During MTG Avatar spoiler season, a multitude of exciting mythics received a lot of hype. Cards like Badgermole Cub and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian have since more than lived up to expectations, showcasing their power across multiple formats. Interestingly, though, the set’s impact on Constructed formats goes far beyond just flashy designs.
In fact, Gran-Gran, a simple uncommon, has not only taken the Standard world by Storm in Izzet Lessons shells, but also appeared in the winning decklist in the Magic Online Pioneer Showcase Qualifier. This Lesson-less Five-Color Legends archetype propelled Magic Online user Xenowan to both the Magic Online Championship and the upcoming Pro Tour, and Gran-Gran serves as a major upgrade.
Facilitating the Combo
Back when MTG Spider Man released, players quickly discovered a sweet new combo centered around the powerful Arachne, Psionic Weaver. The goal is to pair two copies of Arachne with Relic of Legends. With one copy of Arachne in hand and the other in play, you’re able to tap the one in play and float a white mana via Relic’s ability, then use Arachne’s Web-Slinging ability to cast the one from your hand while returning the copy in play to your hand.
While repeating this process over and over does nothing by itself, if you have Rona, Herald of Invasion on the battlefield as well, it becomes trivial to win the game from there. Rona untaps every time you cast Arachne, making it easy to generate infinite mana alongside Relic. Once you’ve generated a boatload of mana, Rona enables you to loot through your whole deck. Eventually, you’ll find your one-of copy of Silk, Web Weaver, which nets you infinite tokens and threatens to make all of your creatures infinitely large thanks to all of the mana you have saved up.
Between Jirina, Dauntless General helping to protect your combo pieces and Honest Rutstein letting you buy them back from your graveyard, this archetype showcases plenty of resiliency. Thanks to the power of Mox Amber, the deck is also capable of fast draws. Still, if there was one weakness that early iterations of Five-Color Legends struggled with, it was finding the requisite combo pieces in a timely manner.
This is where Gran-Gran enters the equation. As a one-mana Human legend that enables Mox Amber, the floor is naturally quite high for Gran-Gran, and its wealth of synergies put it over the top. First and foremost, in conjunction with Relic, Gran-Gran becomes a looting machine that churns through your deck in a flash. Unlike Rona, Gran-Gran can generate value this way even while summoning sick.
With this in mind, after tapping Gran-Gran for mana and looting, you can put Arachne into play via Web-Slinging, then recast Gran-Gran and set up for more looting on the same turn. From there, introducing Inti, Seneschal of the Sun into the mix will provide additional card advantage every time you loot. These synergies all give the deck a big boost, especially in games where you don’t stick an early Rona.
Other Avatar Inclusions
While Gran-Gran certainly provides the biggest boost to Five-Color Legends from MTG Avatar, it isn’t the only new legend to make an appearance in the tournament winning decklist. In the main deck, three copies of Aang, Swift Savior provide the deck with some extra flexibility.
Having additional interaction in the face of board wipes is nice, as is buying yourself time versus opposing combo decks like Four-Color Scapeshift. Aang lines up exceptionally well versus creature tokens, which is important given the popularity of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber in Pioneer. Transforming Aang isn’t unrealistic in long games, either, and the big body can end games quickly in its own right.
Besides Aang, you’ll also find three copies of Mai, Scornful Striker in the sideboard. Against strategies that rely on casting cantrips like Izzet Phoenix, Mai’s triggered ability is extremely scary for the opponent, forcing them to have removal to develop their gameplan. Even if they do, though, forcing them to use it on Mai means it’s more likely your combo pieces will stick. It’s hard to go wrong with such a cheap, game-wrecking design.
Winning in a Diverse Field
With so many powerful tools at this deck’s disposal, Five-Color Legends showcased it has what it takes to win against a variety of different archetypes. The pilot was able to beat Azorius Control, Rakdos Midrange, Scapeshift Combo, and Selesnya Company en route to victory, four decks that all attack from very different angles.
Neither Scapeshift Combo nor Selesnya Company run a ton of removal spells, making your fast combo draws a major concern. Scapeshift Combo can have fast draws of its own, but the presence of Arachne and Aang as disruptive elements gives this deck an edge.
At the same time though, Aang, and Arachne both do a good job delaying Supreme Verdict out of Azorius Control, a spell that is traditionally very difficult to interact with. Cavern of Souls then makes opposing copies of No More Lies ignorable. Ultimately, neither Azorius Control nor Rakdos Midrange do a great job applying early pressure, giving you more time to leverage the power of Honest Rutstein, too.
The only element this deck is really lacking is cheap removal, which can certainly come back to bite you when facing Prowess. Nonetheless, it’s hard to cover all of your bases in a diverse format like Pioneer, and this deck comes pretty dang close.
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