Temur Song Kaldheim Standard Deck Guide: Combo and Midrange All in One

Hello everyone! Today, we’re going to discuss a deck that I predicted could be a real break out in Kaldheim Standard: Temur Song. With a Combo Plan A and a Strong Plan B, Temur Song actually has some real chops in the new metagame when played optimally. Surprisingly, the list has changed very little from the original, so let’s take a look at where I’m at now.

[sd_deck deck=”zJ21pcX7g”]

Beautiful. Before I explain my card choices, I do want to address two questions I’ve been getting a lot of.

HOW COMPETITIVE IS THIS DECK?

I would say it’s a lot better than it looks, but don’t expect this to be your best option if you’re looking to grind. Many decks don’t have the resources to stop you from comboing off game 1, then in the sideboarded games, you can either add protection to help brute force the combo aspect or entirely shift into a midrange deck. The biggest issues with this deck is that it can be slow, drawing the wrong half of your deck is awkward, and it’s hard to protect your Song of Creation by the virtue that you discard your hand at the end step. That being said, I’m not expecting this to take down any tournaments, but if you play well and read a handy guide to help you out, there’s no reason this can’t be a relatively competitive option.

As of right now, I’m roughly 6-1 on ladder with my only loss being to Monored Ugin Ramp so it’s not like this has had a middling performance for me. That being said, I faced a lot of midrange Yorion decks in a row which definitely helped me out and Izzet only once. Midrange Yorion doesn’t really have the tools to stop the combo without Binding the Old Gods so those were easy wins and I beat Izzet in 3 with the sideboard Klothys, God of Destiny. Again, this isn’t going to be the new Tier 1, but this has performed reasonably well for me. Realistically the power level likely isn’t there, but the more compelling reason this deck will likely not catch on is this deck is obscenely difficult to play correctly, and may be the hardest deck I’ve ever played. If you really want to challenge yourself and try out something fresh and exciting, I highly recommend this deck, and if played well, you can really rack up the wins.

WHY THE ADVENTURES PACKAGE?

Before Temur Song, I was really trying to make Sultai Morritte Combo work. If you’re not familiar, you can click here to read about it. As I predicted, although the combo element was strong, only having one way to actively win was very problematic for decks that could disrupt me. When you can have a Plan B that actively helps the Plan A, it makes sense to play that. How does Adventures help Plan A? They’re cheap spells that stay in exile and that you can cast later with a Song of Creation out. With that, if you’re trying to win with Song, keep your Adventure creatures on an adventure as long as possible, and if you’re not, that just means you shifted game plans. If you were to try and make Temur Song a pure combo deck, you’d almost certainly be better off with Sultai Moritte instead as that is significantly easier to pull off.

CARD CHOICES

4 Birgi, God of Storytelling

I said this before, but Birgi is the literal perfect card this deck needed to make it viable. The front half of Birgi is solid, giving us additional mana to work with and is nice when we’re going off with Song, but it’s the Horn half we’re really after. If you untap with Song of Creation and the Horn on the same turn, barring a lot of disruption or really bad luck, you can pretty much always win. The ability to go through your deck without having to cast anything makes setting up the win really easy.

2 Glasspool Mimic

Most of the time this is a tap land, but it can be a spell in a pinch. There’s a real chance this should just be more lands, but copying an Elder Gagaroth in the sideboard games has won me a few matches.

4 Stonecoil Serpent

This will mostly be cast for 0 with Song of Creation out as a free draw 2, but don’t underestimate the power of the beater. The best part about this deck is that as easily as you can combo someone, you can just beat them with a normal game plan as well.

4 Edgewall Innkeeper

Edgewall Innkeeper is always a gross card, but when he both draws cards off Adventure creatures and is a cheap spell for Song of Creation, he feels super busted.

3 Thassa’s Oracle

If you’re comboing the opponent out, this is how you’re going to get the win.

4 Bonecrusher Giant

Stomp to clear out small creatures then beat the opponent down or hold for Song.

4 Brazen Borrower

Arguably the best Adventure creature for Plan A. Bouncing a permanent is always welcome, but the fact that you can cast this on your opponent’s turn with Song out gives you 2 extra cards to work with the next turn.

4 Lovestruck Beast

Cards just nuts. One mana adventure for Song into an amazing body as well.

3 Shatterskull Smashing

Mountain, removal spell, or 2 mana draw 2 with Song out.

1 Underworld Breach

Underworld Breach can function as Harnfel, Horn of Bounty number 5 or a way to recur stuff you discarded earlier. It’s easy to draw a bunch of cards with Underworld Breach and Stonecoil Serpent for 0 with a Song out.

4 Song of Creation

The card the deck is named around. We are predominantly using Song as a combo card, but there will be games where you’ll use this as a weird draw engine to play a bunch of Adventure creatures. Draw your deck then cast a Thassa’s Oracle.

23 Lands + 2 Glasspool Mimic +3 Shatterskull Smashing

SIDEBOARD

2 Thundering Rebuke

When you need cheap removal to not get run over, you can play Thundering Rebuke. I play this as it’s cheap and kills Goldspan Dragon, but this can easily be any other removal spell realistically.

3 Klothys, God of Destiny

Klothys can feel narrow, but it’s really important in the post board switcheroo. Klothys is vital at winning all your matchups which could be really difficult like Rogues, Izzet, and Dimir Yorion. 

4 Mystical Dispute

Mystical Dispute is great at helping you brute force your combo or just to be the bane of Blue decks.

3 Elder Gargaroth

Our main win con when we move away from comboing off. Elder Gargaroth is a ridiculous threat that needs an immediate answer lest the opponent just gets murdered.

3 Ox of Agonas

Ox is mostly protection against Rogues, but you can also use it as part of the midrange Plan B.

MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARDING

Instead of typing it over and over, I’ll say that easily the most difficult part about the deck is the sideboarding. Deciding when to go combo or midrange generally isn’t too hard, but it can vary wildly depending on the opponent’s specific list and how you approach each Plan can change drastically. Out of all my guides, I would use this sideboarding advice as a guideline rather than a rule. Try to understand my thought process and work it into your current matchup.

GRUUL/NAYA

IN	OUT
+2 Thundering Rebuke	-2 Birgi, God of Storytelling
+3 Elder Gargaroth	-2 Thassa’s Oracle
	-1 Underworld Breach

OR

IN	OUT
+2 Thundering Rebuke	-4 Stonecoil Serpent
+3 Elder Gargaroth	-1 Underworld Breach

The board plan is going to mainly depend on how well they can interact with the combo half of your deck. You want the inclusions no matter how you slice it, but whether we’re trying to combo them out or midrange them out will be a function of their list. A second way to gauge how to approach the matchup is how aggressive their particular list is. If they seem to have a faster list, trying to combo them likely won’t be as effective so you can leverage harder on mdirange by getting rid of you Thassa’s Oracles and Birgis for some Ox and maybe a Klothys. You’ll have to be really flexible with your plan here and this is likely one of the hardest matchups to know how to board for.

ROGUES

IN	OUT
+2 Thundering Rebuke	-4 Birgi, God of Storytelling
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-3 Thassa’s Oracle
+4 Mystical Dispute	-3 Brazen Borrower
+3 Elder Gargaroth	-1 Underworld Breach
+3 Ox of Agonas	-4 Song of Creation

You better believe I like throwing my entire sideboard at Rogues. Trying to combo them off is likely a losing proposition, but being a reasonable midrange deck is a relatively effective game plan. You don’t want any of your Song package as none of them are particularly powerful on their own beyond Song of Creation itself. However, Song of Creation doesn’t do anything the turn it comes in and can mill you out very quickly. Admittedly, this matchup isn’t great, but Rogues can’t beat a Klothys so there’s that.

IZZET TEMPO

IN	OUT
+2 Thundering Rebuke	-4 Birgi, God of Storytelling
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-4 Stonecoil Serpent
+4 Mystical Dispute	-3 Thassa’s Oracle
+3 Elder Gargaroth	-1 Brazen Borrower
+1 Ox of Agonas	-1 Underworld Breach

Let’s not overreact, this isn’t the entire sideboard! That being said, the Izzet and Rogues matchups are quite similar, but Izzet can’t punish you as effectively for Song like Rogues can and Ox isn’t particularly great against them either. You could shave some Song of Creation for Ox if you want to, but I found Song to generally be better as Izzet really struggles against double spell turns. Use your good creatures to beat them to death the fair way.

RAKDOS

IN	OUT
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-4 Birgi, God of Storytelling
+3 Elder Gargaroth	-3 Thassa’s Oracle
+2 Ox of Agonas	-1 Underworld Breach

OR

IN	OUT
+3 Klothys, God of Destiny	-3 Brazen Borrower

This is very general sideboarding advice as like Naya/Gruul, how you board will highly depend on what list they’re playing. Some Rakdos lists are fast and disruptive where you want to midrange them, some are slow and grindy where you can easily combo them out. Be really flexible in your boarding here, but Klothys is insane no matter what which makes the boarding a lot easier. If you don’t think you can win with the combo, go straight into the midrange plan.

SULTAI ULTIMATUM YORION

IN	OUT
+4 Mystical Dispute	-4 Bonecrusher Giant

Sultai is an extremely powerful deck where Emergent Ultimatum can functionally win the game, however, we have an engine that’s even more powerful. Sultai can be rough if they have a fist of interaction into an Emergent Ultimatum, but that’s how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Ideally they don’t have too many counterspells and you can just combo them out. At worst, they generally don’t instantly win when they cast Emergent Ultimatum, so you could combo off after they tap out for an Ultimatum.

That’s all that 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!