I promised last week that we'd have brews today and I'm not going to disappoint, today I will bring you four decks that I want to try out when Magic 2019 drops. This is going to come as a shocker for some of you, but two of them will be Nexus of Fate decks. I know, me of all people brewing up decks with Nexus of Fate? Nobody saw that coming. Before we dive into some Nexus of Fate decks, I want to start off with an Esper Control deck. The best Elder Dragon in M19 in Chromium, the Mutable and what better home for the dragon then a control shell?

Esper Control -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Chromium, the Mutable
• 1 The Scarab God
• 2 Torrential Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (24)
• 1 Commit // Memory
• 1 Consign // Oblivion
• 1 Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1 Invoke the Divine
• 1 Negate
• 2 Cast Down
• 2 Essence Scatter
• 3 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Disallow
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Vraska's Contempt

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (27)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Island
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Aether Hub
• 3 Irrigated Farmland
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Fetid Pools

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cleansing Nova
• 1 Forsake the Worldly
• 2 Negate
• 3 Duress
• 3 Essence Extraction
• 2 Mystic Archaeologist
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast
• 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1 Jace's Defeat

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Chromium is so much better in the control mirror than Pearl Lake Ancient was. Chromium doesn't draw you cards when your opponent casts non-creature spells like Nezahal, Primal Tide does, but the elder dragon more than makes up for it. Chromium has flash, evasion, and it only takes one card to protect him. Even though Nezahal was uncounterable, you could still Disallow his return to the battlefield trigger, you can't do any such thing against Chromium. All Disallow can stop is you pitching a single card to transform him into a human and giving him Hexproof, that's still a fair trade since it's a one for one. However, if you wanted to do that against Nezahal it was a three for one.

Even if your opponent does end up dealing with Chromium, we still have The Scarab God, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, and Torrential Gearhulks. The rest of the deck is pretty stockish. The only new cards I added to the Sideboard were Cleansing Nova and Mystic Archaeologist. The Mystic acts like an Azure Mage but it will draw you an additional card for an additional mana, that's worth it to me!

All right, let's look at another Esper build. This one with Nexus of Fates though . . . 

What do we want?

TIME TRAVEL!!!!

When do we want it?

It's irrelevant, but how about now?

Esper Nexus -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (23)
• 1 Commit // Memory
• 1 Consign // Oblivion
• 2 Cast Down
• 3 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Disallow
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Nexus of Fate
• 4 Vraska's Contempt

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Mastermind's Acquisition
• 2 Duress

• Enchantments (4)
• 2 Search for Azcanta
• 2 The Mirari Conjecture

• Lands (27)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Island
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Aether Hub
• 3 Irrigated Farmland
• 3 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Fetid Pools

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cleansing Nova
• 1 Forsake the Worldly
• 2 Negate
• 1 Fumigate
• 2 Duress
• 2 Essence Extraction
• 1 Torment of Hailfire
• 1 Chromium, the Mutable
• 1 Mystic Archaeologist
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast
• 1 Omniscience
• 1 Jace's Defeat

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This is one of my Nexus of Fate brews (I have many) where I'd like to start, and I believe just naturally has potential. It takes the Esper control shell at heart and adapts it to win via looping Nexus of Fate. It's going to feel great when your opponent flashes in Chromium at the end of turn for you to respond with a Nexus of Fate and take another turn while your opponent is tapped out.

Nexus of Fate is naturally good against the no win con Teferi decks. You may have no permanents if they are able to ultimate Teferi and draw a bunch of cards, but if you get to 8 cards in hand and start discarding Nexus of Fate, they can't deck you out. That deck will need to adopt some sort of win condition because of Nexus of Fate.

The Mirari Conjecture here is to generate value while also acting as an insane way to generate card or battlefield advantage. You can also double up on turns when The Mirari Conjecture reaches its third chapter in the saga. Let's be honest here for a minute, what's better than taking one additional turn? Obviously copying your Nexus of Fate and taking another one! #Winning

I really like Tezzeret, Artifice Master, so here is my attempt to find a home for our artifact loving friend.

U/B Tezzeret -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Merchant's Dockhand
• 3 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 4 Herald of Anguish

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Karn, Scion of Urza
• 1 Tezzeret the Schemer
• 2 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

• Instants (4)
• 4 Metallic Rebuke

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Battle at the Bridge

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 The Antiquities War

• Artifacts (16)
• 2 Cogworker's Puzzleknot
• 2 Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
• 2 Navigator's Compass
• 3 Renegade Map
• 3 Servo Schematic
• 4 Prophetic Prism

• Lands (21)
• 2 Island
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 3 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Spire of Industry
• 4 Zhalfirin Void
• 1 Inventors' Fair

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Battle at the Bridge
• 1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
• 2 Contraband Kingpin
• 3 Duress
• 1 The Antiquities War
• 2 Fatal Push
• 1 Yahenni's Expertise
• 2 Negate
• 1 Silent Gravestone
• 1 Sorcerous Spyglass

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Artifacts upon artifacts. This deck just aims to play out a ton of artifacts that synergize well with the deck. They allow you to pump out an early Herald of Anguish, Metallic Rebuke, and Battle at the Bridge. Try to keep your artifacts around for as long as possible to not only abuse the improvise cards, but to also kill your opponent with The Antiquities War or Karn, Scion of Urza Construct tokens.

Sai is a good addition to this deck but in all honesty, we might need to shave some numbers later because of how strong Goblin Chainwhirler is. For now, I want to keep testing the card out to see how powerful it really is and three ensures I have one eventually almost every game. The small sample size of games I have played with the deck show that it has potential. I know it looks gimmicky on paper, but the deck comes together surprisingly well. You have many angles of attack and your opponent will have a tough time remembering what every little card does, just make sure you don't have that problem. Play the deck some before taking it to a big event.

All right, last deck I want to talk about is Bant Nexus of Fate.

MOAR TURNS!

Bant Nexus -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (3)
• 3 Elvish Rejuvenator

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (8)
• 1 Commit // Memory
• 3 Settle the Wreckage
• 4 Nexus of Fate

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Fumigate
• 3 Spring // Mind
• 4 Hour of Promise

• Enchantments (12)
• 2 Gift of Paradise
• 2 Search for Azcanta
• 4 Cast Out
• 4 Seal Away

• Lands (26)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Island
• 3 Plains
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Hostile Desert
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Shefet Dunes
• 2 Desert of the Indomitable
• 2 Hashep Oasis
• 4 Ipnu Rivulet
• 4 Scattered Groves
• 4 Sunpetal Grove

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Fumigate
• 2 Gideon of the Trials
• 1 Pelakka Wurm
• 2 Jace's Defeat
• 2 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 4 Negate
• 2 Mystic Archaeologist
• 1 Crucible of Worlds

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This deck is pretty straight forward and that you just protect yourself and kill every threat with you plethora of removal spells and battlefield wipes. This is usually enough to get to seven mana but this deck can also just ramp, ramp, ramp all the way up to Nexus of Fate very quickly. You can then win off the back of a Teferi Emblem. You can also mill your opponent out with Ipnu Rivulets, this is a fantastic way to beat the control match. They may have countermagic but you have Ipnu Rivulet to kill them. I don't expect many decks to be playing Nexus of Fate but on the off chance your opponent is, you can still kill them with zombies off Hour of Promise or even slow but steady beats with Elvish Rejuvenator and Hostile Desert. Don't forget you can pump those tokens up with Hashep Oasis and Shefet Dunes.

As the game goes late you'll get closer and closer to infinite turns. This happens when you just have Nexus of Fate in your deck, you can accelerate this process by milling yourself with Ipnu Rivulet later in the game. Couple that with deck thinning thanks to Elvish Rejuvenator and Hour of Promise and you'll be taking all the turns in no time.

These are just some of the brews I've been toying with. I'm also thinking about Omniscience, and I still need to find a home for Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. I also really want to play a dragons deck with Dragon's Hoard and Sarkhan, Fireblood but I may need to wait for Abrade to rotate out of the format so my Dragon's Hoard doesn't get blown up all the time.

Well folks, that's all I have for you today. Make sure to tune in next week where I'll be doing my Magic 2019 Set Review. I'll have an article up every day of the week!

Thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

@AliEldrazi on Twitter