When it comes to Magic: The Gathering, there is no achievement so great, no victory as sweet as the one that leads to getting your visage emblazoned on a Magic card.

It's the biggest honor you can obtain, and as such, every new World Champion card (previously the Invitational card) is greeted with excitement and scrutiny. Wizards knows how exciting these cards are for the community and they tend to push them to see play. Many of them become format staples.

2023 World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depra's card, Formidable Speaker, is the newest of these cards and seems destined to be one of the best we've ever seen.

When the card was first previewed, I, like just about everyone else, saw the immense potential it had. But, it wasn't until I started working through deck lists with Lorwyn Eclipsed cards, right around the time I started doing my Top Ten cards list, that I began to see the true power of the card.

I know it's early (I am writing this on the eve of the Pro Tour), but I think there's a decent chance this is going to wind up being one of the best cards in Standard in the next few months.

When it started to dawn on me just how good the card was going to be, I posted on social media that I feared it would eventually need to be banned, that it operated on a format warping axis. The biggest question I got back was, "Why?" Why is the card so powerful, when it looks like an innocuous dork?

The key to the card is the consistency it provides. Right now, Standard is warped around a few strategies empowered by a handful of cards. Graveyard strategies built around Superior Spider-Man. Explosive ramp strategies built around Badgermole Cub. Combo strategies built around Appa, Steadfast Guardian.

All of these decks go from good to great once their specific build-arounds are in hand. Formidable Speaker is allows you to easily find each of these cards for the minor cost of discarding a card (and, even that can sometimes become a boon, in the case of Superior Spider-Man).

Formidable Speaker turns any card in your hand into the best creature spell for that moment, and given the power of today's creatures (or the way the new Elementals can effectively function as spells), this means it can effectively help you navigate any game state.

Problematic artifact or enchantment? Formidable Speaker finds Wistfulness. Need to draw cards? Hey, here's a Quantum Riddler. There is a tempo cost, but Formidable Speaker's body is just sizeable enough to offset that tempo cost.

Formidable Speaker gives you so many options that I don't think I can begin to build a coherent deck with it right now. There are just too many possibilities. But, as the metagame starts to take shape, especially in the wake of the Pro Tour, I can see this card slowly taking over, as it provides the versatility and consistency to make a toolbox deck truly viable.

Here are some cards to keep in mind when brewing with Formidable Speaker!

Esper Origins

Probably the best discard target in Green at the moment, and it curves right into a turn four play. Just straight value. All aboard the gravy train.

Winternight Stories

Stock Up and Consult the Star Charts get the press, but I think this is the best card draw spell in Standard at the moment (that isn't also a 4/6 flying creature). The Harmonize ability is the big draw here, and pitching this to Formidable Speaker to Harmonize at a lower cost provides card selection and quantity in a way that should have you overpowering most board states.

Agatha's Soul Cauldron

This is lurking at the periphery of every new Standard set, just waiting for a chance to shoot back up to Tier 1. While you can't find this with Formidable Speaker, it does enable it, and isn't the worst target for the card since it has an activated ability.

Iroh, Grand Lotus

Maybe this is just too cute on its face right now, but there's always the possibility that we'll get some busted, expensive Lesson card in Secrets of Strixhaven that will blow this one wide open.

Honest Rutstein

Pitch a creature, go get Honest Rutstein, return the creature, cast it later at a discount, gain a little value. This is just good, clean Magic the way Richard Garfield intended.

Osteomancer Adept

I had to slip at least one squirrel in here, given that loading up the graveyard is one of their main mechanics. Osteomancer Adept has seen play here and there, but it hasn't really had a chance to shine.

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Did you know this was in Standard? If you are rolling with Sultai, this wouldn't be the worst 1-of in your deck or sideboard with Formidable Speaker, able to break out of board stalls. In fact, with the arrival of the Lorwyn Eclipsed Elemental cycle, this might be a great card to consider building an entire deck around...

Wrapping Up

Next time, I should have enough Pro Tour analysis to go with my Top Ten cards for Lorwyn Eclipsed Standard. Normally, I'd like to wait a week or two longer, but with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming up fast, the Lorwyn Eclipsed season is already almost over (and I was an OG Turtles fan, I've already preordered all the Michelangelo cards).

Before I go, I wanted to acknowledge the passing of Kai Budde. I didn't know the man personally, had only spoken to him once or twice (as part of a Magic podcast from over a decade ago), but I know the impact he had on the game.

I've been playing Magic since 1996, and Kai was one of the original titans we all hoped to find on the other side of the table. It would have been an honor to lose to Kai. During my early days, he and Finkel were the apex of the game, and, "Who is the greatest, Kai or Finkel?" was one of those arguments that always seemed to come up during those multi-hour drives to the next PTQ, even years after he no longer played on a consistent basis.

He left a shadow on the game we might never again see the likes of again.

A true Juggernaut.

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky.