LEYLINES 2020

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Leylines are enchantments with a unique ability that allows you to play them without paying a mana cost before the first turn even begins. Essentially, if a Leyline is in your opening hand, then you may begin the game with that Leyline on the battlefield.

MTG 2020 introduces a Leyline for each color, all of which contain a passive effect adherent to the “theme” of that color.

For example, the Green Leyline “Leyline of Abundance” contains a passive ability that provides one extra green mana every time you tap a creature for mana. With one Leyline of Abundance on the battlefield, your Llanowar Elf will tap for “2” green mana instead of for one. This applies to all creatures that you can “tap for mana”. Likewise, the White, Blue, Black, and Red Leylines all have a unique passive effect within the respective color’s thematic design.

 This deck attempts to take advantage of the Leylines by:

Firstly, placing them on the battlefield before your first turn – for free.

Per, “How Often Will You Begin the Game with a Leyline on the Battlefield?”, channelfireball.com, Frank Karsten (8/14/18):

OPENING HAND MATH FOR LEYLINES

[Leyline in opening hand]                  [Keep 7]  [Mul 6]  [Mul 5]  [Mul 4]  [Mul 3]  [Mul 2]
1 Leyline in deck                                       11.7%    20.5%   27.1%   32.0%   35.4%   37.5%   38.6%
2 Leylines in deck                                     22.1%    37.1%   47.2%   54.1%   58.6%   61.3%   62.6%
3 Leylines in deck                                     31.5%    50.4%   62.0%   69.2%   73.7%   76.2%   77.4%
4 Leylines in deck                                     39.9%    61.1%   72.8%   79.5%   83.4%   85.5%   86.5%

Our list runs a total of 16 Leylines (we don’t include the Red one). Accordingly, with the current mulligan system, if you run four copies of a specific leyline you have a 72.8% of having that one specific Leyline in your starting hand  if you mulligan to 5. I, unfortunately, am unable to determine how many total leylines you would have in your hand with 16 in the deck after 5 mulligans.

Secondly, we turn each of our Leylines into 3/3 creatures at the end of our opponents turn – then attack for very high burst damage

Ravnica Allegiance introduced a card that works perfectly with our Leyline strategy - Rampage of the Clans.

Rampage of the Clans is a four mana cost instant (three colorless and one green) that destroys all enchantments/artifacts on the board, and, for each card destroyed, its controller puts a 3/3 creature token onto the battlefield. So, with four Leylines destroyed, you would get four 3/3 creature tokens which threaten 12 total damage.

Additionally, because Rampage of the Clans is an instant, you can cast it at the very end of your opponent’s turn, and once you switch to your turn all of your creature tokens will be ready to attack.

Lastly, SUPER DRAW! We generate a tremendous amount of mana and card draw!

As stated above, Leyline of Abundance causes all your creatures to tap for an additional green mana. We run a total of 11 mana dorks which will benefit greatly from just one Leyline of Abundance, and tremendously from multiple copies.

With all that mana, we can utilize the effects of both Satyr Enchanter and Starfield Mystic.

Satyr Enchanter is a three costed creature (one colorless, one white, one green) that causes you to draw a card every time you cast an enchantment. This is a non-legendary creature, so multiple copies can be on the board at once. Since we have 16 total enchantments in the deck, we encounter triggers for this card draw generator quite frequently.

Starfield Mystic is a two costed creature (one colorless and one white) that

1) reduces the cost of all enchants by one (colorless), and

2) gains a +1/+1 counter every time an enchantment is put into the graveyard from the battlefield.

Ultimately, your goal is to over-run your opponent, or cycle through your entire deck until your board is filled with enchantments. Pass to your opponents turn, and at the end, cast Rampage of the Clans for a swift attack to the guts.

LEYLINE PASSIVES

WHITE

You have hexproof

BLUE

You may play your spells as if they had flash (not limited to instants and sorceries)

BLACK

Cards that would be put into your opponent’s graveyard are instead exiled

GREEN

Supercharge your mana dorks and, for 8 mana, place a +1/+1 counter on each of your creatures

 Gameplan: You want Leyline of Abundance in your starting hand with a mana dork or two. The leyline hits play and you ramp out to a Satyr Enchanter. If you have a Leyline of Anticipation in play, you can do all this on your opponent's end step to avoid removal.