Last updated on December 3, 2024

Stormchaser's Talent | Illustration by Christina Kraus
Following the recent success of two new Standard decks, Stormchaser's Talent’s price has spiked over 300% since last week according to MTGStocks.
Bloomburrow‘s blue class enchantment is a central piece of two powerful but (thus far) little-known Standard decks: Talented Otters, and Simic Control.
Talented Otters
Brewed by team Sanctum of All, Talented Otters is an infinite combo deck (yes, in Standard!) relying on Valley Floodcaller, Enduring Vitality, and Stormchaser's Talent to transform your Otters, Rats, and assortment of cute creatures into Birds of Paradise, then flood the board and go for the kill.
The deck has steadily gained traction since the Magic Worlds Championship, where Sanctum of All's Ryan Condon and Rei Hirayama reached Top 32 with similar builds. And it has kept punching up in the Foundations Standard meta: triosk topped a 90-player MTGO Last Chance tournament a week ago, and hodortimebaby ended #1 on a 58-player MTGO Challenge last Saturday, both with the exact same build, seen below:
Creature (11)
Thundertrap Trainer x4
Valley Floodcaller x3
Enduring Vitality x4
Sorcery (9)
Song of Totentanz
Sleight of Hand x4
Bushwhack x4
Instant (8)
Torch the Tower x4
This Town Ain't Big Enough x4
Enchantment (6)
Stormchaser's Talent x4
Up the Beanstalk x2
Land (21)
Botanical Sanctum x4
Copperline Gorge x4
Fabled Passage x2
Forest x2
Island x2
Mountain
Spirebluff Canal x2
Yavimaya Coast x4
Battle (2)
Sideboard (15)
Ral, Crackling Wit x2
Floodpits Drowner x4
Screaming Nemesis x3
Disdainful Stroke x2
Pawpatch Formation x4
Talented Otters is a very complex deck, which explains why players have been slow to adopt it. For those interested, Ryan Condon wrote a pre-Foundations deck guide about the deck, after finishing #18 at Magic Worlds.
But, as it turns out, Talented Otters is not the only Stormchaser's Talent deck in town.
Simic Control
Also steadily on the rise, Simic Control borrows some of Talented Otters' tools like Analyze the Pollen, Bushwhack, This Town Ain't Big Enough and Stormchaser's Talent, and mixes them with Eddymurk Crab and Tolarian Terror as its only creatures, and (as you probably guessed by its name) goes for a control deck strategy.
Creatures (8)
Tolarian Terror x4
Eddymurk Crab x4
Sorcery (10)
Sleight of Hand x4
Analyze the Pollen x2
Bushwhack x4
Instant (17)
Into the Flood Maw x3
Unsummon x2
Seed of Hope x4
Cache Grab x4
This Town Ain't Big Enough x4
Enchantment (8)
Stormchaser's Talent x4
Up the Beanstalk x4
Land (17)
Botanical Sanctum x4
Forest
Hedge Maze x2
Island x6
Yavimaya Coast x4
Sideboard (15)
Herbology Instructor x2
Monstrous Emergence x2
Pick Your Poison x2
Minor Misstep
Negate x2
Pawpatch Formation x2
Unable to Scream x2
Ghost Vacuum x2
Magic players have been experimenting with this brew in Standard since Bloomburrow came out, and have found a fair bit of success in the last couple of weeks. Okabe Kiyotaka reached Top 8 in Japan's Champions Cup Store Qualifier, and Simic Control keeps showing up in MTGO leagues.
7% Of the Standard Meta

Kitsa, Otterball Elite | Illustration by Zoltan Boros
It looks like both Talented Otters and Simic Combo are here to stay, already claiming around 5% and 2% of the Standard meta respectively.
If you'd like to try them out, you better grab a hold of their main game pieces while prices are still reasonable and go get some wins at the upcoming Spotlight Series!
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