MTG Thunder Junction All-Star Gives Unplayable Legend New Home!

Since the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Satoru, the Infiltrator Satoru, the Infiltrator Menace
Whenever Satoru and/or one or more other nontoken creatures you control enter, if none of them were cast or no mana was spent to cast them, draw a card. has made a name for itself in Modern. Esper Reanimator and various Scam strategies abusing Grief Grief Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand. have adopted Satoru as a card advantage engine. Satoru has made its presence felt in Vengevine Vengevine Haste
Whenever you cast a spell, if it's the second creature spell you cast this turn, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. decks as well, letting you draw cards when Vengevine, Prized Amalgam Prized Amalgam Whenever a creature enters, if it entered from your graveyard or you cast it from your graveyard, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped at the beginning of the next end step. , or Bloodghast Bloodghast This creature can't block.
This creature has haste as long as an opponent has 10 or less life.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. enter the battlefield from your graveyard.

Today, we are going to share a rather interesting shell for Satoru: Modern Humans. Multi-color Humans decks used to be extremely dominant in Modern but have largely fallen out of favor in recent years. The reality is, Aether Vial Aether Vial At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on this artifact.
{T}: You may put a creature card with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact from your hand onto the battlefield. strategies have suffered as more and more elite reactive elements have entered the format. From Wrenn and Six Wrenn and Six +1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.) to Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. , one-toughness Creatures have faltered in general. Luckily, Satoru adds a new element to the once-popular Humans shell, providing a better long game in the face of interaction.

Triggering Satoru

While this Modern Humans deck is capable of fast starts, it also features a nice blend of card advantage and toolbox elements. No card focuses more on the card advantage aspect than Satoru. In this deck, Satoru has two specific cards it interacts favorably with. First and foremost, Satoru is simply amazing with Aether Vial.

Despite not being quite as potent as it used to be, Aether Vial is still a very powerful card. Being able to put in Creatures for free helps provide a nice mana boost, and getting to do so at Instant speed makes it difficult for your opponent to play around all the possibilities at your disposal. In the case of Satoru, though, putting in any Creature off Aether Vial will draw you a card. Notably, this includes Satoru itself if you put the legend in with Vial.

What’s nice is that beyond just providing card advantage in conjunction with Satoru, Aether Vial helps you relish that card advantage by putting in Creatures you draw for free. In this sense, Vial ensures that you can play to the board quickly even if you don’t have a ton of mana in play. Clearly, this deck’s best draws involve Vial, but you need ways to maximize Satoru when you don’t draw Vial.

This brings us to the second card that interacts favorably with Satoru: Norin the Wary Norin the Wary When a player casts a spell or a creature attacks, exile Norin. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. . Norin the Wary is a funny card. Every time anyone attacks or cast a spell, it essentially runs away and returns at the next end step. While the card does pretty much nothing on its own, if you have Satoru at the ready, you are basically guaranteed to draw at least one card every turn cycle. Simply play Satoru, attack with Norin causing it to get exiled, and draw a card when it returns. If the opponent cast a spell or attacks on their turn, you get to draw more cards.

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Tempo Gameplan

Beyond maximizing Satoru, this Humans deck is focused on using a mix of aggression and disruption to close games. On the aggression side of things, we have Champion of the Parish Champion of the Parish Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. and Thalia’s Lieutenant Thalia’s Lieutenant When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Human you control.
Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. . Champion of the Parish is the ultimate one-drop and a huge payoff for playing a high density of Humans. Thalia’s Lieutenant has all the upside of Champion of the Parish except it also pumps your whole squad as a bonus.

From there, we have cards that either interact with the opponent’s board or protect your own board from opposing removal spells. Kitesail Larcenist Kitesail Larcenist Flying, ward {1}
When this creature enters, for each player, choose up to one other target artifact or creature that player controls. For as long as this creature remains on the battlefield, the chosen permanents become Treasure artifacts with "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color" and lose all other abilities. is an excellent disruptive mechanism. Getting to answer any massive threat such as Murktide Regent Murktide Regent Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. can help you cross the finish line.

Meanwhile, Unsettled Mariner Unsettled Mariner Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller pays {1}. forces your opponent to pay extra mana to remove any of your threats. Similarly, Esper Sentinel Esper Sentinel Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power. can draw you cards if you’re opponent isn’t prepared to spend extra mana for their non-Creature spells, including removal spells. Both of these cards only make Satoru better. First of all, the opponent will have to pay lots of mana to kill Satoru. Secondly, they may feel pressured to answer your other threats and risk running out of kill spells by the time Satoru hits the board.

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Toolbox Elements

Despite just being a deck filled with efficient Human Creatures, this archetype has a lot going on. In some matchups, you will want to be as assertive as possible. In others, you will need to grind through your opponent’s interaction. Finally, against combo strategies, you may need to use silver bullet cards to stand a chance. Fortunately, this deck covers all of these bases.

Imperial Recruiter Imperial Recruiter When this creature enters, search your library for a creature card with power 2 or less, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. in particular is extremely strong in matchups where speed isn’t a massive concern. Every single Creature in the deck besides two copies of Orvar, the All-Form Orvar, the All-Form Changeling
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, if it targets one or more other permanents you control, create a token that's a copy of one of those permanents.
When a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard this card, create a token that's a copy of target permanent. in the sideboard (used against Archon of Cruelty Archon of Cruelty Flying
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice, discards a card, and loses 3 life. You draw a card and gain 3 life. decks primarily) can be tutored up with Recruiter. Need removal? Grab Larcenist. Need graveyard hate? Go get Jirina, Dauntless General Jirina, Dauntless General When Jirina enters, exile target player's graveyard.
Sacrifice Jirina: Humans you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. .

Out of the sideboard, cards like Magus of the Moon Magus of the Moon Nonbasic lands are Mountains. and Kataki, War’s Wage Kataki, War’s Wage All artifacts have "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this artifact unless you pay {1}." can singlehandedly win games. Because of Recruiter, this deck gets to run a bunch of one-ofs or two-ofs and still have access to them consistently when needed. With elite mana fixing in the form of Cavern of Souls Cavern of Souls As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type, and that spell can't be countered. , Secluded Courtyard Secluded Courtyard As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type or activate an ability of a creature source of the chosen type. , Unclaimed Territory Unclaimed Territory As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type. , and Ancient Ziggurat Ancient Ziggurat {T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell. , casting your Creatures of different colors is easy. Getting to run silver bullets from across the color spectrum is a huge luxury to have.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

This level of flexibility makes the deck reasonable in a variety of matchups. Against decks like Izzet Murktide, you can easily overload the opponent’s removal. Larcenist can deal with Murktide, and Sanctifier en-Vec Sanctifier en-Vec Protection from black and from red
When this creature enters, exile all cards that are black or red from all graveyards.
If a black or red permanent, spell, or card not on the battlefield would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead. cleanly holds Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash {1}{R} (You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.) at bay. While combo matchups like Amulet Titan and Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. combo are very tough to beat in game one, Meddling Mage Meddling Mage As this creature enters, choose a nonland card name.
Spells with the chosen name can't be cast. out of the sideboard can be game over by itself.

Of note, this iteration of Humans has a bit of a harder time against combo game one due to the lack of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/tooltip]. While this omission may seem strange, Thalia lines up so poorly against [tooltips]Orcish Bowmasters that this decision makes sense, especially given how prevalent Scam decks are.

Where this deck certainly struggles the most, though, is against Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
{B}{B}, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) combo. Once Yawgmoth hits the board, it becomes nearly impossible to win. Not only does Yawgmoth get to pick off your small Creatures, but Yawgmoth itself has Protection from Humans.

This means you can’t use Larcenist to shut it down. Even if you get Meddling Mage into play naming Yawgmoth, Chord of Calling Chord of Calling Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Search your library for a creature card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. can ruin your day. On top of that, the deck can flood the board with blockers thanks to Grist, the Hunger Tide Grist, the Hunger Tide As long as Grist isn't on the battlefield, it's a 1/1 Insect creature in addition to its other types.
+1: Create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token, then mill a card. If an Insect card was milled this way, put a loyalty counter on Grist and repeat this process.
−2: You may sacrifice a creature. When you do, destroy target creature or planeswalker.
−5: Each opponent loses life equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard. , Bowmasters, and Undying Creatures.

All things considered, the metagame is still a bit hostile to go-wide Vial strategies. Satoru’s presence gives the deck a new angle of attack, which certainly helps in resource battles. Still, contending with Scion of Draco Scion of Draco Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green. , Yawgmoth combo, Bowmasters, Solitude Solitude Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand. , and beyond isn’t exactly easy. What’s nice is that this deck continues to fly under the radar, so players are absolutely not prepared for all of your potential Vial shenanigans. If you’re looking for something unique that your opponents will almost certainly not expect, consider giving this deck a shot.

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