Hey again! Most of Return to Ravnica was recently spoiled, and as I am writing this, only eight cards are missing from the full spoiler. I covered many of the most important cards in the set last time, like the lands and the two planeswalkers, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already. I’ll continue my look at various individual cards and strategies that we can look forward to in the new Standard environment.

Fire!

First up are a couple of sweet new red cards. Both Ash Zealot and Rakdos Cackler look like they fit very nicely into some kind of mono-red deck. Red hasn’t traditionally had very good 2-drops, and I still remember when basically a vanilla 2/1 for 2 was considered good. Ash Zealot is quite an amazing creature, which red hasn’t had in a while. Ash Zealot would be very good even without punishing flashback, so having that extra ability really puts it over the top. I am not really a fan of playing aggressive red decks—despite that I played burn in Modern at Worlds 2011—but I really like that Wizards of the Coast is printing these quality creatures in red.

Here is a list to sink your teeth into.

"Red Deck Wins 2012"

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Ash Zealot
• 4 Hellrider
• 4 Mogg Flunkies
• 4 Rakdos Cackler
• 4 Reckless Waif
• 4 Stromkirk Noble

• Spells (14)
• 2 Annihilating Fire
• 4 Brimstone Volley
• 4 Searing Spear
• 4 Pillar of Flame

• Lands (22)
• 20 Mountain
• 2 Hellion Crucible

Buy This Deck

The deck takes on a traditional Sligh approach, running a lot of 1- and 2-drops. There is a lack of good 3-drops, as I don’t think Cryptborn Horror is good enough. It’s pretty close, though, so you might want to try a few in there, cutting a few Hellriders. The deck is very straightforward in what it tries to do, as the main goal is to play some guys and burn all your opponent’s creatures. If your opponent doesn’t play any creatures, even better! Aiming all those burn spells at your opponent’s face is a good way of ending rounds quickly. Losing Shrine of Burning Rage is unfortunate, as it was unreal in the mono-red decks, but you can’t have everything.

This deck could also play black, giving you access to a whole lot of good aggressive cards. Some of the cards worth playing would be Falkenrath Aristocrat, Dreadbore, Hellhole Flailer, and maybe the boss himself, Rakdos, Lord of Riots. You could also run some of the black early drops, namely Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul, but I think you want to concentrate on one of the two colors for your early drops, as the mana base is not perfect. The mana bases for allied two-color decks will not actually be becoming any better in the early game compared to the current Standard, as Blood Crypt is just a worse Blackcleave Cliffs during the first three turns.

Aggro decks have traditionally been very good at the beginning of a new Standard format, as control decks need time to find the right answers and become established. I recommend giving something like this a try at your local Standard tournaments once Return to Ravnica becomes legal.

Tokens!

Selesnya serves up a whole batch of token goodness in the new set. Call of the Conclave was something I was really looking for since if you are populating, you really want to get something else out of the deal than just another 1/1 dude. Selesnya can also go in more of an aggressive, midrange direction with Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Rancor, and Loxodon Smiter as strong cards.

Here is a token-themed deck I put together from the cards spoiled so far.

"Populate"

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Arbor Elf
• 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 4 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
• 4 Wayfaring Temple

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Garruk Relentless

• Spells (17)
• 3 Selesnya Charm
• 2 Predatory Rampage
• 4 Call of the Conclave
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (24)
• 2 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 3 Gavony Township
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden

Buy This Deck

Predatory Rampage might look a bit bad, but I think you need more anthem effects than just four Intangible Virtues and three Gavony Townships. Predatory Rampage can manage to end the game quickly and can even be decent as just a way to take out your opponent’s creatures. Another consideration for that slot was Collective Blessing, but I feels that 6 mana is just a bit too much even though that spell gives you some good late-game staying power. Other cards that might be worth looking at for this deck are Mikaeus the Lunarch, Angel of Jubilation, Increasing Devotion, Geist-Honored Monk, and Gather the Townsfolk.

Control

Last week, I talked a bit about some form of W/U control, and with some of the new spells spoiled, I feel that we finally can get to work! I decided on a R/W/U version since some of the spells supplied by Izzet are very good in this kind of control deck. Here is the list I put together.

"R/W/U Control"

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 3 Jace, Architect of Thought

• Spells (28)
• 2 Izzet Charm
• 2 Sphinx's Revelation
• 4 Think Twice
• 2 Terminus
• 4 Entreat the Angels
• 4 Mizzium Mortars
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 2 Detention Sphere
• 4 Chromatic Lantern

• Lands (27)
• 5 Island
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 2 Izzet Guildgate
• 3 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

Buy This Deck

I like the mana base a lot in this deck since you get to be base-blue splashing red and white. This means that Glacial Fortress and Sulfur Falls will come into play untapped most of the time. The Izzet Guildgates and Clifftop Retreats could be tweaked, and you might even want to play another Desolate Lighthouse.

The two planeswalkers and Sphinx's Revelation give you something to do with your mana in the mid- and late game. It might be that it would be worth playing a couple of Thoughtflares, but I think that works better if you play counters as well. I think you really need to generate some advantage out of the fact that Thoughtflare is an instant since the base stats aren’t that spectacular compared to Sphinx's Revelation. This deck is quite close to the R/W/U miracles deck from Innistrad Block Constructed, but Jace, Architect of Thought adds another angle of card advantage to the deck.

Finding an actual victory condition for this deck proved challenging, and in the end, I went with plain old Entreat the Angels. Other options included Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius. Think Twice is not the best, but I think that you need some cheap, instant-speed cantrips if you want to run Entreat the Angels. Of course, you can always win with a Jace ultimate if your opponent has something really sweet in his or her deck.

Spoilers, Over and Out

This article concludes the spoiler season for Return to Ravnica. Next week, I’ll focus on Return to Ravnica from a Limited perspective. This will naturally be from a theoretical point of view, as the prereleases are still a week away. The set looks very nice for Limited play, but with these multicolored sets, it’s always difficult to see how the format shapes up before you have played a lot of events. I still think some of the lessons learned from original Ravnica will be applicable here, so I hope I can help you out a bit at grasping the format before the prerelease. So, stay tuned for that last-minute advice in a week’s time!

As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas for future articles, be sure to hit me up on Twitter or in the comments section.

Thanks for reading,

Max

@thebloom_ on Twitter

Maxx on Magic Online

You can find my music on: http://soundcloud.com/bloomlive