Predictions: Most Impactful Cards from DTK
Standard forum
Posted on March 16, 2015, 1:32 a.m. by ChrisHansonBiomancin
Will it be Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit ushering in a new generation of White weenie decks?
Or perhaps Temur makes the leap to relevancy with Sarkhan Unbroken?
Does Deathmist Raptor make Manifest decks unbeatable?
Or are you gonna cop out and go with Narset Transcendent?
Let's hear some bold and baseless opinions on the new format.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #3
I have a 22-Island deck I've been wanting to sleeve up, but that sounds even better.
March 16, 2015 1:38 a.m.
Andyroo987 says... #5
When they reprint Storm Crow in Origins, these cards won't matter.
March 16, 2015 1:42 a.m.
mooffalosystema says... #6
Modern or Legacy?
Cus Narset with Coursers of Kruphix sounds derp.
Bant is back baby.
But the most meaningful card EVER since Sliced Bread is Assault Formation.
There literally will be a deck called Butt Fight in a GP soon and it will go X-0 and then all stupid Twins and Delvers can go home.
You said baseless.
March 16, 2015 1:57 a.m.
This is the Standard forum, so neither Modern nor Legacy. Also, I was not aware that Sliced Bread was a Magic card.
March 16, 2015 2 a.m.
Commune with Lava has to be up there as well, its a powerful "draw" spell for red to have
March 16, 2015 2:14 a.m.
mooffalosystema says... #9
Sliced Bread is a MTG card if one accidentally falls on the board. Rules as Written, it's counts as played.
Sliced Bread 0
When Sliced Bread enters play, target Sleeve becomes greasy, put three 0/0 colorless breadcrumb tokens into play. Exile Sliced Bread at the end of phase.
Pick this card up; Eat the Sliced Bread while it's in Exile. (Only the owner may eat it.)
Enchantment Bread.
It's exists without owner in exile and it was later errata'd so anyone can eat it if they are faster and can pay the activation cost.
March 16, 2015 2:22 a.m.
Assault Formation I feel will have a strong impact in Standard if people decide to use it.
Some scenarios.
Turn 1: Land into Dragon's Eye Sentry
Turn 2: Land into Assault Formation
Turn 3: Land, Swing for 3 with Sentry, play Nyx-Fleece Ram or any of the 2 to 3 mana cost 0 Power creatures.
Turn 4: Land into Collected Company, play two high toughness creatures, win the game.
Your creatures don't die to Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods, or Bile Blight so your opponent needs to wait till they have enough mana for End Hostilities or Crux of Fate which is a turn five play. They can use singular removal like Hero's Downfall but when you have Jeskai Barricade you can save whatever they point it at as well as get another high toughness body on the field. Everything you're playing costs 1 to 3 mana so bouncing something isn't losing you anything. Throw in a Dragonlord Dromoka and have a 7/7 uncounterable flyer that hinders anything a control deck can do.
March 16, 2015 4:43 a.m.
Souljacker says... #12
And when you don't have Assault Formation or it gets removed your whole deck is just a bunch of big fat butts, which I deny to like.
March 16, 2015 6:49 a.m.
branston567 says... #13
You could go Sultai Big Butts and have Assault Formation and Phenax, God of Deception as win-cons. However they do both die to a lot of the same removal
March 16, 2015 7:56 a.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #14
Abzan Butts, and include Palace Siege as an alt win-con when Assault Formation isn't working. Just put those butts to work and let time drain on.
March 16, 2015 8:22 a.m.
mooffalosystema says... #15
You don't have to play with Ass-formation on the battlefield for it to be 100% effective.
Just the existence of Ass-form makes control stock up the enchantment hate/bounce, that itself is kinda winning when you have to force opponent to stock up on specific counters against Discard if we count this as metaphorical Sultai deck now for reasons.
Imaginably in Sultai Control Butts you could wall until the cows come home, Discard to remove the enchantment hate opponent is storing and Tempo burst thru with timing Ass-formation as makeshift sorcery, it's only 2 mana after all, plus however many walls you want to boop with. Which isn't THAT many when your average wall is 4-5 "power" and we are talking about Green here, it kinda ramps mana on accident. And Ass-form isn't the only nasty enchantment Sultai plays that needs a response.
Imaginably.
March 16, 2015 8:37 a.m.
Like mooffalosystema said Assault Formation in certain decks isn't needed to win the game.
The only real spells I see people carry around in the mainboard/sideboard to take care of Enchantment cards are Erase, Destructive Revelry, Reclamation Sage, and on rare occasion Sultai Charm. You're forcing your opponent to bring in things to take care of your enchantment in Game 2. Forcing them to use a Banishing Light or Chained to the Rocks is also a win in my opinion. Since I run Blue in my build I can even play Monastery Siege to make them pay 2 more to target any permanent I control. The only card getting around that is Reclamation Sage.
Without Assault Formation you're still filling the board with walls your opponent can't get through unless they use removal. Siege Rhino isn't getting through a Wall of Frost. The Deck on its own destroys any Aggro Build because none of their creatures are ever really higher than 3 power and they normally don't have the tools to take care of enchantments Game 1, maybe Game 2 depending on the deck.
Saying "Removal kills it" doesn't mean anything. Removal kills everything
March 16, 2015 9:10 a.m.
Souljacker says... #18
So what deck are you playing it in then, a control shell? So you waste valuable spots in your deck to put in walls and ass-formation, and then when you need an answer to a threat and you draw a big butt then what? Putting all this stuff into a proven deck means you need to pull out valuable stuff, have you thought about that?
March 16, 2015 9:31 a.m.
Playing an Assault Formation Deck as Control doesn't make sense. If I wanted to play control I'd simply play control. Having your win condition be Walls instead of lets say Dragonlord Ojutai is counter-efficient.
The best build for Assault Formation is in an Aggro Style Build. I still haven't completed the deck but what I have currently seems to be working. It defends well against Aggro and is fast enough to apply pressure to Control. I run a Bant version. But I've seen Simic, Naya, Gruul, Selesnya, Sultai, Abzan, and Temur versions of the Ass-Formation Deck. Which one has a better success rate is yet to be determined.
I'm putting my money on Bant. You have Triton Tactics to make your creatures stronger, Return to the Ranks to get creatures back, and Dragonlord Dromoka as a strong Win Condition that also benefits from Ass-Formation. You seem to strongly dislike the Assault Formation Deck. Why would it do bad? No one seems to complain about Doran, the Siege Tower in Commander/EDH. I understand they're different formats but the strategy is still the same and it works.
March 16, 2015 9:59 a.m.
Highest impact cards from DTK on standart:
March 16, 2015 10:18 a.m.
mooffalosystema says... #21
You gotta think new builds.
Blue (and arguably black) has card-draw to make up for the loss of drawing more butt. And with ass-form, more wall is more threat, not static butt.
It all wiggles threateningly with ass-form.
You can't discount the fact that Ass-forming Sultai is playing 7 power at T2-T3 for no loss and with a very nice blocker ability in the Wall of Frost and just call it "pure loss" just because there exists a removal for it.
T3 7 power is a play you'd expect out of Legacy Reanimator for considerable loss of life or some other negative, not as flat bonus in Standard G/X(/X). It's definitive power play in standard.
Just how much of an powerplay is still open but it's not something to dismiss out of hand.
Responding to threat more or less is already there, any decent wall immediately makes the opponent on the defensive, not you, because there might be a Ass-Form coming.
If that would be all that Magic boils down to, having the perfect, uncounterable supercards with complete synergy and no viable removal, we'd all be playing pillow fort decks that can reliably lock at T4 without a win-con and aggro would be a fringe hobby.
But you can't do that. Decks more or less rely on synergies and maybe-cons that could trigger, even more so in Standard.
Ass-form makes defensive control hyper-ramp with just one card and playing walls instead of the more aggressive ETB weenies.
Sure it's "probable threat", but so is Time Vault + Voltaic Key precisely until the moment it resolves.
Wall decks have always worked to an extent as control, they have just not had the finisher to seal the deal. Ass-form does both finishing and adding aggro.
But I'm just spitballing here, it's not Yawgmoth's Will.
March 16, 2015 10:41 a.m.
Something more indirect on the meta:
Enchantment hate will become necessary for most decks. The enchantments from DTK paired with the already strong ones from FRF push for much more enchantment hate.
March 16, 2015 10:47 a.m.
Souljacker says... #23
I don't hate the card, it's very fun and gives a lot of options, I just don't think it will have a high impact on competitive standard. My problem is that you don't want to be dependent on a single card to make your deck viable. Everyone can see that the deck can be strong when you have ass-formation on the field, but what if you don't have it? How does your deck perform then? If you make it an aggro deck, your deck is doing nothing to carry out your strategy if you don't have ass-formation. The strength of aggro decks is that it doesn't rely on any one card, just putting cheap threats on the board fast and win before the enemy takes over control. If you don't have ass-formation, you can't beat a control deck before it takes control. In Doran Commander, you always have access to the card so that makes it viable.
mooffalosystema, so you like to do make a control deck with it, and say your walls can stall the board until you get to your win conditions. Control decks rely on a few cards as their win conditions, so you don't have to draw the ass formation right away indeed. But the win cons of a control deck need to be hard to remove for the mirror matchup, like Pearl Lake Ancient, Prognostic Sphinx and AEtherling in previous standard. Assault Formation doesn't meet this criteria, so I don't think it's a good win condition, or at least you'd need an alternative. I think you're dismantling a good shell to incorporate a less reliable win condition.
To both of you; I don't think it can't be done, but I'm hearing great hope for the card, and I just think there needs to be done a lot more than I've seen so far than just putting Assault Formation in a deck with big butts. It takes a lot more for a deck to be competitive, and I like to persuade you from taking that next step to prove your faith in the card. That's why I'm casting critizism; not to take you down, but for you to be able to prove your idea.
March 16, 2015 11:08 a.m.
Do you guys think, that Temur will be a good deck? Sharkan is pretty good!
March 16, 2015 11:25 a.m.
branston567 says... #25
Temur ceratinly has potential, although i do see it as aggro mostly. 
ramp into Dragonlord Atarka is where i see a lot of people being in the new standard. Although im brewing up a new Jund whip deck myself
March 16, 2015 11:29 a.m.
ZooGambler says... #26
I tried Abzan, didn't like it. I tried bant, didn't like it. I tried temur, and it was perfect. Try it out. Kiora + Walls and Anger of the Gods is way too good.
On another note: Den Protector, Collected Company, and Dromoka's Command will be major players. Narset, Enlightened Master has been exceedingly underwhelming and will drop like a rock IMO.
March 16, 2015 11:55 a.m.
My Win Condition isn't just Assault Formation like you seem to believe it is. My main win-con is Dragonlord Dromoka since I'm in Bant colors. It's unconterable, makes it so my opponent can't play spells on my turn, has some synergy with Ass-Form, and doesn't die to burn. Yes it dies to removal, just like everything else in Standard, but that's why I have cards like Jeskai Barricade to have some defense against single target removal. It beats Pearl Lake Ancient due to flying, and it beats Dragonlord Ojutai, and Prognostic Sphinx. My Deck isn't traditional Aggro, I just call it Aggro because it's a large pool of cheap creatures that potentially win the race on their own if I do not acquire my other win condition. For other decks like Sultai Phenax, God of Deception can possibly be their win condition, or Dragonlord Silumgar, or Pearl Lake Ancient. It all depends on the deck. Relying on one singular card doesn't win you the game you need multiple win conditions in a deck. Every Magic player knows that.
March 16, 2015 12:23 p.m.
mooffalosystema says... #28
Sure, I'm doubting in Standard will ever see a competitive, reliable deck for butts too. But the option is there.
And that's for people with more passive nature to find out. I'll rely on BS aggro instead in my decks.
Still won't prevent me from calling it out as one of the most impactful cards in DTK, especially seeing as it basically derailed this thread.
And it's certainly not a win-con, it's a board state modifier. Something that topsy-turvies the gamestate to something that HAS to be responded to. Control loves one-of cards that force over-preparing.
It's a twin-like over counter card, you have to make sure you can respond to it or you will lose. Sure, it's far from twin levels of infinite bullshit but it's still a power play you lose to.
Forcing opponent to play enchantment hate in excess of that 4-of you are playing to prevent total loss and running good walls against any aggro/ weenie aggro is not a bad play, especially as you can sideboard in "proper" control for game 2 and force your opponent to run that Enchantment destroy nonsense regardless.
What I'm more expecting is for Modern to try it.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12360
6-4 with archetype and Ass-Form is arguably better card.
Smart player will drop the Ass-Form just as easily as Twin manages to slide past control match ups for just long enough to brutalize the board state and/or win.
Like I said from the start, you can't build around old shells. You have to toss old archetypes to the bin when building ass-fight if you do at all.
Walls are second rate and I doubt anyone has seriously looked at any of them for any synergy before this card was in modern/standard.
And no-one is preventing you from having the alt-win-cons in, it's not a exclusive card.
Aetherling, Sphinx and Pearl Lake fit into butt-fight near perfectly from where I'm standing anyway, they benefit from it, I'd dare say, with the slightly dragging bee-hind.
And what control does not love ye old Fog effects.
March 16, 2015 12:26 p.m.
I think Myth Realized is the strongest card in the set. I've played against a couple in testing with a friend of mine... got dam that thing is powerful.
March 16, 2015 12:37 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #32
Everyone's like, Assault Formation, and I'm like, Siege Dragon bro!
March 16, 2015 12:55 p.m.
I haven't used it myself, but my friend has been testing it in a few builds. It's also a house in modern with the Zur build.
March 16, 2015 1:01 p.m.
Siege Dragon kills like 2 of the cards in my deck. That's pretty much it. So it doesn't win against Ass-Form decks unless they're running all walls. Not every Defender is a Wall.
March 16, 2015 1:23 p.m.
TheGreatLiar says... #37
Anticipate. I think the reprint of Ultimate Price will shake things up briefly, but will just move things back to Abzan a bit.
For rares? I don't know. Maybe Myth Realized, but i don't think it'll see much play in standard. It seems stronger in eternal formats.
March 19, 2015 5:15 p.m.
For standard I'd think the following cards will have the biggest impact on the game overall. While not being the individually most powerfull cards I think they are the once that will push different archtypes foraward and be big roleplayers in how the Meta will shape out.
March 20, 2015 2:59 p.m.
I agree with everything Jojja has said except Atarka's Command. In addition I'd probably add Kolaghan's Command, Display of Dominance (s/b), Dragonlord Dromoka, Dragonlord Atarka and Explosive Vegetation. These next few may are all pretty iffy, but there is potential. Descent of the Dragons + Dragon Tempest (in a naya shell), Center Soul, Impact Tremors, and Foul Renewal (s/b). Whilst it may not make a huge impact, Dragon Fodder may also find its way into some red decks.
March 20, 2015 7 p.m.
Kolaghan's Command is pretty bad imo. For 3 cmc you can get better in these colors.
March 20, 2015 7:20 p.m.
Kolaghan's Command is imo the best command. Firstly it's an instant-speed discard spell, which is something WoTC barely ever print as in top deck mode you can draw-step screw up their entire turn. Secondly a shock is going to kill a rabble master or something. The shatter kills whip, so it's good vs whip decks, and the recursion gives you great lategame. I think basically every RB deck will run at least 3, probably 4.
March 21, 2015 1:35 a.m.
I think ass-formation has a lot of potential. While I currently play Sultai (which I will touch on shortly), one place I think it will fit is the Abzan sideboard against the mirror. With it, your Siege Rhino and Tasigur, the Golden Fang can kill theirs instead of just bouncing off.
I have seen the Bant and Abzan rush options, but I don't like it as much. While I think it has a lot of potential, it does run the risk of losing very quickly once ass-formation leaves the field. There aren't many solid standard decks out there with only one way to win, and in my opinion having options is very necessary.
On to Sultai, what I plan to play and what I think has the best variety. I think that combining ass-formation and Phenax, God of Deception makes for a solid deck. Either of them can win you the game, having both is just disgusting. This also allows for Silumgar, the Drifting Death to become an absolute powerhouse.
March 21, 2015 11:25 p.m.
don't forget you can use commune to help grab ass-form from the deck.
March 23, 2015 3:40 a.m.
T0xicPanda says... #44
I feel like Virulent Plague could be a good side board card for any deck running black with all these token decks running around.
March 23, 2015 6:05 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #45
From what I've seen Roast is underperforming. Not doubling as Planeswalker removal or hitting flyers is hurting it.
March 23, 2015 8:20 p.m.
Ojutai Exemplars? Maybe in R/W midrange with grand masters, seekers, outpost sieges, and lots of burn?
March 28, 2015 2:11 p.m.
@Rasta.
That might be true. But it might also have discouraged people to play a lot of ground creatures and having an impact that way.
March 29, 2015 9:30 a.m.
I think Thunderbreak Regent and Secure the Wastes are my most impactful 4 of's. Although Narset Transcendent in UW control or URW can be amazing, and probably the easiest planeswalker to ultimate with one of the best ultimates ever.
April 13, 2015 12:07 p.m.
Secure the Wastes for jeskai tokens.
Duress for any black deck to counter UB control.
Thunderbreak Regent for any dragons deck.
Zurgo Bellstriker for Red decks.
Anticipate is now in EVERY blue deck I have.
Dragonlord Atarka for many decks.
Dragonlord Ojutai for blue white and jeskai decks.
April 13, 2015 10:28 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #50
To the OP:
Thank you for mentioning Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. I love white weenies, and it could be the linchpin for a very simple and straightforward Standard constructed deck, not to mention a fun leader for Tiny Leaders.
Deathmist Raptor is a very interesting and dangerous card. That being said, Mardu Woe-Reaper eats its carcass for breakfast.
Sarkhan Unbroken is too specialized with its specific casting cost and moderately high CMC to easily break it. Indeed, the name of the card itself is fitting, and it seems unlikely that players will find enough ways to abuse the modest abilities to make it a powerhouse.
Narset Transcendent is highly likely to see a lot of play. It is well suited for U/W control.
The block got some nice cards to finish the warriors theme and balance the block. Dragon Hunter is a nice and totally appropriate weenie, Blood-Chin Rager definitely works for beatdown, and Blood-Chin Fanatic is an excellent finisher for warriors. Unfortunately, the mana base is not especially impressive for warriors at present. Possibly after Origins comes out, we might be able to get faster multi-colored aggro.
Servo_Token says... #2
The 60 Island deck is making a comeback, I can feel it.
March 16, 2015 1:35 a.m.