Authors Note: This article was inspired to be based off of our old sister site, Magic Deck Vortex. As such, it is being run on both sites, and we encourage you to check out the other version!

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Rewind the clock just over a month, back to when I was covering the Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers, and talking about what cards were going to make an impact on the constructed formats, and one of the cards really struck me as something that was going to re-define the format. I said:

That’s right, the card I was talking about was none other than the vicious four drop: Vengevine!




So I’ve sung it’s praises before, but as you can see this guy really is a monster. First of all, he’s efficiently costed, which is always a plus. Secondly, he has haste, which is incredibly in this Standard Constructed format, being full of Planeswalkers and Wraths. While that makes the card solid, it obviously isn’t all that spectacular with just those two abilities. What really pushes this card into being incredibly is the first ability. You can just bring it back after it trades with something, or is countered, or is swept up in the aforementioned wraths. The card is powerful, it’s aggressive, and it’s... not in any Standard deck right now?

Yes, despite all of its benefits, the poor Elemental doesn’t seem to be able to make its break into the standard scene. In my spoiler article I discussed how it wanted to be played in Jund, but it seems like the Jund decks are simply too packed for space, and don’t have room to be changing up their deck lists, and the ones that are trying anyway have eyes only for adjusting that questioning Rampant Growth/Explore/Garruk, the Wildspeaker.

So the question is then: Where does he belong? How are you going to get that elusive second creature spell to bring him back? When the card was first spoiled, the immediate thought everyone had was: “Hey look, cascade off of Bloodbraid Elf into a creature and bring back your Vengevine!” While this is great in theory, this requires a pretty large commitment to having a lot of creatures in your deck, and even if you get enough, you need to have the entire list be creatures to make the effect be guaranteed. Here is the closest list that has been proposed:



So it seems like Boss Naya is back! This time it’s rocking the Vengevine build as a way to get enough card advantage to face the grinder in Standard now between the card advantage monsters that are Jund and Super Friends/UW Control. We have reached the point where Collar + Sparkmage is back as a viable option! With the Stoneforge Mystic to pull the single Collar from your deck, as well as the Sledge; Three Rangers to grab some combination of Noble Hierarchs and Wild Nacatls, and then the standard four of Knights that seems to be in every deck that can support them. The deck is full of creatures that allow you pull out some card advantage, and tutor through your deck. Combine this with the fact that Bloodbraid Elf will get you back your Vengevine almost every time, and you’re in business.

Another way to take the deck is with a Green/White build using Kor Skyfisher to bounce either itself or a Noble Hierarch to reset your Vengevines. The added bonus that both of those cards are just good in the deck by themselves is also a plus. If you are playing against a heavy control player (probably something like U/W Tapout) you are able to have : Bring back all of your Vengevines. Combine this with the fact that their dreaded stall, Wall of Omens is nothing but a speed bump for you, and you can give them a recurring problem that they are going to need to deal with quickly or die to.

So there you have it, a card that for some reason has a $25+ price tag, but at the same time is seeing so little play. In my opinion, grab your set now, because while I am guessing that it’s going to start to see some play in this Alara/Zendikar block Standard format, and I’m even more certain that after the rotation of Shards of Alara and the loss of the four-mana machine that that is Bloodbraid Elf, this guy is only going up from there.

What do you think about Vengevine? Where do you think this guy is going? Stop by the forums and let us know what you think is going to happen with the rebirth of Naya in the current Standard metagame!

Until next week!

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