Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Today I’ll be going over all the wonderful reprints in Core Set 2021 to see which ones will have the most impact on today’s Standard metagame. Reprints are one of the best things about Core Sets as you get a much larger percentage of them compared to the other three major expansions during the year. Some will see an immediate impact, and some will see play in formats other than Standard like Commander. Either way, there are a few reprints for everybody!
Before I start on the best reprints for Standard, I want to talk about my nominee for the least impactful reprint for Standard.
Massacre Wurm
Massacre Wurm – This is a great card in Limited in its own right, but I have a feeling with the way Standard is set up right now, that it just doesn’t have a place to be impactful against any deck. Most of the aggressive decks will kill you before turn 6. It won’t have an impact against any midrange or control decks as it won’t destroy any of their creatures. It might have a chance against an aggro deck if it can find a way to ramp into it.
Now that we see the worst, it’s time to investigate the best. These five cards are sure to see some play in Standard and make their way either into existing decks or in some new ones.
5 - Runed Halo
5) Runed Halo – This is going to be a great card to be used against a deck that wants to kill you with a certain card doing most of the damage. You could name cards like Shark Token, Expansion // Explosion or even Mayhem Devil. Be aware if won’t stop a card like Cauldron Familiar though as it doesn’t target. I would even play this main deck to slow down your opponent.
4 - Rewind
4) Rewind – This is a great counterspell to have for Flash or Temur Reclamation decks, not that needed more to add to their decks. This allows you in a flash deck to both counter a spell and cast Nightpack Ambusher during your opponents’ turn. Being able to basically have a free counterspell when it comes to those decks is a strong reason this reprint makes the top 5.
3 - Heroic Intervention
3) Heroic Intervention – Mono-Green decks have been waiting for this card to be reprinted in Standard as a way to stop from being blown out of games by sweeper cards like Deafening Clarion, Time Wipe and Shatter the Sky. Even using it as a counterspell for a one-for-one removal spell seems like it will be worth the price of this card.
2 - Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2) Ugin, Spirit Dragon – At the moment, ramp decks are quite prevalent in Standard, and I don’t see an issue playing an eight-mana planeswalker like this in those decks. It will be great against decks like Bant and Sultai in removing multiple planeswalkers and threats at one time. If you only have a few threats to deal with, it can ping them off one by one and move towards its game-winning ultimate.
1 - Scavenging Ooze
1) Scavenging Ooze – This is a creature that helps fix issues against multiple decks while growing too large for your opponent to deal with. Works well against Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath decks as well as picking off that pesky Cauldron Familiar. It will also gain you some life along the way, making sure you don’t get blown out by aggressive decks.
There you have it, everyone. I think these cards will be the most impactful reprint cards for Standard from Core Set 2021. Even the reprints not listed on this set are great to have another copy of them for other formats. Cards like Containment Priest will see some play in Modern. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Join me again tomorrow for some more analysis on the new set.
