It’s not often that receiving the full set list of an upcoming set has me
asking more questions than I was asking before we knew all the cards, but
alas, here we are.
See, Ravnica Allegiance is supposed to have the last five guilds
we need to complete the cycle of ten to have a complete format, those being
Gruul, Orzhov, Azorius, Simic, and Rakdos. So, if those are the five guilds
we’re supposed to be getting, my question is this:
Isn’t Young Pyromancer supposed to be an Izzet card?
Did you think I was joking?
I might upset some frazzled scientists who proudly brandish their designer
goggles with this one, but in the context of Standard, Hero of Precinct One
might just wind up being the best token-making two-drop we’ve ever seen.
Now before you all write me off as some sort of madman, let me make my case
here as to why Hero of Precinct One is so powerful by looking at the GOAT
himself.
Young Pyromancer is a card that’s powerful because it generates an
incremental value every time you’re doing something else you already want
to be doing. In a format like Legacy where your deck is all free
countermagic, one-mana cantrips, and Lightning Bolts, it’s easy to see that
Young Pyromancer fits in. Every turn can result in multiple tokens being
added to the battlefield, and without an answer, Young Pyromancer
undeniably takes over a game.
Really, cards like these two are only as good as their supporting cast,
which is great news for Hero of Precinct One. We’re in Ravnica and there’s
loads of multicolored goodies worth playing and dual lands galore to make
casting them a breeze, so it won’t be difficult to start squeezing extra
value out of our cards.
The best place to start, much like with Young Pyromancer, is by looking at
the cheapest and best ways we have of generating tokens with our Hero of
Precinct One. This is the short, but all-inclusive list of one-mana
multicolored spells in Standard we have at our disposal to help get the
party started. It may not seem like much on the surface, but two cards that
have had my eye from the beginning of Guilds of Ravnica make me
pretty intrigued about what a Naya deck could look like.
Creatures (20)
- 3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
- 3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
- 2 Trostani Discordant
- 4 Gruul Spellbreaker
- 4 Zhur-Taa Goblin
- 4 Hero of Precinct One
Lands (22)
Spells (18)
Flower and Integrity are both excellent ways to make a Turn 3 Hero of
Precinct One get immediate value while also both playing into this deck’s
strategy very well. Flourish is obviously a great payoff when you’re making
a lot of tokens, but Integrity is the real hero of this story, protecting
all our two-drops from Shock and allowing them to go into combat cleanly.
I also find it a little ironic that in an article about a card and decks I
want to play that are maxing out on multicolored cards, the two I’m most
excited for are a white card and an artifact.
Glass of the Guildpact seems like a really undervalued effect in the right
deck; Glorious Anthem in any color combination at a reduced cost is almost
too good to be true. Especially with Kaya’s Wrath and Mortify promising to
be big players, permanents that you can develop without overextending are
only going up in stock.
This Naya deck is definitely more focused on making Hero of Precinct One
look its best, but it’s not too difficult to imagine a different kind of
Flower deck that makes Glass of the Guildpact the belle of the ball.
Creatures (18)
- 3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
- 3 Trostani Discordant
- 4 Imperious Oligarch
- 4 Seraph of the Scales
- 4 Hero of Precinct One
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (15)
Something I didn’t notice until I had already decided I was a little fond
of Glass of the Guildpact was that afterlife makes tokens that are
multicolored, meaning they receive a nice buff as well. Kaya’s Wrath seems
pretty underwhelming against a deck like this, as it won’t be difficult to
keep four or more power on the battlefield across multiple bodies at any
point in the game.
This Abzan deck isn’t too far off from the ideas that Dylan Hand showcased
with Priest of Forgotten Gods earlier this week, and it could be that
harnessing the token-making power of Hero of Precinct One is the best way
to enable that sweet card in some sort of Aristocrats deck.
While I’m not sure a Mardu value/combo deck like the Aristocrats will
successfully be tuned to be a winner, it’s worth noting that a lot of the
cards being thrown around in the discussion of how the engine could be
assembled with only so many removal spells your opponents can draw. The
fact that a few pivotal threats are multicolored could make the incidental
token-making from Hero of Precinct One too dangerous to let slide, which
lets you safely deploy something like Judith, the Scourge Diva-something
they have trouble answering.
Creatures (23)
- 4 Imperious Oligarch
- 3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
- 4 Seraph of the Scales
- 4 Fireblade Artist
- 4 Hero of Precinct One
- 4 Footlight Fiend
Lands (24)
Spells (13)
This take on Mardu might look a decent bit like the Aristocrats, but
fundamentally, I think it’s different. Rather than being involved in on
battlefield tricks trading creatures for value, it’s much more about
traction. With the amount of anthems the deck has access to and the
punishing dynamic of trading off with the value creatures we have, it’s
lacking the frills and making up for it in muscle.
That’s not to say this shell couldn’t easily be converted to something more
engine-friendly, but the question of whether that’s necessary is entirely
contextual upon the rest of the format shaping up. It worries me right now
with the prevalence of Deafening Clarion we saw that putting lots of small
bodies on the battlefield isn’t exactly worth the investment, but things
can change. If Esper takes the mantle of the best Teferi deck, I certainly
won’t be sweating the existence of Clarion because I know Kaya’s Wrath is
something we can recover from given enough time to build.
It could also be the case that sweepers become a thing of the past, and in
that case, I know I’d want to just give a pure token strategy a spin.
Creatures (15)
- 3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord
- 4 Venerated Loxodon
- 3 Trostani Discordant
- 1 Frilled Mystic
- 4 Hero of Precinct One
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (22)
Spells (21)
It’s been a while since someone has brought this deck back into the
conversation. Once again, the last person to talk about a shell was Dylan
Hand when we got our first look at Dovin. The list he had constructed then
didn’t have all the cards we know about now, and I think it could be
interesting to see what Flower and Incubation can do to enable Hero of
Precinct One to be a mainstay token generator.
I may be going a bit overboard with my addition of some of the one-ofs
here, but I can’t be the only one who wants to be able to find a Frilled
Mystic with an Incubation with four mana available, can I? The first copy
is very powerful, and it can be easily disguised as a March of the
Multitudes if naturally drawn. This is definitely something I’d
test with more before I felt comfortable registering it in a tournament,
but I like the idea a lot in theory.
These are only a few of the ideas I’ve been brewing up around the massive
amount of sweet multicolored cards we’re getting in Ravnica Allegiance and with
the SCG Tour stopping in Indianapolis for a Standard Open
, there’s no time to waste and a lot to learn! Last week, my money was on
22 Swamps, but now it seems like three basics might be the answer. If
that’s not a sign that this format is going to be sweet, I don’t know what
is.