Strixhaven Standard and Historic: Week 1 Review
Depending on whether you play Standard or Historic, the first week of Strixhaven was either smooth sailing or a roller coaster ride of a meta evolving by the literal hour. Wizards of the Coast truly has tried to replicate as much of the college experience as possible with Strixhaven. Standard felt more like my senior year, just doing the same thing that has always worked to some success, while Historic felt more like my first year of college, slowly finding out that my taste in pop punk was not going to get me anywhere. Except this time in Historic, rather than my love for pop punk getting me nowhere, it was my love for both Electrolyze and Ephemerate which failed to get many positive results.
Standard
As a general overview, Standard looks just about the same, only with a few additional decks. Mono-Red Aggro, Sultai-Yorion Control, and UB Rogues are all still close to the top fighting for control over the format. Those still playing decks such as Jeskai Cycling are still seeing some positive results due to just the raw power of the deck despite almost no new additions. However, there is a slight rise of Temur Adventure's as it tends to be a little more consistent than its Naya Adventure counterpart as the addition of the new Galazeth Prismari offers another great flying threat.
Before getting into the new decks of the format, there has been some talk about whether Bonecrusher Giant is just too good for Standard. It offers two very efficient spells and creates its own with very little work to put in. Just as a quick example, even with being on the draw, casting Stomp to kill an opponent's 2-drop and then following it up on the next turn by casting Bonecrusher Giant can be brutal for many decks to get past. In the previous set the same thing was just as likely to happen, with the usual targets being Edgewall Innkeeper or Robber of the Rich. What is different this go around is how brutally efficient Stomp is against many of the new creatures from Strixhaven. Consequently, there are not that many decks revolving around many 2-Toughness creatures rising to the top of the metagame, but the resulting meta is still relatively healthy.
Overall, the calls for banning Bonecrusher Giant remind me most of the calls to ban Goblin Chainwhirler in Dominaria Standard as it similarly invalidated decks running many 1-Toughness creatures. Just like Goblin Chainwhirler before it, I do not think that Bonecrusher Giant will get banned and the meta will continue to revolve around just how powerful it is. But, anything can happen and since Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast has been much more ban-happy in standard.
As mentioned before there is not much new going on in Standard currently, but the makings of new decks are almost there. Tend the Pests acts as another Village Rites for any deck attempting to abuse Claim the Firstborn, however sacrifice decks cannot quite seem to get there without the reach Mayhem Devil brought. Galazeth Prismari has great synergy with Goldspan Dragon, but both want to be played in an aggro deck so finding meaningful ways to spend the leftover mana is still needed. The general power level of standard is pretty high between its top three decks, and finding a way to sneak past through them will be difficult considering the power level of Strixhaven.
One deck that is quickly making its rise through the ranks of Standard is RW Winota, Joiner of Forces. This deck is nowhere near the power level of previous Winota decks, but is probably more the baseline for what Winota was designed to do. Rather than fetch one or two Agent of Treachery on turn 2, the current iteration of the deck offers to flood the board with new targets such as Elite Spellbinder and Blade Historian to provide protection, and a finish that no one saw coming. Unfortunately, as more and more players are subjected to this strategy sideboard hate will become more common. When not churning out creatures with Winota, the deck is casting one creature a turn and will usually fall short when dealing with walls such as Elder Gargaroth. Only time will tell if RW Winota can hold its spot near the top despite the meta shifting around it, but there may come a time where some forget about the decks existence and suddenly die to a Professor of Symbology flipping over a Blade Historian for a sudden spike of damage, and I love that
What I'm playing in Standard!
Strixhaven may have been focused on the types of spells its students were casting, but I personally would like to focus on the students going there. Star Pupil, Silverquill Silencer, and Elite Spellbinder are all cards that slot into this deck so perfectly that you can tell that the Play Test team at Wizards was aiming for this deck to be a competitor.
Star Pupil, while easily being outclassed by many other white 1-drop's, fits in the deck as both being a playable wizard to boost the power of Archpriest of Iona, and by providing another source of +1/+1 counters for Basri's Lieutenant. Silverquill Silencer can provide some great pressure in the early game by naming removal spells such as Stomp, Eliminate, and Heartless Act while providing a decently fast clock by being a 3/2 body. It may not have the same power level as the similar Meddling Mage, but the reach it can provide by naming a board sweeper while the opponent is at a low life total can be the deciding factor in the game. Not to mention it synergizes well with Elite Spellbinder, Kitesail Freebooter, and Acquisitions Expert by getting peeks at the opponent's hand. Rounding out the deck are Rally the Ranks and General Kudro of Drannith which offer essentially the same ability, giving your entire board +1/+1. Both of these effects are on extremely efficient cards and can really turn the tide against almost any other creature deck.
Where this deck starts to lose some of its shine is against Sultai-Yorion with its impressive number of sweepers (all of which still act as a sweeper despite Selfless Glyphweaver) and against UB Rogues, where not having a card with escape can really lead to the deck not being able to interact against UB Rogues well at all. Some things I have experimented with to solve these issues are the inclusions of Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis, and more hand attack with Kitesail Freebooter. I have found Kitesail Freebooter to be pretty effective, however Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis's 6 mana escape cost really is too high for the deck to even consider. I look forward to continuing building with this list and if any of you have success with it as well!
Historic
Almost every hour playing Historic, post launch of Strixhaven, the meta would shift. The introduction of the Strixhaven Mystical Archive flipped the meta-game on its head, then back over again, and as I write this, it's probably in the process of flipping some other way again. As the metagame is shifting so rapidly, and everything that everyone is doing seems to be busted, let's talk about the individual cards and how they are being abused rather than any individual deck.
Faithless Looting & Mizzix's Mastery
When this card was spoiled, the first thing almost every Modern player thought of was Arclight Phoenix. And yes, while this card has almost single-handedly made that deck relevant again, there are much more busted things to do in Historic than cast Faithless Looting to get back a couple Arclight Phoenix's. Once a popular combo in Innistrad Standard, Faithless Looting is being used in tandem with Unburial Rites in Historic to make reanimator strategies one of the best in the format. However, the decks abusing Faithless Looting + Unburial Rites are not just abusing reanimator strategies, but Mizzix's Mastery strategies as well by easily putting Emergent Ultimatum in the graveyard and casting it with either Mizzix's Mastery or a reanimated Scholar of the Lost Trove. Decks abusing these strategies come in all shapes and sizes but all result in a kill usually on turn 4 after a resolved Unburial Rites or Mizzix's Mastery.
Tendrils of Agony & Grapeshot & Mind's Desire
Out of the three storm cards introduced into Historic, Grapeshot has by far seen the most success. Without the aid of the Legacy legal rituals Tendrils of Agony is really struggling to get its feet off the ground despite its similarity to Grapeshot. Ironically, Tendrils of Agony and Mind's Desire usually find a home together with the end goal being the same (to flip Tendrils of Agony off of Mind's Desire) but the way to get there has always been a little different. Some have used Inspiring Statuary in tandem with Paradoxical Outcome to generate a massive amount of Storm count and cards drawn, where others will use a control shell and just aim to cast as many cantrips as possible before casting Mind's Desire. Both of these storm strategies have taken a back seat to Mono-Red Storm, with Grapeshot being the finisher. The combination of Grinning Ignus with either Hazoret's Monument and a Runaway Steam-Kin allows for an infinite number of spell casts while also generating infinite mana which allows Grapeshot to shine. What really sets this deck apart from the rest is its ability to just act as a good aggro deck in addition to being a combo deck. If someone were to discard all Grapeshots, or cast a Damping Sphere against the deck, it can still just run over the opponent with large Runaway Steam-Kin's and Birgi, God of Storytelling.
Ephemerate & Inquisition of Kozilek
I had high expectations for both of these cards which came crashing down the moment the meta became focused on both combing off and interacting with the graveyard. Historic Ephemerate decks usually consist of Charming Prince, Collected Company, Skyclave Apparition, and Knight of Autumn. However sweet this combination of cards is (trust me it's pretty sweet), it falls short when attempting to exile the opponent's graveyard or provide a clock fast enough to beat control decks. Inquisition of Kozilek lines up very poorly with the current meta and will either be unable to discard key cards such as Mizzix's Mastery, or only find cards the opponent is fine with going to the graveyard, such as Faithless Looting. I do expect both cards to get better if a ban does happen to either Faithless Looting or Mizzix's Mastery, but until then these cards will take a backseat in the format.
Memory Lapse & Brainstorm
Brainstorm is a card that many modern players, myself included, have been clamoring to be legal in their favorite format. So, I would imagine that it being legal to play in Historic, even with the minimal amount of fetch lands, is a huge draw to Magic Arena. There may be no Miracle spells to put on top of the library, or a Delver of Secrets to guarantee a flip, but Brainstorm is still a powerhouse of value in both combo and control decks in Historic. While combo decks are sacrificing some speed to run a full set of Fabled Passage, control decks are able to run Field of Ruin to get in more shuffle effects to get all the value they can from Brainstorm. Additionally, Memory Lapse is seeing play as the premier counterspell for the format as it offers to delay an opponent's game-plan rather than fully prevent it. In a format fully enwrapped in combo decks, delaying their game plan is more than acceptable. Especially since the key combo cards dodge Mystical Dispute, some other efficient way of delaying combo decks is necessary so that you can get some other hate out such as Rest in Peace.
Lightning Helix & Electrolyze
Both of these are sweet removal spells, but if there are no creatures to remove, they act as either a bad life gain spell, or a bad draw spell. The bar for these cards to be good are much lower than Ephemerate, as it just requires opponents to play 1-3 toughness creatures, and I do expect them to see play eventually. Just not in a format where Arclight Phoenix is the main target.
Community
Related Products
Accessories
