Spoilers have begun and the prereleases are less then two weeks away, so its time to begin the brewing. Starting with the gods, which seem to be very, very powerful. (Note: Pharika wasn’t spoiled when I first wrote this, but now that she has, I’m not sure I’d want to brew with her. Feels like a sideboard card to me.)

[scryfall]Athreos, God of Passage[/scryfall]

The Wb Weenie has been raising its profile recently. Probably partly because Pat Cox keeps doing well with it. Now, here’s a great new tool.

Athreos, God of Passage 1WB
Legendary Enchantment Creature – God
Indestructible

As long as your devotion to white and black is less than seven. Athreos isn’t a creature.

Whenever another creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.
5/4

[cardlist]
[Lands]
4 Mutavault
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
8 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Orzhov Guildgate
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Dryad Militant
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Boros Elite
4 Precinct Captain
4 Daring Skyjek
3 Imposing Sovereign
3 Banisher Priest
3 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Athreos, God of Passage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Brave the Elements
1 Orzhov Charm
1 Launch the Fleet
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
2 Renounce the Guilds
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Thoughtseize
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Orzhov Charm
2 Doom Blade
[/Sideboard]
[/cardlist]

Plenty of humans, so I put in [scryfall]Xathrid Necromancer[/scryfall]s, which is pretty well known technology. All in all the spells are pretty eclectic mix of stuff. Basically, you need plenty of creatures, so you can’t put in very many spells. Still, one unanswered Athreos can be very bad for most control decks. [scryfall]Supreme Verdict[/scryfall]ing just to see all those creatures back in play on the next turn just isn’t what you want. Every once in a blue moon this deck might actually be able to activate the god, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Of course, we can take the opposite approach and play base black.

[cardlist]
[Creatures]
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Mogis’s Marauder
4 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Athreos, God of Passage
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hero’s Downfall
1 Bile Blight
[/Spells]
[Lands]
4 Mutavault
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
1 Plains
10 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
3 Revoke Existance
4 Duress
3 Doom Blade
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Dark Betrayal
[/Sideboard]
[/Cardlist]

Sadly, I couldn’t really find a place for other cards from Journey, but hopefully there will be more playable cards in this deck.

[scryfall]Keranos, God of Storms[/scryfall]

Keranos is very good at card advantage. Its pretty costly and therefore we probably won’t see it that much, but one of’s in UWr decks will probably be the norm. I won’t go into a list, because the list pretty much writes itself (playsets of [scryfall]Jace, Architect of Thought[/scryfall], [scryfall]Detention Sphere[/scryfall], [scryfall]Sphinx’s Revelation[/scryfall], and [scryfall]Supreme Verdict[/scryfall], then add a bunch of removal based on what you know about your meta and finally, don’t forget a wincon).

It would be great if there was some sort of UR Scry deck out there. I’m definitely waitig for one. I probably wouldn’t play it, but I’d like to see one in action.

[scryfall]Iroas, God of Victory[/scryfall]

Whereas Athreos above would bring some resilience to weenie decks, Iroas is more of a red approach, and would bring just pure power. Converted Casting Cost of four is actually pretty big and possibly too much for a deck that would most need the effects, but it can also act as a finisher. I’d like this deck to have plenty of creatures with haste or other creatures, which can make blocking awkward (first strike, tapping, just preventing blocking outright).

[cardlist]
[creatures]
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra’s Phoenix
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Iroas, God of Victory
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan’s Strength
4 Lightning Strike
[/spells]
[lands]
10 Mountain
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Mutavault
[/lands]
[/cardlist]

The problem here is (partly) that we’d actually want maybe 18 lands in a deck like this, but Iroas forces us to play more, so perhaps a better approach would be a Big Boros deck, although the effect Iroas provides won’t be as good there.

[cardlist]
[creatures]
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra’s Phoenix
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Flamewreath Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Iroas, God of Victory
[/creatures]
[spells]
1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Warleader’s Helix
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Lightning Strike
1 Aurelia’s Fury
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
10 Mountain
2 Plains
[/lands]
[/cardlist]

[scryfall]Kruphix, God of Horizons[/scryfall]

Although there isn’t that many good X-spells in Standard, but there’s one pretty scary one and a couple of puzzling ones.

The scary one: [scryfall]Sphinx’s Revelation[/scryfall]. I’m not even going to go into a decklist, again. Just read what I said about Keranos above. From green you just need [scryfall]Kiora, the Crashing Wave[/scryfall] besides the Kruphix, and you’ll be set.

Then there’s [scryfall]Mistcutter Hydra[/scryfall]. That would be very scary to most decks. Same goes with [scryfall]Polukranos, the World-Eater[/scryfall]. You could probably do the same with [scryfall]Savageborn Hydra[/scryfall]

However, here’s a real brew:

What if we try an [scryfall]Epic Experiment[/scryfall], or should I say an epic [scryfall]Epic Experiment[/scryfall] (no, I shouldn’t). Now, I’m not a world-class brewer, so I probably don’t have the best idea on what to use here, but we’ll try. We’ll be working with RUG, because those are the colors we need to cast the Epic Experiment and the God. This isn’t going to be a deck that’s going to be in any way competitive, but rather a Johnny deck, or perhaps a Johnny-Timmy deck. I don’t really know.

Since this is a brew, we’ll be taking a less direct way to victory. Milling.

[cardlist]
[creatures]
1 Hypersonic Dragon
1 Prophet of Kruphix
3 Kruphix, God of Horizons
2 Keranos, God of Storms
[/creatures]
[spells]
4 Epic Experiment
4 Unexpected Results
4 Fog
4 Defend the Hearth
2 Whelming Wave
4 Traumatize
4 Tome Scour
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Stolen Identity
[/spells]
[lands]
4 Breeding Pool
4 Stomping Ground
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Mystery
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Mana Confluence
[/lands]
[/cardlist]

The color balance of the lands is probably way off, but who cares. This is a brew. Not sure if this deck has any chance of winning any game. (Actually I am sure it can’t win.)