It seems like almost every single time Wizards of the Coast creates a new ‘beginning of game’ effect, something breaks temporarily. Leyline of the Guildpact, for example, gave rise to multiple dominant strategies in Modern and Pioneer. Even more recently, Leyline of Resonance got banned out of best-of-one Standard on MTG Arena because it was creating too many turn two kills.
Leyline Axe is the latest in the line of ‘Leyline‘ effects in Magic: The Gathering. This time, if you start with the card in your opening hand, you get to put an equipment that grants +1/+1, Trample, and Double Strike to a creature for three mana right onto the battlefield. We’ve already seen this do explosive things in Metalwork Colossus strategies in Pioneer. It’s also an absolute menace in MTG Foundations Limited. The Axe’s havoc has not stopped there, however, and has moved onto Standard.
Azorius Glyph Gets a New Toy
Azorius Glyph decks have now stepped up thanks to Leyline Axe. Boasting a top-eight finish in a recent MTGO challenge, and some 5-0 Last Chance Qualifier results, it’s safe to say that this deck is the real deal.
Azorius Glyph has been a Standard deck on and off for some time, but it did vanish off the face of the earth throughout Duskmourn Standard. That’s what it seemed, at least, by the lack of a World Championship appearance.
Leyline Axe does a ton for this archetype. Not only does this allow all of your little flying creatures to become relevant threats, but Leyline Axe has some incredible synergy with a ton of different tools commonly found in Convoke strategies. This card coming down on turn one buffs your Regal Bunnicorns out of the gate. It can also be tapped for Warden of the Inner Sky‘s ability, allowing those creatures to scale harder even without using the equip effect of Leyline Axe.
Of course, Leyline Axe also works really well with the namesake card of the deck. If Leyline Axe is too slow for your situation, you can turn it into a 5/4 with Zoetic Glyph. If Zoetic Glyph is enchanting a different creature, you can equip Leyline Axe to make it a double-striking 6/5 with Trample. From there, ending the game is trivial.
Surprisingly Cheap
If you want to buy this deck and try it out for yourself, the list is surprisingly cheap. According to MTGGoldfish, this extremely competitive Standard deck only costs $142. For reference, the two most popular decks in the current Standard format, according to MTGGoldfish’s metagame breakdown, cost $455 and $355, respectively. For less than half of the price of either of these decks, you can get access to a powerful new archetype that’s putting up results across the Standard format. the first instance of a deck that costs less than this one is Jeskai Aggro, which is tenth in terms of Standard popularity. That deck has not had results that are comparable to Azorius Glyph in the past few weeks.
As far as budget Standard decks go, this might be the best deck you could possibly play. If $141 is still expensive, there are some easy ways to make this even cheaper. The most expensive card in the deck is Floodfarm Verge. While these are, in our opinion, a necessary part of Standard player’s collections, you don’t necessarily need the Verges to play this deck. It will help your manabase out significantly, but you can save about $28 by not using these cards.
Sheltered by Ghosts is the next most expensive card, boasting an impressive $5 price tag despite being an uncommon. If that doesn’t hint at how good this card is, I don’t know what does. You can play without Sheltered by Ghosts, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better option that’s cheaper. Giving Ward to your Glyphed artifacts can make them even more difficult to remove. Combine this with Lifelink, and you can suddenly be swinging for 14 Trample Lifelink damage with Zoetic Glyph, Sheltered by Ghosts, and Leyline Axe.
Otherwise, Mockingbird isn’t necessarily cheap. There are other cards you can use over this one, but those all tend to be expensive, as well. Faerie Mastermind, for example, sometimes sees play in this archetype, but those are currently going for $25 each. You can get your entire playset of Mockingbird for less.
While this deck is criminally cheap on paper, it is a bit more expensive in MTG Arena. Multiple $0.50 to $2 cards in paper cost you a Rare Wildcard on MTG Arena, which inflates the price significantly.
Is it the Real Deal?
Azorius Glyph has had a very good week, but is it a real longtime Standard contender? That will largely depend on how the deck continues to do as time passes. It certainly has the results to back up its potential, but even as things stand right now, this is probably a tier-two deck, at best. If this deck were to win the Standard MOCS qualifier on Magic Online next weekend, its significance would certainly be cemented. For now, the deck is definitely good enough to warrant some attention, but it won’t be ruining any MTG formats.
