It's funny what a new set can do. A month ago, I could hardly have cared less about Standard. We had Blue/Black control, Caw-Go, R/G Valakut, and an assortment of mediocre aggressive decks. I wasn't playing competitively anyway, but all I would hear on Twitter was how dull the format was, how such and such a deck was lots of fun to play but couldn't beat Valakut, and how if you wanted to be competitive you had to shell out so many dollars for Titans or Jace. However, with Mirrodin Besieged in the mix, everything has changed. Between SCG Indy last weekend and the Pro Tour in Paris just past, we have a myriad of new decks and new technology, and suddenly Standard is a subject of excited discussion once again. Let's take a look at some of the new goodies to take note of. I'll even throw in some finance tips if you're a good audience and read all the way through!

Kuldotha Forgemaster

It is a satisfying feeling to have your assessment of a card confirmed—I can't imagine how smug those deck-building pros feel when they cook up a new deck and it performs in their hands at the highest level. I mention this, as regular readers will probably have guessed, because last week I carried on about Kuldotha Forgemaster for a whole article with no outside evidence that he was any good. Vindication came in the form of Martin Juza's 5-0 Standard deck in Paris, alongside Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and a whole pile of artifacts as well as a choice of finishers—Blightsteel Colossus, Myr Battlesphere, and Mindslaver in the main deck. And for the aggressive decks, there is a Platinum Emperion in the sideboard.

You can check out the deck and Martin's thoughts on it in the deck-tech video here.

Martin contends that if he untaps with Kuldotha Forgemaster in play he cannot lose the game—Myr Battlesphere gives you five potential blockers, a huge attacker that can burn the opponent's face—or Planeswalkers—and, significantly, it gives you more artifacts for the Forgemaster, who can go and find Mindslaver straight away to let you take your opponent's next turn. Two unopposed attacks from Battlesphere, and whatever you can do to ruin your opponent's day while controlling his or her turn should end the game. If the situation is such that Battlesphere isn't going to do the job, Blightsteel Colossus steps in. Being indestructible, trampling, and dealing poison damage lets him attack the opponent from different angles such that having chump blockers, infinite life, or an artifact-destroying card won't stop you.

While on the topic of deck-tech videos, why does Brian David Marshall hold the cards up one by one these days? This is a really bizarre setup when there is a cameraman who is only too happy to scoot around a table with the whole deck laid out. I understand maybe they want to put the focus back on the player rather than the deck, but it's called a "deck tech" for a reason!

In any case, Forgemaster has now proved himself in both Legacy and Standard, and Tristan from the new podcast The Hard Cast also noted the interaction with Thousand-Year Elixir in Extended. With another two months of that format to go, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone qualify for Pro Tour Nagoya sacrificing three artifacts to go and get something awesome.

Stoneforge Mystic

In a Top 8 featuring five Blue/X control decks, what do you think would be the top two most commonly played spells? Mana Leak? Preordain? Everflowing Chalice? Jace, the Mind Sculptor?

Brian Kibler has recently popularized his version of Blue/White control, called Caw-Go due to the prominent innovation of four Squadron Hawks main, and this deck dominates the Top 8. Hawks take the number-one slot with twenty-eight between the main decks and sideboards—that's the full four in every deck, barring Patrick Chapin's Blue/Black. But the surprising runner-up in this controllish Top 8 is Stoneforge Mystic, traditionally a strong card for aggressive strategies. This card has always been a strong option in Boros (or at one time, Koros) decks finding Adventuring Gear, alongside Cunning Sparkmage finding Basilisk Collar, or in last year's Green/White beat-down decks finding Behemoth Sledge. Now, it's found a home in control as well.

This latest innovation from Kibler and company is in their pet deck, playing four Mystics alongside the four Squadron Hawks. The Hawks allow the Blue/White deck to go on the front foot against other control decks, pecking away at Jace's loyalty counters or the opponent's life total, or playing defense against aggro. Using removal on them feels terrible, and it is, because in playing a Hawk, you aren't investing a card, because you can just search one—or more—extra Hawks right back up and put them in your hand. The presence of Mystic really puts the hurt on the opponent holding their Disfigure or Doom Blade in this situation, as it not only provides another disposable body but lets you search up one of a few very powerful pieces of equipment and get them into play under counter magic. A Squadron Hawk is a threat that can often just be ignored, but a Squadron Hawk carrying a Sword of Feast and Famine grabs your attention as it whittles away your hand and lets your opponent get a double use out of mana on his or her turn. This is extraordinarily powerful for a deck that both wants to play sorcery-speed threats like Jace, Gideon, or Colonnade activations, but also have mana available for counter magic the following turn.

An important side note on Stoneforge Mystic for you MTGO bargain-hunters: At the time of writing, Cardhoarder has Stoneforge Mystic listed at 11 tickets each on their site, but they are sold out. Buying one from their bots will cost you 12.50, and they will buy Stoneforge Mystic at 9.50. This information is subject to frequent and sudden change, as all such pricing data is around big paper events. However, it is still very significant, because of the Exiler preconstructed deck. Credit to Sam Stoddard (@samstod on Twitter) for pointing this out first (that I saw), but the Exiler online-only preconstructed Legacy deck features three Stoneforge Mystic and costs only $29.99 from the Wizards store. As well as four Stoneforge Mystic, it contains three Karakas, four AEther Vial, four Ethersworn Canonist, and an Umezawa's Jitte as well as a bunch of other less valuable cards.

"Exiler"

• Lands (22)
• 3 Flagstones of Trokair
• 3 Karakas
• 2 Mishra's Factory
• 14 Plains

• Creatures (25)
• 4 Benevolent Bodyguard
• 3 Ethersworn Canonist
• 4 Flickerwisp
• 3 Joetun Grunt
• 4 Mangara of Corondor
• 3 Serra Avenger
• 3 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Weathered Wayfarer

• Spells (13)
• 4 AEther Vial
• 1 Bonesplitter
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Aura of Silence
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 4 Kor Firewalker
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 4 Relic of Progenitus
• 3 Silence

Buy This Deck Export text format

Why is this significant, you ask? Because bots will presently buy the contents of this deck for more tickets than you would get if you spent your $30 at the store directly on tickets. Buying Exiler decks and selling the contents to bots is, at this instant, the most efficient way I know of to convert your hard-earned cash into MTGO tickets. Now, this situation may not even last until this article goes up, as MTGO prices are very fluid, so be very careful before you buy a whole lot of precons on my advice. One thing you can bank on, however, is that you should never pay more than $30 for three Stoneforge Mystic on MTGO for as long as these decks are available, and if you do want to get some for your new Caw-Go, Boros, or Quest aggro deck, this is likely the best way to do it.

Ratchet Bomb

As predicted, Kuldotha Red saw a sharp upswing in play at the Pro Tour due to its breakout performance at the SCG Open last weekend. Unfortunately for those aggressive mages, Ratchet Bomb also saw a sharp upswing in play at the Pro Tour due to Kuldotha Red's breakout performance at the SCG Open last weekend. Kuldotha Red didn't get very far in the Standard portion of events as people were well-prepared for it with Pyroclasm, Ratchet Bomb, and other hate cards. Patrick Chapin even has a Kuldotha Rebirth in the sideboard of his Tezzeret control deck as an answer to the same card from his aggressive opponents! While this was not Kuldotha Red's tournament, I am sure the deck will be a constantly lurking menace over the next few months, just waiting for people to forget about it for long enough to crush a $5K or similar event.

One place people won't forget about Kuldotha Red is MTGO. Why? Because MTGO players are a notoriously stingy bunch, and Kuldotha Red is remarkably cheap for a Standard deck. The good thing about playing all 0-, 1-, or 2-cost spells is that most of the mythics are far more expensive in terms of mana and dollars. The big-money card of this deck is Mox Opal, which is also showing up in the Tezzeret control decks. The price online has already climbed 5 tickets this weekend, and I would bet on it going even higher after Mirrodin Besieged hits the servers. With the online metagame's Natural Affinity for cheap, aggressive decks, I would expect to see the other decks metagamed accordingly—more Ratchet Bomb, Slagstorm, Pyroclasm, and possibly even Perimeter Captain to ward off early assaults than you might see at a paper event. Plan, and speculate, accordingly.

Heading into the future, I'm really curious to read a tournament postmortem from one of the Valakut players, who made up the largest segment of players by deck archetype yet barely made a ripple over the course of the Pro Tour. Valakut was touted as one of the big gainers from Besieged, with a powerful defensive tool in Slagstorm and one of the decks best positioned to take advantage of Green Sun's Zenith. The deck put in a great showing at SCG Indy, but seems to have fallen flat in Paris. Once we have the top-performing Standard deck lists, as well as the Top 8 deck lists, the picture may become clearer, but it is an interesting blot on the reputation of the so-called "best deck." Depending, of course, on the eventual winner of the event, I think Caw-Go and Tezzeret decks are going to be the most desirable decks for those who can afford them going forward, with Valakut, Boros, G/W Quest, and Kuldotha Red making up the numbers. Any good testing gauntlet should involve all of these decks, though to trim it to a nice round five I would leave out Quest—it's kind of halfway between Boros and Red in that it does spew out a lot of crappy guys and sometimes wins on turn two, but it has some of Boros's Staying Power in the form of Vengevine.

Please let me know in the comments which you think the big winners and losers were out of the Pro Tour, and where you think the format is heading. Last, a huge congratulations to Brad Nelson on finally securing the Player of the Year trophy he seemed to have in the bag for so long!