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Hello, everyone! Everywhere you look in Standard, you can see decks featuring a ton of new cards from War of the Spark. A large portion of these cards are Planeswalkers, which makes sense because there were 37 new Planeswalker cards released and Planeswalkers have always been a card type that people love to play. Typically, decks that feature a lot of Planeswalker cards have been referred to as "Superfriends" decks. Today, I'll be taking a look at a few different Superfriends decks that look to be a lot of fun to play. Let's get started.

Jeskai Superfriends

The first deck I have for you is a Jeskai deck. It starts out as a control deck, but can very quickly get aggressive and win the game. Let's take a look at it:


Sarkhan the Masterless
While this deck has a few different routes to victory, my favorite has got to be getting a bunch of Planeswalkers onto the battlefield and then using the +1 loyalty ability of Sarkhan the Masterless to turn them all into 4/4 Dragons and attacking for the win. Be careful though if your opponent has the mana available to cast Settle the Wreckage, because that spell would certainly throw a wrench into your plans. Another thing to remember is that even though you transform all of your Planeswalkers into dragons (including Sarkhan himself), you don't have to attack with all of them.

Another card worth mentioning is Urza's Ruinous Blast. Prior to War of the Spark, making sure you had a Legendary Creature or Planeswalker in play was sometimes difficult to do. Even though there were a bunch of Legendary Creatures in Dominaria, it could be difficult to find the right number of them to include in your deck to ensure that you would have one when you needed it, but not have extra copies that were left to rot in your hand. That's where the difference between Legendary Creatures and Legendary Planeswalkers becomes very important. With a Planeswalker, if you draw a copy of one that you already have in play, you can often use a loyalty ability of the one in play immediately before you cast the extra copy. That can allow you multiple uses of the same ability in a single turn. With a Legendary Creature, there's usually not a benefit of casting a second copy, with rare instances where it has an effect upon entering the battlefield.

Bant Superfriends

The next deck I have for you is a Bant deck that attempts to use mana acceleration and cast spells on both player's turns. Let's take a look at it:


Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage allows you to cast historic spells as though they had flash. Historic spells include Artifacts, Legendaries, and Sagas. While this deck doesn't have any Artifacts or Sagas, it does have quite a few Planeswalkers cards, which happen to be Legendary. In general, though, it's not all that useful to be able to cast a Planeswalker on your opponent's turn. The exception to this is when you have Wilderness Reclamation on the battlefield. When that happens, you'll be able to cast roughly double the amount of Planeswalkers as usual. You can also use that extra mana to cast spells like Ignite the Beacon, which helps you find those Planeswalkers to cast.

Wilderness Reclamation also works nicely with Karn's Bastion. If you find yourself in a position where you have four other lands in play alongside Karn's Bastion and a copy of Wilderness Reclamation or two, you can proliferate multiple times on your turn, as long as you make sure to proliferate in between resolutions of the Wilderness Reclamation trigger. Use that proliferation to further protect your Planeswalkers and use their loyalty abilities to their fullest as well as increasing the size of any Bioessence Hydra you might have in play.

Esper Superfriends

The final deck I have for you recently came in 2nd Place at the SCG Open Standard in Syracuse. Let's take a look at it:


The Elderspell
Here's a control deck at its finest, capable of doing just what it needs to do to win the game. The deck includes ways deal with an opponent's creatures, which include targeted removal, such as Moment of Craving and Cast Down, as well as a sweeper, Kaya's Wrath. It also has a way to interact with your opponent's hand in Thought Erasure, which can seriously derail any plans your opponent was counting on. This deck also offers a way for you to gain life in the form of Oath of Kaya, which is generally needed in a control deck since you'll likely take some damage in the early stages. The lifegain you get from this card can help you stabilize long enough to set your endgame plans in action.

Speaking of your endgame, The Elderspell is a great way for this deck to be able to quickly finish off an opponent. While it can act as simply a way to destroy an opponent's Planeswalkers, it will still be useful even if your opponent isn't playing any Planeswalkers in their deck. Since you're able to target your own Planeswalkers, you can choose to destroy enough of your own Planeswalkers to allow you to place multiple additional loyalty counters onto your Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. (Make sure you've activated the loyalty abilities of the Planeswalkers you choose to destroy before casting The Elderspell for maximum effectiveness.) With that additional loyalty on Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, you can then use his -8 loyalty ability to gain his emblem. You might even be able to get enough loyalty to be able to gain an additional emblem on the next turn as well. By using the emblem's ability to exile your opponent's lands, you'll quickly lock them out of the game and gain the victory.

Wrapping Up

Even though the majority of Planeswalkers in War of the Spark don't have game-winning ultimate abilities, they're still proving to be quite effective in Standard. Plus, they're a ton of fun to play. Have you found success with a Superfriends deck lately?

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below or you can reply to me directly on Twitter (@mikelikesmtg), or email me directly at mikelikesmtg@gmail.com. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

- Mike Likes

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