Bant Artificers

I’ve started building something janky around the interaction between [Kellan joins up] and [Bramble familiar] and while I’ve moved slightly away from it I am starting to have a bo1 list revolving instead around the good old [Dedicated Dollmaker] that got two big payoffs in OTJ/ Big score with [Oltec Matterweaver] and [Collector’s Cage].

Plan A remains finding a fatty turn three ,either [Bonny pall, clearcutter], that comes with a nice +2/+2 on all creatures or good old Atraxa, but the deck can also dig stuff through the interaction between Cage and Dollmaker, or go wide creating copies of turned into token matterweaver .

[Aven interrupter], Arwen and [Kitesail Larcenist] give some protection to the deck while [Sandstorm Salvager] is a solid second option to activate cage’s hideaway condition

Here the tentative list:

4x Delighted Halflings

4x Collector’s Cage

4x Dedicated Dollmaker

3x Bramble Familiar

3x Aven Interrupter

4x Oltec Matterweaver

3x Kitesail Larcenist

3x Sandstorm Salvager

1x Arwen, Mortal Queen

3x Kellen Joins Up

2x Bonny Pall, Clearcutter

2x Atraxa, Grand Umidifier

3x Plains

1x Island

2x Forest

1x Adarkar Wastes

1x Brushland

1x Yavimaya coast

2x Seachrome coast

4x Razorverge thicket

3x botanical sanctum

2x Thran portal

2x captivating crossroad

1x cavern of souls

1x mirrex

I've been running a pretty standard Jund list with 3 maindeck Blood Moons. (They've been pretty good in the meta I've been seeing, since they auto win against Domain and give some play in game 1 against SnT since they usually don't play around it.) I've been trying to decide whether it's worth switching out some of the off-color fetches for Prismatic Vistas. Right now I'm running:

4x Wooded Foothills

4x Bloodstained Mire

2x Polluted Delta

2x Windswept Heath

2x Overgrown Tomb

2x Blood Crypt

1x Stomping Ground

2x Forest

1x Mountain

2x Swamp

1x Underground Mortuary

for lands (I'm pretty sure the Mortuary should be a Raucous Theater because it's a little better for Blood Moon, but I've been holding out against using the wild card). Has anyone tried out substituting Prismatic Vista for some combination of the Windswept Heaths or Polluted Deltas? I worry a bit about the consistency of having double black available on turn 2/3 if I switch, but not being able to fetch up a forest or swamp if necessary to set up a Blood Moon has been pretty rough.

I love the desert theme as well as crime committing so I made a deck around that. I wonder what the rest of you is playing. Haven't touched Limited of the set, so I have no idea what performs best there.

[[Satoru, the Infiltrator]] is the best card from OTJ that nobody but Modern players are talking about. It's Up the Beanstalk if Up the Beanstalk was a legendary creature, except there are exponentially more ways to get Satoru to trigger. If that card was such a powerful card engine in Modern that it got banned for it, I think it's worthwhile discussion to take a look at some of the competitive (and perhaps not so competitive) implications for it.

There are some obvious things that you think of when you see this. Thematically, plotting and ninjutsu abilities all work of course due to flavor. But beyond that, MH2 evoke elementals like Grief and Subtelty, any reanimation effect like Cruelty of Gix or Helping Hand, any blink effect like Yorion or Ephemerate, scam effects like Not Dead After All, anything off Discover or Cascade, and any return effect like Forsaken Miner or Skyclave Shade. In short, if you didn’t pay a mana cost to put it on the field, that’s a Satoru trigger.

As Aspiring Spike says, it would be faster to name the things this doesn’t work with than name all the things that it can. But here are some things you probably didn’t think about or realize are potential combo applications:

• Ornithopter triggers this. Yeah that’s right, 0 mana counts. If you’re a Legacy player you may already be familiar with the competitive decks that leverage Ornithopters and Ninjas, and this would have a rightful home there.
• An enchantment saga that flips into a creature triggers this. Fable, Kumano, etc. I find The Restoration of Eiganjo particularly amusing since you can pitch the Satoru from chapter 2 then get it on the field with a trigger, and then when it flips from chapter 3, yeah you guessed it, that’s another Satoru trigger.
• Everyone’s favorite Cat Oven of Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven. This may take the award for my favorite abusable thing with Satoru. There are already what feels like infinite Cat Oven combos in various sacrifice decks, but none that particularly draw you cards like this.
• Any creature that comes from within your deck itself is also a trigger. So that means Delve payoffs like Narcomoeba and Bloodghast or anything you pull from Natural Order.
• Speaking of pulling creatures from your deck, effects like Collected Company or Kayla’s Reconstruction will work with Satoru of course, but you’d only get to draw one card as opposed to 2+.
• I'm not 100% sure if all the Phoenixes work with Satoru, but surely most of them do. The big one of course being Arclight Phoenix.
• I don't know what a Ninja is doing in your Vampire tribal deck, but the -3 from Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is a Satoru trigger.
• Conspiracy Unraveler or any ways to collect evidence instead of paying mana for a creature, yup, that's a Satoru trigger.
• Last but not least, anything that puts a Cloaked card on the field triggers Satoru. So namely Cryptic Coat and Vannifar, Evolved Enigma, but I’m sure there’s more when you consider Morph synergies as well.

And this is just what’s available on Arena off the top of my head. Once you get into older formats with things like Norin, the Wary or Frogmite, I’d be here all day describing all the things Satoru can do. If I missed any or if you've been brewing with the card as much as I have, I'd love to hear it.

Hello Spikes,

Inspired by Jim Davis' desert deck in prerelease, I took to brewing my own version that is performing extremely well so far and rocketed me up to Mythic. Jim originally built the deck in Sultai, but I decided to switch to Bant primarily for Sunfall and for Get Lost, which I consider to be the superior removal package due to Get Lost being able to hit a wider amount of targets for the same mana value as Go For the Throat, and the power of 5 mana mass exile. Even though it's still early days of the format, I think this deck is positioned really well in the meta so I'm going to give a breakdown of the card choices and general lines of play.

The deck:

Deck

4 Map the Frontier (OTJ) 170

4 Doppelgang (MKM) 198

4 Colossal Rattlewurm (OTJ) 159

4 Freestrider Lookout (OTJ) 163

4 Outcaster Greenblade (OTJ) 172

4 Lonely Arroyo (OTJ) 260

2 Sunfall (MOM) 40

2 Azusa's Many Journeys (NEO) 172

4 Spelunking (LCI) 213

1 Forest (MIR) 347

1 Boseiju, Who Endures (NEO) 266

1 Sandstorm Verge (OTJ) 263

4 Arid Archway (OTJ) 252

4 Conduit Pylons (OTJ) 254

2 Case of the Locked Hothouse (MKM) 155

4 Lush Oasis (OTJ) 261

4 Creosote Heath (OTJ) 255

4 Hedge Maze (MKM) 262

3 Get Lost (LCI) 14

Sideboard

1 Get Lost (LCI) 14

2 An Offer You Can't Refuse (SNC) 51

4 Negate (STA) 68

2 Unlicensed Hearse (SNC) 246

3 Knockout Blow (SNC) 20

2 Sunfall (MOM) 40

1 Temporary Lockdown (DMU) 36

Card Choices

Doppelgang is our primary payoff and the card this whole deck is designed to maximise, so all of our card choices reflect that. For our creatures, Everything that we play has the ability to ramp us up to play a massive Doppelgang as soon as possible. Freestrider Lookout is the allstar of the deck in that regard. I would never play less than 4. It is absurdly easy to trigger with the high concentration of crime lands, you will trigger it almost every single turn. Colossal Rattlewurm is the other allstar. Obviously since almost all of our lands are deserts, you'll be able to cast it with Flash with no problem. 6 power is very relevant as it efficiently trades with any creature in the format, but the ability to exile it from the yard and get another land is the true power of it in this deck. There's a critical mass of surveil in the deck, so it almost turns into an instant speed Cultivate with the ability to bin it and then fetch a bounce land whenever you like. Outcaster is just ok. Its primary purpose is to just fetch a desert, but it does present a big body that the opponent needs to do something about, so it usually just eats some interaction. Rarely will it connect for big damage, but the threat of it is nice.

Map the Frontier and Spelunking are our core ramp pieces. Map the Frontier is excellent for finding our bounce lands to return the crime lands to retrigger Freestrider and also constantly surveil to dig for what we need, and Spelunking is great for the card draw and making the deserts come in untapped. Azusa's Many Journeys and Case of the Locked Hothouse are our secondary ramp pieces. It's always nice to play more lands per turn and these let you do that. Case of the Locked Hothouse is much better, but it can be slow to get there at the 4 mana mark, hence the 2/2 split of Azusa and Case. In earlier iterations of the deck, I found that Case was often a dead card in hand when I ran a full playset, so I cut some to run Azusa for an earlier drop and it worked much better, despite Case being the stronger card.

Sunfall and Get Lost form our primary removal package. They speak for themselves as to why they're in here. They were the primary decision in moving from Jim's Sultai into Bant so that I could have access to them rather than Go For the Throat.

Lines and General Play

The main line and goal of the deck is to just ramp like your life depends on it until you're able to hit a large Doppelgang.

The high concentration of the crime deserts ensures that you will have likely pinged your opponents for 9 or 10 damage by the time you're have enough mana to cast Doppelgang, which you almost always want to do over any other play. Ideally, you want to cast Doppelgang with x=3. This will open up three lines. The first and most ideal line is that you can simply make copies of 3 crime lands, pinging your opponents for 9. Very often you can surprise opponents for lethal with 9 damage to the dome, and I have found that very often you will have gotten them down to 9 through pings from crime lands and chip damage from creatures.

Your secondary line is attempting to cast more than one Doppelgang in a turn. You'll try this when your opponent isn't low enough to burn out with a single cast. The way to do this is demonstrated in SaffronOlive's latest video here (who took the deck in a Simic direction for budget reasons), but the combo requires you being able to cast Doppelgang for at least x=2 and targeting Arid Archway + Spelunking. This allows you to bounce crime lands with the bounce lands ETB and then replay them to the Spelunking copy ETBs. You'll also get to surveil each time and draw cards, so hopefully you can find another Doppelgang and spin the wheel again.

The third Doppelgang line is of course simply copying your opponents stuff. In dire situations, this is always an option to get emergency blockers on board or removal through copying things like Leyline Binding or Temporary Lockdown.

Our backup plan is simple beats with large Outcaster Greenblades and Rattlewurms. I can't say this happens often, but they do get big and you can punish greedier decks with how big they and how quickly you can turbo them out with all your ramp.

Deck Stats & Matchups

Currently, I've played 50 games with the deck. It's sitting at a comfortable 62% WR, with 31W and 29L.

Most of the losses and most difficult matchups have come from Mono B, Dimir midrange, and Grixis crimes. The deck is 40%, 50% and 50% respectively against those three. These decks both go fast enough to kill you before you can Doppelgang as well as running Duress/Deep-Cavern Bats/Tinybones Joins Up/Liliana to pick apart your hand simultaneously. Mulliganing aggressively for your removal is key in these matchups.

Our easiest matchups come from Golgari Midrange, Domain decks, Atraxa/Etali reanimator piles & Temur land combos. In the case of Golgari midrange, their removal/interaction packages struggle to stop us ramping into Doppelgang and they usually don't go fast enough to kill us in time. As for the Domain, Reanimator & Temur lands combo, they're simply too focused on their own strategy and we tend to win the race in the solitaire combo matchups.

Mono R and Boros Convoke are often rough in game one, but are favoured matchups post board. Trimming down on some ramp in favour of more spot removal, especially Knockout Blow, and extra copy of Get Lost and the extra Sunfalls is usually enough to make sure that you can withstand the early beats and execute the combo.

Sideboard

The sideboarding strategy is fairly straightforward. This isn't a transformative sideboard at all, we're simply looking to either survive long enough to Doppelgang, or protect our Doppelgang from counter magic. Against aggressive creature based decks, we trim some of our ramp spells - Case of the Locked Hothouse & Map the Fontier - to bring in the extra removal. Against faster decks running blue, we again trim the ramp to bring our Negates and An Offer You Can't Refuse. Against heavier control also running blue, we keep the ramp but trim creatures instead for the same counter magic package, usually starting with Outcaster. Unlicensed Hearse gets brought in to hose graveyard decks, primarily Temur Land combos & the Sultai self-mill reanimator piles.

I encourage you to try the deck! It's truly fun to cast huge Doppelgangs, and I believe that there truly is something here with this list.

Cheers

I am currently 24-7 and I am pushing through ranks fairly fast but feel like the matchups I lose is due to lack of understanding of the sideboard. I understand a majority of my wins up until now have been due to card value understand from other games + an actual complete deck, but I need to refine my siding if I want to keep the ball rolling.

the list I am using is stolen from a random standard challenge from the other day:

Deck

4 Bloodtithe Harvester (VOW) 232

3 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor (BRO) 95

4 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun (LCI) 156

4 Deep-Cavern Bat (LCI) 102

4 Preacher of the Schism (LCI) 113

3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (DMU) 107

3 Tinybones, the Pickpocket (OTJ) 109

3 Cut Down (DMU) 89

4 Go for the Throat (BRO) 102

1 Shoot the Sheriff (OTJ) 106

2 Duress (M21) 96

4 Blackcleave Cliffs (ONE) 248

1 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269

2 Haunted Ridge (MID) 263

2 Mirrex (ONE) 254

3 Restless Vents (LCI) 284

2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276

4 Sulfurous Springs (DMU) 256

5 Swamp (RIX) 194

2 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278

Sideboard

1 Duress (M21) 96

1 Gix's Command (BRO) 97

1 Obliterating Bolt (BRO) 145

1 Unlicensed Hearse (OTP) 64

2 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal (LCI) 88

1 Duress (M21) 96

3 Hidetsugu Consumes All (NEO) 221

3 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97

1 Unlicensed Hearse (OTP) 64

My main ask here is a sideboard guide or cards to tech in that I may be missing? Side is currently 14 because I was down one mythic card from completing the deck. The missing card is a 4th Hidetsugu.

Here is my current thought process and when I side things in:

Liliana vs control or ramp into big guy turbo,

Gix/Hidetsugu vs token spam/red agro

Hearse for dimir/reanimate/etc

Acla vs control

Obliterating bolt has never gone in and I don't really see the purpose

The Outlaws of Thunder Junction Draft Tier list has been updated!

​

Check it out at TheGathering.gg, or swing by my stream today to watch me justify these ratings as a top 200 Mythic player at Twitch.tv/ScuffleDLux. I'll come by and argue with you here between games.

I'm looking over the top performing decks at the moment, and wondering how much longer I should potentially wait for the meta to settle at least a bit. Just judging from mtggoldfish I don't see all that many otj cards included in decks, but I know it's a powerful set so maybe it still needs time to adjust. I've heard 1 to 2 weeks is often a good timeframe, but I'm not sure.

Thoughts?

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

Proof I guess
TLDR Bo1 DECKLIST AT THE BOTTOM

Intro

Izzet Wizards is an aggro deck that leverages the buffed [[A-Symetry Sage]] as well as other "Prowess plus" wizard creatures, red damage spells like Wizard's Lightning and blue card replenishers like Flame of Anor or Expressive Iteration. Some matchups you're a burn deck fishing for a turn 3 kill, converting every card and every mana into 3 points of damage. Other matchups you're a value machine that can drown the opponent in Flame after Flame after Arcanist+Flame

I've been playing this deck for a long while, and with the release of OTJ, everyone's favourite bird Slickshot Show-off snuck into this deck like a charm and solidified its place as a tier 1 aggro deck of the format. I decided to run a few Bo1 events with it until i went negative on gems and after 5 positive finishes I decided I should write up a post detailing a few points of the deck and make my bo1s a bit harder in the future.

I can't teach you literally everything, at some points you'll have to improvise but this aims to be a pretty extensive writeup.

The Creatures

Symetry Sage needs no introduction. Delver on crack, after playing one Consider she's a 3/3 flier on turn two, and if you have more she even buffs your team. She's a fatal push magnet, and against tapped out boards she'll help you find lethal by giving +2 attack to your other wizards. If you have a Reckless Charge she can be a 2 mana, 2 card, 6 damage combo. Dreadhorde Arcanist is her bestie, if these two are on the board you can use the first magecraft activation to buff the arcanist, attack with both and use the second activation to buff herself. She does not play well with Spell Pierce hands and you might find yourself attacking with a 0/3 if your hand is dry of spells or you're heavy bluffing. A 0/3 blocker is worse than it seems, specially when your opponent is going to be izzet wizards more than half the time.

Soul-Scar Mage is the weakest creature in the deck, a 1/2 prowess wizard might seem on rate but it's slightly underpowered alone. You might want to keep it in your hand for a Wizard's Lightning turn 2 or a Flame of Anor turn 4. It can shine along Balmor, Battlemage Captain as the trample helps threathen your opponent's life total. The -1/-1 counters can be relevant in some matchups that feature Indestructible, but remember that Young Wolf makes you really sad.

Balmor, Battlemage Captain is not great in tempo matchups but can easily close out the games where you're on a combo plan, I only run 1 in the bo1 version since it's not good in the mirror. Nevertheless this card can be key in finishing highroll games on turn 3. If you have two or more creatures on the field, look out for a surprise lethal featuring him.

Dreadhorde Arcanist is Sage's co-star and a great value card. By itself it's amazing at re-playing Consider and Shove Aside, but the real show starts when you buff his attack via Sage or Reckless Charge. A surprise turn 3 Arcanist+charge can win you the board advantage and take over the game.

Snapcaster Mage is a classic wizard that can help you win tempo-based matchups, but is not that good in the ones where you need a turn 4 kill. Nevertheless, it loves seeing a Wizard's Lightning or a Flame of Anor in your bin.

Slickshot Show-Off is the deck's newest addition. You can think of him as a Sym Sage for 1 more mana with haste, but the Plot ability puts him over the edge. You can plot him turn 2, going down on tempo then buy that tempo back by casting it + flame of Anor or Wizard's lightning turn 3 without fearing a removal spell from your opponent.

Jegantha the Wellspring is our companion, there's no spell or wizard enticing enough to not play the elk.

The Spells

Most spells have already appeared during this writeup so I'll be a bit shorter with this.

Consider is a great way of triggering prowess while not going down on card advantage. It's better than Opt or Sleight of hand since the card in the bin can immediately be picked up by Arcanist and Snap.

Spell Pierce is the cheapest counterspell we can play. Stern Dismissal is a fun card to consider at but you have bolts for that.

Reckless charge is a real 3 damage for 1 mana card, and the haste is very relevant to delivering prowess kills. Arcanist's best friend. Also gets played from the grave with consider.

Reckless Rage is a card that used to be played in this deck but I have dropped for Bo1. If you have a creature on the field it's a wizard that can play a Lightning, and if you don't you'll rather have a Shove Aside.

Shove Aside is an Alchemy card that is just "Strangle plus". It's good enough to play a bunch of in your deck.

Spikefield Hazard is a land that you can sometimes cast for prowess activations. If you have a soulscar mage it will not exile. You can't cast the land part from the graveyard with Arcanist, so don't try to.

Expressive Iteration is an amazing card. I don't even need to explain this one.

Wizard's Lightning is the only spell in this deck that can go face*. Use it wisely. If you snap it it'll cost R to flashback, but you still need a 3 power Arcanist to cast it with the zombie. Other than that, It's bolt. I can't teach you how to bolt people.

Flame of Anor is the most expensive card in our maindeck. It's an amazing 2 or 3-for-1 if you can cast it with a wizard in play, which should be as often as possible. If you draw into an Arcanist or another flame you might aswell win. The artifact mode is the least used but keep an eye out for it against certain artifact decks. Against control, use it on their end of turn as a Quick Study.

The Parts I can't teach you

I can't write an extensive matchups and cards guide, or a guide covering all of the one-time strategies you'll pick up on. Just play the deck a bit on ladder before jumping on events. Or don't, more wins for me.

UW(r) Control is our hardest match, depending on how you build your spell suite even more so. Always bolt the bird. Hold your instants until the last possible moment. Attack with your soul-scar mage with mana open even if you don't have a spell in hand. In the mirror play the beatdown or the control as best as you can, walking a fine rope between board presence, card advantage, life points, and just plain luck. I'm not even going to mention the lands. This deck has more red pips than blue pips but the blue pips are usually better so valuing your hands will be hard sometimes.

Companion
1 Jegantha, the Wellspring (MUL) 109

Deck
4 A-Symmetry Sage (STX) 56
2 Mountain (SLD) 66
4 Soul-Scar Mage (AKR) 175
3 Dreadhorde Arcanist (WAR) 125
1 Balmor, Battlemage Captain (DMU) 196
1 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
4 Consider (MID) 44
2 Spell Pierce (XLN) 81
4 Wizard's Lightning (DAR) 152
4 Flame of Anor (LTR) 203
2 Reckless Charge (MH1) 144
4 Shove Aside (Y24) 16
3 Expressive Iteration (STX) 186
3 Spirebluff Canal (KLR) 286
2 Riverglide Pathway (ZNR) 264
1 Den of the Bugbear (AFR) 254
2 Fiery Islet (MH1) 238
3 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
2 Otawara, Soaring City (NEO) 271
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276
2 Island (SLD) 64
2 Slickshot Show-Off (OTJ) 146
3 Prismatic Vista (SPG) 38
1 Snapcaster Mage (SIS) 23

Sideboard
1 Jegantha, the Wellspring (MUL) 109

Some time ago I posted here asking other ADHD folks for advice when it comes to tournament preparation and playing better. Yesterday I played a tournament that lasted 5+1 rounds (instead of a top 8 playoff). I played Azorius Control, the deck I've been playing since October, and my results were as follows:

• R1: 2-0 vs Simic Ensoul
• R2: 1-0 vs Rakdos Midrange
• R3: 1-1 vs Rakdos Midrange
• R4: 2-0 vs Gruul Dinosaurs
• R5: 1-2 vs Mono Black Control
• R6: 1-2 vs Selesnya Aggro (very spicy list, I haven't seen anyone playing it before)

The Mono Black Control player sweeped the entire tournament and the Selesnya Aggro player placed 2nd, losing only against MBC.

Thanks everyone who contribute to make this sub a place we can improve and enhance our skills. I have received a lot of tips that really changed the way I look at the game. For the past weeks I started thinking like this: every play is a logic problem and I need to solve it. It is obvious when you think hard about the game but it could also go over some people's heads (I think it went over my head for a long time).

I'm currently working on a izzet decklist using stormchaser drake.
The deck packs a lot of card draw, has nice interaction and can play longer games remarkably well for such a cheap deck.
I just returned to magic and I've gotten to Diamond so far, but now I've started to plateau. Most of that is probably due to my limited game knowledge, but I thought maybe I can get some pointers on how to improve my card choices.
The deck can go under most decks and win on t4 or play the long game with amazing card draw and beefy creatures. I feel like I'm the reason this shell is not performing better than it is right now.
The deck:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/DJJc5VWJ-EOt9X0eXyw7Lg
Card discussion
I'm not sure on how many profts/duelist/shreder to run. The Stormchaser shell is somewhat limiting in that regard. Having multiple profts in hand isn't the end of the world, but it doesn't feel good. I could see myself settling for 3, but I'm interested in your opinions on this one.
Duelist vs shredder - Not sure about these two either. Both have won me games on their own. Duelist + timely inference has been deceptively good.
Potential cuts:
three steps ahead - I never cut this and I'm not sure why, I've not found any great matchups for this card yet. 3 cmc counterspell is meh, double blue 3 cmc counterspell feels bad. The upside can be nice though, if you ever run out of things to do though.
Slick sequence is somewhat underperforming, I've debated cutting it from the deck completely to include another 1 mana cantrip instead. If you manage to cast it with a good target as a second spell it is amazing though.
Generally speaking I'm not entirely sure about the timely inference. I was looking for another instant cantrip and this one can proc both the duelist and stormchaser. The kicker also works nicely against bats and any other smaller creature that the opponent wants to protect.
Potential inclusions:
Manlands - Getting a presence on the board early is important, so I'm not entirely sure that they would fit in this shell.
Mirrex - Tried it, didn't like how often I'd end up wishing it was any other land.
These 3 cards would work with the draw theme of the deck, but might weaken the stormchase shell
Ingenious prodigy
New jace
Steamcore scholar
Demonic ruckus - feels too slow
highway robbery - tried it, liked it when it worked, could see this making a comeback.
Hearth elemental - Haven't tried this yet, but it feels like a solid card for the shell.
Sideboard:
In:
Shore up against anything black/red felt amazing
slip out back is nice for mass removal and can be used offensively if they find a blocker.
Witchstalkers if the run sheoldred
Abrade should probably be subbed out but the sideboard bug has made me really lazy right now,
Case - If the games go longer this has huge upside, I'm usually playing this in grindier matchups.
end the festivities wrecks convoke and toxic
barrage vs anything white/blue with creatures
Out
If you have problems sticking your creatures ancestral anger is worthless, don't hang on to it if you're facing removal tribal.
Fading hope out vs control, could potentially be cut all together but it is quite the blow out vs tokens and nice vstempo based decks
timely inference vs control - if you have no reliable targets this does nothing and we have better cards against control in our sb anyway.
I'm hoping someone smarter than me will pick up this decklist and give me something that can comfortably carry my smooth brain to mythic.
Have a lovely weekend!

Results here: https://www.mtgo.com/decklist/standard-challenge-32-2024-04-2012631019)

Top 8 composition:

3 Esper Midrange 1 Dimir Midrange 1 Boros Convoke 1 Rakdos Midrange/Aggro 1 Mono Red Aggro 1 Jeskai Control

My take: it seems like decks have the tools to beat the big mana decks like Worldsoul’s Rage and Domain now, and we’re starting to enter a rock-paper-scissors aggro/midrange/control format, with midrange taking the edge. I think Esper/Dimir continues to be the deck “to beat” and I’m curious if something like this Jeskai control list in the top 8 is the response to those decks.

I'm interested to see if anything new will pop up at the Pro Tour, or even to see what cards make the cut in existing decks. Other than Slickshot Showoff, which is probably a given.

Anyone have any predictions or even things they'd like to see?

Personally, I'd love to see a true Izzet deck make a splash.

I've been working on a Temur Ramp list for alchemy. The list I have is winning 25-33%, which doesn't feel good.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/hc4iY59yREecnhnR9XZ7eA

Moving away from Standard, the New Capenna sac lands are an enormous loss. The life gain helps with aggro. They auto sac so they're not slow. Little Nissa is way less useful. Missing those is pretty much the entire reason I'm not sure the deck works. Right now I'm mostly only running basics and evolving wilds. Evolving wilds I'm getting ready to cut too.

I'm not having any trouble with color fixing with this list. The fast lands help early. 20ish games, never color screwed.

Lands, I'm running fewer than most lists. I was flooding constantly with more. I can go back up.

Loot started as a pet card, and isn't hugely synergistic, but he's saved me with impulse draw and being a removal magnet so many times, I hesitate to cut him. I'm emotionally attached to him, but I know that's not very spikey, so... I'll cut if I must.

Goldvein hydra is the MVP. I don't see him in most lists, but I'm always happy to see him even with x = 1 and he's an incredible recursion target with the virtue adventure. My winrate skyrockets if I draw him. He's very very good.

Right now my win conditions have been Hydra and phyrexian Nissa (she also takes care of fiery inscription), and Worldsoul's Rage is secondary, which is weird after playing the standard version.

Ill-Timed Explosion has felt bad almost every time I've drawn it, but every list runs it so I do too. It does shut down the soldier deck, but that's pretty much the only time I've been pleased to draw it. It's on the chopping block because I'm beginning to suspect it might counter a standard deck that doesn't get played in alchemy. Or else I'm just using it all wrong.

Zero instants sucks. I've thought of replacing shove with melt through. But I don't know.

This is BO1. I'd be happy to shift to BO3, but I don't know how to build sideboards. And why Alchemy over standard? 1) Alchemy is my favorite format 2) I'm really sick of old cards in standard which have mercifully rotated out of alchemy. No Emperor, no Kumano, ect. 3) I was running into a huge amount of graveyard hate in standard which I encounter almost none of in alchemy.

I've been playtesting and editing this for hours, and I've probably made some bad calls due to mental fatigue, so I'm coming to you all. ❤️

We have arrived at Thunder Junction, and this plane is wildly complex and dynamic.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction feels like the next step in the evolution of Magic: The Gathering, where the set design has finally caught up to the power level of pushed Rares and synergy can match pace with FIRE Design on singular cards. OTJ is the Wild West not just in setting, but in complexity and all the different minutiae available for discovery.

YIPPIE KAYAK OTHER BUCKETS, let’s start with…

https://thegathering.gg/outlaws-of-thunder-junction-an-advanced-draft-guide/

​

Also, we are looking for community submissions for content, such as Gami's How Many Ragavans Could You Destroy With a Nuclear Bomb? , If you are interested feel free to submit here or ask any questions in our discord.

So yeah, Infinite damage on turn 4 seems nice in standard. This combo does it.

1. Get [[Rakdos joins up]] and [[Hulking metamorph]] in the graveyard.
2. Get Rakdos joins up back with [[Abualo's awakening]] and let the legend rule do its best with 9 damage on the stack each time for infinite damage. fun!

I found the UW shell works best, but I saw some people try it our with some splashed R for more cycling cards.

oops, the genie is out. This absolutely shits on any aggro and midrange deck.

Deck
4 Hulking Metamorph (BRO) 79
4 Adarkar Wastes (DMU) 243
4 Rakdos Joins Up (OTJ) 225
4 Abuelo's Awakening (LCI) 1
6 Island (UNF) 241
3 Otherworldly Gaze (MID) 67
4 Plains (UNF) 240
3 Founding the Third Path (DMU) 50
3 Picklock Prankster (WOE) 64
3 Faithful Mending (MID) 221
3 Chart a Course (XLN) 48
3 Fateful Absence (MID) 18
4 Seachrome Coast (ONE) 258
4 Deserted Beach (MID) 260
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO) 268
1 Otawara, Soaring City (NEO) 271
3 March of Otherworldly Light (NEO) 28
3 Fading Hope (MID) 51

edit: cant change title. match stats are actually 31 wins - 6 Losses.

I’m an aspiring Spike that is finding that I’m in the wrong area. My local LGS’s are very casual with Commander being the only major format. The RCQ’s are getting 10-20 people at most. During last RCQ season, there was a FREE RCQ that had 21 people play in it.

I would love to find some like-minded players to be testing with and improving my game, but in-person is simply not an option. Fortunately, there is the internet. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to begin.

Any advice, ideas, etc. would be appreciated.

From OTJ/BIG, I find Kellan Joins Up and Collector’s Cage to be among the most broken cards. Their potential to cheat on mana astounding, and I’ve come up with a standard brew that I think uses both cards to great effect: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/O7rUdT6yg0Kh-PR68QemkQ

The central combo is Kellan Joins Up (KJU) + Bramble Familiar. KJU lets you cast the Fetch Quest adventure for 0 mana the next turn, which is obviously very powerful. The deck packs Atraxas and other baddies and since the it’s already interested in cheating big things into play, the deck also employs Collector’s Cage as an additional enabler. The rest of the deck is an assortment of legendary creatures and interaction spells.

Overall, I would compare this deck to the Rakdos Vampires deck that currently dominates pioneer and explorer. That deck is built around the Sorin + Vein Ripper combo and plays supporting vampires to give Sorin more utility. Similarly, the Bramblecage deck is built around KJU + Bramble Familiar and plays a bunch of legends to give KJU more utility. The second trigger of KJU is actually quite strong when you can trigger it easily, often buffing your entire team multiple times.

The general mission can be summarized as:

Plan 1: Assemble the KJU + Bramble combo as fast as possible

Plan 2: Cheat big thing into play with Cage

Plan 3: Bant midrange/beatdown with big army

So far I have played about 30 matches on arena, bo1 mixed with bo3. The meta is fresh now and we'll see which decks reach tier 1, but I feel the deck has a good matchup versus aggro decks, such as the new Slickshot Show-Off brews. It can have a slow start but quickly turns the corner with its combos and puts the game of out reach. The deck can also grind well versus controlling decks and things like Esper Midrange, overwhelming them with KJU triggers and eventually hardcasting Atraxas.

Below is a card rundown that goes by category within the deck's strategy.

Combo cards

4 Kellan Joins Up, 4 Bramble Familiar, 4 Collector’s Cage

As stated, these cards are the core of the deck. Playing 4 of each is a no-brainer when you know how broken they can be. You want to hold KJU and Bramble until you can plot Bramble, meaning you mostly don’t want to play the Bramble Familiar 2/2 as a 2-drop. If you do, you can return it to hand later to plot it when you draw KJU. Cage has a similar pattern, where it’s best to hold it until you have coven to surprise the opponent. Also note that the rules are such that the Fetch Quest adventure can be cast for 0 off of hideaway as well, which increases the hit rate of Cage. A second-hand use of KJU is to plot a cheap legend that you play next turn along with another creature to get a large stat boost.

Big things

3 Atraxa, 1 Bonny Pall, 1 Tolsimir, 1 Colossal Skyturtle

Atraxa is generally the best thing to cheat into play and typically wins the game when it comes down on turn 4. Thanks to Plaza and especially Selvala, Atraxa is hardcastable in some cases. Bonny Pall is also extremely good however and has a wider board impact. It goes extra nuts if you have KJU in play. Since the Ox token is legendary, you get two +1/+1 counters on your team. Additionally, if you get Bonny off of Fetch Quest, you’ve probably milled some lands and Bonny’s attack trigger (which triggers from any creature attacking, not just Bonny) can immediately get back a land from the yard. Tolsimir’s token is also legendary and Tolsimir is there as a cheaper Bonny that is easier to hardcast. Lastly, Skyturtle is a nice flexible inclusion. While not legendary, it doubles as an interaction spell while improving the hit rate of Cage and Fetch Quest.

Cheap legendary creatures

4 Dennick, 3 Malcolm, 2 Malcator, 2 Skrelv, 1 Adeline, 1 Selvala

The backbone of the deck is a package of legendary creatures that synergize with KJU and help enable Collector’s Cage. Dennick is a good roadblock against aggro decks and I play 4 because he gives extra value when milled with Fetch Quest. Sometimes you whiff on big creatures with Quest, and getting an extra creature as consolation prize is sweet. Malcolm fits well as a filter card to assemble your combo. He lets you hold up counter magic and can become a big flier in concert with KJU. Malcator is pretty weak but is a legend and enables Cage nicely. Adeline is a stronger card but is a bit less consistent at producing tokens because you don’t always have an attacker when she comes down. She is at her best in dedicated aggro decks but can truly shine in this shell too. Skrelv fits naturally as a cheap legend that helps Cage greatly, both by having 1 power and by protecting whatever you’re targeting with Cage. Lastly, I really like Selvala as a beefy 4-drop legend and Cage enabler. She doesn’t provide guaranteed value but her ridiculous mana boost threatens to end the game if you untap wih her.

Interaction

2 Get Lost, 2 Make Disappear, 1 No More Lies, 1 Colossal Skyturtle, 1 Boseiju, 1 Otawara, 1 Eiganjo

The maindeck has 9 instant speed answers. The interaction spells compete with cheap legendary creatures for KJU’s second trigger, and the optimal ratio is an empirical question. I can imagine a more controlling version akin to Splinter Twin, or a more creature-oriented version.

Lands

2 Restless Anchorage, 4 Plaza of Heroes, 1 of each Kamigawa land

Anchorage can provide a third creature to enable Cage. Plaza smooths out the mana base and makes it easy to cast KJU on turn 3. The 3 Kamigawa lands feel like obvious inclusions since they will often cost 1 mana to channel! It does make the deck weaker to Field of Ruin however.

Sideboard

Hard to discuss right now since we don’t know what the meta will look like. Sweepers is one of the biggest weaknesses and warrants more counter magic. Knockout Blow is promising versus Show-Off and Animist's Might pairs well with Dennick. I sometimes cut Cage versus removal-heavy decks that make it more tricky to reach coven.

Card considerations

Jace Reawakened - Jace seems solid and has the same combo with Fetch Quest but won’t let you cast it until turn 5. He feels much less impactful than KJU outside the combo, but some copies of Jace could be considered.

Other 2-drops: Bristly Bill, Thalia, Kellan, Daring Traveler and more - There’s plenty of legendary 2-drops and I’m by no means confident in which ones are best. Bill seems powerful and can modify power values to help Cage, but I think he’s too small ball and the activated ability feels winmore. Thalia is out because she messes with your plot combo. I’ve tried 1W Kellan but he feels a bit anemic.

Virtue of Loyalty - Interesting card because the enchantment can be cheated into play with Cage/Quest and the token helps Cage. I play 0 copies because the token isn’t legendary and KJU already provides a lot of +1/+1 counters.

The deck is a blast to play and my impressions so far have been that both Cage and the plot combo push the limits of standard’s power level. I’m interested to hear your thoughts and I will happily take suggestions for new cards or angles for the deck!

Golgari midrange is my favourite deck and if there's a bad matchup it is against Domain. I've played hundreds of games against it and the only few times I've scored a victory were when opponent had a weak starting hand and was mana screwed/flooded . How do you play against that particular matchup, and what are good cards? Green has a lot of high power/toughness creatures which makes Cut Down and Virtue of Persistence dead cards more often than not, but they are essential againt rdw and others. Rankles's Prank maybe?

It's the first day of the new set and this is a really big one, with three supplemental sets along with them. What are you trying, and are there any new decks strong enough to overthrow the Domain-Midrange meta?

From my side I have only tried [[Slickshot-show-off]] in a mono red deck, and boy does it live up to the hype. I am excited to try it in formats beyond standard now. It seems like an auto-include in like Izzet Wizards in Historic or Burn in Timeless as well.

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

B
2/2
Forsaken Miner can't block.
Whenever you commit a crime, you may pay {B}. If you do, return Forsaken Miner from your graveyard to the battlefield.

is a Standard Mono-Black Aggro deck that tries to go under Sheoldred decks feasible? Tenacious Underdog's still around.

Hey spikes I am coming with a video going over my temur ramp brew. This is my first video and the microphone and video quality is a little questionable but I am happy with the content. If you want to learn how to play or how to beat the deck before the upcoming qualifier weekend this is your one stop shop.

https://youtu.be/4hs8qDBi880?si=j0Xi2PycDLslMxY6

What new cards will see the most play in OTJ/BIG standard? Let's test our card/meta evaluation skill objectively.

Here's the game. Choose the ten cards that you think will have the most copies present in MTGO standard challenge top eights in the month of June, for a rough measure OTJ/BIG standard meta after it has time to develop. To enter, make a comment with the format shown at the bottom of this post.

At the end of June, I'll score submissions and do some analysis of overperformers/underperformers, cards we missed entirely, etc. You'll get one point for each copy of a card that shows up in a top 8 list (including sideboard).

Also: no fast lands. It's trivial that they will see lots of play. You also cannot name reprints of cards already in standard, such as Leyline Binding.

Format: You can write a longer comment, but please write "Here is my submission:" immediately before your actual entry, and place your list at the very bottom of the comment. Separate card names with a comma and a space. Surround individual card names with double brackets. I'll include my own submission at the end of this post as an example of the proper format. The order of the cards does not matter.

I will finalize the list of submissions on April 15th, before OTJ becomes available on Arena.

I reserve the right to not count entries with incorrect formatting or misspelled card names.

Here is my submission: [[Shoot the Sheriff]], [[Slickshot Showoff]], [[Aven Interrupter]], [[Duelist of the Mind]], [[Marchesa, Dealer of Death]], [[Tinybones Joins Up]], [[Spinewoods Armadillo]], [[Freestrider Lookout]], [[Hostile Investigator]], [[Harvester of Misery]]

Hey Spikes!

Draftsim's Limited Expert and grinder u/Veveil_17 has one again returned with his Ultimate Sealed Guide, this time for Outlaws of Thunder Junction!

His TLDR:

• These Play Boosters have more power packed inside than ever before from over 376 cards.
• Mystical Tether, Geyser Drake, Consuming Ashes, Explosive Derailment, and Patient Naturalist are his top commons.
• The set has plenty of fixing, so splashing is entirely possible. Green cards and artifacts are especially good for this.
• There aren't tons of mana sinks, so it's a steady 16-17 land format.

You can check out the guide for free here: https://draftsim.com/mtg-otj-sealed-guide/

And if you want some extra practice, you can simulate OTJ Drafts and Sealed Pools for free here.

Hey, former Spike (rtr-bfz era mostly) looking to return to competing and would love to have some competitive standard focused podcasts to listen to while at work. Any good recommendations?

Not everyone gets to put in twenty free drafts ahead of pre-release. I run this thread every set to glean insights from early access players and viewers.

Please state format (limited, Standard, Alchemy etc) along with your observations. Curious to know whether any cards shake up Standard ahead of the RCs and whether any color pairs appear particularly strong in limited - plus anything that appears to be a c/u bomb in limited.

Hello all, I have been grinding the Bo3 MTGA ladder with Jeskai midrange since the release of MOM: Aftermath with some success, but with the upcoming release of OTJ and the rest of the fast lands, I think this deck has the potential to be a lot better. It was originally constructed to take advantage of [[Monastery Mentor]] and [[Narset, Enlightened Exile]] through cheap interaction and cantrips, with [Chandra, Beacon of Hope]] as a top-end closer. The deck has worked well for me against other midrange decks, especially since the additions of [[Subterranean Schooner]] [[Spyglass Siren]] and [[Lightning Helix]]. Lightning helix has also greatly improved the matchups against aggro decks like mono red, bant toxic, and boros convoke. As the boros convoke deck has been streamlined, however, I'm finding my matchups to be worse and becomes a coin flip if I can find my helixes. My biggest issue with the deck right now seems to be consistency. The spyglass sirens, schooners, and [[Consider]] allow me to explore/surveil aggressively to find lands and interaction, but the schooners often feel like dead draws in the late game. It also may just be time to retire Narset as I acknowledge that she slows down the deck by needing to protect her for a full turn cycle, but I've found that one attack from her is usually enough to swing games in my favor if not win outright. Some cards from OTJ that I'm already looking at are [[Final Showdown]] and [[Three Steps ahead]].

The second issue I have is the sideboard. I built the sideboard almost exclusively to answer Atraxa decks, hence the [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]] and extra [[Tishana's tidebinder]]. Again, while I feel confident against other midrange decks, I feel that the sideboard could be particularly improved to answer other matchups, but with my lower land count of 21 lands I often feel like I can't board out the sirens or schooners and end up taking away from my top end/win cons.

TL;DR Jeskai midrange deck looking for ways to upgrade with the release of OTJ or just in general if there are ways others see to increase consistency. Sideboard is of particular interest for improvements as it currently only feels relevant against Atraxa decks and aggro. I would also be happy to answer any deck construction questions if there's anything I missed that feels relevant.

​

Deck:

Lands:

4 Stormcarved Coast

2 Shivan Reef

1 Otawara, Soaring City

1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

1 Adarkar Wastes

2 Deserted Beach

3 Sundown Pass

1 Plains

1 Island

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

4 Seachrome Coast

Creatures:

2 Narset, Enlightened Exile

3 Monastery Mentor

2 Tishana's Tidebinder

3 Spyglass Siren

Other Spells:

2 Chandra, Hope's Beacon

4 Consider

2 Get Lost

3 No More Lies

3 Invasion of Gobakhan

2 Quintorius Kand

3 Subterranean Schooner

4 Deduce

4 Lightning Helix

2 Spell Pierce

Sideboard:

2 Abrade

2 Get Lost

2 Disdainful Stroke

2 Brotherhood's End

2 Tishana's Tidebinder

3 Sunfall

2 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

I was coming back to explorer after a long break, and I was happy to see that mono g devotion is still doing okay in a post-Karn world. I was looking at Pioneer lists to see how to update my deck, and though all the new cards seemed interesting, it seemed like something was missing...

At first I thought it was a meta shift, but looking at the meta indicates the opposite. It seems like [[Polukranos Reborn]]'s early-game reach would be very useful against [[Arclight Phoenix]] decks, and it can trade versus [[Niv-Mizzet Reborn]] if you flip it (and will also dodge the [[Vanishing Verse]] that it tutors up).

So why are so few lists running it? Is it because between [[Old-Growth Troll]], [[Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner]], and [[Archdruid's Charm]], the curve can't fit any more three-mana cards? Or because the deck just doesn't care about it's early-game board state as much any more?

Some more general advice for a returning mono-g devotion player would also be appreciated. It seems like there's a split between decks using [[Archdruid's Charm]] vs. [[Storm The Festival]] as a win con. Which would you recommend? How many [[Llanowar Elves]] should I run, and how come lists that don't run all 8 are still using [[Wolfwillow Haven]]?

How come some lists are running [[Tribute to the World Tree]], isn't it too slow, especially for the more combo-like Archdruid's Charm lists? Any particular matchups I need to watch out for? When should I use Archdruid's Charm for its interaction, or should I always use it to tutor?