The Rise of Sozin has quickly captured the attention of MTG Standard players as one of the most formidable control tools previewed in recent sets. As a black Saga with a high-impact series of effects, it offers an elegant blend of board control, hand disruption, and inevitability: all in a single card.
Its flavor, tied to the lore of a rising power and total destruction, mirrors its gameplay function: resetting the battlefield and asserting dominance in the late game. For control players who thrive on patience and resource management, The Rise of Sozin stands as a new benchmark for value and resilience.
The first chapter—“Destroy all creatures”—is immediately powerful and rivals classic sweepers like Farewell and Depopulate. In Standard, where creature-based midrange strategies like Mono-Red, Tokens or Boros Aggro dominate, this immediate wipe can swing the tempo completely. Its ability to stabilize the board while buying time for the control player to set up defenses is invaluable. What separates it from other sweepers is that it’s not just a one-time reset; it sets the stage for further disruption in the following turns.
The second chapter provides a devastating form of targeted disruption. Being able to name a card and exile all copies from an opponent’s hand, graveyard, and library mirrors the old power of cards like Unmoored Ego or Lost Legacy—but here, it’s part of a larger, self-contained threat. This ability cripples combo decks, undercuts redundancy in control mirrors, and removes win conditions from aggressive archetypes. In a format where every deck depends on a few key cards, The Rise of Sozin’s second lore counter can single-handedly dismantle a strategy before it stabilizes.
Finally, the third chapter transforms The Rise of Sozin into a tangible win condition—a 5/5 creature returning under your control. This transformation ensures that even if the opponent recovers from the earlier devastation, they now face a sizable threat. It’s a perfect payoff for surviving into the late game, giving black control decks both the defensive tools and the finisher they often lack. In Standard’s evolving meta, The Rise of Sozin represents a complete package: board wipe, hand disruption, and victory engine—all in one mythic Saga.
Overall, The Rise of Sozin embodies everything a control deck desires—powerful removal, strategic disruption, and a built-in finisher—making it a likely cornerstone of future black-based control archetypes in Standard.