Last week, I left off on a high note talking with a pair of eternal decks making great use of Thing in the Ice. Despite a lighter load of spoilers this weekend, there are still plenty of new ideas to explore and cards to apply to existing archetypes. Let’s jump right in!

New Enters-The-Battlefield-Tapped Lands

While there isn’t a deck that’ll necessarily be built around these cards, it is worth nothing that this cycle (along with their Oath of the Gatewatch counterparts) being released as uncommons is indicative of the power level in mana-fixing in upcoming sets. Being proven wrong on this would be fantastic, but I’m not optimistic. For a time, these lands will play a vital role in fixing mana and slowing down the format a bit more than players have become accustomed to.

We’ve been spoiled by the Return to Ravnica and Khans of Tarkir blocks. In Return to Ravnica, there was the Guildgate cycle printed at common in the first two sets, and those were eventually included in every single Dragon’s Maze booster pack. In Khans of Tarkir, there was even a functional upgrade on the Guildgate cycle (ignoring Maze's End, of course) by tacking on, “When [CARDNAME] enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life,” to each land.

Things are changing; having this cycle printed at uncommon across two sets sends a big message from Wizards of the Coast about mana-fixing in upcoming sets.

Elusive Tormentor

Elusive Tormentor is incredibly reminiscent of Aetherling in that it is a hard-to-kill threat that can be granted evasion as the game progresses. If Elusive Tormentor sees play, it will probably be as a tool against control decks, and Crackling Doom rotating implies this is a reasonable conclusion to draw. The biggest issue with this philosophy is that with every removal spell you “counter” by activating the front side’s ability, you must also discard a card to counter it. Most control decks’ core plans revolve around trading cards one for one, eventually using payoff cards in the form of card-draw spells or big finishers to finish off the opponent after burying the opponent in card advantage. The fact that Insidious Mist isn’t safe from Languish is another major detractor from its supposed indestructibility.

Another idea with Elusive Tormentor is the use it as a madness enabler, and that seems shaky as well. Having to pay mana into a 4-drop creature to make use of the madness ability isn’t nearly as efficient as one would hope for something that is a drawback otherwise. This card being the Buy-A-Box promo makes me hopeful that the Tormentor will make a splash in Standard, but I would be surprised if it were to occur before Magic Origins rotates.

Ravenous Bloodsucker & Incorrigible Youths

Both of these creatures are incredibly powerful and are going to be centerpieces for next format’s Red Deck Wins. For many newer players, the vampiric duo may appear innocuous, but Aquamoeba with Arrogant Wurm was a force to be reckoned with for a long time. With such a small portion of the set spoiled, there isn’t much of a Mono-Red Madness deck as of yet. My good friend and fellow Disciple of Bolas Dalton Ozmun had a reasonable amount of success with a U/R Prowess deck shortly after Oath of the Gatewatch was released.

U/R Prowess ? Oath of the Gatewatch Standard | Dalton Ozmun, 6th Place at Star City Games Open Atlanta, 1/23/16

• Lands (21)
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 2 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 2 Wandering Fumarole

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Stormchaser Mage
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Spells (23)
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Expedite
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Slip Through Space
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 2 Roast
• 2 Temur Battle Rage
• 4 Treasure Cruise

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Duress
• 2 Wild Slash
• 2 Boiling Earth
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Roast
• 1 Painful Truths
• 2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Murderous Cut

Buy This Deck

Originally championed by Ross Merriam as the set was released and Stormchaser Mage was spoiled, this archetype has several pieces that our deck can make use of. Between the cantrips, aggressively costed creatures, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy’s natural synergy with the cards, there may very well be something here.

U/R Madness ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Emma Handy

• Lands (22)
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Wandering Fumarole
• 1 Highland Lake
• 10 Mountain
• 3 Island

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Abbot of Keral Keep
• 4 Stormchaser Mage
• 4 Ravenous Bloodseeker
• 4 Incorrigible Youths
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Spells (18)
• 4 Fiery Temper
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 2 Fiery Temper
• 2 Expedite
• 4 Slip Through Space
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Roast

Buy This Deck

This decklist is an apparent potpourri of spells that could end up fitting in the deck as more cards are released. Thing in the Ice is something that may have a very natural home in this deck, and it is probable the U/R Prowess deck ends up being able to stand on its own without the discard outlets. The handful of cantrips and scry effects make it easy to assemble your discard outlets in conjunction with the madness cards, though other than the Youths, there aren’t many madness cards that seem worth the effort of assembling the mini-combo.

There very well may be cards that require their controllers to discard cards that will translate well into the new format, but we’ll have to see what new madness cards are released before a proper assessment can be made.

Geralf’s Masterpiece

A lot of smart people fell for Skaab Ruinator when it was released. Don’t do the same thing with this card. This card may very well end up being good, but it has significantly more signs of a splashy mythic rare than a tournament staple. Remember that Desecration Demon wasn’t playable before the Mono-Black Devotion deck—on paper, this card is much weaker.

Nahiri, the Harbinger

This is a prime example of something that doesn’t necessarily have a home yet but that will definitely see play. It feels quite similar to Garruk Relentless or Sarkhan Unbroken in that it may not be a format staple, but there will be matchups it will absolutely take over, and it has the chance to be a centerpiece in a deck.

Evaluating each portion of her individually helps us really see where her power lies. Starting at 4 loyalty is somewhat average for a 4-mana ’Walker, but having a +2 is powerful. The card-filtering itself is incredibly powerful in R/W (read: colors that don’t usually have this type of effect), and that doesn’t even factor in the synergy with madness spells. Anyone who has had to play with or against Gideon Jura knows just how strong Nahiri’s -2 ability can be. Being able to exile artifacts and enchantments is an added bonus. There’s definitely some flavor in the fact that Nahiri can’t exile Equipment. Her ultimate is relatively unexciting, but it has applications with creatures that have powerful enters-the-battlefield abilities. It wouldn’t be too shocking to see her alongside a handful of one-of, silver-bullet-styled creatures if board stalls become the norm in Standard. It only takes two turns for Nahiri to reach her ultimate.

Mindwrack Demon

After a format full of Siege Rhinos, Tasigur, the Golden Fangs, and 6/6 Woodland Wanderers, this card initially jumped out as unappealing and underpowered. Since the time I’ve started building decks in this format and playtesting, this card has proven itself to be more powerful than it appears on paper. Mindwrack Demon’s delirium effect is a very real drawback, but the Demon doesn’t die to a majority of cost-efficient removal that is anticipated to be popular. Mindwrack Demon dodges Grasp of Darkness, Silkwrap, Roast, Languish, and Draconic Roar, with its list of weaknesses being a short as Ultimate Price, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Ruinous Path, and Planar Outburst.

Borrowing a bit from last week’s article, a mono-black, aggressive strategy has significant staying power by being naturally resilient to removal.

Mono-Black Aggro ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Emma Handy

• Lands (21)
• 2 Blighted Fen
• 4 Crumbling Vestige
• 15 Swamp

• Creatures (29)
• 4 Reaver Drone
• 4 Relentless Dead
• 4 Despoiler of Souls
• 4 Zulaport Cutthroat
• 2 Bearer of Silence
• 4 Pitiless Horde
• 3 Nantuko Husk
• 4 Mindwrack Demon

• Spells (10)
• 4 Dead Weight
• 3 Grasp of Darkness
• 3 Ultimate Price

Buy This Deck

This deck may not have the necessary velocity to compete with other decks. That’s to say that, while the cards may be aggressively costed and have staying power against removal, they are still relatively weak in the face of Archangel Avacyn, Chandra, Flamecaller, and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. This deck really needs another good 1-drop creature to be pushed over the top. Last Innistrad block gave such goodies as Diregraf Ghoul and Gravecrawler, and this one hopefully won’t disappoint.

Hinterland Logger

Initially, this format is going to be very hostile toward Werewolves, and I’m quite skeptical of their power level going into the format. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Reflector Mage in particular make for a rough life for a creature than wants an opponent to not cast a spell and to untap with a creature. This isn’t just a simple dies-to-Doom Blade argument either—the half-human, half-wolf creatures need a lot to go right in order to be effective.

The first time Werewolves were released, people (including me) tried very hard to make Mayor of Avabruck a good card, and it was just not an effective creature. On top of the usual creatures-die-to-removal clause, there are a handful of circumstances that need to go right for these types of cards to ever be much better than their front sides.

The ideal scenario with a Werewolf is that, the turn after you cast the creature, your opponent doesn’t cast a spell; you untap with the creature, transform it, and finally have a chance to attack. This is much easier to write down in a couple of sentences like that than it is to actually achieve. It seems much less realistic when you itemize everything that you need to happen.

1. Your opponent needs to not cast a spell. This upcoming format will include card-advantage engines in Painful Truths, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Chandra, Flamecaller, Kolaghan's Command, and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Most of these cards cost more mana than the aforementioned Werewolf, but they also aren’t cards that you’ll be casting in the early game. They are often things you’ll use to refill your hand or board after unloading your other cards.
2. If your opponent casts a spell, you have to weigh the benefits of possibly taking a turn off (from casting spells during your turn) in order to transform your Werewolf versus actually advancing your board.
3. Your opponent has to not immediately answer your creature once it transform—or after taking the steps necessary to make it transform. Reflector Mage was the first example used, but other forms of removal gain other bits of incidental value if a player does take his or her own turn off in order to transform a Werewolf.
4. Even when all of these things go right for the Werewolf player, he or she must still be in a position to use the Werewolf before the opponent casts two spells or its controller needs to cast two spells simultaneously.

All of these factors result in the epitome of a punisher card that capitalizes on a game in which the Werewolf’s controller wins a game he or she were already quite advantaged to win.

In Limited, these restrictions are minimized, as Sealed and Draft decks are significantly less refined and don’t have access to so many sources of card filtering and advantage. This leads to many scenarios in which board stalls can be broken by one player drawing one too many lands in a row and the Werewolf player being greatly favored.

Eerie Interlude

Ghostway started to see a bit of play shortly after Birthing Pod was banned in Modern in a similar value shell that took the format by storm and launched the Guildpact bulk rare to almost $30 overnight. Once the Eldrazi menace is taken care of, this may be a great creature-based value deck to look at. Not all creatures (more specifically tokens) are things that want to be blinked multiple times.

Naya Blink ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Emma Handy

• Lands (22)
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Gavony Township
• 2 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 1 Fire-Lit Thicket

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 3 Wall of Omens
• 3 Wall of Roots
• 3 Voice of Resurgence
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 2 Eternal Witness
• 1 Sin Collector
• 1 Orzhov Pontiff
• 2 Kitchen Finks
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1 Reveillark

• Spells (10)
• 4 Chord of Calling
• 3 Path to Exile
• 3 Eerie Interlude

Buy This Deck

This deck is built to prey on the midrange strategies that will inevitably well up in the Eldrazi’s absence. Eerie Interlude helps protect creatures from removal and re-trigger abilities from creatures entering the battlefield. Wall of Omens and Eternal Witness make sure their owner never runs out of cards to play with. Other creatures make sure to clog up the battlefield with blockers that are difficult to attack through and disrupt the opponent through small advantages from Sin Collector, Reclamation Sage, and Orzhov Pontiff. In the case that things get hairy and the deck falls behind, there’s even a proverbial panic button in the combo of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel. Jeff Hoogland has been championing a similar archetype to great success on the Star City Games circuit, and this take on the deck may very well end up being the next step in its evolution.

If Shadows over Innistrad is anything like its predecessor, we are definitely in for a great mix of flavor and power. With less than a quarter of the set spoiled, things can only become more exciting from here! This weekend, I’ll be traveling to Indianapolis to give Rally the Ancestors one last go, and the week after the prerelease, I’ll be back with more fleshed-out versions of some of the decks I’ve included in these articles. Make sure to leave feedback on your favorite decks and what you’d like to see updated!