We kick blue off with a weird little spirit that can do a lot of work. In Pioneer and Historic, we also have Ajani’s Pridemate and a bunch more support for this deck, so I can definitely see something taking shape there too. I’d imagine we’re not far off from seeing a whole deck come together if we haven’t already, so I’d look out for this fan favorite archetype on the ladder. Standard has access to quite a few pieces for a Soul Sisters deck such as Lunarch Veteran, Cleric Class, Trelasarra, Moon Dancer and Cleric of Life’s Bond. Voice of the BlessedĪjani’s Pridemate never looked so good. Like I’ve already said, white midrange gets a lot of love in this set and this is one of the best cards for it, where both modes are incredibly useful throughout the game. I even tried it out a few times in Modern and it was great. A strong removal spell for control decks and an absurd modal spell for midrange, this card practically warped deck construction around it. We saw Valorous Stance for the first time back in Fate Reforged and it was incredibly powerful back then.
Given how good Thalia is against spell-based decks, I’m expecting Spikefield Hazard to start showing up in greater numbers than before, so beware of that when building a deck that wants to play its own X/1 creatures. One more weapon against a deck like that is extremely welcome, even if it can be worked around. I have seen a lot of people claiming it’s the end for Epiphany, but that’s certainly not true. Izzet Epiphany is one of the best decks in standard going into this release and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben does a good job of hosing it. Returning to the original and best version of Thalia is a great decision and one that should have a big impact on Standard and Pioneer (it was already legal everywhere else). Legendary creatures almost never get reprinted as they represent storyline characters that tend to evolve and develop over time, requiring new versions of them to be created. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is one of the most noteworthy reprints we’ve had in a while. When your opponent doesn’t have creatures to exile, it lets you reanimate your own, which makes this so much more versatile than its counterparts against creature-light matchups such as control. It can also trigger multiple times, making it an almost unbeatable threat against decks that can’t remove it easily and were just planning on blocking. The most relevant side of this is as a way of exiling opposing creatures while being a better aggressive threat than both Brutal Cathar and Skyclave Apparition. White gets a lot of great midrangey creatures in this set and Savior of Ollenbock is the cream of the crop. At the very least this will see a lot of sideboard play, but it could very easily make main decks too depending on how the format shakes up. This shouldn’t see any play outside of Standard as it is just worse than Baffling End, which is legal in every other format. The ability to stem the bleeding from an aggro deck by picking off their small creatures is something that white always struggles with, making this a perfect inclusion. We’ve had cards like Suspension Field and Baffling End before and they’ve both been excellent in Standard. White doesn’t get access to great spot removal and it gets two great ones that appear on this list.
It also works great in multiples and I think has a number of applications for control and midrange-based decks.
#Deck building guide for eternal arena full#
You probably don’t want to exile your opponent’s creature if your deck is full of instants to make creatures with. Hating on the graveyard is a big upside, though if you build your deck to make the best use of the ability then it might not work so well. The card it reminds me of the most is Monastery Mentor, only having flash makes it more versatile. This is one of the more dubious predictions on this list, but I think this makes for a great control finisher. It could definitely see a little bit of play in Standard too should there be a deck that is weak to it.
I wanted to mention it for this reason, but it’s not going to break anything.
#Deck building guide for eternal arena upgrade#
I’m sure to many this looks weak, and it is a very minimal effect, but it’s a strict upgrade to Blazing Volley, a card that many sideboards in eternal formats already played.