Card Highlight: Vraska Joins Up in Standard, Pioneer, and Commander

Vraska Joins Up is an enchantment that costs and, by entering the battlefield, adds a deathtouch counter on each creature you control. Additionally, any time a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you'll draw a card.

As it seems, this card will be part of a cycle that includes enchantments with different abilities, quite similar to the Oath of the Gatewatch cycle - however, in Outlaws, the characters featured will be the outlaws that keep Oko company in his adventure through the Wild West.

Vraska Joins Up has interesting abilities that affect combat and also creates card advantage in the right build. With this in mind, I believe this card can see play in some formats like Standard, Pioneer, and Commander.

Considering this card interacts with legendary creatures, and considering Standard, there's no archetype that comes to our minds except Legends.

There are some Legends variations with three or more colors in this format, and, currently, the most popular one is the Esper version. With Vraska Joins Up in Standard, I believe we might see two new versions that seem the most interesting at first.

Sultai Legends seems like an interesting version, considering it brings Esper's UB side, which can make some complicated matches a bit easier. Green, even though it isn't as strong as white, can still give us interesting tools.

4-Color Legends is already in the metagame and has a build that is similar to the Sultai we listed above, but its mana base might be a challenge, even with Relic of Legends.

Rona, Herald of Invasion and Slogurk, The Overslime have an interaction that pleases me in both lists, but I still think the Sultai package with Deep-Cavern Bat seems more solid. All we can do now is wait for this set to be released to start testing and see which version is better.

Another deck in Standard that could benefit from this new card is Golgari Midrange, which, despite not using that many legendary cards, could still use one or two copies of Vraska Joins Up. This deck can create many tokens, and the deathtouch this enchantment gives us could change the course of the game in several instances, besides the extra card draw we can extract from creatures like Glissa Sunslayer and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal.

In Pioneer and Explorer, apart from Golgari Midrange, which also exists in these formats, we have decks like Niv to Light and Enigmatic Incarnation, which will also be able to extract some value out of this card.

Engimatic and Golgari aren't very popular, but Niv is among the eight most popular decks in its format and its list has a good number of legendary cards, which could be reasons for us to use this new card in this archetype.

Vraska Joins Up's mana cost still fits Niv to Light's goal reasonably well, considering it costs . We can pay for this cost with Niv-Mizzet Reborn's ability straight from the deck, and add a deathtouch counter on Omnath, Locus of Creation or Klothys, God of Destiny. This can be quite strong.

In Commander, this card will certainly see a lot of play, once we can add it to any deck that uses and .

There's an infinite number of commanders that can use this enchantment and simply create an absurd amount of value from it.

I'll start with the obvious. Sisay will already get +2/+2 with Vraska Joins Up on the board, and can tutor this enchantment easily, like so guaranteeing deathtouch to your creatures and a draw for each legendary card under your control that deals combat damage.

Creatures that have a lot of synergy with this commander, like Caesar, Legion's Emperor, and Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, can create even more value.

Tayam is another commander that can benefit a lot from Vraska Joins Up, guaranteeing your creatures not only vigilance, but also deathtouch. Additionally, Tayam and Vraska Joins Up enable a few interesting loops that work when you sacrifice enchantments.

Najeela also has an interesting synergy with this new card and can even go in Sisay, Weatherlight Captain's list, considering this deck would need a line that is more aggro to extract as much value possible out of Vraska Joins Up.

Fynn is the one that will enjoy the ability that gives you a deathtouch counter the most; I can easily see Vraska Joins Up going in this deck. With some creatures and Vraska Joins Up, if your opponent can't block, you'll practically deal lethal damage guaranteed.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Orcish Bowmasters can simply become a killing machine with the deathtouch counter on this new card.

Vraska Joins Up has a lot of potential in constructed formats: it can give a new look to Legend decks in Standard and maybe see some play in Pioneer. In Commander, it seems absurdly strong, even in decks that use it simply because its effects are powerful in this format.

Thank you for reading. Leave your comments, first impressions, suggestions, and feedback in our comment section. I'll try to answer all.

See you next time!