Salvation is on our horizon, approaching with measured steps of giant feet that walk on water. Theros is headed our way, and soon, juicy little spoilers will start rolling into our eager mouths like so many grapes ready for crushing intoBlessed Wine. What sacrifices will Theros ask of us? What demonstrations of faith will be demanded? What styles of codpieces will be represented?

Theros will certainly give us a lot of new holy candy to ogle (see Erebos, who has returned none of my texts—yet) . In anticipation of our upcoming purple-twilight-sparkly benediction, let’s become acquainted with some of the funniest religious types from the church of Magic. From sanctimoniously silly to plain ole NSFW (I kid you not!), here are my top twenty picks in the pantheon.

This was my first experience with the waiting game—not my first experience waiting. I have waited in lines at conventions, in traffic, for movies, for friends to show up, for lovers to one day return. This day, I understood why waiting could be called game. I have played games my entire life—waiting was not a game; it was an annoyance . . . until you are really waiting. Then, you begin to understand the rules of the game. It is a game you are playing with time . . . for your sanity—a fight not to be broken.

What makes a deck your favorite?

Everyone has their own tastes and preferences for decks. There's an endless list for the combinations of features, functions, cards, colors, commanders, and other attributes that can be used to define it. Even if I had a clever way of gathering every minute difference in our collective tastes, making sense of it all would be impractical.

But what does make sense are decks.

That's why I asked you to share your favorite Commander deck, one that's not only stood the test of time (with plenty of updates along the way) but is still in active use. Your "go-to deck" says volumes about you as a player: Aspirations, objectives, processes, plans, styles, and more. It's dense with the things we want to express, and built to do it how we envision it happening.

This is a cross-section of decks you shared, and it covers a remarkable breadth of our styles. Let's go big and get home.

Theros is coming, and it looks gorgeous.

I love the visual feel of Greek mythology, with its gods, heroes, and monsters. Additionally, the starry auras attributed to Nyx are a fresh touch. Take caution, however: “They should've sent a poet” may be entering the realm of inappropriate draft talk. On the plus side, however, now while the opponent is tanking, you can relive your childhood by playing the “find Orion's Belt” mini-game. It'll be like that one time dad was motivated enough to go outside with you and the telescope!

Yes, Theros is going to change Magic as we know it.

I have often thought that my interest in art and my interest in Magic overlap more than people seem to think. I like to look at cards holistically, so when the mechanics and visuals fit well together, I feel very at ease.

Even though we don't know much about Theros yet, its Greek visual theme gives the impression of a very open world, full of interesting places and strange phenomena. I mean, do you remember all that weird stuff Odysseus encountered? I can just imagine some haggard prophet telling him, “In your journeys, you will be driven to attack. With each encounter, you'll find yourself growing as an individual. Then, the day will come when you cast off your disguise of flame and destroy your enemies! With three damage.”

Is Ordeal of Purphoros what Limited is going to look like for the next several months? Each card a convoluted, uphill, hairy-dog struggle to get it to do something?

If so, I'm in.

All I want to do is cast Sphinx's Revelation (or Opportunity) in peace. Is that too much to ask? It might be, but for the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to find out. Ever since I got back from Worlds Week, I’ve been on a quest to find the best blue deck in Standard. I’ve cast Augur of Bolas many, many, times, both online and off, and I don’t even want to know how many times I’ve thought (it’s sure more than twice).

In the vein of Running the Gauntlet, a series I have not done for quite some time, I decided to chronicle my experiences with control decks, and supplement my writing with videos of each. The videos aren’t meant to be fully representative, but a glimpse at how each deck plays out.

The four main decks you have to beat are RG Beats, Jund, U/x control, and Hexproof. Humans/Tokens/mono-green are all real decks, but the top four decks are enough of the field that I’m not really worried about anything else, and none of the fringe decks attack from such a different angle that preparing for the big four leaves you too vulnerable.

I played with three different control decks, and a significant amount with each one.

One of Legacy's big selling points is how vast the number of viable decks it contains is. You could play against any of dozens of different decks whenever you sit down at the tournament table. This sweet fact comes with a cost though. It can be incredibly hard to metagame against the field you're expecting. When people might bring whatever, how do you choose a deck that's actually well positioned?

The secret—aside from playing something that just wins on raw power—is to target overarching similarities and archetypes instead of specific decks. With that approach, we actually look to be in a great period for metagaming right now. That is because in spite of the awesome variety we're seeing the most successful—and most widely played—decks in the current format form a triumvirate. They're all built around one of three main game plans, independent of which cards exactly they use to implement said plan. Beat those game plans and you're likely to hit a large percentage of favorable matchups throughout the day.

What I'll do now is present you with a breakdown of the decks I consider to form Legacy's ruling triumvirate, at least as far as metagame saturation is concerned. Let me insist on this though. These are the macro-archetypes that seem to bethe most played and successful right now. I'm not claiming these are hands down better than anything else in the format, nor am I claiming that you need to be playing one of these to have a shot at winning a big event. Just that they are among the best decks in the format and also see significantly more play than most other archetypes, giving us a decent shot at actually doing something useful by trying to game the metagame.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about how a lucky [card]Orzhov Guildgate[/card] that I rescued from abandonment stuck with me all the way through to winning a PTQ (and was then later abandoned again). A lot of hard work and perseverance also applied, but let's be real—it was all the Guildgate. With Theros rapidly approaching, I find myself falling into a rut again in Standard. While my trusty fallback, Junk Reanimator, is always there and still very valid, I simply want to experiment with new things. I don't want to be known as just a one-trick pony.

Let's be clear. Being a two-trick pony would be perfectly acceptable, but just one-trick? Give me a break. You're selling me short. One trick short to be precise. Gotta respect that second trick.

As a result, I turned to the only place I knew I could to find inspiration

Only instead of carrying it around in my pocket as it turned into a gnarled mass, I decided to just go ahead and sleeve it up this time. This time it wasn't just going to sit there and give me good luck. This time it was going to actually take an active role in my luck. This time it was always going to be there when I need it most: sitting on top of my deck when I desperately need to draw a land that comes into play untapped.