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Main » Articles » Decks Inspired by Fate Reforged

Decks Inspired by Fate Reforged

Abe Sargent
Posted on January 11, 2015
 Reddit

Get ready to forge a new fate. Don’t worry if your Fate Foretold revealed something devastating. You can always Manipulate Fate. After all, the Whims of the Fates can be fickle indeed—especially if you can Reforge the Soul.

After seeing some fun cards spoiled, I knew it was time to start crafting some decks all tuned around some of the latest cardage that is going to see release soon. The first spoiler season of 2015 is here! Get your best resolutions ready because it’s time to reforge your Magic fate and acquire some of those new shiny cards.

Today, I have four interesting decks for you, all ready to rock your casual Magic night, and all loaded with the goodness of Fate Reforged. Let’s take a look at them!

Assassins-R-Us ? Casual | Abe Sargent

This deck was built around Archfiend of Depravity, which seems to be a wonderful body to build around since its ability only smashes your foes. Forcing them to sacrifice all but their best two things will often result in a board position that you can out-flank if you have enough creatures. You can begin to impact the board simply by having bodies that will serve for damage.

Now, your foes’ vulnerable-creature states is impacted even more if you can kill more of their things. The Archfiend of Depravity drops their creature counts to vulnerable levels, and then, you can follow up with something like Syphon Flesh. It kills opposing creatures and makes a larger horde for you (in order to attack on out). It’s a perfect adjunct to the Archfiend.

I also love Xathrid Slyblade here. Attack with it, keeping your mana open. The defending player is going to be sorely pressed to block it, knowing you can transform it into a first-strike-and-deathtouch machine of doom. People aren’t going to want to lose their best creatures to a silly 2/1 unless their life totals are abysmally low.

Since we’re killing stuff, let’s add in death triggers like Sangromancer’s and Overseer of the Damned’s. I love their added value when you kill stuff, and they will help to slowly churn the table into a dominance that you will exploit with a victory over your collective foes.

Now toss in some useful adjunct cards for your strategy—because we need those supporting roles. There’s a place for Slum Reaper and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Syphon Mind and Underworld Connections add to our card-draw potential. Check out the awesome Spoils of Blood here!

Cabal Coffers is helpful so you can drop your expensive stuff, but it’s in no way vital. Don’t have the dough for them? Pull them for something else (maybe Temple of the False God).

Kill those Fates!

 

Look, Ma, I'm Molting ? Casual | Abe Sargent

Frontier Siege is that fun, one-sided Eladamri's Vineyard that yields you 4 mana a turn (2 each main phase). It’s the best of the Siege cycle because of that alone. So let’s coax a deck out of this fun thang.

The first place I wanted to dip was into Ant Queen. Take another look at this forgotten jewel. You can churn that extra 2 mana each main phase into ant tokens, and you have a 5/5 beater for 5 mana. It’s perfectly on curve, and it gives us the needed mana outlet. Insert Ant Queen.

Another thing that costs 2 mana each activation is Creeperhulk. It’ll turn any of your dorks into a useful 5/5 beater. That’s enough to really change the board position with just a few activations.

You know what? Let’s toss in some creature-based mana accelerants as well. Whisperer of the Wilds will tap for 1 mana normally, but for 2 whenever we have a 4-powered dork running under our control. Because Creepy Hulk is here, let’s add in Viridian Joiner. That can tap for 1 normally, but if we Hulk it up, it’ll drop 5 mana to our mana pool. Actually, let’s give us one more mana outlet: Staff of Domination. And with the Joiner, it’s an infinite combo:

  • Creeper Hulk; turn Joiner into 5/5

  • Tap Viridian Joiner for 5 green mana

  • Untap it with Staff of Domination for 3 mana

  • Untap Staff with 1 mana

  • Result: 1 extra green mana per iteration

Now, I’m not adding in any infinite combos other than the Staff (you can use it to make infinite life or draw infinite cards). Actually, let’s add in a quartet of Hydras to give us some beef and to chuck that extra mana into. Both Genesis Hydra and Lifeblood Hydra can drop the goods.

Garruk's Packleader adds some useful card-draw to the deck, and it gives us another ferocious trigger. And let’s toss in Arashi, the Sky Asunder as a big 5/5 or a channel way to cleanse the sky. Hmmm . . . Momentous Fall? Seems to be a powerful addition to our power-enhanced critters! Let’s throw that thing into the fire as well. And there we are!

Ferocious Punch those Fates!

 

From Tempo with Love ? Casual | Abe Sargent

  • Planeswalkers (0)

This deck was inspired by Torrent Elemental and Citadel Siege. I loved that we had this Azorius-flavored tempo feel, and I wanted to push into that some more. Here, we have some mad bouncing/tapping fun that should lead into a few face-smashing fun moments. After all, what can block your stuff?

Adding to the tapping elements of our initial investment is the buyback Mind Games. Just play it a few times to tap some more stuff, as you have the requisite mana and need. Mind Games was a useful trick from the way-back machine, and you can rock it today. You could also run something like Flood or Opposition.

Capsize
Capsize is among the best bounce spells of all time, and we’ve added a bit more bounce to the deck besides it. You can flash out Venser, Shaper Savant to bounce anything—even a spell. I’ve also tossed in Cryptic Command and Lost in the Mist to counter and bounce (use other options for the Cryptic Command if you prefer). If you don’t have the cash for a Command, just roll with something else (either a fun counterspell like Dissipate or something like Cyclonic Rift).

Take a look at the awesome callback to Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor. You drop the good sir, and then you can tap him to tap anything, and you can do it without bothering with the niceties of tapping mana to do so. You can also drop 3 mana into him and return with a tapping of everything ground-ward. It’s a great adjunct to the deck.

Now let’s add in Mulldrifter for cards, Wall of Denial for blocking, Valorous Stance to either keep a key creature alive or to kill something big, Temple of the False God to add some mana potential, and then the interesting Angelic Benediction. We only have a few creatures that can feasibly attack (Torrent Elemental, Mulldrifter, Aboshan, Venser). Just attacking with one and getting the exalted and tap in for free is a solid way to keep your deck humming.

Tempo up those Fates!

 

Token Ambush ? Casual | Abe Sargent

This deck was inspired by Mardu Strike Leader. I really liked how fun and aggressive the guy rolled. He wasn’t sitting back and churning out a few dorks—oh no, you had to attack with him to bring them out of the woodwork. I like that! So let’s go Orzhov and build a token deck around him.

Some inclusions will be obvious—Lingering Souls and such. I tossed in a full set of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad because of how awesome he is here. He is going to bring the Vampires out and churn out anthems all day long—I hope. Meanwhile, I tossed in a pair each of two other of white’s best token-makers: Elspeth the First and the Third. Obviously, if Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Elspeth, Sun's Champion those are beyond your budget and collection, that’s fine. You can unearth a ton of great token-spewing dorks (Mobilization, Decree of Justice, Elspeth Tirel, or Nahiri, the Lithomancer, as useful examples).

I also rolled with your normal enters-the-battlefield fun and tricks. Take a look at Belfry Spirit and Skeletal Vampire, making some fun plays and increasing your dorkage considerably. Even Scion of Vitu-Ghazi is rocking the block and adding some creatures and a populate trigger for additional fun.

Geist-Honored Monk will both add some additional bodies to the table and bring a (hopefully) big body to play as well. You can lead a red-zone attack with that Monk.

Hmmm . . . let’s put in a full set of the newly released Harsh Sustenance. It’s a win condition that can come out of nowhere and drop someone’s life to 0 or less. It can also be used as a needed creature kill spell if you have to have that.

Spear of Heliod will pump us and be a nice rattlesnake, keeping potential attackers away after we alpha-strike a player. And we have Rootborn Defenses to keep our team alive—and also to populate another creature to add to our threat level. It’s a great response to something like a Wrath of God.

Fate Reforged gave Orzhov tokens some nice tools to play with.

Token up those Fates!

 

And that concludes a quick look at four directions you can take some of the newly spoiled Fate Reforged cards. I also made sure to dip into some lesser-played stuff in order to illustrate just how deep the Magic pool really is—and to give you some good ideas for future fun.

Let me know what you thought!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

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TAGS articles, strategy, casual, deck lists, decks, abe sargent, #mtgfrf, fate reforged

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