With the release of Shadows over Innistrad, Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged -sets will rotate out of Standard. In general this will mean that the decks are going to streamline quite a bit, as 4+ coloured manabases are no longer a realistic option due to the fetchlands rotating out. Today I'll list some of the most potent decks for new standard with Shadows over Innistrad spoilers.
BW Midrange
The deck's strong midrange core will remain very much the same after rotation. There are also multiple interesting cards from SOI that are going to fight right in. The most notable addition of course being Avacyn, which I believe is going to be best card in the whole set.
4 Knight of the White Orchid 4 Hangarback Walker 4 Wasteland Strangler 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited 2 Declaration in Stone 2 Anguished Unmaking 4 Transgress the Mind 2 Stasis Snare 4 Silkwrap 8 Plains 5 Swamp 4 Forsaken Sanctuary 4 Shamblin Vent 4 Caves of Koilos
UR Eldrazi
The deck can be viewed as Standard's version of PT Oath of the Gatewatch winning Modern UR Eldrazi, obviously without the "Sol-lands" .The addition from Shadows over Innistrad is Westvale Abbey. The land is very interesting and potent in a deck like this which is able generate of lot of creatures relatively easily and hence make the demon-activation a reality in every game. The numbers of each card in the deck are currently a bit random and once the metagame is up, we're able to optimize the decklist against the known opposition.
4 Drowner of Hope 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 3 Hangarback Walker 3 Hedron Crawler 3 Matter Reshaper 2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar 4 Thought-Knot Seer 3 Reality Smasher 2 Herald of Kozilek 3 Vile Aggregate
3 Roast
4 Mountain 4 Foundry of the Consuls 2 Corrupted Crossroads
2 Spawning Bed 4 Shivan Reef 3 Highland Lake 3 Westvale Abbey 4 Wandering Fumarole
GR Tokens
This archtype just seems to stick there day in day out. The referred build is a tad slower than it's ancestors and could as well be treated as a midrange deck instead of an aggro deck. The deck's strenght lies on tokens and planeswalkers, both of which are extremely strong against pinpoint-removal. The deck also includes my favourite card of Shadows over Innistrad, Arlinn Kord, which fits the deck perfectly.
4 Sylvan Advocate 4 Dragon Fodder 4 Thopter Engineer 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer 3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar 4 Hangarback Walker 4 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar 4 Arlinn Kord 1 Chandra, Flamecaller 2 Oath of Nissa 1 Oath of Chandra 2 Outnumber 1 Foundry of the Consuls 4 Cinder Glade 4 Timber Gorge 8 Forest 9 Mountain
New spoilers are coming everyday and I'm very interested to see what the rest of the set has to offer.
So far Shadows over Innistrad certainly looks like a very powerful set!
Have a good weekend, Sami Häggkvist