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Main » Articles » Unsung Heroes

Unsung Heroes

Mike Likes
Posted on December 7, 2018
 Reddit

Hello everyone. As I'm sure you know, I'm always looking for new decks in Standard that show innovative ways to use underplayed cards. This week is no exception and I'm happy to report that the signs of innovation have not slowed down. This week I have three new decks for you that are all utilizing cards that don't see a lot of play in Standard. Let's get started.

Naban, Dean of Iteration

The first deck I have this week tries to make the most out of Naban, Dean of Iteration. Let's take a look at the deck:

Izzet Naban's Burning Return | Guilds Standard | T4rroth

Naban, Dean of Iteration
So, the game plan with this deck is to get Naban, Dean of Iteration into play as soon as possible. That will allow you to get the most bang for your buck when you play your other Wizards. With Naban on the battlefield, both Viashino Pyromancer and Ghitu Journeymage will deal four points of damage straight to your opponent and Exclusion Mage will return two creatures to your opponent's hand. That's a lot of value. Be aware that Storm Sculptor has a similar effect to Exclusion Mage, but it will return creatures you control to your hand. This effect is not optional so make sure you have a large enough battlefield presence when you play Storm Sculptor, otherwise you'll need to return it back to your hand when its effect resolves. Storm Sculptor is a great way to get added value out of those enter-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities multiple times.

Since Naban, Dean of Iteration is pretty fragile, you'll need ways to protect him. Siren Stormtamer is willing to give its life to save Naban if he should get targeted by a removal spell. You also have Wizard's Retort which can counter most any sort of removal as well as any major threats your opponent may play. Since there are a limited number of answers, the deck has four copies of Naban. Sometimes it might be better to hold onto your Wizard's Retort and let Naban die if you happen to be holding another copy in your hand that you can play next turn.

Thousand-Year Storm

The next deck I have for you this week focuses on Thousand-Year Storm. This card allows for some quick kills that can happen out of nowhere. Let's take a look at the deck:

Jeskai Thousand-Year Storm | Guilds Standard | Gohu

Thousand-Year Storm
For those players that love playing Storm decks in Modern or players that love figuring out puzzles, this deck is for you. With Thousand-Year Storm, you're able to mimic the Storm ability in Standard. Since Thousand-Year Storm costs 6 mana, the next turn you'll have plenty of mana available to cast spells with. As long as a spell that deals damage to your opponent such as Shock or Lightning Strike is the last spell you play, you can potentially copy that spell quite a few times to deal a massive amount of damage.

Ral, Izzet Viceroy is in this deck primarily for his +1 loyalty ability. This allows you to choose from the top two cards of your deck - one card to go to your hand and one to go to your graveyard. Since you have a couple of cards with the Jump-start ability, it's often better to put them into your graveyard. This will also help when you need to activate Ral's -3 loyalty ability, as you'll need instants and sorceries in the graveyard for maximum effect. If you're able to activate Ral's -8 loyalty ability and create his emblem, winning the game should be purely academic at that point since you can deal damage to your opponent by casting spells and then countering those same spells if you need to.

Tilonalli's Summoner

The final deck I have for you this week went 5-0 in a recent Magic Online (MTGO) League. It's a Boros token-based deck that utilizes Tilonalli's Summoner to produce a large amount of Elemental tokens when you attack. Let's take a look at it:

Tilonalli's Angels | Guilds Standard | IANKLEINMTG, (5-0) MTGO

Tilonalli's Summoner
Behold, the power of tokens! Legion Warboss, Tilonalli's Summoner, Heroic Reinforcements, History of Benalia, and Legion's Landing all help you create creature tokens. Those tokens enable you to achieve the City's Blessing very easily, so the tokens you create with Tilonalli's Summoner stick around after the battle rather than exiled at the beginning of the end step. It's even better if you happen to get a Divine Visitation onto the battlefield. No longer are you creating wimpy 1/1 tokens. You're now creating incredible 4/4 Angel tokens instead. Keep in mind that making Angels with Divine Visitation is a replacement effect, so it doesn't matter whether you have multiple Divine Visitations in play; you'll still only make the number of tokens you could originally create if there were no copies of Divine Visitation in play. This won't allow you to double your token production.

Heroic Reinforcements can truly be devastating to an opponent when you have Divine Visitation in play. Not only will you create two 4/4 Angels, but they'll also get +1/+1 until the end of the turn and have haste. That allows them to attack for ten points of damage by themselves. Since you won't be able to do this until after you already have five lands in play, you might also have some other creatures on the battlefield that will also get the +1/+1 bonus and be able to swing in. I've played enough against Heroic Reinforcements on MTGArena to know just how unexpectedly devastating it can be.

Wrapping Up

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. 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, decklists, mike likes, guilds standard, 12072018

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