Commander 2020 Highlander Set Review

Greetings from my bedroom!

Just a quick set review of Commander 2020. It kind of snuck in through the turnstile behind Ikoria. Like casting a Cheatyface but it's a Magic set.

The set symbol looks way too much like Theros: Beyond Death, considering how close together the sets are.

Wow, I am so glad I am not an avid Commander player, some of the cards in this set are totally broken (in Commander only). Nothing to worry about for Highlander though. Sky Whale is the only impressive card. Yeah, gargle those clouds!

Have you got some bucket islands and a graveyard bro? I need to get wet ASAP.
You normally want your best Instants and Sorceries in the graveyard for later but Whale wants them now. If it dies you lose them forever. I like that tension.
This is powerful and has flown under the radar like the rest of the set, despite being a gigantic whale.

Only two mana. As always I'll mention the horrific Wrenn and Six / Liliana of the Last Hope situation, but the risk seems worth it.
Against control you might hit a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, which is awkward, but you might hit Tasigur. Either way you'll see about half their deck.
Imagine versing Reanimator, oh baby.
Most decks run no 0/0's and the average CMC of their creatures is >2, so this is good and super fun.

If I was already a Mardu deck and my meta had a couple green players then I'd run this guy. Probably the best pinger ever, at least amongst Magic cards.


I don't mind these two in Hardened Scales or persist decks. They grind pretty well.
Nikara's outfit doesn't seem practical for scavenging around in caves and that hair makes her too easy to spot. By the looks of her she doesn't give a fuck what I think though.
Yannik could lose the horns.
The Partner mechanic only searches libraries, not graveyards. Interestingly the reminder text doesn't say "search". I wonder if that's a new templating and whether it gets around Aven Mindcensor et al, I doubt it.

Stomping Ground....Nesting Groundsss. Confusing.
More love for Hardened Scales.
This land could break one day. I can imagine a mechanic where the cards go insane if you remove a 'shackle' counter or something, for a high cost.

The times where he one-shots a Planeswalker can make up for the times he trades with a 1/1.
He will almost always trade down but that indestructible counter on the right creature can win the game. He's not great but he is playable.

Good in a Human or Warrior tribal deck. Side it out against combo though, too slow.

This is awesome in the Lukka/Sneak Attack/Reality Scramble/Shifting Shadow deck, i.e. You have no cheap creature cards, but plenty of non-creatures that make tokens. Then you have a bunch of huge fatties to swap them into. It's reaching critical mass, I think it's time I build.

Infinite with Felidar Guardian and generally very fun. Kaheera Cat deck anyone? Or perhaps a Bird deck with Yorion; ETB triggers each end step for whatever you want until you choose to stop the chain. Not good, but cool.
More powerful with Gyruda. Not sure how many other Demons are worthwhile for that deck though. Worth a look!
I also like it in the Goblin ETB deck, i.e. all the ones I listed for Offspring's Revenge:
Goblin Rabblemaster
Legion Warboss
Goblin Matron
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
Goblin Ringleader
Goblin Settler
Sling-Gang Lieutenant
Beetleback Chief
Siege-Gang Commander
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

More like Tlosing Staff. Might actually be good in a Lutri deck. Run the most broken Instants and Sorceries you can; Copy them with the best Forks, of which there are plenty. Other on-theme cards include Finale of Promise, Chandra, the Firebrand and Ral, Storm Conduit.

Annnd that's all the cards. These precon set reviews are much quicker. The regular expansions have been really long the past couple years. Once again, hit me up for Highlander webcam games if you're keen.

Luke Mulcahy

Ikoria Highlander Set Review

Sup y'all,

I'm deep in the isolation hole. Nothing like tradition to drag you through uncertain times; The tradition of Highlander set reviews!
Ikoria seems like another step along the path to irreversible power creep. This time I think they were just trying new whacky stuff and made power level mistakes. Regardless, this set will be fun to brew with and I'm looking forward to it.

Ok, let's begin with the most influential mechanic since... Delve?:

COMPANION

There's a Companion for each guild, each with a hybrid mana cost and a different condition for being your Companion.
Even though these cards don't look that powerful, if you build your deck to maximise their effectiveness, they do become good. For example, if my deck contains Ancestral Recall****, Ancestral Vision and Treasure Cruise**, Lutri, the Spellchaser* looks really good.
Once a Companion can be a good card in a good deck, it asks the question of deck builders, "Would you rather start the game with 7 or 8 cards?".
And that's the end of the world.
The committee (currently Sarven McLinton, Andrew Vance and Myself) didn't want to point Companions heavily to begin with. We wanted deck builders to have some fun and be rewarded first. With Ikoria's scheduled release date we only put a point on Lutri, who's Companion condition is already met by the Highlander rule.

So where do we go from here? Large tournaments won't happen until social distancing is lifted, so it's up to webcam troopers to figure out which Companion decks are too powerful. Then over a few regular announcements hopefully we can point the Companions respectively to a level where non-Companion decks are as good or better. Versing the same card every game reduces diversity and is less fun.
Speaking to a couple Highlander group chats (small sample size), I get the impression players would be happy playing against Companions ≤40% of the time, and no more than half the Companions be Lutri. That's a very rough goal. Let me know if you feel differently and we can adjust.

All the Companions boost the power level of cards like Karakas*, Mox Amber and the Minamo, School at Water's Edge series of lands.

Alrighty, let's get onto the cards:

Already discussed above. If Lutri were 0 points, every single Red and/or Blue deck would run it.

It's 1 point now but I predict the players already running lots of cheap instants/sorceries will make a swap.

Expect to verse lots of Lutri in the immediate future.

Note that Lutri can only target your own instants/sorceries (I wish there was one word for that).

It's funny how URx decks have access to the best tools against themselves - Lutri doubles all the Red and Blue Elemental Blasts. This may create some snowball metagames.

It's nice to play Gitaxian Probe early so you can plan out your turns early but Lutri tempts you to wait. I like that tension.

If there was one good thing that came from Lutri's printing it's red burn decks having more options.

Cat Nightmare, that's an oxymoron.

As you may have already seen, Lurrus is a natural fit for Storm combo. Here's a link to the most recent list I could find (JP Kelly 5-8). It barely makes any changes for Lurrus. Some builds ran Tinker** for Bolas's Citadel, those will now convert to Lurrus. Monastery Mentor was a popular sideboard strategy, which opponents can now forget. Storm was successful before Necropotence lost a point and got added to the deck, so they will be fine without it and the manabase will feel relief.

Key cards which Lurrus casts include Underworld Breach*, Black Lotus**** and Lion's Eye Diamond (LED is pretty sweet for casting Companions). Even if those key cards aren't around, recasting eggs, Baral and Lotus Petal is still very nice.

Removal used to be really bad against Storm. Lurrus is still good against removal though; If the Storm player expects removal, they can just hold back Lurrus until they have enough mana to cast something the same turn. 

The Storm player doesn't need Lurrus to win but it forces opponents to leave removal in their deck.

Lurrus isn't just for Storm. It's also amazing in Aggro. Even tempo could play it depending on Lutri's future points.

Zerr Durr I'm a Fox.

Fits well into artifact ramp decks utilising Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith (infinite mana). Zirda will likely cause those decks to rebuild; Well worth it for the occaisional fast combo kill. These decks will probably add Time Vault**** too because they'll be adding Voltaic Key and Manifold key for untapping Grim Monolith / Basalt Monolith.

Unfortunately you can't run Zirda in the same deck as Training Grounds. You can't run Power Artifact either.

I've roughly ordered the companions by power level. Now we're starting to get more reasonable. Kaheera is still super strong by virtue of being a Companion. You don't need to adhere to it's strengths; Hypothetically if Lutri earned a few more points in the future, you could cut some creatures from your control deck and use Kaheera plus some pointed cards instead. A 3/2 vigilance is still trading for a card and you have plenty of Planeswalkers to fill out your win conditions.

Elemental tribal may actually be playable now. I'll have a try. I love tribal decks because they run unusual cards. The other tribes that Kaheera guards don't have enough support. There needs to be a Highlander support hotline for Cats, Nightmares, Dinosaurs and Beast to turn to in hard times, 'Beyond WUBRG'.

Very easy criteria for a good-stuff deck to meet, i.e. a deck with few critical cards. Jegantha will need Lutri to gain a point or two before it gets chucked into sideboards as an afterthought.

"Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?". 

Yorion stares down at me from the top of my sideboard as I begin the match. After assembling an eighty card deck I soon realised I needed to single sleeve to tolerate shuffling. The top edges of my duals inhale oxygen. My oily fingers lap away as I shuffle. Yorion looks to the open beer next to my playmat, then to my single sleeved deck, then to me, and grins.

A good fit for Birthing Pod*, Recurring Nightmare, Food Chain and Aluren decks. My Aluren deck already had 21 ETB creatures, Yorion was a beautiful inclusion.

Yorion does significantly dilute your pointed cards but he's worth it if you build towards him. He'll likely draw you into your pointed cards anyway.

Permanents that blink Yorion can get a real value train rolling. Restoration Angel/Felidar Guardian will give you ETB triggers for your things every end step and you will have just Yorion in combat; Whereas slow-blinkers like Flickerwisp and Charming Prince will give you ETB triggers every second end step and you'll alternate between Yorion and everything else for combat.

Yorion doesn't just slow-blink creatures, he also blinks non-creatures like Arcum's Astrolabe, Oath of Nissa and Teferi, Time Raveler.

Card advantage won't be a problem for these decks, disrupting/racing combo will be.

Obosh is cool in a burn deck but I think your hand will be empty by the time you cast it. Makes your topdecks better, but they know Obosh is coming and will certainly save a removal spell for it. I don't recommend trying that build.

I think Obosh will be best in a RG or RGx deck that curves 1CMC mana dorks into Blood Moons and strong 3CMC threats. As with all mana dork decks, the trick to making them work is ensuring you don't flood on dorks. Skullclamp* and lands you can sink mana into are methods that come to mind.

Dominating Standard right now. Highlander is a lot faster and has better counterspells, so I don't expect Gyruda to be successful in our format.

Chalice of the Void X=1 is nice.

For six drops to be fast enough you either need to ramp into them or disrupt your opponent all the way up the curve. No way is the curve method happening with Gyruda's condition, so ramp it is.

Ramp has some inherent problems; drawing too much ramp or too much top end is one of them. However, you'll always have Gyruda available, so running more ramp will help here. Another problem is counterspells. Your deck is full of ramp and top end, leaving little room for counterspell protection. Here are three ways to mitigate this: 

1. Run uncounterable threats, which Gyruda is not.
2. Run ramp that is also counterspell protection. The best example is Cavern of Souls. With Cavern in your deck, they are forced to counter your land tutors and hopefully they'll run out of counterspells before it's Gyruda time:
   Pir's Whim
   Reap and Sow
   Scapeshift
   Tempt with Discovery (a counterspell opponent may be running Field of Ruin but at least that taxes their mana)
   Hmmm, four cards is not enough to solve the problem and unfortunately these aren't creatures. You'll need to run at least ~22 good creatures to reliably get value from Gyruda. You may not have space for non-creature four drops.
3. Ramp that is also a counter-worthy threat.
   There are plenty of 2 power two drop dudes which attack and ramp, but they are easily dealt with by removal or a medium sized blocker. What you really want are cards irresistable to counterspells, preferably creatures:
   
   Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
   Bloodbraid Elf
   Grand Warlord Radha
   Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
   Oracle of Mul Daya
   Solemn Simulacrum
   Urza, Lord High Artificer
   Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
   A little bit clunky clunk here, and vulnerable to removal, but they're cool!
   
   There are also non-creature options. How many of these you can run depends on the rest of your deck:
   Chandra, Torch of Defiance
   Domri, Chaos Bringer
   From Beyond
   Kiora, the Crashing Wave
   Koth of the Hammer
   Xenagos, the Reveler
   Garruk Wildspeaker
   Kiora, Master of the Depths
   Ral Zarek
   Mwonvuli Acid-Moss

You'll be playing some lands that tap/sac for double mana. The rest of the spells will be 2CMC ramp and huge dudes. You are low on disruption against combo, so the huge dudes need to fill that role.

All Instants - Not enough win conditions
All Sorceries - Lose to Planeswalkers
All Enchantments - Lose to Planeswalkers

All Creatures - Could work. Is it all worth it for a 4/5 for four mana in 'hand'? Possibly. Umori gets blocked by Baleful Strix, Tasigur, Goyf, etc and you get no leftovers if it's removed, so my expectations are low. Let's go a little deeper though; You have hatebears for disruption against combo and there are creatures like Ravenous Chupacabra for their must-kill creatures. Only issue could be points: True-Name Nemesis**, Strip Mine**, Wasteland*, Karakas* and Library of Alexandria* seems like the only reasonable configuration. Could be too low power because you aren't maximising Wasteland and Strip Mine. You can't run Life from the Loam*, Wrenn and Six, Crucible of Worlds, Green Sun's Zenith* and some tutors. At least you still have Ramunap Excavator. Deck could be ok.

All Artifacts - The card type that benefits the most from Umori's ability. The removal available in Artifacts is expensive and few. You may struggle against a quick Titan or Kess.
The main issue is artifact hate. Dack Fayden is a mother fucker. I would maindeck Homeward Path. I would also use a beatdown strategy to have game against Null Rod/Collector Ouphe/Stony Silence.

Maindeck that Leyline of the Void.
The weakest of the Companions because of that restriction in a fast format. To break Keruga you're relying on split cards and alternative costs like Force of Will* and adventure cards. The quantity and average strength of all these cards is low. They're also reactive and anti-creature. If your opponent isn't playing cheap creatures you will fall behind.

Borderposts are cool with Keruga. Very risky though for the same reasons they've never been played outside Restore Balance Modern decks.

I think Keruga is playable in heavy creature metagames but otherwise avoid.

MUTATE

The reminder text isn't comprehensive, so here are the release notes.

Interactions of import:

• If the creature you target dies, the mutating creature spell simply enters as normal, much like the Bestow mechanic.
• Mutating a creature won't trigger "whenever a creature enters" abilities.
• If a mutated creature changes zones, all the cards go, e.g. Swords to Plowshares will exile all the cards.
• If you blink a mutated creature, e.g. with Restoration Angel, they'll all return seperated and unmutated.
• If you mutate onto say, Mishra's Factory, and choose to put the card underneath, it will remain on Mishra's Factory even after it stops being a creature.

'Monster building' mechanics can be weak to removal. Most of the mutate creatures have a trigger, which is worth about a card or more and if you build your deck with cheap expendible hosts, then removal won't hurt too much.
Another potential risk of Monster Building is drawing too much buff and not enough host, or the other way around. Mutate creatures have reasonable front sides so that isn't a problem.
Mutate is best when you're all-in on one creature for lots of triggers. There are only a handful of playable mutate creatures at the moment, and you can only run one of each, so you will struggle to mutate multiple times.

Snapdax, sounds like underwear you would buy from an infomercial, and the art looks like it's from Beast Wars (video). Viktor Titov, where's your soul!?
This feels like a conditional Glorybringer.
I don't think you can run it in a pure Boros or Orzhov deck; it's common to have no host against control. You really want the option of hardcasting.

In Highlander you're recasting the most broken cards ever printed. e.g. Ancestral Recall, Time Walk.

Bros forever.
Looks like he should be a Treefolk.
Sultai is already milling itself for Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. There are plenty of Sultai builds that utilise Birthing Pod* and Survival of the Fittest*. These have lots of little dudes that can become a Bro. He's like Agent Smith if The Matrix was all non-humans; any of your creatures can become Brokkos. I want to draw some Agent Smith glasses on the art.
Mutating onto Baleful Strix and Ice-Fang Coatl is strong.

Unbeatable if you aren't already really far behind. I like that you at least need to run a lot of creatures in your deck to make her work, but man is she overpowered.

Amazing creature tutor since it is decent by itself. Gives you something to do with mana dorks in the late game.
Only risk is Wrenn and Six turn two; That's very rare but if it happens you probably lose the game. If it doesn't happen, you have access to any creature in your deck, pretty amazing. Run a Knight of Autumn, Palace Jailer, Tireless Tracker or respective equivalents, and you got most situations covered.
This really didn't need to be hybrid mana, why make it easier to cast?
Fiend Artisan can get pretty big for a two drop, although decks these days really want to Delve and Escape away their graveyard.
If for some reason you had 10 mana you could get Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite in the same turn.

Infinite with Basalt Monolith.
Obviously great with mana dorks.
Would be strong in a Paradox Engine deck.
Plays well with Moxen, including Mox Amber.
You don't need to work hard for Kinnan's 5GU ability to payoff. Avoiding humans at the top of your curve should be enough.

Only 1-power, too defensive to maindeck.
Shuts down flashback, escape, Mind's Desire, Yawgmoth's Will*, Bolas's Citadel. Mostly just the Storm deck.

Another Doomed Traveler for the Aristocrats deck.

The best Demystify yet. This is a decent anti-aggro sideboard card. All three modes can be effective for 1 mana.

Can go infinite:
Solemnity plus any creature that sacs itself for value, e.g. Mogg Fanatic, Fanatical Firebrand, Fire Bowman, Goblin Firestarter, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. In Uro's case you'll need an instant Moth/Solemnity removal spell in your deck.

This can win games no other card could. I think you have to be Mardu to make it worth.
It can be bad in many situations. For example, a control player has a lone Planeswalker gaining value and you just want to kill it. However, the situations where this is a total blowout will make up for it.
Begs comparison to Cataclysm. It's completely different because it doesn't hit lands.
Obviously diversifying your card types improves effectiveness. That's something you want to be doing anyway.

Mythos of Illuna can copy ANYTHING, which is weird. You only get the fight if it's a dude though.
Goes infinite with Dualcaster Mage. Expensive combo but the cards are decent by themselves.

Super solid. Abzan only. Good to see art that isn't the usual sketch, colour, shade CGI. I'm looking at you Viktor Titov.

If you're playing a good mix of cheap creatures then this is pretty free. I quite like it. Mmmm Thoughtcast.

Pretty good in hyperaggro decks with lots of 1 and 2 drops. A goblin deck with Mogg Fanatic, Goblin Firestarter and Fanatical Firebrand would be sweet because the deathtouch counter creates a removal spell.

Very strong removal. What are some key creatures it doesn't kill?
Scavenging Ooze...That's about it. Maybe some aggro creatures like Rakdos Cackler and Narnam Renegade.
About the same as Go for the Throat I would say.
You can flip your Thing in the Ice. The card I mean, not your other thing.

Pretty big. I like it in aggro decks with lots of removal. Your opponent won't always have a creature either.

Threat AND removal. Obviously all your creatures need to be Human (or powerful enough to make up for lost synergy). Plays nicely with vigilance.

Great removal for any deck with 12 or so cheap Humans.

Incidental graveyard hate is nice. Every deck uses the graveyard somehow. A little yard hate can win you the game against Reanimator and some combo decks.

Gene Holland is pooping his pants with happiness right now. He has a successful WRBG Legendary Humans deck that he's been tweaking for years.

More humans! This one excites me the most because it's hardest to build around. My plan is to run a bunch of Humans that create non-Human tokens. Preferably ones that cost ≤3 so I can curve straight into Winota and win. Some of the better ones include:
Precinct Captain
Attended Knight?
Blade Splicer
Seasoned Pyromancer
Pia Nalaar
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
Not many. More could easily be printed though.

Good card for combo decks that really want certain cards back in their library, e.g. Flash**, Tinker** or Natural Order*.
At first I deemed this sideboard only but with the advent of Companions it could be main.

I think I only like this in a deck that can max abuse the -2 ability. The only actual creature cards in your deck are ridiculous huge bombs and you have lots of cheap ways of making tokens to exile with Lukka. Such a deck would probably play Sneak Attack and Reality Scramble.

Sovereigns of Lost Alara BOOM!

Maindeckable in some metagames. Naturalize looks pretty bad now.

With plenty of removal Chevill will run away with the game. Can be risky because removal is not good against every deck. Best to run versatile removal.
Nice cheap Mox Amber activator.

If your midrange deck barely uses the graveyard, you can run this as a sideboard card. I say that because if the opponent sideboards in graveyard hate this is basically a dead card.

Win the game. Two 5 drops should do it, probably even two 4 drops. You'll need enough expensive cards in your deck that you don't draw them all. This will make it tricky to keep your curve low. A deck with lots of incidental ramp, looting or 'shuffle back' could work.

Win the game. The catch is, practically your entire deck must be permanents. It's an interesting card to build with because you want ramp to cast it quickly before you die, but the more ramp you add, the higher the chance of hitting 'bad' mana dorks/rocks with the Ultimatum.
This is best in a high disruption deck where you create time to cast it. Disrupting with just permaments is tricky. In my mind such a strategy involves Wasteland* and Strip Mine**, which unfortunately ramp backwards and produce colourless. I dunno, the power level is there, just a challenge to build with.

Win the game. Dangerous postboard where you may get your 7 mana investment Hydroblasted or Red Elemental Blasted for 1 mana.
You really want a Teferi, Time Raveler or something to protect it.

Awesome sideboard card against midrange, especially the mana dork decks that ramp into Planeswalkers.
Once again, win the game.

Just another solid planeswalker. Ultimates very quickly. The more 1cmc removal you run, the more likely you can protect her whilst +1'ing.
At least they made this one 3 colours.

Slow but powerful. Assemble the Legion is probably better but I can't help myself:
You don't want to be dumping expensive creatures into your graveyard and making them 1/1's, in that case you'd rather just play Reanimator. I think you want to run midrange creatures with strong trigger effects.
There's a notably large number of good Goblins in this category:
Goblin Rabblemaster
Legion Warboss
Goblin Matron
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
Goblin Ringleader
Goblin Settler
Sling-Gang Lieutenant
Beetleback Chief
Siege-Gang Commander
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Here's a bunch more sweet creatures to Offspring:

3 drops
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
Blade Splicer
Imperial Recruiter
Recruiter of the Guard
Hanweir Garrison
Seasoned Pyromancer
Fulminator Mage
Ophiomancer

4 drops
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Avalanche Riders
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Ravenous Chupacabra
Braids, Cabal Minion
Palace Jailer
Ravenous Baboons

Anything more expensive is bad for the curve and probably for your win %, buuuuut:
Glorybringer
Zealous Conscripts
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Grave Titan
Sun Titan
Inferno Titan
Definitely something there. Lots of tokens, can combine with Skullclamp* and Stoneforge Mystic for card draw. Séance is a similar card to Offspring, depending on the creatures you choose.

They keep printing these payoffs for UR Delver. I rate Lightning Stormkin very highly (highlanderly), and this is even better.
This is also the cheapest good dragon they've printed, unless you count Metallic Mimic. Dragon tribal is a lonnng way off, but I'm hopeful.

Has a home in the deck that fills its yard with Instants and Sorceries then blasts its own Boros Reckoner or other 'spite' creature.

Safest to discard cards immediately before she dies to removal a third of her cost.
Lion's Eye Diamond
Careful Study
Faithless Looting
Smuggler's Copter
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
The Royal Scions
Dack Fayden
Those are some decent cards! They all suit a 'Drakes' and/or Arclight Phoenix strategy.
If she survives a turn you can get really crazy. Imagine Wheel of Fortune.

Gee that's strong. Plays poorly with counterspells and card draw, but bonkers with anything else. Not really sure what they were thinking here. I thought Experimental Frenzy was busted.
Any kind of egg, elf or aggro deck just goes crazy with this. At least it dies to Red and Blue Blasts.
You probably want burn and creatures so that Leovold and Narset, Parter of Veils don't wreck you.

Very weird to print this in the same set as Song of Creation. Also very strong. I can see this in any Jeskai deck.

Very good in a 'draw sevens' deck.

There is a critical mass of playable flash cards for Blue Black:
Spectral Sailor
Brineborn Cutthroat
Blacklance Paragon
Spellstutter Sprite
Dire Fleet Poisoner
Cunning Nightbonder
Snapcaster Mage*
Merfolk Trickster
Omen of the Sea
Lutri, the Spellchaser
Nimble Obstructionist
Vendilion Clique
Notion Thief
Venser, Shaper Savant
Add a third colour and you get a few more.
You would weave in all the best counterspells and prey on Ramp and Combo. A Good metagame deck.

Decent sideboard card in a Gyruda deck. Good against the decks that run lots of 1CMC mana dorks into powerful 3CMC creatures. Exile is quite nice against Skullclamp* and Kitchen Finks, which those decks often run.

Mishra's Workshop beatdown.
Since the printing of Underworld Breach*, people are even more aware of Storm and many sideboards contain Null Rod/Collector Ouphe/Stony Silence. To minimise how much those wreck me, my next build of Workshop will be beatdown. It will also be accompanied by Umori, the Collector.

I can see this in the same deck as above.
Could also be decent in a Green Black deck with lots of cheap ≥4 power, e.g. Tarmogoyf, Tasigur and Gurmag Angler.

The Ozolith

Excellent for Hardened Scales decks. One drops are very valuable.
The Ozolith can target your opponent's creatures as well, perhaps we could run persist creatures and all the creatures from Amonkhet that enter with -1/-1 counters to turn The Ozolith into a death gun. Turns Devoted Druid into a removal spell.

Glad they gave these a mutual name, "Triome", otherwise it'd be up to the hivemind to call them "Wedgies" or something stupid.
Highlander is fast. Aggro and combo rarely kill later than turn four. Lands that enter tapped need to be worth the tempo loss. I think having one of these to fetch in 'greedy' disruptive decks is acceptable. Often you'll have no play turn 1, fetching your lone Triome means no colour issues for the rest of the game.

Ok! That wraps up my Ikoria set review, thanks for reading or skipping to the bottom. I've enjoyed doing these 'best card' lists, especially when I come back to them 6 months later to see if I got it right. Here are my picks for best cards of Ikoria in rough power order. To give you a guage, I'd say Oko would be Tier 2 on this list:

Tier 1:
Lutri, the Spellchaser
Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Tier 2:
Zirda, the Dawnwaker
Kaheera, the Orphanguard

Tier 3:
Jegantha, the Wellspring
Song of Creation
Yorion, Sky Nomad (for the single sleeve ballers)
Fiend Artisan
Vivean, Monsters' Advocate
Whirlwind of Thought

Good luck with making proxies for the new cards. I've been scribbling on draft chaff:

A visit to Officeworks would be much better for my opponents...

Thanks for reading. Keep those webcams rolling! Hit me up for a game anytime,

Luke Mulcahy