We’re just a week into the release of Core Set 2020, so it’s time for me to pull out my dartboard and guess which cards will be the most impactful.
Empyrean Eagle, alongside three other flying Spirits, could herald the rise of a flyers/Spirits deck in Standard. Supreme Phantom, the lord that brought Spirits into the top tiers of Modern, is currently in Standard, as is Favorable Winds. The fact that Empyrean Eagle is a Spirit doesn’t feel like an accident; Wizards has, in the past, used Core Set to push archetypes for a brief time before rotation. Whether a dedicated Spirits, flyers, or hybrid deck is Standard playable will depend not just on the merits of the deck, but also the metagame, but the opportunity to play twelve copies of lord effects in one deck is a too much to dismiss without testing.
An upgraded version of the Reserved List Lotus Vale is nothing to scoff at. Effects that untap lands, like Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, can generate insane amounts of mana early in the game. In current Standard, we’ve already seen players abusing Nissa, Who Shakes the World alongside Mass Manipulation and Hydroid Krasis; none of these cards are rotating, and Lotus Field may play a role in an updated version of the list. Aside from untapping it, the other way to abuse Field is to return the lands sacrificed with the Field. In Standard, this can be done with Brought Back (see further down on this list), Crucible of Worlds, Wayward Swordtooth, and The Mending of Dominaria. In Modern, Amulet of Vigor stops Lotus Field from coming in tapped, generating a free two-mana boost when it comes into play. Of course, there’s a real cost to sacrificing bouncelands, but the Amulet deck may like to include a copy or two.
With the printing of Unearth and Lightning Skelemental in Modern Horizons, Modern RB players have created a new shell abusing those cards alongside Dreadhorde Arcanist and Faithless Looting. If Dreadhorde Arcanist, which does not have haste and does exile the spell it casts, is capable of seeing Modern play, then Thunderkin Awakener most certainly is. While it does trade with staples like Snapcaster Mage and Dark Confidant, the upside is incredibly high. The ability to flash back Lightning Skelemental once the turn that Awakener comes down is great, but the opportunity to do so multiple times is a tantalizing offer that will close out games very quickly.
As previously mentioned, Wizards likes to use Core Sets to push archetypes that were previously supported, but too weak to see much Standard play. With Magic Origins, for example, they printed Herald of the Pantheon, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Starfield of Nyx, launching Abzan Constellation from obscurity into the top tier of Standard. Marauding Raptor might be enough to do the same for Dinosaurs. Not only does it act as a cost reducer, allowing you to curve incredibly nicely into Turn 3 Ripjaw Raptor, but it turns on Enrage without killing the creature it triggers on. As if that wasn’t enough, it attacks incredibly well; a two-mana 4/3 is a great way to pressure planeswalkers and faces. Alongside Spirits, Dinosaurs is another tribe that Core 2020 makes worth revisiting.
With the plethora of pushed planeswalkers printed into Standard by War of the Spark, Planar Cleansing is a great and important reprint. Planeswalkers are fundamentally difficult to answer while maintaining card parity because they typically replace themselves the turn they come down. The Elderspell is one of the few cards in Standard that allow a player to deal with multiple walkers at once, perhaps recouping some lost card advantage and tempo. The problem with The Elderspell, of course, is that it is incredibly narrow; against some decks, it’s dead, and even against planeswalker decks that happen to have a creature- or spell-heavy draw, it’s awful. Planar Cleansing earns its much higher mana cost by being far more flexible. As long as you’re playing against a deck with nonland permanents, whether they be creatures, planeswalkers, artifacts, or enchantments, Planar Cleansing will be live and valuable to control decks. With the three-mana walkers weakening spells-based control, Planar Cleansing might be enough to push them back into the top tiers.
Last up in the “pushed at the last minute” camp, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord! Sorin pushes Vampires, a tribe which saw fringe play at the beginning of Ixalan Standard, but then tapered off as sweepers became more popular. Sorin allows for busted Turn 3 plays such as slamming down a Vona, Butcher of Magan way ahead of curve. Additionally, it grows cards like Dusk Legion Zealot or Legion Lieutenant out of trading range. Finally, it provides reach to close out the game; the fact that it’s a plus ability is insane alongside cards like Call to the Feast. The tribe might still just be too weak to sweepers, but there’s a chance that Sorin pushes the archetype into playability for a couple months before rotation.
This card is wild. It does something fundamentally powerful for an unbelievably cheap cost. In Modern in particular, it ramps +2 lands by returning fetchlands to play, it can return lands sacrificed off Lotus Field to play, and it can act as a miniature Second Sunrise to return artifacts in an Eggs-style shell. Making the card an instant just seems unnecessary. Wizards clearly wants this card to be good; the ability to bring back Planeswalkers after an Elderspell or Planar Cleansing is nothing to be scoffed at. At minimum, it replaces itself, acting as a better Counterspell to removal in that it can retrigger any enter-the-battlefield effects. But often, this card will act as at least a two-for-one, and at a very, very competitive cost.
It makes sense that in the Chandra set, you want a pretty pushed Chandra planeswalker. Chandra, Awakened Inferno is just that. It’s the second coming of Chandra, Flamecaller, but often even better. This card is great in midrange and control decks. It can’t be countered, which means that it will do something highly impactful at minimum before your opponent is able to answer it. It pluses up to eight loyalty, can wipe the board, or can kill any of the heavily-played creatures or planeswalkers in Standard. It’s good if you’re ahead, at parity, or behind and heavily incentivizes the return of Red-based Control decks. Chandra is the card that I am most confident will be a force to reckon with in the upcoming format.
Ryan Normandin is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.
