Ixalan Standard debuts this weekend at #SCGDFW!

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Newsletter
Thursday, September 28th

The wait is over! Fresh new Magic with Ixalan will unleash a monster of a new Standard format at #SCGDFW this weekend. The baseline decks for the format are Ramunap Red and Temur Energy, but many think that's a dangerous oversimplification. It's rare for everyone to get the format right from the beginning, and that's why you should be on alert! Get help from Ross Merriam as he reminds you about the Standard-legal cards you forgot all about. Jim Davis has a ton of decks he expects to do well, and Shaun McLaren is being his hilarious usual self in analyzing the new format. Good luck in Dallas, everyone! The Magic world is watching...

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

Revisiting Forgotten
Standard Cards
By Ross Merriam  

Energy decks have been very successful in large part due to how good the mana all the variants of the deck have with Attune with Aether and Aether Hub. With several cycles of dual lands leaving Standard, I'm inclined to look at the other five-color land available in Standard: Spire of Industry.

The loss of Thraben Inspector means Spire of Industry isn't as reliable in its traditional shells, but Renegade Map does a reasonable Attune impression and starts down a path of abusing Improvise. As a cost-reduction mechanic, improvise was well-hyped but failed to live up to expectations, although it wasn't for lack of trying on my part.

That deck ended up just short of being viable, and while there aren't a lot of new tools in Ixalan for the archetype, I think it has some good things going for it. First, Herald of Anguish matches up very well against much of the format, containing both Glorybringer and Hazoret the Fervent while potentially dominating the battlefield against any creature deck.

October 14-15
Modern

October 21-22
Modern

October 28-29
Legacy

8 Decks For SCG Dallas
And New Standard
By Jim Davis  

Oh yeah, Turn 4 attack you with a 40/40 trampler... that sounds fun.

When it comes to new formats, it's often a great idea to bring a powerful, fast, proactive deck to the table. Everyone's deck is going to be untuned and prone to stumbling, and the faster you can kill them before they recover, the better. Not many Standard decks can kill on Turn 4 through blockers, and G/R Pummeler can while also playing many of the usual energy cards that have proven themselves time and time again.

I personally wouldn't play G/R Pummeler at #SCGDFW. It's not really my style, and I expect people to be over-prepared for creatures. But that doesn't mean that other people won't play it, which makes being aware of the deck very important.

The Sky Is Falling
With Shaun McLaren
By Shaun McLaren  

I'll admit Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle is a tempting card to build around, but is it worth it? Whenever you attack with a nontoken Vampire, including Mavren Fein, it triggers to make more Vampires. The lifelink should not be overlooked here, not only because it's tricky to race a swarm of lifelinking Vampires, but especially if Ramunap Red is a significant portion of the metagame.

A two-mana 3/1 indestructible creature would be absolutely insane and Adanto Vanguard is kind of almost halfway there. It seems like a potentially annoying card to deal with for many decks. The nice thing is you won't be missing four-life chunks if you're making it back thanks to your Vampire tokens.

Legion Conquistador should immediately be overlooked, much like Squadron Hawk initially was. There's nothing like Oketra's Monument that could possibly abuse it. Printing interesting new cards is exactly how they get you! They raise your hopes before crushing them with the cold efficient netdeck hammer! None of the Ixalan cards are playable. Nothing new ever works. Deal with it.