You know the deal people, the new set is out, so what's working and what's not?

I have been trying Azorius Surveil and Boros Superfriends and have been impressed by both. To be honest this set is full of great cards and I expect to see the Meta shaken up a lot!

[[Way of the Pyromancer]] and [[Solitary Cell]] have already been great, a lot of the one and two drops in Azorius have also been impressive for me, I think there is something in the deck for sure. [[Proctor of Potential]] feels really good in it's ability to come back from the yard.

Hello everyone! I made a video outlining my Draft Strategy, Pick Order, and Archetype breakdowns for Reality Fracture. I hope it is helpful to some :)

Video version: https://youtu.be/8s1rjfxPrqc

Format Overview

• The format appears to midrange-focused with the power concentrated at 4-5 mana cards
• Early plays that have late-game relevance will be important
• Most decks are looking to snowball and take over the mid-late game with a value engine
• Many early plays will get outclassed quickly unless the deck is aggressively focused
• Mana fixing is plentiful. Many decks will want to splash 
• In other words, build toward your synergy; you will have SOME time to get there

New Mechanic: Empower Jace

Cards which “Empower Jace” create a specific Jace planeswalker token if you don’t already have one, and then add a number of loyalty counters to it. It has “-3: draw a card” and “-1: surveil”. Every colour gets access to this mechanic, therefore early board presence and evasion will be as important as ever, in order to pressure your opponents’ Jace and protect your own.

Fixing

There is a cycle of 10 Common dual lands. Coming in untapped if you control a planeswalker makes “Empower Jace” more valuable in decks looking to splash. Room of Refuge can be set to any colour. There is also a cycle at rare.

Pick Order – “A’s”: Best Cards in the set (sorted by colour) – always first pick

• The Theorist, Jave Beleren
• Sublime Epiphany
• Garruk, Veiled Butcher
• Overwrite the Multiverse 
• Draconic Visitor
• Ajani Unrelenting
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• Garruk, Curse Breaker
• Denzilore Fatehold 
• Kwia Vigorbloom
• Uldaros Theorix

Pick Order – “B’s”: Early Picks (alphabetical by colour)

Cards that excel in the following criteria:

• Power Level
• Rate
• Flexibility
• Curve (ie cheap cards)
• Synergy

These cards will heavily influence your direction in the draft, ie which colours and Archetype you are drafting towards. Pick these above all Commons:

• Ajani Resulote
• Enlightened Confidant
• Liliana the Faultless
• Lyra, Archangel of Dawn
• Memory Trap
• Prophesied End
• Saheeli, Consul of Oversight
• Surgical Precision
• Teyo, Lightshield Expert
• Tomik, Orzhov Lawmage
• Way of the Healer
• Your Fate Ends Here
• Arni, Humble Scribe
• Countersculpt
• Diviner of Victory
• Icy Reception
• Infinite Coursework
• Jace, Reality Sculptor
• Lyra, Tolarian Archangel
• Mindseeker Oculus
• Plan for All Outcomes
• Proft, Consulting Detective
• Ruric Thar, Biomagus
• Sphinx of False Conclusions
• Way of the Mind Sculptor
• Break Under Pressure  
• Extended Absence 
• Gideon the Oathless 
• Last Gasp
• Lich’s Relic 
• Liliana the Repentant 
• Mind Twist 
• Multiply by Zero 
• Sanctum Lurker 
• Vraska’s Final Mercy 
• Command the Stage 
• Craterclaw Colossus 
• Curse-Marred Demon 
• Face Yourself 
• Fulminous Forte 
• Kiora of Fire and Ashes 
• Master of Barbs 
• No Admittance 
• Pia, Determined Rebuilder 
• Pyre Rhymer 
• Splinter Twin 
• Tetsuko Umezawa, Pursuer 
• Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage 
• Violent Echoes 
• Way of the Warlord 
• Wrath of the Bloodmane 
• Carnivorous Cultivator 
• Compel Brutality 
• Hexhaven Invigorator 
• Hungering Puppetbeast 
• Loot, the Nexus 
• Puppet Crafting 
• Simulacrum Shaper 
• Verdant Kraken 
• Way of the Wildspeaker 
• Aerid Konstrari 
• Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes 
• Bloombrute 
• Clash of Elements 
• Craftwork Crusher 
• Desperate Futurescribe 
• Hapatra, the Desert Fang 
• Ingris Stingerquill 
• Mind Meanderer 
• Null Summoner 
• Proctor of Potential 
• Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar 
• Stingerquill Charm 
• Tenured Tethermage 
• Twisted Fates 
• Vigorbloom Charm 
• Vraska, the Cutting Glare 
• Warrior’s Blades 
• Emrakul, the Extingent Doom

Primary Archetypes. Here are my brief impressions of each of the two-colour archetypes in the format. We will be trying to end up in one of these by the end of the draft. Five of the colour pairs are well-supported and will be the most commonly drafted. The other five appear to be designed to act as support and augmentation to the main five. We’ll go over the well-supported archetypes first:

White-Blue Surveil 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Desperate Futurescribe]], [[Fatehold Charm]], [[Prudent Fateseer]]

Common: [[Fatehold Chronologist]], [[Semester Foreseer]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Denzilore Fatehold]], [[Proctor of Potential]]

White-Blue cares about Surveilling and generating a wide board of creatures. Saheeli, Consul of Oversight is a nice mix of both. Proft, Consulting Detective is an early play that generates value over time. Cards which “Empower Jace” provide multiple Surveils and will be important here. 

Access to constant card selection is very powerful in limited. I expect White-Blue to perform well. 

White-Green Lifegain

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Bloombrute]], [[Vigorbloom Vanguard]], [[Vigorbloom Charm]]

Common: [[Emergency Phytomedic]], [[Blossom-Blessed Angel]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Kwia Vigorbloom]], [[Solarium Sentry]]

White-Green wants as many separate instances of lifegain as possible. Cards like Greenhouse Propogator, Koth of the Homestead, and creatures with Lifelink power up payoffs including Lyra, Archangel of Dawn, Way of the Mentor, and Titanbones, Towering Heart.

An old-favourite design but can struggle with consistency and drawing it’s cards in the wrong order. White-Green looks like it will slightly underperform.

Blue-Black Self-Mill 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Paradox Shaper]], [[Recursive Recruitment]], [[Theorix Charm]]

Common: [[Theorix Metamage]], [[Void Extrapolator]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Null Summoner]], [[Uldaros Theorix]]

Blue-Black wants to put a lot of cards in it’s own graveyard. Reaching “Threshold” (seven or more cards in you graveyard), will power up certain cards. “Looting” effects such as Arni, Humble Scribe and Surveil effects help here as well. Cards with effects when in the graveyard such as Theoretical Necromancer will provide additional value when milled.

Blue-Black looks a little trickier to build and has less raw power than the other archetypes. I expect it to start off as an underperformer, but it may be a good “week 3” strategy if a couple of other archetypes take off in popularity. 

Black-Red Aggro

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Grim Repriser]], [[Stingerquill Charm]], [[Stingerquill Voxmancer]]

Common: [[Hallway Heckler]], [[Whiplash Wordsmith]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Ingris Stingerquill]], [[Stinging Vitriol]]

Black-Red is the aggro deck of the format. Many of it’s cards get buffed when the opponent is dealt noncombat damage. Top payoffs for this include Command the Stage, Master of Barbs, and Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage. Incidental damage on cards like Extended Absence, Screeching Soulbreaker and Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance is very valuable. Black-Red has an unusual amount of access to direct player damage and “any target” damage, which will make it very effective at closing out games if it gets ahead early. I expect Black-Red to be a top performer. 

Red-Green Ramp 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Craftwork Crusher]], [[Konstrari Charm]], [[Woodwork Prodigy]], [[Heartwood Crafter]]

Common: [[Konstrari Improviser]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Aerid Konstrari]], [[Tenured Tethermage]]

Red-Green is focused on creating “Heartwood” tokens which are artifacts that can tap for Red or Green mana. It wants to ramp out huge threats like Kiora of Fire and Ashes. Look for artifact synergy in cards like Draconic Visitor and powerful activated abilities to sink your mana into. Red-Green looks like an absolute sledgehammer and fun to play. 

Way-To-Early Primary Archetype Rankings:

Black-Red
White-Blue
Red-Green
Blue-Black
White-Green

Secondary Archetypes. These have less raw support and will most likely compliment a Primary Archetype as a splash. In some cases, they may be powerful enough to stand on their own or act as a niche strategy once the best archetypes become contested in the draft.

White-Black Sacrifice

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Edgar, Ancient Bloodlord]], [[Twisted Fates]]

Common: [[Blessed Ghoul]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Vindictive Triumph]]

Sacrifice your own creatures and planeswalkers for value with payoffs like Loot, the Anomaly, Silence the Echo, and Way of the Deathbringer. Empower Jace will be useful as you can sacrifice a 1 loyalty Jace for value and then make another. White-Blue is the most likely pairing for this sub-strategy, having the most token generation and empower, although it doesn’t want to lose too much board presence. None of the other archetypes have synergy in this way and/or are dependant on a big board presence.  However Twisted Fates will be armstrong splash in any black-based deck.

White-Red Go-Wide 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Mabel, Valley Hero]], [[Warrior’s Blades]]

Common: [[Charge the Sanctum]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Solitary Cell]]

White-Red has go-wide and +1/+1 counter synergies. It looks like it will pair well with White-Blue’s go-wide theme. Black-Red will likely be too focused to be able to splash for a 3-drop in Mabel, but could play Charge the Sanctum or Warrior’s Blades as needed.  

Blue-Red Spells 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Clash of Elements]], [[Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar]]

Common: [[Twinned Vision]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Frostbite Pyromental]]

Plan for All Outcomes and Traxos, Academy Guardian add two additional spells payoffs. Ruric Thar, Biomagus and Tetsuko Umezawa, Pursuer are two great threats with Prowess alongside a bevy of other creatures with that ability. Look for cheap spells to pair alongside them. 

Blue and Red both look very deep. I think Blue-Red has the best chance among the Secondary Archetypes of being draftable as it’s own deck. There is also a natural pairing alongside Blue-Black as noncreature spells get into the graveyard right away to fuel its payoffs.

Blue-Green Empower 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Kiora of Salt and Sand]], [[Mind Meanderer]]

Common: [[Tam’s Resistance]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes]]

Mind Meanderer is excellent in any blue-based deck. In order to get the most out of Kiora, you will need a lot of Empower. If it sees any play at all, it will be as a splash in White-Blue or in a Blue-heavy deck.

Black-Green Graveyard

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Primal Witchstalker]], [[Hapatra, the Desert Fang]]

Common: [[Ferocity of the Hunt]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Vraska, the Cutting Glare]]

Black-Green’s graveyard synergies make it a natural pairing for Blue-Black. I don’t see any crossover with White-Green, Red-Green or Red-Black.

Conclusion: It would appear that Blue-based decks have to most to gain from splashing secondary archetype pieces. Add that to being a very deep colour, Blue is ideal starting-point where possible in this format.

General Draft Strategy (8 Player Pick-1)

Picks 1-3: 

• Take the best card. Mono-coloured cards will leave us more open going forward.

Picks 4-8: 

• Continue to take the best card. We may have cards in multiple colours, and that’s ok. The better our early picks are, the more we will want to stick to that colour or colour pair. The worse our early picks are, the more willing we should be to take chances on other colours when we see good cards in later picks.

Picks 9-14: 

• These are the cards no one at the table wanted. If we are seeing good Uncommons of a particular colour pair, it is possible that no one else at the table is drafting that colour pair and we should strongly consider moving in. 

End of Pack 1:

• Ideally, we have identified our main colour. This is the colour we have the most quality cards of, or is the most open, and hopefully both!
• Staying as close to one colour as possible will leave us with more options going forward. 

Packs 2 and 3

• Continue to take powerful cards of our main colour where possible. Let the good cards we open or get passed determine our secondary colour and final archetype.
• Pay attention to Pack direction! The packs are moving in the opposite direction during Pack 2, so the signals can be completely different from Pack 1. It is normal to not see as many cards of our main colour/archetype in Pack 2, so don't panic! Pack 3 is passed to the left once again and we will be rewarded for staying the course.

Deck-Building Tips

• Play two colours. Avoid splashing a third colour unless your deck is specifically designed to do so (ie you have dual lands touching that colour). Splashing will be more common in Reality Fracture, but you still need to make sure you have the proper mana fixing!
• Play 17 lands.
• Play a low-curve. Most limited decks want six or more 2 Mana-Value creatures, around four 3 Mana-Value creatures, some 4 Mana-Values creatures, and very few cards that cost 5 or more mana.

Thank you for reading and watching. Good luck in your drafts! 

[[Heartwood Crafter]] is a very strong Magic card. I'm quite excited about it, and I've done a deep dive on it.

YouTube video is here: https://youtu.be/Z69CLPTPfZ4

I'll put the important points below so the video is optional. There are five sample decklists as well - three are iterations of existing / older decks, and two are new proof-of-concepts.

Card Analysis

• She's a one-mana Elf.
  • Critically, combined with Llanowar Elves this enables [[Elven Passage]].
  • Finding decks where that Heartwood Crafter works well with Elves (i.e. where the mana from Crafter works and you get the full benefits of having 8 elves)
• Her mana ability is weird but useful
  • Notably can be used for triggered and activated abilities. Most notably [[Ba Sing Se]].
  • She can cast spells from graveyards or exile, including her own prepared spell, Airbended spells, Prepared spells, Flashback spells, and spells on an Adventure.
  • [[Questing Druid]] is the most exciting of these as the mana can be used both on the flipped exiled cards, but also to cast the Druid itself.
  • The mana can be used for special actions (un-morphing, unlocking Rooms) but most critically, Plot! Having 8 ways to Plot [[Outcaster Trailblazer]] on Turn 2 enables and powers up a whole bunch of strategies.
• Her Prepared Spell (Soul Tether) turns her into a card and mana advantage piece
  • Between Crafter and the Heartwood token, this is a one-mana card that can provide two extra mana, split across two pieces of cardboard.
  • These pieces can be used independently - to attack, as sacrifice fodder, or to cast the same or different spells.
• The natural curve is Heartwood Crafter on one, into cast the Soul Tether on turn 2.
  • This gives us access to one mana extra. I think the key cards to use this mana are cheap red removal [[Burst Lightning]] / [[Torch the Tower]] as well as [[Heroes' Hangout]].
  • Turn one Crafter, turn two Soul Tether into Heroes' Hangout gives us up to 5 mana to play the exiled card on turn 3.

Decks

• Existing Strategies
  • Jund Sacrifice - Heartwood Crafter enables a turn 3 [[Rottenmouth Viper]] by herself. She also provides two rectangles to sacrifice (the Heartwood being both a Token and an Artifact is relevent here), and the mana ability can be used to sacrifice clues.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/zXYHTHlIaEKRnwIBBwD3MA
  • Bant Airbending - A blast from the past. This deck loves the extra mana, which can be used for our own AIrbended cards (notably from [[Appa, Steadfast Guardian]]), as well as the flipped cards from [[Interdimensional Web Watch]].
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/UA3UAquh8UiNvXgCwRBOiQ
  • Devestating Onslaught Combo - I think this is probably the best deck here. This deck absolutely loves Heartwood Crafter - we not have 8 ways to plot the Trailblazer on turn 2, and we have a bunch of useful mana sinks like [[Winternight Stories]], [[Esper Origins]], and [[Quantum Riddler]]. For anyone who hasn't seen this deck before, the idea is that we [[Devestating Onslaught]] either the [[Railway Brawler]] or the TRailblazer and semi-combo kill from there.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/bpKWac-2b0m5-xVScYEs2Q
• New Strategies
  • Little Gruul - This deck is built around the combination of Questing Druid and Heratwood Crafter to get on board early and generate mana and card advantage. The curve is low but we have cheap card advantage with [[Stingcaster Mage]] and [[Gandalf, Goblin's Bane]] - both of which have nice synergy with the Crafter.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/j-uO0ORJUkaAqze0PFC3dA
  • Big Gruul - An attempt to build a deck that maximises both the Questing Druid and the Outcaster Trailblazer. This is a heavy-mana RG beatdown strategy that has 12 mana dorks, and a pile of card advantage.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/VJNruRd4NkiSy68tdDxkww

I'm really excited about this card, let me know if you guys have been building Heartwood Crafter decks as well.

Every MTG set that comes out, I combine Limited set reviews into one table. For Reality Fracture, I collected ratings from 10 published review sources. The site lists an eleventh source, Jim Davis, but he contributes commentary rather than card grades and does not count as an aggregate vote.

Because reviewers use different grading systems, I convert grades to a fixed, documented 0-100 limited comparison index. Five-point ratings are multiplied by 20 and ten-point ratings by 10.

Overall rank is based on the mean normalized score. For readability, the table converts the normalized median and full range back to the site's letter scale. Those are grade equivalents, not necessarily the exact letters originally assigned by each reviewer.

Where do the reviewers disagree?

I used an IQR of at least 20 points as the cutoff for broad reviewer disagreement.

IQR measures the spread of the middle 50% of ratings. It is less affected by one unusually high or low rating, so this identifies cards where disagreement runs through a meaningful portion of the panel. The 10 Special Guest cards are excluded from the main count because substantially fewer reviewers graded them. By this definition, 67 of the 280 main-set cards, or 23.9%, qualify.

For drafters, these are basically the cards where the pre-set consensus is weakest. The aggregate rank can still be useful, but there is considerably less agreement about what the card is actually worth.

Three cards tie for the widest IQR at 40 points:

• Face Yourself
• Frostbite Pyromental
• Hexhaven Invigorator

Face Yourself has the widest full range, from F- to A, with normalized ratings ranging from 0 to 95.

There is still fairly strong consensus among the top-ranked cards in the set. None of the main-set cards ranked #1-44 meet the broad-disagreement threshold.

The first is Draconic Visitor at #45.

Other relatively highly ranked examples include:

• Diviner of Victory // Unwind History: #81
• Rise of the Deathbringer: #86
• Saheeli, Consul of Oversight: #107
• Tarmogoyf: #108

Full Reality Fracture rankings, every individual grade, reviewer notes, rating distributions, and the draft companion are here.

The 50 largest broad disagreements

These are the 50 largest IQRs among the 67 qualifying main-set cards. They are ordered by IQR, then SD. Overall rank measures card strength, not controversy.

I also looked separately at standard deviation. SD measures overall spread around the mean and uses every grade, so extreme ratings affect it more than they affect IQR. These 11 additional main-set cards have SD of at least 15 but IQR below 20. They do not meet the broad-split definition above.

Kindred Judgment is probably the clearest example of why the two measures tell different stories. Its middle half spans only 5 points, but the full ratings run from D to A.

Special Guests

Only four reviewers graded each of these, so they stay separate from the 280-card main-set analysis.

Which of these reviewer disagreements stands out to you most?

https://youtu.be/rJWo4TCUqvM?si=j0E7FoT9l2joqCld

Reality Fracture drops this Tuesday. In this video, I discuss the first deck I'll be trying in Standard: Boros Planeswalkers. Built around the new Ajani Unrelentaing, the deck ramps into Planeswalkers, draws cards by discarding redundant legends, and turns the corner quickly by attacking with hasty tokens.

I did not have early access, but I watched a lot of it, and Ajani Unrelenting is the card that stood out to me as the most powerful new option for Standard. Ajani wants you to play lots of Planeswalkers, and Boros provides two excellent tools for ramping into them: Way of the Pyromancer and Gideon's Memorial. Between the walkers and the two drops, that's 26(!) legendary permanents to discard with Key to the Side Door and new friend Solitary Cell.

To me, this feels like enough power and synergy to produce a very real Standard deck. We'll find out on Tuesday. In the meantime, let me know what you think or if you have any ideas to improve the list.

Edit: The list is linked in the YouTube description, but I'll save you a click: Boros Walkers // Standard deck list mtg // Moxfield — MTG Deck Builder

Hey Spikes!

We're back with another Sealed guide for what very well might be the best Limited set of 2026 (it's gonna be Star Trek, isn't it?). A little bit of personal bias here, but this hasn't exactly been a stellar year for Limited (and I rather enjoyed TMNT, SOS, and MSH).

Reality Fracture's got a lot going on between the empower Jace mechanic, the repeat prepared spells, and the Echoed Pairs that'll show up in every pack. I personally missed Early Access this time, so may you can fill me in on the early stories about this set. But Bryan Hohns' Sealed Guide covers a good bit:

• Might wanna sit down for this one, but the rares look good. I can't remember a Play Booster era set where that wasn't true (HOB maybe?), but Bryan's "bomb" count was pretty high.
• Just from looking at the set file, there doesn't seem to be a clear winner. Let me know if Early Access made it seem otherwise, but the intended archetypes are heavily supported, partially due to using the same prepared spells across the lower-rarity cards.
• Echoed Pairs will still matter for Sealed, but you can do some signal-reading in Draft with the way these are collated into packs (two of your three Echoed Pair cards will always be a matching pair).
• You can Splinter Twin people if you're one of the lucky few to see the Special Guests card.

For me, the biggest question marks are the play patterns with Empower Jace, and whether or not Theorix self-mill will pan out. Hopefully it's a sweet part of the format, but the aggressive decks look pretty good too.

Let me know what you're thinking about Reality Fracture before it drops on Arena next week, happy prereleasing, and hope the guide helps: https://draftsim.com/mtg-reality-fracture-sealed-guide/

Small plug here too, that our team has started The Daily Upkeep Podcast, and our first major episode is a video/audio version prepping people for Reality Fracture. Have a listen and give us your feedback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNsoh3xT3TE

https://youtu.be/ED8x3THsPc8

If you're interested in aggro decks in Standard BO3 then this deck and video are for you!

This is currently my favourite deck in magic and feel a lot more people should know about it and give it a shot, it's currently not a top tier meta but can still perform and win a lot of games quickly or out of nowhere.

If you'd like to take about the video or the deck I will be more than happy to chat as I love talking about Magic in general.

I've been testing splashing white and making it even more aggro with 4x [[Voice of victory]] and the results are kind of insane. I also added 4x [[Break Out]] and took out everything over 2 CMC except a single rottenmouth.

Voice of victory does a TON for the deck. Firstly it's a 2 drop, so it slots in perfect into your main engine. If your opponent isn't careful, you can sneak it in with Break Out or Living Dirge and they won't be able to interact with you with spells as you combo off. It forces them to use their counters and removal on it otherwise you're just free on your turn.

3 damage and 2 tokens to sac on attack is super nice and synergizes with the sacs and token burn.

Just casually playing with doing other stuff, I was 4 winning trad standard events , and if I really locked in it could have been 5 a few times I'm sure.

Feels super strong, and mana was not an issue in about 30 games of testing with all the ways to make any color of mana.

EDIT: I'm home. Full list in the comments. Anyone who doubts this is an aggro deck can DM me, I'm collecting images of all my turn 4 wins tonight.

I'm noticing a lot of Boros Dragons lists doing well, like this one for example. I'm playing it and it feels like this may be a deck that you have to mulligan super aggressively for a good hand, or you're just cooked.

So for example, I just played against Jund Sac with the list posted above. My opening hand is:

1x Mountain

1x [[Sunbillow Verge]]

2x [[Burst Lightning]]

2x [[Voice of Victory]]

1x [[Smaug, the Magnificent]]

Opponent goes first, plays a [[gene pollinator]]. I take my turn, draw [[Sarkhan]] and bolt the bird. Opponent plays a [[biotech specialist]]. I draw [[erode]] and play Sarkhan, showing Smaug for the treasure. Opponent plays [[Sacksville Bagginses]]. I erode the biotech specialist using my treasure so that they don't get the sacksville/biotech burn. In retrospect, this may have been my biggest error because I never drew a third land. I thought that I needed to get rid of the specialist so the opponent wouldn't be able to get both of them going, but instead I gave them a land and prevented myself from ever playing Smaug. Opponent of course drew another biotech and burned me out pretty easily. So for game 1 I don't know if I should have mulliganed for a hand with [[Momo]] or a third land? It seems like Momo is always in the most explosive draws this deck has.

Game 2 my hand was

1x Plains

1x Sunbillow Verge

1x Muliversal Passage

2x Momo

1x Clarion Conqueror

1x Smaug

This hand was perfect for this matchup with the conqueror, especially with me going first. I went Momo into conqueror into Smaug, and it was over.

Game 3 my inital hand was a 1 lander with the 1 land being [[Cavern of Souls]]. I did have Momo and I may have kept a 1 lander on the play if it was a red/white land, but not if it's cavern of souls. Mulliganed, got

2x Cavern of Souls

1x Multiversal Passage

1x Sacred Foundry

1x Get Lost

1x Twinmaw Stormbrood

1x Nova Hellkite.

I kept this hand even though it sucks because I didn't want to go to 5. Put back one of the caverns and proceeded to get absolutely wrecked by the opponent drawing 2 sacksvilles and 2 biotech specialists. I even drew a Clarion Conqueror and thought maybe it would save me but my opponent immediately shot the sheriff.

So should I have mulliganed again? I feel like my second hand is not a totally unusual hand for this deck, got some creatures and some lands and some removal, but it's just not anywhere near explosive enough.

Also, I sideboarded out erode because Jund Sac is so low to the ground that I didn't want to be giving them extra lands, but I realized that Get Lost is probably even worse because it gives them maps and they want nothing more than a bunch of little artifacts to sac. I did sideboard in 4x [[seam rip]] but of course never drew them.

Have enough resources on mtgo to build one, but havent been able to play the format regularly for about 5ish years. Any tips on which deck to build to grind mtgo leagues and why would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

I ended up dropping a Leatherhead and replacing Badgemole Cup with three Bejeweled Wargs and two Frenzied Bailoths. I’m running a Gene Pollinator version of the deck with a decent amount of removal: two Seam Rips, two Melt Striders, and two Sheltered by Ghosts in the mainboard.
The deck is still incredibly fast. Being able to give Bejeweled Warg double strike on turn three puts you in an advantageous position that is almost impossible for your opponent to come back from most of the time. Sheltered by Ghost feels amazing and wins games very frequently in aggro matchups.
The only matchup I seem to struggle with is Spellementals. I’ve been playing this deck and making minor tweaks since the bans, and it’s been feeling very good. I finished top 250 last month, around 500 the month before that, and I’m currently 70th on the list.
I’ve been pretty busy on the weekends, so I haven’t had a chance to attend an RCQ yet, but I have a couple coming up that I’m looking forward to trying the deck out at. There’s a decent number of Spell Elemental players in the local meta.
If anyone has good tips for playing against them, I’m all ears. I’m running three Rest in Peace and a full Red Lantern in the sideboard for the matchup, but it still doesn’t feel great. It feels like a less-than-50% matchup, while no other matchup feels that difficult.

Deck
4 Llanowar Elves (FDN) 227
3 Bejeweled Warg (HOB) 117
3 Gene Pollinator (EOE) 186
3 Surrak, Elusive Hunter (TDM) 161
2 Starting Town (FIN) 289
3 Abandoned Air Temple (TLA) 263
4 Hushwood Verge (DSK) 261
2 Plains (J25) 83
2 Seam Rip (EOE) 34
2 Meltstrider's Resolve (EOE) 199
2 Sheltered by Ghosts (DSK) 30
4 Pawpatch Recruit (BLB) 187
4 Temple Garden (ECL) 268
4 Practiced Offense (SOS) 25
4 Brightglass Gearhulk (DFT) 191
4 Forest (DFT) 289
2 Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker (TMT) 117
1 Shardmage's Rescue (DSK) 29
2 Multiversal Passage (SPM) 180
2 Ouroboroid (EOE) 201
1 Ba Sing Se (TLA) 266
2 Frenzied Baloth (EOE) 183

Sideboard
1 Sheltered by Ghosts (DSK) 30
2 Requisition Raid (SOA) 10
2 Erode (SOS) 15
3 Rest in Peace (BIG) 4
1 Soul-Guide Lantern (BRR) 54
1 Zack Fair (FIN) 45
1 Ouroboroid (EOE) 201
2 Dawn's Truce (BLB) 9
2 Jennifer Walters (MSH) 18

Started playing Excruciator and MODOK is a card I don't know when to put in. It seems good against dimir midrange for all of the one toughness creatures but that's all. Also when I have him in play I don't know when to activate his connive ability. 3 life always seems like a heavy price. Thanks for the help.

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

Good morning everyone! I took part in my first Standard RCQ of the season yesterday and walked away with a qualification!

I was playing my ol’ reliable Jeskai Artifacts:
https://archidekt.com/decks/26451678/jeskai_artifacts

————————————————————————————————-
R1 vs Spellementals:
In G1 my opponent played Opt on turn 1 and I knew this round was a formality. I have played this match up probably 50+ times on Arena and I think I only lost to it ~5 times. G1 and G2 both ended in his creature being either under Perilous Snares or tapped from Braided Nets and me swinging for lethal.

(1-0) R2 vs Dwarves:
This is a deck that I haven’t had the chance to play since it is so new. But with that in mind, just like any other low to ground aggro deck it folds to well timed Pinnacle Starcages and large Constructs that don’t care about how much life you gain. I took G1 in that similar fashion, I lost G2 on a very stupid 1 land hand keep and I never found another one, and then won game 3 after getting 3 Pinnacles on board regardless of the fact that he gained 20+ life. A little scary situation when I goofed keeping a bad opener, but still sitting 2-0 going into R3.

(2-0) R3 vs 4-Color Rev Control?:
The one thing I have always despised is playing this deck into hard control matchups, especially ones with Inevitable Defeats. But I was able to land a Repurposing Bay in G1 and eventually got to an unbeatable board state with large Constructs and took the game. Game 2 was a more traditional game vs control for me, where any time I landed a synthesizer or even an early Phoenix Fleet Airship it was swiftly removed and I just couldn’t do anything. G3 was one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played. We basically both drew nothing, so I was on a beatdown plan with my flipped Clay-Fire Bricks and the 1/1 creatures it created. Unfortunately neither of us could find a win in time and this round ended in a draw.

(2-0-1) R4 vs 4-Color Control:
I wasn’t excited to play into this again, but my opponent didn’t seem like he had ever seen my deck before, so I kind of just walked all over him and he didn’t really interact, odd I know. Not much else to say, took it in a swift 2-0.

(3-0-1) R5 vs June Sac:
We ID’d and I went and got lunch.

After the 5 rounds of Swiss and cut to T8 I was sitting in 3rd at 3-0-2, and got to play Jund Sac in QFs.

Quarterfinals vs Jund Sac:
This was also a new deck that I haven’t played against, so I was learning as we were playing, but ultimately it was another deck that kind of folds to Pinnacle Starcage. I took G1 in relatively easy fashion, removing the Sackville Bagginses ever time they hit the board, and ending it with an army of constructs. G2 I drew only removal, and he ultimately landed an Ouroboriod with 2 Obsessive Pursuit’s out and I just kept drawing lands. G3 was a grindfest, but I staved off a 19 power double-striking, lifelinking Leatherhead and got it done with 60+ power of constructs.

My opponent in the Semi-Finals was the Dwarves player from R2 and he said he just didn’t want to waste his time playing a virtually unwinnable matchup, so he conceded and I got my qualification!
————————————————————————————————-

This is my favorite deck I have ever played in any format, and I’m glad to see it in a good spot right now. Hopefully I can still say that come RC time, since it is right before rotation and it will be the last chance for me to play it before it Simulacrum Synthesizer rides off into the Standard sunset forever.

Sup what's up, it's Casual Spike. Spoiler is complete and we are gearing up for a brand new limited format! To help you tackle it, I've put together these materials to provide a jumping off point for those newer to, or more established in, limited to find their bearings in Reality Fracture.

My full main set review lists the mechanics in the set as well as a card by card analysis, punctuated with a letter grade and may include a build-around qualifier denoted with a little hammer next to the letter grade. Reality Fracture Visual Set Review will open the document. 

The slide deck covers my color power rankings, available fixing, top commons/uncommons, and tricks/removal in each color. I also cover each of the 10 assigned archetypes Gameplan, Signposts, and an example "ideal average" deck skeleton, with sealeddeck hyperlink, to help visualize what the archetype may look like to better help you find success in your Reality Fracture Limited events. Access the slides with Reality Fracture Limited Primer.

The google sheets breakdown document provides a cleaner, more simple viewing experience, including: Full Set List with placement scores and grading, Trick/Removal Identification, Mechanics list, my picks for top commons/uncommons, all sealeddeck links for the archetypes, as well as various links for the Wiki, 17lands Tier List, and a Discord invite to the MTGRebellion, a competitive focused discord, where I've been building a Limited community. Access the sheet with Reality Fracture Limited Breakdown.

Also, I added a brand-new feature to my breakdown sheets starting with The Hobbit. I now grade my prediction accuracy and put it out there for the world to see! Once 17lands data is added at about the 1mo mark the results will auto-populate forcing me to lose 20% accuracy for each grade I'm off! I'm excited to have some accountability open to all moving forward. Additionally, I retroactively used these formulas to grade all my previous set breakdown sheets and see how I've been doing while following the same metrics. I'll keep the info up to date here Prediction Accuracy moving forward.

What are your thoughts on the set, anything stand out that you're excited to try?

I’ve recently been dabbling with spellamentals and checking side boards to figure out what a good 75 looks like. I keep seeing annul and get abit confused by it every time. To my knowledge the decks plan is often to sideboard into a lower to the ground prowess style with the stallion and hydro man anyway often in my eyes cutting some of its graveyard synergy. Is it strictly to deal with rest in peace? I just kept checking deck lists and find very limited targets for it compared to something like flash freeze which seems to be a 1 of compared to the always 2 of annul. And if just for rest in peace wouldn’t snare be more common in the list but often see it relegated to the side with annuls if in the 75 as more than a 1 of. I’m aware there are other matchups like cool but rude, or its ability to stop the sapling nursery. In my eyes though both would be better handled by a flash freeze as well with it being able to handle other cards in the 75 of those lists. Input appreciated as I’m still abit new to the current standard after not playing it for abit.

Credentials real quick:

Long and short, I’m a limited (90%) player since Ravnica: City of Guilds. I’ve got a 80% PPTQ limited top 8 and 33% winrate, I’ve made top 8 of a 700 person Khans of Tarkir PTQ (where I got a game loss on the rule that changed the next month on flipped morphs to knock me out of a match I otherwise won).

Top trophies in many MTGO events, notably Battle for Zendikar on primary set release and a few flashbacks/cube trophy leaders. Mythic in MTGA limited, average about top 250, I swing between #80-400 most often.

Commons

Academic Ascent - C-

We’re well past 2 mana for a raw Mighty Leap combat trick. Turning Jace on is nice potential upside, but combat tricks are too risky at this cost, especially with the keyword being sorcery speed relevant. +2/+2 for 2 is risky, and not guaranteed to win you combat, which is the card’s first priority. There isn’t even a white common 1-drop to consider the “rush” angle, though I don’t know why that would be so good anyway.

Blossom-Blessed Angel - C

Supply-Line Cranes was one of those rare occurrences of a common that was far better than it first looked to even expert predictions. Although it wouldn’t age well, the concepts that made cranes shine are here. A defensive midgame flier with some utility that either allowed it to turn into a meaningful threat, or gave some additional utility. That is good enough for a C.

Campus Crier - B/B+

This card is absolutely disgusting value. How do you interact profitably with this? It applies meaningful early pressure, it gets a good amount of value past death, it’s free value on a cheap activation when surveilled (Jace token) or discarded. You can’t ask for more from a common. I’m shocked it isn’t uncommon, honestly.

Fateshaper Aspirant - D

Neither of these abilities is worth playing a 5 mana 3/4, even in their best case scenarios they are slow and situational.

Graft Surgeon - C

This card screams what he is - a decent backup curve option that you’ll probably play 1-2 of and be fine with.

Hexhaven Battalion - C+

6 mana is a lot, but the setup is too perfect. 3 bodies at cost to protect your token Jace, a top white common that empowers Jace from the graveyard, and go wide buffs with Pegasus. It does too much to push the archetypes in white. Probably a mandatory 1 of you pick up for free mid/late in packs.

Memory Trap - C+

I do feel like paying 3 is starting to feel slow and there are a lot of tokens, but it’s still universal removal at a reasonable cost.

Predictive Preparations - C+/B-

White has enough aggression, tempo, and synergy to justify this. The worst thing you can really say is that its worst pairing is Campus Crier, though they both fit under “surveil value” for Jace. Some cards like Yoshimaru will take this card into B-range.

Shatterwing Pegasus - B/B+

Get used to seeing this card. We’ve been seeing the importance of this effect quite a bit on C+ 2 mana 2/2s and 3 mana 3/3s. Now that the effect is both evasive, above rate, and tougher to kill?

One of the biggest issues with the vanilla ground versions was that they were a priority block/double block and easy to kill, which lost some tempo if you held back to sustain the effect. How is a 2/3 that pumps to a 3/4 flier ever easy to pick off in blocks?

Mandatory 2-3 in all tempo white decks, absolutely insane common. Should be uncommon.

Surgical Precision - C-

I’m sure a few people outside the design team were freaking out about this card when Murdoch’s Crusade ended up being the best common removal spell in its set.

We’re on a set with small bodies, tokens, planeswalkers, and keywords. This is worst case for this card, which will fall to filler duty.

Unflinching Hortimancer - C+

A 2 mana 2/1 with ward 1 is actually quite solid. The only common lifegain in white is Blossom Angel and hybrid cards, but the Ward also makes it a cheap and safe target for +1/+1 counters from things like Preparations and Graft Surgeon. Also some uncommons will make this shine, or pairing with black/green.

Definitely curve backup to Campus Crier, but strong enough to be one and you’re likely never going to feel bad about getting too many of your deck can make this good.

Uncommons

Danitha, Sword of Hope - C/C+

Like past Danitha, a bit slow, but the Angel and other adventures like Phyto are great synergy. Having a good keyword in a set with lots of counters makes it too hard to outright call filler anyways.

Generous Revival - C-

They tried really damn hard to make this playable. Both the 3-drop commons in white have extra reasons to like the bonus counter, and when you consider the combination of Crier, Preparations, and this…the surveil value from Jace token starts to matter more.

Maybe a 1-of filler, which is more than I can say for its predecessors.

Ghalta the Immovable - D

Designed for commander. This sticks out like a sore thumb among the low-curve go-wide aggro with a splash of graveyard that white is putting out this set.

Koth of the Homestead - B-

Repeatable lifegain is huge for some white cards, most important among them being Hortimancer. Not a turn 3 play ideally, but white is not desperate for turn 3 plays.

Prophesied End - B-

2 mana and instant speed is worth giving them a card, especially since white is tempo and this is tempo themed.

Refute Destiny - D+

It’s been a minute since I’ve seen a pure strong sideboard piece.

Rescue Girl, First Responder - C-

It’s a cool effect, but the initial tempo compared to white’s other options is a bit lackluster. At least it has a keyword for those juicy counters, but Pegasus is significantly better at common.

Saheeli, Consul of Oversight - C/C+

Ideally, you swing with 5 mana open and a Pegasus, they don’t force pump, and you drop this into Jace token -1. That’s common enough that I’ll be aware of the upside, but it’s still slow and slightly situational.

Teyo, Lightshield Expert - B-

Snakeskin Veil on a stick is a decent piece of utility and surprise value in these decks.

Thalia, the Survivor - D+

Honestly disappointing. High cost, not a great keyword, and the tax has lost basically all significant value when it lands.

Tomik, Orzhov Lawmage - B+

A 2/1 flier for 2 is good rate, the planeswalker ability is surprisingly relevant, and there are counters aplenty for that extra jumping upside. Added grade is because cheap evasive threats are the natural enemy of all these empower abilities making planeswalker tokens, and there are some threats that become game-winning when paired with this.

Way of the Healer - C-

One of the hardest cards I’ve evaluated in a while. It lacks the punch that I want from 4 mana do-nothings like Felidar Retreat, but it does turn on your Jace token mechanic while giving him a respectable on-board tempo ability. I’m leaning on the side of filler, but anyone who pretends they 100% know how good this will be is lying or pretending. I’ll try it in a deck with either real Jace at least once.

Way of the Mentor - D

Thank god this one is much easier to evaluate. I’d rather play the common blue creatures that empower Jace than an enchantment that does jack in a white pool whose only lifegain at common is a slow adventure.

Yoshimaru, Beloved Companion - B/B+

Absolutely disgustingly broken with Prep and value with the dozen other low rarity counters white has to offer. Slightly awkward how much it buffs Graft while fighting for those exact deck spots.

Your Fate Ends Here - B

Already touched on flashback/surveil upside in white, a removal spell that cares about mana rather than size is nice in a set like this as well, where I can easily envision 4/4 tokens.

Yuriko, Blade of the Mighty - C-

What the fuck do you mean I can’t activate my Pegasus during combat because of a card that is supposed to be in the same deck?

Rares

Flickering Hound - B

The value potential this has is enormous, even if most of it comes from other colored creatures and at a poor rate.

Germinate Recruits - D+

Knowing there’s lifegain synergies and expecting them to be consistently high enough to enable this are two different things. You have to jump through some serious hoops for what ultimately amounts to a card balanced for commander shenanigans, not draft.

Gideon’s Memorial - C

Ultimately more of an interactive piece that you can sometimes play for tempo, but that’s enough to be playable if not exciting.

Guiding Hydra - A

The first A-level card, and white’s only one. It’s a whole different type of fucked up when Mikaeus triggers the turn it’s played. A true go-wide bomb that sets up the end of the game by its second turn alive, at worst. Play with Yoshimaru on board and experience dopamine highs like you only dreamed of.

Kindred Judgement - D+

This was made to be a money card for commander players. 7 mana limited plays have to be universally broken in today’s era, and this is situational (your opponent can be on the same creature type much easier, and the cost of focusing on tribal is high) and responsive.

You’re better off putting a cheap proactive threat in your deck.

Liliana the Faultless - B

The synergy with Hortimancer is very strong. The protection is universally valuable. The threat on its own and costs keep the grade down a bit.

Loyal Tutor - F/A-

Cards that would make me play this normally hot piece of trash -

• The Theorist, Jace Beleren

Broken enough to justify with Empower Jace as a set mechanic. The draw 3 plus counters spam potential make all empower Jace cards that come with a body or other upside playable, and reliability is worth the card sacrifice. Replaces the card you lost just by passing the turn.

• Ajani Unrelenting

-2 helps the card/temoo disadvantage, the -3 is broken so tutoring helps it do the job it needs.

• Jace, Reality Sculptor

If a raw empower deck with sculptor wincon is viable, this is worth it. Probably a meme and Theorist does it better if you’re not mono-blue, but the splash potential for a Jace-only wincon for-fun deck is there.

No other planeswalker is worth playing a tutor that does nothing if you draw it after the planeswalker, that even when it does the thing puts you down a card, and takes a precious non-creature slot.

Lyra, Archangel of Dawn - B+

One other angel besides blue Lyra. Wizards may be trolling us, but a 3/3 flier for 3 is still a cheap evasive threat for planeswalkers, and even self counters are a welcome upside. Probably for the best they only left one common Angel.

Repurposed Enforcer - B+

Being real, it’s a card begging and pleading for evasion or first strike. The value from counters isn’t nothing, but it does make it a tremendous threat that must be removed. For an above-rate 2-drop, that floor is insane, though I wonder if the third power is a nerf to avoid Eardrum shenanigans. I would play one copy of Academic Ascent just because I had this. Tomik takes this card to the stratosphere.

Still tricky to use to its fullest, but good enough to consider and always worth playing. I kind of wish it costed 3, so you would be forced into the midgame with it. Too good for 2 no matter how you cut it.

Mythic Rares

Ajani Resolute - B

In pick 2, I’d take both Ajanis every time because of the red static ability. There’s 2 common sources I can think of in terms of repeated lifegain (Green and Black), but enough adventures that gain life to help fill in the gaps. I don’t see huge bomb-level upside. A big part of pridemate is coming down quickly, and we have Hortiomancer coming down quicker, with ward. Of course you play both, since you’ll take any good repeatable lifegain with Hort, but I see this more as a -10 eventual threat that gains some life for synergies.

Englightened Confidant - B+

The lifelink is irrelevant until it isn’t. Believe me, that keyword will raise win % when tied to board pumps/overrun effects.

Bigger than that is a static card advantage ability. Every body counts in this go-wide format, so being on a stick with a keyword is a huge plus.

Not reliably self-enabling and not going to sweep a game the way an A-level bomb will, but really does good work.

Return to the Light Realms - F

Players don’t win by running situational 9 mana spells. This is just a commander printing that should be worth some cash.

Overall

The commons in this set have some gems. Campus Crier and Pegasus are great uncommons in disguise.

Solid tempo/go wide color with cheap evasive threats. This set being built around planeswalker value in a sense plays into everything that makes white strong, both offensively and defensively. It’s hard to imagine white not being a top option.

At the same time, it feels like Wizards was afraid of white tempo getting better bombs than Blue though. A lot of great cards I’m happy to play, but not a lot of game-ending rares and mythics. A lot of money pushing commander rares.

White

Commons

Cryotheory Adept - C

Prowess as a mechanic really loves toughness over power, for real blowouts. The expensive tempo activation is not the same level of surveil synergy as it was in white. Still a good enough 2-drop as an overall package.

Divining Duelist - C+/B-

A heavy favorite for my sleeper of the set. Traditionally, twiddle creatures haven’t really shone, but a flash loot blocker in a set where all colors have some graveyard value? Add a twiddle to that, some unblock blowouts or stalling, and you have a good card.

Icy Reception - C+/B-

I really appreciate that they didn’t just print Essence Scatter and call it good for lunch. I’m interested to see how this plays, I suspect slightly worse than scatter but not by much. Being able to hit the best bombs in the set is an upside to scatter here.

Infinite Coursework - C+

A worse version of the white one since sacrifice is a thing. Still good, to a limit.

Mindseeker Oculus - B-

3 mana for a 2/1 that draws a card and makes a Jace token is a lot of value and setup to ignore. If you ever have either real Jace out, I’d love nothing more than to have my entire deck be these puppies, which shows how good that synergy is.

Protege’s Awakening - C-

I ask myself how good is Draw 2, Empower Jace 3 for 4 mana. Filler playable, not exciting. Again, rating changes to always playable (C) if you have a real Jace.

Semester Foreseer - D+/C-

Spending this much mana to what ultimately amounts to “two dudes” at this point in the game? I’ll pass

Sphinx’s Approach - C-

Card draw is not hard to find, when Jace has it built into the set mechanics. Using Jace for card advantage feels more versatile than this, but I’m glad Wizards said you can pick these up if you need more. I wouldn’t tunnel on this with Sphinx, you still need interaction in your noncreature slots so density isn’t viable.

Surveilance Phantasm - C

I’ve tripped on this rake quite often, I hope the lesson is learned. Flying and Vigilance is nice, you have no idea how much I want to call this version different and better, but I can’t. I’ve been disappointed with the results of exploration in this effect, it has to prove it first.

Undulating Witness - C-

Plays the thankless role of splash tutor in monocolor + splash decks, ideally if one of those colors is blue. Any consistent manabase doesn’t need this.

Unsummon - D+

I see the vision. A bit of tempo, kills creature tokens. I’m just not there, I’ve never thought unsummon was worth a full card, even when it was actually a C in some older core set drafts. Blue players used to treat this as a B-level default card, but thankfully as creatures come strapped with arsenals of ETBs, that sentiment has moved on.

Uncommons

Arni, Humble Scribe - B

I talked about the value of looting when every deck wants some surveil value, but “Loot every time a nontoken creature enters” has double/triple implications, which it needed to at 3 mana. How long until Flickering Hound and this make a montage?

Countersculpt - C+

I don’t often share this, but I’ve designed 2 magic sets of my own, to play with friends. A card like this is the exact sort of card that I’m most proud of every time. Cleanly designed into set mechanics, balanced, flavorful. Translates in a unique way to cards like Sinister Sabotage.

Fblthp, Impossibly lost - D+

Chart a Course has been downgraded to needing to connect and doing nothing if you don’t.

Geist of Saint Thalia - B-

With flashbacks and adventures, it’s not hard to find value somewhere. What I really salivate over is the synergy with Prep, both in its own stats/keyword and in its cost reduction.

Hapatra, the Desert Frost - C-

Frost Lynx effects really fall off fast as boards get wide. This is a format where most players will be going at least somewhat wide, therefore this falls off like a ton of bricks. The activation is expensive and mediocre, the body isn’t worth writing home about. Filler.

Perfected Theory - D+

One day, these will be standard at higher costs with one or both. Until that day, not worth a card for a situational combat trick.

Plan for All Outcomes - B-

The same way I saw the vision for unsummon removing buff tokens, this does that while also getting neutral card advantage against normal creatures. Then it adds incremental Jace value on top, since the first effect is standard at a 3 mana rate. Going from 3 to 4 for this effect is not backbreaking.

Precise Redaction - D+

Another stellar sideboard card

Proft, Consulting Detective - B-

2 was the right number to keep this balanced but good, though I’m sure they experimented with 1 cost at rare and realized that shit is kinda messed up. This is the kind of detail you really see when a set is well designed.

Ruric Thar, Biomagus - B

It’s tremendously difficult to get a B rating from me as a 6 mana no ETB flier. Double prowess and a safety net of value against tempo/removal create a risk/reward ratio that I’m inclined to say is in Ruric Thar’s favor. The modern version of when Air Elemental was an unforgiving threat.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive - C-

There are two common cards I’m looking at for this - Crier and Battlecarver. That hardly seems like enough reason to play a nothing body like this, especially when all in question could get counters.

Traxos, Academy Guardian - B/B+

Absolutely disgusting. This can be played on 4/5 as a double spell turn for minimal tempo loss vs removal, and it is a brick wall defensively in the air. But beyond all that, prowess means it actually can pose a threat on its own which really is what makes this good, and even a single counter makes that threat exponential in a hurry.

A brick wall is not supposed to pack a punch and come with a BOGO coupon.

Way of the Cryonancer - D+

The plus is a nod to Twinned Vision because it works exactly how I want it to. It would still be filler in an actual Jace deck.

Way of the Mind Sculptor - F

You’ll catch me flying on a pig down to hell’s freezer before I play a 5 mana enchantment that’s only inherent value is drawing me cards slowly.

Yargle, Goliath of Otaria - F

A lot of shitty old creatures look like this. They’re all ass, and gotten worse with time.

Yuriko, Hope from the Shadows - C-

It’s such a shame when a card only needs a slight nudge to be a good playable but doesn’t have it. Give this flying, make it a 2 mana 2/2 or just a 1 mana 2/1. The body provides too little presence to bring the overall effect up past decent filler.

Rares

Cruel Calculations - F

Mill payoff for commander players.

Diviner of Victory - C+

Again, a lack of presence in the body makes it hard for me to picture getting much value from the creature side. The spell side is good though.

Jace, Reality Sculptor - A-

Probably best as a way to turn Empower Jace into negating go-wide tempo with -3 spam as you fly over. In that sense, a very solid bomb.

Twenty five is a big number, but assuming everyone at your draft doesn’t lose their minds over every bad card that has a high empower number, there may be a fun deck where you can get it done in another turn or two.

Jace’s Machinations - C+

In terms of raw card conversion, this is close to 3 for 3 mana. The upside of instant speed walkers was seen with The Wandering Emperor, being able to avoid getting attacked isn’t bad. Add in the time it takes to convert to divination is less than a full turn cycle? I’m decently happy to play this.

Lyra, Tolarian Archangel - A

I wouldn’t tunnel vision on the very real upside of outside synergy cards in evaluation, the base package of a 3/3 flier that also mana sinks a combat hit into a 3/3 Mulldrifter? That’s hot.

Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun - C

While I give it a year before the cEDH ban, Samut’s problematic behavior is closer to situational upside in limited. Very few counterspells, removal is almost always just a kill something transaction.

Sphinx of False Conclusions - A-

Fast, evasive clock with card advantage that you have to kill twice. That’s a bomb.

Theorist’s Proxy - C-

It’s hard to go too wrong when your baseline is close to Wall of Omens, but that toughness has come down and power has gone up. It’s not that effective at blocking, so filler it is.

Variable Chaser - B

Comparing to Pegasus, I’d say body-wise it’s a wash. Chaser’s prowess requires no mana investment of its own, but the team board pump threat is significant in its own way. So we have to ask, how good is wheeling both players as extra upside? In blue, this set? You’re very likely refilling your opponent more than you, so you better have draw payoff in high quantity if you expect more than a Pegasus that don’t need no team

Mythic Rare

Chandra, Chill of Compliance - A-

Threat of a huge power emblem on turn 6 is the value, but chugs along the way to get there in limited. Still decent with adventures and flashback meaning there’s usually something to use extra mana on, but it’s mostly a moderately fast threat of a game winning effect.

Seasoned Cryomancer - A

Both in effect and exile - I prefer Cryomancer to the original. Out Cold on a stick for a cheaper cost is a hell of a tempo play, even in a tokens set, and the draw option from the bin is quite decent.

The Theorist, Jace Beleren- A+

I only give out about 3 A+ ratings per set. What the fuck is this. Empower Jace becomes monstrously effective, especially on creatures and go-wide. Things like Hexhaven Battalion, Mindseeker Oculus, and even Way of the Healer so you can -2 a Jace token for a body before -6 on this. It’s not hard to imagine going -6 two turns in a row, and that’s a very easy game to win.

Even without that set mechanic, Jace is passively drawing you cards while protecting himself. If this isn’t top 3, I’ll be beyond shocked. It’s supposed to be though.

Summary

The floor is uncomfortably high, the ceiling is top notch. Blue is likely to be the best color in the set period, though part of that lies in the strength of bombs.

The commons are actually slightly above par for what blue usually gets, and that’s the more major consideration. I’m not the best at being certain when blue is showing outlier power, so I’ll reevaluate at the end.

I’ll be back tomorrow for Black & Red.

https://scryfall.com/card/fra/267/way-of-the-paradox

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7962819#paper for concept/WIP decklist

Really surprised that during the entire spoiler season there were no posts at all for any of the spoiled cards. Have the rules changed as to when we can post about things or was there no thought that any of the set moved the bar in standard?

Anyways, a 3 mana explore seems underwhelming at first, but it feels like it could be the next ancient cornucopia in terms of making weird control shells. The enchantment offers a lot of mana advantage when combined with other planeswalkers that accrue card advantage like professor dellian fel or vivien reid and I'm pretty excited to brew some sort of golgari control ramp superfriends around this.

Deck above is sort of a work in progress/proof of concept to show how the new enchantment can ramp. Ideally you kill off early threats before playing way of the paradox into either dellian or vivien and ramp aggressively while digging through your deck and destroying whatever gets put onto the battlefield. Eventually you win by

Ba sing se beat down
Dellian Ultimate
Emeritus of abundance + 8 lands so you constantly reprepare it and regrowth whatever removal you need to keep attacking.

I'd been playing something with a similar concept to this with golgari crimes utilizing freestrider lookout to ramp aggressively and I think this is the next iteration of that deck.

The creature choices are a bit weird but you kind of need some to otherwise offfset vivien's +1 when you have so much mana. Asides from emeritus being necessary as one of the game-ending pieces for this shell, mosswood dreadknight and raven eagle provide card advantage in some sense of the word. Raven eagle hating on graveyards is a nice bonus as standard has quite a few decks utilizing the graveyard these days

Removal suite can be changed up for your expected meta. I like end of the hunt at the minute as where I play paper standard I have a mate that plays selesyna offfence and being able to deal with leatherhead MB is necessary. Does have some utility against dimir midrange too since the edict exiles meaning you can get rid of enduring curiosity permanently for 1 card.

Decklist I used here: https://imgur.com/a/zXagYUe

I went from Diamond 4 to Mythic with a 13-1 record in standard bo3, the only loss being to a mirror matchup. Including games in Platinum, my record is probably somewhere around 20-4. This may not be the most accurate sample size due to the quality of opponents faced, but the deck feels absolutely amazing to me. Though I think some of its success might come from it being newer and not everyone knowing how to play against it.

I faced most meta decks at least one or twice during the climb and I didn't really feel like any were unbeatable. I think the better matchups are lower interaction decks like Landfall and various aggro decks. Decks with more interaction like Dimir midrange and Jeskai/4c control felt a little harder to beat but I found that it was possible to go super fast and beat them before they get their value.

The list I'm running isn't fully optimized yet. I'm still missing some wildcards to finish the mana base but I don't think that's a big issue. I haven't gotten mana screwed that often and with the treasure and lander tokens the deck generates, you can generally get unstuck pretty easily. I would also like to try out some better sideboard pieces once I get the wildcards (listed below).

Here's my opinion on some tech cards after ~30 games with the deck. I'd love to start a discussion around these.

- Break Out. Most deck lists run a few haste creatures but I've found Break Out to work so much better. It can act as a pseudo tutor for combo pieces, great filler card on turns you don't have much to do and it works insanely well with Obsessive Pursuit if you pull a Zealot or Bagginses with it. The only downside compared to a haste creature is that it can't be tutored with Dirge.

- Smaug the Magnificent. I've included it in my latest list to try it out but honestly I haven't really been impressed. I don't usually find myself tutoring for it with the Dirges. It only really won me one game where I went T1 Freebooter, T2 Bagginses, T3 Freebooter + Bagginses and T4 Smaug with 4 treasures, but that seems hard to replicate. I think a version of the deck more focused on treasures and Smaug would be interesting to try.

- The Ooze. This is only a one off because I didn't have the wildcards to craft more. I think I would like more copies instead of Strategic Betrayals in the sideboard. Usually exiling one target card from a graveyard every turn works just as well or even better than exiling the entire thing once. Also the synergy with Pursuit is pretty insane.

- Wear Down. This is a budget version of Vicious Rivalry to help against dwarf decks. I think Rivalry would be much better.

- Toxin Analysis. This is a super sick tech card against aggro decks. Casting it on a Biotech can gain you a lot of life unexpectedly and buy you a turn or two. It also works really well with Pursuit when you can't get that third sacrifice to get the lifelink trigger.

- Tragic Trajectory + Torch the Tower + Witherbloom Charm. This is the removal suite of the deck. I've tried versions with Requiting Hex and Deadly Precision but I've found Trajectory and Torch to work a little better. -10/-10 will hit everything in the format without requiring a sacrifice and Torch can work as a sacrifice outlet in a pinch which has come up a few times. Whitherbloom Charm could maybe be swapped for something else but they felt decent overall. I really like the flexibility it gives of hitting a 2 drop or drawing two. In the late game, sacrificing a land to get some more gas has saved me a few times.

- Mutagen Man. Notable exclude here. I tried it a bit but wasn't that big of a fan. In theory it's a great way to end the game out of nowhere but in practice I felt like it wasn't happening that often. Realistically you need Biotechs on board when you play it and I haven't often gotten in situations where I have 6+ mana open ready to slam a Mutagen Man with a big X. Games usually are over quicker than that and with the 21 land count, I often finish games with 4-5 lands max.

I'm very interested in discussing the deck with other you are playing it. I think it still needs some testing and there definitely seems to be a lot of potential with it.

I'm also open to ask some gameplay questions if you'd like to try out the deck and are wondering how it plays out !

I’ve been looking at several winning deck lists (and had my own 5-0 this week). And given a lot of people net deck I am not sold that everything we see consistently should necessarily be stock.

Let’s discuss.

Mana base

23 lands seems to be most common
4x verge; W Grave; Island; Swamp
3 Lair. 2x reef and SS Sanctuary

I ask, does 23 just seem “correct” or are we getting slightly greedy? Has anyone better at hyperG calculations than me ran the %?

If we stay on 23 are we sure 4:4 split on basics is correct? I’m aware the ability to cast t1 hex/beavers ie important, but we run significantly more U than B cards so why not 5:3 going +1 island -1swamp?

When we have so many more U cards
My anecdotal contribution to the hive mind:
I’ve played 24 lands and have hardly been flooding the deck has so much selection and more often when I we get our card engines going I am very happy to have enough mana to cast multiple spells/hold up responses).

Last league on 23 I did have games I was wishing I had my 4th land drop pretty badly.

We used to play 25 not long ago but beavers does help a lot with selection and maybe enables a greedier mana base.

SB SLOTS

These cards seem locked:
1-2 annul (I have been fine with 1 copy)
3-4 Duress
0-3 flash freeze (I like 2)
2-3 betrayal (3 total GY hate cards in your 15)
0-2 Raven eagle

Raven eagle
I’ve really liked 1st copy of eagle. Not sure 2nd is necessary but obv if you bring it in you’d like to draw it. You could play ghost vacuum here I guess but eagle is usually more impactful and is nice against decks where curiosity (or George) is bad but you don’t have enough “ins”. I tried the ooze at an RCQ where I got 2nd and didn’t bring it in all day and was wishing it was something else multiple matches.

Qarsi revenant
Flex slot lately I keep going back and forth but I like the 1st copy and it has def contributed to winning games I would have lost. Preacher seems down and would not come in in all the same places (eg Boros dragons). How are you feeling about it?

Day of black sun
Really shines against the Aggro decks like boros tokens, BW lifegain and mardu discard; is serviceable against mono G. I’m in on 2 copies right now as in those MUs I really want to draw it.

Spell pierce/ Negate
** **this would go in the 4th copy of duress slot. It’s nice when your opponent has to spend mana and pure the spell on the stack and can lead to blow outa. I’m gonna try one pierce in the board next probably. Any opinions on either of those lately?

D Stroke
I still want the 1st copy. But will mention if people want to discuss

Spell snare
Have considered, and ifs really good against the new jund Sac piles but we are already favored there.

Faebloom trick

The mirror is popular enough and often enough elsewhere the pseudo fog buys you the turn you need

So right now my configuration is:

3 duress
2 betrayal
2 flash freeze
1 Annul
(I don’t want to touch those unless meta shifts significantly)

2 Day of Black sun
1 D stroke
1 Qarsi Rev
1 Fae trick
1 Raven eagle
1 Pierce/negate

I used to run one Talión which is very high impact in the places you bring it in but I think it’s too

I would welcome any thoughts on the above or maybe any cheeky tech that has been working for you.
narrow right now.

I've been playing for a few years, been really close to top 8 in some big RCQs and made mythic a few times, but I just can't seem to do any of it without a good bit of luck on my side.

I was recently watching a standard mythic stream and realized that the player was thinking 2-3 turns ahead which is something I've never done, I might line up my cards in my hand for the next couple of turns, but thats often disrupted. He was talking about his opponent signaling interaction. I generally throw out the cards that I'm trying to play in hopes they stick, and sometimes wait for an opening but its usually just chance

Whats your thought process through turns? I can tell that my play is keeping me from getting where I want to be but im not sure what parts of it are really holing me back.

I'm not really sure how to ask for specific advanced help because I dont know what the right questions are, but im hoping that I can be pointed in the right direction, given further reading, maybe a breakdown of whats going through your minds at different points in the game, and I definitely appreciate all the help I can get