Nexus of Fate decks have been my go-to Standard archetype since the release of Ravnica Allegiance. Wilderness Reclamation opened the door to a progression of different Nexus of Fate decks over the past few months, and I have tried all of them! Let’s look back at that history, then build the best Nexus deck for SCG Cincinnati this weekend.
Bant Nexus
The first iterations of the Nexus of Fate decks followed the original “break out” Nexus deck, back when Kaladesh was legal. Eric Froehlich took this deck to the semifinals of Grand Prix Los Angeles last August.
Bant Nexus Turbo Fog, by Eric Froehlich
These decks went all in on the Teferi, Hero of Dominaria plan because of the popularity of Mono Red and RB Aggro strategies. Haze of Pollen provided an additional fog effect that could be cycled when irrelevant. After rotation, Nexus decks died off and Standard was ruled by GB Midrange and Jeskai Control.
It wasn’t until the printing of Wilderness Reclamation that we saw an Nexus decks return and put up results. The Reclamation engine opens many options, which fed innovation and exploration. What do you do with all that mana? Primal Amulet, Banefire, Expansion // Explosion, and Hydroid Krasis al took a turn in the spotlight. Here is where I landed for SCG Dallas in February:
Bant Nexus, by Ally Warfield
This version focused less on the Teferi ultimate and more on Depose // Deploy with infinite turns as the main win condition. The Bant version of the deck has the benefit of playing white sideboard cards, such as Lyra Dawnbringer and Knight of Autumn. While I still cashed SCG Dallas with this deck, I feel like it ended up being a week behind on the Nexus deck evolution. Nexus of Gates was the best Nexus deck for that weekend.
Nexus of Gates
After Dallas, I focused in on the “Nexus of Gates” deck, which utilized guildgates and “gates matter” cards like Guild Summit and Gates Ablaze. This version of the deck has a handful of results from SCG Indianapolis to SCG Dallas. You can read Drake Sasser’s deep dive on the deck here as well.
Nexus of Gates, by Drake Sasser
| Creatures (4) 4 Hydroid Krasis Spells (30) 4 Growth Spiral 4 Circuitous Route 4 Guild Summit 4 Wilderness Reclamation 4 Gates Ablaze 4 Nexus of Fate 4 Expansion // Explosion 2 Spell Pierce | Lands (26) 4 Plaza of Harmony 4 Simic Guildgate 4 Selesnya Guildgate 4 Gruul Guildgate 4 Izzet Guildgate 3 Azorius Guildgate 1 Breeding Pool 1 Island 1 Forest Sideboard (15) 4 Gatebreake Ram 3 Archway Angel 2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun 4 Negate 2 Lava Coil |
Four maindeck copies of Hydroid Krasis provide the main win condition, with two Niv-Mizzet, Parun joining from the sideboard. This deck was strong in Dallas because of the amount of Sultai Midrange in the format, but has fallen out of favor against Esper Control, Mono Blue Tempo, and Simic Nexus.
Simic Nexus
Simic Nexus is currently the best Nexus deck and likely has been for a while. This version of the deck is focused on the Nexus of Fate plan than the others. Lists typically play four copies each of Search to Azcanta, Wilderness Reclamation, and Nexus of Fate achieve maximum consistency.
This list won the Standard Classic in Syracuse; it’s similar to my 10th place deck. Because two Hydroid Krasis are essentially your only win conditions game one, the rest of the deck is filled with counterspells and Blink of an Eye to protect your Hydroid Krasis. The deck is very consistent and resilient to hate, which is a great place to be. Nexus of Fate is hard to interact with, and you draw a large number of cards with Chemister’s Insight, flipped Azcanta, and Memorial to Genius. The redundant card advantage almost guarantees that, once you get the engine going, you will take all the remaining turns of the game.
Unfortunately I got bumped to the Modern seat for my SCG Cincinnati team, so I won’t be taking all of the turns in Standard this weekend. If I were playing Standard, I would play something like this:
Simic Nexus
| Creatures (2) 2 Hydroid Krasis Spells (33) 4 Wilderness Reclamation 4 Search for Azcanta 2 Blink of an Eye 4 Chemister’s Insight 4 Growth Spiral 1 Negate 4 Nexus of Fate 4 Opt 4 Root Snare 2 Sinister Sabotage | Lands (25) 6 Forest 5 Island 1 Arch of Orazca 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Memorial to Genius 1 Woodland Stream Sideboard (15) 3 Biogenic Ooze 3 Druid of the Cowl 3 Kraul Harpooner 2 Murmuring Mystic 2 Crushing Canopy 2 Negate |
Go forth and take all the turns!
Ally Warfield is a Magic grinder and personality. She is an up-and-coming grinder with an impressive range in terms of archetype selection. You can find her on Twitter @ArcticMeebo.