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Main » Articles » The Monstrous Menagerie of AFR Standard

The Monstrous Menagerie of AFR Standard

Mike Likes
Posted on August 12, 2021
 Reddit

Hello everyone. Dungeons & Dragons is famous for its fantastic monsters. Without having a menagerie of terrible beasts, the heroes couldn't shine. Some of those monsters have made their way to Magic via Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. This week, I have a few decks featuring these monsters for you to try out. Let's get started.

Displacer Beast

Our first monster is the Displacer Beast. With their innate magical ability to bend light around themselves, they appear to be a foot or two away from their actual position. Let's see how this monster plays by looking at the deck featuring the Displacer Beast.

Displacer Beast | AFR Standard | bakuteh, aetherhub.com user

  • Enchantments (3)
  • 3 Fly

Displacer Beast
This deck is all about venturing into the dungeon. Displacer Beast helps with this by offering itself as a repeatable means of venturing into the dungeon. It is an expensive way to venture forth, but if you have the mana available, it's certainly an option. By using the Displacer Beast's Displacement ability, you can also block any creature without trample indefinitely. Simply declare your Displacer Beast as a blocker, and then return it to your hand.

Almost everything else in this deck is geared toward venturing into the dungeon. Numerous cards allow you to venture every turn. With Secret Door, you can pay 5 mana to venture. As long as Yuan-Ti Malison attacks alone, it can't be blocked and you'll venture into the dungeon whenever it deals combat damage to your opponent. Ellywick Tumblestrum can activate her +1 loyalty ability to venture into the dungeon. By combining these ways of venturing with the venturing that happens when certain creatures enter the battlefield, you'll be able to complete multiple dungeons throughout the course of a game.

Xorn

Next, we have the Xorn. Xorn are elemental creatures that digest rocks, minerals, and gems. This translates into Magic by enabling them to create additional Treasure tokens when you would create any. Let's take a look at the deck featuring the Xorn.

Xorn | AFR Standard | LuPaSJr, aetherhub.com user

Xorn
Since the Xorn adds Treasures when Treasure tokens are created by you, it should come as no surprise to find numerous ways of creating Treasure tokens in this deck. Prosperous Innkeeper creates a Treasure when it enters the battlefield. Magda, Brazen Outlaw creates a Treasure token whenever a Dwarf you control becomes tapped. In the case of this deck, this could happen quite often if you have Maskwood Nexus in play. Unexpected Windfall can create a pair of Treasures for you to use. Finally, Goldspan Dragon provides multiple ways of creating Treasure tokens.

Normally, you'll want to use Treasure tokens as a means of ramping the amount of mana available to you to allow you to play bigger threats. This deck is a little different, though. Instead of spending your Treasures right away, you could opt to save them in order to pump up Inferno of the Star Mounts. By using the mana from your Treasures with the additional mana you can create by tapping your creatures in conjunction with Jaspera Sentinel, you might be able to increase the power of Inferno of the Star Mounts to 20. If you can do this, you can deal 20 damage to any target, most likely your opponent. This can allow you to win without needing to attack.

Mind Flayer

Next, I have a deck for you that features the Mind Flayer. These abominations use their psionic abilities to dominate the will of other life forms, controlling their minds to use them as obedient slaves. Let's take a look at a deck featuring the Mind Flayer.

Mind Flayer | AFR Standard | bdg4life, aetherhub.com user

Mind Flayer
For you control players, you might find this deck interesting to play. You'll be able to control your opponent's side of the battlefield in a variety of ways. Spells like Soul Shatter and Blood on the Snow can help you manage your opponent's threats. Planeswalkers like Professor Onyx and Mordenkainen offer you additional abilities you can use to draw extra cards, force your opponent to sacrifice their creatures, or create creatures of your own. You also have ways of forcing your opponent to discard cards from their hand, such as Acquisitions Expert and Inscription of Ruin, which limit their options.

Mind Flayer can help you win the game by providing you with a powerful creature you can attack with. You won't want to destroy every creature your opponent plays, since Mind Flayer's ability when it enters the battlefield allows you to gain control of any creature for as long as you control Mind Flayer. This offers you a means to quickly end the game, as you can attack your opponent with their own creature. When this happens, try not to rub it in too much, as your opponent might be quite salty about it.

Gelatinous Cube

Gelatinous Cubes are transparent oozes that dissolve any organic material they come into contact with. Let's take a look at the next deck I have for you that features this terrifying monster.

Gelatinous Cube | AFR Standard | Neonhydra64, aetherhub.com user

Gelatinous Cube
When a Gelatinous Cube enters the battlefield, you'll be able to exile any non-Ooze creature your opponent controls. Later, you'll be able to use the Dissolve ability of the Gelatinous Cube to destroy the creature originally exiled. This is a great way to deal with an evasive threat your opponent has in play. It also allows Gelatinous Cube to be a formidable creature as well as a piece of removal. That dual purpose is what makes Gelatinous Cube such a threat.

The remainder of this deck is a very aggressive deck that has a slight focus on the power of +1/+1 counters. Both Sarulf, Realm Eater and Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager have the ability to gain +1/+1 counters. The counters will be doubled if you have a copy of Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider on the battlefield. Vorinclex also works well when it is paired with Ranger Class, even if they are the only two permanents you have in play. If you have Ranger Class at Level 2, by targeting Vorinclex with the +1/+1 counter, you can reduce your opponent's life total to zero in next to no time, thanks to the trample Vorinclex has.

Ochre Jelly

The final monster we'll be taking a look at today is the Ochre Jelly. This Ooze is notoriously difficult to kill and keeps coming back, again and again. Let's take a look at the deck featuring Ochre Jelly.

Ochre Jelly | AFR Standard | Hattrik_swayze, aetherhub.com user

Ochre Jelly
While the previous deck had a slight focus on +1/+1 counters, this deck has a major one. Nearly every nonland card in this deck provides a means of getting +1/+1 counters. Those counters work well when placed on the Ochre Jelly. When Ochre Jelly dies, as long as it has a minimum of two +1/+1 counters on it, you'll be able to create a token copy of it that has half as many +1/+1 counters on it, rounded down. Ochre Jelly also has trample, so you'll be able to attack your opponent without worrying if you'll get blocked, safe in the knowledge that you'll either deal a ton of damage or destroy an opposing creature and return to attack again on future turns.

As I mentioned, this deck has a ton of ways to gain +1/+1 counters. Luminarch Aspirant has been a staple in most aggressive decks that include White mana. Swarm Shambler offers a means of protection by replacing a creature that has a +1/+1 counter on it with a 1/1 Insect creature token when that creature is targeted by a removal spell. Oran-Rief Ooze provides a way for all of your attacking creatures to grow larger and larger, provided that each of them has a +1/+1 counter on it. Finally, Sparring Regimen allows you to place a +1/+1 counter on an attacking creature and untap it. This offers you a means of blocking with a large blocker, potentially making it difficult for your opponent to attack.

Wrapping Up

Having been a Dungeon Master for over half of my life, it's great to be able to play decks that feature some of the very monsters that I've played against my Dungeons & Dragons players in the past. These cards feel very much like the monsters they represent, and I'm hopeful we'll venture back to the Forgotten Realms or another Dungeons & Dragons world again in Magic's future.

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 Like

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, mike likes, afr standard, 08122021

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