Hello Everyone!
I'm back after a long hiatus and have been tinkering around on Arena for fun Standard decks. Early into the Kaldheim release I had opened three copies of
Mystic Reflection
and wanted to see if I could make it work in standard. After a couple days of deckbuilding I have come up with this list. It is still a work in progress as I was trying to stay budget and not use all of my wildcards on the manabase and rares.
Here is how the deck works:
The main strategy of this deck is to play pretty aggressively and try to get the opponent on the back foot. This can be done by playing
Seven Dwarves
and
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
to present a lot of power early on in the game. Small burn spells like
Frost Bite
and
Bonecrusher Giant
can help clear the board for your dwarves to swing in.
Anax, Hardened in the Forge
is another early game card that puts pressure on the opponent. Behold the Universe is used for card draw and can be foretold early on for use later in the match to refill your hand after playing aggressively.
Now comes the fun interactions.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
not only pumps the team, but also generates mana for more spells. These treasure can be used to play burn spells to clear creatures before the blocking step. The treasure can also be used to cast second mainphase spells or to hold up instant speed removal/card draw/counterspells post sideboard. In addition, if 5 treasures can be piled up then
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
can tutor up a dragon onto the battlefield. I am running both Goldpan Dragon and
Terror of the Peaks
for reasons I will explain in a second. Based on future testing the number and types of dragon I run might change. It is worht noting that
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
can also tutor for artifacts. So you could run a card like Embercleave or other large artifacts.
One of the other main interactions in this deck comes from
Orvar, the All-Form
. Orvar is a dwarf which means it has synergy with Magda, but it also adds replication abilities in this deck. When Orvar is on the battlefield spells you control that target other creatures you control will be cloned based on
Orvar, the All-Form
's second ability. This means that cards like
Frost Bite
,
Spikefield Hazard
,
Shatterskull Smashing
,
Bonecrusher Giant
,
Rimrock Knight
, and
Mystic Reflection
can all be used to duplicate
Seven Dwarves
when
Orvar, the All-Form
is on the battlefield. This gives all of those spells alternate uses in addition to killing opponent's creatures.
Shatterskull Smashing
is exceptionally good with Orvar as you can target two
Seven Dwarves
and then get two new token copies which pumps the team. You can also target one of your own creatures and kill an opponents creature.
Shatterskull Smashing
is a very versatile card in this deck and I will probably be running more once I get the wildcards on Arena.
Orvar, the All-Form
can also be used against discard strategies to copy a permanant on the board. Although this doesn't happen too often, it can be good against Kroxa and some other matchups.
The next interaction in this deck is from
Mystic Reflection
. This card has a few key uses in this deck which allow it a lot of versatility. The first is with
Anax, Hardened in the Forge
. When Anax or another creature dies it will generate Satyr tokens off of Anax's ability. Thus,
Mystic Reflection
can be flashed in to turn those tokens into more
Seven Dwarves
or
Goldspan Dragon
or
Terror of the Peaks
. In addition it could make the tokens enter as a copy of a big creature under the opponent's control. This interaction allows you to attack into an otherwise unattackable board. This can help to punch through the last points of damage before the opponent has stabilized.
Mystic Reflection
can also be used in a defensive way to limit the creatures that the opponent can play. So you can hold up
Mystic Reflection
and then turn the opponents play into a satyr token or
Seven Dwarves
or something. Obviously the options are endless depending on the state of the board and the matchup. I have found this card to be exceptionally good against Gruul decks by turning their
Questing Beast
or
Lovestruck Beast
into a human token or satyr token. When used in this way
Mystic Reflection
can be used to keep the pressure on the opponent.
There are 3 dragons in this deck. 2
Goldspan Dragon
and 1
Terror of the Peaks
.
Goldspan Dragon
seems better in a lot of cases as it has haste and help make treasure for
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
. I am considering switching to 3
Goldspan Dragon
and maybe even 4 if I cut
Rimrock Knight
or something. The reason why I have
Terror of the Peaks
is that it can be tutored by Magda after during combat and can be used to deal damage with
Anax, Hardened in the Forge
tokens. It deals even more damage if you can cast
Mystic Reflection
to turn those tokens into bigger creatures. So it is definitely good in this deck, I'm just not sure if it is as good as
Goldspan Dragon
since it doesn't have haste and is a lot worse if it is cast and not tutored for. I could also do 3 goldspan 1 Terror.
I have only spent a couple of days testing this deck and so I am still going to tinker around with it and change some things. I am still looking for cards to add to this deck to help make
Mystic Reflection
better. For awhile I was running
Myriad Construct
because when it is targeted by a spell it creates a bunch of tokens to turn into dwarves with
Mystic Reflection
, but I cut it because the interaction seemed fragile. I wish I could just target
Myriad Construct
with
Mystic Reflection
, but unfortunately the interaction doesn't work that way.
I am looking for help with this deck from all of you!! Give me your suggestions on how to improve this pile. I am especially lookin for ways to improve the sideboard because I am not too familiar with the standard meta right now.
There are a few problems with this deck right now that I am looking to solve. The first is that this deck just seems to have a clunky curve. Pretty much everything wants to happen on turn 2, whether it be playing Magda, Seven Dwarves, or foretelling something. I have found it best so far to play
Seven Dwarves
turn 2,
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
turn 3 to make a treasure and then use that to cast another 2 drop with the unused land. I think this deck would benefit from more 1-drops or 3-drops. Do people have ideas for this?
Another problem for this deck is that it gets absolutely destroyed by
Extinction Event
. I really hate
Extinction Event
as a card and I think it really ruins a lot of deck possibilities. Basically
Extinction Event
Destroys every dwarf in this deck whether it be
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
,
Seven Dwarves
, or
Orvar, the All-Form
. I have counter spells in the sideboard, but it's still hard to deal with because then I have to hold up mana rather than staying aggressive. Any suggestions on ways to improve the deck against that damned card??
I am also not sold on
Rimrock Knight
. It helps with the dwarf theme, but I'm not sure how good it actually is. IT is yet another two mana spell and hasn't really been too impressive with the pumping ability. For now it stays in the deck, but I may replace it or put it in the sideboard if it doesn't contribute much in the future.
The last thing this deck needs help with is the manabase. I don't have many wildcards so I haven't gotten many dual lands yet. What land do you think this deck should be running? I like
Faceless Haven
as it is a nice aggressive creature and is also a dwarf :)
Thanks for looking at my deck and feel free to comment any suggestions/changes you would make!!
Have fun!
