Rotation Proof Decks Pt 3
Returning with part 3 of my look at some “Rotation Proof” deck shells, seeing which cards or themes could potentially have an impact post rotation. To preface, I am not claiming the below decks will be tier 1 in the new Fall Standard, as we are still expecting a big shakeup from the new set which will account for about 20% of the card pool. What I am looking to do is offer up some decks that people can feel safe crafting in some variant at the present moment without having to worry about the cards becoming obsolete in the next few months. This also provides us with a thought exercise in seeing what constraints certain decks may have with the departure of less flashy cards like Cast Down as a 2 drop removal spell. Finally, we can see which current decks have little to no shakeup after rotation, or decks that will obsolete come the Fall (looking happily at you Nexus).
For this article, I focused on some deck archetypes requested by Arena Subreddit users. If there are any other themes/decks you are interested in drop a comment below (RW Feather is in the queue).
Rotation Proof - Mono Black Midrange
Main 60 cards (15 distinct)
Creature (21) | |||
---|---|---|---|
$0.84€1.090.02 | |||
$3.00€2.360.02 | |||
$1.96€2.230.15 | |||
$0.50€0.330.02 | |||
$0.26€0.160.03 | |||
$1.58€1.570.03 | |||
$2.84€1.340.02 | |||
Planeswalker (3) | |||
$1.26€0.870.02 | |||
$0.30€0.220.03 | |||
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (12) | |||
$0.15€0.060.03 | |||
$0.82€0.460.02 | |||
4
Duress
|
$0.20€0.100.04 | ||
$0.20€0.100.03 | |||
Land (24) | |||
20
Swamp
|
$0.19€0.120.04 | ||
$0.25€0.110.02 |
Side 15 cards (7 distinct)
$0.43€0.240.02 | |||
$0.15€0.040.03 | |||
$0.50€0.440.15 | |||
$0.24€0.110.03 | |||
$8.72€3.640.02 | |||
$1.36€1.090.03 | |||
$1.26€0.870.02 |
Gameplay for Mono Black Midrange
The first deck is a mono black midrange list looking to take advantage of Dread Presence and a heavy swamp manabase. I actually really liked the disruptive package of Duress and yarok’s fenlurker main to pick apart the opponent’s hand. Yarok’s Fenlurker and Knight of Ebon Legion also both scale well into the late game and they can be mana sinks.
The deck is able to offset the card disadvantage of playing Rotting Regisaur through card draw Dread Presence, Midnight Reaper and God-Eternal Bontu. Spawn of Mayhem was a card I played as a 1-of, and overall performed well in the games we got out. In the future, I’d probably explore adding 1-2 more copies. I also liked the combination of both Mobilized District and Dreadhorde Invasion as recursive threats vs control.
Depending how the meta evolves further, I would probably switch the disfigure in the main to Legion’s End to deal with Scapeshift decks. Bolas’s citadel was my “card advantage” engine against slower decks, but I think it may overall be too slow. Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough opportunity to try it out in the matches, but thought it would play similar to how esper tempo leverages the card.
Rotation Proof - 5C Golos Zombie Gates
Main 60 cards (25 distinct)
Creature (21) | |||
---|---|---|---|
$1.80€1.170.07 | |||
$3.35€2.050.02 | |||
$1.03€1.300.06 | |||
$0.20€0.090.03 | |||
$0.25€0.160.03 | |||
$0.38€0.430.02 | |||
$0.50€0.700.03 | |||
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (8) | |||
$0.30€0.220.03 | |||
$0.86€0.480.03 | |||
Planeswalker (4) | |||
$4.00€5.675.39 | |||
Land (27) | |||
$0.20€0.080.03 | |||
1
Forest
|
$0.15€0.030.03 | ||
$10.55€9.680.24 | |||
$0.18€0.040.03 | |||
$0.20€0.060.03 | |||
$0.20€0.070.03 | |||
$0.18€0.070.03 | |||
$0.15€0.060.03 | |||
$0.16€0.040.03 | |||
$30.32€22.110.12 | |||
$0.49€0.460.10 | |||
$0.19€0.070.03 | |||
$0.79€0.580.02 | |||
$0.38€0.180.02 | |||
$16.20€15.100.17 |
Side 15 cards (8 distinct)
$0.35€0.170.02 | |||
$3.10€1.830.04 | |||
$0.39€0.240.02 | |||
$0.25€0.210.03 | |||
$0.50€0.440.15 | |||
$0.18€0.020.03 | |||
$2.94€1.980.13 | |||
$1.36€1.090.03 |
This deck is definitely my most ambitious, combining 4C Gates, Scapeshift, Yarok Elementals and 5C Golos decks into one wild brew. Surprisingly, it ended up working well in the first game; as you can see in game 1 of the gameplay, we “combo off” with some sweet Golos Value.
The deck started off with the request to explore an update to 4C gates. This deck took a significant hit with the printing of Teferi, Time Raveler and Narset, Parter of Veils which disrupts the card draw engine of the deck. Teferi also easily bounces the two gates payoff creatures in Gate Colossus and Gatebreaker Ram. The deck also struggled dealing with planeswalkers before War of the Spark and has only gotten worse with the heavy influx of planeswalkers since. To offset this weakness, I dropped the gates card draw/creature package but kept the ramp elements and varied land base as a shell for a post-rotation Field of the Dead deck. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim does its best impersonation of Scapeshift in this deck, mainly pulling out a copy of Field of the Dead. Unlike the Bant Scapeshift decks that combo off creating 30+ zombies, this version of the deck is more grindy, attrition base. Golos’s 2WUBRG ability lets us cast stuff for free which serves as advantage.
One of the ways we can ramp in this deck is a small elemental package of Risen Reef and Yarok, the Desecrated. Yarok has the added bonus of double triggering a number of our creature’s ETB effects like Archway Angel for double life, Deputy of Detention for double exile and even double Golos searches.
Teferi, Time Raveler and Hydroid Krasis are the hold overs from Bant Scapeshift. These cards can protect the deck on our turn from opponent’s interaction and refill our hand after the initial ramp turns. The mana base in the decklist above was revised slightly from that of the video. I had too many red sources main and not enough white. I’d also look to drop 1-2 Plaza Harmony in place of some different named lands to more consistently hit the 7 land condition of Field.
Overall I really enjoyed this deck and will be spending more time trying to streamline it further.
Rotation Proof - GW Tokens
Main 60 cards (15 distinct)
Creature (20) | |||
---|---|---|---|
$0.20€0.130.03 | |||
$0.39€0.350.02 | |||
$0.30€0.150.02 | |||
$6.30€3.910.02 | |||
$0.50€0.480.02 | |||
$0.44€0.230.02 | |||
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (15) | |||
$0.20€0.070.03 | |||
$1.28€0.820.02 | |||
$0.20€0.090.03 | |||
$0.20€0.090.03 | |||
Planeswalker (2) | |||
$1.00€0.390.02 | |||
Land (23) | |||
9
Plains
|
$0.15€0.050.03 | ||
6
Forest
|
$0.15€0.030.03 | ||
$0.20€0.170.03 | |||
$10.55€9.680.24 |
Side 15 cards (7 distinct)
$0.30€0.120.02 | |||
$0.55€0.620.03 | |||
$0.35€0.170.02 | |||
$0.49€0.340.02 | |||
$0.20€0.120.03 | |||
$0.20€0.160.03 | |||
$0.32€0.150.03 |
Up next is Selesnya tokens. To preface, Selesnya strategies are usually my least favorite/played so this deck is a bit outside my wheelhouse. If there are any tokens specialists that can offer some critiques, that would be great. The token strategy loses two key cards in the upcoming rotation in Legion’s landing and History of Benalia. Both cards can generate a bunch of value with only investing 1 card.
The deck starts off with the standard shell of Emmara, Soul of the Accord and March of the Multitudes to generate a wide board of creatures. I’ve added in some afterlife creatures that provide value when they die in the form of Hunted Witness and Tithe Taker (happens to be really good vs all these instant speed decks). From there I rounded things off with Trostanti Discodant as token maker/anthem and Hanged Executioner as two bodies with potential upside removal stapled on. Finally, I wanted to include a resilient threat so I went with God-Eternal Oketra, which on its own is a 3/6 double striker, but can also make tokens. The one noticeable card omitted was Venerated Loxodon which I didn’t think would be as effective without the early creature drops from Legion’s landing and History of Benalia.
Overall, the deck performed about average. We ended up beating Scapeshift Match 1, which is surprising as White Green right now has no real board wipes post rotation for the tokens. Hanged Executioner was pretty lack luster and I would likely replace it with another Ajani and potentially some Gideon Blackblade.
Rotation Proof - Esper Hero
Main 60 cards (21 distinct)
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (14) | |||
---|---|---|---|
$0.25€0.130.03 | |||
$0.39€0.300.02 | |||
$0.25€0.140.03 | |||
$3.10€1.830.04 | |||
$8.72€3.640.02 | |||
Planeswalker (8) | |||
$1.31€0.910.02 | |||
$1.36€1.090.03 | |||
$4.00€5.675.39 | |||
Creature (15) | |||
$0.23€0.090.03 | |||
$0.25€0.160.03 | |||
$0.38€0.430.02 | |||
$0.47€0.300.02 | |||
Land (23) | |||
$0.20€0.110.03 | |||
$0.22€0.060.03 | |||
1
Plains
|
$0.15€0.050.03 | ||
$13.11€13.840.29 | |||
$0.20€0.040.03 | |||
$10.07€9.750.07 | |||
$0.40€0.320.02 | |||
$8.49€9.480.17 | |||
1
Island
|
$0.15€0.040.05 |