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By: kelvinmai, Kelvin Mai
Jun 26 2014 12:00pm
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There comes a time in every Magic player's life where they see a card that they must play with! Unfortunately as a deck builder there will always be too many decks but not enough time to play them all. Here's a list of cards from Return to Ravnica that I wish I played with when they first came out: Progenitor Mimic, Plasm Capture, and of course the big one Unexpected Results. I really wish I was able to Unexpect Borborygmos and Enter the Infinite while that combo was still possible. But it's ok because there's still time to play with these toys, and I'm going to make use of that time.

Unexpected Results

Progenitor Mimic

Unlike most Johnnies and Brewers I wasn't massively excited by Unexpected Results when it came out in Gatecrash. I was much more excited to see Plasm Capture and Progenitor Mimic when Dragon's Maze finally released. Cloning a Zegana and drawing infinite cards, now that was something I wanted to do. But sadly I never got around to it, luckily standard still has all these cards so let's get onto the deck and the absurd things it could do!

The first thing you'll notice is that even though I talked about Prime Speaker Zegana, she isn't included. Why's that? Well her size is not very reliable in a deck like this, she belongs somewhere with more creatures. Ok onto the deck; twenty four lands, eight mana dorks and both Urban Evolution and Kiora allows you to play extra land drops on your turn and even a counterspell that gives you mana, so yeah you can definitely say it's a ramp deck. But what in the world do we do with all that mana? Well the answer is that each one of the threats are either expensive costing at least 6 or they are a great mana sink.

Okay now that you're hyped up by the deck's preview, let's get into the nitty gritty and talk in depth about it. So the deck is obviously ramp, but it has a midrange/control side to it as well. Urban Evolution gives you the card advantage of a control deck, while not as good as Sphinx's Revelation or even Opportunity it gets the job done and it's second clause fits extremely well with the ramp qualities of this deck. Dissolve and Cyclonic Rift will protect you from whatever they are up to, whereas Plasm Capture does the same thing but also helps you cast things on the following turn.

Speaking of things to cast, let's get into the threats. AEtherling belongs in all blue decks that have access to a lot of mana so he's an automatic include. On top of his inclusion, he makes a great mana sink and you actually get to use your mana every turn with him as he often takes up 5 mana each turn to be effective. Polukranos, World Eater is our other mana sink, one of the best 4 drop creature in all of standard and effectively our only source of destruction he becomes one of the most valuable creatures. Now we have Sylvan Primordial which in addition to his huge size and reach (easily takes care of an annoying little dragon we all know and love) he also comes with a built in Bramblecrush so you can blow up lands, enchantments and planeswalkers which are running rampant on magic tables. Since my last deck was Reanimator I absolutely fell in love with him and I'm glad to have him here as well. And of course last but not least is the super clone Progenitor Mimic. This clone will be good in all situations, making a Primordial or a Gray Merchant every turn can quickly end the game. Even if all you have to clone is a Caryatid you'll quickly end up with more mana than you know what to do with.

Unexpected Results

Now let's get to the star of the deck, Unexpected Results. Green is the color that gets to cheat a little bit in terms of spells during a certain turn because of its ramp. Playing a spell a turn early has always been its greatest advantage such as Domri on turn 2, Xenagos or Polukranos on turn 3. Being this fast usually guarantees the game in their favor. But what Unexpected Results does is lets you have a 7 drop on turn 3, imagine you unexpect into a Sylvan Primordial, you get to have a 6/8 with 4 lands out while they're stuck on 1 or 2 lands with nothing they could do. Of course this is best case scenario, and the way this list is laid out almost anything you unexpect into will be in your favor. Even getting a land is good in most cases, especially early game. But of course there's always a downside so here are the things you don't want to unexpect into: any of the counterspells and a clone into an empty battlefield. Other than that then you're golden!

Other Options

Worldspine Wurm

Now the first big missing piece is a green staple, Courser of Kruphix, which should definitely find it's way in but I just couldn't find any room for him. What other things do you want to do with an unexpected results deck? Well I'm not saying my deck is the definitive best way to build it so you can definitely play around with the threat selection. Maybe you want to include the insanely large Worldspine Wurm or really want to make it work with Prime Speaker Zegana, you definitely could and I'm not stopping you. But I can suggest cards for sideboard. What I would do is make it a transformational sideboard and take out the Unexpected Results to add more control elements and win in the long game. Maybe using cards like Curse of the Swine, Swan Song and Ratchet Bombs. Obviously this would make Cyclonic Rift a lot stronger so I'd fill out the set. Since we are now treating this as a ramp/control deck post-board I'd add some Syncopate, maybe 1 or 2 Opportunity as well as a second AEtherling. But of course the rest is up to you.

Third Color?

Ral Zarek

Simic too bland for you? Wanna branch out? Well you're best bets would definitely be BUG and RUG. With black you get the typical control package like Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall which are usually better than the counterspells to unexpect into. As for threats you can go with Sepulchral Primordial and Nightveil Specter both of which get to steal things and the specter actually becomes a good mana sink if you steal enough things. RIse of the Dark Realms, one of my pet cards, as well as Worst Fears make great big splashy black cards that you can include in this deck. In addition to those two desired effects Liliana of the Dark Realms could easily fit in as she will guarantee you lands as long as you could fit in enough swamps for her, unfortunately her two negative effects become much more diluted with the use of scry lands. As for RUG you get to have Kiora and Ral date! Ral Zarek adds even more ramp to the deck with his plus ability. And Ruric Thar is back breaking for some decks to see on turn 4 so he'll be the first creature to include. You can even include the Borborygmos and Enter the Infinite combo, but I would be very afraid of including Enter in a deck like this. 

Thank you for taking the time to inspect my creation. This is one of the most fun  decks that I put together to play and I hope you guys have just as much fun piloting this monstrosity as well. Remember nothing beats a turn 3 Sylvan Primordial! Hopefully that experience will happen to each and every one of you. And as always thanks for tuning in and come back next time when I try something new and hopefully just as exciting.