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Our first big Standard event with War of the Spark is now behind us.
SCG Richmond gave us a glimpse into what the future of Standard is going to look like going forward and it was a bit of a mixed bag. Simic Nexus loomed over the entire event, and while it didn't dominate, its presence was heavily felt. Decks unable to compete with Simic Nexus were non-starters, and Mono-Red Aggro went on to have a great day backed partly by an excellent matchup with Nexus of Fate decks. Esper Control also had a great day, showing that success week one was seen on the polar ends of the format.
Today we're gonna grade War of the Spark planeswalkers based on how they looked in Richmond, paving the way from our pre-tournament expectations to post-tournament reality.
Grade: D
Ah yes, the dragon of the hour. The big baddie. Thanos himself. Unfortunately Nicol Bolas was largely absent from SCG Richmond.
With the format so heavily polarized between Nexus of Fate, Esper Control, and Mono-Red Aggro, that doesn't leave much room for midrange decks to breathe. The tools you need to compete against each deck are very different, and for every Enter The God-Eternals you add to help beat aggressive decks you have an extra dead card against Control and Nexus. Midrange decks can also struggle to put up enough of a clock to stop Control or Nexus decks before they reach their endgame, leaving most Grixis decks to fall flat.
This is less an indictment on Nicol Bolas as a card itself, and more so just a reaction to his place in the metagame. There's no doubt that Nicol Bolas is one of the most powerful cards in War of the Spark, but the metagame is currently very hostile toward him. That is, of course, until things shift as they always do.
Grade: B+
While the larger planeswalkers didn't have a great day in Richmond, the smaller ones did exceptionally well. Narset, Parter of Veils had a big day for a pair of reasons.
It turns out Dig Through Time is still great, even if half of it is on suspend. Narset's ability to dig deep and find the right card while also providing card advantage proved a boon to both Esper Control decks as well as Nexus of Fate decks. While not a card you can play in high numbers due to it being a bit slow an unwieldy, Narset was nonetheless an import cog in Richmond.
But the card draw of course is not the only draw to Narset. Narset's static ability is very powerful against both control and Nexus of Fate decks, providing a difficult to remove annoyance that provides real card advantage as well as virtual card advantage.
Narset is still probably better suited for older formats, but will big a serious player in Standard going forward.
Grade: B-
While I didn't end up finishing well with my planeswalker-centric Gruul Aggro deck, it was to no fault of my powerful trio of planeswalkers; a shaky mana base and too many matches against Esper Control did that.
Sarkhan the Masterless was an awesome threat that provided immediate board presence, defended decently against go wide decks, and quickly put away games where you already had a planeswalker in play. Ramping any decent curve into Sarkhan was often lights out.
The problem is that Sarkhan lines up very poorly against both Absorb and Nexus of Fate, both cards that were running amok at SCG Richmond. Against control decks with counterspells Sarkhan is a five-mana liability, and if you are behind on cards they can just use two separate cards to kill the Dragon token and Sarkhan himself, as he has no form of protection when he is a creature. While attacking for eight the following turn is nice, Sarkhan was also often too slow to get to a Nexus of Fate player before they started to do their thing.
As such, Sarkhan is currently a good planeswalker without a home.
Grade: A-
Baby Teferi follows a similar story arc to Narset, Parter of Veils; solid effect for three mana and decent source of card advantage, but most importantly very punishing to the top decks in the format.
Both Esper Control and Nexus of Fate decks hate to see Teferi, Time Raveler on the other side of the board, as it throws a major wrench into their plans. By turning off counterspells, the ability to play at instant speed, and Wilderness Reclamation while also being fairly annoying to remove if you don't have any creatures, Teferi, Time Raveler is a great foil to many of the format's top decks.
Of course, like Narset it also feels pretty anemic against aggressive Red and White decks.
Still Teferi had a huge day in Richmond, playing a role in both Esper Control as well as Esper Midrange, while also spearheading the Team Nova Bant Midrange deck that put two players into Top 8. While Teferi is a somewhat polarizing card depending on what the matchup is, Repulse isn't that bad of a fail state in matchups where he is poor.
Grade: B
Three-mana planeswalkers everywhere! Vivien, Champion of the Wilds wasn't everywhere in Richmond, but with a full playset found in the breakout Bant Midrange deck she needs to be looked at more closely.
Vivien asks a lot. She must be played in a deck with a large critical mass of creatures, and not only that there has to be some sort of instant speed element to the deck or her flash static ability doesn't really matter that much - if your deck is all Steel Leaf Champion and Nullhide Ferox you're not fooling anyone. Your opponents won't attack into your open mana and will expect you to play something big on their end step. By introducing elements like Frilled Mystic and mana sinks like Growth-Chamber Guardian and Shalai, Voice of Plenty you at least present a number of options. Vivien also plays well with Teferi, severely limited your opponent's timing options while maximizing yours.
Vivien certainly needs a specific deck to succeed, but it looks like that deck has already been found.
Grade: C-
As they say, context is everything.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General has all the makings of an absurd Standard card. She is highly reminiscent of Elspeth, Sun's Champion and was on many top player's "best cards in the set" lists.
So what happened?
Frankly, Liliana is a victim of context. If all of your opponents are playing Absorb, Nexus of Fate, or Goblin Chainwhirler, Liliana is underwhelming. She's not a very fast clock, if she can be removed or countered cleanly you don't gain a ton when you cast her, and Nexus of Fate doesn't care about 2/2s or card advantage.
Liliana will eventually rise, but the format is extremely hostile toward her at the moment.
Grade: C+
Amusingly, it was another sic-mana planeswalker that saw a little more time in the Richmond spotlight: Ugin, the Ineffable.
While Ugin seems to compare unfavorably to Liliana in the raw power department, he has one huge advantage- if your opponent isn't playing creatures and instead relying on non-creature permanents like planeswalkers or enchantments as a major part of their gameplan then Ugin can come down and help break that up.
Again context is everything, and in the context of the present Control/Nexus/Mono-Red format Ugin is surprisingly more impactful.
Grade: B+
Speaking of context, take a quick look at the SCG Richmond winning list:
Mono-Red Aggro | War Standard | Will Pulliam, 1st Place SCG Richmond
- Creatures (20)
- 4 Fanatical Firebrand
- 4 Ghitu Lavarunner
- 4 Goblin Chainwhirler
- 4 Runaway Steam-Kin
- 4 Viashino Pyromancer
- Planeswalkers (4)
- 4 Chandra, Fire Artisan
- Instants (10)
- 2 Wizard's Lightning
- 4 Lightning Strike
- 4 Shock
- Sorceries (6)
- 2 Skewer the Critics
- 4 Light Up the Stage
- Lands (20)
- 20 Mountain
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
- 4 Lava Coil
- 2 Legion Warboss
- 2 Rekindling Phoenix
- 3 Risk Factor
- 2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
Where are the Experimental Frenzies!?
Experimental Frenzy has been the staple card in Mono-Red Aggro since its inception, and is definitely a more powerful card in a vacuum than Chandra, Fire Artisan. The problem again is that contextually Experimental Frenzy struggles in this specific format in ways that Chandra, Fire Artisan does not. The format is extremely ready for another four-mana enchantment, Wilderness Reclamation, and that splash damage hits Experimental Frenzy as well; Mortify, Teferi, Time Raveler, Knight of Autumn, Trashing Brontodon, Return to Nature, etc.
Chandra was the highlight of my Gruul deck as well, and there were a few Gruul decks in day two that were playing her that did well. Chandra isn't as explosive, but she's a very powerful planeswalker for any aggressive deck.
Extra Credit
With so many more planeswalkers to explore, we're still barely scratching the surface of War of the Spark Standard.
Maybe you saw Teyo, the Shieldmage in play on camera in the hands of Ben Ragen? Who saw that one coming?
It's going to be interesting to see how the format evolves in the wake of SCG Richmond. The Nexus of Fate/Mono-Red Aggro/ Esper Control trifecta is a tough one to beat with everything, but new brews like the Bant Midrange deck give us hope that it can be beaten. The rules are laid out; it's time to start trying to break them.
