It's time to explore Rivals of Ixalan Standard at #SCGDFW!

Nelson, Klomparens, and Black break down the new Standard format!

Newsletter Thursday, January 18th

Say goodbye to Attune with Aether, Rogue Refiner, Ramunap Ruins, and Rampaging Ferocidon. Say hello to a brand-new Standard format! Wizards of the Coast's latest Banned and Restricted announcement changed the landscape of Magic as we know it. Never before have we seen this many bans in a Standard format, but after much deliberation and discussion, it's hard to argue that they got anything wrong. Look—the games of Standard may have been fun, but the lack of diversity was not. With these bannings and the introduction of Rivals of Ixalan, the entire Standard format has been turned on its head and everyone is excited to explore it. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone! Take Brad Nelson for example, the world's best Standard player. He's pumped to work with cards like Rhonas the Indomitable and Lifecrafter's Bestiary. Or give Jadine Klomparens' latest article a look. She's thrilled to be able to dust off her old pals Winding Constrictor and Blossoming Defense. And you best believe that Sam Black, a man known for cracking metagames in half with cards most are scared to try, has his eye on some odd cards like Adanto Vanguard and Profane Procession. Excited to see all these new Standard decks in action? Me too, which is why I'm counting down the minutes until my flight to The Big D for the Dallas Open. I'll be joined by Patrick Sullivan, Nick Miller, and the rest of the SCG Tour crew at #SCGDFW as we work our way through 15 rounds of Team Constructed action with a real slant toward Standard for the weekend. Come join the fun all weekend long, starting Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Central at twitch.tv/scgtour! — Cedric Phillips, Content Coordinator

January 27-28 Team Constructed     February 17-18 Modern     March 3-4 Legacy     First Impressions Of New Standard   By Brad Nelson   Rhonas the Indomitable has always been fringe playable, which could just point to where it will fall in Rivals of Ixalan Standard. It's always been a fine card but not something you wanted to rely on when designing a strategy. That was mostly thanks to how the format was. Not only did Aetherworks Marvel dominate the format, causing most green mages to just do that, but the God was also not strong against the other decks in the format: Mono-Black Zombies and U/R Control. After we saw Aetherworks Marvel banned, we saw the format eventually shift over to Temur Energy and Ramunap Red. Now, Rhonas the Indomitable wasn't bad against Temur Energy, but Vizier of Many Faces and Confiscation Coup both made it difficult to justify playing it. Rhonas the Indomitable may finally see a format where enough of the good things are gone that it can see some level of play. I wouldn't suggest going all in on this card for #SCGDFW, but I do believe you should be considering this card for potential play once the format settles down.

Bringing Back Winding Constrictor   By Jadine Klomparens   As you might imagine, this means that I haven't exactly been thrilled by the recent state of Standard. Temur Energy was a cool deck and all, but it sure didn't play Winding Constrictor. Yes, you could play Sultai Energy if you wanted to cling to Winding Constrictor, but for most of Ixalan Standard that deck was anywhere from substantially to slightly behind Temur Energy. Further, it always did feel more like a Blossoming Defense deck than a Winding Constrictor deck and was never able to make me feel quite as alive as good old B/G Constrictor did. But now, things are different. Rivals of Ixalan is about to be Standard legal. Attune with Aether is banned. Rogue Refiner is banned. So are Ramunap Ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon, but those are less important to the positioning of Winding Constrictor. Is it time for Winding Constrictor to make its presence known once more? Before addressing that question, let's back up and talk a little more about the difference between old-school B/G Constrictor and the Ixalan era Sultai Constrictor Energy decks.

Metagaming In The New Standard   By Sam Black   Remember the World Championship? There were three decks: Ramunap Red, Temur Energy, and U/B Control. From what I've seen on social media, everyone seems to have noticed that U/B Control was the one of those decks untouched by bannings, so level one is the assumption that U/B Control is the new best deck/deck to beat. Rampaging Ferocidon wasn't a great card against U/B, but Ramunap Ruins certainly was, and the matchup between Ramunap Red and U/B had been close enough that I think between that ban and the printing of Moment of Craving (yes, that's my pick for the card that matters here, not Ravenous Chupacabra), U/B should be solidly ahead in the matchup. I also think Temur Energy needed absolutely everything it had going for it to be competitive with U/B Control, so I think the bans are clearly sufficient to leave U/B Control on top of that three deck metagame. But what about the larger Standard metagame?

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