The Fish Tank: Sweet and Spicy User Decks (October 18-24, 2020)
Welcome back to The Fish Tank, the series where we peek at sweet viewer-submitted decks and maybe, with our powers combined, turn them into real, fun, playable lists! This week, thanks to the most recent round of bannings massively improving the health of both Standard and Historic, we've got a bunch of submissions for these formats. But don't worry, we got some Modern sneaking in as well! What cool ideas did you all have this week? Let's find out! But first, to have your own deck considered for next week's edition (and for our Fishbowl Thursday Instant Deck Tech), make sure to leave a link in the comments, or email them to me at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
Standard
Kicker decks have been some of my favorites to play in Standard since the release of Zendikar Rising, but I've mostly focused on doing big things with blue-green and Sultai kicker with the help of Verazol, the Split Current. Daniel G. has a different take on kicker in Standard: UB Kicker Control! My favorite part of the deck is how the kicker threats help to get around Lurrus of the Dream-Den's two-mana-or-less companion restriction. Nullpriest of Oblivion, Scourge of the Skyclaves, Skyclave Shade, and even Thieving Skydiver are all two-mana threats, but thanks to kicker, they can also be powerful five-, six-, or seven-mana plays, with Nullpriest of Oblivion reanimating something if it is kicked, Skyclave Shade coming into play as a 5/3, and Scourge of the Skyclaves likely being a 10/10 for seven if we kick it. The end result is that we meet Lurrus's restriction but also have more late-game power than a typical Lurrus of the Dream-Den deck.
So, why are we playing a bunch of kicker cards? The payoff here is Roost of Drakes, which is surprisingly powerful, especially in multiples, quickly making a board full of flying threats in the late game once we get the mana to start kicking our spells. Otherwise, we're basically a UB Control deck that leans on kicker cards to offer removal and disrupt the opponent, with things like Bloodchief's Thirst, Into the Roil, Inscription of Ruin, and Inscription of Insight slowing the opponent down and supporting our Roost of Drakes finish.
One other thing worth mentioning is that it seems possible that the deck could move from blue-black to Sultai. Thanks to its X casting cost, Verazol, the Split Current technically meets Lurrus's restriction and is another extremely powerful payoff in a deck full of kicker cards. Plus, Sultai has a Triome (which is actually already in the deck). Between it and Fabled Passage, it shouldn't be that hard to add a hint of green, which would also give us some really strong sideboard cards, including answers to artifacts like Embercleave and Chainweb Aracnir to deal with Rogues. That said, the current build looks super sweet and like it might even be fairly competitive in our current Zendikar Rising 3.0 Standard meta.
Party decks still haven't really found their footing in Standard, although this might be (at least, in part) because building what is essentially a tribal deck that cares about four tribes is tricky. ProfessorRedward has a really unique take on the Party archetype: Mono-Black Party. Let's start with the good news: the combination of Malakir Blood-Priest and Gray Merchant of Asphodel is really interesting, with Malakir Blood-Priest basically being a mini-Gary if we can get a party assembled, giving us a ton of drain to keep our life total high and potentially burn our opponent out of the game. As for the bad news, our party is pretty small. While black has plenty of good Clerics and Rogues, it doesn't really have access to playable Warriors or Wizards, which limits the power of cards like Malakir Blood-Priest and Acquisitions Expert. Since the deck seems designed for best-of-one, Mardu Outrider (an Arena-only exclusive that is legal in best-of-one Standard but not best-of-three) seems like the perfect addition to increase the size of our party (by adding a Warrior to the deck) while also working with both Gray Merchant of Asphodel (as a double-black card) and Nullpriest of Oblivion (as a discard outlet).
The main reason I wanted to feature Mono-Black Party isn't because I think the deck is super powerful right now but because I really like the eight–Gray Merchant of Asphodel idea and think that as we get more sets (especially the D&D-focused set next summer), we might have some black Wizards and Warriors to improve the archetype. If Malakir Blood-Priest could consistently drain for four, the deck seems like it could be really strong! If you have some ideas on how to make the deck even better right now, make sure to let us know in the comments!
Historic
One of the best aspects of Historic is that it gives players on Arena a place to play their favorite Standard decks even after they rotate from Standard. Take, for example, Michael M.'s Haphazard Bombardment. If you remember back a couple of years, Haphazard Bombardment was a key piece to the closest thing we've had to a true land-destruction strategy in Standard for a long time. The goal of the deck is to ramp with cards like Explore and Hour of Promise so we can get enough mana to cast Haphazard Bombardment, put counters on our opponent's lands, and slowly start blowing them up, turn after turn. Casualties of War, Star of Extinction, Bedeck // Bedazzle, and Rubble Reading give us some backup land-destruction spells to keep our opponent as low on resources as possible. As far as actually killing our opponent, we have Sifter Wurm (although now that Pelakka Wurm is legal in Historic, that might be a better finisher if we want lifegain on a big trampler, and there are a ton of other potentially more powerful options available as well). But really, Haphazard Bombardment isn't about winning; it's about blowing up enough of your opponent's lands that they regret playing Magic. And some upgrades probably can be made around the edges, Michael's list should be a good option for making opponents miserable, win or lose.
Pioneer
Mill has been on the rise thanks to some new Zendikar Rising additions to the archetype, but Nate W.'s ultra-budget Pioneer mill deck has a different plan: using Archaeomancer and Engulf the Shore (with the help of a deck whose mana base is 100% Islands) to bounce the board every turn while slowly milling the opponent out of the game with cards like Merfolk Secretkeeper, Overwhelmed Apprentice, and Drowned Secrets. While the lock takes a lot of mana to get going (to bounce the board every turn, we need four mana for Archaeomancer and four more to cast the Engulf the Shore that Archaeomancer gets back from the graveyard), once it gets set up, it seems miserable for creature decks to deal with, assuming they don't have some sort of graveyard hate (to exile Engulf the Shore) or a handful of removal (to kill Archaeomancer through Engulf the Shore's protection). Just how strong the deck is in the current Pioneer meta remains to be seen, but considering it's just over $50 in paper and only $2 on Magic Online, there isn't that much risk in putting it together and taking it through some matches to find out.
Modern
Somehow, Scute Swarm has proven to be one of the most controversial cards from Zendikar Rising, with some people (without any real evidence) claiming it should be banned, while for others, it's an extremely popular build-around. What sets Seiterman's list apart from the rest is two things: first, it's for Modern, which isn't exactly Scute Swarm's home turf. Second, the deck isn't just making a bunch of tokens with Scute Swarm; it's making infinite Scute Swarm tokens.
Here's the plan: we get a Arcane Adaptation on the battlefield naming Saproling. We get a Life and Limb on the battlefield to make all Saprolings into Forests. Then, we make a land drop with a Scute Swarm on the battlefield, which will give us an Insect token that is a Saproling thanks to Arcane Adaptation and thereby also a Forest thanks to Life and Limb. Since the Insect Saproling Forest is technically a land, it will trigger Scute Swarm again to make another token. The end result is an infinite loop, with more and more tokens entering the battlefield until someone finds a way to stop the loop (or until the game ends in a draw). Thankfully, we have a plan to end the loop, with either Altar of Dementia or Blasting Station getting the job done. If we pull off the combo and have Blasting Station on the battlefield, we have infinite damage from sacrificing our Insect Saproling Forests, while with Altar of Dementia, we have infinite mill.
While the way the deck wins is really fun, whether or not it is actually competitive remains to be seen. To actually pull off the combo, we need four combo pieces, which is asking a lot. We do have Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, so worst case, we can go on the 6/6 beatdown plan (while also drawing some extra cards to find some combo pieces). To me, Scute Blaster looks like an Against the Odds deck but a sweet one. While the combo likely won't come together in most games, when it does come together, the end result should be spectacular!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for this week! If you have any ideas about how to improve these decks, make sure to let us know in the comments, and if you have a deck you want to be considered for a future Fish Tank, leave that there as well! Thanks to everyone who sent in decks this week! 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.
