The current Theros Beyond Death Standard metagame, given that it is already past a month since it has become legal in the format, is still open for some spicy deck brews. I decided to look for those decks and one place I am sure to find one is at the Hareruya website in their Standard deck database.

My instinct was correct and I immediately found one which got second place in a local tournament with ten participants. Check out this spicy Mono Green Food deck with Rampage of the Clans as one of its surprise finishers. See the decklist below.

4 Gilded Goose
3 Thrashing Brontodon
4 Wicked Wolf
4 Feasting Troll King

3 Witch’s Oven
3 Golden Egg
4 Trail of Crumbs
3 Wolfwillow Haven
4 Giant Opportunity
4 Rampage of the Clans

4 Castle Garenbrig
2 Mobilized District
18 Forest

Sideboard
1 Shadowspear
2 Shifting Ceratops
2 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
2 Lovestruck Beast
3 Nullhide Ferox
2 Destiny Spinner
2 Return to Nature
1 Sorcerous Spyglass

Source: https://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/deck/275403/show/

While checking on the first day coverage of the Magic: the Gathering Players Tour Phoenix event, I came upon one featured matchup wherein a Mono Blue Devotion deck is against a Sultai Delirium opponent. I have noticed that he is using Standard legal cards to power up his Devotion count including Gadwick, Thassa’s Oracle and the Leyline of Anticipation. I have thought that there is a possible build for this deck in the current Standard format.

Here below is my initial deck list: 

Creatures
2 Agent of Treachery
4 Brazen Borrower
4 Cavalier of Gales
3 Gadwick, the Wizened
4 Thassa’s Oracle
2 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

Spells
4 Omen of the Sea
1 Negate
3 Quench
2 Sinister Sabotage
3 Witching Well
4 Leyline of Anticipation

Lands
4 Castle Vantress
20 Island

While we already know the existence of Gruul Adventures in the current Standard metagame, the deck might get influenced or can even get an overhaul with the introduction of Theros Beyond Death in the format. That is because of the support of the Devotion mechanic. The set introduced the new Gruul God along with some enchantment creatures that the deck can utilize. A few of them are as follows:

Tectonic Giant is a good source of card advantage mid-game for only four mana and the “until your next turn” effect gets you one untap step on your mana to be able to cast the exiled spells. A ¾ may not that impactful in combat but the creatures you’ve cast in the earlier turns are your main threats.

I like evasion creatures that can chip out early damage while you expand your mana sources for your big spells. This one just fits the role and the Escape ability makes it better as a late-game recursion. Also, a bonus is the mana dump pump effect.

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove lets you play additional lands each turn and so you can ramp your mana early and cast your high-cc creatures while also provide mana fixing in awkward draw scenarios.

Warden of the Chained is a solid three-drop on its own and works well in multiple copies. The attack restriction drawback might be that minimal if your list leans more on 4-powered creatures.

Considering the rest of the possible cards in Theros Beyond Death, I have come up with an initial decklist that you can check below.

Creatures
4 Gruul Spellbreaker
3 Paradise Druid
3 Phoenix of Ash
4 Questing Beast
3 Rimrock Knight
4 Skarrgan Hellkite
3 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Tectonic Giant
4 Klothys, God of Destiny

Spells
2 Embercleave
3 Domri’s Ambush
1 The Triumph of Anaxa

Lands
4 Stomping Grounds
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Castle Embereth
2 Fabled Passage
7 Forest
6 Mountain

With the coming of Theros Beyond Death, the promotion of the Enchantment-based decks are on the rise. However, for today’s blog post we are taking the other route: Artifacts and Equipment.

I am trying to work around with a deck build on the THB card Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders in which the theme is to ramp out powerful Equipment in the current Standard, equip and powerup your creatures with them.

We have a few reference decklists but a majority of their card components already rotated out last September. We now have to look at the current card pool that we have. A few cards to note are listed below.

Creatures
Fervent Champion
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
Brazen Borrower
Gingerbrute
Stonecoil Serpent

Equipment
Embercleave
Mask of Immolation
Colossus Hammer

As for the new cards from Theros, our possible option as of this posting is Thryx, the Sudden Storm as he can just flash in at EOT and then get equipped and attack. Also, he can lessen the casting cost of Embercleave and other X spells with on the stack cost of 5 or greater.

It is still vague at the moment if we will go purely with equipment strategy or a pseudo-Robots archetype. The completion of the Theros Beyond Death card spoilers is our key on which route to take on this deck-building plan.

I will wrap this up for now. Any card suggestions or ideas are very welcome. Just comment on the box below.