Troll Trader’s Pro Tour Picks
In the lead up to the Pro Tour, we here at Troll Traders, like any other group of magic players, have been discussing which cards we expect to be the tournament’s biggest hitters. Cards like Smuggler’s Copter and Chandra, Torch of Defiance have been on everyone’s radar ever since they were first spoiled, and many words have been written and (hopefully) read all across the internet about why these cards will dominate standard in the weeks to come. However, it is far more interesting to try to identify which of the seemingly unassuming cards from a new set, or previously ignored cards from the existing standard pool, will be powerful enough to enable the pro’s to miss out on a day on one of Hawaii’s beaches this coming Sunday.
Over the last few days I have asked all of the Troll Traders players and trade experts which cards they expect to overperform or have a break out performance during the Pro Tour. Below are some of the cards, and a brief explanation of why they might just go all the way this weekend.
Bristling Hydra, Elctrostatic Pummeler, Uncaged Fury
All three of these cards were mentioned multiple times by the players, particularly Lewis McLeod and Rob Catton . These cards in confluence with other pump spells enable startlingly fast kills, sometimes as early as turn 4 with little or no previous damage required. Rob described the way they allow for an infect-esque deck in standard, with both consistency and redundancy. Bristling Hydra is almost impossible to kill, and will make most conventional removal suites look silly. Elctrostatic Pummeler starts of small, but it is relatively easy to have it dealing double figure damage with only one or two pump spells, and making excess energy to activate its ability multiple times should be relatively easy considering the array of energy providing cards available in red and green. Uncaged Fury will often be the icing on the cake, making your huge threat into an instant K.O.
This card stood out to me early on in testing cards from Kaladesh, and has impressed Rob Catton and a few other members of Team Troll Trader. Whilst i have never been a fan of creatures that can’t play defence, this card is so strong that this flaw is likely to be forgivable. Not only is it an easy to cast, colourless, above curve recursive threat, but it also combines perfectly with the Prized Amalgam/ Haunted Dead Package that we saw in the last standard format and even in the resurgent modern Dredge deck. If the format is slow enough for graveyard decks to find a toehold then it is likely Scrounger will be a key piece in it.
Several player’s mentioned this card as a possible surprise package. Whilst all indications are that this is going to be a comparatively fast format, and the inherent risks of running a 5 mana enchantment in such and environment, Metallurgic Summonings may just be strong enough to hold its own. If games are being dominated by must kill creatures, there could easily be a window for a removal and burn heavy deck, focussed on spending the early game preventing anything too scary from sticking on the battlefield. If this is the case Summonings is not only a potential win-con, but also allows for all the removal used in the early game to be exhumed from the graveyard and used to clear a path for the construct tokens to finish of the game.
This may seem like a strange inclusion in this list given the success Displacer has enjoyed since its printing in Oath of the Gatewatch. However, whilst Displacer has proved popular in eternal formats, its only time in the standard limelight was in the short lived Crypotolith Rites decks that couldnt quite keep a seat at a top table dominated by Bant Company and GW Tokens. The release of Kaladesh has brought a slew of new powerful enter the battlefild effects just crying out to be abused by white’s sole eldrazi. All of the gearhulks pair nicely with Displacer, as does Cloudblazer, Demon of Dark Schemes and even Skysovereign (which conveniently enough has crew 3). On top of these, cards like Reflector Mage are still in the format, and facing down a Displacer-Reflector combo will be no easier now than it was before, with even vehicles not safe from instant speed repeatable unsummons.
The outside pick from a few was the new Legendary Blue/Green Elf; Rashmi. The downside with this card is real, if the format is super fast then tapping out on turn 4 for a paltry 2/3 will be very difficult. However, if this card survives then it may be very difficult to overcome, not only will it provide you with a constant stream of card advantage, but is likely to allow you to cheat on both mana and timing restrictions. Both of these have been historically good, and underpinned many of recent standard’s most oppressive decks. If there is a deck that can both survive long enough to utilise the ability, and play cheap efficient cards in both player’s turns then i would not be shocked if this card surprised a few come the weekend.
