Since the release of Bloomburrow, Standard has seen a multitude of intriguing new strategies emerge. Boros tokens, for instance, is built to maximize the power of Caretaker’s Talent. Meanwhile, decks like Rakdos Lizards and Naya Convoke rely on tons of potent Bloomburrow creatures that synergize well together.
Today, we’re going to focus on an archetype that has been crushing the competition for the last couple weeks: Azorius artifacts. This deck is rather aggressive, utilizing the artifact subtheme to support cards like Zoetic Glyph. While most of the cards in the deck aren’t new to Standard, the addition of Mockingbird helped give this deck a big boost in consistency.
Mockingbird is a strong card, and this may be the best shell we’ve seen for it thus far. To better grasp Mockingbird’s pivotal role in this deck, it’s important to first discuss what the deck is trying to accomplish.
An Aggressive Slant
- Mana Value: 1U
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/4
- MTG Set: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Card Text: Whenever Subterranean Schooner attacks, target creature that crewed it this turn explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it’s a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard. Crew 1.
This deck, beyond just the artifact component, gets a lot of its strength from being very assertive. This deck plays 12 one-drop creatures, not including Mockingbird. Eight of these creatures (playsets of Novice Inspector and Spyglass Siren) generate artifact tokens when they enter the battlefield. These artifact tokens make the final one-drop, Warden of the Inner Sky, a very real threat. It’s easy to grow Warden quickly. As such, the window for your opponent to use removal like Cut Down or Torch the Tower is typically quite small.
In addition to Warden, these artifact tokens ensure that your copies of Regal Bunnicorn are incredibly vicious attackers. Alongside Steel Seraph, Regal Bunnicorn can completely break board stalls in half. Whether you’re giving it Flying to soar over your opponent’s ground defenses or giving it Lifelink to help win a race, you’re in for a good time.
Even though Novice Inspector and Spyglass Siren aren’t the most menacing of cards on their own, they make great support pieces. The artifact tokens easily pull their weight. Meanwhile, the small bodies can be used to crew Subterannean Schooner. Subterannean Schooner is a bulky threat that is surprisingly difficult to kill in current Standard. It has four toughness, so it dodges Lightning Helix. As an artifact, it’s immune to Go for the Throat. It’s not easy to block down in combat, either. This card fits both the beatdown plan and the artifact plan perfectly.
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Artifacts Matter
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Set: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Card Text: Enchant artifact. Enchanted artifact is a Golem creature with base power and toughness 5/4 in addition to its other types. When zoetic Glyph is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, discover 3.
Of course, as we mentioned earlier, all of these artifacts do a great job enabling Zoetic Glyph. Zoetic Glyph may not be as efficient as Ensoul Artifact, but it still gets the job done. Plus, you get the added bonus of being able to Discover 3 when Zoetic Glyph goes to your graveyard. Any of your artifact tokens make great targets, as does Subterranean Schooner.
Case of the Filched Falcon fills a similar role. Enabling it is a bit tougher since you need to get your artifact count up to three. The reward of sending one of your noncreature artifacts to the skies is well worth it, though. Once again, if you get to bring one of your Clue or Map tokens to life, it will dodge a lot of the same removal spells. This is a big part of how the deck gets an edge in the field.
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Don’t Underestimate the Bird
- Mana Value: XU
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/1
- MTG Set: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Flying. You may have Mockingbird enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield with mana value less than or equal to the amount of mana spent to cast Mockingbird, except it’s a Bird in addition to its other types and it has flying.
Rounding out the deck, we have an incredibly underrated addition to a solid archetype. Mockingbird adds an extra layer of redundancy to all areas of the deck, which is hugely important. First of all, Mockingbird can always copy any of your potent one-drops. You get to play virtually 16 one-drops as a result, giving you a higher chance of curving out.
Over time, Mockingbird scales well into the late game. Copying Regal Bunnicorn is awesome, since your new Regal Bunnicorn will have Flying. Getting another Steel Seraph can make it trivial to swing a game in your favor.
Sometimes, your opponent will play a mighty threat of their own that’s worth cloning. Mockingbird’s efficiency in this strategy combined with its flexibility makes it an awesome card to draw at nearly every stage of the game.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
- Mana Value: 1WW
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Set: Dominaria United
- Card Text: When Temporary Lockdown enters the battlefield, exile each nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less until Temporary Lockdown leaves the battlefield.
The way this deck is constructed, it does a solid job attacking the metagame at hand. The deck puts a lot of pressure on the opponent, which is a great starting point against Domain. Regal Bunnicorn and Steel Seraph are excellent against go-wide aggro decks like Boros Convoke. At the same time, the artifact package lines up extremely well against midrange archetypes. In this sense, you have game against nearly every type of deck the opponent could throw at you.
Likely the biggest weakness this deck has, at least in game one, is facing down Temporary Lockdown. Against most traditional board wipes, you can often try to lean on Subterranean Schooner or slam a Zoetic Glyph on a Clue or Map token post-wrath. Unfortunately, Temporary Lockdown cleans up EVERYTHING (sure, Steel Seraph survives, but the effect is still devastating). This is part of the reason why there is an abundance of Enchantment removal in the sideboard of this decklist.
Other than Temporary Lockdown, this shell’s general lack of removal can leave you vulnerable to nut draws from Prowess decks. Steel Seraph and Regal Bunnicorn do a reasonable job clogging up the board, but well-timed combat tricks including Monstrous Rage can be problematic.
Nonetheless, in the last two weeks, the deck has emerged victorious in two separate Magic Online Standard Challenge events. It’s clear that Azorius artifacts has legs, despite the general lack of publicity it’s receiving. Make sure you’re prepared to fight against it moving forward, or you’ll risk getting completely run over.
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