The aforementioned Jank is brought to you by BDC and The Magic Tavern
I’m always looking for a card or combo of cards to wear the hell out of. But, as long as I’m finding ways to make the card work, I’ll keep brewing it. Thus is the case of the Mace of the Valiant.
This cards had my eye for some time. It seems easy enough on the forefront. But, as I’ve found, most often the cards that look simple are nothing of the sort. And this is definitely the truth with the Mace of the Valiant.
All you have to do is get it on the field and, then, roll out as many creatures as humanly possible. It puts a +1/+1 for every creature entering the field. Then, it costs three to equip.
It ramps hard and fast and becomes a roaming creature. Unless they have Artifact removal (and most don’t) it defies death cards and exile (unless it targets permanents). They can kill it multiple times and it only cost three to put it on another creature.
The question is, of course, how to go about this. I went about this several ways.
THASSA THOPTER ROMP
I think this is the third ‘jank’ in a row that I’ve found a way to work Thassa, Deep Dwelling in. That bounce affect every turn is just so simply powerful with the right cards. And so it is with Historic Thopter decks.
It doesn’t take many cards for Thassa to exploit. For this deck, the main cards to bounce are Aviation Pioneer and Maverick Thopterist. Add Sharding Sphynx to generate more thopters. Of course include actual thopter cards like Skyscanner, Hope of Ghirapur and Ornithopter.
Of course, for Historic, at least, the King of Thopters is Dovin, Grand Arbiter.
He can make a thopter and gain one life with his minus one. But his plus one is quite handy and, using flying creatures like thopters, he can ramp himself into his own ultimate!
Dovin’s minus seven ultimate gives you three of the top ten cards from your library into your hand. This is resource if you run against some resistance.
Also, for extra bounce, add Yorion either as companion or in deck.
HISTORIC TOKEN RAMP
I have found that if you’re going to do tokens that Historic is the way to go. There are so many ways to create instant ready creatures and ramp that Mace. Sworn Companions, Raise the Alarm, Queen’s Commission, Omen of the Sun and Rally for the throne, I felt, were best because they make more than one token. I added in Usher of the Fallen from Kaldhiem because of that boast ability. That way you can make multiple tokens with it.
CUBWARDEN/BROODMOTH COMBO
This build was harder than most of them. As you can see on the video above me, I never got to Scute Swarm which I did build into most of the decks. It was the first thought I had when I saw the Mace. But the above build made use of the mutate ability of the Cubwarden to not only ramp tokens, but make those lovely 1/1 cats with lifelink. This will increase the power of the Mace and help ramp your life total by equipping it onto the Cubwarden which has lovely lifelink.
I added the Luminous Broodmoth which reanimates those dying creatures into flying tokens. You could mutate the Cubwarden onto those tokens or continue to equip the ramped Mace onto them.
MAJA FINALLY GETS THE SCUTE SWARM GOING!
I tooled around and finally got a build that utilized the Scute Swarm to ramp the Mace. As stated before, I thought all along that the pesky little Scute bug would do the trick! I mean, creating tokens exponentially with every landfall. It couldn’t NOT work!
But, the bugs were NOT alone!
I found use for Maja, Bretagard Protector! It gives all other creatures including all of the tokens Maja and Scutebug makes an extra +1/+1.
Not only that, but, although it doesn’t state it on the card, it has a landfall ability too. For every land that ‘falls’, you create a 1/1 token. I basically inundated the filed with tokens to the extent that they HAD to give up
I had included some of the usual suspects from token making Historic: Conclave Guildmage, Assure//Assemble, Emmara, soul of the Accord and March of the Multitudes. Although they did not feature in the video.
Two other cards that came up time and time again were Leonin Warleader and Angelic Ascension. The Warleader has become a staple in the meta since they dropped them into Arena Standard again. Every time it attacks, it makes two other 1/1 tokens with lifelink that are attacking. This not only ramps the attack and your life total, but also ups the power of the Mace!
Angelic Ascension is a lovely tool to ramp those cheap tokens into a flying 4/4 angelic threat! I’m not sure why no one’s using it.
ELEMENTAL MACE HASTE
The last stop on the token express is express tokens. And there are no faster tokens than Elemental tokens. They are sudden. They are damaging. And, then, just as quickly, they are gone. Most would pass on these temporary creatures. But there is something aluring about their quickness. You can’t prepare for them. Even when you are expecting them, they are dangerously difficult to defend against. So, of course, I had to build it.
I started with the cheapest and considerably weakest of the Chandra planeswalkers; Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.
You will probably need four of them in a deck; not just for accessibility, but for replacement. For, although it has an engine to actually put loyalty counters on it, if not protected, it won’t last long.
If you get the loyalty counters going, that minus two could be handy in some builds. But that’s not my concern here. I’m just after those tasty, hasted Elementals that appear once a turn and help ramp the Mace.
Scampering Scorcher is a strong help in this deck. It ramps the Mace not once but three times for each casting. Add Phylath, World Sculptor to real out those wonderful plant tokens and ramp them with the Landfall. This is just another wonderful token maker for the Mace. I also included Young Pyromancer, but the build I used didn’t have enough instants or sorceries in it.
THE PROTECTION OF WHITE
The lucky thing is that you have to include white mana to run Mace of the Valiant. And it gives you opportunity to include the wonderful shut down that white brings. For the protection of any of these decks, cards like Banishing Light and Pacifism will keep your opponent busy while you ramp the Mace. And (one of my personal favorites) Light of Hope will be there to gain much need life, ramp with counters or add that much needed enchantment removal.
So there it is. Use your imaginations and get your Brew on. I would be interested to see what some of you will do with this info. Let us know in the comments or hit us up on social media.
AoE Table Top 