The two main themes of War of the Spark, the latest Magic: The Gathering set, are Planeswalkers and Amass tokens. There is also a returning Proliferate mechanic, which can be used to quite a great effect in Draft and Sealed formats.
The last two Ravnica sets revolved around five color pairs, but it was easier to draft in three colors rather than two. Well, War of the Spark changes the paradigm and we’re back to two color pairs per archetype in Limited.
Below you will find several of the most powerful Limited archetypes in War of the Spark with a few examples of their best representative cards.
Blue-Black Amass
The two best Amass cards in the set are Aven Eternal and Eternal Skylord. The first one has flying of its own, while the second one gives flying to your Amass tokens.
Since flying is one of the best evade mechanics in Limited, both of these cards can be extremely valuable when played together.
You can also easily get more than one copy of Aven Eternal in your card pools, as it is a simple common card.
There are also a few solid black cards that can greatly support the Amass mechanic of the blue cards.
For example, one of the best additions to your deck would be Vizier of the Scorpion, which gives all your Amass tokens Deathtouch. This powerful mechanic can easily deal with any types of enemy creatures, and if you can give your tokens flying with the help of Eternal Skylord, then you can protect yourself in the air, too.
Another fantastic multicolored card for this type of deck is Gleaming Overseer. This Zombie Wizard can turn your Amass tokens into very hard-to-remove threats by giving them Hexproof and Menace.
Lastly, the best rare card you could get would be Enter the God-Eternals. It’s not only a very efficient removal spell, but also an excellent Amass engine that puts four additional counters on your tokens.
Obviously, you will rarely be able to get all these cards in one pool, but even if you get 50% of them, you’ll most likely have a winning deck on your hands.
Blue-Green Proliferate
The best part about Proliferate is that this mechanic not only allows to put extra counters on creatures, but also planeswalkers.
Flux Channeler is clearly one of the most effective Proliferate engines in War of the Spark, and it’s in blue color, which means that you will have a lot of spells to trigger its ability.
The only other similarly effective Proliferate engine in the set is Evolution Sage, which is represented by the green color. Combining these two will guarantee a steady growth of counters on both your creatures and planeswalkers alike.
You could also throw a few bigger cards into the mix, such as Bloom Hulk and Kiora’s Dambreaker, that represent both huge threats and synergize well with your gameplan.
Although, Merfolk Skydiver could be considered as your third Proliferate engine, its ability is rather expensive for five mana. But if you can’t get neither Flux Channeler nor Evolution Sage, then Skydiver would be your best option otherwise.
The last trump for your deck, which shouldn’t be ignored, is Karn’s Bastion. A colorless land that can do the same trick as Merfolk Skydiver but for one mana cheaper.
Black-Red Sacrifice
Sacrifice mechanic is definitely very exciting, but probably a bit harder to exploit than Amass and Proliferate.
You can combine it with Amass and sacrifice your zombie tokens for some high-reward results, which could be achieved by such aggressive card like Ahn-Crop Invader or a draw engine like Spark Reaper.
In order to make this deck really stand out it most definitely needs a card like Mayhem Devil. Then, if you have it, you know that your sacrificed creatures, or any other permanents for that matter, could really make your opponents nervous.
Just think about a scenario: When your opponent is left at 5-6 health, you can simply sacrifice your lands to deal that much damage for a lethal with the help of Mayhem Devil.
Also, if you can get the Angrath planeswalker, then you are basically all set when it comes to generating tokens to be sacrificed.
Blue-Red Spells
One of the most valuable uncommon planeswalkers in War of the Spark is Saheeli, Sublime Artificer.
This card can do many cool things, but in Limited her passive ability is the most exciting one, as you can really generate a ton of tokens really quickly.
Augur of Bolas is one of the cards that could help you get quicker to your noncreature spells in your deck, so that you could start manufacturing those Servo artifacts.
This type of deck could also benefit from the two weird brothers: Spellgorger Weird and Spellkeeper Weird.
The red one represents an aggressive force that just keeps getting bigger the more spells you cast, while the second one can double your supply of spells by returning them from your graveyard.
All these cards synergize perfectly well for a very solid, and potentially very dangerous, Limited archetype in War of the Spark.
Red-Green Creatures
Every Limited player knows how important it is to get the creature advantage as early in the match-ups as possible.
Fortunately, there are several cheap but powerful cards in War of the Spark that could help you take over games as early as turn three with such creatures like Raging Kronch and Rubblebelt Rioters.
If you play the Rioters second, then you get to hit for extra four attack, which equals eight points of damage on turn four. That’s basically game over.
This type of deck requires effective removal spells that could get rid of the unwanted early blockers, and that’s where Domri’s Ambush enters the scene. Basically, it leaves no hope for your opponent to do anything but concede.
Lastly, you could spice up your deck with such hyper-aggressive card like Goblin Assault Team, and deal another four points of damage out of nowhere.
Honorable Mentions
You have probably noticed already that all the best archetypes in War of the Spark though it is rather effective.
Here are two more archetypes that are more control-oriented and thus require a much more patient gameplan.
Blue-White Control
Blue-White Control definitely has its rightful place amongst the best Limited archetypes, and cards like Elite Guardmage and Dovin’s Veto could prove to be very effective against the swarm of zombie tokens or other aggressive creatures.
Your deck really needs to focus on removal spells and counterspells, or you will soon find yourself in a rather desperate position. In this case, choose cards that react to the board rather than trying to play for the board.
Black-Green Ramp
This is another slow archetype that requires a reactive gameplan in the early game, but ultimately you need to ramp into some really big creatures that is hard to remove for typically aggressive decks since that is the only way you can win.
In the beginning try to utilize cards like Leyline Prowler and Deathsprout to deal with attackers, and when the board is finally clear you can play your big creatures in the late game.
For more Magic: The Gathering guides, check out the list below:
- Mardu Top Tier Deck for WAR Standard
- 11 Best War of the Spark Cards for Modern
- 11 Most Expensive War of the Spark Cards
- 11 Best War of the Spark Cards for Standard
- 15 Best War of the Spark Cards for Limited
Published: May 20, 2019 10:18 am