The March of the Machine is in full flow, and we have the entire set to sink our teeth into now. Beyond the big draw of a new card type and iconic characters teaming up for perhaps the last time, there are some gems daring players to build around them and chase the dream.
If we’re talking about combo decks, we should get the most obvious development out of the way…
Polukanos Power
Last week, I featured two separate battles that may make waves in Mono-Green Devotion, but Polukranos Reborn is the real highlight for Nykthos fans. Mono-Green Devotion has fewer deckbuilding choices than the vast majority of decks, but there are a few flex slots with several candidates for them – now, that debate may be settled too.
Old-Growth Troll is an all-star in the deck. It enables your flashy turns as a big boost to your devotion count for Nykthos that triggers Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, but it also makes the deck more stable as a threat you can cast on Turn 2 via Llanowar Elves / Elvish Mystic that attacks and blocks well. Opponents who try to counter your expensive payoffs or limit your early resources can find themselves under the bridge, staring down a fast Troll that can’t be removed easily.
Polukranos Reborn has that same flexibility and more. The Elf into GGG three-drop into Nykthos lines are more common now, and you have more hits for Kiora. There’s less need to ramp up to Storm the Festival to win, but Polukranos is another fine Storm hit in its own right. Having more of these cheap threats makes the beatdown backup plan that much more reliable.
Instead of Troll’s in-built resistance to removal, Polukranos gets to be a mana sink that turns into a terrifying threat. A 4/4 or 4/5 can get stalled on the ground, but this one transforms into a 6/6 that easily swings a race and leaves more threats behind. Suppose your Rakdos Midrange opponent taps out for Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. This would stop a Troll in its tracks, but Polukranos can transform and take over, forcing a removal spell that still gives you several creatures back. Other three-drops live in fear of Lovestruck Beast. Polukranos can happily pick that fight.
Crucially, reach lets Polukranos rumble with flying threats that can’t be blocked by Troll. Spirits of any stripe is a scary matchup, but Polukranos threatens to stop their squad in the air and then transform to win the race. Abzan Greasefang is a popular choice right now after more refined builds performed well at Pro Tour Phyrexia and on Magic Online (MTGO). Polukranos can hold off an Angel token from Parhelion II to prevent you dying early, and gives you a nice life buffer once transformed.
Nykthos isn’t the only land that loves to see Polukranos. As a legend, it gives you the easily forgotten discount on Boseiju, Who Endures, but the real prize is Lair of the Hydra. A transformed Polukranos lets a Lair that’s about to die in combat leave two more attackers or blockers behind. Against a sweeper like Supreme Verdict, you can animate Lair and have it die along with Polukranos to leave behind twelve power across four bodies.
These two benefits tie into each other. Once you control a transformed Polukranos, you can cast a new Polukranos Reborn without it dying to the legend rule – until you transform it, at which point both copies of Polukranos, Engine of Ruin see one dying and give you that same spread of twelve power back to join the first copy.
A cheap threat that powers your best draws, salvages your weak ones, can win by itself, and gives you a juicy mana sink for your Nykthos – it’s hard to ask for much more if you’re a Mono-Green Devotion fan. The former scourge of Pioneer is now an underdog, needing some help to retake its throne. This latest Polukranos is a big step in the right direction.
Over a Baral
That gets the guaranteed Pioneer hit out of the way. What about something a little more adventurous?
Creatures (6)
Lands (20)
Spells (34)
Baral and Kari Zev is an odd but exciting card that threatens danger if you can cheat this mana value check. Pioneer doesn’t have the larger formats’ wealth of alternate-cost cards, but it is the format that was explicitly called out as the home for the broken delve cards. One could argue that Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time need no help to do silly things, but they haven’t been seen doing them in Pioneer in quite some time after Phoenix flew too close to the sun and dropped off hard. These days, someone exiling their graveyard is probably casting a Hooting Mandrills that’s about to be Neoform food. Let’s change that!
Ideally, you want to spend the first few turns stocking the graveyard so that you can cast Treasure Cruise for one mana and curve Baral and Kari Zev into Cruise on Turn 4. Otherworldly Gaze gets the nod over more Opts and the like because it fills the graveyard more quickly, and you’ll gladly accept the card disadvantage to find combo pieces in Baral and Kari Zev, Treasure Cruise, and some sorcery to cheat out. Pieces of the Puzzle proved perfect in this role in Izzet Phoenix, and I expect it to shine here too.
When you use Cruise to trigger Baral and Kari Zev, you can cast any sorcery with mana value seven or less for free. Where does that get us?
Sea Gate Restoration shows up in some Phoenix lists with no hope of casting it just as a ‘land’ to hit with Pieces of the Puzzle (or connive away for value with Ledger Shredder). It does that here, but also juices up Baral and Kari Zev triggers with little effort, effectively doubling or tripling Treasure Cruise.
Alrund’s Epiphany is the real prize. You get another turn to attack, make full use of all the cards you just drew, and work towards the next big play. In slower games, you can foretell and then hard-cast Alrund’s Epiphany or even pair it with Galvanic Iteration to relive its Standard glory days.
Temporal Trespass gives you both halves of this equation in one card, while letting you cast any other sorcery for free – including a Treasure Cruise that would be hard to cast manually with a newly empty graveyard. Even without Baral and Kari Zev, the Galvanic Iteration + Temporal Trespass end-game from Pioneer puts you over the edge in any game that goes long enough.
If you can’t aim this high, sometimes you just cast a Consider or Fiery Impulse and get a cute little Monkey. First Mate Ragavan is no Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer – a classic case of being promoted into a management role with more responsibility but no glory – but if you have to play a fair game against the removal that’s necessary for Baral and Kari Zev, this Young Pyromancer impression can be useful, even though there’s only ever one First Mate.
Rona’s Ascendancy
Let’s move on to another eye-catching legend:
Creatures (12)
Lands (20)
Spells (28)
The Banishing Knack + free artifact loop was the backbone of the early Jeskai Ascendancy combo decks in Standard. The creature that gains the Knack ability taps to return Mox Amber, which you recast, triggering Ascendancy, which untaps the creature, and so on, letting you cycle through your deck and generate an infinitely large attacker that can use the same ability to clear out blockers before attacking for lethal.
Emry, Lurker of the Loch arrived on the scene amid a lot of hype and took Modern by storm for a hot minute with a similar Ascendancy loop. You can tap Emry to recast a free artifact (ideally one that sacrifices itself or is legendary with another copy in circulation) from your graveyard, triggering Ascendancy and untapping Emry to go again.
Jeskai Ascendancy fans will remember other loops or combos from various formats across the years – Fatestitcher, Sylvan Awakening, and so on. Taking a flurry of game actions or going infinite with Ascendancy is the easy part. Ascendancy is such a distinctive effect that nothing else fills its shoes. It’s nigh-impossible to increase the redundancy on that part of the combo.
Rona, Herald of Invasion replaces Ascendancy in the Banishing Knack scenario, untapping itself when you recast Mox Amber and letting you loot as a reward. It also pairs wonderfully with Ascendancy if you’re missing these other pieces. With Rona and Ascendancy both looting repeatedly, you tear through your deck amazingly quickly. Between Emry and Rona, Mox Amber is an actual Mox reasonably often.
What do you do when your flimsy three-card combo doesn’t come together? You turn Rona into a gigantic threat! Combo decks yearn for a realistic backup plan, especially if their main combo is demanding. Rona comes with one ready to go on top of everything else it does.
The Rona + Banishing Knack + Mox Amber package is mono-blue and can be worked into other shells. Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler is another of these super-flexible combo enablers that is just begging to be broken somewhere. Maybe a Sultai deck of some kind is the answer!
This is just the beginning. March of the Machine has continued the recent trend of giving Johnny/Jenny some fun puzzles to solve while helping the established decks develop enough to give Spike something to think about too.
