The news came, hit us like a tidal wave fit for a Lord of Atlantis, and receded almost as quickly. With a new set of goodies to play with, people quickly moved on from complaining about the bannings and onto brewing for reopened formats, just as we expected they would.

And now we have our first glimpse into what that world looks like.

The news comes to us with a Pro Tour coming very soon, and one weekend of Star City Games Open results. We saw a large influx of Fate Reforged cards in all three major formats, maybe even more so than anyone expected. That includes some rather unexpected results (just kidding on the card link. But really, surprise cards were found).

Standard

Decklists here.

I’ll openly admit: I did not see Frontier Siege coming.

And I’m not sure if this will really stick or is just the flavor of the week. I mean, ramp certainly seems to be a viable strategy, and I predicted Ugin seeing plenty of play, I just expected more Nykthos and fewer Frontier Siege doing the work. That said, the Dragons ability on the siege is actually super cute with Hornet Queen.

That said, if you have any copies of the card, get rid of them now at $4. Decks like this can be preyed on, and that’s exactly what will happen. Combined with the fact that we’re in a brand new stage of the format, $5 retail has to be the high-water mark for Frontier Siege, and I would move them now.

The Temur Ascendancy deck we saw is actually really cool, but I’m not sure it can move Ascendancy away from bulk status. Even if this were to hit a dollar retail, buylists won’t move much, and almost certainly not enough to make transaction costs worth moving in. Still, I would take these out of your bulk and move them into the trade binder.

Monastery Mentor showed up in Standard as we expected, and the $20-25 pricetag seems like it will hold in the short-term. The same cannot be said of Soulfire Grand Master, which while admittedly cool didn’t have a huge impact or replace Seeker of the Way in many decks. I definitely don’t like it to hold a $20 pricetag moving forward.

Back to Mentor for a moment. The card is clearly extremely powerful, but we didn’t see it anywhere outside of Standard. That means the foil price being around $60 is hugely incorrect, and it also means the card will likely float down to $15 or so in the coming months.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang is another one that wasn’t easy to see coming, though it was certainly more expected in Standard than anywhere else. A lot of talk was made about Soulflayer, and while the upside on the Flayer may be better or more fun, Tasigur is often a 4/5 for just one mana. And while the ability may not be insane, it’s also a guaranteed way to generate card advantage. $10 is high for now, of course, but I can see this sticking around for a long time in Standard.

As for the decks in the format, we have the wide-open format continue. The Sultai deck that won the event may be the advent of the Dig Through Time/Treasure Cruise shake and bake duo taking over Standard like they did older formats.

We’ll see. It’s too early to draw any big conclusions from Standard, but it looks like delve cards may be, predictably, rising to the top of the format. Look for the supporting casts, mainly the on-color Temples and painlands to follow. That’s a good sign for things like Yavimaya Coast to jump a few dollars.

Modern

Our wide-open format is back, at least according to these results.

As I predicted last week, we saw a lot of Geist of Saint Traft, from Zoo to Jeskai builds. Also, Siege Rhino is far from dead, and the Abzan lists with it and Lingering Souls are just as prevalent. Liliana of the Veil continues to dominate, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

As always, I love Abrupt Decay in the format, and the window to get them under $10 is closing fast. Restoration Angel also saw quite a bit of play, and at $7 now I like it pretty well as a target.

Also, personal aside here, MERFOLK LIVES! Two in the Top 32 of the event, including an interesting blue-white build. Doubt there’s a ton of financial upside here (maybe Tidebinder Mage or Wanderwine Hub?), but I like to see my Fish do well.

Legacy

Decklists can be found here.

Again, just like Standard and Modern, we see some Tasigur. That’s a good sign for it, even though this will fall under $10 in the next month or two. Other than that, it’s still a fairly open metagame that plays Dig Through Time but isn’t warped around it like it was Cruise.

It does seem like Sultai builds with Shardless Agent and Deathrite Shaman are back with Cruise gone. Of these decks, Shaman at $8 is what stands out to me. It’s a long-term call for sure, but also, I think, a fairly safe one.

I don’t know where we’ll go from here, but it will be the Pro Tour that makes the big waves next, and I’m excited to see what the pros brew up for Modern. Whatever it is, the “new” format will, for a time at least, be defined by that event.

Thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler

@Chosler88 on Twitter