The Second Draw: An Initial Build

The Throne of Eldraine set has this invisible mechanic of creatures and permanents having a triggered effect after you have drawn your second card for the turn. I had this as a limited deck strategy when I played in the local ELD Prerelease last Friday night. The build was on Temur colors and I have thought if it is still possible for the Standard version. The immediate base colors would be Izzet (Blue-Red) but it may be possible for a third color.

After sorting on the set’s card list, here are the only notables:

Steelgaze Griffin – a Common 2/4 Flyer for five mana and would not that impactful and too slow to our planned build.

Irencrag Pyromancer – I already saw its use in Izzet Tempo decks on MTG Arena and a playset will definitely be included in the deck. Free Lightning Bolts are just too good to not consider.

Mad Ratter – a 1/2 body is maybe vulnerable but having endless 1/1 Black Rat tokens for free can easily overcome unprepared opponents in a short time. I might consider this as more of a sideboard card against Green Stompy decks with the tokens’ role as chump blockers.

We decided to only consider the two cards from the set as the final components of the deck, and that

The deck will be similar to that of the Izzet Tempo build. Below is most likely how it will look like.

First of are the creature lineup:

1 Cavalier of Gales
4 Crackling Drake
4 Irencrag Pyromancer
3 Goblin Electromancer
1 Mad Ratter
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun

I am implementing again my one-of favorites but also a threat on its own. Mad Ratter maybe is the least of the three in terms of power level can produce decent 1/1s to gum up the board of just win with a hoard of them.

Next below are the Planeswalker of choice:

1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
3 The Royal Scions

The Royal Scions is an auto inclusion here but I don’t want a playset as I can still draw them from the cantrip spells. Chandra is another optional card that can be used to flashback your instants and sorceries. Again, she can also produce pressure on her own if left unchecked.

The instants and sorceries are as follows:

4 Discovery//Dispersal
4 Opt
4 Thrill of Possibility
4 Shock
2 Lava Coil

Almost twelve cantrip spells and six spot removals might be the ideal number for your spells lineup. Take note that with the pyromancer in the battlefield, every cantrip acts like a Lightning Bolt to clear the opponents’ board of threats and also a burn to the dome if needed.

The total non-land card list is 36 and we have 24 lands for mana sources. We have a playset of Steam Vents and Temple of Epiphany for mana fixing and the rest will most likely be basics and one of those Blue Castle, Castle Ventress.

Overall, the major change comparing to the Izzet Drake or Phoenix build would be the Irencrag Pyromancer which equivalents firepower feature of the deck. While it might be not removal resistant unlike the recursion of the phoenix, there are still adjustments in post-board for certain matchups that the deck experience difficulty. I will sort those out once the Standard metagame somewhat stabilizes.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next blog post and thanks for reading.