This is a slightly adjusted take on illusion tribal, using some unusual choices to provide surprise, resilience, and hopefully more than a little frustration for opponents.
The deck works because of three key cards:
Lord of the Unreal
, Phantasmal Image, and
Amoeboid Changeling
. the lord provides hexproof buffs to a whole board full of cheap, strong creatures, the image copies the lord AND becomes hexproof himself, and the amoeboid can protect the lord directly while being tough to remove as well. The rest of the deck works on traditional blue strengths such as draw, counterspelling, and evasion to provide an ever-growing, tenacious hexproof tribe.
Key interactions include:
Lord of the Unreal
plus Phantasmal Image: with these two, you have a 2/2 and a 4/4 hexproof on the field giving your board +2/+2 for a total of four mana. Not bad. You can even afford to lose the lord once the image is in play, since he'll be copying the hexproof.
Krovikan Mist plus
Amoeboid Changeling
: The changeling counts toward the mist's total and, in a pinch, can make enemy creatures illusions for that last little extra punch.
Lord of the Unreal
plus Jace's Phantasm: there's something inherently worrying about a 2/2 flier that threatens to suddenly become 6/6, especially since your foe can't just bolt it; even if they could, they're risking crossing it's threshold.
It's important to note the low land count; this deck runs on two mana, but may be vulnerable to some mill strategies.
