5 Sleepers to Watch at Pro Tour Eldritch Moon
We’re mere days from Pro Tour Eldritch Moon. The pros are keeping their cards close to their chests and guarding the secrets of standard from their enemies. There’s no way of knowing what spicy brews might make their way to the top tables over in Sydney, but here are a few lesser-discussed cards to keep your eye out for over the course of the weekend.
When a card has “draw three cards” written on it, it’s probably worth taking a look at. I personally believe in this card quite strongly , and despite feeling that it might be more at home alongside cards like Thought Scour in modern, it could well slot into standard too.
The important thing to note about this card are that it often feels good even if you’re not in the perfect situation to cast it. Sometimes you’ll cast it for 4 and discard 2 dead cards, but when you’rerunning out a 3/ 4 with prowess and drawing 3 new cards, that still feels strong.
I am hoping that at least 1 team feels as strongly as I do that this card has potential. I’ll certainly be watching to see if it makes some moves at the PT.
This card hasn’t been very widely discussed, but it’s a perfect curve-topper in a B/G rites shell, similar to the one that popped up at PT Shadows Over Innistrad. This is the sort of thing that deck was really looking for. Rites help you cast it early, and flipping it over is very easy using your team of expendable dudes and scion tokens. This card solves one of the major problems that that deck previously had, which was breaking through an established board in the mid-game. It was good at sneaking through a huge Nantuko Husk, but the Pariah could enable the deck to make space for its little guys to keep sneaking damage in, while also presenting a huge flying threat in itself.
We’ve seen Thalia in action already at the recent SCG standard opens, and she definitely looks strong. I think Thalia should see play, but I’m not sure which deck she fits best into yet. Her CMC and size makes her a solid inclusion in a variety of Collected Company decks, but she could similarly slot into aggressive human decks. I’m sure she’s on a lot of people’s radars as a playable card, so I really can’t wait to see what becomes of this versatile little beater. She has been widely hailed as a strong card against Company decks, so we may well see her turn up if people think that Bant company will be one of the most represented decks at the tournament.
Mindwrack Demon
While Delirium didn’t make much noise at PT Shadows Over Innistrad, I think the payoffs are definitely in place for the mechanic now that Eldritch Moon has released. With those payoffs available, I think people will reevaluate cards like Mindwrack Demon that both enable delirium, and benefit from it being turned on.With Grim Flayer, Ishkanah, and Gnarlwood Dryad around, delirium is looking better than ever. If a shell exists that can make the most of Delirium, Mindwrack Demon will probably find a home in it, unless the deck turned out to be a nearly creatureless control build.
If an aggressive red deck makes it through any team’s testing, I’d be shocked for it to not include Hanweir Garrison. If you remember Goblin Rabblemaster from a couple of years ago, the Garrison is able to behave very similarly to that card. Atarka’s Command is still in standard, and this is just the kind of thing it loves playing with. Combined with a suite of other cheap red creatures, all of the pieces could be around for another Atarka red deck to emerge, and the Garrison could well be the jewel in its crown.
Whatever shows up, we’re in for a great weekend of Magic. Are there any sleeper cards on your radar that you’ll be keeping an eye out for at PT EMN? Let me know in the comments below.
