Personal Best of XLN/DOM/M19/GRN, MTG Arena Mythic on 5/21/2019 (War of the Spark Season 1)
All right, this is my favorite deck of this standard so far. When I saw that a new Kiora was going to be printed in War of the Spark, I immediately started thinking about what kind of deck would utilize her best.
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
wants you to do two things: run high-power creatures, and have things you want to tap. Obviously, that means midrange. But what colors? Well, she's flexible enough to run in anything that runs green (which is basically all midrange at the moment), but what I really wanted to do was unlock the full potential of her untap ability. A card came to mind:
Biomancer's Familiar
. Obviously, there are other cards in the format with powerful tapping effects, but this one fits perfectly in with both Kiora's thematic colors and the midrange idea. From there, and given the pool of cards I already had from last season, I went for a U/G build.
Cards:
Llanowar Elves
: Obviously.
Incubation Druid
: Also obvious, good synergy with both
Biomancer's Familiar
and
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
.
Growth-Chamber Guardian
: I really, really love this card. With
Biomancer's Familiar
, it's absolutely devastating, and on its own, can help you come back from serious card disadvantages against removal-light hands. Pleasantly reminds me of
Sylvan Advocate
.
Biomancer's Familiar
: I've already said a lot about this card, and there's not much more to say, except that people (on Arena, anyway) don't always seem to know exactly what he does and how he works, which is wonderful for me. Even without an opponent misplaying around it, though, it can turn combat into a nightmare and enable incredible synergies.
Zegana, Utopian Speaker
: I actually wasn't sure about this card at first, but after playing with a full set of it, I'm in love. Even if the card-draw ability doesn't go off, you're still looking at something that can turn into a mini-Ghalta, and with
Biomancer's Familiar
, can turn into a Ghalta or a super-Ghalta. The sheer amount of muscle this card adds to my board has won me many, many games.
Roalesk, Apex Hybrid
: This is another card I was iffy about, once I realized that you couldn't put the counters on the card itself, but in this deck, this card is indisputably fantastic. Synergy city, and it's always good to have fliers to block
Thief of Sanity
or fly over
God-Eternal Oketra
.
Hydroid Krasis
: The Simic
Sphinx's Revelation
, and by far one of my favorite cards from this new set. It's huge, it's swingy, it's game-winny, it can be anything from a four-drop to a sixteen-drop and you'll still get something out of it. Raw fuel and power.
Blink of an Eye
: I realized after having so much trouble with my last Simic deck that I really needed some solid removal or disruption. I debated on running mainboard counterspells (or even going back to
Frilled Mystic
), but I settled on this. It's versatile enough to be useful even against decks that run no permanents of their own, since it can save mine, and can buy me precious time against permanent-light decks like
Wilderness Reclamation
. I also enjoy using it against that other Simic midrange list with all the "take control" cards, like
Entrancing Melody
and
Mass Manipulation
.
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
: My favorite Planeswalker is back! She's not as impressive as she used to be, but combined with everything else in this list, she will never not have something to do.
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
: An absolute monster of a card that completely annihilates Esper and basically turns me into a living god. There's just so much you can do with this gal, and she synergizes with almost everything else in my entire deck.
Karn's Bastion
: Fucking incredible.
Sideboard:
Arboreal Grazer
: Hello, mono-blue.
Blast Zone
: Hello, mono-blue.
Kasmina's Transmutation
: This card is basically a blue
Doom Blade
, except it can actually deal with
Rekindling Phoenix
and the God-Eternals. It has its downsides (
Mortify
is still hanging around), but honestly, in any midrange matchup, this card is incredible.
Negate
: Much like how
Kasmina's Transmutation
helps me deal with creatures I can't overpower, this card helps me in matchups where
Blink of an Eye
or
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
aren't going to be good enough, usually Esper or Grixis if they're light on creatures. And, of course, it's more answers to
Wilderness Reclamation
, the most braindead deck ever to appear in any Standard format in history.
Mesmerizing Benthid
: An anti-aggro card that more effectively slows down aggression than
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
or
Roalesk, Apex Hybrid
would. I also sometimes board it in against red midrange matchups when I'm going second, but only sometimes. Even though he's been knocked back to sideboard, and only to a two-of, this is still one of my favorite new cards.
Being able to really unlock the potential of a Ravnica keyword (Adapt) was a metric ton of fun. I'm curious in looking at RUG lists, but for now, I'm happy with this two-color one, since I've always tried to play the fewest number of colors possible.
