Terror of the Peaks – Fair… and Not!

Who’s Afraid of Terror of the Peaks?

Terror of the Peaks

… Maybe you should be!

Let’s break it down…

Terror of the Peaks is a 5/4 flying Dragon for five mana. It’s comparable to many other Constructed-playable Dragons.

But unlike many of them, it has a built-in defensive capability. They might get your Terror of the Peaks, but you give them a Lava Spike back.

If they don’t deal with it, though? Terror of the Peaks can be a true terror for the opponent! Not only will it not take long to kill the opponent “naturally” with five power and evasion, other considerations can close the kill super fast… Or even in just one turn.

For the “fair” take on Terror of the Peaks, look for this card to show up in Gruul as a straight swap to start.

What if You Weirdly Had this Spider?

Sporeweb Weaver

“I didn’t like Gruul Spellbreaker anyway.”

-Mike

Sporeweb Weaver is a pretty good creature on the merits. It’s a tenacious defender for its cost; and can put the big hurt on both Mono-Blue and Mono-Red Aggro.

So… Pretty good card; devastating in some matchups.

But how does this card go with Terror of the Peaks?

Putting it All Together

No one read that text box, please!

So you’ve got a Terror of the Peaks on the battlefield.

You play Sporeweb Spider. Ting for one!

Now you play a Selfless Savior. Trigger your Dragon, targeting Sporeweb Spider. In response, sacrifice Selfless Savior to give Sporeweb Spider indestructible.

Now when you finish resolving the ting on Sporeweb Spider, you can make a 1/1 and get other triggers. The new creature also gives you a Terror of the Peaks trigger. Target your 1/4 again; rinse and repeat.

Since your Spider is indestructible, you can do this as much as you want, gain essentially infinite life, make infinite power, and finish off with a point on the opponent.

In sum: Terror of the Peaks is great fair… And might be something else entirely when infinite or unfair.

The Best of the Rest…

  • All of the M21 Planeswalkers
  • Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
  • and more!

Check it out:

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Llanowar Visionary is a Titan

Baneslayer Angels.

Mulldrifters.

Titans.

Discuss.

Michael and Patrick discuss this quite a bit, mostly around large creatures (often Baneslayers) from the upcoming Core Set 2021. But you know what is, and unambiguously, a Titan?

Llanowar Visionary

Llanowar Visionary is a Titan

Mike has already drawn a line in the M21 sand: Llanowar Visionary is his favorite card; and he is unlikely to be moved from this point.

Drawing a card is approximately as powerful as searching your library for a basic land. Any longtime readers or listeners of Mike know his adoration for cards like Borderland Ranger. Borderland Ranger was a 2/2 creature for three mana that searched up a basic. No one wanted to trade with it.

Llanowar Visionary is largely an upgraded Borderland Ranger. In the early game drawing a card will often be worse than searching up a basic land (but will usually be better late game). The difference? The body on Llanowar Visionary actually matters!

That’s the difference between a Mulldrifter like Borderland Ranger and a Titan. Both cards generate value immediately; pointing a Doom Blade at either is going to put you at least a little behind. But while Borderland Ranger is a boring 2/2 after its 187, Llanowar Visionary is an awesome mana Elf and the opponent will often be overjoyed to Doom Blade one.

Basri’s Lieutenant or Baneslayer Angel?

Which is better?

We’ll actually get to find out, given that Baneslayer Angel — the original best large creature of all time — is back in Standard! This will allow for direct comparison to Basri’s Lieutenant:

Basri’s Lieutenant

Protection from multicolored might be a big game. Stonecoil Serpent certainly helped carve its niche on the back of that ability in Pioneer.

While it says 3/4 in the bottom-right, Basri’s Lieutenant is a de facto 4/5.

But maybe most of all, Basri’s Lieutenant can produce 2/2 Knight creature tokens when certain of your creatures die. It can defy removal and set up any number of profitable trades, therefore.

But will it be better than Baneslayer?

Stay tuned…

How to Play with Peer into the Abyss

Peer into the Abyss

This is a tough one to assess.

Do you target yourself?

When exactly do you target the opponent?

Some pretty good thoughts and one mondo combo one click away:

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Agent of Treachery Banned! (and other stories)

Regular listeners know that we kind of punted last Thursday’s episode in light of the announcements we knew were going to happen today.

And they were three doozies!

Agent of Treachery

I. Agent of Treachery is banned in Standard

(and “suspended” in Historic)

Patrick and Michael are kind of divided on this one. Michael doesn’t really mind Agent of Treachery in and of itself… He points out that the card had a [reasonably] long and [somewhat] productive career from the Oko days.

You know, back when you actually had to cast the card.

And if you’re casting it? Agent of Treachery isn’t particularly offensive for seven mana. The problem of course is that in Standard right now, between the Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast combo and rolling the dice with Winota, Joiner of Forces, no one is actually paying retail for Agent of Treachery.

Patrick — perhaps rightfully — points out that whether it’s cast fair-style or not, no one is really having a lot of fun playing against it. Standard will be more fun without it.

Fires of Invention

II. Fires of Invention is also banned in Standard!

(and similarly suspended in Historic)

Again we have a host-divide!

Michael doesn’t really mind Fires of Invention; and reminds Patrick that he thought it was one of the worst cards in the Jeskai Yorion deck; Patrick vehemently disagrees…

And points out that Jeskai Yorion has a positive win rate against basically every other archetype in the format!

With disproportionate performance in an already-kind-of-stale Standard, banning Fires of Invention will probably improve everyone’s experience.

Neither banning has anywhere near the impact of a fundamental change in the Companion rules, though…

The New Companion Rule

From Ian Duke’s announcement:

Once per game, any time you could cast a sorcery (during your main phase when the stack is empty), you can pay 3 generic mana to put your companion from your sideboard into your hand. This is a special action, not an activated ability.

Instead of having access to casting an eighth card straight out of their sideboards, Companion players will now have to “buy” the extra card for three mana. As the Companion will go to their hands, this will do (at least) two things:

  1. Open up the ability to interact with Companions. For instance, discard may become an effective way to deal with one. Cards like Robber of the Rich will also gain text, and the ability to directly compete with Companion card advantage.
  2. Slow down Companions. They all essentially have a three mana “tax” that they didn’t yesterday. We speculate that there is no longer a reason for Lurrus of the Dream-Den to be banned in Vintage or Legacy, as its extreme speed has been curbed. Similarly, we predict Zirda, the Dawnwaker will also be pulled from the Legacy banned list.

But what’s next for Standard?

Which Companions will continue to be strong, and which will lose their luster? Listen to “Agent of Treachery Banned! (and other stories)” to hear our immediate takes:

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Zirda, the Dawnwaker is Banned in Legacy!

Zirda, the Dawnwaker is one of two Companions to be banned before Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is even legal on paper

“I don’t think they banned too many Companions.”

-Patrick

We knew from the outset that Lurrus of the Dream-Den was going to be really good with Black Lotus. All you had to do was draw your Black Lotus and you could deploy your Lurrus of the Dream-Den on the first turn and re-play the Lotus! The ban in Vintage was thus eminently predictable.

Interestingly, Vintage usually tries to deal with overpowered cards via restriction (rather than banning). But restriction under the current rules doesn’t stop Lurrus from being played as a Companion… So ban it is!

Joining Lurrus on the Legacy banned list is fellow Companion Zirda, the Dawnwaker. Zirda is abusively powerful with mana artifacts with “untap” abilities like Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith.

Zirda, the Dawnwaker

There’s lots of ways that Zirda can break; here’s a simple implementation:

  • Turn two, play your second land and a Grim Monolith
  • Turn three, float 3 — and don’t even hit your land drop. Tap your original two lands, using one of the 3 Monolith mana to cast Zirda; you have 2 floating… Which, with Zirda in play, is exactly what you need to untap the Grim Monolith.
  • You can tap for 3, use 2 to untap the Monolith, and essentially make infinite colorless mana on turn three.
Zirda, the Dawnwaker enables infinite mana with Grim Monolith

Zirda wasn’t a problem yet: But the writing was on the wall.

All the Companions! All the Standard!

  • Solar Blaze is the hot new tech in 80-card Jeskai. Unlike with Shatter the Sky, your Agent of Treachery and Yorion, Sky Nomad will live through the ‘Blaze
  • Heraldic Banner helps cast Obosh, the Preypiercer in Mono-Red! Accelerating three-to-five is less exciting than decelerating three-to-one to leave up Shock mana or pop out another hasty one drop.
  • Bolas’s Citadel replaces Casualties of War in Jund Sacrifice. Now that no one is playing permanents, six mana Desert Twisters are less exciting than forcing the opponent to take ten.
  • Lurrus of the Dream-Den enables a Bogles-like White Weenie deck that violates the spirit of the law… and the opponent’s life total.
  • The four-color Neoform deck that Patrick is afraid might be busted…
  • And the critical difference between Mono-Green Ramp and Simic Mutate.

Give it a listen:

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We Adore This Colossus Hammer Deck

You don’t know what a Colossus Hammer is, you say? Let us help you out with that…

It’s Hammer Time!

More on Colossus Hammer in a second; but before we get to Modern and Pioneer [with Companions!] it’s probably worth mentioning Vintage, which is “in a kind of weird, unplayable state” might just feature the first banning of a card before it is actually printed:

To be fair, we did warn y’all that Lurrus of the Dream-Den Sure is Good with Black Lotus.

All Kinds of Companions in Modern and Pioneer!

  • Blinking Ice-Fang Coatl with Yorion, Sky Nomad [and wouldn’t Magic be more fun if all the decks were 80 card decks?]
  • Your standard* Uro / Urza deck, with Emry and Galvanic Blast [* where “standard” is actually Modern]
  • Seal of Fire just seems better than Burst Lighting in this 18-land Burn deck [that really only splashes white for Lurrus]
  • Why there really are no prohibitive costs in Modern
  • The card LITERALLY NO ONE should talk about in Modern [Weather the Storm]
  • Klothys, God of Destiny; Glorybringer; Bonecrusher Giant… All in a viable Modern deck? [aka “the good guy”]
  • … And so much more

But Our Favorite Deck is Colossus Hammer Beatdown!

Let’s start with Bogles; aka “Infect that’s great against Burn” according to Mike. While Patrick isn’t super happy with that description, the decks are often spoken about in relation to each other. Both are about playing small creatures with specialized abilities that specialize in putting a ton of pants on one of those creatures to win in a small number of attacks.

Infect is historically much more explosive, and a bit faster; but can be vulnerable to point removal.

Bogles, with mostly hexproof creatures, is far more resistant to removal, but less explosive than Infect. But Bogles is slower and — at least prior to the recent availability of Lurrus of the Dream-Den — could collapse like a house of cards if the one creature it drew was dealt with via discard or a Liliana activation.

But now we have Colossus Hammer!

What makes this deck so exciting?

  • Colossus Hammer plays actual good cards. Don’t forget: Stoneforge Mystic spent most of Modern on the Banned List
  • This deck can be as explosive as Infect. Kor Duelist + the Hammer itself is worth more than 20 damage
  • Though the Hammer is a permanent, this deck has some instant speed play. Sigarda’s Aid and Magnetic Theft can act as lethal “Giant Growth”-type cards.
  • It can defend its combo. Giver of Runes (or Spellskite in some versions) can keep your attacker alive to attack for lethal.
  • It’s ALSO an Infect deck. What’s better to give +10/+10 to than an Inkmoth Nexus?

Ready to pound the opponent for 20+ (or lethal Infect)? What are you waiting for?

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The Many Faces of Yorion, Sky Nomad

The man — err… Bird Serpent — of the hour:
Yorion, Sky Nomad

Yorion, Sky Nomad has taken over as the most popular and successful Companion in Standard over the course of the last week!

It’s no Lurrus of the Dream-Den in powered formats [yet], but for the low low cost of twenty extra cards in your library, this card can become a reliable source of massive card advantage and synergy.

Tale’s End; with and against Yorion, Sky Nomad

The popularity of Companions makes Tale’s End a versatile tool for Standard

First thing’s first: Tale’s End is a reliable “Essence Scatter” type in a format with so many Companions. Even better, it usually trades favorably on tempo… Two for three; even two for six!

But that’s not all!

Many decks play Legendary permanents other than their Companions… Whether a ubiquitous Planeswalker or Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath in Temur Reclamation, Tale’s End can counter them for two.

You can counter the ability of Priest of Forgotten Gods! What a beating on the battlefield that would be!

Or how about countering a Cycling activation? Trading a permission spell for a card drawing spell has never been completely out of the question, but these days that might also mean depriving the opponent of a specific trigger or the 1/1 token from an Improbable Alliance.

It’s pretty important to stop the Control Magic-type ability on Agent of Treachery in these Yorion decks, too! Don’t sleep on Tale’s End.

Popular Builds with Yorion, Sky Nomad

  • Jeskai – Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast can team up with the token creatures from a variety of sources (Castle Ardenvale, Shark Typhoon, even Omen of the Sun) to upgrade into Agent of Treachery.
  • Arcanist’s Owl – In a non-Lukka build… The Owl can help dig to Fires of Invention or rack up triggers from Archon of Sun’s Grace.
  • Four-color – If you’re already in the market for an Omen of the Sun, what about Calix, Destiny’s Hand for a green splash? The deck is full of all kinds of enchantments, up to and including Fires of Invention, and digging to them is generally welcome. Given all the enchantments, Calix is reliable removal, too.

Yorion combines brilliantly with all these enters the battlefield effects. Omen of the Sea, Omen of the Sun, and even Omen of the Forge represent card advantage coming and going and coming back again!

Load your battlefield up with 187-style permanents and Yorion, Sky Nomad will pay you back, reliably, circa turn five.

Learn all the secrets of the Sky Nomad in this week’s podcast:

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Keruga, the Macrosage is Defining and Dominating Standard!

Don’t get us wrong… Keruga, the Macrosage is defining Standard right now

But… Have You Seen That Pioneer Yorion, Sky Nomad Deck?

Demonic Pact
Yorion, Sky Nomad + Demonic Pact…
What a combo!

Patrick and MichaelJ are pretty much in love with a Doom Foretold deck that runs Demonic Pact in Pioneer.

You can get value with the Pact, and sacrifice it to Doom Foretold before it costs you the game. Or for that matter, just Emblem up Gideon of the Trials to prevent losing on the spot.

Of course playing especially multiple copies of Demonic Pact or other exciting reset-able permanents and then slamming Yorion, Sky Nomad makes for a really exciting strategy. Of course you’re ALWAYS going to be able to play Yorion on demand (provided you’ve hit five land drops)… So the downside risk on Demonic Pact is a lot lower than it has historically been in previous formats.

People are exploring the new seven mana Ultimatum cycle from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths… But this card gives you basically a delayed blast Ultimatum for only four.

Now for our scheduled Keruga, the Macrosage admiration session…

Keruga in the Fires of Invention deck was absolutely dominant last week.

Not only did it occupy 15 of the Top 32 slots in the MTGO Super Qualifier, it took both first and second place, posted five of the Top 8, and claimed six of the seven wins in that Top 8.

Jund?

Faeries?

Even StoneBlade?

Mike could not remember so dominant a performance in Standard.

It did not take long for Patrick to remind him:

You TRY to forget…

The Best of the Rest…

  • Simic Mutate Linear
  • Jeskai Cycling… Also Linear (and how to improve it)
  • Heraldic Banner in Rakdos Sacrifice
  • And more!

Check it out now:

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The First Week of Standard with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Companions from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths are Taking Over Every Format

The Companion mechanic is extraordinarily powerful. While the deck building cost to use a particular companion can vary, the combination of consistency and the so-called “eighth card” cannot be exaggerated.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den seems to be the best companion on rate so far, and has already successfully crushed large events in Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Legacy.

We’re sure Lurrus will be even better in Standard.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Rakdos Sacrifice

Lurrus of the Dream-Den from
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Companions are so good it isn’t even clear which ones should go in which established archetypes! There are at least four Companions that might make sense in Rakdos Sacrifice, but two have risen to the top so far.

The Lurrus build of Rakdos Sacrifice forces some hard cuts. Woe Strider, Midnight Reaper, and the iconic Mayhem Devil all cost too much. Look for the Lurrus build to play a lot of two mana haste attackers like Dreadhorde Butcher or Robber of the Rich instead.

Perhaps more importantly, this build can [still] use Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger. Because Kroxa is technically only two mana, it is not only eligible to be played, but can work a two-man game with Lurrus itself.

Other notable additions from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths include Whisper Squad and Serrated Scorpion.

Whisper Squad starts on one but fills many additional, important, roles. If you do nothing else on turn two, you can activate the Whisper Squad to Squadron Hawk up another copy. It’s also a great “virtual three drop” for a deck that can’t play any real three drops… Kind of like a Wood Elves for Whisper Squads. And of course, if you have a ton of mana already on the battlefield, it can become a one-card army on the quick.

Serrated Scorpion is a great card to start with in this strategy, and awesome to sacrifice (even through combat) and re-buy with Lurrus. Patrick believes this card will inspire a Rakdos Burn deck in Modern.

Obosh, the Preypiercer in Rakdos Sacrifice

Obosh, the Preypiercer from
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Competing for the allegiance of the resilient and resurgent Rakdos archetype is Obosh, the Preypiercer.

Obviously more expensive than Lurrus, Obosh offers immediate payoff the turn it hits the battlefield, but a harsh deck building cost.

No even costed cards means no Priest of the Forgotten Gods (making it a little harder to summon a five drop). The fact that three mana cards are available to this build (unlike the Lurrus one) makes the curve quite a bit higher. That is something to watch out for as these builds settle.

Gyruda, Doom of Depths Delivers a Whole-New Archetype

Gyruda, Doom of Depths from
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Here’s the thing: Lots of good mana acceleration is even-costed. Growth Spiral, Paradise Druid, new stuff.

If you get to six, you can pretty much always cast Gyruda… Because it’s a Companion and that’s how Companions work. You never have to draw it!

When you play Gyruda in this new deck / world / disaster for the opponent look for cards like Spark Double and Charming Prince to keep the party going. Your expectation will usually be to attack for lethal if you’re given the opportunity to untap.

Believe it or not… There is even more Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths in this week’s podcast!

Check it out:

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We’re Bananas for Kogla, the Titan Ape

Kogla, the Titan Ape

Kogla, the Titan Ape is Our Kind of Desert Twister

Mike has been joking forever how much we like six mana Desert Twisters.

  • Ugin, the Ineffable provides a Desert Twister-like effect (at least against colored permanents) that will leave you a one loyalty Planeswalker.
  • Garruk, Cursed Huntsman does you one better… two different ways! Still for six mana, you get to destroy a permanent (as long as it’s a creature) AND draw a card AND are even left with one more loyalty than Ugin!
  • Casualties of War is like five Desert Twisters! (at least as long as your opponent cooperates by playing enough permanents) Fail state? Regular-old Desert Twister.

Kogla, the Titan Ape fights a creature when it enters the battlefield. As long as that creature has toughness of seven — seven! — or less, Kogla will destroy it. Even if Kogla doesn’t survive, that’s six mana to destroy a key permanent.

Desert.

Twister.

… But it’s so much more! Like, whenever the opponent’s creature isn’t big enough to win, you get to keep a sweet 7/6.

THAT ALSO HAS OTHER ABILITIES!

Don’t be surprised to see Kogla, the Titan Ape in powered formats.

Because it destroys an artifact or enchantment every time it swings, Kogla might see play in formats where people play powerful artifacts and enchantments.

Might that be surprising to see? Maybe a little bit. But don’t sleep on how useful this Legendary Ape might be. Not only does it provide potential card advantage, a 7/6 is a pretty fast way to win.

They even gave it an activated ability for Zirda, the Dawnwalker

Kogla even has an activated ability!

If a huge body… and a sick fight ability… and a persistent nuisance for expensive permanents weren’t good enough…

You can even play Kogla with Zirda!

But that’s not all!

  • Since you will often be playing Kogla with Nissa, Who Shakes the World already in play, you’ll often have 1G open to defend it.
  • Besides which… There is no shortage of humans you might want to return to your hand. Examples include everything from Charming Prince (which works coming or going) to Agent of Treachery

Lots and lots of other cards, brewing ideas, and good fun from Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths, of course. Give Kogla, the Titan Ape a little love now:

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Lurrus of the Dream-Den Sure is Good with Black Lotus

Lurrus of the Dream-Den
is one exciting Companion!

Go with us here… Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Vintage

Imagine for a moment you look at your opening hand and see a Black Lotus.

You know… Basically the best ever

So the way Companion works is that if you can cast the Lurrus… You can cast the Lurrus. You don’t have to draw it; it’s just there waiting for you.

Thus, if you have a Black Lotus in your opening hand, you can simply play it, sacrifice it for BBB (or WWW if you please) and make yourself a Cat Nightmare.

Is a 3/2 Lifelink that impressive on the first turn in Vintage? It’s certainly not “bad” per se… I mean it’s probably better than the odd Slash Panther… But that’s not the point.

Why? Because of this clause:

During each of your turns, you may cast one permanent spell with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard.

What’s in your graveyard? A Black Lotus! So you can immediately re-play the iconic artifact. And not just that, starting on turn two, presuming you make your land drop, you will have access to at least eight mana.

  • Land #1 (1)
  • Land #2 (2)
  • Sacrifice Black Lotus (5)
  • Re-play and Black Lotus with your Legendary Cat Nightmare; sacrifice it (8)

Boom!

Also you can get in for the 23-17 advantage. hash tag lifelink

Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Modern

Now obviously this is not a card most players think about for Vintage, first.

Not surprisingly, Mike’s mind went straight to his favorite: The Modern Red Deck. Though he has recently switched allegiance to Mono-Red, Mike was the innovator of not playing Wild Nacatl, the early advancer of Inspiring Vantage, and even dipped his toe in the Bump in the Night waters. Lurrus can obviously work in the sideboard of either a Boros or a Rakdos Red Deck.

What makes this card so compelling is that it requires very little compromise in terms of main deck design. Not “no” compromise, maybe… But little. Look at Mike’s most recent build of Mono-Red:

This deck has three mana cards like Light Up the Stage, Skewer the Critics, and Rift Bolt… But not only are they all essentially one mana spells… They are all non-permanent spells! Besides a lone Bonecrusher Giant main deck, all the other permanents are one mana. Even when Mike would bring in Eidolon of the Great Revel, that card would happily fit the Companion cost of Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

But Lurrus [in Modern, that is…We saw how different it would be in Vintage] is more than a virtual eighth card in a Red Deck’s opener, that might save it from mana flood, or buy some life points in a fiery mirror. There is that “each of your turns” line. What do you think about this?

Queue permanent spell with converted mana cost 2 or less.

Seal of Fire isn’t quite Black Lotus… But it’s not a bad get from your graveyard, turn after turn after turn.

A Boros Burn deck isn’t the only way to exploit Lurrus; just the most obvious out the gate.

Tons and Tons more from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Little Lurrus isn’t even quite a “behemoth” … But it’s a pretty good illustration of Ikoria mechanic Companion.

We talk tons of Mutate, where you might want to stick your odd Brokkos, Apex of Forever, and why you don’t want to go too tall, whatever the incentives in this week’s podcast! Check it out now:

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