The Fish Tank: Theros: Beyond Death Edition (Jan. 21-28, 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! Theros: Beyond Death is officially here, so let's peek at some more sweet viewer-submitted decks using cards from Magic's newest set! Our main focus this week is Standard, which makes sense, as people are excited about the new format, but we have some Pioneer and Modern spice as well, along with a deck that's specifically for best-of-one Standard on Magic Arena! Oh yeah, and 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
Most of the hype for Heliod, Sun-Crowned has been focused on Modern and Pioneer, although Bennymon1 is looking to change this with a brew that can generate infinite damage with Heliod, Sun-Crowned in Standard! The deck has three main combo pieces: Heliod, Sun-Crowned, Benthic Biomancer and Glint-Horn Buccaneer. The idea is that we can use Heliod, Sun-Crowned to give Glint-Horn Buccaneer lifelink and then adapt Benthic Biomancer to loot. When we draw and discard, this will trigger our now-lifelinking Glint-Horn Buccaneer to ping our opponent for one, which triggers Heliod, Sun-Crowned to put another counter on Benthic Biomancer, which lets us loot again, starting the entire process over. The main concern I have for the deck is consistency. When the combo goes off, it seems like a spectacular way to win the game, but how often will Benthic Biomancer, Glint-Horn Buccaneer, and Heliod, Sun-Crowned all show up? And even if we do find all of our pieces, will Benthic Biomancer and Glint-Horn Buccaneer survive long enough to pull off the combo? Counterspells like Dovin's Veto and Sinister Sabotage do help to protect our combo, as does Alseid of Life's Bounty, but the combo might be more Against the Odds than truly competitive, although when everything comes together, Benthic Biomancer Infinite Combo offers a really sweet way to go infinite (and win the game) in Standard!
Everyone is trying to figure out the best way to win with Thassa's Oracle in Standard these days, and blammmmm has an interesting plan: aggressive self-mill with Drowned Secrets and eventually Underworld Breach to escape Thassa's Oracle (and maybe some other cards as well) from the graveyard for a big combo finish. One possibility for the deck is to add Arclight Phoenix and maybe cards like Creeping Chill and Ox of Agonas as well, making it a sort of hybrid-Thassa's Oracle / Standard Dredge deck. This would potentially make the deck more powerful and also make sure that we still have a way to win the game if something horrible happens to our Thassa's Oracle (like Unmoored Ego, for example). Even without any changes, the deck seems like it should be good at executing its plan, although I think the current build of the deck is just scratching the surface of what the archetype could become. If you have some ideas for upgrades, make sure to let us know in the comments!
Most often, we focus on best-of-three decks, but Vaxfantomen's mythic best-of-one deck is spicy enough that it deserves mention. On one hand, the deck is sort of a unique take on Bant Ramp, although what it's ramping into is somewhat surprising: Kiora Bests the Sea God. The deck's main goal is not just to play a Kiora Bests the Sea God but to keep looping it from the graveyard with the help of Brought Back. Cards like Growth Spiral, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner help us get up to seven mana quickly (as does the combo of Brought Back and Lotus Field), at which point playing Kiora Bests the Sea God after Kiora Bests the Sea God should finish the game with ease. If you're looking for something different to rank up with in best-of-one, give the deck a shot. It's spicy enough that it almost makes me want to play some best-of-one matches on Magic Arena!
Pioneer
I've thought about building 8 Rack in Pioneer for a while, but I worried that the combination of so-so discard spells and one of our eight The Racks being a low-loyalty planeswalker would make the deck underpowered. Then, Theros: Beyond Death came along and massively changed the equation with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger! Not only is Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger a fine(ish) discard spell for two mana, but it also offers a great way to close out the game after we empty our opponent's hand, so we don't have to worry about Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage dying or about not drawing a Shrieking Affliction. If we can use our cheap discard to clear the way and escape a Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger into play (using our cheap discard and Liliana, Heretical Healer's self-mill to fuel escape), Kroxa is an extremely fast finisher, hitting our opponent for three when it comes into play and then (likely) attacking for nine while helping to keep our opponent empty-handed, which means just a couple of attacks should be enough to close out the game. Even with the addition of Kroxa, the deck does lack good discard spells that hit multiple cards (things like Wrench Mind in Modern), leaving us with some underpowered options like Unburden to support our plan, but it's possible that Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger will be enough to overcome these issues all by itself—the card is that powerful!
Modern
The quest to win with Thassa's Oracle continues in Modern, in an interesting blue devotion shell from kahluah. The deck's goal is simple: make a bunch of mana with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx; find a Mirror of Fate, which can tap to exile our library; and then either have a Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Thassa's Oracle to win the game by having an empty library. One of the deck's sweet aspects is that both Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries work really well with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and offer card advantage / selection when they aren't winning the game. So unlike many combo decks, where the combo pieces are useless outside the combo, in Blue Devotion Combo, we'd arguably want these cards in our deck even if the combo finish wasn't a thing. My only concern for the deck is if it's fast enough for the Modern format, especially if we get a slow-ish draw without Leyline of Anticipation (which is also pretty sweet in the deck since it adds devotion for free and allows us to win at instant speed with Mirror of Fate and Thassa's Oracle), although cards like Brazen Borrower, Remand, Force of Negation, and Cryptic Command give us some solid early-game interaction. In general, the deck looks weird but solid enough that it should be able to win a reasonable number of games in Modern!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today! If you have some ideas on how to improve these decks, make sure to leave them in the comments, and if you have a deck you'd like considered for the next edition of The Fish Tank (or the Fishbowl Thursday Instant Deck Tech), leave that as well! As always, you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
