Planeswalker Challenge - War of the Spark Amonkhet (Casual)

Created for the Planeswalker Challenge - build a deck for any Planeswalker that is thematic, fun to play and accessible.

The simple rules of the challenge:

1. Choose your Planeswalker.
2. Your deck must include 3 copies of that Planeswalker (or, for those that already have theme decks, you can include 1 copy of that Planeswalker and the 2 cards from that deck that tutor that Planeswalker).
3. Your deck cannot include other Mythic cards, and can only include up to 4 Rare and 16 Uncommon.
4. Your deck can only include cards from the same block (or set, post-blocks) as your Planeswalker.

The guidelines for the challenge:

1. Try to create a deck that really shows off what your Planeswalker can do, and that suits their personality.
2. Try to stick to a colour identity that is thematic for your Planeswalker.
3. If your Planeswalker is aligned with a particular faction, try to include only cards from that faction and 'neutral' cards, not cards from other factions.

About this deck:

This Planeswalker Challenge deck is a bit different from most of the ones I've done before. Rather than being a Planeswalker deck for a single Planeswalker, I've based this one around three: Karn, the Great Creator, Samut, Tyrant Smasher and Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted. Similar to my War of the Spark Diplomats deck, I've done this because there is no Black-Red-Green Planeswalker (other than Lord Windgrace, who isn't in a normal set), but I still wanted to build a 'Jund' deck for this challenge. I've chosen these three Planeswalkers in particular because they work as team during the War of the Spark – they are the Planeswalkers who travel to Amonkhet to shut down the planar portal from that side.

As with the War of the Spark Diplomats list, I still need to include three copies of each Planeswalker, but can use cards with a colour identity and that thematically match any of the Planeswalkers I've chosen. I've tried to exclude any cards that do not fit thematically with them in the story (so no Dreadhorde cards, for example).

Karn's only really here as he's part of the team that goes to Amonkhet, but he does bring his Rare-level powers to help Samut and Ob Nixilis out. As well as shutting down your opponent's activated artifacts, he can also create additional creatures out of your own artifacts, and can grab cards from outside of the game for you to use. I've used the ruling that says you must choose a card from your sideboard for this ability, and filled out the sideboard with a selection of artifacts from War of the Spark for you to experiment with. Karn also comes with Karn's Bastion, a handy land for keeping our Planeswalkers healthy and nudging the deck towards a counters theme.

Samut provides us with the red and green mana in this deck. She gives all of our creatures haste (this will include artifacts turned into creatures by Karn) and can pump one creature a turn at the same time as Scrying to provide us with some quasi card draw. Ob Nixilis, on the other hand, brings the black mana, with the ability to punish your opponent for drawing cards, and can remove one creature a turn, making that creature's controller draw two cards. You can use this on your opponent's or your own creatures, allowing some mid-late game shenanigans.

Taking all of these Planeswalkers together, their plan looks something like this: apply relentless pressure with fast creatures and punishing removal, while pulling all kinds of surprising tricks out of the bag thanks to the Great Creator. I've tried to do just that in this deck.

I've included a number of cards to make sure that our mana base is reliable – Gateway Plaza is a cheap way to ensure we have access to the mana we need, but I've supported it with Paradise Druid and Mana Geode. Mana Geode can also be transformed into a respectable threat with Karn in a pinch.

With a full set of Karn's Bastion, I've looked at what we can do with counters, and included Devouring Hellion and Spellgorger Weird which have the potential to get as big as we need them to. Evolution Sage will help them get there, and Thundering Ceratok can ensure that there's no stopping them.

Spellgorger Weird cares about non-creature spells, and we've got a significant number of these, not least the Planeswalkers themselves. Samut's Sprint does a neat impression of the Planeswalker herself until she arrives, and provides even better value if you have a Weird or two on the battlefield. Steady Aim is a nasty surprise for flyers, but also can be used to provide a blocker to protect a Planeswalker that appeared to be wide open. Finally, Ob Nixilis's Cruelty is a reasonably cheap and powerful way to remove problematic creatures in the mid-game.

Having included each of the Planeswalkers' signature spells (or lands, in the case of Karn) I'm happy that this is a thematic deck. I hope you have fun with it!