Last week we went over our options for building a Standard deck with Magda, Brazen Outlaw; the one card from Kaldheim that could reignite Dwarf Tribal. Now, we’re going to look into Historic. Of course, all of the cards we talked about last week are all one the table for an Historic deck.
Now there are many Dwarves to chose from in Historic. I’m not going to cover all of them; only the ones I think have the best synchronicity with Magda. All the ones I found to be helpful came from Kaladesh. Now, you could build toward vehicles since the Kaladesh set focused a bit on them. But I’m going a more general route. First, we have a perfect card for Dwarf tribal; Depala, Pilot Exemplar.
It ramps all the other Dwarves +1/+1 and, if you DO chose to go with vehicles, the card ramps those when they are creatures. But it’s the last ability that interests me. The whole idea with Magda is to tap your dwarves any way you can; whether by attacking or some card ability. Depla rewards you also. If you tap it, you have an avenue to search your library for a Dwarf or, even, a Vehicle.
Along with this excellent addition, I found three others who have strong connections to Magda. Renegade Wheelsmith has another great benefit for tapping. Every time you do, it keeps target creature from blocking. Whether you go equipments, Vehicles or both, Toolcraft Exemplar gains ramp temporarily for owning one of them. And, if you control three or more, it gets first strike. And, lastly, Restoration Specialist gives you the ability to return one of your artifacts AND one of your enchantments from your graveyard to your hand. And do this as many times as you can spend a planes. If your engine builds those treasure tokens like it should, you should have plenty of mana to spend on this.
But I think if I were to build this in historic, I might look for some work arounds. I would still have plenty of equipments, dwarves and maybe vehicles, but I believe there’s something to be said for building some enchantments and wincons that can get us there faster.
First Enchantment that comes to mind is Smothering Tithe. It is the quintessential Treasure token maker. And to that Revel in Riches. This card will give you value in losing some of those Dwarven attackers. You attack and get a Treasure token. If you die, you get a treasure token. And if you control 10 of said tokens, you win. I think this will work well with Magda and her treasure engine. Adding black to the red/white mix, gives us opportunity to use Offspring’s Revenge. When beginning that all important combat phase, you can exile a creature card from the graveyard and have another dwarf attacking and tapped. That way, you can make use of your graveyard. It doesn’t cost any more and the more of this enchantment you can get out the merrier.
And speaking of getting value out of your dead dwarves, you could add Pitiless Plunder. I think, if you’re going to add a non-dwarven creature, this human pirate is it. He never really has to attack; just sit back and rake in the Treasure as the Dwarves sacrifice themselves for Magda’s glory.
If you don’t like the idea of all of those dead dwarves, you’re going to need to protect them. What better way than to give them indestructible. Angelic Guardian would be the protector they need. She’s expensive but every time that army of Dwarven Bandits attack, she’s there to protect them.
But don’t fret. If you don’t like the cost of this high maintenance angel, there are plenty of cheaper ways to drop indestructible on one or more of your dwarves.
But the two best for the job actually protects the whole bandit clan and not just a ‘target creature’. Both of them cost two and one white mana but Make a Stand and Unbreakable Formation do drop in and protect all of your creatures which will add great value to your attacking, treasure taking dwarves.
For the equipment, there’s not much change from the Standard deck. You could use a great many of them, but I’m really wanting to use Embercleave, The Sword of the Realms and Toralf’s Hammer. IF I were to add one equipment from the old sets, it would be Helm of the Host from Dominaria. Making copies to add to the attack (and tapping) should be right up your alley here.
On last possible non-Dwarven creature addition suggestion would be Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker. This card can give you extra protection on your equipments and keep them in your hand and out of the grave yard.
Man, Kaldheim is just around the corner and I cannot wait to actually get down into the trenches, brew and grind. Let us know in the comments below what you’re planning to do with Magda. Catch up on our facebook page, when we hit 600 likes we’re giving away another Zendikar Rising Foil Promo Packs! So go by THE MAGIC TAVERN on fb, like the page and tag a friend! Until next time!
AoE Table Top 