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A Dawn of Hope for Standard

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Guilds of Ravnica! What a great set so far and I am having a great time eagerly awaiting each spoiler to see what the Standard format will look like for the upcoming Pro Tour. I was pretty shocked to see Tajic, Legion’s Edge get spoiled and is a perfect card for a go wide strategy to help prevent the infamous Goblin Chainwhirler from laughing at all your x/1’s. I do still believe there is a window to build ultra aggressive decks at the start of a new format. I’m going to go through a few lists I will more than likely give a decent amount of testing for the Pro Tour.
Boros Aggro:
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3 Tajic, Legion's Edge 2 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice 2 Venerated Loxodon 4 Haazda Marshal 4 Hunted Witness 4 Conclave Tribunal 4 Legion's Landing 4 Dauntless Bodyguard 4 Skymarcher Aspirant 2 Pride of Conquerors 4 Benalish Marshal 3 Adanto Vanguard 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Clifftop Retreat 12 Plains
Guilds of Ravnica has given us a lot of decent 1 drops in the form of Haazda Marshal and Hunted Witness. Haazda Marshal is the obvious standout here. Left untouched Haazda can generate some decent value. Being able to apply quick pressure along with a possible turn three Aurelia by transforming Legion’s Landing could apply immense pressure on most decks. Another card that I like a lot is Conclave Tribunal. It gives the deck a way to deal with problematic planeswalkers, annoying enchantments, and most importantly Rekindling Phoenix.
I do believe that Vraska’s Contempt will be seeing a lot of play and slantly your aggro decks to take advantage of Assassin’s Trophy with a lower land count could gain additional value. Mono Red is also losing a decent amount of it’s tools to fight control with the loss of Bomat Courier, Chandra Torch of Defiance, and Hazoret allowing these other go wide strategies to really flourish.
I would keep my eye on Dawn of Hope as a good engine against control for this deck as most of your creatures have Lifelink and it’s also a card that can apply long game pressure and give you some card draw with the extra mana from Settle the Wreckage.

The next deck I am going to look at is a White/Green Control deck that will try and use Dawn of Hope to its fullest potential.
WG Control
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1 Arch of Orazca 10 Plains 4 Temple Garden 4 Sunpetal Grove 1 Forest 2 Memorial to Glory 3 Field of Ruin 3 Fountain of Renewal 3 Gift of Paradise 2 Azor's Gateway 4 Seal Away 2 Karn, Scion of Urza 2 Ixalan's Binding 3 Settle the Wreckage 2 Cleansing Nova 1 The Immortal Sun 2 Treasure Map 4 Dawn of Hope 1 Divine Visitation 3 Knight of Autumn 2 March of the Multitudes 1 Flower // Flourish
I truly believe that Dawn of Hope can be a powerhouse in the new Standard format. It can be hated out but there are not a lot of other good targets right now that want you to play main deck enchantment removal. Knight of Autumn and Thrashing Brontodon will see play, but how much? The great thing about Dawn of Hope is it’s great by itself by being able to make lifelink tokens to trigger its own card engine. If we can live the dream of flipping the Azor’s Gateway, it’s like opening a portal to your massive lifelink Soldier army!
We have already seen the power interaction with Seal Away and Settle the Wreckage. The mind game of do I swing all out or do I chip away; I love this style of play.
The most interesting card in this list is Fountain of Renewal. Remember, we are trying to push Dawn of Hope and if the Fountain can give us time to set up and help draw cards, then this deck might be a perfect fit.


I want to try to push is the UR Counterburn archetype. With cards like Ionize and Ral, Izzet Viceroy we should at least test this type of archetype.
UR CounterBurn:
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4 Ghitu Lavarunner 3 Wizard's Lightning 4 Lightning Strike 3 Goblin Electromancer 4 Runaway Steam-Kin 3 Risk Factor 4 Ionize 4 Shock 2 Legion Warboss 2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy 2 Expansion // Explosion 2 Inescapable Blaze 1 Fight with Fire 4 Steam Vents 4 Sulfur Falls 2 Izzet Guildgate 10 Mountain 2 Island
The card I'm most excited to try out here is Runaway Steam-Kin. The Dark Ritual effect can be quite deadly if you combine it with a quality X spell or a kicked Fight with Fire. The ability to change its power and toughness inside combat is also not trivial. Just make to play around opposing Goblin Chainwhirlers if you can but I can see this card being very very good once fully explored.
The next card brings back some memories. Risk Factor is designed with the punish mechanic but is pushed so much more than Browbeat ever was. The instant speed along with the fact that you can discard lands later on really is a great value burn spell and I will look forward to casting lots of these in testing!


The last deck I want to talk a little bit about is a Green/White value strategy that abuses Song of Freyalise with some of the Guilds of Ravnica cards like Emmara, Soul of the Accord and Beast Whisperer.
GW Value:
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The amount of value we can generate with this shell is out of control. Militia Bugler helps you find some of the key pieces to keep the deck flowing through cards in the form of Mentor of the Meek, Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Trostani Discordant and Beast Whisperer. While we are developing the board we can play around cards like Settle the Wreckage by getting a Shalai into play. I also can’t wait to draw around five or six cards with Camaraderie and kill my opponent! We also have some late game potential with March of the Multitudes.
With the release of the Full Spoiler yesterday and all the sweet cards in the set, this new Standard format is shaping up to be a breath of fresh air!

Previous Articles · Meet the Massdrop Teams: http://dro.ps/mtg-team-announce · *2nd* at Pro Tour Ixalan: http://dro.ps/ixalan · Unclaimed Creature Types: http://dro.ps/ari-creatures · Why I Never Drop From Tournaments: http://dro.ps/eric-nevergiveup · The Art of Sideboard Construction - Sultai Energy: http://dro.ps/jon-sideboard · A Commoner’s View on Pauper: http://dro.ps/mark-pauper · Blue Moon Beach Control: http://dro.ps/scott-bluemoon · Top 5 Modern Decks: http://dro.ps/pascal-modern · Storm in Vintage Cube: http://dro.ps/ben-storm · An Early Look at Rivals for Standard: http://dro.ps/shaun-rivals · A Standard Approach to Evaluating New Cards: http://dro.ps/rob-newcards · Drafting Rivals of Ixalan: http://dro.ps/tim-ixalan · Team Sealed Secrets: http://dro.ps/eric-secrets · Steal My Standard Ideas: http://dro.ps/tommy-secrets · Vexing Devil. Any Questions?: http://dro.ps/jon-devil · Team Massdrop Rivals of Ixalan Limited Primer: http://dro.ps/ari-primer · Gestation of RG Eldrazi: http://dro.ps/ben-gestation · Top Tim Tournament Training Tips: http://dro.ps/tim-tips · What Makes Someone Bogle?: http://dro.ps/tommy-bogle · A Pauper Adventure: http://dro.ps/pascal-pauper · Blue Moon at GP Phoenix: http://dro.ps/rob-bluemoon · Brawling into Dominaria: http://dro.ps/scott-brawling · Looking at The Current Lands(cape) of Legacy http://dro.ps/jarvis-land · Deconstructing Dominaria Limited: http://dro.ps/jon-dominaria · Diving into Dominaria Standard: http://dro.ps/mark-dominaria · What are your.. drives?: http://dro.ps/tommy-drives · Top 10 Cards for Dominaria Modern: http://dro.ps/rob-dominaria · Brewing Standard with Dominaria: http://dro.ps/pascal-dominaria · Dominaria Team Sealed: A Case Study: http://dro.ps/tim-dominaria · Battlebonding in Vintage and Legacy: http://dro.ps/jarvis-battlebond · Decks I Almost Played at PT Dominaria: http://dro.ps/ben-dominaria · RB Chainwhirler for the Non-Aggressive Player: http://dro.ps/jon-chainwhirler · Top 4 at GP Vegas: http://dro.ps/mark-top4vegas · Return to Core Set Limited: http://dro.ps/eric-core · Drafting Rares with Core Set 2019: http://dro.ps/ari-core · Tuning Jeskai Control in Modern: http://dro.ps/shaun-jeskai · Secrets of Sealed - http://dro.ps/eric-sealed · A Spike's 1v1 Commander Notes, Parentheticals, and Asides - http://dro.ps/tommy-spikes · Gang Green - http://dro.ps/tim-ganggreen · How to Steel Wins in Legacy: http://dro.ps/scott-steel · Hitting Hard and Ghast in Modern: http://dro.ps/shaun-ghast · Reconstructing Legacy for Richmond: http://dro.ps/jarvis-legacy · Three News Decks for New Standard: http://dro.ps/pascal-three · Researching Ravnica for Modern: http://dro.ps/mark-ravnica
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