By Melissa DeTora
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Melissa is a former Magic pro player and strategy writer who is now working in R&D on the Play Design team.
Today's deck is one of the few combo decks in Standard that uses creatures with sacrifice effects and spells that are capable of returning all of your creatures to the battlefield after you've sacrificed them. Pascal Maynard was able to make Top 8 of the most recent Standard Grand Prix in his hometown of Quebec City with his take on Rally the Ancestors.
While this deck was pretty popular before Battle for Zendikar was released, the newest set gave this deck one of its most important cards: Zulaport Cutthroat. This card does so much when your game plan is sacrificing your own creatures. Much like Blood Artist years before it, Zulaport Cutthroat is capable of winning games without ever having to attack. Once you have a lot of creatures on the battlefield, you can use them to block your opponent's creatures and causing your opponent to lose life when they die. The incremental damage really adds up, and before long your opponent will not be able to attack—because if your creatures die, so will your opponent!
Nantuko Husk is another important card in this deck. Although many players just consider it a strong Limited card, Husk is very powerful in this deck. Not only does it give you a sacrifice outlet that doesn't require additional mana, but it can also be a lethal attacker as long as you have some creatures in play. Combine that with Rogue's Passage (sadly absent from this decklist) and you have an unblockable powerhouse that must be answered.
While the main game plan with this deck is to sacrifice your creatures to your Nantuko Husk and then Rally them back onto the battlefield, this deck is also full of utility. Sidisi's Faithful can bounce your opponent's most important creature, Grim Haruspex can help you draw into what you need, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy helps filter your draws while giving you the ability to recast your Rally or Collected Company. One cool interaction with Jace in this deck is if you Rally him back into play, before you sacrifice it on your next upkeep you can use his ability to draw and discard. He will be exiled and then returned transformed. Since he comes back as a new object, you won't have to sacrifice him to your Rally!
Pascal Maynard's Four-Color Rally
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