Check out a few decks to get the brew juices flowin!
Deck Tech: Reanimator with Combo Pivots
This deck is built around a core Reanimator strategy, leveraging cards like Entomb, Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Shallow Grave to cheat massive threats like Griselbrand, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and Archon of Cruelty into play as early as turn one. Disruption in the form of Unmask, Cabal Therapy, and Thoughtseize helps clear the way, while cantrips like Ponder and Preordain keep the engine consistent. The deck can also pivot into an alternate combo line with Chain of Smog and Witherbloom Apprentice, allowing for an instant-speed win through storm-like loops. Flexible spells like Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal fuel both primary and alternate win conditions, making the list explosive and hard to disrupt.
What sets this build apart is its modular sideboard that supports combo pivoting. If the graveyard plan is hated out, the deck can shift into a Painter's Servant + Grindstone combo, or use Sneak Attack as another way to cheat fatties into play without relying on reanimation. This transformation allows the deck to stay aggressive against slower opponents or adapt into a midrange/control hybrid with answers like Abrupt Decay, Flame of Anor, and Strategic Betrayal. With these pivots, the deck maintains resilience and unpredictability, making it a potent weapon in any singleton metagame.
Deck Tech: UWx Stoneblade Control
This deck is a UWx Stoneblade-style control build with a strong equipment subtheme and a mix of efficient interaction, card selection, and resilient threats. At its core, it plays like a classic blue-based control deck, with staples like Force of Will, Brainstorm, Ponder, Snapcaster Mage, and Swords to Plowshares enabling card advantage and tempo plays. The addition of Stoneforge Mystic alongside Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, and Buster Sword creates a powerful tutor package that can end games quickly once control is established. Cloud, Midgar Mercenary and Triumph of Saint Katherine provide midgame board presence, while True-Name Nemesis and Vendilion Clique bring evasive pressure and disruption.
The sideboard allows the deck to pivot into a more aggressive, midrange equipment deck or lean into pure control. Cards like Baneslayer Angel, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Assimilation Aegis offer alternative win conditions and late-game inevitability. Tools like Flusterstorm, Blue Elemental Blast, and Negate shore up the stack-based matchups, while Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Containment Priest give strong graveyard interaction. Equipment-specific tools like Cryptic Coat, Dissection Tools, and Deconstruction Hammer support Stoneforge pivots, allowing you to sidestep traditional control paths and go for quicker kills when needed.
Deck Tech: Mono Red Burn
This list is a Red Burn deck, optimized for raw speed, reach, and punishing greedy mana bases. It leans into the traditional burn strategy with hyper-efficient spells like Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, and Skewer the Critics, while supporting them with flexible threats like Monastery Swiftspear, Slickshot Show-Off, and Goblin Guide. Cards like Fireblast, Price of Progress, and Flame Rift offer high-risk, high-reward closers that can end games quickly, while Light Up the Stage and Needle Drop keep the fuel flowing. With cards like Grim Lavamancer and Violent Urge, the deck also gains incremental value that helps it push through slower, grindier matchups.
The sideboard gives the deck several ways to pivot based on matchup needs. Against combo and control, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Roiling Vortex, and Red Elemental Blast increase the pressure while Mindbreak Trap gives surprise interaction. Against graveyards or creature recursion, Leyline of the Void and Ashen Rider can swing tempo. Null Rod, Pithing Needle, and Alpine Moon disable problematic permanents, while Ensnaring Bridge gives a way to play defensively if forced into a long game. The inclusion of Fury and Pyroclasm supports creature-based meta defense, while Dragon’s Claw gives you game against other burn decks. The deck remains focused but flexible, always ready to pivot — or just go face.