Temur Obosh Adventures Standard Deck Guide: Who Needs Lucky Clover?

You thought banning Lucky Clover would stop Temur Adventures from existing? Please! According to Obosh, Clover was only holding the deck back! I’m here with a spicy number cooked up by HowlingMines that got them to Rank #128! Furthermore, I saw Kushiro come second place in the CFB Pro Showdown with an iteration of this deck as well that played 64 cards main deck (not something I would recommend though!).

With the loss of Lucky Clover, Fae of Wishes also became bad, thus Temur fell off the map, but Obosh may be just what the deck needed to come back in full swing. Funnily enough, I brewed a deck very similar to this right after the last round of Standard bans, but I couldn’t get the list right; but it is some vindication that I was onto something! I digress, as per usual, I like to play the list as is to get a feel for it.

[sd_deck deck=”hl8_LFPcN”]

I really liked the look of this deck before playing it and I’m glad it actually played just as well as advertised! The hybrid between a midrange deck and a ramp deck gave the list flexibility and late game power which I’m a huge fan of. Whenever a deck can do multiple game plans well, you know you have something there. After a lot of deliberation, I was able to make some improvements to the base (not many though considering it was built extremely well), and I’m very happy with the result. Let’s take a look and talk about card choices.

[sd_deck deck=”alw5LVT1F”]

CARD CHOICES

Companion: Obosh, the Preypiercer: I touched on this briefly before, but with Clover gone and Fae of Wishes bad without it, your deck is more or less all odd CMC spells anyway. While I never believe any companion is ever “free” to include, Obosh comes very close to free as the only cards I find myself missing are Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Lotus Cobra, and better board options. That being said, a Companion Furnace of Rath is an extremely powerful effect, especially when combined with Terror of the Peaks. The deck is designed in such a way that you will functionally always have something to do with your mana, and Obosh abets that game plan as well. 

2 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate: The most impactful change I made to the list was the inclusion of Vivien. Although you frequently have a lot to do with your mana, I quickly identified 2 potential issues with this deck. One, Genesis Ultimatum could be surprisingly underpowered considering a lot of your hits are ok creatures and lands. Second, against faster decks, you can’t rely on Genesis Ultimatum as a top end. If you cut Genesis Ultimatum then you really only have Terror of the Peaks and The Great Henge as a strong top end which seems like too few threats. I figured the easiest way to remedy both of those issues is the inclusion of Vivien. With 28 creatures, Vivien should often have solid hits off the top, and in a deck that plays a functional 30 lands, casting her on curve should be a breeze. 

2 Glasspool Mimic: The original list had one Glasspool Mimic and one Spikefield Hazard, but I think Glasspool Mimic is far superior. Blue is way more important in the deck as Genesis Ultimatum and Brazen Borrower demand multiple Blue sources, and the spell half is generally way higher impact. Cloning a Terror of the Peaks is the dream, but copying something like a Bonecrusher Giant or a Lovestruck Beast has been great for me as well.

4 Kazandu Mammoth: The best MDFC creature this side of town. Your deck is mana hungry so you will be using this as a land relatively often, but combined with Lovestruck Beast, you can power out turn 4 The Great Henge relatively often. Even when you don’t have a Henge, this can still be a reasonable attacker. 

4 Edgewall Innkeeper: No surprise our favorite burly barkeep makes an appearance here. With a whopping 18 adventure creatures, drawing a card off Edgewall should be absolutely no problem. Try to not expose Innkeeper to removal before you can get a card off of him, especially in matchups where your opponents have Bonecrusher Giant.

4 Bonecrusher Giant: It’s a red deck that plays Edgewall Innkeeper, 4 Bonecrusher Giant is mandatory. 

2 Brazen Borrower: This one was an extremely hard decision for me, one I’m still not even positive about. Brazen Borrower is a powerful card, but feels a little lackluster in the metagame right now. Initially I wanted to cut all of the Borrowers, but realized that it gives you more turn 2 plays, an important part of the curve where the deck is sorely lacking. Furthermore, with a heavier emphasis on Blue compared to the first list, casting it is a lot more reasonable than it was before. I could still see cutting these completely, but I think 2 is a solid number for now. If you find you want to try a different card out for the main deck, you can easily remove the 2 Borrowers from here to make room.

4 Lovestruck Beast: You play The Great Henge and Edgewall Innkeeper, like Bonecrusher, you have to play 4.

4 Terror of the Peaks: Here is where we take a page out of Temur Ramp’s playbook. Terror of the Peaks has proven to be an incredibly scary threat when cast by itself, and doubly so if you find it off a Genesis Ultimatum or have an Obosh out (or both!) This card is extremely powerful and if you get to untap with even one copy in play, you can generally take over the game from there.

4 Beanstalk Giant: It’s been a long time since Beanstalk Giant got to fulfill every role it could in a deck, but here we are. It’s Ramp, an Adventure creature for Edgewall Innkeeper, a win con, and disgusting with Genesis Ultimatum and Terror of the Peaks. Beanstalk Giant is truly the complete package in this deck and it never disappoints. 

4 Genesis Ultimatum: The second half of the Temur Ramp package. Genesis Ultimatum is very challenging to cast, but the payoff is well worth it. You will get the rare scenario where Ultimatum translates as play 3 lands and draw 2 cards, but the average Genesis Ultimatum will likely put you so far ahead that your opponent will struggle to win from there. Better yet, Genesis Ultimatum helps you find additional copies of Genesis Ultimatum so you can just keep chaining them to bury your opponent! 

2 The Great Henge: I still slate this as the best card in Standard, so it makes sense that it finds its way into this list as well. With Lovestruck Beast and Kazandu Mammoth, casting Henge is very easy and is a powerhouse once it resolves. This card is just great in every matchup and never needs to get cut. If we didn’t already have so much top end, I would easily play a third copy in the deck.

24 Lands + 6 MDFCs

SIDEBOARD

3 Klothys, God of Destiny: This is where HowlingMines crossed the line. ONLY TWO KLOTHYS? UNBELIEVABLE. I love playing 3 since Klothys is so ridiculously good against Rogues and Rakdos, it can functionally win a game by itself.

4 Mystical Dispute: You’re definitely on the clunkier side, so counterspells can be very scary for your deck if you’re trying to resolve a big spell. Dispute helps you to force through your big spells or counter any important Blue spells from your opponent like an opposing Genesis Ultimatum or Into the Story.

3 Soul Sear: This is probably the card I’m the least sold on, but it does kill Lovestruck Beast cleanly. The Great Henge can be a scary card to fight through, so the best way to stop it is to not let it get cast in the first place! 

2 Thrashing Brontodon: The old Brontoboy isn’t the most amazing card, but it serves its purpose. Mostly used as The Great Henge insurance, it also functions well to blow up Embercleave, Anax, and Stonecoil Serpent as well.

2 Ox of Agonas: At first, I did like 3 Ox of Agonas because it is one of the best anti-rogues cards you can realistically ask for, but I decided to trim down as it can be hard to empty your hand and drawing multiples is super sad. With all the top end the deck already possesses, more Ox seemed like overkill, but the distinction between 2 and 3 is relatively small. 

As you can see, a lot of the changes are relatively small and I’ve been fortunate enough that a lot of these new brews are well built. Thanks for making my job easier!

MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARD GUIDE

GRUUL AGGRO

In	Out
+3 Soul Sear	-2 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate
+2 Thrashing Brontodon	-1 Glasspool Mimic
	-2 Brazen Borrower

This matchup can be a toss up as it’s going to be highly dependent on how both of your hands pan out. Ideally, you can brick wall their team with your larger adventure creatures then slam the door with a Terror of the Peaks or a Genesis Ultimatum. Generally though, unlike Temur Ramp which struggles with Gruul, you should have a reasonable matchup against it as they need to kill you quickly and not all of their draws always allow them to do so. If they seem to be a faster version of Gruul, you can shave a Terror of the Peaks and a Genesis Ultimatum to keep the Brazen Borrowers in, but I wouldn’t generally recommend that. 

DIMIR ROGUES

In	Out
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-2 Brazen Borrower
+4 Mystical Dispute	-3 Beanstalk Giant
+2 Ox of Agonas	-4 Genesis Ultimatum

This matchup is relatively straightforward, cut your clunky cards, put in your not clunky cards. Klothys and Ox are both extremely good against Rogues and Mystical Dispute can help stop them from resolving an Into the Story, by far their most important card. The nice part about this list over Temur Ramp, similar to Gruul, what was once a terrible matchup is actually very reasonable now with this iteration of the list. 

RAKDOS MIDRANGE

In	Out
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-1 Glasspool Mimic
	-2 Brazen Borrower

This boarding is also simple, just add in Klothys and do your normal game plan. Rakdos has a really hard time beating a Klothys or a Genesis Ultimatum so this matchup shouldn’t be an issue most of the time.

BIG RED / TEMUR RAMP

In	Out
+4 Mystical Dispute	-2 Brazen Borrower
	-2 Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate

It may look silly, but Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is really the only card that matters in the matchup, so stopping it is paramount. I wouldn’t go nuts holding a Dispute open every turn over developing your game plan, but know when to pick your spots to develop and when to hold. I do like Vivien in this matchup, but it matches up so poorly against a Storm’s Wrath I believe it should be cut. You could say the same thing about Terror of the Peaks, but Terror is a significantly faster win condition.

ESPER YORION

This may be a first for any of my deck guides, but here I would actually recommend purely boarding on what your opponent’s configuration looks like. Here’s the problem: Every Esper Yorion list always seems significantly different from the last, and a lot of the sideboard cards are relatively narrow. I’m not going to leave you in the dark though, let’s break each card down.

• Klothys is fine, but gets tagged by Elspeth Conquers Death and Skyclave Apparition, so I think it’s a pass.
• Mystical Dispute is the toughest one as some Esper lists play a lot of Blue spells or a lot of Dance of the Manse, and some are almost just Orzhov Yorion with Omen of the Sea. If you want to pre-emptively board in some Mystical Dispute over the Brazen Borrowers and/or Bonecrushe Giant, that’s extremely reasonable. Furthermore, if you see a good amount of Blue spells and/or Dream Trawler, you definitely want to have Mystical Dispute at the ready.
• Soul Sear is generally not great but if they play a lot of Archon of Sun’s Grace, it becomes more reasonable.
• Thrashing Brontodon is good at taking out Elspeth Conquers Death, Doom Foretold, and the rare hard cast Shark Typhoon, but I think it’s too narrow to include it.
• Ox of Agonas isn’t better than any of the other late game payoff and most Esper lists play a lot of Elspeth’s Nightmare, which makes it harder to Escape an Ox later in the game.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I also don’t hate NOT BOARDING FOR GAME 2. I feel dirty for even suggesting it! However, if you aren’t convinced that any of the cards in your sideboard are better than what you have in the main deck, you aren’t forced to bring anything in. I promise you, it’s a legal play!

That’s what I have for today! If you like my content and want to see more of it, you can check me out on Twitch! Have a great day!