Strixhaven is quickly approaching and it appears to be a very fun set. Striking the balance between power and fun is something Wizards struggled with in 2020, the year of our Dark Lord Uro, Breaker of Formats. I already gave my thoughts on which Mystical Archives will impact Historic the most so go give that a read if you want my thoughts on those. With lessons to learn and cards to discuss, join us today as I present the top ten cards I think will see the most play in Strixhaven Standard. #10
Staring the list of with a spicy one in Killian, Ink Duelist. Standard has both Black and White aura based deck, but we haven't had these strategies come together. Killian is a great reason to match them together as it greatly reduces the cost of enchanting your own creatures or to take out the opponent's creatures with removal. The Hateful Eidolon and aura based removal like Mire's Grasp core is back-breaking for creature decks, and making it more mana efficient is a scary thought. White decks have great aggressive elements to help close the game such as All That Glitters and supporting cards like Spectral Steel. I'm not saying that a Orzhov Auras Deck will takeover Standard thanks to Killian, but it is a fun space worth exploring. #9
Although only targeting mono colored permanents seems narrow, Standard's biggest threats are only a single color, and two mana is very efficient. I placed this card early because I think it will see lots of sideboard play. Mono-Red, White, and Black all exist in many flavors in the Standard meta, and we even have different variants for Mono-Green. Bonecrusher Giant, Ox of Agonas, Elder Gargaroth, Lovestruck Beast, Edgewall Innkeeper, and Goldspan Dragon are the top six most played creatures in the format meaning that Vanishing Verse has plenty of targets. Not to mention that The Great Henge and Embercleave are still massive threats in their own right. #8
Command cards in general are typically always good, with the variety and versatility of the different modes makes them more powerful than your average Magic card. Prismari Command is no exception and was immediately compared to the classic Izzet Charm. The temptation to make this comparison is understandable as they're both Izzet colored commands or charms and they have similar abilities. Izzet Charm does have the option to counter spells and is one less mana, but for Standard, Prismari Command has two other relevant abilities. Making Treasure can be important in today's Standard with Goldspan Dragon soaring around, and cards like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon to put that mana into. We did see an Izzet Control that used Treasure to ramp out Ugin which could comeback to take advantage of this new command. We have another card higher on this list that will also help this Treasure game plan so will discuss this archetype more down the page. The shatter ability is is incredibly important in the current meta with The Great Henge still acting as a card advantage engine for most green decks, and instant speed interaction is necessary for answering Embercleave and Maul of the Skyclaves. Of course the Shock and Faithless Looting modes are still great utility for control and tempo decks. #7
If Spirits becomes a deck in Standard, I think a lot of that would be due to the power of Venerable Warsinger A Boros, uh.... I mean Lorehold Spirits deck already has tools to work with such as Usher of the Fallen and Skyclave Apparition. Rally the Ranks is an on curve tribal pay off that will bolster your army of spirits. Having trample could help it slot into the traditional Boros Aggro decks we see today where it would where Embercleave like a boss. Being able to use your three drop to recur other creatures is huge and you get to do it twice a turn thanks to the double strike from Embercleave. Overall I really like Venerable Warsinger in the regular Boros decks to pick up Embercleave and Maul of the Skyclaves, or in a fun new Spirits deck that is probably still going to have Embercleave because that card is dumb. Either bringing a new archetype to the format or boosting the power of an already established one speaks to the power of this three drop, and I'm excited to see what it does in Standard.
#6
Rowan and Will can be hard to evaluate as a module Planeswalker pair but I think they're really strong. Both sides have the Goblin Electromancer static ability which grants huge power to a Sprite Dragon style of deck that wants to be slinging spells. One mana Frantic Inventory can snowball really quickly and Negate for one mana can be annoying to deal with as the opponent. Rowan's +1 is easy enough to trigger for the three damage and her ultimate is only four loyalty which should be easy enough to get to. The style of deck Rowan would see play should be loaded with interaction, so protecting her won't be challenging. Once we do hit that -4 we'll be able to copy any instant or sorcery spell for two mana, which is a lot of value. Especially if your goal is to make a massive Sprite Dragon. Will is a decent control planeswalker with the +1 locking down a creature for self protection and the -3 draws you three cards. This middle ability synergies well with Rowan's +1 which makes them work well together if you have both sides in play. The ultimate is decent as it exiles five permanents and gives their controllers 4/4 elementals. This can help you get a board of elementals if you have tokens to pitch or you can even blow up your extra lands, and doing a sort of Beast Within to your opponent's board is also an option if they have big creatures. When apart I think both sides are decent at doing their roles, more so Rowan, but if put together they can become a very respectable core for an Izzet deck. #5
During my preview videos I often valued cards that could interact with artifacts and enchantments at instant speed, as having an immediate answer for Embercleave could mean life or death. So unlike the major disappointment of Rip Apart, Quandrix Command can protect you from Embercleave one-shots, and can answer The Great Henge at instant speed. It's other modes are also useful like bouncing a creature or planeswalker, pumping a creature with two +1/+1 counters, and even the ability to shuffle cards back into a library from the graveyard can be relevant. You can target the opponent to slow down their escape cards or get rid of them entirely. You could even use this to shrink a lethal Zenith Flare against the cycling decks. Against Dimir Rogues you could even use this on yourself against to make sure you have less than eight cards in the graveyard to slow down their Into the Story and their rogue synergies. The Simic color pairing doesn't have the strongest presence in the meta but we have another card later on that might change that. #4
White was truly blessed in Strixhaven. Elite Spellbinder is a fantastic tax card and will see play across multiple formats. Pseudo hand or tempo disruption attached to a 3/1 flier is not too bad, and so slowing down the opponent's key plays can be huge. I immediately imagined playing this in a aggressive white deck on the turn before the opponent needs to land a wrath. These kind of decks put the opponent on fast clock but get blown out by Shadows' Verdict or Storm's Wrath. Being able to slow that stabilizer down by even a single turn can be game winning. Slowing down the opponent's Emergent Ultimatum can be important if they need it to stabilize the board and Spellbinder is even better against cards people don't want to actually cast like Shark Typhoon. I think this will be an auto include in most white decks even though the competition for three drops is steep with Skyclave Apparition and Reidane, God of the Worthy. I'm optimistic that this could even add new life to fringe Azorius Flying decks by giving them some more interaction. Thank you PVDDR, you're the goat. #3
Dragonsguard Elite is a super exciting card as it has the potential to bring a brand new competitive archetype to the format. A Simic magecraft deck with a core of Dragonsguard Elite and Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse could be a serious threat. Opt and Charge Through help us trigger both the Elite and Jolrael, plus the trample from Charge Through makes the Elites much more aggressive. Other additions could be Quandrix Command and possibly Curate. Frantic Inventory can do work and Brazen Borrower is still fantastic. Snakeskin Veil is amazing protection as it will put two counters on the Elite. Flooding in the late game is less of a concern for this deck as you can get explosive by activating Jolrael to pump our army of cats, or Dragonsguard Elite to double its size. This makes our deck hard to answer as we go both wide and tall. I'm personally very excited for the potential of this archetype, so much so that perhaps we'll have to showcase a brew later this week... #2
Standard Foretell control decks come in many flavors. Currently we have Esper and Azorius Control seeing lots of play, but when Kaldheim first dropped it was Izzet Control that everyone was playing. The core of Saw it Coming and Behold the Multiverse are pillars of Standard and were apart of those early Izzet builds. This was the same deck that used those Treasure synergies with Goldspan Dragon as the proactive finisher. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon was the inevitable endgame to take total control of the game and was what we spent our Treasures on. Galazeth fits right into this deck as it curves perfectly with Goldspan Dragon, and it makes a Treasure. The Elder Dragon also adds additional ramp on to your Treasure for more explosive turns to finish the game. However, this mana from Galazeth can only be spent on instant and sorcery spells, which forces the deck to find other payoffs instead of just big daddy Ugin. The reason I slotted Galazeth so high on this list is because a deck for it already exists and Treasure synergies are getting more important, Prismari Command and Goldspan Dragon are viable options, so the challenge for the deck will be finding the new payoffs for the mana. #1
At first I thought this pick as a slam dunk, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it might be a controversial one. Either way I'm sticking with it because I do think the sheer annoyance of this card hits a lot of Standard, with the challenge being to figure out which white decks will actually play it. Right off the bat I want to address the Proctor's biggest competition, and that is Drannith Magistrate. They have identical stats minus flying, but they do very different things. Magistrate is so important at the moment because it hoses adventure creatures and it effectively counters Emergent Ultimatum. Sultai Ultimatum is the most popular archetype in the format so having this is huge game. They both die to black removal like Heartless Act and Eliminate, and although they dodge Stomp, they still die to Scorching Dragonfire and Fire Prophecy.
So what does Strict Proctor actually do? Well it annoys the absolute crap out of decks running a high volume of cards with triggered abilities. Yorion decks can't do their dumb blink turns for free, landfall cards like Felidar Retreat, Ruin Crab, and Brushfire Elemental start getting taxed on their triggers. Early plays for control decks like Omen of the Sea and Glass Casket are straight up useless until turn four if the opponent can't answer Proctor. ETB triggers for the free equip for Embercleave and Maul of the Skyclaves cost two mana which can slow them down. We can do a quick speed run of other common cards like Esika's Chariot, Ox of Agonas, The Great Henge, Thieves' Guild Enforcer, Terror of the Peaks, Skyclave Apparition, and even poor Solemn Simulacrum that all get taxed for their ETB's.
Now, what deck do we actually want to play this in? It can't be in White decks playing Skyclave Apparition and Elite Spellbinder because it taxes our stuff as well. It is a Spirit and a Cleric but that doesn't matter too much. Clerics have a lot of ETB synergies and Spirits would definitely want to run Apparition. Flying decks do play a tempo game so taxing your opponent could slow them down enough, but that deck would probably want Elite Spellbinder. I think the deck that could use this effect with no contradictions would be a White Weenie deck. Those decks don't need to play Apparition or Spellbinder and the game plan of Clarion Spirit and Heraldic Banner don't mind Proctor at all. Depending on the meta you could run this in the main but sideboard play seems pretty safe. The combination of Proctor and Magistrate can cover most of the meta and you could swap these in and out with cards like Binder and Apparition depending on the match up.
In closing I think the taxing ability of Proctor covers a lot of the meta and will be worth playing. Making Mill opponents pay for Ruin Crab triggers, putting a cost for The Great Henge triggers to choke their mana, and weakening stupid Yorion blinks does make Proctor a card worth playing. Especially if you can slow down early turns when the opponent wants to be playing Omen of the Sea to set up, or using Glass Casket to interact with you. The card definitely has its short comings and has competition from Drannith Magistrate but I stand by my claim that Strict Proctor will have the biggest impact on Standard when Strixhaven arrives.
Thanks for reading my top picks for Strixhaven Standard and my Strict Proctor essay. Later this week we will be releasing some Strixhaven brews for both Standard and Historic so subscribe to our YouTube Channel, or follow us on Twitch to see the action live. If you want to find our Discord or links to our socials then go explore our homepage for all of that sweet stuff. Thanks so much for reading and thanks even more for joining the Fellowship!
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