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Sean From New York's Deck Garage
Green/White Soldier Token Hop
September 4, 2007

Funny sounding name, no?  LOL - wow, sorry for the long hiatus, but life has it's demands, and they can be quite a hassle!  Anyway, here's the next article:


Hello Sean.  Before making this deck, I had played with a simple green/white weenie deck with things such as king of kjeldor, selesnya guildmage, a glorious anthem, some lumithread fields, and some kjeldoran war cry's, when I realized that I could design a deck like that but better through the gatherer and order the cards online.  The basic goal is to get alot of weenies while gaining life, then get out the king of kjeldor and 3-5 soul/essence wardens so whenever I get damaged instead I get more weenies and gain life.  Then attack and maybe use some of the kjeldoran war cry's to take them out.

There is no limit to the cards in the deck or how much they cost so long as they can be ordered online.

I was also considering having an Akroma's Memorial, Silver Seraph, Oathsworn Giant, and Isamaru, Hound of Konda in there, but I figured they could be replaced by the kjeldoran war cry's.

Creatures:18
4 essence warden

4 soul warden
1 watch wolf

2 scion of the wild
2 lhurgoyf
4 Darien, King of Kjeldor
1 Tolsimir Wolfblood


Other Spells:22
1 Primal Rage
2 Aspect of Mongoose
1 Serra's Blessing   
4 Kjeldoran War Cry
4 Gaea's anthem
4 Glorious Anthem
1 Knighthood
1 Mobilization
2 Leyline of Life Force
2 Verdant Embrace

Lands:20
4 Temple Garden
2 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Arctic Flats
1 Elfhame Palace
6 Plains
6 Forest

 
    Well, I must say that this is definitely an interesting deck, and quite the interesting combo at that.  Not one of those regular draw, draw, draw, I go off and you lose… fun decks; this one requires development and looks to be quite entertaining.  Firstly, I’d like to apologize to readers from my absence from the Garage, my Summer was very busy with work, and now I’m part time with Grad School, so I’ll get the decks in as quickly as I can!
    Let’s take a look at your creatures first.  Essence Warden and Soul Warden team up with Darien, King of Kjeldor so that whenever you take damage, you produce a chunk of tokens and then gain back the life you lost via the Warden’s abilities.  This is a very nice idea, though it is one which requires a very defensive strategy, since Darien’s CC (converted cost) is 6.  Coupled with the fact that this deck runs two colors, Darien’s WW casting requirement could put a strain on your mana base.  Scion of the Wild is good, he functions as a win condition in the deck and I approve.  However, Watchwolf, Tolsimir Wolfblood, and Lhurgoyf really don’t fit in with the rest of the group.  Watchwolf is a decent cheap beater, but he doesn’t really fit the strategy of the deck, that and single copies of cards should either act as win conditions or silver bullets (a card that can be tutored up to hose the opponents win condition or insures you succeed).  The same goes for Tolsimir.  He produces a token, but he’s expensive to play and a Legendary creature and so is the token!  You’ve also only got one of him, so I’d strongly recommend pulling him.  And as for Lhurgoyf, it really is the proverbial elephant in the room.  This renowned creature has recently enjoyed having multiple variations of it printed (again!) just like the perhaps more famous Atog.  However, Lhurgoyf only grows to monstrous proportions when the graveyard is loaded with creatures, and unfortunately, when tokens leave play, they cease to exist!  With that said we have some room for some new faces on the creature team.
    Two creatures that I think could find a home in this deck would be Field Marshal and Goldmeadow Lookout.  Field Marshal turns your army of 1/1 soldier tokens into an army of 2/2’s AND gives them first strike.  This makes him very useful in a deck that will produce a lot of soldier tokens (ala Darien).  As for the Goldmeadow Lookout, he’s a 3W spellshaper that allows you to pitch a card and produce what is essentially a Master Decoy.  He might not be the most spectacular creature, but with his token allies could help you look down your opponent’s offense and help you to gain board control.  At the same time you could leave him right out rely just on the warden’s, the scion, the marshal and the Darien, granted, that is gambling a lot on combat tricks.
    Now let’s take a look at your spells.  I see a great deal of 1 of’s here, which needs to be corrected.  Fortunately, several I see are very good and you should drop the lackluster cards for ones that will help bring the focus of your deck together.  Mobilization, Glorious Anthem, and Gaea’s Anthem are all decent cards for what you’re trying to do, however, all of the other cards can go; they simply don’t bring enough to the deck.  Before I list the cards you should include something that I think is important to mention - Kjeldoran War Cry is genuinely awful.  I understand that it seems appealing to give all your creatures +1/+1 and then an additional +1/+1 for each additional copy of the spell in your graveyard, but really, you can do so much better!  Really there are four cards you should attempt to add to the deck, and they are: Even the Odds - a very useful combat trick, reminiscent of Waylay, and very much on theme; Harmonize - why NOT draw three cards?  And useful in filling your had to activate Goldmeadow Lookout; Overrun - the Green mages’ preferred kill spell in creature decks for years - if you resolve this with even just a handful of tokens in play, this will spell disaster for your opponent; And lastly, the piece de resistance of any deck that uses a lot of creatures with the same type - Coat of Arms.  With this in play, the power of your soldier tokens will grow exponentially, and believe me, anyone who’s lost to a deck sporting Coat of Arms will recognize it immediately and cringe!
    As for your lands, the 4 Temple Gardens are very nice, I feel the Elfhame Palace and Selesnya Sanctuary would be better served to become more Arctic Flats.  With the changes I’ve suggested to you deck, you’re no longer seeing any WG mixed casting costs, but you are seeing more WW and GG casting costs.  In addition, I’ve increased your land count to 23, because 20 just won’t cut it, particularly in a deck that’s as mana hungry as this.  The deck’s mana curve peaks out at 3cc spells, so getting the fuel needed to play out your spells shouldn’t be too difficult.  Now’s probably a good time to note that I’m a big fan of 3 of’s.  Even though Darien is one of your win conditions, he is a Legend, and rather expensive, so 3 of him will work fine, particularly with your other viable options for victory.  I’ve also found that if you run 3 of a card, you can make room for others that you’d normally have to cut (if you’re up to it you could cut Goldmeadow Lookout and increase the numbers of any other card).  With that said I present to you a version of your deck, revised by me!  I think I’ll dub this deck… Green/White Soldier Token Hop!  For lack of a better name that is.  Good luck with all your duels and may all your token swarms be brutal!

Creatures: 18
3 Essence Warden
3 Soul Warden
3 Scion of the Wild
3 Field Marshal
3 Goldmeadow Lookout
3 Darien, King of Kjeldor

Other Spells: 19
2 Mobilization
3 Even the Odds
3 Gaea's Anthem
3 Glorious Anthem
3 Harmonize
3 Overrun
2 Coat of Arms

Lands: 23
4 Temple Garden
4 Arctic Flats
8 Plains
7 Forest



 

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