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The prerelease has passed, the full visual spoiler is in our hands, and within two weeks I will be engaging in card-slinging at the Australian National Championship. I am absolutely looking forward to it and I can't wait to bring you all the highs and lows from the tournament floor. Before we get there, though, we have a brand new set to sink our teeth into and it promises to give standard a good shaking up. Rather than do a card by card spoiler, I am going to sift through and pick out cards I believe could do something a bit different – we all know Silvercoat Lion still isn't good enough for constructed and that Obstinate Baloth is good against Red decks and discard; I'm going to be looking for the more out there cards that could set off whole new archetypes. Most of the time these meanderings up the mental garden path are going to go nowhere, but it is worth exploring every card in the spoiler – witness the innovations of Boss Naya, Mythic Conscription and Turboland, all of which came out of trying new and potentially breakable cards and combinations.
Lords have to either have a seriously good ability, like Elvish Archdruid, or fit into an already playable tribe, like Scion of Oona, to see any tournament play – usually they need both. Knight Exemplar's ability is very strong in the abstract, turning off your opponent's Day of Judgments and Martial Coups and so on. She has a pretty wimpy body for 3 mana, but the ability might be worth working for. So what other knights are there in support? Well, ones that currently see constructed play include Knight of the Reliquary, Knight of the White Orchid, and at a stretch Student of Warfare – Rafiq of the Many has been used before to great success in the Mythic deck, as well. Picturing the sort of deck these guys would end up in together, I don't think it's going to be worth the restriction of playing Knights to the exclusion of other, better creatures like Vengevine. This close examination is probably more than Knight Exemplar deserves when we consider Eldrazi Monument is in the format, which has no tribal restriction, and it gives flying to boot.
While a 1/1 flier for 2 is not the sort of threat an aggressive deck generally wants to lay out, this ability is unique in standard – not only does the Hawk replace itself, but it gives you +2 cards in hand as well as a warm body on the field. It reminds me of another 1/1 flier for 2 that found a powerful niche – Narcomoeba. You don't play Narcomoeba as a very weak mill-hoser, the same as you probably won't play Squadron Hawk as weak discard protection – for discard protection, see Leyline of Sanctity. If Squadron Hawk does do something in tournaments, it will likely be as part of a combo deck – fuelling repeated Fauna Shaman activations, for instance. This one is on my combo-watch list, and anything that calls for me to discard a creature card or play creature spells for effect will bring me back to it.
This guy is just ludicrous. This is what Leviathans should be like! Essentially an 8/8 unblockable Moat-on-a-stick, this guy is definitely worth a look-in in decks that cheat out creatures, like Polymorph or Summoning Trap. He is definitely worse than Emrakul in any deck that can “cast” the creature, like Brilliant Ultimatum, as if you cast Emrakul you virtually win immediately. Cheating Emrakul into play is not quite as good and this Leviathan is a worthy competitor for sideboard slots in such decks. Emrakul has certain advantages – one, he's much harder to kill, with protection from coloured spells meaning most removal can't touch him. Two, he ends the game quickly if you are able to untap with him, due to his massive size, flying and annihilator 6. On the other hand, Leviathan is much better at protecting you from their counterstroke – if you give them another turn to attack you, they might be able to finish you off around your massive Eldrazi by attacking with multiple creatures. With Leviathan, unless they have fliers (or Elspeth), they will have to find removal before they can finish the job. I am not sure if this guy is better than Pelakka Wurm as a Polymorph sideboard card against RDW, but if that is the way you want to roll I recommend trying out Leviathan.
One reason you might want to try out Polymorph again is this card. It has been months since we had anything like a draw-go control deck in standard, and with Mana Leak coming back as well as this brand new card there is a chance it might make a return. A more controlling version of Polymorph seems like a good home for it, as you really don't want to let your opponent resolve certain spells – like new Jace – and so being able to hold mana open until their end step for counters will be a great boon. End-of-Turn Polymorph into Emrakul is just as dirty as it sounds, and is nearly as good as casting it and getting the free turn. Additionally most extant builds of Polymorph play a nice suite of card selection and shuffle effects, so you can get rid of extra leylines and maximise your chances of mising that opener. I may be looking too much on the bright side of this card, but I really hope it is good. One downside is that planeswalkers don't play well with it – they are a sorcery speed spell that you don't want to play at instant speed, because you can't use their effect until your next main phase.
7 mana is ultimatum level, and Destructive Force doesn't disappoint. This is a more reckless kind of card, very reminiscent of Wildfire, a card Kai Budde used to win the World Championship in 1999. It has a very decisive impact on the game, but since it's symmetrical you have to work to make it a favourable impact. You also have to get it off before turn 7 if you want to actually survive to play it, and to solve this problem with Wildfire Kai used various mana accelerators like Thran Dynamo and Grim Monolith to get to the required mana well before time. While we have the Voltaic Keys he used back in standard, we really don't have the same quality of accelerant – Everflowing Chalice is excellent, but where do you go after that? Borderposts? Khalni Gem? ...actually that last one is not such a bad idea. One magic-league decklist I saw suggested using Lotus Cobra and Oracle of Mul Daya in a turboland style package to accelerate this out, but then you are spending a lot of cards to ramp into wiping your own board. Nice going. Artifact mana is probably still the best way to gain an advantage off of this card, and the effect is well worth investigating to try and break the synergy. I don't know what the win condition is in this theoretical deck but presumably if you Force with artifact mana available it is elementary, and you just hit them with Kazuul or something.
One of the hottest cards in the set, and for good reason. This is the best tutor available in standard, able to get any creature – a card type that can do basically whatever. There are two approaches to take - one is just jam Fauna Shaman in alongside Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf, discard the former to fetch the latter, and bash them for a million. The other is to build a toolbox of creature based answer cards – Qasali Pridemage, War Priest of Thune, Cunning Sparkmage and Meddling Mage are some possible inclusions. Once you can answer everything your opponent is doing, your army of 2/2s will be able to take it home. I expect the first approach will be popular early in the season as it seems like a powerful enough engine utilising already popular and powerful cards, but the second might emerge further down the track as the decks that need answering start to solidify again. Another bonus of Fauna Shaman is it lets you play a variety of silver bullet one-ofs in the sideboard, and go and find them with ease.
While not an archetype definer like some of these other cards might be, Brittle Effigy is a very powerful effect to get on a colourless card. Not only does this give green and blue powerful, permanent creature removal but it gives white decks a way to fight Malakir Bloodwitch and everyone a way to fight Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The only condition on this card is that you're able to target the creature in question, so Sphinx of Jwar Isle can breathe a bit easier but every other creature is on notice – anyone can remove you.
So there we have it, my thoughts on some of the new cards with potential that may not have had the attention they deserve elsewhere (Fauna Shaman aside, that gal is suitably mega-hyped). We are heading into untested waters, and running the same old standard gauntlet no longer seems like enough – who knows what new decks will emerge at Nationals? Jund, Mythic and RDW look like the decks to beat at the moment, but the power of going rogue is undeniable and here down under we are going to have a great opportunity to show off some brand new deck archetypes – I hope we don't disappoint.
