A Clash of Titans: Splinter Twin vs. Temur Reclamation in Standard

Hello everyone, and welcome to the next match in the Best Standard Deck Ever Tournament! This week we've got a combo-heavy matchup. In one corner is 2011's Splinter Twin, the Standard forerunner of the iconic Modern deck that would dominate the format for half a decade before its inglorious banning in 2016. In the other corner, it's Temur Reclamation, a 2020 brew that looked to use Wilderness Reclamation to double its mana and win with a massive Expansion // Explosion on its end step! Which deck is moving on and which is going home? Let's find out!

While best known for its dominance in Modern, the Standard version of Splinter Twin worked essentially the same way, looking to get a Splinter Twin on a Deceiver Exarch which would allow it to make infinite hasty 1/4 attackers to win the game as early as turn four. A mainstay on the SCG Tour in 2011, the deck took combo master Matt Nass to the top eight of Grand Prix Pittsburgh in August of 2011. The deck only existed in Standard for a few months because New Phyrexia, which brought us Deceiver Exarch, released in May of 2011 and Rise of the Eldrazi and Splinter Twin would rotate in September of the same year, but after rotation, the archetype would find its footing in the new Modern format and go on to become one of its best and most iconic archetypes before it was banned in 2016.

Born during the pandemic era of 2020 when the Magic tournament scene was scattered and often on hiatus, Temur Reclamation was a dominant force, winning multiple Players Tour events (the equivalent of the Pro Tour at the time, all of which had moved online because of the pandemic) and then backed this up by winning the Players Tour Finals and putting three more players into the top eight of the event.

The deck was built around a combo control plan, using early removal to keep the opponent from getting their footing, and eventually sticking its namesake enchantment Wilderness Reclamation, which allows you to double your mana on your end step by floating all of your mana before Wilderness Reclamation untaps all of your lands, which would let the deck win with a massive Expansion // Explosion or Shark Typhoon.

Eventually, a total of four cards from the deck would be banned in Standard, first Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, and then later Teferi, Time Raveler, Growth Spiral, and Wilderness Reclamation itself, which was finally enough to kill the archetype.