Now that Journey into Nyx has been released, Robin Wouters takes time to have a look at all the cards in the new set that might influence the Standard Meta Game. You are welcome to leave your comments on our facebook page !
"Hi y’all, after some reports on how I failed to do well at tournaments let us check which cards I think will be the top cards of Journey into Nyx for Standard play.
Top Cards
The perfect colour fixer, this card will probably steal the spot of City of Brass in some of the older formats (or maybe will be played next to City) but if you want to play more than two colours in Standard, this is exactly what you need.
As the previous scry lands showed us, this will see play!!
Read the above
A new Oblivion Ring, this seems good to me (although no permanent exiling shenanigans here). Detention Sphere still seems like the better choice if your deck also plays blue, but I think we’ll see this Banishing Light a lot in Standard tournaments.
If you’re a fast deck (like white weenie) you need something to get the final blow through just before the midrange deck can take over and this card can do just that.
It’s a Merfolk!! This ancient MTG Clan of Sea People has provided us with ample muscle over the years… I see this guy (or girl or whatever) in a deck with Courser of Kruphix or against Courser (and probably it will see play in some of the older formats too). As Jace taught us, manipulating the top card of your deck is a powerful ability!
A Thoughtseize forged into a creature, this is very good. I really think this is a card some decks were waiting for!! Ok the card comes back when Brain Maggot leaves the battlefield but it’ll also give you a lot of information of what’s lurking in your opponents hand and thus the edge you sometimes need.
Taking over a turn is a very powerful ability, and with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in this block the eight mana shouldn’t be a problem, there will be decks build with this!!
Double Strike you say, with trample?!? This looks like a really good card, the card advantage you get with it just seems like a bonus… although haste probably would have been nice (no just kidding, this card already is insane). And all this for only three mana.
I see this card and I think back to the time of Wall of Blossoms, how I loved that card… This one costs two mana more to cast, but you probably will draw more than one card out of it (and it attacks!!), it lets you draw cards when you play Courser of Kruphix or Bow of Nylea.
7/7 for six mana and even if you miss a land drop the next turn you can make it monstrous for two and get two 2/2’s out of it. This is what a green player loves, a big creature that makes more creatures when it pumps itself!! And green is exactly the colour that can easily ramp up to six mana, like in turn four.
Card advantage in green-white seems good to me, also the three +1/+1 counters you can place on up to three creatures seems like an ability a green-white deck will appreciate. The ultimate does not look like it will be used a lot, but if you can gain one hundred life against a red aggro deck, they probably can’t win anymore.
Three mana god… sign me up ! This god even got Yannick (bartender at Outpost) excited. Conley Woods pointed out how nice this god is with Cartel Aristocrat. So let the deck building begin!
This is the god I heard a lot about when the first spoilers came online, I definitely see this one being played in some Boros Aggro deck. It offers you a way past the control deck that rarely have more than one of two creatures in play. But it seems also good in the aggro mirror matchup.
This god does some serious business even if he isn’t a creature, drawing an extra card or shooting damage seems like a crazy ability.
As I pointed out earlier a three mana god seems almost always good, and with some people already trying out a sort of dredge deck in standard, this god seems right up their street.
Honourable Mentions
This card will be a good sideboard card I guess, maybe exiling Revoke Existence from his spot, as this is instant speed. The only thing I can think of is that if Hall of Triumph sees a lot of play then Revoke Existence won’t give up its spot so easily.
Guy Brees pointed out this creature to me, being able to return something like a Fleecemane Lion really looks like a good ability. Maybe this could be the return of a Selesnya aggro/midrange deck together with Ajani, Mentor of Heroes.
A Howling Mine with flash, so you probably draw first and you’re less viable to Disenchant… this is a card that some decks will be able to use, maybe some new kind of turbofog deck or Maze’s End.
Steve Clarys and I had a little talk about this Starfish at the pre-release and although the ability to scry every turn seems very powerful I don’t know if this will get the upper hand on Omenspeaker. But maybe this is just what the control player is scrying for.
This is a very good sideboard card for monoblack I think. As it exiles a creature it will sometimes be better than Hero’s Downfall, but this is more versatile and therefore better main deck) and you can sink some mana into it with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
I’m still not sure what to think of this… if you get it into play you will win the game or get a reset… But I would love to see a deck build around it…
If you play this in Monoblue the elemental tokens can survive without their Master (of Waves), so maybe this is the card the deck needs to be insane (oh wait… now I confused myself…), although it gives no devotion.
I must confess that my knowledge of standard isn’t what it used to be, because I’m not able to play as often as I would like to. Therefore I must gather my info from reading a lot of articles. So maybe some of the cards I chose may seem odd to you, but if you like to discuss why I chose one specific card, or why I didn’t choose some other, you can always send an email to RW.reports.OP@gmail.com or you can find me regularly at Outpost Antwerp. And if you have tips or tricks you like to share, I’ll gladly share them in the next report."
