“Travel back in time to a war-torn Tarkir where five clans clash with the mighty dragons of the past. The choices made now will decide the fate of Tarkir.”

Will the fate of the plane be reforged into something else or will it still fall? While this is the setting of the plane we’re currently on, it’s also my outlook on competitive play. Fate Reforged seems destined to fall into the mold of the current metagame rather than create its own new fresh meta.

Hopefully I have not seen into the future accurately and there are some hidden gems in the set that we have not discovered that will push us in another direction, but although I’ve been searching for them, they are still hidden and not coming to life just yet.

I spent last week delving into the top 10 for Fate, so if you missed that, take a look at that article for the best cards I think the set has to offer. My list was highly controversial, so weigh in on what you think the top 10 should be in the comments.

For today, let’s get started breaking down some new deck lists!

One of the best cards in the new set is Warden of the First Tree. Not everyone agrees with me, but I think we all will come to realize the hidden potential of this guardian before long.

The most important aspect about this card is that it slots right into one of the best decks in the metagame and makes it much better. Not only does it let you start attacking a turn earlier, but it provides some needed late game power. It will die frequently, just like every other creature in your deck, but the versatility this card provides is outstanding.

The rest of the deck has not changed much, but with Warden you gain the ability to slot him into your curve at any point. It’s best to cast him on turn one but if you have some scry lands in hand, you can easily play one first turn, another two-cost second turn, and then play and level Warden on turn three.

Then, late game, there will be many opportunities to activate both level one and two in the same turn. Against Abzan Midrange for example, there are plenty of times in the late game when I have seven mana. Warden brings power and versatility to an already successful archetype and I’m excited to play with this version in Standard.

As a note to my list, the maindeck Reclamation Sages have been overperforming on a regular basis and I would not consider playing any fewer. In fact, I am considering moving the third one maindeck but I don’t know what to cut for it at the moment.

Don’t underestimate the Erebos, God of the Dead from the sideboard either. Not letting your opponent gain life in this format is game changing. Also, being able to use your life total as a resource to draw more cards wins you games as well.

As a whole, I’ve been loving this deck and the sideboard to go along with it. Is there something you would change about the list? What would you pair with Warden of the First Tree to make him the best he can be? Let me know in the comments.

Up next we have a deck from Return to Ravnica Block Standard that has hopefully made the transition back into the metagame thanks to a couple cards from Fate Reforged. Although this deck isn’t new, it’s a welcome addition to the format as another alternative for players to rock in competitive play.

This deck is a solid choice. Red Devotion is not only fast and consistent, but it snowballs a huge mana advantage with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. My favorite, and maybe the most important advantage, is the high number of creatures with evasion. There is not much in the way of flying blockers right now and this deck is poised to take advantage of that fact. Chained to the Rocks is included as a way to help get rid of large threats like Wingmate Roc and Siege Rhino.

Not only does the deck deal damage quickly with creatures, but it also has a lot of great finishing power with Fanatic of Mogis and Stoke the Flames. Being able to sink all of your Nykthos mana into Crater's Claws and the monsterous ability of Stormbreath Dragon allows you to close games quickly as well.

The major question I have about this deck is whether it can defeat the decks that can gain a large amount of life. I think the answer to that question will be game-dependent but it is one that needs answering if the deck is to be successful.

Red Devotion has always been my favorite of the devotion decks and it seems like now is its time to burn down the metagame.

Sultai Dredge has gone through more iterations than most decks during its initial time in Standard. At the beginning, the deck was entirely focused on using the graveyard to do a variety of things but mainly to make 2/2’s and delve it away for a variety of effects. Now, the deck has turned into a midrange green deck utilizing all of the good green cards in Standard as well as some of the same cards that made the original version successful.

The only card from the new set that I want to see included in this deck is Torrent Elemental. If you have read my articles over the past couple of weeks, you know how amazing I think this card is.

Torrent is perfectly suited to force through the board stalls that this deck is so great at creating as well as being a great evasive threat on its own. Not only is it a solid five mana investment as a threat but it is also a source of card advantage. Being able to recur your threat from exile makes it nearly unkillable which is a huge boon in long drawn out games.

While not much has changed about the deck, the overall power level of the deck has gone up with this new addition.

Finally, I want to talk about the deck I am most excited about, Jeskai Tokens. There may only be a couple new cards in this deck, but the power level has risen dramatically from its already high tier status.

Last week, I listed Monastery Mentor as the number one card in the set for many reasons. As I’ve been playing and watching the card in action, what I’ve noticed is that it is overperforming. Even with my highest expectations, Mentor has soared higher in my standings than I could have imagined. Think about this deck running eight copies of Seeker of the Way. The difference is that four of them cost three mana instead of two.

I’ve been asked a lot whether Mentor is better than Goblin Rabblemaster or not and my answer is confidently that Mentor is vastly better. Sometimes they have no difference because they can both easily be killed. The nice thing is that if your opponent wants to kill either, most likely they need to spend their entire turn to do so because the removal spells are rather costly in Standard right now. If your opponent is holding up mana though, you should try to cast something less important or use your turn to cast a non-creature spell so they have to spend extra time dealing with your threat on their turn.

The times when both creatures survive, it’s easy to see why Monastery Mentor is superior to Goblin Rabblemaster. Think of Mentor as if you got to put a copy of Jeskai Sage into play whenever you played a non-creature spell. Instead of drawing a card when your token dies though, it’s more like your opponent discards a card. The prowess ability on the tokens seems great but it is in fact broken.

In combination with Jeskai Ascendancy, the Monastery Mentor tokens become huge threats on their own and if you are able to create a couple of those tokens, it doesn’t matter if they kill your actual Mentor or not because you have a huge army at your disposal. Just play with or against Mentor once and you will see how potent he really is.

There are some other aspects of the deck that I have changed as well. First of all, I added in Monastery Swiftspear as the third creature in the deck. What I’ve noticed is that occasionally this deck tends to have issues deploying all of its threats. In order to avoid that, all we need to do is to lower the mana curve on some of our spells.

Not only are we able to do that with Swiftspear, but he is also a great threat as well. He is kind of like getting a one-mana Monastery Mentor token with some upsides, but that is exactly what this deck is looking for. There is great synergy with the rest of the deck as well as fitting into the mana curve extremely well.

The other big change for this deck is that I found room for Defiant Strike in my build. I will cite again the necessity of lowering our mana curve in order to have time to cast all of our spells because it was an important reason that I built the deck this way. In addition, by adding in Strike, I was able to cut a land which hopefully will add even more consistency to the deck.

Finally, there are many times when the board state is set up in such a way that you need to chain multiple spells together in order to pump your army with prowess triggers as well as Jeskai Ascendancy buffs. Defiant Strike is a cheap way to chain multiple spells in one turn and although it is typically reserved for other decks, I think it fits extremely well in this one.

I’ve seen this deck survive some treacherous situations and come back from the most abysmal of circumstances. There is a lot of hate for this deck from a variety of black cards, but I think we have the tools to beat any deck in the metagame. Make sure your sideboard is filled with some solid midrange threats like Wingmate Roc so you can sideboard appropriately.

Overall, I think Standard will shift around a little and players will utilize some of the new Fate Reforged cards to good success, but I don’t think we will see a drastic metagame shift as I was hoping. Is there a deck you’ve been working on that isn’t an established archetype? Please share what you are playing in this metagame and why in the comments.

Until Next Time,

Unleash the Fated Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com