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Khans of Tarkir is coming to MTG Arena very very soon (December 12, 2023) and with it a large swathe of powerful cards and role players. You will recognise a lot of classics that you have surely played with or against in different formats over the years.
Let’s delve into the toys this set gives us and what decks it might birth.
Fetch Lands
The infamous fFtch Lands – cards banned in Pioneer and legal in Modern.
When it comes to Arena, they are not legal in Explorer (as they aren’t in Pioneer), are pre-banned in Historic, and are very much legal in Timeless.
They are not legal in younger formats like Pioneer or Explorer, as Wizards wanted to explore (pun intended) a world where less time is consumed on dexterity-related activities – in this case searching and shuffling. This experiment has gone very well and players do appreciate the lack of need to keep picking up their library and cutting the opponent’s.
What does their legality mean for Timeless though?
First things first, they work super well with cards in the sections below, namely delve cards. You’re essentially getting free cards into the graveyard to later convert into a real resource – a discount.
On top of that, you’re getting a much cleaner manabase that’s both more consistent and less painful at large.
Now in a Grixis deck you don’t need to play four of each Shock Land – you’re likely going to play around 6-9 fetches with 1-2 of each shock. And you’re good to go!
As a reminder, fetches like Flooded Strand find any land that has the types specified on the fetch – in this case Plains or Island. It means that Hallowed Fountain can of course be found but also Sacred Foundry or Watery Grave! As long as at least one type matches, you can do it. It also applies to triomes like Raugrin Triome.
That is still not all!
There are a ton of different synergies that Fetch Lands allow.
One cool play is called a Bauble trick that’s super popular in Modern and Legacy. You peek at your top card with Bauble. If you like it, you pass the turn and draw it. If you don’t, however, you can crack a fetch, shuffle the deck, and get a fresh card off the top.
You essentially get a free Opt!
Fetch lands in conjunction with shocks work great with Death's Shadow as well. You can keep losing life every turn without spending a card on it.
It also gives you much more control, as you get to decide whether you want to fetch for a shock or maybe a basic and take it slow.
As you can see, fetchlands are a massive addition to the Arena and will enable numerous tiny edge plays that will separate good players from seasoned veterans.
Delve Draw Spells
Cards that I think are the absolute best spells in Pioneer and soon Explorer. We’ll finally be able to play Ancestral Recall on Arena.
Both spells cost seven mana but have different colour and delve requirements – and it makes a big difference. Looking at mana alone, it’s clear that you have to be a dedicated blue deck to run Dig while you could just splash for Cruise. In the past, we did see Burn decks in Modern being Mono Red and just splashing for Cruise – which was one of the reasons it got the axe in the end.
In Explorer it’s going to be much tougher to splash as mana can barely support normal three colour decks but we could see that happen in Timeless.
When it comes to the strategies in which you’d see them play, Dig is frequently used in controlling decks which value card quality highly while Cruise is better in strategies where you put a premium on card quantity.
Dimir Control
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
0 mythic
34 rare
14 uncommon
12 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Instants (26)
Enchantments (2)
Lands (25)
60 Cards
$199.24
Sideboard
15 Cards
$56.37
This is an example of a classic Dig deck. It is a control deck that values quality and card selection. Depending on the situation you might want more counter magic, mass removal, or a planeswalker.
In order to fuel Dig you’ve got a generic flurry of spells in tandem with Consider and Opt to enable Dig really fast.
Izzet Phoenix
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
4 mythic
21 rare
11 uncommon
24 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Instants (22)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$259.06
Sideboard
15 Cards
$20.61
Treasure Cruise has been played in Pioneer Arclight Phoenix decks for a long time and I expect a clean port of it into Explorer.
With the new Picklock Prankster builds alongside Cruise I expect the deck to be one of the most dominant strategies in the format. It’s already a top deck in Pioneer and here it’s an almost 1-to-1 version without its toughest matchup – Lotus Combo.
Jeskai Ascendancy
Unfortunately there is no Retraction Helix on Arena but there is Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Mox Amber, and Rona, Herald of Invasion.
While there is no combo out there now, I’d keep a very close eye on this card as it’s super combo-genic.
It could slot into a generic Jeskai Spells deck where it acts mainly as a pump spell with looting effects.
Jeskai Spells
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
4 mythic
27 rare
16 uncommon
15 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Instants (15)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (22)
62 Cards
$272.7
Stubborn Denial
Counterspell that is created to make creature decks stronger. While it looks like a child of Negate and Mana Tithe, the real value lies in its ferocious mode.
In order to turn it on you need to play big creatures that can actually do it. Here’s my starting proposition.
BUG Shadow
by Skura
Timeless
best of 3
6 mythic
37 rare
12 uncommon
5 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (16)
Sorceries (4)
Artifacts (4)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$813.22
BUG Shadow has two main creatures that make it trivial to turn on Stubborn Denial, namely Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf. The opponent will know that as soon as these creatures hit the battlefield, it’s going to be super tough to remove them.
This one mana Negate can hit Fatal Push, Counterspell, but also Wrath of God or any planeswalker.
Even if you don’t have creatures, you’re able to convert it against any opponent who taps out on curve for something like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
Hooting Mandrills
Mandrills is a great tool for decks that don’t want to utilise the graveyard to draw a bunch of cards but rather pressure the opponent and close the game in short order.
As shown in the BUG Shadow example, it can be a multi-purpose threat – i.e. turning on Stubborn Denial.
It can see play in various shells and one of my favourites is abusing its mana cost with Up the Beanstalk.
BUG Beanstalk
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
6 mythic
25 rare
12 uncommon
17 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (12)
Instants (16)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (19)
60 Cards
$460.06
In this deck, Mandrills is basically a 4/4 that comes down for a single mana and draws a card when put on the stack. Even if it gets killed, you don’t really mind, as it has already cantripped.
There are multiple uses for the Ape and I am sure Explorer, Historic, and Timeless will take advantage of it in numerous different ways.
Murderous Cut
BUG Beanstalk
by Skura
Explorer
best of 3
6 mythic
25 rare
12 uncommon
17 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (12)
Instants (16)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (19)
60 Cards
$460.06
Arguably one of the best shells is the one shown above with Hooting Mandrills. A BUG strategy that plays Up the Beanstalk whose one-mana removal spell cantrips is a super strong contender to start off with.
The fact that your Fatal Push equivalent kills anything no questions asked and does not awkwardly require revolt is huge. The moment it draws a card tips it over the ‘busted’ scale.
While admittedly you won’t always be able to pay a single mana for it due to opposing graveyard hate or simply you can’t fuel the grave fast enough with multiple other delve spells, paying 2-3 mana for it is still fine. The moment you realise that it’s mainly a 4+ mana card then certainly something is off but I don’t expect it to happen often, especially not in Best of One.
I could also see Murderous Cut as a 1- or 2-of in regular decks that just want an additional removal spell and they might not take advantage of their graveyard otherwise. This could be the case for Black based creature strategies for example.
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Skura
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