Spark of Genius

Posted on October 28, 2016

It seems people have stopped brewing all the sudden. Ever since the Pro Tour, it’s basically the same decks, a variety of delirium decks or decks abusing Prized Amalgam as much as possible. We still have some pretty sweet cards in Standard. Deploy the Gatewatch is a sweet one, Metallurgic Summonings, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and even Part the Waterveil are all very fun and powerful cards. I talked to my good friend, Darryl Donaldson, who is also a brewer, to see if he had anything that he had been working on. Luckily he had a couple of sweet decks that he shared with me, and now I’m going to extend that courtesy and share them with you. Keep in mind not all of these lists are equal. Some are definitely better than others. My goal with this piece is to get your juices flowing. To ignite your creativity spark. To invoke your inner brewer, Kruphix knows we need more brewers, we need more decks, we need diversity! And what’s more diverse than all the Planeswalkers working together? Let’s Deploy the Gatewatch and then some!

Planeswalker Magic ? Kaladesh Standard| Ali Aintrazi

Creatures (4)
4 Sylvan Advocate

ALL THE PLANESWALKERS! All in one place, this tightly but neatly packed deck. Out of all the decks, this one is the newest and could use the most help. That being said, this is a good starting place for it. The deck is trying to do something very simple. Just cast as many Planeswalkers as possible while trying to keep as many alive as you can. Since the more Planeswalkers you have available to you every turn, the further and further you will pull ahead. The biggest pieces in the deck being Oath of Nissa and to a lesser extent, Cultivator's Caravan. Getting one of these cards will make it a whole lot easier to cast your Planeswalkers. You will only have to worry about which Planeswalkers to cast and which abilities to use instead of having to assemble the correct mana to cast your spells.

We all know how important Oath of Nissa is here but the other ones are good too. Oath of Gideon will insure your Planeswalkers start at a higher loyalty while also giving you tokens to block with. Oath of Liliana will help your Planeswalkers two-fold. She will kill a creature for one and then make Zombies to guard your Planeswalkers. Oath of Jace doesn’t protect your Planeswalkers but it does allow you to filter your hand by replacing lands, exchanging Planeswalkers, digging for an Oath of Nissa if you need it, and later filtering the top cards of your library. It’s kind of reminiscent of Brainstorm in that regard. A 3 mana sorcery speed Brainstorm, but still. At least with this one you can’t Brainstorm lock yourself. Silver lining people, silver lining.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about Sultai Control. Well? I’d for sure start with this list.

Sultai Control ? Kaladesh Standard | Darryl Donaldson

This list looks amazing right?! This one is more tested and refined than the Planeswalker deck. With this Sultai Control list, you’ll have a bunch of early plays with Void Shatter, Sylvan Advocate, a plethora of removal, and Tireless Tracker. Tireless Tracker is basically Divination on legs. Instead of drawing you two cards however, it can draw you many more and then kill your opponent. What more could you ask from your draw spell?! Nothing!

This deck not only has a bunch of early plays; it also has a very solid mid to late game in Torrential Gearhulk. I’m sure we all know the power of the Blue hulk by now. However, unlike other control lists this one can re-buy hulks . . . A lot. You have Grapple with the Past to hit lands early, Trackers mid game, and then Hulks late game. Pulse of Murasa is great because it not can only rebuy Torrential Gearhulk, but it also gains you enough life so you can cast it later. Think of it similarly to Sphinx's Revelation versus Blue Sun's Zenith.

We can’t abuse the energy we get off Glimmer of Genius but we also don’t need too. The scrying and drawing of cards is good enough here. If you’ve been having an itch to play Sultai Control or just control in general, make sure to give this deck a whirl!

Next up is a card I’ve been meaning to get around and mess with, Metallurgic Summonings.

U/R Summoning ? Kaladesh Standard| Ali Aintrazi

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Metallurgic Summonings is begging to be abused. This card can seriously take over any game if it is left unchecked, even untapping with it for one turn is sometimes good enough, especially if that turn happens to involve Awakening a Part the Waterveil. Do you know how much damage that is? That’s eighteen points of damage if the land gets to attack. Well what if you don’t awaken it? Even if you don’t, you will still get a 6/6 artifact construct and an extra turn for your troubles.

The whole deck is designed to try and buy enough time until you can win with Summonings or just awakened Waterveils. You have a bunch of removal and a good amount of dig to find it. One thing in mind when trying out this deck is you need to try to discard your first Galvanic Bombardment or Take Inventory with Tormenting Voice or Cathartic Reunion to power up your other copies. After the first Take Inventory is in the graveyard the rest become extremely powerful. 2 mana for a Divination plus? Where can I sign up? Also don’t be afraid to discard Part the Waterveil early, or any spell for that matter if you really need to. You got to remember Metallurgic Summonings has a second ability on it and that’s to re-buy all the instants and sorceries from your graveyard.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is great in this list since the board should be clear most of the time and that’s where Chandra will shine. Untapping with her means you’ll get to ramp up into your Part the Waterveils and Metallurgic Summonings or just try and play extra cards with her ability. Hopefully this is a good home for this four ability Planeswalker.

Next up we have an old favorite to many people. People love the Red, Green, and Black combination. What do Jund players say? Let’s Jund’em out!

Jund ? Kaladesh Standard| Darryl Donaldson

If Chandra, Torch of Defiance doesn’t work too well in the Izzet Metallurgic Summonings deck, it’s okay, she’ll work famously here. If some Jund lists in Modern are trying her out, then you know she’s going to be good in a Standard Jund deck.

This list is a little more top heavy than other midrange decks but the payoff is real in Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Noxious Gearhulk, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, and Chandra, Flamecaller. If you don’t know what Jund is about then let me enlighten you. Jund decks typically one for one their opponent’s out and win through one or a couple of medium sized threats. They try very hard to play the attrition games with their opponent’s and then slam the door in their face. Grind’em to dust!

One card I’d like to talk about here is Skysovereign, Consul Flagship. First off that name is super long. I mean have you seen many cards with a longer name than that? Reason one to play it. Other reasons include:

Killing your opponent’s creatures.

Killing your opponent’s Planeswalkers.

Killing your opponents.

Flying first class, up in the sky, popping champagne and living the life with Fergie.

Glamorous.

Flossy. Flossay.

You’ll be on a boat. In the Sky.

I hope that has convinced you. The thing also only takes Crew 3! Any creature in this deck can crew it late game when you’re most likely to cast it.

Unlike other midrange and control decks, this one has a very solid plan against the Delirium decks or decks trying to abuse Prized Amalgam, Scrapheap Scrounger, or Haunted Dead. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is great at handling all those creatures but so is Lost Legacy and Flaying Tendrils. Get rid of them once and for all. Lost Legacy also deals with the Blue decks packing a bunch of Torrential Gearhulks, get those card advantage artifacts out of here!

Well ladies and gentlemen, I hope I’ve sparked your genius and got those engines turning. I’d love to see the meta shake up a bit more, Kaladesh is about inventions after all. So how about we shake up the meta with our brews?!

Feel free to drop your brew list down in the comments. Looking forward to seeing some ideas from all you folks.

As always, thank you for reading and I’ll catch you all next week. Have a great weekend and let me know if you try any of these lists!

Ali Aintrazi

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