Reprints are fun when they haven’t been seen for a while. Playgroups drift to certain styles based on when their players started playing and what’s come out since then. (My group’s Shadowmoor phase is best forgotten—those decks were so boring.) If a card predates the group, it might not have entered the group at all. Although I do have some favorite blocks (Time Spiral representing!), I try to build with all eras—or at least with junk rares from all eras.

Even against that backdrop, cards can be rejuvenated by receiving a reprint in new surroundings. Maybe you’ve had a deck with a particular card based on what was printed before it, but you repurpose it on its return. Reprints can stimulate creativity if you want them to, and I certainly want them to.

What I have here are two decks that combine a new Magic 2013 card with an Magic 2013 reprint. In the first case, the combination’s reasonably straightforward; the second is . . . less so. I hope they both get your juices flowing—assuming the flow of juice is beneficial to your life. (“Ready the Juicequeduct!” I really wish I had a YouTube link for that phrase.)

Intrepid Hero and Rhox Faithmender

Back in the day, white had a subtheme of hating creatures above a certain size. Intrepid Hero is the longest survivor of this subtheme, but there’s no reason we can’t put the old stuff in with it. Retribution of the Meek is the sweeper version of Intrepid Hero, and it also costs ; you should have no trouble getting rid of nasty opposing creatures.

Crackdown works even better with Thran Weaponry if you want to stick to mono-white, as the Weaponry will pump everything but Ornithopters and their friends into the land of no untap. You won’t make any friends with this combination, but you will keep creatures tapped while destroying them at your leisure. I hear that’s cool sometimes.

So how do you win? Put in the best 1-power creatures available; that way, they’ll benefit from Thran Weaponry without dying to Retribution of the Meek. It’s a small space of creatures, but there are a few good ones:

Wall of Reverence – Might as well gain some life for your defensive trouble.

Rhox Faithmender – Might as well gain double life for your defensive trouble. Besides, having high-toughness creatures helps in case you pumped an opposing creature too much.

Skyhunter Skirmisher – If you ever wondered why a 1/1 flying double striker was better than just having a bigger creature, this is why.

Beloved Chaplain – I’ll include him wherever I can. He’s so beloved!

Ivory Giant – The only creature naturally above 1 power in the deck, Giant’s around for when the fear of Crackdown keeps your opponents from tapping their creatures. Take away the defenses, and your creatures can get through well enough.

Put it all together, and you get:

"1 Power to the People"

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Ivory Giant
• 4 Beloved Chaplain
• 4 Goldmeadow Dodger
• 4 Intrepid Hero
• 4 Rhox Faithmender
• 4 Skyhunter Skirmisher
• 4 Wall of Reverence

• Spells (10)
• 4 Retribution of the Meek
• 3 Crackdown
• 3 Thran Weaponry

• Lands (24)
• 21 Plains
• 3 Forbidding Watchtower

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Trading Post and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Because you’d expect no less from me and because I ordered a play set, I wanted to build with Trading Post. It turns out that building with Trading Post isn’t a normal Johnny-style exercise for a surprising reason: It solves its own puzzle. It’s clearly a great combo card, but it combos with itself so easily that it doesn’t hint much at what you want to do other than play some artifacts.

What does this have to do with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker? Bottom line: It amused me to build around Trading Post in a direction that brought out Mr. Ultimate, and it also amused me to build a deck in which he was among the only colored spells. As it turns out, there are several artifacts that can curve organically to Nicol Bolas, and Trading Post coheres all of them.

"Nicol Bolas, LLC"

• Creatures (20)
• 4 Kuldotha Phoenix
• 4 Frogmite
• 4 Myr Enforcer
• 4 Myr Servitor
• 4 Puppet Conjurer

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

• Spells (12)
• 4 Burnt Offering
• 4 Pentad Prism
• 4 Trading Post

• Lands (24)
• 4 Swamp
• 4 Crumbling Necropolis
• 4 Darksteel Citadel
• 4 Great Furnace
• 4 Seat of the Synod
• 4 Vault of Whispers

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Yes, that’s all four-ofs. Sometimes it happens. Shrug.

The spiciest mode is using the artifacts as combo ramp for Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, the inflated mana costs of affinity artifacts proving more flammable for Burnt Offerings. Importantly, Burnt Offering can make black and red mana out of whatever you sacrifice, so you can cast Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker without a red source on the battlefield. A turn-four Myr Enforcer should be a reasonable curve for a turn-five Burnt Offering into planeswalkery dominance. Uber-fixer Pentad Prism can do some of the heavy lifting if you lack the Burnt Offering; Prism also can be sacrificed to Trading Post for a card when you’re done with it.

The lands are diverse and obvious. Artifact lands help the affinity while being reasonable Trading Post sacrifices in the late game. As the deck has very easy color demands apart from Nicol Bolas, the mana base shouldn’t cause too many problems even if you don’t own all the artifact lands. I initially wanted to make the deck in a way that Nicol Bolas was the only colored mana requirement, but that looked to be too slow. Besides, how else would I fit in Burnt Offering?

Conclusion

Magic 2013 took more chances as a core set than the previous Ms, bringing in a multicolored card, reintroducing legendary creatures, and replacing many of the tired staples (e.g. Siege Mastodon, Gravedigger, and Kraken's Eye). Amid the novelty, Magic 2013 displays good taste in reprints, bringing the price down on Nicol Bolas, Akroma's Memorial, and others. The brewing feels more open-ended than with Magic 2012, and that’s all it takes to get me excited. Go forth and build things!