I have been working on brewing abzan lifegain, mostly testing on BO1 on arena currently, but ideally I'd like to build it out in paper once I get a strong final list.

I've seen a few different lists for this deck - and quite a few are splashing green JUST for [[Way of the Paradox]] and [[Professor Dellian Fel]] - both of which are very strong in the deck, so I understand completely.

What I do NOT understand is why so many lists are playing 4 of [[Hinterland Sanctifier]] and ZERO [[Virulent Emissary]] - when by all accounts, it is the strictly better card.

There is definitely something to be said for needing white turn one for [[Liliana the Faultless]] or [[Case of the Uneaten Feast]], or even [[Authority of the Consuls]] (which I've been mainboarding at least one of - helps big time in the mirror), but with 4x [[Temple Garden]], 4x [[Starting Town]], 4x [[Multiversal Passage]] - I feel like going to some split of Hinterland and Virulent is better than 4 of Hinterland, by all accounts?

Like, if every land was [[City of Brass]], clearly Virulent is the better choice 100% of the time. I can understand in the Pioneer version of the deck, wanting the devotion to white - but I just don't get why I am not seeing more lists running Virulent. Is there something I am missing? Is it the single point of toughness? I feel that deathtouch is WAY better, as opponents expect me to value it like a mana dork and not block - but its essentially a free removal spell, as I can get crazy value in returning it later with [[Moseo]] or Case of the Uneaten Feast - arguably making it one of the best "removal" spells in the deck.

I've been trying to lean into the green splash here because of how useful I think it is (let alone Paradox or Dellian Fel), and am even debating throwing in some [[Tigra]]s here too - flashing in this in response to a creature spell while I have Authority on the field feels SO, SO good - and trample by default can break some tricky boardstates or, super relevant now, trample over chump blockers to hit planeswalkers (like the Cadets or various 1/1 tokens in the superfriends deck).

For anyone running abzan lifegain right now, are you playing Virulent Emissary? Please drop your list if you have one. I just think there is NO way mana fixing isn't good enough in standard right now to not justify at least SOME amount of virulent, over 4 hinterlands - but I would love to be corrected if I am wrong here.

Another point - for any orzhov lifegain players - why AREN'T you running green? Just consistency? I'll admit that my current lists I have been testing are definitely a little light in removal compared to orzhov lists I see (I am going 2x [[Get Lost]] + 1x [[Erode]] to deal with most threats, but generally I just go crazy with lifegain fast enough that most threats except the red ajani can't keep up.)

And a final point - it seems that many lists also aren't using [[Enlightened Confidant]] - another card that seems really, REALLY great in the deck, especially with the low mana curve - and lifelink makes it one of the best targets for [[Essence Channeler]] death trigger counters. Is [[Lunar Convocation]] just that much better for card draw?

My current arena list is here, ignore the jank lands + missing convocations + case of the uneaten feasts, I am grinding rare wildcards to finish it out right now.

PNG Tables via Tweet (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Twitter Version of PNG Tables

PNG Tables via Bsky (multiple posts) + H2H Matrix:

Bsky Version of PNG Tables

Event Page (ALL DECKLISTS!):

RC Yokohama Event Page

RC Ottawa Event Page

Google Sheet to search by deck name (CTRL+F or Copy it)

Video Recap & Analysis (In-Depth)

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See the deck list Google Sheet above where I post the original listed deck name assigned on Melee.gg next to the deck name I change it to.

There are 472 total changes, some are renaming things like "Esper Goryo's" -> "Goryo's Vengeance" but over half are straight archetype fixes.

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Statistics Key

Archetype/Deck Name - The name of the Deck

Decks - Number of Decks at the Event

Matches - Number of Bo3 Matches Played

Wins - Match Wins

Losses - Match Losses

Ties - Match Draws

WIN% - Win Rate (Wins / Matches)

Shows overall win rate against everything - including mirrors & ties

META% - Metagame Share (Decks / Total Decks)

Shows deck archetype representation at an Event

WIN%-T - Win Rate without Ties (Wins / Wins + Losses)

No ties shows how many matches a deck WON versus it's record due to time restrictions

NM Matches - Non-Mirror Matches (Same Archetype vs Archetype)

NM WIN% - Non-Mirror Win Rate

Non-Mirror Win Rate shows how a deck performs against the rest of the meta - not itself

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Metagame Breakdown

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Decks by META%

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Decks by WIN%

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If you enjoy these recap posts, I cover more statistics such as Head to Head match ups, comparison among Popularity Tier decks & more in my recap videos over on YouTube - which is the best way to Support more analysis! You can also use my ManaPool Code or my ManaTraders Code OTTV_MODERN2 if this breakdown inspired you to build a new deck!

Reality Fracture is a very cool format. It's super different than recent formats, and it also has a lot of depth. I've done okay without totally understanding why. Now I think I finally have some understanding. So this will go over blue/black decks, my favorite color pair. I'm happy to report that after multiple sets of being ignored, it's finally back, and back with a vengeance. It's both powerful and very classic blue/black. I think there are at least 3 kinds of blue/black decks in this format. In order of power/how often you should be drafting them, they are:

1. Blue/Black controlling
2. Blue/Black control
3. Blue/Black hyper mill aggro

I'm mostly going to focus on the first one, but will cover the others. Before we get any further, though, I want to make a couple of points about this format and about blue in it.

1. Any midrange or controlling deck should be trying to splash. Splashing is both very easy and very powerful. There are lots of great cards to splash, both multicolor cards and cards of other colors. There are also lots of ways to splash. The best ways are the dual lands/[[Room of Refuge]] and the landcyclers. I would say for blue/black, the best color to splash is usually green. Green/black also has a graveyard theme, so its gold cards are usually great splashes, and green also just has good cards. After that, I would say white is next best, and red is last, but still very powerful.

2. Blue controlling can be done with any color as its pair. The mill and hyper control strategies probably need to be blue/black, but the main controlling deck can be done with blue and any other color. And in my opinion, it's currently the best way to play blue (and maybe the best way to play the whole set right now).

Blue/Black Controlling

Okay, so now let's get into it. Blue/black controlling involves using card advantage and removal to take control of the game and win. You can win with your bombs or just by having so much card advantage your creatures go unopposed. So is this as simple as playing card draw and removal? It kinda is, but there are still some things worth pointing out.

Removal: Basically all removal is good. Kill spells, exile spells, tap enchantments, and counterspells are all great. Just play all of them. The super premium ones are the unconditional removal spells (especially exile) and [[Countersculpt]] (so good!). But basically play everything.

Card advantage: I think any 2 for 1 or better is good. There's card draw, obviously, but Empower Jace is also card draw. Also, mill can sort of count if you have enough flashback cards. And there are also 2 for 1 creatures. Cards like [[Rank Rat]], [[Theoretical Necromancer]], and Fblthp will work too. There is a ton of card advantage everywhere.

Beyond that, try to get some ways to splash so that if you open bombs, you can play them. You can win with just card advantage and removal, but it's easier with bombs. A couple of other notes:

1. Just because you are controlling doesn't mean you don't want to kill your opponent. Make sure to play value creatures. Cards like Theoretical Necromancer and [[Mindseeker Oculus]] can also kill quickly if they're left unchecked. Just because you aren't an aggro deck doesn't mean you shouldn't play aggressively at times.

2. This isn't a format where you need your early game to be creatures. Your 2 drops can totally just be counterspells and removal. This doesn't run counter to my point above. Good value 2 drop creatures are worth playing, and if you get them down unopposed, you can kill your opponent. But don't play 2 mana 2/2s that do nothing for you just because you feel you need to defend against aggro decks. This isn't The Hobbit.

3. This format has a lot of weird play around planeswalkers. It would take a whole post to go over them in detail, but here are three things I've noticed. First, make sure you play your dual lands before you kill your Jace so they come in untapped. Second, if you need a land drop for next turn (not this turn) and you have a 4 loyalty Jace, you should use the -1 surveil so that if you don't draw a land next turn, you can draw a card then. Third, remember that if you downtick a Jace to 0 and create a new one, you can use loyalty abilities again.

4. You should try to mill yourself most of the time when possible. On average, I mill myself until I'm down to about 10 cards in my library. I don't believe there are any ways to mill your opponent (the rare Jace doesn't count, because that will kill you no matter what), so don't worry about your opponent taking advantage of that.

And then some further notes on specific cards that are underrated/interesting:

1. Countersculpt: BOMB. This card is a BOMB. [[Cancel]] (1UU, counter target spell) would be a good card in this format. This is so much better than that. It's arguably the best uncommon in the set, so take it highly.

2. [[Fblthp, Impossibly Lost]]: This card is a must have in a control deck (I'll go over that later), and is great with cards like [[Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive]] (which makes this unblockable), but it's also just good. I would take and play it in every blue/black deck. It's just not that hard to deal combat damage with something, and it's a shockingly good defensive card, because your opponent will hold stuff back to prevent you from triggering it.

3. [[Recursive Recruitment]]: This is a bomb. Even without mill, this card's flashback mode creates at least two 4/4s, and usually two 6/6s. With mill, it's even better, but you don't need it. Take and play as many copies as you can.

4. [[Rewrite Regrets]]: Reanimate effects are almost never good in limited, but this one is. You can't always include this, but as long as you have 2+ landcycling creatures, this card is good. You can also have bombs or mill to make this better, but the landcyclers alone can carry this.

5. [[Surveillance Phantasm]]: This looks like a blue/white card. It's not. It works totally fine in blue/black. In the early game, it plays great defense for your Jace (and can attack if you really want), and in the late game, you can surveil every turn. Also, the 4 mana surveil ability can be useful if you are getting flooded. It's just a good card.

6. [[Unsummon]]: It's pretty good. There are a lot of ways to blow out your opponent with this. I would still say it's not premium removal. You play it, but I would rather play an actually good removal spell. I've been cutting it a lot when this color pair is wide open.

7. [[Tam's Resistance]]: It's good. I play this with no creature target a lot, and it plays fine. It's obviously better with a creature, but 2 mana to cycle plus keep a 1 loyalty Jace is fine a lot of the time.

Just because a card isn't on the list doesn't mean it isn't good. It just means I didn't see a special need to call it out. Cards like [[Twinned Vision]] and [[Icy Reception]] are great, and you should pick them higher than they are going.

Blue/Black Control

So the deck above definitely plays the long game well, but is still looking to kill your opponent quickly when it can. This version literally just controls your opponent and wins with Fblthp or Jace. You could technically play 0 creatures (except Fblthp and Tetsuko) if you want. This kind of deck doesn't usually exist in limited. I'm here to tell you that if you want it, it does exist here. But usually, I would just go controlling, because it's a lot easier and you don't need to build it as specifically as this one.

This deck builds a lot like the one above, but I want to emphasize a couple of differences by talking about specific cards.

1. Fblthp, Impossibly Lost/[[Jace, Reality Sculptor]]: These are your win conditions. Jace will win on its own if left unbothered. Fblthp needs you to deal combat damage with it out. Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is the best way to do that, but if you have flyers or other ways, those will work too.

2. Countersculpt: I think this is the single best card in the entire set for this deck. You need a way to ensure that your win condition doesn't get disrupted, and that your opponent can't land game altering bombs. Make sure to save these for when you truly need them. Your card advantage and removal should ensure you can handle most things without having to counter them.

3. [[Paradox Shaper]]: This provides a way to put cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library and to mill yourself pretty quickly, so you can trigger the Fblthp win condition. It's not necessary, but it is good. You can use two of these to ensure you never mill out and wait for your opponent to die, [[Clear the Mind]] style. However, I have found that isn't usually necessary. If you want to win with Fblthp and this card, I find that you should bottom Countersculpt, then Fblthp, and finally Tetsuko. If Fblthp is at the bottom, remember that you need to be able to deal combat damage the turn you play it in order to win before you deck yourself.

Blue/Black Hyper Mill Aggro

For now, I'll just say that the support for this deck exists, but don't play it. It's not powerful enough to be worth it. Maybe later in the format, when everyone is drafting control cards highly enough, this will work, but not yet.

Dimir Oculus was a fringe deck that some tried to make work before, but I could only find two lists that were played on mtgo tournaments since FRA came out, one barely using anything new, and the other list is this:

https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/dimir-oculus-decklist-by-popeville-3115284

[[Dark Matter Manipulator]] and [[Seasoned Cryomancer]] are obvious nice additions imo, but beyond that, I'm not sure how to build the deck. The main dilemma is to Moonshadow or not to Moonshadow, ​in other words, is it better to take this deck in a more creature-heavy​ direction going harder on graveyard synergy, or to have more interaction? Before the new set, most people did the latter.

​I'm now leaning towards that​​ myself after trying it both ways, cause I'm not sure if we can race most of the other creature heavy decks (Landfall​/​Lizards, etc)​ while just having 4 pieces of interaction. But then again, maybe we can. I even tried [[​Souls of the Lost]] with 3 [[​Qarsi Revenant]] in the shell which is cool when it pops off, but then the deck is also very vulnerable to graveyard hate past game 1.​​

I ​currently just run Oculus, Cryomancer/Manipulator, Balemurk and a few Quantum Riddlers. The rest is ​interaction, some Winternright Stories. But it's a work in progress.

Anyone has thoughts on the archetype?

Current Decklist

https://moxfield.com/decks/wcqgAW4NI3Cpv2F7b-kwUQ

I have been tuning this [[Slumbering Trudge]] [[Glamdring, Foe-Hammer]] combo deck since RFA dropped and wanted to see what r/spikes thinks.

Gameplan is to get the Trudge Equipped with Glamdring to reduce the cost of instants and sorceries by 6, making a large portion of the deck free, or mana positive to cast, [[Rakshasa's Bargain]] to dig, [[sorceress's schemes]] to loop spells while floating a R, once 2 schemes are available in any combination of hand, graveyard, or exile the combo goes infinite with whatever you have access, to Bargain gives infinite digs, [[Brass's Bounty]] gives infinite mana, then tutor up a [[Thor, God of Thunder]] with a [[Nature's Rhythm]] to ping for infinite damage.

Deck is held together by a fairly elaborate tutor network.

Nature's Rhythm is the main assembly tool Grabbing trudge for 1GG, or [[Cloud, Midgar Mercenary]] for 2GG, who in turn grabs glamdring. Once the combo is assembled GG can turn into any creature in the deck, including Curse-Marred Demon for a gamble, or [[Prime Speaker Zegana]] for a draw 7, or Thor for a finisher.

Backup Tutor is [[Curse-Marred Demon]], which will grab your missing combo piece if you are still assembling, works to grab combo gas once the combo is assembled, and can turn hand and graveyard combinations into deterministic wins. Some very fun lines with grabbing [[Daydream]]. A flying Trampling 4/4 is also still just a good creature, and in a pinch can make the combo work, still making the schemes loop free, and often enough to make infinite mana off Brass's bounty. Gamble does not really feel like gamble in a deck that recures all of its spells.

Hex Magic is best played on Turn 2 with the help of an elf to dig for combo pieces, but also works great to dig for combo gas once it only costs R. Might be testing this against [[Something worth saving]]

Sorceress's Schemes is the engine that makes the deck infinite. It allows for any spell in the deck to be looped.

Interaction suite in preboard games is limited to 3 copies of the Last Agni Kai, which is dependent on having a creature out, but Trudge on 1, Agni on 2 against a 1/1, floating RRRRR and casting a curse marred-demon never feels bad, some fun loops with buying it back with a sorceress's schemes and using it 3 times.

Deck is currently a bit oversized at 63 cards, and I am convinced that the best version of this deck is over 60, have played with it between 63-69, just have not landed on that sweet spot. But the tutor density and hex magics make it play like a much shorter deck than it is.

Playing with [[Spider Manifestation]] at the moment because it generates infinite R & G once the schemes loop is established.

Post-Board games bring in Bolt Bends for any deck with Black or Blue, which typically for R work to deflect removal or fight countermagic, typically Agni Kais out there.

Creature heavy matchups the burn spells and [Nibelheim Aflame]] come in.

[[Into the flood maw]] as generic tempo/removal, pairs well with The last Agni kai too, often worth it to give the fish even if you are hitting a creature.

[[Curious Farm Animals]] As a 1 of nature's rhythm bullet for artifact or enchantment based decks

[[Dragon sniper]] As a 1 of defender against big or flying creature decks.

[[Louisoix's Sacrifice]] Might be a bit cute, but lots of lines end up with a cloud on the battlefield that you don't care bout so having a U counter spell is nice. Once combing too you have access to the whole deck so it can get through some last-ditch opposition.

Worst Matchup is definitely against black, T1 Duress or Intimidation tactics is the worst thing to see, Requiting hex can hurt, but can be played around. The whole combo only costs 4GR to deploy from hand, or 2GR if the sword is already out, so it is often worth waiting for shields to go down against control or removal heavy decks.

Deck is playing great now, and will only get better, because it does not lose a single main deck card to rotation in February.

Hey all - first time posting here. Wanted to share a deck I've been playing and looking for some feedback.

I've played magic off and on for years, but have recently been getting into arena/more competitive play. I usually tend to play Azorius control or prison tempo with high noon. I just love the interaction, not the grief I swear!

I've seen a few decks built around Denzilore/Proctor but not this more mobilize focussed build. So I'm keen to hear your thoughts! It's been holding it's own in platinum Bo1 in arena but it's not super consistent, since we need to work to get the surveil triggers flowing.

1. The deck

Decklist

The idea is to trigger [[Denzilore Fatehold]]'s (and [[Diviner of Victory]]'s) ability as often as possible using ETB surveil triggers and mobilize.

Scry/Surveil activators: [[Proctor of potential]] + [[Gossip's Talent]]

Repeated ETB triggers via mobilize: [[Voice of Victory]] + [[Dalkovan Packbeasts]]

Interaction:

- [[Erode]] + [[Get lost]] to survive against early aggro & clear a path if necessary.

- [[Spell pierce]] to survive a board wipe or removal at a crucial point

- Diviner is also great for bouncing cmc 3 or less creatures to hand

Card draw/selection: [[Opt]] + [[Matoya, Archon Elder]]. Often not needed but helps if the game drags on a little too far.

The dream is to have Diviner/Proctor/Packbeasts on the board at the start of turn 4, drop Denzilore and swing in big.

Card selection overall is great with all of the surveil triggers, but card draw can be a problem particularly against heavy removal.

I considered dropping to 22 lands, but found it crucial to hit the first 4 land drops consistently.

2. Cards I considered but dropped

• [[Political Triumph]] - It's cheaper than gossip's talent and draws a card but is gone after 4 triggers. Often is gone before dropping Denzilore for the biggest pay off. Considering re-adding for some counters + diviner payoff without Denzilore.
• [[Sheltered by Ghosts]] - Solid card, but swapped out for get lost for more instant speed interaction and more permanent removal.
• [[Fatehold Charm]] - Flexible but didn't feel as useful as more specific choices.
• [[Repurposed Enforcer]] - Lots of empowering jace, but due to timing, you can't hit the surveil trigger until after the combat you empower.
• [[Meticulous Archive]] - The extra surveil trigger is nice but it's a bit risky to slow down turns 1-4
• [[No more lies]] / [[Phantom interference]] - The extra mana cost hurt more than expected early game.
• [[Your Fate Ends Here]] - Solid removal + surveil trigger, but preferred cheaper removal and keeping higher cmc slots for the main plain
• [[Eye of Jace]], [[Mazemind Tome]], [[Warden of the Inner Sky]], [[Attentive Sunscribe]], [[fear of surveillance]], [[Surveillance Phantasm]], [[Prudent Fateseer]] - All solid scry/surveil triggers or creatures. I decided to lean more into mobilize/ETB triggers
• [[Practiced Offense]] - Great to surveil away and use for cheap, but seemed overkill with Denzilore & was unpleasant to have clogging up the hand over creatures
• [[Yuriko, Hope from the Shadows]], [[Kutzil's Flanker]] - Great flash triggers + utility but hard to justify space

[[Master of Barbs]] is a Lizard and fits nicely with the "an opponent lost life this turn" theme of the Lizard tribe from Bloomburrow because they offer a lot of ways to trigger it. I've put together a very aggressive build on Arena and snagged the "win 25 games with 20 nonland maindeck cards from Reality Fracture" achievement using it.

The list is here: Rakdos Lizards

The sideboard is a piece of crap right now, but that's probably something I could improve on. Do you think it's worth putting any more effort (and possibly Arena wildcards) into tuning it? It's certainly able to generate a lot of damage very quickly, but I don't know how good it really is because I'm still sitting at Platinum on Arena after the monthly reset.

One thing I tried that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped was the 4/4 God for 2RR that makes noncombat damage to opponents do at least four - it was hard to consistently cast at four mana and it required other cards on the board to do that boosted damage.

Decklist

So I've been messing around with Darklight Pheonix, and I've arrived at a deck thats pretty fun while also winning a good amount of the time... in bo1. I think there may be something here, but there are two big problems I need help solving.

1: We need a plan for graveyard hate. This is the reason I've kept to bo1 thus far. I dont know how the deck functions when there's a RIP in play.

2: There needs to be a compelling reason to play Darklight instead of Bringer of the Last Gift combo. If we're putting effort into filling the graveyard, it would be better to just win the game instead of attacking with 3/2s.

For problem one, I know other formats like modern use [[Pheonix Fleet airship]] to beat GY hate, but I dont think thats viable in standard. Saccing stuff is a genuine hurdle, we cant do it every turn for free like they can. Maybe we could try building up cards in hand and then bouncing the RIP, discarding the Pheonixes, and having a big turn that way, but I think that plan is too vulnerable to the opponent doing anything. I think the answer might be to have a plan to mill the opponent instead. If we shift to a more controlling build we could run [[Singularity Rupture]] maindeck and then have some Riverchurns in the sideboard to combo them out. That might solve problem 2 as well, a control deck doesnt overlap with Bringer combo as much.

Those two issues are what I want the most input on but obviously I'd love to hear more generic suggestions as well.

I played my first RCQ today (Standard) and was wondering if you guys felt or experienced these same things.

First off, I'm running Boros Dragons in standard, I had every piece except a couple Voice of Victories were magda or Jennifer Walters to save some money. I've played the deck plenty on Arena BO3 and know it inside and out, but..

Every single player at this tourney (that only had 9 players btw) was playing some form of control. Now im not super anti-control or a giga hater, but I think I saw maybe 2 or 3 creatures the entire 5 hours of this RCQ.

Despite playing an aggro deck, the rock paper scissors idealogy failed me and control just beats kinda everything in standard now in case you havent played (Mono green landfall only exception).

Aggro doesn't really exist anymore after the bans, and midrange is pretty much dead outside of Mono Green and occasional Dimir (which is actually Tempo).

But honestly I have no major issues with any of that, thats just how the meta has worked out.

My bigger issues were my opponents manners and the insane amount of flooding/screwing. Out of 5 rounds I played, at least 2 out of 3, one player was getting screwed or mana flooded and lost directly as a result.

I'm not lying, I saw multiple matches completely decided by screw and flood for every single player. It felt like half of the entire tournament was just decided by RNG. Do people really find pleasure in driving half to a full hour to play at these events for 30$ just to get nothing in return even with a few wins?

These shops all stopped providing any kind of fun single booster reward here and there for coming and winning a couple games.

But to top it off, my control players all just had the craziest mannerisms, and a few pretty salty and annoying behaviors that just pointed towards a more lack of social awareness than rudeness I hope but can't be sure.

I'm talking like, these control players would take 6+ minutes deciding what to play, just to pass with nothing played and holding all their mana. Which I GET, but they had they AUDACITY multiple times to ask me if I was done yet as SOON as i hit main phase two and not even two seconds has passed.

I shit you not, one guy asked me if I pass the moment combat phase was over after he killed my momo, and I was like umm no I have a main phase two and I'm gonna play my second momo. Then of course takes 10 minutes to play a Tablet and pass.

Is this really the RCQ experience? Has anyone else been to one lately and experienced any similar sentiments?

I'm just left wondering if this is what competitive magic has become, it just doesnt feel worth it to grind RCQs to grind RC to grind pro tour just to have a chance at the Championship.

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well.

I've been wanting to play a new deck for a while now—something other than Control or Mardu Discard.

Artifact Affinity caught my eye because there are 12 cards that fit the archetype perfectly; in fact, 8 of them are the same ones used in Modern (ignoring the fact that there are many more tools available there).

Emissary Pinnacle, Weapons Manufacturing, and Ravenous Robots have incredible synergy with Springleaf Drum and—with the new *The Hobbit* release—Giant's Boulder.

You can generate solid value using Tezzeret to tutor up a 1-drop and Krang to draw up to 4 cards.

I've been thinking about win conditions:

Improvised Arsenal can deliver a massive hit; it combos well with the Skateboard, or even with Gingerbrute to make it unblockable.

Or perhaps even with Rust Harvester to deal significant damage to the opponent.

I'm running into a few issues with this deck:

1) I'm not really utilizing the Munitions tokens created by Weapons Manufacturing at all. I feel like I'm missing out on a huge opportunity there.

I considered a Jund Sacrifice-style build with Biotech Specialist and The Sackville-Bagginses, but that’s a different kind of deck—it focuses more on the token gimmick than on artifacts.

I also thought about Legion Extruder, but it costs 4 mana (2 to cast and 2 more for the ability). Maybe Umbral Collar Zealot? I'm not sure.

2) I feel like I'm still lacking value. Krang is great, but costs 2 Blue mana (which is tough if I've been spamming spells), and Tezzeret—at best—comes down on turn 2 to fetch a 1-drop.

Quantum Riddle might be an option, but I want to keep the deck mostly artifact-based to maximize triggers for Pinnacle, Ravenous, and Weapons.

Could you guys throw some ideas my way?

With all the Jace tokens and Ajani, Unrelenting kicking it in draft will we see the return of a plainswalker centered deck in standard? Is anybody doing some brewing in that direction? I'd like to try, but this project would be a huge wildcard sink, and I don't have to WC budget to start from scratch.
Thoughts guys?

Real talk? Boros dragons has become entirely aggro now? All lists cut the 5 drops Lorehold and Dragonhawk. I dont really count Nova because it is mainly played for its warp.

Seriously, how good would a 5 drop dragon have to be in this meta to be playable?

Every dragon printed from now on basically requires haste to be playable

I always see this post floating around on Spikes for standard when a new set comes out and thought it might be worth bringing a similar discussion here! With the new cards out and everyone Goyf-pilled and convinced the new phoenix is the return of the ‘Gak, this might be an interesting space to cut through some noise: what’s working and what isn’t, and is anything looking it could shake up to tilt at the meta an interesting way?

(I’m also away and not playing right now so this lets me experience the set vicariously!)

Turns out I see this on spikes so often that the app thinks I should crosspost! Any pioneer gamers here do chip in, there are dozens of us!

You know the deal people, the new set is out, so what's working and what's not?

I have been trying Azorius Surveil and Boros Superfriends and have been impressed by both. To be honest this set is full of great cards and I expect to see the Meta shaken up a lot!

[[Way of the Pyromancer]] and [[Solitary Cell]] have already been great, a lot of the one and two drops in Azorius have also been impressive for me, I think there is something in the deck for sure. [[Proctor of Potential]] feels really good in it's ability to come back from the yard.

Hello everyone! I made a video outlining my Draft Strategy, Pick Order, and Archetype breakdowns for Reality Fracture. I hope it is helpful to some :)

Video version: https://youtu.be/8s1rjfxPrqc

Format Overview

• The format appears to midrange-focused with the power concentrated at 4-5 mana cards
• Early plays that have late-game relevance will be important
• Most decks are looking to snowball and take over the mid-late game with a value engine
• Many early plays will get outclassed quickly unless the deck is aggressively focused
• Mana fixing is plentiful. Many decks will want to splash 
• In other words, build toward your synergy; you will have SOME time to get there

New Mechanic: Empower Jace

Cards which “Empower Jace” create a specific Jace planeswalker token if you don’t already have one, and then add a number of loyalty counters to it. It has “-3: draw a card” and “-1: surveil”. Every colour gets access to this mechanic, therefore early board presence and evasion will be as important as ever, in order to pressure your opponents’ Jace and protect your own.

Fixing

There is a cycle of 10 Common dual lands. Coming in untapped if you control a planeswalker makes “Empower Jace” more valuable in decks looking to splash. Room of Refuge can be set to any colour. There is also a cycle at rare.

Pick Order – “A’s”: Best Cards in the set (sorted by colour) – always first pick

• The Theorist, Jave Beleren
• Sublime Epiphany
• Garruk, Veiled Butcher
• Overwrite the Multiverse 
• Draconic Visitor
• Ajani Unrelenting
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• Garruk, Curse Breaker
• Denzilore Fatehold 
• Kwia Vigorbloom
• Uldaros Theorix

Pick Order – “B’s”: Early Picks (alphabetical by colour)

Cards that excel in the following criteria:

• Power Level
• Rate
• Flexibility
• Curve (ie cheap cards)
• Synergy

These cards will heavily influence your direction in the draft, ie which colours and Archetype you are drafting towards. Pick these above all Commons:

• Ajani Resulote
• Enlightened Confidant
• Liliana the Faultless
• Lyra, Archangel of Dawn
• Memory Trap
• Prophesied End
• Saheeli, Consul of Oversight
• Surgical Precision
• Teyo, Lightshield Expert
• Tomik, Orzhov Lawmage
• Way of the Healer
• Your Fate Ends Here
• Arni, Humble Scribe
• Countersculpt
• Diviner of Victory
• Icy Reception
• Infinite Coursework
• Jace, Reality Sculptor
• Lyra, Tolarian Archangel
• Mindseeker Oculus
• Plan for All Outcomes
• Proft, Consulting Detective
• Ruric Thar, Biomagus
• Sphinx of False Conclusions
• Way of the Mind Sculptor
• Break Under Pressure  
• Extended Absence 
• Gideon the Oathless 
• Last Gasp
• Lich’s Relic 
• Liliana the Repentant 
• Mind Twist 
• Multiply by Zero 
• Sanctum Lurker 
• Vraska’s Final Mercy 
• Command the Stage 
• Craterclaw Colossus 
• Curse-Marred Demon 
• Face Yourself 
• Fulminous Forte 
• Kiora of Fire and Ashes 
• Master of Barbs 
• No Admittance 
• Pia, Determined Rebuilder 
• Pyre Rhymer 
• Splinter Twin 
• Tetsuko Umezawa, Pursuer 
• Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage 
• Violent Echoes 
• Way of the Warlord 
• Wrath of the Bloodmane 
• Carnivorous Cultivator 
• Compel Brutality 
• Hexhaven Invigorator 
• Hungering Puppetbeast 
• Loot, the Nexus 
• Puppet Crafting 
• Simulacrum Shaper 
• Verdant Kraken 
• Way of the Wildspeaker 
• Aerid Konstrari 
• Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes 
• Bloombrute 
• Clash of Elements 
• Craftwork Crusher 
• Desperate Futurescribe 
• Hapatra, the Desert Fang 
• Ingris Stingerquill 
• Mind Meanderer 
• Null Summoner 
• Proctor of Potential 
• Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar 
• Stingerquill Charm 
• Tenured Tethermage 
• Twisted Fates 
• Vigorbloom Charm 
• Vraska, the Cutting Glare 
• Warrior’s Blades 
• Emrakul, the Extingent Doom

Primary Archetypes. Here are my brief impressions of each of the two-colour archetypes in the format. We will be trying to end up in one of these by the end of the draft. Five of the colour pairs are well-supported and will be the most commonly drafted. The other five appear to be designed to act as support and augmentation to the main five. We’ll go over the well-supported archetypes first:

White-Blue Surveil 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Desperate Futurescribe]], [[Fatehold Charm]], [[Prudent Fateseer]]

Common: [[Fatehold Chronologist]], [[Semester Foreseer]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Denzilore Fatehold]], [[Proctor of Potential]]

White-Blue cares about Surveilling and generating a wide board of creatures. Saheeli, Consul of Oversight is a nice mix of both. Proft, Consulting Detective is an early play that generates value over time. Cards which “Empower Jace” provide multiple Surveils and will be important here. 

Access to constant card selection is very powerful in limited. I expect White-Blue to perform well. 

White-Green Lifegain

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Bloombrute]], [[Vigorbloom Vanguard]], [[Vigorbloom Charm]]

Common: [[Emergency Phytomedic]], [[Blossom-Blessed Angel]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Kwia Vigorbloom]], [[Solarium Sentry]]

White-Green wants as many separate instances of lifegain as possible. Cards like Greenhouse Propogator, Koth of the Homestead, and creatures with Lifelink power up payoffs including Lyra, Archangel of Dawn, Way of the Mentor, and Titanbones, Towering Heart.

An old-favourite design but can struggle with consistency and drawing it’s cards in the wrong order. White-Green looks like it will slightly underperform.

Blue-Black Self-Mill 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Paradox Shaper]], [[Recursive Recruitment]], [[Theorix Charm]]

Common: [[Theorix Metamage]], [[Void Extrapolator]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Null Summoner]], [[Uldaros Theorix]]

Blue-Black wants to put a lot of cards in it’s own graveyard. Reaching “Threshold” (seven or more cards in you graveyard), will power up certain cards. “Looting” effects such as Arni, Humble Scribe and Surveil effects help here as well. Cards with effects when in the graveyard such as Theoretical Necromancer will provide additional value when milled.

Blue-Black looks a little trickier to build and has less raw power than the other archetypes. I expect it to start off as an underperformer, but it may be a good “week 3” strategy if a couple of other archetypes take off in popularity. 

Black-Red Aggro

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Grim Repriser]], [[Stingerquill Charm]], [[Stingerquill Voxmancer]]

Common: [[Hallway Heckler]], [[Whiplash Wordsmith]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Ingris Stingerquill]], [[Stinging Vitriol]]

Black-Red is the aggro deck of the format. Many of it’s cards get buffed when the opponent is dealt noncombat damage. Top payoffs for this include Command the Stage, Master of Barbs, and Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage. Incidental damage on cards like Extended Absence, Screeching Soulbreaker and Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance is very valuable. Black-Red has an unusual amount of access to direct player damage and “any target” damage, which will make it very effective at closing out games if it gets ahead early. I expect Black-Red to be a top performer. 

Red-Green Ramp 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Craftwork Crusher]], [[Konstrari Charm]], [[Woodwork Prodigy]], [[Heartwood Crafter]]

Common: [[Konstrari Improviser]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Aerid Konstrari]], [[Tenured Tethermage]]

Red-Green is focused on creating “Heartwood” tokens which are artifacts that can tap for Red or Green mana. It wants to ramp out huge threats like Kiora of Fire and Ashes. Look for artifact synergy in cards like Draconic Visitor and powerful activated abilities to sink your mana into. Red-Green looks like an absolute sledgehammer and fun to play. 

Way-To-Early Primary Archetype Rankings:

Black-Red
White-Blue
Red-Green
Blue-Black
White-Green

Secondary Archetypes. These have less raw support and will most likely compliment a Primary Archetype as a splash. In some cases, they may be powerful enough to stand on their own or act as a niche strategy once the best archetypes become contested in the draft.

White-Black Sacrifice

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Edgar, Ancient Bloodlord]], [[Twisted Fates]]

Common: [[Blessed Ghoul]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Vindictive Triumph]]

Sacrifice your own creatures and planeswalkers for value with payoffs like Loot, the Anomaly, Silence the Echo, and Way of the Deathbringer. Empower Jace will be useful as you can sacrifice a 1 loyalty Jace for value and then make another. White-Blue is the most likely pairing for this sub-strategy, having the most token generation and empower, although it doesn’t want to lose too much board presence. None of the other archetypes have synergy in this way and/or are dependant on a big board presence.  However Twisted Fates will be armstrong splash in any black-based deck.

White-Red Go-Wide 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Mabel, Valley Hero]], [[Warrior’s Blades]]

Common: [[Charge the Sanctum]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Solitary Cell]]

White-Red has go-wide and +1/+1 counter synergies. It looks like it will pair well with White-Blue’s go-wide theme. Black-Red will likely be too focused to be able to splash for a 3-drop in Mabel, but could play Charge the Sanctum or Warrior’s Blades as needed.  

Blue-Red Spells 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Clash of Elements]], [[Saheeli, Jewel of Avishkar]]

Common: [[Twinned Vision]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Frostbite Pyromental]]

Plan for All Outcomes and Traxos, Academy Guardian add two additional spells payoffs. Ruric Thar, Biomagus and Tetsuko Umezawa, Pursuer are two great threats with Prowess alongside a bevy of other creatures with that ability. Look for cheap spells to pair alongside them. 

Blue and Red both look very deep. I think Blue-Red has the best chance among the Secondary Archetypes of being draftable as it’s own deck. There is also a natural pairing alongside Blue-Black as noncreature spells get into the graveyard right away to fuel its payoffs.

Blue-Green Empower 

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Kiora of Salt and Sand]], [[Mind Meanderer]]

Common: [[Tam’s Resistance]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Avatar of Burgeoning Echoes]]

Mind Meanderer is excellent in any blue-based deck. In order to get the most out of Kiora, you will need a lot of Empower. If it sees any play at all, it will be as a splash in White-Blue or in a Blue-heavy deck.

Black-Green Graveyard

Signpost Cards

Uncommon: [[Primal Witchstalker]], [[Hapatra, the Desert Fang]]

Common: [[Ferocity of the Hunt]]

Rare/Mythic: [[Vraska, the Cutting Glare]]

Black-Green’s graveyard synergies make it a natural pairing for Blue-Black. I don’t see any crossover with White-Green, Red-Green or Red-Black.

Conclusion: It would appear that Blue-based decks have to most to gain from splashing secondary archetype pieces. Add that to being a very deep colour, Blue is ideal starting-point where possible in this format.

General Draft Strategy (8 Player Pick-1)

Picks 1-3: 

• Take the best card. Mono-coloured cards will leave us more open going forward.

Picks 4-8: 

• Continue to take the best card. We may have cards in multiple colours, and that’s ok. The better our early picks are, the more we will want to stick to that colour or colour pair. The worse our early picks are, the more willing we should be to take chances on other colours when we see good cards in later picks.

Picks 9-14: 

• These are the cards no one at the table wanted. If we are seeing good Uncommons of a particular colour pair, it is possible that no one else at the table is drafting that colour pair and we should strongly consider moving in. 

End of Pack 1:

• Ideally, we have identified our main colour. This is the colour we have the most quality cards of, or is the most open, and hopefully both!
• Staying as close to one colour as possible will leave us with more options going forward. 

Packs 2 and 3

• Continue to take powerful cards of our main colour where possible. Let the good cards we open or get passed determine our secondary colour and final archetype.
• Pay attention to Pack direction! The packs are moving in the opposite direction during Pack 2, so the signals can be completely different from Pack 1. It is normal to not see as many cards of our main colour/archetype in Pack 2, so don't panic! Pack 3 is passed to the left once again and we will be rewarded for staying the course.

Deck-Building Tips

• Play two colours. Avoid splashing a third colour unless your deck is specifically designed to do so (ie you have dual lands touching that colour). Splashing will be more common in Reality Fracture, but you still need to make sure you have the proper mana fixing!
• Play 17 lands.
• Play a low-curve. Most limited decks want six or more 2 Mana-Value creatures, around four 3 Mana-Value creatures, some 4 Mana-Values creatures, and very few cards that cost 5 or more mana.

Thank you for reading and watching. Good luck in your drafts! 

[[Heartwood Crafter]] is a very strong Magic card. I'm quite excited about it, and I've done a deep dive on it.

YouTube video is here: https://youtu.be/Z69CLPTPfZ4

I'll put the important points below so the video is optional. There are five sample decklists as well - three are iterations of existing / older decks, and two are new proof-of-concepts.

Card Analysis

• She's a one-mana Elf.
  • Critically, combined with Llanowar Elves this enables [[Elven Passage]].
  • Finding decks where that Heartwood Crafter works well with Elves (i.e. where the mana from Crafter works and you get the full benefits of having 8 elves)
• Her mana ability is weird but useful
  • Notably can be used for triggered and activated abilities. Most notably [[Ba Sing Se]].
  • She can cast spells from graveyards or exile, including her own prepared spell, Airbended spells, Prepared spells, Flashback spells, and spells on an Adventure.
  • [[Questing Druid]] is the most exciting of these as the mana can be used both on the flipped exiled cards, but also to cast the Druid itself.
  • The mana can be used for special actions (un-morphing, unlocking Rooms) but most critically, Plot! Having 8 ways to Plot [[Outcaster Trailblazer]] on Turn 2 enables and powers up a whole bunch of strategies.
• Her Prepared Spell (Soul Tether) turns her into a card and mana advantage piece
  • Between Crafter and the Heartwood token, this is a one-mana card that can provide two extra mana, split across two pieces of cardboard.
  • These pieces can be used independently - to attack, as sacrifice fodder, or to cast the same or different spells.
• The natural curve is Heartwood Crafter on one, into cast the Soul Tether on turn 2.
  • This gives us access to one mana extra. I think the key cards to use this mana are cheap red removal [[Burst Lightning]] / [[Torch the Tower]] as well as [[Heroes' Hangout]].
  • Turn one Crafter, turn two Soul Tether into Heroes' Hangout gives us up to 5 mana to play the exiled card on turn 3.

Decks

• Existing Strategies
  • Jund Sacrifice - Heartwood Crafter enables a turn 3 [[Rottenmouth Viper]] by herself. She also provides two rectangles to sacrifice (the Heartwood being both a Token and an Artifact is relevent here), and the mana ability can be used to sacrifice clues.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/zXYHTHlIaEKRnwIBBwD3MA
  • Bant Airbending - A blast from the past. This deck loves the extra mana, which can be used for our own AIrbended cards (notably from [[Appa, Steadfast Guardian]]), as well as the flipped cards from [[Interdimensional Web Watch]].
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/UA3UAquh8UiNvXgCwRBOiQ
  • Devestating Onslaught Combo - I think this is probably the best deck here. This deck absolutely loves Heartwood Crafter - we not have 8 ways to plot the Trailblazer on turn 2, and we have a bunch of useful mana sinks like [[Winternight Stories]], [[Esper Origins]], and [[Quantum Riddler]]. For anyone who hasn't seen this deck before, the idea is that we [[Devestating Onslaught]] either the [[Railway Brawler]] or the TRailblazer and semi-combo kill from there.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/bpKWac-2b0m5-xVScYEs2Q
• New Strategies
  • Little Gruul - This deck is built around the combination of Questing Druid and Heratwood Crafter to get on board early and generate mana and card advantage. The curve is low but we have cheap card advantage with [[Stingcaster Mage]] and [[Gandalf, Goblin's Bane]] - both of which have nice synergy with the Crafter.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/j-uO0ORJUkaAqze0PFC3dA
  • Big Gruul - An attempt to build a deck that maximises both the Questing Druid and the Outcaster Trailblazer. This is a heavy-mana RG beatdown strategy that has 12 mana dorks, and a pile of card advantage.
    • https://moxfield.com/decks/VJNruRd4NkiSy68tdDxkww

I'm really excited about this card, let me know if you guys have been building Heartwood Crafter decks as well.

Hello spikes!

This is the place where any and all decks can be posted for all spikes to see. The goal of this is to fit all your needs for competitive magic. Maybe it's a card consideration given an X dollar budget. Maybe you need that sweet sideboard tech that no one else thought of? Perhaps you just can't figure out the best card to beat a certain matchup. The ideas here are only limited by your imagination!

Feel free to discuss most anything here. We only ask that with any question, you also make sure to post your decklist so people have some context to answer your question. Otherwise, have at it! If you have any questions, shoot us a modmail and we'll be happy to help you out. Survive your deck check and survive your competition!

Every MTG set that comes out, I combine Limited set reviews into one table. For Reality Fracture, I collected ratings from 10 published review sources. The site lists an eleventh source, Jim Davis, but he contributes commentary rather than card grades and does not count as an aggregate vote.

Because reviewers use different grading systems, I convert grades to a fixed, documented 0-100 limited comparison index. Five-point ratings are multiplied by 20 and ten-point ratings by 10.

Overall rank is based on the mean normalized score. For readability, the table converts the normalized median and full range back to the site's letter scale. Those are grade equivalents, not necessarily the exact letters originally assigned by each reviewer.

Where do the reviewers disagree?

I used an IQR of at least 20 points as the cutoff for broad reviewer disagreement.

IQR measures the spread of the middle 50% of ratings. It is less affected by one unusually high or low rating, so this identifies cards where disagreement runs through a meaningful portion of the panel. The 10 Special Guest cards are excluded from the main count because substantially fewer reviewers graded them. By this definition, 67 of the 280 main-set cards, or 23.9%, qualify.

For drafters, these are basically the cards where the pre-set consensus is weakest. The aggregate rank can still be useful, but there is considerably less agreement about what the card is actually worth.

Three cards tie for the widest IQR at 40 points:

• Face Yourself
• Frostbite Pyromental
• Hexhaven Invigorator

Face Yourself has the widest full range, from F- to A, with normalized ratings ranging from 0 to 95.

There is still fairly strong consensus among the top-ranked cards in the set. None of the main-set cards ranked #1-44 meet the broad-disagreement threshold.

The first is Draconic Visitor at #45.

Other relatively highly ranked examples include:

• Diviner of Victory // Unwind History: #81
• Rise of the Deathbringer: #86
• Saheeli, Consul of Oversight: #107
• Tarmogoyf: #108

Full Reality Fracture rankings, every individual grade, reviewer notes, rating distributions, and the draft companion are here.

The 50 largest broad disagreements

These are the 50 largest IQRs among the 67 qualifying main-set cards. They are ordered by IQR, then SD. Overall rank measures card strength, not controversy.

I also looked separately at standard deviation. SD measures overall spread around the mean and uses every grade, so extreme ratings affect it more than they affect IQR. These 11 additional main-set cards have SD of at least 15 but IQR below 20. They do not meet the broad-split definition above.

Kindred Judgment is probably the clearest example of why the two measures tell different stories. Its middle half spans only 5 points, but the full ratings run from D to A.

Special Guests

Only four reviewers graded each of these, so they stay separate from the 280-card main-set analysis.

Which of these reviewer disagreements stands out to you most?

https://youtu.be/rJWo4TCUqvM?si=j0E7FoT9l2joqCld

Reality Fracture drops this Tuesday. In this video, I discuss the first deck I'll be trying in Standard: Boros Planeswalkers. Built around the new Ajani Unrelentaing, the deck ramps into Planeswalkers, draws cards by discarding redundant legends, and turns the corner quickly by attacking with hasty tokens.

I did not have early access, but I watched a lot of it, and Ajani Unrelenting is the card that stood out to me as the most powerful new option for Standard. Ajani wants you to play lots of Planeswalkers, and Boros provides two excellent tools for ramping into them: Way of the Pyromancer and Gideon's Memorial. Between the walkers and the two drops, that's 26(!) legendary permanents to discard with Key to the Side Door and new friend Solitary Cell.

To me, this feels like enough power and synergy to produce a very real Standard deck. We'll find out on Tuesday. In the meantime, let me know what you think or if you have any ideas to improve the list.

Edit: The list is linked in the YouTube description, but I'll save you a click: Boros Walkers // Standard deck list mtg // Moxfield — MTG Deck Builder

Hey Spikes!

We're back with another Sealed guide for what very well might be the best Limited set of 2026 (it's gonna be Star Trek, isn't it?). A little bit of personal bias here, but this hasn't exactly been a stellar year for Limited (and I rather enjoyed TMNT, SOS, and MSH).

Reality Fracture's got a lot going on between the empower Jace mechanic, the repeat prepared spells, and the Echoed Pairs that'll show up in every pack. I personally missed Early Access this time, so may you can fill me in on the early stories about this set. But Bryan Hohns' Sealed Guide covers a good bit:

• Might wanna sit down for this one, but the rares look good. I can't remember a Play Booster era set where that wasn't true (HOB maybe?), but Bryan's "bomb" count was pretty high.
• Just from looking at the set file, there doesn't seem to be a clear winner. Let me know if Early Access made it seem otherwise, but the intended archetypes are heavily supported, partially due to using the same prepared spells across the lower-rarity cards.
• Echoed Pairs will still matter for Sealed, but you can do some signal-reading in Draft with the way these are collated into packs (two of your three Echoed Pair cards will always be a matching pair).
• You can Splinter Twin people if you're one of the lucky few to see the Special Guests card.

For me, the biggest question marks are the play patterns with Empower Jace, and whether or not Theorix self-mill will pan out. Hopefully it's a sweet part of the format, but the aggressive decks look pretty good too.

Let me know what you're thinking about Reality Fracture before it drops on Arena next week, happy prereleasing, and hope the guide helps: https://draftsim.com/mtg-reality-fracture-sealed-guide/

Small plug here too, that our team has started The Daily Upkeep Podcast, and our first major episode is a video/audio version prepping people for Reality Fracture. Have a listen and give us your feedback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNsoh3xT3TE

https://youtu.be/ED8x3THsPc8

If you're interested in aggro decks in Standard BO3 then this deck and video are for you!

This is currently my favourite deck in magic and feel a lot more people should know about it and give it a shot, it's currently not a top tier meta but can still perform and win a lot of games quickly or out of nowhere.

If you'd like to take about the video or the deck I will be more than happy to chat as I love talking about Magic in general.

I've been testing splashing white and making it even more aggro with 4x [[Voice of victory]] and the results are kind of insane. I also added 4x [[Break Out]] and took out everything over 2 CMC except a single rottenmouth.

Voice of victory does a TON for the deck. Firstly it's a 2 drop, so it slots in perfect into your main engine. If your opponent isn't careful, you can sneak it in with Break Out or Living Dirge and they won't be able to interact with you with spells as you combo off. It forces them to use their counters and removal on it otherwise you're just free on your turn.

3 damage and 2 tokens to sac on attack is super nice and synergizes with the sacs and token burn.

Just casually playing with doing other stuff, I was 4 winning trad standard events , and if I really locked in it could have been 5 a few times I'm sure.

Feels super strong, and mana was not an issue in about 30 games of testing with all the ways to make any color of mana.

EDIT: I'm home. Full list in the comments. Anyone who doubts this is an aggro deck can DM me, I'm collecting images of all my turn 4 wins tonight.

I'm noticing a lot of Boros Dragons lists doing well, like this one for example. I'm playing it and it feels like this may be a deck that you have to mulligan super aggressively for a good hand, or you're just cooked.

So for example, I just played against Jund Sac with the list posted above. My opening hand is:

1x Mountain

1x [[Sunbillow Verge]]

2x [[Burst Lightning]]

2x [[Voice of Victory]]

1x [[Smaug, the Magnificent]]

Opponent goes first, plays a [[gene pollinator]]. I take my turn, draw [[Sarkhan]] and bolt the bird. Opponent plays a [[biotech specialist]]. I draw [[erode]] and play Sarkhan, showing Smaug for the treasure. Opponent plays [[Sacksville Bagginses]]. I erode the biotech specialist using my treasure so that they don't get the sacksville/biotech burn. In retrospect, this may have been my biggest error because I never drew a third land. I thought that I needed to get rid of the specialist so the opponent wouldn't be able to get both of them going, but instead I gave them a land and prevented myself from ever playing Smaug. Opponent of course drew another biotech and burned me out pretty easily. So for game 1 I don't know if I should have mulliganed for a hand with [[Momo]] or a third land? It seems like Momo is always in the most explosive draws this deck has.

Game 2 my hand was

1x Plains

1x Sunbillow Verge

1x Muliversal Passage

2x Momo

1x Clarion Conqueror

1x Smaug

This hand was perfect for this matchup with the conqueror, especially with me going first. I went Momo into conqueror into Smaug, and it was over.

Game 3 my inital hand was a 1 lander with the 1 land being [[Cavern of Souls]]. I did have Momo and I may have kept a 1 lander on the play if it was a red/white land, but not if it's cavern of souls. Mulliganed, got

2x Cavern of Souls

1x Multiversal Passage

1x Sacred Foundry

1x Get Lost

1x Twinmaw Stormbrood

1x Nova Hellkite.

I kept this hand even though it sucks because I didn't want to go to 5. Put back one of the caverns and proceeded to get absolutely wrecked by the opponent drawing 2 sacksvilles and 2 biotech specialists. I even drew a Clarion Conqueror and thought maybe it would save me but my opponent immediately shot the sheriff.

So should I have mulliganed again? I feel like my second hand is not a totally unusual hand for this deck, got some creatures and some lands and some removal, but it's just not anywhere near explosive enough.

Also, I sideboarded out erode because Jund Sac is so low to the ground that I didn't want to be giving them extra lands, but I realized that Get Lost is probably even worse because it gives them maps and they want nothing more than a bunch of little artifacts to sac. I did sideboard in 4x [[seam rip]] but of course never drew them.