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Explosive Standard Brews

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Hello everyone. Even though Streets of New Capenna has been out for more than three months, I'm still on the lookout for new decks that you can play. This week I have a few new decks, including one upgraded deck for Magic Arena. Let's get started.

Ignite The Forge Upgrade

Every year, new introductory decks are added to Magic Arena. One of these new decks this year was recently upgraded by Arena_Hacks. Let's take a look at this upgraded deck.


Sokenzan Smelter
Artifacts are what this deck is all about. Each and every creature in the deck is either an artifact creature, a creature that has an ability that will create artifacts, or it creates some sort of artifact token when it comes into play or when it leaves the battlefield. Whether you're creating a Construct creature token, a Treasure token, or a Blood token usually doesn't matter, because the important thing is that the token is an artifact.

Those artifact creatures and tokens will be put to good use in a few different ways. By using Sokenzan Smelter's beginning of combat ability, you can often upgrade one of your artifacts into a 3/1 Construct creature token with haste. Doing this, along with playing cards in general, will help increase the number of charge counters on Dragonspark Reactor. Sacrificing Dragonspark Reactor can be a great way to finish off an opponent on their last legs.

Oni-Cult Anvil goes a long way in making this deck run smoothly, especially when multiple copies are on the battlefield at the same time. You can tap Oni-Cult Anvil and sacrifice any artifact to deal one damage to your opponent and gain one point of life yourself. You'll also create a 1/1 Construct artifact creature token by having one of your artifacts leave the battlefield, setting up the activated ability of Oni-Cult Anvil for your next turn. This creates a cycle where you can eventually defeat your opponent while gaining a ton of life.

Boros Bombardment

The next deck I have for you showcases the power that Arcane Bombardment truly has. Let's check out the deck.


Arcane Bombardment
When you have a copy of Arcane Bombardment on the battlefield and you cast your first instant or sorcery spell of the turn, you'll exile another instant or sorcery from your graveyard. Then, you'll be able to cast for free a copy of each spell that has been exiled with Arcane Bombardment. As you can see, in a deck like this, chock-full of instants and sorceries, the amount of spells you can copy can grow quite immensely in just a few turns.

Arcane Bombardment is an expensive spell, though, and with no creatures to soak up some of the damage your opponent will be sending your way, you'll need to be able to increase the amount of mana available to you. Luckily, there's a few ways of doing this in this deck. First is with Seize the Spoils. Casting this will give you one Treasure token, plus a couple of new cards. There's also Big Score and Unexpected Windfall, which both create two Treasure tokens in addition to drawing you two new cards.

To win the game, you'll need to cast a few of your spells multiple times. Igneous Inspiration and Magic Missile can both target your opponent directly. Alternatively, their damage could be used as creature removal as well. Lorehold Command can be used to create a 3/2 Spirit creature token, as well as dealing direct damage to any target while also gaining you some precious points of life. Finally, Burn Down the House is a great means of wiping the battlefield or creating a trio of 1/1 Devil creature tokens that will surely pester your opponent.

Explosive Swarm

The final deck I have for you this week features a swarm of creatures capable of dealing a tremendous amount of damage. Let's take a look at the deck.


Scute Swarm
Scute Swarm has been one of my favorite creatures to use. Every time a land is played while Scute Swarm is on the battlefield, a creature token is created. Once you have six or more lands in play, the token that is created is a copy of Scute Swarm. That's the point where shenanigans can begin. Every new land played will double the number of Scute Swarms you have in play, allowing you to amass a small army. Unfortunately, I do mean small, as each of these creatures is just a 1/1.

In addition to Scute Swarm, this deck has a lot more ways to create additional creature tokens. Titan of Industry can create a 4/4 Rhino creature token. Skeletal Swarming will create 1/1 Skeleton creature tokens throughout the game, which can attack quite effectively. Finally, Stensia Uprising can create multiple 1/1 Human creature tokens. It can also be sacrificed if you have exactly thirteen permanents in play to deal seven damage to any target. I like dealing this directly to my opponent's life total.

Speaking of direct damage, Explosive Singularity is a great spell to cast to really take a chunk out of your opponent's life total. Even though it has a mana value of ten, you can cast it for as little as two Red mana. That's because the casting cost is reduced by 1 mana for each creature you tap when casting this sorcery. In a deck like this that has a lot of small creature tokens, tapping them to help pay this cost will be well worth it, and can often catch your opponent off guard.

Wrapping Up

While it's almost time for Dominaria United previews to begin, we still have nearly a month until those new cards enter Standard. Use this remaining time to try out some new types of decks that you might not normally play, as a way of making yourself a more well-rounded player. Or use this time to try out some fun, wacky decks that interest you.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. 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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