Hey....beat me to the soldier theme....

I was running this tonight and it was working quite well



I didn't consider the Crusader of Odric being mentioned above but that with an Armored Ascension would win a game quite quick.

Also looking at Garren_Windspear's list, it makes me realize I hadn't considered Mentor of the Meek for the soldier aspect. All the +1/+1 effects often make it a nonbo but it still meets the creature type so maybe it's worth including.

Reprisal does sit in hand a fair amount so maybe -3 Reprisal and +2 Mentor +1 Angelic Edict would be the way to go.

elk

So I've been testing the idea I mentioned in the bottom of my post and Mentor works well when it functions but there doesn't need to be a 4th Angelic Edict. Planar Cleansing is a great catch all but it does sit in hand a lot and only becomes useful with the game went poorly. That's 2 slots that could be optimized. Any suggestions? Is Battlegrace Angel worth it?



elk

I say no to Battlegrace bc you want to be attacking with more than one creature most of the time. Try Crusader of Odrick out. I've been on the other side of it a few times and its a pain in the ass to deal with.

Crusader of Odrick, Mentor of the Meek, and Phantom General all seem like they could be decent options.

I just noticed Standing Troops is a Soldier as well.....not that mentioning it has any relevance.....I just missed it on my initial perusal for Soldiers. Honestly wish there were more Soldiers in other colors to try and maybe take this outside of mono , but there are so few of them they just aren't really worth splashing for (see Maritime Guard and Satyr Hoplite )

Lets give it a spin!

elk

Oh my bad Eon, didn't see your post (looks like we were posting at the same time).

Here's where I'm at currently (seems like I should update my lists frequently for sake of ease in discussions)



All the white weenie decks seem to work well and this variant is no different. Definitely a strong deck.

elk

Not like mono white needed Captain of the Watch but I another lord effect is always welcome, so here's the list I'm testing:



Some removal, but mainly just an aggro flood with possible buffs. There's no point of adding green, as I don't need Beastmaster Ascension. I can buff most of my creatures which are Soldier types or white and Inspired Charge is always great

His link seems to go to the first list but it appears he's got the change showing. Is that the unmemorable deck for the 3rd game? Muahaha fog decks!


elk

Here's my take on the generic white weenie soldiers:



So just all-out aggro with an emphasis on tokens. Not much else to say. Been absolutely destroying randoms on steam. It's super ez-win, but it gets really boring pretty fast.

My take on a Soldier deck... Suggestions? I need to find room for Cloudshift, I think...

I'd only play Aegis Angel if I was playing Palisade Giant.

I really strongly dislike Crusader of Odric, I think Seraph is a better choice there since at least it has evasion and is super cheap.

I thought about Aegis/Palisade combo but it seems too slow... :-/

Where are all your creatures?

So, after playing white soldiers I decided that it's not the optimal build. And to satisfy my inner spike I decided to do an aggro deck which can flood and overrun pretty much everything. There's no need to splash green, red, whatever. Just play your creatures on the curve and then buff with a lord effect, Inspired Charge or Selfless Cathar. This deck is doing extremely well in 1v1, as most people can't handle the pressure and the defense is pretty good with Sigiled Paladin.

I started with some removal (2x Angelic Edict) but after playing a few games I decided to ditch it. My creatures won me the game anyway ;-)

I also started with 2x Selfless Cathar but in the end decided to go 3x. It's really good and an enemy is scared to attack if you have 2 mana open into your creatures as you can easily buff them. Same thing with blocking

In addition Exalted allows to run over early blockers.

Here's the build:

I just played 5 or 6 games against Auunj's deck and got hammered. The threat density is just so high and so low on the curve. I lost games to evasive damage from Squadron Hawks or Trip. spirits, pumped up tokens, etc. Even in a deck loaded with nothing but removal and counterspells I was never able to get him to the point of topdecking.

I only played about 3 different games but I can say that this deck is fast enough to topple many popular combo decks before they get going, and resilient enough to removal that control can't win either, outside of 2+ board sweeps. And being mono-colored, it gains tremendous consistency.

Aggro is not really my thing but I like this deck and want to take it for a spin.

Thanks for the kind words HenWen! Let me know how the testing went!:-)

The seven early exalted creatures totally change the character of this deck. They allow you to commence a significant beating early on. Usually on turn 2 I am attacking with a 3/2 or 3/3, and by turn 3 attacking with a 4/4 first striker. If you are on the play you can often get significant damage in before your opponent casts a single spell. Exalted allows you to attack with a creature that is too big to profitably block without having to throw all of your creatures into combat.

While this is going on I usually try to build up some tokens on turns 3-4. Exalted is also very helpful in making a single monster attacker because it leaves the rest of your team untapped, making convoke cheaper/faster.

Usually the final step is to swing in with the entire team. I have managed 36 damage on turn 5.

The exalted cards really surpass my expectations as a "splash." They do really well even though the deck is not devoted to them. Sigiled Paladin is the 2 drop version of Brimaz - except we get 3 copies of him.

The main things I am considering changing would be to try to add swift justice. I like the idea of a pump spell that also adds first strike, as it would be easier to swing in with creatures you want to keep alive like selfless cathar, mentor of the meek, etc. Banisher priest generally works because the deck is so saturated with targets that an opponent will often have to choose between removing the priest and taking out an important target like the paragon. By the same token, I seldom use the 2/2 body because her job is just to not die. I really only swing with her when I have lethal. Swift justice would help to get more use out of these utility creatures, and could be used as a surprise way of killing important blockers.

The worst performers so far have to be mentor of the meek and elite vanguard. This deck is so damn fast and the curve is so low that 90% of the time I do not have "extra" mana I can spend for a free card draw. The choice is often spending mana on the card draw or getting another creature on the board instead. You have to spend 4 mana before you draw your first card. You can wait until mentor is basically the last card in your hand and use him to recover faster from a board wipe - I can see this as a potential use, but I think this deck has a hard time recovering once opponents reach 6 mana or so. In theory he could be used as a backup plan, but I would rather double down on the aggro with this deck.

The vanguard is ok I guess but I prefer the exalted one drop as I think having 2 toughness on the offensive is very important in this meta. Swinging with a 2/1 on an empty board is nice, but most decks run 1/1 dorks early on. I would at least test other cards here, including loyal pegasus. Evasion has often been key for closing out games. Alternatively leonin snarecaster is one card I would consider here, maybe just at two copies.

As far as the team buffs, I have been unable to decide whether I want to go up or down on the copies of loyal cathar and inspired charge. The cathar is never exciting but he also helps to balance your ratio of creatures / buff effects.

As for the other cards in the deck, they are all performng well.

tldr: I want to test -2 Elite Vanguard -2 Mentor of the Meek +2 Swift Justice +2 Leonin Snarecaster. The snarecaster is functionally equivalent to Goblin Shortcutter which is a mainstay of red aggro decks in 2015.

Unfortunately we're far into the recycling of ideas now. The deck is basically the same as SteveO's mono white version.

elk

There' a 17 card difference between those 2 decks. Not counting plains it's a 46% difference. Really same idea.

Because you included some pump effects versus SteveO's which has some removal/protection effects?? I said 'basically' and it is 'basically' the same shell. Similar to the Soldier decks listed above. They are 'basically' all the same too (and if you trade soldiers for exalted, it's all still the same 'build'). Trading a handful of cards around isn't really changing the overall shell no matter how you feel about it. I even put up a solider deck that is the same as everyone else's. We're all rehashing builds now just due to the pool being completely explored (even if they are a handful of cards different).


elk