Historic Brewing Review – Star Trek

Welcome back to another Historic Brewer’s Review! I’m Plum, and today we’re taking a look at the upcoming Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek set, the latest addition to the ever-growing Universes Beyond lineup.

I’ll admit right away that this isn’t a release I’ve been particularly excited about. Nothing against Star Trek itself, but the crossover doesn’t really do much for me, and after so many Universes Beyond releases, I’m finding it a little difficult to get excited about every new franchise making its way into Magic.

That being said, new cards are still new cards, and regardless of how I feel about the theme, you can bet we’re going to be brewing with them!

As usual, we’re approaching this from a Historic perspective. I’m not particularly interested in evaluating cards for Limited, Standard, or Commander. This isn’t meant to be a particularly exhaustive review. We’re not going through every rare and mythic or trying to predict the next format-defining staple. These are simply the cards that caught my attention, whether because they look genuinely powerful, support something we’ve played before, or just seem like they’d be fun to mess around with. We’ll be fleshing out and exploring other ideas that I haven’t mentioned in this article over the next few weeks! Overall, I think Star Trek is a relatively low-powered set, which honestly might be a good thing for Standard. But there are quite a few interesting utility cards here, particularly for Humans, Warriors, artifacts, and some of the more obscure strategies we’ve explored in the past.

Let’s dive in!

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Starting things off, we have Deanna Troi, Psychic Counselor, a two-mana 2/2 legendary Human that makes our other creatures enter with an additional +1/+1 counter.

It’s a pretty straightforward effect, almost like another variation of Thalia’s Lieutenant. Unlike Lieutenant, we can’t stack multiple copies of Deanna because she’s legendary, but getting a permanent counter on every subsequent creature is still pretty appealing.

I feel like I’ve been beating this horse to death over the last few set reviews, but we just keep getting more and more legendary Humans. Between the recent Universes Beyond releases and all the other additions to Historic, the tribe has accumulated a pretty impressive collection of tools. Unfortunately, Humans hasn’t been particularly relevant in Historic for quite some time. Still, cards like this make me want to revisit some sort of low-to-the-ground White Weenie or multicolor Humans shell.

It is worth noting that she’s basically a two-mana Grumgully in white. Which opens up a few persist combos with cards like Murderous Redcap.

Delney and Ajani’s Pridemate had a baby and it went to medical school!

The obvious comparison is Delney, Streetwise Lookout, which can double many of the same triggers. However, Delney only works with creatures that have power two or less. Once something like Voice of the Blessed starts growing, Delney can no longer double its triggers.

Beverly Crusher doesn’t have that restriction. As long as we’re triggering an ability by gaining life, she’ll double it regardless of how large the creature has become. That makes her pretty interesting alongside cards like the various Ajani and Soul Sisters packages we’ve seen over the years.

Lifegain isn’t exactly dominating Historic at the moment, but it’s always been a popular archetype, particularly at lower ranks. This gives those decks another interesting tool, and I could see experimenting with Beverly and Delney together to see how ridiculous the triggers can get.

This is bad but in a good way!

With a single tribble our board grows exponentially if nobody interferes. We start with one, then two, then four, eight, sixteen, and so on. Obviously, a bunch of 0/1 creatures that can’t block aren’t accomplishing much by themselves. But there are some interesting ways to take advantage of all those bodies.

The first thing that comes to mind is Impact Tremors. Every new creature entering the battlefield deals another point of damage to our opponent, and once the Troupes start multiplying, that damage can add up pretty quickly. It’s basically Splinter Twin!

there’s potentially something here with the Three Blind Mice and Dollmaker strategies we’ve seen before. Those decks already enjoy making copies of creatures and tokens, so adding another exponentially growing threat could be entertaining.

The obvious comparison is Artist’s Talent, which gives us a similar kind of filtering engine for less mana. And realistically, I think Artist’s Talent is going to be the better choice in most decks.

Three mana is a pretty substantial investment for a Storm-style strategy, especially when we’re trying to chain together cheap spells as quickly as possible. However, I do like that this effect is available in mono-blue.

We’ve played some unusual Sapphire Medallion and Vizier of Tumbling Sands decks in the past, using a Twiddle-style engine to generate mana and cycle through our library. Something like this could potentially provide another card-draw engine for those strategies.

I don’t expect it to become a staple, but it’s worth remembering that the effect exists, especially for more off-meta combo lists like Song of Creation.

This is one of the cards I’m genuinely interested in brewing around.

If this effect sounds familiar, it’s because this is essentially a smaller, cheaper version of Demonic Pact. And just like Demonic Pact, we can pair it with Harmless Offering to give the enchantment to our opponent before we’re forced to choose the lose-the-game option.

We’ve seen Demonic Pact and Harmless Offering decks before, and there’s also some history of Demonic Pact appearing in Doom Foretold strategies. Kobayashi Maru Scenario could potentially serve as additional copies of that effect or even replace Demonic Pact in certain builds.

What makes this version interesting is that it only costs three mana and happens to be blue. That means we can play Counterspell, Force of Negation, and other interaction to protect our game plan. It also does a reasonable job of buying time by bouncing creatures and producing blockers. I’m not convinced a Doom Foretold or Harmless Offering strategy is particularly well positioned against the current Historic midrange decks, but this is definitely something I’d like to build once the set releases.

If you squint a little, this is a one-mana draw-two spell, except the cards come from our opponent’s deck.

It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Alchemy heist mechanic, which we’ve seen used with cards like Triumph of Getaway and some of the newer digital-only effects. Obviously, the quality of the cards we get is going to vary wildly depending on what our opponent is playing. We might find something fantastic, or we might end up with lands and spells that don’t accomplish much in our particular deck.

There’s also some room to manipulate the top of our own library with surveil lands or cards like Scheming Symmetry to influence what our opponent gets access to. Still, getting access to two cards for a single mana is an interesting rate.

It’s almost like Cryptic Command and Ertai Resurrected had a baby, except all the individual abilities are a little worse. But he sure is flexible!

The Human creature type is also relevant. We can play Wesley with Cavern of Souls, Thalia’s Lieutenant, Adeline, and the rest of the Human package, although four mana might be a little expensive for the more aggressive versions of that deck.

However, various blink shells with Phelia and Ephemerate shells perform well, and Wesley offers quite a bit of utility when we can repeatedly trigger its enters-the-battlefield ability. I don’t know that we’d ever want four copies, but it seems like a potentially excellent sideboard card against interactive decks or a flexible addition to a slower blink shell.

This card is powerful but only activating via Artifact Creatures makes it just a tad more difficult to work with. Naturally, that makes me think about Affinity and some of the low-to-the-ground artifact aggro decks we’ve experimented with. Seems nutty with Pinnacle Emissary

This might also be an excuse to try another build with Throne of the God-Pharoah. If we’re tapping three artifact creatures to draw a card, those creatures are also contributing to Throne’s end-step damage. We can potentially develop a board of cheap artifacts, draw additional cards, and drain our opponent without needing to attack successfully.

This could be an interesting little engine in the right shell.

I think this card is a bit of a sleeper, especially with the wider card pool that Historic has.

It seems rather bonkers with Monument to Endurance. Monument already rewards us for discarding cards by giving us several different modes to choose from. With Garak on the battlefield, every time we’re choosing one of those modes, we’re also draining our opponent for two.

We can take this even further with Collective Brutality, which also involves choosing modes. Casting Brutality triggers Garak, and if we’re discarding cards to escalate it, those discards can trigger Monument as well. We’ve played a Zombie Infestation and Monument to Endurance deck using cards like Ovalchase Daredevil in the past. Garak could fit into something similar, giving us another way to close games without relying entirely on combat.

The biggest question is whether we can assemble everything quickly enough and keep Garak alive. Three mana is a little expensive for a creature that needs other cards to really get going, but a 3/3 with menace isn’t the worst body.

It’s basically a miniature Thought-Knot Seer.

Obviously, the body is considerably worse, and giving our opponent a replacement card means we’re not actually putting them down a card. But we’re still getting to disrupt their hand while developing our own battlefield.

Besides the obvious blink strategies and comparison to Juggernaut Peddler, this makes me want to bring back Vampires. We have Stromkirk Noble, Cordial Vampire, Vampire Socialite, Voldaren Epicure, Yahenni, and plenty of options!

So, at its absolute floor, we’re getting something resembling a red Negate. If our opponent decides not to lose their spell, we could potentially cast something enormous like Omniscience, Emergent Ultimatum, or another expensive noncreature payoff for free.

Of course, the fact that our opponent chooses which outcome happens is a pretty substantial drawback. They’re almost always going to give us whichever option is worse for us. I have no idea where to put this, but I’m sure we’ll find a home at some point.

While Captain Kirk doesn’t have the most impressive stats, the fact that he triggers on both ETB and Attack makes him much stronger than he looks. Not to mention you get to choose all three modes if you’re hellbent.

Again, there’s not a perfect home for him yet, but I’d assume this card would 100% be paired with Arena of Glory when he’s played. Seems like a great top end for an aggro list of some sort.

The flexibility here is excellent. I think the closest comparison is something like Sweltering Suns, except Encounter the Unknown operates at instant speed. Against creature decks, we can clear away a bunch of smaller threats, including things like Ocelot Pride and other low-toughness creatures. Against control or slower strategies, we can use it as a way to find additional cards instead of leaving a sweeper stranded in our hand.

I could see this finding a home in a slower red deck, or at the very least appearing in sideboards where both modes are relevant.

The important part for this bad boy is that it doesn’t just count instants and sorceries. Artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and other noncreature card types contribute to the discount as well. Malevolent Rumble, Dragon’s Rage Channeler, and various cheap artifacts can help reduce its cost pretty quickly.

Historic’s prowess and graveyard-based aggro shells are already pretty refined, but a cheap flying creature with haste is certainly worth considering. And, for whatever it’s worth, it’s also a Fish. With more underwater-themed cards coming from Nauctis in the future, maybe that’ll end up mattering someday.

Here’s another card that kinda makes me want to revisit aggressive Humans. And I particularly like this alongside Burning-Tree Emissary.

We’ve accumulated quite a few aggressive red Humans that work well together, including Inti, Robber of the Rich, and some of the newer cards from recent sets. There’s also Rally at the Hornburg, which creates multiple Human bodies and gives them haste, alongside traditional white payoffs like Adeline. Maybe there’s a Boros or Naya Humans deck waiting to be put together here?

You know I love warriors folks.

This works particularly well with Gornog, the Red Reaper, since Gornog rewards us for attacking with Warriors and makes it difficult for opposing creatures to block them.

The fact that Worf turns the stolen creature into a Warrior is a pretty important detail. We’re not just removing a blocker and gaining an attacker; we’re also making that creature benefit from our tribal synergies. Warriors has a had a tough go since it lost Ajani (good riddance thought), but maybe we can dabble into some Gruul builds again.

I think this is a respectable amount of utility for three mana, even if none of the individual abilities is particularly spectacular. The obvious problem is that Historic already has plenty of powerful three-mana value cards, including Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and other options that tend to provide more immediate or consistent advantages. I’m not sure exactly what deck wants Wrath of Koth.

Maybe there’s some sort of Naya Sagas shell we could explore, or perhaps it simply serves as another flexible value piece for a slower red strategy like I mentioned above. I don’t expect it to revolutionize anything, but it’s a decent card worth keeping in mind.

It’s almost like Eternal Witness crossed with one of the various Not Dead After All effects. What makes this interesting is that we’re getting that sort of protection effect in green, attached to a reasonably sized creature with flash.

I think this seems rather strong with Birthing Ritual. Being able to protect one of our creatures before sacrificing it to Ritual gives us a way to extract additional value from the exchange. We could potentially use McCoy to protect something like Badgermole Cub while continuing to develop our board. Maybe another take on the Fear of Change decks floating around?

Scapeshift on an artifact is pretty good right?? And it ramps you???

We’ve played several Scapeshift and Primeval Titan strategies in the past, including our recent Roiling Canopy deck, and this seems like another tool those decks might want to consider. I’m thinking a new build with Karn, the Great Creator. Karn can find it from the sideboard, giving us access to a Scapeshift-style effect without necessarily needing to dedicate multiple main-deck slots to it. If we ramp but get our payoffs countered, we can at least use that mana to play some big boys from a wishboard.

The first comparison that came to mind was Cheering Crowd, another card that rewards us for accumulating counters and can eventually produce a substantial amount of mana. What I like about Jadzia is that the ramp benefits us directly, and the creature can continue scaling as the game progresses.

It’s also pretty easy to tutor with GSZ, and we have both Hardened Scales and Hardened Bonds in the format which form a nice engine with Jadzia too.

Still dies to Bowmasters though 🙁

If you keep up with me on stream you know we play a looooot of Greenie Weenie. This is kind of neat for the archetype. The nice thing is that the ability protects our entire board in a roundabout way. If our opponent removes one of our creatures, we’re at least getting another body to replace it.

Obviously, a 1/1 Officer isn’t particularly impressive, but it does help us maintain some battlefield presence.

Good sideboard card! That’s it!

Another version of Spelunking and Vigorous Farming for the Lotus Field combo deck we played way back when.

Those decks already want their lands to enter untapped, and they tend to play a wide variety of different lands. That makes Warp Speed particularly interesting because its card-draw ability could become relatively inexpensive in the right shell. I still think Spelunking is probably the strongest version of this effect because of the additional land drop, but Warp Speed might be an upgrade over Vigorous Farming in certain builds.

It’s an interesting combination of removal and a large artifact threat, somewhat reminiscent of Cityscape Leveler. Affinity makes it playable in an artifact based shell, but I also wouldn’t mind using Trash for Treasure to cheat this one out too. The question is whether Borg Cube offers enough compared to our other options.

Cityscape Leveler, Platinum Angel, and the various Portal-style artifacts already give us some pretty powerful payoffs for jumping through those hoops.

Nothing particularly complicated here, but I like the combination of an artifact lord and a useful removal effect. We’ve played various Affinity and artifact aggro decks over the years, and there are plenty of cheap artifact creatures that benefit from this kind of buff.

Ornithopter, Vault Skirge, Toolcraft Exemplar, and some of the Cranial Ram-style strategies all come to mind.

This guy ain’t half bad!

The upgrade costs are actually pretty reasonable, especially when we consider that menace makes it easier to attack and trigger the surveil ability.

I don’t know if this is better than the existing land and graveyard engines available in Historic, but there’s potentially something here for a delirium strategy too. Cards like Grim Flayer and Traverse the Ulvenwald have historically rewarded us for filling the graveyard, and Nog gives us another cheap creature that can contribute to that plan while eventually generating additional land value.

I haven’t played with Fevered Visions in quite some time, and when we did, it was quite bad in Historic. The idea behind those decks is almost the opposite of traditional discard strategies. Rather than emptying our opponent’s hand, we want to keep it full while punishing them for drawing cards and holding onto resources.

We do have some good punishing effects like Orcish Bowmasters, Razorkin Needlehead, and Scrawling Crawler. I’m particularly interested in a Jeskai version using cards like Silence, Orim’s Chant, and Reprieve to prevent our opponent from efficiently using all the cards we’re giving them.

METALWORK COLOSSUS

We’ve played Metalwork Colossus decks in the past, and one of the ways to make those decks work is by playing artifacts that contribute a large amount of mana value to the battlefield for relatively little investment. Brass Knuckles is a good example. It costs four mana and creates a copy of itself, giving us eight mana worth of noncreature artifacts to help reduce Metalwork Colossus’s cost.

Combat Edge accomplishes something similar for only three mana, providing six mana worth of artifacts a turn earlier. Is that good enough? Who knows? But depending on how we build the deck, turn-two or turn-three Colossus might not be completely unreasonable.

Quite a powerful effect, a bomb that gets you more bombs. Aka another great target for Trash for Treasure to reanimate. We’d already be playing other expensive artifacts that we could hit, and we have Goblin Welder and potentially Shifting Woodland as ways to reuse or copy these sorts of effects.

I actually like Deep Space Nine quite a bit more than Borg Cube for this style of deck because we’re getting immediate value when it enters, without needing to attack or wait for additional setup.

We’re also getting Engineered Explosives reprinted, which is a pretty relevant addition to Historic. This is a flexible answer to cheap permanents, and that alone makes it worth considering for sideboards.

More importantly, its great with Weapons manufacturing to blow up all your munitions tokens at once. It’s flexible interaction that happens to double as a potential win condition in a very specific archetype.

There are also five new Anomaly lands that tap for colorless mana and have additional activated abilities.

The effects vary by color. The black one drains life, the blue one draws cards, the red one deals damage, the white one creates Officer tokens, and the green one gives us a Malevolent Rumble-style effect by milling cards and returning a permanent to our hand.

I don’t think any of these are particularly groundbreaking, but I like that they provide some additional utility for decks that can afford to play colorless lands. Eldrazi and Icetill decks are an obvious consideration. Seem like useful options to have available.

We’re also getting a cycle of lands that enter tapped unless we control two or more other lands.

Each land also has a small additional effect. The white one gains life, the blue one grants flying, the black one puts a creature from our graveyard on top of our library, the red one deals damage, and the green one gives a creature +1/+1 and vigilance.

They’re not crazy powerful, but they have a low opportunity cost and seems easy to slot into plenty of decks.

Finally, we have a bonus sheet featuring some older cards and a few interesting additions to the Historic card pool.

Mogis, God of Slaughter is a familiar card from Theros that repeatedly forces our opponent to sacrifice creatures or take damage. It’s a potentially interesting option for slower Rakdos strategies, although I’m not sure it has an obvious home at the moment.

The cards I’m more excited about are the lands.

Minamo, School at Water’s Edge is particularly interesting because it lets us untap legendary permanents. That opens up additional interactions with cards like Emry, Tamiyo, Rona, and Kethis.

We’ve played plenty of legendary-based combo decks in the past, and Minamo is exactly the kind of low-opportunity-cost utility land that can make those strategies more interesting.

Talon Gates of Madara is another unusual land that can temporarily phase out a creature. Having that kind of interaction attached to a land is pretty appealing, especially when we can use it to protect our own creatures or interfere with an opponent’s plans.

And then there’s Shizo, Death’s Storehouse, which can give a legendary creature fear until end of turn. It’s another useful tool for decks relying on legendary creatures to connect in combat.

None of these necessarily creates an entirely new archetype on its own, but I think Minamo in particular is going to be worth keeping an eye on.

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Closing Thoughts

And that’s going to do it for our Star Trek Historic Brewer’s Review!

Like I mentioned at the beginning, this isn’t a set I’ve been particularly excited about, and after looking through the cards, I don’t think it’s going to make an especially large impact on Historic. There are a few interesting build-arounds, but a lot of the set feels relatively low-powered compared to what we’re used to seeing.

I do find it interesting that a lot these cards seem like they’re good “Glue” pieces. They’re not necessarily powerful enough to build an entire deck around, but they provide additional options for strategies that already exist. We got more Humans, more Warriors, some interesting artifact support, a handful of flexible utility creatures, and a few unusual effects that might give older decks another chance.

If you want to hear me talk through these cards in a little more detail, you can check out the full video review above.

Thanks for reading!

As always, feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below. And make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!

If you’re interested in more fun content, come join me on stream and help brew our next deck! Until next time, have fun, play jank.

Happy Brewin’!