It's been a couple of years since we've seen a hexproof-style aggressive deck in Standard. Back when Innistrad was new and exciting, there were decks that featured cards like Gladecover Scout, Geist of Saint Traft, and Witchstalker backed up by powerful auras like Spectral Flight. These decks were looking to overpower the efficient removal and capitalized on the fact that Thragtusk forced people to move away from sweepers like Day of Judgment. We don't have the same density of hexproof threats as we used to, but Jim Davis thinks it might be time for us to revisit the idea of a Voltron-style beatdown deck in Standard:
White-Blue Heroic - Rivals of Ixalan Standard | Jim Davis
- Creatures (19)
- 3 Sacred Cat
- 4 Adanto Vanguard
- 4 Adorned Pouncer
- 4 Skymarcher Aspirant
- 4 Sram, Senior Edificer
- Instants (2)
- 2 Sheltering Light
- Enchantments (19)
- 1 Trial of Solidarity
- 3 Baffling End
- 3 Legion's Landing
- 4 Cartouche of Knowledge
- 4 Cartouche of Solidarity
- 4 Curious Obsession
- Lands (20)
- 4 Island
- 7 Plains
- 2 Shefet Dunes
- 3 Irrigated Farmland
- 4 Glacial Fortress
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Authority of the Consuls
- 1 Baffling End
- 1 Dive Down
- 2 Fragmentize
- 3 Negate
- 2 Slash of Talons
- 2 Spell Pierce
- 2 Squire's Devotion
This deck is really exciting because it capitalizes on Sram, Senior Edificer's ability to turn your lackluster auras into an engine unto themselves. You've got a giant pile of efficient threats in Skymarcher Aspirant, Sacred Cat, and Adanto Vanguard. These cards let you get on the board early and beat down. Your gameplan in the midgame is to resolve Sram and start suiting up your creatures so that you can keep attacking into your opponent.
The key cards here are Cartouche of Knowledge and Curious Obsession. Cartouche of Knowledge is a cantrip that lets your miscellaneous creatures take to the skies and keep hitting your opponent. Ideally, that creature will already have a Curious Obsession, which gives you another engine besides Sram to keep your auras coming. The thought here is that you can either flood the board with permanents to give your Skymarcher Aspirant flying or let your Sacred Cat fly over opposing blockers to ensure that you're winning the race.
If you're expecting to see lots of Ravenous Chupacabras or Fumigates, this deck becomes much less exciting since auras, by definition, are all about overextending. However, if you anticipate that your opponents will be relying on Red removal spells or racing, then maybe this is your opportunity to punish them by building one threat that's supersized and has a lot of keywords.