Hello!
An introduction, it seems, is in order. My name is Michael Martin, a PTQ-level grinder from Northern Virginia as well as an instructor for the government and a father of an eleven month old ball of joy. I’ve written for other sites, and usually focus on Standard. My accomplishments, if you can call them that, are multiple bubble finishes in StarCityGames.com Standard Opens as well a first place finish in Regionals this past year (no top eight cut, first on standings) and a 3-1 start in Nationals before crashing during draft. I also created the predecessor to Twin Pod last year when I tried out Fauna Shaman-Twin Combo at StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Orlando after Deceiver Exarch was legal (then watching as people on Magic Online started running with the deck and evolving it to include Birthing Pod).
I try to find a balance between real life and competitive Magic: The Gathering. The jury’s still out on how successful I’ve been…
Now that you know who I am, let’s get into some Innistrad Standard. (Note: this article and these decklists were written up before the results for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Indianapolis were available.) We have Zendikar block rotating (as well as M11) and a new set rotating in. There are plenty of cards from the previous block which we can build around and append using Innistrad cards as well as cards from Innistrad which we can build around using the previous sets’ cards. When we have to build around a card in order to be successful with it, we call that card a linchpin.
A quick check with Webter:
Linchpin – World English Dictionary
1. a pin placed transversely through an axle to keep a wheel in position
2. a person or thing regarded as an essential or coordinating element: the linchpin of the company
While the second definition is the one that most accurately applies to what we’re trying to say, I really like applying the first definition as an analogy of sorts, with the linchpin being that vital build-around card and the wheel being the deck that needs to remain in position. However, you can use whichever definition you like; I’m writing this from the capital of the United States of America, land of free speech and free will, so do what you like!
Bad pep speeches aside, let’s take a look at some of the linchpin cards of the new Standard environment. When I say linchpin in regards to a Magic card, I’m referring to cards that meet a specific list of criteria. These are:
1. Have to be built around in order to be used
2. Are incredibly powerful when built around correctly
3. Have a slight drawback, which is what requires them to be built around (this goes hand-in-hand with 1, but is different in some cases)
With that being said, let’s go over a few of these. Up first, we have the more well-known linchpins, ones that people are actively building around currently and are known entities.
These are obvious. Birthing Pod requires a chain in terms of sequential casting cost creatures. Tezzeret requires artifacts, usually non-creature artifacts with utility, and a commitment to blue and black. Tempered Steel requires artifact creatures and a strong commitment to white. Grand Architect requires both blue creatures and artifacts, with the blue creatures being cheap and the artifacts being expensive. Puresteel Paladin requires enough equipment to be able to take advantage of his abilities with enough creatures to attach those equipment to.
All are incredibly powerful when built around. Birthing Pod gives you a steady stream of upside-creatures which provide advantages when they either come into play or leave play (or both, in the case of Solemn Simulacrum). Tezzeret allows you to play suboptimal artifacts, gain the small advantage they provide, then start crashing with 5/5 beaters (not to mention card advantage by drawing an extra card every turn). Tempered Steel allows you to turn your Memnites and Signal Pests into actual monsters before your opponent has time to even start playing Magic. Grand Architect allows you to cheat out giant artifacts incredibly early while providing a non-inconsequential power boost to your creatures. Puresteel Paladin allows you to plow through your deck while simultaneously adding to your board state, creating an insurmountable advantage while getting through with sword hits.
However, they all have their drawbacks. With Pod, you have to play upside-creatures that have enters the battlefield effects. You’re essentially limited to that type of card. Tell me the last time you saw a Myr Superion or Consecrated Sphinx in a winning Pod list.
(Don’t worry, I’ll wait…)
Both have to stick around to have a positive effect on the game, and Pod has no interest in keeping creatures around. With Tezzeret, you’re required to play blue and black while also playing cheap artifacts that provide some sort of benefit. That’s not exactly an extensive list, so Tezzeret lists tend to build themselves and, so far at least, they haven’t been overly successful.
Let’s just say that people were playing Vector Asp because there weren’t enough cheap artifacts to take advantage of its boost in power/toughness. Grand Architect, you’re required to run a balance of cheap blue creatures while also running enough expensive artifacts to take advantage of the mana boost but also not too many as to get flooded when you don’t have an Architect in play. Lastly, in a Puresteel Paladin deck, you’re required to run the likes of Flayer Husk. Find me any other deck that card is even remotely playable in.
(Once again, I’ll wait…)
The drawback of each of these cards is also the fact that the deck runs less optimally when you don’t have them or when they’re removed.
Yeah, Michael, we know all that. You’re not telling us anything new. Get to your point already! I’m about three sentences away from clicking the back button…
Alright, alright, you guys get my point. Now that we have an understanding of linchpin cards, let’s take a look at a couple of new potential linchpin cards in Innistrad:
The cards below are cards that I believe could be good linchpin cards if the support existed, but that I don’t believe that support exists as of yet (at least, not in Standard, as is the case for Past in Flames. I believe that card is waiting to be broken, though, in older formats).
For those of you that read my articles from that other site, you know that I was a big R/U/G Titan fan (Michael Jacob style). That deck got me my first bubble finish in the StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Washington DC and punched my ticket to US Nationals by getting me top place after the Swiss rounds in Regionals. I played that deck from when Sword of Feast and Famine was printed through when Deceiver Exarch was printed (when I started working on the aforementioned ShamanTwin deck, then finally gave in and played Twin-Blade before the bannings).
I loved Lotus Cobra.
Winning the die roll, looking down at my opening hand, and seeing that card along with the mana to cast it on turn 2 brought such an overwhelming sense of being ahead without the first land even being played. Even if you’re not dropping a turn 3 Inferno Titan with it, you can still have busted turns involving Explore, Explore, Preordain, Explore, Preordain, etc… By the time the turn is over, you have somewhere around 6 lands in play with plenty of cards left in your grip.
Or you could just drop a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on turn 3 and just win that way too… whichever you prefer.
Those days are gone, though. Now, we have to move on without ol’ Cobra. We’ll never be able to play our stuff two turns early. We’ll never…
Wait a second. Heartless Summoning!? Lotus Cobra, you’ve risen from the grave!
All seriousness aside, I’m sure the inner Johnny in you guys has already thought of this card as something that could be broken, but maybe when someone else demonstrates its power in some future top eight list, you’ll pick it up. I mean, every creature costing two less?! People were playing Semblance Anvil just to get the same effect, but with the added cost of having to exile a creature. This allows you to do that for only two mana, and all you have to do is accept that you’ll have a Curse of Death’s Hold placed on you the entire time the card is in play.
I’m okay with that.
You should be too.
Let’s look at our criteria for linchpin cards again:
Has to be built around in order to be used
Obviously we’re not shoving this card into the same deck as you would a Bitterblossom. You’re not going to jam in 12 variations on Llanowar Elves to speed up your deck. You’re playing this card with the intention of dropping fatties well before they were designed to be dropped. Since you’re curving out from two to five, six, seven… you’re not overly worried about the minor drawback, as your fatties probably wouldn’t mind dropping off a measly point of power and toughness to come down with the quickness. I’m pretty sure you guys wouldn’t mind playing a five mana 5/5 flier with Demonic Tutor attached (Rune-Scarred Demon), so why not just play Heartless Summoning and make that a reality?
So, in order to use this card, we:
-Â Â Â Â Can’t play mana dorks (or anything with one toughness that we’re not okay with having it die immediately)
-Â Â Â Â Have to create a balance between big creatures and early action to make up for the games when Summoning isn’t in play
Is incredibly powerful when built around correctly
With the way creatures are being designed these days, you’re getting more and more creatures whose power and toughness exceeds their casting cost, or at least matches it in the case of Titans. Everyone at this point is getting used to casting a 6/6 with upside for six mana. We’re used to that equilibrium.
Heartless Summoning, however, breaks that. You’re dropping two mana off of the casting cost while only dropping one power/toughness. You’re getting a 5/5 titan for four mana. You’re getting a 1/1 deathtouching Acidic Slime and blowing up a land, artifact, or enchantment for three mana.
However, that’s not all that you’re limited to with this card. Remember how the -1 toughness clause on Skullclamp was actually a blessing in disguise? Why can’t we use that to our advantage here? While we can’t play Llanowar Elves, we sure can use Viridian Emissary.
What about this:
While Heartless Summoning is in play, you have a version of the Punishing Fire/Grove of the Burnwillows combo available in Standard! Obviously this one only really works when the opponent is playing creatures with two toughness or less (Tempered Steel anyone?), but if you’re expecting a field of creature-based decks, this may be the combo for you.
Has a slight drawback which is what requires it to be built around
The drawback, in this case, is obviously the Curse of Death’s Hold effect that persists on your creatures. Another slight drawback is the need to have enough creatures in the deck to make it worth playing Heartless Summoning.
So obviously we’re in the color black. After that, there are no limitations as to where we go. Mono Black? Sure thing! U/B Heartless Architect? It has the Patrick Chapin Seal of Approval! (Check out his article; it’s the last deck archetype he explores.) B/W, B/G, B/R are obviously possibilities, though I believe the Glissa interaction is pretty strong, which draws me to a base B/G deck.
So where do we go from there? Do we add a third color or simply play B/G? That depends; what are we trying to accomplish again?
Remember, we’re trying to cheat out fat creatures on the cheap. We’re also trying to interact early as well, since there will be games that Heartless Summoning gets countered, removed, or you simply don’t draw it. You’re only going to play this deck if you want to cheat out big Timmy creatures, so you have to take that into account when selecting your creatures. You have to discard previously held notions that these guys aren’t good enough, at least long enough to try them out in a deck like this. If it doesn’t work out, then we just move to a different deck; this type of idea doesn’t work if we’re not thinking outside the box in terms of our creature selection.
Let’s look at some creatures that could make the cut in our base colors:
Glissa, the Traitor / Perilous Myr
Phyrexian Metamorph (isn’t this in everyone’s colors?)
As well as pretty much any creature that is black or green and costs six or more.
Before I get into some of these guys, I’m going to talk about two creatures we’re not going to play:
The interaction everyone’s in love with is Myr Superion with Heartless Summoning. It’s similar to their love of the interaction between mana dorks and Myr Superion. However, what happens in a deck like that, which can’t run mana dorks due to the Curse-type limitation of Summoning, when you draw your Superions with no Heartless Summoning in sight? You get dead cards, and dead cards equal dead chances at winning the game. It was like drawing Splinter Twins (in multiples) with no Deceiver Exarch. You ended up losing most of those games; the difference is, when you did draw the Exarch, you won the game on the spot. A 4/5 doesn’t win the game on the spot. It’s just not worth it. If you played both Architect and Summoning, I could see it, but not one or the other.
Grave Titan is still good, as a four mana 5/5 that churns out 1/1 creatures, but his benefit is definitely mitigated by Summoning. At least at first, we’re going to leave Grave Daddy on the sidelines.
Now, back to the creatures that will make the deck; we’re going to be running four Viridian Emissaries, as they both provide early action/protection as well as interact rather favorably with Summoning as a one-mana Rampant Growth. We’ll be running at least three Acidic Slimes, as that’s one of the primary interactions we want to abuse. We’re also definitely running at least three Simulacrums, as we’re essentially a ramp deck at heart.
So that gives us a baseline deck to work with:
So we’ve already filled 14 slots with our baseline. Where do we go from here?
Cards that I want to try out include Skinrender, Bloodgift Demon, Garruk’s Horde, and Rune-Scarred Demon. Skinrender gives us a two mana removal spell attached to a 2/2 creature. Bloodgift Demon will cost as much as Phyrexian Arena with Heartless Summoning out, only you get to keep a 4/3 flying creature as well. I’ve already talked about why Rune-Scarred Demon will be good, but the card I’m really excited about is Garruk’s Horde.
While Heartless Summoning is great when it’s giving a creature the two-mana discount, as it acts similar to Lotus Cobra, it’s insane when you get to use the discount on multiple creatures in a single turn. Garruk’s Horde allows us to see as many creatures as our deck will provide us, and we can just chain creature after creature until our opponents are tapping out in agony. While it’s obviously not great without Summoning in play, if we play a singleton Horde in the early stages of the deck’s evolution just to test how good it is when you play it, we should be able to gauge how good it is in practice. In theory, I could imagine this card taking over some games. Also, our Rune-Scarred Demon will probably be fetching this guy if Summoning is in play, so we’re virtually playing two copies.
Another card we need to consider is Chancellor of the Tangle. Chancellor of the Tangle allows us to jump straight to our two-drops, which include Summoning, but you also get the benefit of the Summoning discount when playing Chancellor and get a 5/6 vigilance, reach creature for five mana. Not the most insane creature once it hits the board, but the fact that it’s good in both facets makes it a possibility. The only issue is the need to run four of the card in order to take advantage of the reveal ability, and in initial versions of the deck we want to be trying out as many options as possible. If we find that we need to speed ourselves up by a turn in the early game while playing the deck, Chancellor may find its way into our 60.
So we have:
So, we’re up to 17 creatures. Combined with the four Summonings, we’re up to 21 cards. We’re probably going to run 25-26 lands, so we’re looking at 34-35 slots that need filling. We have 13-14 slots remaining.
What about the Glissa Combo, you might ask? Good point. Let’s go ahead and throw that in there as well. Since Glissa doesn’t get the bonus from Summoning, we only really want her while we have an artifact to go with her. Perilous Myr is preferred, but we won’t complain if we get a rebuy on Solemn Simulacrum as well. We’ll go ahead and play two of her and three Perilous Myr, as even without Glissa, he is a free shock with Heartless Summoning in play.
So what do we do with our eight remaining slots? Why, we win the game of course.
2 Urabrask, the Hidden
The red splash allows us to run with the ritual-ability of Priest of Urabrask while also getting to play with the uber-combo of Urabrask the Hidden and Inferno Titan, only two turns sooner. Priest and Inferno Titan actually allows you to get a turn 3 Titan as well, which I can tell you from experience, tends to get the job done with the swiftness.
So, we’re left with a final draft version of our initial take on Heartless Jund:
Creatures (30)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 3 Acidic Slime
- 3 Inferno Titan
- 3 Skinrender
- 3 Perilous Myr
- 2 Glissa, the Traitor
- 4 Viridian Emissary
- 2 Urabrask the Hidden
- 3 Priest of Urabrask
- 1 Garruk's Horde
- 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
- 2 Bloodgift Demon
Lands (26)
Spells (4)
My issue with this deck is the mana. That very well could be the undoing of this version, though the possible interactions definitely intrigue me. Perhaps Kessig Wolf Run would be better served as another dual land, but the possibility of making your smaller creatures into monsters when your deck isn’t firing on all cylinders is a decent backup plan. If the mana was better, I’d run more for sure.
You also get stellar sideboard options in both Ancient Grudge and Sylvok Replica, allowing you ample game against both Birthing Pod and Tempered Steel decks. We’re going to have to put this one through the gauntlet to see if it works.
Another take on the deck could be:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Solemn Simulacrum
- 2 Phyrexian Rager
- 3 Acidic Slime
- 2 Skinrender
- 3 Perilous Myr
- 2 Glissa, the Traitor
- 3 Consecrated Sphinx
- 4 Viridian Emissary
- 1 Garruk's Horde
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
Lands (24)
Spells (9)
This version is a bit more streamline with a slightly better mana base, since we get to play both Rampant Growth and Solemn Simulacrum. We’re trying to curve out before our opponent has a change to interact then sit back on Mana Leak (since we’ll have large creatures out before the opponent is able to set up, mana wise, and will have to play into the Leak) while our fatties take over the game.
One last list before I go (because we all love lists, right?). Another synergy that could (and possibly should) be explored is the synergy between Heartless Summoning and Mentor of the Meek. Obviously there’s a balance that would need to be struck, as you can’t run a deck full of cheap titans with Mentor of the Meek and too many small creatures, but I think there’s a deck that would enjoy having both cards. Take a gander at this possible list that should get some creative juices flowing:
Creatures (28)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 3 Acidic Slime
- 1 Reassembling Skeleton
- 1 Sylvok Replica
- 1 Sunblast Angel
- 2 Skinrender
- 3 Perilous Myr
- 2 Glissa, the Traitor
- 4 Viridian Emissary
- 1 Entomber Exarch
- 1 Garruk's Horde
- 2 Rune-Scarred Demon
- 4 Mentor of the Meek
Lands (26)
Spells (6)
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This list has some interesting interactions; with Heartless Summoning and Mentor of the Meek out, the Glissa/Perilous Myr combo can now draw you as many cards as you can afford. You can draw a card for every black and colorless mana you can afford with Reassembling Skeleton. Against a deck like Tempered Steel, you have another “machine-gun” effect with Sylvok Replica, allowing you to draw a card and kill off a guy (or Tempered Steel itself) for one colorless and one green.
Summoning also allows you to activate Mentor when you play Skinrender as well, which is sure to come up. In fact, with the exception of the four “fatties” at the top of the curve, this whole deck will trigger Mentor with Summoning out with only Glissa and Skinrender not allowing you to trigger Mentor with no Summoning.
These lists are extremely rough sketches meant to give starting points. Obviously a tournament-ready deck would know which fattie was optimal and just overload on that one, but how do we find that out? We would test with each and see which one has the best effect on the game. So that’s what we’re trying to do here. Once we figure out which ones we’re going with, we can shave down other numbers as well and start including cards like Phyrexian Metamorph, which we know will be good and doesn’t need to be tested to see its effectiveness.
Either way, give this deck a shot. If you ever enjoyed playing with Lotus Cobra, I’d definitely suggest trying out Heartless Summoning. If I get a chance to write again soon, I’ll look into some of the other linchpin cards, starting with Mentor of the Meek. With the StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Indianapolis in the books, we can adjust our decks accordingly now as well.
Thanks for reading!
@mikemartinlfs on the Twitter