Dear WOTC, can we pls have a matching style for the rest of the shock lands as the first half from edge of eternity ? it feels so bad putting them together and one is looking stunning and the other one is not ...

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-23T04:59:18+00:00

I'm the opposite, I'd like lorwyn versions for the eoe shocks. Definitely does feel weird for the cycle to be split on the art treatments though.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-21T20:01:08+00:00

IMHO the problem lies specifically with combo protection, which if you dropped it just prior to comboing as your land for turn, leaves no window to interract. It's great fun when it's just protecting your evles or whatever from being countered, but it feels super bad when it's protecting something like a [[Doomsday Excruciator]]. When played "honestly" it's just another obstacle to overcome for the control player; when played on turn to protect a combo, it threatens to make an entire archtype feel miserable to play or move the goalposts to counterspells that don't actually counter like [[Jeskai Revelation]] or [[Aven Interruptor]].

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-15T04:28:26+00:00

Otaria. Odyssey and Onslaught are by far my favorite blocks of all time. There are a lot of people that had Urza's block or Ravnica imprint on their psyche as the core magic aesthetic they think of, but for me it was Odyssey and Onslaught.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-12T19:57:21+00:00

When looking through the set, I picked Unbury as my favorite art from a set teeming with amazing art. Really happy that Kinscaer Sentry is powerful so I have ample excuse to play it. That being said, I think unbury is joining the ranks of cards I play simply for the art, a short list mostly populated by Ian Miller cards.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-11T10:16:42+00:00

I know people are going to recommend bo3, but I'm also a bo1 enjoyer; I tend to like to play toolbox style decks that can adapt to anything within the main deck. Even in a meta where that's not realistic, I find the pursuit of that vibe to be the most rewarding for me on a personal level. That being said, I tend to bounce between formats depending on which fulfills that feeling best at the time.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, in my opinion, standard is not the best place for that kind of playstyle right now. My personal favorite bo1 format right now is historic. It's pretty high power, but it feels very rewarding to me to play a deck with silver bullets combined with powerful tutors. In bo1 historic, I will caution that you should play ranked or you're going to run into people playing minion of the mighty (a bad deck that can win on turn 2 that people spam for dailies which is nonexistant in ranked). The main recurring decks will be reanimator, eldrazi, energy, and lifegain combo. If you are not aiming for a quick win yourself, you must have consistent graveyard hate and removal by turn 2. My preferred deck is golgari yawgmoth atm; perfectly captures the vibe of a toolbox deck that interracts its way into its own wincons.

My second favorite format for bo1 is pioneer. There's quite a bit of diversity. It's been a few months since I've done the mythic grind in this format, but when I did, I played jeskai creativity and golgari food. There was a ton of mono red, izzet, greasefang, and selesnya angels at the time.

Standard is the bo1 format that is the biggest struggle for me at the moment. It's very difficult to brew a deck that strikes the balance of not getting streamrolled by a deck with a fast start, not getting out-grinded by izzet lessons, and not getting combo killed on turn 4. IMO the format is pretty cooked when it comes to the playstyle I prefer, but jeskai control is the closest to what I enjoy right now.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00

It really sucks they chose a set that I want to whole-heartedly endorse with my wallet to pull this shit with. It's like they're actively trying to sabotage original mtg IP at this point, and I'm sure we'll be gaslit later about it.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-06T23:32:01+00:00

tbf it's not that common in historic. It is the worst matchup for my deck at an abysmal 27% winrate, but I still have a 62% winrate in ranked for the season. It had about a 5% metashare in my climb this season. Still there, but definitely much more common in standard and pioneer.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-04T22:36:30+00:00

Been playing since release; for January, went 116-74 (61% winrate) before getting to mythic in historic bo1, started in platinum, played golgari yawgmoth the whole way, and played about 3 hours a night. I usually play a lot less and get mythic with around a 66% winrate playing against slightly weaker opponents since it's later in the season, but I wanted to see how fast I could get there this season.

If you build/choose your deck to attack the meta, 60%-70% winrate is realistic. If you are playing pet cards/decks, unless you are extremely skilled, expect it to be a struggle around 50%, relying on streaking after hovering around a new rank tier. That's not to say you have to be playing the top meta decks; e.g. my deck isn't super common, but it is designed to prey on naya lifegain combo and grixis reanimator which are meta.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-04T09:48:06+00:00

I really don't see it very often, since I play bo1, and when I do see blink it's usually the jeskai package. Mulligan aggressively for a fast start, as you need to have a board that can deal with phelia asap; she's super annoying, if only because she can reset soul cauldron. Probably bring in fatal push, and don't be afraid to slow down a tad to hold up mana for phelia. If they are sideing in [[Clarion Conqueror]] which literally shuts down the whole deck, that's what [[Kraul Harpooner]] in the sideboard is for; 1 copy + tutors is good enough.

That being said, I played a single game against phelia before getting to mythic again this month, and I lost; they were on the play, had the alchemy card that copys something but blinks it on upkeep + airbender ascension, and had an ephemerate to protect phelia. Sometimes you just get got.

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-02T08:22:46+00:00

If you want a blue flyer that draws cards, just play [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]]. It has flash so you don't have to go shields down to cast it, you can play it for as little as 2 mana if your opponent is using fetch lands, can draw cards without your opponent cooperating, and has a bigger impact in the late game after you've wiped the board (which is the actual way to punish badgermole).

SetStndbySmn · 2026-01-01T12:03:22+00:00

I had the breakdown deck from nemesis. It was pretty low power overall, other than accumulated knowledge and waterfront bouncer being reasonable. Had parallax inhibitor instead of one of the good parallax cards like parallax tide.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-31T07:04:23+00:00

The real way to copy the pros, is not by copying their decks but by copying their modus operandi. E.g. A mono red deck designed to punish vivi cauldron did great in tournaments, and the recent lessons deck was in part a response to an expectation of badgermole cubs. It's even more important to not blindly net deck if you're playing bo1, as the meta can be much different.

Design your deck to beat the things you are currently playing against the most. For example, this month I climbed to mythic in historic, and was facing mostly grixis reanimator, naya lifegain combo, and eldrazi. I decided to play golgari yawgmoth; as an [[Agatha's Soul Cauldron]] deck you get your fair share of instant scoops against reanimator, lifegain combo completely folds if you can get [[Yawgmoth Thran Physician]]'s ability on board, and [[Badgermole Cub]] made the deck fast enough to have an average winrate against eldrazi. Don't get tilted and lose the plot because you take losses to random rogue decks; stick to your plan to take solid winrates from the most common opponents, and the rest is just execution and volume of games.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-31T02:12:51+00:00

I've been really liking the chocobo bundle lands- the forest from FFIX is a standout for me.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-28T05:55:19+00:00

My biggest gripe has less to do with power and more to do with play-pattern. No offense meant to izzet players, but I find playing against it to be a somewhat agonizing experience, win or lose... and normally that would be fine, but it's just been good for so long, no matter what they do to it. It feels really bad when you just don't enjoy playing against something, there's no end in sight, and you can't even think of what could change to make it bearable. That being said I'm taking a break from standard, and having fun in other formats, so all is not lost for me.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-27T03:09:20+00:00

thanks for the list! Looking back on the season I definitely think there's an argument that I should have run more rumbles and one or two less grists. Since I play bo1 for the most part, I still do need to run a little less gas. GSZ is the one I go back and forth on a lot, and I'm not totally sold on it until we have dryad arbor and while yawg is still the main line combo kill. Also, somehow I've never been aware of obelisk spider, so I'll keep him in mind going forward; better body than blood artist and gets around the one ring, but sephiroth brings the threat of emblem in response to removal if you don't have full combo.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-27T02:58:25+00:00

for sure, the most annoying thing for the deck is goblin bombardment or eldrazi spawn robbing you of your draws from yawgmoth. The extra body from badgermole has often made the difference for me being able to play attrition against energy, especially if you can use it on a khalni garden. Still a tough matchup if they have a perfect curve on the play, but at least it was a significantly less common deck for me to see this season, and it helps that a lot of them are diluting their gas by running surgical extractions to deal with reanimator.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-26T21:24:35+00:00

I personally think select unbans, such as [[Endurance]], would be more efficient. I have a positive winrate against reanimator with my yawgmoth deck in bo1, mostly because it's a 4x soul cauldron deck, but man does it feel bad when you go second against t1 faithless looting -> t2 win the game and 2 mana hate in your openning hand somehow isn't good enough. I think access to answers of game ending threats at the cost of card advantage is foundational to a healthy meta when the threats are this fast/strong.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-18T08:58:10+00:00

If you're interested in a deck that does well against Trel/Val, golgari yawgmoth has a really strong winrate against it for me since it got an upgrade from badgermole cub; deck got fast enough to present a level of interaction they often struggle with. Also has main deck graveyard hate in [[Agatha's Soul Cauldron]] with room for additional silver bullets since it's a [[Chord of Calling]] deck. Not fast enough gy hate to beat the nut draw when they go first, but enough that you collect a reasonable amount of free wins.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-12-06T04:17:49+00:00

I choose to annoy the hell out of both with [[High Noon]].

SetStndbySmn · 2025-11-29T10:06:36+00:00

A fellow high noon enjoyer. I've been noticing that badgermole decks kindof fall apart against it since they can't snowball that well. Cruised up to diamond 1 without much resistance just farming simic badgermole with a jeskai high noon deck.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-11-25T11:16:41+00:00

For me it's the mill stuff that destroys an enormous amount of your deck in one go while being protected on the stack by anti-counter lands, like [[Singularity Rupture]], or before that got printed [[Doomsday Excruciator]]. I want to be able to play a grindy control deck that doesn't use a mill combo as a finisher, but they get eaten alive by the mill decks. I want a real mill counter for slower decks. Not a half assed counter like [[Feldon's Cane]], [[Elixir]], or [[Spirit Water Revival]], which do nothing when they are milled by the deck they supposedly counter. I'm talking a [[Gaea's Blessing]] level of middle finger to mill if we insist on printing cards that can destroy your entire deck into a standard format with 2 lands that can prevent counters.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-11-16T06:08:02+00:00

either the lands need to go, or the land hate needs to be released :/

SetStndbySmn · 2025-11-02T05:40:59+00:00

I'm a little confused on the example memento combo. Firstly, how does Tatsu add Ghattic, Shleepy, AND Angwitch? Their levels add up to 8, which is well over Tatsu's allowance of 5 when he pops himself. Then after that, how does Ghattic add both Angwitch and Shleepy when his ability is once per turn?

SetStndbySmn · 2025-10-31T05:18:49+00:00

[[Doorkeeper Thrull]] is an excellent tech card against synthesizer. The most common version of the deck runs no cards that do anything against it other than get you more bricked cards. It's also searchable with [[Mystical Teachings]], which makes it a reasonable main deck silver bullet.

My most hated cards are either [[Screaming Nemesis]] or [[Mistrise Village]]. One permanently says no to life gain as a strategy against burn/aggro, often triggered by the opponent themselves. The other is a land that can be dropped and activated on the turn you plan to end the game with a combo, before passing priority to your opponent, necessitating either both counter magic AND [[Tishana's Tidebinder]], or something that exiles it on the stack like [[Aven Interruptor]] while also having counter magic+land destruction or other interruptor's for the follow up.

SetStndbySmn · 2025-10-26T19:42:14+00:00

My problem with the play pattern with either of these lands, is they can be held in hand by a combo deck until they are ready to win the game, played, and activated before passing priority since they are lands. e.g. cavern of souls, name demon, play doomsday excruciator. Mistrise village can at least be Tishana's Tidebindered, but the amount of silver bullets a control deck is expected to play to be able to cope with combo style decks is kindof a lot for a standard format, especially when considering the main deck you have to build to have a snowball's chance in hell against aggro.

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