Have you no Heart?

Hello everybody! So today, WotC dropped the bombshell we have all been waiting for, and that is the updated Banned and Restricted announcement. You can see that announcement here. I'm not talking about that today though, as I am still gathering thoughts on the subject. While a lot of things are changed, in a way there isn't a lot changing. But instead of talking about B&R stuff, I have another cool standard deck to talk about. A card that I saw previewed and never thought anything of was Heartless Summoning. It wasn't until last night when I saw @misterorange tweeting excitedly about the card:

"Heartless Summoning is a LOT better than many think. Solemn, Titans, Superions, Cons. Sphinx, Exarchs, Garruk's Horde(!!), Viridian Emissary"

I realized what he was onto, so now I am on the warpath to see if a good deck is out there. After doing a gatherer search, I feel like Green, White, and Black are the best colors to play in a Heartless Summoning deck. Notable cards are:

Green:
Acidic Slime
Garruk's Horde
Birds of Paradise (it dies, but the mana fixing is essential)
Viridian Emissary
Primeval Titan
Hollowhenge Scavenger
Thrun, the Last Troll

White:
Auramancer
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Sun Titan
Sunblast Angel

Black:
Entomber Exarch
Gravedigger
Phyrexian Rager
Sheolred, the Whispering One
Grave Titan
Skinrender
Bloodgift Demon
Morkrut Banshee
Reaper from the Abyss

Multicolored:
Glissa, the Traitor

Colorless:
Myr Superion
Solemn Simulcrum
Steel Hellkite
Perilous Myr

So it's pretty obvious White isn't pulling it's weight, so let's make a GB deck. One last note, why did I include Glissa, the Traitor? You know you want to pull off this combo:

T2: Heartless Summoning
T3: Glissa the Traitor, cast Perilous Myr for 0, it dies and shocks a creature with 2 or less toughness. Rinse and repeat infinitely

It may be cute, but it is sure powerful! Glissa herself is insane, and were just doing random thing to make her better. Even if we don't recur a Perilous Myr, getting back a Solemn never hurt anyone. Now the next step is to find good support cards in green and black:

Green:
Caravan Vigil
Birthing Pod
Rampant Growth

Black:
Altar's Reap (slowly becoming one of my favorite cards in Innistrad)
Despise

There's not a lot of support cards to work with, nor do we want many because of the nature of Heartless Summoning, but Birthing Pod as a support card really makes me think. I'm going to build a list without Birthing Pod first, and then try Birthing Pod in the deck to see if it runs differently.

3x Acidic Slime
2x Hollowhenge Scavenger
4x Entomber Exarch
4x Phyrexian Rager
1x Sheolred, Whispering One
2x Grave Titan
4x Skinrender
2x Bloodgift Demon
1x Morkrut Banshee
3x Solemn Simulcrum
1x Steel Hellkite
2x Perilious Myr
2x Glissa, the Traitor

4x Heartless Summoning

4x Woodland Cemetery
11x Swamp
10x Forest

And by adding Birthing Pod, I would shave sume numbers and ultimately spread out the curve into something more like this:
2x Acidic Slime
2x Hollowhenge Scavenger
3x Entomber Exarch
3x Phyrexian Rager
1x Sheolred, Whispering One
1x Grave Titan
3x Skinrender
2x Bloodgift Demon
2x Morkrut Banshee
3x Solemn Simulcrum
1x Steel Hellkite
2x Perilious Myr
2x Glissa, the Traitor
1x Viridian Emissary
4x Heartless Summoning
3x Birthing Pod
4x Woodland Cemetery
11x Swamp
10x Forest

Speaking of curve, both these decks have a high one! That means they are going to play slower, so hopefully they are more impactful. Obviously that poblem is eshewed by using Heartless Summoning. One thing I really like about using Heartless Summoning and Birthing Pod together is that for the cost it would have been to cast a creature, you can cast them and also Pod them into somethign bigger. How awesome would it be to play a turn 4 Skinrender and then immediatly turn it into a Morkrut Banshee? Just immediatly kill 2 of their creatures and have a 3/3 to do some extra legwork! Or maybe you play a Grave Titan and then immediatly turn it into a Sheolred. Then on your upkeep you get your Grave Titan back anyways, so the cost was minimal, but the board position was quite noticeable.

Bloodgift Demon is incredible with Heartless Summoning! Phyrexian Arena was already a great card, and now we get a 4/3 to do battle along side it! Bloodgift is one of those "must answer" cards, or else your opponent may find themselves lost under the sheer weight of card and mana advantage.

I feel like Birthing Pod could really help put Heartless Summoning over the edge, as having neither in your opening 7 means you probably don't know how to mulligan. Just another example of the cool decks that are becoming possible thanks to Innistrad! I'm scouring the spoiler trying to extract more options, and I will be sure to post any that are worthwhile! Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack