Tricolor khans? Meh
Tired of over-hyped tricolor decks in the new Standard meta with Khans of Tarkir?
Tired of hearing how indispensable Courser of Kruphix, Polukranos, World Eater,
Stormbreath Dragon
, tricolor charms/ascendancies, fetchlands, and all planeswalkers are?
Then this is the deck for you. For a fraction of the price of the hyped Temur devotion, Green devotion, Abzan Midrange, Mardu whatever decks, challenge them with a monoblue deck!!!
Blue has always been my favorite colour in MTG, and I remember how it was totally underplayed in Standard back when I used to play it, in the mid 90s. So, being able to beat multicolor decks costing 10-fold and abusing the most expensive cards "available" is really sweet.
How it works
Ensoul Artifact can turn SIXTEEN 0-drops and 1-drops (23 total artifacts) into 5/5 beaters for 1U. That's right, you have 16 cheap artifacts (plus another 7 over 1 mana) which are useful per se, that can become a 5/5 fatty with this great aura in turns 2-3.
The rest of the deck are useful cards to complement it.
Card by card
This is a preliminary overview list intended for the total 75 cards:
- Dakra Mystic for ressource denial and fueling Tormod's Crypt (and it is fun to play, for U). Its drawback (bury a potentially useful card of yours to deny a vital card to the opponent) can fuel a later Dig Through Time...
- Phyrexian Revoker to NEUTER any planeswalker and would-be hyped monster
-
Illusory Angel
will be able to land more often than not on turn 3-4 and it is a 4/4 flyer with no drawback like his crippled ancestors
Waterspout Djinn
, Phantasmal Dragon, or the overcosted ones (
Air Elemental
).
-
Ghostfire Blade
and
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
(aka KTK's presents to Modern Affinity decks) are invaluable here. The first gives 2/2 for 1 once it lands, and the second gives 1 life for 1 colorless mana if you have 2 colorless creatures in play, and even cheaper life if you have more than 2 colorless creatures in play (eg with the Ensoul Artifact).
-
Juggernaut
. I remember when just about every aggro deck in Revised featured this guy. And guess what, he will probably not have anymore its old moniker "the lightning rod", because there is no direct damage burn spell able to kill him (nor any removal spell as far as I know) for just 1 mana in current Standard...
- Ornithopter: often mocked, it is a FREE 0/2 flying blocker. Attach
Ghostfire Blade
to it in turn 2 and it becomes a 2/4 flyer able to block forever Courser of Kruphix, not to mention it can kill that morphing phoenix and any 2/1 1-drop from the aggro decks... Ensoul it and it becomes a 5/5 flyer, equip it in turn 3 and it is a 7/7 flyer... hey, a 3-turn clock in current standard...
- Tormod's Crypt: not sure if it should go mainboard, but apparently a lot of people are trying to abuse the Delve mechanic and are trying to build Reanimator or Dredge decks in Standard... well, drop for free this classic beauty and wait till the opponent is tapped out or targets it to sac it in response, blowing into oblivion their graveyard and all their hopeless revenant creatures and all the ressources they poured into their own graveyards... so sweet. I might swap it for Springleaf Drum, acceptable mana ramp for blue...
- Darksteel Citadel. Ensoul this "artifact land" and voila, a turn 2 5/5 indestructible... land, not God, which still gives 1 colorless mana!
Cheap countermagic is possible:
- Stubborn Denial will be the good-old badly missed Counterspell more often than its puny brother Force Spike: just how many 4-power critters are in this deck? answer: about 20... I know it does not target creatures... Maybe Dissolve could complement it...
- Void Snare; it is a sorcery, all right, but how about bouncing back anything for U? Like a dragon or hydra that left the opponent tapped out...
-
Polymorphist's Jest
. So the opponent is launching an alpha strike with pumped tokens or a couple of monsters? Turn them into frogs after blocking them with anything over 1 in toughness and KILL THEM. That's right: Kill a monstrous
Stormbreath Dragon
with an Ornithopter! The look on the opponent's face the first time you do this is invaluable... It also fuels Tormod's Crypt! AND it deals with the fearsome Mistcutter Hydra, does it?
- Hour of Need. Save one or more doomed blockers and leave a 4/4 flyer on the board...
Sideboard
I often include cards thinking of my current LGS environment, not an actual top tier metagame, so it might seem weird. Please provide any thoughts on how to improve the deck.
I am currently envisaging:
Other cards I still need to playtest:
Disclaimer
Obviously I am not pretending this deck can become a top tier mtgtop8 deck, but it IS budget, and I bet it CAN challenge the hyped expensive contenders to come (Abzan Midrange, Mardu soldiers, Jeskai Tempo, Temur devotion, Green devotion, zillion planeswalkers...). I KNOW the first Pro Tour featuring KTK apparently has ONLY tri-color decks among the top8 (Abzan Midrange and Jeskai tempo)...
Don't forget +1-ing if you liked it, and of course please feel free to share thoughts and comments! Constructive criticism is very welcome.
