We basically play all the best white heroic creatures and all the best white heroic enablers. Obelisk of Urd is here because all the best white heroic creatures are soldiers. Raise the Alarm is good filler and combines well with our instant pump/protection spells. I tried to keep the curve as low as possible to give the deck more game against midrange decks. There's a bit of bulk at 2CMC, but it's not too bad.
Not too many options postboard. Boarding into a Brimaz/Seeker of the Way/Lagonna-Band Trailblazer deck works well against monored, and boarding into Ephemeral Shields is nice against Jeskai. We have to keep our heroic stuff pretty front and center, though. The mainboard is designed to be fast enough to beat midrange and devotion strategies.
The mainboard is super budget. I priced it out at StarCity and it was $35. The Brimazes in the sideboard are pretty expensive, but they aren't necessary to make the deck competitive. I didn't build the list with budget in mind, but you could assemble a Brimazless version for very little.
I've been doing very well in 2-mans with this list and I'll take a shot at some dailies tomorrow. Feel free to ask any questions.
I'm not in love with going R/W. Akroan Crusader is incredibly powerful, but you lose a lot of consistency with the red splash. The Mountains throw a wrench in your WW production and the Temples hurt a lot. I played Stanislav Cifka's R/W block deck in Standard quite a bit and I like R/W, but I think Obelisk of Urd and Defiant Strike make mono-white similarly viable post-Khans.
We basically play all the best white heroic creatures and all the best white heroic enablers. Obelisk of Urd is here because all the best white heroic creatures are soldiers. Raise the Alarm is good filler and combines well with our instant pump/protection spells. I tried to keep the curve as low as possible to give the deck more game against midrange decks. There's a bit of bulk at 2CMC, but it's not too bad.
Not too many options postboard. Boarding into a Brimaz/Seeker of the Way/Lagonna-Band Trailblazer deck works well against monored, and boarding into Ephemeral Shields is nice against Jeskai. We have to keep our heroic stuff pretty front and center, though. The mainboard is designed to be fast enough to beat midrange and devotion strategies.
The mainboard is super budget. I priced it out at StarCity and it was $35. The Brimazes in the sideboard are pretty expensive, but they aren't necessary to make the deck competitive. I didn't build the list with budget in mind, but you could assemble a Brimazless version for very little.
I've been doing very well in 2-mans with this list and I'll take a shot at some dailies tomorrow. Feel free to ask any questions.
Nice budget list. What has been your worst Matchups.
Our worst matchups are probably U/B and U/W control. Early spot removal and sweepers are bad news for us--we need to build a 2+ creature board presence before we can do anything impressive. The board is configured to crush RDW and that seems to be a very good matchup. Outside of that, I can't think of any particularly lopsided matchups. Everything feels pretty even.
One thing I've noticed is that the list is swingy. You usually end the game with a 20+ power board or a >5 power board. You have a lot of ways to make a swarm of creatures, but you really need a Phalanx Leader or Obelisk of Urd to allow them to compete with Siege Rhinos and the like. It reminds me a little of monoblue devotion last standard.
With all that said, I think this archetype is competitive. I've gone 2-2, 3-1, 3-1, and 2-2 in the MTGO dailies I've played with it. It definitely feels weaker than Abzan or Jeskai, but I have no doubt it can put up good finishes in competitive events (at least after someone figures out a more coherent sideboard). I definitely think it's a lot stronger than U/W heroic in particular and I'm surprised to see so much attention put towards that archetype and so little put towards this one.
Speaking of uw heroic, I haven't tested the mono white version of this deck as opposed to the rw one but what are your thoughts on it? I feel like the more evasive uw heroic with the life gain potential can often enough outrace this kind of deck as it doesn't have to worry much once it realizes that your removal is nonexistent. You may be able to hit hard but uw heroic moves a little quicker on average, I think, and has lifegain capability while yours is rather limited. For that reason and others, some suspension field sounds like a good add to me in some number. It hits a number of things that would otherwise serve as significant speed bumps to you on the midrange end which buys you more time. The threat of removal does mean something. For example, uw heroic would play much more conservatively against a jeskai tempo deck (even with just jeskai charm) as opposed to mono green devotion. You can treat the removal of their blocker/ thing to race you with as a card to smooth out your aggressive flow as well as a card for them to simply respect the presence of.
We can reliably outrace U/W. It's easy to do 20+ damage in a single turn with an Obelisk or Phalanx draw. We don't have to respect sweepers or removal from U/W, and we have more explosive potential. Ordeal of Heliod can be raced, and it's often not present in the mainboard. U/W is a pretty marginal deck online, but I haven't dropped a match to it yet.
I don't like U/W heroic as an archetype because of its reliance on heroic creatures + enablers + protection to win games. We run protection spells as well, but we get more use out of them as heroic enablers because we don't need to protect a voltron'd creature. The power level of the deck also seems a little low. It is pretty resistant to Anger/Drown though, which is something I like a lot.
I don't like Suspension Field because the deck needs to maintain heroic synergies as much as possible. The Obelisks and non-heroic creatures already push us a little bit in the other direction, and I'd rather have the best proactive game I can. Running some number in the sideboard might be correct though.
I ran a few more dailies and here's an updated list:
I cut Heralds and moved up to the playset of Raise the Alarm to resist Drown/Anger blowouts a little bit more. I like the creature base a bit more now. I'm not 100% satisfied, though. I'll be running this in a few dailies today and I'll see how it goes.
Protecting the voltron creature does not always apply. In matches with more narrow choices of removal (red, green, and certain white. Also some forms of blue), UW heroic can borderline ignore the removal since it can quickly get out of range in one case and the options are more limited elsewhere. Yes, there are times when you have to protect but there are a number of cases (like when cracking off ordeal of thassa) that they just wouldn't care so long as you tap out since they're gaining enough back and can test what removal you might have. They do not always have to play conservatively and if they do that, they're doing it wrong. I also see no reason why not to mainboard a couple ordeal of heliod. They have to protect a voltron but in turn, you have to defend your board state too. The deck has a relatively low creature count and needs phalanx leader or obelisk to get scary. The standing threat is great but using your defense as triggers holds no different from uw. Losing overall creature density is lethal to the deck. If anyone is queasy about pulling the trigger, it isn't a testament of the deck's resiliency. It is a testament that the opponent is misjudging what they're playing against. They can and should be liberally pulling it.
Cutting the Heralds hasn't made the deck threat light in my experience. Between Raise the Alarm, Launch the Fleet, and Vanguard of Brimaz the deck has an easy time creating a lot of creatures quickly (it's not like I shaved that many threats to begin with—I went -3 Herald +1 Raise). The deck is hurting for anthem effects though. Including a Hall of Triumph and a Spear of Heliod (cutting some number of Ajani's Presence/Gods Willing) might work well. You'll see an Obelisk or a Phalanx Leader in most games, but it can be hard to win without some kind of anthem effect.
The lifegain from Ordeal of Heliod is only really relevant against mono-red and I think the mono-red hate I have in my sideboard is just better.
I don't hate U/W heroic. It's a fun deck and it could be a good choice for some midrange-heavy metagames. It just has a lot of moving parts and it's soft to some of the faster decks in Standard. Tom Ross likes it, which makes me hesitant to dismiss it out of hand, but every time I've given the deck a shot it's felt underpowered.
Prismatic, I hadn't considered Return to the Ranks. It might be a nice inclusion in the sideboard against control. I'll give it a shot. Glimpse feels a little low impact to me.
Here's a fun screenshot I saved last night. This deck has some serious power.
I 3-1'd a daily a few hours ago (would have 4-0'd if not for a deeply stupid misplay I made in the last game) and I have some notes on matchups:
Abzan/Jeskai seem about even. Jeskai is a bit tricky because they almost always have early removal for our creatures. Abzan has a lot of powerful creatures and can Thoughtseize our Obelisks and Phalanx Leaders. Both have access to a 3CMC sweeper and End Hostilities. Jeskai has trouble with our high power/toughness creatures and Abzan doesn't have very many early ways to interact with our board. Neither feels particularly good or particularly bad.
Green Devotion seems unfavourable. If they drop Hornet Nest/Hornet Queen winning becomes tough and they can deploy great blockers like Polukranos early. We can generate enough creatures to brute force our way through some insect tokens, but it delays us by 1-3 turns typically.
Control seems unfavourable. Thoughtseize + spot removal + sweepers + counters hurts us a lot. We generally want to play decks that have fewer ways to interact with our strategy, and control has a lot of ways to screw with us. This is a matchup I want to find good sideboard cards for.
Red aggro seems very favourable. Preboard we have lots of tokens and pump effects to play a good defensive game. Postboard we can bring in tons of hate. I think I'll end up with at least 5 or so cards dedicated to this matchup in the board because of its popularity on MTGO.
I haven't played against Ascendancy Combo with this deck, but I'm guessing it's about even. We usually assemble a turn 5-6 kill without disruption and so do they. Preboard we don't have any ways to interact with their combo and they don't have any ways to interact with ours. A few copies of Erase might be good in the sideboard if this strategy becomes more popular.
Some general notes:
You generally want hands with Phalanx Leader or Obelisk in them. Obelisk + any soldier + a non-zero amount of land is an automatic keep. The deck doesn't mulligan very well so avoid going below six.
Obelisk is by far the strongest card in the deck. It makes your soldiers huge and it’s really hard to remove. A turn 3 or 4 Obelisk is game over in most matches.
You usually don't want to drop Phalanx Leader or Vanguard of Brimaz without protection mana up against any deck with spot removal or sweepers (AKA almost all of them). Raise the Alarm is something you almost always want to cast on your opponent's end step. Your protection spells are a limited resource so use them carefully.
I tried this deck because I wanted to play 2/2s for WW. It looked fun but I didn’t think it would be competitive. Right now I actually have a better win/loss with this list than with Jeskai which is kind of crazy, and I plan to keep running it for a while. I might just be getting lucky but it feels really powerful. At the very least it's probably the best bang-for-buck deck in Standard.
I mostly a gree with your analysis for the matchups. I wasn't saying that the deck was threat light entirely persay, though. Rather, it has a few key cogs that compose most of the deck's capability to be dangerous. Because of this, it may not be like uw heroic where the big voltron creature is a big investment but that taking down those couple key cogs effectively neuters the deck just like it would be if uw heroic lost a big creature. Those cards are of course obelisk of urd and phalanx leader. Obelisk also requires the convoke to realistically be played so some early spot removal can potentially shut the obelisk out l8nger than it would like. In any removal matchup, phalanx leader is going to be played turn 3-4 unless you would like to leave it vulnerable. If you have multiples, this is more a moot point but if you don't, it can quickly turn into a delay case same as you call out uw heroic for. Of course, you already realize and note this. The difference is just that uw invests, then protects. Your deck has to protect, then invest. It is vulnerable in a different way but similar line of thought. I think that adding the anthems is definitely a good way to go.
This deck (and most others) gets wrecked by sweepers.
It's also interesting to consider the singleton Abzan falconer this guy used in GP stockholm.
This version has less +1/+1 counters floating around than the U/W one that he used, so I'm not too sold. Furthermore, he runs Feat of Resistance (which I would swap for ephemeral shields if you aren't going to use the sideboard in this post) rather than ajani's presence.
I am probably going to test out running a 2/2 split of feats and presences. If feat performs better than presence, I could see bumping it to a 4 of and running a singleton falconer over something like a raise the alarm.
The blue version also gets protection from sweepers/combo at the cost of consistency and speed. It seems fun and still inexpensive except for the fetches so I might try that one out.
Nev, I agree. I put a few more hours into U/W heroic and figured out a list that I was fairly satisfied with. I still prefer W/r and monowhite, but I can certainly see the appeal of U/W. I feel like my new lists (posted below) are a fair bit more consistent than the U/W list I was testing with.
Jackbro, the deck does have problems with sweepers. With the protection spells and Raise the Alarm, you do have some ability to play around them, though. After your creatures get pumped usually only End Hostilities/Perilous Vault are concerns. Also, you can cut some number of creatures for postboard games if you think Drown/Anger are coming in.
I don't like the idea of running Feats over Presence. Presence only costs one mana, which is a huge deal. If you want to play around removal while running out a Vanguard or Phalanx Leader, you will have to wait until you have 4+ land if you're holding a Feat. There are some removal spells Presence doesn't blank, but it blanks enough of them to be very useful.
Sorin is something this deck needed. His +1 is a great anthem effect that allows you to easily win races, his -2 is awesome against control, and his ultimate is easy to reach and is typically game over. If you’re ahead, Sorin will usually win you the game. If you’re behind, Sorin will catch you up.
I cut 2 Vanguards, 2 Ajani's Presences, and 1 Gods Willing. I feel like the deck has enough ways to generate soldiers without running the full set of Vanguards, and lowering the amount of creatures that we want to hold up protection mana for makes the deck run more smoothly. With some Vanguards gone, cutting a few protection effects makes sense.
It needs tuning, but it seems decent. I’m a little squeamish about including the full set of Thoughtseize in the board with only 8 black sources though. 1 or 2 maindeck Mana Confluence or Scoured Barrens may be correct.
Cutting some number of early creatures is a good idea against decks that board in Drowns/Angers. I board out Vanguards against any deck that I think will be boarding in sweepers and board in some Thoughtseizes. Vanguard is a great soldier generator, but he plays into 3CMC wraths a little too much.
Of course, this new list isn’t even close to budget. I did spend some time working on a budget list, though:
This deck is fairly similar in power level. It is a little bit faster, and the lack of duals makes the deck more consistent. Sorin is obviously a house, but dropping him has advantages.
I tried Ajani Steadfast in the monowhite list and I was unimpressed. He’s usually only good for his anthem effect and then dies to some combination of creatures and burn. He’s pretty bad if you don’t already have a solid board as well. He’s not awful, but I think Hall of Triumph/Spear of Heliod are just better.
Let me know what you guys think. I spent a few days testing Abzan in paper, but now I’m back online jamming soldier heroic decks. I just 3-1’d my first two dailies with the B/W list, so I think it has some legs.
This deck is fairly similar in power level. It is a little bit faster, and the lack of duals makes the deck more consistent. Sorin is obviously a house, but dropping him has advantages.
I tried Ajani Steadfast in the monowhite list and I was unimpressed. He’s usually only good for his anthem effect and then dies to some combination of creatures and burn. He’s pretty bad if you don’t already have a solid board as well. He’s not awful, but I think Hall of Triumph/Spear of Heliod are just better.
Let me know what you guys think. I spent a few days testing Abzan in paper, but now I’m back online jamming soldier heroic decks. I just 3-1’d my first two dailies with the B/W list, so I think it has some legs.
Your list looks pretty similar to the one I've been running as of late
I'm personally a big fan of the Seeker of the Ways in the mainboard purely because they benefit from raise the alarm and heroic enablers targeting our other creatures. They also encourage me to play spear/hall of triumph sooner. I also love flashing in Raise the Alarm during my opponents combat and then having the seeker become a bigger blocker
Also I feel like Phalanx leader should be cut to less than 4 before Vanguard of Brimaz. I pretty much never want to see the card in multiples and unlike the other two drops, this one is pretty terrible if you can't target it with something.
I've tried Ajani, Steadfast in this deck myself and had mixed feelings. On one hand, the card is amazing in some parity situations, but at other times, I just wish he was another instant.
Your deck definitely runs more anthems though, I haven't tried obelisk of urd but I could see myself replacing banishing light for them. Even if it doesn't pump seeker it at least pumps him on the turn the obelisk is played
Dom, I think you'd be well-served by trying Obelisk. It's incredibly powerful and just gives you free wins. Your list has the ability to produce more soldiers than mine, so I couldn't justify Obelisk being anything less than a 4-of.
Phalanx Leader works better in a list with Obelisk because you're mainly playing to a creatures + mass pump strategy, and Phalanx Leader is great at pumping. Phalanx Leader in multiples is fine because the mass pump ability is very useful.
I found that I was producing enough creatures without the full set of Vanguards and felt that 8 2CMC creatures that wanted protection mana was clunky, so I cut Vanguards. Losing Vanguards is a good hedge against Drown/Anger as well.
I really like Seeker. It's not a soldier, but it's a great creature and has a lot of synergy with the deck. I did try playing with it for a while and I could see playing a few copies. Between Raise, Vanguard, and Phalanx Leader, there's already a lot of bulk at the 2-drop spot though, and Seeker runs counter to a creatures + mass pump strategy. In a build without Obelisk I'd definitely include him, but Obelisk is just too good to not run.
Blubber, I haven't played the deck competitively recently. I did 4-0 a few dailies with the monowhite list and go 4-0, 4-0, and 3-1 in the FNMs I played with the deck, though (I ended up preferring the monowhite list to the B/W one). The deck is a reasonable competitive choice. I'm preparing for the PTQ season and I'll likely bring a heroic soldier list to one or two higher-level competitive events.
I'm not sure I'd run back the same list, though. I feel like the deck wants some number of Brimaz, but I'm not sure if I can find space for it. Brimaz is becoming a stronger threat with the increase in popularity of Mardu, and has obvious synergy with the rest of the deck. It can be a bit slow, though. Another possibility is going Jeskai and adding Akroan Crusader/Dragon Mantle/Jeskai Ascendancy. Right now I'm testing a red splash for Anax and Cymede. I have some spare brewing time, and I'll post a new list if I figure out a list I prefer to the monowhite list I posted a few weeks ago.
If you decide to stay mono white and have some spare sideboard space, have you considered archetype of courage to fight mono green devotion and sidisi whip? (the two decks that power out hornet queen) I know it is a bit high on the cost meter at cmc 3 but the first strike serves multiple purposes well. As a bonus, it just so happens to also be a soldier.
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4x Favored Hoplite
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
3x Herald of Anafenza
4x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Phalanx Leader
Noncreature Spells (22)
3x Raise the Alarm
4x Defiant Strike
4x Launch the Fleet
4x Gods Willing
3x Ajani's Presence
4x Obelisk of Urd
19x Plains
3x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
3x Seeker of the Way
4x Ephemeral Shields
4x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1x Plains
We basically play all the best white heroic creatures and all the best white heroic enablers. Obelisk of Urd is here because all the best white heroic creatures are soldiers. Raise the Alarm is good filler and combines well with our instant pump/protection spells. I tried to keep the curve as low as possible to give the deck more game against midrange decks. There's a bit of bulk at 2CMC, but it's not too bad.
Not too many options postboard. Boarding into a Brimaz/Seeker of the Way/Lagonna-Band Trailblazer deck works well against monored, and boarding into Ephemeral Shields is nice against Jeskai. We have to keep our heroic stuff pretty front and center, though. The mainboard is designed to be fast enough to beat midrange and devotion strategies.
The mainboard is super budget. I priced it out at StarCity and it was $35. The Brimazes in the sideboard are pretty expensive, but they aren't necessary to make the deck competitive. I didn't build the list with budget in mind, but you could assemble a Brimazless version for very little.
I've been doing very well in 2-mans with this list and I'll take a shot at some dailies tomorrow. Feel free to ask any questions.
I'm not in love with going R/W. Akroan Crusader is incredibly powerful, but you lose a lot of consistency with the red splash. The Mountains throw a wrench in your WW production and the Temples hurt a lot. I played Stanislav Cifka's R/W block deck in Standard quite a bit and I like R/W, but I think Obelisk of Urd and Defiant Strike make mono-white similarly viable post-Khans.
One thing I've noticed is that the list is swingy. You usually end the game with a 20+ power board or a >5 power board. You have a lot of ways to make a swarm of creatures, but you really need a Phalanx Leader or Obelisk of Urd to allow them to compete with Siege Rhinos and the like. It reminds me a little of monoblue devotion last standard.
With all that said, I think this archetype is competitive. I've gone 2-2, 3-1, 3-1, and 2-2 in the MTGO dailies I've played with it. It definitely feels weaker than Abzan or Jeskai, but I have no doubt it can put up good finishes in competitive events (at least after someone figures out a more coherent sideboard). I definitely think it's a lot stronger than U/W heroic in particular and I'm surprised to see so much attention put towards that archetype and so little put towards this one.
Took me a bit. THe main cost of the deck is from the side brimaz and the lands
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1219046
I don't like U/W heroic as an archetype because of its reliance on heroic creatures + enablers + protection to win games. We run protection spells as well, but we get more use out of them as heroic enablers because we don't need to protect a voltron'd creature. The power level of the deck also seems a little low. It is pretty resistant to Anger/Drown though, which is something I like a lot.
I don't like Suspension Field because the deck needs to maintain heroic synergies as much as possible. The Obelisks and non-heroic creatures already push us a little bit in the other direction, and I'd rather have the best proactive game I can. Running some number in the sideboard might be correct though.
I ran a few more dailies and here's an updated list:
4x Favored Hero
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Phalanx Leader
Noncreature Spells (24)
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Obelisk of Urd
4x Launch the Fleet
4x Defiant Strike
4x Gods Willing
4x Ajani's Presence
20x Plains
4x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Seeker of the Way
4x Lagonna-band Trailblazer
1x Plains
2x Ephemeral Shields
I cut Heralds and moved up to the playset of Raise the Alarm to resist Drown/Anger blowouts a little bit more. I like the creature base a bit more now. I'm not 100% satisfied, though. I'll be running this in a few dailies today and I'll see how it goes.
The lifegain from Ordeal of Heliod is only really relevant against mono-red and I think the mono-red hate I have in my sideboard is just better.
I don't hate U/W heroic. It's a fun deck and it could be a good choice for some midrange-heavy metagames. It just has a lot of moving parts and it's soft to some of the faster decks in Standard. Tom Ross likes it, which makes me hesitant to dismiss it out of hand, but every time I've given the deck a shot it's felt underpowered.
Prismatic, I hadn't considered Return to the Ranks. It might be a nice inclusion in the sideboard against control. I'll give it a shot. Glimpse feels a little low impact to me.
Here's a fun screenshot I saved last night. This deck has some serious power.
Abzan/Jeskai seem about even. Jeskai is a bit tricky because they almost always have early removal for our creatures. Abzan has a lot of powerful creatures and can Thoughtseize our Obelisks and Phalanx Leaders. Both have access to a 3CMC sweeper and End Hostilities. Jeskai has trouble with our high power/toughness creatures and Abzan doesn't have very many early ways to interact with our board. Neither feels particularly good or particularly bad.
Green Devotion seems unfavourable. If they drop Hornet Nest/Hornet Queen winning becomes tough and they can deploy great blockers like Polukranos early. We can generate enough creatures to brute force our way through some insect tokens, but it delays us by 1-3 turns typically.
Control seems unfavourable. Thoughtseize + spot removal + sweepers + counters hurts us a lot. We generally want to play decks that have fewer ways to interact with our strategy, and control has a lot of ways to screw with us. This is a matchup I want to find good sideboard cards for.
Red aggro seems very favourable. Preboard we have lots of tokens and pump effects to play a good defensive game. Postboard we can bring in tons of hate. I think I'll end up with at least 5 or so cards dedicated to this matchup in the board because of its popularity on MTGO.
I haven't played against Ascendancy Combo with this deck, but I'm guessing it's about even. We usually assemble a turn 5-6 kill without disruption and so do they. Preboard we don't have any ways to interact with their combo and they don't have any ways to interact with ours. A few copies of Erase might be good in the sideboard if this strategy becomes more popular.
Some general notes:
You generally want hands with Phalanx Leader or Obelisk in them. Obelisk + any soldier + a non-zero amount of land is an automatic keep. The deck doesn't mulligan very well so avoid going below six.
Obelisk is by far the strongest card in the deck. It makes your soldiers huge and it’s really hard to remove. A turn 3 or 4 Obelisk is game over in most matches.
You usually don't want to drop Phalanx Leader or Vanguard of Brimaz without protection mana up against any deck with spot removal or sweepers (AKA almost all of them). Raise the Alarm is something you almost always want to cast on your opponent's end step. Your protection spells are a limited resource so use them carefully.
I tried this deck because I wanted to play 2/2s for WW. It looked fun but I didn’t think it would be competitive. Right now I actually have a better win/loss with this list than with Jeskai which is kind of crazy, and I plan to keep running it for a while. I might just be getting lucky but it feels really powerful. At the very least it's probably the best bang-for-buck deck in Standard.
4x Favored Hoplite
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Phalanx Leader
Noncreature Spells (24)
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Obelisk of Urd
4x Launch the Fleet
4x Defiant Strike
4x Gods Willing
4x Ajani's Presence
20x Plains
3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3x Seeker of the Way
3x Lagonna-band Trailblazer
3x Hushwing Gryff
3x Phyrexian Revoker or Erase
This deck (and most others) gets wrecked by sweepers.
It's also interesting to consider the singleton Abzan falconer this guy used in GP stockholm.
This version has less +1/+1 counters floating around than the U/W one that he used, so I'm not too sold. Furthermore, he runs Feat of Resistance (which I would swap for ephemeral shields if you aren't going to use the sideboard in this post) rather than ajani's presence.
I am probably going to test out running a 2/2 split of feats and presences. If feat performs better than presence, I could see bumping it to a 4 of and running a singleton falconer over something like a raise the alarm.
The blue version also gets protection from sweepers/combo at the cost of consistency and speed. It seems fun and still inexpensive except for the fetches so I might try that one out.
Jackbro, the deck does have problems with sweepers. With the protection spells and Raise the Alarm, you do have some ability to play around them, though. After your creatures get pumped usually only End Hostilities/Perilous Vault are concerns. Also, you can cut some number of creatures for postboard games if you think Drown/Anger are coming in.
I don't like the idea of running Feats over Presence. Presence only costs one mana, which is a huge deal. If you want to play around removal while running out a Vanguard or Phalanx Leader, you will have to wait until you have 4+ land if you're holding a Feat. There are some removal spells Presence doesn't blank, but it blanks enough of them to be very useful.
I made a new list:
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Favored Hoplite
4x Phalanx Leader
2x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Defiant Strike
4x Launch the Fleet
3x Gods Willing
2x Ajani's Presence
4x Obelisk of Urd
Planeswalkers (3)
3x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Land (22)
14x Plains
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Temple of Silence
Sorin is something this deck needed. His +1 is a great anthem effect that allows you to easily win races, his -2 is awesome against control, and his ultimate is easy to reach and is typically game over. If you’re ahead, Sorin will usually win you the game. If you’re behind, Sorin will catch you up.
I cut 2 Vanguards, 2 Ajani's Presences, and 1 Gods Willing. I feel like the deck has enough ways to generate soldiers without running the full set of Vanguards, and lowering the amount of creatures that we want to hold up protection mana for makes the deck run more smoothly. With some Vanguards gone, cutting a few protection effects makes sense.
The sideboard is in flux. Right now I'm looking at:
2 Heliod, God of the Sun for control
3-4 Brimaz, King of Oreskos for red deck wins
2-3 Ephemeral Shields for Jeskai
3 Glare of Heresy for white decks
4 Thoughtseize for control/sweepers
It needs tuning, but it seems decent. I’m a little squeamish about including the full set of Thoughtseize in the board with only 8 black sources though. 1 or 2 maindeck Mana Confluence or Scoured Barrens may be correct.
Cutting some number of early creatures is a good idea against decks that board in Drowns/Angers. I board out Vanguards against any deck that I think will be boarding in sweepers and board in some Thoughtseizes. Vanguard is a great soldier generator, but he plays into 3CMC wraths a little too much.
Of course, this new list isn’t even close to budget. I did spend some time working on a budget list, though:
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Favored Hoplite
4x Phalanx Leader
2x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Defiant Strike
4x Launch the Fleet
4x Gods Willing
2x Ajani's Presence
4x Obelisk of Urd
2x Spear of Heliod
1x Hall of Triumph
Land (21)
21x Plains
The sideboard should probably look something like this:
3 Glare of Heresy for white decks
2-3 Ephemeral Shields for Jeskai
2 Heliod, God of the Sun for control
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer for red deck wins
1 Return to the Ranks for control
2-3 Seeker of the Way for red deck wins
This deck is fairly similar in power level. It is a little bit faster, and the lack of duals makes the deck more consistent. Sorin is obviously a house, but dropping him has advantages.
I tried Ajani Steadfast in the monowhite list and I was unimpressed. He’s usually only good for his anthem effect and then dies to some combination of creatures and burn. He’s pretty bad if you don’t already have a solid board as well. He’s not awful, but I think Hall of Triumph/Spear of Heliod are just better.
Let me know what you guys think. I spent a few days testing Abzan in paper, but now I’m back online jamming soldier heroic decks. I just 3-1’d my first two dailies with the B/W list, so I think it has some legs.
Your list looks pretty similar to the one I've been running as of late
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Favored Hoplite
2x Phalanx Leader
4x Vanguard of Brimaz
4x Seeker of the Way
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Defiant Strike
4x Launch the Fleet
4x Gods Willing
4x Ajani's Presence
1x Spear of Heliod
1x Hall of Triumph
2x Banishing Light
Land (20)
20x Plains
I'm personally a big fan of the Seeker of the Ways in the mainboard purely because they benefit from raise the alarm and heroic enablers targeting our other creatures. They also encourage me to play spear/hall of triumph sooner. I also love flashing in Raise the Alarm during my opponents combat and then having the seeker become a bigger blocker
Also I feel like Phalanx leader should be cut to less than 4 before Vanguard of Brimaz. I pretty much never want to see the card in multiples and unlike the other two drops, this one is pretty terrible if you can't target it with something.
I've tried Ajani, Steadfast in this deck myself and had mixed feelings. On one hand, the card is amazing in some parity situations, but at other times, I just wish he was another instant.
Your deck definitely runs more anthems though, I haven't tried obelisk of urd but I could see myself replacing banishing light for them. Even if it doesn't pump seeker it at least pumps him on the turn the obelisk is played
Phalanx Leader works better in a list with Obelisk because you're mainly playing to a creatures + mass pump strategy, and Phalanx Leader is great at pumping. Phalanx Leader in multiples is fine because the mass pump ability is very useful.
I found that I was producing enough creatures without the full set of Vanguards and felt that 8 2CMC creatures that wanted protection mana was clunky, so I cut Vanguards. Losing Vanguards is a good hedge against Drown/Anger as well.
I really like Seeker. It's not a soldier, but it's a great creature and has a lot of synergy with the deck. I did try playing with it for a while and I could see playing a few copies. Between Raise, Vanguard, and Phalanx Leader, there's already a lot of bulk at the 2-drop spot though, and Seeker runs counter to a creatures + mass pump strategy. In a build without Obelisk I'd definitely include him, but Obelisk is just too good to not run.
I'm not sure I'd run back the same list, though. I feel like the deck wants some number of Brimaz, but I'm not sure if I can find space for it. Brimaz is becoming a stronger threat with the increase in popularity of Mardu, and has obvious synergy with the rest of the deck. It can be a bit slow, though. Another possibility is going Jeskai and adding Akroan Crusader/Dragon Mantle/Jeskai Ascendancy. Right now I'm testing a red splash for Anax and Cymede. I have some spare brewing time, and I'll post a new list if I figure out a list I prefer to the monowhite list I posted a few weeks ago.