Encore, Myriad, and Knowing When to End The Turn
This week’s deck was reluctantly 3 colors. The whole thing spun out of an angel I bought that I thought had great potential but never made a splash in any deck for me. Angel of Destiny is right up my alley. It doesn’t really deal damage. Instead, it gives it all back to my opponent while I gain life too. It also comes with a combat dependent alternate win condition. Despite all those pluses it always seemed too slow. I had to be up on life then attack and at best I could knock out one player per turn. Funny for sure, but not a great way to close out the whole game. I had been having real success with both my Boros Blinks and Rionya Copies decks up until then. It wasn’t until I had the bright idea to make 2 copies of Battle Angels of Tyr stick around for another turn and then have 3 Myriad triggers go off on an additional combat that it really hit me. Give Angel of Destiny Blade of Selves. As long as I can keep the tokens an extra turn I could clear the table. That’s great and funny. I applied some previously learned lessons about the importance of Mirror Box and Mirror Gallery in conjunction with Sundial of The Infinite.
I was sold. I started to look for other creatures that had great abilities upon dealing damage that I always seemed to cut. The first one to come to mind was Medomai the Ageless. If this sphinx connects I get an extra turn. I’m not a huge fan of extra turns but this guy is one of the fairer ways to make them happen. Those copies push the goodwill at the table to the limit. Either way, I knew adding blue to my deck would help sure up my strategy in a lot of ways. For one I had access to cards like Tribute Mage and Trophy Mage to find important artifacts for the strategy. I’m not keen on a lot of tutors but my artifacts are integral to the identity of the deck.
Now that I had successfully added blue to the mix I let my mind wander. And wander it did. Blue gave me access to some key clone effects so I had a series of cards to weigh for that strategy. Mirage Mirror can copy some key permanents. If one happens to have an ability to make tokens I essentially doubled up my triggers. I like Mindlink Mech in this strategy. Going to combat can be a risky proposition. I can keep a key creature safe by having it crew the Mech. I get the combat trigger and I keep the strategy safe an extra turn cycle. I like Cephalid Facetaker for the same reason. The nice thing about the Cephalid is I don’t have to tap my key creature to copy it, like with the Mech. Now I can double up my triggers in one turn and she’s unblockable; I can’t be as easily stopped. Mirrorhall Mimic offers some recursion with the disturb effect. Some resiliency is welcome with any combat heavy strategy.
Blue also expanded another play pattern of the deck: end the turn effects. I use these spells to accumulate tokens and not have to sacrifice them at various phases of a turn. Sometimes I need it to happen before combat ends, other times at the beginning of the end step. Time Stop is simple but direct, which is more welcome than you would think. I’ve rarely played it offensively to end an opponent’s turn but the times I have it’s always surprising and funny to me. That’s one of the reasons I like Discontinuity. It encourages me to play it on my turn, by making itself cheaper, which is what I want to do with it anyway. There’s also the previously mentioned Sundial of The Infinite. It sticks around and is repeatable. Very nice. Something like Day’s Undoing would be a little more limiting. It’s sorcery speed so I can’t go to the end of turn and pop it off to save creatures from being sacrificed.
I’ve mentioned some targets for all my effects and talked around Myriad without really exploring it so far. If I can end the turn before leaving combat I can save my tokens and get an incredible number of triggers on my next combat step. Battle Angels of Tyr I mentioned above. It does it all, ramp, draw, lifegain. So what else do I have besides the Angels? Broodbirth Viper for starters. Extra draw is always welcome. If I can have 2 vipers start combat that’s up to 6 draw triggers. Wizards of Thay has a powerful effect. Cost reduction is always welcome and 4 less to cast non permanent spells is an easy sell. It couples very well with a draw spell like Blue Sun’s Zenith. With these myriad cards I made an initial mistake. The tokens go away at the end of combat, not the end of turn. Which seems like a small thing. I would let them sit on the field and just clear them off at the end of turn. It actually made a big difference if you’re trying to keep the tokens or use them as a resource. It kind of warped the play pattern too. I have to choose if I even want a second main phase or if I deploy tokens that actually care about the end of turn. If I end the turn after combat I never go to my end step and any tokens that sacrifice or exile at the end of the next turn will disappear at the end of my opponent’s turn. Just a little nuance worth highlighting.
I’ve only told you about tokens that disappear at the end of combat so far. So where is the conflict? I have a powerful suite of creatures that I used to fill out the token strategy, creatures with Encore. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed these creatures. They give me an early presence and then I can cash in on the card for great effect when I get some more mana available. Amphin Mutineer is an interesting case. Exile is decisive removal. The 4/3 body can be daunting to fight against. Sometimes I play this politically and ask a player what they want removed. The feel bads are mitigated a little if they keep a beater out of the exchange. When I encore it though there are never politics, just titting the best target available for each player. Elvish Dreadlord needs to be timed right. It’s a little boardwipe on its own. When there are 3 of them though it can clear the field. Just watch out for the elf or changeling player. Kinsbale Courier helps with this. It’s cheap and gives me a counter to put someone out of range of the Dreadlord’s effect. Encore it first to save even more creatures.
Who could lead such a ragtag strategy? I said the deck was reluctantly 3 colors but once I started looking at my tokens as a resource as much as I wanted to copy them. The Ever-Changing ‘Dane is a throwback character from MtG’s past. Dominaria United came along and dropped some great options for old legends and the Dane was one of them. He is an all-star. To have less than 1000 decks registered to him is a big oversight. With the Dane I’m less concerned with timing my tokens and end the turn options. I just let him eat a token creature with Myriad and get double the triggers on the next combat. If something important is about to be removed I let the Dane do it’s thing and I can keep that key creature. It can also be a poor haste effect. If my commander has been on the field for a bit and I need to attack with a creature that I just cast, I sacrifice that creature to the Dane then let him attack and get the combat trigger or deal the critical amount of damage. If a board wipe is coming down and I happen to have a dies trigger I can double up on it this way too. The ‘Dane is very versatile.
Since tokens are so important for the deck I needed avenues to expand the strategy. Blade of Selves was an easy include as I said above. The only problem is when it’s down to a 1v1 scenario Myriad is useless. Helm of the Host makes me a copy no matter what. Plus I get around the Legend Rule and I can make more copies of that token. Blade of Shared Souls takes a creature I happen to have and makes it into a creature I want with a combat trigger or leaves the battlefield ability. The token it comes with is a nice addition. I keep waiting for the day when I can copy it with Sculpting Steel for double the triggers.
With all these copies I can expand on using those tokens as a resource or target. The most well known is Ashnod’s Altar. Ramp is key in the format and 4 to 6 extra mana in a turn goes a long way. I have Blood Artist and Elas Il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim to drain life from opponents. Having multiple copies just accelerates the plan. I used to have Bastion of Remembrance since enchantments are harder to remove, but I swapped it out for a creature version of the effect because the ceiling is so much higher with the extra copies. Just imagine having 4 Blood Artists on your side. Attritionwas a good find for the deck. Weaponize a resource when you’re not going to keep it. That’s why Westvale Abbey is so good in the deck. 5 creatures isn’t a lot to sacrifice. A 9/7 with 4 key words is a frightening beater. 3 of them is even scarier for opponents. What really gets people is making The ‘Dane a copy of it. Now my commander is evasive and indestructable. A commander damage kill is easily within reach.
That’s all straightforward. Let’s get weird. There are some great creatures out there that I open the door to having multiples of their abilities. My Favorite is Judge’s Familiar. People play the game differently when you have 3 or 4 of these around and can threaten to make more. Bladegriff Prototype is another funny one when it has Myriad. My opponents have to choose what to destroy, so I share the blame around the table. A lot of enemies get made around the table on those turns. I like to keep a couple of cheap populate options open for this reason. It doesn’t get much cheaper than Wake the Reflections. Rootborn Defenses and Trostani’s Judgement aren’t as cheap but they are great options to populate.
The last class of cards I want to highlight are creatures with Evoke. Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, and Reveillarkare well known in the format for their great ETBs. Being able to double or triple up on those effects is very powerful. Being able to evoke them early on for cheap keeps things flexible for me.
So, how did the deck turn out? Check it
