When the early leaks revealed that cards from Shadows over Innistrad were going to make something called Clue tokens, I was incredibly skeptical. First, this was a new type of token, something that seemed destined to clutter up your board and offer very little relevance. I immediately doubted the leaks and, when Clues were officially spoiled, I thought they would be incredibly clunky in practice and one of the stupidest ideas WOTC ever put on cardboard.
Okay, so, I was wrong.
I love Clues. Love ’em. Me and [card]Tireless Tracker[/card] have become best bros and I’ve actually tweeted to MaRo that I sincerely hope that the conclusion of the “mystery” aspect of the story started in SoI does not mean that we won’t be blessed with more Clue generators in Eldritch Moon.
Also, I’m like 95% sure this solves the contraptions problem and we’ll get [card]Steamflogger Boss[/card] when the next block is revealed to be set in Kaladesh.
But, I digress.
Having fallen in love with Clues, I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to maximize their value in Standard. Starting with a base green deck is a given, as [card]Tireless Tracker[/card] is the easiest and best way to generate a ton of Clues currently available to us. Choosing between blue and white as the secondary color was difficult, but I opted for blue, and the insanity that [card]Erdwal Illuminator[/card] and [card]Ongoing Investigation[/card] can quickly generate.
Finally, I dipped into red. Why? Because, what else are you going to do with a ton of Clue tokens?
[deck title=Travis Hall – Scooby Clues]
[Lands]
3 Evolving Wilds
4 Lumbering Falls
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Wandering Fumarole
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Cinder Glade
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Forest
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Erdwal Illuminator
4 Tireless Tracker
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Whirler Rogue
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Confront the Unknown
4 Ongoing Investigation
3 Weirding Wood
3 Ghirapur Aether Grid
4 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
2 Second Harvest
1 Tamiyo’s Journal
[/Spells]
[/deck]
[card]Ghirapur Aether Grid[/card] has had the temerity to pop up in Modern decks without first seeing Standard play. That’s just something we shall have to remedy. This deck is built to maximize the number of Clues and their usefulness. Once you get 6-7 Clues on the board with an Aether Grid, you can start doming your opponent (or mowing down their creatures, yay for flexibility).
[card]Tamiyo’s Journal[/card] provides an additional means to utilize Clue tokens, though you can often draw into the cards you need via the clues themselves. [card]Second Harvest[/card] can be played to devastating effect once you have enough Clues (or Thopters) available.
[card]Confront the Unknown[/card] acts as a pseudo removal spell that doubles as a late game victory condition. Yes, I have given a Thopter token +20/+20 with this, and it is at least three times as awesome as it sounds.
You also have the tried-and-true standard win-con known as [card]Sylvan Advocate[/card], quite possibly the most important creature in the format. Boosting [card]Wandering Fumarole[/card] and [card]Lumbering Falls[/card] is no joke.
Overall, this deck feels like most decks that feature cards from the first set of a block. It’s exciting, but it may need the second set to fully flesh out the themes and provide enough high impact cards. Still, this is a blast to play.
If you like my suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter: @travishall456. I throw around random observations and deck ideas every day.
Travis Hall is a resident Mana D rogue deck brewer with an unhealthy addiction to Heartless Summoning and Birthing Pod.
