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Main » Articles » Join the Party

Join the Party

Mike Likes
Posted on October 1, 2020
 Reddit

Hello everyone. Last Tuesday, the Magic: The Gathering Twitter account tweeted the following message: "We're closely monitoring developments in Standard. In order to avoid disrupting this weekend's tournaments, we intend to provide an update on the format early next week." Many hoped this meant WotC (Wizards of the Coast) would address the fact that so many people are playing decks featuring Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Omnath, Locus of Creation. For more information on this, check out Frank Lepore's article from last week, "Has Standard Become a Failed Experiment?"

I was hopeful something would be done about Uro, as I feel it's an overpowered, undercosted card. It was one of the best cards in Standard by a mile. Now that we're a fair distance away from the release of Theros Beyond Death, and less and less packs of this set are being opened, it seemed reasonable for WotC to ban it without feeling like they'd lose out on possible sales, and that's exactly what they did.

Okay, enough complaining. That's not why you're here. My articles usually feature some decks you can play in an upcoming Standard event or on Magic Arena, and that's what I have for you today. So, let's get started.

Cleric's Sacrifice

We get started this week by taking a look at a deck that doesn't mind having its' own creatures go to the graveyard. Let's take a look at the deck.

Cleric's Sacrifice | ZNR Standard | Anonymous

Nearly every creature in this deck is a Cleric. That ties in nicely to the ability on Orah, Skyclave Hierophant. With Orah in play, whenever a Cleric you control dies, you can return a target Cleric card with a converted mana cost (CMC) that is less than that creatures' CMC from the graveyard to the battlefield. That makes it very difficult for your opponent to leave you in a defenseless position. That ability also works very well in conjunction with Archfiend's Vessel, which will become a 5/5 Demon with flying if it enters the battlefield from your graveyard.

In order to get your Clerics into your graveyard, you'll want access to a sacrifice outlet. This deck features a few. Village Rites only requires one mana to use, and by sacrificing a creature, you'll be able to draw two cards. Relic Vial also offers card drawing when you sacrifice a creature, but it also has the added effect of draining life from your opponent and giving it to you. Woe Strider is our last sacrifice outlet, offering a free way to sacrifice your creatures in exchange for being able to scry one card. With all of these cards, you'll have no problem getting your Clerics into the graveyard.

All of these sacrifice outlets also help you utilize Bastion of Remembrance. With Bastion of Remembrance on the battlefield, you'll drain your opponent of one point of life whenever a creature you control dies. This works wonderfully if you also happen to have a copy of Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose in play, as you'll not only cause your opponent to lose life from the Bastion of Remembrance, but also from the life you've gained. Effects like this can allow this deck to win even without making any attacks.

Rakdos Party

Our next deck also features Clerics, but includes Warriors, Wizards, and Rogues so you can form a full adventuring party. Let's take a look at it.

Rakdos Party | ZNR Standard | Anonymous mtgarena.pro user

While the last deck we looked at focused on one party creature type (Clerics), this deck wants to get all four types of party members in play as quickly as possible. By doing this, your Acquisitions Expert will be able to see more cards from your opponent's hand to choose from when determining which card to discard. Having a full party also provides the maximum amount of life drain when Malakir Blood-Priest enters the battlefield. With a full party in play, you'll also be able to deal the maximum amount of damage to target creature or planeswalker when Thundering Sparkmage comes into play. All of these abilities still work if you're missing members from your party, albeit at a diminished level.

Another reason to strive to have a full party is to make it easier for you to cast Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats. Zagras normally has a CMC of 6, but you can drop this cost to a single Red and Black mana by having a full party in play. Getting a 4/4 creature for only 2 mana is great, but Zagras has more to offer than just beefy stats. Zagras has evasion, in the form of flying. He also has haste, so if your opponent isn't aware of your plans, you might catch them when their defenses are down. Zagras also has deathtouch, and he grants this ability to all of your other creatures as well. Finally, Zagras is the ultimate Planeswalker killing machine, allowing any of your creatures to destroy any planeswalker that they deal damage to.

This deck also features a ton of cards that you can use to destroy your opponent's permanents. Bloodchief's Thirst can be kicked to destroy any creature or planeswalker. Feed the Swarm can be used against either a creature or enchantment. Hagra Mauling can destroy any target creature. Shatterskull Smashing is able to deal damage to both creatures and planeswalkers, and if you manage to cast it with X equaling six or more, you'll double the damage. That's a lot of destruction that is packed into this deck.

Dimir Flash

We wrap things up this week by taking a look at a deck that features another legendary creature from Zendikar Rising, Zareth San, the Trickster. Let's take a look at the deck.

Dimir Flash | ZNR Standard | Anonymous

While I don't normally play control decks, I will say that this one looks like it's a lot of fun. Get things started with Thieves' Guild Enforcer, which mills your opponent's library of two cards when it enters the battlefield. Keeping those cards in your opponent's graveyard is very helpful for when you cast Drown in the Loch. Since Drown in the Loch has two modes that can be used, you'll want to save this card for later use whenever possible. You can use other counterspells like Jwari Disruption and Ashiok's Erasure when you need to counter an opponent's spell. You can use Heartless Act or Hagra Mauling when you need to destroy an opponent's creatures. By saving Drown in the Loch, you retain the flexibility needed to deal with your opponent's actions.

This deck really runs off the flash ability. With Slitherwisp in play, whenever you play a spell that has flash, you'll draw a card and your opponent will lose one point of life. There are a total of twenty-eight cards in this deck that have flash, so by casting Slitherwisp early on, you maximize your chances of drawing additional cards with flash as well as maximizing the damage you can do to your opponent. You might even find it possible to win games without attacking, but as you'll see, that probably won't happen, as you'll really want to attack with the legendary leader of this deck.

Zareth San, the Trickster has the ability to come into play by replacing an unblocked Rogue with him. The unblocked Rogue will go back to your hand and Zareth San will become an unblocked attacking creature. When Zareth San deals combat damage to a player, you'll be able to put any permanent from that player's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. There's no worse feeling than losing a game of Magic because your own creatures beat you up. Zareth San reminds me a lot of Gonti, Lord of Luxury, because of this ability, and I absolutely hated playing against that card. I have a feeling Zareth San will trigger my rage in a similar manner.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, Standard has a lot of interesting decks that can be played. With the tag team of Uro and Omnath split up by WotC, we might just see more decks like I've shown you today become contenders in Standard.

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

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, mike likes, znr standard, 10012020

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