Standard: 7 Decks with Foundations to try out!

Foundations is the largest Magic expansion to hit Standard: with over 700 cards, the new core set is almost a deckbuilding paradise.

On the one hand, its reprints show the importance of synergy between new and old cards and how they can define strategies with potential. On the other hand, there are a dozen staples from the past that have become useless due to the notorious power creep that some of them have suffered in the last 10 to 15 years.

In this article, We present seven decklists with mechanics based on Foundations cards, or whose improvement for certain competitive archetypes can put them on the radar!

Azorius Cats

Cats is one of the Foundations typals, and so far, the only one with a solid enough shell to build a deck around. Arahbo, the First Fang and Regal Caracal provide the consistency needed to keep a board full while benefiting from using creatures of the same type.

Claws Out is another motivator to take advantage of type interactions: +2/+2 to all creatures for two mana is a strong combat trick, and just one Regal Caracal in play can reduce its mana value, making the lord even more lethal on the board. Another very relevant cat in Standard today is Enduring Curiosity, and with a list so focused on go wide, we can draw three or more cards in the same turn during combat.

Skyknight Squire is a new two-drop that interacts well with our lords and the number of creatures we have. There are several ways to take advantage of the interaction slots, but I opted for Invasion of Gobakhan to delay cards like Sunfall and further reward our go wide plan while protecting ourselves from Gix’s Command or Day of Judgment, in addition to some maindeck removals for more interactive games.

Boros Convoke

Boros Convoke gained some new tools with Foundations. If Skyknight Squire already looks strong in a deck that puts up a token with Arahbo, the First Fang, it's even more powerful in a list that can create three or more tokens in a turn with Gleeful Demolition, triggering its ability and making it a threat on its own.

Searslicer Goblin was another two-drop that Foundations gave us that interacts well with Convoke since we're attacking most turns, making it an extra copy of Resolute Reinforcements early in the game and another way to generate tokens every turn as the game goes on.

The most important addition, however, is in the Sideboard: Raise the Past allows Boros Convoke to come back from cheap sweepers like Day of Judgment or Slagstorm, punishes cards like Cut Down, and allows for some powerful turns with Warden of the Inner Sky or Skyknight Squire.

Orzhov Soul Sisters

Soul Sisters is the name given to the archetype born from the mix of Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant with effects that benefit from life gain like Serra Ascendant. We don't have any of these cards in Standard today, but Hinterland Sanctifier and Case of the Uneaten Feast provide a solid core for this type of strategy, which already has many cards that grow when we gain life.

With 12 cards that gain life when creatures come into play, we can quickly create snowball effects in the first three turns: Amalia Benavides Aguirre can filter our top deck while she grows, Ajani's Pridemate can start the game as a 4/4, and Essence Channeler can turn any creature into a threat if it's destroyed.

Enduring Innocence benefits this strategy because all creatures in the deck have two power when they come into play, generating draws with Duskmourn’s enchantment, which also interacts with Hinterland Sanctifier’s life gain triggers and has Lifelink on its own.

The deck also has a Bat sub-theme with Zoraline, Cosmos Caller and Deep-Cavern Bat to trigger more iterations of life gain and grow our creatures mid-combat.

This is a list where we could go “All-In” and play a set of Authority of the Consuls in the maindeck if we really want to win Aggro and take advantage of the card's ability to make creatures enter tapped and favor its controller's Tempo, but the current Metagame demands permanent board interactions, so we added some cheap removals to the maindeck.

Boros Burn

While I usually focus more on the competitive side and ranked play, Foundations is a gateway for many players to start their experience in Standard. Therefore, I wanted to bring at least one functional budget list that could win games at a FNM or weekly event, and Boros Burn is always an option in that regard.

Boltwave is the closest thing to Lightning Bolt that we have in Standard today, being an “improved” version of Lava Spike, Viashino Pyromancer has a Shock on the opponent attached to its body and the Boros Charm reprint gives this category of decks one of the most important elements it requires: more reach with a cheap spell.

Slickshot Show-Off is the most expensive card on the list, but any red Aggro today is much worse if you're not playing it, and given how it migrated to Pioneer and Modern, it doesn't seem like a bad investment for a new player. Monastery Swiftspear and Ghitu Lavarunner make up the aggressive one-drops.

If you want a non-budget version, this is the variant I plan to test in the first few weeks of Foundations. Emberheart Challenger and Screaming Nemesis are too strong to not use, and as we move down the Valiant path, Monstrous Rage becomes more relevant.

The main appeal of Burn compared to Prowess is that it is more interactive in Aggro mirrors: the mix of Burst Lightning, Lightning Helix and Shock allows us to slow down the opponent's clock while maintaining our threats attacking.

Mono Blue Flash

Brineborn Cutthroat and Spectral Sailor were once the stars of one of the cheapest decks to win a Pro Tour (at the time, Mythic Championship) in Magic history in the hands of Autumn Burchett. Now, they return to Standard and are accompanied by a Curiosity on steroids in Enduring Curiosity.

Spectral Sailor suffered a power creep with Faerie Mastermind, and will be on the bench until the next rotation. The plan for this deck is pretty simple: play your cards on your opponent's turn, returning creatures to their hand, countering key spells, and building up your threats in the process to the point where Enduring Curiosity comes into play, and we start accumulating tons of card advantage while holding off the tempo.

All of our spells have the dual function of either slowing down the opponent's game to advance ours or protecting our threats from removal or sweepers. What's the point of a Sunfall when we can just Unsummon our most important creature and play it again at the end of the turn?

This is an archetype with a lot of potential for tournament play at local stores, and could even win a slightly more competitive event in an unprepared Metagame. You can expect a Deck Tech for it a few weeks after Foundations releases.

Mono Black Conqueror

Standard has been invaded by combos in recent expansions, and Foundations continues that tradition with Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Enduring Tenacity.

With both cards in play, when your opponent takes one point of damage, Bloodthirsty Conqueror will make you gain that much life. Enduring Tenacity's ability will trigger, causing your opponent to lose that much life, triggering Bloodthirsty Conqueror again, and repeating the loop.

This combo doesn't differ much from Unstoppable Slasher and Bloodletter of Aclazotz, but it's one turn slower and Enduring Tenacity is a worse card than Unstoppable Slasher while Bloodthirsty Conqueror is definitely better than Bloodletter of Aclazotz in terms of combat longevity.

The rest of the list takes the Mono Black Demons as its base, as it has some micro-interactions with it: Enduring Tenacity doubles the damage done by Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber when we have a demon in play, so we rely on the insertion of Archfiend of the Dross and also the new Soulstone Sanctuary to increase the consistency of the enchantment.

Golgari Elfball

This is an experimental list that I can't imagine doing well in Best of Three, so I didn't build a sideboard for it. Elves are one of the most popular creature types in Magic, and the return of several iconic cards from this strategy made it to Standard with Foundations, giving us an idea and enough tools to try an Aggro-Combo.

The plan for this list is to use Elvish Archdruid to cast a gigantic Genesis Wave, ideally finding Surrak and Goreclaw and a copy of Tyvar, the Pummeler and Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler.

With Genesis Wave finding these cards, just use Elvish Archdruid to generate a lot of mana and activate Tyvar, the Pummeler's ability to give +6/+6 to all your creatures over and over again - since they all have Trample and Haste due to Surrak and Goreclaw, just attack for lethal damage.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!