Indomitable Creativity decks are nothing new to Magic. This unique archetype built to cheat enormous haymakers into play has been a go-to in Pioneer and Modern for a while. In Modern, it’s pretty well agreed upon that Archon of Cruelty is the premier win condition for the deck. In Pioneer, though, many different versions float around from time to time.
We’ve seen versions looking to combo kill using Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos, God of Revels. Other lists run Torrential Gearhulk and a variety of potent instants and sorceries. Some players opt to run a mix of threats, including Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Each variant has its benefits and negatives.
Today, we’re going to showcase a rather strange iteration of Creativity that doubles as a Dinosaur ramp deck. With a top 16 finish in a recent Magic Online Modern Challenge under its belt, this decklist has shown some potential already. There’s some neat stuff going on here, but to start, we should familiarize ourselves with the important Indomitable Creativity enablers.
Essential Creativity Cards
- Mana Value: XRRR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Type: Sorcery
- MTG Sets: Aether Revolt, Breaking News
- Card Text: Destroy X target artifacts and/or creatures. For each permanent destroyed this way, its controller reveals cards from the top of his or her library until an artifact or creature card is revealed and exiles that card. Those players put the exiled cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle their libraries.
Despite the differences in Creativity builds, one thing remains constant: you need access to noncreature, nonartifact spells that generate artifact or creature tokens to target with Indomitable Creativity. The idea is that the only creatures or artifacts in your deck are big and powerful. That way, when you resolve Indomitable Creativity, you know you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
As such, pretty much every Creativity deck would not be complete without Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. This card does everything you want. It puts a creature token into play that spits out extra artifact tokens when it attacks. It digs for Creativity. Finally, it transforms into yet another target for Creativity.
Similarly, this deck would not be complete without Big Score. You’ll often cast Big Score on your opponent’s end step, then untap and cast Creativity targeting both Treasures. Chances are, your opponent won’t be able to remove both of them and fizzle your game-breaking spell.
Beyond that, in the lands department, Channeling Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance or activating Fountainport can help you build out a board of tokens and take over attrition matchups. Fountainport in particular is a nice mana sink turn after turn. In the face of Counterspells, you’re free to generate value without playing into them, which is a huge luxury to have.
The Dinosaur Ramp Package
- Mana Value: 5GG
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/6
- Card Type: Creature- Dinosaur
- MTG Sets: The Big Score
- Card Text: Trample. Whenever Vaultborn Tyrant or another creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 3 life and draw a card. When Vaultborn Tyrant dies, if it’s not a token, create a token that’s a copy of it, except it’s an artifact in addition to its other types.
This brings us to this deck’s unique set of win conditions. You’ll actually find a decent number of creatures here (10, to be exact), with the most prominent ones being Trumpeting Carnosaur and Vaultborn Tyrant. These cards serve as your big hits with Indomitable Creativity.
What’s interesting is that these aren’t quite as devastating individually as some other threats like Atraxa. However, they make up for that by being perfectly reasonable cards to hard cast.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Big Score do a great job ramping you to six or seven mana to start casting these bad boys. Vaultborn Tyrant lines up very well against removal, generates card advantage, and provides a big life buffer.
Of course, if you’re ever able to hit multiple copies of Vaultborn Tyrant off of Creativity, the opponent is in a world of trouble. Both copies see each other enter the battlefield, so you’ll end up gaining 12 life and drawing four cards in the exchange! Trumpeting Carnosaur isn’t quite as brutal but is still a huge threat for the opponent to contend with that generates card advantage when it enters.
The other neat aspect of this deck is that every creature here is a Dinosaur. This gives you the opportunity to maximize some sweet synergistic pieces. For ramp, there’s a playset of Thunderherd Migration that get you to casting Big Score in no time.
For removal, you’ll find four copies of Triumphant Chomp. In the early game, these handle small threats just fine. Once you get a big Dino in play, though, you can take out bigger threats like Archfiend of the Dross out of Rakdos Demons for the low price of one mana.
Even Cavern of Souls is a nice piece of the puzzle. If the opponent leaves up mana for a Counterspell, you can slam Cavern and cast one of your Dinosaurs to completely blow them out.
An Intriguing Take
- Mana Value: 1(G/W)(G/W)
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 3/2
- Card Type: Legendary Creature- Cat Beast
- MTG Sets: Ikoria, Multiverse Legends
- Card Text: Companion- Each creature card in your starting deck is a Cat, Elemental, Nightmare, Dinosaur, or Beast card. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may cast it one from outside the game.) Vigilance. Each other creature you control that’s a Cat, Elemental, Nightmare, Dinosaur, or Beast gets +1/+1 and has vigilance.
Overall, while this is a bit of a weird way to construct a Creativity shell, there are some nice benefits to doing so. First of all, with your threats being easier to cast and there being more of them in the deck, you are less reliant on resolving Creativity to win the game.
Against Rakdos Prowess, curving Triumphant Chomp into Volcanic Spite and playing the control role until you can play one of your bombs to turn the corner is a reasonable approach. Against Azorius control, casting an uncounterable Palani’s Hatcher may be enough to win the game on its own.
When facing Thoughtseize strategies, having access to a Companion in the form of Kaheera goes a long way. Kaheera isn’t super strong, but it’s another target for Creativity that you can grab at will. Kaheera’s presence only makes it easier to grind through removal and discard spells and come out ahead.
The clear downside to this archetype is that casting Indomitable Creativity for X=1 often won’t be enough to turn the tides in your favor. By contrast, hitting Atraxa or Valgavoth, Terror Eater is typically game over for the opponent.
Indomitable Creativity decks aren’t the most popular in Pioneer right now, and it’s unlikely this deck will break out in the near future. The good news is that this deck still has what it takes to compete for anyone interested in running something unusual at their next FNM. Dinosaurs have always been a fan favorite, so seeing this deck erupt out of nowhere is awesome.
