The Standard metagame has seen an enormous shift since Wilds of Eldraine cards became legal. Decks such as Dimir Faeries and Golgari midrange that were pretty much non-existent in months prior had solid showings in events this weekend. It’s clear that Wilds of Eldraine cards are super impactful, even in formats beyond Standard.
What may be surprising, however, is just how dominant a specific new archetype was in this weekend’s Magic Online Standard Challenges. In both the Saturday and Sunday Challenges, a unique five-color deck was featured in the finals. Five-color decks aren’t exactly something new to Standard, as there were plenty of ramp decks featuring
Invasion of Zendikar
Invasion of Zendikar
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
that performed quite well before the release of Wilds of Eldraine. That being said, this five-color deck is very different, abusing another powerful Battle card in a strange way. Let’s take a look at this Battle and the cards that surround it.
Cascading… Sort Of…
The main “combo” that this deck has access to starts by resolving Invasion of Alara. Invasion of Alara has a very similar effect to cards with Cascade. In this case, you exile cards from the top of your library until you reveal two non-Land cards with mana value four or less. Then, you can play one of those cards without paying its mana cost and put the other into your hand. Typically, paying five total mana, one of every color, to cast a spell from your deck with lesser mana value isn’t ideal. This deck, on the other hand, maximizes this Battle quite nicely.
The goal of the deck is to reveal
Bramble Familiar
Bramble Familiar
{T}: Add {G}.
{1}{G}, {T}, Discard a card: Return this creature to its owner's hand.
with Invasion of Alara. Given that every other card except one copy of
Go for the Throat
Go for the Throat
Destroy target nonartifact creature.
costs five or more mana, you are guaranteed to “Cascade” into Bramble Familiar.
This is where things get interesting. Despite Bramble Familiar costing two mana, the Adventure portion of the card is a seven-mana Sorcery. You can actually choose to cast the seven-mana Adventure without paying its mana cost instead of simply casting the Creature itself! This is reminiscent of the ability to cast
Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor
Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor
When Valki enters, each opponent reveals their hand. For each opponent, exile a creature card they revealed this way until Valki leaves the battlefield.
{X}: Choose a creature card exiled with Valki with mana value X. Valki becomes a copy of that card.
with
Bring to Light
Bring to Light
Converge — Search your library for a creature, instant, or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell, exile that card, then shuffle. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
. The Adventure lets you mill seven cards, then put an Enchantment, Creature, or Land card from among them into play. Given the abundance of cards with high mana value in the deck, there are tons of excellent cards to put into play.
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Top End
One of the most powerful things this deck can do is put Cemetery Desecrator onto the battlefield. Cemetery Desecrator lets you exile another card from your graveyard, then either remove X counters from a permanent or give an opposing Creature -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the mana value of the exiled card. At minimum, Cemetery Desecrator can remove a problematic threat from the opponent, such as
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
Deathtouch
Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, they lose 2 life.
, assuming that you mill over a card with high mana value with the seven-mana Adventure attached to Bramble Familiar. With tons of top end, the odds are in your favor.
Where the real power of Cemetery Desecrator lies, though, is in the ability to remove counters from a permanent. This is because, besides letting you “Cascade” into Bramble Familiar, Invasion of Alara leaves behind a seven-defense Battle. If you can exile a seven-mana card from your graveyard, such as
Herd Migration
Herd Migration
Domain — Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token for each basic land type among lands you control.
{1}{G}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. You gain 3 life.
, you can immediately remove all seven counters from Invasion of Alara, and reap the rewards from its transformation.
By transforming Invasion of Alara, you get to cast a Sorcery that draws you two cards, lets you put an Artifact into play from your hand, create a token copy of a Permanent you control, distribute three +1/+1 counters among your Creatures, and finally destroy a Permanent an opponent controls! Invasion of Alara is a real doozy, and it certainly pays you off for transforming it. Doing so with Cemetery Desecrator allows you to copy the Desecrator as well, giving -5/-5 to another creature with the now-dead Invasion of Alara, and singlehandedly putting 11 Menacing Power onboard between both copies of Cemetery Desecrator and the three counters provided.
Beyond Cemetery Desecrator, the deck also can mill over
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.)
,
Etali, Primal Conqueror
Etali, Primal Conqueror
Trample
When Etali enters, each player exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card. You may cast any number of spells from among the nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.
{9}{G/P}: Transform Etali. Activate only as a sorcery.
,
Phyrexian Fleshgorger
Phyrexian Fleshgorger
Prototype {1}{B}{B} — 3/3 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
Menace, lifelink
Ward—Pay life equal to this creature's power.
, and
Virtue of Persistence
Virtue of Persistence
At the beginning of your upkeep, put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
as elite top end to put into play too. This deck’s high density of top end helps maximize the Adventure portion of Bramble Familiar, giving you lots of good cards to choose from and great odds to hit something extremely impactful.
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Surviving the Early Turns
Despite Bramble Familiar and one copy of Go for the Throat being the only cards in the deck that cost five or less mana, this deck still has cards it can cast in the early turns. Both the Adventure portion of Virtue of Persistence and
Leyline Binding
Leyline Binding
Flash
Domain — This spell costs {1} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
When this enchantment enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until this enchantment leaves the battlefield.
are solid pieces of interaction that can be cast in the early turns to lessen the pressure from your opponent’s Creatures. Phyrexian Fleshgorger can be cast for three mana thanks to Prototype. Discarding Herd Migration can help you develop your mana, buffer your life total, and get a seven-mana card in the graveyard for Cemetery Desecrator.
Notably, Bramble Familiar can simply be cast as a two-mana Creature that lets you play your haymakers ahead of schedule. This deck has an incredible late game. The key is not falling too far behind in the early turns. Of course, even with some of these early plays, this is easier said than done.
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Weaknesses
As good as this deck is at out-grinding other midrange decks, it can definitely suffer against hyperaggressive strategies. Decks like mono-red aggro can simply get under this deck’s interaction very quickly. As a five-color deck playing Leyline Binding, there are a lot of Triomes in the manabase that enter the battlefield tapped. Bramble Familiar is unlikely to survive as a two-toughness Creature in the face of cards like
Play with Fire
Play with Fire
Play with Fire deals 2 damage to any target. If a player is dealt damage this way, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
, making it difficult to accelerate into your top end. Even with the life buffer from Herd Migration or Virtue of Persistence, mono-red aggro plays to the board so quickly that it can be quite difficult to stabilize.
Beyond mono-red aggro, this deck can also have some difficulty in the face of Counterspells, especially when backed up by pressure. Azorius Soldiers, for example, can land a few threats in the early turns, then simply counter this deck’s haymakers with
Make Disappear
Make Disappear
Casualty 1 (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power 1 or greater. When you do, copy this spell and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}.
and
Protect the Negotiators
Protect the Negotiators
Kicker {W} (You may pay an additional {W} as you cast this spell.)
If this spell was kicked, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1} for each creature you control.
. This five-color strategy is clearly not foolproof, but its success, especially against opposing midrange decks, is undeniable. If you are looking for a high-synergy deck to beat up on various Sheoldred strategies, consider giving this deck a whirl.
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