Hello folks! I hope that you are keeping yourself safe in our modern COVID world! And having fun as well as can be expected. Have you been following the Zendikar Rising spoilers? I have been! I'm excited by many of these cards that we've seen.

Today I want to take some of my inspiration from these spoiled cards and build some decks around them! How about five decks? Ready for my handful of decks?

Let's get started!

Izzet Wizards

• Expedition Diviner
• Windrider Wizard
• Cunning Geysermage
• Rockslide Sorcerer
• Umara Mystic

These five Wizards suggested themselves to me as I reviewed the spoiler! I love their synergy here! My goal with this build is to have every card count as a Wizard, or a spell.

They reminded me of a classic all the way back from Dominaria: Ghitu Journeymage. It adds some damage to your foes on its arrival. It's strong in multiplayer as well as in finishing folks off from some early game damage. It plays well with a deck of Wizards! Enjoy it!

After I created this initial shell, I then moved to Counterburn, so we'll have some counters and some burn and then we'll call it!

Wanna see?

Izzet Wizards | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Cunning Geysermage
• 2 Expedition Diviner
• 2 Ghitu Journeymage
• 4 Izzet Guildmage
• 4 Rockslide Sorcerer
• 4 Umara Mystic
• 4 Windrider Wizard

• Instants (16)
• 2 Comet Storm
• 2 Fact or Fiction
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Dissipate
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Lands (22)
• 9 Island
• 9 Mountain
• 4 Izzet Boilerworks

Buy This Deck Export text format

And there we have it! I gave this deck the classic Counterspell and Lightning Bolt for your consideration. I also found space for a pair of Fact or Fiction to give you a little smattering of card drawing fun. And there's our first deck!

If you really want to dig into the past for flavorful Wizard cards, don't forget Lavamancer's Skill, which will enable you to dominate creature removal. Diviner's Wand is the only artifact that will trigger your Wizard triggers and it gives you a fun card for your deck. Both of these can play nicely and unusually with an Izzet Wizard build.

What's next?

Churning Clerics

Look at Taborax, Hope's Demise. It's a Black Wind Drake with some abilities. The first is that it'll get lifelink if it's fat enough. The second is that you can net +1/+1 counters on it as your nontokens die, making this a fat game-winning flyer. Then if they were a Cleric? Someone is losing a life and drawing it card! (It's you)

Now look at Goblin Bombardment. You can sacrifice a dork you control and then fling at something for 1 damage. You can kill someone, a planeswalker, or a dork. I will generally prefer the former in that list as winning the game trumps anything else. We'll be adding in another couple of sacrifice engines.

Next? I want cheap Clerics...

Like Dark Supplicant! It's a one-drop you can drop early and then sacrifice for a Cleric trigger from Taborax. Also note that it can sacrifice three Clerics to fetch out Scion of Darkness, which we'll add in. it can sacrifice itself and it'll trigger your trigger three times! For three cards! And three counters!

The rest of my Clerics are going to be Shadowborn Apostle! They are one-drops, you can run any number, and you can fetch out a combo piece with them. I'll also add in two giant Demons to help you win the game. They'll also help your self-sacrifice to net SIX triggers and that's a lot of triggers. Let's add in Demon of Death's Gate which can sacrifice Black dorks to cast it without mana and it'll add to your self-sacrificing nature.

Ready for the deck?

Churning Clerics | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Demon of Death's Gate
• 4 Dark Supplicant
• 2 Scion of Darkness
• 4 Taborax, Hope's Demise
• 18 Shadowborn Apostle

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Attrition
• 4 Goblin Bombardment

• Lands (24)
• 10 Swamp
• 6 Mountain
• 4 Rakdos Carnarium
• 4 Rakdos Guildgate

Buy This Deck Export text format

And there you have it! What did you think of my Churning Clerics build? Anything in there that you enjoyed?

What's next?

Ramping into Life and Limb

Hello Vastwood Surge! I hope you are ready to rock the block! It'll drop two cards, and it you hit that kicker also pump your team with counters! It's great mid game and late game.

But what if your Forests are creatures on arrival? Then they'll get pumped too!

Hello Life and Limb! This card came to mind as soon as I saw Vastwood Surge. All Forests are dorks and all Saprolings are Forests! This deck will be looking to ramp and running many Saprolings. Many Saprolings!

Look at fellow ramp star Nissa's Pilgrimage, which serves as a Cultivate or Kodama's Reach for basic Forests but with the chance of netting three Forests for one card if the situation serves you. In a deck like this where we have only Forests? Welcome!

I added in a few Saproling makers like Spore Swarm and Saproling Migration, but this is my favorite. It's an ideal mana sink for extra Saprolings which will be extra Forests! Which will help convoke or tap for mana to ramp more Saprolings! This thing will make all the Saprolings.

Life and Limb Ramp | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Verdeloth the Ancient

• Instants (12)
• 4 Heroic Intervention
• 4 Spore Swarm
• 4 Sprout Swarm

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 4 Saproling Migration
• 4 Vastwood Surge

• Enchantments (8)
• 2 Fists of Ironwood
• 2 Night Soil
• 4 Life and Limb

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII

• Lands (24)
• 24 Forest

Buy This Deck Export text format

The only creature in the build is Verdeloth the Ancient which will serve as a useful mana sink and pumper of your team. I also tossed in Heroic Intervention to keep mass or targeted removal from killing your lands and dorks. And there you go!

Next?

Hidetsugu's Curse

How about another Rakdos build inspired by a Demon? Take a gander at Scourge of the Skyclaves! This bad boy is a great two-drop that will get better over time. Is the highest life total 18? Great! It's a 2/2. If it's 15 then you have a 5/5. Note that it counts your life as well and thus is good in a shell that cares about everyone losing life. Pay its kicker and you could easily have a 12/12.

What card came to mind as I saw this?

This bad boy and friends!

Hello Heartless Hidetsugu! This awesome tag team partner offers something very powerful. It will tap and drop everyone's life down, thereby ensuring that your Scourge will be very very big! Also, there is a connection between Ogres and Demons on Kamigawa where this card was made, so they are mechanical and flavorful buddies as well!

What next? How about we toss in a Vampire buddy. Welcome Sorin Markov! His +2 will gain you life while Shocking a target for damage, which is good in a world where everyone hurts. But that ain't why he's here! Nope! He's here for that -3 that you can do as soon as he arrives to the battlefield. Drop someone to 10 life. Whichever foe has the most life is going to come down hard.

I have two cards that will care about that!

Each will kill someone at 10 life. If they have lost 10 life to Hidetsugu's tap or the kicker on the Scourge or your Sorin, you can cast one of these two spells and kill them outright! Awesome!

And that's my core of my deck. For the rest I use Rakdos that will help with card flowing and other key factors. I added in some life gain here and there to counterbalance the life lost in places like lands. I am also not running any card draw that loses life instead using Red's impulsive card draw with cards like Light up the Stage. I increased my planeswalkers and added clocks like Angrath, the Flame-Chained and Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath that can kill folks and provide you with life. Enjoy!

Hidetsugu Black | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Heartless Hidetsugu
• 4 Scourge of the Skyclave

• Planeswalkers (12)
• 2 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
• 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 2 Liliana Vess
• 2 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 4 Sorin Markov

• Instants (8)
• 4 Bedevil
• 4 Hidetsugu's Second Rite

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Light up the Stage
• 4 Sorin's Vengeance

• Lands (24)
• 5 Mountain
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Radiant Fountain
• 4 Akoum Refuge
• 4 Bloodfell Caves
• 4 Rakdos Carnarium

Buy This Deck Export text format

And there we have it! I hope you enjoyed our fourth deck.

How about one more to make it an even five?

Changeling Party

Have you seen the party mechanic? Or the full party one? If every creature you control is a Changeling, then you will always have a full party! My dream is Universal Automaton. It counts as all the parties and can be cast on the first turn enabling some nasty turn twos, like Veteran Adventurer or Coveted Prize.

Tajuru Paragon may not count as a shapeshifter, but it has all of the types as well. You'll love kicking it as you can grab any dork from your library. I also love Veteran Adventurer here. With one Changeling or Tajuru Paragon running around you can net a 5/5 vigilance dork for just 2 mana! And it has all of the party as well!

Coveted Prize is my favorite full party card in this deck. You can drop it for 1 mana and then get a free spell from your hand after you tutor. Tutor for something you can play! It's also very splashable. You could get a Chameleon Colossus!

Here's the build!

Changeling Party | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Acquisitions Expert
• 4 Chameleon Colossus
• 4 Tajuru Paragon
• 4 Universal Automaton
• 4 Veteran Adventurer
• 4 Woodland Changeling

• Instants (4)
• 4 Deadly Alliance

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Coveted Prize
• 4 Thwart the Grave

• Lands (24)
• 12 Forest
• 8 Swamp
• 4 Golgari Rot Farm

Buy This Deck Export text format

I thought about making a Five-Color full party deck but decided to lean into Golgari where Black had four valuable full party cards. All of them has value here!

What did you think of my five decks? Anything in here that I missed or that you'd want to add? Anything that inspired you? Just let me know!