Fleshmaker’s Tribute is a card that has always interested me since its original introduction to Revolution. Yawgmoth’s Will is a very powerful card and, although its pedigree is primarily in combo decks, it can allow some fair decks to go way over the top in mid or late game scenarios. While Fleshmaker’s Tribute is very notably worse than Yawgmoth’s Will, it still isn’t too hard to turn it into a draw 2+ for 2 mana, which is all you really need to justify it.

The core of this deck is a solid shell of good Jund cards, with a particular tilt towards running permanents and a density of self mill. While the early game is going to play out like any other Jund midrange list, with selecting cards and trading resources, we have an incredibly powerful endgame waiting in the wings. Fleshmaker’s Tribute, in its floor case (which you should use it as) can just be “replay a land, cast Drudge Dredger.” But it's ceiling is that plus also casting a Forgotten Cultivator, and triggering your binned Abominable Avalanches.

Because the deck is so good at spending mana, it leans into Spellcharge a fairly hefty amount, with a mini combo of Alranta being animatable by Gift of Deadwoods in addition to spending 6 mana. Gift of Deadwoods turning Twinblade Gates into a 4/4 doublestrike is also a great deal (and one that I can’t really resist shoving in most of the BG decks I build).

Vibrant Chronicle is a pseudo combo deck that’s trying to use Vibrant Vengeance and Harrow to ramp into a flashback for Chronicle of Armageddon to shred through your opponent’s lifetotal. If you also have an online Eltensian Hospitality, a single flashback can deal 18 damage! But the fact that the combo involves hurling burn spells at face means this deck has a solid fair backup plan: control the board with burn spells, and then finish your opponent off later.

The core “combo” being a flashback spell plus a permanent card means that Forgotten Cultivator is really good at helping us find it. Chronicle of Armageddon is great to answer opposing Cultivators, and its rummaging mode alongside Embrace Hopelessness lets us more reliably assemble our endgame at a steady clip. An Unlikely Peace also gives us excellent fodder for these rummage effects, as well as allowing us to endlessly throw bolts with Eltensian Hospitality.

Ephara is a very powerful enchantress effect, and as one would expect, the format has a lot of enchantments worth casting. And you know what’s great when you’re drawing cards? Keening Belltower. Beyond the cuteness of the enchantment synergy, the deck is just a WU control deck with a powerful anti-creature bent. It is very hard for people playing up the curve to keep up with all your spot removal, plus your board wipes, and it becomes even harder once the spot removal starts cantripping.

Since most of our removal is mostly sorcery speed, we’re running two copies of Timeworn Crags to tag some of the land Ruins that could otherwise pressure us. We’re not as concerned about the artifact Ruins with our 8 O-Ring effects. Also hiding in the land base are four copies of Hundred-Handed Pillars, an incredible wincon in a deck that builds up as much white and blue devotion as our enchantment centric control deck.

Restless Woods, as a build around, got a huge power level boost with the introduction of Ruin lands from OLD. This deck is really trying to lean into this, and related synergies, and has some fairly potent starts as a result. A turn 2 Old Ways Advocate off a few sacrifice lands, into turn 3 Gift of Deadwoods on a Twinblade Gates can have you swinging with a 6/6 doublestrike trampler on turn 4.

This deck is definitely playing for the midgame, and might struggle to go toe to toe with certain lategame focused strategies, but you have the ability to pressure their life totals heavily enough to not let them get to that endgame. Similarly, versus decks with fast openings, you’re going to rely on Drudge Dredgers and removal to stall them out for long enough to get Restless Woods online and able to overrun your enemies.