Universes Beyond in Standard is… becoming more and more prevalent. Players used to throw around memes of sequences like Optimus Prime triggering SpongeBob, but now, for Standard and Commander players, stuff like that just happens.
If you don’t mind all this, however, there are some extremely powerful synergies to be found in MTG’s Universes Beyond cards. MTG Star Trek and Avatar: The Last Airbender go together particularly well, as we just discovered.
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we attended the MTG Star Trek Early Access Event on MTG Arena, and we brought a sweet new brew to try. Going 7-2 in Early Access Standard, this bizarre Jeskai Donate deck has everything from instant-loss combos to multiple land destruction effects.
MTG Star Trek Jeskai Donate
Despite using cards from different Universes Beyond crossovers, this Jeskai Donate deck offers a ton of synergy, complementing one another’s downsides.
Iroh, Tea Master
Iroh, Tea Master
When Iroh enters, create a Food token.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may have target opponent gain control of target permanent you control. When you do, create a 1/1 white Ally creature token. Put a +1/+1 counter on that token for each permanent you own that your opponents control.
sits at the center of the deck, enabling all of the scariest combos that Jeskai Donate has to offer.
The Naked Time
The Naked Time
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Search your library for a basic Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
II — Whenever a creature you control enters this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it and it gains haste until end of turn.
III — Sacrifice a land.
is incredibly nasty with Iroh, especially when played on curve. A turn two Naked Time finds a Mountain and can give Iroh +1/+1 and Haste on your next turn.
You can then donate your Naked Time to the opponent, creating a 3/3 token that, after Naked Time’s buff, will also gain Haste. After swinging at your opponent for six damage, The Naked Time forces them to sacrifice a land, adding insult to injury.
Of course, Iroh also gives you a way to solve Star Trek’s infamous
Kobayashi Maru Scenario
Kobayashi Maru Scenario
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• Hail — Return up to one target creature an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less to its owner's hand.
• Sensors — Draw two cards.
• Transport — Create two 1/1 red Officer creature tokens.
• Abandon Ship — You lose the game.
, forcing your opponent to Abandon Ship and lose the game. You need to use all of the card’s other modes first, but the cards, tokens, and tempo you get for three mana are obscene.
If Iroh dies to opposing removal, however, Kobayashi Maru Scenario can go sideways, which prompted me to run more donate effects in the deck.
Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant
Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant
Lifelink
{2}, {T}: Target opponent gains control of another target permanent you control. If they do, you draw a card.
is the card of choice here, synergizing decently with The Naked Time when cast on turn 3.
I wasn’t the only one trying Donate shenanigans in the event, either, and Stiltzkin helped me Donate cards back to the opponent before I suffered the consequences. With this cool synergy engine as the core, all that was left was building the shell around it.
Focusing on United Battlefront
At this point, I noticed that both Kobayashi Maru Scenario and The Naked Time could be put into play with
United Battlefront
United Battlefront
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put up to two noncreature, nonland permanent cards with mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
, which dictated this deck’s direction. This sorcery can find tons of permanent-based removal, like
Chainsaw
Chainsaw
When this Equipment enters, it deals 3 damage to up to one target creature.
Whenever one or more creatures die, put a rev counter on this Equipment.
Equipped creature gets +X/+0, where X is the number of rev counters on this Equipment.
Equip {3}
,
Aang’s Iceberg
Aang’s Iceberg
Flash
When this enchantment enters, exile up to one other target nonland permanent until this enchantment leaves the battlefield.
Waterbend {3}: Sacrifice this enchantment. If you do, scry 2. (While paying a waterbend cost, you can tap your artifacts and creatures to help. Each one pays for {1}.)
, and
Solitary Cell
Solitary Cell
When this artifact enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less until this artifact leaves the battlefield.
{1}, {T}, Discard a legendary card: Draw a card.
, making it an incredible tempo play.
Each of these pieces has synergies beyond just being removal, too. For example,
Solitary Cell
Solitary Cell
When this artifact enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less until this artifact leaves the battlefield.
{1}, {T}, Discard a legendary card: Draw a card.
can help rummage away redundant legend copies, and
Aang’s Iceberg
Aang’s Iceberg
Flash
When this enchantment enters, exile up to one other target nonland permanent until this enchantment leaves the battlefield.
Waterbend {3}: Sacrifice this enchantment. If you do, scry 2. (While paying a waterbend cost, you can tap your artifacts and creatures to help. Each one pays for {1}.)
can reset
Kobayashi Maru Scenario
Kobayashi Maru Scenario
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• Hail — Return up to one target creature an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less to its owner's hand.
• Sensors — Draw two cards.
• Transport — Create two 1/1 red Officer creature tokens.
• Abandon Ship — You lose the game.
in a pinch. Iroh can also donate a whole bunch of these permanents, getting extra token creatures while your opponent gets no meaningful advantage from it.
The other new MTG Star Trek card here,
The Wrath of Khan
The Wrath of Khan
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga deals 4 damage to target creature an opponent controls. At the beginning of the next combat this turn, gain control of that creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
II — You may exile a card from your hand. If you do, draw a card.
III — Each opponent sacrifices a nontoken permanent of their choice.
, also proved to be quite powerful. At a baseline, removing an opposing threat and fixing your hand is a lot of value for three mana.
If your plan is being executed properly, I found The Wrath of Khan’s third chapter commonly forced opponents to sacrifice a land. With The Naked Time also attacking your opponent’s mana base, this deck had a weird land-destruction subtheme.
That, in a nutshell, is the Jeskai Donate deck we came up with for MTG Star Trek Early Access, but it’s far from perfect. Now that I’ve played the deck a fair bit, there are a few things I would change.
Changes to Consider
When I started this Donate brew, I had it as a four-color deck, splashing
Greed’s Gambit
Greed’s Gambit
When this enchantment enters, you draw three cards, gain 6 life, and create three 2/1 black Bat creature tokens with flying.
At the beginning of your end step, you discard a card, lose 2 life, and sacrifice a creature.
When this enchantment leaves the battlefield, you discard three cards, lose 6 life, and sacrifice three creatures.
as a powerful card Iroh can Donate. It also synergizes incredibly with The Naked Time’s second chapter if you can line it up, swinging for 9 Flying Haste damage off the hop.
The manabase, however, was far too demanding with four colors, especially since Kobayashi Maru Scenario is basically a two-pip splash already.
Giant’s Boulder
Giant’s Boulder
When this artifact enters, scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.)
{1}, {T}: Add one mana of any color.
{7}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Destroy target permanent.
could solve this issue, however, making that an interesting avenue to explore in the future. Of course, you’ll also get access to
Demonic Pact
Demonic Pact
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• This enchantment deals 4 damage to any target and you gain 4 life.
• Target opponent discards two cards.
• Draw two cards.
• You lose the game.
if you try to play black.
Splashing black aside,
The Mind Stone
The Mind Stone
Indestructible
{T}: Add {W}.
{5}{W}, {T}: Harness The Mind Stone. (Once harnessed, its ∞ ability is active.)
∞ — At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one other target nonland permanent you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control.
is another card I would consider adding to the Jeskai variant of this deck, but in small numbers. Harnessing the artifact is actually quite useful, resetting Kobayashi Maru Scenario and The Wrath of Khan for tons of value. I would try two copies of this card if I ran this list again.
So, if you’re looking to try something new once MTG Star Trek comes out, an Iroh-focused Donate deck feels like it has competitive potential. This probably won’t be the exact variant that ends up being the best, but the synergies here are absolutely incredible.
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