Warning!

The decks you are about to see are mostly untested first drafts! They were played Thursday on stream during the Early Access Event for Phyrexia: All Will Be One on MTG Arena and are my first stabs at the new All Will Be One Standard format. Most are brews jam packed with All Will Be One cards, while there are also a few updates to previously established archetypes, but it's important to note that these are the first steps and not finished products! Use them as stepping stones for your own deck brewing process, but play them card for card at your own risk!

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but Phyrexia: All Will Be One feels like a breath of fresh air.

My complete set review took only five hours to complete, rather than the 6-7 it's been taking during the last few sets because of all the double face cards and wordiness, and the set seems to walk a nice line between straightforward and deeper than appears at first glance. There's also of course the thematic return of the Phyrexians and their influence, as well as the corruption of some of the biggest characters in the game which is pretty wild too.

Standard has definitely been due for a shake up and it looks like All Will Be One is going to deliver the goods. There's a lot of powerful stuff happening in this set, as mechanics like proliferate don't come around very often because of how powerful they can be under the right circumstances. As such, it's time to find out if it can get it done!

Today we are going to go over all ten decks I played as part of my Ten New Brews on YouTube and stream, briefly going over each list and my thoughts on how it was, giving it a letter grade, and talking about what kind of potential it has going forward. I played five games with each deck in best of one so the deck's record will also be included.

Let's go!

Koth's Visions | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Argentum Masticore
• 4 Sardian Cliffstomper

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 1 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator
• 2 Chandra, Dressed to Kill
• 4 Koth, Fire of Resistance

• Instants (9)
• 2 Abrade
• 3 Volt Charge
• 4 Voltage Surge

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Light Up the Night
• 3 Obliterating Bolt

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Visions of Phyrexia
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Artifacts (4)
• 2 Reckoner Bankbuster
• 2 Urabrask's Forge

• Lands (25)
• 25 Mountain

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Medium to Low

Standout Card: Chandra, Dressed to Kill

Koth is back, and boy does he still love mountains!

With Koth being a pretty solid midrange planeswalker and Sardian Cliffstomper doing a passable Tarmogoyf impression, the idea behind this deck was to leverage both into a sort of midrange board control deck, utilizing Red's good removal to go along with the card advantage of Koth, Chandra, and Visions of Phyrexia.

The question was, was playing a mana base of 25 Mountains to fully support Koth and Sardian Cliffstomper worth it? The answer sadly, is probably not. Both cards were solid, but you lose a lot of value by skipping out on a color or not playing any utility lands at all, and the deck would probably play better if it just tried ramping into big stuff like Skitterbeam Battalion and Cityscape Leveler off of The Mightstone and Weakstone rather than trying to smallball.

It would also leave the deck not completely cold to Phyrexian Obliterator and Phyrexian Vindicator... yikes!

Britney Spears | One Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Crawling Chorus
• 3 Jawbone Duelist
• 3 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 4 Bloated Contaminator
• 4 Slaughter Singer
• 4 Venerated Rotpriest

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ajani, Sleeper Agent

• Instants (9)
• 2 Strength of the Coalition
• 2 Tail Swipe
• 2 Valorous Stance
• 3 Loran's Escape

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Skrelv's Hive
• 4 Audacity

• Lands (23)
• 3 Forest
• 3 Plains
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 3 Overgrown Farmland
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 The Seedcore

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Venerated Rotpriest

While the actual record wasn't so good, there's some serious promise both in a lot of these cards as well as the archetype as a whole, it just needs to be put together better.

It's not a surprise that Bloated Contaminator is a good card, as it gets there on rate alone, but many of the toxic/corrupted cards all played much better than expected. Skrelv's Hive presented a never ending stream of threats and also threatened lifelink to help race, while The Seedcore was astonishingly good as both a manafixer as well as a payoff for poisoning your opponents, turning all of your 1/1s into major threats.

However, the real draw was Venerated Rotpriest.

Venerated Rotpriest is a fine one-mana toxic creature to get the ball rolling and reads like it has a nice protection ability, but the real draw is that it also triggers on your own targeting spells as well. This allows you a huge amount of reach, as you can effectively "burn" your opponent out once they stabilize the board.

I realized this in deck-building, which is why I included cards like Audacity and Tail Swipe, but I completely whiffed on Homestead Courage, which is the best it has ever been in this deck. It's two poison counters with a Venerated Rotpriest in play, helps you push damage and defend, pumps up Jawbone Duelist for double strike, and gives you even more things to proliferate with Bloated Contaminator.

Rebuilt properly, this deck could be a real contender.

Atraxa's Domain | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 3 Llanowar Greenwidow

• Instants (7)
• 3 Cut Down
• 4 Drag to the Bottom

• Enchantments (15)
• 3 The Kami War // O-Kagachi Made Manifest
• 4 Azusa's Many Journeys // Likeness of the Seeker
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
• 4 Leyline Binding

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Celestus

• Lands (28)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Xander's Lounge
• 2 Haunted Ridge
• 2 Jetmir's Garden
• 2 Shattered Sanctum
• 3 Spara's Headquarters
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Atraxa, Grand Unifier

We've already seen a lot of five color good stuff melding the domain cards of Dominaria United with The Kami War // O-Kagachi Made Manifest from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, but All Will Be One brings a new big baddie to the table.

Atraxa, Grand Unifier has a lot in common with Niv-Mizzet Reborn, in that it's a big, flashy, and hard to cast card that looks like a casual card, but is super pushed on power level to make the juice worth the squeeze. Seven mana is a lot more than five, but Atraxa asks far less in deck-building, while also providing an absolutely game dominating board presence that is very difficult to attack into and turns the corner quickly.

Add in the great domain control elements like Drag to the Bottom and Leyline Binding, mix in the also surprisingly excellent The Kami War // O-Kagachi Made Manifest, and top it off with Fable of the Mirror Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki and some solid removal, and you've got a deck that can go big with the best of them.

This one just looks like a lot of good fun, but it's quite dangerous. Just be sure you've got a good sideboard plan for counterspells.

Oil Fires | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Cinderslash Ravager
• 2 Kodama of the West Tree
• 2 Llanowar Loamspeaker
• 2 Migloz, Maze Crusher
• 2 Thundering Raiju
• 4 Armored Scrapgorger
• 4 Bloated Contaminator
• 4 Evolved Spinoderm
• 4 Evolving Adaptive
• 4 Rustvine Cultivator

• Instants (5)
• 2 Flame Discharge
• 3 Kami's Flare

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Invigorating Hot Spring

• Lands (23)
• 3 Mountain
• 6 Forest
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Karplusan Forest
• 4 Rockfall Vale

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Low to Medium

Standout Card: Bloated Contaminator

The modified mechanic from Neon Dynasty was a total flop, but the oil counters from All Will Be One breathe new life into many of the cards that initially fell short.

Once all of your creatures come with oil counters and are therefore modified in their default state, Kodama of the West Tree and Thundering Raiju start to look incredible. Gifting trample and pulling lands out of your deck is huge, while Thundering Raiju is the best Hellrider ever. However, despite being very cute alongside Bloated Contaminator, Invigorating Hot Spring is still just too awkward to ever want to cast on turn three over an actual threat.

The oil cards are all something fierce, with Evolving Adaptive being an excellent 1-drop, Evolved Spinoderm being huge, and Migloz, Maze Crusher providing a huge body that does a little bit of everything. The rate is great, and of course there's Bloated Contaminator once again looming over all.

As built, this deck is somewhat awkward, as it really needs another good 2-drop as well as to solidify which removal spells it actually wants to play, but there's definitely raw power here worth exploring.

Double Trouble | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist
• 2 Benalish Sleeper
• 2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 2 Platoon Dispenser
• 2 Vraan, Executioner Thane
• 3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 3 Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom
• 3 Mondrak, Glory Dominus

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Sorin the Mirthless
• 2 The Wandering Emperor

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Rite of Oblivion

• Enchantments (9)
• 2 Rabble Rousing
• 3 Skrelv's Hive
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Lands (24)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Mirrex
• 2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Shattered Sanctum

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: High

Standout Card: Mondrak, Glory Dominus

Whenever you've got a good mix of powerful synergy alongside a bunch of cards that are just naturally good, you know you're in a good spot.

There's no doubt that Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity is one of the premier threats in the format, and pairing it with the awesome Rite of Oblivion has been a tried and true strategy in Standard many times before. Same goes for The Wandering Emperor, a super solid card on both offense and defense.

However, what makes this deck awesome is how it grafts those cards onto some awesome cheap enablers like Skrelv's Hive and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia to make a very impressive token shell that plays awesome with Rite of Oblivion, gets in on offense, and plays defense well, and then is turbocharged by the new Mondrak, Glory Dominus. Doubling your tokens is a very powerful effect, while Mondrak is a well sized creature in and of itself that is also capable of protecting itself.

This one played awesome and did well, and while it would need to be tuned up there's something super sweet here.

Gravekeeper Jace | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (29)
• 2 Old Stickfingers
• 3 Writhing Necromass
• 4 Blanchwood Prowler
• 4 Deathbonnet Sprout // Deathbonnet Hulk
• 4 Gnawing Vermin
• 4 Ledger Shredder
• 4 Reclusive Taxidermist
• 4 Urborg Lhurgoyf

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (4)
• 4 Overwhelming Remorse

• Lands (23)
• 2 Forest
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 2 Deathcap Glade
• 2 Dreamroot Cascade
• 2 Shipwreck Marsh
• 2 Underground River
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Yavimaya Coast

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Deck's Record: 1-4

Deck's Grade: D

Deck Potential: Low to Medium

Standout Card: Jace, the Perfected Mind

Much like modified was a bust in Neon Dynasty, much of the graveyard stuff from the Innistrad sets missed the mark as well. However, the new version of Jace is a decent planeswalker played straight up, but plays exceptionally well with decks that want to self-mill.

The idea is simple enough - dump a bunch of cards in the graveyard, count your creatures, profit. Jace does this well, as does other self-mill cards like Deathbonnet Sprout // Deathbonnet Hulk as well as discard elements like Ledger Shredder. Once the creatures are there, you get to power out huge Urborg Lhurgoyfs and Old Stickfingers, as well as super cheap Writhing Necromass and Overwhelming Remorse.

That's all well and good, but the deck completely lacked a second gear.

Without any sort of recursive elements or flashback potential, once the initial rush was delt with or if your opponent could block your 10 power Lhurgoyfs, the deck just sorta stopped doing anything. This was a major deck-building error, as even something as simple as Lantern Bearer could have given the deck the extra push it would need from its graveyard in the midgame.

It's possible this could be salvaged, but it would need a pretty heavy rework as well as good things to cast from the bin.

Stinky Fingers | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Horned Stoneseeker
• 2 Sokenzan Smelter
• 2 Squee, Dubious Monarch
• 4 Exuberant Fuseling
• 4 Goblin Blast-Runner
• 4 Rundvelt Hordemaster
• 4 Voldaren Epicure

• Instants (4)
• 4 Voltage Surge

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Gleeful Demolition

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
• 4 Sticky Fingers

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Experimental Synthesizer

• Lands (20)
• 17 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Mishra's Foundry

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: B+

Deck Potential: Surprisingly High

Standout Card: Exuberant Fuseling

An update to a deck I had built for Mogg Monday on my stream previously; it did surprisingly well then as well as pretty good here too.

The goal of the deck is to be a very aggressive and synergistic deck that looks to leverage cheap creatures with sacrifice-oriented effects alongside cheap artifact production. Goblin Blast-Runner is a great 1-drop, while Sticky Fingers is an underplayed card that does an excellent job at creating material. Throw in some Voltage Surge and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki and things start coming together nicely.

Once you add Exuberant Fuseling and Gleeful Demolition to the mix however, things start to look pretty awesome. Exuberant Fuseling starts to grow out of control very quickly, while also being a great target for Sticky Fingers. While it may be surprising to see Rundvelt Hordemaster in Standard, the card plays excellent with all the cheap goblins and extra well alongside Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, providing an extra power push as well as an insurance policy against removal.

With so many cheap cards and a very aggressive stance, this is a unique and effective take on Mono-Red.

Cerebro Control | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Instants (19)
• 2 Essence Scatter
• 2 March of Otherworldly Light
• 2 Syncopate
• 2 Union of the Third Path
• 3 Negate
• 4 Fateful Absence
• 4 Stern Lesson

• Sorceries (11)
• 2 Blue Sun's Twilight
• 2 Depopulate
• 3 White Sun's Twilight
• 4 Silver Scrutiny

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Mindsplice Apparatus

• Lands (26)
• 5 Island
• 5 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Mirrex
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Tranquil Cove

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: Astoundingly High

Standout Card: Mindsplice Apparatus

Mindsplice Apparatus is a very odd-looking card, reminiscent of Wilderness Reclamation but also appearing to require specific circumstances to actually succeed.

While reducing your Negates down to one mana is definitely awesome, as the turns go on and the oil counters pile up, it starts to feel like a lot of value is being wasted if your just playing the usual two- and three-mana spells.

The solution? Just play a bunch of X spells!

This deck did some absolutely disgusting things in the five game set we played on stream, cruising to an unexpected and most impressive 4-1 record. Silver Scrutiny was excellent as usual, but what was so surprising was how powerful Blue Sun's Twilight, and especially White Sun's Twilight, were. With a single Mindsplice Apparatus in play for a few turns, it wasn't difficult to generate 5 to 10 extra mana worth of value every turn, completely blowing people away.

Is this build perfect? Absolutely not, but there is something very awesome lurking here that is going to require very specific answers. You've been warned!

ArtifactFall | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Steel Seraph
• 3 Simian Simulacrum
• 4 Gala Greeters
• 4 Teething Wurmlet
• 4 Yotian Dissident

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Ajani, Sleeper Agent
• 2 The Wandering Emperor

• Spells (3)
• 3 Fateful Absence

• Lands (36)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Mishra's Foundry
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Overgrown Farmland
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 2 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 3 Swooping Lookout
• 4 Bloated Contaminator
• 4 Skrelv's Hive

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Skrelv's Hive

More Skrelv's Hive and Bloated Contaminator!

This time not going the toxic route, Skrelv's Hive is being used as a constant source of artifacts and creatures to trigger the effects of cards like Teething Wurmlet and most important Yotian Dissident. Gala Greeters is also amusing with Skrelv's Hive and Yotian Dissident, allowing you double the counters by making treasures as well.

Of course, Bloated Contaminator is here once again as a huge threat, this time utilizing proliferate to double up on all your counters as well as provide a huge body and singular threat. Throw in some Simian Simulacrum, The Wandering Emperor, and even Ajani, Sleeper Agent, and you've got the makings of a pretty cool looking aggro deck.

This one might need a little more work to truly shine, but has some impressive things going on.

Prolifofriends | ONE Standard | Jim Davis

• Planeswalkers (16)
• 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 3 Kaito, Dancing Shadow
• 3 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 2 The Eternal Wanderer
• 3 The Wandering Emperor
• 3 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

• Instants (8)
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Sheoldred's Edict
• 4 Cut Down

• Sorceries (7)
• 2 Depopulate
• 2 Farewell
• 3 Drown in Ichor

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Ichormoon Gauntlet
• 2 The Celestus

• Lands (26)
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Shipwreck Marsh
• 3 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Shattered Sanctum

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Higher than record would indicate

Standout Card: Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

It's going to be a bit hard at first for some newer players to grasp how good of a mechanic proliferate really is. Even in All Will Be One, the set specifically avoids using any +1/+1 or -1/-1 counters, but once you see the cards outside the element of just the singular set, it becomes very apparent how much of an impact proliferate can have on a game.

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting is the centerpiece here, drawing cards, killing things, and most importantly juicing up all your other planeswalkers every turn by proliferating. And what other planeswalkers there are! Sure we know The Wandering Emperor and Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim (who is absurd with proliferate) are solid, but both The Eternal Wanderer and especially Kaito, Dancing Shadow overperformed by a lot. It's not hard to set up an unbeatable wall of planeswalkers while killing everything your opponent does.

Speaking of killing everything, there's no doubt that Farewell is one of the most powerful spells in the format and it is at its peak in a planeswalker deck. Proliferating removal spells and super-efficient spells like Cut Down are awesome, but Farewell is the big draw for sure.

This one would need to be tuned a bit, but if there's room for a sorcery speed control deck in the format this one does a pretty good job of it!

The Pro Tour And More!

This is an important set for me as it will be brand new at Pro Tour All Will Be One held later this month in Philadelphia at Magic 30. The format for that is Pioneer and All Will Be One draft, meaning it's going to be very cool seeing how the new set both drafts as well as effects smaller and larger formats.

There were a lot of very cool things happening in both these decks as well as many of the decks I played against, which means I'm very excited to see where All Will Be One takes us across all formats!