Gifts of the Gods

With the "Gifts of the Gods" deck, use your versatile enchantment creatures to either deploy a large force or power up one mighty creature to topple your opponents.

Bestow is an ability found on some enchantment creatures that allows you to cast the card it's on as either a creature or an Aura. If the creature it's enchanting leaves the battlefield, an Aura with bestow turns into a creature instead of going to your graveyard. Bestow allows you to build up multiple different abilities on one creature, and some combinations are deadly effective. Thassa's Emissary and Flitterstep Eidolon, for example, will allow you to make an unblockable creature that draws you a card each time it deals combat damage to your opponent.

Griptide and Excoriate are great for clearing out creatures that are giving you trouble. Floodtide Serpent allows you to get multiple uses out of your enchantments that have abilities that trigger when they enter the battlefield. Silent Sentinel allows you to return enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield when it attacks.

Building up lots of abilities on a single creature is a great path to victory. Fiendslayer Paladin from the Magic 2014 set comes with first strike and lifelink, so it's a great choice if you're looking for a creature to enchant.

If you're looking for more bestow creatures, it's hard to get better than Eidolon of Countless Battles from the Born of the Gods set. Its power and toughness—and the power and toughness bonuses it grants to the creature it enchants—are each equal to the number of creatures and Auras you control, which is usually going to be a big number!

Creatures with the inspired mechanic have abilities that trigger when they become untapped, offering great rewards to anyone willing to find creative ways to tap and untap them.

Attacking your opponent is the easiest way to get your creatures tapped, but this deck also has other ways to get your creatures tapped. Black Oak of Odunos lets you tap your creatures to give it a boost. It's a tool for holding off your opponent's forces while making sure you're able to trigger all of your inspired creatures each turn. Springleaf Drum is an artifact that gives you mana at the cost of tapping a creature.

There are plenty of benefits you can get from creatures with inspired. Deepwater Hypnotist can give a creature -3/-0 to make that creature a less effective blocker, allowing you to continue your assault. Aerie Worshippers and Forlorn Pseudamma will overwhem your opponent with token creatures if the game goes long enough. If you can untap Arbiter of the Ideal, you'll be able to look at the top card of your library—and if it's an artifact, creature, or land, you can put it onto the battlefield for free.

Untapping is an integral part of Magic, so there are plenty of directions to go when you're looking for cards to add. The Born of the Gods card Claim of Erebos is an Aura that grants one of your creatures a powerful ability. Thassa, God of the Sea from the Theros set has an activated ability that keeps your creatures from being blocked, letting you keep up the assault.

The "Death's Beginning" deck focuses on building up a massive graveyard and playing creatures that grow stronger based on the size of your graveyard. Whether it's Commune with the Gods filling your graveyard and helping you find giant monsters or Nighthowler growing larger for each creature in either graveyard, this deck has no shortage of powerful punches. Eater of Hope gives you yet another way to fill both graveyards: by sacrificing your own creatures to destroy your opponent's forces. Even something as fundamental as trading your creatures for your opponent's in combat is an effective way to get more cards in both graveyards and prolong the game.

There are more things to do with a big graveyard than just power up your creatures. Pharika's Mender and March of the Returned will both let you pick and choose which creatures to bring back from your graveyard for an encore performance. The Mender will even let you return enchantments like Weight of the Underworld, which can destroy a second creature. With the right series of plays, Rescue from the Underworld can put the mighty Eater of Hope onto the battlefield earlier than you would normally be able to cast it.

If you want more ways to cast your large creatures quickly, Elvish Mystic from the Magic 2014 core set is a great way to get ahead on mana. If another creature that benefits from filling up graveyards is what you need, Champion of Stray Souls from the Born of the Gods set lets you sacrifice creatures to return your best creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Crash through your opponent's defenses with a combination of heroic creatures, powerful Auras, and instants that enhance your creatures in combat.

A creature with the heroic mechanic gets extra benefits whenever you cast a spell that targets it, whether that spell is an instant, a sorcery, or an Aura. If your opponent has blockers getting in your way, you can tap them with Elite Skirmisher or, better yet, use Akroan Conscriptor to steal one for a turn and add them to your attacking force.

Naturally, you need something to target your creatures with to get them going. Fall of the Hammer lets you target one of your own creatures and have it deal damage equal to its power to another creature—and that includes any +1/+1 counters it gets from its heroic trigger. Dauntless Onslaught and Coordinated Assault are both great ways to completely turn the tides of combat, each allowing you to target multiple creatures.

If you're looking for more heroic creatures, Fabled Hero from the Theros set is a powerful option. Its double strike ability doubles the effect of any power-pumping you have. Anax and Cymede is another great heroic creature if you like building up an army. Its heroic trigger gives your entire team +1/+1 and trample. If you're looking for more ways to target your creatures, Shiv's Embrace from the Magic 2014 core set lets you grant one of your creatures the strength, flight, and fiery breath of a dragon.

The "Insatiable Hunger" deck is based around increasing your mana production to summon a horde of giants, beasts, and hydras to crush your opposition. Many of the creatures in this deck have the new tribute mechanic, which forces your opponent to choose whether your creature enters the battlefield with additional +1/+1 counters or gives you some beneficial effect.

There are a wide range of tribute effects, from Snake of the Golden Grove, a 4/4 that either gains you 4 life or becomes a 7/7, to the gargantuan Nessian Wilds Ravager, a 6/6 that enters the battlefield as a 12/12 unless your opponent is willing to let it fight one of their creatures.

To support your giant monsters, this deck has burn spells like Lightning Strike and Pinnacle of Rage, and even Fall of the Hammer, which deals damage to a creature equal to the power of one of your creatures. Your larger creatures should be able to easily handle most of the forces your opponent deploys in a match, so you may want to save your damage-dealing spells for creatures with flying or intimidate that you can't just stomp in combat.

There are plenty of red and green cards that fit right into this deck. Verdant Haven from the Magic 2014 core set allows you to enchant one of your lands to make it produce extra mana, as well as gaining you some life to survive until you can cast your big creatures. Flame-Wreathed Phoenix from the Born of the Gods set is the king of tribute. Your opponent has to either let you have a giant flying Phoenix . . . or give it haste and allow it to return to your hand if it ever dies!