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Main » Articles » An Invitation to Brew

An Invitation to Brew

Mike Likes
Posted on March 28, 2019
 Reddit

Hello, everyone! This week marks the Mythic Invitational taking place at PAX East. I'm hopeful that some of the participants will bring some new and innovative decks, but I'm not counting on it. If I were playing in an event like this, I would want to bring a deck that's tried and true. But when I'm playing at my local Friday Night Magic tournament where the stakes are considerably lower, I like to mix things up a bit. This week, I have for you a few decks that are both competitive and fun, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them at either the Mythic Invitational or at Friday Night Magic. Let's get started.

Boros Visitation

The first deck I have for you is an aggressive token-based deck that also has a plan for the long game. Let's take a look at it:

Boros Visitation | Allegiance Standard | RUINER, (5-0) MTGO

Divine Visitation
This deck has the ability to win games quickly. If you curve out perfectly, you can play Legion's Landing on turn one, Adanto Vanguard on turn two, Legion Warboss on turn three and Heroic Reinforcements on turn four. If that happens, you should be swinging for lethal damage. But that's the best-case scenario and won't happen often. More often, you'll cast a few spells and get a few creatures into play before the battlefield gets bogged down and it becomes unprofitable to attack. Once that happens, you'll be thankful that this deck has a late game insurance policy.

Divine Visitation allows any of the tokens you create to become 4/4 Angel tokens with flying and vigilance. If you find yourself unable to attack because your opponent has bigger blockers, making Angel tokens with evasion might be just what you need to turn the game around. The fact that they also have vigilance means you are free to attack with them without fearing that a counterattack will be coming that you'll have no way to block.

One neat thing to strive for when playing this deck is creating the emblem for Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants. Ajani's emblem will create three 1/1 Cat creature tokens with lifelink. If you have Divine Visitation in play, you'll instead create three 4/4 Angel tokens instead. If you manage to achieve this, enjoy it while it lasts as your opponent will likely concede quickly or be dead in a couple of turns.

Also, remember that Divine Visitation is a replacement effect, so having multiple copies of it on the battlefield won't give you extra tokens. If you create a token, the first copy of Divine Visitation will trigger, turning that token into a 4/4 Angel. All other copies will also trigger, but they'll simply replace your 4/4 Angel that was created with the first copy of Divine Visitation with a 4/4 Angel of their own.

Naya Angels

The next deck I have for you takes a cue from the Boros Visitation deck and is also based around Angels. These Angels are the kind that are cast and not created, however. Let's take a look at the deck:

Naya Angels | Allegiance Standard | Justin Stigger, SCG Standard Classic Cincinnati, 5th Place

Shalai, Voice of Plenty
This looks like a deck that I don't want to be sitting across from. If you like playing a deck with big flyers, this is the deck for you. Ten of the creatures in this deck have flying. That can be an absolute nightmare for most decks to deal with. When you add in the fact that a majority of those flyers have the ability to gain lifelink, suddenly that nightmare becomes ten times worse. Thanks to the synergy that Lyra Dawnbringer and Shalai, Voice of Plenty bring, you're able to create a host of Angels that can attack for a ton of damage (while also gaining you a ton of life) that are very difficult to destroy.

Adding Rhythm of the Wild to your host of Angels seems like a no-brainer. In most of the decks seeing play, Rhythm of the Wild has only seen a little fringe play. I think that's because a lot of the decks trying to utilize Rhythm of the Wild have been aggressive decks. Rhythm of the Wild is best in a midrange strategy like this deck. With Rhythm of the Wild in play, if you're behind, you can play Lyra Dawnbringer and give her haste to allow you to attack right away and gain some life back. If you're at parity or ahead, you can simply put a +1/+1 counter on her making her an even greater threat that your opponent must deal with. Plus, remember that Rhythm of the Wild makes it so that your creature spells can't be countered, so you can build up quite a massive force in no time.

Rakdos Deathwhirler

The final deck I have for you this week has a plan in place for those decks that are looking to flood the battlefield with creatures. Let's take a look at it:

Rakdos Deathwhirler | Allegiance Standard | L3D91, Standard MCQ, 15th Place

Status // Statue
What do you do if your opponent played March of the Multitudes and now outnumbers your creatures two to one? This deck has an answer. Goblin Chainwhirler plus Status // Statue. With this two-card combo, you're able to turn the one point of damage that Goblin Chainwhirler deals to each creature your opponent controls into immediate destruction thanks to the deathtouch granted by Status // Statue. To do so, you'll need to play Status // Statue after Goblin Chainwhirler has entered the battlefield, but while its ability is still on the stack. Doing so will kill every creature your opponent has in play, even the ones with hexproof since this ability doesn't target. You'll be left with a 3/3 with first strike, which will likely leave you in a good position for a while.

Another card I love in this deck is Angrath, the Flame-Chained. While it took a while for Standard to evolve into a place where Angrath, the Flame-Chained could be played, it was well worth the wait. Being able to repeatedly cause your opponent to discard a card while simultaneously dealing them two points of damage can make it difficult for your opponent to gain any footing in the game. Keep them on their back foot by using Angrath's -3 loyalty ability to take control of an opponent's creature and attack them with it. If you're lucky, they might be forced to block with another of their creatures and you can kill both creatures. Thanks to these two amazing abilities, I've never gotten close to activating Angrath's -8 loyalty ability, but if were able to, I have a feeling it would be game ending. Let me know if you've managed to ultimate Angrath and what the results were.

Wrapping Up

With the Mythic Invitational taking place this weekend, I'm hopeful a number of new decks will make their way to Magic Arena. Even if they don't and all we see are the usual decks, I'm still excited to watch. While I haven't made it to Mythic yet (it's tough when you can only play around an hour a day), I keep plugging away. Good luck to all of the competitors, and thank you to Wizards of the Coast for making Magic Arena a platform that nearly anyone can use as a way to become a professional Magic player.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below or you can reply to me directly on Twitter (@mikelikesmtg), or email me directly at mikelikesmtg@gmail.com. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-- Mike Likes

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, mtgo, decklists, community, mike likes, allegiance standard, 03282019

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