Wild Beastmaster is a card that has been pretty much ignored in every format so far. Although by itself it's not exactly a powerhouse, if you can pump it up a bit, it will pass that on to all your other creatures. With this in mind, I set out to break Wild Beastmaster without breaking the bank. Here's the deck I came up with:

"Beastmaster Tokens"

• Creatures (10)
• 4 Champion of Lambholt
• 4 Wild Beastmaster
• 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch

• Spells (26)
• 2 Break of Day
• 4 Giant Growth
• 4 Midnight Haunting
• 4 Selesnya Charm
• 4 Gather the Townsfolk
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Intangible Virtue

• Lands (24)
• 3 Swamp
• 6 Plains
• 7 Forest
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Sunpetal Grove

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Break of Day
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 3 Druid's Deliverance
• 4 Tormod's Crypt
• 3 Sundering Growth

Buy This Deck

The Creatures

Champion of Lambholt obviously has the ability to accrue quite a number of +1/+1 counters in a token-based deck, but the card's true purpose here isn't so obvious. When Wild Beastmaster attacks, all your creatures will be pumped up before your opponent has a chance to block, meaning that Champion of Lambholt will lay down some heavy restrictions on who is and isn't allowed into combat. Even if the Champion isn't actually attacking, your creatures will still reap the benefits of nigh-unblockability.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch won't give your creatures quite as large a boost as Wild Beastmaster often will, but he will make them slightly more threatening. It works even better in tandem with the Beastmaster, effectively giving your creature +2/+2 in total. Although it may be tempting to try to keep Mikaeus alive as long as possible, it's often better to have him give your creatures a quick counter or two before biting the dust. You'll usually be trying to win fairly quickly with this deck, so the Lunarch's longevity isn't a primary concern.

Gather the Townsfolk gives you a pair of bodies to pump up for just 2 mana, setting you up for a fast start. Although unlike their flying cousins, they can still be blocked by most creatures, Champion of Lambholt will often eliminate that weakness.

Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls give you not only more creatures on the battlefield, but evasive ones as well. Since Wild Beastmaster doesn't give your creatures trample, it's important that your opponent can't stall you out by blocking with mana dorks and other small creatures. These high-flying Spirits will help make sure you can attack for lethal regardless of what your opponent has on the board.

The Spells

Giant Growth is more efficient than Selesnya Charm for the purpose of pumping up your creatures, but it sacrifices the incredible versatility that makes the Charm effective in any situation. Although not particularly useful without a Wild Beastmaster on the board, this is almost a 1-mana Overrun when you do have one.

Break of Day works with or without Wild Beastmaster, although its effectiveness varies. It can often be used as an instant-speed trick to finish off an opponent after blockers have been declared or to kill attacking creatures with your tokens. With the Beastmaster out, it effectively gives your creatures an extra +2/+2, similar to Selesnya Charm. This is the middle ground between the two previous options, making a compromise of sorts between power and versatility.

Intangible Virtue helps this deck win even without the Beastmaster to lead the way, making all your tokens permanently larger. Vigilance is a massive benefit when you have a hoard of flying Spirit tokens, allowing you to fly over the opposing team and get in for some damage without having to fear retaliation.

The Sideboard

Druid's Deliverance can give you a leg up against faster aggro decks such as mono-red, allowing you to stave off a lethal attack, make another threat, and swing back while all the opponent's creatures are still tapped. No one plays around Fog in Standard, and you can use that to your advantage.

Oblivion Ring is an answer to troublesome planeswalkers such as Jace, Architect of Thought. His first ability is fairly powerful against this deck, and having a way to easily dispatch him is important.

Sundering Growth can take out a Spectral Flight mid-combat and make a blocker as well, leading to a complete blowout. While a flying 4/4, especially one with first strike, can be difficult for this deck to deal with, a lowly 2/2 is much more easily dealt with.

Tormod's Crypt is an answer to decks revolving around Unburial Rites. Since this deck will almost always be using every last bit of mana each turn, having an answer that doesn't cost anything is extremely valuable.

Playtesting

Four-Color Reanimator – Game 1

My opponent paid another 2 life for an untapped Temple Garden and passed back. I drew a Swamp, played a Forest, and cast Intangible Virtue. I ended my turn, and my opponent cast Grisly Salvage, putting an Overgrown Tomb in his hand and ditching Unburial Rites.

He put the Overgrown Tomb onto the battlefield tapped on his turn and passed. I drew Midnight Haunting, played a Sunpetal Grove, and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Clifftop Retreat and flashed back Unburial Rites, putting Griselbrand onto the battlefield. He passed the turn, and I exiled the Demon with Selesnya Charm. I drew another Midnight Haunting, played my Evolving Wilds, and ended my turn.

My opponent played Temple Garden and cast Sever the Bloodline on my Spirits before ending his turn, but I made two more with another Midnight Haunting. I drew a Plains, played it, and attacked for 4 in the air. My opponent went to 13, and I passed the turn.

My opponent attacked with Thragtusk, and I took the 5. He cast a second Thragtusk, going back up to 18, then played a Woodland Cemetery and cast Mulch. He picked up one land and dumped another Unburial Rites and two Lingering Souls into the graveyard. He ended his turn, and I cast my third Midnight Haunting. I drew Mikaeus, the Lunarch and attacked for 8 with my Spirits. I played my Swamp and cast Mikaeus as a 6/6 before passing the turn.

My opponent played a land and cast Angel of Serenity, exiling Mikaeus and two of my Spirit tokens. He then attacked with both Thragtusks, and I blocked one with a Human, dropping to 10. I drew my other Mikaeus, cast him, and ended my turn.

My opponent flashed back Sever the Bloodline to kill my Spirits, then played a land and cast Dreadbore to kill Mikaeus. He attacked with everything for lethal.

Sideboarding:

−4 Champion of Lambholt

+4 Tormod's Crypt

Game 2

I drew Wild Beastmaster, played a Forest, and cast Intangible Virtue. I ended my turn. My opponent played Vault of the Archangel and passed the turn.

I drew a Forest, played it, and cast Lingering Souls before ending my turn. My opponent put a Rootbound Crag into play tapped and passed back.

I drew Midnight Haunting and attacked for 4 with my Spirits. I played a Swamp, cast Wild Beastmaster, and passed the turn. My opponent played Mulch, receiving Sunpetal Grove and Overgrown Tomb and dumping two Grisly Salvage into the graveyard. He played the Grove and ended his turn.

I drew a Plains and attacked with everything. I used Giant Growth and Selesnya Charm to pump up my Wild Beastmaster with the trigger on the stack, making it a 6/6. When the trigger resolved, it pumped my Spirits up to 8/8s, and my opponent took 22 damage.

Game 3

My opponent played a tapped Temple Garden before ending his turn, and I sacrificed Evolving Wilds for a Forest. I drew Sunpetal Grove, played it, and cast Gather the Townsfolk. I ended my turn.

My opponent played a Sunpetal Grove and passed the turn. I drew a Forest, played my Swamp, and attacked for 2. I cast Tormod's Crypt and Lingering Souls, then ended my turn.

My opponent played a Sunpetal Grove and cast Lingering Souls before passing the turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and cast Wild Beastmaster. I then ended my turn.

My opponent flashed back Lingering Souls and passed the turn. I drew another Wild Beastmaster, played a Forest, and cast it. I flashed back Lingering Souls and ended my turn.

My opponent played a land and cast Thragtusk, going up to 25 life. He ended his turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and attacked with everything. I cast Selesnya Charm to give one of the Beastmasters +2/+2, which gave everything else +3/+3, including the other Beastmaster. The other Beastmaster then gave everything +4/+4, leaving me attacking with 4/4 and 5/5 Beastmasters as well as two 8/8 Human tokens and four 8/8 Spirits. My opponent blocked each of my Spirits with his, and he traded his Thragtusk for the 5/5 Beastmaster. He took 20 from the other creatures, and I passed the turn.

He drew his card and conceded.

Wrap-up

This deck is extremely explosive, often winning in a single attack. Swinging for upward of 50 damage is not uncommon, especially with more than one Wild Beastmaster on the battlefield. Although it's certainly not the most resilient deck you could play, it may be one of the most fun. If you like attacking for massive amounts of damage, be sure to give this deck a try. Just remember to stack your triggers correctly!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.