Standard continues to be the best format in Magic. It's deep, has interesting gameplay, and looks to have lots of options (even though the Dimir Midrange deck is looking like the best deck in the format thanks to Kaito, Bane of Nightmares). It feels like you could spend time becoming familiar with just about any deck and be competitive with it at your local RCQ. It has an established handful of decks that you can learn yet offers rewards for brewing new and interesting decks at the same time. It's everything you could want in a Magic format.

Last summer, before the most recent Standard rotation, I wrote an article about a Selesnya deck built around Collector's Cage (the article, for reference: https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/travishall-seo-07312024-challenging-standard-to-a-cage-match).

At the end of the article I mentioned that I would probably give the deck another try once Standard rotated. Well, with the holidays here, and now that I have extended time out home for a few days, I thought this would be a great time to make good on that promise.

I've seen streamers and content creators posting about their versions of the Collector's Cage deck in the last few weeks, so I'm not the only one that thinks it could be viable (Jim Davis is even trying it out in Modern).

Selesnya Cage Match | Standard | Travis Hall

• Creatures (26)
• 3 Sanguine Evangelist
• 3 Toby, Beastie Befriender
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• 4 Pawpatch Recruit
• 4 Sandstorm Salvager
• 4 Skyknight Squire

• Instants (2)
• 2 Get Lost

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Collector's Cage

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 1 Fountainport
• 3 Brushland
• 4 Hushwood Verge
• 4 Restless Prairie
• 4 Razorverge Thicket

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Get Lost
• 2 Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array
• 2 Nissa, Ascended Animist
• 2 Scavenging Ooze
• 3 Aven Interrupter
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

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Card Choices

• Overlord of the Hauntwoods

When you're playing a deck that has a card with the Hideaway ability, you really want to sneak in a few cards that work as payoffs for the ability. My earlier version of this deck had had Moonshaker Cavalry filling this role. It worked great as an, "I win" card that could win you games out of nowhere when tucked away under a Cage, but there were a few too many games where I would draw the card instead and die with an uncastable monster in my hand. Overlord takes over for Cavalry and fits the role much better, as it is easily castable at 4 mana as well. The tokens play into the secondary theme with Sandstorm Salvager and Tobey, Beastie Befriender.

• Skyknight Squire

This is either the best card in the deck or the worst. On curve, it can end the game in just a couple turns. But, if you draw it turn 4/5, and have to count on top decking creatures to get counters on it, it looks practically unplayable. It's important to remember that the card doesn't care where the counters come form, so you can use Cage to give this flying with the third counter.

• Sheltered by Ghosts

If you are trying to end the game as fast as possible, this is the best removal in the format. Casting this on turn 2/3 and getting in with a big swing can practically end the game. But, if you're relying on this to remove something in the late game... well, the Black decks can cast Go for the Throat just as easily for 4 mana as they can 2.

• Restless Prairie and Fountainport

I want to give a shout out to Restless Prairie. It's not the best of the creature lands in Standard, but it can feel like it at times here. As a 3/3 it has a body size that can help trigger Cage, it attacks very well, and it really plays into the go-wide strategy.

Fountainport doesn't need much said about it, as it's the best land in Standard. It plays very well with the token theme in the deck. If I didn't need to be able to reliably cast Llanowar Elves on turn 1, I'd probably run 2 of these.

• Pawpatch Recruit

Every time I play with this little goober I wonder why it's not seeing more widespread play. It's such a good little worker, jumping out on turn 1 to fuel an aggressive strategy, provides some benefit against the plethora of targeted removal in the format, and even fuels your Cage shenanigans AND you token shenanigans when you play it with the offspring ability. It fits the deck like a glove.

As I said in my first article about Collector's Cage, Hideaway is an extremely powerful ability that works on the most broken axis in Magic: it can give you access to a free card without paying full cost for it. I hope you give this one a spin, it's a lot of fun and has games where you get to see that full power in effect!

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/anakinsdad.bsky.social