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Hello everyone! The Alchemy buffs that Wizards announced weeks ago are about to be live, and with that, an All Access Event to try them in! This series of buffs were mostly targeted around strengthening two tribes: Elves and Warriors. With that, both received substantial improvements in the cards and with a few other nice buffs, we may have a lot of new decks to look forward to!
If you’re unfamiliar with the exact changes that happened, you can check them out in this review article here.
WARRIORS
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (26)
Instants (3)
Sorceries (1)
Artifacts (2)
Enchantments (3)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$205.52
To me, the biggest winner of this update was Warriors. I always felt the deck was on the precipice of playability as the card quality was close, and with a lot of these buffs, I think it can make it there. The biggest one for me is Kargan Warleader granting a full Anthem and Ward 1 which is a really nasty lord for 3 mana. Furthermore, Expedition Supplier is the second big winner as that acts as a second pseudo lord by spewing a Utility Knife a turn with any creature you can play. Considering I think speed is going to matter in Alchemy somewhat soon, this could be a great addition to the pantheon of reasonable decks.
EQUIPMENT
Planeswalkers (3)
Creatures (29)
Sorceries (1)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$187.6
Although it was Warriors that was specifically slated for the buffs, the Equipment deck got a lot of incidental buffs as well! Once again, we’re seeing Expedition Supplier pull a huge amount of weight here. While the buffs it provides is definitely appreciated, the fact that it’s in the form of equipment helps turn on our synergies which is great value. The second big change is Arms Scavenger which not only provides a free card per upkeep, but then makes every equip cost 1 less as long as it’s on board! Although I thought that the Expedition Supplier change would be the best thing for the deck, I’m starting to think it may actually be the Nahiri buff! Being able to -2 and potentially find two cards twice is really powerful on top of a planeswalker that can come in and likely kill any creature or walker on board. I always say the bar for 4 drops is super high in Standard/Alchemy, but I think Nahiri now clears it with flying colors.
ELVES
Planeswalkers (3)
Creatures (24)
Sorceries (2)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$211.04
The second big round of changes affected Elves and there were a lot of them. With Warriors I feel like they just needed a few key cards changed to see play, but Elves definitely needed a bit more love which it got as my list is playing 8 buffed cards! For me, the biggest buffs Elves could get are to the payoff card rather than the enablers. Tyvar Kell growing an Elf by two +1/+1 counters rather than 1 could get out of hand pretty quickly if left unattended. Harald Unites the Elves being more consistently insane in the deck by milling 5 cards should make it quite the powerhouse as well. Finally, Harald, King of Skemfar itself digging seven cards deep should functionally ensure you’re always going to find an Elf off of it as well. While these were all great changes that go a long way to help the deck, buffing a lot of the set up cards was quite nice as well. Skemfar Avenger working with tokens now is huge, Elderfang Ritualist being a value 2 drop is great, and Elderleaf Mentor being three mana is similarly powerful. With all these buffs combined, I’m hoping that Elves can finally have some time to shine!
AZORIUS MAGECRAFT
Creatures (20)
Instants (14)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$91.16
Sideboard
7 Cards
$3.37
Now let’s get into the side buffs! The crux of the buffs were focused on Warriors and Elves, but two decks with even one card change got substantially better. Symmetry Sage was always an interesting consideration as it was similar to Clever Lumimancer with Flying, but channging something to base 2 power just didn’t do too much beyond itself which wasn’t great. However, now that it changes to 3 power, it’s a whole different ball game. 3 power fliers for 1 mana is a rate that is always terrifying to face and the fact that this can also buff other creatures as well makes it a scary threat. A 1 drop that can provide a big boost to itself then (on average) an additional power to your other creatures per spell cast is going to kill a lot of people very quickly.
BANT PARTY
Creatures (24)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$134.04
For the final list of the article and one of my favorite changes, Base Camp no longer comes into play tapped! Base Camp was always a head scratcher for me as it seemed like a it would be very hard to make overpowered, but unfortunately without it, Party struggled to gain a foothold. The deck requires a lot of different colors early and pathways and slowlands aren’t necessarily the most conducive to making that happen. However, with a land that can now tap for any color and come into play untapped, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing Party again on ladder!
Thank you for reading!
