Magic has always been a revolving door for meta’s and with each season comes a few hot cards that change everything. Those that want to simply have a good time must adapt so they won’t get steamrolled by some deck that was cobbled together the night the expansion dropped and ranked players must adhere to that new expansion even further if they have hopes of climbing past gold. To that end, it’s the players job to dig through the packs and see if the current meta has anything that would turn into game-breaking or simply fill the ranks of a deck that’s been a work in progress.
Though, I will preach this to my final days in saying that for each new meta that is born, three old ones come back from the grave if you look carefully enough. Today, we will go over what is currently working for decks expected to perform in gold rank and above, and how older meta’s might merge with the new.
The current expansion New Capenna might seem lackluster to some, and downright clumsy to others with the best creature cards being four color cards but the expansion has provided some amazing low cost spells and creature cards that any pre-existing deck would do well to include. To start, I will go over what I think the hidden gems are of the new crime expansion and then we will dive into two decks that I built by combining old with new.
Nice new enchantments
I’ll start with the enchantments, for I rely heavily on these to beef up some of my more fragile yet important cards. With the introduction of New Capenna something called a shield counter has been created. The concept of it is just like the older feature of “ward” except rather than tackling spells it tackles combat damage, allowing you to be more aggressive with your creatures without fear of them perishing before their time. Shield counters will stop any damage that would kill the card, but do not keep it safe from things like deathtouch or card abilities/spells. Boon of Safety is a must for any aggressive deck as it is low-cost, can be cast right before combat is resolved, and also allows you to scry for 1.
Another great enchantment that has come from this pack is called Sticky Fingers and will generate a treasure token every time an attached creature attacks. Upon death you draw one card. In today’s day and age the deck that can gain resources quickly will undoubtedly win first. Especially with an old card called Xorn that allows you to generate an extra treasure token every time one is made. If applied with Prosperous Thief a blue card from the Shinobi expansion just prior than any time a rogue based card deals damage to the player you will generate three treasures off of one attack. Or if you prefer to do a Red-Black deck then Kalain, Reclusive Painter will ensure that you never run short of treasure tokens, and each creature cast with a treasure token will come out that much stronger. Kalain’s is a legendary card that allows you, the caster, to add a +1/+1 for every treasure token spent on the summoning for the card and with Red natural affinity for Haste you could deal a lot of damage swiftly, reviving the spirit of the old “Goblin Rush” deck of earlier days.
Continuing off of the Red-Black fusion, and inclusion of treasure tokens is a card that not only brings your own card back to life immediately upon death, but also gives you a treasure token for your troubles. It’s called Fake Your Own Death and for obvious reasons it’s amazing. It’s great for that initial struggle for board supremacy when the other player is willing to lose their own card to ensure they hamstring you and prevent your early build and is even better late game when both of you have your heavy hitters and those pesky instant or sorceries seek to claim your prize card’s life.
These two cards while unassuming are a great addition for their low cost and ability to keep you further ahead than the opponent. And don’t think because this is all that I mentioned that this is all there is to the expansion. The beauty of Magic is that with every season every unassuming card that has ever been produced has the possibility of becoming unstoppable. At this point I would like to point out a few creature cards that seem unassuming now but when combined with an older meta becomes a heavy-weight in their own right.
Interesting Combinations
To start is a card called Attended Socialite,which gains a +1/+1 for every creature summoned this turn, which includes tokens. In early game you will only see it get maybe one +1/+1 as you’re limited for mana, however, if you run a token multiplication deck which is very common in every color this two cost card has the ability to become a +20/+20. I use a blue/green elf multiplier deck and Attended socialite is one of my best cards late game for an amazing cost. A brief example of how good this card can be is with this formula that I love to run. Elvish Warmaster which produces a 1/1 elf token every time an elf is summoned, so with attendance on the board, plus the elf you just cast that’s +2/+2, double that if you have two warmasters. With Reflections of Littjara, a 5 cost blue card that copies whichever creature type you select, you have the possibility of getting a +4/+4 off of just one card summoned.
You could run this card with a white deck as well with Nurturing Presence, an enchantment that gives you a +1/+1 every time a creature is summoned and upon attaching creates a 1/1 white spirit token. Include the old powerhouse Adeline, Resplendent Cathar which gains power for every card on the board and generates a 1/1 human token every time you attack you are looking at a formula to constantly give the simple two-cost green card a +3/+3. In this instance, since you are running a green-white to see it happen two other cards that scale with this multiplication style would be Join the Dance that creates two 1/1 human tokens and Torens, Fist of the Angels which creates a 1/1 soldier with training every time a creature card is cast.
Another card that also tracks very well with these low cost production decks would be Venom Connoisseur which gains deathtouch when a new creature is summoned. If you summon two cards in the same turn every creature you have gains deathtouch which can either board wipe or flat out win you the game. If you’re looking to seal that deal for certain, include Fynn, the Fangbearer. It’s a legendary creature that has a unique ability to stick poison counters to an opponent. Every time you deal player damage with a death touch creature that player gains 2 poison counters. At ten counters they automatically lose the game.
Now this is just a small window into the possibilities of combining old meta’s with new ones and will be a topic I touch upon consistently. As I mentioned earlier, for every new meta that is born, three more rise from the grave though the truth is it’s more like three that we notice and seven that go unnoticed. All this to say, never forget the decks that you ran and ran wild with, for there is a good chance you can do so again with a few minor tweaks!
Happy Dueling and don’t forget to pack your lands!
