Spoiler season for every major Magic set serves as an exciting time for MTG players. Many people, especially those who enjoy brewing around new cards, try their best to evaluate cards as they get revealed and tinker with different potential shells for those that they deem powerful and exciting.
Of course, with each set, there’s bound to be a handful of cards that receive a lot of hype and don’t live up to expectations. For Tarkir: Dragonstorm, one of those cards was Songcrafter Mage. Songcrafter Mage’s synergy with cards like Collected Company made it very intriguing. However, the card hasn’t exactly panned out on the competitive scene. Fortunately, all is not lost for Songcrafter Mage enjoyers.
Recently, one player took a creative decklist featuring a playset of the Human Bard to a local Modern event and split the finals. Boasting a record of 6-1 until finally splitting the last round, this unique archetype with an extra turns subtheme does a great job abusing Songcrafter Mage’s triggered ability. If you enjoy generating lots of value, this could be right up your alley.
Temur Control Support
The main goal behind this deck is to control the game in the early turns and buy time to take over the game with incremental advantages and strong synergies. In order to get to the point where you’re casting Songcrafter Mage and recasting cards out of your graveyard, you first need to stave off early pressure and ensure you don’t just lose to combo decks.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll find plenty of cheap interaction as a result. For removal, both Lightning Bolt and Fire/Ice do a good job keeping fast draws from Boros Energy in check. Wrenn and Six is also quite strong in the matchup, as it can come down and kill Ocelot Pride right away and stick around with 2 loyalty counters.
From there, Spell Snare and Counterspell help you disrupt decks like Storm combo that can easily win games through your removal suite. Spell Snare is especially strong in the matchup, since countering Ruby Medallion on the draw is a huge swing in your favor. The same can be said for Psychic Frog out of Dimir Murktide, which is an extremely difficult card to contain with damage-based removal once it sticks.
A couple copies of Flame of Anor make an appearance as well. With Snapcaster Mage and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student in the mix, you’ll get to choose two modes a decent chunk of the time. Having flexible Artifact removal in a world of Cori-Steel Cutter is important, and Flame of Anor delivers.
Songcrafter Mage Synergies
Where this deck gets really interesting, though, is with the inclusion of playsets of two five-mana Sorceries. The first card, Lorien Revealed, simply acts as a low-cost way to keep hitting your land drops in the early game.
Later in the game, when you have five mana available, casting it to draw three cards is powerful depending on the matchup. Thanks to Songcrafter Mage, you get the best of both worlds. You just Cycle Lorien Revealed early knowing that on a later turn, you can cast Songcrafter Mage, target Lorien Revealed, and tap Songcrafter Mage to pay for Harmonize and reduce Lorien Revealed’s cost to two mana.
The other five mana card, Time Warp, gives this deck a very strong late game. Getting to cast Time Warp, take an extra turn, then use Songcrafter Mage to get yet another additional turn out of the deal has massive upside when you factor in the Planeswalkers present in this deck.
Wrenn and Six has a rather threatening ultimate ability, and Time Warp helps you reach the requisite number of loyalty counters. Flipping Tamiyo and spamming extra turns pulls you further ahead, as well.
Notably, if you make an emblem with Wrenn and Six, you have the potential to take infinite extra turns! You just need a copy of Time Warp and a copy of Wrenn and Six at the ready. Then, you can keep rebuying lands with Wrenn and Six, then use those lands to Retrace Time Warp. Winning the game should be trivial from there.
What’s nice is that the presence of Wrenn and Six makes it easy to keep hitting your land drops to get to your Time Warp and Songcrafter Mage package in the first place. Malevolent Rumble plays an important role, too, both ramping you and digging for your impactful cards. Any potent Instants or Sorceries you mill along the way to fuel Songcrafter Mage and Snapcaster Mage go a long way.
Slow and Steady
As far as matchups are concerned, this deck is reasonably positioned against the small creature decks of the format. Wrenn and Six doubling as a mana engine and a way to kill one-toughness creatures gives you a decent shot against Boros Energy, which is essential given the deck’s popularity in Modern.
Assuming you can prevent Cori-Steel Cutter from going ballistic, Izzet Prowess isn’t a super difficult matchup either. Even against decks without lots of creatures, your Counterspells keep your opponent from running away with games. Your Mages let you double on Counterspells, while adding pressure to the board.
That being said, this deck does not do a good job applying pressure when necessary. There are archetypes, such as Eldrazi ramp, that can go way over the top of what you can accomplish. On top of that, many of the cards like Ugin, Eye of the Storms have brutal cast triggers, which makes your Counterspell gameplan significantly worse.
There’s a reason you’ll find a playset of Consign to Memory in the sideboard. Without a well-timed copy or two of this card, you’re in rough shape.
Beyond Eldrazi, decks like Mill can capitalize on how slow you’re gameplan is. This strategy has its flaws and probably won’t be making a big splash at highly competitive events. Regardless, it’s always nice to see a sweet brew succeed even at the local level, especially when it maximizes a card that others had given up on.