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Much Abrew: Sunbird's Treasure (Standard, Magic Arena)


Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. This week, we have a surprise special episode of Much Abrew. Technically, the most popular Instant Deck Tech from last week was the Infinite Scepter combo deck for Modern from Fishbowl Thursday, but after a rough outing at FNM, the deck's creator suggested that we shouldn't actually play the deck for videos. The runner-up deck tech was Esper Hatebears for Standard, but we already played it on stream last week. As such, I figured that rather than playing an Instant Deck Tech deck this week, we'd play a fun deck that I really wanted to show off: Sunbird's Treasure!

You might remember this deck from the Twitch Rivals event a couple of weeks ago, but the event itself had a lot of byes, and we didn't get to play that many games with the deck. It seems super fun—maybe even one of the most fun decks in Guilds of Ravnica Standard when it works—so it seemed worth giving the deck the proper video treatment. The main plan of the deck is to use some strange Treasure token makers like Captain Lannery Storm and Pirate's Pillage to ramp into Sunbird's Invocation and then sort of combo off by using the enchantment to cast a bunch of Nexus of Fates. Eventually, we find a Niv-Mizzet, Parun with our Sunbird's Invocation and get a strange sort of storm combo kill as we take a bunch of turns in a row. Just how good is Sunbird's Treasure in Standard? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we can talk more about the deck!

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Much Abrew: Sunbird's Treasure (Standard)

Discussion

  • Heading into our matches, I was a bit worried about just how competitive Sunbird's Treasure would be—our Twitch Rivals experience was middling, and the Golgari matchup (probably the most important matchup in Standard) felt rough. Thankfully, the deck was great. We played a traditional constructed event on Arena and easily hit the five-win mark, only dropping one match along the way. Even better, we played Golgari four times and ended up 3-1 in the matchup! We also managed to beat Grixis Control and Mono-Red Aggro, so we technically beat every style of deck available in Standard, which is pretty impressive for a super-spicy brew. 
  • The secret of the deck is playing it like it's a combo deck. The combo is casting a Sunbird's Invocation and then something that costs at least seven mana so we can dig for a Nexus of Fate with our Sunbird's Invocation and hopefully repeat the process during our extra turn until our opponent eventually dies. As such, being aggressive with making Treasures is important, even if it means smashing Captain Lannery Storm into a blocker or using Expansion // Explosion to copy a Pirate's Pillage
  • Winning the game is sort of secondary to the deck. Once we get down a Sunbird's Invocation and start casting expensive spells, we'll figure out a way to win somehow—most commonly with a Niv-Mizzet, Parun but sometimes by chaining together Expansion // Explosions at our opponent's face. 
  • Speaking of Captain Lannery Storm, it's a really weird card in a combo deck without many other creatures. Probably the best way to think of it is as a three-mana Lotus Petal that sometimes ends up making two or three Lotus Petals. It does a lot, but it's more than worth the cost if we can get two Treasure tokens out of the three-drop, and it's fine even if we get just a single Treasure and than trade off with an opposing creature. 
  • Don't be afraid to aggressively use Expansion // Explosion to copy spells in the early game. Our deck is overflowing with expensive plays. We're very likely to win if we manage to live long enough to cast six- and seven-drops. As such, rather than holding Expansion // Explosion for the late game, it's often better to copy a Pirate's Pillage or even a removal spell to help ensure we stay alive long enough to resolve Sunbird's Invocation and Nexus of Fate
  • Against Golgari, the main problem is the planeswalkers that can destroy our artifacts and enchantments (both Vraskas and Vivien Reid). Keep in mind that the deck can make enough Treasures that it's possible to play a Sunbird's Invocation and a Nexus of Fate in the same turn, which is a good way of avoiding the problem. The Immortal Sun is also a life saver after sideboarding. 
  • Most importantly, Sunbird's Treasure is amazingly fun to play. The combo turns are a blast, and we sometimes go from doing almost nothing to winning the game out of nowhere!
  • So, should you play Sunbird's Treasure in Standard? I think the answer is clearly yes. It's one of the most fun decks I've played in Guilds of Ravnica Standard, and it's surprisingly competitive to boot! If you're looking for something spicy while we wait for Ravnica Allegiance to shake up the format, give it a shot—you'll have a blast!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.



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