I used to play a deck similar to this in extended (lorwyn-Zendikar extended) and it was a fun & pretty strong deck. With the release of Innistrad, the deck got a lot of new tools & toys to play with that give it added strength, consistency, and resilience as evidenced by the fact that GW tokens is a strong deck in standard right now. I've been playing this deck successfully for a while on Cockatrice & other programs, and figured I would post the list up for anybody else who would be interested in a consistent non-red based aggro strategy that has a solid late-game in addition to explosive starts. This deck is a little bit similar to GW Maverick, but has a less toolboxy approach due to the loss of Zenith, and obviously uses a shotgun approach of putting as many bodies on the board as quickly as possible to either provide an impossible wall for opposing creatures to attack through, or simply swinging for rapid alpha strikes with a small army.
Why play this?
It has a good Zoo matchup, has a good control matchup, and isn't terrible against combo decks (can often race game 1, find hate game 2&3). Attacking for 12 on turn 3 with a Mirran Crusader is awesome, and using Knight of the Reliquary to tutor up awesome lands is a lot of fun.
What's the strategy?
This is an "Big" Aggro deck first and foremost, but it affords advantages over opponents in that it completely outpaces their spot removal, and sets a great tempo disparity against other decks via access to fast mana. It gains a mass amount of virtual card advantage through planeswalkers, the land-base, equipment, as well as other token producers.
The disadvantages?
You're running less ways to disrupt the combo decks than other decks in the format, but you can at least dedicate the majority of your sideboard to hating out combo decks. RDW is a bad matchup, but can be easily fixed if you put more slots in the board to fight against it. You're not as interactive as other aggro decks like Zoo, and can't splash other colors as easily due to needing 3 white turn 2 for spectral procession.
Basically, the general Idea is you use mana dorks to power out turn 2 three mana threats (spectral procession, knight of the Reliquary, mirran crusader) then beat down.
In order to maximize the value off playing relatively useless mana dorks, you use Gavony Township (which can be tutored via Knight) to power up otherwise useless late-game mana dorks.
Knight of the Reliquary serves as a creature that's immune to Punishing fire largely, and gives you card advantage when needed (windbrisk heights/horizon canopy/Sejiri Steppe) or beating down. In addition to grabbing silver bullet lands, Knight also has awesome synergy with Emeria Angel allowing you to crank out an army of 4-5 birds as early as turn 4.
Elspeth is obvious wrath protection, is nuts with Mirran Crusader, and provides an endless stream of tokens to stall against Zoo.
The two swords provide a form of card advantage giving you more "removal", protecting creatures from burn, and all around ending a game quite fast.
i like it but it doesn't seem to have a place in the current meta. combo is too fast and so is zoo. mid range decks need to have something to stop combo or zoo consistently.
and i feel that this deck is jack of too many trades. you go half way into tokens and also half way into mid range aggro. if you wanted to go tokens. elspeth 2.0 is strictly better imo.
i like it but it doesn't seem to have a place in the current meta. combo is too fast and so is zoo. mid range decks need to have something to stop combo or zoo consistently.
and i feel that this deck is jack of too many trades. you go half way into tokens and also half way into mid range aggro. if you wanted to go tokens. elspeth 2.0 is strictly better imo.
Combo is turn 4 at best, and Zoo is turn 4 at best in the format. Yes the format is fast, but I don't think you really understand the deck that well (no offense or anything).
It IS a mid-range strategy by some definitions, and it's not entirely into tokens. I don't understand what you're saying about being half way into tokens, and half way into mid range aggro. Tokens have always been mid-range aggro in just about every variation made. That being said there is no reason to go all in on tokens and purposefully not play some of the best threats in the format. It would be akin to Zoo not playing Knight of the Reliquary because it's not a "zoo" animal like the other creatures in the deck. Going all in on tokens gets you blown out to punishing fire, engineered explosives, and forces you to play cards that do absolutely nothing on their own like anthems, or play planeswalkers that are strictly inferior. It also eliminates the ability to outclock combo decks if they can't assemble their pieces fast enough.
So perhaps I should rename the deck "Green white midrange with a token subtheme" but that sounds retarded, so if someone can come up with a better name, maybe it would be a little bit less confusing for people.
The strategy of the deck is to employ a very diverse array of threats on turn 2 off a turn 1 mana dork, essentially skipping the "2drop" slot in the deck's curve, and jumping right to 3 & 4 mana threats. You essentially have a great Zoo matchup because you play a lot "bigger" than they do, and make their spot removal irrelevant since your threats poop out more than 1 target to be burned off. In aggro mirrors, tokens have always been a strong way to win wars of attrition, and Zoo decks have played Spectral procession itself in the past exclusively for the purpose of gaining an advantage in mirror matches.
Against combo, well it's like I said, you either race, or find hate, which the entire sideboard is essentially dedicated to. I also think you're underestimating the speed of this deck. If decks like Splinter Twin don't have the t4 win, they're going to be up against the wall as you'll typically win on turn 5 if uninterrupted.
tokens? Modern? g/w? mentor of the meek or glare of subduall would like to be considered somewhere in here. Mentor turns late game mana dork draws into cards, and glare taps down stuff you can't otherwise take.
I'm trying out your decklist against Zoo, and the match-up is surprisingly iffy. Mirran Crusader dies all the time to burn--heck, he dies to Loam Lion--and KotR eats Path to Exiles like no one else. Grim Lavamancer then cleans up the mess surprisingly well. (Thank goodness he dies to SoFaI.)
You basically need to stall the board long enough to lock up an Elspeth or a flier with a Sword and ride them to victory, hopefully not docking yourself to 3 or less life along the way. This is harder than you'd think with only 4 removal spells.
I almost feel like you need to board in Ousts and/or Wrath of Gods against Zoo. If you don't board in Wraths, Zoo WILL overextend without consequences.
The trouble with traditional token decks against Zoo is that all the weenies in the world (at traditional production rates--I'm not counting ridiculous token producers like Worm Harvest) can't stop Zoo from eventually running them over and/or finishing the game off with burn. (I tried that with Snakes and Sosuke's Summons. It didn't stop Zoo from consistently winning.) At least you're fixing the problem with midrange fatties.
i understand this pretty well. i play a mid range g/w deck in modern myself minus the token theme. i don't think you understand the meta. your deck only wins if your opponent draws horribly and you draw well. that is it. if you both get your even somewhat ideal draws. you just lose in matchups.
sure you have advantage mid game but the consistency for you to get there is just iffy like the person stated above.
I'm trying out your decklist against Zoo, and the match-up is surprisingly iffy. Mirran Crusader dies all the time to burn--heck, he dies to Loam Lion--and KotR eats Path to Exiles like no one else. Grim Lavamancer then cleans up the mess surprisingly well. (Thank goodness he dies to SoFaI.)
You basically need to stall the board long enough to lock up an Elspeth or a flier with a Sword and ride them to victory, hopefully not docking yourself to 3 or less life along the way. This is harder than you'd think with only 4 removal spells.
I almost feel like you need to board in Ousts and/or Wrath of Gods against Zoo. If you don't board in Wraths, Zoo WILL overextend without consequences.
The trouble with traditional token decks against Zoo is that all the weenies in the world (at traditional production rates--I'm not counting ridiculous token producers like Worm Harvest) can't stop Zoo from eventually running them over and/or finishing the game off with burn. (I tried that with Snakes and Sosuke's Summons. It didn't stop Zoo from consistently winning.) At least you're fixing the problem with midrange fatties.
Yeah, perhaps i'm deluding myself. I just enjoy playing this deck a lot. To be fair, it really depends which version of Zoo you're playing against, and of course what your draws are. Crusader IS generally a bolt magnet, but i'm usually alright with that since it allows me to drop an Emeria Angel or Elspeth the following turn with a lot more confidence that I can use it to take over the board with.
I've had a great record against the Zoo decks i've played against, but those were mostly the World's Zoo netdecks, which lots of people don't know how to play properly, and those were variants created directly for the metagame, and not necessarily the most powerful zoo decks out there.
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Yeah, perhaps i'm deluding myself. I just enjoy playing this deck a lot. To be fair, it really depends which version of Zoo you're playing against, and of course what your draws are. Crusader IS generally a bolt magnet, but i'm usually alright with that since it allows me to drop an Emeria Angel or Elspeth the following turn with a lot more confidence that I can use it to take over the board with.
I've had a great record against the Zoo decks i've played against, but those were mostly the World's Zoo netdecks, which lots of people don't know how to play properly, and those were variants created directly for the metagame, and not necessarily the most powerful zoo decks out there.
maybe you would be better off trying BW tokens cbus. It is a midrange deck that could work with some effort. It gives you discard to deal with combo and a bit more removal to deal with aggro. you lose the mana dorks and a few good creatures, but essentially no token generation. It is sad that wotc noob-enabled the format by taking out all of the decks that noobs irrationally hate. Honestly all of the decks that hated on except for hypergen and dark depths are fair, skill-intensive decks.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
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Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
maybe you would be better off trying BW tokens cbus. It is a midrange deck that could work with some effort. It gives you discard to deal with combo and a bit more removal to deal with aggro. you lose the mana dorks and a few good creatures, but essentially no token generation. It is sad that wotc noob-enabled the format by taking out all of the decks that noobs irrationally hate. Honestly all of the decks that hated on except for hypergen and dark depths are fair, skill-intensive decks.
I've always liked GW tokens more because it can afford some really explosive starts that are just impossible to deal with. It's mostly just a pet deck for me (as are most green-based fast mana strategies for me).
BW tokens is cool, but the only reason anybody ever played BW tokens was because Bitterblossom, and the big reason to play GW tokens is because Gavony Township can do everything you would realistically want to do with Ajani Goldmane without taking up a deck slot.
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I've always liked GW tokens more because it can afford some really explosive starts that are just impossible to deal with. It's mostly just a pet deck for me (as are most green-based fast mana strategies for me).
BW tokens is cool, but the only reason anybody ever played BW tokens was because Bitterblossom, and the big reason to play GW tokens is because Gavony Township can do everything you would realistically want to do with Ajani Goldmane without taking up a deck slot.
Just a suggestion. I know losing BB is tough, but yeah. Creature based decks that aren't goyf are a pretty tough sell.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
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Why play this?
It has a good Zoo matchup, has a good control matchup, and isn't terrible against combo decks (can often race game 1, find hate game 2&3). Attacking for 12 on turn 3 with a Mirran Crusader is awesome, and using Knight of the Reliquary to tutor up awesome lands is a lot of fun.
What's the strategy?
This is an "Big" Aggro deck first and foremost, but it affords advantages over opponents in that it completely outpaces their spot removal, and sets a great tempo disparity against other decks via access to fast mana. It gains a mass amount of virtual card advantage through planeswalkers, the land-base, equipment, as well as other token producers.
The disadvantages?
You're running less ways to disrupt the combo decks than other decks in the format, but you can at least dedicate the majority of your sideboard to hating out combo decks. RDW is a bad matchup, but can be easily fixed if you put more slots in the board to fight against it. You're not as interactive as other aggro decks like Zoo, and can't splash other colors as easily due to needing 3 white turn 2 for spectral procession.
Deck
Mana Dorks
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
Threats
1x Qasali Pridemage
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Mirran Crusader
3x Emeria Angel
Planeswalkers
3x Elspeth, Knight Errant
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
Instants/Sorceries/Enchantments
4x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands
1x Forest
1x Plains
4x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Arid Mesa
2x Windbrisk Heights
2x Gavony Township
4x Razorverge Thicket
1x Sejiri Steppe
1x Treetop Village
1x Horizon Canopy
3x Torpor Orb (Melira, Splinter Twin)
4x Nevermore (any combo deck, pk fires)
2x Thrun, the Last Troll (control)
2x Qasali Pridemage (twin, melira, affinity, etc)
2x Kitchen Finks (RDW, Zoo, control decks using sweepers)
2x Chalice of the Void (any deck with tons of redundant 1 or 2 drops, cascade combos)
Basically, the general Idea is you use mana dorks to power out turn 2 three mana threats (spectral procession, knight of the Reliquary, mirran crusader) then beat down.
In order to maximize the value off playing relatively useless mana dorks, you use Gavony Township (which can be tutored via Knight) to power up otherwise useless late-game mana dorks.
Knight of the Reliquary serves as a creature that's immune to Punishing fire largely, and gives you card advantage when needed (windbrisk heights/horizon canopy/Sejiri Steppe) or beating down. In addition to grabbing silver bullet lands, Knight also has awesome synergy with Emeria Angel allowing you to crank out an army of 4-5 birds as early as turn 4.
Elspeth is obvious wrath protection, is nuts with Mirran Crusader, and provides an endless stream of tokens to stall against Zoo.
The two swords provide a form of card advantage giving you more "removal", protecting creatures from burn, and all around ending a game quite fast.
and i feel that this deck is jack of too many trades. you go half way into tokens and also half way into mid range aggro. if you wanted to go tokens. elspeth 2.0 is strictly better imo.
Sexy Sig by mchief111 @ Rising Studios
EDH
G Isao
Combo is turn 4 at best, and Zoo is turn 4 at best in the format. Yes the format is fast, but I don't think you really understand the deck that well (no offense or anything).
It IS a mid-range strategy by some definitions, and it's not entirely into tokens. I don't understand what you're saying about being half way into tokens, and half way into mid range aggro. Tokens have always been mid-range aggro in just about every variation made. That being said there is no reason to go all in on tokens and purposefully not play some of the best threats in the format. It would be akin to Zoo not playing Knight of the Reliquary because it's not a "zoo" animal like the other creatures in the deck. Going all in on tokens gets you blown out to punishing fire, engineered explosives, and forces you to play cards that do absolutely nothing on their own like anthems, or play planeswalkers that are strictly inferior. It also eliminates the ability to outclock combo decks if they can't assemble their pieces fast enough.
So perhaps I should rename the deck "Green white midrange with a token subtheme" but that sounds retarded, so if someone can come up with a better name, maybe it would be a little bit less confusing for people.
The strategy of the deck is to employ a very diverse array of threats on turn 2 off a turn 1 mana dork, essentially skipping the "2drop" slot in the deck's curve, and jumping right to 3 & 4 mana threats. You essentially have a great Zoo matchup because you play a lot "bigger" than they do, and make their spot removal irrelevant since your threats poop out more than 1 target to be burned off. In aggro mirrors, tokens have always been a strong way to win wars of attrition, and Zoo decks have played Spectral procession itself in the past exclusively for the purpose of gaining an advantage in mirror matches.
Against combo, well it's like I said, you either race, or find hate, which the entire sideboard is essentially dedicated to. I also think you're underestimating the speed of this deck. If decks like Splinter Twin don't have the t4 win, they're going to be up against the wall as you'll typically win on turn 5 if uninterrupted.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
You basically need to stall the board long enough to lock up an Elspeth or a flier with a Sword and ride them to victory, hopefully not docking yourself to 3 or less life along the way. This is harder than you'd think with only 4 removal spells.
I almost feel like you need to board in Ousts and/or Wrath of Gods against Zoo. If you don't board in Wraths, Zoo WILL overextend without consequences.
The trouble with traditional token decks against Zoo is that all the weenies in the world (at traditional production rates--I'm not counting ridiculous token producers like Worm Harvest) can't stop Zoo from eventually running them over and/or finishing the game off with burn. (I tried that with Snakes and Sosuke's Summons. It didn't stop Zoo from consistently winning.) At least you're fixing the problem with midrange fatties.
sure you have advantage mid game but the consistency for you to get there is just iffy like the person stated above.
Sexy Sig by mchief111 @ Rising Studios
EDH
G Isao
Yeah, perhaps i'm deluding myself. I just enjoy playing this deck a lot. To be fair, it really depends which version of Zoo you're playing against, and of course what your draws are. Crusader IS generally a bolt magnet, but i'm usually alright with that since it allows me to drop an Emeria Angel or Elspeth the following turn with a lot more confidence that I can use it to take over the board with.
I've had a great record against the Zoo decks i've played against, but those were mostly the World's Zoo netdecks, which lots of people don't know how to play properly, and those were variants created directly for the metagame, and not necessarily the most powerful zoo decks out there.
maybe you would be better off trying BW tokens cbus. It is a midrange deck that could work with some effort. It gives you discard to deal with combo and a bit more removal to deal with aggro. you lose the mana dorks and a few good creatures, but essentially no token generation. It is sad that wotc noob-enabled the format by taking out all of the decks that noobs irrationally hate. Honestly all of the decks that hated on except for hypergen and dark depths are fair, skill-intensive decks.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I've always liked GW tokens more because it can afford some really explosive starts that are just impossible to deal with. It's mostly just a pet deck for me (as are most green-based fast mana strategies for me).
BW tokens is cool, but the only reason anybody ever played BW tokens was because Bitterblossom, and the big reason to play GW tokens is because Gavony Township can do everything you would realistically want to do with Ajani Goldmane without taking up a deck slot.
Just a suggestion. I know losing BB is tough, but yeah. Creature based decks that aren't goyf are a pretty tough sell.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson