Summertime is my favorite time to be a gamer. All the High School kids are out of school, cluttering the card shops and cockier than ever; everyone is in a cheery mood, thanks to great weather; and Standard as R&D's Future Future League envisioned it is complete. After seeing the Judgement spoiler, I believe this will be one of the best magic summers ever! The amount of raw power available in the Judgement spoiler is almost unbelievable. Over the next couple of months, I plan to explore as many of the bombs in the new set as I can. I'll try and give some insight into the new cards' effect on Standard and their effect on the way the game is played (it's not often you can say that, but some cards in this set will change the way the game is played). I plan to hold no punches giving you straight-up decklists as they develop in my personal Apprentice labs.

I'm going to start off with the first thing I built after seeing the spoiler. Here is the decklist:

Coors Light, a.k.a. "The Silver Bullet"
(Being Canadian, I'm not the biggest fan of American beer - especially light American beer, better known as water up here in the frosty North - but you can't beat this name)

4 Merfolk Looter
3 Aquamoeba
4 Flametongue Kavu
2 Fledgling Dragon
4 Counterspell
4 Circular Logic
4 Fiery Temper
3 Violent Eruption
3 Fact or Fiction
2 Wild Research
3 Cunning Wish
11 Island
7 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
2 Barbarian Ring

Sideboard:
(Non-cheating sideboard)
2 Wild Research
2 Delusions of Mediocrity

((Optional cards 35 through 37 in the main deck))
2 Gainsay
2 Jilt
1 Urza's Rage
1 Rushing River
1 Divert
1 Flaming Gambit
1 Hibernation
1 Violent Eruption
1 Fact or Fiction

First off, I'll list the three Judgement cards used in this deck....

Cunning Wish
2U
Instant
Choose an instant you own from outside the game, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Remove Cunning Wish from the game.

Cunning Wish is just raw power, plain and simple. All the blue instants available as sideboard options make Cunning Wish almost unfair. Ever been in the late game and needed that sideboard Divert against a red mage to ensure you don't lose to a kicked-up Rage? How about a couple pesky elephant tokens standing between you and the FNM prize; wouldn't a Hibernation be nice? Well you're ship has come in! The wish mechanic will change the way people build and perceive sideboards for the next two years. When building a sideboard around the wishes, it's important that you have a card or two that will always be useful no matter the match-up to prevent the second or third Wish from being a dead card after you've grabbed your silver bullet. In this case, I'm looking at Urza's Rage and Fact or Fiction (this is only in the sideboard because there isn't much room in the main deck; I don't believe you should intentionally leave this in your sideboard just so you can Tutor for it) as those cards.

Side Note: I wonder if the wish cards will lead to an increased number of game loses for presenting an illegal deck in the second game. I'm probably going to put the wish card itself in the sideboard when I remove it from the game to make sure I don't end up shooting myself in the foot.

Fledgling Dragon
2RR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
Threshold: Fledgling Dragon gets +3/+3 and has "R: Fledgling Dragon gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
2/2

This guy is a beating. Not much more can be said about him. With looters, Wild Research, and Fact or Fiction, he should be 5/5 and online in no time.

I've been playing around with this deck online (Apprentice, low tech) and it honestly feels like cheating. This build has the power to harness two unfair mechanics to their complete potential (madness and wishing).

Just like any other aggro-control deck, it is important to learn your matchups for you to have success with it. This deck is very good as long as your are practiced and aware of what you are playing against.

This deck is still in its original first draft, and still has a lot of testing and tuning before it is a Tier 1 candidate. As it develops, I expect to see some Grim Lavamancers and possibly more Wild Researches make the final cut. It will be interesting to see how long Fledgling Dragon stays in the maindeck. It's not the greatest card for the main deck... But I never get tired of smashing R/G mages with it. Feel free to drop me a line at peter_danforth@hotmail.com with any flames, suggestions, or questions.

Next week: Looking into Seedtime, exploring its possible effects on the metagame, and some new U/G control decks that are sure to pop up (Holistic Wisdom/Seedtime, anyone?!)

Until next time, start compiling your wish list!

Cheers,
Peter Danforth

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