How is Magic 2014 going to shake up your favorite formats? Let's take a look at some of the cool decks that have been successful this week and see what your favorite formats look like as the new core set becomes legal.

Every couple of sets, players try to make Fog-based decks work. There are two huge issues with this style of deck. The first is that you need a consistent source of card advantage to ensure that you continue to find Fogs to protect yourself while also contributing positively to your gameplan. The second issue is that you have to win two games in a timely fashion; which is why Fog decks are almost always in the draw bracket. Sphinx's Revelation is one of the best Fog enablers we've seen in quite awhile, while Aetherling is exactly the kind of card you need to end games quickly. Let's take a look at how Blinky010 combined these effects into a powerful Turbo Fog deck:

Bant Fog - Standard | Blinky010

• Lands (26)
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 2 Island
• 3 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Temple Garden

• Creatures (5)
• 3 Ætherling
• 2 Snapcaster Mage

• Spells (26)
• 1 Dissipate
• 4 Farseek
• 4 Fog
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 4 Riot Control
• 4 Sphinx's Revelation
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 2 Terminus
• 2 Urban Evolution

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
• 2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Dissipate
• 2 Negate
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 3 Renounce the Guilds
• 3 Rest in Peace
• 1 Terminus
• 2 Witchbane Orb

Buy This Deck

The most unique card in this list is Riot Control which, in conjunction with Snapcaster Mage, goes a very long way to helping you chain together Sphinx's Revelations so that you can continue hitting land drops and developing your board presence. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage is a powerful card in this shell because she forces your opponent to commit into your Supreme Verdicts, draws you into Fogs, and can single-handedly lock your opponent out of their combat step if you get to emblem up.

Many decks like this use a combination of Nephalia Drownyard and Elixir of Immortality as a win condition. Blinky010 has elected to use Aetherling over both of these, which is an interesting choice, especially given that he runs zero Cavern of Souls. Aetherling lets you end games much more quickly than many of your other options, but when you have so few cards that can actually win the game, you open yourself up to getting all of your victory conditions Dissipated.

Young Pyromancer is one of the most hyped cards out of Magic 2014. Most of that excitement is for eternal formats like Modern and Legacy, but Caleb Durward is looking to give Young Pyromancer some time in the Standard spotlight. Caleb took some time in his article this week to explore the dynamic duo of Young Pyromancer and Delver of Secrets. Let's take a look at what he came up with:

UR Delver - Standard | Caleb Durward

• Lands (22)
• 4 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Steam Vents
• 8 Island
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Cavern of Souls

• Creatures (13)
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 2 Young Pyromancer
• 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 2 Thundermaw Hellkite

• Spells (25)
• 4 Thought Scour
• 2 Searing Spear
• 1 Turn Burn
• 1 Thoughtflare
• 1 Devil’s Play
• 4 Unsummon
• 3 Think Twice
• 1 Dissipate
• 2 Essence Scatter
• 1 Izzet Charm
• 3 Pillar of Flame
• 2 Runechanter’s Pike

Buy This Deck

We've seen this plan before, and Young Pyromancer adds a little bit of depth to your plan. Against control decks, they give you another way to get ahead early and leverage that advantage into a win. Against aggressive decks, they give you bodies on the ground to either trade off or throw under the bus to turn the race in your favor.

To me, the most exciting card in this deck is Runechanter's Pike. It's been awhile since we've seen this card dominate the way it did in Scars of Mirrodin Standard, but Pike plays very well with Young Pyromancer to help you either stabilize the board or get aggressive.

Young Pyromancer is a flexible, powerful tool that will show up in all manner of decks. Will Delver be one of them? I'm excited to find out if this is enough of an incentive to break out the Unsummons.

Can Archangel of Thune live up to the legacy of Baneslayer Angel? That's the question that Brad Nelson is looking to answer as he explores this deck dreamed up by Jacob Van Lunun that tries to push Archangel of Thune as far as it can possibly go. Can it keep up with the rest of the Standard format? Let's find out:

BW Angels - Standard | Brad Nelson

• Lands (25)
• 4 Plains
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Isolated Chapel
• 3 Orzhov Guildgate
• 3 Seraph Sanctuary

• Creatures (26)
• 4 Archangel of Thune
• 4 Knight of Infamy
• 2 Lifebane Zombie
• 3 Nearheath Pilgrim
• 4 Restoration Angel
• 3 Sin Collector
• 2 Sublime Archangel
• 4 Vampire Nighthawk

• Spells (9)
• 3 Dead Weight
• 2 Oblivion Ring
• 2 Doom Blade
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

• Sideboard (13)
• 1 Lifebane Zombie
• 1 Rhox Faithmender
• 1 Sin Collector
• 1 Curse of Death's Hold
• 1 Dead Weight
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
• 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
• 1 Duress
• 1 Sever the Bloodline

Buy This Deck

Who would have thought that Seraph Sanctuary would find its way into a competitive Standard deck? When combined with Archangel of Thune, Seraph Sanctuary becomes a Gavony Township effect that allows you to continue developing your board while reaping all of the same benefits.

In order to really take advantage of that interaction, we need more Angels. Enter Restoration Angel. This will let you trigger Archangel of Thune at instant speed, while giving you ways to fight the giant creatures and removal of midrange decks with a combination of Sin Collector and Lifebane Zombie.

This may have tried to push the lifegain a little bit too hard for a format defined by midrangey cards like Thragtusk, but it does give you a larger edge against the Burning-Tree Emissary decks. My biggest concern is that this deck is a little too all-in on Archangel, and has little resilience to removal, particularly Bonfire of the Damned. The interactions are very powerful, but the deck needs a little more flexibility.

We've already talked about Young Pyromancer in Standard. But people are mostly excited about its potential in Legacy. What does a Legacy tempo deck look like with this new two-drop? Let's take a look at alphastryk's take on Grixis tempo:

Grixis Tempo - Legacy | alphastryk

• Lands (18)
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 3 Underground Sea
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Wasteland

• Creatures (13)
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Young Pyromancer
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 1 Grim Lavamancer

• Spells (29)
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Ponder
• 4 Gitaxian Probe
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 3 Cabal Therapy
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Forked Bolt
• 2 Perish
• 2 Sulfuric Vortex
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 2 Red Elemental Blast
• 1 Meltdown
• 1 Smash to Smithereens
• 1 Sulfur Elemental

Buy This Deck

Only time will tell if Young Pyromancer is really on the same level as Snapcaster Mage, Dark Confidant, and Stoneforge Mystic, but this deck does a good job of trying to push that. You get to max out on cheap and free instants and sorceries, with Cabal Therapy being especially awesome with Young Pyromancer.

I do have to wonder if twelve cantrips is too many, or if some lands can be cut. You don't have enough threats like Tarmogoyf that can do it on their own and you don't have Nimble Mongoose as a backup Delver of Secrets. Because of that, I think that a combination of Snapcaster Mage and Stifle may be necessary in this kind of deck over something like Dark Confidant. When you need more time, you need to commit more heavily to the resource denial plan. Dark Confidant is awesome for grinding people out, but less exciting when you're trying to tempo out your opponents. Snapcaster Mage may give you the extra disruption and Pyromancer activations you need to close you your games.

Shadowborn Apostle is one of the first cards that we saw from Magic 2014, and it's an intriguing one. I'm sure we'll see people trying to Apostle into Griselbrand is Standard, the question on everyone's mind is this: what can the card do in Commander? That's what P57 set out to discover with this

Shadowborn Karador - Commander | P57

Buy This Deck