Casually Competitive: Mox Amber

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Time for the Mox Amber to shine.

Moxen are historically a “broken” subset of cards. Letting you break the one-land-a-turn rule leads to incredibly unfair starts. Nearly every Mox has had it’s time to shine. The original five are restricted in Vintage. Mox Diamond is a powerful card in Legacy. Mox Opal and Chrome Mox are banned in Modern. Mox Amber hasn’t had its day in the sun yet, but with WotCs ever-growing intention to produce good legendary creatures for Commander, every set gives us reason to look to Mox Amber through a new lens.

Mox Amber

Dominaria | Mythic

Mox Amber - Dominaria - magic

Market Price: $24.24

For Mox Amber to be at its best, you need to have a legendary creature on turn one, in order to have three mana on turn two. This gives you a creature to attack or block while using the mana from the Mox, which is slightly better than just playing a Llanowar Elves or something similar. So we’re incentivized to pick a color combination with strong, aggressive one-drops to most effectively use the Moxen. Boros in Modern fits this bill very well, with two different options in both colors.

Boros Mox Amber Prison (Modern)

Modern

Market Price:$861.68

Maindeck·60 cards

Creature (22)

  • 1Giver of Runes
  • 2Hokori, Dust Drinker
  • 1Isamaru, Hound of Konda
  • 3Kytheon, Hero of Akros
  • 3Magda, Brazen Outlaw
  • 1Magus of the Moon
  • 4Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
  • 1Shalai, Voice of Plenty
  • 3Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
  • 3Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Planeswalker (5)

Sorcery (2)

  • 2Urza’s Ruinous Blast

Instant (2)

  • 2Path to Exile

Artifact (5)

Enchantment (3)

Land (21)

Sideboard (15)

This deck uses the Mox Amber to play Blood Moon or Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and disrupt the opponent’s development while still applying the beatdowns. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is another way to have three mana on the second turn, and still keep up the pressure. If you’re lucky enough to have both, you might be able to play Karn on turn two, and start the Liquimetal Coating land destruction plan early.

Giver of Runes helps get the Ragavan through, along with protecting your lock creatures, while Shalai, Voice of Plenty can protect your lock creatures and survive an Urza’s Ruinous Blast. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a solid disruption creature on its own, and Magda can help put the pressure on while ramping into your four-mana walker for turn three.

Blood Moon

Double Masters | Rare

Blood Moon - Double Masters - magic

Market Price: $10.96

The mana is pretty straightforward. Most of the lands produce mana with a slight emphasis on plains over mountains when it comes to basics, so we can still work through our own Blood Moon. Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper helps us speed some of our stuff out, while the other legendary lands provide incidental value at little cost.

The sideboard is mostly a Karn wish board. Outside of that, we have a couple more Path to Exile if we’re up against specific threatening creatures like Primeval Titan, Goblin Guide, or Ragavan. Stony Silence and Kataki War’s Wage are clearly good against artifact-based strategies. And Emrakul is there so we don’t get milled out, and acts as a fancy little trick to search out if we get Nahiri, the Harbinger to its ultimate.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

Modern Horizons 2 | Mythic

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer - Modern Horizons 2 - magic

Market Price: $67.52

Pressure + disruption is a recipe for success, and I can totally see this deck being a good way to take full advantage of Mox Amber and Ragavan. I’d suggest tuning the wish board and main deck one-ofs to fit your expected metagame. Modern just had a huge shake up, so this deck is currently trying to target a wide swath of potential opponents. Most decks need their mana to function.

Gruul Mox Amber Ramp (Pioneer)

Pioneer

Market Price:$335.06

Maindeck·60 cards

Creature (22)

  • 2Captain Lannery Storm
  • 1Esika, God of the Tree
  • 2Ghalta, Primal Hunger
  • 3Llanowar Elves
  • 3Magda, Brazen Outlaw
  • 2Marwyn, the Nurturer
  • 2Nissa, Vastwood Seer
  • 2Plargg, Dean of Chaos
  • 2Rishkar, Peema Renegade
  • 3Zurgo Bellstriker

Planeswalker (8)

Sorcery (4)

  • 4Jaya’s Immolating Inferno

Artifact (4)

Land (22)

  • 4Cragcrown Pathway
  • 3Fabled Passage
  • 4Forest
  • 3Mountain
  • 4Rootbound Crag
  • 4Stomping Ground

Sideboard (15)

  • 3Damping Sphere
  • 4Kamahl’s Druidic Vow
  • 2Klothys, God of Destiny
  • 3Lava Coil
  • 1Llanowar Elves
  • 2Magma Spray

This deck is a work in progress, and everytime a new set comes out I come back to it. It’s a ton of fun, and most of the cards aren’t too expensive. Originally I used Kamahl’s Druidic Vow as my legendary sorcery, but every time I cast it I felt like Jaya’s Immolating Inferno would’ve been better. I made the switch and wasn’t disappointed. This style of deck is less dependent on an early Mox Amber, but it goes a long way towards casting Nissa, Who Shakes the World ahead of schedule. Just trying to make as much mana as possible, as fast as possible, lets us cast Ugin or a very large Immolating Inferno pretty quickly.

Our goal isn’t to ramp out a three-drop ahead of schedule, but to play a five- to eight-drop multiple turns ahead of schedule. So we have less of an emphasis on one-mana accelerants, and more on cards that produce multiple mana by themselves. Also, because we’re trying to play a lot of legendary creatures, most of them are only one or two copies a piece. Zurgo is a concession to the fact that having a one-mana legend is strong with Mox Amber. Llanowar Elves on it’s own accomplishes mostly the same thing, but the chip damage is useful when trying to burn them out with a big Jaya’s Immolating Inferno.

Nissa, Who Shakes the World

Market Price: $5.86

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Market Price: $19.49

For two mana, Magda ramps while keeping the pressure up, and Plarg finds the specific cards you need, while also having something to do in the mid-to-late game if you don’t have anything else left to do. All the three mana legends add mana in some way, letting you ramp into Nissa, Who Shakes the World, and then Ugin.

Marwyn and Esika are capable of producing astonishing amounts of mana. Chandra doubles as a removal spell and a ramp spell, and provides card advantage. Nissa wins a lot of games on its own, and produces colorless creatures that survive through an Ugin. Ghalta’s a nice use of the extra mana you have, and often costs very little anyway, as most of the spells in the deck are creatures.

Kamahl’s Druidic Vow

Dominaria | Rare

Kamahl's Druidic Vow - Dominaria - magic

Lotus Combo is a difficult deck to beat, so we have three Damping Sphere in the sideboard, which is essentially game over for them. If you play against aggressive decks, the five removal spells all exile, which is useful against anything with Lurrus, as well as Mono-Black variants. Kamahl’s Druidic Vow and the Llanowar Elves are for slower matchups with lots of removal as another haymaker to end the game if you can cast it for X = 8. Klothys is powerful for graveyard interaction, and helps with the Druidic Vow plan,too.

Dimir Mox Amber Control (Pioneer)

Pioneer

Market Price:$351.20

Maindeck·60 cards

Creature (10)

  • 2Baral, Chief of Compliance
  • 2Fblthp, the Lost
  • 3Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
  • 3Valentin, Dean of the Vein

Planeswalker (6)

Sorcery (12)

  • 2Alrund’s Epiphany
  • 2Bloodchief’s Thirst
  • 1Collective Brutality
  • 2Extinction Event
  • 3Karn’s Temporal Sundering
  • 2Thoughtseize

Instant (7)

  • 3Fatal Push
  • 2Heartless Act
  • 1Negate
  • 1Thassa’s Intervention

Artifact (3)

Land (22)

  • 2Clearwater Pathway
  • 4Drowned Catacomb
  • 4Fabled Passage
  • 2Fetid Pools
  • 3Island
  • 3Swamp
  • 4Watery Grave

Sideboard (15)

  • 2Aether Gust
  • 2Ashiok, Dream Render
  • 1Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
  • 1Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
  • 1Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
  • 1Fatal Push
  • 3Mystical Dispute
  • 1Negate
  • 2Thoughtseize
  • 1Yahenni’s Expertise

This is essentially UB Control taken in a slightly different direction. We play a few more creatures and planeswalkers in order to turn on our Mox Amber—letting us also cast Karn’s Temporal Sundering. The goal is to use those creatures and mana advantage to land a powerful walker and protect it until we can take an extra turn or two. If you’ve ever played a Tap-Out Control deck before, it’s very similar—removal, counterspells, and planeswalkers. But our engine includes value creatures and free mana ramp.

Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are common for most black decks in Pioneer. The rest of the black is a swath of removal picked so you don’t have multiples of a card that’s bad in a specific matchup. Valentin is the only one mana black or blue legend available in Pioneer, but it’s nice that it’s also maindeck graveyard hate.

Teferi, Master of Time

Core Set 2021 | Mythic

Teferi, Master of Time - Core Set 2021 - magic

Market Price: $8.95

Fblthp, the Lost, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, and Baral, Chief of Compliance are the two-drop legends that progress our plan. Jace has a pedigree it earned, and is right at home in this deck. Baral is very close to a mana rock that can black small creatures, and sometimes loots. Fblthp is a roadblock that lets us be semi proactive on turn two. Narset helps dig to time walks or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, whichever is more important at the time. Teferi, Master of Time fits right into this Time Walk theme deck, smoothing our draws in the midgame or protecting other walkers for a turn. It’s very realistic that you’ll get to ultimate it, as well.

The sideboard is split into three camps: more removal, more counterspells, and more threats. Against Control decks with few creatures, you should have more than enough stuff to bring in to make up for all the removal you need to take out. Against aggro decks, bring in the removal, and cut some of the counterspells. Additional threats are going to come in for most games, as your opponent should be bringing in answers for planeswalkers—redundancy in that department will be important.

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