Before Emrakul, the Promised end was banned, we saw lots of takes on Emerge decks featuring both Elder Deep-Fiend and Emrakul, along with crazy graveyard interactions featuring Vessel of Nascency and Grapple with the Past. In the months since Magic Origins rotated and Emrakul was banned, we haven’t seen very much of the Kozilek's Return plus emerge creature decks. This week, Fil2hot shows us that there may still be something worth exploring in this vein:

Blue-Red Emerge - Aether Revolt Standard | Fil2Hot, 5-0 Standard League

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Advanced Stitchwing
• 4 Elder Deep-Fiend
• 4 Prized Amalgam
• 4 Stitchwing Skaab

• Instants (10)
• 3 Fiery Temper
• 3 Lightning Axe
• 4 Kozilek's Return

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Tormenting Voice
• 4 Cathartic Reunion

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Oath of Jace
• 4 Fevered Visions

• Lands (23)
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Highland Lake
• 2 Sanctum of Ugin
• 4 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Wandering Fumarole

• Sideboard (13)
• 1 Lightning Axe
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Coax from the Blind Eternities
• 2 Disallow
• 2 Dispel 2 Negate
• 2 Release the Gremlins
• 2 Summary Dismissal
• 1 Wretched Gryff

Buy This Deck

The key to this strategy is that you’re trying to pitch cards to Stitchwing Skaab and Advanced Stitchwing so that you can rebuy your Prized Amalgams and have expensive creatures in play to sacrifice to Elder Deep-Fiend. Sanctum of Ugin lets you start chaining Elder Deep-Fiends to force through lethal damage, and your graveyard threats give you resiliency to sweepers and removal, as well as letting you grind out trades in combat.

The biggest problem with this deck as a midrange deck is that it can struggle to find enough cards to discard to Skaabs if you have to re-buy them more than once or twice. Enter Fevered Visions. Fevered Visions is a great tool against control decks, and also helps to ensure that you don’t run out of fuel, and that your graveyard shenanigans get progressively more difficult to fight through.

If you’re looking for a proactive deck that has a sweeper, powerful tempo plays, and a crazy top end, this looks like a budget-friendly way to do it. I’m not sure that it’s favored against either of the big players in Standard, but you certainly have the tools to put up a real fight.