Hello folks! I hope you are having a good day today.

Dominaria's release date is fast approaching, and (official) spoilers of this awesome set are arriving at a frenetic pace. Some really cool cards appear to be coming down the pike!

So I have been inspired to build a few different builds around new cards. Below we have a few 60 card decks, including one Brawl deck, for your viewing pleasure!

What cards are inspiring you?

Powerstone Shard was the first spoiled card to trigger my Abe-dar. It looks weak on its own, right? I mean you normally invest two mana for a mana rock that taps for colorless and gives you another ability, like Mind Stone or Guardian Idol. This is a three-mana mana rock that just taps for Colorless unless you have more than one.

So how do you reliably get more than one?

By leaning into one of The Brothers . . . 

Mishra's Powerstones -- Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Embersmith
• 2 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
• 2 Shimmer Myr
• 3 Goblin Welder
• 4 Bottle Gnomes
• 4 Myr Servitor
• 4 Mishra, Artificer Prodigy

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Saheeli Rai

• Sorceries (2)
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Invoke the Firemind

• Artifacts (12)
• 2 Mizzium Transreliquat
• 2 Staff of Domination
• 4 Powerstone Shard
• 4 Sculpting Steel

• Lands (25)
• 4 Island
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 2 Crypt of the Eternals
• 2 Grixis Panorama
• 4 Crumbling Necropolis
• 4 Mana Confluence

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Urza might have been the character with Powerstone eyes, but Mishra can arguably use them better. Take a looksee:

This is the Artificer Prodigy himself, Mishra. Are you casting the Powerstone Shard? Great! Go get another copy from your graveyard/library/hand and toss it into play for free. So, if you control Mishra when you cast Powerstone Shard, you will get two into play. That means your three-mana investment will collect four mana each turn from two separate Shards. And if you have another Shard? Then you'll be getting nine mana very early in that game across three separate mana rocks.

And we also have another gift for your consideration:

Suppose that you just don't draw another Powerstone. That's fair, that would require you to draw two copies of a card that you have four of in a 60-card deck. That's not exactly easy. But that's okay, because Mishra has you covered. Did you draw Mizzium Transreliquat? Sculpting Steel? Great! Now cast it, put a 2nd into play, and make them both Powerstone Shards. Holy Mana Making Batman!

As long as you have enough ways to use and abuse the mana, then I think you might manage to win that game!

Enjoy your Mishra-infused Powerstones!

So, what's next?

I like Hamlet . . .  Squee. Squee, the Immortal is a pretty cool card, because you cannot answer it, barring shuffling it back into someone's library or something. Squee is awesome. Plus, you can use a few effects that really abuse Squee!

Such as . . . 

Squee's Sacrificing Good Times -- Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Krenko, Mob Boss
• 4 Beetleback Chief
• 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 4 Siege-Gang Commander
• 4 Squee, the Immortal

• Instants (4)
• 4 Comet Storm

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Empty the Warrens
• 2 Rolling Thunder

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Goblin Bombardment
• 4 Mana Echoes

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Planar Bridge

• Lands (25)
• 21 Mountain
• 4 Urza's Factory

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The goal of this deck is to sacrifice Immortal Squee to Goblin Bombardment, then recast it and make at least three mana on its arrival to the party with Mana Echoes, and then repeat!

Apparently, I'm on an infinite mana kick, sorry!

This deck is cool because it has two paths to victory. The first is a ton of Goblins. You can use effects like Empty the Warrens or Krenko to churn out many Goblins, and your X spells are still playable without going off as flexible burn and removal. You could easily go wide and chalk up a win. You can even use Goblin Bombardment as normal removal or to supplement your burn with Goblin tokens, rather than as a combo piece. Only Mana Echoes is a combo piece here, and without the other two, it can still make a lot of mana in this shell. Cast Beetleback Chief on a naked board for nine colorless mana! That's a lot of fuel to dump your hand or funnel into a Planar Bridge.

This card works here. Control a single Mana Echoes? Then fetch a Siege-Gang Commander and make 25 mana. Fetch up combo pieces and toss them onto play without worrying about counter magic. You've got this!

Now I have another idea for Squee, the Immortal:

This is Phyrexian Portal, and it is an amazing card. Invest 3 mana, and then let a foe create two face-down stacks from the top ten cards of your deck. In one stack, choose and put one into your hand and shuffle the rest and then exile the other stack. What's not to love? Repeatable Impulses!

If the cards went into your graveyard instead of exiling them, then it would be one of the most commonly played effects in Commander. But it remains as powerful today as it always has been on the front-end, it's just most players can't stomach the thought of exiling around five cards from their deck per iteration.

Eye of Yawgmoth is in a similar boat. It taps to sacrifice a dork to Impulse your library, based on the power of the sacrificed dork. It probably seems like a good card normally. But people don't like removing options. No one likes exiling their own stuff, because then they cannot get it back . . . 

Normally . . . 

But there are a few options out there.

In addition to Squee, we have these two forces of Blue mythic nature. Now, Eternal Scourge is weaker, as it'll keep heading out and back again, but it's there too.

Exiling a creature is the ultimate answer. For example, take a Wrath of God effect. Even if you run something like Plague Wind to destroy all opposing stuff, your foes will invariably have some indestructible stuff left. Killing a creature (by sending it to the graveyard) also enables death triggers, such as token-making Penumbra Wurm or card-drawing Solemn Simulacrum, whereas exiling removal shuts that junk down.

So wouldn't it be cool if all of your critters could come back from exile? You could easily recover from an "exile everything" mass removal spell like Final Judgment, and uses self-exiling effects like Sword of the Ages or such.

For example, take:

You exile your dorks, and they aren't coming back. You can turn them into random bodies from your deck later while also enabling them to be returned from your exile zone. Cool, right? And various effects like Demonic Consultation have treated exiling your goods as a punishment. But when you have 12 dorks that can come back from exile? That ain't bad. Whip of Erebos will exile the dork after swinging from your graveyard, but what if that was a Torrent Elemental you can bring back permanently?

Have we reached a critical mass when this will now work?

Let's find out!

Exiling Squee for Days -- Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Sedris, the Traitor King
• 4 Eternal Scourge
• 4 Misthollow Griffin
• 4 Orcish Librarian
• 4 Squee, the Immortal
• 4 Torrent Elemental

• Instants (2)
• 2 Corpse Dance

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Mass Polymorph

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Outpost Siege

• Artifacts (8)
• 2 Eye of Yawgmoth
• 2 Phyrexian Portal
• 2 Sword of the Ages
• 2 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (24)
• 4 Island
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 2 Crypt of the Eternals
• 2 Dimir Aqueduct
• 2 Izzet Boilerworks
• 2 Rakdos Carnarium
• 4 Crumbling Necropolis

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All right, and there you are!

What to know why I am running the full Eternal Scourge? How about this . . . 

Set this thing on Dragons, and then sit back and bake! Ah, did you send my Scourge to the exile zone? Guess something it taking a damage! Now I guess I have to recast it and run it again.

Ready for my final deck? Let's get our Brawl on!

Brawling with Jhoira -- Dominaria Brawl | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Captain Lannery Storm
• 1 Combustible Gearhulk
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Glint-Nest Crane
• 1 Guardians of Koilos
• 1 Kefnet the Mindful
• 1 Maverick Thopterist
• 1 Merchant's Dockhand
• 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Pia Nalaar
• 1 Quicksmith Rebel
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 The Locust God
• 1 Treasure Keeper
• 1 Walking Ballista
• 1 Workshop Assistant

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Saheeli Rai

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Jaya's Immolating Inferno
• 1 Karn's Temporal Sundering
• 1 Search for Azcanta
• 1 Storm the Vault

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Cultivator's Caravan
• 1 Fleetwheel Cruiser
• 1 Inventor's Goggles
• 1 Paradox Engine
• 1 Renegade Map
• 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1 Strider Harness
• 1 Thaumatic Compass
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 Traveler's Amulet
• 1 Treasure Map
• 1 Weatherlight

• Lands (24)
• 7 Island
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Desert of the Fervent
• 1 Desert of the Mindful
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Highland Lake
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Memorial to Genius
• 1 Memorial to War
• 1 Spirebluff Canal
• 1 Zhalfirin Void

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And there you go! Jhoira for the Win-ra.

She has a lot of things going for her in a Brawl deck. There are a ton of historic cards in Standard right now, and that means you can easily build a deck where 80% of the non-lands will draw you a card when you have your leader in play. In fact, the only non-historic cards in this deck are Glint-Nest Crane, Quicksmith Rebel, and Maverick Thopterist. And all three work with my Jhoira theme as well.

Note the value here of drawing an epic ton of cards. I included some historic cards that were strong, but didn't play directly into the theme, like Etali, Primal Storm or Kefnet the Mindful. I do expect to have a big grip of cards, so Nezahal, Primal Tide isn't off theme at all. But some of the others are just legendary to trigger Jhoira so I can keep drawing and the engine going. I'd rather do a legendary that's not an artifact and keeps drawing cards than a loosely connected card like Quicksmith Spy or Gear-Seeker Serpent.

Then the deck is running a ton of artifacts and artifact creatures. I have everything from smaller stuff like Filigree Familiar to bigger forces like Combustible Gearhulk. Note that Jhoira is a Cast trigger not an enters-the-battlefield one, so Panharmonicon won't abuse it. Paradox Engine and Storm the Vault are the sorts of cards that can be abusive though.

The Immortal Sun is a great answer in this format. Given the proclivity of folks to play planeswalkers as their leaders, it shuts down 'Walker usage and abuse. I did include Saheeli Rai, which is a non-bo, as the Sun shuts down your own loyalty abilities too, but it's so rare to have both together that you should be fine. Plus the Sun is amazing on its own, even if you didn't have any 'walkers running around being turned off.

Note that we have a number of Dominaria cards here in this deck.

Lots of fun new cards for our Jhoira to play with!

Oh and while you are reading, has anyone else noticed that Demonlord Belzenlok is wrong?

Our good Liliana of the Vess has been upgraded by making pacts with 4 powerful Demons, and has been on a quest to snuff them out. Here the previous ones are, please note their stats . . . 

Do you see? All three are flying, and then have 6/6, 7/7, or 8/8 in size. So why is Belzenlok another 6/6? Why is he not a 9/9? Or at least a 5/5? Also I suspect that Gris was initially 7 mana 7//7 with 7 life and seven cards and was increased for power reasons, but a 9 mana 9/9 or a 5 mana 5/5 would feel smooth here. This feels wrong to me, it's out of sync.

There we go! I hope you enjoyed these decks and article. Find something here? I hope so! Let me know your thoughts. I will see you tomorrow for more Dominaria infused Top Ten shenanigans! Tomorrow we'll look at Ten Top Combos from the set thus far!