When Jumpstart: Historic Horizons released on Magic Arena, we talked about a potentially broken 2 card combo deck with Vesperlark and Davriel’s Withering. The deck had a pretty big problem in that it really folded hard to Graveyard hate, and that it needed to play a lot of smaller combo creatures to win. Well, with the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, the deck is no longer a meme, dare I say, it might need a banning.
The Key
The key to the deck going from a meme to a true threat in the format is
The Meathook Massacre
The Meathook Massacre
When The Meathook Massacre enters, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life.
. This brand new Legendary Enchantment enables the deck to turn into a control deck. This alleviates the problems the deck faced. It doesn’t just fold to
Rest in Peace
Rest in Peace
When this enchantment enters, exile all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
or Grafdigger’s Cage, and the only creature in the deck is Vesperlark.
The Deck
This deck comes to us from Caleb Durward. He played this to a 3rd place finish in Stream League 6 this past weekend, and the deck was nuts. The deck played as a Black White control deck, utilizing Thoughtsieze and
Inquisition of Kozilek
Inquisition of Kozilek
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it with mana value 3 or less. That player discards that card.
to disrupt our opponent’s hand. It has a great removal suite with Portable Hole, Fatal Push, Fateful Absence, Davriel’s Withering, and Vanishing Verse.
The Meathook Massacre also can act as a board wipe in addition to a combo piece. Mazemind Tome and Wishclaw Talisman round the deck out as our card advantage engine. Wishclaw lets us dig up a missing combo piece if we’re ready to go off, or any other situational card needed.
READ MORE: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Gave Standard A New BROKEN Combo
The Sideboard
The sideboard offers some more removal such as Fracture to deal with Rest in Peace or Cage, Power-Word Kill deals with nearly all the popular creatures in the format, and
Wrath of God
Wrath of God
Destroy all creatures. They can't be regenerated.
is a blanket board wipe.
Leyline of the Void
Leyline of the Void
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
is one sided graveyard hate, which is needed in this meta, and
Phyrexian Arena
Phyrexian Arena
At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and lose 1 life.
gives us some consistent card draw.
READ MORE: This is the Best Deck to Climb Magic Arena Ladder In Standard
Does the deck need a banning? Well, that remains to be seen. I think that the deck is doing some incredibly powerful stuff, and it almost feels like a spiritual successor to Splinter Twin. The deck isn’t unbeatable, but it’s very strong if piloted correctly. Is that a problem? Well it’s possible that if this deck takes off in popularity, it could wreak havoc on the format.
Normally I’d say to a strategy like this there is counter play, but the deck packs all the answers needed to win through hate, so it’s very hard to say. I will say this deck is masterfully crafted, and watching the deck being piloted on stream, and having playing against Caleb in the top 8 of Stream League 6, Caleb piloted the deck incredibly well.
What are your thoughts? Is this deck too powerful to have in the format? Definitely give this a try and let us know in the comments how it felt for you!