Welcome to the dungeon! It's an exciting time in the world of Magic: The Gathering, when players watch anxiously as the future is revealed one card at a time. Quite a few cards from Avacyn Restored have been previewed at this point, and now seems like the perfect time to start building decks with them. Although you won't be able to get your hands on these cards for another week or two, here are a couple fun decks to try out once you do.

I’ll Take That

Zealous Conscripts is an entertaining new Threaten effect, one that can steal any permanent you like rather than only creatures. It also comes with a hasty 3/3 body that can swing in at your opponent while his defenses are down. Sadly, you have to give your opponent his permanent back at the end of your turn—unless you have some way of getting rid of it . . . or even keeping it permanently.

Spawning Pit gives you another way to avoid giving your opponent's creatures back. You can just sacrifice them, even making some 2/2s along the way. Goblin Bombardment lets you dish out a bit of extra damage, and Culling Dais can let you draw quite a few extra cards.

Of course, Zealous Conscripts alone won't let us steal all of our opponent's precious things, so we'll need a few more cards that can get the job done. Conquering Manticore comes with a beefy 5/5 flying body. It can continue beating down your opponent even after his creature is gone.

Threaten and Act of Treason are the classic iterations of this effect, sacrificing any extra frills for an easy casting cost. You can use whichever one of these you happen to have—they have the same effect. Mark of Mutiny adds a +1/+1 counter into the mix. This might be detrimental if you were ever going to give your opponent his creature back, but since you don't plan on doing that, it serves as a nice little bonus for you.

Traitorous Blood requires a bit more red mana, but that doesn't matter at all in this deck. Giving your stolen fatty trample is a great way to make sure the damage goes through. Traitorous Instinct costs an extra mana, but it gives a nice power boost to keep the damage rolling in. Unwilling Recruit is especially versatile. You can cast it as a plain old Threaten for 3 mana or you can spend a much mana as you want to Enrage the creature.

It's worth mentioning that Zealous Conscripts can give you an arbitrarily large number of hasty 3/3s when combined with Splinter Twin—each new copy can untap the original. I'll include one here as a random win condition, but you can include more or fewer depending on your feelings about infinite combos.

After adding on some Mountains, the deck should look something like this:

"I'll Take That"

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Conquering Manticore
• 4 Bazaar Trader
• 4 Zealous Conscripts

• Spells (26)
• 2 Threaten
• 4 Mark of Mutiny
• 4 Traitorous Blood
• 4 Traitorous Instinct
• 4 Unwilling Recruit
• 1 Splinter Twin
• 2 Goblin Bombardment
• 2 Culling Dais
• 3 Spawning Pit

• Lands (24)
• 24 Mountain

Buy This Deck

Token Repository

Druids' Repository is an interesting card that can make a lot of extra mana if you have a lot of creatures. Anything that has the potential to make a ton of mana immediately draws my mind to X spells. Of course, there are quite a few X spells that also make a lot of creatures. Make a lot of creatures, make a lot of mana, make a lot more creatures. Sounds like a plan to me. There's no kill like overkill after all.

To reach those insane amounts of mana, we'll have to have a decent amount of mana to begin with. Fertile Ground and Trace of Abundance are excellent tools to accomplish this. They can come out on turn two to ramp you up quickly, and if you have another untapped land when you cast one, you'll end up with a net cost of only 1 mana. Explosive Vegetation can be cast on turn three after a turn-two mana accelerant, and it will allow you to untap with a whopping 6 mana on turn four.

Martial Coup brings the same efficiency as Rise of the Hobgoblins, but it also serves as a board sweeper if you need one. Although this can sometimes be a drawback if you're already ahead, it can often be a great way to pull you out of a tough spot.

Gelatinous Genesis is a great way to spend all that extra mana. A giant army of giant creatures is a great way to close out the game, and it isn't too hard to do in this deck. Entreat the Angels fills a similar role, but it has the added bonus of being absurdly powerful if you ever get to cast it for its miracle cost.

A bunch of tiny 1/1 tokens aren't always the fastest way to close out a game, but fortunately, we have some ways of fixing that. Beastmaster Ascension can easily become active in one or two attacks, turning all your tokens into massive 6/6s. Sometimes, you even end up with two of these out, at which point you immediately win the game.

Cathars' Crusade works perfectly with these token-making spells. Since all the tokens enter the battlefield at the same time, they'll all get the +1/+1 counters. With this out, a Martial Coup for 5 will not only wipe the board, it will leave you with 30 power on your side of the battlefield.

With some dual lands and basics added in, you should end up with a deck like this one:

"Token Repository"

• Spells (36)
• 4 White Sun's Zenith
• 2 Gelatinous Genesis
• 2 Martial Coup
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 3 Cathars' Crusade
• 4 Druids' Repository
• 4 Explosive Vegetation
• 4 Beastmaster Ascension
• 4 Fertile Ground
• 4 Rise of the Hobgoblins
• 4 Trace of Abundance

• Lands (24)
• 7 Forest
• 9 Plains
• 4 Graypelt Refuge
• 4 Sungrass Prairie

Buy This Deck

Although the Zealous Conscripts deck isn't very well suited to fighting token strategies, even that won't save it from being tossed into the arena to battle it out. Let's see if it can stand up to the onslaught.

Game 1

With nothing to steal, the Conscripts cast another Culling Dais and a Spawning Pit before passing the turn. Rise of the Hobgoblins made a trio of tokens, and the red deck stole one with Mark of Mutiny, bringing the Repository back down to 20 life.

Goblin Bombardment sacrificed the stolen Goblin to kill off another Goblin, leaving only one alive. The green deck swung for 1 to put a counter on the Druids' Repository, then removed that counter to cast another Rise of the Hobgoblins, this time making 5 tokens.

The red deck cast Traitorous Blood on a token, attacking with it for 1 and sacrificing it to kill off another token. The remaining four tokens dropped the Conscripts to 15 and put 4 more counters on the Repository.

Act of Treason and Traitorous Blood stole two more tokens, attacked with them, and sacrificed them to finish off the remaining Goblins. Unfortunately, the Repository had a White Sun's Zenith for 8 at the end of the turn, and a Beastmaster Ascension sealed the red deck's fate.

Game 2

The Conscripts swung for another point of damage, and the Repository cast another Trace of Abundance followed by a Cathars' Crusade. The Conscripts passed the turn due to Bazaar Trader's inability to donate enchantments. The Repository cast Rise of the Hobgoblins, making five 6/6s.

The red deck cast Zealous Conscripts, stealing one of the tokens and maintaining control of it with Bazaar Trader. It cast Goblin Bombardment and passed the turn. The green deck cast Druids' Repository and Beastmaster Ascension, then swung with its four remaining creatures. The Conscripts blocked two of the tokens with its two creatures, and the Repository gave them first strike with Rise of the Hobgoblins. Before damage, both blockers were sacrificed to Goblin Bombardment to drop the Repository to 17. The red deck dropped to 14 from the unblocked Goblins.

The conscripts stole two of the 6/6 Goblins, One with Traitorous Instinct, turning it into an 8/6, and one with Mark of Mutiny, making it a 7/7. It swung for 15 damage, then sacrificed the tokens to Goblin Bombardment to finish the job.

Game 3

Beastmaster Ascension and Druids' Repository came out for the green deck, and the red deck cast Zealous Conscripts, stealing just a land and attacking for 3. Rise of the Hobgoblins made eight 9/9 Goblin tokens, threatening to take down the Conscripts decisively next turn. Unfortunately for the Repository, the red deck had the one-of Splinter Twin to make an arbitrarily large number of 3/3s with haste and attack for the win.

In a massive upset, the underdog deck managed to squeak out a victory over the tokens. The Zealous Conscripts deck really proves the truth of the old saying, “They bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Thanks to its ability to use the opponent's fatties against him, it can often pull surprise wins out of nowhere.

I hope you enjoyed this visit to the dungeon. Come back next time when the future becomes even clearer.