Wanna see a magic trick?
In a world of consistent site draw, one avatar stands tall to defy them all: Enter the Magician.
The Magician captured my imagination the moment he was spoiled, as I immediately felt like there was a deck that could break him. While I have tested numerous builds and strategies, I finally settled on this deck as the one that pushes the boundaries in Sorcery: Contested Realm the hardest. Through reanimation and fast mana, the Magician aims to press its pre-game advantage to the absolute max.
Update 7/30/26: Court of equity exists and is very impactful if played on turn 1. The Magician has always wanted to be on the play, but now it is even more vital because you want to be able to dump a number of your cores and mixes as early as possible to avoid the taxes. I don't think the courts make the deck unplayable, but it is definitely a consideration and can't really be played around without diluting the core strategies.
Strategies:
While playing this deck, roughly 85% of games will fall into 1 of the following 3 strategies:
- Reanimation - Utilizing Raise Dead, Boneyard, and Orpheus' Crossing, the deck is able to perform some truly insane feats as early as turn 2. Cards like Sisters of Avalon, Forgotten Tomb, and Dreadwing allow us to fill the graveyard and then reanimate way ahead of curve. Big targets include Conqueror Worm, Great Old One, Lord of the Void, and Doom of Dilmun, all of which provide unique avenues to winning the game. Raise Dead has the nifty trick of being able to summon anywhere in the realm, so placing a Conqueror Worm on your opponent's opening site demands an immediate answer or the game is essentially over.
- Fast Mana and Big Fatties - Playing Towers, Cores, Mixes, and 4 Waters allows us to cheat things into play much earlier than expected. This gives us an advantage vs. Aggro, as our threats are much bigger and scarier than anything they can play on turns 2 or 3. Cards like Legion of Gall and Adtonitum are both disruptive and fast clocks if left unchecked.
- Mephistopheles - For the uninitiated, this card is an absolute house. If this is in your opening hand, you immediately focus on trying to cast him as soon as possible. With a Mix or 4 Waters, a turn 2 Mephistopheles is backbreaking (assuming there is a land bridge in the realm), as he can immediately move since he replaces your avatar and avatars do not have summoning sickness. Losing the ability to play sites is trivial once you start pooping out huge threats every turn. He takes your avatar from being the worst in the game to one of the best.
It wouldn't be a Magician deck if we didn't talk about the elephant in the room. 15% of the games will likely fall into this category:
- Mana Screw, Mana Flood, No Minions - This is the price we pay for playing the Magician. Even with 21 sites and the ability to cycle through cards via Blink, Wizard's Den, and Sisters of Avalon, a small amount of games will result in a self defeating draw. It's the price we pay for only having 60 cards in our spell book. Given the current cards in the deck, 5% of games will result in 2 or less sites being drawn.
Matchups:
One nice thing about the Magician is that its game plan is fairly consistent against any opponent. We are trying to do the same thing every game and always at the mercy of our opening hand. That said, here are some typical matchups and how we stand up against the field:
- Aggro - As mentioned in the strategy section, aggro has a difficult time handling our threats. Most aggro strategies are running powerful 3 and 4 power threats, which are all fodder for things like Legion of Gall and Nightmare. All 3 of the strategies are solid in this matchup, just be sure not to play Orpheus' Crossing vs. any Fire list, as you are just asking to lose.
- Midrange - Similar to the aggro matchup, we are well positioned here because our threats are typically even bigger than most mid-game threats. Cards like Root Spider and Atlantean Fate are annoying, but we have ways to fight them. Site destruction can also set them way back and really help keep the pressure on.
- Control - Our core strategy is to utilize multiple cards to cheat minions into play. If our opponent has cheap removal (Polimorph, Disintegrate, Chains of Prometheus, etc.), we are in two-for-one hell. Landing a huge threat like Doom of Dilmun is nice here, or just pushing forward with Mephistopheles. If they have the removal, sometimes we just have to tip our hats and hope we can draw enough threats to allow us to win the game.
- Water Necro - I still haven't figured this one out, but reanimation of Lord of the Void and Conqueror Worm are your best bets here. It's a rough matchup for sure.
Why These Cards?
There are a few head scratchers in the list, so here's a quick rundown regarding their inclusion:
- Bane of Aventis - In any matchup with ward (which are numerous), this card is insane tempo. Permanently stealing their minion(s) can swing a game wide open and more than makes up for the fact it is a 4 power beater in some games.
- Sinkhole - If we are able to cheat a massive fatty in early, denying our opponent threshold and mana can essentially give us 1 or 2 free turns. This is often more than enough to win the game. It does come at the cost of threshold screw, but I believe it is worth it.
- Den of Evil - Helps mitigate threshold screw and gives us a way of hard casting Lord of Destruction. They are often pseudo-towers, which is good utility.
- Chaos Twister - Tossing around a Doom of Dilmun or Lord of the Void is just awesome. It can also lead to surprise doors with Great Old One, as 16 damage out of nowhere is as absurd as it sounds. Chaos Twister as a finisher is great tech as well. Be sure to practice at home before a major event!
The Collection:
Most are self explanatory (Disenchant, Bury, Murder of Crows, Grapple Shot, Zap!), but a few are interesting tech for the deck. Common Sense allows us to find ordinary cards in our deck, which includes sites and can mitigate mana screw while also finding blink. Tactical Move is crazy movement and can setup alpha strikes to door our opponent unexpectedly or steal a site with Conqueror Worm. Dreadwing is an ordinary minion and can provide a discard outlet from the collection.
Conclusion:
The Magician can provide some of the most insane opening plays in the entire game, leaving your opponents' in awe. If that's not flavor, I don't know what is.
But it definitely comes at the risk of running completely unplayable games. If you're willing to take that risk, give this deck a shot. It is has been a labor of love and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
