Reforging Fate - Sleepers in Spoiler Season
Not every card is immediately powerful. I doubt anyone saw $5 Stoke the Flames coming, and Goblin Rabblemaster went through spoiler season with fairly little hype - its initial price was $4, and it quickly dropped to less than a dollar until it started seeing Standard play. On a smaller scale, Seeker of the Way is an uncommon that's become a Standard staple in multiple archetypes.
Fate Reforged has several cards that have passed under the radar so far. Here's a few I think have untapped potential:
Soul summons is simply a 2/2 for 2 on its own. However, its interactions with other cards make it a serious threat to your opponent. The randomness is in theory a drawback, but that hasn't stopped cards like Delver of Secrets from seeing play when combined with library manipulation. While the potential for this card in Standard is low, Modern and Legacy are another story.
Remember, if a face-down card leaves the battlefield and then is returned (such as by Cloudshift), it comes back face up. So if we were to manifest Emrakul, the Aeons Torn ...
It's a combo that relies on three separate cards, but it does have potential to create a fun tier 2-3 deck capable of winning smaller events. One advantage this deck does have over many combo decks is the ability to be mono white. In Legacy, that means you can abuse the Land Tax/Scroll Rack engine in the same deck.
Prowess is really good. We've seen this with Monastery Swiftspear and Seeker of the Way. This is another card I have high hopes for outside of Standard. I can't stress enough how amazing this card is. I play Modern U/R Delver, and my Monastery Swiftspear are consistently hitting for 2, possibly 3 damage every turn. Now imagine if they didn't die to Lightning Bolt.
The only way to deal with Jeskai Sage without incurring card disadvantage is Path to Exile, but that's negative tempo. 1 mana on your opponent's side plus a free Rampant Growth worth another 2 mana.
Having your creature draw you a card when it dies is so much better than it looks. You can freely chump block and make bluff attacks whenever you want, or combine it with a burn spell to take down a Tarmogoyf or Siege Rhino happily.
A black intro pack rare with the ability to wipe out an army of 1/1 tokens? There's no way anything like that would ever see play!
Jokes aside, this really is comparable to Doomwake Giant in a lot of respects. They're both 5-drops, and both of them laugh in the face of green ramp strategies that play Hornet Queen. I expect this to be at least a sideboard card in Standard, as a 5-power flyer is pretty solid on its own. If the game goes long, being able to build up your board while stifling your opponent's is devestating in the grindy Abzan/Sultai decks.
I suspect Whip of Erebos builds will stick with Doomwake Giant (because of the ability to gain value off of whipping it back), while the more fair versions of those same decks will play Archfiend of Depravity.
A 2-drop warrior that wants you to play white permanents goes directly into black-white warriors. It has amazing synergy with Chief of the Edge, getting a total of +2/0 and first strike. The best comparison to make here would be with Porcelain Leigonnaire. While it's conditional, this Standard is at a much lower power level than Scars of Mirrodin / Innistrad Standard. A 3/2 first strike swinging on turn 3 is amazing.
Another intro-pack rare with Standard potential. I would never cast this normally. Being able to spend 4-mana for a token copy of whatever you need this turn is very good even if the flamerush rider eats a removal spell. The first option that came to mind for this card is a Temur aggro deck where you can copy huge creatures to get in for tons of damage. You can even use it as a burn spell to finish off an opponent if you have a evasive creatures like Ashcloud Phoenix, Stormbreath Dragon, or potentially one of the non-legendary dragons that we have yet to see.
There's also potential for a value deck to run this card to reuse enter-the-battlefield effects. I could see a Jund Constellation deck abusing it by making Doomwake Giant copies to shrink your opponent's creatures allowing the Flamerush Rider to survive combat.
Of course, the card I most want to use it with is Wingmate Roc. You attack with both, get another Wingmate Roc attacking that goes away at end of turn, and another token that sticks around. Even if your flamerush rider dies, paying 4-mana for what's essentially a 3/4 flyer with haste is fine.
This is an interesting one. It's card advantage, and the 2/2s alone are ok. Instant speed is what really makes this card work. You probably want to run this in a creature heavy deck so that you'll often either be getting creatures you can flip, or turning dead draws into 2/2 creatures. Casting it on your opponent's end step lets you untap with the potential to surprise your opponent with a huge creature ready to attack.
This works best in the Temur colors because of the existence of Magma Jet, the most efficient method of scrying in Standard. That combined with the Temples should give you reasonable information on what to expect. On the occasion you do cast one blindly, in a well-built deck it should be all-upside. This is especially true if other manifest cards like Whisperwood Elemental see play. If enough good Manifest cards are printed, it might become worthwhile to build your deck around guaranteeing creatures as often as possible.
This last card is also the most likely of any of these to see Standard play. This guy fits perfectly into U/B control decks. You don't care about how quickly you close out the game, but rather how reliably. Silumgar, the Drifting Death can't be killed via most removal, so he's solid there. What pushes him over Pearl Lake Ancient and Prognostic Sphinx is the utility the -1/-1 effect gives. I've seen control players forced to use a Perilous Vault just to handle a single Hordeling Outburst. Silumgar, the Drifting Death nullifies a ton of powerful creatures in the current Standard without requiring a board wipe. When you do have to wipe the board, we now have Crux of Fate. The ability to affect only non-dragons is excellent with Silumgar, the Drifting Death as your finisher. You can tap out for him, then wipe whatever they play and lock them out of the game.
There's still plenty of spoilers left to go, so keep a lookout for other cards that are being passed over. You never know what the next Goblin Rabblemaster will be. You can view all the spoilers as they're released on MTGGoldfish.
