Budget Standard Willbreaker

by Nathangw on 12 August 2015

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (12 cards)

Artifacts (1)


Enchantments (2)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

This deck priced out at just over $13 median at date of creation. It is a control strategy based around Willbreaker and Nantuko Husk. Almost every card has multiple functions in this deck. The goal is to own all of the creatures (or enough to win) and protect Willbreaker.

Frost Lynx helps slow down the opponent, and with Willbreaker it also steals creatures. With Mirror Mockery it does both of those repeatably.

Jeskai Sage and Palace Familiar help you survive the early game as chump blockers, and they also make good sacrifices for Husk. Tower Geist is similar, but it also combos with Mirror Mockery.

Jorubai Murk Lurker gives you some lifegain, but it also gives you instant-speed theft with Willbreaker.

Whirler Rogue is good just on its own, but with Willbreaker it also gives instant-speed theft. And with Mirror Mockery, you can build an army of thopters.

Sidisi doesn't have any special synergies (she's a non-bo with Mirror Mockery), but she's just plain good and can help you put your combos together.

Willbreaker needs no explanation.

Nantuko Husk gives you a solid threat, and since there are so many creatures in your own deck, you don't necessarily need Willbreaker in order for the Husk to beat down. It works well with Whirler Rogue and with Murk Lurker. But it also serves as insurance in case your Willbreaker dies, so that you don't have to give back anything you stole.

Mirror Mockery is pseudo-removal when you aren't using it as a combo on your own creatures. If Willbreaker is in play, it's a Control Magic with benefits (bonus points for stealing a Siege Rhino with it). And even if you used it as pseudo-removal earlier, you can steal the enchanted creature later and it becomes upside (at worst, it might give you extra food for Husk).

Glint protects Willbreaker (or Husk) against almost everything -- damage, targeted removal, Languish. If the opponent finds a way around Glint, they're probably killing everything else in the process. And if you have extra Glints, you can use them to steal.

Triton Tactics gives you a nice early spell to slow down aggressive opponents or protect your creatures, and it also steals 2 creatures at instant speed.

Negate gives you one more way to protect Willbreaker from spells that get around Glint, and it helps against direct burn or unusual strategies like Ensoul Artifact, enchantments, etc.

How to Play

Mizzium Meddler would fit as one of your protection spells, but I didn't add it because Negate is more versatile against spells and Glint and Tritons Tactics can steal creatures. It's debatable whether Meddler is more useful because of its ability to flash as a blocker.

Edit:
The sideboard is now for ideas to update the main deck when Jorubai Murk Lurker, Frost Lynx, and Triton Tactics leave Standard. Of course a real sideboard for this deck would probably focus on ways to beat decks that don't have creatures you can target.

Eyeblight Assassin and Orc Sureshot do similar things in different ways. The Assassin likes Mirror Mockery, and the Sureshot likes a different creature to have Mirror Mockery (especially a Whirler Rogue). They can both help against a weenie horde before you get Willbreaker, but they're not quite as versatile as the creatures we're losing.

Three of the blue instants are sort of replacements for the Frost Lynx ability. Send to Sleep would be better here if its spell mastery was reversed -- super tapping early and normal tapping late. Icy Blast has a similar problem, but our creatures are small so it might be ok.

Refocus sort of replaces Triton Tactics, but the effect is much weaker, and you get card advantage instead.

There are various auras that can steal creatures well (and some that are bad for it, like Claustrophobia), but I like Stratus Walk best of those.

Alchemist's Vial gives you a little help early and a late steal, and it has minor synergy with Whirler Rogue.

Retribution of the Ancients is a weird one here -- it literally does nothing without counters, except target things cheaply. I don't think it's the best choice. Death Wind is like a single shot Retribution, and it can kill a creature in a pinch.

Grave Strength is a greedier option. In a long game, you might end up with a good number of creatures in the graveyard.

Deck Tags

  • Budget Standard
  • Origins standard
  • willbreaker
  • Mirror Mockery

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

2
Likes

This deck has been viewed 4,344 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

039600

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Budget Standard Willbreaker

Really like the idea of this deck. My standard decks really aren't cutting it at the moment so I might give this a go. Thanks!

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Posted 14 August 2015 at 13:27

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You're welcome -- I haven't played it, so it's all theoretical. But I think Willbreaker can be really powerful if you can keep it alive.

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Posted 15 August 2015 at 14:13

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Loving this deck can you do an updated one only using khans fates dragons and origins so I can use it after rotation

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Posted 21 August 2015 at 22:11

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Yeah, probably so -- there aren't many things that need replaced. Thanks for the compliment!

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Posted 25 August 2015 at 16:55

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I added some options in the sideboard and described them in how to play. I don't think they're quite as good as the 3 cards that are dropping from Standard, but I'm sure Battle for Zendikar will bring some other options also. Or you can increase the number of some cards already in the deck. I'll leave it to you to decide the best mix.

Anyone who has tried this deck, I am curious how it performed!

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Posted 27 August 2015 at 17:05

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