Hey all. EDH is the local casual format, so my EDH decks tend to be mostly casual.
I try and avoid expensive Type 2 legal cards for the most part, since I'm poor and need those for my Type 2 decks, but any suggestions, comments or recommendations are more than welcome!
It would help if you could tell us a bit about your deck, how it plays, and what you think it needs to improve upon. I can get the gist from the cards, but since I won't be shuffling it up like you have, my impression of it pales in comparison to your own.
The first thing I notice is that your deck has no "tuck": effects that can put a creature into a library. This is great at dealing with decks that are built around their commander: they can't get it back to the command zone to cast until they draw or tutor for it, which often slows them down a lot. White is arguably the best color for this, and you might want to consider including Condemn, Hallowed Burial, and/or Oblation, particularly since your general is a lot more difficult to tuck.
How do you feel about the creature base? It seems like you're trying to play aggressively, almost to the point of a classic White Weenie list (although your curve does go up a lot higher). My concern with this approach, particularly in multiplayer, is that it's a lot harder to deal 40 damage than 20, especially when practically every deck is running sweepers. Do you find that your low-cost creatures are becoming a hazard in the late game?
Also, there are a few cards I'm confused about, perhaps you could explain why you chose to include them:
-Lantern of Insight: I really can't tell what the purpose of this card is in the deck.
-Invincible Hymn: how does this usually work for you? It seems like it would either be overkill in a game where you have the time to cast an 8-mana sorcery, or come too late to protect your life total against a fast, aggressive deck.
-Sunstrike Legionnaire: how often does this guy do useful things? In my experience, most of the low-CMC creatures he'd tap have useful ETB effects, so being able to tap them down tends not to do much, since they've done their job as soon as they land on the field.
-Springjack Knight: You don't seem to have any way to manipulate your library well, and your average CMC seems lower than most EDH decks to me. Can you consistently win the clash? I'd be worried about having to rely on hitting it to avoid getting blown out by blockers, and then flipping a Mosquito Guard or something.
-Battlegrace Angel: Most of your deck seems like it's leaning towards the "swarm" theme: get a ton of creatures down, make the damage multiply with global pump effects, and just smash face. The Angel seems to do the exact opposite: it rewards attacking alone.
My last thought is it seems like you might want to clean up your tribal theme a bit. You've got Soldiers, Kithkin, and Knights, but quite a few cards that are focusing on one of those tribes, but not all of the support cards I might expect. I feel like this will result in games where you'll have the support cards for one tribe but none of the creatures to benefit from them, resulting in an overall mediocre board. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve this, but personally I'd rank Soldiers as the most useful: there have been a lot of them printed, and there are a few good tribal cards that you don't have (my first thought is Captain of the Watch and Catapult Squad). It would be nice if you could drop to one tribe: it might mean giving up a few nice cards, but there are lots of options out there, and the tradeoff is you can guarantee your tribal enablers will work with the creatures you have. Two tribes is possible, but I still feel like you're going to have very unsatisfying hands with that from time to time.
It would help if you could tell us a bit about your deck, how it plays, and what you think it needs to improve upon. I can get the gist from the cards, but since I won't be shuffling it up like you have, my impression of it pales in comparison to your own.
My apologies. I'm still really new to EDH. This was the first deck I built, and there was literally no thought process behind it. I picked Crovax, took a bunch of white rares from my old cards folder, dug through all the white cards I amassed playing white weenie from Lorwyn to Zendikar, and kept cutting untill I was down to 100.
It does basically play like white weenie, with some higher cost stuff in there to give me a late game.
It has no goal or purpose, other than to 'suit Crovax'. It actually tends to struggle in 1v1 because it just can't handle generals like Rafiq who are relatively efficiently costed and create massive board impact even if they themselves don't attack. (In fact I won't play the guy who plays Rafiq with any of my decks except Sedris because you can only lose so many games ina row...)
The first thing I notice is that your deck has no "tuck": effects that can put a creature into a library. This is great at dealing with decks that are built around their commander: they can't get it back to the command zone to cast until they draw or tutor for it, which often slows them down a lot. White is arguably the best color for this, and you might want to consider including Condemn, Hallowed Burial, and/or Oblation, particularly since your general is a lot more difficult to tuck.
I suppose I still don't fully understand how the Command Zone 'works' (no need to explain, I'll look it up myself), since I had no idea you could do that. I just assumed that if a General wasn't in play or Exiled he was there. I have Path to Exile, I'll se about getting Condemn or the other two you mentioned.
How do you feel about the creature base? It seems like you're trying to play aggressively, almost to the point of a classic White Weenie list (although your curve does go up a lot higher). My concern with this approach, particularly in multiplayer, is that it's a lot harder to deal 40 damage than 20, especially when practically every deck is running sweepers. Do you find that your low-cost creatures are becoming a hazard in the late game?
Well, my cardbase tends toward a weenie list. I'm not comfortable going all-in weenie and making it a 1v1 deck (all my decks should ideally be usable in single or multi. I'd rather focus their strength on single because multi has so many variables, you never know what will happen).
Sweepers are bad, but a good deal of my cards tutor/make tokens/let me play extra cards, so I find I usually recover fairly well. I'm open to tweaking my list, but I don't want to go all-in white weenie, nor do I want to twiddle my thumbs untill turn 4, if you catch my meaning.
I don't know what a good curve on an EDH deck should be like, I suppose.
-Lantern of Insight: I really can't tell what the purpose of this card is in the deck.
Basically just fills a slot.. I like its first ability, though. Usually its purpose it to keep me from topdecking a land when I don't need one. Could be replaced.
-Invincible Hymn: how does this usually work for you? It seems like it would either be overkill in a game where you have the time to cast an 8-mana sorcery, or come too late to protect your life total against a fast, aggressive deck.
Usually, I'm the aggressor (untill Rafiq hits). Everytime I've resolved it, I've ended up winning, though indeed a few of those times I was winning already.
-Sunstrike Legionnaire: how often does this guy do useful things? In my experience, most of the low-CMC creatures he'd tap have useful ETB effects, so being able to tap them down tends not to do much, since they've done their job as soon as they land on the field.
Never had the opportunity to cast him. Could be something else.
-Springjack Knight: You don't seem to have any way to manipulate your library well, and your average CMC seems lower than most EDH decks to me. Can you consistently win the clash? I'd be worried about having to rely on hitting it to avoid getting blown out by blockers, and then flipping a Mosquito Guard or something.
I've only used him a few times, but yes, I tend to lose 3/4s of clashes. Could be something else.
-Battlegrace Angel: Most of your deck seems like it's leaning towards the "swarm" theme: get a ton of creatures down, make the damage multiply with global pump effects, and just smash face. The Angel seems to do the exact opposite: it rewards attacking alone.
I guess it could be Serra Angel or something, but Battlegrace is one of the good cards after a sweep. I guess she could be something else, but again the only comparable thing I have is Serra.
My last thought is it seems like you might want to clean up your tribal theme a bit. You've got Soldiers, Kithkin, and Knights, but quite a few cards that are focusing on one of those tribes, but not all of the support cards I might expect. I feel like this will result in games where you'll have the support cards for one tribe but none of the creatures to benefit from them, resulting in an overall mediocre board. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve this, but personally I'd rank Soldiers as the most useful: there have been a lot of them printed, and there are a few good tribal cards that you don't have (my first thought is Captain of the Watch and Catapult Squad). It would be nice if you could drop to one tribe: it might mean giving up a few nice cards, but there are lots of options out there, and the tradeoff is you can guarantee your tribal enablers will work with the creatures you have. Two tribes is possible, but I still feel like you're going to have very unsatisfying hands with that from time to time.
Well, Knight and Kithkin don't necessarily mean anything here, the only Tribal that really has interactions is Soldier, and almost all of my other Soldiers are either one-drops or overcosted four drops. I don't really have anything like the Captain of the Watch or that Knight dude with Battlecry who makes tokens, and I wouldn't want to pull things like Meadowgrain and White Shield since they're so good, but I'll keep my eye out for more soldiers and tuck effects, and maybe some Equipment.
I appreciate all your help.
All right, I definitely feel like I understand your deck a bit better. I'm going to try to offer up some cards that you might want to consider including.
Anthem effects: lots of creatures means lots of bonuses off of this.
- Honor of the Pure: Arguably the strongest one just because it's so cheap, and it'll get the job done pretty easily.
- Crusade: This is tricky because it is a symmetrical effect, not just your guys. If you have lots of white aggressive decks in your meta, this may not be the best option.
- Marshal's Anthem: This thing is definitely worth considering, since you have an almost always worse version of it in the deck in Angelic Voices. It's generally considered to be a junk rare, so it'll be easy to find, and it'll unconditionally boost your creatures for the same cost as Voices, but you can also resurrect as many creatures as you want for 2 mana a pop. Fun fun fun late-game when you're in topdeck mode and your board's empty.
Creatures: A lot of your guys will be outclassed in EDH, there are definitely some relatively cheap upgrades you can find.
- Deftblade Elite: This was one of my favorite cards from Onslaught block. He can chump big guys all day long, or he can stop your opponent's blocker from whittling down your attack force. He's also tutorable with Knight-Captain of Eos.
- Sun Titan: This might fall under "expensive Type 2 cards", but I figured I'd mention him. This guy is a powerhouse in any deck that's likely to fill a yard with targets for him. Moment he comes into play, he's already grabbed one of your creatures back. Even if a removal spell immediately hits him, he's 2-for-1'd in a 1v1 game. Every turn he sticks around, he makes it worse. And you've got plenty of stuff to bring back: imagine bringing back a Pacifism after it died with the creature it was on. I'd say he's definitely stronger than Purity or maybe Windbrisk Raptor.
- Mirran Crusader Again, probably an expensive T2 card, but for three-drops, he's a house, especially when you get an Anthem or two under him. Protection from a removal color never hurt either, particularly when he's probably going to slide right past most potential General blockers.
- Student of Warfare: This guy probably isn't even worth mentioning, I have no idea why he's so popular. But he's great as a mana sink, and he's pretty impressive no matter how much you have sunk into him.
- Emeria Angel: Might count as an expensive T2 card, but she's pretty cheap, and churning out extra cheap evasive creatures sounds like a recipe for success. You're pretty much going to play lands anyway.
- Mother of Runes: Ridiculously nice utility. Slide a creature through blockers, counter removal all night long, and all for the low, low price of 1 mana. I'd play her over something like Martyr of Sands.
- Soltari Champion: Pump effect, evasion, pretty solid.
- Soltari Monk/ Soltari Priest: Classic white weenie creatures. Protection from a removal color, 2 power for 2, sneak past a lot of defenses.
- Aven Mindcensor: 2 power for 3 mana, even with evasion, isn't all that impressive, but it's going to give your opponents fits, especially if you cast it in response to a search spell.
- Eight-and-a-Half-Tails: Blanking spot removal and letting your creatures swing through a clogged board sounds fun. And he's still a 2/2 for 2.
- Ballynock Cohort: 3/3 first striker for 3 most of the time, gets soldier bonuses.
- Mirror Entity: Lets you sink extra mana to push your guys to ridiculous power levels, your Anthem affects apply on top of that, and your tribal bonuses apply to everything. Very much an "oops, I win" card, especially since if you've got a decent board presence you can drop him and immediately sink the rest of your mana into the ability.
Utility: Other stuff I thought of.
-Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Irritatingly high-priced, but she makes tokens, lets your guys fly over blockers, and people can't let her ultimate resolve. And you've got enough guys that if an opponent's trying to take her out, you're probably going to make them pay for it.
- Meekstone/Retribution of the Meek: Your guys are generally pretty small. You'd have to watch out with anthem effects, but being able to slice apart everyone else's board while leaving yours nice and dangerous sounds like fun.
- Ajani Goldmane: He's soon rotating out of Standard, so I thought I'd mention him. I'm not sure on this, but the -1 seems kind of nice, and you seem to have a lot of lifegain in your deck, so he might be able to replace some of the higher-costed just-lifegain spells that are going to be dead in your hand sometimes.
- Faith's Fetters. Irritating to deal with for an opponent, since if it's on a general they either need enchant removal or to kill off the general themselves to get it off. You can also use it to lock out planeswalkers, equipment, or any other permanent with an activated ability. Gains you a nice bit of life too, if you're worried about that.
- Skullclamp. I like the idea of putting a larger equipment theme in here, but this seems like it's worth including no matter what. It gives you cards after a sweeper, lets you "cycle" cheap creatures when they're no longer relevant to the board state, does silly things with stuff like Spectral Procession/Raise the Alarm, and does all of that for 1 mana.
- White Sun's Zenith: I'm not particularly sure this card is good, but it seems absolutely nuts with enough Anthem effects, fills the higher end of the curve with stuff relevant to your theme, and would be absolutely amazing after a board sweep. Without Anthem effects, I'd say it catches up to the right curve at about X=3 (6 power for 6 mana). You can also EOT it and make for a very sad opponent who thought he had one more turn to Wrath.
General thoughts:
- If you feel like you're generally the aggressor in a game, you might want to cut a lot of the lifegain. Generally, lifegain for the sake of lifegain is bad, unless it's truly infinite (we're talking 10 trillion, not 99 or less like Invincible Hymn), or it comes attached to something useful, like a removal spell. Combo decks tend to be capable of going infinite in this format, so it's unlikely that you'll gain enough to stop them, and once control decks get control of the field and start dropping their bombs, they'll tear through even 200 life in fairly short order, and a lot of that time there won't be anything in your deck that can stop them, so those extra turns you get won't do jack. If you're the most aggressive guy on the field, you're probably losing games when your stuff gets outclassed, which probably means lifegain won't help 9 times out of 10, ESPECIALLY when they can just get to 21 general damage and kill you while you're still at 70 life.
- Equipment would be good. They help you get a lot more value out of your creatures. A topdecked 2/2 is kind of weak. A topdecked 2/2 wielding an Umezawa's Jitte can do some real damage.
Out of that list, I have a Sun Titan, Honor of the Pure and Marshal's Anthem on hand (I tend to keep my Titans as tradebait since they're like the only valuable, tradable cards I have left) and can probably get an Ajani and another White Sun (I had to buy one for my Rith deck already)for under $10, but most of the others will be a complete crapshoot.
As for Equipment, I don't have anything good like Jitte or Swords. I have Veteran's Armaments which would be a good fit, and Banshee Blade.
I do appreciate your help, however, and now I have something to work toward.
My favorite way to trash Rafiq is to use single-target repeatable prevention. If they go for the exalted swing, you just blank their attacker with whatever you're using. If they go for the normal all-in, they lose a lot of what makes their deck good.
- Maze of Ith might be out of your price range, but Kor Haven is pretty cheap and shreds exalted swings: they're usually pretty much dead in the water until they can kill the land.
-Mystifying Maze is pretty solid at it too. If you do use one or the other, consider Weathered Wayfarer to search them up. You aren't running any land-search, so if any other player at the table is, Wayfarer's basically tutoring up whatever land you want every turn.
-Trap Runner is ok if they don't have trample, but isn't as good utility as some of the other stuff, and is kind of overcosted.
- Deftblade Elite can stop some things, doesn't really do well against trample or any sort of evasion though. It has a lot of other uses though, so might be worth using anyway.
Other answers to aggro decks in general:
- Knight-Captain of Eos: Pretty solid on its own once you get an Anthem effect or something down, and it'll give you at least 3 turns free of combat damage, not counting any other soldiers you have lying around.
- Frontline Strategist: Extremely situational, not sure I'd recommend you actually use this, but if you find yourself in a lot of situations where this kind of effect would really swing the game for you, you might want to try it out.
- Catapult Squad: I've mentioned this guy before, and I really think he's worth looking into. It's amazing how useful being able to tap a couple summoning-sick soldiers to take out an attacker is, and you can use it to supplement normal combat damage so that your 2/2 first striker takes out a 6/6 without breaking a sweat. Absolute insanity with Mobilization too: swing with everything and turn half the blocks into blowouts. It's pretty much a must-remove for any aggro deck. Also keep in mind that you can activate it after you opponent declares an attacker, with Exalted triggers on the stack, and only have to do the creature's pre-Exalted toughness to kill it.
I try and avoid expensive Type 2 legal cards for the most part, since I'm poor and need those for my Type 2 decks, but any suggestions, comments or recommendations are more than welcome!
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Alternates 2
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
Creatures 31
1 Mosquito Guard
1 Martyr of Sands
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Ballyrush Banneret
1 Jotun Grunt
1 Sunstrike Legionaire
1 Kithkin Zealot
1 Order of the White Shield
1 Longbow Archer
1 White Knight
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Benalish Knight
1 Order of Whiteclay
1 Preeminent Captain
1 Field Marshal
1 Springjack Knight
1 Slith Ascendant
1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
1 Daru Warchief
1 Celestial Crusader
1 Calciderm
1 Ballynock Trapper
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Battlegrace Angel
1 Archon of Redemption
1 Voidstone Gargoyle
1 Purity
1 Admonition Angel
1 Windbrisk Raptor
Enchantments 12
1 Militia's Pride
1 Spirit Loop
1 Pacifism
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Mobilization
1 Prison Term
1 Aura of Silence
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Angelic Voices
1 Armored Ascension
1 Light From Within
1 Sigil of the empty throne
Spells 13
1 Mana Tithe
1 Rebuff the Wicked
1 Humble
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Hail of Arrows
1 Wrath of God
1 Ressurection
1 Iona's Judgement
1 Conqueror's Pledge
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Austere Command
1 Invincible Hymn
Artifacts 3
1 Lantern of Insight
1 Door of Destinies
1 Minion Reflector
Land 38
1 Winding Canyons
1 Terrain Generator
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Ice Floe
32 Plains
The first thing I notice is that your deck has no "tuck": effects that can put a creature into a library. This is great at dealing with decks that are built around their commander: they can't get it back to the command zone to cast until they draw or tutor for it, which often slows them down a lot. White is arguably the best color for this, and you might want to consider including Condemn, Hallowed Burial, and/or Oblation, particularly since your general is a lot more difficult to tuck.
How do you feel about the creature base? It seems like you're trying to play aggressively, almost to the point of a classic White Weenie list (although your curve does go up a lot higher). My concern with this approach, particularly in multiplayer, is that it's a lot harder to deal 40 damage than 20, especially when practically every deck is running sweepers. Do you find that your low-cost creatures are becoming a hazard in the late game?
Also, there are a few cards I'm confused about, perhaps you could explain why you chose to include them:
-Lantern of Insight: I really can't tell what the purpose of this card is in the deck.
-Invincible Hymn: how does this usually work for you? It seems like it would either be overkill in a game where you have the time to cast an 8-mana sorcery, or come too late to protect your life total against a fast, aggressive deck.
-Sunstrike Legionnaire: how often does this guy do useful things? In my experience, most of the low-CMC creatures he'd tap have useful ETB effects, so being able to tap them down tends not to do much, since they've done their job as soon as they land on the field.
-Springjack Knight: You don't seem to have any way to manipulate your library well, and your average CMC seems lower than most EDH decks to me. Can you consistently win the clash? I'd be worried about having to rely on hitting it to avoid getting blown out by blockers, and then flipping a Mosquito Guard or something.
-Battlegrace Angel: Most of your deck seems like it's leaning towards the "swarm" theme: get a ton of creatures down, make the damage multiply with global pump effects, and just smash face. The Angel seems to do the exact opposite: it rewards attacking alone.
My last thought is it seems like you might want to clean up your tribal theme a bit. You've got Soldiers, Kithkin, and Knights, but quite a few cards that are focusing on one of those tribes, but not all of the support cards I might expect. I feel like this will result in games where you'll have the support cards for one tribe but none of the creatures to benefit from them, resulting in an overall mediocre board. I'm not exactly sure how to resolve this, but personally I'd rank Soldiers as the most useful: there have been a lot of them printed, and there are a few good tribal cards that you don't have (my first thought is Captain of the Watch and Catapult Squad). It would be nice if you could drop to one tribe: it might mean giving up a few nice cards, but there are lots of options out there, and the tradeoff is you can guarantee your tribal enablers will work with the creatures you have. Two tribes is possible, but I still feel like you're going to have very unsatisfying hands with that from time to time.
Legacy:
Type 2 Metagame Analysis. For those of you who keep wondering what's the best right now.
My apologies. I'm still really new to EDH. This was the first deck I built, and there was literally no thought process behind it. I picked Crovax, took a bunch of white rares from my old cards folder, dug through all the white cards I amassed playing white weenie from Lorwyn to Zendikar, and kept cutting untill I was down to 100.
It does basically play like white weenie, with some higher cost stuff in there to give me a late game.
It has no goal or purpose, other than to 'suit Crovax'. It actually tends to struggle in 1v1 because it just can't handle generals like Rafiq who are relatively efficiently costed and create massive board impact even if they themselves don't attack. (In fact I won't play the guy who plays Rafiq with any of my decks except Sedris because you can only lose so many games ina row...)
I suppose I still don't fully understand how the Command Zone 'works' (no need to explain, I'll look it up myself), since I had no idea you could do that. I just assumed that if a General wasn't in play or Exiled he was there. I have Path to Exile, I'll se about getting Condemn or the other two you mentioned.
Well, my cardbase tends toward a weenie list. I'm not comfortable going all-in weenie and making it a 1v1 deck (all my decks should ideally be usable in single or multi. I'd rather focus their strength on single because multi has so many variables, you never know what will happen).
Sweepers are bad, but a good deal of my cards tutor/make tokens/let me play extra cards, so I find I usually recover fairly well. I'm open to tweaking my list, but I don't want to go all-in white weenie, nor do I want to twiddle my thumbs untill turn 4, if you catch my meaning.
I don't know what a good curve on an EDH deck should be like, I suppose.
Basically just fills a slot.. I like its first ability, though. Usually its purpose it to keep me from topdecking a land when I don't need one. Could be replaced.
Usually, I'm the aggressor (untill Rafiq hits). Everytime I've resolved it, I've ended up winning, though indeed a few of those times I was winning already.
Never had the opportunity to cast him. Could be something else.
I've only used him a few times, but yes, I tend to lose 3/4s of clashes. Could be something else.
I guess it could be Serra Angel or something, but Battlegrace is one of the good cards after a sweep. I guess she could be something else, but again the only comparable thing I have is Serra.
Well, Knight and Kithkin don't necessarily mean anything here, the only Tribal that really has interactions is Soldier, and almost all of my other Soldiers are either one-drops or overcosted four drops. I don't really have anything like the Captain of the Watch or that Knight dude with Battlecry who makes tokens, and I wouldn't want to pull things like Meadowgrain and White Shield since they're so good, but I'll keep my eye out for more soldiers and tuck effects, and maybe some Equipment.
I appreciate all your help.
Anthem effects: lots of creatures means lots of bonuses off of this.
- Honor of the Pure: Arguably the strongest one just because it's so cheap, and it'll get the job done pretty easily.
- Crusade: This is tricky because it is a symmetrical effect, not just your guys. If you have lots of white aggressive decks in your meta, this may not be the best option.
- Marshal's Anthem: This thing is definitely worth considering, since you have an almost always worse version of it in the deck in Angelic Voices. It's generally considered to be a junk rare, so it'll be easy to find, and it'll unconditionally boost your creatures for the same cost as Voices, but you can also resurrect as many creatures as you want for 2 mana a pop. Fun fun fun late-game when you're in topdeck mode and your board's empty.
Creatures: A lot of your guys will be outclassed in EDH, there are definitely some relatively cheap upgrades you can find.
- Deftblade Elite: This was one of my favorite cards from Onslaught block. He can chump big guys all day long, or he can stop your opponent's blocker from whittling down your attack force. He's also tutorable with Knight-Captain of Eos.
- Sun Titan: This might fall under "expensive Type 2 cards", but I figured I'd mention him. This guy is a powerhouse in any deck that's likely to fill a yard with targets for him. Moment he comes into play, he's already grabbed one of your creatures back. Even if a removal spell immediately hits him, he's 2-for-1'd in a 1v1 game. Every turn he sticks around, he makes it worse. And you've got plenty of stuff to bring back: imagine bringing back a Pacifism after it died with the creature it was on. I'd say he's definitely stronger than Purity or maybe Windbrisk Raptor.
- Mirran Crusader Again, probably an expensive T2 card, but for three-drops, he's a house, especially when you get an Anthem or two under him. Protection from a removal color never hurt either, particularly when he's probably going to slide right past most potential General blockers.
- Student of Warfare: This guy probably isn't even worth mentioning, I have no idea why he's so popular. But he's great as a mana sink, and he's pretty impressive no matter how much you have sunk into him.
- Emeria Angel: Might count as an expensive T2 card, but she's pretty cheap, and churning out extra cheap evasive creatures sounds like a recipe for success. You're pretty much going to play lands anyway.
- Mother of Runes: Ridiculously nice utility. Slide a creature through blockers, counter removal all night long, and all for the low, low price of 1 mana. I'd play her over something like Martyr of Sands.
- Soltari Champion: Pump effect, evasion, pretty solid.
- Soltari Monk/ Soltari Priest: Classic white weenie creatures. Protection from a removal color, 2 power for 2, sneak past a lot of defenses.
- Aven Mindcensor: 2 power for 3 mana, even with evasion, isn't all that impressive, but it's going to give your opponents fits, especially if you cast it in response to a search spell.
- Eight-and-a-Half-Tails: Blanking spot removal and letting your creatures swing through a clogged board sounds fun. And he's still a 2/2 for 2.
- Ballynock Cohort: 3/3 first striker for 3 most of the time, gets soldier bonuses.
- Mirror Entity: Lets you sink extra mana to push your guys to ridiculous power levels, your Anthem affects apply on top of that, and your tribal bonuses apply to everything. Very much an "oops, I win" card, especially since if you've got a decent board presence you can drop him and immediately sink the rest of your mana into the ability.
Utility: Other stuff I thought of.
-Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Irritatingly high-priced, but she makes tokens, lets your guys fly over blockers, and people can't let her ultimate resolve. And you've got enough guys that if an opponent's trying to take her out, you're probably going to make them pay for it.
- Meekstone/Retribution of the Meek: Your guys are generally pretty small. You'd have to watch out with anthem effects, but being able to slice apart everyone else's board while leaving yours nice and dangerous sounds like fun.
- Ajani Goldmane: He's soon rotating out of Standard, so I thought I'd mention him. I'm not sure on this, but the -1 seems kind of nice, and you seem to have a lot of lifegain in your deck, so he might be able to replace some of the higher-costed just-lifegain spells that are going to be dead in your hand sometimes.
- Faith's Fetters. Irritating to deal with for an opponent, since if it's on a general they either need enchant removal or to kill off the general themselves to get it off. You can also use it to lock out planeswalkers, equipment, or any other permanent with an activated ability. Gains you a nice bit of life too, if you're worried about that.
- Skullclamp. I like the idea of putting a larger equipment theme in here, but this seems like it's worth including no matter what. It gives you cards after a sweeper, lets you "cycle" cheap creatures when they're no longer relevant to the board state, does silly things with stuff like Spectral Procession/Raise the Alarm, and does all of that for 1 mana.
- White Sun's Zenith: I'm not particularly sure this card is good, but it seems absolutely nuts with enough Anthem effects, fills the higher end of the curve with stuff relevant to your theme, and would be absolutely amazing after a board sweep. Without Anthem effects, I'd say it catches up to the right curve at about X=3 (6 power for 6 mana). You can also EOT it and make for a very sad opponent who thought he had one more turn to Wrath.
General thoughts:
- If you feel like you're generally the aggressor in a game, you might want to cut a lot of the lifegain. Generally, lifegain for the sake of lifegain is bad, unless it's truly infinite (we're talking 10 trillion, not 99 or less like Invincible Hymn), or it comes attached to something useful, like a removal spell. Combo decks tend to be capable of going infinite in this format, so it's unlikely that you'll gain enough to stop them, and once control decks get control of the field and start dropping their bombs, they'll tear through even 200 life in fairly short order, and a lot of that time there won't be anything in your deck that can stop them, so those extra turns you get won't do jack. If you're the most aggressive guy on the field, you're probably losing games when your stuff gets outclassed, which probably means lifegain won't help 9 times out of 10, ESPECIALLY when they can just get to 21 general damage and kill you while you're still at 70 life.
- Equipment would be good. They help you get a lot more value out of your creatures. A topdecked 2/2 is kind of weak. A topdecked 2/2 wielding an Umezawa's Jitte can do some real damage.
Legacy:
Type 2 Metagame Analysis. For those of you who keep wondering what's the best right now.
Out of that list, I have a Sun Titan, Honor of the Pure and Marshal's Anthem on hand (I tend to keep my Titans as tradebait since they're like the only valuable, tradable cards I have left) and can probably get an Ajani and another White Sun (I had to buy one for my Rith deck already)for under $10, but most of the others will be a complete crapshoot.
As for Equipment, I don't have anything good like Jitte or Swords. I have Veteran's Armaments which would be a good fit, and Banshee Blade.
I do appreciate your help, however, and now I have something to work toward.
-1 Lantern of Insight
-1 Sunstrike Legionaire
-1 Battlegrace Angel
-1 Springjack Knight
+1 Mother of Runes
+1 Kinsbaile Borderguard
+1 Gempalm Avenger
+1 Sun Titan
+1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Alternates 3
1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Creatures 30
1 Mosquito Guard
1 Mother of Runes
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Ballyrush Banneret
1 Jotun Grunt
1 Kithkin Zealot
1 Order of the White Shield
1 Longbow Archer
1 White Knight
1 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Benalish Knight
1 Order of Whiteclay
1 Preeminent Captain
1 Field Marshal
1 Slith Ascendant
1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
1 Kinsbaile Borderguard
1 Celestial Crusader
1 Calciderm
1 Ballynock Trapper
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Cloudgoat Ranger
1 Archon of Redemption
1 Voidstone Gargoyle
1 Sun Titan
1 Purity
1 Admonition Angel
1 Windbrisk Raptor
Enchantments 12
1 Militia's Pride
1 Spirit Loop
1 Pacifism
1 Honor of the Pure
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Mobilization
1 Prison Term
1 Aura of Silence
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Armored Ascension
1 Light From Within
Spells 13
1 Mana Tithe
1 Rebuff the Wicked
1 Humble
1 Raise the Alarm
1 Hail of Arrows
1 Spectral Procession
1 Wrath of God
1 Ressurection
1 Iona's Judgement
1 Conqueror's Pledge
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Austere Command
1 Invincible Hymn
Artifacts 2
1 Door of Destinies
1 Minion Reflector
Land 38
1 Winding Canyons
1 Terrain Generator
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Ice Floe
Seems much stronger now. Still can't beat Rafiq, though.
- Maze of Ith might be out of your price range, but Kor Haven is pretty cheap and shreds exalted swings: they're usually pretty much dead in the water until they can kill the land.
-Mystifying Maze is pretty solid at it too. If you do use one or the other, consider Weathered Wayfarer to search them up. You aren't running any land-search, so if any other player at the table is, Wayfarer's basically tutoring up whatever land you want every turn.
-Trap Runner is ok if they don't have trample, but isn't as good utility as some of the other stuff, and is kind of overcosted.
- Deftblade Elite can stop some things, doesn't really do well against trample or any sort of evasion though. It has a lot of other uses though, so might be worth using anyway.
Other answers to aggro decks in general:
- Knight-Captain of Eos: Pretty solid on its own once you get an Anthem effect or something down, and it'll give you at least 3 turns free of combat damage, not counting any other soldiers you have lying around.
- Frontline Strategist: Extremely situational, not sure I'd recommend you actually use this, but if you find yourself in a lot of situations where this kind of effect would really swing the game for you, you might want to try it out.
- Catapult Squad: I've mentioned this guy before, and I really think he's worth looking into. It's amazing how useful being able to tap a couple summoning-sick soldiers to take out an attacker is, and you can use it to supplement normal combat damage so that your 2/2 first striker takes out a 6/6 without breaking a sweat. Absolute insanity with Mobilization too: swing with everything and turn half the blocks into blowouts. It's pretty much a must-remove for any aggro deck. Also keep in mind that you can activate it after you opponent declares an attacker, with Exalted triggers on the stack, and only have to do the creature's pre-Exalted toughness to kill it.
Legacy:
Type 2 Metagame Analysis. For those of you who keep wondering what's the best right now.