Monday 4 June 2018

Tiny White Soldiers


Creature-based decks are amongst the most popular in Magic, but how they win has some incredible variance. Tempo, ramp and cheating creatures into play are just some strategic examples that exist in the game. Today’s deck looks to combine two such strategies: card advantage and ‘ramp’. You might notice the ‘’s; they’re not a mistake and they shall be explained. But let’s just start with what we’re playing - Tiny. White. Soldiers. So let’s thrust right in with our TWS and see how they stab our opponents, shall we?

TWS has approximately 45% Soldier-type cards in its library, which is done in order to help maximize Enlistment Officer’s card advantage. The deck also has 4 Land Tax which, played alongside Mox Diamond, helps to thin out the lands while also playing its own role as mana ramp. By helping to ensure you play less land than your opponent, Mox Diamond has dual uses and should be played as a complete set. Together, these cards allow both tempo and card advantage. Pretty neat, eh? Synergy!

Kjeldoran Outpost is another way that the deck allows you to create card advantage and help ensure Land Tax can keep grabbing you lands. While the normal threat to Outpost is Wasteland, your opponent might just think twice with Land Tax, so either way it is helping you gain an advantage. Now the previously mentioned cards, along with the lone Ancient Tomb, are how WTS tries to gain an edge in ‘ramp’; and while it is certainly an important aspect in today’s deck, let us now concentrate solely on the more prominent strategy in TWS  - card advantage.

Enlistment is the obvious draw engine in Soldiers, but there are numerous cards that help play their own role in winning the game. Icatian Javileneers can be a 2-1, Catapult Squad can wipe out a tiny horde, Gempalm Avenger can net you a card while +1/+1’ing your army during the attack.. see? You have options at your command. The last one I want to point out today is Soltari Champion. You may have noticed that many creatures in TWS help provide a Crusade-type addition, while being Soldiers rather than an enchantment. Soltari Champion is an exceptional example here because it is very rare that he won’t hit your opponent and provide +1/+1 to your creatures.

 So there we have it: Tiny White Soldiers. As a tribal deck with several options available to you, there is certainly some versatility in deck construction. Heck, you may even want to try other strategies that don’t concentrate on ramp or card advantage – although I recommend you at least use the latter to your advantage. But hey, the choice is yours on how you want to play the game. Happy Brewing!


Tiny White Soldiers

14 Plains
1 Kjeldoran Outpost
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
1 Ancient Tomb

Total: 21

Creatures

4 Icatian Javelineer
4 Enlistment Officer
4 Daru Warchief
4 Longbow Archer
2 Lieutenant Kirtar
1 Catapult Squad
2 Soltari Champion
2 Gempalm Avenger
2 Whipcorder
2 Frontline Strategist

Total: 27

Spells

4 Land Tax
4 Mox Diamond
4 Swords to Plowshares

Total: 12

Sideboard

1 Catapult Squad
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Abeyance
2 Wing Shards
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tithe
1 Smite