1. Rate

I'll be the first to admit I wasn't so ga ga over Jean-Emmanuel Depraz's addition to the canon of World Champion-inspired Magic: The Gathering cards. I mean... It looked fine? I suppose any card that touches your deck looking for other cards probably has a higher ceiling than we guess at initially.

Formidable Speaker is from a couple of dimensions more powerful than cross-format All-Star Trinket Mage, for instance. 2/4 over 2/2, with another ability once it hits the battlefield and a much wider palette of cards it can go looking for. With a card like Trinket Mage - which, again, has been used to good effect by ingenious deck designers to do everything from finding a Phyrexian Dreadnought like they were aping Premodern sharks to looping Elixir of Immortality over and over again with a Splinter Twin on it - you have to pay some amount of deck-building cost. With Formidable Speaker you just kind of need to put other creatures in your deck.

Splinter Twin | NPH Standard | Michael Flores, 1st Place 2011 TCGPlayer.com WWS Big Apple

• Creatures (11)
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 2 Inferno Titan
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 4 Sea Gate Oracle

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 2 Jace Beleran
• 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Instants (9)
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Into the Roil

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Preordain

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Splinter Twin

• Land (26)
• 10 Island
• 8 Mountain
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Tectonic Edge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 Jace's Ingenuity
• 2 Manic Vandal
• 2 Pyroclasm
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Spellskite
• 1 Trinket Mage

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I don't know. I guess I bristled at the perceived deck-building cost of having to discard a card! But if you didn't have to discard a card... If this were just a Demonic Tutor for creatures that was also attached to a 2/4 Elf body (relevant types!) and didn't have to discard a card it would be ridiculous!

Turns out, it's ridiculous anyway.

2. Tutor... For a Tutor

Four-Color Rhythm | ECL Standard | Tristan Wylde-LaRue, 1st Regional Championship SCG CON Portland

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Brightglass Gearhulk
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Explosive Prodigy
• 1 Marang River Regent
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Formidable Speaker
• 4 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Mockingbird
• 4 Quantum Riddler
• 4 Spider Manifestation

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Nature's Rhythm

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Meltstrider's Resolve
• 1 Seam Rip

• Lands (22)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Willowrush Verge
• 3 Temple Garden
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Starting Town

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Clarion Conqueror
• 1 Glen Elendra Guardian
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 2 Meltstrider's Resolve
• 1 Ouroboroid
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Seam Rip
• 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 2 Spider-Sense
• 1 Voice of Victory
• 1 Wistfulness

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One obvious use case for Formidable Speaker is to make a deck more consistent. It's the fifth Badgermole Cub (or the fifth-through-eighth copies of Badgermole Cub); or the second-through-fifth copies of Craterhoof Behemoth that you don't mind drawing before you already have a critical mass of mana. As we'll see, it might in fact help you toward obtaining that critical mass of mana.

Tristan Wylde-LaRue just won the Regional Championship with a take on the "Simic Ouroboroid" deck... That didn't even play Ouroboroid in the main deck at all! Instead, Wylde-LaRue played Brightglass Gearhulk at four mana that gave this four-color Cub monstrosity a number of options in Game 1.

In addition to finding more copies of one mana creatures like Llanowar Elves, Gene Pollinator, or even Mockingbird, Brightglass Gearhulk could help find removal in Game 1, including cards to interact with the opponent's Badgermole Cubs.

While most players - most primarily two-color players anyway - still try to gain an offensive advantage with the more reasonably costed Ouroboroid, anyone playing with Nature's Rhythm can go for Craterhoof Behemoth (probably after they've already stacked the battlefield with multiple copies of Badgermole Cub) to win the game on the spot.

Hopefully you can see that here, Formidable Speaker can get your Brightglass Gearhulk on turn two in a deck that would run out of good one mana cards if it played too many actual copies of Brightglass Gearhulk. In a similar way it can pretend to be Nature's Rhythm later in the game and get your one Craterhoof Behemoth (or other big threat, depending on your mana situation). A problem that this kind of deck often has is having all the mana in the world but nothing to do with it. Craterhoof Behemoth has been a go-to because it ends the game on the spot. But Formidable Speaker as your second-to-last card getting Quantum Riddler is very powerful also. Less Tutor for a Tutor and more Tutor for a Tidings (if that Tidings were also a 4/6 flying creature).

What's pretty cool about Quantum Riddler is that Formidable Speaker at and a Warped Quantum Riddler at is basically just the cost of a Quantum Riddler. You really don't mind having to discard a card up front because the Riddler will get the card right back for you, and because you Warped it you'll probably draw like four extra cards given your initial investment.

3. Before and After

You might imagine initially that Formidable Speaker is all about decks that are full of creatures (and all the other decks we'll look at in this article are full of creatures)... But it turns out it is pretty great in a deck that has relatively few other creatures.

It just helps you get the right one.

The pre-Lorwyn Eclipsed version of this archetype had maybe eight total creatures main deck. Formidable Speaker itself represents a quarter of the total creatures in the deck, and you don't even really have to play Terror of the Peaks:

Simic Omniscience | ECL Standard | Jeff Jao, 24th Regional Championship SCG CON Portland

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Terror of the Peaks
• 3 Formidable Speaker
• 4 Kona, Rescue Beastie
• 4 Marang River Regent

• Instants (12)
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Dispelling Exhale
• 4 Stock Up

• Enchantments (12)
• 4 Lost in the Maze
• 4 Omniscience
• 4 Roiling Dragonstorm

• Lands (24)
• 4 Island
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Evendo, Waking Haven
• 4 Uthros, Titanic Godcore
• 4 Willowrush Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Essence Scatter
• 3 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 4 Spell Pierce
• 4 Spell Snare

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Before:

The most obvious use case here is just to play Formidable Speaker on turn three, go and search up Kona; play Kona on turn four, and presumably win the game from there.

AND THAT'S GREAT.

YOU CAN DEFINITELY DO THAT.

I think that most of the Stock Ups that have ever been cast in this archetype have helped to set up such a turn three-into-turn four sequence.

You can also use Formidable Speaker to get Marang River Regent at the same curve point, and use that to just start drawing cards. Three mana, four mana, fair and square.

But that's not the only cool thing the card can do.

After:

Imagine everything is going great for you and you set up Kona into Omniscience. You did this whenever. You did this on turn four. You haven't won yet.

This strategy has always had a lot of Stock Ups and Consult the Star Charts because getting a 10 mana enchantment in play is actually only the halfway point! Believe it or not! You still have to accumulate a tonnage of cards. Players Stock Up for Stock Up all over the place, and curse the fact that they can't usually kick Consult the Star Charts after Omniscience is down.

How does Formidable Speaker help us here?

Imagine you've just gotten Omniscience in play. You run out a free Jean-Emmanuel Depraz. You've already played Kona. Unless everything is already wrapped up you probably get Marang River Regent.

Imagine you're in a super lucky universe where you've already deployed Roiling Dragonstorm. Well Jean-Emmanuel just won you the game. You can then play your Regent to pick up both the Draonstorm and your JED. You can re-play JED to get another Marang River Regent and draw your deck thanks to the Dragonstorm.

Now if you don't have the Dragonstorm already Formidable Speaker is still pretty good here. Depending on how many cards you have in hand you can probably re-play JED a few times, and turn some number of Marang River Regents back into Coil and Catches to keep going. Maybe you'll just find Roiling Dragonstorm and win from there. But even if you don't you can probably just cover the battlefield in power and toughness in a way that makes it very likely you win the "fair" way over the course of the next turn or two.

But really, look for the JED-driven Roiling Dragonstorm insta-win! That's a major upgrade for Omniscience fans.

4. Kinda Sorta a Mana Elf

Bant Airbending | ECL Standard | Pierre Smith, 6th Regional Championship SCG CON Portland

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Formidable Speaker
• 1 Gene Pollinator
• 4 Aang, at the Crossroads // Aang, Destined Savior
• 4 Aang, Swift Savior // Aang and La, Ocean's Fury
• 4 Appa, Steadfast Guardian
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Bramble Familiar
• 4 Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius
• 4 Llanowar Elves

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Airbender Ascension

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Interdimensional Web Watch

• Lands (22)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Starting Town
• 4 Temple Garden

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Avatar's Wrath
• 2 Aven Interrupter
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Kutzil's Flanker
• 2 Quantum Riddler
• 2 Requisition Raid
• 4 Seam Rip
• 1 Spider-Sense

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I'm surprised that the Bant Airbending crowd doesn't play more Formidable Speakers. Their deck is the most specific on the A + B + C of all the Standard decks. It's just super important for them to find specifically Appa, Steadfast Guardian and Formidable Speaker can help on multiple fronts.

First of all, it just costs less than four and can help find a four-mana finisher that is also a great Restoration Angel... teaming up with today's card, which has an "enters" ability. But as with Wylde-LaRue's innovative Champion (or just the regular Simic decks), Formidable Speaker is also backing up Badgermole Cub. While having a mana cost attached to its "untap" ability might seem restrictive, remember that with Badgermole Cub in play, any Earthbent land, Gene Pollinator, or Llanowar Elves can be mana-positive when combined with Formidable Speaker.

For that matter, so is:

Like I said, "I'm surprised that the Bant Airbending crowd doesn't play more Formidable Speakers."

5. Features, not Bugs

What really put me over the top on this card wasn't that five of the Top 8 decks at last weekend's Regional Championships played Formidable Speaker (and it probably should have been six). It's how the eighth-place deck did so:

Sultai Reanimator| ECL Standard | Nico Ferrigno, 8th Regional Championship SCG CON Portland

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 1 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 1 Town Greeter
• 3 Ardyn, the Usurper
• 4 Bringer of the Last Gift
• 4 Deceit
• 4 Formidable Speaker
• 4 Oblivious Bookworm
• 4 Superior Spider-Man
• 4 Wistfulness

• Instants (4)
• 4 Bitter Triumph

• Lands (26)
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Gloomlake Verge
• 1 Wastewood Verge
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Undercity Sewers
• 2 Underground Mortuary
• 2 Willowrush Verge
• 3 Breeding Pool
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Disruptive Stormbrood
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 4 Intimidation Tactics
• 1 Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1 Oko, Lorwyn Liege
• 1 Overlord of the Balemurk
• 2 Requiting Hex
• 2 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 2 Spell Snare

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Bugs? You mean Oblivious Bookworm?

No.

I mean the straight A to B of Formidable Speaker into Superior Spider-Man. I was about to start a sentence with "The only thing holding this deck back..." and then realized that nothing has ever been holding the Sultai Reanimator deck back except the frequency it runs into main deck graveyard interaction. The deck always seems to have its Cavern of Souls! But Formidable Speaker further increases the likelihood of getting Superior Spider-Man in hand on turn four.

... But WHAT a Superior Spider-Man that turn four will be!

What if you just accidentally drew a relatively uncastable Ardyn, the Usurper or Bringer of the Last Gift? Jean-Emmanuel Depraz's discard goes from "additional cost" to full-on feature! You just discard that big card and super charge next turn's cosplaying Otto Octavius.

Congratulations World Champion: You made probably the biggest menace in Standard twice as consistent, and a little more powerful at the same time!

So: That's Formidable Speaker a week before the Pro Tour. Wow this card. I feel so naive that I wasn't ga ga over it to begin with. Can your deck tap for ? Even if you play barely any creatures at all... I think I know a way to make your strategy a little more Formidable.

LOVE

MIKE