Ikoria: Week 0 Standard Brews!
Introduction
Merry spoiler Christmas!! It's amazing how much more exciting magic is around set release.. Ikoria is just around the corner and what a wild set it is.
I'll be honest. I'm less excited for Ikoria than I was for Theros, but I'm still pumped. Theros had so many cards that looked like they could define new archetypes, that was exciting for the prospective brewer. This set has less of those cards, but the ceiling on their power level is higher.
In the end, not many Theros cards ended up making an impact. However, we had a few weeks of wild brews and interesting exploration before Nissa/Uro put a nail in that fun. Doom Foretold, Mono Black, Mono White, Esper Midrange , UW control and WG enchantments were everywhere at the start and now are no where to be seen.
Ikoria certainly has some goodies, but how many of them will be able to crack into top tier gameplay?
In my opinion, there are some cards that have potential to completely turn the format on it's head and bring standard to a power level we haven't seen since CAW blade.
Those cards? COMPANIONS *cue organ sounds*
I don't know exactly how powerful they will be, but I think collectively they will range from
format defining to utterly broken. With my prediction being closer to format defining.
The reason I'm not convinced that the sky is falling, is that the current power level of threats and engines in standard are so high and the stock of incremental card advantage is at an all time low.
An extra card is huge, but if matches are playing out such that multiple cards are stuck in players hands, it's much less important.
Decklists
This article, I'm going to focus on some of the cards that strike me as powerful and interesting and build around them. Ideally trying to focus on ideas that are original.
Archetype #1 - Esper Yorion Blink
Archetype #2 - Mutate (Jeskai, UB Flash, GWx mutate)
Archetype #3 - Mono Black Umori
Archetype #4 - 5c Niv Mizzet
Archetype #1 Esper Blink
Hey Sam Black, guess what, Yorion is going to be broken as hell in standard too.
----> !!!HOT TAKE!!! <----I'm predicting Yorion will be in the top 3 cards in all of standard.
Why more content writers aren't putting this card at the top of their most impactful cards blows my mind.
This card is busted as all hell!! *backflips into the splits* First of all, there are a ton of incredible blinkable cards in standard. UW proved that last season. Second of all, you ALWAYS start the game with an EXTRA card that will commonly draw 2-4 cards worth of value WHILE impacting the board with a 4/5 flyer!!!
The main deck building cost of Yorion is it makes mana base is slightly worse and you only get (effectively) access to 3 copies of cards like Teferi, Charming Prince and Aether gust. That seems EASILY worth a busted free card every game. UW Blink got WAY WAY better, trust me.
Esper Blink
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925649#paper
4 Charming Prince
4 Fblthp, the Lost
1 Cloudkin Seer
3 Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
4 Elite Guardmage
4 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
3 Agent of Treachery
2 Golden Egg
4 Omen of the Sea
4 Oath of Kaya
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Elspeth Conquers Death
3 Time Wipe
4 Fabled Passage
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
4 Godless Shrine
1 Swamp
4 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Castle Vantress
3 Castle Ardenvale
4 Plains
4 Island
In this kind of deck, Yorion will basically always have multiple targets when it comes down, and the deck is amazing at getting itself to a place to stall the game where you can do so.
Teferi, ECD, Oath of Kaya and Omen of the sea are all awesome permanents to blink alongside the creatures.
Nothing that innovative about the deck. Basically it takes the UW blink shell of last season, adds some of the formats better blinkable permanents and calls it a day.
Atris and Oath of Kaya are two very powerful blinkable effects with Yorion and the cost is minimal to add black.
Straight UW might be a little light in targets, so branching out into another color made sense to me.
It's possible Bant Yorion is also doable, with Knight of Autumn and Gilded Goose making solid blink targets in the low end.
Archetype #2 Mutate
Mutate is complicated AF and is going to take a lot of experimenting. To really break it, you need a lot of creatures and you need multiple mutate creatures so that the triggered ability activates multiple times.
There is little color overlap between the best mutate creatures, so it's un-intuitive to find the right combination.
Also, the better cheap mutate creatures want instants/sorceries, which play poorly with mutate itself!
When looking to build this deck, I'm looking for cheap creatures that scale and work particularly well with mutate.
Keywords like flying, lifelink are huge as are +1/+1 counters.
These are the best mutate creatures.
The best enablers require either double blue or double red (two mana trigger keywords).
The permutation of double GG,WW,UU,RR,BB are found in these cards, so clearly they can't all be played together and some concession has to be made.
Mutate Deck #1
GW Mutate Agro
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925881#paper
4 Gilded Goose
4 Paradise Druid
4 Stonecoil Serpent
4 Chamber Sentry
4 Gemrazer
4 Migratory Greathorn
1 Questing Beast
4 Cubwarden
3 Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
4 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
1 Mountain
4 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Fabled Passage
2 Plains
7 Forest
2 Indatha Triome
My favorite of the mutate decks. 1GGG Vivien and Snapdex seem particularly nuts together. The X creatures give cheap bodies for the mutate creatures to make huge, which can then be pushed through with Vivien for maximum pain. Lots of synergies.
Mutate Deck #2
UB Mutate Flash
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926248#paper
4 Pteramander
3 Spectral Sailor
4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
4 Dirge Bat
2 Brazen Borrower
3 Lore Drakkis
3 Heartless Act
4 Opt
4 Sinister Sabotage
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Aether Gust
1 Duress
4 Watery Grave
1 Castle Vantress
3 Fabled Passage
4 Temple of Deceit
9 Island
3 Swamp
Dirge Bat gives a good reason to take a look at UB over UR or UG. Playing dirge bat EOT, then untapping and mutating a cheap creature or two onto it, seems savage. Unsure if you want to go the pteramander route (maximize turn 2 octopus) or if you'd rather play a protect the queen type strategy and load up on more interaction.
I think flash got some great tools in the new set, and will prey more successfully on the big Nissa decks we had last season. That alone should shake the meta up.
Mutate Deck #3
Jeskai Mutate
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925795#paper
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
4 Chamber Sentry
3 Vadrok, Apex of Thunder
3 Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
3 Lore Drakkis
1 Gods Willing
4 Aether Gust
1 Unsummon
3 Fire Prophecy
2 Ionize
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
3 Raugrin Triome
2 Savai Triome
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Fabled Passage
4 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Island
This deck is probably trash. The mana isn't great and you have to play some bad cards to make it good. However, I like some of the stuff going on here. It's probable this should just be UR flash for the mana but I have an irrational attachment to Snapdax. The white is nice for Vadrok, and have access to sideboard devout decree to loop with Lore Drakkis.
Also, you can cast bigger chamber sentries with more colored mana.
Archetype #3 - Mono Black Umori
Did any deck burn out harder than mono black last season?
Turns out Grey merchant isn't very good when all your threats are creatures and can be easily removed. The mono black agro decks struggle with matching the raw power of Embercleave , Uro and Fires of Invention. Also claim the first born makes playing any deck relying on amassing cheap creatures a dicey proposition.
So, why am I interested in Mono Black again?
Companions are fundamentally busted , and I think Umori works very well with what mono black is trying to do. Spam creatures onto the board. Umori doesn't have close to the oomph of Yorion and the deck building restrictions are a bit more extreme, but the strategy itself may be better positioned.
Mono black got a couple nice goodies as well in Fiend Artisan and Hunted Nightmare that may be worth exploring.
There's a lot of different ways to build the deck, but at first, I want to try an agro oriented bent with gray merchant as a burn-out finisher. A hybrid of devotion and agro.
I'm confident this isn't the way to build the deck, but it's where I want to start to see what interactions I like. The one of's serve double duty as tutor targets, and testing information.
When building the sideboard, try to make it mostly creatures and then some cards to go all-in on high impact cards that are strong enough to sideboard out Umori. IE Leyline of the void and spyglass vs Cat/Oven.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926038/
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Gutterbones
4 Fiend Artisan
4 Mire Triton
1 Yarok's Fenlurker
1 Tymaret, Chosen from Death
1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
2 Midnight Reaper
3 Murderous Rider
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
3 Hunted Nightmare
1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Cavalier of Night
4 Spawn of Mayhem
20 Swamp
4 Castle Locthwain
SB: Umori
Archetype #4 - 5c Golos Fires
What Heisenb3rg deck building article would be complete without a Go Big Fires of Invention deck list that ultimately can't ever beat Nissa/Krasis and aether gust?!
So, the three big reasons I'm interested in trying out the Fieldless Field of the Dead decks again are as follows.
5 color decks now have better fixing. The top end to hit off Golos are better than ever, and you have a companion that naturally does what the deck wants.
Jegantha and the Ultimatum cycle doesn't work together , but they do work with Fae of Wishes!
For entertainment sake I'll post a very rough draft, but don't expect this to win yet. The right combination of disruption and end game will have to be explored.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926199#paper
4 Growth Spiral
3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
2 Hydroid Krasis
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Deafening Clarion
1 Thought Erasure
4 Fires of Invention
4 Fae of Wishes
3 Kenrith, the Returned King
3 Niv-Mizzet Reborn
2 Escape to the Wilds
4 Zagoth Triome
4 Ketria Triome
4 Fabled Passage
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Hallowed Fountain
SB:
1 Inspired Ultimatum
1 Jegantha, the Wellspring
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Shatter the Sky
1 Deafening Clarion
1 Ruinous Ultimatum
1 Aether Gust
1 Negate
1 Casualties of War
1 Planewide Celebration
1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
1 Devout Decree
1 Command the Dreadhorde
1 Mythos of Snapdax
1 Return to Nature
Conclusion:
Set release cannot come any sooner! Lots of ideas to explore.. The cards here feel more fundamentally broken than Theros, so I have less hope that this format will be healthy.
The recipe is there for a clear best deck/ban required, but it's not clear to me yet what card will warrant those bans,.
Esper Blink and GW Mutate will be the first decks I explore when set release happens, as I think they have the most competitive potential! What will YOU play!?
Merry spoiler Christmas!! It's amazing how much more exciting magic is around set release.. Ikoria is just around the corner and what a wild set it is.
I'll be honest. I'm less excited for Ikoria than I was for Theros, but I'm still pumped. Theros had so many cards that looked like they could define new archetypes, that was exciting for the prospective brewer. This set has less of those cards, but the ceiling on their power level is higher.
In the end, not many Theros cards ended up making an impact. However, we had a few weeks of wild brews and interesting exploration before Nissa/Uro put a nail in that fun. Doom Foretold, Mono Black, Mono White, Esper Midrange , UW control and WG enchantments were everywhere at the start and now are no where to be seen.
Ikoria certainly has some goodies, but how many of them will be able to crack into top tier gameplay?
In my opinion, there are some cards that have potential to completely turn the format on it's head and bring standard to a power level we haven't seen since CAW blade.
Those cards? COMPANIONS *cue organ sounds*
I don't know exactly how powerful they will be, but I think collectively they will range from
format defining to utterly broken. With my prediction being closer to format defining.
The reason I'm not convinced that the sky is falling, is that the current power level of threats and engines in standard are so high and the stock of incremental card advantage is at an all time low.
An extra card is huge, but if matches are playing out such that multiple cards are stuck in players hands, it's much less important.
Decklists
This article, I'm going to focus on some of the cards that strike me as powerful and interesting and build around them. Ideally trying to focus on ideas that are original.
Archetype #1 - Esper Yorion Blink
Archetype #2 - Mutate (Jeskai, UB Flash, GWx mutate)
Archetype #3 - Mono Black Umori
Archetype #4 - 5c Niv Mizzet
Archetype #1 Esper Blink
Hey Sam Black, guess what, Yorion is going to be broken as hell in standard too.
----> !!!HOT TAKE!!! <----I'm predicting Yorion will be in the top 3 cards in all of standard.
Why more content writers aren't putting this card at the top of their most impactful cards blows my mind.
This card is busted as all hell!! *backflips into the splits* First of all, there are a ton of incredible blinkable cards in standard. UW proved that last season. Second of all, you ALWAYS start the game with an EXTRA card that will commonly draw 2-4 cards worth of value WHILE impacting the board with a 4/5 flyer!!!
The main deck building cost of Yorion is it makes mana base is slightly worse and you only get (effectively) access to 3 copies of cards like Teferi, Charming Prince and Aether gust. That seems EASILY worth a busted free card every game. UW Blink got WAY WAY better, trust me.
Esper Blink
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925649#paper
4 Charming Prince
4 Fblthp, the Lost
1 Cloudkin Seer
3 Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
4 Elite Guardmage
4 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
3 Agent of Treachery
2 Golden Egg
4 Omen of the Sea
4 Oath of Kaya
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Elspeth Conquers Death
3 Time Wipe
4 Fabled Passage
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
4 Godless Shrine
1 Swamp
4 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Castle Vantress
3 Castle Ardenvale
4 Plains
4 Island
In this kind of deck, Yorion will basically always have multiple targets when it comes down, and the deck is amazing at getting itself to a place to stall the game where you can do so.
Teferi, ECD, Oath of Kaya and Omen of the sea are all awesome permanents to blink alongside the creatures.
Nothing that innovative about the deck. Basically it takes the UW blink shell of last season, adds some of the formats better blinkable permanents and calls it a day.
Atris and Oath of Kaya are two very powerful blinkable effects with Yorion and the cost is minimal to add black.
Straight UW might be a little light in targets, so branching out into another color made sense to me.
It's possible Bant Yorion is also doable, with Knight of Autumn and Gilded Goose making solid blink targets in the low end.
Archetype #2 Mutate
Mutate is complicated AF and is going to take a lot of experimenting. To really break it, you need a lot of creatures and you need multiple mutate creatures so that the triggered ability activates multiple times.
There is little color overlap between the best mutate creatures, so it's un-intuitive to find the right combination.
Also, the better cheap mutate creatures want instants/sorceries, which play poorly with mutate itself!
When looking to build this deck, I'm looking for cheap creatures that scale and work particularly well with mutate.
Keywords like flying, lifelink are huge as are +1/+1 counters.
These are the best mutate creatures.
The best enablers require either double blue or double red (two mana trigger keywords).
The permutation of double GG,WW,UU,RR,BB are found in these cards, so clearly they can't all be played together and some concession has to be made.
Mutate Deck #1
GW Mutate Agro
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925881#paper
4 Gilded Goose
4 Paradise Druid
4 Stonecoil Serpent
4 Chamber Sentry
4 Gemrazer
4 Migratory Greathorn
1 Questing Beast
4 Cubwarden
3 Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
4 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
1 Mountain
4 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Fabled Passage
2 Plains
7 Forest
2 Indatha Triome
My favorite of the mutate decks. 1GGG Vivien and Snapdex seem particularly nuts together. The X creatures give cheap bodies for the mutate creatures to make huge, which can then be pushed through with Vivien for maximum pain. Lots of synergies.
Mutate Deck #2
UB Mutate Flash
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926248#paper
4 Pteramander
3 Spectral Sailor
4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
4 Dirge Bat
2 Brazen Borrower
3 Lore Drakkis
3 Heartless Act
4 Opt
4 Sinister Sabotage
2 Mystical Dispute
2 Aether Gust
1 Duress
4 Watery Grave
1 Castle Vantress
3 Fabled Passage
4 Temple of Deceit
9 Island
3 Swamp
Dirge Bat gives a good reason to take a look at UB over UR or UG. Playing dirge bat EOT, then untapping and mutating a cheap creature or two onto it, seems savage. Unsure if you want to go the pteramander route (maximize turn 2 octopus) or if you'd rather play a protect the queen type strategy and load up on more interaction.
I think flash got some great tools in the new set, and will prey more successfully on the big Nissa decks we had last season. That alone should shake the meta up.
Mutate Deck #3
Jeskai Mutate
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2925795#paper
4 Spectral Sailor
4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
4 Chamber Sentry
3 Vadrok, Apex of Thunder
3 Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt
3 Lore Drakkis
1 Gods Willing
4 Aether Gust
1 Unsummon
3 Fire Prophecy
2 Ionize
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
3 Raugrin Triome
2 Savai Triome
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Fabled Passage
4 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Island
This deck is probably trash. The mana isn't great and you have to play some bad cards to make it good. However, I like some of the stuff going on here. It's probable this should just be UR flash for the mana but I have an irrational attachment to Snapdax. The white is nice for Vadrok, and have access to sideboard devout decree to loop with Lore Drakkis.
Also, you can cast bigger chamber sentries with more colored mana.
Archetype #3 - Mono Black Umori
Did any deck burn out harder than mono black last season?
Turns out Grey merchant isn't very good when all your threats are creatures and can be easily removed. The mono black agro decks struggle with matching the raw power of Embercleave , Uro and Fires of Invention. Also claim the first born makes playing any deck relying on amassing cheap creatures a dicey proposition.
So, why am I interested in Mono Black again?
Companions are fundamentally busted , and I think Umori works very well with what mono black is trying to do. Spam creatures onto the board. Umori doesn't have close to the oomph of Yorion and the deck building restrictions are a bit more extreme, but the strategy itself may be better positioned.
Mono black got a couple nice goodies as well in Fiend Artisan and Hunted Nightmare that may be worth exploring.
There's a lot of different ways to build the deck, but at first, I want to try an agro oriented bent with gray merchant as a burn-out finisher. A hybrid of devotion and agro.
I'm confident this isn't the way to build the deck, but it's where I want to start to see what interactions I like. The one of's serve double duty as tutor targets, and testing information.
When building the sideboard, try to make it mostly creatures and then some cards to go all-in on high impact cards that are strong enough to sideboard out Umori. IE Leyline of the void and spyglass vs Cat/Oven.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926038/
4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Gutterbones
4 Fiend Artisan
4 Mire Triton
1 Yarok's Fenlurker
1 Tymaret, Chosen from Death
1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
2 Midnight Reaper
3 Murderous Rider
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
3 Hunted Nightmare
1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Cavalier of Night
4 Spawn of Mayhem
20 Swamp
4 Castle Locthwain
SB: Umori
Archetype #4 - 5c Golos Fires
What Heisenb3rg deck building article would be complete without a Go Big Fires of Invention deck list that ultimately can't ever beat Nissa/Krasis and aether gust?!
So, the three big reasons I'm interested in trying out the Fieldless Field of the Dead decks again are as follows.
5 color decks now have better fixing. The top end to hit off Golos are better than ever, and you have a companion that naturally does what the deck wants.
Jegantha and the Ultimatum cycle doesn't work together , but they do work with Fae of Wishes!
For entertainment sake I'll post a very rough draft, but don't expect this to win yet. The right combination of disruption and end game will have to be explored.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2926199#paper
4 Growth Spiral
3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
2 Hydroid Krasis
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
2 Deafening Clarion
1 Thought Erasure
4 Fires of Invention
4 Fae of Wishes
3 Kenrith, the Returned King
3 Niv-Mizzet Reborn
2 Escape to the Wilds
4 Zagoth Triome
4 Ketria Triome
4 Fabled Passage
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Hallowed Fountain
SB:
1 Inspired Ultimatum
1 Jegantha, the Wellspring
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Shatter the Sky
1 Deafening Clarion
1 Ruinous Ultimatum
1 Aether Gust
1 Negate
1 Casualties of War
1 Planewide Celebration
1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
1 Devout Decree
1 Command the Dreadhorde
1 Mythos of Snapdax
1 Return to Nature
Conclusion:
Set release cannot come any sooner! Lots of ideas to explore.. The cards here feel more fundamentally broken than Theros, so I have less hope that this format will be healthy.
The recipe is there for a clear best deck/ban required, but it's not clear to me yet what card will warrant those bans,.
Esper Blink and GW Mutate will be the first decks I explore when set release happens, as I think they have the most competitive potential! What will YOU play!?
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