Days of Future Future: Magic Origins

By Sam Stoddard

Sam Stoddard came to Wizards of the Coast as an intern in May 2012. He is currently a game designer working on final design and development for Magic: The Gathering.

It's time once again for Days of Future Future, the time when I revisit some of our Future Future League Standard testing focusing on cards from Magic Origins.

As always when reading a Future Future League article, keep in mind that many of these decks are not tuned. They are also full of cards that were stronger than they are now, and often are missing real-world cards that were changed later in development. They are also reacting to a slightly different metagame than what the real world has come up with, so don't expect to take these to your local tournament and demolish it. The goal of every deck isn't to be the strongest deck in the environment, it's to try and learn something. While we do occasionally hold tournaments that give us an idea of what the strongest deck is, we have found that getting a feel for what is possible and how good the individual cards are leads to a better Standard environment.

I'm sharing these decks to help give some insights into what we were thinking, and maybe show off some cool cards that haven't made it into the real world just yet. This isn't an exhaustive list of all of the decks we are playing, but rather a peek to some of the decks that I have something interesting to talk about.

One other thing to note—you may see some reprint cards here that are no longer in Magic Origins. That's because a big part of getting a core set correct is managing the reprints, and often we swapped things out, so when you see a card like Merfolk Looter, it was because we had not yet come to the final design on Jace and had it in the set.

With that disclaimer out of the way, on to the decks.

When we working on Magic Origins, one of the first goals was to blow out a few of the themes in Theros and give them more time to shine. The goal was to do that with exciting cards that had possibilities just out of combinations with Theros cards, but also played up many of Theros's themes. The first of these was Starfield of Nyx to give the Constellation decks another chance to shine.

Constellation

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (2)

2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Creature (19)

4 Sylvan Caryatid 3 Satyr Wayfinder 3 Courser of Kruphix 3 Eidolon of Blossoms 4 Siege Rhino 2 Doomwake Giant

Sorcery (4)

4 Commune with the Gods

Artifact (2)

2 Whip of Erebos

Enchantment (9)

3 Starfield of Nyx 2 Citadel Siege 4 Banishing Light

Land (24)

4 Temple of Malady 4 Temple of Plenty 2 Temple of Silence 4 Windswept Heath 2 Caves of Koilos 2 Llanowar Wastes 3 Forest 2 Plains 1 Swamp

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Non-green devotion decks also fell pretty far during the last year, so we made sure to include cards that would support both black and blue devotion. The first of which was mono-black:

Mono-Black Devotion

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (16)

3 Gilt-Leaf Winnower 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 4 Erebos's Titan 3 Silumgar Assassin 2 Risen Executioner

Sorcery (8)

4 Thoughtseize 4 Sign in Blood

Instant (9)

4 Hero's Downfall 3 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price

Enchantment (3)

3 Palace Siege

Land (24)

3 Foundry of the Consuls 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 20 Swamp

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

We also wanted to give mono-blue some help, and having a strong UU card was a good shot at that:

Mono-blue Devotion

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (30)

4 Harbinger of the Tides 4 Gudul Lurker 4 Hypnotic Siren 3 Stratus Dancer 4 Shorecrasher Elemental 4 Thassa, God of the Sea 4 Master of Waves 3 Icefall Regent

Artifact (4)

3 Bident of Thassa 1 Hall of Triumph

Land (26)

2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 24 Island

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

While white didn't have a lot of devotion rewards, there were a lot of reasons to get a ton of mana in white, so Nykthos plus Knight of the White Orchid and Archangel of Tithes was interesting to give your white deck a big top end.

Mono-White Aggro

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (3)

3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Creature (15)

2 Knight of the White Orchid 3 Seeker of the Way 4 Brimaz, King of Oreskos 2 Monastery Mentor 4 Archangel of Tithes

Instant (7)

3 Secure the Wastes 2 Gods Willing 2 Valorous Stance

Enchantment (10)

4 Citadel Siege 2 Dictate of Heliod 4 Banishing Light

Land (25)

23 Plains 2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

While we didn't want to pump up green devotion too much, we did spend some time testing with Khalni Hydra in Magic Origins. We cut it, not because it was too powerful, but instead because we felt that Gaea's Revenge did better things for the metagame, and because we wanted a different green mythic rare. The goal of this deck was to accelerate using cards like Khalni Hydra to activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways to Biorhythm, then attack for lethal.

Mono-Green Creatures

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (3)

3 Nissa, Worldwaker

Creature (34)

4 Woodland Bellower 3 Khalni Hydra 4 Polukranos, World Eater 4 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Courser of Kruphix 4 Voyaging Satyr 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Shaman of Forgotten Ways 3 Whisperer of the Wilds

Land (23)

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 19 Forest

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Beyond just the decks that played up Theros, we also had some themes from Magic 2015 that could use some work. The first was blue-red artifacts. When we decided to do Origins, Chandra's homeworld was discussed, and the artifact theme overlapped well with many of the cards in M15. We had to be careful to not push things too far, as a combination of Shrapnel Blast and Ensoul Artifact can make for some pretty aggressive draws, but we felt it was worth taking a few risks for a deck that we thought players would enjoy in Standard.

Blue-Red Artifacts

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (25)

3 Chief of the Foundry 4 Ornithopter 4 Bonded Construct 4 Hangarback Walker 2 Phyrexian Revoker 4 Ramroller 4 Reclusive Artificer

Instant (4)

4 Shrapnel Blast

Artifact (7)

4 Ghostfire Blade 3 Springleaf Drum

Enchantment (4)

4 Ensoul Artifact

Land (20)

4 Darksteel Citadel 4 Shivan Reef 4 Mana Confluence 3 Temple of Epiphany 3 Mountain 2 Island

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

I also fought for the inclusion of Goblin Piledriver in Origins because I thought it was a great card for both Standard and Modern.

Mono-Red Goblins

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (20)

4 Goblin Glory Chaser 4 Foundry Street Denizen 4 Frenzied Goblin 4 Goblin Piledriver 4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Sorcery (8)

4 Dragon Fodder 4 Hordeling Outburst

Instant (6)

4 Stoke the Flames 2 Lightning Strike

Artifact (5)

4 Obelisk of Urd 1 Hall of Triumph

Land (21)

20 Mountain 1 Foundry of the Consuls

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

While neither Tarkir nor Theros had Elves, there were a lot of very attractive cards in M15 that we could pull from.

Green-White-Black Elves

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (36)

4 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Sunblade Elf 4 Gnarlroot Trapper 2 Leaf Gilder 4 Sylvan Ranger 4 Dwynen's Elite 2 Reclamation Sage 4 Shaman of the Pack 4 Sylvan Messenger

Sorcery (2)

2 Shamanic Revelation

Land (22)

1 Plains 4 Windswept Heath 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Mana Confluence 6 Forest 3 Swamp

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Developing Magic Origins, and sets for Standard in general, is about more than just calling out strategies from old sets; we also went out of our way to develop some new build-around cards and strategies that could create fun decks.

The first of these is Demonic Pact. The goal for this card is to finish the game quickly, or have ways to either bounce or destroy your own pact to get out of it.

Abzan Demonic Pact

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (3)

1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Creature (18)

4 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Courser of Kruphix 2 Reclamation Sage 4 Siege Rhino 4 Whisperwood Elemental

Sorcery (3)

3 Thoughtseize

Instant (8)

4 Dromoka's Command 4 Utter End

Enchantment (4)

4 Demonic Pact

Land (24)

1 Mana Confluence 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Sandsteppe Citadel 4 Windswept Heath 3 Forest 2 Plains 2 Caves of Koilos 4 Temple of Malady 2 Llanowar Wastes 1 Temple of Silence

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Another card that was very exciting and hard to figure out how to make the best use of was Day's Undoing. Drawing seven is great, but since you end your turn, you need to do something to break parity. The goal of this deck was to have a fast burn deck that tries to burn through your resources faster than your opponent, then use Day's Undoing to get your cards back.

Day's Undoing

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (4)

4 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

Sorcery (8)

4 Day's Undoing 4 Exquisite Firecraft

Instant (28)

4 Magma Spray 4 Twin Bolt 4 Shock 4 Fiery Impulse 4 Lightning Strike 4 Magma Jet 4 Wild Slash

Enchantment (4)

4 Molten Vortex

Land (20)

4 Shivan Reef 4 Temple of Epiphany 12 Mountain

64 Cards

Deal Another Hand

The blue-red aggressive artifact deck wasn't the only one that existed. One that was a little less about burning your opponent out quickly also existed. It even used Tomb of the Spirit Dragon along with Thopter tokens to gain life and race your opponent.

Mono-Blue Thopters

Decklist Stats Sample Hand