Yesterday, we presented our Standard deck power rankings for this weekend’s Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica. Today, we’re going to dive a little deeper into Standard and rank the Top 10 individual Standard cards.
What’s the point of ranking individual cards, you ask? Well, Fantasy Pro Tour launched its card drafting feature last week and we’re here to help you make educated decisions when you’re drafting your team. Cards on your team earn points for each copy of the card that makes it into the Top 8, so knowing which cards are the most-played or are four-ofs in the best deck in the format are essential for putting together a successful team.
One of the most important card stats on Fantasy Pro Tour is what we call xRank, which is a power ranking system that takes into the account the popularity of a deck, how many copies of a card are played in that deck, plus a bit of secret sauce. So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 cards in Standard (according to our xRank stat) going into Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica.
10. Chemister’s Insight
As the replacement for the recently-rotated Glimmer of Genius, Chemister’s Insight slots into Jeskai Control with an average of 3.2 copies per deck. It’s a little too slow to make it into the Izzet Drakes deck, but we ranked Jeskai Control as the #1 deck in Standard, making Chemister’s Insight a pick with high upside.
9. Shock
One of the strategies for building a strong team of cards on Fantasy Pro Tour is to choose cards that appear in multiple of the top decks in a format. Shock is the perfect card for that kind of strategy, often appearing as a four-of in Mono-Red aggro and Izzet Drakes, and also getting included in Boros Angels and occasionally in Jeskai Control. That totals to about 20% of all decks playing Shock with an average of 3.4 copies per deck—not bad for a single red mana.
8. Find // Finality
It only took three cards to get to the elephant in the (Standard) room: Golgari. Golgari is the most popular deck in Standard right now, making up nearly 40% of the Day 2 field at GP Lille last weekend. That means almost any key card in the deck will rank highly in our power rankings and be excellent pickups in your Fantasy Pro Tour drafts.
It might seem counterintuitive to include an average of 2.6 copies of a board sweeper in a deck that features both Llanowar Elves and Merfolk Branchwalker, but the fact that it comes attached to a two mana Raise Dead effect means that it can do whatever the Golgari player needs at any point of the middle and later parts of the game.
7. Vraska’s Contempt
While Vraska’s Contempt is usually only a one- or two-of in Golgari, it does feature heavily in both Esper and Grixis control, bringing it’s average number of copies up to 2.8. Neither Esper nor Grixis are super popular decks in Standard at the moment, but when combined with Golgari, Vraska’s Contempt is played in nearly 25% of decks, greatly increasing it’s chances of making it into the Top 8 next weekend.
6. History of Benalia
The lone White card in our Top 10, History of Benalia places sixth in our power rankings because it is always a four-of in both Boros Angels and White Weenie. Both of those decks, but especially Boros Angels, are powerful enough to do really well at Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica, and History is basically guaranteed to have four copies in any non-controlling White deck that reaches the Top 8.
5. Llanowar Elves
Everything that was written about Golgari cards above applies to Llanowar Elves as well—except that Llanowar Elves is always a four-of in every Golgari deck. Who knew one-drop mana accelerants could be so powerful?
4. Lightning Strike
Just like Shock, Lightning Strike is the kind of card that goes in almost every Red strategy, be it aggressive Mono-Red or Izzet Drake decks, or your occasional Jeskai deck. It’s included in over 25% of Standard decks with an average of 3.2 copies per deck, with its numbers mainly being held down by the existence of Lava Coil.
3. Ravenous Chupacabra
A two-for-one in the most popular deck in the format is a recipe for a highly-ranked card. The only thing keeping the Ravenous Chupacabra from being more than an average three-of is the fact that it costs four mana and isn’t an instant.
2. Merfolk Branchwalker
Remember last Spring when people were reluctantly playing Merfolk Branchwalker in their Gruul decks and wishing they could swap it out for a better two-drop? Well, those same people are reluctantly playing four copies of the Branchwalker in their Golgari decks and still haven’t found a better two-drop.
1. Jadelight Ranger
The best card in the most popular Standard deck is an easy shoo-in for #1 in our Standard card power rankings. You can’t go wrong with either drafting Jadelight Ranger for your Fantasy Pro Tour team or including four copies of it in your Golgari deck.