Lorwyn Eclipsed was a blast, and gave us one of the most exciting Pro Tours in recent memory. Standard looks to be in the best place it has been in years. Right now, there are multiple decks, and multiple styles of play, that could win a tournament, with tight play and a strong understanding of the deck. These are the cards that make up the bedrock of the format.

Honorable Mention: Sapling Nursery

This one didn't pop off at the Pro Tour, but is putting up consistent results in the challengers and leagues since. Combining this with Icetill Explorer in the Landfall strategies allows you to create a dominant board state filled with 3/4 treefolk tokens. I'll admit, this looked fairly innocuous (though, I did order a playset for the sweet showcase art), but after testing the deck out on Arena, the card overperforms.

10. Badgermole Cub

The rumors of Badgermole Cub's demise have been greatly exaggerated, as it still puts up results, but this one took a walloping. The card everyone was gunning for coming into the Pro Tour showed that it has vulnerabilities, and the, "Maybe we should ban Badgermole Cub" talk was a bit premature.

9. Nova Hellkite

This acts as the backbone and top end of both the mostly-mono-Red aggressive decks and the Boros Dragons deck. It shines against the Green decks, as it loves to take out an elf or a land that's been earthbent off of a Cub. It's also a great way for Red decks to get a little card advantage early, acting a three-mana burn spell, and finishing off the last few points of damage later.

8. Doomsday Excruciator

This could probably go down as one of the most slept-on Magic cards of all-time, as it has been the cornerstone of both a World Championships winning deck and a Pro Tour winning deck, and people still look for ways to play anything else. This almost acts as a Shahrazad for the format, as the moment it hits the table it feels like you're playing a different sub game that has, at most, three turns.

7. Quantum Riddler

I thought about putting this card at the top of the list, as it makes an argument for being the best card in Standard by fitting into so many decks. What it does isn't always glamorous, but it's so workman-like in its performance. Quantum Riddler is the card that shows up carrying it's lunch pail, always smiling while it clocks in on that 9-5.

6. Craterhoof Behemoth

Two weeks ago, this spot would have been occupied by Ouroboroid, but the Simic decks have discovered that Hoofie is a faster, and in many ways easier, win condition, especially in the mirror matches. Being on the receiving end of a, "Hoof, there it is!" is brutal, but I can't honestly do anything but smile at this one. Standard is a better format when something like Craterhoof Behemoth exists as a playable card (as long as it's not consistently on turn four).

5. Jeskai Revelation

Originally, the Jeskai control decks were playing this as a one-of. Eventually, it creeped up to a two-of. And then, it showed up to the Pro Tour as a four-of, the finisher of choice for the only true control deck in Standard, and is showing itself to be one of the pillars of the format.

4. Sunderflock

The most surprising break-out card at the Pro Tour was Sunderflock. This card ended up being one of the main reasons the Simic decks, the most popular decks for the tournament, underperformed.

As a Simic player, it is truly devastating to see this hit the table when you've used earthbending on a couple of your lands, finding yourself set back multiple turns while your opponent just presented a three-four turn clock. This feels like it exists as the, "Format Fun Police" as it will reign in the go-wide decks before they can get out of hand.

3. Mightform Harmonizer

I've been a Harmonizer truth since the card was spoiled (I ranked it as the second-best card in Edge of Eternities in my preview article), and I'm tickled pink that it's starting to pop up in multiple decks.

It works well in the landfall decks, where it can pair with Earthbender Ascension and Icetill Explorer to go over the top. That was a deck I anticipated going into the Pro Tour. But, the, "Splinter Twin" style combo deck with Full Bore was a revelation, and found itself playing for the title in game 5 of the finals. It may not have crossed the finish line, but Mightform Harmonizer proved itself as an important card to remember going forward.

2. Deceit

Vibrance had a good showing, and Wistfulness will be a sideboard staple going forward if nothing else, but it was Deceit that ran away with the title of best Elemental (and maybe best card overall) from Lorwyn Eclipsed.

The discard mode, especially, proved itself invaluable, as it allowed the Dimir decks time to set up their wins when it took the best, or most interactive, cards from the opponent's hands before they could be deployed. Slapping a Thoughtseize effect on a playable body was always going to be playable, and when paired with our top card, it proved to be a Pro Tour winning strategy.

1. Superior Spider-Man

This was already seeing play in the Bringer of the Last Gift reanimation strategy, but the arrival of the Lorwyn Eclipsed elementals just pushed it to a whole new level. WOTC has been gatekeeping some of the more powerful abilities around, "If you cast this from your hand" but Superior Spider-Man exists as an exception to that gatekeeping.

A common play pattern (as I expressed in my set review article) is just playing Deceit on turn two and and getting it again on turn four with Superior Spider-Man, allowing you to rip your opponent's hand to shreds before they can set up a game plan.

That interaction was expected (but, I'll admit, played out better than even I thought it would), but the fact that it can also do the same trick with Doomsday Excruciator, allowing the Dimir decks to have an extremely fast end game, pushed this to the top.

Turns out, this has been the superior Spider-Man card all along.

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