Welcome to deck-building week on the Daily Dose! Every six months the Standard metagame is shaken up thanks to two sets rotating out (Magic Origins and Dragons of Tarkir) and Kaladesh coming into the fold. Now is the time to look at all of the best current Standard decks and see if any of them will survive the cut that is Standard rotation. Statistically Speaking will look at the percentage of cards that will survive rotation and see which deck you might want to start playing now, so it can be adapted come the end of September.
Stay tuned near the end of the article for the first preview from Kaladesh, but now let’s have a look at some of the best Standard decks in the current format and which ones will survive post rotation!
Percentage of Deck Remaining – 48/60 (80%)
The Black/White Control deck is mainly intact post rotation with only four lands rotating out and hopefully some replacements on the way. The biggest hit this deck will take is the loss of Languish. Currently, Flaying Tendrils just doesn’t do the same job as Languish as most threats have three toughness, so we will have to see if black gets a sweeper in Kaladesh.
Percentage of Deck Remaining – 44/60 (73%)
Such as in the past rotation with Abzan Rally, when the main card of a deck is rotating, we won’t be seeing Bant Company post rotation. With the lost of all of its spells and four of its creatures, this deck just takes too much of a hit. There are still some very powerful creatures left from Bant Company though. With the right support from Kaladesh, there could be a deck that utilizes these creatures going forward. Could Eldritch Evolution be a replacement for this deck? Only till will tell if there are enough creatures in the format to support such a deck.
Percentage of Deck Remaining – 43/60 (72%)
There is a chance that this deck could survive post-rotation if a few of the minor pieces can be replaced with cards from Kaladesh. Gather the Pack seems like a card that could be replaceable. Hopefully, there will be new lands that will be able to replace the eight pain lands that will be rotating out with Magic Origins. These lands are key to the deck and we will have to see what replacements come in Kaladesh. Five creatures will be rotating out, and even though they are quite powerful, I believe there will be replacements for them.
Percentage of Deck Remaining – 50/60 (83%)
This deck has one of the greatest chances of seeing post rotation play. With only 10 card being rotated out, we should see this see some play come October. There are only three removal spells being rotated out and there is a good chance that alternative cards will be found in Kaladesh. There are four lands being removed and right now, even if a strong replacement isn’t printed in Kaladesh, Foul Orchard could be used.
Now it’s time to look at the first preview from Kaladesh, Saheeli’s Artistry.
Modal spells are always a favourite of mine and this new card also showcases two major things that I believe will be a main focus of Kaladesh. First off, is the major theme of artifacts. It’s been a while since we’ve had an artifact themed set and Kaladesh will most likely fit that bill. Not only do you get a Copy Artifact effect, but also a Clone affect that makes and Artifact token of what creature you are copying. A great way to get a two-for-one advantage. The next theme is token creation. As you can see, the way tokens are worded on cards has been streamlined to say “Create a token” instead of “put a token onto the battlefield.” This is a great first preview card and gets me excited to see what is to come in Kaladesh!
Thanks for reading a Statistically Speaking version of the Daily Dose and I look forward to the coming weeks where we will get to see if any of these current decks can continue to see play thanks to all the great new wonderful cards from Kaladesh! See you back soon for more of the Daily Dose!
