If you missed the bottom half of this Top 10 you can read that here.

Without further delay let’s get into the rest of the Top 10.

5. Urza, Lord High Artificer

Some would suggest that Urza, Lord High Artificer is one of the egregious cards to come from Modern Horizons, and they would not be far off. A card that redefined how artifact decks are constructed by pushing Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas out of the format, this card is front and center at the top of the Modern metagame. This card is so pushed in power it makes cards such as Everflowing Chalice playable, even without counters on it. There was also a card released in Throne of Eldraine that made an artifact every turn. Let’s take a look at a sample deck.

How the deck works

This deck does three things:

Step 1: Achieve Metalcraft
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit

Pushing out Urza, Lord High Artificer early allows you to start activating his last ability to play cards for free (whatever they may be). Turning every artifact in your deck into a Mox Sapphire you can generate a ton of mana by simply playing Magic: the Gathering (who’s going to counter a Mishra’s Bauble afterall?). This card feels more like a planeswalker with a blocker already on the battlefield when it comes into play than just a legendary creature. Currently these Urza decks have morphed into a somewhat midrange deck as shown above, but you can also run a version that uses Paradoxical Outcome to draw a ton of cards, or run the Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek combo. His impact has been felt since the release of Modern Horizons, and it’s no wonder why he’s on this list.

4. Karn, the Great Creator

Our third Karn planeswalker was given to us in War of the Spark, and it’s made quite the mark. Karn, the Great Creator has not only changed Tron decks, but also changed which Tron decks people run. Heck this card is restricted in Vintage, and sometimes you can even see it within Urza, Lord High Artificer decks as part of a prison package (with Mycosynth Lattice in the sideboard). Last week I showcased a deck with this in an Eldrazi Tron deck. Let’s look at a more traditional Tron build.

How the deck works

As always, you want to play the Urza lands to generate a large amount of mana very early. Using cards such as Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and Oblivion Stone defensively to stay alive long enough to play Karn, the Great Creator and Mycosynth Lattice in one turn. While these cards are not game over on their own if the opponent has creatures on the board, just simply find an Ensnaring Bridge, have no cards in hand, and you have locked up a win.

If you have never played with a card such as Burning Wish then you should play with this version of Karn at least once to understand how powerful wishing for cards from your sideboard is.

3. Force of Negation

When Modern Horizons was released it was done to help boost some archetypes that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) felt were not strong enough to compete at the top tables in Modern. In order to help combat some of the problems in the format, many Magic: the Gathering players were given Force of Negation. A refined Force of Will this card found a home immediately within Azorius Control decks, and focused on keeping the opponent from gaining an edge. Also used in midrange decks, this card helps prevent the opponent from gaining any type of advantage through a non-creature spell, all for the cost of a blue card and one life. Let’s see how Control deck are using it.

How the deck works

Draw cards, counter spells, clear the board. Sure it may sound simple, but if the cards line up right you will do exactly that. While the deck may feel light on threats you win through the advantage you receive from your planeswalkers.

• Narset, Parter of Veils locks your opponent out of drawing extra cards. She also provides you two uses of an Impulse ability.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor can…do everything. Draw you extra cards, bounce an opposing creature, and even control what your opponent draws next.
• Teferi, Hero of Dominaria helps you draw cards, have mana to be reactive, and can win the game by exiling your opponent’s permanents.
• Teferi, Time Raveler not only bounces your opponents problem permanents, allows you to cast Supreme Verdict in the middle of combat, but it also locks them out of responding to your spells. You can even bounce your own permanents, such as Snapcaster Mage, to play spells you have already cast. In fact there are other permanents in these colors you can play that work well doing just that.

2. Teferi, Time Raveler

Absolutely Peregrin Took. Coming right up. Provided to us in War of the Spark, Teferi, Time Raveler gave control decks a way to make sure that their counterspells, and threats resolved. However while doing this it made the mirror matches a bit miserable. With the release of Stoneforge Mystic from the banned list in Modern this card suddenly had a greater purpose beyond returning your opponent’s permanents. Take a look.

How the deck works

One of the problems with having a card such as Stoneforge Mystic was that your opponent could respond to it on your end step. Along with Teferi, Time Raveler, and Force of Negation one could tap out for the Kor artificer without fear of retribution. On top of that, Force of Negation makes the opponent hesitate removing it. However there is another card to consider for this deck.

Spell Queller is a card we should play in this deck. The fact that the spell is exiled instead of countered prevents it from being cast again, and when you bounce the spirit with Teferi, Time Raveler the spell exiled remains exiled as long as Teferi, Time Raveler is on the battlefield. Even when you have a Teferi at 1 loyalty after a bounce you can cast a fresh one without it being countered. Many Magic the Gathering players find this card oppressive, but at the moment this card is just really good.

1. Wrenn and Six

Well here we are at the top of the list. When Modern Horizons was approaching release I did not like it. Sure it was a format designed to go directly into Modern, and provide help for some archetypes viewed as needing help, but in my opinion archetypes like Jund didn’t need help.

I was wrong, and I’m here to eat some crow.

Wrenn and Six not only became the face of that set, but it also became the backbone of Legacy before it was banned. Yes. That’s right. This is the only card in the history of the game that is banned in Legacy, yet legal in Modern. Weird, right? Coupled with Arcum’s Astrolabe, and Wasteland, multi-color decks were everywhere stifling the format. In Modern? All it’s really done is push Dark Confidant out of the format to a degree.

As a Jund devotee I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this card, and there’s not too many feelings in the game that are as great as using this ultimate to retrace Lightning Bolt three times to win the game. It’s primary purpose in the game is to rebuy your fetchlands, and then discard them with Liliana of the Veil producing a valuable card advantage engine where, unlike Dark Confidant, you only lose one life a turn. While viewed as a mistake by many, Wrenn and Six is my number one card of 2019, and here it is in action in Jund.

How the deck works

At this point the main deck is pretty established. While Wrenn and Six has taken center stage as the two drop in the deck you still have room to run Dark Confidant in the deck. The dark wizard is still a really good source of card draw versus archetypes that are not killing you quickly (such as Azorius Control and Mono Green Tron). Versus Burn or aggro strategies you can bring in Collective Brutality (discarding lands to the Escalate mechanic), and get the lands back with Wrenn and Six.

Using early planeswalkers, and threats, you want to set yourself up to cast two spells a turn with Bloodbraid Elf to obtain tempo advantage over your opponent on your path to victory.

The sideboard, just as it always is with black-green based midrange decks, is in flux. Currently there are a lot of planeswalkers in my local meta so I choose to tackle them, but if graveyard decks become more relevant then I will bring the hate for those decks.

In Conclusion

2019 was a year of constant change for the game. From new products, to new designs, the excitement level felt like it was at a fever pitch that in many ways felt a little overboard. While this brought along some powerful spells played across all formats there were an unprecedented number of cards banned across every format this calendar year.

Could we see cards pushed to this level again? Could we see the same thing happen in 2020? Only time will tell.

Your Thoughts

What were your favorite cards of the year? Let me know by leaving a comment below. You can even provide your Top 10 if you would like. Also follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

I will see you all after the new year. Please enjoy your holiday season with friends, family, and of course your Magic cards. I’ll return with an article on Monday January 6th 2020.

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

Also like last year this will be divided into two parts. Starting with the bottom half today, and the top half next week. With this article going live on December 16th before the update to the banned and restricted list, the cards I mention will be based on known information before that update.

I hope you all are doing well, and are looking forward to what the new year brings. However before that happens let’s take a look back at some of the best from 2019.

(Dis)honorable mentions

I won’t be including these cards on my top 10 list. Why? They are all mistakes. These cards are also known to be “good”, and have made their impact across all of Magic (not just Modern). They are either invalidating certain strategies, or (such as in the case of Once Upon A Time) walking back a policy on free spells.

So no. These cards can go away, and stay away. They should never have been printed as is.

Honorable Mention – The Horizon Lands

Before we dig into the Top 10 I have to mention how great the Horizon lands, presented in Modern Horizons, have been. Based on the design of Horizon Canopy these lands have provided aggressive and midrange decks the ability to draw extra cards at any point in the game without interfering too much with the land count. Nurturing Peatland receives a large amount of play across multiple different decks such as Jund, Elves, and even Mono Green Tron. Sunbaked Canyon is a natural fit within Boros Burn decks, and even Waterlogged Grove has found play in Merfolk decks.

If you don’t have these now then I don’t know what you are waiting for. Go get them!

10. Leyline of Abundance

Currently banned in Pioneer Leyline of Abundance was one of the two new leylines provided in Core Set 2020. With the return of Llanowar Elves earlier this year, and the arrival of Gilded Goose this card was primed for breaking. Here’s an example deck running this card.

How the deck works

Power out a mana creature early, and with Leyline of Abundance in play on turn 0 you can ramp into larger threats a lot earlier. Putting a Karn, the Great Creator in play, AND playing the Mycosynth Lattice you just tutored for on the same play is not just for Mono Green Tron decks anymore. You can also play a very large Genesis Hydra, then with all of the devotion to green you can use that to play an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger you tutored up  with Vivien, Arkbow Ranger. Heck a Dryad Arbor tapping for two mana to play a Burning-Tree Emissary into a Once Upon A Time is solid value in and of itself. There are a lot of plays to this deck, and a lot of angles to attack from.

However with its banning in Pioneer, and its lack of presence in the overall Modern metagame I placed this card at the bottom of the top 10.

9. All That Glitters

This one may come as a surprise to some, however I feel a lot of players may have dismissed All That Glitters. This card, like many others in Throne of Eldraine made an immediate impact once it became legal, and is still showing up in a deck still to this day. Granted, it’s just Affinity. However that deck has needed a second Cranial Plating for awhile now, and here it is.

Check out this updated list.

How the deck works

You are the aggressor. Play fast, play early, attack often. If you can protect your Vault Skirge equipping it with both a Cranial Plating and a All That Glitters can make it a very large threat that can end the game quickly. This enchantment also helps make Stubborn Denial more playable from the sideboard as more often than not your creature has a power over four.

This would have ranked higher if artifacts and creatures were not invalidated by a certain planeswalker from the same set that All That Glitters came from. Also you can only enchant your creature lands once with this as the enchantment falls off when the creature land reverts to just being a land.

8. Soulherder

This article, and next week’s remainder of this Top 10, might as well be me being wrong about Modern Horizons. Granted a lot of what we first saw with the set was nothing but Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis decks, however once that was banned we were able to see some other cards receive some play. Soulherder provided a blink deck to obtain a lot of value out of your creatures that have abilities which trigger when they come into play. What do I mean by this? Let me show you a deck.

How the deck works

You are a tempo deck, and you maximize the number of times you benefit from your creatures coming into play. To highlight this read Soulherder, and then take a look at these possible lines:

• With Soulherder + Eternal Witness in play: Cast Time Warp. At the end of turn blink Eternal Witness to get Time Warp back in hand. Repeat.
• With Soulherder in play, and four mana (two of which is white): Cast Knight of Autumn. With its “destroy target artifact or enchantment” ability on the stack cast Ephemerate targeting the Dryad. It then comes into play and gains you life while destroying the target artifact or enchantment. Soulherder then blinks it one more time so you can put counters on it. That’s a ton of value!

That’s just two possibilities. You can even blink a Birds of Paradise to have mana open on your opponent’s turn! The primary problem with this deck is that the combo is all reliant on very small creatures. This can be broken up with removal spells, or a Plague Engineer naming Spirit. Still this is a potent, and fun deck to play so give it a try.

7. Goblin Matron

How the deck works

Of all the tribes that needed help in Modern it was Goblins that needed it the most. Receiving a lot of reprints in the last two years, its Goblin Matron that is the engine of this deck. Looking for a Pashalik Mons to put into play via Aether Vial you can then start sacrificing goblins to other effects, or to make more goblins with your excess mana, to slowly ping away at your opponent’s life total. The real bonus from the deck though is in the sideboard as you can now find a home for Earwig Squad.

6. Blast Zone

The last entry for today comes from what I dubbed “the chase card” from War of the Spark. While I was quite wrong (thanks to 36 planeswalkers) this card continues to see a heavy amount of play. Blast Zone provides decks the ability to have an Engineered Explosives in the form of a land, and you don’t need colored mana to use it. Of all the decks it currently can be found in, the number one home for it is with Eldrazi Tron.

How the deck works

Similar to Mono Green Tron, you assemble your Tron lands in order to have seven mana on turn three. With these lands producing colorless mana you could play multiple Eldrazi in one turn forcing your opponent to answer them before you can attack. Running Chalice of the Void in the main deck has allowed this deck (at the time of this writing) to sit at the top of the Modern metagame making it the deck to beat. One could even add a Crucible of Worlds somewhere in the deck allowing you to bring back your Blast Zones or other lands that have been destroyed during the game.

While not in every deck, this card can be seen in multiple Tron decks, control decks, and can see play in many formats in Magic: the Gathering.

In Conclusion

That’s the bottom half of the Top 10 for 2019. There are a lot of cards to go through, and if I had time to make a larger list than ten I would. Stay tuned next week for the rest.

Your Thoughts

What are your favorite Modern cards from 2019? Leave a comment below, and follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

I finish the Top 10 by reviewing the top half of my list. Make sure to be here for that!

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

Last year I wrote about my predictions for 2019. How did I do? You be the judge.

1. Commander goes back to 5 decks in 2019, all being allied colors. – Wrong
2. Jace Dies. – Wrong (Gideon died)
3. Return to New Phyrexia plus allied color fastland reprint. – Wrong
4. “Standard Plus” will be Origins Forward. – Half credit (we have Historic on Arena, and Pioneer in paper)
5. More Quality Standard reprints. – Yes!

Hey I got one! With the half credit that’s a .300 batting average. Put me in Cooperstown!

We actually received some really good cards reprinted for Standard play. While we can debate their strength (and possibly lack thereof) in the format, the fact that these reprints help those who play other formats is only a benefit to everyone. Leyline of the Void and the other leylines are played in several decks across eternal formats. Absorb finally entered Modern through this reprint, and did see some small amount of play as a singleton in many blue based control decks. Temple of Mystery and the enemy colored cycle of temples were a much needed inclusion. Popular in Commander, these cards are also the backbone of many Standard decks. Hopefully we receive the allied color versions in Theros: Beyond Death.

Here are my predictions for Magic: the Gathering in 2020.

Predictions

The upcoming Commander product starting in Ikoria will provide planeswalkers that can be your commander.

Coming this spring, we will be venturing to a new plane when the set “Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths” is released. According to this article from the end of October beginning with that set we will receive pre-constructed Commander decks when the set is released. These decks will be thematically built around the various theme and overall setting of the new set, and I would not be surprised to see Kiora (as first seen in Kiora, the Crashing Wave) make her return to Standard. Serpents, Krakens, and Octopi are part of what I expect when seeing a set with a title like that. Also with the removal of the Planeswalker Decks from non-Core Set expansions this makes sense to replace them with Commander decks. The next logical conclusion would be to have Planeswalkers specifically made for both Standard and Commander play. Let’s make it happen!

The Zendikar fetchlands return in Zendikar Rising next fall.

The set announced for next fall is named “Zendikar Rising”, and will mark our second return to the plane. With Battle For Zendikar (and Oath of the Gatewatch) feeling like failures in the eyes of many perhaps the people at Wizards of the Coast (WotC) will get this one right, and provide a reprint of these fetchlands that appeared in Standard a decade ago. As much as I know many will not like them in Standard here are a few things to consider.

• The shocklands will leave Standard when these lands arrive.
• The fetchlands reprinted in Khans of Tarkir are already banned in Pioneer so these could follow them straight to the list.
• This will be the last printing of these types of cards (outside of a Masters type set).

You may be scratching your head at some of this but keep in mind they do not need booster packs to appeal to only Standard players. They know their consumers play more than one format, and by offering a product that can appeal to multiple players these will surely sell. I don’t think they will ever see Standard print after this though. They have been able to provide quality fetchlands in the form of Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista both this year. Those lands provide the same quality of mana fixing, yet only take up one rare land spot allowing the design team to look for other options elsewhere. So when this happens buy them, buy the original versions, and make sure to get all the ones that you need. They may not be back.

We will have more reprints from the Modern era of Magic in Standard sets to support Pioneer.

One of the reasons that 2020 will be so focused on Commander is that WotC has learned that a lot of new players have entered the game through this format. While that is a great thing they also realize that they can not pepper Standard players with cards that cost five or more mana as they would be too slow for tournament play, yet fine for Commander. This is probably the biggest window we may see for quality reprints in Standard (think more along the lines of what we received in the last two Core Sets). I even expect to see the allied color painlands appearing in Core Set 2021 to help facilitate mana needs for the influx of new players. When this happens expect the price of the original version of the card to drop, providing you an opportunity to obtain a card that will hold its value longer over time.

The same treatment Chandra received with Core Set 2020 will be given to Teferi in Core Set 2021.

That’s right. Just was we are about to say goodbye to Teferi, Time Raveler we will receive three more. I believe this is part of what made Core Set 2020 special, and all three of these see some measure of play (especially Chandra, Acolyte of Flame). This is  not counting any Planeswalker decks that accompany the release of Core Set 2021 of course, but I expect this type of treatment for a planeswalker just for this release for at least another year after this.

Paper Standard attendance will continue to dwindle at MagicFests.

Without a doubt attending a Magic: the Gathering tournament is a very fun experience. From attending the main event, playing a few side events, meeting artists, or even trading your cards into a vendor to get another foil Tarmogoyf from Future Sight, there’s a lot you can do there. That’s also not taking into account other activities in the city that you can do after the event. However there is a growing problem.

Attendance is dwindling. For Standard.

Since the release of Throne of Eldraine we have had two situations where major strategies have been removed. First it was Field of the Dead, and then (eventually) it was the trio of Once Upon A Time, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Veil of Summer. This not only makes Standard less fun for those who wish to win the tournament, but the constant change also hurts proper growth of the format. Couple that with how quickly metagames are solved through online play, and how early deck submissions have to be entered before a tournament, and it does not provide WotC a large enough window to make corrections through banning cards.

Since the beginning of 2017 thirteen (13!) cards have been banned in Standard. That’s a span of only three years. You have to go backwards twice that length from 2017 to find two cards banned in 2011. Players notice these things, and will shy away from a format like that especially if fun has been replaced with “coming in first” and “pushing the set for sales”. This is where they can find solace in formats like Commander while they wait out the mess that Standard has become. It’s also a lot cheaper to play a few hours on Magic Arena than it is to go to an event. If one wanted to play their Rakdos Knights deck during Okotober (aka Elktober) all one has to do is turn on their PC. The only thing they have to pay is time. How will WotC get these players back? When tournaments draw less than 1,000 players (and some less than 500) for an event, whose fault is it? When tournament organizers are changing or even removing Standard from an event for another format (and do it at the last minute) is that the fault of the players for figuring things out too quickly, the power level of the cards being skewed to a specific strategy made to only sell packs, or to lazy design? Oko, Thief of Crowns has been the biggest mistake since Skullclamp, and with Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis being released earlier this same year that’s something to take to heart.

How does this get fixed? Or are we so far beyond fixing this that the youth culture that Wizards of the Coast seems to be is aiming their new releases at is wiser with their money than generations before them? Until we see a balance in power level (you know…like we did with Return to Ravnica through Theros expansions) I expect Standard attendance to continue it’s descent.

In Conclusion

I hate to end on a sour note, but these are my predictions for Magic: the Gathering in 2020. Will they come true? Only time will tell; let’s watch it unfold.

Your Thoughts

Thank you all for reading. What do you think of these predictions? Please leave a comment below, and follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

We’re at the last two weeks of the year so it’s time to discuss my Top 10 cards for Modern starting with numbers 6 through 10 next week. Be there!

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

The Red Section

Firstly, here’s what my multiplayer cube’s red section currently looks like:

Red clearly has some dragon action going on here. It can manage Dragon Tribal thanks to Utvara Hellkite, Thunderbreak Regent and Sarkhan’s Triumph. This is also the reason we see Dragonmaster Outcast, Backdraft Hellkite, Glorybringer, Thundermaw Hellkite and Balefire Dragon.There are also several artifact-centric themes in the cube, mostly in Izzet. Feldon of the Third Path, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin Welder, Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Combustible Gearhulk all play into this theme in different ways.

Izzet also has a strong Spells Matter archetype, and it is for this reason that you see Young Pyromancer and Guttersnipe here. A lot of the instants and sorceries are here because they work well with this archetype as well, but most are strong enough that they’d be here anyway (so we’ll talk about them below instead). Backdraft Hellkite obviously sits quite comfortably in this archetpye as well as Dragon Tribal.

Finally, Rakdos is beginning to acquire a Griefer archetype by sheer chance. It’s beginning to gain a critical mass of cards that punish opponents for the simplest of actions. In red, this includes Impact Tremors, Rampaging Ferocidon and Harsh Mentor.

So clearly our red section is really in touch with the cube’s major archetypes! We’ve talked about 18 of the 45 cards above already. Let’s look at the remaining 27 below, and why you should consider them in your own cube.

The Creatures

Dire Fleet Daredevil is a recent and entertaining addition. In practise, it often behaves like a Shriekmaw or Nekrataal, fishing a removal spell out of an opponent’s graveyard and using it to remove the nastiest threat on the other side of the table. It ends up punishing the Izzet Spells Matter archetype, and makes opponents think twice about playing removal if they know you have this card up your sleeve.

Hanweir Garrison is a serviceable red token producer that starts to go next-level with Impact Tremors, Panharmonicon and/or Anointed Procession. In truth, I’ve had his buddy Hanweir Battlements out in our secret Lore Seeker booster for a while – they were melded for the first time ever in November. It’s a two-card party trick that you shouldn’t rely on actually occuring, but when they do meld… oh my!

Taurean Mauler has been here for a long time, and is mostly a throwback to this cube’s tribal beginnings. That said, it’s still a threat that can grow out of control very quickly. I find you often blink and it’s 10/10 and needing to be dealt with in a multiplayer setting.

Viashino Heretic was placed in here very early on to counter the rising threat of artifacts… and has never left. While obviously being good at artifact removal, it also turns out to be a half-decent griefer card that punishes people for daring to play equipment or mana rocks.

Flametongue Kavu is a Limited classic, and is good even in here. Four damage will kill the vast majority of creatures in the cube, and the body is not to be sneezed at either. Start blinking it or recurring it, and things get dangerous fast.

Hero of Oxid Ridge was in here at first due to his Knightliness, but has managed to stay. Every time we thinking of removing it, it hoses a token deck somewhere – last time around it was Thopters, the time before Elves… the evasiveness is not to be sneezed at. Add the haste and the battle cry, and it usually adds up to one very uncomfortable combat phase for an opponent.

Shaman of the Great Hunt is another creature in a similar mold to Hero of Oxid Ridge – angry, hasty body that leads to an uncomfortable combat phase, and a secondary ability that can easily be slept on. It’s probably not quite as angry as the Hero, but if it sticks around, it will draw you cards. Its ability to hand out +1/+1 counters also plays very nicely with a lot of other cards (in this cube’s green section, Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Kalonian Hydra are both pretty fond of it going off, for one).

Neheb, the Eternal was a card that caught my eye when Hour of Devastation was released, and he turns out to be an absolutely ridiculous piece of cardboard. For starters, he’s a 4/6 for five mana that is guaranteed to do damage in some form when he attacks (and he’s surprisingly let through quite often – people would rather take one more damage than lose a blocker). But it’s the mana generation that makes things get ridiculous. Sure, you can just play all those angry, hasty guys we’ve mentioned above, mash someone’s face and get a bunch of mana – that’s easy. But think about all those griefer cards we’ve got in here. Impact Tremors + Siege-Gang Commander with Neheb out = four mana for each opponent you have. That level of mana generation will often see you ending the game in a fairly non-interactive way in your postcombat main phase, usually via something with an X in it.

Siege-Gang Commander obviously loves hanging around Impact Tremors, as mentioned above. It’s also great to blink, and can remove small threats in a pinch – if you’re really struggling for damage, it can also throw Goblin Welder, Guttersnipe and Taurean Mauler overboard!

Zealous Conscripts is an Act of Treason on legs that your opponent rarely expects. It’s also able to gain control of any permanent, not just creatures. That Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx that can ramp you an extra 10 mana? Grab it. That planeswalker that is about to ultimate? You bet. That Nevinyrral’s Disk that your teammate just played but can’t untap? Let’s do it! It gets even worse when you start blinking it with Deadeye Navigator or Eldrazi Displacer. It’s even got a surprisingly useful body once you make it to combat phase – a hasty 3/3 will often surprise people, especially when you’ve just stolen their best blocker to start with.

Inferno Titan remains another very angry creature to play – it’s usually killing at least two creatures as it enters the battlefield, and it clears the way even more as it attacks. As per Flametongue Kavu, it only gets worse if you start blinking it or recurring it.

Molten Primordial is the biggest non-Dragon here, and often an absolute blowout. It’s obviously stealing a pile of things for the turn and behaving like an Insurrection on legs, but it gets even worse when you recur it. This cube has seen it pitched into the yard early, and then recurred every turn from Turn 4 onwards using Feldon of the Third Path. That’s when things start getting really bad for your opponents.

The Spells

Enchanter’s Bane was a card we thought we would try out, and it’s turned out to be much nastier than it appears. In practise, it’s a griefer card when facing decks laden with enchantments (usually the Selesnya Enchantress archetype, or decks running heavily in green, white or blue). It dares the green player across the table to sacrifice their Asceticism or risk losing five life a turn. I’ve also watched it force a blue player to throw their Rhystic Study overboard. It’s usually underrated until it starts handing out punishment, so it leads to a classic money-or-the-gun scenario for your opponent.

Goblin Bombardment, along with Impact Tremors, is the kill card for token strategies. It has been in this cube since its inception and has never left, which is a mark of its usefulness. It also makes for a handy sacrifice outlet, should you require one.

Wheel of Fortune is Wheel of Fortune. It has obviously snuck over the $100 mark per copy, and I’m fortunate to have one. In essence, this is red’s method of card draw once it has emptied its hand. There are plenty of alternatives to this, as we’ll discuss below in budget considerations.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is probably the best red planeswalker available, and that holds in multiplayer as well. The -3 ability is good enough to remove most things. Apart from that, Chandra is just going to give you ramp and pseudo-card draw until she gets removed (and you shouldn’t ever sneeze at either of those things, especially in red).

Fiery Confluence is obnoxiously good in most places, but especially so here, where it is dealing six damage to each opponent for four mana. Throw that into a deck full of griefer material, and it’s going to leave your opponents walking on eggshells. Toss in the fact that it can sweep token decks and remove artifacts, and its utility is just too good to ignore.

Outpost Siege has a running joke here – if you choose “Dragons”, you’re doing it wrong. This is here solely for its “Khans” mode, acting as red pseudo-card advantage. When you’ve got Impact Tremors for half the casting cost dealing blanket damage instead of one targeted point, you can see why this only ever gets resolved in one mode.

Sneak Attack is one of the original bonkers red cards, and is obviously an expensive piece of cardboard I’m fortunate to have. Here, it’s flopping out dragons and other large, angry creatures early and often for the win. In this cube, it helps build some truly wonderful Dragon Tribal decks, putting Utvara Hellkite, Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury and a couple of other cards that boost attacking creatures. It usually leaves quite the mark, along with a lot of Dragon tokens that you wouldn’t have otherwise had! It also helps you pitch things like Combustible Gearhulk and Molten Primordial into the graveyard early so that Feldon of the Third Path can have his wicked way with them (or, similarly, Wurmcoil Engine, so that Goblin Welder can retrieve it)… it’s a surprising mix of aggression and utility nowadays.

Reforge the Soul is Wheel of Fortune Lite most of the time, but is occasionally a wheel for two mana (usually when you most need it)!

Savage Beating is one of those cards that works exactly like the name says. When entwined, this is a savage beating by most measures. If you have a way of copying it once you’ve cast it, look out below!

Volcanic Offering is a highly-political card that is mostly here to give red a way of dealing with the Blast Zones and Rogue’s Passages of this world. That said, seven damage is a lot, and it is removing just about anything that could be on the other side of the table.

Red Sun’s Zenith has been our Red X spell of choice for a while now, mostly due to its ability to shuffle itself back into your deck. This turns out to matter sometimes when you’re playing 40-card decks, and especially if you have a card advantage engine. We’ve seen a Rakdos deck pick the entire library up before using Yawgmoth’s Bargain (and obviously a bit of lifegain!), resolving RSZ and being able to draw it and recast it each turn.

Comet Storm is another Red X spell, but this one is here more because of its efficiency – while it’s usually a card that inspires fast maths calculations once drawn, it is usually capable of removing four or five targets off the board and giving an opponent an incidental amount to the face in the process.

Electrodominance is our third and final Red X spell, and this one has the potential to be the swingiest of the three. If you resolve this for 6+, you’re removing the biggest threat on the table and playing one of your own in the process.

Insurrection flat out wins the game. It is one of the few cards that meets my house rule regarding cards with triple-color casting costs (if you have one, you should go close to winning the game when you resolve). Sure, it’s not the most interactive way of winning… but it’s eleven mana. If people let the red player last that long, they have to know that this is a chance of resolving. Fair play if you do, I say!

Blasphemous Act will often sweep the board for a single red mana, and in that respect is one of the best multiplayer wrath effects available. You can even attempt to make this a little more one-sided by valuing things with indestructible or protection from red (e.g. Paladin en-Vec, Sword of War and Peace).

Starting with a Budget

Red is usually not the worst of colors for budgets, and it mostly holds here too, with a couple of obvious exceptions when it comes to cards over the $10-per-copy mark. There are four as of time of writing, with Fiery Confluence just over, and Balefire Dragon just under.

Wheel of Fortune is here mostly because it’s a Reserved List card, let’s be honest. But there are plenty of decent alternatives. We’ve already mentioned Reforge the Soul above, but you can also use Wheel of Fate or Winds of Change.

Sneak Attack really is its own card, and you’re probably not replicating the wreckage that it inflicts on people. Flameshadow Conjuring is a step down from Sneak Attack, but still really, really good (and, like a lot of things, utterly ridiculous with Anointed Procession).

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is still over the $10 mark at the moment. If you had to choose another red planeswalker to go in here, you’d probably have to consider Sarkhan, Fireblood, given the dragons we have here. But Chandra, the Firebrand is another one not to be slept on in this environment – Chandra the Forkmaster is dangerous when left alone.

Fiery Confluence is mostly here due to the blanket damage it can hand out. If you want something similar, Sizzle gets it done cheaply. If it’s the utility you’re after, you may want to consider a card like Collective Defiance.

Wrapping Things Up

I hope that gives you a starting point for a decent and somewhat budget red section for a multiplayer cube. Here’s to Santa bringing our cubes more toys in a few weeks time! I’ll be back early in the new year to talk green. Until then, have a fantastic holiday season!

That’s right. It’s time to talk about Elves.

Not this one though.

That is a Gnome. Not an Elf. Santa’s “helpers” like to make things. They are also small, near childlike in size, and quite jovial. That’s not an Elf. That’s a Gnome. Here’s some history of Gnomes that will help with this understanding.

Now these? These are Elves.

REMEMBER THE SUNWELL!!!

Elves have been one of the most represented tribes in all fantasy (even outside of Magic: the Gathering). Often in the debate with Merfolk and Goblins over which is the best, anyone who has played the game at all in their lifetime will know that Elvish Mystic is a “mana dork”, and has probably heard of the term “Elfball” somewhere in their journeys.

From Dominaria through Lorywn to Zendikar, Elves have appeared in many sets, and have even become top strategies to play during their time in Standard. Today I’m going to visit the Modern version of this tribe.

Modern Elves

How the deck works

Start your turn by playing a one-mana creature (such as Llanowar Elves), and then a turn two Elvish Archdruid. From there you can accelerate beyond the mana you have available for lands. One common line of play on turn two is (with three mana) playing a Heritage Druid into Dwynen’s Elite, then tapping those for three green mana for Elvish Archdruid. Watch out for Lightning Bolt though! Once you land a Nettle Sentinel (or two) you can chain a lot of mana together casting multiple spells each turn.

You can win by giving your army an Overrun effect from Ezuri, Renegade Leader, or having multiple Shaman of the Pack enter play. In one instance I was able to deal 21 damage to an opponent with multiple triggers from the shaman, and that was without attacking.

The differences from last year

• Artifact hate main deck: Thanks to Modern Horizons artifact decks are a big problem. By having a focus on attacking those decks you have a better chance at securing a win during the first game of a match.
• No Cavern of Souls: This is no longer required. The decks running counterspells are focused on cards like Collected Company as that is the card you use to get ahead. The removal they use helps make up for not countering your creatures.
• Fewer spells: While Chord of Calling is a great card, we want to streamline the deck to make sure we are applying maximum pressure every turn.

The sideboard is focused on staying alive vs Burn, dealing with combo decks via Stain the Mind, and yes more artifact hate. Does this deck sound interesting to you? Let’s break it down with the following points below to make sure this is the right deck for you.

Why you should play the deck

There are quite a few reasons to play this tribe, and maybe one (or more) of these reasons apply to you.

• You are faster than Merfolk, and Goblins. You are nearly as fast as Humans, but have worse top decks late game.
• You are an aggro deck, with a combo, in an aggressive deck, that can win with a combo, while also attacking. While the deck may seem to play the same every game the outcomes aren’t always identical.
• While appearing to be an aggro deck there are triggers to watch for, and lines of play that you do need to pay attention to in order to win. Casting a Shaman of the Pack, and with the trigger on the stack casting Collected Company is one such example to pay attention to.

The deck can be a lot of fun, and provide a lot of different paths to victory. Plus who doesn’t like playing (in my opinion) the best tribe in all of Magic?

Why you shouldn’t play the deck

• You find aggro decks boring, or not fun to play in general.
• Your local store is filled with decks that have a ton of removal and/or board wipes.
• You would rather play any deck where the card you draw is better than an Elvish Mystic late in the game.

These are all valid points, and should not be discounted. While it may be difficult to avoid the Supreme Verdict decks (although Ezuri, Renegade Leader does help regenerate your team) these options may be beneficial for you. However if you are encountering issues like this perhaps there are some options you can look to try in the deck to spice things up.

Other options

This card has been in and out of my deck more times than I can count. While I love what Elvish Visionary does, especially in a deck lacking in card draw, it leaves little room for other things. With one mana removal all over the place in Modern (I see you Fatal Push) having more than 8 mana creatures is ideal, and I’m not counting Heritage Druid as that can not make mana on its own. If you do want to run this consider cutting an Elvish Clancaller or two, and perhaps a Collector Ouphe if the Urza decks are not strong in your area.

While Reclamation Sage is in the sideboard perhaps you want to run it main deck to target specific artifacts, and bring the non-Elf Collector Ouphe in to help deal with artifact heavy decks. A 2/1 is nothing to dismiss, and easily increases in power quickly due to cards like Elvish Archdruid. Remember that Sword of Feast and Famine only provides the creature equipped with it protection from black and green. The sword itself can still be destroyed by Reclamation Sage.

Maybe your opponent is doing a whole lot of nothing. Maybe you want to make additional creatures each turn. Imperious Perfect, one of the best lords for this tribe, could be what you’re looking for. It’s able to enter play off of Collected Company on your opponent’s end step, and the extra elves it makes definitely provides some synergy with Shaman of the Pack.

While not an Elf creature card herself Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is an inclusion worth considering here. Her low casting cost, and -2 ability are definitely the focus. You do have to keep in mind that the plant she will be making is not an Elf (I’ve double checked), but the +1/+1 counters she distributes to the team can provide the extra damage bonus you need to secure the win. Keep in mind if you go this route you will want to drop Pendelhaven for another land.

Once Upon A Time? In Elves? Why not. This one does require some reworking, but it can be done. This card, while still legal, can assure you have that turn one mana creature, and can help you find a Shaman of the Pack to finish off an opponent. Free spells are almost always a problem, and this card is no exception. In a deck like this with so few spells you’ll always find something, and the two mana you need to cast this is negligible in a deck full of mana creatures. You’ll want to shave a land (yes making that 17 land), a pair of Elvish Clancallers, and probably the single copy of Elves of Deep Shadow as well. I’ve played this card here a few times, and it’s quite strong (especially the first casting as it’s free).

As much as the deck is focused on being an all-out aggro you still have room for customization. You can splash blue for Oko, Thief of Crowns, Coiling Oracle, and Frilled Mystic, or perhaps red for Bloodbraid Elf, but you will want to adjust the deck accordingly.

In Conclusion

Tribal decks are some of the most expressive decks in the game. Full of customization you can build them to represent whichever your favorite tribe is. The only limit is your imagination.

Your Thoughts

What do you think of Elves? Have you played against it? Do you play it yourself? What about in formats outside of Modern? Let me know your thoughts below, and make sure to follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

It’s that time of year again. Time for my predictions for the next year!

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

As a reminder here is a list of all of the sets legal in Pioneer. The format consists of all sets released for Standard play from Return to Ravnica to the present (which at the moment is Throne of Eldraine), You can read more about the individual sets here.

There is also a list of cards banned for this format. Those cards are:

• Bloodstained Mire
• Flooded Strand
• Polluted Delta
• Windswept Heath
• Wooded Foothills
• Felidar Guardian
• Leyline of Abundance
• Oath of Nissa
• Veil of Summer

While the list has not grown for a few weeks, keep in mind that there will be updates every Monday for the time being. Eventually updates to the Pioneer format will align with other formats and follow their schedule for cards being banned or (in the case of the Vintage format) restricted.

This last era of Standard I will review will include the following sets:

• Ixalan
• Rivals of Ixalan
• Dominaria
• Core Set 2019
• Guilds of Ravnica
• Ravnica Allegiance
• War of the Spark
• Core Set 2020

Since we have just left this format today’s article may be brief. However, I feel there is still a lot to discover here considering the size of the cardpool for Pioneer. With two stops on Ravnica, a return to other favorite planes, and stops at new locations there are plenty of options for anyone to build quite a few really good decks.

Orzhov Vampires

How the deck works

Not seeing full development until Core Set 2020 came out due to the inclusion of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, this deck finally achieved its full aggro potential before leaving Standard. “You are the beatdown” is a common phrase used to describe what the pilot of an aggro deck should be doing, and it’s no different here. Deploy your threats early, and often, and attack until your opponent can answer your threats.

Pioneer Impact

There have been quite a few vampires across the sets encompassing Pioneer. You could have a line of play that starts out with a turn one Legion’s Landing off of a Concealed Courtyard, followed by a Swamp and Legion Lieutenant, then another land on turn three playing Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord using it’s -3 ability to put Drana, Liberator of Malakir (or any other vampire in your hand into play). Remember that when you activate Mutavault it becomes a vampire as well so any abilities or effects that happen to a vampire happen to it as well.

Tribal strategies can be quite strong in this format. Look for the cards that help your tribe pressure your opponent, and swing away. Vampires, Goblins, Elves, and even Merfolk are some of the favorite tribes among many Magic: the Gathering players, and this format will represent them all in some fashion.

Simic Flash

How the deck works

You operate on the opponent’s turn with this deck. Doing everything from countering their spell with Mystic Snake…err…I mean Frilled Mystic, to tapping a creature before it can attack with Merfolk Trickster, and simply adding to your board presence with Nightpack Ambusher there are many options here making the replay value of this deck quite high.

Pioneer Impact

There are a few ways to go about upgrades. You can go up the curve a little playing larger creatures. Elder Deep-Fiend seems like a perfect fit for this deck as you can Emerge with a previous played creature. Perhaps you block with a smaller creature, and flash this in to Emerge with it before damage is dealt. Now your opponent is looking at a 5/6. Other options include Brazen Borrower, which is seeing a lot of play, and Bounding Krasis. Both of these provide you positive tempo keep you ahead of the game without a big mana investment.

Esper Hero

How the deck works

While there IS an Esper Control deck from this era, I wanted to focus on the Esper Midrange deck of this era instead. You have a lot of spells (almost all of them) that are more than one color. This gives you a lot of value with Hero of Precinct One. Spend your early turns attacking your opponent’s hand, their early threats, and land your Hero. Then start generating tokens every turn with the spells you cast.

Pioneer Impact

This is all up to you, and the direction you wish to go with the deck.

• Do you want to stay Esper? Great, you’ll want cards like Supreme Verdict, Sphinx’s Revelation, Detention Sphere, and perhaps some of the charms (ex: Dimir Charm). Also take a look at the creatures with the Detain keyword (such as Lyev Skyknight) as some of them are multi-colored.
• What about Abzan? Well, you have cards like Abrupt Decay, Assassin’s Trophy, and Utter End to try. Grim Flayer, and Voice of Resurgence are at the same spot on the curve with the Hero so that might be an aggro option. Some of the Sorin planeswalkers have been multi-color, and every version of Vraska has been two colors. Plenty of options here.
• Jeskai you say? Sure, that’s also an option. Goblin Electromancer makes your spells cheaper, and Mantis Rider can provide some aggression. Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice is an option to consider, and the Mentor ability can even boost the tokens you make from Hero of Precinct One.

There are a lot of different directions, and these decks are just the tip of the iceberg when looking at what decks were available in the previous era of Standard. While Throne of Eldraine has had it’s…problems…

…don’t discount those cards as it may have some options to offer for your strategy.

In Conclusion

I want to thank you all for going on this journey with me. As we have seen, Standard changed a lot during these years (sometime for the better, sometimes not), and even though a lot of those cards may not see Modern play they may have life in this new Pioneer format.

Your Thoughts

It’s time to hear from you. What are your thoughts on the format overall? What decks are you looking at playing? Have you tried any yet? Let me know by leaving a comment below, and follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

Is it the end of November already? Well I’ll be back on schedule next week, and with it being December it will be time to visit that month’s favorite tribe: Elves.

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

Just a reminder that the sets I talk about today can be viewed here.

Last time I wrote about the Standard era that covered Battle For Zendikar all the way through Hour of Devastation. During that time not only did Wizards of the Coast (WotC) reverse their decision about two Standard rotations, but we also had the first cards banned from Standard since Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned. It was a time in Standard that seemed to start off well enough (all things considered), but by the end a lot of players were frustrated due to the constant changes by WotC and cards being banned.

So how does this one shape up? Let’s take a look at what we were working with.

• Kaladesh
• Aether Revolt
• Amonkhet
• Hour of Devastation
• Ixalan
• Rivals of Ixalan
• Dominaria
• Core Set 2019

There were a lot of key cards from this era that still see play today across multiple non-Commander formats (everything is playable in Commander, folks).

Approach of the Second Sun, Search For Azcanta, Goblin Chainwhirler, Llanowar Elves, and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria were some of the key cards from this time.

What? Yes, I did say Llanowar Elves.

More surprising than the fact we were going back to Dominaria (and sadly only for one set) was the fact that one of the game’s most beloved, and iconic creatures was returning to the realm of Standard.

He even had a new look too!

The evolution of the elf reminds me of something similar…

…but I can’t quite place my finger on it. I’m sure it’ll come to me later.

So yes the “Keebler” Elf himself is back in Standard, which now makes him legal in Pioneer, and along with Elvish Mystic they will be looking to start some trouble.

Speaking of trouble there were yet more cards that were banned from Standard around this time. They were:

• Rogue Refiner
• Rampaging Ferocidon
• Attune with Aether
• Ramunap Ruins

While Rampaging Ferocidon was eventually unbanned in Standard right before it left the format these others were banned as their strategies (Energy, and Mono Red decks respectfully) were still omnipresent in the format regardless of new cards added, or other cards being banned. One wonders what would have happened to Aetherworks Marvel if Attune with Aether was the first card with Energy banned.

Outside of having (1). Pirates (and Vampires) vs Dinosaurs (and Merfolk), (2). an Egyptian-based plane after spending time in one that is inspired by Steampunk, and (3). returning to Dominaria for the first time since Time Spiral, we also received our first core set since Magic 2015 (unless you count Magic Origins as one, but I don’t). A lot of things that fans have loved, and been asking for, were finally happening. Was it a great time to be a fan of Magic: the Gathering? Yeah. It was.

This was also a return to defining decks by archetype, and having at least one of each (Aggro, Control, and Midrange) be properly represented. I already mentioned Ramunap Red (which was still called that even after the banning of the namesake card), and Mardu Vehicles (which replaced Gideon, Ally of Zendikar with Gideon of the Trials), but there were some other decks as well. Let’s take a look.

Aggro

Steel Stompy

How the deck works

With the help of Llanowar Elves you can play a turn two 5/4 creature: Steel Leaf Champion. It can’t be blocked by the smaller creatures that usually see play in the first few turns, and can help you get an advantage very early in the game. While Rhonas the Indomitable may not seem like a great card to play if you don’t have a big creature on the board, keep in mind that you’ll have extra mana to use. Making a small creature big enough to attack with Rhoans’s ability before combat is a very common line of play.

Pioneer Impact

If you want to focus on playing a steady stream of big creatures there are a lot of options. You’ll probably want to start with adding copies of Elvish Mystic to the deck to increase the chance of having a mana producing creature on the first turn. Choosing Questing Beast can lead you toward the Mono Green Devotion decks that have been doing well despite recent bans. Alternatively, you could play a monsters-style deck running cards such as Stormbreath Dragon, Dragonlord Dromoka, or even Siege Rhino. You’ll have to adjust your mana accordingly, but you’ll have the turn one creatures you need to make big plays each turn.

Control

Azorius Approach

How the deck works

This is a return to true draw-go control (which of course makes me happy). You want to play mostly at instant speed using Search For Azcanta to filter through your draw steps looking for the most optimal card for your turns. Sometimes you’ll need a spell, and sometimes you’ll need a land. Eventually you will land a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and start drawing a lot of extra cards. You’ll want to then cast an Approach of the Second Sun, and within a turn or two aggressively re-draw it, cast it a second time, and win. You plan B is Gideon of the Trials, who forces your opponent to overextend into your Fumigates, and can attack as well.

Pioneer Impact

Where do I begin? There are so many options for the deck, and clearly you want to run Supreme Verdict here, but the real power lies with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. While many thought a seven-mana sorcery would not be a winning strategy in Standard, it’s even more difficult to imagine that in Pioneer. However, it can be a reality. Using Teferi to make your sorceries essentially into instants allows you to cast Approach of the Second Sun on your opponent’s turn. Then if you have another one, or can perhaps cast Dig Through Time while having mana left over, you can do it again for the win. The counterspells are also upgraded in a deck like this to make sure they can hit key non-creature spells early, and are unconditional later in the game. A lot of the cards played in Azorius Control in Modern have been printed in sets legal in Pioneer.

Midrange

Dimir Midrange

How the deck works

This deck featured one of the most popular cards of recent Standards: The Scarab God. Its ability to take a creature from any graveyard, and at instant speed, provides you a constant stream of attacking creatures. Being somewhat indestructible made this a very popular choice for many players. Use your removal spells you make way for your creatures to attack while drawing extra cards during key points of the game. It’s common for this deck to bin a Torrential Gearhulk with a Champion of Wits only to then return it as a 4/4 Zombie (and get its enter the battlefield effect). That’s quite strong.

Pioneer Impact

The first thing to note about this deck is that your removal is a lot better. For instance Murderous Rider can be used three ways:

• Use its Swift End option.
• Cast it coming off an adventure.
• Bring it back with The Scarab God making it a 4/4 Lifelink creature.

That’s a ton of value on one card. Outside of that, Fatal Push seems to be an easy include, but don’t forget that Doom Blade is legal. That could be a great sideboard option against aggressive non-Black decks. Drown In The Loch could be beneficial if you take a Mill approach to attack the opponent’s library. If that doesn’t interest you then you can attack their hand with discard spells. Also remember that Liliana Vess was printed in Magic 2015. Not only can you tutor for a key card, but a constant targeted discard effect only makes your Scarab God’s ability more potent.

Along with the decks that survived from Standard rotation in the previous article there was still a lot of play with this era of Standard. Many decks emerged by the end of this time frame, and when there are many different decks, and representatives of each archetype, that can be quite healthy.

In Conclusion

No matter how you “Approach”ed Standard during this era, it was a lot of fun. It felt like WotC understood what players wanted, and was slowly washing away how Standard was designed to incorporate their short lived “twice a year rotation” to bring it back to once a year. While the sting of having nine cards banned since the beginning of 2017 was still felt, looking at the aftermath there was still a lot of fun to be had.

Your Thoughts

Do you still have your old deck? If you do you may have a good jumping off point to get into Pioneer. Which of these decks have you played? What other cards would you add to them? Let me know by leaving a comment, and make sure to follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

Only one more article to go, and that’s to review the Standard environment we just left. Join me next time as I return to Return to Ravnica.

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

Speaking of decks, we just left a Standard that rotated within six months of the fall set coming out, and honestly it would not be that long before there was a course correction in Standard play as well as design. Before we start let’s take a look at what we are working with.

How many sets again?

As a reminder, the sets I talk about today can be viewed here.

• Battle For Zendikar
• Oath of the Gatewatch
• Shadows Over Innistrad
• Eldritch Moon
• Kaladesh
• Aether Revolt
• Amonkhet
• Hour of Devastation

Yes. That’s eight sets. Yesterday’s article left off with Eldritch Moon, so why are there four more sets after that? Well in the middle of 2017 Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and Mark Rosewater, released a new article titled Metamorphosis 2.0. While I understood what WotC was doing when they made changes to the format, there was honestly too many changes. The Core Sets were key, as they gave players access to certain cards that were able to handle upcoming strategies, or be a key part in a new strategy for the upcoming Standard season. This article addresses that, and a lot of other concerns, and lays out how Standard was going to be going forward.

However something happened on the way there.

Drive fast, turn left…?

The fall set in 2016 brought us to Chandra Nalaar‘s home plane of Kaladesh. There we were presented with a colorful steampunk style world where a rebellion was about to break out, and we received a few new mechanics.

Mechanics that were going to be problems.

First there was Energy. A new resource that would allow us to power up some spells after paying their mana cost. This was to amplify spells or provide some new options for spells and permanents. However there was no way to remove the energy counters you accumulated, and things got out of hand quickly.

With this being an artifact-based plane there was a thought we would receive new versions of equipment, but instead we received vehicles.

Yes. Cars, helicopters, and more. Vehicles.

These were interesting because they worked backwards compared to equipment. With a sword (such as Sword of Feast and Famine) you can equip it to a creature, but if that creature has summoning sickness then you can’t do anything with it. If the creature is removed your equipment remains on the battlefield not used.

With vehicles if the creature dies the next creature you play can be assigned to crew the vehicle, and due to it already being on the battlefield you can attack once the crew ability resolves. This does make things more fun, and action packed, but when we were missing interaction (such as Lightning Strike, and Duress for example) vehicles such as Smuggler’s Copter warped the format, and we were at a place where we had cards banned in Standard.

During this era we saw five cards banned from Standard.

• Smuggler’s Copter
• Emrakul, the Promised End
• Reflector Mage
• Aetherwork’s Marvel
• Felidar Guardian

Right now only one of those cards are banned, allowing you to play these other cards in decks, and currently some are already making waves.

I’m going to review some decks without the banned cards, and some with the banned cards just to show the variety of the format.

Mardu Vehicles

How the deck works

Using Heart of Kiran you want to not only be on the attack, but also make sure you have enough left over for defense. This is why planeswalkers are really good here, as increasing their loyalty can allow you to block on your opponent’s turn. Outside of that you play a white-based aggro deck with splashes of red and black to remove creatures your opponents may control. Make sure to remember that your vehicle becomes a creature when it’s crewed, making it vulnerable to removal spells.

Pioneer Impact

One direction you can take is adding a bit more black to the deck. With Liliana, the Last Hope you can use her +1 ability to weaken an opposing creature, and then take that away by crewing Heart of Kiran making their blockers ineffective. You can also run better removal spells such as Dreadbore, Lightning Strike, or even Immolating Glare.  Keeping the removal spells at a lower casting cost can help fend off aggro. Thoughtseize is an obvious inclusion here.

Ramunap Red

How the deck works

You are the aggressor. Your top end of Hazoret the Fervent adds to that as you should be empty handed by then. Even if you’re not attacking, dealing some damage by pitching excess lands is also a good use of the creature. Make sure you curve out your creatures, and attack, attack, attack.

This deck stayed around the longest for the time it was legal in Standard, and mono red decks were relevant for a long time after that.

Pioneer Building

While this is fast, can you go faster? You sure can. Mono red aggro is already a deck in Pioneer, and it’s due to these cards. Don’t worry about taking damage from Eidolon of the Great Revel. If you can remove their blockers that’s extra damage for you. Monastery Swiftspear also helps get a lot of damage across due to Prowess, but you my dear reader are already aware of how great this card is.

Zombies!

How the deck works

Zombies, Zombies, Zombies. A tribal deck with an aggro bend, zombies have been popular with many Magic: the Gathering players since the game began. With creatures that start out small and end up large, as well as removal spells, this deck has a lot to like.

Pioneer Impact

If you really want to play Zombies you’ll want to have the necromancer herself somewhere in the deck, along with Thoughtseize. Keep in mind that Mutavault is also a zombie when it becomes a creature.

(Bonus) Decks with banned cards

Now let’s talk about a few decks in this era that had cards banned from it.

Azorius Midrange

How the deck works

Honestly while this may be a midrange deck this truly is an aggressive one. You try to keep your hand full by playing a few threats, and attack with them until they are removed, or your opponent is defeated. Smuggler’s Copter helps filter your cards into and out of your hand making sure that the cards in your hand are the best for the situation. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar provides creatures as you already know, and you can flash in Archangel Avacyn in response to a board wipe.

Pioneer Impact

Even though this deck is more midrange you can add to cards that provide you tempo with Teferi, Time Raveler (shutting down instant speed answers), Brazen Borrower to bounce problem permanents, and Dovin’s Veto to counter them on the way back into play.

Honestly if you had this deck built for Standard, and kept the cards, all the while staying up to date on Standard cards then you already have this deck in full. It’s probably the best deck in these colors currently in the format.

Aetherworks Marvel

How the deck works

This was the boogeyman of the format. Wizards of the Coast kept banning cards to reduce the impact of Energy, but the card they kept missing until the end was Attune With Aether. Building up all of your energy counters until you can activate Aetherworks Marvel and cast (not play, it is actually cast) an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Really anything cast off of Marvel was good, but Ulamog was the main target.

Pioneer Impact

You can gain more energy counters after Aetherworks Marvel is out by having permanents leave the battlefield, and this is one of the best ways for this to happen. This may seem like they should be an auto include, but you need your mana on time in a three color deck. You also need to fight against creature lands as well as Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. This is where Field of Ruin can help.

In Conclusion

This was a wild time in Magic as we were going back to one rotation per year right after we just had a rotation after six months. Not that I mind but due to that change it did make some cards that should have left (Gideon, Ally of Zendikar) be a part of the format longer than they needed to be.

Even with all of the problems one could tell that Standard was slowly becoming fun again, and we were all interested in how vehicles would be designed going forward.

Your Thoughts

I am sure you played during this era of Standard. What’s your favorite deck of the ones posted above? What do you remember most about this era? Leave a comment below and make sure to follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

Tomorrow we move forward another Standard rotation as we search for something callrd Azconta

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

Before I begin I want to mention that any sets I talk about can be viewed here. You can look at all of the products released in Magic: the Gathering’s history all in that one handy link. I use it quite often when writing articles, and it’s a great resource overall.

New year, new rotation

As we march on through 2016 we encounter our first of the new “twice a year” Standard rotations. This was done to not only help keep Standard fresh, but also make sure that cards did not become broken, or abusive, once a new set was released late into Standard’s life cycle. While I’m sure that the players were not happy with this, it was time to see the fetchlands move on. No matter what was done the most skilled players would find the most powerful decks, and run those at every event. This left us the following:

• Dragons of Tarkir
• Magic Origins
• Battle for Zendikar
• Oath of the Gatewatch
• Shadows Over Innistrad
• Eldritch Moon

While there were no special cards in Shadows Over Innistrad, or Eldritch Moon, unlike the Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch Expeditions, these new sets based on Innistrad did provide us some memorable cards.

The story so far

Since we last left the members of The Gatewatch we saw them not only release two of the three Eldrazi titans, but they also freed Ob Nixils. Now reignited, this demon wanted to enact his revenge on The Gatewatch. It’s a good thing he did not succeed.

During this time in Zendikar Jace was instructed by the spirit of Ugin to find Sorin of Innistrad to help with the Eldrazi menace. As they arrive on Innistrad it appears they may be too late, and the search begins to find out who is behind the influence of the Eldrazi on Innistrad.

Without the fetchlands from Khans of Tarkir, players had to be a bit more creative to run more than two colors. The format slowed down a great deal, and it was even slow enough to run Evolving Wilds. Remember that Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy was still legal so there was extra incentive to keep him in some decks.

Let’s take a look at some offerings in this format.

Jund Delirium

How the deck works

Your aim is to place as many card types (creature, planeswalker, land, etc) into your graveyard as possible. The sooner you do that the faster Grim Flayer will be bigger, and the faster you could cast Emrakul, the Promised End for less than ten mana.

Pioneer Impact

It may seem obvious to start here, but you need to fix your mana and Fabled Passage will help do that. Keep in mind you don’t get that mana unless you have four lands in play, and it can only find basic lands. However when you activate it…

…you trigger the Revolt keyword from Fatal Push! In general it can be difficult to to trigger Revolt in Pioneer, but this is one way that feels a bit more manageable.

Another way to fill up your graveyard is with Satyr Wayfinder. A bit more aggressive than other cards in this deck already, but it does get the job done. You can even recur this with Liliana, the Last Hope to keep filling the graveyard. I would also suggest running some Delve creatures such as Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Gurmag Angler as your primary win conditions, while moving Emrakul, the Promised End to the sideboard. These threats are more efficient in the Pioneer format at the moment, and you can get a lot of use out of them here.

Bant Company

How the deck works

This deck feels more like the amalgamation of two decks: Bant Humans and Bant Spirits. While not necessarily an instant speed deck there were a lot of cards that interacted with the opponent on their turn (namely Collected Company). You could even flash in Archangel Avacyn, sacrifice Selfless Spirit, and trigger a board wipe on the opponent’s turn. There’s definitely a lot of play with this deck, and over time it became three different decks: Bant Company, Bant Humans, and Azorius Control.

Pioneer Impact

Really the key card here is Collected Company. You can build a good stuff midrange deck, or a tribal deck such as Spirits, Humans, or something not currently being seen like Merfolk. Just make sure you put some other form of interaction in your deck such as Immolating Glare, or even Unsummon.

Temur Emerge

How the deck works

The Emerge mechanic was a very interesting one that allowed you to essentially swap a creature on the battlefield with a new one. The Eldrazi have invaded Innistrad, and this (in my opinion) was the best visually represented story mechanic. As denizens of Innistrad interacted with the Eldrazi they would transform into hideous beings not representing who they used to be. Elder Deep-Fiend is the best representation of this, allowing players to play it during the opponent’s upkeep to have them tap four of their permanents. You also could trigger Kozilek’s Return from the graveyard, allowing you to cast it for free to clear the board.

Pioneer Impact

Sadly this deck is so hyper focused on this Standard environment that outside of lands it will be difficult to properly update the deck. Even the creatures without Emerge were made so you can capitalize on the creature dying due to the casting of your Eldrazi. Look for any creatures with abilities when they come into play tapped, but outside of that there might not be much.

Orzhov Control

How the deck works

Now we are at a deck that does its best to be the control deck of the format. Playing more of a tap out control, and using removal to stay alive until you can deploy your planeswalkers, this deck can take awhile to obtain the win. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is the backbone of the deck, deploying 2/2 creatures to help protect you and your planeswalkers.

Pioneer Impact

Unlike the last deck, this one has a lot of room to be upgraded. For starters you can kick Ob Nixilis Reignited out of the deck and replace him with Gideon of the Trials. Your opponent is going to have a very difficult time removing both this Gideon, and the one already in the deck, and thus you have a better chance of staying alive long enough to execute your game plan. Other planeswalkers to consider are Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, and Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord.

Thoughtseize and Murderous Cut are also auto includes. Having access to hand disruption, and removal that could be reduced in cost, could help you cast multiple spells in a turn. Run this with Collective Brutality to pitch duplicate planeswalkers and fuel your Murderous Cut.

Concealed Courtyard and Isolated Chapel help your mana immensely. Casting Thoughtseize on turn one is always an optimal play, and the Courtyard will help you achieve that.

In Conclusion

The last format had a lot going on where every deck was filled with color, many decks (if not all) played the same way, and things felt overwhelming. This format was the exact opposite. Focused decks that have a purpose are always great, and even though there appeared to be a lot of decks in this format these four were so efficient, and tied to their purpose, that they generally were the ones that found the most success. Also with all of them playing in a similar way we were still not seeing the proper representation of the archetypes Aggro, Control, and Midrange. While play was not as great as Standard formats of the past there was definitely a change to power down the format enough to make it enjoyable for many players. Not necessarily a memorable format, and that could have been partially due to the new rotations in Standard, this format did offer a lot of options based on mechanics from all of the sets.

Your Thoughts

So now that we were able to take a brief view of this format what are your thoughts? Did you play any of these decks? How would you try to reconstruct these decks for Pioneer? Leave a comment below and follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter so you can share that with the world.

Next Time

No time to stop and smell the roses. We have to keep going. Tomorrow we move forward again into some changes (again) for Standard so buckle up crew. We’re going for a ride.

Until next time…

TAP MORE MANA!!!

However, all of that changes today.

Tarkir In Charge

As the sets prior to Khans of Tarkir rotated out, Khans was still going strong. It was leading the way in brewing decks, and even trying new cards not played in the previous era. However with the rotation we lost a lot of instant speed spells (such as Hero’s Downfall, and Dissolve) and the best proactive form of interaction in Thoughtseize. Without those cards there was a severe lack of proper interaction, allowing players to play literally anything they wanted to at all.

However that wasn’t the only change facing Magic: the Gathering.

Metamorphosis begins

A year before this era of Standard was upon us, we were informed via this article by Mark Rosewater that Standard was changing. Instead of having a fall expansion (followed by two expansions tied to that plane) and a core set in the summer of each year, we would instead receive an expansion taking us to a new plane in the fall as well as the spring. Each of those expansions would be accompanied by another set on the same plane. Also Standard was set to rotate twice a year instead of once a year, capping out at six sets for Standard. With a smaller card pool, a quicker rotation, and the removal of core sets, would Standard remain as diverse as it has been in the past?

Well…

The Origins of the problem begin in the middle of it all

Yesterday I mentioned how when Khans of Tarkir was the new Standard expansion it still dominated card choices. This time it was a bit different. Magic Origins was in the middle of this format once it was fully filled, and there was one card that was literally everywhere. Have you ever played in a Standard format where one card was in nearly every possible archetype, insulating itself to never be touched when considering what needs banned? Well this was the Standard for that exact thing to happen. Later on we will take a look at the one card that made everyone hate the character on the card even more than they did when Squadron Hawk was the most played 1/1 flying creature.

The sets available in this era of Standard:

• Khans of Tarkir
• Born of the Gods
• Journey Into Nyx
• Magic Origins
• Battle For Zendikar
• Oath of the Gatewatch

Battle For…Zendikar?

Released in the fall of 2015, Battle For Zendikar and its companion expansion Oath of the Gatewatch, were sets that were supposed to bring us back to the beloved plane of Zendikar (which was only released six years prior). The story that Magic Origins laid out before us felt like a fresh start for the planeswalkers Gideon, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Nissa.

Going back to Zendikar to make sure The Eldrazi remained imprisoned, the planeswalkers forged a bond called “The Gatewatch”, and for a time we had a defined set of heroes set out on an adventure. For the first time in a long time I actually cared about the story for Magic: the Gathering, and even read some of the stories (then provided on the main website) in the hopes of getting art for an unrevealed card, or some other spoiler. That didn’t last long; I’ll talk more about that later this week.

While Battle For Zendikar presented the first adventure of all these planeswalkers together, it failed on doing one thing: Getting us back to Zendikar. Not necessarily the plane, but the set. While (imho) it would have made complete sense for them to reprint the Zendikar fetchlands in this set (we just received the Onslaught fetchlands reprinted in Khans of Tarkir afterall), we instead received new dual lands

While these sets did bring back some of what made Zendikar a great plane with memorable expansions, the returning mechanic Landfall felt underwhelming, and the return of the creature lands, now in enemy color pairings, did not have the same impact that as the ones from Worldwake.

Sure this set began the special “Expedition” lands, which were special (read: can only be used in Limited and formats they are legal in) treatments of many land cycles through Magic: the Gathering’s history, but unless you were collecting these chase cards like collectors of sports cards chase their game-used jersey cards then this did not move the needle a whole lot.

However for all of their effort to provide new things, and cater to many different players, their mistake of printing new dual lands with the lands types overwhelmed all of that. With how closely sets are designed one right after the other, how this was missed will never be understood.

  +    =  

You see with these new dual lands players could use any of the fetchlands, get only a single copy of one of these new duals, and play whatever they wanted. Color identity didn’t matter, and nearly all of the decks were midrange decks playing the best cards in the colors that were available. When you easily have access to four colors of mana it is very easy to play only the best cards, especially when interaction is at the lowest point it’s been in a very long time. That, coupled with the fact that the fetchlands fed Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy‘s need to have five cards in the graveyard before transforming to Jace, Telepath Unbound, and you had a Standard where a lot of decks looked the same.

However the problems didn’t stop there.

Mardu…Green…what???

When these decks were first being built there was no clear name, It was literally a pile of cards put together without any clear synergy between them. Deck decisions were based on looking at all five colors; if not running them all, cutting the weakest color then building the deck from there. There was also no punishment for the greedy mana bases, because if everyone was fetching a dual land out of their deck then everyone was impacted by the life loss caused by that game function.

When it came down to naming the decks, things became even more lazy than actually constructing the deck. More often than not the fourth color would be a splash (I mean you only have 60 cards in the main deck after all) so finding room for all colors to be represented was still a careful choice, but the most minimal effort was put into deck names.

“Jeskai Black”, “Mardu Green” (isn’t he C-Lo Green’s cousin?), and immature names such as “Moist Abzan” graced not only internet forums but coverage as well. How welcoming that must be to get into the game and hearing garbage like “Moist Jund” be used to describe a deck.

Sure this all may be “shaking fist at cloud” or “get off my lawn” speak, but if we had naming conventions for the dual and three color deck name, then we already had it for the four color decks as well. Even naming the deck “Four Color Rhino” or “4C Rhino” would have been better as we would know Siege Rhino was the focus of the deck, and it was four colors. That makes it simple right? Why be simple though when you can be correct, especially with an intellectual game such as Magic: the Gathering?

Yes. Those are real cards. The Nephilim, who should have been Legendary, represented the idea that four colors could combine for a powerful effect. These were even allowed, in an unofficial state, to be your commander to power your four color decks as there were no other options until Commander 2016 was released.

As a matter of fact, these naming conventions were already in use out in the world. At the StarCityGames (SCG) Open in Columbus Ohio in 2013 there was a Witch-Maw deck being played in Standard that had nothing but value every turn with every play. More of a midrange deck than a control deck, it could attack from many angles, and had multiple win conditions that could easily be powered out by the greedy, but effective, four color mana base.

…and this was before we had fetchlands.

How do I know about this deck so much? It’s because I played against Deon the round before this deck tech was recorded. Yes. I lost the match.

Still, no matter the Clash of Wills between myself, and others on the internet, there seems to be a Complete Disregard for using the proper (and established) deck names of this era. Honestly though, whatever you call these decks, seeing anything less than three colors played was very rare in this era as you will see through the rest of this article.

I am going to go forward describing the decks from this era with their (correct) Nephilim name construction. As you’ll notice, there’s not a lot of difference between them, so my descriptions will be brief. I will also be going through these decks quickly before mentioning cards in the Pioneer format to add.

Dune-Brood Midrange

How the deck works

As the only non-blue deck of the five, it relies heavily on Siege Rhino, and future “problem planeswalker” Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Splashing red to run Crackling Doom, and use the Dash mechanic on Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury, this deck wanted to get to the mid-game, and then be aggressive to close it out.

Glint-Eye Midrange

How the deck works

We arrive at our first graveyard focused deck. This one eschews white in order to use the Megamorph cards in Deathmist Raptor, and Den Protector. Also keep in mind that once Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is transformed into Jace, Telepath Unbound you can return to less than five cards in your graveyard. He won’t transform back. On top of using the graveyard as a resource, it took advantage of the Delve mechanic as a removal spell to clear the way for the big creatures in the deck.

Ink-Treader Aggro

How the deck works

Here we have a deck that takes the bold approach of removing black, and is hyper focused on creatures. This did make things hard for Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy to find his spark due to the low number of spells you used him to loot (draw a card, then discard a card from your hand) to fill your graveyard. Cards such as Collected Company, and Bring to Light helped keep your battlefield full of creatures.

Witch-Maw Rally

How the deck works

Of all the decks displayed today, this is the only that makes sense being four colors. Combo decks usually don’t follow normal naming conventions (Storm decks are just called Storm for example) because the focus is centered around the card that executes the combo, or a mechanic that becomes the win condition of the deck. For this deck you want to sacrifice your creatures to Nantuko Husk while having Zulaport Cutthroat on the battlefield to drain your opponent. If you need to do it again, casting a Rally the Ancestors for two, and two white, was not unreasonable.

Oh and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy helped fill the graveyard too.

Yore-Tiller Aggro

How the deck works

While this may appear to be a midrange deck, this was far more aggressive than any other deck in that archetype. Using the best removal spells the format had to offer, along with the most efficient threats, you can craft your way to victory. Burn, removal, and even card selection made this deck a favorite among players. It did look odd seeing red cards next to Tasigur, the Golden Fang, however you only need two colorless and two blue mana to activate him. Soulfire Grand Master can buyback your spells when you cast them from your hand, allowing you extra uses of key cards at the right moment. I’m also glad this deck used Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. I really like that planeswalker.

So as you can see, a lot of these decks look and play, very much the same. Play efficient threats, flip Jace if you’re playing blue, and proceed to keep playing whatever is sleeved up in your deck. The archetypes merged together, and nothing felt truly like an aggro, control, or midrange deck.

Oh and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy was $100. It was an era where you had him, or built a deck without him. There was also a growing divide between “casual but competitive” players, and those whose only goal was play-to-win. While there’s nothing wrong with how one plays the game, having these groups of players separated only hurts the game overall.

Pioneer Impact

With a chaotic Standard environment like this, your options on how to proceed are wide open. You could run the Witch-Maw Rally deck as is, and upgrade the lands (as the fetchlands are not legal in Pioneer), or you can run Glint-Eye Midrange adding Fatal Push, and Liliana, the Last Hope to help with removal and recurring your threats respectfully. There really is a lot you can do with these cards in a larger card pool than Standard.

In Conclusion

While I was not a fan of this format, many of you were and that’s ok. This was a time for a lot of change (perhaps too much of it) with the game. Even though the fetchlands are not legal in Pioneer you can still play a four color deck, so get to brewing!

Your Thoughts

Did you play in this era? What are your thoughts on how you can bring these decks into Pioneer? What was your favorite deck to play? Do you still have your playset of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy? Let me know by placing a comment below and follow me on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Next Time

Tomorrow we’re going to shed our need of fetchlands, and make room for some Company.

Until then…

TAP MORE MANA!!!