Innustrad's Destiny

For the past few months, I'd pretty much dropped the idea of brewing casual stuff, instead focusing on more serious content for the site. Well now, that's about to change, and you're still probably gonna steal some games. It was foretold in the heart of the cards, man. This is your destiny.

It's your destiny to get 2-for-1d with this card.

Angelic Destiny wouldn't normally be on my radar, but there's a certain someone from Innustrad that partners well with this card for a two-turn clock. And since he's a ghost, I find it odd that he still has an 'Angelic Destiny', since, y'kno, if he had a destiny to be fulfilled then he wouldn't have died in the first place. Oh well.

Celestial Collonade on a stick, anyone?

This little man over here is six power hexproof for three, making him even stronger than the previous record holder Mirran Crusader. If you follow up this wifebeater with a T4 Destiny and it resolves, then your opponent now has a destiny to lose to you very hard.

As if nothing could sweeten this pot any more, we also just finished up a block on Mirrodin. Which means that it's Traft's destiny to hold a sword in his nonexistent hand when a lethal enchantment can't be found. It's up to Vorthos players to figure out how this deck even begins to make sense, because I honestly have no clue at this point.

Sword of Sun Tsu and Ghandi

War and Peace enables that same aggressive clock while giving you enough life to buy just one more turn against aggro, often all that's needed. Feast and Famine has shown it's might for the last year and will continue to do so, allowing you to prepare countermagic for the occasional Day of Judgment that would otherwise blow you out. Body and Mind... just no. Giving the opponent a free self-mill trigger is not what we want to be doing in this format.

So we have alternatives if Traft actually doesn't have a destiny, but what if we don't have Traft? There's alternatives to him as well, of course.

Pa-Pow!

Mirran Crusader provides the same clock that Traft does, only the crusader has slightly less protection from removal. As long as your opponent isn't playing shock, the crusades will win just as many games. After all, the sheer fact that we have Assassin's Creed games is enough proof that the crusades were victorious.

I had one of these once. I think. Not sure, she was invisible.

This trenchcoat-wearing mook comes down a turn earlier than the others, meaning that on the play you can sneak him around a dreaded Mana Leak that every Snapcaster Mage deck will be packing four of. He doesn't provide the same count, granted, but he's a little safer and a little more reliable than the others. He's like a 30-something as opposed to a 20-something. The 30-something may do the job a bit slower, but you can count on her to be there more often than not.

In short, Traft is a whore.

Fill out the list with some countermagic, consistency assistance, and there you have it. The Angelic Destiny of Traft the Prostitute. Yes, that really is what I call the deck.

Think Twice before playing this deck.

Creatures (12):

• 4 Invisible Stalker
• 4 Mirran Crusader
• 4 Geist of Saint Traft

Other (25):

• 4 Ponder
• 4 Think Twice
• 4 Mana Leak
• 1 Dissipate
• 2 Sword of War and Peace
• 4 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 4 Angelic Destiny
• 2 Divine Reckoning

Lands (23):

Probably the only time this card is good.

• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 3 Moorland Haunt
• 6 Island
• 6 Plains

This deck plays very similar to a combo deck, which is fitting seeing as it basically is, only with the added bonus of your opponent still not prepared for Angelic Destiny if you don't win off it in the first game. I said earlier that I was playing with a jank deck, and this is, but this is also a new Standard. Every rotation, there's one, maybe two decks that survive and then the rest is a lot of jank. So yes, this deck can win, and it can win a lot. I don't plan on playing it any time soon, I'll be honest, but it's honestly not my style of deck. If you want to go ahead and steal some games, then by all means, go ahead and do it. Your friends will probably hate you for it. And you're a Magic player, so I say 'friends' loosely.

This was Yo Mama, saying when you have a stalker, the best thing to do is give them a sword.

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