Ikora's release is only days away. The full set has been revealed and from what I can tell we are all looking forward to playing with some new cards. Magic can provide a much needed distraction in times like these, and I find nothing more distracting than brewing new decks. My Twitch viewers and I have been turning new cards and themes into decklists for a few days now, and I have plenty of piles for the Early Access Event (sponsored by Wizards of the Coast) on Wednesday. Let's dive right in.

Luminous Broodmoth gives more punch to sacrifice decks. If you thought that Cauldron Familiar was a powerful engine with Witch's Oven before, wait until you see the flying cats! Cruel Celebrant was already a draw to Mardu for the deck, but that card wasn't strong enough on its own. The mighty moth pushes the deck into more a shell with a Red splash.

Mardu Sacrifice | IKO Standard | CGB 04-12-2020

• Creatures (32)
• 4 Cauldron Familiar
• 4 Cruel Celebrant
• 4 Hunted Witness
• 4 Luminous Broodmoth
• 4 Mayhem Devil
• 4 Midnight Reaper
• 4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 4 Woe Strider

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Witch's Oven

• Lands (24)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Savai Triome
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Sacred Foundry

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Mothra (alt art for Luminous Broodmoth) is not great on her own. 3/4 Flying for four mana is Limited stats. In order to make the card good, you have to be able to abuse the ability on the turn you play Luminous Broodmoth, so you need sacrifice effects that don't require mana to activate (Priest of Forgotten Gods, Witch's Oven, Woe Strider), and you need creatures that produce value when something enters the battlefield or dies (Hunted Witness, Midnight Reaper, Mayhem Devil). Mythos of Snapdax almost made the cut here. It creates sacrifice triggers on both sides and your dudes come back if you have a Luminous Broodmoth, but it is only good against decks that go wide. I would put at least 2 copies of Mythos of Snapdax in my sideboard for best-of-three play.

Companions have shaken up Magic Twitter since being revealed, but I think we have only just begun to understand how they will affect Magic. When brewing my decks, I found almost every deck I made had an alternative build that could utilize a companion if I changed my deck slightly. This version of Mardu Sacrifice only had to cut Witch's Oven to play Umori, the Collector as a companion, and we replaced Cauldron Familiar because what is a cat without an oven? Is it worth it to cut some great engine pieces for an extra card? We will see. In MTG history players have paid some outrageous prices to draw an extra card (Castle Locthwain with seven cards in hand? Anyone? How about taking 8 from Sylvan Library? Guilty).

Umori Mardu Sacrifice | IKO Standard | CGB 04-12-2020

• Creatures (36)
• 4 Cruel Celebrant
• 4 Footlight Fiend
• 4 Hunted Witness
• 4 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 4 Luminous Broodmoth
• 4 Mayhem Devil
• 4 Midnight Reaper
• 4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 4 Woe Strider

• Lands (24)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Savai Triome
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (1)
• 1 Umori, the Collector

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Moving away from the sacrifice theme, we find Flash and Mutate to be two of the most used keywords in Ikoria. With lots of great options to choose from, it is hard to know what mix of cards to bring on week one, but there has to be a good Dimir Flash deck waiting to surprise the metagame, and Dirge Bat is what merges the deck with mutate.

It is important to remember that any time a creature mutates with Dirge Bat you get the mutate trigger of the Dirge Bat in play. Mutating a Dirge Bat with a Dirge Bat triggers both of them. A creature with Mutate and Flash can Mutate at Instant speed. And that is how the bat fell in love with the octopus...

Dimir Flash | IKO Standard | CGB 04-12-2020

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Voracious Greatshark
• 4 Brazen Borrower
• 4 Dirge Bat
• 4 Sea-Dasher Octopus
• 4 Slitherwisp
• 4 Spectral Sailor

• Instants (14)
• 1 Tyrant's Scorn
• 2 Negate
• 3 Quench
• 4 Heartless Act
• 4 Sinister Sabotage

• Lands (24)
• 6 Island
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 2 Castle Vantress
• 4 Temple of Deceit
• 4 Watery Grave

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Slitherwisp is one of the amazing cards with Flash that snuck into the set near the end of preview season. I think this card is nuts. It can be played on curve for a huge tempo bump, but you can also hold it for later in the game and cast a few other Flash cards the same turn you play Slitherwisp to draw some cards.

Cunning Nightbonder seems made for this deck, but don't think a 2/2 body will do much. Lochmere Serpent would be nice, along with Shark Typhoon, but I don't think those cards have the rate I am looking for. Lore Drakkis is a card that might surprise people. It has a cheap mutate cost and this deck has plenty of instants to get back from the graveyard. It doesn't have Flash but Lore Drakkis may deserve a spot.

**clap clap next deck**

Gyruda, Doom of Depths is a companion that requires you to only play even converted mana costs in your deck. RIP Agent of Treachery. The enters-the-battlefield trigger of Gyruda allows you to repeat the trigger if you can hit another Gyruda or a way to copy and/or blink Gyruda, giving you the potential to mill out your opponent or win with Thassa's Oracle. Make your memes come true with this janky pile.

Gyruda Combo | IKO Standard | CGB 04-12-2020

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Fblthp, the Lost
• 1 Wall of Lost Thoughts
• 3 Gyruda, Doom of Depths
• 3 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 4 Charming Prince
• 4 Elite Guardmage
• 4 Spark Double
• 4 Thassa's Oracle

• Instants (4)
• 4 Heartless Act

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Shatter the Sky
• 4 Extinction Event

• Lands (26)
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 2 Fabled Passage
• 2 Godless Shrine
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Watery Grave
• 4 Temple of Deceit
• 4 Temple of Enlightenment
• 4 Temple of Silence

• Sideboard (1)
• 1 Gyruda, Doom of Depths

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Thassa's Oracle isn't a card I want to play as a four-of, but you don't have a lot of control of when you will hit it. With enough Spark Doubles copying Gyruda, you may not need to hit every mill possible. Extinction Event seems made for this deck, as naming "odd" is a one-sided effect that can remove multiple threats. A Wall of Lost Thoughts can help us make sure the opponent has a smaller library than we do, as sometimes the combo will leave us behind in the race to the bottom. When in double, be a Thassa combo deck and pile up life and value with Elite Guardmage. We can max on temples and trim on shock lands because we always have extra mana on odd turns due to the composition of our deck.

These decks are just a slice of what I have brewed up so far, and hopefully they leave you hungry for more. When you post new decks every day on YouTube, you need a lot of ideas. Thankfully Ikora: Lair of Behemoths has provided a lot of inspiration with some amazing new cards. If you order from CoolStuffInc you can use the promo code cgb5 to get a discount. Thanks for reading!