You know what? Let's do some more decks! Because you can never have too many deck articles, right? Right!

We are about decks as a people. We seek to get new cards in the right decks for maximum value.

Here are some more brews for the kitchen table.

Lands Matter!

I really wish that Living Twister were a legendary dork, so I could make it my Commander card...

How cool would it be as the leader of a Gruul deck? I know. So awesome. It fits into the recent Lord Windgrace shell quite nicely. There are homes out there for it. Mina and Denn, Wildborn also strike me as a useful shell, as does Borborymos Enraged. There are some fun homes in Commander.

But it's not able to lead a deck. So sad

So let's do something else instead!

Obviously, let's begin with triggering lands:

Getting a scry from Temple of Abandon, or setting up a Valakut smash is valuable, right? Both of these work well.

I added in some cards to make Valakut work - Scapeshift and Prismatic Omen. They both help the Valakut be a game-ending damage dealer. The Scapeshift is cool as it fetches any land, not just basics, so you can grab lands with triggers such as Temple of Abandon.

We have some others of these here and there too in the deck, such as the hideaway Mosswort Bridge to reuse or the life-gaining Radiant Fountain.

Fertile Thicket is nice as well as you can get a basic to the top of your library if you need more lands.

The Crucible of Worlds on legs is an obvious addition to our deck, right? You can Living Twister and return a land from the battlefield to your hand, discard it, and then put it back onto the battlefield with this, so it's a full cycle of life. Net result? 2 damage, land is still in play, and any enters-the-battlefield triggers occurred as well.

"What sort of triggers?" you ask. Great question; you always struck me as a wise reader!

These sorts of triggers! Shoot someone for damage! Make a bigger Undergrowth Champion! Grab some life with the Gladeheart so you can stay alive while you continue your fun combos!

Want more triggers? Of course, you do! We some ways of dropping a few extra lands onto the battlefield as well for your consideration.

Note that Nissa will fetch you two lands for 2 mana, as we join her Triumph over three-mana spells that do the same.

Here you go!

• Unknown (60)
• 1 Akoum Hellkite
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 2 Courser of Kruphix
• 2 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 4 Grazing Gladeheart
• 4 Living Twister
• 4 Ramunap Excavator
• 4 Tunneling Geopede
• 4 Undergrowth Champion
• 2 Nissa's Triumph
• 3 Scapeshift
• 2 Prismatic Omen
• 8 Forest
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Thawing Glaciers
• 2 Fertile Thicket
• 2 Radiant Fountain
• 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 4 Temple of Abadon

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And there's your first deck!

Next?

How about something a little different

This is Solar Blaze. It's a strong four-mana sweeper that evokes the old Wave of Reckoning, which was pretty heavily played in Standard. The Wave was a strong player in that era as a sweeper. Because you planned around it, you added cards that won't kill themselves.

One of the cards that made Wave of Reckoning sing was Blinding Angel -

Blinding Angel would swing on a denuded board, and slowly beat down, and as long as your foe dropped ground pounders post-Angel, it's didn't matter. And your Wave had cleared the Skies as most fliers being played in Standard at the time were Wave of Reckoning killable. You could even run them as a Masques Block Constructed Combo that worked well too.

So here is my question. Like Standard then, is there a place in Standard today for a four mana Wave of Reckoning?

What would survive? Are there any Blinding Angels? Doubtful, WOTC doesn't like printing cards like this that shut people from doing things they love, and attacking with their dorks? So much fun!

I'm looking at cards like Feather or Tomik...

What if I could have an aggro deck where Solar Blaze is my top end spell? Is there enough room?

There are a few here and there:

All of those are good. I love the Militia Bugler, as it's a card-advantage engine in a deck like this one. I also found someone that is a little different than expected, whom I am in love with for this deck.

Tajic doesn't have a bigger toughness, but all Solar Blaze damage will pass by as its non-combat. He also keeps your dorks from taking any damage at all, so you won't set up a bad swing into opposing dorks that survived due to having a bigger butt as well. I may not want to swing my 3/4 Feather that took three damage into a 1/3 flyer that can trade with it. But with Tajic, that awkward situation is avoided. Let's toss in four.

So he's in.

Is there a space for Mizzium Tank? Not in my main, but it's in my mind for later. I also tossed in seven burn spells to add to the Solar Flare. You can use burn to finish off anything that survived a Flare, so I like them together in this shell. I also found space for a pair of Aurelias, as she is really useful here, and can be grabbed by the Bugler. She may not be my Blinding Angel, but she's good here.

Note that this deck has a surprising number of Legendaries in it, which could make Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle very interesting.

Here you go!

Solar Blaze Aggro | Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
• 3 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
• 4 Boros Challenger
• 4 Feather, the Redeemed
• 4 Kinjalli's Sunwing
• 4 Militia Bugler
• 4 Tajic, Legion's Edge

• Instants (4)
• 4 Lightning Strike

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Skewer the Critics
• 4 Solar Blaze

• Lands (25)
• 11 Plains
• 10 Mountains
• 4 Sacred Foundry

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But...

I have a thought...

Here it is.

Can Feather break Dreadhorde Arcanist? Let's find out!

This is Dreadhorde Arcanist. This is a card that has captured the imagination of many a player who has been reviewing the War of the Spark spoilers. If you attack with it, then you can cast any instant or sorcery with a cost of one or fewer that's in your graveyard for free, and then afterward, you exile it instead of tossing into your 'yard.

As a reminder, this is Feather, as well as another powerful card in this heroic-esque suite of cards:

Tenth District Legionnaire is pretty good at punching face early, and then can also drop some heroic love when you target it, giving you a permanent pump as well as a scry of 1. That's pretty compelling along Dreadhorde Arcanist. Feather will exile a card too, and if you targeted one of your own with an Arcanist, then you have two replacement effects that exile when the card heads to the great graveyard in the sky. Choose Feather's, so you can recur it later.

Here's my key question though. Are there enough Red or White 1-drop spells that self-target to make this work?

Let's see!

How about Samut's Spirit? It gives +2/+1, haste, and gives you a useful scry as well. But that's not where my first impression goes. Check out Defiant Strike. Sure, the pump isn't as nice. But drawing a card? That's awesomely awesome!

What else in Standard?

How about Integrity? It's split, so it's easy to cast in your deck. It'll give a +2/+2 bonus, and then you have the ability to use Intervention later. There are many 1 mana into +2/+2 effects in the format.

Here are two examples.

Now, the possibility for flying means that I'd run Arrester's Zeal normally. But here? I like the split card as it's easier to cast, as well as giving more options later. You can cast it to pump a dork and then return it to your hand with Feather for later burning so I feel that it's perfect for this shell. Four of those are a must-add to me. Now, please note that the Arcanist is unlikely to recur it in your graveyard as its cost is five there, but the flexibility to return it to your hand is one that sells me.

There is another that I really like as well.

Sheltering Light! Indestructible and scrying? Yes please!

I like two each of this and Defiant Strike. You can cast and recast them for triggers and then get the scry or drawing of cards, even when you don't need their effects.

Now...what else?

Could I toss in Aurelia or Tajic here as well?

I do like the boost that Aurelia gives you for free without requiring any mana, as your mana may be tied up in casting a spell. Let's retain two of her. On the 4th turn, you can cast her, and then you can give +2/+0 and trample and vigilance to your Tenth District Legionnaire, and then pump it with a +2/+2 Integrity and it gets a counter, so it would be a 7/5 vigilance, trampling, hasted, death beater.

I don't think this deck is as much of a Tajic deck as above, so I'm only putting in two. I do like his damage shield, and he's a strong 3-drop that can complement Feather.

Now what?

• Ghitu Lavarunner
• Fire Urchin
• Arclight Phoenix
• Guttersnipe
• Hero of Precinct One
• Heroic Reinforcements
• Dire Fleet Daredevil
• Light Up the Stage
• Rekindling Phoenix
• Response // Resurgence
• Risk Factor
• Skarrgan Hellkite
• Sky Terror
• Swiftblade Vindicator
• Truefire Captain

Is this a Ghitu Lavarunner deck? Do Red cards from the Red half of the Izzet instants/sorceries matter mechanic make sense here? Would something like Guttersnipe or Fire Urchin work? Are there enough multicolored cards to make Hero work? Is Heroic Reinforcements the blowout here that it is when I've run it in draft? Is this perhaps finally the shell where Dire Fleet Daredevil works? What about Light up the Stage? Is this another place that Rekindling Phoenix can find a home? Does it want the shoot-down of Response or the Relentless Assault'ing of Resurgence? Is this a home for Risk Factor? Does Skarrgan Hellkite make sense here? I don't like Skyknight Legionnaire as it competes with other cards at the three cost, but what about the flying and cheaper Sky Terror? Would that make sense? How about Swiftblade Vindicator as my other 2-drop instead? In a deck with some pumping going on, is the double strike relevant enough to matter? How about Truefire Captain as a fellow 4-drop to Aurelia? Mentor and damage-sending are both strong here.

As you can see, this is a concept that asks many questions. I think that I am leaning thusly:

• 2 Heroic Reinforcements
• 2 Risk Factor

Let's finish out my spells now. That gives me 12 spells, 8 of which I can cast and recast as they target my stuff with Feather or by Dreadhorde Arcanist. And then I have 16 dorks with 2 each of Aurelia, and Tajic, and then 4 each of my key three dorks.

That creates 8 spots left

So let's do this:

I don't feel I will have enough instants/sorceries in my graveyard to make the Lavarunner reliable as anything other than a vanilla 1/2.

• 4 Hero of Precinct One

Right now, I have 18 gold cards. And that includes the casting and recasting of Integrity or Intervention. This works. And we're going to be getting higher as I want another 2 drop.

• 4 Swiftblade Vindicator

Double strike with mentor of Tajic, the pump of Aurelia, my pump spells, Heroic Reinforcements, etc. It's just a no brainer, to my mind. And that gives me 22 gold cards for the Hero, so every creature not named Dreadhorde Arcanist or Hero of Precinct One counts, as does the Reinforcements and I // I.

Ready? Here is muh deck:

Standard Dreadhorde Feather | War Standard | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (32)
• 2 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
• 2 Tajic, Legion's Edge
• 4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
• 4 Feather, the Redeemed
• 4 Hero of Precinct One
• 4 Swiftblade Vindicator
• 4 Tenth District Legionnaire
• 2 Defiant Strike
• 2 Heroic Reinforcements
• 4 Integrity // Intervention

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Risk Factor
• 2 Sheltering Light

• Lands (24)
• 7 Mountain
• 7 Plains
• 2 Boros Guildgate
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Sacred Foundry

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And of course, many of the cards mentioned above also could make this deck after running it. I may be in love with Aurelia more and look for more copies, or Tajic may disappoint and I pull him. I might want to massage my mana base. Since I have no 1-drops, and need the right color land, I added a few Boros Guildgates, which normally wouldn't come anywhere near a project like this. We also have Clifftop Retreats and Foundries, but those can be dropped if needed untapped on later turns, so I have no qualms about their inclusion.

So what did you think of my decks? Did any of them resonate with you? Anything in here you want to build around or try out? Just let me know!

As always, thanks for reading!!!