Disclaimer: Please note that this is a casual article. Dual lands are not included because many casual players are unable/unwilling to pay for them. If you have them, by all means add them.
I remember seeing Halcyon Glaze for the first time in the Ravnica spoiler. Cards like these always make the Johnny in me smile. It is cheap, but it has a drawback that makes it hard to use effectively.
That’s where the problem begins. How are you going to consistently put a creature into play every turn so that this thing will be able to hit your opponent for 4? Blue and creatures aren't really known to mix that well.
Dark Glaze
But the guilds of Ravnica came to the rescue, Dimir was one of the featured guilds in the first set of the block, which gave Blue some creature help from Black. But sadly, it wasn't until Guildpact came out that I was able to build a good enough casual block deck with Halcyon Glaze:
| Dark GlazeMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
|---|---|---|
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Black 4 Dark Confidant 4 Plagued Rusalka 4 Last Grasp 4 Morning Thrull 4 Daggerclaw Imp 2 Douse in Gloom | Blue 4 Halcyon Glaze 4 Peel from Reality 4 Surveilling Sprite Gold 4 Moroii | Land 14 Swamp 8 Island |
I'll use any excuse to throw my 4 Dark Confidants in a deck. But in this case, he actually has a home. Moroii is at the top of the curve in this deck at four mana, and he's the only one at that spot, so Dark Confidant isn't going to be hitting you for that much damage, maybe 1 or 2, and the extra card is certainly worth that. I don't worry about keeping it in play for too long to the point where it kills you, because you can always Peel from Reality it back to your hand or sacrifice it to Plagued Rusalka, or just simply block with it.
I just mentioned Peel from Reality, and I will be mentioning it many more times in this article. This card has a huge synergy with Halcyon Glaze. For two mana it will bounce an opponent’s creature at instant speed while bouncing one of your own so that you can play it next turn and activate the Glaze again. You can potentially gain a lot of tempo with this card. You can chump block an opponent’s creature, then play Peel and return the chump blocker and another attacker. In other situations you could even save your own Halcyon Glaze from death while bouncing another creature of theirs to their hand.
The rest of the deck is mostly flyers, which is always good because against most decks you will be able to win by just flying over them. You have a few pieces of removal in Last Gasp, Plagued Rusalka, and Douse in Gloom so that you won't be completely overwhelmed by big creatures.
Insane Bouncing Madness
This next deck is one of my favorites. Most people will look at Halcyon Glaze and think of a creature-packed to power up the Glaze and attack for four every turn, but that’s not the only way to go. This next deck has only 16 creatures, and four of them are Defenders! So how do I do it? Take a look at this:
| Insane Bouncing MadnessMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
|---|---|---|
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Engine 4 Halcyon Glaze 3 Cloudstone Curio CIP Enchantments 3 Galvanic Arc 3 Fists of Ironwood | Utility 4 Peel from Reality 3 Mark of Eviction 4 Drift of Phantasms CIP Creatures 4 Civic Wayfinder 4 Drake Familiar 4 Ogre Savant | 10 Island 4 Mountain 4 Forest 4 Gruul Turf |
There are so many levels to this deck it’s not even funny. Lets start off with the obvious: Cloudstone Curio. Now you only need two creatures to be able to keep Halcyon Glaze active and hitting for 4 every turn.
That brings us to the creatures themselves. They all have some kind of synergy with Cloudstone Curio: Civic Wayfinder, Drake Familiar, and Ogre Savant all have some kind of comes into play ability. Cool things happen while you keep playing the same creatures over and over again. But also notice that Ogre Savant and Drake Familiar return creatures and enchantments on their own. So you can survive for a while without Cloudstone Curio in play.
Then there’s Drift of Phantasms. Who cares about a 0/5 wall? I do, especially when that same 0/5 wall will tutor for the important cards in your deck. Need removal? Transmute for Galvanic Arc. And don't forget that you can play him on turn 3 to slow down your opponent, and then bounce him with Peel from Reality, Mark of Eviction, Ogre Savant and transmute for Cloudstone Curio or Halcyon Glaze.
This deck is really slow; you will probably end up playing Drift of Phantasms early so that you don’t take too much damage before returning him to your hand and fetching something. At around 6 or 7 mana, the deck starts taking off. That’s when you will get to the point where you can return multiple creatures/enchantments a turn.
Evasion Glaze
So that was stuff with just Ravnica and Guildpact in the mix, but what happens when you add in Dissension? A lot! Mainly because in Dissension Blue was a part of two guilds.
This next deck is what happens when you combine the evasion aspect of Blue with the raw creature power of Green:
| Evasion GlazeMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
|---|---|---|
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Green 4 Dryad Sophisticate 4 Silhana Ledgewalker Blue 4 Snapping Drake 4 Stratozeppelid 4 Halcyon Glaze 4 Peel from Reality | Multicolored 4 Assault Zeppelid 4 Vigean Hydropon 4 Plaxcaster Frogling | Land 12 Island 12 Forest |
Virtually every creature has some kind of evasion. Most of the time it’s flying. The ones that don't have evasion have Graft, which can be a nifty ability when you’re talking about a deck that is mostly creatures.
Peel from Reality is at it’s best in this deck. Since you have a couple of creatures with Graft, returning one of them to your hand and playing it again will reset the counters. You can return a Vigean Hydropon with only one counter on it and then when you play it again it will have the full 5 counters, ready to make all of your creatures bigger. The other effect of Peel from Reality lets you return an opponent’s creature. Return his only flyer (and therefore virtually his only blocker) and you can swing with your army for tons of damage.
Control Glaze
We've talked about one of the guilds Blue is in for Dissension, so I wonder what guild the next deck features? (Hint: it’s not Rakados). For those of you who guessed Azorius, give yourself a pat on the back.
Yes, this next deck features Azorius. Usually when you think UW you don't think 24 creatures, but that’s the case here. But before I start talking about the deck too much, let’s take a look at it:
| Control GlazeMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | |
|---|---|
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Creatures 4 Azorius Herald 4 Mistral Charger 4 Court Hussar 4 Azorius First-Wing 4 Azorius Guildmage 4 Minister of Impediments | Utility 4 Condemn 4 Halcyon Glaze 4 Peel from Reality Land 11 Island 9 Plains 4 Azorius Chancery |
Yep, 24 creatures. The evasion theme has stuck around for this deck, but there aren't as many evasion creatures as the Simic deck had. In its place you have creatures like Master of Impediments and Azorius Guildmage that will keep your opponent’s creatures tapped down while spells like Condemn and (once again) Peel from Reality destroy and bounce creatures in play.
In this deck Peel from Reality has good synergy with the enhanced creatures from Dissension, Court Hussar and Azorius Herald. You can bounce them back to your hand and play them again, activating Halcyon Glaze and gaining 4 life or looking at the top 3 cards of your library and putting one in your hand, depending on what you played.
Conclusion
So with one card, we have gone four different directions and made four different decks. We have a speedy aggro version (Dark Glaze}, an enchantment driven semi-combo version (Insane Bouncing Madness), an evasion version, and a control version. All different styles of play using different cards (other than Peel from Reality and Halcyon Glaze, which appear in all versions).
We have made four different decks. But I assure you, you can go much further with this card. This is where your deckbuilding creativity comes in. Make your own deck, and show it off by challenging a friend. You don't have to come up with a new idea, if you want to go a different route with one of mine, that’s fine too. There were many different paths I could have taken with each deck, but it would be impossible to explore every route.
So that's all I have to say about casual Halcyon Glaze in block. Good luck, and have fun.
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