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My Top OGW Picks for Standard

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Now that the Oath of the Gatewatch has been fully spoiled, I would like to take a bit of time and talk about some of the cards I'm excited about. For now I will be focusing on Standard decks, as my next two big events will be SCG Atlanta and SCG Columbus, both of which are standard.

I'm going to start us off with two cards that could go into what I think is the best deck in Standard right now, 4-Color Rally.

matterreshaperreflectormage

Matter Reshaper is perfect for the Rally deck.  You can get it off Collected Company, and when it dies its effect is very powerful. It does require a colorless mana to play it, which is a problem.. Luckily you have a few ways to play it without using land, as you can put it into play with Collected Company or use the scion from Catacomb Sifter to cast it. Even though these things are true, you will most likely have to retool the mana base to play Matter Reshaper. Pain lands or using Evolving Wilds to find a Wastes are probably the easiest ways to do this. While it will make the mana a bit less consistent, this card seem powerful enough to warrant the change.

Reflector Mage might not be card one would think of right away when thinking about the Rally deck, as they already have a "better" bounce creature in Sidisi's Faithful, but Reflector Mage is an upgrade when it comes to bouncing Anafenza, the Foremost.  The fact that you can play Reflector Mage and bounce one of the best cards against your strategy and disable them from just replaying it the next turn is huge.  This will not only take pressure off you, but will allow you to make a two turn set up to win a game you otherwise wouldn't be able to.

This is a rough sketch of an updated list:

Next up is easily my favorite card from this set.

recklessbushwhacker

Reckless Bushwacker is a card that I think will find a spot in the Atarka Red deck.  It combos well with so many cards that are already great red cards.  It combines with Dragon Fodder or Hordeling Outburst insanely well, and it also plays great with the dash mechanic. If you haven't made this connection you aren't the first, as I have been blowing peoples minds for the last week or so.  Cards like Lightning Berserker and Zurgo Bellstriker don't always stay on the battlefield as they can be dashed in and replayed on later turns.  This is perfect for anything with surge!  Now when you top deck your surge guy you will already have a spell to play.

The last few cards I want to discuss seem great, but they don't have a home just yet.

jorienruindiver stormchasermage expedite

Once again cards with dash will work great with Jori En, Ruin Diver.  Also, Jori is blue, which gives you access to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound.  If you get to flip Jace, then casting two spells a turn shouldn't prove too difficult. Jace also works very well with Expedite, as one of the hardest things to do most of the time is untapping with a Jace. Expedite lets him flip right away, and that line of play will also trigger Jori En, Ruin Diver.  I'm not so sure if Stormchaser Mage fits it's way into this deck, but it's stats are solid and this deck is looking to trigger prowess a lot. It might just be the case taht Stormchaser Mage fits best in a deck with Mantis Rider to apply maximum pressure, and I'm not sure that is something the Jori/Jace deck is interested in doing.

This is my current list for a Jori En deck:

This is my short list for now as I start testing for SCG Atlanta.  If there is anything you think I missed, which I'm sure I did, let me know in the comments.  I'm very interested to see you what you are coming up with as we explore the new format.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter @conanhawk

5 thoughts on “My Top OGW Picks for Standard

  1. I’m curious why in your UR aggro deck you don’t run Stormchaser Mage…seems like an obvious auto-include, what’s the reasoning behind skipping him?

    1. I didn’t include him at first as I wanted there to be more spells but have since cut the dragon fodders and 1 lightning berserker for 4 stormchaser mage and 1 more expedite.

  2. Can you please tell me, why do you play battlelands? Cut them and put one more Mountain and one more Island into the deck.

    And where is Stormchaser Mage?

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