An ideal early game with this deck would be Bard Class coming down on turn 2, then on turn 3 you level it up and play Targ Nar for free along with something else for 1 (Magda, Tovolar, Plargg), then a couple of our big spells at a reduced cost on turn 4.
In the mid-game you want to get Bard Class up to level 3 and then go off, chaining legendary into legendary as you get to see two new cards every time you cast a legendary spell. Ideally you find Birgi or Esika early on in the chain, as they can keep the mana flowing. Zariel is there to give everybody haste so you can just win that very same turn, and since many of our spells cost 1 or 0 and Birgi is giving us 1 back every time we cast them it\’s fairly easy to dig far enough and find her.
Card choices:
Bard Class is obviously our most important card and we can mulligan fairly aggressively to find it. I keep just about any hand with Bard Class as long as I have the lands to cast it. I have once mulliganed to three cards – red source, green source, bard class – and still won (opponent was Izzet Mill).
Magda is maybe second most important when it comes to deciding whether or not to keep a hand – I keep most hands with Magda because she gets insane when paired with either Esika or Augusta, and even when neither of them is in the starting hand I know there are 12 cards in the library that I can find to turn the hand on (4x Bard, 4x Esika, 4x Augusta).
Plargg/Augusta is awesome. The Plargg side has one extremely useful ability (tap: discard a card, draw a card) that you\’ll mostly use once you have Bard Class at level 3 and need to find a legendary to start going off. Occasionally you may find yourself using the second ability in order to find Bard Class, but you may hit Shatterskull Smashing, Ancestral Anger, or Kazuul\’s Fury instead so be careful. The Augusta side is just plain disgusting when paired with Magda or Esika: \”whenever you attack, untap each creature you control, then tap any number of creatures you control.\” So you can attack with Magda, get a treasure, then untap Magda and tap her again to get a second treasure from the same attack. With Esika down you can tap your legendaries for mana to cast whatever you need to, attack with a single creature and then untap everybody (just make sure to leave one untapped! Autotapper is NOT your friend and will often tap your last creature instead of using a treasure, which can be a game-losing mistake). Plus the extra power or toughness can be excellent in matchups against creature decks and can make it harder for your opponent to do their math correctly. I absolutely love this card as a 4-of due to the usefulness of both sides.
Targ Nar is a free creature with Bard Class, and can actually net us +1 red mana if Birgi is down. It\’s also a key win condition, as it pumps up all our attackers and can double its power and toughness multiple times to get huge (especially with Esika and Augusta in play). If only it had trample (see Ancestral Anger, below)…
Birgi is there to allow us to dig as deep as possible with Bard Class – getting two cards and a red mana every time you cast a legendary spell is amazing. Even if Bard Class isn\’t leveled up all the way, Birgi can still create enough mana to let you play your entire hand on turn 4 or 5, which is often just too much for your opponent to handle (but be careful if they\’re playing a deck with sweepers!). When you\’re chaining off Bard Class, finding Birgi quickly is the most important thing. Holding a Birgi in hand until after you\’ve leveled up Bard Class and then using it to kick off the chain is a totally reasonable play. We rarely play Birgi\’s backside (Harnfel) but occasionally it\’s correct in a grindy game, as it can allow you to exchange a top decked land for two new cards and increase your chances of finding a legendary.
Esika creates a ton of mana – and if Augusta is in play, she does it practically for free. Once you have one Esika down the second one can be the Prismatic Bridge, although when you\’re chaining with Bard Class generally the better play is to tap one Esika, play the second Esika, and keep the chain going that way. I\’m very happy with my recent decision to increase to the full set of 4 Esikas, she just opens up so many doors due to the extra mana. Esika giving everybody vigilance also makes attacking much easier as you don\’t have to worry about leaving yourself open to a counter attack.
Tovolar is a 1 mana creature when you have Bard Class, allowing you to keep the chain going for minimal investment. It also attacks really well, possibly earning you a card and giving itself (or Arlinn\’s wolves) trample if it\’s night.
Zariel is a win-condition, you\’re digging for her in order to give everybody haste and win immediately rather than giving your opponent one more turn to play a sweeper and undo all your hard work. When you\’re digging, make sure to consider your opponent\’s colors and whether they\’re likely to be playing sweepers – if they are it\’s really important you don\’t find Zariel on a turn when you can\’t cast her, so chain conservatively. If they\’re not, finding Zariel doesn\’t really matter (unless you\’re facing lethal in the air) and building up a board presence is your biggest concern. It might be correct to play two copies, but I\’ve been happy with just one in most games.
Esika\’s Chariot is a one-of. If you have a lot of treasures from Magda she can sacrifice five of the to tutor for the Catillac. It\’s also one of our better plays on turn 4 (after leveling up Bard Class on turn 3). It\’s a card I\’ve considered cutting though.
Kolvori is another one-of. It\’s important to have some diversity due to the legendary rule, so having a few one-ofs is nice. Kolvori can help you find legendaries when you need them and just provides a massive body (often a 7/7). When you\’re chaining off Bard Class you\’ll usually play the back side (the Ringhart Crest) as it\’s basically a free look at two more cards. It might be correct to play a second copy of Kolvori.
If it\’s daytime Arlinn the Pack\’s Hope can give you two more attackers, which is a big deal since the legendary rule prevents us from going too wide. It\’s often correct to use the plus ability against decks that play sweepers – the wolves are just gonna die anyway, so she\’s more likely to survive longer and she can let you play creatures on the opponent\’s end step, dodging the sweeper and then pressuring them right away the following turn. If it\’s night Arlinn is a source of extra mana (you can play her for 2 and then immediately get RG back) or a big attacker with trample.
Halana and Alena is our only defense against flyers, but she can also give haste and pump up important creatures. The counters usually go on Targ-Nar, Tovolar, or Magda. If you have both Arlinn and H&A in hand, play Arlinn first: Arlinn\’s plus ability makes H&A even bigger and allows it to distribute more counters each turn.
Ancestral Anger is a one-of because you can dig for it while chaining and it\’s a great way to get a beefy Targ Nar through to finish off your opponent. Picture this: you\’ve chained through most of your deck and have a giant board. Zariel gives everybody haste. You have a red mana floating thanks to Birgi, so you find Ancestral Anger among the many cards you\’ve exiled this turn and play it on Targ Nar (just make sure you have at least one card left in your library or the cantrip will kill you!!!). Esika allows everybody except Targ Nar to tap for mana, so you use them to double Targ Nar\’s power and toughness a few times. H&A pumps Targ Nar some more, Targ Nar attacks, and Augusta untaps everybody so you can tap them all again and double Targ Nar a few more times. I\’ve been able to get as much as 800 damage through this way against live opponents (against Sparky I was able to deal over 12,000)! This is especially useful against decks that go wide (Selesnya) or have giant indestructible blockers (Voice of the Blessed). If you find Anger at a bad time you can always cycle it for a card, but make sure you consider your opponent\’s colors and whether or not you can afford losing it.
Kazuul\’s Fury is an alternative to Ancestral Anger – why bother attacking with Targ Nar when you can just fling it in their face instead? Sometimes you\’ll use it to kill an important opposing creature or planeswalker too, but sometimes it\’ll just be a tap land. It\’s more expensive than Ancestral Anger and doesn\’t cantrip, so overall I like Anger better, but the fact that it can be a land makes it worth including one copy.
Shatterskull Smashing is great and requires no additional explanation, other than a reminder that Esika, Magda, and Augusta can generate us a LOT of mana.
Cards I don\’t play:
I used to play Jaspera Sentinel for the combo with Magda, but as it\’s not legendary it can slow you down when you\’re chaining off Bard Class, and Esika brings more to the table anyway so I cut Sentinel and went up to 4x Esika and Plargusta and have been very happy with that decision. I\’m currently playing around with a single copy of Inferno of the Star Mounts but I haven\’t decided whether I like it yet – it might be too \”win-more\” but it also might be nice to have another top end. I cut a copy of Tovolar to make room for it. I used to play one copy of Toski but it was mostly just there to ensure we had enough unique creatures due to the legend rule and it\’s just too expensive and not necessary. Arni would be great as a one-of if Zariel didn\’t exist, but with Zariel we don\’t need it – it\’s just not strong enough for a card that still usually costs 2. Since we\’re splashing white anyway you could consider Minsc or Torens, but unlike Plargusta those two *always* need white and I really don\’t want to have to play more white sources beyond the pathways. There\’s a snow version of the deck that plays Jorn, but then you have to give up white completely and trust me Plargusta is way better. Those decks sometimes play Fynn and/or Svella as well and those are cards have no business in constructed.
Matchups:
The deck is absolutely incredible against slower Black strategies once you find Bard Class, and they usually give us plenty of time to do so, although aggressive Black decks like Zombies can be tougher. Green and Red are both favorable matchups as well. Blue can go either way but might be slightly unfavorable (although the ban of Divide by Zero helped us a lot) – Izzet is a little bit easier than Mono Blue and probably even. White and Selesnya are our worst matchups, particularly the lifegain versions, but they aren\’t un-winnable.
Kamigawa Neon Dynasty:
I\’m super stoked for two additions that we\’ll be getting from Kamigawa: Goro-Goro Disciple of Ryusei, which will be a much easier way to give everybody haste (and can even give haste multiple times per turn, which works well with Esika) and Kodama of the West Tree, which can give everybody trample (since Bard Class gives a +1/+1 counter most of our creatures are modified). Mirror Box is another intriguing card that looks like it was printed for this deck, but I think it\’s gonna be too slow and clunky and we can easily win without it. The legendary lands are going to be nice as well and might even make a black splash worth considering. The one thing I\’m nervous about is that it looks like there\’s going to be a decent amount of enchantment hate, so we\’ll have to see how much of that makes it into the meta. Goro-Goro is likely a 3-of and Kodama is likely a 2-of, and Zariel and Ancestral Anger are no longer needed.
Shared credit to my brother Easy_Being_Green, with whom I\’ve been workshopping versions of this deck in both standard and historic since before rotation.
