cross-posted from: https://mtgzone.com/post/1018063

cross-posted from: https://mtgzone.com/post/942869

The project

This is the latest in a series of posts exploring the potential of Roaming Throne as a build-around card for budget Standard decks. Today we look at four more Bloomburrow creature types.

Roaming Throne itself is an expensive rare, but we start by assuming you already have a playset of it, then fill out the remainder of each deck using only commons and uncommons. These decks are not intended to be competitive in tournaments, but they should be fine for casual play. (I've tested them all in Standard Play on Arena.)

Here's a Scryfall search to help find likely candidates. Just add a creature type like t:frog or t:rabbit.

f:standard r<=u (o:when or o:"at " or keyword:backup or keyword:offspring or keyword:prowess or keyword:ward)

Raccoons

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643520

9 Forest
7 Mountain
4 Bristling Backwoods
4 Escape Tunnel
4 Brazen Collector
4 Wandertale Mentor
2 Coati Scavenger
4 Brambleguard Veteran
2 Teapot Slinger
4 Roaming Throne
2 Junkblade Bruiser
4 Shock
2 Dreadmaw's Ire
3 Hunter's Talent
2 Trash the Town
3 Torch the Witness

The best raccoon to combo with Roaming Throne has got to be Wandertale Mentor. With an ideal draw you can be casting Throne on turn 3 and putting two more counters on the Mentor every turn thereafter.

That fits nicely with the general plan of this deck, which might be summarized as "make creatures that are big enough that you can afford to attack with them every turn." Don't overthink it, just swing away.

Torch the Witness and Trash the Town are in here to help you fine-tune how much mana you're spending, so you can expend 4 as often as possible. Shock and Dreadmaw's Ire help you use the mana you get from Brazen Collector. Also note that Trash and Ire grant temporary triggered abilities that can be doubled by Roaming Throne.

Lizards

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643543

6 Swamp
6 Mountain
4 Jagged Barrens
2 Bloodfell Caves
4 Rockface Village
2 Mudflat Village
4 Agate-Blade Assassin
4 Flamecache Gecko
4 Steampath Charger
4 Fireglass Mentor
4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
4 Gila Courser
4 Roaming Throne
2 Reptilian Recruiter
2 Bitter Triumph
2 Go for the Throat
2 Patchwork Banner

The thing about Lizards is that it's already a perfectly good aggro deck that doesn't need to be slowed down by adding any four-drops. To make our deck something other than a bad version of its competitive counterpart, we'll have to emphasize some aspect of Bloomburrow's lizards besides their highly efficient combat stats. Fortunately, lizards are also good at generating card advantage. If you manage to get two triggers off of Fireglass Mentor or Gila Courser more than once, it can really tilt the game in your favor. (Note that one of those says "Until end of turn" and the other says "Until the next of your next turn".) If you can't afford to cast all of those extra cards, maybe making a profit on Flamecache Gecko will help.

With no non-creature red spells we can get away with four copies of Rockface Village here.

Otters

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643539

10 Island
8 Mountain
4 Eroded Canyon
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Coruscation Mage
4 Stormcatch Mentor
4 Frolicking Familiar
4 Roaming Throne
2 Daring Waverider
4 Otterball Antics
2 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Moment of Truth
4 Pearl of Wisdom

Otters are generally in agreement about what they want Roaming Throne to duplicate: their prowess triggers.

I like prowess decks in theory, but it always seems difficult to balance having the right number of prowess creatures vs. the right number of noncreature spells. As a sorcery that makes up to two creatures with prowess, Otterball Antics does a lot to help address that problem. Frolicking Familiar also earns its spot for its ability to play both roles.

The rest of our noncreatures have been chosen for their cheapness. All of them can be cast for one mana with a Stormcatch Mentor out, which helps to enable the one overwhelming turn that will win you the game. One of the deck's most impressive lines is to make two Coruscation Mage offspring, then cast a cheap spell and get six bonus damage.

If you're looking to add some rares to this deck, there are a few directions you could go. Valley Floodcaller or Bria, Riptide Rogue can give the rest of your creatures double prowess. Thundertrap Trainer plays a role similar to Daring Waverider, with the alternative option to serve as an early chump-blocker. But maybe the funniest choice would be Stormsplitter. Starting with one Throne and one Stormsplitter, your first instant or sorcery spell will make two more Stormsplitters. The next will make six more, and the third will make another 18.

Birds

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643530

8 Plains
3 Island
4 Lonely Arroyo
4 Tranquil Cove
4 Lilypad Village
1 Lupinflower Village
2 Enduring Bondwarden
4 Miner's Guidewing
4 Saiba Cryptomancer
4 Thrummingbird
4 Preening Champion
4 Plumecreed Mentor
4 Roaming Throne
3 Knightfisher
4 Parting Gust
3 Requisition Raid

When I started looking at the birds available to me, the most interesting synergy seemed to be between Plumecreed Mentor and Thrummingbird. So I set out to build something focused on +1/+1 counters.

The problem with Plumecreed Mentor is that it wants non-flying creatures upon which to bestow its benefits. So Roaming Throne wants a lot of birds, birds want a lot of non-birds, and you'd probably still like to have some removal or other utility spells. How do you find room for it all?

As is often the case in Magic, you use cards that can play multiple roles. Preening Champion and Knightfisher make non-flying tokens -- maybe two at a time? -- that can get counters from the Mentor. Saiba Cryptomancer functions as protection while also giving out counters that Thrummingbird can proliferate. Parting Gust is removal, except when it's letting you repeat one of your ETB triggers.

It's safe to say that this deck, with its elegant synergies, is my favorite of the bunch. I like it so much that I had trouble playtesting the others because I just wanted to keep playing this one.

And really, I don't know if there's much I would change here if I weren't on a budget. A copy or two of Kastral, the Windcrested in place of Knightfisher might be nice, but you don't want to give up too much of your token production.

Any plans for Mice and Rabbits?

Like Lizards, these types work best as aggro decks that don't need a four-drop, but unlike Lizards, my efforts to find workable alternative versions of them have not met with success. If I do crack those nuts, I'll let you know.

cross-posted from: https://mtgzone.com/post/893890

The project

Last year I made a series of posts exploring the potential of Roaming Throne as a build-around card for budget Standard decks. Since then, Bloomburrow has been released, with a whole bunch of mechanically consistent creature types to build around. So here's the continuation of that series.

Roaming Throne itself is an expensive rare, but we start by assuming you already have a playset of it, then fill out the remainder of each deck using only commons and uncommons. These decks are not intended to be competitive in tournaments, but they should be fine for casual play. (I've tested them all in Standard Play on Arena.)

Here's a Scryfall search to help find likely candidates. Just add a creature type like t:frog or t:rabbit.

f:standard r<=u (o:when or o:"at " or keyword:backup or keyword:offspring or keyword:prowess or keyword:ward)

Since rotation, we've sadly lost Secluded Courtyard, which used to be an auto-include in these decks. On the plus side, Bloomburrow added a cycle of uncommon lands that care about our creature types, as well as Patchwork Banner.

Frogs

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6593033

11 Forest
9 Island
4 Lush Oasis
4 Sunshower Druid
4 Pond Prophet
4 Three Tree Scribe
2 Stickytongue Sentinel
4 Long River Lurker
2 Lilysplash Mentor
4 Roaming Throne
4 Splash Portal
4 Trash the Town
4 This Town Ain't Big Enough

One thing I like about this deck is the cross-set synergy. Bloomburrow's Frogs have obvious synergy with each other and with Roaming Throne. But while Run Away Together was reprinted in Bloomburrow as the frog-bouncing spell for draft, Outlaws of Thunder Junction's This Town Ain't Big Enough is just better in about three different ways. And Trash the Town's last mode gives its target a trigger that's great for doubling. Opponents sometimes just concede when the plan comes together.

I've got a couple of copies of Lilysplash Mentor in here even though it doesn't have a triggered ability, just because I wanted some more reliable options for frog-flickering. To make room for them, I shaved two Stickytongue Sentinels -- it's definitely possible to set yourself too far back on tempo by misusing them.

If you like this deck and want to start spending more money on it, Valley Mightcaller is the obvious first stop.

Rats

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6593036

9 Swamp
4 Island
3 Mudflat Village
2 Lilypad Village
4 Escape Tunnel
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
4 Gnawing Vermin
4 Nezumi Informant
4 Shoreline Looter
2 Tidecaller Mentor
4 Roaming Throne
2 Thornplate Intimidator
3 Wick's Patrol
4 Cut Down
4 Bitter Triumph
3 Patchwork Banner
2 Self-Reflection

Shoreline Looter + Roaming Throne turns out to be a pretty nice combo. It helps you get Threshold faster, and once you have it, you can start drawing two extra cards every turn.

I ended up with only two copies of signpost uncommon Tidecaller Mentor, since I felt it underperformed a bit. Before you have Threshold, its text box is nearly blank, and by the time you have it, it's usually a bit late in the game for a tempo play like bouncing creatures. Still, this deck has the highest average mana cost of the four I'm presenting today, and sometimes a three-mana 3/3 is what you need to survive long enough to cast your Thornplate Intimidators and Wick's Patrols.

I didn't even remember that Self-Reflection existed before I started building this deck. A couple of copies fit really nicely. It's great to mill with Gnawing Vermin or discard to Shoreline Looter or Bitter Triumph, and once you've done that, it's pretty handy to be able to make a copy of your most valuable creature (and its triggers).

Fetchlands help you get to Threshold, but I'm only running half as many as I could be because I felt the deck was too clunky with more.

When it's time to upgrade, you have a few legends to choose from: Lord Skitter, Karumonix, and Vren all look appealing.

Squirrels

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6593040

11 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Escape Tunnel
2 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Bonecache Overseer
3 Tough Cookie
4 Bushy Bodyguard
4 Vinereap Mentor
4 Curious Forager
4 Honored Dreyleader
4 Roaming Throne
4 Cache Grab
3 Savor
3 The Witch's Vanity
2 Welcome to Sweettooth

Honored Dreyleader does some silly things in BLB draft, so when it came up in my search, I knew this deck was going to be good.

We're all in on food tokens, to the point that all of our non-creature spells can make one, and some of our creatures can make two. I have seen this deck rack up double-digit numbers, but don't eat all that food before you need it, because if you can kick a Bushy Bodyguard with Roaming Throne out, you'll make three creatures and they'll each get to forage twice.

I went with eight fetchlands instead of any duals in this deck to help the foraging plan. Don't exile your graveyard too aggressively, though, because you'll want some permanents in there to bring back with Curious Forager.

Looking to upgrade? A copy or two of Camellia seems like a good start.

Bats

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6593031

11 Swamp
4 Plains
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Lupinflower Village
1 Mudflat Village
4 Ruin-Lurker Bat
4 Lifecreed Duo
4 Deep-Cavern Bat
4 Starscape Cleric
4 Moonrise Cleric
4 Roaming Throne
2 Star Charter
2 Starseer Mentor
3 Cut Down
3 Bitter Triumph
2 Patchwork Banner

The highlight here is the interaction between Roaming Throne and Starscape Cleric. Throne duplicates both the offspring trigger and the life-draining trigger. If you can follow a turn 4 Throne with a turn 5 Starscape, you'll get two little Starscapes, and if you can follow that by attacking with a Moonrise Cleric, your opponent will lose 12 life even before the combat damage connects.

This deck doesn't need white mana for anything other than creatures, so we can safely run the full four copies of Lupinflower Village. But we need black mana for our removal spells, so I'm being cautious and only including one Mudflat Village. Scoured Barrens is another easy inclusion as a dual land that contributes to our lifegain plan.

This is probably the deck that would benefit most from lifting the budget restriction. Essence Channeler, Zoraline, Darkstar Augur, and Aclazotz are all high-powered rare bats that synergize with Roaming Throne.

Standard will finally rotate next week, for the first time in two years. Some of my decks with survive, with a few changes, and some won't. But when I think about it, I don't think there are any cards in the whole year's worth of disappearing sets that I'm really sad to see go, except for the five channel lands from Neon Kamigawa.

They're basically perfectly designed: useful without being overpowered. Very few decks want four copies of them, but most decks benefit from having one or two in the appropriate colors. With the possible exception of Slogurk legends, decks aren't built around them, and games don't hinge on whether you draw one or not. Their abilities are moderately powerful and fairly costed. They help mitigate mana flood. Their legendary status makes them self-regulating.

I do my share of complaining when I think Wizards gets something wrong, so I don't want to neglect to mention what they get right. The channel lands were a great design and I'll miss not being able to put them in my Standard decks.

Which decks leaving with rotation this autumn are you sad to see go?

For me there are two big ones: Rakdos Anvil and Mono-Blue Cauldron Combo.

Rakdos Anvil has been able to turn into Mardu Warleader's Anvil, which can kill out of nowhere with Ojer Axonil. It's a lot of fun to play, but yes not a tier one deck at the moment. Gets wrecked by Temporary Lockdown, unfortunately; but still does alright if not great.

Mono-Blue Cauldon Combo is, in my opinion, more consistent than the GU Culdron Combo that remains. It can be surprisingly aggressive as a plan B in case oppo is focused on disruption, and with new additions from MKM (Forensic Researcher) and OTJ (Harrier Strix) is more powerful and consistent than even. Does very well on ladder, but is a bit of a hassle to play on Arena, because infinite mana isn't handled well at all. That might be why it seems unexpected and steals a lot of wins. Doesn't actually get wrecked by Temporary Lockdown, because you can bounce it at end of turn and get all the combo pieces back and then just go off.

But what about all you other Standard Appreciaters? What decks are you sad to see go at rotation?

I'll always have a place in my heart for Dinos no matter how jank they are

I need to be clear up front that I'm not presenting this as a strong choice for the current Standard metagame. I'm sharing it because I think it's cool and maybe has some potential, but I'm struggling to win with it. Suggestions are welcome.

I stumbled across the combo between Calamity, Galloping Inferno and Terror of the Peaks while brewing something for the OTJ Constructed Midweek Magic event. Then a couple of days later I saw that PowrDragn had posted a video on a similar theme (he's actually done Gruul ramp several times in the past few weeks, but that video is the closest to what I'm posting here).

So I've kept working on a Standard-legal version. The goal is to field Calamity along with another creature that will put the game away if it saddles Calamity. Ideally you'll win on the spot, but setting up to win soon afterwards is an acceptable consolation prize.

I've been playing this in best-of-three ranked matches on Arena and, like I said, it's not putting up the results I would like; opponents have plenty of relevant disruption. Trying to surprise people with it in best-of-one games might be a better plan. But, eh, it's fun when it works, and I still feel like there might be a good deck under here if I can work out the right configuration.

The list

About
Name Asteroid Horse

Deck
5 Mountain
4 Forest
2 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
2 Commercial District
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Rockfall Vale
2 Conduit Pylons
1 Bucolic Ranch
3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
3 Scorching Shot
4 Smuggler's Surprise
4 Armored Scrapgorger
4 Bramble Familiar
1 Ruby, Daring Tracker
3 Outcaster Trailblazer
1 Topiary Stomper
4 Railway Brawler
4 Terror of the Peaks
4 Calamity, Galloping Inferno

Sideboard
3 Pick Your Poison
1 Pithing Needle
1 Unlicensed Hearse
3 Brotherhood's End
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Tyrranax Rex
1 Titan of Industry

Card choices

Ramp creatures

There are other possibilities, but these are all the mana-producing creatures I thought were worth an audition:

I considered non-creature ramp spells, but the ones available in Standard right now don't excite me. Reprint Rampant Growth!

Saddlin' up

This list includes some creatures that aren't in my current build, but that I think combo well with Calamity (and perhaps each other) and are definitely worth consideration.

N.B.: While Calamity creates two tokens as part of the same ability, the tokens enter one after the other. The original creature sees the first token enter. Then the original and the first token both see the second token enter.

I experimented with various configurations, but I've gravitated towards playsets of Railway Brawler and Terror of the Peaks. They work well with each other, and are the most likely of the options to be able to win the game on the spot when they saddle Calamity.

Other spells

The Calamity combo is pretty disruptable: opponents can remove Calamity, of course, but they can also remove the creature saddling it in response to the token-producing trigger. I put in Tamiyo's Safekeeping to try to defend against that. There are several similar spells in Standard, but I like Safekeeping for a couple of reasons: it protects from some board wipe spells, and the lifegain might be relevant against aggro.

I never like to be completely without creature removal, and I think Scorching Shot is the most efficient removal in our colors at the moment. However, I often end up sideboarding it out in match-ups where it's not relevant. I could be convinced to replace it with something else. I previously experimented with Strangle, and might go back to that.

Smuggler's Surprise on the opponent's end step is one of the ways we try to work around control decks. If they don't counter it, great, and if they do, you can untap and try to cast the creatures themselves. Ideally you'll cast it for eight mana, but if the best you can do is flash in one creature for six mana, it may still be worth it. In a pinch, you may find yourself casting it for three to dig for lands.

Before I saw PowrDragn's video, I was running Commune with Nature in the Smuggler's Surprise slot. Commune made the deck more consistent -- it's cheaper and looks at more cards -- but Surprise makes it more resilient.

Lands

I'm running zero Copperline Gorge and only two Commercial District because I think it's essential to have untapped mana on turn 5 or 6 when you're trying to land your big creatures. This deck does nothing on turn 1, so Rockfall Vale is only bad on turn 2, which is easy to work around as long as not all the lands in your opening hand are Vales.

I think we may start seeing Conduit Pylons popping up in unexpected places. Getting a free surveil on a land that enters untapped is pretty good. I rarely have color problems in this two-color deck, so a couple of Pylons aren't too much to handle.

Calamity is the only card in this deck that Bucolic Ranch can put into your hand, but even if that doesn't happen, repeatable scrying can still help you break late-game stalemates.

I tried Cavern of Souls in an early build, but it's tough to know what to name because no two creatures in this deck share a type.

Sideboarding

I used to see people putting Obstinate Baloth in their sideboards and think, that's a huge swing if you can make it work, but how often will it actually happen? Well, this deck, and this metagame, are the Baloth's time to shine. Bring it in against Boros Convoke and other aggro decks, where a little lifegain and a big blocker coming down as early as turn 3 can really give them pause -- and if you live long enough to see it saddle Calamity, it'll probably put the game out of reach. But also bring Baloths in against Grixis Crimes or any other deck with multiple open-ended discard effects like Hopeless Nightmare, Tinybones Joins Up, Liliana of the Veil, or Aclazotz.

Pick Your Poison is a good substitute for your removal spells in the Atraxa Domain match-up, equally worth casting against Up the Beanstalk, Spelunking, or Temporary Lockdown early, and Atraxa or Archangel of Wrath late. I'd also bring it in against Slogurk/Rutstein legends and try to snipe their Relic of Legends as soon as possible.

Brotherhood's End is of course good against aggro, and should also help you fight back against Simulacrum Synthesizer strategies -- not all of their artifacts cost three or less, but enough of them do. None of your mana-producers survive Brotherhood's End, but as long as it gets more of the opponent's creatures than your own, that may be a fair price to pay.

Tyrranax Rex is primarily here to force its way through counterspells, although now that control has an instant-speed wrath in Final Showdown, it may not be the panacea you'd hope. The toxic dinosaur can also be worth bringing in against decks that gain a lot of life, such as Orzhov Amalia/Voice of the Blessed strategies, and Atraxa Domain.

Unlicensed Hearse comes in to support your Armored Scrapgorgers in the match-ups you'd expect: Slogurk/Rutstein legends, Azorius Djinn & Mentor, and anything playing Aftermath Analysts.

I like having one Pithing Needle for general interference purposes. It's cheap hate for Restless lands, planeswalkers, and combo pieces such as Aftermath Analyst, Rona, Herald of Invasion, Slogurk, the Overslime, etc. If you know your opponent's deck, you can feel fairly confident naming one of those things blind on turn 1, when you weren't doing anything else anyway.

Known bugs

There is a reported issue on Arena where Calamity will only produce one token, not two, if the opponent controls a planeswalker. (Please go vote for it!) It happens consistently and it's a pretty serious drawback.

What does "Asteroid Horse" mean?

A couple of days after I started working on this deck, I was watching a livestream concert (not Magic-related) and the streamer responded to a question from a chatter named "Asteroid Horse". I thought it was a cool name and a fitting one for this deck. I don't know the chatter nor where they got the name from. There was apparently an undefeated thoroughbred racehorse named Asteroid, so maybe that's it?

What is going on here flavor-wise? Is that a dragon riding a horse?

I don't know what to tell you. Saddle doesn't make any sense to me either.

Simulacrum Synthesizer decks are hot lately