This is the first in a series of articles I'm doing about the new Extended format, with the upcoming rotation and the new cards from Shards of Alara we're sure to see a shakeup in the establishment!

I came back to Magic at the tail end of the Mirrodin Block, and I was dumbfounded by the complexity of the game. So much had changed since the early days of Magic.When I started this game the best Artifact creature was Juggernaut. When I found out that he was in Mirrodin I was excited that I could play him again. So I built up a deck that I thought could compete and naively  headed to a tournament.

I had no idea what I was in store for. When he dropped his entire hand on turn one, I looked at him like he was crazy. I had him explain to me how he could play his Frogmite for free. The next turn he played Arcbound Ravager. And then, on his next turn, he attacked me and sacrificed all his permanents and said, “Game 2?”

After the tournament I decided that I was going to take the $20 that I spent on my deck as a loss and move on from playing Magic. I put the cards in my closet and went about my business. About a week later I was surfing the web, I decided to go to magicthegathering.com just to see what was going on. Much to my surprise on the front page there was an article about a massive amount of bannings that had occurred. The funny thing was that every card on the list was in the same deck that crushed me at the tournament. I realized then that not all of Magic had turned out to be degenerate and broken. I signed up for an account on the forums and I slowly learned about the period of Magic’s history I had missed.

I tell you this story because many people have a difficult transition from casual play to the tournament scene. I was one of them. Beyond that, many people have certain barriers for formats that they will or will not play. I think that many people are intimidated by the older formats. Both the Block and Standard formats are givens for most people and that is generally the extent of their Magic the Gathering experience. Well, I am here to tell you that the Extended format isn’t much different from the Standard or Block formats. The only difference is the amount of cards available.

Wizards has announced that Extended will now rotate like Standard does, starting when Shards of Alara rotates in.. Each new set will remove the oldest set from the format. This means that there will be a constant shift in cards which will prevent the format from becoming stagnant. This is huge for people just getting started in this format. Many of the good decks that were in Standard will have a fairly good chance at being good in Extended too with the new rotations.

As many people are well aware the rotation that I was referring to will take place on October 1st. This is going to have a huge impact on the current state of the extended metagame. Many of the current "Best Decks" are going to become either unplayable or they will need to be re-imagined.

Recently I was discussing what decks will be viable after the rotation. The biggest problem that I found when trying to create new decks, is that Shards of Alara is about to be released and that could change the entire Extended metagame. This set could and should impact Extended in a huge way. There are some unbelievably powerful creatures that have already been spoiled and these creatures may very well define several of the top decks.

Let's look at five established archetypes which I think will remain powerhouses, if not become stronger after it, post rotation.

Affinity: This is the deck that destroyed me when I first came back to Magic. It revolves around a keyword ability from Mirrodin and has been considered the best Block deck in the history of Magic, rightfully so in my opinion. With the rotation this deck loses nothing from its core. Several builds splashed Cabal Therapy and Fire / Ice but losing those cards won’t have any sizable impact. Meaning we can expected to see this deck dominating the tournament scene again.

UW UrzaTron: I have talked to several people that feel this deck will be the deck to beat in the upcoming Extended. The deck is powered by the Urza lands to pay for expensive spells or power combos through mana engines. There were several devastating losses for this deck though. Meddling Mage and Skycloud Expanse are pretty big losses for this deck but the most devastating is probably Fact or Fiction. Digging five cards deep on your opponent’s turn is just amazing. This was the best way to ensure that you would have all of the Urza lands.

Dredge: This was probably the best deck of recent Extended. It was so lightning fast that many decks couldn’t stop it even if they had numerous answers to the deck. On top of that it was resilient enough to fight through any hate that it would encounter. However this deck is losing almost everything that allowed it to be as good as it was. Careful Study, Breakthrough, Tolarian Winds, Cabal Therapy, Cephalid Coliseum, Putrid Imp, Ichorid, Tireless Tribe, and Cephalid Sage are just a few from various builds. It is also worth noting that all of these cards were main deck cards. To be fair, Tolarian Winds and Tireless Tribe weren’t in every deck but the rest were. There is a glimmer of hope for this deck though. Goblin Lore, Ideas Unbound, Drowned Rusalka, and Glimpse the Unthinkable all help this deck out. The big question is are these more recent cards good enough replacements? The Dredge mechanic is one of the strongest, if not in fact the strongest, mechanic ever printed. I wouldn’t count Dredge out.

Next Level Blue (et al): There have been many different versions of this deck. I don’t know if it is really fair to lump them all together. The biggest loss here is obviously the combination of Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top. I know that several variations of this deck didn’t run this combo and those versions would continue to thrive were it not for the loss of Counterspell and Force Spike. Patrick Chapin has said that this will be the deck to beat. The banning of Sensei’s Divining Top changed this deck's outlook but I wouldn’t put it past Chapin to have a trick up his sleeve for it. It will require some re-imagination though.

Dragonstorm: Many people remember this from it’s domination in Standard. In Extended this deck picks up some powerful cards that should help this be one of the premier combo decks in the format. Peer Through Depths will help to carry this deck to quite a few victories. Hellkite Overlord is also a pretty good replacement for Hunted Dragon. You might want to keep an eye out for this deck.

Now for the one I think will actually be the most dominant in the new format:

Zoo: Shards of Alara is giving this deck a huge boost. It is yet to be determined exactly how much of a boost but anyone that has been keeping up with the spoilers should know that there are some amazing creatures that will easily replace the very few cards this deck loses in the rotation0. Grim Lavamancer, Firebolt, Gaea’s Might, and Vindicate are the only cards that this deck really loses. I think that Vindicate is the biggest loss here followed closely by Grim Lavamancer which allows you to reuse your burn spells. The cards that the deck is gaining though should make these losses hurt a lot less. Shards is showing some awesome low cost high damage creatures that will make this deck very potent.

I think that these will be the most common deck lists among the top tables. There are several other combo decks that I am sure will try to stand out such as the Heartbeat of Spring / Mind’s Desire combo. But I don't think they'll find any real dominance though they may win a few random tournaments.

Please feel free to leave any and all feedback on the forums. If you have any suggestions for future articles feel free to message me there as well. As always I do my best to help the members of the board with deck ideas and deck doctoring so feel free to message me about that as well!

Make sure to check out my article next week when I go into deck lists for the new Extended.

Until next time; see you on the boards!

-- Jimmy aka imachampion