Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Today we'll be getting flashy, thanks to three new cards with Flash! There seems to have been a trend over the past couple of years to increase the am0unt of Flash spells, to facilitate decks like Simic or Dimir Flash. We have seen some great success with those decks and some of these cards could be added to those decks soon. Let’s see if these new cards will have a good impact on Standard.
First off though, I want to talk about a Flash card that won’t fit into a Simic or a Dimir Flash deck. Here is Niambi, Esteemed Speaker.
Niambi, Esteemed Speaker
Although you can, this is a creature you often won’t be playing on turn two. It acts as an Unsummon, allowing you to both save your creature and gain some life at the same time. Niambi, Esteemed Speaker has built-in duplicate protection thanks to its activated ability. Usually, you aren’t happy drawing multiple copies of a legendary creature, but thanks to Niambi, Esteemed Speaker you can discard those pesky duplicate Legendary cards to draw two cards. This will help a deck that is heavy in playsets of planeswalkers as well.
Next, is a one-mana creature with Flash that can mill your opponent. Here is Thieves’ Guild Enforcer.
Thieves' Guild Enforcer
This is a card that gets better the later in the game its played. One-mana Flash creatures can help activate your other Flash cards like Slitherwisp. It also provides a great turn two target for Sea-Dasher Octopus. One of the goals of this card though is to get eight cards into your opponents’ graveyard so that it can turn into a 3/2 creature with Deathtouch. The question to ask though is “How many Flash creatures are Rogues?”. The answer is four, but the only two you will play in your Dimir Flash deck are Cunning Nightbonder and Brazen Borrower. Even with just those two, that’s a total of twelve Rogues in your deck that you can use to mill your opponent. It isn’t enough by itself for a mill strategy, but it should be sufficient for you to get eight cards milled relatively quickly. This alongside Spectral Sailor now provides Dimir Flash with eight one-mana threats for the deck.
Finally, I have a Flash creature that can help you refill your hand after a devastating loss. Here is Liliana’s Standard Bearer.
Liliana's Standard Bearer
One of the first cards I want to compare this against is Midnight Reaper. Midnight Reaper has advantages with better stats and being a more consistent card draw engine. Liliana’s Standard Bearer though can surprise your opponent, works when tokens die, and you don’t lose any life for the number of cards you draw. I’m up in the air on which is better, but I’m sure with a correct deck build they can both shine. Midnight Reaper might work better in sacrifice deck, where Liliana’s Standard Bearer would work better in a Dimir Flash deck for more reasons other than it has Flash. Flash decks are all about surprising your opponent and being able to play this after a card like Shatter the Sky can provide another threat while also refilling your hand.
You are now set to cast all your spells during your opponents’ turn and surprise them with your creatures. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Core Set 2021. Join me again tomorrow as the second week of preview continues.
