Every new set brings a frenzy of new deck ideas with it. After spying the virtual spoiler, I devised five decks for your pleasure. One of these decks is just built with cards from Return to Ravnica, while the other four are inspired from the set but go outside it for completion. All Magic articles are ultimately about one thing: decks. How you play them, what should go in the sideboards, what matchups work, what cards should you look at for your next Commander deck, and so forth.¹ In that spirit, let there be decks!

"Azorius and Izzet Control"

• Creatures (4)
• 2 Hover Barrier
• 1 Isperia, Supreme Judge
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

• Spells (32)
• 2 Counterflux
• 2 Fall of the Gavel
• 2 Sphinx's Revelation
• 2 Thoughtflare
• 4 Cancel
• 4 Mizzium Mortars
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 2 Cyclonic Rift
• 4 Martial Law
• 2 Azorius Keyrune
• 2 Chromatic Lantern
• 2 Izzet Keyrune

• Lands (24)
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 6 Plains
• 2 Azorius Guildgate
• 2 Izzet Guildgate
• 2 Transguild Promenade

Buy This Deck

With just cards from this set, I think you can make an awesome control deck. This deck uses both the controlling Azorius cards with the Izzet overload spells to establish a powerful deck. How does it do this?

First of all, consider the removal. Supreme Verdict blasts all creatures on the board. Mizzium Mortars is a slow, 2-mana sorcery that doles out 4 to a creature. If we spend 6 mana, though, we overload it and deal 4 damage to every creature we don’t control. That cleans out a lot of creatures, too. Cyclonic Rift bounces just one nonland permanent for 2 mana. When I harness 7 mana, it bounces all nonland permanents I don’t control. These spells give the deck powerful sweeping ability in the late game.

Next up is counters. Cancel is reprinted in this set, so in goes a full set of those. There are a bunch of interesting counters in this set, but I decided on a pair each of Fall of the Gavel and Counterflux. Counterflux is just a Last Word for, but when I want to counter more spells, I can. It will counter every spell on the stack if I spend another . This is something that happens in a multiplayer game. One person will play Wrath of God, and another will cast Congregate in response. Why counter one when you can counter both? It also counters storm by clearing out the whole stack.

This is not really a deck about creatures, but I tossed in one each of Isperia and the new Niv-Mizzet for fun and frolicking. Then, I added the Keyrunes to the deck. They are suitable both as creatures to attack when you’ve cleared the board and as mana acceleration. I rounded things off with the Chromatic Lantern and called it. When the next set is released, even if no Boros cards would make the cut, I’d still want to pull this for the Boros Keyrune. On that note, if you want to expand this deck beyond Return to Ravnica, I suggest first expanding the mana base to give you some Boros lands. You could also add more mass removal.

"Infinite Wurms"

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 4 Wall of Blossoms
• 4 Worldspine Wurm

• Spells (22)
• 1 Tooth and Nail
• 4 Harmonize
• 4 Natural Order
• 1 Pattern of Rebirth
• 2 Defense of the Heart
• 2 Perilous Forays
• 4 Verdant Succession
• 4 Blasting Station

• Lands (26)
• 22 Forest
• 4 Dryad Arbor

Buy This Deck

This is the first of two infinite combos built around cards from Return to Ravnica. In this case, the tool is Worldspine Wurms. Would you like to make infinite Wurms?² Well, how about just 3,300 instead? Let’s take a look at the Wurmsplosion!

A backup sacrifice element is included with Perilous Forays. Because it requires a mana to use, you can’t repeat this too many times, but you can easily have fifteen or twenty-four tokens out after you blow through all of your mana. To land the expensive Wurm in play, I have a full set of Natural Order. Sacrifice a green creature and then tutor for a Worldspine creature and slap it onto the battlefield. I also included a Tooth and Nail, Pattern of Rebirth, and pair of Defense of the Hearts to assist in this manner. That’s eight cards that can grab the Wurm and throw it onto the battlefield.

To help you live long enough to find the cards, we have Wall of Blossoms. It’s a powerful tool to stand in the way of attackers and draw cards. Sakura-Tribe Elder is downright amazing with a Verdant Succession in play. You can chump-block, sacrifice it for a land, and keep going. Finally, Harmonize will draw you three cards, and you can hope that you find what you need. I included Dryad Arbor to give you more sacrifices to a Perilous Forays (block and fetch a land to replace it) or to sacrifice to a Natural Order.

"The Grave Wins"

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Veilborn Ghoul
• 2 Vengeful Pharaoh
• 4 Cackling Fiend
• 4 Noxious Ghoul
• 4 Skinrender
• 2 Geth, Lord of the Vault

• Spells (16)
• 4 Murder
• 4 Mutilate
• 4 Call to the Grave
• 4 Grave Betrayal

• Lands (26)
• 24 Swamp
• 2 Unholy Grotto

Buy This Deck

This deck is built around the powerful Grave Betrayal. When an opposing creature dies, it comes back to your side with a +1/+1 counter and as a black Zombie at the end of the turn. I think it’s downright amazing with another gravetastic card, Call to the Grave.³ It forces your foes to sacrifice their non-Zombies, and since all of your creatures will be Zombies, you don’t have to do the same. Those sacrifices just give your Grave Betrayal more fodder to bring to your side of the table!

For example, take Veilborn Ghoul. When you play a Swamp, you return it back from the graveyard. It’s expensive and costs 5 mana for a 4/1 that can’t even block, but with you killing all of these creatures, do you need to block? Vengeful Pharaoh lurks in your graveyard and will jump out to slay an attacker. Then, that attacker joins your side, and you’ll draw the Pharaoh’s 5/4 deathtouch body for your trouble.

Skinrender comes into play, and it will probably kill something. If it dies later, it’s already performed what I am playing it for. Noxious Ghoul forces all non-Zombies to shrink -1/-1 for the turn for each Zombie that enters. Imagine netting a few creatures off the Grave Betrayal at once. You can blast a few opposing foes and then acquire even more creatures for your side and to trigger the Ghoul next turn. Like Skinrender, Cackling Fiend has an enters-the-battlefield trigger. You make all opponents discard a card. If it’s caught up in a mass removal, that’s okay. Finally, Geth is in the deck to swing for a big amount of damage and bring back creatures or artifacts from your foes’ ’yards to your side of the table. It will die to a Call to the Grave if it’s not already a Zombie, but you can return creatures for their triggers or to block. I couldn’t find room for Gravedigger, but I wanted to on name alone!

"Enchanting to Life"

• Creatures (12)
• 2 Celestial Ancient
• 4 Auramancer
• 4 Mesa Enchantress
• 2 Solemn Simulacrum

• Spells (23)
• 2 Three Dreams
• 4 Replenish
• 1 Genju of the Fields
• 1 Prison Term
• 1 Security Blockade
• 2 Armored Ascension
• 2 Faith's Fetters
• 2 Soul Snare
• 4 Martial Law
• 4 Sphere of Safety

• Lands (25)
• 25 Plains

Buy This Deck

This deck was built around Sphere of Safety. I wanted an enchantment deck that was designed to help keep you alive rather than to use combo elements to win in a turn or two. I included the powerful Martial Law here as well as in the first deck. You can detain the worst creature each turn, and as the game progresses, that choice may change. This grants you a flexible way of dealing with creatures without tapping anything or spending extra mana.

After the Sphere and Law, I had a lot of places I could go. Before I knew what other enchantments the deck wanted, I first added my support. This is a perfect deck for Replenish. If you don’t own any, you could slide to something like Open the Vaults. I added a pair of Three Dreams to grab Auras from my deck. I liked recursion enough to include a set of Auramancers. It is a very serviceable 2/2 for 3 mana, and it is a potent Gravedigger in this deck.

With the Three Dreams enchantment-oriented tutor, I included a few different Auras. First, I chose a few to lock stuff down. A pair of Faith's Fetters will lock down anything from an opposing planeswalker to a creature. Prison Term is a lovely Pacifism that I can bounce to the latest big beater that hits the table. I also like the one-of Security Blockade from Return to Ravnica. It spits out a token, and if you can return the Aura, you can repeat the dude. Don’t forget that you can tap the land to prevent damage, and that’s subtle, but more useful than many think.

The other group of Auras is offensive-minded. The first is the solitary Genju of the Fields. Its goal is to give you a creature that will keep coming back death after death. I’ll ensure the deck has enough Plains to rock the Genju. The other two cards are Armored Ascension. Since I already want to up my Plains count with the Genju, let’s go all the way and include this heavy hitter. It turns even an Auramancer into a giant, flying creature of doom. If the creature dies, we have a bunch of ways to grab the Ascension back.

I wanted more creatures; the rest of my deck was dedicated to them. The obvious choice of Mesa Enchantress left me just four slots. I decided on two each of Solemn Simulacrum and Celestial Ancient. The Ancient pumps your team as the enchantments come, and the Solemn fetches you a Plains from that deck of yours. If you don’t have a Solemn, you can easily fit in Kor Cartographer or Pilgrim's Eye. Let’s enchant and win!

"Lobbed and Robbed"

• Creatures (14)
• 4 Lobber Crew
• 4 Wall of Omens
• 4 Wild Cantor
• 2 Solemn Simulacrum

• Spells (20)
• 2 Orim's Thunder
• 4 Lightning Helix
• 4 Path to Exile
• 2 Idyllic Tutor
• 4 Enduring Renewal
• 4 Pyroconvergence

• Lands (26)
• 10 Mountain
• 10 Plains
• 2 Boros Garrison
• 4 Ancient Amphitheater

Buy This Deck

This is a combo deck that kills with Lobber Crew or Pyroconvergence. You play Wild Cantor, sacrifice it for a mana, bring it back to your hand with Enduring Renewal, and then play it again. Each time you play it, you trigger the Lobber Crew to untap it or the Pyroconvergence to deal 2 damage to someone. Since it costs a mana to play it, and you make a mana by sacrificing it, you can repeat this ad nauseam until you have blown away every player at the table.

Since my deck is red and white from the combo, I fleshed it out. The combo pieces take up sixteen slots. I add a pair of Idyllic Tutors to the deck immediately to enable me to locate either a Pyroconvergence or an Enduring Renewal. Next, I want defense. Like Wall of Blossoms in the Infinite Wurms combo above, Wall of Omens stalls and draws. Like the above deck, Solemn Simulacrum will fetch me a land.

With my remaining ten slots, I add removal. I begin with Orim's Thunder for any enchantments or artifacts that interfere. Path to Exile will off an offending creature. Finally, Lightning Helix blows up an early creature and gives you the life you may need to survive until you are ready for blastoff. We have combos a-go-go from Return to Ravnica, so enjoy!

Whew! Five decks for your enjoyment are included. I hope one sparked something in you. Feel encouraged to take a deck and put your own spin on it. Suit the deck to your card collection. Go forth and multiply!⁴

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

¹ Even articles such as finances are ultimately about decks. How do you pick up cards for cheap so you can . . . use them for decks! I am willing to submit that a few miscellaneous articles are not about decks, so consider the use of the word “all” here merely to invoke a rhetorical response rather than to reflect reality perfectly.

² The fact that there is no such thing as infinite in the game doesn’t mean I can’t use it in an article. It’s very flavorful as a way of explaining the concept.

³ I mentioned this combo is last week’s article. I often like to tell you of combos ahead of time and build a week or two later. I do this because I am a Johnny. As a Johnny, I want to build decks for myself. I hate it when someone spoils a card in a DailyMTG article, I see the card, come up with an awesome way to use it, and then in that same article, later on, they have my idea in a deck already. This way, I gave Johnnies a week to build their own decks if they were so inclined. I don’t do it for everything because I hadn’t brainstormed the other two combo decks in this article yet.

⁴ Multiply the decks not yourself or anything—no cloning allowed!