Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths does contain a lot, in both size and number, of the eponymous behemoths. So what could be more appropriate than to look at the tiniest denizens of the world? After all, Human tribal gets some support from the set as well, headlined by one General Kudro of Drannith.
Preview season is always so much fun. As a matter of course, there's talk of power creep, speculation as to whether fetch lands might see another reprint or whether some insane gets to see the light of day … New mechanics, and how they might work, and invariably how "that idea" will never work. But by and large the hype is always about the big beefy monsters in the set.
This is why we're completely ignoring all of the above and looking instead at the true heroes of Magic: The Gathering. Humans. Who was it that tried to kill , before he became the draconian — no pun intended, this is deadly serious — monster that we all know? Why, humans of course! How many would still be with us today had it not been for the Elder Dragon turned planewalker? Not even the original gods of Amonkhet, slain and displaced by the villain himself, know.
Spoiling for a Fight
Lisa Kudrow's Army Dad: "Smelly leonin, smelly leonin, what are they feeding you?"
With the full card list now out, we can see that more than a few cards stand out as having great utility in the current metagame. first and foremost amongst them.
Anafenza maybe now the secondmost?
It's 3/3 for 3, it's an , it can help clear graveyards, and fill them … with the corpses of those damned dirty Dino-Apes! Kudro slices, Kudro dices, all without the actual , although that would have been a fitting inclusion for Ikoria as well.
Better than all of these? Probably …
In order to take advantage of this utility, of course, we need width. There are some token generators available to us: and both create specifically Humans. Standard Mono-White usually employs and as their early drops, but if we're to stick to theme, then is where we begin. Some s as well, as they have further use if drawn late.
Our starting point looks something like this:
White-Black Monster Hunters
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Low to the ground, the top end is 4 mana. The early drops replace themselves while our "monster" package is there to allow us to attack with impunity, knowing that our creatures are either coming back bigger and better than ever, or can at least be recast from the graveyard.
is effectively pre-boarding against and decks, because right now these are everywhere. This won't stop recursion, but since we too have an amount of recursion we're not overly worried about this. The removal suite, limited as it is, is exile, not destroy, and will almost never have a drawback. We've got access to onboard removal in Kudro's ability if needed, and won't mind throwing away Hunted Witness and , since these not only return with in play but also leave some 1/1s behind on top.
Kudos to Kudro, the many, many Humans entering the battlefield should clear the opponent's graveyard before long. So the Magistrate won't have to worry about Uro anymore, but it may still stop a companion or a .
We have a solitary in the mana base, useful of course for removing noncreature permanents such as or . But it also enables a trick with Broodmoth in play, where we destroy all our own 2-drops at end of turn to get the party started all over again … or quickly wrap things up with a flying alpha strike.
Can We Build It? Yes, We Abzan!
For something a little more ambitious and and a little more fun — we're only human, after all — I wanted to make use of the tokens created by . Siona is great in certain decks, but if we're to run this card, we also need to take full advantage. In truth, the result is more about finding space for Kudro in an Aura deck than building around Kudro, but the outcome is more than fair.
We gain access to additional black cards such as , which doubles as removal and hopefully as a token generator/card engine. Under the right circumstances we can put this on a Human token and not only replace the token but draw a card. Very y.
The Captain and the General
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The global +1/+1 effect isn't as pronounced here, seeing as how only Siona and the tokens are Humans. On the plus side, however, these tokens feed Kudro's removal capability where needed and provide enough bodies on the ground to keep our larger creatures free to attack. Fourteen Auras plus four Blessing should be enough to go from power 3–4 at the start of a turn to 9–10 as we enter our attack step. Vigilance and trample are great friends indeed.
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