Now off the prerelease hype, it is finally time to dig in and see what Standard truly holds for the next two months—yep, you read that right: This Standard, I believe, will be the shortest since Coldsnap. I may be wrong there, but with the compressed schedule, we are only a few short months from Dragons of Tarkir. That means we have even less time to figure this format out, and considering that we never truly figured out a top dog during Khans of Tarkir, that may be a tall order.

• If possible I really want to be playing Treasure Cruise—there is a reason this card just got banned out of everything. Similar to Cube, when you see a piece of power, you play that piece of power. Standard is the last holdout for this card to shine, and shine it has. After playing Heroic all last season, I grew very attached to drawing three for 1 mana, and I am hoping to find a deck that can continue this trend.
• Flamewake Phoenix is calling me. I am not sure these two goals are achievable together, but somewhere next to some 4-power guys, I want to be playing a number of Phoenixes. I have mulled over Mono-Red and R/G, and I am not sure either is the optimal choice for this format when in context of this card and the following Big Red strategy. I will talk more about the particulars later, but if I can find something in the first few weeks that has midgame reach and that supports the Phoenix, I will probably start there.
• Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is abusable, though she’s perhaps not the optimal strategy for the current way Standard is headed. But this lady smiles at death and then proceeds to call upon her army of hornets at a moment’s notice to deliver that death upon others. The ability itself could be on a far worse body and still turn some heads, but the fact that you have a reasonably-coasted beater on top makes me want to smile right along with her.
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is gross—this card will absolutely, without a doubt, find at least two archetypes to seat himself in. The only thing keeping this card fair for now is how hard he is to protect. I have a few ways to work with him already, but I will go into that in a moment.

I will not be able to cover every potential strategy out there, and I am sure none of these exact lists will be showing up over the next few weeks, but the engines contained within should be able to make an impact on Standard.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Once again, we can start with the big man on the block, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, who has continued to impress me since he was spoiled. The two ways I see this card going are either a control-shell variant—probably U/B or else a ramp deck. I imagine Mono-Green is the place to start, but I see no reason to not at least consider splashes. Since U/B is not going to be changing all that much—with a few Crux of Fates in here and a few removal spells out there—I won’t go too far into detail, but I do want to see what we can draw up for ramp.

Ugin Ramp ? Fate Reforged Standard | Ryan Bushard

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Hornet Queen
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Genesis Hydra
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 4 Voyaging Satyr
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 4 Polukranos, World Eater

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
• 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Spells (5)
• 3 Stubborn Denial
• 2 Treasure Cruise

• Lands (24)
• 2 Island
• 6 Forest
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Yavimaya Coast
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Buy This Deck

I know this is not exactly something brand new, but I believe with the extra win conditions that don’t force us to always win with creatures, it can be possible to play a slightly more controlling role in the matches in which you need to. The Kiora, the Crashing Wave can help against decks like Heroic and Abzan in different ways, while Ugin can quickly close a game out if he comes down early and reset later if you really need to. I imagine we will see at least a half dozen lists stemming from the same roots, but this should at least get the cogs turning.

Soulflayer

All right, so I know I said I was not going to go to crazy with this season but then, of course, they printed Soulflayer. This card has been haunting my Spike dreams for weeks, and it’s time to take the brew a little further with some other cards from Fate Reforged—also here for a cameo appearance is one of my favorite cards in Standard right now: Chromanticore.

Soulflayer ? Fate Reforged Standard | Ryan Bushard

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Chromanticore
• 2 Murderous Cut
• 2 Soulflayer
• 3 Hornet Queen
• 4 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 2 Pharika, God of Affliction
• 3 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

• Spells (9)
• 4 Hero's Downfall
• 2 Treasure Cruise
• 3 Commune with the Gods

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Forest
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 3 Opulent Palace
• 3 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Temple of Malady

Buy This Deck

I am sure this is nowhere near the optimal build for where any of these engines want to be, but every once in a while, you have to just throw everything together and see what works. I really enjoy the interaction between Alesha and Satyr Wayfinder—keeping you stocked on mana and drawing cards or creating nigh-unbeatable creatures seems right up my alley.

I am not sure Alesha and Soulflayer belong together (Spoiler: They probably don’t), but many of the pieces to make each work are identical, and both can provide early-game pressure or late-game reach, and the added bonus of first strike on Alesha is not irrelevant either when you are looking to remove cards next to a Hornet Queen. Of all of the archetypes that I want to see mold over the next few months, this is the one I am looking forward to most. I probably will not end up playing something so off the wall, though stranger things have happened, but I will be curious to see how far it progresses before the next set.

Warriors

Of course, this set would not be complete without covering the preconstructed strategy of Warriors. I was really excited about this archetype when it was first spoiled, but between the mana issues I see the deck having and the holes that still exist, I think this one may just fall slightly short of a tier-one spot. No matter what you do, be prepared for this deck, as it will be out in force. The same people who complain about net-decking are the ones who bring these types of strategies to the tables because the lines are fairly self-explanatory while you still have some sway in what you play and how to build the deck. This gives a more homegrown feel while staying within the boundaries of an actual archetype—and that’s perfect for the Friday Night Magic crowd. We may see a few lists break out, as the deck certainly has power, but overall, I do not expect a dominating performance from Mardu this time around. This is an idea of how I would approach the deck:

Warriors ? Fate Reforged Standard | Ryan Bushard

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Mardu Strike Leader
• 2 Mardu Woe-Reaper
• 3 Brutal Hordechief
• 4 Bloodsoaked Champion
• 4 Chief of the Edge
• 4 Mardu Shadowspear

• Spells (18)
• 2 Hero's Downfall
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Titan's Strength
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 2 Mardu Ascendancy
• 2 Raiders' Spoils

• Lands (23)
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 2 Plains
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 2 Battlefield Forge
• 3 Temple of Malice
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Caves of Koilos

Buy This Deck

I really like how this deck looks on paper, but the lack of powerhouse 2-drops is what I think hurts it the most. Your curve and mana are already testy, and even with all of the added aggression, I cannot see this doing well when it is on people’s radars. If I were going to approach this deck with any intentions of grinding with it, I would try to reduce it to two colors to minimize the pain you take and to potentially allow for better removal in higher numbers.

So, this is just the first run of new, exciting things this format may hold for us. Next week, I am going to put Standard on the backburner, though I will make sure that any new breakout deck does get highlighted. With the Modern Pro Tour coming up and the recent shakeup of the format, I want to take a look at what the metagame now holds and what deck I would want to be on if I were headed to DC. As always, thank you for reading, and feel free to share some of your crazy brews as well—even if the deck is not great, you can usually glean some form of information from testing, and that can only help everyone moving forward.

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand