except Caw-Blade. Valakut is the true menace in the metagame as it truly gives you about 4-5 turns to do something or automatically lose, since you cannot do anything about land drops. If I were to ban a card, I'd ban Valakut as it holds back WAY more innovation and deck design space than Jace ever will.

There is one other main reason to not ban Jace; He's rotating soon.

You only need to put up with Jace for five more months. Considering the fact that two sets will also be joining Standard in that time period to truly complete the format, there is no reason to ban it. It will simply leave the format soon enough anyway. For all we know, New Phyrexia or M12 could even bring some new powerful and defining cards that even draw the meta game away from blue/Jace decks. If we had these numbers a year ago when he came out, then MAYBE this would be a different argument, but its so close to rotation that its not even worth it. It's also important to note that back then Jace wasn't even that defining, because the top deck was a mid-game aggro deck. There was no Valakut back then, or any combo for that matter. Am I making sense now?

Of course I didn't touch on the problems Jace makes in standard, but I hardly think thats a topic to talk about since everyone knows it already. He isn't what makes the meta game the way it is, and regardless of how powerful he is we have two sets on the horizon to completely change the format. There is no reason to currently ban Jace in Standard unless you want to live in an even more unbalanced, Valakut dominated standard.

Brandon Vance

Deck lists for All Formats!

As usual, I have been brewing tons of decks for many formats, mostly Standard and Extended though given their relevance. While most of my lists don't ever even make it to getting sleeved/proxied, some of them become my next tournament deck. I'll just post my deck and the format and talk a little bit about each one. Also, I'm not going to waste my time and hyperlink every single card, so instead if you don't know a card, I'll just help you out and put this here for you :)

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Extended Decks

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RUG Tempo

Creatures
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Inferno Titan
2 Vendilion Clique

Non creature Spells
4 Cryptic Command
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Burst Lightning

26 Lands (still working on mana base)
_____________________

First, I'd like to say that I want to actually think of a good name for this deck, since in standard, block, and extended, its never been more than "RUG" or "RUG Ramp/Control", and a deck that is this awesome needs its own name in my opinion. Anyhow, about the deck...

When I first started testing Extended, I wanted to try and see how my standard deck would fare in extended, since it's such a strong deck in standard that it's silly to think it couldn't be strong in a bigger format. I was pretty pleasently surprised at the power level of this deck in extended too. As it turns out this deck goes bonkers with Cryptic Command. When I ran it, I ran more of a traditional RUG though, with more spells, bombs, and countermagic, and less small creatures and stuff. With the addition of Sword of Feast and Famine and the more aggressive extended meta game I decided a "smaller" list could work quite well in the format. Extended's card pool can really take this sort of idea since the creatures in extended are the best in any format with the amount of sets available (I mean, if you added Time Spiral block to Extended, you'd have a large majority of the creatures played in Legacy...)

For Starters, I put two swords in the list. This deck even without Preordains and Explores will still probably see a good amount of cards thanks to Cryptics, Jaces, and Bloodbraids, so with any luck I'll see a sword almost every game without the chance of having them clog up my draws. After that I wanted to make a strong, more creature based list that could help accomodate the swords while still keeping RUG's strong tempo core. Since Mana Leak was one of the first cards out of the deck, Bloodbraid was one of the first in, giving the deck even more stupid nut draws, card advantage, and tempo all in one! Kitchen Finks lives twice, making it a great contender for the sword while also helping the decks rough game one match up vs. decks with Mountains that come into play tapped. Due to the desire to put in more creatures and less spells I took out Explores, but still wanted to keep a decent amount of ramp in the deck. The perfect slot for this was Birds of Paradise, being a great mana accelerator, mana fixer (which this deck wants more of,) and great target for Sword of Feast and Famine thanks to flying. Vendilion Clique also found his (her? its? their??) way into the deck due to just being an amazing creature overall that is perhaps most importantly evasive, something the Sword wants. Finally, this deck wouldn't be RUG without powerhouse bombs to round out the game, and Inferno Titan is my go to man. He is currently the Titan of choice as I'm not too fond of Frost Titan but I may find myself cutting an Inferno or two for a Frosty if the meta calls for it.

For spells, 4 Bolt and 4 Jace remain the same as a key part of the deck. Bolt I think is going to be a particularly strong card in extended, as a lot of things have/gain protection from black, and as stated before a lot of people are going to be equipping a lot during this season, so having a strong instant speed removal that hits before and after sword equip seems the way to go. Lightning Bolt alone was one of the main reasons for me thinking about this deck as it uses Bolt very well. Burst lightning acts as a "5th" Lightning Bolt. Jace is what makes RUG, and I think if RUG were to have a more proper name I would call it the Jace deck since it uses Jace so well. The Swords I have already explained, and they are going to be very key for this deck and will demolish many decks such as RG Scapeshift. Cryptic Command is the best thing this deck could ever ask for, and is probably going to be the strongest card in the deck.

I look forward to testing this more and will give more info.

More decks coming soon...

Extended Metagame Analysis and Predictions

Extended season is drawing to a close but we still have a few more PTQ's to go. Mirrodin Besieged has had a pretty awesomely large impact on extended (and every other format of magic) and has already changed the format a lot. As everyone (or at least I hope everyone) has noticed, Sword of Feast and Famine has had the biggest impact thus far, finding its way into a handful of currently existing decks, and completely defining a Standard deck that very quickly turned into an extended deck. While there have been a couple other impacting cards such as Green Sun's Zenith, Go for the Throat, Tezzeret, etc., none have had nearly as much of an impact as Sword of Feast and Famine. Already the extended version of standards Caw-go - the deck based perhaps based around the sword - has won a handful of PTQ's and have made several appearances in top 8's. With the combination of MBS and the general movement of a format, we can determine a few things about the format.

1. If Alara-Zendikar standard was all about defining 4-drop cards, the current Lorwyn-MBS extended is all about powerhouse 2-drops. Between Bitterblossom, Stoneforge Mystic, Prismatic Omen, Fauna Shaman, and even Quasali Pridemage, a lot of the top decks are defined by extremely powerful two mana cost cards, which most decks want to play on Turn 2. If you plan on countering some of these, you better be really lucky at rolling for first or expect to be facing a lot of pain, no matter what the deck.
2. Everything is fast and aggressive. No, not every deck is taping as many creatures as they can, but everything has a strategy it is trying to employ very fast. The only control decks placing well are Faeries and the new U/W, both of which plan on putting some creatures on the board before controlling the rest of the game. If the metagame is to remain the same as it has been from the past post-MBS PTQ's, expect fast game plans.
3. Perhaps the most important, there is no top deck. Yes, Faeries has been performing very well, but as of recently there has been so many decks performing well and winning PTQ's. There is Jund, Bant, Naya, Elves, U/W, several different types of Scapeshift, GW Trap, Mono Red, Faeries, and many more. I have reason to believe that if you can take almost anything to the top in Extended, which is very exciting. On the other hand, there are so many decks and game plans that you must prepare for, so much that it seems more beneficial to be more proactive than reactive (perhaps why there is a big lack of control.) 

That being said, there are a few predictions I would make given the nature of people and how formats flow.

• The format is becoming slightly less interactive. With the exception of the two only control decks that I mentioned above, almost no one is playing much removal, counter magic, or disruption as most decks just try to do their plan better than you. Yes, people are playing these things, but with decks like Elves and Scapeshift constantly rocking the top tables, I can't say the entire format cares that much about what you're doing. If you have a game plan that is hard to disrupt, you can probably make it work well (at least game 1.) 

• While this will vary location to location, I can say generally, expect lots of U/W with swords, RG Scapeshift, and Faeries. The first two you can expect a lot of not only because of their power level but mostly because they are slightly altered standard decks. Faeries you can expect a lot of because it has been considered the 'best deck' for the season and most people have picked it up or have been playing it for several seasons now.
• Sword of Feast and Famine is going to be really popular. Whether or not you are playing the sword yourself (something I recommend, its REALLY good...) you should have a plan against the sword because you will see it a lot. It is used in U/W and Faeries which as I said are already very popular decks, and it see's play in many other decks such as Bant and some new Naya builds, and will see play in many more decks. Hopefully you've been hit by this card a few times already to know just how devastating it is, so plan your decks with this card in mind.

Those are my predictions for those of you planning on going to a serious extended tournament any time soon. As for myself, well, I still haven't decided what to play, as I play for specific tournaments and often change my deck for each tournament. I'm very excited with this format (except Scapeshift... Valakut can go f*** itself) and I'm probably going to try a handful of decks before I play at Seattle and my home town of Portland. Currently I'm playing Faeries, as I've always wanted to play the deck and now have the cards available to me. However, I may just design an awesome build of my current standard deck RUG, as I've seen a few in the top 8's recently and I can already play the deck very well. I'll post up decklists when I get them rolling ;)

Brandon

New Standard RUG Tech

The Standard RUG deck has been one of my favorite decks ever since its conception. I first saw the deck in an article by Brad Nelson back when it was in Block constructed. While I didn't actually start to play the deck for a while, I was very quick to start playing Turboland (I actually designed the deck on my own thoughts before its first showing in tournaments) which was a fairly similar deck. I tried playing twisting my Turboland into RUG during Standard for a change of pace but found myself most content with the normal Turboland shell.

Fast forward to rotation and I find myself looking for a deck now that Time Warp has left me. Brad Nelson writes another article on the amazing RUG deck, talking up its potential as a powerful deck for the new Standard that he plans on taking to States. I played the deck and fell in love once again. The sad part is I somehow convinced myself not to play it, thinking it would be a bad choice, as I constantly was losing games vs. Quest with the deck (which was really its only bad match up.) I would soon then be kicking myself, not only because the deck I did take to states was really bad, but because my friend Nick Rennard from high school played a RUG deck about 5 cards different from my original list and won Oregon States with it (he was the only RUG player I saw the entire day.)

After states I realized how dumb I was and went back to playing the best deck in the format, like I should have just been doing before. Today, I find myself with new Mirrodin Besieged cards and a ton of potential for RUG! Here is a list I have brewed up as a potential list for the deck with MBS cards.

*DISCLAIMER - I haven't tested this list at all yet. This list is based on theoretical ideas for the deck.*

RUG Ramp (Standard)


Creatures (9)
4 Lotus Cobra
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Avenger of Zendikar
2 Inferno Titan
1 Rampaging Baloth

Non Creature Spells (24)
4 Explore
4 Preordain
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Leak
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Slagstorm
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Red Sun's Zenith

Lands (27)
4 Islands
3 Forests
2 Mountains
4 Raging Ravine
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Halimar Depths
3 Copperline Gorge
1 Terramorphic Expanse

Here is my reasoning for my card choices.  I will skip the obvious ones, such as all the cards that are passing over from the current version of the deck.


1 Oracle of Mul Daya: While a lot of people have started using Garruk in this spot merely as a meta choice, I am opting against him. However, as opposed to using three copies of Oracle, I've instead cut down to only one and instead replaced the other two with Green Sun's Zenith (see later.) I can't deny that Oracle is bad in some match ups, which is why people prefer Garruk over him, but IMO Oracle makes the deck and just allows for so many explosive plays. I leave him at one and let GSZ fill the rest (again, see GSZ below.)

1 Rampaging Baloth: A lot of these choices are revolving around the new addition of Green Sun's Zenith.  I actually have always been fond of Rampaging Baloth, and while I understand his faults, I am a big believer in his bonus's, especially in the current meta.  I wanted another threat that would be fetchable with Green Sun's Zenith and this guy was a perfect spot.  He is essentially the third Titan that most lists would run, being a 6/6 for 6 with some cool stuff added on.  Primevil Titan doesn't seem that strong in a deck like this as he doesn't affect the board much when he comes down, where as this guy can almost act like a green Grave Titan, making 10/10 power the turn he hits the field (that can potentially make a LOT more.)  Regardless, the main reason he's here is to be the "third titan" that in this case can be found with GSZ.

1 Slagstorm: I'm not excited to put several board sweepers in my mainboard to put my poor Cobra's in danger, but Slagstorm is different thanks to its option of hitting players instead.  It can act as a board sweeper when I need it vs. aggro decks while still being relevant in other match ups, being able to kill a Jace or any other planeswalker.  I have it replacing a Lightning Bolt to help ensure aggro stays down.

2 Green Sun's Zenith: This card is the real deal as well as the reason this particular deck list is designed the way it is. Essentially being every green creature in my deck at the same time, this card is extra Lotus Cobras, Oracles, and my big landfall threats, all in one amazing card  It seemed a natural replacement over Oracle as the card is both the strongest AND weakest card in the deck. By putting in Green Sun's Zenith, it helps make bad draws with Oracle much better as you won't draw multiples of him or get him in aggro match ups as often. Instead, this is most often going to be extra Lotus Cobras, something I am MORE than happy to have more of in every match up. Between being ramp and a win condition in the same card, I'm not sure what's not to like about this.  I have tweaked the deck to cater a bit more to this card but it may be fine in most normal lists even as Oracles #2 and 3.

1 Blue Sun's Zenith: If you ever played Turboland then you know the magic behind Lotus Cobra and Mindspring. This is a much better Mindspring as it's instant speed, so you can force it on an opponent at the end of their turn, giving them the choice of allowing you a huge card draw or countering it and allowing you to tap out for a Titan or Jace the next turn. Its hard to tell what the meta will be like and whether this card will be better delegated to the sideboard or perhaps if it calls for more copies in the main, but one thing is for sure in my mind; this card belongs in this deck.

On a side note, you may notice my amount of 1 of's. While I do like 1 of's a lot as I tinker a lot with probability in my head, in RUG running 1-of's is not that much of a liability, as the deck has so much card selection that you often see almost every single one of your cards through out a given match.  This list also caters a lot to the 1-of's, with GSZ tutoring the one-of creatures in particular. The one Slagstorm is just a different Lightning Bolt in my mind, and this one Blue Sun's Zenith is simply a 1-of for the reason that it may be awkward to have lots of these floating around. I would guess the deck wouldn't want more than two in the main board, however.

1 Red Sun's Zenith: A lot of people like to run a fifth counterspell (often deprive or spell pierce) or a fifth burn spell, and in this case this is the fifth burn spell. This card is the the one I'm least sure about, however its benefits seem great. The deck has a good match up vs. Vampires except when vampires starts to get Bloodghasts going, in which case things become a bit tricker. This card is great at zapping Bloodghasts out of the game, while still being the Comet Storm this deck used to run. It also will be fantastic vs. Wurmcoil for the times where you can't keep a Jace on the board to just bounce it.  As with all of the Zeniths, the shuffling effect will be nice in a deck like this where you are sure to see it multiple times as you plow through the cards in your deck.

As for the sideboard, the only real thing I'm thinking other than extra copies of some of the new cards, mainly the Zeniths and Slagstorms, is Thrun.  Thrun seems awesome vs. U/B as they don't have many non-sideboard answers to him.  The best part is, thanks to GSZ, only one copy of him will be needed in the sideboard, as GSZ will act as the extra copies.  This goes for all other green creatures that you may want to sideboard as well; GSZ will allow for much stronger sideboarding, something I'm very excited for.

Overall, this deck did gain a few pieces from MBS, and I expect it to remain a top deck for a long time.  Its natural card advantage engine and power turns from Lotus Cobra will remain a strong strategy for as long as it exists.  I'm going to be testing this list very soon and I'll return with results!

Brandon

My Top 10 MBS Cards for Constructed

After a long and perhaps slightly grueling Magic winter, we're now greeted with the first set of the new year and it's pretty exciting!  At the beginning of spoilers I wasn't all that hyped up by some of the cards but after seeing the set as a whole I'm anxious to start sleeving up new cards and play-testing.  Scars of Mirrodin was mostly a flop, especially on standard with only a few cards from the set seeing play in any of the formats.  Mirrodin Besieged however looks a lot more promising, with cards that I think will rock several formats of magic.  Lets get started!



10. Hero of Bladehold

While I'm not the most fond of weenie strategies, this girl is certainly a beating in WW and similar decks.  By herself if she goes unanswered she'll deal a full 18 to your life in just two turns of attacking!  If you already have a few guys on the field then she's just gravy, and will probably end the game when he gets to attack.  Combine him with other battle cry cards like Accorder Paladin and Contested Warzone and we might have a strong deck coming our way.  In addition to all of this, the extra little nice thing about him is his four toughness, being able to dodge Lightning Bolt.  Four CMC slot is a very competitive slot for all decks and is even questionable in a deck like WW given how low you want the curve, but I think she is worthy of the slot.


9. Black Sun's Zenith

I like this card a lot, and while it's not the strongest sweeper in the world, it's in the color black which makes it that much better (and off sets the better spot removal white got for so long *COUGH PATH TO EXILE COUGH*.)  While it may not always wipe the entire board, it can at least make some things weak enough that they're mostly irrelevant.  A 6/6 Frost Titan is a beating, but a 3/3?  I'm okay with that.  This card makes a very great slip into U/B control in standard and will probably replace Consume the Meek or regulate it to small numbers in the sideboard.  This card also helps ensure that aggro decks will be kept in check (as well as a few other cards I have on this list) which is a bit sad because it seems as though they never really took off in the first place, with Vampires being the only aggro deck capable of fighting at the top tables.


8. Hero of Oxid Ridge

I thought for a while about this card but I came to the conclusion that I had to put him on this list.  At 4/2 Haste for 4 he's already a little interesting but Battle cry is what makes this guy.  He will make a great top end card for Goblins and other various creature heavy red decks.  If you can have creatures on turn one, two, and three and drop this guy on turn four it will pretty much be guaranteed death unless for some reason you're playing a bunch of vanilla 1/1's.  His last ability is just gravy, making your army hit past Wall of Omens, Sea Gate Oracle, Squadron Hawk, etc.  I expect him to end up being the Mirran hero of choice in Boros, though I wouldn't be surprised if Hero of Bladehold found its way into the sideboard for matches where it needs more bodies to get through.

7. Thrun, the Last Troll

I expect this guy to have some pretty solid impact on Standard, and maybe even find his way into Extended (sorry, Faeries.)  While he won't be auto jammed into every deck with Forests in it like a lot of people seem to think, he'll be very strong in decks that work with him.  Regenerate is definitely what makes this card in my opinion, as we may finally see Regenerate be used now that "It can't be regenerated" isn't tacked onto every single removal spell.  In current standard decks I find him making his way into RUG to put some pain on U/B.  I really don't see him in decks like Valakut, as Valakut does not want a random 4/4, they just want more ways for Primevil to stick and do his job.  Still, I see this guy smacking a lot of Jace's in the near future.

6. Blightsteel Colossus

I'm pretty sure this guy is not going to be hard casted very much, but I'm sure he'll be Shape Anew'd or Tinkered onto the field a lot.  I too really am not a fan of this card, as well as pretty much every other big stupid creature Wizards has made recently.  I think big huge things make the game a little out of whack as its easy in every format to cheat these guys into play, whether you're going to Summoning Trap, Polymorph/Shape Anew, Tinker, Natural Order, etc., they will get on the field way before they're intended to.  This guy is easily the next worst to Emrakul, as this guy will just straight up kill you in one swing, where as Emrakul usually just guaranteed you weren't going to win.  Regardless, this card is good and will see lots of play in all formats (though perhaps less so standard, at least for the moment.)


5. Inkmoth Nexus

Infect has been looking for a way to have a chance in the spot light and it definitely just got it.  Infect is not an incredibly strong idea for the top tables of Standard tournaments in part because man lands are such a huge part of the Format.  Now that infect has a man land, we may start seeing some Infect in the near future.  This card has a lot more than just being a tool for Infect, though.  Should proliferate ever become a strong strategy you can now just stick these in your deck without even sticking infect creatures in and threaten a win condition by just hitting them once with this.  U/B control might just have a potential poison option in the near future now that you don't have to feel as bad for not running Tar Pit to his true potential (though he will still certainly see play at least for the sake that he taps for both colors and kills planeswalkers.)  The last and perhaps most awesome feature of this card is that it is an artifact creature, which enables so many things from Tinker/Shape Anew (see the card above) to Metalcraft.  I say expect to see this card for a while.


4. Slagstorm

This is probably my favorite card in the set for so many reasons.  Being a red mage at heart, this card makes me feel pretty giddy; it blows up a bunch of creatures or it can bolt the dome for game/kill a planeswalker, all in one awesome card!  In Extended/Legacy, any deck that currently uses Firespout that can afford to cast RR will probably switch to this card, as I really don't see the option of hitting only flyers or non flyers better than the option here on Slagstorm (and thats assuming you're playing red and green.)  In standard this will definitely see some widespread play simply for the fact that it's a creature sweeper that can hit Jace when you need to.  In heavy red decks Turn 3 Slagstorm into Turn 4 Koth will result in a lot of wins, as everyone who has played Koth knows that he dominates when there are no creatures on the other side of the board.  While I'm certainly happy they printed this card, I really must wonder why they printed it.  It's as though they thought aggro would actually be good by now (how much testing did they do with those Titans?)

3. Go for the Throat

What an awesome card.  Maybe I'm just picky, but I've never been a fan of Doom Blade, as I only like conditional removal if the condition is pretty reasonable (I think an entire color, no matter what the meta is like, is a lot to ask.)  While I guess you could say this still affects a 'color', it just so happens to just be way better than Doom Blade and pretty much every other mono black removal spell ever printed.   In standard people are going to start slamming more Wurmcoil Engines to help avoid this, but in older formats this card is going to be at its prime.  The only problem with this card is how you're going to say it when playing, as "I'm going to throat it" doesn't sound right.

2. Contested Warzone 

I think this card is a big sleeper and is definitely one of the better cards in the set, which is why I ranked it so high on this list.  War cry has already proven itself a powerful effect and sticking it on a land is very strong.  Most of the time this will just be played like Tectonic Edge; more like a spell than a land, but it just so happens to also be a land.  Vs. control it won't be much of a liability to just slap this down early on and lay down the beating, but in vs. aggro you will just save it until you need it for the final push.  This card definitely has potential in other formats as any deck with lots of creatures that can afford the space will want this card.  In addition, this card also seems like a great tutor for Knight of the Reliquary.  If tapping lots of creatures has any chance of being a top strategy in Standard, this card will likely be a part of it.


1. Green Sun's Zenith

Green Sun's Zenith definitely seems like the strongest card in the set.  Tutor cards never fail to be strong and one that puts creatures right onto the battlefield is going to be quite powerful.  In standard this will be used in a variety of decks, but will likely be very strong in Valakut as it will allow it one of "bullet creatures" as well as acting like Primevil Titans 5-8, as if summoning trap didn't do that enough.  In a deck with all green creatures this card will essentially be every single creature in your deck with an additional G added onto its mana cost.  In fact I think just about the only competitive green decks that won't at least consider this are the decks in extended that have Bloodbraid Elf (cascade into this for 0 doesn't seem that good unless your packing memnites...?)  Natural Order in Legacy shows us the power of tutoring green creatures onto the battlefield, and this card will probably be good in that deck too, but thankfully this card will not be as broken.  That doesn't stop this from being the best card in the set.

While he's not in my Top 10 List, I think Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas deserves a shout out as a potentially powerful card.  I think is main problem that he will be very restricted to what decks he can go in, which seems to be the path most Planeswalkers are taking now.  Koth was restricting, but in my opinion he is not only far more powerful, but he is also a lot easier to field, as there are already a ton of decks with lots of mountains in them.  In fact the only reason he isn't seeing as much play in standard as he should is the sad state of other red cards, or at the very least the overpowering state of decks such as Valakut.  Tezzeret on the other hand will be a lot harder to field in all formats; Standard doesn't have enough good artifacts to make up for fielding Tezzeret as it currently stands, and he doesn't seem powerful enough for Legacy or Vintage (though quite honestly I know nothing about Vintage, but I do know Tezzeret 1.0 sees a good deal of play there...)  Extended seems like a possibility thanks to the Esper Shard, so I have hope for him there.  He has very powerful abilities but his limitations will certainly be the death of him.

That's all for my Top 10, feel free to drop a comment and stay in touch for upcoming articles on my new deck brews!

Brandon