Spoiler Highlight: Mai, Scornful Striker in Standard & Pioneer

It's been a while since Magic released a good hatebear against non-creature spells. The year 2025 brought some important cards in this category, such as Voice of Victory and Clarion Conqueror, but there was still something missing to punish decks like Prowess and Mono Red Mice during the last season to force players to think twice before abusing Cori-Steel Cutter or Vivi Ornitier.

Perhaps that's no longer the case.

Mai, Scornful Striker arrives in the Avatar: The Last Airbender set as a new variant of Hatebear that blends Thalia, Guardian of Thraben with Kambal, Consul of Allocation in a color that normally doesn't have specific hate against non-creature spells.

The comparisons with Thalia, however, end when we consider the role these cards play: "locking down" the opponent's ability to use a sweeper earlier and/or sequence two spells in a turn through a taxing effect is quite different from punishing them with life loss and requires different deckbuilding choices.

Despite this difference, both cards, in part, seek similar archetypes: strategies using few or no non-creature spells and that are aggressive enough for the disruption effects to become punitive.

In the case of Mai, Scornful Striker, however, being able to control when to lose life can offer space and also strategies outside "go-wide". For example, a Midrange deck like Dimir could include copies of it in the sideboard to punish an opponent's sequencing with Spellslinger lists like Prowess or Combo, given that these already run a considerable amount of creatures.

Currently, the fate of Mai, Scornful Striker in Standard is uncertain: it's likely that Vivi Ornitier will be banned on November 10th to weaken the dominance of Izzet Cauldron in the format, and this will directly affect the potential of Izzet Prowess to remain a competitively viable archetype after losing three powerful cards to bans.

One problem for the new card in the post-ban environment may be that spellslinger lists become much more aggressive, with Slickshot Show-Off and pump spells, perhaps including Leyline of Resonance — in this case, the six or more damage that Mai can deal in a turn will matter little because, at the same time, the opponent will be going for the kill.

There may be situations where having her in play can "lock down" the Omniscience combo if her controller is playing a more aggressive archetype that can punish the opponent for not being able to deal with her before starting the loops, but there are also some problems with these lines: cards like Into the Flood Maw or Marang River Regent already deal with a Mai that is in play, and there are no ways for her to return to the battlefield, since she doesn't have Flash.

For other archetypes, such as Jeskai Control or Azorius Control, Mai is an option to combat them, but she offers too much room for adaptation: besides being easy to interact with — even with a pseudo-Ward of two life —, she doesn't punish cards like Beza, the Bounding Spring, and Control lists are generally comfortable playing one spell per turn until Beza enters and holds the opponent's clock — from this point onwards, it's easy to circumvent Mai, Scornful Striker and/or generate more value than the opponent can pressure.

If, in the attempt to predict the post-ban Standard, there is little optimism for the new creature, the same cannot be said of her in Pioneer.

Humans and Mardu Legends are viable archetypes in the format, and the combination of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben with Mai, Scornful Striker is far more important than just holding back specific archetypes like Izzet Phoenix and Lotus Combo: they punish cheap interaction like few other cards, and if a Fatal Push costing more is already a problem, having it combined with a Shock will also be trouble.

Furthermore, both creatures guarantee more consistency in enabling Mox Amber for and , opening up more space for cards like Jirina, Dauntless General which serves to protect both while also punishing graveyard-based strategies.

The fact that Mai punishes opponents with damage and has First Strike also has some advantages. It's effective against various engines in Pioneer: even while offering a creature body, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker already exerts enough pressure for interactions with other creatures and the clock created by Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and other cards to do their job.

That's all for today!

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

Thank you for reading!