The illustration I’ve used as a preview is most definitely a crime.
My “sensible” plan B was just the OTJ plains:
So I finally decided to give Arena a crack recently. A big part of what I dig about Magic is The Gathering, so digital play isn’t something which is a high priority. But at the same time I like Precons and it’s clear Arena is where all the 60 card action is now days. The Starter Decks and Starter Deck Battle mode isn’t too bad: the main issue is people grinding for daily wins with the RW equipment deck. It’s one of the strongest and it normally wins quick.
But it was the “Story Decks” that they’ve started doing for standard sets since Wilds is what really did it for me. I’ve even built some of those in paper! They definitely have that old Theme Deck feel — in contrast to the Starter decks which pull cards from the last year’s sets — and if they were to put out something physical which resembled them then I’d be so happy.
With Outlaws releasing last month I’ve been hanging out for the next precon “festival” to hit and so excitedly signed up for The Big Score festival. Though it referencing BIG rather than OTJ should have been a hint: it’s not Outlaws theme/story decks. Instead they are Alchemy decks which means a higher power level using a number of digital only cards. I’m a little disappointed, to be honest, and I’m hoping that there’ll still be a Story Deck event coming up in addition to the BIG one.
Of course I still jumped in and played some games… and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much either to be honest. They had that “Commander” vibe that I’m not too hot on: too many permanents doing too many things just filling up the battlefield. The prizes for game wins are just card styles, too, which I don’t care about either.
Sorry to be a huge downer about this. It wasn’t really my intention and I should stress that none of this is necessarily bad, just not to my personal taste. I do have some positive things to say too! Promise.
Saddle Up!
This deck was definitely my favourite of the five, and I’ll probably mainly play it until the end of the event. Coincidentally Saddle Up! was the one deck of the five which didn’t use any Alchemy cards, and if I’m not mistaken had the highest proportion of Outlaws cards of the five too. It’s between it and the Dinosaur deck which is the least “fiddly” to play which will be the reason I enjoyed it.
As the name suggests it’s built around the new Mount mechanic from Outlaws, which essentially is the Vehicle mechanic. Because creatures with mount are already creatures they don’t turn into creatures, but get extra abilities instead. The standout cards were Seraphic Steed and Congregation Griff: just smack in with lifelink creatures over and over. If you get Ornery Tumblewagg out as well, even if it isn’t saddled and attacking, putting a +1/+1 on one of your lifelinkers each combat… super good.
The list:
Saddle Up!
2 Novice Inspector
2 Cheeky House-Mouse
3 Stubborn Burrowfiend
2 Trained Arynx
3 Frontier Seeker
3 Seraphic Steed
2 Ornery Tumblewagg
3 Congregation Gryff
2 Fortune, Loyal Steed
2 Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero
3 Bristlebud Farmer
3 Steer Clear
2 Collector's Cage
2 Audacity
2 Buried in the Garden
6 Forest
6 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
1 Restless Prairie
3 Radiant Grove
4 Lush Portico
This can be found on MTG Arena Zone (which I’ve been finding is a great site for looking up this sorta thing) and I’ve got loaded into Scryfall too.
If you were looking to put this together in paper, and I think it’s definitely something to consider for casual play, then the biggest expense will be the pair of Collector’s Cage. And honestly, these are definitely replaceable. Maybe just up the Novice Inspectors to a full playset instead? The clue token isn’t quite the same level of card advantage as digging 5 deep and putting something directly into play, but it does come down turn one and can help saddle something.
The next highest expense is the playset of Lush Portico, which I think may actually be one of the most affordable of the new Surveil lands. Chucking in the new “Crime land” — Creosite Hearth — is one option. As are basics. The thing to consider is that Frontier Seeker can pull a plains from the top of your library so Portico having those basic types is relevant for that.
Third… another dual Razorvine Thicket. US$10 for a set. No basic types, though, so are probably more replaceable than the Hearths. The rest of the deck totals US$8 so I reckon those Heaths are probably worth splashing out for, not bothering with the Thickets or Cages.
Artifact or Fiction
This deck was clearly built to show off Esoteric Duplicator from BIG, but most the cards are actually from MKM. Most notably Intrude on the Mind which is Fact or Fiction with upside? Crazy.
The overall strategy is to play artifacts and sacrifice artifacts and draw cards and play more artifacts. Winning by swinging in with a giant Gleaming Geardrake or even a transformed Powerstone from Case of the Filched Falcon — that did some good work for me.
The decklist:
Artifact or Fiction
2 Spyglass Siren
3 Gleaming Geardrake
3 Reckless Detective
3 Forensic Gadgeteer
2 Excogitator Sphinx
4 Torch the Tower
4 A-Splitting the Powerstone
3 Intrude on the Mind
3 Surgical Skullbomb
2 Candy Trail
2 Legion Extruder
3 Esoteric Duplicator
2 Case of the Filched Falcon
7 Island
6 Mountain
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Restless Spire
2 Shivan Reef
2 Eroded Canyon
2 Thundering Falls
Again, also on Zone and my Scryfall.
The Sideboard is cards from the original deck which aren’t Budget enough for my liking, or are Alchemy only or Alchemy adjusted versions of cards. The Foil versions of cards in the Mainboard are what I’m suggesting as replacements.
So the biggy here is Exogitator Sphinx, which is digital only. I’ve opted to go instead with Maurading Sphinx which is a) a Sphinx and b) from Outlaws. There is no doubt other options printed within the last year or so which could be included instead which do a better job of replicating ExoSph’s role in the deck, but MauSph felt good enough for me.
Then there is the Alchemy-adjusted versions of Splitting the Powerstone which are easily replaced by the actual Splitting the Powerstone. If you were feeling motivated you could grab a vivid and cross out the text “If the sacrificed artifact was Legendary,” — it then becomes 1 to 1 to the Arena version.
In terms of card prices Forensic Gadgeter and the Duplicator are 3 or 4 bucks each, but like with the last deck you can save some coin by swapping up the manabase. The Theros temples have been printed enough to be more or less bulk at this point so if you weren’t concerned about keeping within a standard cardpool then those would be solid replacements for the Surveil lands.
Open The Omenpaths
A five colour land ramping and domain deck with legendary creature shenanigans. There’s a lot going on with this one. The seed card was clearly Omenpath Journey:
And that’s why I’ve used the other image to head this section too, despite very definitely being on Team “Don’t Like Loot”. If you follow Magic social media — which assumably you will if you’re reading this — then you already are aware of this so I don’t need to say any more.
The deck:
Open The Omenpaths
2 A-Haywire Mite
1 The Goose Mother
2 A-Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut
2 A-Llanowar Greenwidow
1 Loot, the Key to Everything
1 Kellan, the Kid
1 Huatli, Poet of Unity
1 Rusko, Clockmaker
1 Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy
1 Inga and Esika
1 A-Meria's Outrider
3 Jodah, the Unifier
1 Bonny Pall, Clearcutter
3 Analyze the Pollen
3 Obliterating Bolt
1 Make Your Own Luck
2 Herd Migration
4 Omenpath Journey
3 Leyline Binding
5 Forest
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Hedge Maze
1 Lush Portico
2 Thundering Falls
3 Commercial District
1 Elegant Parlor
2 Meticulous Archive
1 Shadowy Backstreet
1 Underground Mortuary
1 Raucous Theater
So this deck is actually extremely buildable too. Only one Arena exclusive: Rusko, Clockmaker. In my version I’ve opted for Talion, Kindly Lord in Rusko’s place. Same colour identity, converted cost, and has an ability which hurts the opponent and draws cards. Ticks a lot of boxes, and realistically the singleton legendary creatures are essentially all flavour anyway so if you had a favourite character in the story who isn’t represented, who has an interesting card, just chuck that in instead. The exact ability doesn’t really matter at all.
Oh, and there’s 7 or 8 cards with adjusted costs/abilities in Alchemy so the real versions are not quite the same obviously.
In terms of cost… that’s harder to get around with this one. It uses 9 different Surveil lands, some with multiple copies. The common Dominaria United versions are the best alternatives — basic types is very important — but the deck does really want the filtering and also to use its graveyard as a resource. There’s cost reduction based on what type of cards are in the bin, you can play lands from it, and if you “Collect the Evidence” then certain cards have better effects.
Of course, for the hassle of putting it together you do get a pretty unique deck for precon standard, and an extremely flavourful one at that. Worth a consider.
The other two…
… have too many digital only cards to realistically consider putting together in paper. Maybe you could find some good stand ins if you really wanted, but I decided not to try. Sorry.
For completeness, though, Token Resistance is a deck which makes lots of creature tokens. I actually played a mirror of this and it got pretty crazy on both sides. The main difference is my opponent got a Mandible Justiciar which was often attacking for 7 or 8 each turn. Lifelink. Though they conceded the game after I minus 3 powered their alpha strike… there was absolutely no way I was going to win on the crack back. Arena players are weird eh.
The strategy behind Dino Might is pretty clear from the name. The key card is Vaultborn Tyrant which might just be the chase-iest or chase cards of this set.
I’m not sure what exactly had happened at the point I made this screenshot. I think i had been above 40 life and so this aftermath of an all in attack which wasn’t enough to actually do lethal.
I’m a filthy red player in Standard, too, because of course I am. 😉
The festival continues!
If you are reading this close to publication date and are interested in check out these decks then fire up Arena, I guess. But if it’s a bit late for that, or if you were just looking for ideas for new kitchen table decks… well, there you are. Make these up, with whatever changes made sense for you, and that’s going to be a good start to evolve something personal from.
Beats and Skies 
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