The purpose of this deck is simple: run a lot of control that can handle almost any deck you throw at it, tempo the match a little bit, and get a lot of tokens on the board to chump block/swing for attacks.
Let's have a look at the deck and see what's going on here:
Win cons
Tokens - Between Young Pyromancer, Assemble the Legion and Elspeth, Sun's Champion, there is plenty of token gen in this deck to amass a serious token army. Moreover, if someone lets Elspeth get to ult range, it's going to be a bad day for them most likely.
Burn damage - There are enough ways to burn the opponent off and on that you can output some serious hurt to them. Currently playtesting with
Warleader's Helix
and
Crackling Perimeter
to see if this burn damage would be a significant aid for this win condition or if it runs too slow
Creatures - Since you'll be burning instants, you are just buffing up that Spellheart Chimera to become a hard-swinging monster. AEtherling can also swing hard, and it's difficult for anyone to really do anything to him. Between the two of them, you should be able to chunk some damage from the opponent.
Planeswalkers - All three planeswalkers offer you win cons in big ways. Jace offers mill potential, card draw, and his ult gives you the winning hand you need while throwing a ton of instants into the GY for Spellheart Chimera to get buff from. Elspeth gives you tokens, big creature destroy, and the ability for all your tokens to become flying badasses. Ral gives you control against PERMANENTS (which means you can keep someone from ever using Nykthos among other things), burn potential, and an ult that should also guarantee and secure a win.
Two-drop slot
Young Pyromancer - Pop her out as soon as you can. Protect her if you must. If she's about to die, blow a cheap instant or Steam Augury to get another token on the board.
Lightning Strike and Magma Jet - Basic ping spells for creatures/players. Magma Jet gives you a little deck search to prep for the next few turns, so don't be afraid to use this even if it's to just hit the enemy for no particular reason. Try to save Lightning Strike for some creatures rather than player.
Izzet Charm, Boros Charm, Azorius Charm - Bread and butter for this tri-color game. These cards off you OPTIONS, which is what this deck is all about. Read the cards and you can figure out their uses.
Three-drop slot
Spellheart Chimera - Because of all the instants in this deck and the speed at which they can get thrown out, Spellheart will get relatively buff very quickly. Hold off on dropping him until it feels a bit safe to do so, and do everything you can to protect him once he's out.
Syncopate
and
Dissolve
- Your ticket to ensuring your opponent doesn't get an upper hand.
Syncopate
opens up options for counterspelling, as you can use it for cheap counterspell against a tap-out card like Sphinx's Revelation or other tap-out stuff, and since it will exile those cards, cards like Scavenging Ooze won't get buff from it. Use
Dissolve
for some deck search, but remember not to stack it alongside any other scry if you are keeping something on top of your library. Syncopate shows up in the "three-drop slot" because that is a typical way you may see it being played.
Four-drop slot
Steam Augury - Deck loot! This magic spell gives you a little more search option than Jace, Architect of Thought while also helping to super buff your Spellheart if need be. Any time that someone might kill off a Young Pyromancer and you can burn a Steam Augury, do it.
Ral Zarek - Our first planeswalker offers control, burn, and an ult that gives you some massive advantage with extra turns. Play him fast if your opponent has creatures on the board. Otherwise, play him out a bit slower.
Five-drop slot
Assemble the Legion - Yes, this will be a big target for anyone running some enchantment destruction, but it offers extra tokens and gives you some more late-game options.
Jace, Memory Adept - Our second planeswalker gives us card draw with mill option, a bigger mill option for nothing, and an ult that can give you the winning hand you want, feed your Spellheart, and generally cause a lot of problems. Play him fast and protect him hard against any control decks and just force the mill on them. Against creatures, he's not super great.
Six-drop slot
AEtherling - He's one of the best cards in standard and well worth the mana cost. Once he hits the board, become very aggressive with him, but always hold onto some mana to exile him if someone wants to throw something his way.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Our third planeswalker gives us token generation, big creature destruction, and the ability to make an untouchable emblem that superpowers all of your creatures, thus turning your tokens into thoroughbred badasses that avoid Illness in the Ranks wiping them out. Play her fast against any form of deck.
Land
Guildgates - I know that everyone thinks guildgates are piddly, but right now, I'm trying this deck out with
Crackling Perimeter
to see if it offers a little extra burn potential, as I feel that the burn in the deck is good but could be slightly stronger in order to buff that particular win con. Until I have reached a verdict on that, assume that the guildgates are all shock lands. = D
Sideboard guide
Against G/R aggro:+2 Anger of the Gods+1 Cyclonic Rift+2
Turn / Burn
+2
Voyage's End
+2 Essence Scatter-1 Jace, Memory Adept-3 Spellheart Chimera-2 Assemble the Legion-1 Cancel-1
Dissolve
Against Esper, control, or low creature/high I&S:+2
Render Silent
+2 Negate+2
Counterflux
-1 AEtherling-2 Young Pyromancer-1 Spellheart Chimera-1 Azorius Charm-1 Assemble the Legion
Against MBD:+2
Turn/Burn
+2 Anger of the Gods+1 Cyclonic Rift-2 Magma Jet-3 Izzet Charm
As I play against more deck types, I will update the sideboard guide.
Thank you for your time and I hope the deck does well for you.
