May is my favorite month; the trees are bloomed, it’s not too hot yet, and there’s lots of opportunities to change. School’s letting out, people are
getting married, and babies are being born. Many of my friends, including my wife, have May birthdays. There’s a lot to celebrate this time of year, and
Magic is one of them.
Even after the most powerful cards in Standard have staked their claim, there’s still room for growth and innovation. Dragons of Tarkir has been
dissected and examined, but some of its most interesting and critical pieces have been left undiscovered. Rares, commons, uncommons, the whole lot. We’re
given a huge blessing, now let’s exp-lore it!
Living Lore, much in the vein of Lhurgoyfs in the past, draw their power from something in your graveyard, but instead of requiring a glut of spells,
lands, or creatures in the bin, you just need one. Living Lore offers another incentive; you get to cast the super-expensive spell you exile.
Thus, it’d be easy to get a huge creature online early, hit early, and cast a big spell early.
Although Living Lore is cool when you exile an on-curve spell, it’s really impressive when it can steal and cast the best spell in your deck with few
resources expended. What’s a big spell in Standard that we could use? Spells with delve lend themselves to the high mana cost, but even the format’s best
mechanic makes these overpriced spells fine but not outstanding. We want something that we’re not supposed to be able cheat into play.
I struggled to think of a good target, but a couple weeks ago at a Dragons of Tarkir draft, my pal Levi showed me the business end of a serious
sorcery.
Although I live and breathe weird, impractical cards, I’d never heard of that spell. I had to pick up and read the card myself as everyone around me
groaned and murmured to themselves. I was on the cusp of delivering the final blow, but I read the card, put it back down, and binned my team. He recovered
a removal spell and completely turned the tables with one big spell. I crumbled and lost in a game I had in the bag.
With the necessary graveyard synergies I’d already need to leverage, Volcanic Vision seemed to work like a charm, recovering another powerful spell and
replacing the Living Lore I’d sacrifice to get the spell off in the first place. It was then that I knew I had my plan.
Creatures (21)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Satyr Wayfinder
- 3 Rattleclaw Mystic
- 3 Savage Knuckleblade
- 3 Den Protector
- 4 Living Lore
Lands (22)
Spells (17)
We’ve got just one mission here: find our Living Lore while filling the yard with tasty treats, cast it, and exile a high-powered instant.
Creatures
Elvish Mystic might seem out of place, but in reality, I wanted to be able to get the extra pieces online as quickly as possible. Moreover, there are
enough one-drops post-board that being able to cast a spell and a one-drop on turn 2 offered a stronger, tempo-friendly sequence. We’ve got six morph
spells too, so getting any of those out on turn 2 will prep the third and fourth turns efficiently. Living Lore is a must-have playset; this is, in
essence, a combo deck, so I want all of the weird four-drops I can play. Satyr Wayfinder has 22 targets it can hit, but frankly, even a brick isn’t that
bad here. If it doesn’t net you a land, think of it as a wimpy Taigam’s Scheming that leaves you with a 1/1.
In the three-of category, we’ve got three seemingly unrelated treasures. Savage Knuckleblade appears to be the farthest thing from this plan it can be, but
it has two things going for it: You can cast it on turn 2 with Elvish Mystic, and it triggers Temur Ascendancy, one of our Living Lore enablers. You can
also recover it and recast it if you’re looking to draw into gas. Den Protector loves the graveyard theme, and the last month or so of Standard has proven
the quality inherent in an Eternal Witness that you have to cast twice. Recovering anything from a Volcanic Vision, Living Lore, a fetchland, or even a
burn spell to finish the game, seem like possibilities with this queen of versatility. Lastly, Rattleclaw Mystic, which can be flipped up on turn 2 to ramp
and fix your mana, allows for explosive turns early with the flexibility of attacking later on in the game. Moreover, spells like Volcanic Vision look a
little sillier when they’re in your hand, so having access to seven mana accelerants helps you swallow those bulky mana costs a little easier.
Spells
Commune with the Gods is the format’s most impressive graveyard enabler; the ability to grab a creature or enchantment while adding five cards to your
delve is beyond impressive. Grabbing a sorcery sure would be nice, too, but I can’t expect too much from a two-mana green sorcery. Stoke the Flames, a
mainstream powerhouse, serves its same function here, but it also allows you to push a big hit through with Living Lore. While you can always “eat” a
Treasure Cruise and smack them for eight, sometimes you need to out-tempo them, so hitting with a 4/4 and killing one of their creatures at the same time
could be the right play. Because Stoke is so easy to cast, it’s also easy to get it into the yard without an enabler. I’m no fool; sometimes things won’t
go off like you plan, and the ability to stomp your opponent’s actions is necessary to keep you alive to see the look on your opponent’s face when you do get the Lore assembled.
Treasure Cruise, with its lofty “real” cost but its massive power, fits with the plan nicely. Hitting someone with an 8/8 with a triple Thieving Magpie
trigger sounds pretty spicy to me. Bear in mind, though, that sometimes just keeping an 8/8 is good enough. After that, you’ve got Volcanic Vision. It has
the power to turn every color’s monsters into mush; even Master of Waves will be left alone while you crush its tokens. Recovering something like a Commune
with the Gods might be enough to wipe them out, too, so even a small Flame Wave is pretty solid.
Finally, we’ve got a copy each of Chord of Calling and Descent of the Dragons. Chord of Calling is a fifth copy of Living Lore, and you can give it
pseudo-haste by bringing it in at instant speed. Sometimes, the semi-evasive Den Protector or an on-curve Elvish Mystic might be the preferred target, but
Living Lore is probably the best one. Descent of the Dragons, combined with Temur Ascendancy, is the perfect alternative win condition. As you smash up
your mana creatures, you draw as many cards and come roaring overhead to defeat even a healthy foe. Seems acceptable, and bringing it back with Volcanic
Vision blasts every creature on your opponent’s team for six. Gotta have that synergy!
Temur Ascendancy is a critical player, adding nonblue colors to the Living Lore deck makes it intrinsically more complex, but the Ascendancy makes the
payoff worth it. Besides granting your creatures haste, which a spell like Hammer of Purphoros could also do, the Ascendancy provides a benefit to casting
large creatures. Combined with the fact you can hit it with Commune with the Gods, you’ve got an essential role-filler.
Lands and Sideboard
The deck has an unfortunate case of Musthitelvishmysticontimebutalsocastthreecolorspells-itis. That pretty much forces us into the four Mana Confluence
bandwagon, but if things go according to plan (which they always will), the incidental damage won’t matter too much. We have lots of blockers low
to the ground to stave off an aggressive start, so the end will likely justify the means.
The sideboard proves I’m pretty scared of things like Atarka Red and even the remnants of mono-black Humans that seems to be floating around lately with
lots of dedicated hate focused on surviving the earlygame. Wild Slash is, in my opinion, one of the format’s premier removal spells; it kills every morph
pre-flip, kills almost every card in Atarka Red (some of them even through Atarka’s Command), and it costs a single mana. The ferocious trigger is gravy,
letting you force something like a Savage Knuckleblade through a Master of Waves. Destructive Revelry can come in for most every matchup. Whip of Erebos is
still a huge player for lots of the slower, bulkier black decks, and even smashing a Courser of Kruphix isn’t bad if you find yourself as the aggressor.
Feed the Clan is an underrated card in my opinion. Two mana for a ten life swing is really critical in a tempo-focused matchup. You can undo a turn or two
of combats or Siege Rhino triggers with something like that and while you’re looking to build a combat-ready Living Lore. Just watch out for Atarka’s
Command (again!) Barrage of Boulders helps against mono-red/Atarka Red too, but it also is great at bashing up Hornet Queen and, more importantly, it
forces your Living Lore through a sea of blockers. I’d find myself bringing this in against green-based decks more than anything else. Soul of Shandalar
goes with everything in the deck, but not as efficiently as the maindeck spells. It still serves a purpose if it’s milled, but it can also be a one-card
powerhouse if your opponent’s bled away their removal killing everything else you’ve thrown at them. It can clear a path for Living Lore, too, but
it often has the power to get through by itself. In reality, I just wanted to try it; sue me. Rending Volley is a card I’m surprised hasn’t seen play with
the power of Dragonlord Ojutai coming to bear. There’s not much an Esper Dragons deck can do against Rending Volley. Even if not, it’s a more efficient
Roast against cards like Brimaz, King of Oreskos; Anafenza the Foremost; and Shorecrasher Elemental.
As I had a fairly busy week, I wasn’t able to test this outside of goldfishing it. It is a combo deck, so seeing how efficiently it assembled the combo was
as important as how durable it was against threats. I had the combo assembled around turn 6 reliably, and only a couple times out of a couple dozen starts
it got it ready and attacking by turn 5. That sounds slow, but it is kind of tricky to interact with the combo; they have to be ready the turn you stick
the hasty Living Lore with blockers and/or a removal spell. It may be that in practice, however, this deck will need to be either more all-in and/or more
durable. At first glance, what do you think?
Superlatives
May is also a month of graduations, and I even got one this year; as of yesterday, I’m officially an MBA! After twenty months of cramming accounting
principles, poring over the Wall Street Journal week after week and finally discovering what “synergy” actually is, I get to add that little line to my
resume’!
Depending on how well you remember high school, you might recall that you voted for your class’s superlatives. You know, “most likely to succeed,” “class
clown,” and “most likely to end up in a ditch because of your poor life choices, Matt.” About a month ago, a lot of our local Magic crew and the zeitgeist
of the Magic community began posting their favorite cards, and I wanted to take a second and share my “Top 8.” It was hard to narrow it down, so I put an
extra limit on mine, deciding that I needed to pick my favorite card from each of the five colors, my favorite gold card, my favorite artifact, and my
favorite land from all of my Magic experience. I’d pick them based on playability, flexibility, and flavor; flavor could include the art or just the
“feeling” of playing the card.
White – Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Elesh Norn is everything; the mechanics, the art, the flavor, the power. She’s one of the best and potentially most fair reanimator targets, and she can be
a commander. I have, more than once, seriously considered dropping the hundreds of dollars for a judge foil copy, complete with Phyrexian text. It’s just such a clean design,
and it feels awesome tapping out to jam this Praetor face-first into your opponent’s field. Crovax, Ascendant Hero ain’t got nothin’. [+1-Ed.]
Blue – Treasure Cruise
Yep, Treasure Cruise is my favorite blue spell ever. There’s just something fun about drawing Magic cards, and to do so legally for nearly free is as
exciting as it gets. You can’t convince me otherwise. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Counterspell, and even Ancestral Recall, which just actually feels
like cheating, don’t do it for me like doing it right now in Standard.
Black – Heartless Summoning
Few cards in the last ten years have been as simply designed and offer such combo potential as Heartless Summoning. You can assume that at any one time,
I’ve got two or three Heartless Summoning decks on the back burner. When it rotated out of Standard, I converted to Modern, welcoming the increased
menagerie of creatures you can pair with this flavorful little enchantment.
Red – Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded
You know what, I don’t care. Everyone and their mom teases me for digging on some Tibbles and Bits, but I can’t help it. I love the two-mana planeswalker,
and it is really fun to play even when you toss away a critical spell just because you’re doing it for so cheap. See: Treasure Cruise and Heartless
Summoning.
Green – Overrun
Overrun is the greenest of green spells. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a brand new player or a seasoned veteran, this is the most fun way to tap five
mana. Oh, I’m far behind with just a couple shrimpy 1/1s and 2/2s on my side? Nope, looks like I win because you didn’t play around it. Bang! Pretty much
every time you cast this spell, someone will cheer or shout. Let that person be you.
Gold – Cruel Ultimatum
This was a really tough one, but this is, by far, the most fun multicolored spell in Magic. I love Grixis already, but there’s something soul-crushing
about this control spell. It’s simple, elegant, and backbreaking. It captures the flavor of Grixis so well: I get everything, and you get nothing, and it’s
totally fair because I say so.
Artifact – Trading Post
Brad Nelson and I are secret homies. Brad’s Goat token, designed to go with his own favorite card, is still my favorite Invitational Token. Trading Post is
so flexible, and I still play two copies in my Modern sideboard just because I want to. There’s so much you can get with this spell, the art is beautiful,
and there’s no limit to the fun you can have with the Post.
Land – Mutavault
Colorless cards are always my favorite, so this was another tricky one. Mutavault, though, acknowledges my love for tribal while also being one of the
actual best lands ever printed. I still keep four in my Modern deck, and I’ve won and lost many games to the little 2/2 changeling. I don’t even care when
I lose to it. Please, beat me down with my favorite land.
So, after all that, what are your eight favorite spells if you divided it this way? What card in which color has been particularly formative in your Magic
experience?