Week two of spoiler season's a weird time; you know the entire spoiler comes out in a week, but you want to talk about all the new toys. This is that week; these are those toys.

Oh, the Humanity

In the first visit to Innistrad, Humans were aligned with G/W, even as they showed up in other colors. The Dark Ascension lord cycle lacks a G/W entry to emphasize the flavor of Humans being in trouble; Champion of the Parish, Mayor of Avabruck, and Gavony Township combined to be the bane of my Standard existence for a couple years. Sigarda, Heron's Grace might be signaling more G/W Human goodness, but it might not be.

Sam Stoddard's preview article for Thalia's Lieutenant compared the card to Champion of the Parish and stated the card "is certainly strongest in a go-wide tribal deck, which is the role that Humans probably should be playing in Standard." That is a major hint that the support will exist for the archetype, whether now or when Eldritch Moon comes out, but we haven't yet seen the cards that allow for going too wide. Or have we?

R/W Humans ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Brandon Isleib

• Creatures (27)
• 3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
• 1 Village Messenger
• 4 Thalia's Lieutenant
• 3 Hidden Dragonslayer
• 3 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
• 4 Thopter Engineer
• 3 Sandsteppe Outcast
• 4 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 2 Odric, Lunarch Marshal

• Spells (6)
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 1 Silkwrap
• 2 Fiery Impulse

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Nahiri, the Harbinger

• Lands (24)
• 8 Plains
• 7 Mountain
• 4 Needle Spires
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Westvale Abbey

Buy This Deck

There are so many Humans that any list is conjecture at this point. Still, we know that Wizards of the Coast expects Humans to go wide, that Thalia's Lieutenant is intended as an incentive to do so, and that a bunch of red Humans make tokens. That's enough to go on for now.

This is as wide as we can go at the moment while still playing Humans. Pia and Kiran Nalaar already have a Standard and Modern resume, Thopter Engineer was a fine adjunct in the Standard U/R Thopter deck, and Ghirapur Gearcrafter and Sandsteppe Outcast aren't so far off from Eldrazi Skyspawner that it's absurd to imagine they could make the cut. Hidden Dragonslayer is fine enough to play on curve—Kytheon, Hero of Akros into Hidden Dragonslayer into Thalia's Lieutenant is quite a clock—but it doubles as late-game removal.

While all the Thopter and Spirit tokens don't have synergy with Thalia's Lieutenant, they do have synergy with the rest of the board when Odric, Lunarch Marshal shows up. The singleton Village Messenger, with haste on its day side and menace on its night side, is meant to expand the keyword buffet with Odric, but the most frequent use of Odric in the deck is to use the flying tokens to give all the Humans flying. Hidden Dragonslayer will give the team lifelink, Kytheon, Hero of Akros can give the team indestructible (whether as a creature or Planeswalker), and the singleton Westvale Abbey can, when transformed into Ormendahl, Profane Prince, give the team flying, lifelink, indestructible, and haste. If white ends up having Human token-makers, it's possible that leaving the red Thopter makers and going into white/colorless is the better play, just to add to what Odric can do, be it first strike from Knight of the White Orchid, trample and haste from Reality Smasher, or building more around Westvale Abbey as a must-answer card.

Speaking of build-arounds, Nahiri, the Harbinger is being explored as one—seeing what her ceiling—but it's clear her floor is high, as she slots perfectly well into a support role for a wide deck like Humans/tokens. I anticipate Nahiri will often be used like Ajani Vengeant was in its Standard run—use the minus ability to remove a threat and then tick up for virtual advantage while demanding an answer. In a deck that tops out at 4 mana and has few mana sinks, discarding lands to Nahiri's plus ability should be painless. And while this isn't the sort of deck to have great targets for Nahiri's ultimate, Odric, Lunarch Marshal's effect can turn a stalled board into a winning one, and a free Pia and Kiran Nalaar might have enough Thopters and mana to end the game on the spot. And although this will only come up as often as choosing Dragons for Outpost Siege (and in the same situations), investigating by casting Declaration in Stone on one's own creature with Pia and Kiran Nalaar out might end the game as well.

Do You Suspect Anything?

This deck only has one Shadows over Innistrad card, but it can fundamentally change how an existing archetype is built:

Suspicious Dragons ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Brandon Isleib

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• 3 Orator of Ojutai
• 2 Silumgar Sorcerer
• 3 Icefall Regent
• 4 Dragonlord Ojutai

• Spells (19)
• 2 Swift Reckoning
• 2 Immolating Glare
• 4 Silumgar's Scorn
• 3 Scatter to the Winds
• 3 Ojutai's Command
• 1 Comparative Analysis
• 3 Confirm Suspicions
• 1 Dragonlord's Prerogative

• Lands (25)
• 14 Island
• 4 Plains
• 4 Prairie Stream
• 3 Port Town

Buy This Deck

Esper Dragons has worked in part because of its access to amazing mana. Looking at Arne Huschenbeth's list that made the Top 8 at Grand Prix Paris this weekend; hardly anything can be cast with a single color of mana (Painful Truths doesn't count). So the deck's been able to play all the premier permission, removal, card-draw, and threats—sounds great! But the mana that's allowed such luxury is going away—there's a need for more cards to pull individual weight and fill multiple roles if possible.

New card Confirm Suspicions complements Ojutai's Command, Scatter to the Winds, and Silumgar Sorcerer as counterspells that fill multiple roles, but it does something new for tournament Magic: It fills the permission and card-draw roles. For reference, here's the list of all cards that can counter a spell and draw more than one card:

• Arcane Denial (if you counter your own spell)
• Mystic Confluence (from Commander (2015 Edition))
• Overwhelming Intellect (if you can leave up 6 mana for an Essence Scatter with upside)
• Spell Contortion (if you pay at least )
• Swift Silence (if you counter at least two spells)
• Teferi's Response (the narrowest counterspell in Puppetland)

Of those, only Arcane Denial and Swift Silence are hard, unconditional counters, and both require unusual conditions to draw multiple cards. That makes Confirm Suspicions a unique card across all Magic, not just in Standard.

Combining card-draw and counterspells allows more room for other cards. In this deck, that's a slightly higher Dragon count than usual and a premier blocker in Orator of Ojutai. Orator of Ojutai hasn't been explored much in an Ojutai shell because it's not good enough when stretching mana into an Esper build. However, with a sympathetic build, it's a flying Wall of Omens. That is fantastic value, and that it can be reanimated with Ojutai's Command (although it can't draw a card that way) gives the deck a line of play against fast decks without having to counter everything. If Orator of Ojutai isn't going to be useful in a matchup, Silumgar Sorcerer can exploit it while countering a creature spell. Both are nice to have if Clip Wings, a Shadows over Innistrad card seemingly designed as a safety valve against this archetype, becomes popular in sideboards.

This build's on the generic side of draw-go, but there are enough decent counterspells and other cards to make this configurable. Horribly Awry, Calculated Dismissal, and Clash of Wills are available if the mana can't accommodate so many double-blue costs. Reflector Mage can make the seventy-five as a tempo play that curves nicely into Icefall Regent. If the archetype moves into more white territory, Planar Outburst is available; given Dragonlord Ojutai's presence, Tragic Arrogance is appealing. Narset Transcendent could have a role moving forward as well. But for now, trying the fifteen-counterspell version might be the way forward. Because Confirm Suspicions combines permission and card-draw, I assume it's only an issue of when it will see play (and what number of copies is correct). Also, in some drawn-out game on official coverage, sacrificing Clues and top-decking the answer should make for some nice drama.

Conclusion

From entirely new archetypes based on splashy cards to rethinking an already successful archetype based on functional cards, Shadows over Innistrad looks to be bringing plenty of interesting decks and brewing decisions. As the rest of the spoiler rolls in, we should be better able to discern whether these shells are workable or whether they're waiting for a new set or metagame. Until then, may your shadow lengthen only when you tell it to . . . or something.