Legacy!
jk, we'll talk about Nyx... jeez
So today Journey into Nyx becomes legal for Standard play and I've been brewing for a couple weeks now trying to find that deck that just feels good and so far I've got nothing. The answer might just be to keep playing Mono Blue, Mono Black, U/W control or Jund Monsters. Well as a member of a team that focuses on building rogue decks, that's hard for me to submit to. I'll do it, I'd just rather try to find something different and fun first.
Well, let's talk about what these tier-1 decks might gain from JOU so we can have an idea of what to expect for the new meta. We'll start with
Mono Blue: If you remember, when Born of the Gods came out, this deck took nothing from it and continued to crush faces. Most likely, it'll remain that way with Nyx, but just in case, let's look at some playables from JOU that they might pick up.
Dictate of Kruphix. I've definitely heard talk of people thinking this will end up in Mono Blue. The devotion is good and it keeps the game moving fast. I disagree. If your deck isn't specifically designed to generate massive amounts of card advantage every turn, this card does not belong in your deck. Turbo fog or a deck full of wrath spells would be ok, but giving your opponent more cards to answer the creatures you're trying to win with, especially now that we have access to Extinguish All Hope, is a no go.
Polymorphous Rush. Now this could be a huge bomb in Mono Blue, especially if you have access to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. After you stick a Master of Waves for 4+ tokens, the next turn they all become Desecration Demons, Nightveil Specters, Archangel of Thunes, etc. That could be pretty rough to deal with. Again, you'd probably need Nykthos to get enough mana to make it worth it, and then it'd probably be a 1 or 2-of.
Nothing else looks playable for the Mono Blue archetype so most likely it'll just keep plugging along unless something else comes along that just becomes the rock to their scissors.
Next, let's look at
Mono Black: Born of the Gods provided Bile Blight which has earned prestigious titles such as; "The Great Elspeth Killer", "Destructor of Mutavaults", and my favorite, "How many tokens did you get with Master of Waves?... oh right, NONE! Nice 2/1 for 4 dude". So what about JOU?
Brain Maggot. I personally am over Pack Rat and I'd rather strip their hand even more with Brain Maggot and Thoughtseize than strip my own hand hoping it gets there. I tend to lean on the more controlling side of the game so that's just my thoughts. I think this card is good in any deck with black.
Extinguish All Hope. Man I miss Mutilate... This is the next best thing. Ya, you don't really want to be blowing up your own creatures and you won't always hit all of theirs so this will probably only be a 1-of at most. Still, it's a wrath and is the only way to beat those deck that just flood out with creatures.
Silence the Believers. This is a good removal spell, can answer Gods, and can sometimes hit more than one creature. The mana cost is pretty high, so again at best, this will be a 1-of in any Mono Black decks.
That's about it and none of them are really upgrades, so Mono Black might just stick to what it's used to too.
U/W control. This archetype actually gets a few playable options to consider.
Nyx-Fleece Ram. It's not great, but it helps stop the early game aggro and picks up some precious life points. Unfortunately it dies to your Supreme Verdicts so it most likely won't be considered, however, it exists and it's an option.
Font of Fortunes. I actually feel that this card means you can cut Jace, Architect of Thought from the deck altogether. Playing this on turn two allows you to have counter magic up for turn 3 and later. Then if they don't do something worth countering, or they do something that you can answer in a different way, you can just pop this for two mana and pick up two cards. It's better than divination because the 2 mana to play and to activate is less of a burden than 3 at sorcery speed. If you think of it like Think Twice, it's one less mana for the same two cards, but you have to commit to it and wait a bit for it. This card is great and I hope it picks up in popularity.
Deicide. Revoke Existence just got wiped from existence. Artifacts have been non-existent already so the fact that Deicide can only hit enchantments is not even a downside. The upside however is that you get it at instant speed which control decks will value very highly. And of course, the additional upside of stripping their entire deck of the remaining Thassa's... scry me a river... oh wait! you can't! trolololol
Some great additions here, I would definitely expect to see some of these floating around in U/W/x lists from now on.
Finally, lets take a look at what R/G/x monsters gains from Journey into Nyx.
Setessen Tactics. Probably the only playable card that this archetype will use. This allows them to fight off other mid-range decks but the downside to this is that in order to use it, you have to skip your combat to do so. Also, the +1/+1 effect is only temporary. Either way, it's not too expensive to target 3-4 of your creatures and destroy their side of the board.
Tormented Thoughts. Not sure if they'll use this if they're in black, but they do have big creatures that are aggressively costed so Tormented Thoughts acts like a Rakdos's Return where you get the damage in with the creature itself, then sack it to pitch their hand. Probably better sideboard against control decks, but if you have black you have access to Slaughter Games and Rakdos's Return anyway, so who knows?
So that's what we'll most likely be looking at for the existing archetypes. What about new archetypes that could show up?
Like I said before, I've been brewing a bit with Journey into Nyx and have come up with a few ideas. Some I'm pretty sure won't be competitive at all, and others might have a chance if I can tweak the deck just right. Here are some ideas I've thought of in the last couple weeks.
Not posting entire deck lists here, just some fun syngergies I've found.
Boros Reckoner/Dictate of the Twin Gods
Any damage dealt to the Reckoner is doubled and he in turn doubles it again at your opponent's face! Kind of cutesy, dangerous against aggressive decks to have their creatures deal double too, and not sure how to build around it exactly yet, but I definitely want to see if it can work.
Dictate of Kruphix/Notion Thief
You draw two cards on your turn, one on their turn and they draw the one they normally get anyway. Again, I'm not sure how else to structure the deck to make sure you can keep their board clear and win with the thief attacking in every turn, but the synergy is hilarious. Master of Feasts is pretty funny here too.
Eidolon of Blossoms/Mana Bloom(or any enchantment you can keep casting for triggers)
The constellation mechanic is interesting and my last article discussed a deck that could use it well, but not really abuse it. The only way I can think to abuse it would be to bring your entire graveyard into play after milling 20+ enchantments off your library to get a crap ton of Constellation triggers. The only way I've thought of doing that in standard would be to flood the board with enchantment creatures and pop a Legion's Initiative. Even then, the effects we have access to for that mechanic are 'meh' at best. Losing life off of Grim Guardian is probably the best one for mana cost, size of creature and power level of effect with Forgeborn of Oreads being a close second. Eidolon of Blossoms just draws you cards, it doesn't win the game, though it helps you get there.
Lotleth Troll/Strength from the Fallen
Again, Constellation isn't amazing, but the synergy here is hard to miss. The only problem is casting enchantments to keep getting the effect every turn. Strength from the Fallen(and every other card with constellation) triggers when itself enters the battlefield, so at least there's that. Nighthowler works well with this setup for triggering the constellation and essentially doubling the effect. Since Lotleth Troll has trample and can regenerate easily, he will be tough to deal with and this could turn out to be one of the better strategies I've thought of so far.
Skybind/Crystalline Nautilus
So you bestow the Nautilus on one of your opponents creatures, trigger Skybind targeting the creature you just bestowed. They have to sacrifice it from the bestow and you get your 4/4 back. If you were building a control-y shell around Skybind, Crystalline Nautilus is not the best card, but pretty good at making them sacrifice the creature you want and getting a decent body afterwards. Not really something you want to build a deck around, but good synergy.
So of all of these ideas I've had, the Lotleth Troll one is probably the most consistent and the most powerful so I might sleeve something up with that tonight and see where it takes me. Well, I hope I've been able to get some gears turning for your brewing needs. Journey into Nyx has turned out to be a very exciting set and I look forward to seeing some new and fun archetypes.
See you all at FNM!
DannyO
WizardDen.com
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