Table of Contents
Hello everyone! Today we’re going to talk about one of Standard’s many Adventures decks, Temur Turns! Temur takes a different approach to the Adventures shell as instead of being a fast deck with a strong engine, this list looks to go over the top and dominate the opponent in the mid to late game with a stream of back breaking spells. Let’s take a look at a list I endorse from the previous SCG $5k Strixhaven Qualifier.
[sd_deck deck=”0wivqVZEr”]
This list does a lot of the same things Temur Adventures did back in Zendikar Rising and even has functionally the same game plan, but it’s gotten three major upgrades: Goldspan Dragon, Alrund’s Epiphany, and Barkchannel Pathway.
Goldspan Dragon is the replacement for Terror of the Peaks in this version. Although Terror was a great threat when it stuck around, it proved to be a bit slow for the archetype overall. Goldspan Dragon on the other hand is a much faster threat and even helps ramp you into Alrund’s Epiphany or enables gross double spell turns.
Similar to Terror of the Peaks, Genesis Ultimatum certainly wasn’t bad in Temur, but it had 2 fatal flaws. One, the color requirement on it was surprisingly difficult. Two, it was inconsistent. Sometimes your ultimatum would instantly kill the opponent and other times you’d get one creature and 4 lands. With Alrund’s Epiphany, you know what you’re getting every time. Although the ceiling on Epiphany is lower, the floor is significantly higher as casting Epiphany when you’re at all ahead can be game ending. A nice touch as well is that you can Foretell Epiphany for a slight cost reduction in the future.
Beyond the new cards, the deck also plays some interaction main to help protect your Epiphanies or to diversify your plays in the mid game. Furthermore, the counters are important if you have to face other slow decks (including the mirror).
MATCHUPS AND SIDEBOARDING
NAYA FURY (EVEN TO SLIGHTLY FAVORED)
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +2 Soul Sear | -2 Mystical Dispute |
| +2 Elder Gargaroth | -1 Brazen Borrower |
| -1 Alrund’s Epiphany |
You go over the top of Naya so avoiding dying to their combo is paramount in this matchup. Elder Gargaroth isn’t great, but their Giant Killers are spread quite thin so if this lives it can easily take over the game. Brazen Borrower is awkward as it can help stop you from dying to Goldspan Dragon, but is pretty bad otherwise. It may be clunky, but I can definitely see shaving another Brazen Borrower and keeping all the Alrund’s Epiphany in.
MIRROR
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent | -3 Brazen Borrower |
| +2 Mystical Dispute | -2 Alrund’s Epiphany |
| +2 Soul Sear |
This matchup is going to come down to tempo a lot of the time, so making sure you don’t get blown out by a counterspell will be pivotal for winning. Time your spells properly and play around Mystical Dispute as best as you can.
MONOWHITE & MONORED AGGRO (EVEN TO SLIGHTLY UNFAVORED)
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +3 Elder Gargaroth | -3 Goldspan Dragon |
| +2 Crush the Weak | -2 Saw it Coming |
| +2 Soul Sear | -2 Mystical Dispute |
The match will revolve around how well you can blunt the aggressive assault. Monowhite is a bit more resilient while Monored is faster, but both matchups will play out functionally the same. Use your Bonecrusher Giants and Lovestruck Beasts aggressively then try to kill them with a big spell. For Monored, you can consider keeping in some Goldspan Dragon over Alrund’s Epiphany if you prefer trying to end the game faster over adding defensive board presence.
CYCLING (SLIGHTLY UNFAVORED TO MODERATELY UNFAVORED)
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +3 Elder Gargaroth | -2 Mystical Dispute |
| +2 Klothys, God of Destiny | -1 Spikefield Hazard |
| +1 Shadowspear | -2 Goldspan Dragon |
| -1 Alrund’s Epiphany |
Cycling can definitely be tough, but this list is better against it than most other versions of Temur. The way to approach this matchup is to get out of Zenith Flare range no matter what. This can be with lifegain from Elder Gargaroth and Shadowspear, exiling their yard and gaining life with Klothys, or having a Saw it Coming for their Zenith Flare. You have to be careful of their beatdown plan as well which makes this matchup so challenging, but if you keep a decent hand with one of your relevant cards, it’s definitely winnable.
SULTAI ULT (EVEN)
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +2 Klothys, God of Destiny | -2 The Great Henge |
| +2 Mystical Dispute | -1 Lovestruck Beast |
| -1 Alrund’s Epiphany |
Unsurprisingly, this matchup is all about Emergent Ultimatum. If you can stop them from resolving an Ultimatum, you can probably kill them with whatever creatures you happen to have, but if you can’t stop Ultimatum, it’s very hard to come back unless you’re substantially ahead. If you have interaction, never tap out when they can Ultimatum you unless you can kill them. If you don’t have interaction, I would suggest not bluffing and just hope they don’t have it. If they’re in a bad spot, they’ll have to go for an Ultimatum whether or not you may have interaction anyway.
ROGUES (SLIGHTLY UNFAVORED TO MODERATELY UNFAVORED)
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| +1 Koma, Cosmos Serpent | -2 Brazen Borrower |
| +2 Klothys, God of Destiny | -2 Goldspan Dragon |
| +2 Mystical Dispute | -2 Alrund’s Epiphany |
| +1 Ox of Agonas |
Rogues hasn’t been very popular thus we don’t devote that many board slots to beating them which makes this matchup pretty rough. Klothys and Koma are pretty much unbeatable if you can resolve them so that’ll be the easiest way you can win, but if you can’t, leveraging your adventure creatures well will be your only real shot.
TIPS AND TRICKS
- Unlike Yorion, I tend to get Obosh last as your other spells are generally better. However, it works the best with Goldspan Dragon so you may get it aggressively if you want to get a quick Dragon kill.
- This deck has a lot of top end already, so squeezing every drop of value out of your Adventure creatures is not as important as it is in other adventure shells. That being said, if you can cast the Adventure half first and cast the creature half with Edgewall out, of course you should, but don’t think you need to wait for the “perfect” moment.
- Goldspan Dragon combines well the Adventure and Foretell cards, plan out your turns accordingly.
- Kazandu Mammoth will be a land more often than not, the deck is very mana hungry so don’t be greedy.
- Although Foretell feels like a Sorcery speed mechanic, you can actually Foretell cards at instant speed on your turn.
- It’s niche, but Spiikefield Hazard can be a psuedo ritual with Goldspan Dragon.
- Although your colors are evenly split, you should prioritize Green first, then Blue, then Red. This sequencing is important as ideally you want to get 2 of each source by turn 6, so plan your turns accordingly.
- If you have to sideboard outside of this deck guide, be careful not to make the deck too clunky, it already has a very high curve.
Thank you for reading! If you like my content and want to see more of it, you can check me out on Twitch! Have a great day!
