It's not often that a new set has a major impact on a non-rotating format.

For formats like Legacy, Modern, and even Historic, the card pool is just too large for one single set to have that big of an impact (barring something outlandish like the original companion rule). However, Strixhaven isn't your normal set.

The Mystical Archives in Strixhaven bring 34 powerful reprints to Historic, sort of like a double or triple Historic Anthology alongside a complete normal set. That's a lot of new stuff! We've already seen tons of cards like Faithless Looting and Inquisition of Kozilek make waves, but don't forget there are normal cards in Strixhaven too!

With the Prismari having a cycle of cards with the theme of "really expensive but powerful instants with Treasure-cycling" it's not hard to see how Torrential Gearhulk stands to be one of the most improved cards in the format. It's super easy to get Magma Opus into the graveyard, which also allows you to cast Torrential Gearhulk earlier as well!

Good friend and former teammate Andrew Jessup built up quite the control-combo brew using this combo and I promptly took it to a top 16 finish in yesterday's Insight Esports $5,000 Historic Open!

Time Stamps:

05:08 - Match 1

30:48 - Match 2

44:28 - Match 3

53:46 - Match 4

Opus-Hulk | Historic | Jim Davis, Insight Esports $5k Open 15th Place

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Torrential Gearhulk

• Instants (21)
• 2 Magma Spray
• 3 Brainstorm
• 4 Creative Outburst
• 4 Magma Opus
• 4 Memory Lapse
• 4 Prismari Command

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Sweltering Suns
• 4 Indomitable Creativity

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Shark Typhoon

• Lands (26)
• 2 Island
• 4 Mountain
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Temple of Epiphany
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Riverglide Pathway
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Magma Spray
• 2 Mystic Subdual
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Negate
• 2 Aether Gust
• 2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 2 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Narset, Parter of Veils

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As you can see, this deck is wild.

What's exciting about this deck is what's exciting about other control-combo decks like Splinter Twin. We have a small package of cards that is very powerful (casting Indomitable Creativity on some treasure tokens for a few big spell-casting Torrential Gearhulks), but we also don't need to go that route to win. In super interactive matchups we're fine boarding out some or all Indomitable Creativity and playing a fairer game, but in the more aggressive and linear matchups we have a lot of paths to a turn four Torrential Gearhulk for Magma Opus.

When the Indomitable Creativity comes out, we lean more on Chandra, Awakened Inferno as a bit of a sideboard juke to combat counterspells. Narset, Parter of Veils is also phenomenal in these matchups, as well as against Arclight Phoenix decks.

There's no doubt that Torrential Gearhulk flashing back Magma Opus is one of the new most powerful things you can do in Historic, and this deck does a great job of accomplishing that while not being all in on it. A solid finish in a big event is nice, but I'm very excited to see where this deck ends up!