Magda Changelings: The Primer Reborn

Yes, Magda’s back. Yes, it’s because of Mox Jasper. No, it’s nothing like the old build, and it’s probably not what you’re expecting. But it’s good. Really good.

If you read the original article from over three years ago, then you have a good idea of what you’re getting into. But if not, don’t worry, the deck has changed quite a bit since then and packs more than a few new surprises. I’m super excited to showcase the most cracked version of Magda in Modern’s history. This deck has some absurd Vintage-esque starts and feels like a potential successor to Underworld Breach. (I’m **not** saying it’s as good as Breach, put the pitchforks away!)

So, blow the dust off those binders, grab some sleeves, and get ready for an insane update to Magda Changelings.

Where She Went:

The old build is bad. Pyre of Heroes is too slow, trying to aggro with X/1 Changelings and Magda beats is laughable, and the Companion that justified playing Imperial Recruiter and Aether VIal is gone. 

Nowadays, if you only get a single Magda activation, it needs to be game-winning in a way that Platinum Emperion; Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund; and Mirror Entity aren’t. The loss of Yorion, Sky Nomad meant that we couldn’t justify running 80 cards anymore. Even though Yorion wasn’t super integral to the combo, being able to flicker Aether Vial and Imperial Recruiter was still pretty important. With both Pyre and Recruiter being too slow, the deck was left wanting tutors.

The obvious solution to tutors was Urza’s Saga since it can guarantee a Universal Automaton, leaving only Magda unaccounted for. However, Saga completely changes both the dynamic and manabase of the deck. The more artifacts you shove in the deck to take advantage of Saga, the harder it becomes to keep Magda from becoming bad Affinity, and Affinity was already in a bad spot for the longest time as well. Not only that, colors became a thing we had to care about, since we were losing our rainbow lands to a Saga manabase.

Then Modern was blessed with something old and something new: Mox Opal unbanning and Mox Jasper printing.

We toyed around with Mox Opal, but it didn’t seem to fit. Mox Jasper looked like a better fit on the surface, but it was also awkward to implement properly. Builds that remained too close to the old style didn’t really benefit from the extra acceleration Mox Jasper provided. Sure, you could dump an extra Changeling or a Sylvan Safekeeper, but you weren’t getting Magda out turn 1 unless you had Jasper in multiples. And the more slots you dedicated to Moxen, be they Opal or Jasper or even Mox Amber, the less Changelings you had room for, let alone interaction. We were close, but the balance was off.

And Clock of Omens, what a storied history it has. There was a dark period where we were cutting it because we were struggling to set up Automaton plus Clock and going for more aggressive single-tutor targets like Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut. 

However, versions of the deck that didn’t have Clock felt inadequate. There was no one-card-kills-all silver bullet for Magda to find that would make the deck worth all the effort of getting to that single tutor. Builds that put Clock back in, only to settle on finite finishers like Scourge of Valkas, felt closer to the original version but didn’t fit my vision for a truly infinite combo deck. Pactdoll Terror nearly did, but even that didn’t solve the fundamental problem of Modern’s power level having moved past what was playable in the MH2 era.

But then the final piece fell into place: shaffawaffa5 (The_Dream_Stalker on MTGO) found the way to make Moxen truly broken.

Song of Creation solves both problems we had with the Moxen. Not only does it give us a way to take advantage of all the extra mana, but it also turns multiples into something we actively want. The legendary clause can even be beneficial if Emry, Lurker of the Loch is active, since the sacrificed Mox gives us another spell to keep the Song chain going.

Author’s Note: This article was drafted before the two 5-0’s happened. I stand by the fact that Clock should remain in the deck. Also, clicking through Clock combo online isn’t as bad as I used to think it was. Play Clock.

Why Magda Changelings:

Because you get to play with 12 Moxen, 8 of which are rainbows and one is a Mox Sapphire with upside. Unlike Vintage, Modern doesn’t have restriction issues. So, we get to play as many of our Moxen as we wish. 

The extra Moxen pair nicely with Song of Creation, letting you turn ‘useless’ duplicates into turbo cantrips. And they can let you cast Song as early as turn 2, which more than makes up for Song being a four drop. With an empty library, just resolve a Thassa’s Oracle to immediately win the game, no combat required. This is a major upgrade over the original deck.

Also, the deck threatens combos from multiple angles while incidentally presenting must-answer threats. Magda, Brazen Outlaw is both mana acceleration with Mothdust Changeling and Universal Automaton, but also a combo piece, tutoring for Clock of Omens or Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. 

A single Saga token is often a two-turn clock, which means they need to answer that while also worrying about said combos going off. And, often, their removal has already been spent answering Magda, Emry, or a Changeling if they think they can keep us off mana. Keeping Construct tokens at bay while warding off Magda fails to address the Underworld Breach-esque impact a topdecked Song of Creation can have.

But there’s also something deceptive under the hood. Song of Creation wants lots of free spells, and 17 artifacts fulfills that requirement pretty well. Those aren’t the only “free” spells in the deck, however. Once Magda, Brazen Outlaw and Mothdust Changeling hit the field, each remaining Changeling turns into a mana neutral spell. This ups the effective free spell count to 24, nearly half the deck. Yes, this number changes depending on how many Changelings have already been played, but the fact remains that the Changelings stop costing mana at a certain point in the combo.

Not only that, Urza’s Saga is also a viable turn one play thanks to our absurd acceleration with Moxen. It’s not unusual to be making a 6/6 Saga token by your second turn. This lets the deck hit hard fast while being able to pivot from combo to aggro at a moment’s notice. It also forces opponents to answer extreme aggression while respecting the potential combo angle.

Gameplans:

Magda Combo

Clock is back. All hail Clock.

For those who missed the Yorion meta or don’t play cEDH, Magda, Brazen Outlaw combos with Clock of Omens and Universal Automaton to create infinite *tapped* Treasure tokens. So, you do get infinite mana eventually, but it takes a turn. The loop is very simple. With Magda, Clock, and Automaton in play, you target Automaton with Clock and use Automaton and another artifact to untap Automaton. This generates an untapped Treasure and untaps Automaton. Use the untapped Treasure and Automaton to untap the Changeling, creating a new untapped Treasure while tapping the original. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

Before, you’d then dump all your Changelings and grab a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund to smack people really, really hard. Now, we have a better engine. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King was a card I’d previously considered and discarded, but with our new win condition it’s the perfect fit. When you activate Magda, you sacrifice five Treasures. This triggers Korvold five times and draws you five cards. After getting all your blue devotion into play and drawing most of your deck (make sure to leave a couple cards behind if you have Song in play!), you can then deploy Thassa’s Oracle to immediately win the game. 

Korvold can also do a decent Song impression if you have Magda and Mothdust in play. Every Treasure becomes a cantrip when it’s sacrificed. This combo fizzles far more often than Song, but it refills your hand very well.

Magda Value Town

You won’t always have Automaton when you have five Treasures for Magda, so Clock isn’t always the target. Korvold has proven himself the best single activation payoff for Magda when you can’t combo. Not only does he provide insane card advantage, letting your Mishra’s Baubles draw two cards (one now, one later), but he’s also a massive flying beater that closes games out fast.

The secondary aspect of Magda’s tutor is fetching artifact answers like Aether Spellbomb or Haywire Mite to keep a Neobrand player from killing you with Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant or an Amulet Titan player from going off with their titular Amulet of Vigor. This can catch players off guard who are only aware of Magda summoning Dragons, as I experienced at my last RCQ. 

Song Combo

A resolved Song of Creation is often game over. Song turns all your Moxen into cantrips, which solves the problem of their legendary status. Not only are the Moxen free spells, once Magda and Mothdust are in play, so are your Changelings as well. A single spell after Song hits play can draw your entire deck, which cleanly sets up the Oracle finish. 

If Song doesn’t fully combo off, it’ll often put you in a great position to win. Song with multiple Moxen, often multiple Urza’s Sagas, and maybe an Emry if you’re lucky sets you up to either try comboing again next turn or smashing face with Constructs.

Emry Value Town

Emry plus Mishra’s Bauble is pretty self-explanatory. Emry rebuying Universal Automaton should also be pretty transparent. Looping Tormod’s Crypt, Haywire Mite, and Aether Spellbomb, all great. But, she is also ramp. I would just like you to consider that legend-ruling Moxen and redeploying them with Emry is an insane and completely valid strategy. That is all.

Beatdown (Karnstructs and Others)

You’re allowed to hardcast your Korvold. You can also “burn” Magda Treasures in combat to buff Korvold for lethal. I don’t expect buffed Changelings to get there very often, but they do add chip that becomes a chunk in conjunction with Karnstructs and Korvold. And fast Saga tokens are serious beaters. That being said, be careful not to lose your Changelings in combat unnecessarily, like surprise reach on Worldbreaker or Freestrider Lookout.

Lines to Remember:

• Clock of Omens untaps artifacts. You can use non-mana artifacts to untap Moxen when you need mana, i.e. during a Song combo with non-Moxes stuck in hand. Equipped artifacts can be tapped even if their equipped creature is already tapped.
• If you’re comboing with Magda, Brazen Outlaw and Korvold, Fae-Cursed King in paper, it’s best to pull Conjurer’s Bauble, Mishra’s Bauble, and all Changelings out of the deck, but only enough Moxen to leave you with a multiple of 5 (i.e. 15, 20, 25) cards left in the deck. If you put Korvold in play online and start drawing your deck, players will often concede to that alone. This lets you cleanly draw your deck with Korvold and guarantee finding Thassa’s Oracle. It’s worth repeating: you’ll want to leave some cards behind if you’re casting Oracle with Song of Creation in play.
• When you’re comboing with Song, if you have Korvold in play, you can use Baubles, fetchlands, and untapped Treasures to draw single cards if you need to get a multiple of 5. You’ll want to make sure you can cast a Glimpse the Cosmos when you still have 5 cards left in deck, because this will guarantee finding and casting Oracle without decking yourself. Two cards from the Song trigger leaves 3 remaining in your library, which Glimpse will check and let you pick the Oracle.
• Korvold is both a combo piece and a beater. It is worth repeating that you’re allowed to hardcast your combo pieces. Given how many mana sources are in the deck, don’t be afraid to sacrifice Moxen or lands to Korvold. This should almost never come up, but if you have Magda combo online, you can tutor Korvold in response to the trigger for the third chapter of Urza’s Saga and sacrifice it to Korvold while still getting its search effect. That being said, Korvold is still hard-castable and is a serious threat on his own.
• Tap a Mox for mana if you’re going to tutor the same Mox off Saga or Magda. With all the unusual aspects of this deck, it’s easy to forget the simple things. Online, you’ll lose the mana and, in paper, you might end up with a judge call that costs you the game.

Sideboard Tips:

I wish I had a succinct sideboard plan to present in this primer. Unlike the original Magda build, this one has a lot more flexibility in what it can cut and bring in. But I do have some general takeaways for the current configuration.

This deck frequently sideboards up to 61 cards postboard. You don’t always need to do this, but it’s an option, so don’t stress if you can’t figure out what that final cut should be. When cutting, you generally don’t want to go below 15 zero drops, or else you risk not being able to consistently combo with Song.

Ledger Shredders are your Wall of Omens in avian armor, so bring them in against aggressive decks. Back to Nature is actually pretty good against Energy, even though there’s tension with Urza’s Saga. One Changeling does **not** give you a full Party for Concerted Defense, as a creature can only count for one Party Member. Emry and Oracle are both Wizards, but Magda isn’t a Party Member at all. Boseiju, Who Endures can be swapped in for a Saga if you expect your opponent to target Saga, and it can also be land 17/card 61.  

Final Thoughts:

It feels so good to be talking about Magda in Modern again. She has been through phases of “playability” before, but this is the first time she’s felt competitive in a way that isn’t insulated by heavy layers of cope. The twelve Moxen and Song let you combo by turn 3 fairly consistently, and turn 2 if things go very, very right. Much harder, but still possible. 

But the deck is hard. I expect a lot of first time pilots to pick this up, get absolutely demolished, and write the deck off as another pile. It requires balancing when to unload your artifacts and when to hold them for Song. It takes knowing when you can go for a combo, when you have to, and whether you should even be worrying about the combo. Tunneling on trying to execute a combo can blind you from realizing you can just put Korvold into play and beat them down, or that the Baubles you were holding kept you from buffing your Constructs to lethal. 

Nevertheless, it’s super rewarding. Hanging on by a single life point, only to resolve Song and cantrip to glory, is extremely satisfying. Watching your opponent hem and haw because they’re dying to Changeling beatdown is hilarious. Turn one Emry, Lurker of the Loch being one of the tamer starts the deck is capable of is absurd, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

These last two sections will hopefully answer most of the “what abouts” that will arise from reading this article. I’ve probably missed some, like I almost forgot about Repeal before publishing this article. Although we’d discussed it in the Changelings Discord, I’m not running it so I’d forgotten about it. While the deck has a lot of options, I feel confident in the configuration we currently have.

Cards On the Edge of Glory:

I’ve gone back and forth on some of these cards, and ultimately I didn’t include a lot of them because the deck just doesn’t have the space. They have their uses, and some of them might come back because they’re that close. Some of them, like a lot of the sideboard choices, are ones I’m considering but haven’t gotten to yet.

Claws of Gix

This card has been in and out of the deck. While it can generate infinite life via the Magda combo, it was actually in the deck to sacrifice Song of Creation if you can’t fully combo, so you can keep a full hand. Also, it would let you sacrifice Thassa’s Oracle if you played it early for value or got its trigger Consigned. (Korvold also fills this role.) There aren’t a lot of zero-drop artifacts in Modern, and Claws provided a teensy bit of lifegain in a pinch. 

However, it required Elixir of Immortality eating the Conjurer’s Bauble slot, which isn’t terrible if you shove Haywire Mite to the sideboard and Aether Spellbomb to the main deck. These two worked in conjunction to play around Consign on Oracle trigger, letting you sacrifice the Oracle and loop your deck to cast Oracle as many times as you needed. 

Repeal

This cantrip is very close to making it. My two biggest issues with it are that it pushes the deck closer to being all-in on Song and that it fails to address the scenario where Oracle is in the bottom two cards of the deck. It’s not uncommon to know Oracle is on the bottom, thanks to Conjurer’s Bauble, and that leaves you dead to a Song trigger without a way to filter for Oracle. Glimpse the Cosmos solves this problem by guaranteeing you find Oracle with enough cards left to resolve Oracle through a Song trigger.

That being said, Repeal becomes a draw 5 during Song combo—Repeal an active Mox, draw two from Song, draw one from Repeal itself, then draw another 2 from the Mox—and it’s a main deck bounce effect that both protects your own stuff and answers problem threats for a turn. We might eventually settle on a configuration that prefers Repeal over Glimpse, but for now, Glimpse is the correct choice.

Springleaf Drum

Another once-was, Drum was a “fifth” Mothdust Changeling that taps Magda without either the Changeling or a combat step. It’s also tutorable with Saga, and can be a rainbow Sol Ring at times. But generating just one Treasure a turn off it isn’t impactful enough, and the deck isn’t wanting for mana. While it fits the game plan, we have better things to be doing at this point.

Lavaspur Boots

I’ve seriously considered running a 61-card main just to fit this card. It’s extremely good and makes the fast Saga plan punch that much harder. It can protect Emry or Magda for a turn, or give Emry haste to plunder the graveyard the turn she comes down. However, it can be a do-nothing artifact when you’re struggling to get anything going, which is why it’s not currently in the deck. 

Shadowspear

Unfortunately, Shadowspear sits behind several higher priority cards in the list of things competing for space in deck. Both Elixir of Immortality and Lavaspur Boots are closer to making the cut, and right now they’re out. In the same vein, Shadowspear is a card you can make do without. Sure, giving a Construct Trample would be great, but often you have inevitability without it. The Lifegain would also be great, but it requires risking creatures in combat to take advantage of it, and you don’t always have a big Saga token to put Shadowspear on.

Soul-Guide Lantern

I actually wanted this card for its card draw aspect, since I’d been playing a deck without any recurrable Emry card draw. But I found Tormod’s Crypt to be better graveyard hate, and Aether Spellbomb to be better utlity. There is something to be said for getting to exile a card through Stony Silence style effects, and I could see it being in the sideboard in addition to Tormod’s Crypt, but for now there isn’t enough space for it.

Goblin Cratermaker

This card might be cute, but it’s an option to keep in mind. It’s removal for Collector Ouphe, Karn, the Great Creator, and artifact hate like Damping Sphere that can also be extra pressure when needed. Karn is especially hard to kill if they’re playing around Galvanic Blast, so this provides a bit of extra cushion. However, Clarion Conqueror survives Cratermaker damage, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Unholy Heat

This is another “kill Karn” alternative that’s on the list of cards to test. The deck can likely enable Delirium often enough to get the better mode, but it doesn’t hit face and dips further into graveyard synergies. Emry sometimes draws in graveyard hate, whether for good or bad, but it’s something to keep in mind.

Jeskai Ascendancy

I tried this briefly as a third combo line and pseudo fifth Song, since it’s a one-card combo with Emry and lets you ramp extremely hard with Magda and Mothdust, but it’s just too inconsistent. It requires even more cards than Magda combo to set up (active Emry, duplicate active Mox, Jeskai Ascendancy in play, card slot dedicated to Lavaspur Boots and possibly Shadowspear), and this deck doesn’t have the space for all that, nor does it  put those pieces together with any kind of regularity. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t play out in practice.

Shifting Woodland

Being able to copy a countered Song sounds amazing in theory, but the manabase doesn’t really support it. The deck is primarily a blue deck that’s splashing red, and just grazing green for Song and sideboard cards. We’re already super light on lands as it is, squeezing every last card slot. Otawara, Soaring City works because it’s always untapped, fits our primary color, and serves great proactive and protective utility. Shifting Woodland, however, demands Breeding Pool in play to be untapped, and another green source plus Delirium to activate. Having a “fifth” copy of Song has never been an issue, and in fact when I tested Jeskai Ascendancy in that slot it felt like too much, as weird as that sounds. In the same vein, I strongly believe that Woodland requires far too much to go right for it to serve its intended purpose.

Malevolent Rumble

On that note, Rumble looks like a good option for a cantrip, but again, the deck is primarily a blue deck and red is its primary second color. Glimpse the Cosmos works better because it lets us fit four virtual copies in the deck, thanks to its Giant-exclusive flashback. Rumble is better as a four-of, and the deck is already fighting for every card slot in the deck. I don’t dislike Rumble as much as Woodland, but I think Preordain would be a better option before Rumble. 

Six

Emry is better. She fits our primary color, artifact subtheme, and doesn’t require a high land count to benefit from our graveyard. You would have to severely contort the deck to make Six work over Emry, not to mention it’s effectively impossible to get Six into play on turn one. Please just play the Merfolk Wizard.

Ureni, the Song Unending

Honorable mention to the most recent Dragon making a splash in Modern. Protection from White and Black is pretty solid, dodging Solitude and Leyline Binding, but Magda is more than a little land lean, so I don’t see this being an option, even in the sideboard. Generally the slot this card would occupy—anti-aggro wall—is better filled by stuff like Sphinx of the Steel Wind, given Lifelink, but Ledger Shredder has been shoring up this weakness well, so I don’t see the need to try forcing big dumb beaters in the deck at this point.

Alternative Win Condition Options:

These cards exist. Oracle has been the most consistent option that dodges both artifact and storm hate, which a lot of the alternatives get hit by. These other cards range from functionally playable to likely too cute, but it’s worth keeping them on the backburner. That being said, play Oracle.

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

I’ve been eyeing this as a second Oracle, literally stealing a card from the old Underworld Breach decks. However, I have a few reservations. For starters, it’s a four drop that’s not super impactful. While Clock kind of fits this criteria, it’s a combo piece that can still be hardcast in a pinch. Jace can as well, and the triple blue is fairly easy to hit, but his uptick is even less impactful than Clock being able to give your artifact creatures pseudo vigilance, or turn Baubles into mana with a Mox. Jace also pushes the deck towards being more all-in on Song, which isn’t a direction I want to move. 

Grapeshot

Perfectly serviceable, plays well with both Song and Korvold combo and is less of a dead draw than Oracle. However, I dislike that it demands a high storm count, which means you have to combo by a certain point in the game or you just don’t have the spells to kill. It’s also more susceptible to getting hit by Silence effects in response to Magda combo, and potentially Force of Negation plus Consign to Memory. 

Is that an extremely niche scenario that’s unlikely to occur? Of course. But when pushed to the extreme, I still think Grapeshot is a slightly weaker finisher than Thassa’s Oracle. Aetherflux Reservoir also falls under this category. Roiling Dragonstorm is an interesting cantrip that supports a storm-oriented build, but has felt a little too mana intensive for my liking.

Bolas’s Citadel

This is a pet card of mine that *might* be good enough with the current build. It could function as a tutorable fifth Song, potentially let you chain into actual Song, and provide an easy sacrifice outlet to get rid of Song before the final trigger goes off. The problem is, Citadel wants the deck to still have the Clock combo so you can generate enough permanents to pay for two activations and use Clock itself to untap Citadel for that second activation. 

That means Citadel would need to replace Korvold instead of Clock, and I don’t think the ability to finish without Song or Oracle outweighs possibly getting stuck with two lands on top. It’s highly unlikely, given the deck’s low land count, but I have hit double lands off Song triggers before so it’s entirely feasible. 

I could also see running Citadel over Clock and just using it as a value engine, much like Korvold, or running Citadel instead of both Clock and Korvold if you wanted to go back up to 17 lands. That would also give you access to Hedge Maze, which I’ve wanted to test but never had room for. But it’s cool that tech we’ve had since 2021 (pour one out for the now-deleted YouTube video) is still viable, and it’s slightly amusing that Emry can theoretically recur it.

Grinding Station

Since this deck steals a lot from the theory behind the Underworld Breach deck, it makes sense to consider Station, right? Well, this idea actually came up all the way back in 2021, when the Yorion Magda deck first premiered. The issue is, Station only really does anything once you’ve assembled the Clock combo, and you don’t always get to do that. It happens even less frequently these days without Imperial Recruiter to tutor for Magda. While Station does play nicer with Emry than Oracle does, it plays far worse with a value Korvold chain or Song combo.

Station pushes the deck further into relying on artifacts, something you don’t really want to be doing postboard, given the amount of artifact hate that comes in against this deck. It gets hit by noncreature spell hate, especially Consign to Memory and Force of Negation, which is a negative compared to Oracle. While Emry recurring it sounds great on paper, I’ve found that Emry eats removal too frequently to depend heavily on (in terms of win-con evaluation). Magda being able to tutor it, compared to Oracle, seems appealing as well, but in the games where you’re getting Clock combo set up, you’re able to win just as cleanly with Korvold and Oracle without wasting a card slot on a piece that otherwise does nothing. You’re not looking to mill yourself like Breach decks could, since Emry is the only graveyard-matters card in the deck.

Additionally, Station opens you up to getting hit by anti-Mill hate. Reducing the axes your opponent can prevent you from winning is integral to making the deck as efficient as possible. There’s no need to introduce yet another angle for the combo to be stopped.

Cranial Plating

This card used to be close. I don’t think it’s necessary anymore because space is already tight and the deck is no longer filled with a bunch of weak creatures that would benefit from the buff. Saga tokens don’t need to worry about equipping to get big, and they hold much larger toughness than Plating creatures. Plating does dodge Blood Moon effects, but the deck has such resiliency as it is that it’s likely just for the history books now.

Pactdoll Terror

All right, this one is most likely too cute, but it bears keeping on the backburner as a possible sideboard card. The upside of Pactdoll is it lets you sidestep Korvold, Song, and needing to draw your deck entirely. The downsides are it’s a worse topdeck than either Oracle or Grapeshot, dies to most removal, can be interrupted if for some reason your opponent let you go off with Magda while holding removal, and also gets hit by artifact hate like Wear//Tear and Force of Vigor. 

That being said, it condenses the combo cards into a single piece and can mini-combo with Song of Creation while you’re going off, turning all your Moxen and Baubles into Cauldron Familiars. It’s definitely worse with Song than Oracle and Grapeshot, but pretty spectacular with Magda.

Altar of the Brood

In the same vein as Pactdoll Terror, Altar is probably too cute. It’s a combo piece that slots in a little better, being more mana efficient than Pactdoll and tutorable with Saga, but opens the deck up to getting incidentally hit by Mill hate. It’s also weaker with Song than Grapeshot, so its time has probably passed. But it holds that same sideboard consideration that Pactdoll does, so it’s going in the same binder.

Time Sieve

This card used to be much closer when the deck was dedicated to Changelings and Clock shenanigans. Song of Creation does a similar effect by just drawing your whole deck and winning immediately with Oracle instead of needing Clock combo set up and Shadowspear eating another slot in the deck. That’s also assuming you still have at least one Saga left to make a Construct with, and you’re not playing into something like Harbinger of the Seas or Blood Moon, which I expect quite a bit of in the near future as people look to abuse the new rules update with Urza’s Saga. (On that note, players are likely overestimating how good “infinite Saga tokens” is, but we’re also considering how this might affect our own future sideboarding plans.)

Mirror Entity

This shone more in the non-Song version, as the deck played lots of little creatures that benefited from its mass pump. With all the artifacts and Saga, it’s much easier to generate threats that are independently strong. I’ve also never been a fan of the card, so there’s no love lost seeing it gone.

Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

Unless Wizards gives us a bunch of insane Changelings, Karrthus will likely never be played again. No Valiant Changeling, no swarm of dragons, no Pyre of Heroes or Yorion all compound to send our former kill condition into retirement. Rather than being hopeful for him seeing play, I wanted to give him a duly-deserved sendoff. Rest in peace, stealer of Murktide Regents.