Competitive deck tech from MCQA VI - Temur Reclamation

Archetype concept

Temur reclamation is a blue and red with a splash of green for including growth spiral as a ramp tool and wilderness reclamation that functions really well with our instant spells and Niv-Mizzet Parun.

The aim of this deck, is to land 1 or more Wilderness Reclamation(s) onto the board and use the mana floating at the end of our turn to cast a gigantic Explosion which usually kills our opponent in the same turn.

An alternative win condition that also supports this plan is playing Niv-Mizzet on the board and play various instant or sorcery spells to get full value of Niv-Mizzet while he is on the board, because with Niv for each instant/sorcery spell you play, you draw a card and by drawing a card you get to ping for one damage to any creature/planeswalker or the face of the opponent.

Building the deck

This deck is a control/combo deck so we have card draw engine in the form of Opt and Chemister’s Insight to go through our deck quickly.

We also have direct removal in the form of Shock, letting us deal with any 2 or less toughness creature or killing a planeswalker with loyalty 2 or less or ping our opponent for 2 to the face.

Our board sweeper is Flame Sweep, it might seem to be weaker than other sweepers due to its damage output, but it has one upside, it is castable at instant speed which means that it can be cast during our opponent pre-combat phase or after declaring blockers.

We also run a countermagic/permission spells package. Things like Mystical Dispute, Quench or negate are permission spells which allow us to counter one play of our opponent. Also we are running Aether Gust as a tech card as delaying/denying one turn play, this is useful because the meta is very populated by green-based decks so chances are high for you to hit something important with Gust.

Finally, another tool is Expansion, the cheaper side of Explosion. This card let us copy one spell that cost 4 or less mana, so you can double up any spell in our roster to draw even more or secure a board sweep with Flame Sweep.

Archetype evolution

This archetype started on the release of Ravnica Allegiance with Wilderness Reclamation out.

The initial deck was almost the same as it is now but with Root Snares to stop aggression.

In War of the Sparks, the archetype was improved with the addition of Tamiyo, collector of tales as a draw/recursion engine and Ral, Storm conduit as an alternative win condition apart from Niv.

The biggest issue in War of the Spark was the popularity of Teferi, Time Raveler, which also got release during War of the Spark. This impacted very negatively driving to the nearly extinction of the archetype during the time of War of the Spark and Core 20 sets. In this expansions the “safest” bet for using wilderness reclamation was alongside nexus of fate in the simic colors.

So, why it is becoming more playable/popular now even if Teferi is still present on the meta?

The reason of Reclamation becoming more popular and present in the meta is because Teferi is phasing out the meta due to Oko, thief of crowns (joke on the name already) being so present. Oko has taken over the place of format warping that was occupied by Teferi once before. And this means, that strategies that uses instant speed plays becomes more plausible and real, so a deck with so much instant playability as ours will rise again.

Deck variants

The deck can be built in various forms, the classic one is going for the 1 turn kill with Niv-Mizzet and Explosion, but there are also another variants that plays more creatures and tries to get value out of them, creatures like Brazen Borrower, Bonecrusher Giant or Nightpack Ambusher are great examples of creatures that can fit very well on this archetype.

There is also another variant that plays around Thousand Year Storm, but it is more sketchy and difficult to set up than the straight up combo of Explosion + reclamation.

And finally, there is another variant which plays planeswalkers as Tamiyo, Ral Storm conduit or even Nissa to get even more gigantic Explosions.

Tamiyo can be maindeckable almost every time because she apports enormous value even without more planeswalkers, letting you recur spells from the graveyard or letting you cycle quicker through your deck, I can see her on the place of aether gust, in fact if the meta changes and green isn’t predominant any more it would be the right call to add tamiyo.

Deck weaknesses and strengths

The strengths of the deck is that it is very consistent and resiliency. It functions well against the meta right now due to Oko can’t interact with enchantments and you can go turbo-mode and ramp quickly into reclamation and then protect Niv by using the untapped mana from reclamation.

One weakness of this deck is that is very vulnerable to pure aggression but you have the tools to stabilize in time with flame sweeps and counter magic.

Another big weakness of this deck is Teferi, time raveler, because he shuts down our instant speed game and our use of reclamation.

Last, another weakness is flood, this deck is true that isn’t that vulnerable to flood as others cause the more mana you have, more damage you can do with Explosion or more spells you can play with Niv on the board.

Sideboard choices

• 1 flame sweep: to help against aggro matchups that go wider on the board and low toughness creatures.
• 1 mystical dispute: counter really useful to fight blue base decks.
• 2 fry: hate card from red, useful when facing blue and/or white decks
• 2 veil of summer: hate card from green, it's one of the best hate cards, cause it gives you and your permanents hexproof and it mades your spells uncontereable for the turn you cast it.
• 4 disdainful stroke: counter everything higher than 4 mana, useful against control and midrange.
• 3 lava coil: removal piece against decks with high toughness creatures that neither shock or flame sweep hits.
• 2 Narset, parter of veils: tool against decks that wants to draw cards.

The meta right now is full of Oko decks but I find this sideboard well tuned for all kinds of match up having access to the best card of the three colors makes the deck better as a whole.

Tips

This section is about what to side out.You mostly want to start by siding out your chemister's insights and opts, not all of them but a quantity of them.

Against aggro you are going to want to cut one wilderness reclamation and a explosion in favour of adding removal to your deck.

Aether gust is also removed if you aren't facing red/green based decks.