Magic: The Gathering has a card called Settle the Wreckage, and it lets you exile every attacking creature. A new Standard deck wants to cast it so often that players stop attacking at all. The deck is called Against the Odds: Training Arena Players to Never Attack Me (Standard).
The idea is simple. If your opponent doesn’t attack you, nothing bad happens. If they do attack, you Settle the Wreckage them again and again until they learn that attacking you isn’t a good idea. The deck aims to teach a new generation of Arena players to chill out with their attacking.
The Core Plan
Settle the Wreckage is the star. The deck runs four copies of it and four copies of Aetherize, which bounces creatures instead of exiling them. Both cards only work if the opponent attacks. That means the deck survives the early game by casting a few Lightning Helix to stay alive, then waits for the moment the opponent commits.
The trick is the flashback engine. The deck also runs four copies of Flashback and a Wisdom of Ages, which returns all instants and sorceries from the graveyard to your hand. In theory, you could cast all eight Settle the Wreckage and Aetherize spells, use Wisdom of Ages to get them back, then flashback them four more times. That gives you a total of 20 possible Settle the Wreckages in a single game.
Winning the Game
Just blowing out attackers doesn’t end the game. So the deck needs a slow win condition. The Millennium Calendar fits. It’s a one-mana artifact that gains a counter each time one of your permanents untaps during your untap phase. For two mana, you can double the counters. Once it hits 1,000 counters, you sacrifice it and each opponent loses 1,000 life.
That takes a long time. But that’s the point. As you slowly build toward the Calendar win, you keep casting Settle the Wreckage and Aetherize, forcing the opponent to watch their doom approach one turn at a time.
There is one backup win. Mathemagics can make your opponent draw their entire deck, though that typically takes a massive amount of mana. Between Ancient Vendetta and Deadly Cover-Up, having only one win condition is risky, so the deck includes a backup plan.
The Rest of the Deck
The deck fills out with card draw to find Settle the Wreckage quickly, plus Tablet of Discovery for extra mana. Outside of Wisdom of Ages, there’s no expensive finisher to ramp into, so Tablet mostly doubles spells or activates The Millennium Calendar while letting you Settle the Wreckage in the same turn.
The record stands at 3-4, but the real goal was met. The deck did win with The Millennium Calendar after casting a ton of Settle the Wreckage, and it really did train Arena players to stop attacking.
The Wolves Match
The best example came in a match against the Wolves deck. In game three, the opponent ramped into a turn three Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Instead of attacking with it, they refused to attack at all.
At one point, they could have drawn five cards and put a bunch of counters on their creatures by attacking with Voja. Instead, they attacked with a couple of creatures here and a couple there, all of which got Settle the Wreckaged. By the time the opponent wanted to attack with Voja, they didn’t have enough Wolves or Elves on the battlefield for it to matter.
Why Settle the Wreckage Works
The card doesn’t even need to be in your hand to change how your opponent plays. Simply having four open mana to cast it is enough to warp the entire game. That’s what makes Settle the Wreckage such a cool card.
The Stunt Factor
The deck is a stunt, built to amuse rather than to compete. It shows how deeply Magic rewards reading your opponent and playing to their psychology.
| Card | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Settle the Wreckage | Instant | Exiles all attacking creatures |
| Aetherize | Instant | Bounces all attacking creatures |
| Lightning Helix | Instant | Damage target player or planeswalker |
| The Millennium Calendar | Artifact | 1,000 counters = 1,000 life loss per opponent |
| Mathemagics | Sorcery | Makes opponent draw their whole deck |
| Stage | Action | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Early game | Cast Lightning Helix | Survive the early game |
| Mid game | Cast Settle the Wreckage/Aetherize | Blow out attacking creatures |
| Late game | Build counters on The Millennium Calendar | Win with 1,000 life loss |
| Backup | Cast Mathemagics | Make opponent draw their deck |
The Bottom Line
The deck worked exactly as planned. It won the game with The Millennium Calendar, and it taught Arena players to stop attacking. The Wolves match proved the point perfectly.
It’s a silly deck, but it’s a clever one. Settle the Wreckage has been one of modern Magic’s best bluffing cards, and seeing it used this way is a pleasure.
The video is available online, and the full list of cards is there too. If you want to see the exact matchup described, check it out.
The takeaway is simple. Sometimes the best move is to sit back and let your opponent overthink themselves into a corner.
See the video the story is built around at MTGGoldfish.
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