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I want to talk a little bit about the upcoming Extended season. There are known quantities (Jund, Faeries, Doran, etc.) and there are unknown quantities. What I want to talk about is the latter. There are some cards that I think are worth watching because they have potential for the new format, and I will walk through the major ones today.
Watch list:
I'll admit, I underestimated this card. While I still think it's a bit too cute for Standard it is clearly not "unplayable." I didn't really think about this card in the context of Extended when I was doing my initial set review, but if Mimic Vat is going to shine, Extended is the place it will do so. There are a few interactions worth noting with Mimic Vat.
First, there is Evoke. Mimic Vat interacts very well with the evoke creatures, in particular Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter. The ability to cheaply imprint these cards on the Vat and then get rather insane value out of them is a strong way to utilize the card. The problem with Mimic Vat is that it doesn't do much by itself, relying on the cards around it to synergize with it and power it up. This isn't working out too well in Standard, but Evoke goes a long way toward making Mimic Vat look good.
Of course, the Evoke creatures probably come along with Reveillark as well, so an Esper-lark build is probably in order. Add that you get Venser, Wall of Omens, Kitchen Finks, Fulminator Mage, Murderous Redcap, and many others and you can see that Mimic Vat has many creatures that are not only good by themselves but easy to put on it. Fulminator Mage in particular seems devastating on the Vat. Maybe it will find a place next to Smokebraider in some 5-color elemental build. Regardless, this is definitely an interaction to keep your eye on.
Mimic Vat also interacts profitably with Persist, at least in a defensive capacity. If you have a Mimic Vat in play you get to decide if your opponent's creatures persist. Due to the way APNAP works, the Imprint trigger will be on top of your opponent's persist trigger, so you can decide if you want to stop the creature from persisting by imprinting it.
This has one huge effect – Kitchen Finks. Aggro decks have long had problems with the card and Mimic Vat goes a long way toward blunting that effect. Combined with the next element of the card, it may just be viable as a sideboard or even maindeck card in slower, more Sligh-ish builds of red deck or Boros.
The third interaction I want to talk about with Mimic Vat are just three cards – Hell's Thunder, Ball Lightning, and Hellspark Elemental. Imprinting any of these cards on Vat is pretty decent value for an aggro deck, especially combined with the ability to steal larger creatures that you successfully burn out. Perhaps a mid-range, Big Red-ish build will appear utilizing Mimic Vat as sort of a modern Arc-Slogger. It's also possible to use Mimic Vat as a modern Cursed Scroll. Regardless, I think this is worth thinking about.
This card could very well explode in Extended, it has that much potential. Obvious there is a whole plethora of artifacts to search for as a toolbox, but Tezzeret's +1 ability looks to have a good amount of utility in Extended. You can untap Borderposts, Everflowing Chalice, Voltaic Key, Lux Cannon, Ratchet Bomb, Mimic Vat, Prototype Portal, Throne of Geth, Scepter of Dominance/Fugue/Insight, and Contagion Clasp among others. Suffice to say, Tezzeret can do plenty of things with his +1 ability.
I don't think I have to extol the virtues of Tezzeret's other two abilities, as they are clearly good. I also think that Tezzeret has a friend that is getting a lot of love in Standard right now – Trinket Mage. By adding Pithing Needle and Relic of Progenitus as targets, Trinket Mage has plenty to fetch in Extended indeed. I don't have a deck, but Tezzeret clearly is a card that you should keep your eye on and, if you are so inclined, be brewing with.
So I was right about this card in Standard (which is what I care about). My prediction of it being reduced to a Trinket Mage target in Extended is a lot more dangerous, and I think with the release of Mirrodin Besieged this card might very well take off. It is very close right now, as is. Let me quote my set review on Mox Opal – "Moxes are most useful on turns 1 and 2."
Guess what? In Extended, unlike in Standard, you have a reasonable chance of using this card on Turn 1 or Turn 2. The one critical difference between T2 and Extended? Borderposts. As far as Mox Opal is concerned, a borderpost is an artifact land that comes into play tapped. This is VERY good for Mox Opal's prospects of being active on turn 1 and turn 2, when you want it the most.
There is a problem, however. The colors that can best take advantage of having a high artifact count are Esper colors, because of the prevalence of Shards block artifacts. These colors do not lend themselves to the aggressive starts that Mox Opal wants to support, so there is a conflict of interest. It is more difficult for red or green to take advantage of this. White can, but it too has to do some work. Still, there might very well be something there. I played around with the idea of a metal aggro deck this week and came up with this as a starter.
"MetalFish"
It'll by no means break the format, but it's interesting, and not bad. It does have game in quite a few match-ups.
I mention this because of another card that everyone has on their minds – Ranger of Eos. Antoine is clearly good, and Antoine will be going in many many decks. I suspect the Basilisk Collar-Cunning Sparkmage combo will be good in Extended as well. Spikeshot Elder is a "Cunning Sparkmage" that you can fetch with Ranger of Eos. No doubt this application will be important.
Everyone knows how good the original is, but I think the new one has potential as well. She has excellent synergy with Windbrisk Heights, which makes her a valuable component for more mid-rangey white decks. BW Tokens looks like a strategy that could very well utilize her effectively, because their creatures tend to stick around after her ultimate fires. Control decks could also find her useful, as she synergizes very well with Martial Coup, Gideon Jura, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Playing two copies of her and Martial Coup makes it reasonable for a control deck to run Windbrisk Heights, a build that would be very interesting to see.
I think the next step is to take a look at the format as a whole. We have some information from the Pro Tour, but the fact that we've had a rotation shakes things up a bit. I think it's more useful to look at the past Standard formats and deal with what we see from those formats.
In looking at the past formats we see that they were dominated by four cards – Bitterblossom, Cryptic Command, Bloodbraid Elf, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I think it would be wise to view these cards as the pillars of the upcoming Extended format. To know how these cards were used, it's important to look at past applications.
Bitterblossom – Faeries, BW Tokens
Cryptic Command – 5cc, Faeries
Bloodbraid Elf – Jund, Vengevine Naya
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – all sorts of strategies ranging from aggressive (Mythic) to controlling (UW or UB) to ramp (RUG)
From what shows up here the core of this format looks to be very controlling. Jundand Faeries are fairly controlling decks and Jace and Cryptic Command serve well in a controlling capacity. Jace has applications toward more aggressive strategies, but they are at least not as prevalent. All in all, I see a format with very powerful control components, as such I feel like those decks will quickly rise to the top.
There are two strategies that I think are just odd men out in this format – Doran and White Weenie. Both will suffer from a lack of prey and from their predators getting stronger. I think a good build of Jund is simply superior to Doran in many match-ups, although the deck is clearly powerful and will probably hold its own in the early weeks of the format.
White weenie, on the other hand, I expect to die very quickly. More people will be playing sweepers (Volcanic Fallout in particular), and I think the white deck will suffer because of it. I also think that Boros is basically a superior version of White Weenie, so I see no reason not to be running Mountain and Goblin Guide.
Scapeshift is a deck that is in an interesting position. It is basically the modern Valakut deck that picks up Scapeshift and Rampant Growth. That's not a lot, but it's still pretty strong in today's Standard, so it could easily compete. I don't see it happening however, as I think blue decks will be very strong and Cryptic Command will end up being Valakut's downfall. I feel like the extra permission that Cryptic enables will make Valakut's life difficult, even with Summoning Trap.
I think Reveillark is very well positioned in the new format. As an incremental card advantage deck it is well suited toward taking advantage of the tools present in the format. It is also capable of playing some of the most powerful cards – Jace, Cryptic Command, and Bitterblossom are all available to it. It also adds powerful synergistic engines like Venser, the Sojourner and Mimic Vat. I wouldn't be surprised to see this deck take off.
As far as more "off the beaten path" strategies, we have Elves, Elementals, and Pyromancer's Ascension. Elementals will likely be a different application of the Reveillark deck, so I won't really talk about it. Elves and Ascension, on the other hand, are worth mentioning. I think Ascension will basically be killed by Oblivion Ring, since having to deal with a format that has Oblivion Ring, Celestial Purge, Mana Leak, and Cryptic Command that "answer" the namesake permanent will probably be too much to handle.
I think Elves will suffer much the same fate as White Weenie, mainly because it shares many of the same problems. The fact that it is a combo deck make it a little better since it does not give its opponent as much time to find answers, but this deck just doesn't feel good enough. However, I wouldn't Sleep on this deck. The ability to put an Ezuri consistently on the field (with Primal Command to fetch it), and have a boatload of mana could well make creature removal largely ineffective against it. If this proves to be the case, Elves will be very powerful indeed.
That's all I really had for an overview of Extended, a fire-starter of sorts. This review is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you somewhere to start brewing if you don't just want to update your old Standard deck and take it out for a spin.
Chingsung Chang
Conelead most everywhere and on MTGO
Khan32k5@gmail.com
