Universes Beyond in Standard is… becoming more and more prevalent. Players used to throw around memes of sequences like Optimus Prime triggering SpongeBob, but now, for Standard and Commander players, stuff like that just happens.
If you don’t mind all this, however, there are some extremely powerful synergies to be found in MTG’s Universes Beyond cards. MTG Star Trek and Avatar: The Last Airbender go together particularly well, as we just discovered.
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, we attended the MTG Star Trek Early Access Event on MTG Arena, and we brought a sweet new brew to try. Going 7-2 in Early Access Standard, this bizarre Jeskai Donate deck has everything from instant-loss combos to multiple land destruction effects.
MTG Star Trek Jeskai Donate
Despite using cards from different Universes Beyond crossovers, this Jeskai Donate deck offers a ton of synergy, complementing one another’s downsides. Iroh, Tea Master sits at the center of the deck, enabling all of the scariest combos that Jeskai Donate has to offer.
The Naked Time is incredibly nasty with Iroh, especially when played on curve. A turn two Naked Time finds a Mountain and can give Iroh +1/+1 and Haste on your next turn.
You can then donate your Naked Time to the opponent, creating a 3/3 token that, after Naked Time’s buff, will also gain Haste. After swinging at your opponent for six damage, The Naked Time forces them to sacrifice a land, adding insult to injury.
Of course, Iroh also gives you a way to solve Star Trek’s infamous Kobayashi Maru Scenario, forcing your opponent to Abandon Ship and lose the game. You need to use all of the card’s other modes first, but the cards, tokens, and tempo you get for three mana are obscene.
If Iroh dies to opposing removal, however, Kobayashi Maru Scenario can go sideways, which prompted me to run more donate effects in the deck. Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant is the card of choice here, synergizing decently with The Naked Time when cast on turn 3.
I wasn’t the only one trying Donate shenanigans in the event, either, and Stiltzkin helped me Donate cards back to the opponent before I suffered the consequences. With this cool synergy engine as the core, all that was left was building the shell around it.
Focusing on United Battlefront
At this point, I noticed that both Kobayashi Maru Scenario and The Naked Time could be put into play with United Battlefront, which dictated this deck’s direction. This sorcery can find tons of permanent-based removal, like Chainsaw, Aang’s Iceberg, and Solitary Cell, making it an incredible tempo play.
Each of these pieces has synergies beyond just being removal, too. For example, Solitary Cell can help rummage away redundant legend copies, and Aang’s Iceberg can reset Kobayashi Maru Scenario in a pinch. Iroh can also donate a whole bunch of these permanents, getting extra token creatures while your opponent gets no meaningful advantage from it.
The other new MTG Star Trek card here, The Wrath of Khan, also proved to be quite powerful. At a baseline, removing an opposing threat and fixing your hand is a lot of value for three mana.
If your plan is being executed properly, I found The Wrath of Khan’s third chapter commonly forced opponents to sacrifice a land. With The Naked Time also attacking your opponent’s mana base, this deck had a weird land-destruction subtheme.
That, in a nutshell, is the Jeskai Donate deck we came up with for MTG Star Trek Early Access, but it’s far from perfect. Now that I’ve played the deck a fair bit, there are a few things I would change.
Changes to Consider
When I started this Donate brew, I had it as a four-color deck, splashing Greed’s Gambit as a powerful card Iroh can Donate. It also synergizes incredibly with The Naked Time’s second chapter if you can line it up, swinging for 9 Flying Haste damage off the hop.
The manabase, however, was far too demanding with four colors, especially since Kobayashi Maru Scenario is basically a two-pip splash already. Giant’s Boulder could solve this issue, however, making that an interesting avenue to explore in the future. Of course, you’ll also get access to Demonic Pact if you try to play black.
Splashing black aside, The Mind Stone is another card I would consider adding to the Jeskai variant of this deck, but in small numbers. Harnessing the artifact is actually quite useful, resetting Kobayashi Maru Scenario and The Wrath of Khan for tons of value. I would try two copies of this card if I ran this list again.
So, if you’re looking to try something new once MTG Star Trek comes out, an Iroh-focused Donate deck feels like it has competitive potential. This probably won’t be the exact variant that ends up being the best, but the synergies here are absolutely incredible.
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