Every workday while the set is new, Insight is taking a quick look at one deck featuring the latest additions from Dominaria United. Sheoldred has proven to be one of the most influential of all the United cards, arguably even ahead of Liliana. In this deck it doubles as a proper combo piece!
is a great card for tournament play. Immediately upon its release, it started to show up in all kinds of decks, all across Standard and Pioneer. It doesn't even require any synergies to perform.
is not a good card for tournament play. Throughout its 28-year existence, it mostly fueled the aspirations of fools who suffer under a dream world or those new enough to the game not to know any better yet. Whenever it does render a worthwhile service, it all depends on circumstance. For example, followers of cherish the triple-black casting cost of a permanent that opponents are unlikely to destroy.
Here's where it gets interesting: Suppose you already have a deck where Dreams and Merchant almost manage to justify each other's inclusion, at least if we extend a little good will. Let's assume the deck also wants Sheoldred, because, duh, it is a black deck. Suppose the deck has a bit of card selection anyway because it likes not just for the second level but sometimes for the third and at all times for the plus one on devotion. Imagine it can generate large bursts of mana via , enough, say, to cast a seven-mana sorcery.
Finally, imagine a seven-mana sorcery that instantly wins the game if it resolves while you control either Dreams or Sheoldred. That sorcery is . The idea to one-shot-combo-kill the opponent by making them peer into the abyss is by no means new. It's never been particularly successful in the past because something was always missing. Usually Peer was a dead card when you didn't have Underworld Dreams, and Underworld Dreams was usually a bad card when you didn't have Peer. But now, the addition of Sheoldred means you have enough cards that combo with Peer—without introducing another piece that cannot stand on its own. With Peer, in turn, you finally have enough cards that warrant underworld dreaming.
When everything falls into place, the playbill looks like this: Nine cards that benefit from having Underworld Dreams on the battlefield. Seven that turn Peer into the Abyss into the win. Two Peers. One deck to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
| Monoblack Devotion Combo by Joseph Peo, 2nd at Pioneer RCQ |
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