What has Magic become in 2020? We have eight-card opening hands thanks to companions, multiple three colour decks in standard thanks to tricycle lands, and freaking Godzilla in commander. If you told me any of this a few months ago, I would have questioned your sanity and dismissed you like a flat-earther dismisses logic. But here we are, and all joking aside I kinda dig what Magic has become.

After all, this is a game of fantasy, and the crazier the game gets the more the “fun” seems to matter, which is ok in my book. So, to celebrate the fact that we have officially jumped the shark, I wanted to talk about a deck with something more terrifying than jumping sharks. Flying Sharks.

That’s right, today we jump into standard with a deck that will be familiar to some but that got a very fun, b-movie inspired upgrade with the release of Ikoria. So, grab yourself an umbrella as we tune into Magic the Gathering’s sci-fi movie of the week, Temur Sharknado.

Temur Sharknado is the evolved form of the now infamous Temur Reclamation. For those of you that need a refresher, Temur Reclamation is a control deck that is built around Wilderness Reclamation. The idea of the deck is simple. Get down a Wilderness Reclamation as soon as possible and then take advantage of a multitude of instant speed spells in order to always have an answer ready for whatever our opponent throws at us.

We would then draw out the game until we could win with a lethal Expansion // Explosion in our own end step with some trigger juggling, or more recently beat down some face with Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath. However, Ikoira gave the deck a new toy that also works as a solid win condition with the hilarious Shark Typhoon.

For six mana, Shark Typhoon gives us an enchantment that rewards us with a flying X/X shark creature token every time we cast a non-creature spell, where X is the spell’s converted mana cost. It can also be cycled in a pinch to give us a single X/X flying shark at instant speed should the need arise. A fun build-around card for sure, but it moves from entertaining to frightening when we consider there is already a solid non-creature deck that can easily ramp up to six mana as early as turn four.

This gives Temur Reclamation something it has been sorely lacking – bodies. Until now, aggressive decks like mono-red could easily out-race us and finish up the game just as we get all of our pieces on the board. Now however, we can quickly get up to six mana and play out a Shark Typhoon, untapping all of our lands with Wilderness Reclamation. Then, when our opponent goes for the win, we can play out a bunch of Opts and Growth Spirals along with a Scorching Dragonfire, drawing us cards as well as creating a schoole of flying blockers.

Then, when we have stabilized, we can focus on beating down their life total with our army of weather-assisted killer fish and the occasional Uro, before finishing the job with a lethal Expansion // Explosion. Throw in some counter magic in the form of Mystical Dispute, some library digging with Thassa’s Intervention, and a board wipe or two with Storm’s Wrath, and you have a fun yet competitive deck to smash your next FNM at home.

If you’re going to be playing best of three, there a few choices when it comes to sideboards. Negate, Essence Scatter, and an additional two Mystical Dispute gives us some solid counter magic for the matches where you will need it. Aether Gust gives us a way to temporarily deal with giant red or green threats, while Fry and Flame Sweep can help when we need to keep the board clear. Finally, Wilt is a solid answer to our opponent’s own artifacts and enchantments.

And that’s Temur Sharknado for standard. Recently I have been able to get online and play some magic, and I have had a ton of fun testing out this deck. I’m sure it could do with a little tweaking here and there, but at the moment im pretty happy with this build. But what do you think of the deck? Is this the kind of deck you could see yourself playing? Why not let us know in the comments below. While you’re there you could like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics.

We also have a Patreon so if you want to support future content for the site consider becoming one of our Patrons. Just a $1 a month would do so much to help us create more of the content you enjoy. If you have any ideas for new and exciting decks you want me to look at you can contact me directly @MTGTengu over on Twitter. But until next time, remember: no matter the game you play or where you play it, good luck and have fun.

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