Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Red Losses
: A fine build-around removal that saw some play in blue-red spellslinging decks. The built-in restriction prevented it from being a factor anywhere else, and it never found itself part of any major Izzet or Temur list. But wherever it was welcome, it was rather efficient, even without going face. Grief Factor: 5/10.
: This excellent rummaging spell from Kaladesh got a new tenure in Standard, reworked as the story of a bonder and his companion. (The two characters also appeared on and .) Its new flavor was not as poignant as the embrace between Chandra and her long-lost mother Pia, but its mechanical value was still tremendous. Granted, the contemporary worked at instant speed and didn't require as much investment in the "discarding matters" theme. When discarding did matter, though, like in Izzet Phoenix decks, the Reunion would indeed feel cathartic. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: This was monored's primary contribution to the cycling archetype, of which it was the second main color. All the payoff cards from that deck (like , , or ) had no application whatsoever outside of it. Now cycling as a win condition is dead, long live cycling as simple draw smoothing. Grief Factor—for "cycling matters" as a whole: 7/10.
and : Much like cycling decks were based in white and red, mutate decks were mostly green and blue, so the other colors' contributions were typically minor. Case in point, red had only these two mutants to offer. The Phoenix was a little too cumbersome and its mutate trigger only improved its own durability without really impacting the rest of the board. On the other hand, that weird-looking Bird had some combo potential with deathtouch creatures and, if you really wanted to be a tryhard, . But that resided entirely within the purview of jank brews. Grief Factor: 3/10.
: Reasonably costed damage-based removal with specific utility for decks that actively want a card in the deck rather than the hand. (The prime example was one of 's targets.) It's a generically useful effect, even in elsewhere, as it can be used to replace a less-than-topical spell we don't currently need to have in hand. Doing it while drawing even more cards, like with , would clearly be preferable. But killing a medium-sized creature in the process isn't that bad, either. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: Ikoria introduced the "trampling damage" for noncreature spells. was another card adopting this same concept. Neither of them was very popular, but it's new design space we'll keep seeing more examples of going forward. Grief Factor: 1/10.
and : Two of the enablers that were a fixture of the cycling archetype. Unlike most of the one-mana cyclers, these were actually hardcast on occasion. In fact, they could even pop up in noncycling decks, especially Footfall Crater, a quirky little Aura that grants trample and haste at minimal cost. Grief Factor: 5/10.
: Two tokens for two mana is a better deal than what offers, and one of these tokens even had extra value, being hasty and mutable. Many lists interested in tokens would run this spell, decks above all. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: This was te main antagonist of the set's story, a self-interested soldier turned bonder, who ultimately devolved into result-oriented fanaticism. His planeswalker card was similarly rigid, essentially showing up only as a centerpiece of Jeskai-colored and, more recently, Temur-colored combo lists. Cheating s onto the battlefield at the cost of a random token was all the rage for a while, although the meta eventually outgrew that shtick, leaving Lukka homeless. Or at least until he was repurposed as a way to fetch in modified Adventure lists. Those decks could jump straight to the semi-unbeatable Serpent by hitting any of the three-mana Adventure creatures or with Lukka's minus ability. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: This is the only card from the Mythos cycle for which extending the cost to its full three-colored fee didn't particularly improve the effect. Most of the times we would use the damage to outright kill its targets anyway. So it merely amounted to a slightly cheaper , provided burning the opponent's face didn't matter too much. No deck ended up very interested in this Mythos. Grief Factor: 3/10.
: Enablers with a cycling cost higher than one didn't satisfy the cycling archetype's basic requirements. This card still elicited some notice as a way to instantly double one creature's damage output and potentially run away with the game. Eventually, a Naya Fury deck emerged that set up to do exactly that, but by then from Core Set 2021 had stolen Raking Claws's thunder, being more synergistic with and . Grief Factor: 4/10.
: Cycling decks used to keep a few copies of this spell in their sideboard, and other red lists started following their cue, too. Artifacts and fliers represent threats that will never be irrelevant, so we may hope for this neat little bundle of answers to return to Standard at some point. Its name doesn't look like a big impediment to that. Grief Factor: 3/10.
: The set's resident "chaos" card. Highly respected by Johnnies and Jennies, any other psychographic profile considered it hateful garbage. Grief Factor: 1/10.
: Ikoria's homage to Gamera had a sudden surge of popularity when a slightly reworked version of the cycling deck started to include it as a secondary win condition. The colossal Turtle would require two full mana to cycle, which in theory was a big no-no for the archetype, but the upside was the chance to drop a 8/8 hasty trampler for just two mana. Grief Factor: 6/10.
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Green Losses
: About two years ago, this green first printed in Dominaria was quietly on its way to become a staple in Standard. But then suddenly some fierce competition flared up over that slot, which isn't even one that green decks enjoy using that much. Cards like and made it hard to care for the older version of the effect. On the other hand, Adventurous Impulse remains the only one that digs reasonably deep and involves a wide enough selection of targets while still costing a single mana in all situations. It's not a card anybody would lose their sleep over, but green players are going to be happy to see it back sooner rather than later. Grief Factor: 4/10.
: This uncommon was the closest thing to a centerpiece mutate decks had in their lineup—surprisingly more effective than the corresponding mythic rare, . Now that Starrix is leaving the scene, it marks the twilight of the entire mechanic it was a poster-Elk for. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: Payoff piece for the casual yet fairly popular combo with and . It was already janky within that setup. Played straight, it crosses over into kitchen table territory, where "meta" is not a word you ever hear uttered. Grief Factor: 3/10.
: A secondary mutate base in Simic decks, but not as fundamental as . Mutating on the latter would help us getting to more action; the green Symbiote was merely a source of life gain, on top of making the mutate pile better. So in most situations, a mutable one-drop like was actually preferable. Besides, Essence Symbiote looked like a Squirrel but regrettably didn't get the subtype. That's certainly something to feel bitter about. Grief Factor: 4/10.
: Mutate is not a parasitic mechanic, because any mutate creature is able to function individually when paired with any of the thousands of non-Human creatures printed before and after Ikoria. That's only true to the extent that a single mutate trigger is relevant enough to make sense in isolation, as opposed to within a shell where it gets to be replicated multiple times. Honestly, we don't have too many cases like that, but Gemrazer is one of those, easily the best one. On a board that already contains an eligible creature, Gemrazer for three mana does the job of , but you also get to keep the improvements on the original creature, which was probably made a 4/4 with reach and trample on top of whatever abilities it already had. This interaction worked magnificently on targets whose bodies were entirely composed of +1/+1 counters, like or . (The latter really needed the trample bonus.) Mutating a Gemrazer was a legitimate turn-three play for Stompy decks, even when the board didn't contain any artifact or enchantment to kill. The irremediable loss of this multi-faceted Beast is nothing short of heartbreaking for green players. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: Minor mutate target. The resulting pile's body could become quite large, but the mutation couldn't happen before turn four. (We would need to drop either the Recluse on three or use its mutate cost.) For competitive purposes, that was too slow by a sizeable margin. Grief Factor: 2/10.
: Technically, the restriction to creature spells isn't too much of a damning factor for a green accelerator. But in a meta with so many better mana dorks to drop on two—from to —this guy never had the slightest chance to matter. Grief Factor: 2/10.
: A very flavorful card retelling the King Kong tale through many winsome details. But also a legitimate curve topper for green decks—and not just in Brawl, where Kogla became as much of a staple as . Ramp decks and even decks sporadically ran a singleton as a silver bullet, in either main deck or sideboard. After all, it's a finisher that's also an answer to creatures, artifacts, and enchantments. An underappreciated combo involved , which let us pay four mana to keep fighting every turn with our giant indestructible Ape. Grief Factor: 7/10.
: What we could legitimately call an oldie (it first appeared in 2011 as part of Mirrodin Besieged), this digger was designed for creature-heavy decks, but it's tribal builds that exploited it the most. No tribal strategy involving green had an enormously successful run this past Standard cycle (Elves kind of always exist, but they became viable only after Kaldheim), so the three mana to pay for a Stampede never felt like a justified investment. But the power level of this spell in the correct environment is a proven fact. Grief Factor: 4/10.
: The best high-profile ramp spell once rotated out. had extra value in creature builds, but the opportunity to just cycle the Path away in the late game was a decisive one. It compared favorably with classic double-land fetchers like and , surpassing even an established and much reprinted card like . Here's hoping many other planes other than Ikoria will have migratory fauna. Grief Factor: 7/10.
: And speaking of migrations, this wild moose-looking Beast on the move worked well when exclusively cast for its mutate cost on turn three. It had the effect of any old three-mana accelerator, plus the chance of improving the body of its target. It started to be regarded as even more of a critical player in mutate decks after Zendikar Rising, when its interaction with came to the foreground. Once that mutation synergy was established, any instance of landfall would copy the entire Scute/Greathorn pile. Going wide with a 3/4 (or larger) creature has to be more satisfying than doing the same with a bunch of 1/1s. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: Card advantage in the form of recursion is tricky to accommodate in a deck that doesn't do something specific with it. Throne of Eldraine had the superior , which still didn't see much play. This Mythos could turn into a tutor for the full Sultai shebang, but it remained too slow, and not something even Sultai Control would bother with. Ironically, green builds in Brawl could sometimes find a slot for Once and Future, but Sultai lists in that format had too many other options to juggle. Grief Factor: 3/10.
: One of the top removal spells in green during this era. After Core Set 2021, it was slightly overshadowed by . Both had a way to deal additional damage on top of their removal effect. Primal Might had a less expensive basic state, as it could just scale down to good old in a pinch. On its part, Ram Through worked at instant speed and was a bite, not a fight. The match between the two seemed perfectly even, and the most recent iterations of Stompy, which also have available, usually ran a mix of the three. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: Both black and green had self-discarding finishers to employ as designated targets for reanimator spells. Titanoth Rex was better than —easier to cycle, more impactful on the battlefield—but neither of them ensured a straightforward reanimator archetype would become competitive at any point in the past two years of Standard. Grief Factor: 4/10.
: Vivien is known to lend her name to impressive planeswalker cards. Her latest incarnation ranked as the best surviving green walker after the rotation of War of the Spark. It was a high-profile token factory and a card advantage engine all rolled into one, featuring the full text from . Sharing Standard with wasn't easy for any card with ambition of taking the refueling role in green. Vivien did well enough to warrant a couple of slots in most green decks and was recently sighted in Temur Lukka as well. Grief Factor: 8/10.
: The constant challenge of coming up with a strictly better this time landed us on a version with cycling. That keyword usually makes every card better, so Wilt became the go-to Naturalize effect for the sideboard of any deck running green, particularly once had left the meta. We'll see what we'll get next in this much-revisited department. Grief Factor: 6/10.
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Multicolored Losses
: By now it should be clear that Ikoria was a set in which all the most significant cards had specialized uses. There aren't a lot of generically useful spells we'll really grieve for here, and the multicolored section looks even more so. Case in point, Back for More was a neat reanimator spell that, in exchange for one mana more than the usual cost for this kind of effect in contemporary Standard, would reward us with instant speed and a free fight. It was remarkable in Limited, playable in Constructed, except for the fact that a black-green archetype that ramped into reanimating big monsters didn't ever materialize as a competitive element of the meta. Grief Factor: 4/10.
, , , , and : The Apexes all made for great commanders in Brawl, and only occasionally intriguing additions to decks of their respective triplet of colors in regular Standard. As powerful as most of these cards felt, most successful Constructed builds got perfectly by without them. Illuna was passed over by in mutate decks, Nethroi never got to guide the wicked reanimator combo brew it was made for, Brokkos was exceedingly slow and not incredibly impactful, and it was unclear what build Snapdax even wanted to inhabit. (Mardu Midrange? That one certainly didn't happen in any shape or form.) Only Vadrok left some marks as part of a tempo/combo deck that aimed to recycle spells. was also there, another instance of an uncommon mutant doing more or less the same thing as a mythic Apex with the same skill set. Grief Factor overall: 7/10.
: Ikoria's resident bounty hunter was too much of a flavorfully and mechanically rich character not to become a fan favorite. Brawl decks were imperiously led by him with gusto. As for regular Standard decks, Chevill might feel a bit too frail to survive and too slow to get going, although both "deathtouch tribal" with and some removal-heavy lists made room for the monster slayer. Grief Factor: 6/10.
, , , , and : Yet another magnificent Johnny/Jenny cycle with only minor impact on the competitive universe. Out of these five triple-colored enchantments, all of which were strictly meant as exquisite build-around cards, only Titans' Nest translated into a reliable archetype. It used cards like and to cast and ahead of schedule—great fun, but always overshadowed by the more successful Sultai Ultimatum. Like any other of the janky brews devised to abuse a card from this cycle, Song Storm was too showy for its own good. Grief Factor—as a whole: 5/10.
: The dedicated Human build that was one of Ikoria's secondary themes hasn't ultimately been very successful, but this cheap exiler was alluring enough to run even within lists that only included a small number of tribal components to sustain it. Grief Factor: 6/10.
, , , , and : Despite their incredibly steep mana requirements, this new cycle of Ultimatums (coming twelve years after from Shards of Alara) convincingly made its presence felt in the meta, if not in a uniform way. The graveyard-based Eerie Ultimatum didn't turn into the replacement for it aimed to be, while Inspired Ultimatum and Ruinous Ultimatum were intended for control decks that in the end didn't really need them. On the other hand, Genesis Ultimatum and chiefly Emergent Ultimatum proved to be worth their casting cost, becoming the finishing moves of archetypes that gained dominance for long stretches of time. Considering both Ultimatum cycles were designed as a group of Timmy/Tammy cards, the unambiguous success of at least a couple of them in the competitive arena represents a formidable accomplishment. Even the less played ones will be missed dearly. Grief Factor: 8/10.
, , , , and : Among these five "keyword lords," Slitherwisp is the only one that saw play, due to Dimir Flash quickly asserting itself even before morphing into the superior Dimir Rogues. On the other hand, Quartzwood Crasher is the one that most ignored the association with its keyword, as the more top-heavy Gruul builds just ran it as an individually powerful five-drop. Grief Factor: 6/10.
and : A white-black Human tribal list did emerge after Ikoria, and these two lords were part of it. Unfortunately, the Humans didn't manage to match the importance Knights had in the earlier stretch of this Standard era and Rogues still have in its closing stages. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: One of the leading Brawl commanders of this era, Kinnan was less of a sensation in regular Standard. Ramp decks built around the doubling effect were feasible, but they'd oscillate wildly between being win-more and not reliable enough. In general, Simic Ramp would do well for itself without requiring any help from the merry bonder. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: This Lizard was one of a cycle of creatures that could mutate for hybrid mana. It's the only one that showed up on the competitive side of Standard, being among the engines of the spells list that also ran the similar-minded mutant . Grief Factor: 5/10.
: Narset was sort of vacationing on Ikoria, and didn't really partake in the events of the story. We can say roughly the same about her presence in the meta. Jeskai Control didn't hate running her, as her abilities aligned perfectly with the archetype's goals, providing some life, some ramp, some looting, and a solid removal effect. It's just, nothing Narset did felt especially necessary, and her planeswalker card felt perpetually assigned to a flex slot. Grief Factor: 7/10.
: Another mutant with high potential that simply didn't fit in any existing archetype in a way that made it indispensable. To be fair, as a repeatable , it felt a bit too convoluted, requiring a creature on the battlefield on turn two, and then one mana to sink into the activation cost. Grief Factor: 5/10.
: Rielle's shtick was turning discard on its head, which was extremely effective and definitely worthy of mythic status. Spellslinging lists with the card as a centerpiece were happily assembled, though none of them were streamlined enough to rise to the top tier. Even Jeskai Cycling only sometimes went here. Once again, however, a true powerhouse in the command zone. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: This little guy wasn't one of the Izzet Dragons responsible for the name of a very successful spellslinging build that surfaced after Kaldheim and Strixhaven (the Dragons in question would be and ). Nonetheless, our garden-Faerie variety of the draconian race established itself as a beloved early presence in faster iterations of Izzet Spells. Grief Factor: 7/10.
: The disabled warrior Winota almost singlehandedly (no pun intended) kept the torch of Boros creature decks aflame. Satisfying this bonder's build-around requirements was pretty easy, just a matter of concocting a varied mix of Humans and non-Humans. The latter triggered the look-and-cheat effect, the former composed the aggro material we'd get to deploy for free—tapped, attacking, and temporarily indestructible to boot. The card advantage was insane, and the meta relevance not negligible. The Winota decks kept becoming better the more new enablers and payoffs were added to the pool, with the latest iteration going Naya to include crucial cards like , , and . Grief Factor: 8/10.
: The finisher of the cycling deck and the main reason why that archetype ever existed in the first place. It was, of course, completely useless anywhere else. Grief Factor: 1/10.
: The bonder cycle was mostly meant for Limited. This one had the correct colors, creature type, and keyword to find irregular employment as one of the flashing Dimir cards. It really was a cunning fella. Grief Factor: 5/10.
: A truly excellent creature with two possible, non-mutually exclusive payoffs. On the one hand, it was able to function as a surrogate , or at least as a reliable sacrifice outlet. On the other hand, it could act as a huge threat in any self-milling deck. None of these applications ended up carrying a whole lot of weight in the competitive meta, but it wasn't entirely the Artisan's fault. Had stars aligned more for either graveyard synergies or Golgari in this era, we could be here telling a very different story about this creepy little Nightmare. Grief Factor: 6/10.
, , , , , , , , , and : Ah, the dreaded companions! This most controversial cycle of quasi-commanders became immediately so influential to warrant an unprecedented emergency nerfing that completely rewrote their mechanic by adding an extra step. Even with the new rule now essentially adding an extra three generic mana to their casting cost, the companions remained an important element of this Standard era. Almost all of them saw play, with the big winners being Lurrus and Yorion, both a central component of opposite-looking archetypes. The white-black Cat provided recursion in lean Dimir Rogues, Rakdos Sacrifices, Cycling, or Monowhite Aggro builds; the white-blue Bird infused the more bloated, eighty-card control or ramp lists with a flickering of retriggered value. In the long shadow of these two, we had Obosh doubling damage in aggro lists. Jegantha and Kaheera were free extra cards in decks that incidentally met their requirements. (For Kaheera, it could be decks with no creatures at all.) And Gyruda briefly headlined its own combo deck, where it would cheat other big finishers onto the battlefield. Love them or hate them, a new Standard where the companion clauses don't need to be minded anymore will need some getting used to. Grief Factor: 10/10.
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Colorless Losses
, , and : These three cards were expressly created to guarantee that any color would have access to a handy mutate base in Limited. They're noteworthy for being the odd colorless creatures that aren't artifacts, Eldrazi, or Ugin's creations. In fact, at the time of their printing, only existed in that category, and the big changeling doesn't even really have a colorless identity. To be fair, though, the flavor of some of these is a bit sketchy, with regard to their colorlessness. We can maybe buy it for the Egg, which exists in an indeterminate state. But what causes the absence of colors in a fairly normal Insect or Fox? Grief Factor: 1/10.
: Not reliable enough to really work as a Constructed beater, this mutating Giant was endlessly fascinating for casual players. Its amusing keyword lottery will be missed by many. Grief Factor: 6/10.
: The greatest trap card of the set. Oh-so-many willful players tried and failed to break the Ozolith in Standard. It just never performed at a high enough level to deserve the allocation of one or more card slots, even in a "+1/+1 counters matter" deck. Now, if , , and had been in Standard, we would be making a completely different post-mortem assessment of this mystifying artifact. Then again, were all those cards ever Standard legal at the same time, the Ozolith would probably be the least of our concerns. Grief Factor: 2/10.
, , , , , , , , , and : At the lowest point of this Standard era, when the Temples were made moot by Dimir Rogues' milling effects, and the Pathway cycle was yet to be completed, we'd sometimes stoop this low. Sure, they at least gave us 1 life, triggering and whatnot. (Admittedly, the previous Standard cycle employed some of them at its most powerful, if purely to help .) But let's pray we'll never have to rely on this kind of land for fixing. Grief Factor: 0/10.
: Accommodating a colorless mana source in any deck's mana base is always tricky. For instance, the card-drawing from the Enclave was a good fit for monogreen decks with plenty of enablers. But those same lists might have wanted to ensure a or on turn three, something a land that doesn't tap for green actively works against. Grief Factor: 5/10.
, , , , and : Despite being hardcore tap lands, the Triomes, also known as "tricycle lands," were legitimately Constructed playable, unlike . For one, decks running all three of their colors could use the fixing, even at the expense of some tempo early on. Having the three basic land types was crucial for some interactions, like or Eldraine's . And being able to cycle them away in the late game was quite advantageous, to the point that some players would choose to run them over the Temples even in two-color decks. Of course there's a limit to the number of tap lands that's healthy to include in any given build, and it's not a very large number. Grief Factor: 5/10.
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