At this point, players have had a decent chance to test Bloomburrow additions in various archetypes. While the set looked relatively underpowered at first, tons of cards have influenced the evolution of the Standard metagame. Unfortunately, though, for the most part, Pioneer has seen minimal impact from Bloomburrow’s release.
Abzan Amalia and especially Rakdos Vampires are still as popular as ever. These decks really have a chokehold on the rest of the format. If you aren’t prepared to fight against them, you likely won’t have much success.
Yet, even with all this being said, some players are still finding ways to innovate. In yesterday’s Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, the winning deck was none other than mono-white control. This deck is heavily influenced by Bloomburrow’s release, utilizing some of the best cards in the set. To fully understand what made this deck a decent metacall, we need to closely examine what the deck is trying to accomplish.
A Control Deck at Heart
- Mana Value: 3WW
- Rarity: Rare
- Text: Exile all creatures. Incubate X, where X is the number of creatures exiled this way. (Create an Incubator token with X +1/+1 counters on it and “2: Transform this artifact.” It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.)
At a baseline, this mono-white deck has a lot of similarities to Azorius control. The goal is to disrupt the opponent and prolong the game until you can pull ahead on resources and close the game. In the early turns, March of Otherworldly Light and Get Lost can stave off the opponent’s pressure. Meanwhile, The Wandering Emperor is a perfect follow up, letting you exile a creature that attacks when applicable or just start making tokens if the board is clear.
From there, Sunfall acts as an elite way to stabilize the board if it gets out of hand. Sunfall’s ability to specifically exile all creatures is crucial in the face of cards like Return to the Ranks out of Abzan Amalia. Unlike Azorius control, this deck doesn’t have access to Counterspells for top-end cards, making the exile clause even more important.
Even though this deck can’t counter a turn three Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord or Collected Company, that doesn’t mean you’re cold to fast starts out of Rakdos Vampires or Abzan Amalia. Beyond just fighting through these cards with basic removal, you have a full playset of Hallowed Moonlight at the ready. Hallowed Moonlight is the ultimate surprise factor against decks that are trying to cheat creatures into play. Between Sorin+Vein Ripper, Collected Company, Arclight Phoenix, and Storm the Festival, it’s surprising how well-positioned Hallowed Moonlight truly is.
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A Token Subtheme
- Rarity: Rare
- Text: Tap: Add colorless. 2, Tap, Sacrifice a token: Draw a card. 3, Tap, Pay 1 life, Create a 1/1 blue Fish creature token. 4, Tap: Create a Treasure token.
Where this deck separates itself from a traditional control deck is with the inclusion of a token theme. Similar to Boros tokens in Standard, this idea primarily came to fruition thanks to the introduction of two Bloomburrow cards: Caretaker’s Talent and Fountainport.
Caretaker’s Talent helps you generate a great deal of card advantage whenever tokens enter the battlefield. Fountainport has the ability to both make tokens as well as turn those tokens into more cards.
The Wandering Emperor is particularly excellent because it fits both the control and token aspects of this deck perfectly. Plus, The Wandering Emperor can make tokens on the opponent’s turn the turn it comes down, which can be relevant with Caretaker’s Talent in play.
Beyond just The Wandering Emperor, there are a number of other token creators present. Beza, the Bounding Spring and Carrot Cake can keep both your life total and your token count high. Wedding Announcement is an excellent token producer that is no longer in Standard. In the late game, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion can run away with the game by flooding the board in short order.
Even though all these tokens are small by themselves, it’s easy for an army of them to take down your opponent over time. This becomes easier when you factor in the opportunity for a leveled-up Caretaker’s Talent or a transformed Wedding Announcement to pump your whole squad. The token and control themes work nicely in tandem, allowing you to win long, grindy games after exhausting the opponent of resources.
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An Interesting Metagame Position
- Mana Value: 3BBB
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/5
- Text: Flying. Ward- Sacrifice a creature. Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
Part of the reason this deck likely had such a successful outing is that it matches up decently well against the top two decks in the format: Rakdos and Abzan Amalia. The pilot played against Rakdos Vampires three times, Rakdos midrange once, and Abzan Amalia once in the Challenge. It’s very common at this point to play against Rakdos Vampires repeatedly during these events.
This deck has enough creature interaction to prevent the Amalia combo from being assembled. At the same time, cards like Wedding Announcement give you a great shot at grinding Rakdos decks into dust.
Combo and big mana strategies like Lotus Field combo and mono-green Devotion can be a bit problematic, since this deck doesn’t apply pressure well. That being said, neither of these decks are super popular right now, as both decks match up poorly in the face of Abzan Amalia. Not to mention, the pilot managed to beat Lotus Field combo in the top four, perhaps on the back of Damping Sphere out of the sideboard.
This sudden breakout performance really goes to show that even if you’re playing an off-the-wall strategy, if you’re well prepared to fight versus Vampires and Amalia combo, you’ve got a decent shot. There’s a chance things change come August 26 when the ban announcement occurs. That awaits to be seen. For now, though, these two decks rule the streets, so it’s cool to see such a unique archetype emerge victorious in a hostile environment.
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