This week on Adam Plays Magic, we're diving in with the multi-format all-star archetype, RB Anvil. This deck centers around Oni-Cult Anvil as well as the notorious A-Cauldron Familiar plus Witch's Oven combo to attrition your opponents into submission. This build, in particular, comes from @BrandonHe1 who took the list on an impressive 14-0 run in the Explorer Metagame Challenge on Arena.

What I Like

The RB Anvil archetype has shown up in Standard, Pioneer, Explorer, Historic, and even Modern. Each iteration utilizes the same shell to gum up the board with tokens or sacrifice fodder, all while draining your opponent turn after turn. The top end of the deck showcases Mayhem Devil which generates a ton of value and keeps the board clear. When there's nothing left to ping, you can point the damage at your opponent. Thanks to your army of tokens and cat combo, your opponent will not be hitting you on the ground very easily. The incidental life gain courtesy of A-Cauldron Familiar and Oni-Cult Anvil puts you far out of reach from even the most aggressive of opponents. Moreover, Experimental Synthesizer and Deadly Dispute offers a surprising amount of card draw to keep your moving parts running smoothly.

Notably, your deck naturally has a lot of ways to interact with the A-Winota, Joiner of Forces deck, which is the top-performing deck in Explorer. Mayhem Devil picks off their small creatures, and your removal suite of Fatal Push and Voltage Surge can trivially answer Winota itself.

What I Don't Like

As with most aristocrats-style decks, your moving parts are below-par in card quality. You need your haymakers to close out the game, and if your opponent is prepared to answer the few meaningful cards in your deck, you become a sitting duck. Also, when the core conceit of the deck is to sacrifice permanents, you run the risk of having your day ruined by Yasharn, Implacable Earth or other hate pieces.

Honestly, there's not a ton to gripe about. The deck is solid and it's one of the best archetypes in Explorer. It's also a great way to conserve wildcards as the shell is viable in every format currently available on Arena. Play it, have fun, and rack up some wins.

The Deck

End Step

That's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed the gameplay this week. With the Streets of New Capenna constructed metagames starting to figure themselves out, we now know a bit more of what to expect for the next few months until Dominaria United releases in September. I'll be keeping an eye out for any new developments, particularly as they affect Explorer and I will be sure to keep you all in the loop. In the meantime, be sure to like the video on the Quiet Speculation Youtube page and follow us to stay up to date with all of our content. Until next time, I'll catch you later!