Imagine this: You are a Magic player, playing the Old School format.
Probably not too much of a stretch of the imagination, I guess?
Then imagine this: Wizards of the Coast – in all their greatness – announce that they have found a small handful of cards from the Legends expansion, that somehow never saw print. (Maybe a bit more of a stretch, but only a little, so follow).
Now they plan to print said cards and update the official list of Legends cards, which means that these cards are now legal in the Old School format.
The cards all have the same text. They are sorceries and they read like this:
“You get three counters. As an instant you can remove a counter to deal one damage to any target.”
The cards have casting costs of 1U, 1B and UU.
Would you play this card?
I bet you would, because this would be a very good card. It is also somewhat problematic rules-, games mechanics- and text-wise but I hope you understand what the cards are supposed to do here.
Yes, it will cost you two mana. Yes it can’t be cast as an instant. Yes, Lightning Bolt is a hell of a card. But these cards that Wizards found just have such an impressive versatility to them. You can kill a Savannah Lion or two, and still have counter(s) to show. It gets difficult for the opponent to activate his Factory. Your opponent is always on three less life points than what his dice shows etc.
Of course these cards do not exist, and for good reason. But there is a way to do something that looks a bit like abovementioned cards. It should come as the least surprise that I am talking about Triskelion. More specifically I am talking about cards that function well with Triskelion. Cards that almost read as the text in italics above. But only almost.
Making as many robot trikes as possible!
These are the culprits in question. Obviously these are not two-mana Triskelions. Nothing is, really. Not even in the modern card sphere, has the power creep quite gotten to two-mana Trisks.
Yet.
And to be honest, it would probably not be a lot of fun if we had two-mana Triskelions to play with. There are simply things that we are not yet ready for.
But we are not people to listen to good advice: We want to field all the Trikes possible for as little a cost possible. And the above-pictured cards are a way to do exactly that.
But why do we want a lot of big, stupid robots with detachable arms?
Because they are possibly one of the most versatile cards in the entire format.
Let me back that with an argument or two. Triskelion is:
A potent attacker with four power
A decent blocker with four toughness
A removal spell for one to three creatures
A game-ending burn spell
A non-Swords to Plowshareable creature (ish)
It even has an easy (albeit high) casting cost
And finally; Unless your robot gets countered, it will always at least be a very expensive Lightning Bolt to the face of the opponent.
This is a lot for a single card. In a game where card advantage, adaption and versatility is everything, this is the recipe for a great card. In a format where card advantage and potent creatures are very few and far between, this is even more great.
So why is this not a staple in all old school decks? Every deck that can produce mana, can cast it.
If it can produce enough mana, that is. The obvious downside about Triskelion is the steep investment, you have to commit to play it.
But even if your opponent handles your Triskelion, it is in your graveyard. Which is just another opportunity…
Building Trike-centric decks
Yeah, I have been loving Triskelion for years now. I know I am not alone. What is not to like?
In the last year or so, I have played a lot of different builds of decks, that to some degree is centered around chaining Trisks.
And that is exactly the point. What do we want to achieve when playing Trike Tribal? As many trikes in all forms, shapes and colors as possible.
There are several ways to build this, and as mentioned Triskelion is such an impressively versatile card, that it can be played in both aggro- and control shells. It is even sometimes used as secondary finishers in combo decks.
In the three decks I want to show today, we don’t have any real combo decks, even though it sometimes feels like one is playing sort of combo, when chaining three to six iterations of the big Trike. Yes, I have managed to attack and shoot someone for 18 damage almost out of nowhere. Yay! Trike!
Anyway. The first deck, I have for you today, is the most boring one – and in no way anything I can take any credit for. It is really just a black-blue-white robots deck with a few more of our favorite Trisk-copying or Trike-reanimating cards.
As mentioned, it is a really straight-forward and rather tier1-ish kind of deck. Not too much to my liking because of all the great white cards, but probably something I would consider playing, if I was going to a tournament and was trying to win a lot of games.
But one can also remove some of those boring, great white cards and those mana-efficient artifact beaters and replace them with cards that can create even more Triskelions!
You scanned that correctly (despite the horrible picture-quality). That is a deck with 17 ways to make Triskelions. The dream, I tell you!
And what is even better, you can even Remove Enchantments your Copy Artifacts, Dance of Manies and Animate Deads to do it all again. So many +1/+1 counters. Such an insane amount of possible pings to the face of your opponent! Really, it is everything one could ever dream of…
Or is it? It seems like something is somehow lacking. Many of the best parts are tingling, but… Something just seems off. We need… Draw. Yes! We need more possibilities to draw cards, and we certainly need a lot more drama, a lot more insanity, a lot less white cards.
We need Verduran Enchantresses!
And Sindbad.
And so, I present to you, a deck that is on my all-time top5 most enjoyable decks to play. It may not be the best deck I can assemble. It may not be the most uncomplicated deck to fool around with. But it is all of this:
This basically hits all sweet spots available. All of them! I even jammed a Candelabra in there for shenanigans with Factories and Copy Artifacts as well as the Mazes.
This is a deck that really thrives in the long game, where the opponent does not spend too much time wreaking havoc on the draw engine in Sindbad and our Noble Forest Lady. Once they get going, it is a deck that really draws some cards. Into what? Triskelions of course. Or you throw them in the bin with Sindbad, only to Animate them right back. So many synergies! So much greatness all around. It is really a big joy to play this thing.
Okay. That was just some lines on the greatness that is Triskelion. And the card that makes more copies of that big, stupid robot hit the board. Please play some more Animate Dead and Copy Artifact (and to a smaller degree Dance of Many, but still…)
Have a great one!
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