Dance of the Manse is one of the coolest new cards from Throne of Eldraine. It seems like the kind of card that could be busted if built correctly, so it's going to be the very first thing that we try when Throne of Eldraine is released!
We've been thinking a lot about how to build around this card, and it's interesting to try and figure out how to put together this weird sort of combo-control deck. Here is the first build that we are going to try:
Azorius Dance of the Manse
After Dance of the Manse, Emry, Lurker of the Loch is the other new all-star of the deck. Emry is just a straight up overpowered Magic card that we'll be sure to be seeing a lot of in both Standard and older formats from now on. It's perfect for this deck as well, as filling our graveyard and bringing artifacts back from it is already the entire point of the deck. Drowned Secrets is an old favorite of ours to brew with that also works well in this strategy. It is the most powerful self-mill engine available by far if dropped early, and it is an enchantment that serves as a surprisingly quick win condition if we start casting Dance of the Manse past the mid game.
Throne of Eldraine gives us some sweet new artifacts that are also blue cards to trigger Drowned Secrets. Vantress Gargoyle just seems like an absurdly above-rate creature, as long as we can satisfy its conditions. It should be easy enough to keep our hand size up high enough for it to be a very efficient Plumeveil type card, and it can also contribute to our mill strategy slightly. Eventually it will be able to attack and can close game quickly, or at the very least threaten opposing Planeswalkers. Midnight Clock is probably on about the same power level as the various options such as Mana Geode or Azorius Locket, but in addition to being a blue card it's kind of cool that our mana rock could threaten to pop off as a draw-7 in a stalled out game. Including a mana rock at all might not be necessary, but it definitely makes it more realistic to achieve the "ultimate" on Dance of the Manse and end the game on the spot.
We want to be able to stay alive while setting up our powerful late-game deck, and these cards are all passable removal spells on their own. If we can ever return these to the battlefield using either Emry or Dance of the Manse, we're pulling way ahead on value while keeping up on the board. Sorcerous Spyglass could be relegated to the sideboard since it's mainly for opposing Planeswalkers, but having access to 1 copy in the maindeck is extremely useful in a deck that seeks to turn most of its 60 cards face up each game. The same is true for any other silver-bullet type artifacts and enchantments in Standard if they prove useful in a certain metagame, such as Grafdigger's Cage or Scrabbling Claws.
Golden Egg and Guild Globe are a couple of durdly eggs that should really help to smooth out the deck. They fix the mana in case we are having trouble finding white, and they provide a raw card-draw aspect to both of our key recursion cards. This means we are able to recur a little (or a lot) of just about everything: creatures, removal, mana, and card draw.
As a fan of all things blue: let's just say that it's a relief that Opt is staying in Standard with rotation.
A build like this seems like the most promising version of this strategy, but there's still a lot to explore in this space. We'll be posting a brew that focuses more on a turbo-mill combo strategy soon, and tinkering with various black builds of the deck. Be sure to check back shortly after September 26 when Throne of Eldraine is released on MTG Arena to see our videos with the deck!
