This past Monday, I had the privilege of playing in the MTG Arena Core Set 2020 Early Access Streamer Event over on Twitch. Boy, that was a mouthful. Basically, we got to play with and try out all the new Core Set 2020 cards early for a day, which was pretty exciting because I think, as far as Core Sets go, 2020 is a great one. Heck, as far as non Core Sets go, 2020 seems great.

One of the things we did was have viewers submit some decklists for us to try out and tweak. The first one was submitted by my buddy Billy. It was an Elementals deck that looked something like this.

Temur Elementals | Core 2020 Standard | Billy Vasilakis, Early Access Streamer Event

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Cavalier of Gales
• 2 Cloudkin Seer
• 3 Omnath, Locus of the Roil
• 4 Incubation Druid
• 4 Risen Reef
• 4 Thunderkin Awakener

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 3 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

• Sorceries (11)
• 3 Lava Coil
• 4 Finale of Devastation
• 4 Neoform

• Lands (24)
• 5 Forest
• 3 Steam Vents
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Carnage Tyrant
• 2 Chandra's Triumph
• 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 1 Lava Coil
• 2 Narset, Parter of Veils
• 3 Negate
• 3 Thrashing Brontodon

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While I loved the deck Billy had put together, some of the pieces weren't really meshing for me. I felt like we didn't have enough "hits" for Neoform. Sacrificing a three-drop could only hit Omnath, Locus of the Roil. Sacrificing a four-drop could only hit Cavalier of Gales. Etc. Also, with how the mana base was configured, there was an abundance of Forests (for Nissa, Who Shakes the World), and it was actually somewhat difficult to cast the Cavalier of Gales; as an experienced Cryptic Command caster, I tell you triple Blue is no joke.

I liked the idea of Finale of Devastation, but it felt like it was a little too expensive in practice. While it was definitely possible to get a significant amount of ramping done thanks to Risen Reef, getting to 12 mana proved quite difficult.

I made some changes to the list after playing it for a few matches, and this was the version I ended with.

Temur Elementals | Core 2020 Standard | Frank Lepore, Early Access Streamer Event

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Cavalier of Gales
• 1 Cavalier of Thorns
• 1 Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
• 2 Cloudkin Seer
• 2 Paradise Druid
• 3 Omnath, Locus of the Roil
• 3 Thunderkin Awakener
• 4 Leafkin Druid
• 4 Risen Reef

• Planeswalkers (11)
• 2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 2 Chandra, Novice Pyromancer
• 2 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
• 2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
• 3 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Lava Coil

• Lands (24)
• 2 Forest
• 3 Steam Vents
• 3 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Stomping Ground

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One of the first things I wanted to do was to maximize the number of Elementals we had in the deck. I felt like we weren't fully taking advantage of the Elemental synergies. This meant that Incubation Druid could go in favor of Leafkin Druid: an Elemental that could sometimes produce 2 mana, and pretty easily with something like Chandra, Acolyte of Flame in play.

In fact, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame was one of the strongest cards in the deck in terms of synergy. Her second 0 ability worked well with things like Leafkin Druid, Risen Reef, and Omnath. You basically drew two cards and/or ramped two lands every turn if you had a Risen Reef in play. A lot of times you don't even care about attacking with the 1/1's she makes, you only want the benefit of the two Elementals on the battlefield, that is, unless you have . . . 

Chandra, Novice Pyromancer! One thing I have to give to Wizards is credit for making the uncommon planeswalkers playable. I mean, some of them, like Narset, are a little too playable, but in general, they have a nice feel. This Chandra is no exception. Her +1 is great because we have a lot of low-to-no power Elementals on the board, including Leafkin Druid, Risen Reef, Thunderkin Awakener, and the two 1/1 Elementals that the other Chandra makes. All things considered, this is a lot of creatures that can turn the game around thanks to them all receiving +2/+0.

Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar was also a cool addition that you could actually get back with Thunderkin Awakener because his power and toughness are both 0 while in the graveyard. While, admittedly, the Awakener did get worse once you weren't able to Neoform the creature you returned to the battlefield, being able to return things like Cloudkin Seer or Risen Reef were still very powerful plays on their own. And Multani does have trample for some weird reason, so when he attacks from the graveyard, it should have a little more impact. I guess it's because he's a tree.

Once we added Multani, I figured a good addition would be Cavalier of Thorns. I initially had two, because the card was a lot easier to cast, but I thought a split of one and one with Cavalier of Gales would be fine, especially since we added a lot more blue sources. One thing the Cavalier of Thorns did well was put more lands into your graveyard for our Multani, or put the Multani himself in there!

Did you guys know that Nissa turns your lands in Elementals? I don't think I did, because the creature type was never really relevant before. Well, she does! She makes 3/3 Elementals. Unfortunately they aren't entering the battlefield, so they don't trigger our Risen Reef, but they do survive things like Chandra, Awakened Inferno's -3 ability.

Apparently I upped the planeswalker count to 11, which was a lot more than the deck initially had, but I think they all have great Elemental synergies. Take Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer for example. Did you know the 4/4 flier she makes is also an Elemental? I mean, you likely did, because you're astute, dear reader, but I did not. It could have been a bird, or a cloud, for all I know! But no, it's an Elemental. This isn't a huge revelation, because it's already a 4/4 flier, but it still gets all the perks of being an Elemental in the deck. (Good lord, how many times have I said Elemental in this article so far? That's my 19th time!) While I wasn't completely sold on her, because I think her +2 ability is a little lackluster, she's not terrible for a three-mana planeswalker, and as often happens, I could be proven completely wrong in the future. Afterall, if she comes down on turn three, you're still often making a 4/4 flier on turn four while also keeping a planeswalker around.

A couple cards that were played against us that were worth considering were Chandra's Embercat and Creeping Trailblazer. These both seemed fine when used against us, but I didn't really have enough time to fairly consider them here.

If I learned one thing this week, it's that Core Set 2020 is great, powerful, and eclectic and it looks like it will easily shake the metagame up, because it not only offers a lot of great tools for existing archetypes, it also seems to create new ones and bolster previously good archetypes as well (I'm looking at you, Vampires, which we went 8-1 with).

Thanks so much for reading, folks. As always, do let me know what you think in the comments, share the article with your peers, and use promo code "FRANK5" for 5% off any of your CoolStuffInc orders! I love you all and I'll catch you again next week!

Frank Lepore

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