Pilot: Bananonymous

The first MTGO league since Neon Dynasty cards have been available had a good showing for the set. There were plenty of vehicles decks, five neon additions to the Enigmatic Fires toolbox deck, a few new aura synergy cards and, course, some artifacts matter decks. This Song of Creation/Thassa’s Oracle deck is one of those artifact decks, but notably only has four slots filled by Neon Dynasty cards: one Otawara, Soaring Sky, one The Reality Chip and two Moonsnare Prototype. The Reality Chip and Moonsnare Prototype seem like enough to have made this combo more viable than it would have been last week, with Otawara being a generally good addition to any blue-heavy deck while also contributing to the combo when necessary and being discounted heavily by the legendary creatures.

Let’s get into the list.

The game-winning combo here, for those who aren’t familiar, rests on Thassa's Oracle. When you resolve the card, its ability goes on the stack. First, it will check your devotion to blue, which will be at least two unless Thassa's Oracle is removed while the ability is on the stack. Your devotion to blue becomes X. You will then look at X cards and put one on top of your library and the rest on the bottom. The real combo, though, is in the second half of the ability, which reads “if X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game”. With an empty library, you will win the game even if Thassa's Oracle is removed, since X=0 and zero is equal to the number of cards in your library. There are two ways to increase your chances of winning the game on spot: increase your devotion to blue and decrease the number of cards in your library. This deck leans into the latter strategy.

Before it was banned, this combo was abused by Inverter of Truth, which emptied your library completely if you had an empty graveyard. This deck looks to empty its library through Song of Creation, low-cost and free spells and The Reality Chip. With Song of Creation down, every spell you cast draws you two cards. With an abundance of mana generation, you’re likely going to be able to play everything you draw for quite awhile.

The Other Cards

I am a big fan of the fail-safes built into this deck (a lot of them as one-ofs). If we put ourselves in a position where we are forced to discard one of our combo pieces to Song of Creation, Bag of Holding will keep it safe until we can get it back for four mana. If it was an artifact like The Reality Chip or Bag of Holding Emry, Lurker of the Loch can get it back (as long as it’s not in the Bag of Holding). If all of our card draw and Witching Well scrying doesn’t get us where we need to be fast enough, Wishclaw Talisman can find the missing piece and then be sacrificed to Deadly Dispute before the opponent has the chance to use it. If one of our combo pieces is targeted for removal or we need to activate it again, Void Snare can help out for one mana, Otawara, Soaring City can be channeled for as much as four mana or as little as one and Moonsnare Prototype can be channeled for as much as five mana or as little as two. All three of those cards double as removal in case the opponent has a Karn, The Great Creator, Narset, Parter of Veils or a big threat down. We also have plenty of ways of bouncing Thassa's Oracle, in case we had to play it out rather than lose it to discard.

Being a new card, I want to highlight Reality Chip and the role it plays in this deck. Besides being an artifact and one blue devotion, looking at the top card of your library is extremely valuable in this archetype, as it can help decide if we really need to play the Wishclaw Talisman and whether or not we can continue comboing off if we draw the next card. Once attached to a creature, we are also able to play that top card, which, of course, helps us get cards out of our library and continue drawing and reaching for our Thassa's Oracle finish.

The Sideboard

The sideboard is built to remove any form of graveyard, card draw and multiple spell hate, with Wilt to remove Rest in Peace, Damping Sphere and Deafening Silence, Fry to deal with Narset, Parter of Veils or either Teferi, Redcap Melee to deal with Karn, The Great Creator (in return for a land) or Eidolon of the Great Revel, Malevolent Hermit and Destiny Spinner for the counterspell matchups, one copy of Cyclonic Rift  to bounce your own stuff or deal with any (or overload: all) threats or hate your opponent has down. There’s also one extra copy of Wishclaw Talisman in the sideboard to make it easier find your necessary sideboard cards in games two and three.

Summary

This deck looks extremely fun to pilot, and should scratch the itch that artifact combo players and former Inverter of Truth players have had for awhile in the Pioneer format. The new cards from Neon Dynasty, though few, absolutely helped this deck make it to the top of a league. Whether this archetype gets to a point where Wizards takes another look at Thassa's Oracle – which many argue was the proper ban target in the Inverter of Truth deck – is to be seen. Until then, have fun with it and go win!

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