Why is this Deck?
It’s not every day that a ridiculous combo involving seven-cost sorceries looks viable, but it turns out being able to reanimate spells for four mana really helps.
Reenact the Crime only cost four and it can only target spells that were put into a graveyard on the exact same turn, but even those restrictions don’t stop it from being busted. The trick with this deck is to use an effect that puts Breach the Multiverse into the graveyard for free such as Kaito Shizuki or The Modern Age chapter two. Once you reenact Breach the Multiverse, Conspiracy Unraveler can allow future spells to be cast for free because the graveyard just got filled up. If the deck cooperates, one four-mana spell can create an indeterminate loop that eradicates both libraries by casting Breach the Multiverse enough times to simply mill everyone out.
Then you pass the turn and win the game.
The Ancient Key
Big Breach the Multiverse value isn’t new to Standard. We’ve seen pro tour decks and challenge data trying to abuse the card since it was printed with reanimation targets like Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Etali, Primal Conqueror as their major hits. I’ve even seen Historic decks using Scholar of the Lost Trove to create a similar loop to this Standard deck by recasting Breach from the graveyard.
Standard has had such a tool since Innistrad: Crimson Vow, but it put the card back into hand rather than the graveyard. Given that Conspiracy Unraveler is Omniscience with extra steps, however, that downside no longer exists. Introducing: Repository Skaab.
This common from 2021 is no doubt lining bulk bins and those “500 Mystery MTG Card” scams you see on eBay. An exploit creature that returns a spell to hand doesn’t look like much, but it reloads our combo and keeps the Breaches spinning well into the night. Some mad genius found this while no doubt doing some creative oracle text lookup and I sincerely thank them for it.
Playing this Deck
With any glass cannon combo, you need to prioritize putting the pieces into place and understanding every interaction so you can position yourself into success against opponents whose mastery of the interaction (hopefully) doesn’t match yours. In the early game, prioritize Otherworldly Gaze and other loot effects like Kaito Shizuki or Collector’s Vault. Looting early helps you select the pieces you need while also putting mana value into your graveyard that can help you collect evidence later.
While churning through your deck, prioritize hitting your land drops and the four-mana bombs because they set up the whole combo. Reenact the Crime and Beseech the Mirror are critical because they most often start the loop. Also, if you have a Beseech in hand, prioritize token generation through Kaito or Collector’s Vault to make sure the bargain can be paid. If you do bargain Beseech, the correct answer is almost always Reenact the Crime to target a freshly discarded Breach or Conspiracy Unraveler.
Oddly enough, the deck doesn’t struggle much against aggressive strategies if it gets good draws. The combo can fire on turn four consistently, so surviving long enough isn’t terribly difficult. Although, this is the reason Fading Hope is in the sideboard. When bouncing a two-drop can prevent three or more damage while giving you a scry, it’s worth consideration. It’s also a good tool in the mirror. If your opponent is only able to freecast because they reanimated your Conspiracy Unraveler, you can disrupt their combo before it goes off. Also it’s useful against the skaab, but more on that later.
If you find yourself in a mirror match, use your Reenact the Crimes defensively. When your opponent casts their Reenact on Breach, simply cast your own targeting the same Breach. Yours will resolve first, negating their spell and probably winning you the game on your turn. Negate and Disdainful Stroke are also in the sideboard to assist with those stack battles should they arise.
How Exploit Works
Repository Skaab is also easy to interact with if you have spot removal. If you kill it, bounce it, or exile it while the exploit trigger is on the stack (prior to it sacrificing itself), it is unable to take advantage of its exploit trigger and the Breach will not go back to hand. Be aware of untapped Swamps or Plains as well as untapped Islands if you’re going to shoot for the combo. Fortunately, Skaab dodges Cut Down and Long Goodbye.
If your Skaab gets disrupted, plan A does fall through, which is why holding redundant copies of Reenact the Crime can be a good thing to engage plan B. As you are collecting evidence to free cast, prioritize exiling Beseech and Reenact. Once they’re in the graveyard, they’ve done their job, whereas Breach, Unraveler, or Skaab all can do work out of the yard.
The Best Backup Plan
Throughout Magic’s history, reanimating giant creatures that draw you cards in the early game has been a winning strategy all the way back to Vintage. And now, it’s the backup plan in a Standard deck.
You’ll notice we only have two copies of Atraxa, Grand Unifier and a single copy of Etali, Primal Conqueror. If we hit Breach the Multiverse and don’t hit our Skaab, these are acceptable backup options because they provide a large advantage, but the primary purpose of these is to be high mana value for our collect evidence. If Breach hits our primary targets, we win the game on the spot, whereas Atraxa and Etali represent large value that might get us there, but there’s a higher risk.
To think, we’re in a Standard where cheating out a 2-cent common is often better than cheating out a $20 mythic.
If aggressive decks have our number early and we just aren’t finding our Breach the Multiverses, we also have the option of using Reenact the Crime directly on one of these seven drops to stabilize and possibly pop off if we’re lucky.
The Bottom Line
This deck is competitive, it’s explosive, and it’s fun. Combo decks tend to be frowned upon by the larger community, though, because they result in non-games where onboard positioning often doesn’t affect the game’s outcome. As a result, competitive combo decks are often hit by bans if the win rates climb too high. As of this writing, we aren’t seeing anything near those kinds of results here, but it is a combo deck that is making a name for itself in the meta. Time will tell if it’s just a fun flavor-of-the-week or if it’s the real deal.
In the meantime, though, Johnny/Timmy players can get some wins while doing big silliness, and that’s always great in my book.
