While we are still months away from the release of the next major in-universe Standard set, Lorwyn Eclipsed, we were met with a handful of spoilers from the set at Magic Con Atlanta.

Standard is an interesting place right now with the release schedule of both this year and next. With Universe Beyond sets becoming a mainstay in Magic: The Gathering, half the year is filled with Standard sets that were not explicitly designed for the format.

While I'm not sure if UB sets are exactly tested for Standard, I'm inclined to believe that the in-universe sets are more designed for Constructed, just due to the nature of the power level of the cards. While some slip through the cracks, like Vivi Ornitier and The One Ring, I do think that more often than not Universe Beyond sets don't have as much impact as the in-universe one.

That being the case, Lorwyn Eclipsed will be one of the three major set releases of next year, and probably the next most influential Standard set. There are a few key spoilers I want to look at today before we wait a couple of months for the official spoiler. With the next Standard ban announcement lurking around the corner, I have some thoughts on Standard as a whole when the next major set release rolls in.

The first major spoilers that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone are the return of the allied-colored shocklands, as we got the enemy-colored set in Edge of Eternities. There are a few key reasons why these lands in particular are so important.

First, Hallowed Fountain becomes the premier land for Azorius Control and Four-Color Control players. While Control has kind of been a mainstay in Standard for the last year or two, the lack of Hallowed Fountain has been pretty debilitating on the mana base, especially with Floodfarm Verge being your best untapped dual land.

Second, Steam Vents slots right into the Izzet shells that stay around post-Vivi ban. While I think we'll see Vivi Ornitier and Agatha's Soul Cauldron banned, if Proft's Eidetic Memory isn't banned then I think we'll still see a powerful Izzet deck with Quantum Riddler, Fear of Missing Out, Marauding Mako, Proft's, and Winternight Stories. The cards in this archetype are just so powerful and synergistic that I don't think we'll see the archetype going away any time soon. In fact, with Steam Vents' printing I think Izzet will still be a top deck.

Lastly, I think Overgrown Tomb has a lot of potential to revitalize Golgari decks, especially after the Vivi ban. I think the Llanowar Elves into Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber synergy is just too strong to not be a deck in Standard post-ban, so I'm hopeful Overgrown Tomb will be able to support this. There's one more card that has been spoiled that also gives me hope for a Golgari Demons return, but we'll get to that later...

I don't think Temple Garden and Blood Crypt will have as much impact on the format, but I could see Temple Garden giving a lot of support to Brightglass Gearhulk decks. Blood Crypt slots in nicely in various reanimator style decks.

Speaking of Brightglass Gearhulk, Figure of Fable is a nice threat to tutor up or to open a game on. This Figure of Destiny-esque 1-drop looks like an okay card, but I feel like it pales in comparison in terms of power level with the rest of the format.

Boros Kithkin | Standard | Cedric Phillips, Pro Tour Kyoto/Top 8

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Cloudgoat Ranger
• 4 Figure of Destiny
• 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
• 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
• 4 Wizened Cenn

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ajani Vengeant

• Instants (4)
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Spectral Procession

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Glorious Anthem

• Lands (25)
• 9 Plains
• 2 Mutavault
• 2 Rustic Clachan
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Rugged Prairie
• 4 Windbrisk Heights

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Banefire
• 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
• 3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 2 Ranger of Eos
• 4 Reveillark

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This card got me thinking about Cedric Phillips' top 8 deck from Pro Tour Kyoto, but I don't know if Standard currently has enough juice to Selesnya or Boros Aggro decks. I think Mono-Red decks are just faster, and it doesn't help that Blue has access to Into the Flood Maw, which totally invalidates this creature.

Bitterbloom Bearer, or "bitter bro" as I call them, is another interesting take on a classic Lorwyn card, Bitterblossom. I think this being a creature makes it much more fragile, however, even with flash stapled onto it. Flash maybe gives it some evasion to removal or wrath effects, but I think if this slots in anywhere it's into Dimir Midrange alongside Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and Preacher of the Schism. The life loss isn't totally irrelevant, so I like pairing this card with Preacher of the Schism due to the lifelinking vampires, or just building a streamlined Dimir Faeries deck to aggro-out faster. While there are a lot of faeries cards from Wilds of Eldraine in the current format, I'm unsure if this card makes the deck, due to how little play faeries cards have seen in Standard, outside of Faebloom Trick and Spell Stutter.

Mutable Explorer is another reprint-adjacent card that puts one of the best lands in Pioneer in Standard - Mutavault. While I think regular Mutavault would've been too good to be in Standard alongside Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber, I'm glad that you at least have to work for it with this card. This again gives me hope for Golgari Demons/Midrange, as you can sequence a turn one Llanowar Elves, turn two Mutable Explorer, into a turn three Ritual Chamber.

Ashling, Rekindled // Ashling, Rimebound is another interesting spoiler that I think makes its way into the Izzet shell. I like that with Ashling you can continually transform them, giving you a way to loot (and trigger your Proft's Eidetic Memory) over and over. Ashling, Rimebound also gives you some mana to even cast a Quantum Riddler that's just hanging out in the warp zone, so I think this is a reasonable new inclusion in Izzet.

We got a look at a presumably cycle of mythic Evoke creatures in Deceit and Emptiness. These cards interest me due to their modality - you can either cast these for full value, or just on turn two for a removal spell of some kind. I think these cards will be more playable if we get some way to cheat them into play. While I don't think we'll see actual Ephemerate in Standard due to how busted it would be with Quantum Riddler, I am wondering if we'll see something similar. Splash Portal being sorcery-speed is just too slow, and obviously doesn't work with Evoke creatures. However, something at instant-speed for 1 mana would be perfect - I guess we do have access to Hide on the Ceiling, which may in fact be good enough.

Overall, Lorwyn Eclipsed has shown some pretty interesting, and powerful-looking cards. While I'm not sure which out of this bunch actually make it into Constructed play, I do think this will be a set worth investing in, as it'll be one of the premier Standard sets of the next year. Personally, I'm just excited for Hallowed Fountain to be back in Standard for a few years. As Standard grows and becomes increasingly complicated to track, I know I can always rely on trusty Azorius Control.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Roman Fusco