Hello folks! I hope your day is going well!!

We have a new set coming out with spoilers with Core Set 2021. I have been inspired by the visual spoiler to build a few decks for you.

Let's take a look!

My first deck is inspired by Carrion Grub and is a powerful combo deck!

This is Carrion Grub and it can get really big if you happen to have a powerful dork in your graveyard to loan it some power. What card is yelling at me?

This little Reserve List number is! As you can see it's a beefy 12/12 for a single mana. When it arrives you need to sacrifice enough power or it self-sacrifice. Now imagine that you add in some Dark Rituals into your build and you do this:

Turn one - Drop land, cast Phyrexian Dreadnought. Did you have enough out? Nope? It sacrifices.

Turn two - Drop land. Cast Dark Ritual. Then drop Carrion Grub which is now a 12/5 and will kill in two hits by turn four.

Even without the Ritual that's a powerful early play.

Let's build a deck around it!

Since I already have a full set of Dreadnaughts, I am tossing in Illusionary Mask to be a back up combo to get the Dreadnought out without any issues. This is a classic combo from Vintage I am pulling out for the masses. Basically it works like this:

Drop the Mask

Spend one colorless mana. Drop the Dreadnought upside down like a morphed dork. You can flip it up when you tap it so on the next turn you swing and hit with a 12/12/ trampler.

I am also tossing in Lord of Tresserhorn as a backup Phyrexian Dreadnaught. On arrival it sacrifice itself, then drop the Grub or you can drop it into a Mask for a four mana 10/4 with no issues.

Ready for my deck? Okay!

Grubs and Dreadnoughts | Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Carrion Grub
• 4 Lord of Tresserhorn
• 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought

• Instants (4)
• 4 Dark Ritual

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 2 Grim Tutor
• 4 Duress
• 4 Hymn to Tourach
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Illusionary Mask

• Lands (25)
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Watery Grave

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I decided to make this deck Legacy legal. I also tossed in fellow Core Set 2021 card Grim Tutor. Enjoy!

Next?

Hello Gadrak fans! Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge reminds me of another cheap artifact loving dragon in Red. Which one? Covetous Dragon! Gadrak makes his own Treasures for helping to blast others, and can block while you are setting up shop. His first token on turn three or four will help to keep Covetous Dragon out as well!

Today I want to run a Mono-Red artifact dragon build that uses Covetous Dragon and Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge to good effect.

But first let's take a trip to Core Set 2020 and look at a third Dragon I am tossing in! Hello Treasure and Dragon fans! Rapacious Dragon makes two Treasures on arrival and is another Dragon for the deck! And it's just one set back from Core Set 2021. I also love Hellkite Tyrant here as another dragon as it'll steal artifacts from friends as it punches and has an alternate cutesey win-con.

Ready for my 2nd brew?

Dragon's Den | Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Covetous Dragon
• 4 Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge
• 4 Hellkite Tyrant
• 4 Rapacious Dragon

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Pirate's Pillage

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Curse of Opulence

• Artifacts (10)
• 2 Hammer of Purphoros
• 2 Retrofitter Foundry
• 2 Throne of Empires
• 4 Servo Schematic

• Lands (26)
• 18 Mountain
• 4 Forgotten Cave
• 4 Smoldering Crater

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Note that Red is the only color without the ability to make Food tokens, so I cannot run those, neither can I add in Clue tokens either. But I did toss in some Gold tokens with Curse of Opulence which makes a lot of sense to me. Dragons and Gold and Treasure. Enjoy!

Now what?

How about another Mono-Red build?

Chandra, Heart of Fire has a lot of game to recommend her. She has two +1 abilities to ramp up to her game-winning ultimate ability. She can Shock any target and she can discard your hands and Impulse draw three cards, which is great turn after turn.

By the time you cast her, you have at least five mana, so I want to turn her into the powerhouse of drawing four cards a turn - three from her, and one from your deck. Since you are discarding for her ability, it makes no sense to keep cards in your hand that you can run.

Therefore I need to do a few things to maximize her power:

1. Run the cheapest and best possible burn spells. Take Lightning Bolt as an obvious inclusion. If you draw the Bolt or you get it from her ability, then you will have the ability to cast it. There's no sense keeping it around until the next turn.
2. Run Grafted Skullcap. There is an old school deck called Burning Bridge that combines a burn deck a combo.

Grafted Skullcap would draw you an extra card but force a discard of everything each turn. Then nothing could attack you through an Ensnaring Bridge unless it had a power of zero - not very effective in battle. You would then draw two and cast both reliably. This deck won't need the bridge relying on the massive Burns and Chandra's backup Shock if needed to keep you also by killing everyone.

Now if you are running this in multiplayer, then you may want to dip into the Bridge since burn is much weaker in multiplayer and you'll need to keep alive, which it will do wonderfully. In that case I would also add in some man-lands with a power no greater than two so you can swing with two cards after you draw from the Grafted Skullcap to add to your damage range. Such as Mishra's Factory.

Burning Chandra | Casual | Abe Sargent

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Chandra, Heart of Fire

• Instants (16)
• 4 Incinerate
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Searing Blaze
• 4 Skullcrack

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Chain Lightning
• 4 Lava Spike
• 4 Rift Bolt

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Grafted Skullcap

• Lands (24)
• 24 Mountain

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And there you go! If you wanted to make this Modern legal you could swap the Skullcap with Avaricious Dragon. It's cheaper, but it is easier to answer as a dork and foes that otherwise might have dead draws against your deck are going to have some. Or you could swap the Skullcap for Light up the Stage which will help the card flow but in this case you can keep some instants up until the end of turn.

How about one more deck

Let's leave behind Rakdos and embrace the anti-Rakdos.

Selesnya!

Basri's Lieutenant and Pridemalkin both play into a fun counters matter space. They can sprinkle counters on arrival and grant abilities to all encountered. They can also grant those abilities to themselves. I want to use this duo to make a Standard legal counters matter theme!

Ready?

Counters Matter | Casual | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Kenrith, the Promised King
• 4 Basri's Lieutenant
• 4 Fertilid
• 4 Incubation Druid
• 4 Pridemalkin
• 4 Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 4 Voracious Hydra

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Basri Ket
• 2 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter

• Instants (2)
• 2 Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Biogenic Upgrade
• 2 Outmuscle

• Lands (28)
• 12 Forest
• 12 Plains
• 4 Karn's Bastion

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And there we are! A Standard legal counters-matter deck for your consideration. From planeswalkers to Renata, Called to the Hunt we have a number of powerful cards here to run around with. I hope you like my final deck.

All right folks! There we are! Anything in here that you think I missed in my brews? Anything in there inspire your own deck-building? Just let me know!

Did you know that W.E.B. DeBois wrote science fiction? You do now!