I’m honoured to be able to present to you one of the coolest cards that ManaDeprived.com has had the pleasure of ever spoiling. Welcome Myth Realized!
Let’s just jump into what I believe could be applications for the card!
Standard
For Standard, the first deck I can see Myth Realized jumping straight into is Jeskai Tokens. Ever since Yuuya Watanabe showcased the deck at Worlds, the Jeskai Tokens deck went from being one of the top two most popular decks in the format to disappearing completely from the metagame.
Players realized that the deck had a high variance of power. It was amazing when you had Jeskai Ascendancy in play but not so much when it didn’t. It was also a deck that suffered against well-prepared decks packing a healthy amount of black hate in [card]Bile Blight[/card] and [card]Drown in Sorrow[/card]. The Tokens deck simply plays too many X/2s for you to ever be able to sideboard out a reasonable number of them when you want that option.
Sample Jeskai Tokens List
[deck]
[Lands]
3 Battlefield Forge
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Mountain
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Plains
3 Shivan Reef
2 Temple of Epiphany
4 Temple of Triumph
[/Lands]
[Spells]
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Jeskai Charm
2 Lightning Strike
1 Outpost Siege
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Valorous Stance
3 Wild Slash
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Seeker of the Way
1 Soulfire Grand Master
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Valorous Stance
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Dig Through Time
3 Disdainful Stroke
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 End Hostilities
2 Erase
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Negate
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
Enter Myth Realized.
Myth Realized gives the deck a one-drop that can grow itself large enough to dodge all the previously mentioned black removal spells. [card]Crux of Fate[/card] is also not a safe answer for your opponent to have.
Another possible home for Myth Realized is in a control deck where it allows you to play a cheap threat while holding up enough mana for countermagic on the same turn. On later turns, if your opponents don’t cast anything, you can use your unused mana to keep growing the Myth Realized monk at the end of their turns.
Modern
For Modern, it is apparent that Myth Realized would benefit from being included in the same deck as Delver of Secrets. I don’t think UW Delver is an actual possiblity, so I tried to research for the last time UWR Delver was relevant. I stumbled upon two-time World Champion Shahar Shenhar’s top 8 list from GP Columbus three years ago. He also played the same deck later that year at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica.
UWR Delver by Shahar Shenhar – GP Columbus 2012 Top 8
[deck]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Vapor Snag
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Steppe Lynx
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Unburial Rites
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Molten Rain
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Smash to Smithereens
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
UWR Delver by Shahar Shenhar – Pro Tour Return to Ravnica 2012
[deck]
[Lands]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Eiganjo Castle
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Izzet Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Steppe Lynx
1 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Spell Pierce
1 Disenchant
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Pyroclasm
1 Unburial Rites
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Sowing Salt
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
One of the very first things you can try is to straight up swap out Steppe Lynx for Myth Realized and see how the deck runs. It’s less explosive, but is more consistent and more resilient to removal as it not only dodges sorcery speed removal but can very well grow bigger than even a [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] in a short period of time.
I had discussed this card with close friend Alexander Hayne, so I want to end this section by crediting him for giving me brain food to write this part of the article. He also mentioned to me that he feels this card might be super sweet in Vintage where there’s a lot more access to powerful cheap spells to get Myth Realized going as quickly as possible.
Limited
One of my first impressions of Myth Realized was that it would be a very strong card in Limited. It’s cheap so it can be played at any point in your curve and it is scalable which allows it to be relevant in different parts of the game. You topdeck this card during a board stall late in the game? Sink all your mana into this and make it an extremely relevant threat!
However, it is really slow when you compare it to similar older cards like [card]Chimeric Mass[/card]. With [card]Chimeric Mass[/card], every single mana you invest in it gives you more power. With Myth Realized, you are going to have to pay 2W for each counter instead.
The lack of evasion also makes it so that the new dragon monuments are likely better late-game cards than Myth Realized, so now we have to ask ourselves in what type of deck can we maximize the power of an early resolved Myth Realized.
Myth Realized is essentially a prowess creature except that it gets to keep the extra power and toughness forever. Since Dragons of Tarkir is meant to be drafted with Fate Reforged, Myth Realized is clearly at its best in some sort of UW Prowess deck that contains multiple copies of [card]Soul Summons[/card] and [card]Write into Being[/card]. A curve of Myth Realized into [card]Soul Summons[/card] into [card]Write into Being[/card] is obviously very strong.
Because the power level of Myth Realized is so dependent on the configuration of your deck and how many non-creature spells your deck plays, it is very unlikely that Myth Realized is going to be a happy first pick in your upcoming drafts with the new set, so don’t fall into the trap of first picking this because it is a rare unless you really want to try it out.
And with that, I hope you enjoyed this preview article and I want to thank Wizards for allowing me to spoil this special card on my 30th birthday.
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.