MTG Strategist

After a long weekend of playtesting and deliberating on why  it's still okay to present a Standard deck so close to the release of Dominaria, I birthed a monstrosity that might be one of the most violent decks I've built.  It promises to frustrate your opponents to their limits by giving answer after answer.  For your playing pleasure, I present Jund Bullies... This brawler of a deck holds enough removal and enough power to dominate most any battlefield.   The early game removal includes Fatal Push, Gifted Aetherborn and Dire Fleet Poisoner.  Dusk Legion Zealot is there on turn 2 to draw you cards with Cathartic Reunion as well.  Turn 3's Jadelight Ranger adds additional card advantage and power.  Ravenous Chupacabra comes out on turn 4 with Vraska's Contempt to kill off whatever is left on the board making way for Glorybringer and your two Planeswalkers to finish the game.   Deadeye Tracker (1 CMC) is there to gut your opponent's...

While technically a 'tribe', the Warriors of Standard are not situated in a way that makes them a truly cohesive group.  There is no "Warriors you control' spells or lords that pump up Warrior specific creatures.  But what the Warrior tribe does offer is some of the most powerful and supportive creatures in magic.  You could look at the 'Warrior' label as secondary to other creature types.  In those secondary roles these creatures shine.  Merfolk Warriors, Jackal Warriors, Elf Warriors, Human Warriors...these creatures function as Merfolk, Jackal, Elf and Human more than Warriors. With that in mind and through that lens, we can view the Dominaria Warrior additions as supportive of their secondary clans rather than the Warrior clan. These additions are: There are currently 80 Warriors in standard.  These include Earthshaker Khenra, Deeproot Elite, Deeproot Warrior and Ahn-Crop Crasher.  So how do these new Warriors stack up? We have to s...

Digging further into the spoiled tribes of Dominaria, next up is the Knight Tribe.  If you haven't seen my previous article regarding the Wizard Tribe, you can check it out here ( Wizard Tribe ). One note...after doing the math, if you're wondering how much of Dominaria was spoiled...it was approximately everything but the Commons.  Of the 269 card set, 146 were mentioned in the document.  Granted some of these were used as examples to explain card mechanics, but if you take that 146 and the numbers provided in the document you can drill down to what is left. The set contains 269 cards: 20 lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, and 15 mythic rares. If you add 80 (uncommons) + 53 (rares) + 15 (mythic rares) you get 148.  With that, all you have left is 101 commons and 20 lands. Anyway...back to the Knight Tribe.  Here is what was spoiled so far: Currently there are 17 Knights in Standard. So, I wouldn't call this a monster tribe....

Due to the unfortunate spoiling of the majority of Dominaria ( https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/dominaria-leak-2018-03-08 ), we have an early look at 146 of the 269 cards to be released on April 27, 2018. After an initial look, the tribe that jumped out at me was the Wizard tribe.  The newest additions to the Wizard tribe: First, I have to note that the number of additional Wizards is curious.  Only two Merfolk have been spoiled so far. Merfolk Trickster and Sentinel of the Pearl Trident (Trickster is also a Wizard).  That brings the number of total Merfolk in Standard up to 41.  With the 9 Wizards listed above, that also brings the tribe of Wizard up to 41.  This seems apparent that WOTC is seeking parity in the Wizard tribe.  Additionally, there are two instant Wizard-related spells included in the list.  Wizard's Lightning and Wizard's Retort.  The first is a burn spell and the latter is a counter spell. While the nu...