More Than A Fairy Tale: Charming Prince Is For Real
Get it? Charming Prince is a creature with a built-in charm effect.
This isn’t your normal Grizzly Bear.
We’ve seen Knight of Autumn have Standard and Modern impact due to its
versatile modal enters the battlefield ability. Charming Prince will never
be as large as a 4/3 or destroy an artifact or enchantment but makes up for
it with the cheaper cost and better base stats. Let’s look into what the
modes really do.
Omenspeaker saw a little constructed play as a roadblock to attackers that
smoothed out your draw. A 2/2 is generally better than a 1/3 even when it
comes to blocking, as it trades with more creatures. It’s slightly worse
against a Shock or a Flame Sweep.
I imagine the scry 2 of Charming Prince to be the weakest of the abilities
and used only if you have to cast Charming Prince on turn 2 because you
don’t have another play, or if you really need to hit your third land drop.
Later on, the scry helps mitigate flood to ensure you’re drawing the gas
you need later on.
Arashin Cleric has shown up in sideboards in Standard before. Lone
Missionary made my constructed deck when Soul Sisters first became a thing
and it still pops up in Modern from time to time as a tutor target from
things like Chord of Calling.
Incidental life gain is huge and is no small part of the strength of many
maindeck Modern cards like Kitchen Finks, Scavenging Ooze, and Collective
Brutality. Cards like Hydroid Krasis and Deathrite Shaman would pack quite
a bit less of a punch without the life gain tacked on. Mono-Red Aggro has
dominated Standard for a long time now and this mode of Charming Prince
(along with the set rotation of course) looks to really put the nail in its
coffin.
Now we’re getting to the interesting part. Blinking or flickering your
creatures is a step towards generating value. It can be as simple as
creating another Clue from Thraben Inspector or another trigger off
Thalia’s Lieutenant. In Standard, maybe you’re just making another Food
token from a generator. In Limited, you’re knocking off a Frogify or other
opposing aura to unchain one of your other creatures. At minimum, Charming
Prince can give one of your creatures pseudo-vigilance by untapping it,
which situationally can be more impactful than gaining three life.
Of course, with Aether Vial, you can protect your creatures from removal
too, just like Flickerwisp. Charming Prince just happens to be cheaper and
a Human too, which means it’ll be more widely applicable.
“You own” is key here. Cards like Mass Manipulation and Agent of
Treachery can get their script flipped to reclaim a stolen creature by
blinking it back to your side with Charming Prince.
Charming Prince can target another copy of Charming Prince too, creating a
small loop. The first thing that comes to mind is Champion of the Parish
growing larger, though I’m sure there’s a ton more potential to maximize.
Standard will be a wild west after rotation and it’s tough to speculate new
decks with most of Throne of Eldraine yet to be unveiled. We can
look at some Modern lists with Charming Prince though.
Creatures (37)
Lands (17)
Spells (6)
Charming Prince can reset Meddling Mage or take a new card with Kitesail
Freebooter, all of which adds counters to Champion of the Parish and
Thalia’s Lieutenant. You’re more likely to lock people down under a
Reflector Mage now that you can get multiple uses out of it. You can get an
extra ding out of Izzet Staticaster too.
Responding to a Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push with an Aether Vial activation
to flicker one of your Humans will be a common play moving forward. It’s
possible you want even more Humans with enters the battlefield abilities,
like Thraben Inspector or Militia Bugler, but for now I like sticking to
the streamlined beatdown build.
Creatures (26)
Lands (14)
Spells (20)
Mono-White Martyr is where you can get mileage from gaining three life on
Charming Prince. Boosting Serra Ascendant on a key turn can swing the game
strongly in your favor after an attack puts you below 30 life. Mono-White
Martyr doesn’t have a ton of card selection so the scry 2 is a welcome
addition to a deck that routinely wants to hit four or more mana while also
not flooding out in the late game.
Typically, though, you’ll be flicking Thraben Inspector, Ranger of Eos, or
Ranger-Captain of Eos. After you’ve exhausted all your Squadron Hawks, you
can flicker one to find a fifth if you’ve bottomed a Hawk with Mistveil
Plains.
It won’t be long before we see Charming Prince finding more equipment by
flickering Stoneforge Mystic.
Reid Duke believes Charming Prince to be a multi-format staple and I tend
to agree. Legacy Death & Taxes could use a little card selection and
creature manipulation. Heck, every deck that plays white could use a little
more selection, life gain, and value creation. The floor of Charming Prince
is so high and the opportunity cost is so low when we’re talking about a
2/2 for 1W with upsides branching out in multiple directions for multiple
different situations.
Take a good look at Charming Prince. He’s going to be here a long time.
ncG1vNJzZmiZoqm2pLjErGWsrJGnsKrA2KCYpp2jY7CwuY6aqa2hk6GytHvMqKmeZaSdrq95wGadmqGirnq1rcueZJygkae6qrrGZqeroZ6Ysm610madqKpdp7KiuI4%3D