The release of Kaladesh remastered has many Historic players buzzing as they test out new decks in the format. Last week we mentioned Refurbish as one of the cards we thought would have a big impact on Historic, so today we'll be going through a deck I brewed up that is looking to reanimate Bolas's Citadel early, and has the Explore combo package with Wildgrowth Walker. We're also running some Gearhulks for some added spice and as some additional targets with Refurbish.
This deck is a throwback to the crazy Wildgrowth Walker Explore combo decks we saw in Standard not too long ago. Historic is a pretty explosive format so I'm hoping that this Explore package can get going quickly enough to compete.
Bolas's Citadel
Bolas's Citadel is the namesake of the deck and has proven to be a very explosive card no matter the format. The card has two major downsides, one is getting caught with too many lands on the top of our library, and the other is the rise in popularity of Yasharn, Implacable Earth. Thankfully our deck is built to minimize the land downside but Yasharn shuts down our ability to pay life with Bolas's Citadel.
Explore Package
The Explore mechanic is the main focus of the deck as it fuels our graveyard for Refurbish and clears lands off the top for Bolas's Citadel. The combo aspect comes from Wildgrowth Walkers' ability to gain 3 life per Explore trigger, thus getting back the life we spend with Citadel and then some for the Explore creatures. This synergy allows us to effectively cast our entire deck if everything runs smoothly. Jadelight Ranger is the best Explore creature we have as it gives us two triggers and gains us 6 life with Walker. We also have a playset of Merfolk Branchwalker and a couple of Seeker's Squire to finish off the package. Removal
Our removal spells are pretty solid with Fatal Push to catch early creatures, as well as Oath of Kaya which also gains us some life. Ravenous Chupacabra is our unconditional removal spell and gives us a body to block with. We're also running a Polukranos, Unchained as a spice pick and with Explore we should be able to Escape it with ease for repeatable beatings.
Rest of the Curve
For early ramping, we have Gilded Goose and Llanowar Elves, and Azusa, Lost but Seeking to help clear more lands off the top for Citadel. Knight of Autumn is main deck artifact or enchantment removal and gains us 4 life for more Citadel action. Verdurous Gearhulk can help end the game in combat if need be by distributing +1/+1 counters to our other creatures while being a solid target for Refurbish
Sideboard
Our sideboard has some spice with a copy of Scheming Symmetry to act as a one-sided tutor as we get to cast the card we tutored for immediately thanks to Citadel, and it should be a card that wins us the game. This is important in matchups when we really need to combo kill. We're rocking two more Gearhulks with Cataclysmic Gearhulk as a pseudo board wipe, and a Noxious Gearhulk for more removal and helps us stabilize with life gain. Shalai, Voice of Plenty helps us in matchups when we need Hexproof and when our creatures need it. Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord could be a main deck card as the ability to give our creatures Lifelink gives us all the life we need to pop off with Citadel. To finish off we have Scavenging Ooze for graveyard hate, Maelstrom Pulse and Bloodchief's Thirst for more removal, Thoughtseize for hand interaction, and an extra Knight of Autumn.
Bolas's Citadel briefly showed its dominance in the Jund Sacrifice and we're looking to achieve even more explosiveness by cast our entire deck. This Explore package was able to get it done and Standard, so we'll see if it can get it done in Historic. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this crazy combo deck. Check us out on Twitch for some MTG Arena action and follow us on Instagram for updates to all of our content. Now go enjoy the new cards from Kaladesh remastered and thank you for joining the Fellowship
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