Hey, has anyone been able to build a spikey tier 1 deck with a ton of Cartouches yet? I want to try that.

It's on my things to brew list. I'm thinking bant or abzan enchants list. Probably tier 2 at best.

Whichever plays more cartouches suits me fine . This is what I feel like playing when I'm done testing jokers contrst

I built a Trial/Cartouche deck as I felt those colours had the two strongest Cartouches - And I wanted to add Sigil of the Empty Throne to abuse all the bouncing Trial enchantments (and Anointed Procession to double the Angel tokens, as well as trigger Sigil.

It's hardly tier 1 as it doesn't always come off, but it's heaps of fun and just absurd when it does.

aggro is probably the strongest Trial/Cartouche deck, even though the red cartouche is a bit sucky imo.


Creatures (14):
2x Sram, Senior Edificer
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy (Digs cards, discard triggers Haven, delay attackers if he flips)
2x Glory-Bound Initiate (Ignores the drawback of exert if we play white Trial - Becomes quite strong with either of the Cartouches on him)
2x Auramancer (Enchantment recursion- can cycle Cast Out and retrieve it)
2x Spell Queller (Stall tactic)
3x Reflector Mage (Stall tactic - and a body for enchantments to buff)
2x Curator of Mysteries (Cycle to trigger Haven or just a good creature - Plenty of ways to trigger the Scry)

Artefacts (2):
2x Smuggler's Copter (Looting triggers Haven, triggers Sram on ETB)

Instant/Sorcery (2):
2x Hieroglyphic Illumination (Optional card draw or Cycle to trigger Haven)

Enchantments (20): (all fairly self-explanatory)
3x Cartouche of Solidarity
3x Cartouche of Knowledge
2x Drake Haven
2x Trial of Solidarity
2x Trial of Knowledge
2x Anointed Procession
2x Cast Out
2x Sigil of the Empty Throne

Lands (24):
10 Plains
9 Islands
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Prairie Stream
1 Westvale Abbey



It could probably be made less gimmicky and more competitive (but also less fun) by taking out Sigil and Procession. I think currently its trying to do 3 different gimmicks and would be stronger focusing on two.. i.e. more trials/cartouches and more Drakes/cycling.

Thanks Kel! I printed it off and will try it when the contest is done. really appreciate it.

I've got a similar but more aggro build:

Creatures (22)
4 x Sacred Cat
2 x Selfless Spirit
2 x Sram, Senior Edificer
2 x Glory-Bound Initiate
3 x Lone Rider
2 x Wharf Infiltrator
2 x Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun
2 x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 x Reflector Mage

Spells (17)
4 x Cartouche of Solidarity
2 x Smuggler's Copter
4 x Cartouche of Knowledge
2 x Aethersphere Harvester
3 x Trial of Solidarity
2 x Trial of Knowledge

Land (21)
9 x Plains
6 x Island
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sandstone Bridge

8 cartouches?! I love it

Yeah, it's easy with those - they're legitimately good cards, Trials or no.

Awesome thanks dude, I'll build it later this week

I like your Chorus of the Trees deck, so much variety

He "printed" the decklist. LOLZ


Barney, you do know that your internet browser has this thing called Bookmarks, right? You could even make a folder, called decklists, and move your decklist bookmarks there so that it's all nice and neat.

yeah, but I play Magic in front of the TV and build the decks there. it's easier, for me, to look at a list (which I can take notes on, on how the deck is performing) while building the deck. I've built a few decks using my phone or tablet but the thing keeps going to sleep and it drives me NUTS. I like printing them

Also if I didn't print them, then Elk wouldn't get the joy of seeing Barney rage and tear NGA user decklists to shreds while streaming to my audience too numerous to name here but it basically starts and ends with mortivore

I've been playing LegendVD's 4c Trials deck quite a bit lately. It's heavy AF on Trials/Cartouches (12/8) (!). It's pretty fun - the card advantage can get absolutely nutty. Decklist in the video description.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QtQFXQfb7SM

I don't know if I could bring myself to go 4 colour. But I was thinking of splashing black for that lovely 2 mana sacrifice Trial. The black cartouche sucks but there's plenty of W/U cartouches to bounce the Trial.

I never catch you on-line twitching, besides you remove your classy twitch signature so its like 3 whole clicks away.

I should put that back? I took it down cuz I was finding everyone's sig lines to be obnoxious

I ended up making those tweaks to make it much more competitive and less gimmicky. Comfortable 3-0 so far around rank 35 and it laughs at A.I. It's fairly similar to Cardboard's aggro version but has more mid-game strength thanks to the 4 drops, all of which except Gideon can be cycled for 1, ensuring they're never dead-in-hand.
Feels pretty solid but I haven't run into sweepers yet.

Creatures (16):
4x Sacred Cat
2x Sram, Senior Edificer
2x Glory-Bound Initiate
2x Spell Queller
3x Reflector Mage
1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2x Curator of Mysteries

Artefacts (2):
2x Smuggler's Copter

Instant/Sorcery (2):
2x Hieroglyphic Illumination

Walkers (1)
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (too good not to include - he's the Baneslayer Angel of Duels)

Enchantments (16):
3x Cartouche of Solidarity
4x Cartouche of Knowledge
1x Always Watching
3x Trial of Solidarity
2x Trial of Knowledge
3x Cast Out (gives the deck an answer to midgame threats like walkers, or can be cycled if not needed)

Lands (23):
10 Plains
8 Islands
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Prairie Stream
1 Westvale Abbey

i really like the idea of playing 8 cartouches. I can't decide if I want to try Legend's or nomad's deck first. Probably the latter cuz I can interact with you here and I likes me some aggro

It works pretty well. Occasional land screw issues w/ 4 colors, but as red and black are just splashes it's not that bad on balance.

Black and red Trials along with green Cartouche work well to control the board. Blue trial, Visionaries, Refiners, and all the Trial bouncing is tremendous card advantage - and dorks/Herald help you power everything out over and over. It's a blast to play.

When I made my own Cartouche decks, I went Simic for one and Boros for another because I wanted the consistency of 2 color decks. I didn't even want to do 3 colors, so when I saw Legends I was very skeptical, but figured I'd give it a spin for the hell of it. Since building Legends, I haven't touched my own because I find it to be a lot more fun.

I tried a Simic deck that was basically Cartouche/Trials + Energy. It worked pretty well and was fun, but then I lost a game and started 'tuning' it. It ended up a hot mess of garbage. Fix one problem, create two more type of thing.

Went back to Esper to regain some ranks and dignity.

Honestly, they are much more effective than I originally thought. The big issue (And why I rage quit to Esper) is if you are playing against a lot of instant removal. The version I has seemed a bit weak vs Mardu Vehicles, and trying to fix that broke the rest of the deck.

Cartouche/Trial decks are pretty much auto-loses to Vehicles because without Instant speed removal and/or Artifact hate, you're a sitting duck...
Otherwise, the deck works with the same weakness most aura decks have... Instant speed removal, which is pretty Common.

Anyway, barney's looking for a Tier 1 aura deck? Good luck with that...

I did make an ok orzhov token deck running white Cartouche+ black Trial.