Top 8 Cards from Ravnica Allegiance

8. Awaken the Erstwhile

If you’ve ever played against Restore Balance in Modern, you know that symmetrical effects are never actually symmetrical. If you’re able to build a deck around a symmetry-based card that breaks the symmetry, you can end up with very, very powerful effects.

Awaken the Erstwhile is one such card; on its surface, it’s symmetrical, but in reality, it’s anything but. How do you break the symmetry here? Because both players will be top-decking afterwards, you want to ensure that your deck can set up card advantage engines before going off with Awaken. Engines like Theater of Horrors, planeswalkers like Karn or Vivien Reid, and loops like Molderhulk/Memorial to Folly are all possibilities.

Alternatively, you can try to maximize the zombie-making effect of the card beforehand by playing cards like Dusk-Legion Zealot, Burglar Rat, Thought Erasure, and Disinformation Campaign (perhaps followed up by a sweeper like Golden Demise) to set up an enormous hand advantage that Awaken converts into a board advantage.

Cards like Awaken the Erstwhile are very strong, but they require a specific home to shine; even if it doesn’t happen in this Standard format, Awaken is a card that I will certainly be keeping in the back of my head moving forward.

7. Kaya’s Wrath

We haven’t seen a four-mana wrath effect in a Standard-legal set since Supreme Verdict was printed in Return to Ravnica in 2012. Since then, we’ve been forced to make due with three-mana damage-based sweepers (Radiant Flames, Infest + effects) three-mana bad sweepers (Citywide Bust), four-mana almost sweepers (Languish, Ritual of Soot), and five mana wraths with upside (Cleansing Nova, Fumigate). But finally, finally, a hard wrath has returned to Standard (and it even has the word “wrath” in it!)

So how good is Kaya’s Wrath? As has been the case for a while, the power level of creatures has steadily increased. In the current format, Kaya’s Wrath cast against Monowhite Aggro might kill a creature or two, but Hunted Witness replaces itself, Dauntless Bodyguard protects Benalish Marshal, and Adanto Vanguard saves itself. If a sacrifice deck with Judith returns, destroying lots of creatures is a sure way to die. Monoblue Tempo will happily Spell Pierce you, and BG will just play out a Vivien Reid the following turn and rebuild.

Back in the day, Wrath of God actually did what it said on the card: destroy all creatures. Today, not so much. Nevertheless, Kaya’s Wrath is certainly an important component of any WB control deck, but the control deck will have to work a bit harder to set up Wrath, countering or spot-removing the threats that would be resilient to the sweeper. It’s also worth noting the restrictive cost of Kaya’s Wrath: WWBB is no joke. Or is it?

If I want to slot Kaya’s Wrath into an Esper Control shell, I can reliably hit UU on Turn 3 and WWBB on Turn 4 by playing playsets of all the shocks and checks along with two Islands. That puts me at 26 lands, completely reasonable for a control deck. If you’re willing to work a bit for it, you can make a hard Esper Control deck work, but you’ll have to decide if you’re willing to Shock yourself into oblivion or not the first couple of turns.

Additionally, the most popular control deck at the moment is Jeskai, held together primarily by the power of Niv-Mizzet, Parun. While we might be able to make UU into WWBB work, there’s no way we’re doing WWBB into UUURRR. As such, you’ll have to decide whether you want the wrath that WBx provides, or the powerful dragon that URx offers.

 6. Hydroid Krasis

Hydroid Krasis does it all. It draws cards, gains life, and creates a giant Flampling monster, and counterspells don’t even stop the first two. Krasis is obviously very happy and at home in a ramp deck, but it can also fit into slow midrange decks like BG. Casting this for X=4 on Turn 5 or 6 isn’t terrible, and the more you cast, the more likely you are to draw into the next one (the Sphinx’s Revelation effect).

Currently, the best late-game draws that BG has are Find//Finality, Vivien Reid, and Carnage Tyrant. Reid and Tyrant will not catch you up if you’re behind, and Find//Finality may, but Hydroid Krasis will buffer your life, giving you a turn to untap and deploy the cards that it just drew you. Oh, and if they don’t kill it, you have a massive Flampling monster that will kill them.

I anticipate that Hydroid Krasis is going to be a powerful mid- to late-game threat that will see plenty of play in Standard in both ramp and midrange decks.

 5. Judith, the Scourge Diva

Judith helps to breathe life into the possibility of a sacrifice-based deck in Standard. While she costs one mana more than Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat, doesn’t gain you life, doesn’t count tokens, and is legendary, thus prohibiting multiples, she does act as a lord for all your other creatures (including tokens). Judith encourages building us to build our sacrifice deck a bit differently than we’ve done in the past. Given that Judith wants us to attack and we don’t have any free sacrifice outlets, we want to get more aggressive than if we had a Blood Artist.

Additionally, Judith costs three mana, and with Gruesome Menagerie, can combo kill alongside some Goblins and Steam-Kin. It looks like you might be able to create a Rally-esque shell (hopefully nowhere near as powerful) that can play as an aggressive sacrifice deck, but also combo-kill if the right pieces are assembled. The possibilities are exciting, and cards like Judith and Menagerie encourage creative deckbuilding and some strategies that we don’t always get to see in Standard.

 4. Spawn of Mayhem

Spawn of Mayhem is one of the most obviously pushed cards in the set. It’s not subtle, you don’t have to find the perfect shell to make it work, and you don’t have to try all that hard to combo with it. It’s a 4/4 Flampler that turns on Spectacle every turn, does a bad Death’s Shadow impersonation when you’re close to dying, and is often going to cost three mana.

This is likely going to be a must-answer threat out of aggressive RB or midrange Bx decks in Standard until it rotates. Depending on how popular Spawn gets and which answers are popular, it could lead to a resurgence of Rekindling Phoenix and Doom Whisperer seeing play, as they’re two of the only creatures that can do combat with this demon. Of course, in the right deck, just letting the demon sit around and not attack can also be dangerous, as it turns on Spectacle powerhouses like Light up the Stage, Skewer the Critics, and Theater of Horrors. Speaking of Theater of Horrors…

 3. Theater of Horrors

Theater of Horrors is Rakdos’s take on Phyrexian Arena or Underworld Connections. Or, if you got into Magic more recently, it’s Experimental Frenzy for midrange decks.

When I see Theater of Horrors, I think of the dominating RB midrange deck from last Standard. The deck wasn’t doing anything novel: it played the best aggressive threats (Bomat, Scrounger), the best midrange threats (Rekindling Phoenix, Glorybringer), the best answers (Abrade, Magma Spray), and… mediocre card advantage (Chandra, Karn). Theater of Horrors is the card advantage the deck always wanted, but was too powerful to be allowed. Now, we have it.

Experimental Frenzy wants to be in decks with low land counts and high numbers of one- and two-mana spells. Theater of Horrors, on the other hand, wants to be in grindier, but still proactive, decks. The exiled cards don’t have to be played the turn they’re exiled, but they do need to played during your turn. I suspect that the “downside” of needing to activate Spectacle is close to trivial. With cards like Fanatical Firebrand, Spawn of Mayhem, and even itself, hitting your opponent for damage even outside of combat should be doable. This card would likely be playable even without the ability to ping, but with it, it just makes Theater that much stronger in the late game when both players are top-decking.

If there’s a RB midrange deck in Standard, you’d better get used to seeing this card across the table from you.

 2. Electrodominance

First, we have to give Electrodominance a nod for its possibilities in older formats. Being able to cast Ancestral Vision, Wheel of Fate, Restore Balance, and Living End from your hand while also shooting down a creature is pretty strong. We’ve already seen people experiment with worse cards (As Foretold) to turn on the old Suspend cards, and Electrodominance seems stronger.

But this card shouldn’t be ignored in Standard, where it’s likely to be cast for larger values of X than in Modern. Its power also comes from the ability to ignore timing restrictions, allowing you to blow up a threat and flash in a planeswalker or a Niv-Mizzet on your opponent’s end step. With Electrodominance, untapping with Niv becomes a lot easier.

Of course, all of this requires a lot of mana, so Electrodominance can’t be jammed into any deck playing red. I believe Electrodominance will have the most success in a Green Wilderness Reclamation deck. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at Reclamation.

1. Wilderness Reclamation

If you’re playing instants, this card doubles your mana. If you untap with Wilderness Reclamation, you can float five mana on your end step, resolve the Reclamation trigger, and make five more mana for a total of ten mana on Turn 5. Here are some things you can do at instant speed with ten mana on Turn 5, even ignoring any kind of Growth Spiral/Gift of Paradise starts:

• Electrodominance their face for 8 and then cast a free Star of Extinction/Emergency Powers/Brass’s Bounty/Overflowing Insight/Pelakka Wurm/Nexus of Fate.
• Explosion for 6.
• March of the Multitudes for 7, ignoring any Convoking you might also be able to do.
• Electrodominance into Fall of the Thran and find a way to leverage your mana advantage.
• Electrodominance into Form of the Dinosaur and roar really loudly.
• Electrodominance into Haphazard Bombardment/In Bolas’s Clutches/Lich’s Mastery/Niv Mizzet/River’s Rebuke/Sunbird’s Invocation/The Immortal Sun/Vraska, Relic Seeker.

Are you getting the idea?

With six lands, you can end-of-turn Electrodominance into the two most expensive cards in Standard, Apex of Power and Omniscience. Chaining Electrodominance into Apex is particularly insane, because you actually did cast Apex of Power from your hand, which means you get ten more mana to play with at instant speed. If you find another Electrodominance, you can keep on having fun.

All of this might sound like janky combo shenanigans, but we haven’t even considered what could happen once you add Growth Spiral, Gift of Paradise, or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria into the mix. And, of course, Bant Nexus can now go off with Nexus on the same turn that it plays Teferi, not even needing to worry about protecting Teferi for a turn to untap.

Wilderness Reclamation and Electrodominance are really, really strong, and if they’re played together, you can do completely absurd things early in the game.

While I’m slightly concerned about the power level of Wilderness Reclamation, I am very excited for Ravnica Allegiance. We’re going to have great mana, great cards, and a brand new format to explore, and it should be a lot of fun! Ravnica Allegiance releases January 25th! Prereleases are happening January 19th - 20th. 

These are my Top 8 picks for RNA! What did I miss? What cards are on your Top 8 list?

Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.