War of the Spark is here and Standard once again has that small air of mystery about it that only a new set of cards can bring. Today I would like to share with you a couple of old favorites that I liked last season that got potent upgrades, as well as a new idea that show promise so far.

To start I would like to share my most recent version of Abzan Hero with upgrades from War of the Spark:

Abzan Hero | War Standard | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Imperious Oligarch
• 2 Trostani Discordant
• 3 Midnight Reaper
• 4 Hero of Precinct One
• 4 Seraph of the Scales
• 4 Tithe Taker

• Planeswalkers (8)
• 1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 2 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
• 2 Vivien Reid
• 3 Vraska, Golgari Queen

• Instants (5)
• 2 Assassin's Trophy
• 3 Mortify

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Oath of Kaya

• Lands (25)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 2 Memorial to Folly
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Despark
• 4 Duress
• 1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 2 Knight of Autumn
• 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 3 Moment of Craving
• 1 Vivien Reid

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

This set gave us a variety of multicolored goodies and Hero of the Precinct One is looking to take full advantage of them! Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is the card Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants wanted to be in this deck last season. Not only does Sorin trigger Hero for us, but he is also able to recover a lot more than just Hero from our graveyard. Being able to fetch back up Midnight Reaper and even Seraph of the Scales allows for a lot of flexibility we did not have previously. The lifelink Sorin provides also allows us to win races we would otherwise never have a chance in.

Oath of Kaya is something that has really impressed me so far. What started as a sideboard card for aggressive decks was quickly moved into my main deck after a few matches. The fact that this card can hit any target means it helps clean up opposing planeswalkers well. The fact that we incidentally have a bunch of planeswalkers ourselves means that it often gains us five or more life over the course of a game. When we don't need it in play, it is also a removal spell that can be sacrificed to Vraska, Golgari Queen to draw a card.

Out of the sideboard, Despark feels like a card this deck didn't know it wanted. Not only is this another multicolored removal spell for us, but it cleanly answers Rekindling Phoenix which was previously a problem for this deck.

Up next we have a refresh to a fringe aggro-combo deck that I had a lot of fun playing based around these two creatures:

The general idea is to chain through our deck triggering our creatures with cheap cantrips like Warlord's Fury and Crash Through. We then pair these with burn spells to close the game out quickly.

In previous seasons the last threat we played never felt quite right. Arclight Phoenix was hard to enable consistently and Guttersnipe just died too easily for its mana cost. Thankfully they printed the perfect third threat for this deck in War of the Spark:

Let's look at a decklist shall we?

Ral Steam-Kin | War Standard | Jeff Hoogland

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Electrostatic Field
• 4 Runaway Steam-Kin

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Ral, Storm Conduit

• Instants (13)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 3 Expansion // Explosion
• 4 Risk Factor
• 4 Shock

• Sorceries (16)
• 4 Crash Through
• 4 Light Up the Stage
• 4 Skewer the Critics
• 4 Warlord's Fury

• Lands (20)
• 12 Mountain
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
• 3 Fiery Cannonade
• 4 Lava Coil
• 3 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
• 3 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

In addition to Ral, we've also added Expansion // Explosion as a "Blue" card. Expansion serves as a flexible tool for doubling up our own spells or sending our opponent's back at them. Occasionally in a longer game we will draw with Explosion, but that is more random upside than the goal. Speaking of random upside - in the event we ever draw two Expansion while we have Ral in play, we can actually deal an unlimited amount of damage by Expansioning our Expansion over and over again.

The biggest gain for this deck though out of War of the Spark is not Ral in the main deck though - it is additional Planeswalkers in our sideboard:

These two new planeswalkers alongside Ral, Izzet Viceroy allow us to pivot post board a bit against decks that are trying to be heavily interactive. Instead of trying to aggro them out through their removal, we instead board in a slew of more resilient threats to move to a plan of grinding them out.

Finally I'd like to wrap up today with a new list that is leveraging a variety of cards of War:

Esper Friends | War Standard | Jeff Hoogland

• Planeswalkers (15)
• 2 Karn, Scion of Urza
• 2 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
• 2 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 2 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
• 2 Ugin, the Ineffable
• 3 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

• Instants (8)
• 2 Moment of Craving
• 2 Mortify
• 2 Tyrant's Scorn
• 2 Vraska's Contempt

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Ritual of Soot
• 4 Thought Erasure

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Oath of Kaya
• 3 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 3 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Interplanar Beacon
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Cast Down
• 2 Cry of the Carnarium
• 1 Despark
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Dovin's Veto
• 3 Duress
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Ritual of Soot
• 1 The Eldest Reborn

Buy This Deck Export text format Export Arena format

At the core this is a Control deck. We look to leverage cards like Thought Erasure and Ritual of Soot to disrupt the opponent while we get our powerful planeswalkers setup. We have a small White splash for cards like Oath of Kaya and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. The most common question I have gotten about the spell selection in this deck is why Ritual of Soot over Kaya's Wrath. The answer lies in our mana base. Because our White is just a small splash, it is difficult to cast Wrath consistently without first reworking the mana base in a way that would be quite painful. Because of this we play the slightly less powerful, but easier to cast, Ritual.

Our win conditions consist of a smattering of different planeswalkers from War of the Spark:

Saheeli does a good job of generating cheap board presence for us at minimal cost. Against aggressive decks her Servos protect our planeswalkers, against control they allow us to apply pressure. Ugin is an extremely powerful and flexible card. His downtick answers most problems our opponent might deploy, while his +1 generates both board presence and eventual card advantage.

Kasmina is a card I did not expect much from at first glance, but have been very happy with. The 2/2s she makes provide a small bit of board presence, while also providing some filtering to sculpt our hand. Her static ability also helps generate tempo against both Red Aggro and other Control decks, often giving us breathing room to get other threats setup that can win the game.

Liliana is a card that is good on her own, but also pairs well with all of our other planeswalkers that make creature tokens. She turns our previous chump blockers into an endless flow of cards, all while threatening to go ultimate and win the game fairly quickly.

Finally I would be remiss to not mention one last subtle all star from War that has been far better than I expected in this deck:

Not only does this card help us cast our planeswalkers consistently, but the incidental life gain from this land often adds up in our aggressive matchups with our 15 planeswalkers.

Wrapping Up

Whether you are looking to upgrade something old, tool around with something new, run people down with aggro, or draw lots of cards with control, there really seems to be something in War of the Spark for everyone. What cards have you been enjoying playing from the new set? What decks have you been slotting them into?