Top 8 Constructed Cards from War of the Spark

8. Liliana, Dreadhorde General

The card that many picked as the strongest in the set barely makes my list at #8. Liliana, Dreadhorde General drew many comparisons to Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, the powerful top-end of Standard’s Abzan Midrange/Control deck back in Theros/Khans. That comparison is apt, but the environments in which they exist render Liliana nearly unplayable.

Before WAR’s release, we had a Standard format that was mostly dominated by extremes: at one end, we had Monored, Monowhite, and Monoblue, while at the other, we had UG Nexus and Esper Control. Decks in the middle, such as RG Monsters and Sultai Midrange, were playable, but struggled to deal with attacks from both sides in a highly polarized format. While it’s still early, WAR looks to have only exacerbated Standard’s tendency toward extremes, as the MTG Arena ladder has become dominated by Nexus and Esper and extremely aggressive decks looking to prey on Nexus and Esper.

In a world of such extremes, Liliana has no home. Ideally, she’d be the curve-topper for a BGx Midrange deck, a great trump card for grindy midrange mirrors. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the last time I played against a midrange deck, so Liliana shall remain homeless for the moment. In the event that something new is discovered in Standard or a key piece of UG Nexus is banned, then look for Liliana to tick up in popularity.

7. Karn, the Great Creator

Karn, alongside Ugin and Tezzeret, is a tad bit broken. Karn allows you to Wish for any artifact that you want, even out of exile (nice synergy with Karn, Scion of Urza), an effect that is just begging to be played in a combo shell. In Standard, you can use Karn and Ugin or Tezzeret to loop Guardians of Koilos and then kill with Tezzeret or make infinite Servos in conjunction with Saheeli (that lady sure does like going infinite). The deck is slow, clunky and lacking in pieces to fill out the shell, but it’s something to keep an eye on as the format evolves and rotates.

In Modern, Karn the Great Creator could find a home in a flavor of artifact prison. While the most popular option is to fetch up a Mycosynth Lattice and turn off your opponent’s lands, Karn can also serve as a utility walker, grabbing whatever artifact you need in a pinch, whether it be Chalice, Ensnaring Bridge, Sorcerous Spyglass, or Tormod’s Crypt. The ability to run Karn in the main would allow such a deck to be more flexible in pre-board games.

 6. Gideon Blackblade

Gideon Blackblade gives a strong push to the Monowhite/Wu Aggro deck in Standard. Not only is Gideon an insane, difficult-to-kill clock by himself, but he also gives the deck a boost in two of its toughest matchups: Monored and Esper. Against Monored, Gideon can give lifelink to attacking creatures, allowing White to apply pressure more aggressively, worrying less about dying on the swingback. Against Esper, Gideon feels like the nail in the coffin in stretching their Vraska’s Contempts too thin. Among Adanto Vanguard, Ajani post-board, and now Gideon Blackblade, the Esper deck needs to have specifically counterspell or Contempt over and over again. Even if they do, that means they’re not answering the other random dorks, and the moment Esper taps out for a sweeper, White can slam a planeswalker and go to town. Monowhite actually picks up three cards from this list, gaining a lot from WAR.

 5. Despark 

As previously discussed, the Standard format right now is split between decks that are glacially slow and decks that are blisteringly fast. Despark is the card that you want against the former. The most important cards in Nexus are Wilderness Reclamation and Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, and the most important card in Esper is Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. For two mana at instant speed, Despark answers it all. The flexibility of this card draws a comparison to Mortify, which has seen lots of play thanks to its ability to answer creatures and enchantments.

Despark is in a bit of a more awkward spot; while Mortify is serviceable everywhere, Despark is unplayable against Monored/White, but an all-star against Esper and Nexus. This makes it seem like an ideal sideboard card – but, post-board in the mirror, Esper is bringing in cards like Thief of Sanity, Narset, Parter of Veils, and Teferi, Time Raveler, all of which are very powerful and also dodge Despark (though they’re obviously not cutting Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, which Depsark still nabs). Therefore, it feels like there might be a light split between main- and sideboard copies of the card as part of Esper’s removal suite.

 4. Dovin’s Veto

If the mana cost is not a concern, this card is a strictly better Negate. Until Modern Horizons, shakes things up, expect UW Control to swap all copies of Negate for Dovin’s Veto, giving it extra points against combo decks like Ad Nauseam and Amulet Titan, which try to protect their pieces with Pact of Negation. And, of course, it’s great in the mirror to counter an opposing Jace or Teferi.

In Standard, Dovin’s Veto fills a similar role. All copies of Negate in Esper automatically become Vetoes, and it gives Esper extra points against Nexus, which tries to protect its combo with countermagic as well. Keep in mind that Dovin’s Veto is at its best when it’s countering threats; if you cast this on a threat, it will be countered. If you cast it in a counter war, however, it is usually going to be a Negate, as the opponent can allow Veto to resolve, then try again to counter.

 3. Teferi, Time Raveler

On the slow end of Standard, where Nexus and Esper make their homes, Teferi is king. Teferi reads, “Your spells can’t be countered. Also, enjoy casting Thought Erasure in your opponent’s draw step.” Until you’ve played with or against Teferi, it’s hard to understand quite to what degree he warps the game. He even allows Esper Control to play a tempo game early, something which they’ve never been able to do. One way players can gain an edge in the mirror is to land a Turn 2 Search for Azcanta. The worst that happens is it gets Mortified, but then the players are back at parity and everything’s fine. A Teferi coming down and bouncing Azcanta, however, feels incredibly backbreaking. You fall behind on mana, tempo, cards, and now you also have to answer this threat that shuts off your deck and just answered your threat.

Against Nexus, Teferi renders Wilderness Reclamation mostly useless. It buys the Esper player lots of time to find their answers while the Nexus player is forced to build up resources so they can bounce Teferi and then go off in one turn, a nontrivial task. Teferi is so good that it’s snuck its way into mainboards due to the prevalence of Esper and Nexus.

2. Blast Zone

Blast Zone is going to be a pivotal piece of the format until it rotates. It is a truly fantastic card. At first, it might seem too good; it is essentially an unanswerable answer. However, keep in mind that it can’t be played in monocolor decks because of Benalish Marshal/Goblin Chainwhirler/Tempest Djinn, it can’t be run in three-color decks because of the mana demands, which pretty much restricts it to two-color decks. This provides an incredibly narrow, incredibly powerful answer that can be leveraged by only a narrow subset of decks. Currently, that subset consists solely of UG Nexus, which relies on Blast Zone to answer card types that UG struggles with, such as planeswalkers (Teferi, Time Raveler, mainly). If Blast Zone picks up and more two-color decks form, then two-color decks are also the ones that can take advantage of Field of Ruin to answer Blast Zone.

For now, however, Blast Zone is primarily being played in the role that Engineered Explosives plays in Modern. A deck executing a broken combo (Nexus) is using it to answer the hate (Teferi) that other decks bring in post-board, just as Amulet and Whir Prison do in Modern.

1. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales

When Tamiyo was spoiled, there was some talk about it being a good card for Nexus, but it seems unlikely anyone understood just how good Tamiyo is in the archetype. In Nexus, Tamiyo is a four-mana Search for Azcanta that can also be an Eternal Witness when you feel like it. Additionally, she shuts off Thought Erasure, Duress, Disinformation Campaign, The Eldest Reborn, and Angrath’s Rampage, all reasonable answers to what Nexus is doing. Altogether, Tamiyo is most responsible for Nexus now having an incredible consistency and resilience. Depending on the matchup, she can rebuy fogs, counterspells, Wilderness Reclamations, Blast Zones, or copies of herself. She digs through the deck four at a time, but bins instead of bottoming, meaning that the percentage of your deck made up of Nexus rapidly increases.

While Tamiyo has thus far been the piece that broke Nexus wide open, there is likely room for her in other midrange/controlling shells as well, if Nexus ever allows any of those decks to exist.

With the printing of Tamiyo, the strength of Nexus has reached possibly oppressive levels of both consistency and power. Only time will tell whether players will find new threats and answers to turn Standard into a format that occasionally has games that end somewhere between Turn 4 and Turn 44.

What are your top constructed picks from WAR? Let us know in the comments! 

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.