This weekend, multiple Pioneer Regional Championships took place. Players got to compete for money as well as spots at the Pro Tour and the World Championship stage. While many players registered tried and true archetypes like Izzet Phoenix and Rakdos Prowess, some others decided to bring unorthodox strategies with them.
In fact, the winner of the Regional Championship in Sydney took down the whole event playing a unique Jund Creativity variant. Indomitable Creativity decks are not new to the Pioneer scene, but usually players utilize blue as a primarily color to gain access to cards like Deduce.
This Jund version offers some important tools that traditional Izzet and Temur decks miss out on. To start, let’s look at what the Jund Creativity deck is looking to accomplish.
What Indomitable Creativity Brings to the Table
- Mana Value: XRRR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- 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.
Indomitable Creativity is a very powerful card, so long as you build your deck in a way to maximize it. The goal is to create artifact or creature tokens to target with Indomitable Creativity. From there, you get to put creatures or artifacts directly into play from your deck. In order to fully abuse Indomitable Creativity, you want to restrict the creatures and artifacts in your deck to only be dominant haymakers.
These game breaking bombs can vary. Sometimes you’ll see just a few copies of Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Other players will lean towards Valgavoth, Terror Eater. In this instance, the winning decklist played one copy of Atraxa, Valgavoth, and Titan of Industry each as threats to put into play with Creativity.
In order to make the deck tick, there are plenty of cards that produce artifact and creature tokens to target. The best of the best is, of course, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. No Creativity deck would be complete without Fable. Fable not only makes a creature token for Creativity, but that creature then makes Treasure tokens when it attacks. You can even target the backside of Fable after it transforms.
Another intriguing option to fill this role is Pawpatch Formation. Just like Deduce, Pawpatch Formation can draw you a card and leave behind an artifact token.
However, you also get the upside of being able to use Pawpatch Formation as a removal spell for fliers and enchantments. This is especially crucial versus the Demons shells that are on the rise, since you can destroy Archfiend of the Dross as well as Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber.
Black Adds a New Dynamic
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Aether Revolt, Double Masters
- Card Text: Destroy target creature if it has converted mana cost 2 or less. Revolt– Destroy that creature if it has converted mana cost 4 or less instead if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn.
The big area where this Creativity shell differentiates from more traditional alternatives is with the focus on incorporating black cards into the mix. Black gives you access to a lot of incredibly powerful cards that we typically see in the Jund Transmogrify decklists.
Unsurprisingly, you’ll find playsets of Fatal Push and Thoughtseize in the one-mana slot. These pieces of interaction are as good as they come in Pioneer. Fatal Push in particular is a huge upgrade over the cheap red removal spells other Creativity decks have to run. Cleanly answering creatures from Rakdos Prowess without worrying about getting blown out by pump spells is incredibly important.
Thoughtseize makes it easy to clear the way for you to resolve Creativity. Getting to nab an opposing piece of counter magic or artifact/creature removal can make a big difference in the game.
The other elite option you get to use is Case of the Stashed Skeleton. Case does everything you want. It puts a creature token in play for Creativity. If that creature dies, you get the luxury of tutoring up any card you choose on a later turn. You’ll usually go to grab Creativity or a card to pair with it, but you’re free to search for a hate card like Anger of the Gods in post-sideboard games if you wish.
An Epic Performance
- Mana Value: 3R
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/2
- MTG Sets: Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Remastered
- Card Text: Flying, haste. At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you’ve cast three or more instants or sorceries this turn, return Arclight Phoenix from your graveyard to the battlefield.
This deck’s performance is one for the ages. The victor, James Moore, crushed the competition, beating a slew of different decks at the Regional Championship. From Izzet Phoenix to Rakdos Prowess, this deck proved to be able to defeat any top-tier archetype that was thrown its way.
Even though the deck is a bit unusual, it is quite well positioned at the moment. Just like Jund Transmogrify, you have the upside of slamming unbeatable threats, all while interacting with your opponent at will. However, unlike Jund Transmogrify, Jund Creativity is less vulnerable to removal spells.
See, Transmogrify forces you to target a single creature. Because Creativity lets you hit artifacts, you often don’t have to worry about Thoughtseizing the opponent’s Fatal Pushes and such. Furthermore, you can always target multiple of your creatures and artifacts at once. This way, even if the opponent can answer one of your targets in response, Creativity will still resolve and put at least one monster into play.
This deck has plenty of disruption to keep fast creature decks off-balance, and most archetypes in the format will have trouble beating an Atraxa or Valgavoth once they hit the table. In matchups where speed is a priority, you can always take out these threats, then sideboard in Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos, God of Revels to enable a combo kill when you resolve Creativity for X=2.
The flexibility and resiliency of Jund Creativity is definitely noteworthy. Expect to see this deck pop up more in the near future.
