By Apex

Jace the Mind Sculptor and Primeval Titan are considered to be the two most powerful cards in Standard. Both have seen tons of play in standard over the past year. From Valakut Ramp to nearly every control build, both cards have respectively played their part and then some. Some people consider them both to be “overpowered” or “broken”, simply because these guys win games all on their own. While there are still the many that love them (such as most professional players) many can’t even stand to hear their names mentioned.

How greatly could the loss of these two powerful cards seriously affect the state of standard? Barring either card being reprinted, we will find out this fall when both Magic 2011 and Zendikar block rotate out of Standard as “Shake” is introduced.

I can't wait, I have to do some theorizing.

In a world without Jace, most control builds lose a vital piece to their win strategy. If Jace doesn’t win by himself, he still is a powerful threat which most players will deal with as quickly as possible. Any deck not running 3 or 4 of him is widely believed to be built wrong. He may be just that damn good, but fortunately for the plethora of options that U/X control has, control would still be a good build without him. Specifically U/B, which has countless ways to remove threats and also beaters like Frost Titan and Grave Titan. Although it may still be good the loss of Jace may have given other cards the opportunity to step up to the plate and be the MVP of standard. Primeval Titan may have turned out to be the big star and Valakut Possibly could have had a better run at the finals.

Had Control been forced out of the picture a bit more, other archetypes may have been able to develop better. Allies or Vampires, both heavily promoted themes in Zendikar block could possibly have made headlines.

Now, let’s take a look and see how things could have turned out without Primeval. No Primeval makes Valakut a much weaker strategy. The deck thrives off of Primeval hitting the field and wrecking house, and if there was no Primeval and still a Jace, control would have a massive lockdown on the Meta game. If both Jace and Primeval go missing, then there’s potential for the meta game to go one of two ways. The first path leads us down a road where more ideas flourish and different archetypes have a chance. Elves, Eldrazi, Vampires, and Even Quest for the Holy Relic decks could potentially have seen better play. The second path is with control totally dominating. Control could still be good without Jace, but other builds aren’t left with as many good options.

That’s how I view things, I’d love to hear everyone else’s opinion on the state of standard and where things may be heading this fall. Until next time!