Omenpath JourneyOmenpath Journey | Art by Nereida

Reality Fracture is fast approaching, and as I review the sets that build up to it, I had some thoughts I wanted to explore. In the last few years of Magic, Wizards has tied synergies across sets in far more subtle ways. Repeating keywords is all well and good, but printing green-white Mounts, which tap creatures, and then printing Survivors, which have an effect if they’re tapped post-combat, is brilliant design. It’s a very apparent synergy, but because it’s not directly called out, players feel smart for finding it. Their delivery of story in all this has evolved as well, and I was struck with a notion: is there a legend from each of these "Magic years" that can tie together some of those undercurrent themes?

I think so! So here are three quick mini-techs on two recent Standard-legal legends, and a blurb on a third. These initial packages would lean toward Bracket 1 (Exhibition), being very flavor-forward and mostly coming from only four Magic sets each.

Kellan Adventures, Discovers, Sleuths, and Plots…

In 2023, Wilds of Eldraine became the prologue to the on-going narrative, showing a broken and disrupted Eldraine, the courts weak and the wilds strong. There we find the first protagonist who would receive a card for four sets in a row: Kellan. I’ll be picking his three-color iteration from the end of the tale: Kellan, the KidKellan, the Kid.

Kellan, the KidKellan, the Kid is a 3/3 with flying and lifelink. His most relevant text is that whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand (exile, graveyard, top of the library, etc.), you can put onto the battlefield either a land or nonland permanent with a mana value less than the spell being cast. So you’re free-casting or playing extra lands, gaining mana advantages aplenty for this Paradox deck. Here’s the fun thing: every single set of the year has some card which allows a Bant deck to cast cards from somewhere other than the hand.

Wilds of Eldraine has plenty of Adventure cards, but also a few cards that care about the non-hand casting clause. Up the BeanstalkUp the Beanstalk permanently scarred Wizards into making sure to check for mana spent, but Kellan gets a fun reminder of that time he climbed into the realm of the giants to find a way to break the curse on the land. Meanwhile, Extraordinary JourneyExtraordinary Journey is another nice source of card draw while showing the moment he left Eldraine entirely, having broken the curse and found out about his missing father: Oko, Thief of CrownsOko, Thief of Crowns.

Kellan takes a backseat during Lost Caverns of Ixalan and Murders at Karlov Manor — he’s doing some exploring and sleuthing, some preliminary levelling up before he can take on the final boss of his arc. There are still some Paradox mechanics in both. Discover is mostly in red, but there’s the Hidden cycle of Cave lands and Chimil, the Inner SunChimil, the Inner Sun. Including those Caves makes it a simple matter to bring in the rest available, as well as some ways to synergize or search them up, like SpelunkingSpelunking or Glimpse the CoreGlimpse the Core. Kellan, Daring TravelerKellan, Daring Traveler will Walk with the AncestorsWalk with the Ancestors, flirt with a vampire (sadly with a black color identity), and make his way to Ravnica.

There, Kellan, Inquisitive ProdigyKellan, Inquisitive Prodigy helps with Kaya and Proft’s Officious InterrogationOfficious Interrogation, Analyze the PollenAnalyze the Pollen until they’re On the TrailOn the Trail and ultimately make the Dramatic AccusationDramatic Accusation against the killer and find what’s Buried in the GardenBuried in the Garden... Okay, yeah, there are just a lot of utility cards here, but also Case of the Uneaten FeastCase of the Uneaten Feast and Case of the Locked HothouseCase of the Locked Hothouse let us cast spells from either our graveyard or the top of our library, and that’s neat!

Finally, Kellan makes his way to Thunder Junction. There are a lot of solid plot cards here, like Slickshot LockpickerSlickshot Lockpicker (two triggers for Kellan!) and Make Your Own LuckMake Your Own Luck. On the plane, he is finally reunited with Oko, the RingleaderOko, the Ringleader, who’s about to Plan the HeistPlan the Heist into an ancient Fomori stash, but first they’ll need to Seize the SecretsSeize the Secrets as to the location of The Key to the VaultThe Key to the Vault. They’ll face a Betrayal at the VaultBetrayal at the Vault as Kellan realizes his dad is a total jerk, and then the colleague they believe to be Ashiok turns out to be Jace ReawakenedJace Reawakened, who steals what they thought was theirs and makes his escape.

This is a value-town kind of deck, but the fact that Kellan is a flying lifelinker shouldn’t be overlooked! If looking to fill out the deck with some non-Standard cards, look to Kaldheim and Throne of Eldraine!

Kellan’s Adventure

Loot Bounces, Survives, Drives, and Harmonizes…

The fuzzball stuck in a Fomori vault and rescued by Jace, Loot is just a little guy with a map of the Multiverse and all of its Omenpaths in his mind. Neat! Jace and Vraska had survived the Phyrexian Invasion, but with plenty of scars (not all of them physical). Jace had an idea of how to make things better, but he needed to know how to get there. Enter: Loot. We’ll again use the latest iteration: Loot, the PathfinderLoot, the Pathfinder.

Little Loot passed through Bloomburrow, which one Ral Zarek was mightily annoyed by, as he saw Jace on Thunder Junction and wanted answers about why the mono-blue planeswalker was staying hidden. Instead of Jace, he found Dragonhawk, Fate's TempestDragonhawk, Fate's Tempest, which was weird, because Bloomburrow doesn’t have dragons… While there, let’s mention that using Shore UpShore Up or Gossip's TalentGossip's Talent to untap Loot and use another one of his exhaust abilities or Splash PortalSplash Portal and Lilysplash MentorLilysplash Mentor to reset him and reuse those abilities is pretty sweet.

After that, he was separated from his adoptive family on Duskmourn, where Valgavoth managed to snare him after barely fending off a group of Multiversal heroes, including Tyvar, the PummelerTyvar, the Pummeler and Zimone, Mystery UnravelerZimone, Mystery Unraveler, there to rescue Nashi, a nezumi from Kamigawa who had been adopted by one Tamiyo. Jace tried to rescue Loot, even going so far as to betray Kaito (non-fatally), but didn’t manage it. Duskmourn brings some of the tapping shenanigans, like House CartographerHouse Cartographer and the iconic Kona, Rescue BeastieKona, Rescue Beastie, as well as blinking payoffs like the manifest dread from Curator BeastieCurator Beastie. Why tapping shenanigans? Well, we already want to untap Loot a lot, and there are the next two sets to consider…

During the Ghirapur Grand Prix, as seen in Aetherdrift, Valgavoth sent Winter with Loot to cheat his way to victory and win the Aetherspark. Chandra rescued him and went Full ThrottleFull Throttle to get to the end (this spell, by untapping Loot twice, allows him to attack three times AND use all three exhaust abilities in one turn!). Jace set in motion his Unstoppable PlanUnstoppable Plan to cause chaos at the end of the race to retrieve Loot. Dragons attack, forcing Chandra to let Jace get away. We’ll pick up some Vehicles like Rangers' AetherhiveRangers' Aetherhive and Lumbering WorldwagonLumbering Worldwagon to tap down our Survivors and occasionally give Loot something to do if he’s totally exhausted and not been blinked or bounced. And since we have blinking at large, let’s add in some value permanents with exhaust, like Skyserpent SeekerSkyserpent Seeker or Elvish RefuelerElvish Refueler.

Finally, Jace knocks Loot out with some mind magic and makes his way to Tarkir, the source of the Dragonstorms. As Ureni, the Song UnendingUreni, the Song Unending shows, there are new Dragonlords in place. But all is not well: Sarkhan's ResolveSarkhan's Resolve shows him working a ritual taught to him by the scheming Taigam, Master OpportunistTaigam, Master Opportunist to try to return to the old ways. Jace tries something similar in Ugin’s Meditation Realm, but breaks apart, leaving Loot with an emotionally weary Vraska. From this set, we’ll pick up some of the harmonize spells like Glacial DragonhuntGlacial Dragonhunt to grind out value, alongside Dragonback AssaultDragonback Assault and a few solid dragons for a way to end games.

Casting Ancestral RecallAncestral Recall multiple times in a game should be enough to end it, especially with some of these haymakers that Loot can ramp into by casting green’s version of Dark RitualDark Ritual. This is a deck that can be upgraded all the way to Bracket 4 with enough infinites and fast ramp, but I like the early stages of it as a silly lore deck.

Loot Hijacks the Hijinx

Lluwen Explores a Strange Multiverse…

Short version here since we don’t have all four sets! The throughline from Edge of Eternities, Lorwyn Eclipsed, and Secrets of Strixhaven is duality. The Edge is defined by being outside the Multiverse. Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are defined by their opposition to each other, much like the Strixhaven colleges. This is exemplified in Lluwen, the Lorwyn elf who escaped his plane after a moral conflict to enroll in Strixhaven. Watching the beloved archons of his new home go crazy, he traveled with his fellows to find the cause.

Ajani and Jadzi guided them, both keeping calm and trying to puzzle out the situation. Along the way, they found Chandra, who had been mentally wounded by Jace during Aetherdrift. She and Ajani disagreed about how to handle the problem, and in the confusion, Tam pushed Jadzi into one of the mysterious rifts that had been opening and causing the chaos. Lluwen was able to lead everyone in a ritual to calm the archons, but the damage was done. Tam is revealed to be a construct of Jace, and the outline of his plans is becoming known…

For the record, I would probably use Lluwen, Imperfect NaturalistLluwen, Imperfect Naturalist to tie together the various land and graveyard effects from the past three sets. We’ll see how Reality Fracture shakes out — might want to change up the "main character."

And Now…

In the new design process, there are a lot of cohesive themes and subthemes flying around. This has been noted in the way Bloomburrow built its ten draft archetypes around the mechanics rather than the type line. As flavor and mechanics merge, decks intended for Bracket 1 - Exhibition like these can actually end up feeling closer to Bracket 2 - Core. There’s a lot of discussion about Wizards raising the ceiling of power, but there’s something interesting to be said about how the floor is rising with it.

I hope you enjoyed these story-focused decks; be sure to let me know if you’d like more in the future!