Warning!

The decks you are about to see are mostly untested first drafts! They were played Thursday on the early access Streamer Event on MTG Arena and are my first stabs at the new Wilds of Eldraine Standard format. Most are brews jam packed with Wilds of Eldraine 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!

Eldaine returns.

This is a sentence that could put fear in the heart of any Magic player, given how well our first trip to Eldraine went with Throne of Eldraine, but I'm happy to report that the initial foray into Wilds of Eldraine is a promising one!

A far cry from Oko, Thief of Crowns and friends, who have all seen the ban lists of various formats, Wilds of Eldraine has the feel of a much more balanced and tempered set, but also one that has a lot to offer to a very large Standard format. Since the banning of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, Reckoner Bankbuster, and Invoke Despair, Standard has been in a relatively quiet state, but Wilds of Eldraine provides a great mix of new concepts as well as augmentations to previously successful decks.

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 of best of one with each deck so the deck's record will also be included, but do note that these matches were played during the Early Access event not on the open ladder. My opponents were all other content creators also trying out all sorts of fun Wilds of Eldraine stuff.

Let's go!

Frog Toss | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Nissa, Resurgent Animist
• 2 Yargle and Multani
• 2 Ziatora, the Incinerator
• 3 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 3 Soul of Windgrace
• 3 Voldaren Thrillseeker
• 4 Armored Scrapgorger
• 4 Topiary Stomper

• Instants (2)
• 2 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Thunderous Debut

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 4 Teachings of the Kirin // Kirin-Touched Orochi

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron

• Lands (26)
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Deathcap Glade
• 2 Haunted Ridge
• 2 Restless Cottage
• 2 Rockfall Vale
• 4 Riveteers Overlook
• 4 Ziatora's Proving Ground

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Soul of Windgrace

You can thank Twitch chat for our first deck, which was brewed on stream.

Flinging a Yargle at your opponents face for 18 to 20 damage is obviously a dream scenario, and this deck is looking to put together either Yargle and Multani and the fling effects of Ziatora, the Incinerator or Voldaren Thrillseeker, while also putting together a ramp/lands package based around Soul of Windgrace. Thunderous Debut can put the whole thing together at once, albeit for a very expensive cost.

Note that I did not include Callous Sell-Sword because we don't really need more Fling effects and we want the effect late in the game, not stapled to a mediocre 2-drop.

While the Yargle part of the deck is pretty meme heavy, the Soul of Windgrace portion of the deck actually worked surprisingly well, providing both ramp and card advantage to go along with a decent sized body. There's a big question of what the next step is, as well as making sure if you're going to ramp that you can beat a counterspell or two, but it played fairly well despite the rest of the deck.

Bunny Hop | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
• 2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 2 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 2 Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 3 Lord Skitter, Sewer King
• 4 Regal Bunnicorn

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Archangel Elspeth
• 2 The Wandering Emperor

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Rite of Oblivion

• Enchantments (11)
• 3 Skrelv's Hive
• 4 Virtue of Loyalty
• 4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Battles (3)
• 3 Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array

• Lands (24)
• 3 Swamp
• 6 Plains
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Mirrex
• 3 Restless Fortress
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Shattered Sanctum

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Deck's Record: 5-0

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: High

Standout Card: Regal Bunnicorn

There's no doubt that going wide with powerful token makers like Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity and The Wandering Emperor is a great place to be in Standard, but Wilds of Eldraine takes it to another level.

Coming out of preview season, a big question was how good is Regal Bunnicorn? Were the potential big numbers on a vanilla body a trap? Early signs point to the bunny being the real deal. Regal Bunnicorn was huge in most of these games, and other Wilds of Eldraine standouts were the well sized, graveyard hating token generation of Lord Skitter, Sewer King, and the very powerful Virtue of Loyalty, which provided early beats and a great top end.

However, what was most impressive was the "hop" in Bunny Hop. Archangel Elspeth has been a mostly underwhelming planeswalker, not really providing enough upside to be worth her four mana price tag. Well, once you've sent a 16/16 Regal Bunnicorn into the air for a surprise lethal attack, the song changes very quickly. Mondrak, Glory Dominus also plays very well with the various mana-free token makers.

Topping it all off is one of the best removal spells in the format in Rite of Oblivion, as well as some gain and drain action from Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim and Vraan, Executioner Thane.

This one was very impressive.

An Apple A Day | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Tatsunari, Toad Rider
• 4 Eriette of the Charmed Apple

• Instants (2)
• 2 Obscura Charm

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Asinine Antics

• Enchantments (23)
• 3 Clawing Torment
• 4 Candletrap
• 4 Curse of Silence
• 4 Phyrexian Arena
• 4 Planar Disruption
• 4 Witness Protection

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Celestus

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 2 Restless Fortress
• 2 Underground River
• 3 Deserted Beach
• 4 Raffine's Tower
• 4 Shattered Sanctum
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Low to Medium

Standout Card: Eriette of the Charmed Apple

All three of the main legendary witches of the set feel like Commander-build arounds, which is essentially exactly what we've done here.

Eriette of the Charmed Apple is a very powerful engine if you can keep her on the board, locking down your opponent's creatures from attacking while providing a huge life swing every turn. Riding shotgun is the odd Tatsunari, Toad Rider, which also benefits from casting a bunch of cheap enchantments by draining and providing constant attackers and blockers. Asinine Antics is also quite the combo with Eriette, enchanting every single one of your opponent's creatures at once.

This is all well and cute, and we did actually win more games than we lost, but the deck is reliant on both keeping Eriette in play as well as your opponent playing creatures. If both of those things are true, the deck actually plays fairly well, but if not, things fall apart quickly.

This one was fun but ultimately not very competitive.

Virtue Burn | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Bloodfeather Phoenix

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 4 Chandra, Dressed to Kill

• Instants (10)
• 2 Abrade
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Play with Fire

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Strangle
• 4 Nahiri's Warcrafting

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Virtue of Courage

• Battles (4)
• 4 Invasion of Regatha // Disciples of the Inferno

• Lands (24)
• 20 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 3 Mishra's Foundry

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C+

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Virtue of Courage

It's been along time since Standard has seen a true burn deck.

However, Virtue of Courage provides an actual reason to want to point burn spells at your opponent's face rather than just play a bunch of aggressive Red creatures, and does so at a fairly low opportunity cost. We've seen the two damage, two mana adventure on Bonecrusher Giant before and know how serviceable it is, and untapping with a Virtue of Courage in play is pretty excellent. Actually, playing burn means that cards like Bloodfeather Phoenix also enter the equation too.

With so many removal and burn spells, planeswalkers like Chandra, Dressed to Kill and Koth, Fire of Resistance go up in value, being able to provide card advantage and ramp towards Virtue of Courage, while being easy to defend with all of your removal.

The idea was reasonable, but the deck suffered a lot against decks going wide or not playing many creatures. There's still something here to build on however.

Adventure Rock | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures
• 2 Briarbridge Tracker
• 2 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 2 Tenacious Underdog
• 3 Glissa Sunslayer
• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 4 Mosswood Dreadknight

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator
• 1 Sorin the Mirthless
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (7)
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 1 Tear Asunder
• 2 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Duress

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Virtue of Persistence

• Lands (25)
• 2 Forest
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 4 Deathcap Glade
• 4 Restless Cottage
• 4 Llanowar Wastes

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: A-

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Mosswood Dreadknight

Two things have been very true about Standard before Wilds of Eldraine - Black is the best color and Green is the worst color. Well, Green gets a number of upgrades in Wilds of Eldraine, and many of them are Black too!

Mosswood Dreadknight is an excellent grindy 2-drop, providing very solid rate stats alongside the ability to recur over and over again from the graveyard while drawing cards for good measure. Mosswood Dreadknight won't win you the game by itself like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Farewell, but it's a great complimentary piece that plays excellent offense and defense while being good early and late. Golgari also gets the best creature lands of the new Restless cycle, as Restless Cottage is well sized with two excellent abilities in a deck that makes ideal use of a creature land.

Opening up to Green in your Black deck in Standard also gives you access to the very powerful but underplayed Glissa Sunslayer, as well as the usual suite of awesome Black cards. Liliana of the Veil has proven to be a solid player in recent Standard against everything but the token decks, while Go for the Throat and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse need no introduction.

Lastly, the new Virtue of Persistence is a phenomenal midrange card, providing you with a good 2-drop removal spell and some lifegain early, as well as something big to do later in the game when you flood. Both the adventures as well as the creature land play great with Liliana of the Veil, making this deck the real deal. Our only game loss was due to a misplay on my part; this is one to watch.

The Secret of the Ooze | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Cruel Somnophage
• 3 Titania, Voice of Gaea
• 4 Blossoming Tortoise
• 4 Deeproot Wayfinder
• 4 Slogurk, the Overslime

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (7)
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 4 Seed of Hope

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Virtue of Persistence
• 4 Teachings of the Kirin // Kirin-Touched Orochi

• Lands (26)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 2 Deathcap Glade
• 2 Dreamroot Cascade
• 2 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Restless Vinestalk
• 2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Restless Cottage
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Medium

Standout Card: Blossoming Tortoise

Slogurk, the Overslime has been a very odd card.

There's no doubting that there's a lot of power in the card. The ability to grow, as well as recur lands for card advantage when killed, is an excellent deal for three mana, as is the ability to abuse the channel lands from Neon Dynasty. However, it's often just not clear exactly what you want your Slogurk deck to do. The new Blossoming Tortoise certainly operates in the same sphere, providing mill and land recursion, but there still isn't really a clear endgame.

There are definitely cute things going on here, like Seed of Hope providing mill, lifegain, and the ability to get "spells" with the adventure cards, but it's hard to see what it is all supposed to add up to. However, if someone does figure out what a good Slogurk deck looks like, it's likely to be really good.

Slight of Otter | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Balmor, Battlemage Captain
• 2 Vindictive Flamestoker
• 4 Elusive Otter
• 4 Ledger Shredder
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear

• Instants (19)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 2 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 3 Monstrous Rage
• 4 Consider
• 4 Play with Fire
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Lands (21)
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Restless Spire
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Stormcarved Coast

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Rough For The Current Format

Standout Card: Elusive Otter

This five game set gave me whiplash. The first two games, we decimated our opponents. In the next three, our deck looked non-functional.

Elusive Otter was excellent, but I was even more surprised how impactful the Grove's Bounty adventure was. I didn't expect to cast it at all, but it was incredible as a way to get another spell and set of prowess triggers, trigger Ledger Shredder, and of course actually put counters on things. I did cast it for x=0 more than once though! Sleight of Hand was great at digging for gas, while Monstrous Rage was big for pushing through damage.

The issue is that, while the deck does have a number of very solid cards in it and an excellent goldfish rate, it lines up quiet poorly against all of the best Black cards in the format. Cheap removal like Cut Down and Go for the Throat picking apart your early creatures can put you too far behind to catch back up, while the ever-present Sheoldred, the Apocalypse always looms.

There are definitely good things happening here, but as long as the format remains so removal and midrange heavy, it's a rough go.

Tinkerbell Blitz | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Halo Forager
• 2 Obyra, Dreaming Duelist
• 4 Faerie Dreamthief
• 4 Faerie Mastermind
• 4 Picklock Prankster
• 4 Sleep-Cursed Faerie

• Instants (13)
• 1 Sheoldred's Edict
• 2 Go for the Throat
• 2 Make Disappear
• 4 Faerie Fencing
• 4 Spell Stutter

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Ego Drain

• Lands (23)
• 4 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh
• 4 Underground River

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Deck's Record: 3-2

Deck's Grade: B

Deck Potential: Medium to High

Standout Card: Sleep-Cursed Faerie in conjunction with the spells

Speaking of base-Black removal decks...

Faeries are the major Dimir theme in Wilds of Eldraine, bringing with them a suite of powerful spells that want you to have Faeries in play to maximize them. Spell Stutter gets close to Counterspell the more Faeires you have, Faerie Fencing is hyper efficient removal, and Ego Drain does a nice Thoughtseize impression as well.

However, this all means nothing if you don't have a Faerie in play.

This is where Sleep-Cursed Faerie comes into play. As a Magic card by itself, Sleep-Cursed Faerie is slow and awkward. However, as an enabler for all these great Faerie spells, Sleep-Cursed Faerie is excellent. It comes online on turn one, is hard to remove thanks to ward, and allows you all the benefits of your spells while you work toward waking it up and setting up your gameplan.

While this deck is very similar to Dimir Rogues of recent memory or Dimir Faeries of Lorywn times past, it is lacking that big knockout punch like Into the Story or Bitterblossom to really put it over the edge. Still, there's definitely something here.

Why Not Both? | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Halo Hopper
• 2 Knight-Errant of Eos
• 2 Regal Bunnicorn
• 3 Skrelv, Defector Mite
• 4 Elvish Archivist
• 4 Gingerbrute
• 4 Swooping Lookout
• 4 Teething Wurmlet

• Enchantments (10)
• 3 Ossification
• 3 Skrelv's Hive
• 4 Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Glass Casket

• Lands (22)
• 3 Forest
• 7 Plains
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2 Mirrex
• 4 Brushland
• 4 Razorverge Thicket

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Deck's Record: 2-3

Deck's Grade: C

Deck Potential: Difficult To Build

Standout Card: Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko

There are a lot of underdeveloped themes in Standard currently.

Neon Dynasty was an enchantment set. Brother's War was an artifact set. Yet because we now only get single sets and are long past the times when a set's themes would be spread out over three sets, this often leaves us coming up short to finish decks based around said themes.

Well, why not both?

The new Elvish Archivist gets benefits from both artifacts and enchantments, as does Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko, paving the way for a synergy aggro deck based around both card types. Cards like Skrelv's Hive help to form the glue, being both an enchantment as well as a source of artifacts, and Glass Casket and Ossification both provide removal as well as more synergy.

There's a lot of good things happening here, with superb 1-drops like Teething Wurmlet and Skrelv, Defector Mite getting things started and Regal Bunnicorn and Knight-Errant of Eos providing some late game pop. However, finding the right mix does feel very difficult.

Our draws were quite awkward during this set, but that's as much attributable to bad luck as it is to confused deck-building. This is another challenging puzzle to try and tackle.

Eat It | WOE Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Third Path Iconoclast

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Saheeli, Filigree Master
• 4 Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh

• Spells (10)
• 4 Voltage Surge
• 2 Excavation Explosion
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Lands (40)
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Stormcarved Coast
• 2 Torch the Tower
• 3 Omen Hawker
• 4 Candy Trail
• 4 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 4 Food Fight
• 4 Mirrex
• 4 Restless Spire

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Deck's Record: 4-1

Deck's Grade: B-

Deck Potential: Very Surprising

Standout Card: Food Fight

What a way to end!

The last deck of the set was based on a simple enough premise - put Food Fight in play with extra mana stuff like Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh and Omen Hawker and keep throwing artifacts this way and that. Tezzeret's ability to essentially produce 4 mana a turn cycle is excellent along side Food Fight as well as Chrome Host Seedshark, with Omen Hawking providing backup on that front.

As far as providing a steady source of rubbish for scrap, Third Path Iconoclast, Chrome Host Seedshark, and Mirrex were all ready to produce a motley assortment of random artifacts to be sacrificed. Candy Trail was a wonderful little gem, while Saheeli, Filigree Master was another welcome surprise. Throw in some extra removal spells to bridge the gap and we had quite the little surprise on our hands.

It still feels like there's just too many moving parts here, but it came together surprisingly well.

The World Championships

This is yet another big set for me, as later this month I'll once again be competing in the Magic: The Gathering World Championships in Las Vegas at MagicCon. The formats will be Wilds of Eldraine Standard and Wilds of Eldraine draft, and it is refreshing to see a bunch of new things to work on in Standard.

There's a lot of the set still to explore, and it's made even better by the fact that post-ban Standard was also fairly unexplored as well. This is going to be an exciting one!