Spoiler season has come to a close, and now a new Standard format is looming. Last year's "second set," Born of the Gods, did little to shake up Standard, but this time is set to be much different. There are about eight to ten cards that I expect to see heavy play. I'd like to talk about a few of them and give you guys some sample decklists that should immediately give you a good shot at your next Friday Night Magic or Pro Tour Qualifier following the prerelease.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Ugin was among the first cards spoiled, and he did not disappoint. A fake version was "leaked," and it turned out to be worse than the real one. Unplayable Planeswalkers are rare, and we've learned in recent years that “the 4-mana rule” doesn't always apply. His abilities are undeniably strong, and he will be a powerhouse in the right deck.

U/B Control ? Fate Reforged Standard | Randall Gay

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Spells (28)
• 2 Jace's Ingenuity
• 2 Negate
• 2 Silence the Believers
• 4 Bile Blight
• 4 Dig Through Time
• 4 Dissolve
• 4 Hero's Downfall
• 1 Interpret the Signs
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 3 Crux of Fate

• Lands (28)
• 4 Swamp
• 5 Island
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 3 Radiant Fountain
• 4 Dismal Backwater
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

Ugin seems to be a great inclusion for a deck like this. The presence of the Spirit Dragon and Crux of Fate all but eliminates the need for Perilous Vault, a somewhat flimsy board sweeper that often must be cast with activation mana available simply to ensure it isn't removed before cracking. Crux of Fate gives us a 5-mana sweeper that tides us over until we can bring Ugin into play and protect him. I've chosen to exclude Pearl Lake Ancient from the list—Ugin himself is no doubt strong enough to put the game away when the time comes. If you plan on playing Standard in the coming months, I strongly urge you to keep an Eye on Ugin.

Monastery Mentor

This block has featured a good number of cards we call "pushed," meaning the power is stronger than you'd expect out of a card for that mana cost. Many of these cards have extra abilities that seem unnecessarily tagged on to already-super-powerful cards. Jeskai Ascendancy and Siege Rhino are good examples—do we also need to draw and discard? Does Siege Rhino also need trample?

Monastery Mentor is another one of these also cards. It's a 2/2 for with prowess that makes tokens. There are already plenty of cards that abuse effects like this, and I could already see that fitting into Standard. But the tokens it makes also have prowess. There is already a competitive token strategy in Standard featuring Jeskai Ascendancy. Could Monastery Mentor push it to Tier 1?

Jeskai Tokens ? Fate Reforged Standard | Randall Gay

• Creatures (10)
• 3 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 3 Seeker of the Way
• 4 Monastery Mentor

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster

• Spells (25)
• 1 Jeskai Charm
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Raise the Alarm
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Treasure Cruise
• 4 Jeskai Ascendancy

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Temple of Epiphany
• 3 Battlefield Forge
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 3 Shivan Reef
• 4 Mystic Monastery
• 4 Temple of Triumph

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One of the drawbacks of the Jeskai tokens deck is that without Jeskai Ascendancy in play, it has a hard time competing. Now that we have Monastery Mentor, our turn-three play is very capable of doing something pretty broken very soon.

It's not hard to imagine a dream scenario: With a Mentor and a Monk token in play, you cast Jeskai Ascendancy, making a token. Then, you Lightning Strike your opponent's Fleecemane Lion, looting and making a token. You then tap your team to Stoke the Flames your opponent's Courser of Kruphix, triggering everything again and untapping. Oh, we have 1 mana left. Treasure Cruise. Have you been counting? The two creatures we started with this turn are now a 9/9 and an 8/8. Does this seem like a far-fetched scenario? It's really not. It's also worth noting that Monastery Mentor generates Monk tokens, giving the deck three types of tokens and making Bile Blight less effective.

Flamewake Phoenix

Chandra's Phoenix was a Standard staple for a long time, and this will be no different. The condition for returning Flamewake Phoenix is a little more difficult for mono-red decks to achieve, but the tradeoff is that for 1 mana, the Phoenix comes straight to the battlefield. We even have a couple of ways to turn on ferocious in the current version of mono-red. Let's see what it would look like with additions from Fate Reforged:

Mono-Red ? Fate Reforged Standard | Randall Gay

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Satyr Hoplite
• 4 Akroan Crusader
• 4 Firedrinker Satyr
• 4 Foundry Street Denizen
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Flamewake Phoenix

• Spells (19)
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 3 Dragon Mantle
• 4 Hammerhand

• Lands (18)
• 18 Mountain

Buy This Deck

Without the Phoenix, the only evasion we have is Hammerhand. Now we have a flyer with haste that gives us some reach and staying power—something previously unavailable to this deck. The Standard metagame has been quite hostile to this deck for a while, but with the addition of Flamewake Phoenix, it may have a chance to rise from the ashes.

This should provide a good preliminary look at where the Standard metagame might be following the introduction of Fate Reforged.

I also want to take a moment to talk about my performance at Grand Prix Omaha. The format was Modern, which I've become very familiar with in the last year—in fact, my first PTQ win was Modern. I chose Abzan Midrange, mostly because of its great post-sideboard Delver matchup and salvageable matchups in other areas. My day-one performance was pretty incredible, and for the second Grand Prix in a row, I rounded out Saturday at 9–0. I played against pros Matt Sperling and Owen Turtenwald, both in the feature-match area, and I defeated both of them.

It was interesting to hear from my friends how the commentators counted me out but gradually changed their minds. It was a huge confidence booster, and it reminds me that I'm capable of competing with the best in the world.

I'm patiently awaiting the Modern ban-list changes and the Fate Reforged prerelease, at which point I will be tirelessly preparing for the Pro Tour in February. Until next time!