Ever After is an insane Magic: The Gathering card.

In the modern era of Magic, we’re lucky to get a decent reanimation spell for 4 mana. More recently, the bar has seen to be set at 5 mana. For 6, [card]Ever After[/card] effectively nets you two spells for 75% of the cost.

This may not seem like much, but it’s enormous.

So, how can we break this? In older formats, you can start by looking at 2 creature-card-combos like [card]Reflector Mage[/card] and Kiki-Jiki, but I’ve been turned off to older formats since WOTC decided to remove Modern form the Pro Tour (don’t ask, still fuming). While Standard doesn’t seem to offer any “Instant Win” combos ([card]Eldrazi Displacer[/card] and [card]Brood Monitor[/card] would still need [card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/card] for example) it does offer some intriguing possibilities. We could go for utility, we could go for awesome enters the battlefield interactions ([card]Dragonlord Atarka[/card] and [card]Dragonlord Kolaghan[/card] was an early favorite), or we could reach further into our bag of tricks for something… nasty.

Let’s put 20 power on the board for 6 mana, shall we?

[deck title=Travis Hall –Magic Marriage]

[Lands]

4 Hissing Quagmire

4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Drownyard Temple

1 Blighted Fen

2 Evolving Wilds

6 Forest

4 Swamp

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Sylvan Advocate

2 Den Protector

4 Tireless Tracker

2 Catacomb Sifter

1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

4 Thought-Knot Seer

2 The Gitrog Monster

4 Woodland Bellower

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Vessel of Nascency

4 Ever After

3 Ultimate Price

1 Spatial Contortion

1 Ruinous Path

1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

3 Duress

2 Transgress the Mind

3 Languish

3 Virulent Plague

1 Ruinous Path

1 Netcaster Spider

1 Caustic Caterpillar

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

While the deck finds its center with [card]Ever After[/card], this is just as much a [card]Woodland Bellower[/card] brew. Fetching up [card]Sylvan Advocate[/card] gives you at least 10 power (not counting the boost it may give [card]Hissing Quagmire[/card]s hiding in your land pile) across 2 creatures, both of which are immune to the most attractive mass removal spell in the format right now, [card]Languish[/card]. Cast [card]Ever After[/card] with two [card]Woodland Bellower[/card]s in the graveyard and you suddenly have a board presence big enough to kill your opponent in one swing.

If you have a surplus of clues, or you have a land or two to drop, you can fetch [card]Tireless Tracker[/card].

You can fetch [card]Catacomb Sifter[/card] if you want some extra blockers. Early builds even had [card]Duskwatch Recruiter[/card] (a card it still may be correct to include as a 1-of).

In the board, you can fetch [card]Caustic Caterpillar[/card] to deal with [card]Fevered Visions[/card], [card]Always Watching[/card], or [card]Pyromancer’s Goggles[/card].



[card]Vessel of Nascency[/card] fills your graveyard (though you’ll often just fill it with Advocates and Trackers through gameplay, both of which are fine to return with [card]Ever After[/card] as well). In the first build I used [card]Gather the Pack[/card], but I found the deck a little land hungry, and the Vessel does a good job of finding the needed land while also providing the versatility of picking a creature if that’s your fancy.

Once you add the Vessel, you add a couple of [card]Drownyard Temple[/card]. One you add a couple [card]Drownyard Temple[/card] you notice that [card]The Gitrog Monster[/card] would fit in there as a great 5 drop that’s also nuts to return with [card]Ever After[/card]. And then you go to 4 [card]Drownyard Temple[/card], and notice that you’re running a ton of colorless mana sources, so maybe [card]Thought-Knot Seer[/card] would be another good creature on the curve that is fantastic to return (stealing whatever they have to answer your [card]Ever After[/card]). You see how this just flows into itself? It kind of plays that way too.

Overall, this is a fun deck that packs a wallop.

If you like my suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter: @travishall456. I throw around random observations and deck ideas every day.