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Hello everyone. I love the atmosphere depicted in the cards from Streets of New Capenna. As such, I'm enjoying trying new decks created that feature legendary creatures from this new set. I've already dedicated an entire column to Giada, Font of Hope, and this week I have three new decks that feature other mono-colored legendary creatures from Streets of New Capenna. Let's get started.
Errant, Street Artist/Rogue Mill
The first deck I have for you this week features Errant, Street Artist alongside one of my favorite alternative ways to win, milling. Let's take a look at the deck.
Errant, Street Artist/Rogue Mill | SNC Standard | MARCOSGOKU, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (15)
- 1 Errant, Street Artist
- 2 Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore
- 4 Merfolk Windrobber
- 4 Ruin Crab
- 4 Soaring Thought-Thief
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Kaito Shizuki
- Instants (14)
- 3 Fading Hope
- 2 Make Disappear
- 3 A Little Chat
- 3 Galvanic Iteration
- 3 Infernal Grasp
- Sorceries (5)
- 1 Cut Your Losses
- 4 Tasha's Hideous Laughter
A Little Chat, Cut Your Losses, and Make Disappear all have the casualty keyworded triggered ability. When you cast any of these spells, you can sacrifice creatures to meet the required amount of power required by the casualty ability in order to copy that spell. Usually, A Little Chat and Make Disappear won't be the best target to copy, but Cut Your Losses could be. The only problem is that Cut Your Losses requires six mana to cast, and another two mana are needed to use Errant's activated ability, so milling an additional time with Errant might be difficult.
But fear not, because there's one more way to create a copy of a spell in this deck. Casting Galvanic Iteration allows you to copy the next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn. The best spell to cast after Galvanic Iteration is Tasha's Hideous Laughter. If you can follow that up with Errant's activated ability, you can mill cards with a minimum of 60 mana value from your opponent's deck. That will usually be enough to get the job done, but in case it's not, remember that Galvanic Iteration has flashback, so you'll be able to cast it again from your graveyard.
Jaxis, the Troublemaker/Mono-Red Haste
The next deck I have for you utilizes haste as its main way to push enough damage through to win, and Jaxis, the Troublemaker can help a lot with this plan. Let's take a look at it.
Jaxis, the Troublemaker/Mono-Red Haste | SNC Standard | powrdragn, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (21)
- 2 Jaxis, the Troublemaker
- 3 Bloodthirsty Adversary
- 4 Kargan Intimidator
- 4 Rabbit Battery
- 4 Reckless Stormseeker
- 4 Thundering Raiju
- Instants (6)
- 2 Antagonize
- 4 Play with Fire
- Sorceries (7)
- 3 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
- 4 Roil Eruption
- Enchantments (6)
- 2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
- 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano
- Lands (20)
- 14 Mountain
- 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
- 4 Den of the Bugbear
Jaxis, the Troublemaker helps this deck in a couple of ways. When you cast Jaxis for her normal mana value, she will be able to create a token copy of another creature you have in play. That token will get haste, allowing it to attack right away. Thundering Raiju is a great target to copy, as it can deal direct damage to your opponent when it attacks. At the end of the turn, the token Jaxis created will be sacrificed, allowing you to draw a card. Jaxis also can be cast using her blitz ability. Doing this will give her haste, but she will also be sacrificed at the end of the turn. You should only consider doing this when attacking with her will equate to you winning the game, because having her in play full-time is too important.
This deck also includes a lot of instant and sorcery spells that you can use to finish off your opponent if the battlefield becomes clogged up with blockers. It also includes a new spell from Streets of New Capenna worth mentioning. With all of the hasty creatures in this deck, you'll often be able to push through some damage that your opponent doesn't have a blocker for. When that happens, you'll want to cast Antagonize on that unblocked attacker of yours in order to deal even more damage. You can also save Antagonize for use as a defensive spell, since it gives a great toughness boost as well. Either way you play it, you'll see just how good this common spell is.
Urabrask, Heretic Praetor/Phyrexian Prison
The final deck I have for you tries to lock your opponent out of the game with the help of a pair of Phyrexian Praetors. Let's check it out.
Urabrask, Heretic Praetor/Phyrexian Prison | SNC Standard | LegenVD, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (7)
- 1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned
- 3 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant
- 3 Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
- Instants (16)
- 1 Consider
- 1 Prismari Command
- 2 Demon Bolt
- 2 Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins
- 2 Seismic Wave
- 4 Big Score
- 4 Fading Hope
- Sorceries (11)
- 1 Igneous Inspiration
- 2 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
- 4 Expressive Iteration
- 4 Strangle
- Artifacts (2)
- 2 The Celestus
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At its heart, this is similar to a control deck. While Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins is the only spell you have that can counter an opponent's spell, there are numerous spells that will help you manage the creatures on the battlefield. Demon Bolt and Strangle can be used against your opponent's creatures or planeswalkers. There are also a lot of spells that can deal damage to any target. Use these against your opponent's creatures, or target your opponent directly with them. Finally, Fading Hope offers you the means of removing an opponent's creature from play, forcing them to use additional mana on future turns to recast it. Alternatively, you can keep this spell as defense against an opponent's spell that would cause your creature to be destroyed or exiled.
Once you get Urabrask, Heretic Praetor onto the battlefield, your opponent will begin having a more difficult time. Urabrask will essentially give you an additional card you can play each turn while simultaneously limiting your opponent's options. Since your opponent won't draw their usual card each turn, they could easily find their hand diminishing. They will still be able to have a new card to play each turn, but if they choose not to play it or are unable to, it will be lost to them, put into exile.
Getting Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant into play is the final piece to make their prison a reality. Jin-Gitaxias will create a copy of any artifact, instant, or sorcery spell you cast. This will allow you to deal double the amount of damage with those spells that can deal direct damage to any target. More importantly, with Jin-Gitaxias on the battlefield, the first artifact, instant, or sorcery spell your opponent casts each turn will be countered. As you can imagine, with no new cards entering their hand thanks to Urabrask, it will be next to impossible for them to break free from the prison you've created.
Wrapping Up
With so much focus lately being on Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, it's easy to forget that Streets of New Capenna has only been out for just over a month. There's still a lot to discover in our latest Standard release, and I'm looking forward to looking at some more decks featuring legendary creatures in the upcoming weeks.
What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. 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
