A Gahiji, Honored One Human-Sunforger-Combo deck, by Hallucigenia
Introduction
I’ve been meaning to build a Naya Soldier deck forever now, and Gahiji plays real nice with my little double-strikers. I haven’t gone full-aggro as I hate not having options: Captain Sisay is a nice little toolbox, especially since she herself is both a Human and Soldier; the deck has a nice curve for Birthing Pod (that statement feels vaguely creepy), and Sunforger plays nice with token rush strategies in a variety of ways, as I’ll show.
Here’s the list. Soldiers and Humans are relevant here so I’ll label them as such with ‘S’ and ‘H’.
Here’s a few reasons why, if I didn’t screw up somehow, this deck should be fun and effective.
Gahiji's Pretty Good
The grand scheme of this deck is relatively simple: spit out a lot of creatures as efficiently as possible, make them big and deal boatloads of damage. The only problem is that I get bored easily, and decks that do one thing really well lose my interest quickly. Add to that that one-trick ponies can be more easily hated by specific cards, and you got a good excuse to add another layer or two. In the case of this deck, it also has a healthy enough supply of toolboxes to answer dilemmas and a couple combos to get around good anti-aggro strategies. There, fun now!
One note on this philosophy: all layers should nonetheless work with each other in some manner. Picture it like three spheres on a Venn Diagram, with high amounts of overlap rather than three mostly-separated circles. Run sources of life gain if you want to compliment Archangel of Thune, but they should work with the horde strategy if she't not around, ie. Soul Warden or Balefire Liege.
Gahiji is, in the grand tradition of Naya generals, not a Tier 1 general. He’s not a Tier 2 general. Probably not a Tier 3 general. Actually, I don’t know what the hell the tiers are. But I know he does what Naya generals haven’t done before: make your token army hurt people better.
Gahiji’s inspiring oratory (I’m imagining a giant Chewbacca and an army of Han Solos nodding and agreeing) works well with doublestrikers. It gives utilitydudes extra things to do late game. It works well with having a lot of weenies.
Options and Answers I: Creatures
In 100-card singleton you have to have a bit of reach into your library to adapt to different situations. Yes, idiot, you want to adapt to different situations.
Note that Sisay's an allstar in this deck because she also works with the Human tribal, Soldier tribal AND "power <= 2" aspects of the deck.
Birthing Pod grabs... well, you know the drill with the Pod. This deck has options in each mana slot; you'll almost never be unhappy to see it. Also keep in mind it's a sac outlet for the many sac shenanigans this deck runs (see the second post). One more thing: tokens have a CC of 0, so you can Pod them into Soul Sisters.
Options and Answers II: Sunforger
Sunforger belongs in a category all it's own, it's just that good. Not only does it provide a nice beatdown, especially for your double strikers, it provides a nice little package that wonderfully compliments the horde strategy.
Options in this deck:
-- Naya Charm: Get a card back; kill Azami; win the game by tapping their blockers
-- Aura Mutation / Artifact Mutation: Smash their Caged Sun and out falls a bunch of weenies, like a piñata!
-- Boros Charm: Survive wraths; kill someone
-- Selesnya Charm: Evasion; removal; a weenie for Mentor or Aura Shards
-- Eladamri’s Call: Find whoever you need
-- Enlightened Tutor: Weapons; card draw; weenies; finishers. Thanks grandma.
-- Tears of Rage: Kill someone. Or two people. Or three people.
Don't forget to grab Sunforger's best buddy Mistveil Plains with a Fetchland or Panorama.
I Heard You Like Tribal
I've got some of the better Soldier tribe cards in here. Those cards being, well, Elspeth, Elspeth and Elspeth. Captain of the Watch is pretty good too, I guess. The first strike from Field Marshal goes nicely with Gahiji's power boost. Hero of Bladehold isn't a soldier, but boy does that outfit boost morale. Ellie's all like, what a skank.
Naya colours don't really draw cards all that well unless you give your opponent cards through wheel effects... except if you run a token strategy, in which case Mentor of the Meek, Skullclamp and Slate of Ancestry are options. Very nice options, in fact.
It also has a couple infinites to fall back on, as weenie rush can be weak in multiplayer EDH. For now I'm going to move the combo stuff to the second post for organization's sake. See below for sacrifice shenanigans and a couple combos.
Stuff I'm Not Running You Might Like
I've included an "I Want To Try" section in the deck list for cards that would be a good idea were it not for personal, meta or directional reasons.
Glare of Subdual has saved my bacon more times than I can count, but I don't like top-decking durdle cards when I need to win. All three of Sarkhan Vol's abilities compliment this deck, however I'm not sure what to cut for him. And so on, so forth. You might prefer these cards over others I've chosen.
Some Sample Draws
Okay, so I picked up this cute app called "Decked" that lets you build and test decks, so I'll go through a few sample draws to give an idea of how the deck plays.
Pretty good. 3 mana's fine and we have a few directions to go depending on the board state. Obvious choice is to swing with a sword-equipped Swiftblade. Keep. Play Karplusan Forest.
Turn 2. Draw Mountain. Play Garrison, bouncing Forest.
We have a few directions here depending on board state. If we're not afraid of artifact removal we can risk playing the Sword now and equipping next turn to leave mana open for Artifact Mutation. Or we can play and equip sword next turn and leave mana open for Mutation now.
Boat loads of options now. If we wanna go aggressive we can play Cathar's Crusade then Elspeth Tirel or Geist-Honored Monk next turn, followed by Gahiji. If we wanna turtle we can play Monk now and Elspeth next turn to gain life. I prefer to play Sunforger on Turn 8 so I can play, equip and have RW open but that's just me.
What's the board state like? Do I wanna wait till I get Thune out before playing Paladin or Hero and gain life off them to pump the army? Or do you want to get Hero out now so he can recover from summoning sickness? Let's play the Hero.
Turn 4. Draw Birthing Pod. Play Turf, bouncing Forge.
Alright, lots of options now. I'd say the best option is to play Archangel now, then probably Birthing Pod the Hero into a token-generator like Hero of Bladehold. If you need other options, you can Pod Soul warden into Stoneforge Mystic or Pod the Hero into Captain Sisay. You can even just soulbond the Paladin with Archangel and start swingin', but if you start on the token route you can follow up with Gahiji.
Deck History & Set Reviews
JOU in Review
Prophetic Flamespeaker -- The most obvious new include in the deck. Human, built-in double strike, low power for 'Lark and Mentor, and a bit of card advantage in Naya. This guy will be absurdly fun here.
Iroas, God of Victory -- Seems obvious at first glance, but the more I look at it, the more I wonder. The no-chump clause can be powerful for alpha striking, but the invulnerability on attack is more for valuable creatures than token armies. Nah.
Dawnbringer Charioteers & Skyspear Cavalry -- Human Soldiers with 2 power, so triply relevant, but the higher mana cost slots are very competitive in this deck at this point, and the Heroic simply isn't relevant.
Ajani's Presence & Phalanx Formation -- Two new Sunforger targets. Presence pumps and saves armies. Phalanx Formation potentially wins games. Very useful additions to the toolbox, however very white-intensive in a triple-colour deck, and still situational. Worth a playtest, but I'm not optimistic.
Launch the Fleet -- Relevant, but not really high-impact enough in EDH.
Aegis of the Gods -- 2 power Human Soldier, but a meta call at best.
Bonds is especially superb utility alongside an efficient token generator, and Return to the Ranks is another Reveillark effect... enough said. I'll absolutely be looking for replacement slots for these cards when M15 is released.
CNS in Review
A few dudes are relevant as Conspiracy is pretty token-focused...
Custodi Soulbinders. The most relevant and effective of the options. Those tokens having flying is really important. Even a couple more creatures getting through on an alpha strike can make the difference between winning and losing, and flying chumps are always handy. They're humans for tribal shenanigans and 0/0 for Reveillark. Yeah budday.
Woodvine Elemental. Potentially really scary. Could give all my dudes (including himself thank goodness) +4/+4 on the attack. Gives me a card, but also gives my friend's Animar deck a card. Isn't Parley only good when your deck is better than your opponents'? Anyone have an opinion?
Flamewright. A human and a very efficient weenie generator. But the defender on the golems kills this.
Homura, Human Ascendant -> Custodi Soulbinders. Ol' Home Run's a great anthem, but he's expensive and requires a sac outlet, unless your opponent really doesn't want to take 4 damage. I want to try these dudes.
KTK, FRF, DTK in Review
Khans of Tarkir
There are a couple cards of interest here (there would be more if some Abzan or Mardu cards were Naya coloured!).
Herald of Anafenza. Another one-drop for the Pod curve, a Human Soldier, spits out tokens (albeit, annoyingly, Warriors). I like this guy a lot but I'm worried he's a bit low-impact. We'll see.
Dragon Throne of Tarkir. Ehhh. Definitely fits the deck, but I've got better ways to kill people that don't require as much contrivance.
One nice set of gifts to this deck is a new set of "refuge" lands to compliment Archangel of Thune, though, so that's nice at least.
Fate Reforged
Monastery Mentor -- Fits absolutely every synergy in the deck, and is just absurd.
The only other card I'm really considering is Outpost Siege. Punish wraths or gain a slightly inferior Phyrexian Arena effect? I think I can probably make this fit somewhere.
Crater Elemental -- You know... I really like this guy. If there's someone who's pretty good at getting Formidable online it's Gahiji, it actually makes a pretty good blocker early on, and the sac ability is pretty handy. Works with Reveillark and Mentor of the Meek. Just doesn't really work with the overall game plan. Too bad.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit -- Lovely little card, sort of a miniature Cathars' Crusade. She says nontoken, but I have a healthy-enough supply of creatures across the curve I think she can actually do a lot of work. She may get the cut but I'mma try her.
Iroas's Champion -- A human and a soldier, power 2, double strike is lovely with Gahiji, but outclassed by better doublestrikers. In consideration if I ever feel like I need more.
Sigil of Valor -- This is a neat way to put your weenies to good use without alpha striking, similar to Sublime Archangel. Especially nice on the doublestrikers. But honestly, if Stoneforge Mystic or Godo's gonna reach for something for them, it'll be Sword of Fire and Ice.
The Great Aurora -- Cute card, and yes this deck takes advantage with tokens (but note someone may have a fuller hand, which also counts) but for nine mana, I want something even more asymmetrical than this.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar -- Human: check, power 2: check, efficient token producer: check, extra utility: check. I'mma have to try mum & dad somewhere.
Evolutionary Leap -- Geez, this is close. Very efficient little sac mech that puts my tokens to good use. Dunno what I'd cut for it. Doesn't beat the "free" sac enchantments. I still feel Altar of Bone is better; one time but gets you exactly what you need. I'll try this in place of Altar for a bit and see what I notice.
Flameshadow Conjuring -- I get a few extra ETB triggers, but this is better in a deck with more mid- to high-impact creatures.
Zendikar's Roil -- Spits out a nice amount of tokens but not very abusable in this deck.
Archangel of Tithes -- A very nice card, but the WWW may actually difficult and ideally when I alpha strike they won't have enough blockers regardless of the reverse Propaganda effect.
-- They play nice with Insurrection. If you want, you can run instant-speed Threatens like Grab the Reins for Sunforger to grab, then sac ‘em;
-- Dudes not small enough to Skullclamp due to Cathar's Crusade? No problemo!
At any rate, even if you don't have weenies to fuel these cards, having a couple sac outlets in any deck is a good idea to foil tuck or theft effects. Very underrated!
Finally, "free" sac mechanisms like Cause and the Altar give you some nice infinite combo options, if your group is okay with them.
___Do You Want to Make that a Combo?
Saffi Eriksdottir may not be a Soldier, but she is a Human, and although she dropped the ball with her brother Hans, she's a damn good combat medic, willing to drag her comrades back from the mouth of Hades if she has to. This is not only good for protecting important creatures, but it turns her into a bit of a combo monster.
Here's a couple.
You have the option of including Aurelia, the Warleader combos, which sac and resurrect her to get infinite combat steps.
The reason why this works is that each time Aurelia comes back from the graveyard, it is a new/different Aurelia with regards to the "first" time she attacks, so it will still be a "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia.
So:
1. Aurelia attacks. Since it's her first attack, she creates a second attack phase.
2. Sac Aurelia, rescue her with Saffi.
3. Attack on the second attack phase.
3a. Since this is the "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia, you get yet another attack phase.
3b. Sun Titan attacking rescues Saffi.
4. Repeat.
Saffi also plays nice with Angel of Glory's Rise, creating infinite soldier tokens or gaining infinite life.
What you're doing here is saccing token-generators like Captain of the Watch, Evangel of Heliod or Knight-Captain of Eos along-side the Angel of Glory's Rise, then saccing Saffi to bring back the Angel, which in turn brings all your generators back, including Saffi! Lather, rinse, repeat. Congrats, you now have infinite soldiers.
Having something like Fires of Yavimaya or Anger in your graveyard is great and it means you win right now, but note that even if you give your opponents some opportunity to respond, this is tough to disrupt. Wrath and spot removal don't work; you just sac Saffi against the wrath to rescue the Angel. Even if they try to EXILE the Angel, you just sac her in response, and rescue her as usual. What they need to do (I believe) is kill your graveyard in response to the Angel trigger. Or they need to do two things, like kill your sac outlet, then wrath, or play Torpor Orb then wrath.
Yavimaya Elder like this combo too. Or does he? "Please, just let me die..."
Finally, there's Mister Oblivion Ring, though you might as well call him Mister Combo. There's a few neat things you can do with him.
1. Infinite damage. Fiend Hunter exiles Angel of Glory's Rise. Sac him into the Bombardment to deal 1 damage. Angel returns to play, returning Hunter. Lather, rinse, repeat for infinite damage.
2. Infinite Soldiers. If you have Cause but not Bombardment, you can still get infinite Soldiers if you have Captain of the Watch, Evangel of Heliod or Knight-Captain of Eos in play by saccing them alongside the Fiend Hunter before the Angel comes back into play. Even if you don't have a 'free' sac outlet, you still have some extra redundancy with your token generators every turn.
3. Infinite life. If you have any Soul Sisters in play, you'll gain as much life as you want right there.
4. Exile something permanently. The age-old trick with Fiend Hunter and his black cousin Faceless Butcher is to sac them above the exile trigger. Since he's already in the graveyard when the exile trigger happens (yes, it still happens), the other creature will be exiled permanently.
5. One-sided Wraths. Exile your Angel of Glory's Rise with the Hunter. Play wrath. You get your humans back. Your opponents get NOTHING! NOTHING! Or just exile whatever handy creature you want to be around afterward.
The reason is that each time Aurelia comes back from the graveyard, it is a new/different Aurelia with regards to the "first" time she attacks, so it will still be a "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia.
So:
1. Aurelia attacks. Since it's her first attack, she creates a second attack phase.
2. Sac Aurelia, rescue her with Saffi.
3. Attack on the second attack phase.
3a. Since this is the "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia, you get yet another attack phase.
3b. Sun Titan attacking rescues Saffi.
4. Repeat.
Kruin Outlaw -- Human, first/double striker; may add aggression if, again, the mana dorks aren't necessary. Can anyone who's played with werewolves a lot comment on her?
Martyr's Bond -- Grave Pact shenanigans; may also stop people blowing up my artifacts or enchantments. Very nice card.
Huntmaster of the Fells -- Value town for human tribal. The wolf tokens won't get soldier bonuses, nor do they play with Rise of the Hobgoblins, but he/they draws cards off Mentor and generates so much value. Plus I've just always wanted to try him.
All of the above card actually has strong synergy with your deck anyway and crazy value together with Norin out. Norin himself has wonderful synergy with the Crusade & Aura Shards.
Also if your adding in 'Larky, then you might as well add in its best friend Karmic Guide and since you don't seem to be against combos they both combo with the already included Mirror Entity.
*EDIT* A pet card I really like to use in my "Honored One" deck is Haze of Rage. Granted I use mana doublers like Mana Reflection & Mirari's Wake, but with all your double striking dudes it could be a lethal card as well.
You've caught the main thing I'm thinking about right now: replacing the mana dorks with Soul's Warden/Attendant, and maybe Auriok Champion if the WW isn't too annoying. They'd be good A) because they're human, B) because they gain infinite life with my combos, and C) because they make Archangel of Thune a really powerful win con. I'll probably be going ahead and doing this... as I said earlier, my curve doesn't really demand dorks, and my fixing is fine.
Champion of Lambholt/Parish are nice, especially Lambholt, but slots are getting very competitive at this point. CotP isn't very high-impact on his own in EDH, and after being the all-star in my friend's Simic +1/+1 counter deck, CoL will probably just eat removal. Keeping my win-cons in the Instant or Enchantment slot makes them much harder to disrupt. Lambholt is very good though... I'll keep an eye on her.
I've done a lot of Norin shenanigans in Diaochan, and I think I'll keep him there for now... he does interact nicely with a couple cards here, for sure, but at this point that's just not good enough.
Also if your adding in 'Larky, then you might as well add in its best friend Karmic Guide and since you don't seem to be against combos they both combo with the already included Mirror Entity.
Debating including Guide for redundancy with Lark/Saffi, definitely. I want combos to be a backup here, however; I still want this to be Naya Overrun primary, and that means not digging too hard into my weenie generators, which are already low. My friends don't mind infinites as a backup in case another friend's Oloro deck is durdling to victory, but we've seen enough rushing towards infinite as a primary win-con.
*EDIT* A pet card I really like to use in my "Honored One" deck is Haze of Rage. Granted I use mana doublers like Mana Reflection & Mirari's Wake, but with all your double striking dudes it could be a lethal card as well.
I LOVE Haze of Rage, but you're right, without mana acceleration, which I'm going to not bother with here, it doesn't quite bump out the other mass buffs. As-is, I'm trying to fit in Purphoros somewhere.
Thanks for the detailed responses, I appreciate it.
Alright, let's go ahead and do this. I don't think I'll need dork acceleration and I don't think I'll ever be digging for any equipment except for Sunforger, Skullclamp and Sword of Fire and Ice. Insurrection is a bit win-more, even if it's fun with free sac, and I just don't like Tajic.
In will be more human-based weenie generation (it looks scarily low as-is) and Soul Warden/Attendant + Archangel of Thune shenanigans. Also Godo because I like equipment (the big three anyway).
Also I'm gonna include the Fiend Hunter line of combos.
See, I like Tajic. Another sweet tech I really enjoy in this type of deck is Concertated Effort
Sorry. On my phone or else is post more.
Ehh. I want to make him work, I really do, but this deck has so many ways of recovering from wrath quickly that having a 2/2 left over, that might occasionally be a vanilla 7/7, just doesn't do it for me.
I love Concerted Effort, very fun card. If they had errata'd in lifelink it would be a whole different story. But using a slot to occasionally give all my dudes double strike (when I can tutor for True Conviction) and flying just doesn't cut it I'm afraid.
Ahh, good ol' Hazy T. Works with Angel of Glory's Rise, works with Reveillark, nice token generator. You bet he'd be in here... If I didn't have a policy of only proxying cards I own or intend to buy soon. Plus I'd get a chance to use some sweet Sand tokens! One day I'll splurge for one.
Another dude I'm looking at is Balefire Liege... the double pump on my Hobgoblins and Legion soldiers is nice (and Hazy T's warriors if I include him), lifegain for the Archangel of Thune, and a bit of extra damage is always nice. Works with Reveillark and Mentor too. Yes... yes...
I'mma go ahead and replace Field Marshal with Balefire Liege. So much utility for only a couple more mana, and I'm not sure how much the first strike will really help when a lot of attacks will just be alpha strikes anyway.
Gonna toss Fieldmist Borderpost in there for a bit of extra devotion for Evangel of Heliod too. Why the hell weren't there any opponent-colour borderposts?
This may sound very strange, but I liked your deck idea so much that I made a Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer deck. What the WHAT! you say? I say the same and without going into a long detailed explanation of why my only question to you is this:
Is it worth it to squeeze in enough appropriate artifacts to just include Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer into your deck? You already have 10 artifacts and I don't know what the magical number is for reliable metalcraft is, but I do know that Jor & Gahiji boosts your double strikers by a very large amount.
This deck is super sweet. I feel like I must run Captain Sisay now. I got a ton of great legends to grab with it. Plus, the Saffi combos are pretty awesome.
This may sound very strange, but I liked your deck idea so much that I made a Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer deck. What the WHAT! you say? I say the same and without going into a long detailed explanation of why my only question to you is this:
Is it worth it to squeeze in enough appropriate artifacts to just include Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer into your deck? You already have 10 artifacts and I don't know what the magical number is for reliable metalcraft is, but I do know that Jor & Gahiji boosts your double strikers by a very large amount.
Just a thought.
I'm really glad the deck has given you some inspiration. You've been really helpful.
My magic number, from my experience trying to make sure Puresteel Paladin is online in Medomai, is ~15 at minimum, I'm afraid. I'll add Jor Kadeen to the list of stuff to watch in case the artifact count ever starts creeping up, however, as he fits very well if it does.
This deck is super sweet. I feel like I must run Captain Sisay now. I got a ton of great legends to grab with it. Plus, the Saffi combos are pretty awesome.
Thank you for the compliment. Yes, Sisay's an all-star here; works with Soldier tribal, human tribal, 2 power for Mentor and Reveillark; she does it all.
Well, Altar was included as it's not only creature tutor, it's also a sac outlet as there's so much here that benefits from saccing. Survival's not really out of my budget, however $25+ for creature tutor that doesn't double as saccing or isn't reachable by Sunforger is difficult. If I find I want more creature tutor here I'll definitely keep an eye on the card, thank you.
Okay, so I picked up this cute app called "Decked" that lets you build and test decks, so I'll go through a few sample draws to give an idea of how the deck plays.
Pretty good. 3 mana's fine and we have a few directions to go depending on the board state. Obvious choice is to swing with a sword-equipped Swiftblade. Keep. Play Karplusan Forest.
Turn 2. Draw Mountain. Play Garrison, bouncing Forest.
We have a few directions here depending on board state. If we're not afraid of artifact removal we can risk playing the Sword now and equipping next turn to leave mana open for Artifact Mutation. Or we can play and equip sword next turn and leave mana open for Mutation now.
Boat loads of options now. If we wanna go aggressive we can play Cathar's Crusade then Elspeth Tirel or Geist-Honored Monk next turn, followed by Gahiji. If we wanna turtle we can play Monk now and Elspeth next turn to gain life. I prefer to play Sunforger on Turn 8 so I can play, equip and have RW open but that's just me.
What's the board state like? Do I wanna wait till I get Thune out before playing Paladin or Hero and gain life off them to pump the army? Or do you want to get Hero out now so he can recover from summoning sickness? Let's play the Hero.
Turn 4. Draw Birthing Pod. Play Turf, bouncing Forge.
Alright, lots of options now. I'd say the best option is to play Archangel now, then probably Birthing Pod the Hero into a token-generator like Hero of Bladehold. If you need other options, you can Pod Soul warden into Stoneforge Mystic or Pod the Hero into Captain Sisay. You can even just soulbond the Paladin with Archangel and start swingin', but if you start on the token route you can follow up with Gahiji.
Prophetic Flamespeaker -- The most obvious new include in the deck. Human, built-in double strike, low power for 'Lark and Mentor, and a bit of card advantage in Naya. This guy will be absurdly fun here.
Iroas, God of Victory -- Seems obvious at first glance, but the more I look at it, the more I wonder. The no-chump clause can be powerful for alpha striking, but the invulnerability on attack is more for valuable creatures than token armies. Nah.
Dawnbringer Charioteers & Skyspear Cavalry -- Human Soldiers with 2 power, so triply relevant, but the higher mana cost slots are very competitive in this deck at this point, and the Heroic simply isn't relevant.
Ajani's Presence & Phalanx Formation -- Two new Sunforger targets. Presence pumps and saves armies. Phalanx Formation potentially wins games. Very useful additions to the toolbox, however very white-intensive in a triple-colour deck, and still situational. Worth a playtest, but I'm not optimistic.
Launch the Fleet -- Relevant, but not really high-impact enough in EDH.
Aegis of the Gods -- 2 power Human Soldier, but a meta call at best.
Homura, Human Ascendant -> Custodi Soulbinders. Ol' Home Run's a great anthem, but he's expensive and requires a sac outlet, unless your opponent really doesn't want to take 4 damage. I want to try these dudes.
----------------------
Conspiracy Comments.
A few dudes are relevant as Conspiracy is pretty token-focused...
Custodi Soulbinders. The most relevant and effective of the options. Those tokens having flying is really important. Even a couple more creatures getting through on an alpha strike can make the difference between winning and losing, and flying chumps are always handy. They're humans for tribal shenanigans and 0/0 for Reveillark. Yeah budday.
Woodvine Elemental. Potentially really scary. Could give all my dudes (including himself thank goodness) +4/+4 on the attack. Gives me a card, but also gives my friend's Animar deck a card. Isn't Parley only good when your deck is better than your opponents'? Anyone have an opinion?
Flamewright. A human and a very efficient weenie generator. But the defender on the golems kills this.
Bonds is especially superb utility alongside an efficient token generator, and Return to the Ranks is another Reveillark effect... enough said. I'll absolutely be looking for replacement slots for these cards when M15 is released.
Hey, I have a Gahiji tokens list too and I found that mana doubling effects puts you way ahead of your opponents so, consider running those cards: Mirari's Wake Mana Reflection
Hey, I have a Gahiji tokens list too and I found that mana doubling effects puts you way ahead of your opponents so, consider running those cards: Mirari's Wake Mana Reflection Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger %also a doubler, but attract a lot of hate towards you
Hi there zlliM,
Part one of the deck actually had more super-mana cards like Wake and early dorks, but I slowly cut them for aggression as the curve of this deck is actually really forgiving. I've been having a lot of success playing this deck as more of a steady march of threats. Although Wake may eventually make it back in as not only does it pump my army, it gets me to that "coveted" 8 mana for Sunforger, where I can safely play it, equip it, and have RW open to rescue it with Boros Charm if necessary.
Vorinclex doubles as a threat too, definitely, but this deck has had an excellent win ratio so far without resorting to griefers like him.
A Gahiji, Honored One Human-Sunforger-Combo deck, by Hallucigenia
Introduction
I’ve been meaning to build a Naya Soldier deck forever now, and Gahiji plays real nice with my little double-strikers. I haven’t gone full-aggro as I hate not having options: Captain Sisay is a nice little toolbox, especially since she herself is both a Human and Soldier; the deck has a nice curve for Birthing Pod (that statement feels vaguely creepy), and Sunforger plays nice with token rush strategies in a variety of ways, as I’ll show.
Here’s the list. Soldiers and Humans are relevant here so I’ll label them as such with ‘S’ and ‘H’.
5 Gahiji, Honored One
Creatures (30)
1 Soul Warden (H)
1 Soul's Attendant (H)
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
2 Saffi Eriksdotter (H)
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Fiend Hunter (H)
3 Knight of the Reliquary (H)
3 Mentor of the Meek (SH)
3 Mirran Crusader (H)
3 Monastery Mentor (H)
3 Silverblade Paladin (H)
3 Prophetic Flamespeaker (H)
3 Wood Elves
4 Captain Sisay (SH)
4 Custodi Soulbinders (H)
4 Hero of Bladehold (H)
4 Pia and Kiran Nalaar (H)
5 Archangel of Thune
5 Balefire Liege
5 Gahiji, Honored One
5 Geist-Honored Monk (H)
5 Knight-Captain of Eos (H)
5 Reveillark
6 Captain of the Watch (SH)
6 Darien, King of Kjeldor (SH)
6 Godo, Bandit Warlord (H)
6 Soul of Theros
6 Sun Titan
7 Angel of Glory’s Rise
7 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Expedition Map
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
3 Boros Keyrune
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Sunforger
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Birthing Pod
5 Mind's Eye
Instants (9)
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Artifact Mutation
2 Aura Mutation
2 Boros Charm
2 Eladamri's Call
2 Selesnya Charm
3 Chaos Warp
3 Naya Charm
4 Tears of Rage
Sorceries (3)
2 Martial Coup
5 March of Souls
7 Titanic Ultimatum
Enchantments (9)
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Goblin Bombardment
2 Spirit Bonds
3 Aura Shards
3 Martyr's Cause
5 Assemble the Legion
5 Cathars' Crusade
5 Doubling Season
6 True Conviction
4 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
5 Elspeth Tirel
6 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
I Want To Try...
3 Champion of Lambholt
4 Glare of Subdual
4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Sarkhan Vol
4 Slate of Ancestry
6 Collective Unconscious
7 Hazezon Tamar
Why You Should Play This Deck
Here’s a few reasons why, if I didn’t screw up somehow, this deck should be fun and effective.
Some Sample Draws
Turn 1. Draw
- Karplusan Forest
- Boros Garrison
- Boros Swiftblade
- Artifact Mutation
- Elspeth Tirel
- Cathar's Crusade
- Sword of Fire and Ice
Pretty good. 3 mana's fine and we have a few directions to go depending on the board state. Obvious choice is to swing with a sword-equipped Swiftblade. Keep. Play Karplusan Forest.
Turn 2. Draw Mountain. Play Garrison, bouncing Forest.
Turn 3. Draw Brushland. Play Swiftblade.
Turn 4. Draw Geist-Honored Monk. Play Brushland.
We have a few directions here depending on board state. If we're not afraid of artifact removal we can risk playing the Sword now and equipping next turn to leave mana open for Artifact Mutation. Or we can play and equip sword next turn and leave mana open for Mutation now.
Turn 5. Draw Sunforger. Play Mountain.
Boat loads of options now. If we wanna go aggressive we can play Cathar's Crusade then Elspeth Tirel or Geist-Honored Monk next turn, followed by Gahiji. If we wanna turtle we can play Monk now and Elspeth next turn to gain life. I prefer to play Sunforger on Turn 8 so I can play, equip and have RW open but that's just me.
Turn 1. Draw
- Elspeth, Sun's Champion
- Boros Charm
- Opal Palace
- Darien, King of Kjeldor
- Naya Charm
- Soul Warden
- Sunforger
Better believe I don't keep this.
Turn 1. Draw
- Battlefield Forge
- Gruul Turf
- Selesnya Sanctuary
- Silverblade Paladin
- Cathar's Crusade
- Soul Warden
- Martial Coup
Also good. 5 mana in hand, pump, early plays, panic button. Keep. Play Battlefield Forge. Play Soul Warden.
Turn 2. Draw Intrepid Hero. Play Sanctuary, bouncing Forge.
Turn 3. Draw Archangel of Thune. Play Forge.
What's the board state like? Do I wanna wait till I get Thune out before playing Paladin or Hero and gain life off them to pump the army? Or do you want to get Hero out now so he can recover from summoning sickness? Let's play the Hero.
Turn 4. Draw Birthing Pod. Play Turf, bouncing Forge.
Turn 5. Draw Command Tower. Play Command Tower.
Alright, lots of options now. I'd say the best option is to play Archangel now, then probably Birthing Pod the Hero into a token-generator like Hero of Bladehold. If you need other options, you can Pod Soul warden into Stoneforge Mystic or Pod the Hero into Captain Sisay. You can even just soulbond the Paladin with Archangel and start swingin', but if you start on the token route you can follow up with Gahiji.
Deck History & Set Reviews
JOU in Review
Iroas, God of Victory -- Seems obvious at first glance, but the more I look at it, the more I wonder. The no-chump clause can be powerful for alpha striking, but the invulnerability on attack is more for valuable creatures than token armies. Nah.
Dawnbringer Charioteers & Skyspear Cavalry -- Human Soldiers with 2 power, so triply relevant, but the higher mana cost slots are very competitive in this deck at this point, and the Heroic simply isn't relevant.
Ajani's Presence & Phalanx Formation -- Two new Sunforger targets. Presence pumps and saves armies. Phalanx Formation potentially wins games. Very useful additions to the toolbox, however very white-intensive in a triple-colour deck, and still situational. Worth a playtest, but I'm not optimistic.
Launch the Fleet -- Relevant, but not really high-impact enough in EDH.
Aegis of the Gods -- 2 power Human Soldier, but a meta call at best.
Desperate Stand -- Expensive for what it accomplishes.
Changes.
Intrepid Hero -> Prophetic Flamespeaker. Hero just isn't that impressive.
Angelic Overseer -> Eternal Witness. It's really silly she wasn't in here in the first place. I got an Angel of Glory's Rise cycle going with her involved and got my whole graveyard back. Won the game.
M15 in Review
Bonds is especially superb utility alongside an efficient token generator, and Return to the Ranks is another Reveillark effect... enough said. I'll absolutely be looking for replacement slots for these cards when M15 is released.
CNS in Review
Custodi Soulbinders. The most relevant and effective of the options. Those tokens having flying is really important. Even a couple more creatures getting through on an alpha strike can make the difference between winning and losing, and flying chumps are always handy. They're humans for tribal shenanigans and 0/0 for Reveillark. Yeah budday.
Woodvine Elemental. Potentially really scary. Could give all my dudes (including himself thank goodness) +4/+4 on the attack. Gives me a card, but also gives my friend's Animar deck a card. Isn't Parley only good when your deck is better than your opponents'? Anyone have an opinion?
Flamewright. A human and a very efficient weenie generator. But the defender on the golems kills this.
Homura, Human Ascendant -> Custodi Soulbinders. Ol' Home Run's a great anthem, but he's expensive and requires a sac outlet, unless your opponent really doesn't want to take 4 damage. I want to try these dudes.
KTK, FRF, DTK in Review
There are a couple cards of interest here (there would be more if some Abzan or Mardu cards were Naya coloured!).
Herald of Anafenza. Another one-drop for the Pod curve, a Human Soldier, spits out tokens (albeit, annoyingly, Warriors). I like this guy a lot but I'm worried he's a bit low-impact. We'll see.
Dragon Throne of Tarkir. Ehhh. Definitely fits the deck, but I've got better ways to kill people that don't require as much contrivance.
One nice set of gifts to this deck is a new set of "refuge" lands to compliment Archangel of Thune, though, so that's nice at least.
Fate Reforged
The only other card I'm really considering is Outpost Siege. Punish wraths or gain a slightly inferior Phyrexian Arena effect? I think I can probably make this fit somewhere.
Dragons of Tarkir
Not a particularly interesting set for this deck.
Den Protector -- Another Eternal Witness in a way, and a human even, but not abusable with the Angel of Glory's Rise combos.
Berserker's Onslaught -- What's that? True Conviction is only one more mana, you say? You make a good point, thank you.
Crater Elemental -- You know... I really like this guy. If there's someone who's pretty good at getting Formidable online it's Gahiji, it actually makes a pretty good blocker early on, and the sac ability is pretty handy. Works with Reveillark and Mentor of the Meek. Just doesn't really work with the overall game plan. Too bad.
Changes
Rakka Mar --> Monastery Mentor
Evangel of Heliod --> Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
Magic: Origins in Review
Sigil of Valor -- This is a neat way to put your weenies to good use without alpha striking, similar to Sublime Archangel. Especially nice on the doublestrikers. But honestly, if Stoneforge Mystic or Godo's gonna reach for something for them, it'll be Sword of Fire and Ice.
The Great Aurora -- Cute card, and yes this deck takes advantage with tokens (but note someone may have a fuller hand, which also counts) but for nine mana, I want something even more asymmetrical than this.
Flameshadow Conjuring -- I get a few extra ETB triggers, but this is better in a deck with more mid- to high-impact creatures.
Nissa's Revelation -- Again, better with a higher density of fatties.
Valor in Akros -- A mini Cathars' Crusade, without a very miniature cost. Meh.
Zendikar's Roil -- Spits out a nice amount of tokens but not very abusable in this deck.
Archangel of Tithes -- A very nice card, but the WWW may actually difficult and ideally when I alpha strike they won't have enough blockers regardless of the reverse Propaganda effect.
Changes
Altar of Bone --> Evolutionary Leap
Rise of the Hobgoblins --> Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Update Log
09/01/2014
Removed
Dorks x 4
Loxodon Warhammer
Sword of War and Peace
Insurrection
Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Hearthfire Goblin
Added
Fiend Hunter
Soul's Attendant
Auriok Champion
Archangel of Thune
Geist-Honored Monk
Rakka-Mar
Doubling Season
Reveillark
Godo, Bandit Warlord
15/01/2014
Field Marshal -> Balefire Liege
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Ritual Sacrifice for Fun and Profit
-- You flip Homura easily. I heard he's good with both weenies and double strikers.
-- Including Martyr's Bond helps control the board;
-- They play nice with Insurrection. If you want, you can run instant-speed Threatens like Grab the Reins for Sunforger to grab, then sac ‘em;
-- Dudes not small enough to Skullclamp due to Cathar's Crusade? No problemo!
At any rate, even if you don't have weenies to fuel these cards, having a couple sac outlets in any deck is a good idea to foil tuck or theft effects. Very underrated!
Finally, "free" sac mechanisms like Cause and the Altar give you some nice infinite combo options, if your group is okay with them.
___Do You Want to Make that a Combo?
Saffi Eriksdottir may not be a Soldier, but she is a Human, and although she dropped the ball with her brother Hans, she's a damn good combat medic, willing to drag her comrades back from the mouth of Hades if she has to. This is not only good for protecting important creatures, but it turns her into a bit of a combo monster.
Here's a couple.
You have the option of including Aurelia, the Warleader combos, which sac and resurrect her to get infinite combat steps.
-- Aurelia + Sac Outlet + Adarkar Valkyrie
-- Aurelia + Sac Outlet + Sun Giant + Angelic Renewal
-- Aurelia + Sac Outlet + Sun Giant + Saffi Eriksdotter (probably preferable as Saffi is a Human that holds swords)
The reason why this works is that each time Aurelia comes back from the graveyard, it is a new/different Aurelia with regards to the "first" time she attacks, so it will still be a "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia.
So:
1. Aurelia attacks. Since it's her first attack, she creates a second attack phase.
2. Sac Aurelia, rescue her with Saffi.
3. Attack on the second attack phase.
3a. Since this is the "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia, you get yet another attack phase.
3b. Sun Titan attacking rescues Saffi.
4. Repeat.
Saffi also plays nice with Angel of Glory's Rise, creating infinite soldier tokens or gaining infinite life.
What you're doing here is saccing token-generators like Captain of the Watch, Evangel of Heliod or Knight-Captain of Eos along-side the Angel of Glory's Rise, then saccing Saffi to bring back the Angel, which in turn brings all your generators back, including Saffi! Lather, rinse, repeat. Congrats, you now have infinite soldiers.
Having something like Fires of Yavimaya or Anger in your graveyard is great and it means you win right now, but note that even if you give your opponents some opportunity to respond, this is tough to disrupt. Wrath and spot removal don't work; you just sac Saffi against the wrath to rescue the Angel. Even if they try to EXILE the Angel, you just sac her in response, and rescue her as usual. What they need to do (I believe) is kill your graveyard in response to the Angel trigger. Or they need to do two things, like kill your sac outlet, then wrath, or play Torpor Orb then wrath.
Yavimaya Elder like this combo too. Or does he? "Please, just let me die..."
Finally, there's Mister Oblivion Ring, though you might as well call him Mister Combo. There's a few neat things you can do with him.
1. Infinite damage. Fiend Hunter exiles Angel of Glory's Rise. Sac him into the Bombardment to deal 1 damage. Angel returns to play, returning Hunter. Lather, rinse, repeat for infinite damage.
2. Infinite Soldiers. If you have Cause but not Bombardment, you can still get infinite Soldiers if you have Captain of the Watch, Evangel of Heliod or Knight-Captain of Eos in play by saccing them alongside the Fiend Hunter before the Angel comes back into play. Even if you don't have a 'free' sac outlet, you still have some extra redundancy with your token generators every turn.
3. Infinite life. If you have any Soul Sisters in play, you'll gain as much life as you want right there.
4. Exile something permanently. The age-old trick with Fiend Hunter and his black cousin Faceless Butcher is to sac them above the exile trigger. Since he's already in the graveyard when the exile trigger happens (yes, it still happens), the other creature will be exiled permanently.
5. One-sided Wraths. Exile your Angel of Glory's Rise with the Hunter. Play wrath. You get your humans back. Your opponents get NOTHING! NOTHING! Or just exile whatever handy creature you want to be around afterward.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
So:
1. Aurelia attacks. Since it's her first attack, she creates a second attack phase.
2. Sac Aurelia, rescue her with Saffi.
3. Attack on the second attack phase.
3a. Since this is the "first" attack for the "new" Aurelia, you get yet another attack phase.
3b. Sun Titan attacking rescues Saffi.
4. Repeat.
I might as well add the explanation to the OP.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Some stuff I'm considering including, if anyone has any input:
Mother of Runes -- Human, 1CC for Pod, obviously good; may be preferable over mana dorks if mana isn't a problem in this deck;
Reveillark -- Yeah, probably gotta find a slot for this.
Doubling Season -- Three planeswalkers makes me prefer this over Parallel Lives.
Kruin Outlaw -- Human, first/double striker; may add aggression if, again, the mana dorks aren't necessary. Can anyone who's played with werewolves a lot comment on her?
Martyr's Bond -- Grave Pact shenanigans; may also stop people blowing up my artifacts or enchantments. Very nice card.
Huntmaster of the Fells -- Value town for human tribal. The wolf tokens won't get soldier bonuses, nor do they play with Rise of the Hobgoblins, but he/they draws cards off Mentor and generates so much value. Plus I've just always wanted to try him.
Hope it works out. Let me know how it goes!
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Champion of the Parish
Champion of Lambholt
Soul's Attendant & Soul Warden & their elvish cousin Essence Warden
And the main man himself Norin the Wary.
All of the above card actually has strong synergy with your deck anyway and crazy value together with Norin out. Norin himself has wonderful synergy with the Crusade & Aura Shards.
Also if your adding in 'Larky, then you might as well add in its best friend Karmic Guide and since you don't seem to be against combos they both combo with the already included Mirror Entity.
*EDIT* A pet card I really like to use in my "Honored One" deck is Haze of Rage. Granted I use mana doublers like Mana Reflection & Mirari's Wake, but with all your double striking dudes it could be a lethal card as well.
GWBKarador, Necrotic Ooze SubthemeBWG
Yeah... 'forger and 'clamp are so important in this deck, and he's a human body. I'll definitely keep an eye on him during playtesting. Thanks!
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
You've caught the main thing I'm thinking about right now: replacing the mana dorks with Soul's Warden/Attendant, and maybe Auriok Champion if the WW isn't too annoying. They'd be good A) because they're human, B) because they gain infinite life with my combos, and C) because they make Archangel of Thune a really powerful win con. I'll probably be going ahead and doing this... as I said earlier, my curve doesn't really demand dorks, and my fixing is fine.
Champion of Lambholt/Parish are nice, especially Lambholt, but slots are getting very competitive at this point. CotP isn't very high-impact on his own in EDH, and after being the all-star in my friend's Simic +1/+1 counter deck, CoL will probably just eat removal. Keeping my win-cons in the Instant or Enchantment slot makes them much harder to disrupt. Lambholt is very good though... I'll keep an eye on her.
I've done a lot of Norin shenanigans in Diaochan, and I think I'll keep him there for now... he does interact nicely with a couple cards here, for sure, but at this point that's just not good enough.
Debating including Guide for redundancy with Lark/Saffi, definitely. I want combos to be a backup here, however; I still want this to be Naya Overrun primary, and that means not digging too hard into my weenie generators, which are already low. My friends don't mind infinites as a backup in case another friend's Oloro deck is durdling to victory, but we've seen enough rushing towards infinite as a primary win-con.
I LOVE Haze of Rage, but you're right, without mana acceleration, which I'm going to not bother with here, it doesn't quite bump out the other mass buffs. As-is, I'm trying to fit in Purphoros somewhere.
Thanks for the detailed responses, I appreciate it.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
In will be more human-based weenie generation (it looks scarily low as-is) and Soul Warden/Attendant + Archangel of Thune shenanigans. Also Godo because I like equipment (the big three anyway).
Also I'm gonna include the Fiend Hunter line of combos.
All that said...
Removed
Dorks x 4
Loxodon Warhammer
Sword of War and Peace
Insurrection
Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Hearthfire Goblin
Added
Fiend Hunter
Soul's Attendant
Auriok Champion
Archangel of Thune
Geist-Honored Monk
Rakka-Mar
Doubling Season
Reveillark
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Sorry. On my phone or else is post more.
GWBKarador, Necrotic Ooze SubthemeBWG
Ehh. I want to make him work, I really do, but this deck has so many ways of recovering from wrath quickly that having a 2/2 left over, that might occasionally be a vanilla 7/7, just doesn't do it for me.
I love Concerted Effort, very fun card. If they had errata'd in lifelink it would be a whole different story. But using a slot to occasionally give all my dudes double strike (when I can tutor for True Conviction) and flying just doesn't cut it I'm afraid.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
UBRSedris, the Necromancer KingUBR
Another dude I'm looking at is Balefire Liege... the double pump on my Hobgoblins and Legion soldiers is nice (and Hazy T's warriors if I include him), lifegain for the Archangel of Thune, and a bit of extra damage is always nice. Works with Reveillark and Mentor too. Yes... yes...
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Gonna toss Fieldmist Borderpost in there for a bit of extra devotion for Evangel of Heliod too. Why the hell weren't there any opponent-colour borderposts?
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Is it worth it to squeeze in enough appropriate artifacts to just include Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer into your deck? You already have 10 artifacts and I don't know what the magical number is for reliable metalcraft is, but I do know that Jor & Gahiji boosts your double strikers by a very large amount.
Just a thought.
GWBKarador, Necrotic Ooze SubthemeBWG
Is there any reason to run Altar of Bone over Survival of the Fittest besides budget?
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
I'm really glad the deck has given you some inspiration. You've been really helpful.
My magic number, from my experience trying to make sure Puresteel Paladin is online in Medomai, is ~15 at minimum, I'm afraid. I'll add Jor Kadeen to the list of stuff to watch in case the artifact count ever starts creeping up, however, as he fits very well if it does.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Thank you for the compliment. Yes, Sisay's an all-star here; works with Soldier tribal, human tribal, 2 power for Mentor and Reveillark; she does it all.
Well, Altar was included as it's not only creature tutor, it's also a sac outlet as there's so much here that benefits from saccing. Survival's not really out of my budget, however $25+ for creature tutor that doesn't double as saccing or isn't reachable by Sunforger is difficult. If I find I want more creature tutor here I'll definitely keep an eye on the card, thank you.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Turn 1. Draw
- Karplusan Forest
- Boros Garrison
- Boros Swiftblade
- Artifact Mutation
- Elspeth Tirel
- Cathar's Crusade
- Sword of Fire and Ice
Pretty good. 3 mana's fine and we have a few directions to go depending on the board state. Obvious choice is to swing with a sword-equipped Swiftblade. Keep. Play Karplusan Forest.
Turn 2. Draw Mountain. Play Garrison, bouncing Forest.
Turn 3. Draw Brushland. Play Swiftblade.
Turn 4. Draw Geist-Honored Monk. Play Brushland.
We have a few directions here depending on board state. If we're not afraid of artifact removal we can risk playing the Sword now and equipping next turn to leave mana open for Artifact Mutation. Or we can play and equip sword next turn and leave mana open for Mutation now.
Turn 5. Draw Sunforger. Play Mountain.
Boat loads of options now. If we wanna go aggressive we can play Cathar's Crusade then Elspeth Tirel or Geist-Honored Monk next turn, followed by Gahiji. If we wanna turtle we can play Monk now and Elspeth next turn to gain life. I prefer to play Sunforger on Turn 8 so I can play, equip and have RW open but that's just me.
Turn 1. Draw
- Elspeth, Sun's Champion
- Boros Charm
- Opal Palace
- Darien, King of Kjeldor
- Naya Charm
- Soul Warden
- Sunforger
Better believe I don't keep this.
Turn 1. Draw
- Battlefield Forge
- Gruul Turf
- Selesnya Sanctuary
- Silverblade Paladin
- Cathar's Crusade
- Soul Warden
- Martial Coup
Also good. 5 mana in hand, pump, early plays, panic button. Keep. Play Battlefield Forge. Play Soul Warden.
Turn 2. Draw Intrepid Hero. Play Sanctuary, bouncing Forge.
Turn 3. Draw Archangel of Thune. Play Forge.
What's the board state like? Do I wanna wait till I get Thune out before playing Paladin or Hero and gain life off them to pump the army? Or do you want to get Hero out now so he can recover from summoning sickness? Let's play the Hero.
Turn 4. Draw Birthing Pod. Play Turf, bouncing Forge.
Turn 5. Draw Command Tower. Play Command Tower.
Alright, lots of options now. I'd say the best option is to play Archangel now, then probably Birthing Pod the Hero into a token-generator like Hero of Bladehold. If you need other options, you can Pod Soul warden into Stoneforge Mystic or Pod the Hero into Captain Sisay. You can even just soulbond the Paladin with Archangel and start swingin', but if you start on the token route you can follow up with Gahiji.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Prophetic Flamespeaker -- The most obvious new include in the deck. Human, built-in double strike, low power for 'Lark and Mentor, and a bit of card advantage in Naya. This guy will be absurdly fun here.
Iroas, God of Victory -- Seems obvious at first glance, but the more I look at it, the more I wonder. The no-chump clause can be powerful for alpha striking, but the invulnerability on attack is more for valuable creatures than token armies. Nah.
Dawnbringer Charioteers & Skyspear Cavalry -- Human Soldiers with 2 power, so triply relevant, but the higher mana cost slots are very competitive in this deck at this point, and the Heroic simply isn't relevant.
Ajani's Presence & Phalanx Formation -- Two new Sunforger targets. Presence pumps and saves armies. Phalanx Formation potentially wins games. Very useful additions to the toolbox, however very white-intensive in a triple-colour deck, and still situational. Worth a playtest, but I'm not optimistic.
Launch the Fleet -- Relevant, but not really high-impact enough in EDH.
Aegis of the Gods -- 2 power Human Soldier, but a meta call at best.
Desperate Stand -- Expensive for what it accomplishes.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Intrepid Hero -> Prophetic Flamespeaker. Hero just isn't that impressive.
Angelic Overseer -> Eternal Witness. It's really silly she wasn't in here in the first place. I got an Angel of Glory's Rise cycle going with her involved and got my whole graveyard back. Won the game.
Homura, Human Ascendant -> Custodi Soulbinders. Ol' Home Run's a great anthem, but he's expensive and requires a sac outlet, unless your opponent really doesn't want to take 4 damage. I want to try these dudes.
----------------------
Conspiracy Comments.
A few dudes are relevant as Conspiracy is pretty token-focused...
Custodi Soulbinders. The most relevant and effective of the options. Those tokens having flying is really important. Even a couple more creatures getting through on an alpha strike can make the difference between winning and losing, and flying chumps are always handy. They're humans for tribal shenanigans and 0/0 for Reveillark. Yeah budday.
Woodvine Elemental. Potentially really scary. Could give all my dudes (including himself thank goodness) +4/+4 on the attack. Gives me a card, but also gives my friend's Animar deck a card. Isn't Parley only good when your deck is better than your opponents'? Anyone have an opinion?
Flamewright. A human and a very efficient weenie generator. But the defender on the golems kills this.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Bonds is especially superb utility alongside an efficient token generator, and Return to the Ranks is another Reveillark effect... enough said. I'll absolutely be looking for replacement slots for these cards when M15 is released.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Mirari's Wake
Mana Reflection
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger %also a doubler, but attract a lot of hate towards you
"Their hopes dashed on our shields! Their victory slashed by our swords!" -Glory of Warfare
Hi there zlliM,
Part one of the deck actually had more super-mana cards like Wake and early dorks, but I slowly cut them for aggression as the curve of this deck is actually really forgiving. I've been having a lot of success playing this deck as more of a steady march of threats. Although Wake may eventually make it back in as not only does it pump my army, it gets me to that "coveted" 8 mana for Sunforger, where I can safely play it, equip it, and have RW open to rescue it with Boros Charm if necessary.
Vorinclex doubles as a threat too, definitely, but this deck has had an excellent win ratio so far without resorting to griefers like him.
Thanks for your input though, I appreciate it.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty