Blue has a lot going for it in the Historic format at the moment, and luckily most of the fun cards don’t have to be played in a control shell. Something about these blue cards has just been really scratching the itch for me when it comes to jank. You get to look smart while doing stupid things. You get to pretend you’re playing control while secretly assembling a degenerate combo. And the individual card quality has been high enough that the piles we’ve thrown together have held their own against many decks in the format even as rough drafts.
The Idea
This week, we’re headed back to Historic, building on the bones of last episode’s otter-loop combo deck—but with some fresh tech. I had a blast playing the infinite loop that deck offered, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Benthic Biomancer and Wizard Class.
Now this is a combo that gained some speed in Historic from an Alchemy buff. Wizard Class only costs 2U to get from Level 2 to Level 3.
If you’re unfamiliar with the combo, it’s delightfully simple. Once Wizard Class hits Level 3, it puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature every time you draw a card. If that creature is Benthic Biomancer, then drawing a card triggers its loot ability—letting you draw again and keep the loop going. You draw your entire library and create a ridiculously large Biomancer in the process.
Just be careful: you do need another creature on the battlefield to break the loop. If Biomancer is your only target for the counters, you’ll deck yourself and lose—unless, of course, you’re running something like Thassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (which we aren’t here, but still).
I could’ve gone all-in on the combo plan—played more Stock Up, Impulse, and other cantrips to dig for the pieces. But it started to feel like overkill. Instead, I noticed how much value both Stormchaser's Talent and Wizard Class provide even without the combo assembled. These cards can snowball games all by themselves.
These two cards as a package crank up the speed of the deck considerably. Helping reach Level 3 of both our class enchantments quicker. Turn 1 Omen Hawker allows us to play a Turn 2 Wizard Class and get it to Level 3 on Turn 3. Even without a Benthic Biomancer, drawing two cards and growing your creatures every time you draw a card is a strong opener.
We through in Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student as another way to enable Mox Amber while also just being a solid card in general. Our Jewel/Hawker package can even crack the clues for us.
My final inclusion was Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. We’re playing a lot of permanents and the Hawker/Jewel package can pay for the activation cost on their own. It’s fairly common to produce 5+ mana on Turn 3 with a combination of these cards.
Put all that together and you get quite the fun pile of cards. What I like about this deck is that we can also play a decent value gameplan if we can’t execute the combos. This means the deck is sort of split into two halves.
Loop #2 – Wizard Class (Level 3) + Benthic Biomancer: Draw your entire deck while growing a giant Biomancer. Just make sure you’ve got another body to put the last +1/+1 counter on or you’re gonna have a bad time.
Plan B: The Blue Value Engine
Here’s where things get spicy.
Stormchaser's Talent is just… cracked. Even outside the combo, ramping into “whenever you cast a noncreature spell, make a token” and being able to rebuy your best spells has proven to be very strong. Buy back Stock Up or This Town Ain’t Big Enough for absurd value in grindy matchups.
Wizard Class Level 2 gives us a quick Divination with Hawker/Jewel. On Level 3, it turns your board into a slow-motion avalanche of threats. Even without the Biomancer loop, it’s a legitimate wincon.
Basically, even if you never combo, your opponent still has to deal with:
An ever-growing board of otters.
Multiple mana-sink enchantments
A bunch of cantripping blue weirdos that won’t stop looting
You just kinda bury them in card advantage and hope they didn’t bring board wipes.
The Downsides (a.k.a. The Hawker Hands)
Look, no deck is perfect—especially not in the Jank Tank. And while Blue 8-Class has a ton of potential lines and value engines, it also has some extremely awkward hands that’ll make you question your life choices.
Let’s talk about the worst-case scenario: drawing the wrong half of the deck.
Sometimes you open a hand that’s all enablers, no payoffs. All Omen Hawkers and Mox Ambers. Or a bunch of enchantments but nothing to power them up. Or worse—multiple Enigma Jewel and no gas. There are definitely games where your entire battlefield is just a bunch of glowing mana batteries doing absolutely nothing. It’s like building a high-end espresso machine with no beans.
And of course, since this deck doesn’t play traditional interaction, you’re basically crossing your fingers and hoping your weird blue pile snowballs faster than your opponent’s actual deck. Retraction Helix and This Town Ain't Big Enoughcan interact with our opponent’s board, but that’s about it.
Highlight Matches
1.) UW Control (26:45) – This match felt like a great example of how powerful the class enchantments are. Even after multiple board wipes we still had the ability to use our mana efficiently, generate card advantage, and rebuild the board quickly. This is also when we found out we can manually draw the game if we loop Mox Amber enough times!
2.) Boros Energy (47:20) – Oh boy this match was fun. Boros is one of the grindiest decks in the format if the game goes long. Their card quality is so much higher than most other decks, and anything can be a threat. Ocelot and Ajani backed up by cheap and efficient removal is hard to beat. But we were able to hold our own with some pretty tight plays. You can listen to my thought process during the stream, but it was rather close, with a me almost giving up a couple times during the match. We were eventually able to assemble the Rona combo at just 3 life for the win. Had me sweating!
Closing Thoughts
Although this deck is a little more unfocused than the otter build from our last article, the base engine still feels powerful enough to compete in the Historic Format. I think we still have a lot of room to explore different shells for each individual combo or package, but our these initial decks that we threw together feel viable already. It’s flexible, explosive, and—when it works—it’s pure jank magic.
It also occasionally does absolutely nothing. But hey, that’s the price of brilliance.
Thanks for reading. I know you may be tired of all these Blue decks, but I promise I just have one more to test when Tarkir drops next week!
As always, feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below! Make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!
If you want to see these decks in action, come hang out with me on stream where we test, refine, and have a ton of fun together!
Happy Brewing!
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Plum is the creator of the Jank Tank.
He started playing at the ripe old age of 12 and immediately fell in love with the infinite possibilities that deck building could lead to.
He truly understands that jank is a mindset, and spends most of his free time brewing and concocting new and exciting deck lists to help inspire and promote creativity within the MTG community.
