MTG List: Non-legendary Exile build

gaiden.17

Creature (100)

Enchantment (12)

Sorcery (38)

Artifact (36)

Instant (23)

Land (16)

Planeswalker (10)

Description

I have named this deck return of the jedi in obvious homage to the Star Wars series. For a while now, I have been interested in the Misthollow Gryphon mechanic of returning from exile. Very few cards in magic's history offer this mechanic. Prior to the most recent sets, there were only 3 others with such a built-in ability: torrent elemental, eternal scourge, and Squee, the Immortal. Moreover, there were only two others that granted unmitigated access to the exile zone: riftsweeper and pull from eternity. (There are certainly other cards that access the exile zone, but only for cards they put there in the first place.) However with the most recent sets there are three new cards that access the exile zone and they open a completely new dimension of deck building. Those cards are: Karn, the Great Creator, Kaya the Inexorable, and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse. Karn and Kaya access exiled cards you own, Ashiok -cards opponents own. The ability to access the exile zone opens up the possibility of recycling not just cards exiled via removal but those that payed alternative costs. And thus we arrive at the deck's thematic naming: many of said cards that exile as an alternative cost were built around an iconic card in MtG: Force of Will. There have actually been quite a few printings of such cards: in Alliances, Mercadian Masques (e.g. Misdirection), Cold Snap (e.g. Commandeer), Betrayers of Kamigawa (Shoals), and most recently with Modern Horizons (Force of ___). The expanded Force spell options is what spawned the Star wars theme and, between the mechanics and artwork of associated cards, cynched the deck's title (tell me Kaya is not wielding two dagger-length light sabers!).

What this deck is trying to do is play powerful interaction spells for free through paying alternative costs that exile cards and then access those exiled cards - a zone typically inaccessible. In fact, its not just trying to access the exile zone but use that zone as a way to further mitigate mana costs.