Impact of the Bans

《Cori-Steel Cutter》

《Cori-Steel Cutter》 was clearly extremely overtuned for Standard. The soon-rotating 《Temporary Lockdown》 was the only real way to answer the card; UR Cutter Prowess was over 40% of the Pro Tour’s metagame – the card was simply too strong, and its departure was the unsurprising part of the announcement.

Still, 《Stormchaser’s Talent》 remains one of the most efficient cards in the format. The synergy with 《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 is gone – A true Prowess deck is going to be much less overwhelming now that its threats can be actually stopped by point removal – but perhaps still worth pursuing!

Rebuying 《Stock Up》 with 《Stormchaser’s Talent》 is a way to win games that go longer. 《Vivi Ornitier》 is still undoubtedly a powerful card, and Magic Online user maximusdee wasn’t ready to put Prowess down just yet!

Izzet Prowess

maximusdee, 15th place at Standard Challenge

《Monstrous Rage》&《Heartfire Hero》

The departure of much maligned 《Monstrous Rage》 alleviates the pressure every Standard deck has been under for the past few years – no longer is ample instant speed removal the only way to stop aggro decks!

Naya Yuna

Zompatanfo, 2nd at Standard Challenge

High-toughness roadblock creatures should function just fine as well. Zompatanfo’s 《Yuna, Hope of Spira》 deck illustrates that very well. My teammates spent a lot of time trying to come up with a reasonable Yuna shell for the Pro Tour, but ultimately it was too hard to come up with a decklist that would be respectful enough of aggro while still retaining general functionality and power.

Zompatanfo’s list benefits a lot from assuming that 《Fear of Missing Out》 and 《Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant》, are going to be a meaningful enough board presence to bridge them towards Yuna and Overlords. Just keep in mind that 《Screaming Nemesis》 still matches up extremely well against the plan of blocking and gaining life!

《Abuelo’s Awakening》

While 《Abuelo’s Awakening》 is gone, the combo deck could still function thanks to the more expensive reanimation spells in 《Builder’s Talent》 or (at least until Edge of Eternities…) 《Repair and Recharge》!

《Omniscience》 was my deck of choice fo Pro Tour Final Fantasy. I mainly picked it because I liked my postboard plan against Prowess of boarding out the combo and transforming into a blue-white control deck. You could say that for me, it was as much of an 《Omniscience》 deck as it was a 《Temporary Lockdown》 deck!

It’s safe to say that 《Temporary Lockdown》 will be a way less important card in the post-bannings Standard world, putting the 《Omniscience》 deck in a pretty weird space. The combo is more expensive and weaker; at the same time, opponents will attack from more angles, and you won’t be able to bank on 《Temporary Lockdown》 just answering most of what your opponents do.

Combine that with the natural rise in Dimir Midrange – a horrible matchup for Omni – and I can see problems for the deck in the future. On the other hand, if the format in general slows down, playing a combo deck that goes over the top is very appealing… So I’m not surprised 《Repair and Recharge》 has already 5-0’d!

Azorius Omniscience

Darkiundsa, 5-0 at Standard League

《Up the Beanstalk》

Speaking of the devil – with 《Up the Beanstalk》 gone, 《Stock Up》 can perhaps claim the title of the best draw spell in the format. 《Up the Beanstalk》 decks weren’t a particularly meaningful part of the metagame during the Pro Tour, but their threat was always looming.

While 《Stock Up》 is great, one-shot draw spells, of course, function way differently than engine cards like Beans. Playing control will mean fighting harder for incremental advantages. Zur Domain will no longer be the biggest “fair” strategy available in the format. The previously mentioned Yuna decks seem like a candidate for that spot, as does Mono White Control, a deck from the past whose immediate reappearance on Magic Online makes a lot of sense.

Mono-White Control

gazmon48, 1st place Standard Challenge

Strategically, Mono-White is a similar deck to Domain, but 《Up the Beanstalk》 would be a ruthless mirror-breaker here.

《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 & 《Hopeless Nightmare》

In theory, Pixie decks could simply replace their 《Hopeless Nightmare》 with 《Tinybones Joins Up》. In practice, having played a lot with the card while preparing for the Pro Tour, the life loss is a really big difference – when replaying the card over and over throughout the game, you could easily miss six or more damage. A 《Tinybones Joins Up》 Pixie deck would be significantly more one-dimensional, looking to always outgrind its opponents, rather than outracing them a solid portion of the time.

Frankly, that doesn’t sound attractive to me whatsoever. With the release of 《Sunpearl Kirin》 and 《Ambrosia Whiteheart》, Pixie decks were mostly limited by their access to good permanents to pick up. Unless we see some new ones, I’d be surprised if Pixie remains a valid strategy in Standard.

The aggressively slanted variants of Esper Pixie are especially dead. No Nightmare damage, no 《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 loops, fewer spells that naturally slot into the deck for 《Stormchaser’s Talent》 to pick up.

The banlist article states that the specific agenda behind banning 《This Town Ain’t Big Enough》 was making it harder to freeroll maindeck interaction for exotic card types. Indeed, decks built around Artifacts or Enchantments can rely on their namesake cards sticking more easily… 《Monument to Endurance》, 《Insidious Roots》, or perhaps 《Agatha’s Soul Cauldron》 come to mind.

Winners of the Bans

But perhaps more importantly – which decks did not get banned?

Dimir Midrange

《Kaito, Bane of Nightmares》 is a planeswalker so powerful that it carried UB Midrange onto the verge of playability, despite the deck’s horrible Prowess matchup. Kaito is an absolute menace against most slower decks, while his main weakness used to be the red decks. Their haste creatures and easy access to trample punished Dimir players for spending time setting up Ninjutsu.

Without 《Cori-Steel Cutter》 and 《Monstrous Rage》, we can not only expect way fewer red aggro decks in the format, Kaito is also just that much more likely to survive even when facing those! It’s no surprise to me, then, that Dimir seems to be the default “best” and most popular option in the immediate wake of the bans, as it’s powerful, good at punishing the slower decks by playing a delver-like game, and its worst matchups just got banned. I’d expect Dimir and especially Kaito himself to remain the litmus test of the format until Edge of Eternities.

Azja, 1st place at Standard Challenge

Izzet Vivi-Cauldron

One of the silent overperformers from Pro Tour Final Fantasy was Paulo Vitor’s Izzet Vivi-Cauldron deck. The deck already held its ground against full-powered Prowess and Mono Red, and it did not lose a single card in the announcement!

Raptor_Nachos, 7th place at Standard Challenge

The obscene amount of mana the Vivi/Cauldron combo can produce makes finding 《Voldaren Thrillseeker》, sticking it under Cauldron as well, and simply winning by throwing all your creatures at your opponent easy. Being both new and exciting, as well as untouched by the announcement, the deck is already getting several results posted online. I expect the deck to remain an important part of the format – at least until Edge of Eternities arrives and 《Voldaren Thrillseeker》 rotates out!

In any case, the format seems reasonably open and unsolved yet. If you are looking to do some casual Standard gaming or brewing, this is the time to hop onto Arena or Magic Online and do it! Magic tends to be the most fun when the formats are fresh.