Hiya, folks! Joe here with another installation of Daily Arena.

With Rotation, the final account wipe, and Open Beta all upon us, I decided to delve into what decks in the current meta might survive relatively unchanged into Guilds of Ravnica Standard, and what changes we might want to make to bring them forward.

First, I’m going to take a look at important cards that are rotating out. I have a list here of cards that see significant play in the top fifteen decks in current Standard, and that will be disappearing from the face of Arena this week. I have them sorted into tiers based on how many decks play them, and how many copies show up in the decks that they are played in.

Next, I’m going to take a look at important cards that aren’t rotating out. I have a list here of cards that see significant play in the top fifteen decks in current Standard, and that will still be around when Arena comes back online with Guilds of Ravnica Standard. I have them sorted into tiers based on how many decks play them, and how many copies show up in the decks that they are played in.

Of the fifteen decks I looked at, ten of them lose key cards and/or lose so many cards to rotation that they either are completely non-viable, will likely need cards from Ravnica Allegiance to make them viable again, or are likely to make it through to GRN Standard, but with a significant different list of cards.

These decks are:

R/B Aggro (there are two versions of these that are different enough that I considered them two separate decks)

(there are two versions of these that are different enough that I considered them two separate decks) White-Blue God Pharaoh’s Gift

Grixis Midrange

Mono-Blue Artifacts

Mono-Red Flame of Keld

U/B Midrange

Blue-Green Stompy

Mono-Green Stompy (I’m confident that there will be a version of this in GRN Standard, but it will look significantly different than the one currently being played)

(I’m confident that there will be a version of this in GRN Standard, but it will look significantly different than the one currently being played) Black-Green Constrictor

The five remaining decks range from being able to pass through Rotation relatively unchanged, to having kept a strong enough skeleton that substitutions from non-rotating sets, and from Guilds of Ravnica itself, give them a good chance of being viable post-Rotation, without replacing more than half the cards.

The first of these that I’m going to look at is Mono-Blue Tempo:

Mono-Blue Tempo (Before Rotation)

One of Mono-Blue Tempo’s major losses with Rotation is Baral, Chief of Compliance. Baral makes your efficient counter- and card draw spells even cheaper, and can net you extra card draw, which is important in a deck like this that creates so many one-for-one trades. To replace Baral, I’ve decided to lean more heavily on the Wizard synergies of the deck and included two Naban, Dean of Iteration in Baral’s place.

I replaced the two Nimble Obstructionist with two Exclusion Mage, and four Slither Blade with four Mist-Cloaked Herald. Mist-Cloaked Herald fills the same functional role as Slither Blade, but since you lose a power of toughness it is imperative that in match-ups against Goblin Chainwhirler and Plague Mare you keep counter-spells open to handle them (and you’re not going to want to bounce them unless you’re confident you can counter them when re-cast).

Exclusion Mage makes Unsummon a bit redundant, and it’s rotating out anyway, so for now I have included a single Opt here as a spell that basically replaces itself and helps you find important cards more quickly.

In the sideboard, I replaced the Jace’s Defeat with a fourth Syncopate. It’s not as efficient, for sure, but it is more flexible and sometimes the exile effect is relevant. We don’t have a good replacement for Aethersphere Harvester, and for now I’ve included Mystic Archaeologist in its place, to bring in for matches where its effect is more useful than that of one of the main-deck Wizards.

Here’s what my post-Rotation version of the deck looks like:

Mono-Blue Tempo (After Rotation)

It was pointed out to me that this list is almost identical (at least in regards to the main deck) to one discussed in a video by SBMtG. I decided to add a link to that video here in case folks are interested in another perspective on the deck.

The next deck I’m going to look at is White-Black Knights:

White-Black Knights (Before Rotation)

The main offensive cards in the White-Black Knights deck are all from non-rotating sets, so this deck’s biggest losses are in it removal/disruption suite. Specifically, it’s losing Doomfall, a flexible card that functions as either permanent removal of a creature (great when the opponent has one huge threat), or permanent hand disruption, depending on the match-up. It’s also losing Fatal Push, one of the more efficient black removal spells in current Standard. In my post-rotation version of the deck, I’m replacing these cards with two Cast Down (also an efficient removal spell, but that might need to get sideboarded out when playing against a deck with problematic Legendary creatures), two Baffling End (can’t disrupt hands or dodge Hexproof, but can effectively take care of single problematic threats), and two Dauntless Bodyguard, increasing the deck’s aggressive Knight count and providing a bit of added protection.

The deck also loses Thopter Arrest, which I’ve replaced in the main deck with a Benalish Marshal, to help pump the team and get pumped in turn by History of Benalia.

All of the Deserts are rotating out, as well as Concealed Courtyard. I’ve replaced Concealed Courtyard with a playset of Forsake Sanctuary (for now…this might change if having these come in tapped all the time poses a big problem…when Ravnica Allegience hits, you’re going to get Godless Shrine, which will for sure replace this slot), the colored Deserts with Basic Lands of the same color, and Scavenger Grounds with Arch of Orazca, which can buy us incidental card draw enough of the time to make up for only producing colorless mana.

In the Sideboard I replaced Thopter Arrest with Baffling End, Lost Legacy with an additional Cast Down (this is definitely value lost 🙁 ), and Forsake the Worldly with a couple of Shield Mare, which can be brought in against burn and Goblin Tribal decks.

Here’s what my post-Rotation version of the deck looks like:

White-Black Knights (After Rotation)

The next deck I’m going to look at (and I’ve seen people asking about this deck on a few different sites) is Bant Nexus (aka Turbofog):

Bant Nexus (Before Rotation)

The most notable card rotating out of this deck is Haze of Pollen, one of the fogs in Turbofog. The most obvious replacement for this is possibly Pause for Reflection (although you’ll only ever get the Convoke for this if you’re making tokens with Karn, Scion of Urza), but I feel like instead of playing a more expensive Fog as a direct replacement, it might be better to take this deck in a more traditionally controlling direction by adding cards that deal with your opponent’s creatures more permanently. With that in mind, I’m replacing Haze of Pollen with two each of Settle the Wreckage and Cleansing Nova. These cards push the curve up, definitely, but with the efficiency at which this deck builds up mana, I don’t think it will be a huge problem (and I’ve already seen “Fog-light” versions of this deck being played successfully).

We also lose Supreme Will, which gives us a dual counterspell and card draw/selection spell. I’ve replaced this with two copies of Radical Idea from GRN, which is a fairly-costed draw spell that we can cast twice, chucking an extra land when it’s convenient, as well as a single copy of Chromatic Lantern, what was also reprinted in GRN, and gives us a small ramp boost while providing great fixing for our three-color deck (especially useful as we are also increasing the double-mana color requirements with our previous set of replacements).

The other non-land card we lose from the main deck is Nissa, Steward of Elements, which I’ve simply replaced with a second copy of Karn, Scion of Urza.

As far as lands go, I’ve replaced Botanical Sanctum with a fourth copy of Glacial Fortress, replace the Scattered Groves with a playset of Temple Garden, and replaced Irrigated Farmland with three Sunpetal Grove, bringing us up to a full playset, as well as a single additional Plains, helping us with those double-white cards even more. The mana base for this deck will be significantly improved by the addition of Hallowed Fountain and Breeding Pool when Ravnica Allegiance comes out.

From the sideboard, we lose Baral, Chief of Compliance, which I’ve replaced with an additional copy of Carnage Tyrant (good against Control) and a copy of Sorcerous Spyglass, a great card for shutting down problematic planeswalkers or other permanents with activated abilities. We lose Jace’s Defeat, which I’ve replaced with two copies of Sinister Sabotage…Syncopate might be better here, but for now I’m thinking the additional card selection that comes with Sinister Sabotage makes it worth the 1UU. I’ve replaced Manglehorn with a couple of Vine Mare as another Hexproof threat that is especially good against black-heavy decks.

Here’s what my post-Rotation version of the deck looks like:

Bant Nexus (After Rotation)

The next deck I’m going to look at is WU Superfriends (the version of W/U Control most prevalent in the current meta):

WU Superfriends (Before Rotation)

The WU Superfriends deck loses a third of its team as Gideon of the Trials rotates out. I’m replacing Gideon with cards that commonly show up in higher concentrations in less Planeswalker-focused versions of the deck, one each of Lyra Dawnbringer, Cleansing Nova, and Blink of an Eye.

Walking Ballista is a huge loss for the deck, and it doesn’t really have a good replacement beyond board sweepers. I’m adding more sweepers in already to fill gaps left by other cards rotating out, so for now I’m just replacing Walking Ballista with a playset of Revitalize, which can help keep us alive against more aggressive decks while also moving us closer to the cards we need to shut them down.

The loss of Heart of Kiran is a big blow to all of the decks that played it, and this one is no exception. Again, we don’t have a good direct replacement for it, but we can replace it for now with another good Control card that will help us find and/or protect our other win conditions. I’m putting three copies of Sinister Sabotage in this slot, as in addition to shutting down the opponent’s game plan, we get the Surveil effect, which helps us get to another card we want more quickly.

I’ll be sorry to see Cast Out go, as it played an important role in the deck. I’m replacing it with other exile-based removal and card draw/selection in the form of two copies of Settle the Wreckage and two copies of Search for Azcanta.

As for the sideboard, we are losing both Authority of the Consuls and Forsake the Worldly, both of which I’ve replaced with additional copies of Negate. Fragmentize and Fumigate become Cleansing Nova and Ixalan’s Binding, helping keep up our density of board sweepers as well as cards that can deal with permanents other than creatures. We lose Jace’s Defeat, and for now I’m replacing it with three copies of Syncopate, due to it’s flexibility as well as its usefulness in handling cards that might come back to haunt us if not exiled.

In the end, I might be including too many counterspells, but then again, how many actually is too many?

Here’s what my post-Rotation version of the deck looks like (I’ve changed the name, since I don’t think only including two Planeswalkers allows the deck to continue qualifying as “Superfriends”):

W/U Control (After Rotation)

Last, but not least, I’m going to take a look at Esper Control. This deck lost nearly half of its cards, but it still retains much of its core Control skeleton, and many of the cards it lost are replaceable:

Esper Control (Before Rotation)

The biggest loss to Esper Control due to rotation is (by far), the loss of Torrential Gearhulk. Being able to re-use a Control spell while simultaneously putting a real threat on the battlefield represents a ton of value. I’ve replaced it with a single copy of Chromium, the Mutable (which gives the deck some fixed amount of inevitability), and three copies of Notion Rain, a new card from GRN that is one of the best (if not the best) single-shot card selection/draw spell in the new Guilds of Ravnica Standard.

We also lose Disallow, and Cancel would be a sorry replacement for it. Thankfully, GRN comes through again with Sinister Sabotage. The fact that Disallow can stop abilities (such as Planeswalker ultimates) probably makes it more valuable to the deck overall, but the Surveil on Sinister Sabotage is nothing to sneeze at, and I have no problem swapping in a playset here.

We lose some efficient removal in the form of Fatal Push. For now, I’m replacing it with various removal spells (one each of Cast Down, Moment of Craving, and Price of Fame), as well as an additional Search for Azcanta for additional card/draw selection to try to help keep my hand stocked with Control pieces.

We lose Forsake the Worldly, but I also feel like its utility will be lower in the new Standard (sure would be nice to keep that Cycle ability, though). I’m replacing it with an additional Essence Scatter, as I feel like (at first at least), we’re going to see more creature-heavy decks, especially on Arena.

And, finally, we lose one of the best card draw spells we had access to, Glimmer of Genius. I’m replacing this with two each of two new cards from GRN: Chemister’s Insight (the Jump-Start is almost as nice as the Scry), and Discovery // Dispersal, which gives us similar card selection, but only draws one, but also has the nice flexibility that sometimes you will be able to bounce the opponent’s biggest threat, and when you’re especially lucky, make them discard it, as well.

For lands, we lose Fetid Pools, but have a direct replacement for it in the form of a playset of Watery Grave. We also lose Irrigated Farmland, which I have replaced with Glacial Fortress and Memorial to Genius.

In the sideboard, we lose Bontu’s Last Reckoning, which I have replaced with two copies of The Eldest Reborn. Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is a card I’ll be sorry to see go. I’ve replaced it with three copies of the new GRN card Thief of Sanity (nice evasion and sort of replaces the card draw we lose with the Siphoner) and a single Moment of Craving…Moment of Craving‘s utility is fairly match dependent, so I like the idea of being able to move one out to the sideboard or move one in from the sideboard, depending on how good it is. Disdainful Stroke sees a GRN reprint, and I will be using two of those to replace the copies of Jace’s Defeat that we are losing, and I’ve also replaced Vizier of Many Faces, for now, with an additional copy of Detection Tower to bring in when there are pesky Hexproof creatures we need to deal with.

Here’s what my post-Rotation version of the deck looks like:

Esper Control (After Rotation)

Let me know if you can think of improvements to these deck lists, or if you have any ideas on decks that could replace other ones from current Standard, or even completely new decks for Guilds of Ravnica. I’m especially pumped about tribal Goblins and/or Elves, maybe a more Knight-heavy Knights tribal deck, and Boros Mentor. What are you hoping to see?

As always, feel free to contact me with any criticisms, comments, etc., either here, on Reddit, on Twitter via @DailyArena, or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.