If I've received one question in the last week, I've been asked about Double Standard, the new Extended format. The news came quickly, and without any warning whatsoever. While most of the damage is already done, I'd like to round up all the movers and shakers so that people who were not on the cutting edge have an easy way to catch up.

Bitterblossom: +++

Bitterblossom is the staple of Faerie decks and was possibly the most powerful card in its block, competing only with Cryptic Command for the title. The foundation of many decks, including its tribal UB deck, Bitterblossom is the staple card that ties them all together. I'm not quoting prices or differentiating between MTGO and Paper today, because the forces at work are all basically the same. Bitterblossom more than doubled, and rightfully so. With Thopter/Sword gone, as well as Hypergenesis, Dark Depths, and all the craziness of Kamigawa, Ravnica and soon, Time Spiral, Faeries is primed to once again rock the format.

Cryptic Command: ++

Cryptic Command was the best counterspell in recent memory. I have it on good authority that another of the best will be returning in M11, but you'll have to check Quiet Speculation at 12:00 AM on Friday the 25th to find out what it is! It was the backbone of the 5-Color Control decks (which now have some really absurd mana fixing due to Fetch Lands), and it was key to Faeries. Someone even put it in Jund once. That's how good the mana was in Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Standard.

Reflecting Pool: +

This one hasn't seen as big of a jump, and I'm not sure why. Faeries (the deck) fueled the most big jumps, but I'm not sure that Faeries can beat a deck dedicated to beating it. I'd hate to face Jund with Fallouts and Great Sable Stag. Regardless, the tools are very much available for a totally insane 5C Blue control deck, and Reflecting Pool is going to be a major part of that deck. You might yet get a good deal on these!

Sword of the Meek: - - -

Sword of the Meek just got the hose, and badly. It's set is rotating from Extended when Scars of Mirrodin rotates in, but just in case you planned to take Thop/Sword to Amsterdam, it got hell-banned out of nowhere. I agree with this change. The combo warped the format, and there was no reason not to play it. Unfortunately, the combo is probably not good enough to warrant a $4 Sword of the Meek for Legacy play. I threw mine back in the dollar box so EDH players can annoy eachother with the combo, but there really is no sliver lining to this card's demise. Good. To hell with it anyway.

Hypergenesis: - - -

See Sword of the Meek. The combo was asinine, and the only real interaction it prompted was if you helped your opponent scoop 'em up. While I'll remember fondly the time Brian Kibler "forgot" (not getting into it!) the Angel trigger in the PT Top 8, I'll gladly forget what a piece of crap this deck really, truly was.

The Shock Lands: - -

I only gave these two Minus signs because they are now much cheaper for EDH players, which will keep them from going straight into the grumper. They're absolute staples for EDH, since most players can't afford Revised duals these days. Ultimately, no matter how they did the format, some cycle of Duals had to eat a big one. The Filter Lands got all the love, and the shock lands took a dive. If they do go ahead with Over-Extended, going back to Masques Block, the Shock Lands will quickly become relevant again. The Revised duals might take a hit if Legacy stops being relevant, but I think we've had enough excitement for one month.

The Filter Lands: +++

These were the foundation of some of the greediest damned mana bases of all time, along with Reflecting Pool and Vivid Lands. The ability to turn one of a color into two of another is absurd, considering the manabases in Standard right now. Clearly Sunken Ruins, the UB filter, is the big winner, because of stupid crappy Faeries, but others are still relevant. I'll delve into this shortly.

Mutavault: ++

While Faeries will surely make good use of the tribal Man-Land, other decks will certainly co-opt its use as well. It's gained quickly, but overall it is not as ridiculous as Bitterblossom's rise. Many many decks will use Mutavault for effective early beats, and the only thing keeping it from being a 3-star "Plus" is its lack of an automatic inclusion in a second archetype. Don't forget Kithkin, though.

Archetypes?

There are a ton of existing archetypes that we can port into Extended. Kithkin now gets the power of Honor of the Pure, but Black-White Tokens gets an on-color fetch land. We still have Windbrisk Heights and Spectral Procession to power absurd draws, but now we can fuel our Eldrazi Monuments with Cloudgoat Rangers instead of just Eldrazi Spawn. Look for Eldrazi Monument to see a metric crap-ton of play in the next 2 years, since it's seeing a lot of play in Standard right now already.

Boros-colored Aggro decks get the insane Figure of Destiny, the mana fixing of Rugged Prairie (which is massive) as well as Spectral Procession and Windbrisk Heights. Windbrisk Bushwhacker could end up being a dominant Slight style deck, considering that it can easily cast the WWW Sorcery with the use of Arid Mesas and Filters.

Green decks using Mosswort Bridge can include blue (and the relevant Filter Land of course) for Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and hide an Emrakul under the bridge. Eldrazi Spawn and Eldrazi Monument can help power up your guys to unleash the bridge troll, which counts as "casting" the spell. Thus, if you can flip the Bridge, you literally win the game on the spot. I'm not sure how they plan to deal with a Time Walk plus a 16/16 Flying Annihilator 6 (other than Cryptic Command-ing your team down or bouncing the Bridge...), but you should really win as soon as that happens. Did I mention that Cryptic Command is ridiculous again?

Jund is still here, and probably better than ever. Given that you can cascade into a plethora of scary stuff, most of which is tailor-made to crush Faeries, the deck will remain popular. Jund gains Sygg, River Cutthroat, Boggart Ram-Gang, Filter Lands, and whatever M11 and Scars of Mirrodin bring. Jund has access to a load of cards that "beat" the format, so it is probably what I will play if I have an Extended PTQ.

There are a bunch of archetypes that have yet to be explored, and I plan to focus my research on the interaction between LRW/SHM cards and ZEN block cards. We have seen how Shards plays with both sets, but we have a lot of new interactions to discuss. Other things of note: Murmuring Bosk is fetchable with Verdant Catacombs, so Jund decks can even consider splashing White for Doran or Knight of the Reliquary. Insane, I know, but it's just one more interaction to consider. I could go on about this for hours, but it's time to wrap it up for this week. I'm sure I'll be back next week with a ton of new ideas, including perhaps the Standard deck that's been crushing Next Level Bant. It's not ready for Prime Time yet, but it really puts Eldrazi Monument to work.

Talk to you soon!