OK cool. Just built it and will take it into ranked in s second. The original build retires at 7-1 for me

What did you lose to?

I have it written at home, I can't remember.

New build won its first game out of the gate. I'm at 8-1 now I think

I'm 5-0 with new build after playing a game vs a Bant deck (counter-flash? Midrange? Not sure but saw a manland, Topplegeist, Duskwatch Recruiter that revealed a Pack Guardian which never got played, a flashed out pair of Vile Redeemers, and a Planeswalker Nissa) last night. Was able to pull off the win without even drawing a Valor. Evasion helps keep it competitive without it. Deck is prob gonna suffer quite a bit if green gets some playable reach creatures in the next set, but right now matchups vs green are good for me (save for builds that run a ton of lifegain).

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, and I've been playing duels since January. I had been playing a mono red aggro deck (mostly for gold farming) with pretty good success. However, when the SoI update hit, and Foundry Street Denizen disappeared, that deck basically flopped. So now, after messing around with several ideas, I've settled on an Azorius deck that is serving me quite well - but I know it could be better. Here's what I play at the moment:

Creatures
1 x Topplegeist
1 x Knight of the White Orchid
2 x Consul's Lieutenant
2 x Dauntless River Marshal
2 x Topan Freeblade
1 x Blessed Spirits
4 x Frost Lynx
3 x Reflector Mage
1 x Kytheon's Irregulars
2 x Guardians of Tazeem
1 x Willbreaker

Instants
2 x Dispel
1 x Expose Evil
4 x Disperse

Sorceries
2 x Roil Spout

Enchantments
4 x Grasp of the Heiromancer
1 x Always Watching
2 x Claustrophobia

Lands
7 x Plains
7 x Island
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sandstone Bridge
2 x Skyline Cascade
2 x Evolving Wilds

The main goal of the deck if to hamper the opponents ability to attack & block, while swinging in with multiple low cost creatures for damage. Willbreaker is a nice-to-have, it's not my main win-con - although many of the cards in the deck will activate it. Come to think of it, I don't really have a particular card or combo that this deck is designed to win off of. In any case, I'm treading water between rank 18 - 23, so please pick apart my decklist and provide some feedback on how I can make it better. I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions. Thanks!

Imo, White has such great removal you really don't need the Bounce, except maybe for PWs. Try Declaration in Stone and angelic purge for example
You should probably be running the standard shell of White creatures: thalia's lieutenant, Hanweir Militia captain, bygone bishop, etc... As well as Westvale abbey.
You would run the risk of following the pretty standard Azorius build and lose your deck's own flavour, but it is a pretty efective deck that is probably tier 1. So if it ain't broken don't fix it.
Make a stand gives some sweeper protection, Expose Evil is pretty good an in-line with the deck's current strategy.
If you add colorless, eldrazi displacer is nice with Reflector mage.
Forget the Skyline cascades and Sandstone bridges, they'll only slow you down.
So there's some food for thought. If your missing cards, don't worry too much, White has plenty of options.
You may want to run Gideon as well Btw.

Thanks for the tips! I've copied my deck and made the changes you suggested. I've only played one match so far, and I got stomped...but if I'm being fair, I had terrible draws for the first couple turns. I'll keep messing around and see what I can come up with.

I went and copied zedf's build from this thread to give you an idea of what is being played (sorry, I was too lazy to build one myself)
1 x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 x Topplegeist
3 x Anointer of Champions
2 x Enshrouding Mist

2 x Hanweir Militia Captain
2 x Thalia's Lieutenant
2 x Knight of the White Orchid
3 x Consul's Lieutenant
3 x Topan Freeblade
2 x Declaration in Stone

2 x Eldrazi Displaver
2 x Bygone Bishop
3 x Reflector Mage
2 x Always Watching
2 x Make a Stand

1 x Archangel of Tithes
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 x Archangel Avacyn

11 x Plains
1 x Island
1 x Wastes
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Crumbling Vestige
4 x Evolving Wilds


Don't think the deck is tuned, but feel free to experiment with it and take it in the direction you like playing.

I honestly don't know how you guys are going on such streaks with this deck... I wanted to try something new and it looked like I had the cards for this one, played about 8 games with it so far myself, and it's going on 3-5, and the 3 wins were all AI games where the opponent left before the game started. Ironically, I've also yet to actually even draw valor yet in any game. It's had tough matchups against Ramp, Convergence, R/G elementals, even elf aggro. I must be missing something, but when you start losing against someone playing random 2/2 elves, it's time to switch decks =/

So this is fun, when it happens:

The problem is, how consistent is it? it just seems pretty goldfishy to me until if or when valor comes along, especially with no draw and very little removal. I may very well be having a string of bad luck though, as that's the first time I had valor in a game in about 10 games now.

no draw? Jace and Telling Time.

I managed to go on an 8-0 win streak with the deck's revisions that came to a halt last night when I came up against a landfall deck and went through half my deck, never finding Valor and chump-blocking my entire field to big colourless eldrazi stuffs.

I think won the next game so we avoided deleting the deck (2 losses in a row is an instant-delete for me, as is losing its very first game).

Valor Blues still is a total powerhorse for getting quests done (like tokens). I created 15 tokens in one game for 120 gold. nice.

yes, it's a slight exaggeration, I'm just wondering about my own experience. Like I said, it may have been a string of bad luck. One thing I'll mention though is Pious Evangel is crazy in this deck when not answered immediately. I went up to around 30 life even while taking hits and was dealing damage just by blocking with the tokens.

lifegain is for dum-dums

but i hear you on the lack of draw, it's very combo-ish for the deck to really shine and i am frantically digging sometimes

It can win with evasive fliers without Valor but it requires thoughtful use of fluxs and blocking decisions. In my play experience, when Valor drops and isn't answered, it's GG. Sounds like you've had much worse luck drawing Valors than I usually do. Only once in 10 games sounds like crazy bad luck... Between digging with time/Jace's and all the token generating stuff to block-stall, I seem to only not find Valor 1 in 10 games rather than the other way around.

My 2nd build plays much better than the 1st. When I was thinking I'd be able to participate in the after party tourney, I was going to run this deck... Except sideboards make it unplayable with back door enchantment hate.

It's more Johnny than Spike tho, and wants to rip off epic wins with stupid big flying creatures that explode out of nowhere.

Here's a control deck I've been working on:

https://www.magicduelshelper.com/deckli ... 9f0ad3c957

I think Gideon's Reproach is underrated, it is an entirely playable card and it helps a ton vs. aggro. Dispel and reprisal are too situational IMO. You already have declaration and flare to hit big creatures, no need for a specialized removal that can only hit big threats.

Do you feel like you have enough finishers here?

Also, I do not think the 8/8 token from Crush of Tentacles is worth tapping out for, you will be paying a minimum of 7 mana at sorcery speed in order to trigger the surge. In general a deck with a lot of reactive spells has a hard time triggering surge. I am not sure why you excluded Planar Outburst it is a staple for any kind of control list imo.

Yep, everything you said I thought about. In the meta I face on iOS; Dispel and Reprisal have been surprisingly good in this deck, especially since there's only 4 win conditions. It's probably a bit different on Steam. You could also add Outburst, but the whole point of this deck is to counter the important spells and keep it moving. Tapping out for outburst could leave you open to something horribly bad the next turn, especially since the board is usually light by the time it's turn 5. Crush of Tentacles is more of an emergency card than anything else; than again, a awakened land isn't too bad of an option in certain matchups with outburst; all in all, either option you choose is understandable imo.

Esper is just an better option in this type of deck style anyway tbh. One thing I have been thinking about is Spell Shrivel, because the exile effect is good, but the card is meh at times in the late game, especially agaisnt ramp.

Who did you cut to get Pious Evangel in here? I haven't had the chance to play with him too much but it seems like he's a ringer for token decks. Rack up a ton of life while putting them down. I won a game with another deck where I flipped him, sacraficed a creature, and flipped my avacyn; burning all my tokens. Does this trick still work with cards like planar outburst?

Also I am confused about the rattlechains; is the idea to get him out, then Flux him for double valor, +1/+1 and hexproof a vessel spirit (cant be removed)? Have only played a few test games against AI with this so far but it seems like the hexproof isn't so advantageous as you often have a few creatures attacking and really only a mass removal spell would help your opponent (which can be deadly if you flip pious). Is the one-turn hexproof enough of a reason to keep rattlechains? Or should that be subbed with Pious? Seems like flux is not that much more useful putting a 1/1 on a 2/1.

You're supposed to Flux Whirler Rogue ftw. Rattle chains is used as a surprise Valor boost

Okay both cards make much more sense to me now.