On February 4th, 2012, I was asked the following question at SCG Richmond for the Quick Questions portion of the SCG Open Series coverage: “Which card from Dark Ascension has received the most undeserved hype for Standard?”
Easily taking down the competition, I was the ‘soul’ recipient of the “Most Incorrect Response” award by providing the following gem: “I’m going to say Lingering Souls. While it’s a really good card, it’s not just something you can jam into anything.”
In the month and a half that has elapsed since those fateful words were unfortunately uttered, we’ve seen Lingering Souls thrown into basically any and all imaginable archetypes in a wide variety of formats. Two players made Top 8 of PT Dark Ascension splashing black purely for Lingering Souls in Delver. Tom Martell recently won GP Indianapolis splashing black in Legacy U/W Stoneblade for Lingering Souls. I fully expect the next StarCityGames.com Open to be won by Mono Red splashing both white and black for Lingering Souls just to further salt the wound.
One of my friends jammed a Lingering Souls into his pot of chili. And you know what? I ate it and I liked it. The initial ink and cardboard flavor left a bit to be desired, but it had a really nice lingering aftertaste. It really pulled the dish together.
As it turns out, you can just jam that card into absolutely anything you want. Who knew? I certainly did not. The card is just that powerful.
It should therefore come as no surprise that Lingering Souls is one of the defining cards of Innistrad Block Constructed. Along with Gather the Townsfolk, Lingering Souls took the fringe token archetype and made it the dominant deck to beat. Tokens are so good that there are two separate tier 1 token archetypes and those two decks make up a good 50%, if not more, of the metagame.
While Block Constructed isn’t played much in paper magic, it’s a great way to get into Magic Online and the easiest way to make tickets there. It’s also the format for Pro Tour Avacyn Restored, which is coming up in a few months. Playing Block Constructed is a good way to play with more Innistrad cards and be ahead of the curve when Scars Block rotates. Cards and decks that are good in Block Constructed can easily become Standard powerhouses down the line.
In my article today, I’m going to focus on the Block deck that I have had the most success with: W/B/g tokens. First of all, here is my current list:
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (27)
Spells (24)
I’ve gone 4-0 or 3-1 in the majority of Block Daily Events I’ve run it in on Magic Online. The deck feels a lot like Caw-Blade. You tend to win games by grinding your opponent down on resources and the deck attacks on a number of different fronts, both with token generation, creatures that win the game on their own if untouched, and planeswalkers. The deck also has a stunning capability to win games that seemed out of reach.
I like to call the deck “Token White Guys” since it’s all about making a bunch of white Spirit and Human tokens, but your mileage may vary on that particular deck name. At any rate, allow me to cover some of the card choices and their purpose in the deck.
27 Land
This is the big one. I’ve seen a number of lists—in fact, the majority of lists—running either 25 or 26 land. I strongly believe that to be a big mistake. When your lands double as spells, as is the case with Gavony Township and Vault of the Archangel, it’s ok to get flooded. It’s not ok to stall on land and miss land drops early. I find that most of the time when I lose games with this deck, it’s because I either missed the fourth land I needed to play Bloodline Keeper or Sorin, the fifth land I needed to play Curse of Death’s Hold, or the seventh land I needed to flashback Sever the Bloodline. You really cannot afford to miss any of your first four land drops and playing less than 27 land opens you up to losing in that fashion.
The 3/1 split between Gavony Township and Vault of the Archangel is because Gavony Township is just better far more often than Vault is. Often you will have a hand full of spells and the best thing you can do for the turn is to just activate Gavony Township. It’s that good. Also, any black deck could potentially be packing Curse of Death’s Hold, and Gavony Township is a great way to ensure that the creatures you have in play don’t get swept away by a Curse if you don’t have an Intangible Virtue to pump them.
Occasionally Vault of the Archangel is better, which is why there’s one copy in the deck. Vault is better when your creatures are much smaller than your opponents and you need to trade up in combat or when you’re racing burn spells and need to gain some life to put you out of range of Devil’s Play or Brimstone Volley.
Bloodline Keeper and Mikaeus, the Lunarch
I’ve tested a number of creatures like Champion of the Parish (with supporting Humans), John Mayor of Avabruck, and Mentor of the Meek. None of them have been able to live up to the consistent power that Bloodline Keeper and Mikaeus have shown.
The Lunasty serves as an extra pump effect to your team beyond Intangible Virtue and Gavony Township. He also interacts very favorably with Gavony Township because Township puts a counter on Mikaeus which keeps him indefinitely fueled even if he’s pumping your team each turn. If untouched, the Lunarch will let your team quickly eclipse your opponent’s meager board state. Cutting him from the 75 would be lunacy.
Bloodline Keeper is the most powerful card in the deck. He’s vulnerable to a good bit of the removal played in the format, but if your opponent doesn’t have a way to immediately remove him from play, he’ll very likely win the game by himself. He also interacts favorably with Sorin. Sorin makes Vampire tokens that help you reach the five Vampires you need for him to flip out and enter God Mode.
Intangible Virtue and Token Generators
The deck’s nut draw of multiple Virtues and token generators is virtually unbeatable outside of Ray of Revelation. This is the focal point of the deck and what the rest of the cards in the deck are built around.
I have cut down on one of the Gather the Townsfolk because the card isn’t particularly powerful in the mirror match since the tokens get brick-walled by Sorin’s Vampires or Wolves from Garruk. With the mirror match being as prevalent as it is, I’m hedging a bit against it. One thing to remember with this card is that sometimes you can purposely let your life total dip to five or less so you can get five tokens out of the deal. The fateful hour ability on this card has pulled me out of many very rough looking situations.
One key interaction that comes up is whether to play Midnight Haunting or Lingering Souls when you have the option to cast either spell. One thing to note is that if you plan on having only two mana available the following turn, you definitely want to cast Lingering Souls because the flashback is cheaper than Midnight Haunting. Typically I like to lead with Lingering Souls and keep Midnight Haunting back for surprise value later in the game, but this isn’t always the case. If you have a Virtue in play and suspect your opponent might attack with some 1/1’s, holding up for a surprise instant speed Midnight Haunting might be able to wreck his board.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Sorin is the only card outside of Lingering Souls that I have never sided out of the deck. He really does everything you could ever want him to do. He provides a steady stream of creatures that get pumped by any of your pump effects, synergizes with Bloodline Keeper, and has lifelink to pad your life total in matchups where it matters…which is all of them. His anthem effect can serve as a makeshift Intangible Virtue and let your creatures trade up for your opponent’s if they have a Virtue and you don’t.
The first time I used his -6 ability involved me bashing my opponent to death with his own Huntmaster of the Fells. Turns out Lingering Souls + Gavony Township make it quite easy to alternate between casting two spells a turn and not casting anything to flip Huntmaster back and forth. After that game, I was fully on board with everything the -6 ability stood for. My opponent later confessed in a candid moment that he was not on board with everything the -6 ability stood for. We resolved our philosophical differences and moved on.
Tragic Slip and Sever the Bloodline
Tragic Slip is very good in some matchups as a way to kill Champion of the Parish and Mayor of Avabruck before they go crazy with those cards. It also is rarely a completely dead card as you can set up situations to kill bigger things with it by chump blocking a big creature with a token, and then using Tragic Slip afterward with morbid. My two favorite uses of Tragic Slip so far are killing a Ghoultree with it and blocking a Thalia, “G” of Thraben with a token and after first strike damage killing an enormous Geist-Honored Monk before regular combat damage.
Sever the Bloodline is the best removal spell in the format. This card is severely good at killing all manner of tokens and being acceptable even just as a hard removal spell for anything else. Since you have Sever the Bloodline in your deck, if you have the opportunity to trade with two creatures of different creature types in combat, always choose to kill the creature they have less copies of so if you draw a Sever you can hit the other creature type for more value.
Curse of Death’s Hold and Ray of Revelation
You wouldn’t think so, but these two cards actually go hand in hand. Ray of Revelation keeps them off of Intangible Virtue and then Curse of Death’s Hold locks them out of the game after that point unless they have a Ray of their own.
The presence of Curse of Death’s Hold and Intangible Virtue is what makes Ray of Revelation a must play, though. You can’t afford to get locked out of a game by Curse of Death’s Hold. I have lost a game to being milled out because I had fewer cards in my library than my opponent did due to Evolving Wilds. I had sided out Ray of Revelation against a Vampire deck and got completely locked out by triple Curse of Death’s Hold.
Garruk Relentless
I don’t run this bad boy maindeck because I feel he’s a little underwhelming there. However, I like him so much in certain matchups that I want a full four in the sideboard. He also becomes a lot better in post-board games in the mirror. When everyone is packing a number of Ray of Revelations, the match comes down less to Intangible Virtue and more to powerful haymakers of which Garruk is certainly one.
Mentor of the Meek
This is a card I have not seen a whole lot of on my opponent’s side of the board, and for that I am very thankful. In the mirror match and against slow decks this card shines as a way to get very far ahead on cards. Games post-board in the mirror tend to be a grind, and Mentor keeps the cards coming so that you’ll eventually run them out of resources while they sputter out. I don’t like running him main because he’s very slow and you don’t always have the kind of time you need to grind every possible ounce of value out of him.
Now that I’ve talked about the card choices, I’m going to cover some of the more important matchups you will face and how to side and play against those decks. First up is the all-important mirror match.
The Mirror
-2 Tragic Slip
-3 Gather the Townsfolk
-4 Intangible Virtue
+4 Mentor of the Meek
+1 Ray of Revelation
+1 Sever the Bloodline
+3 Garruk Relentless
Depending on how I feel, I sometimes side in the last Bloodline Keeper or third Curse of Death’s Hold over the third Garruk.
I side out Intangible Virtues because I want to blank Ray of Revelation from them. Why then don’t I side out Curse of Death’s Hold as well to blank Ray? In post-SB games, I play Curse of Death’s Hold as a Wrath effect. I fully expect them to blow it up with a Ray of Revelation after I play it, but it will still kill all of their Spirits first. For that reason, I almost never play it onto an empty board, because then you just open it to getting hit by their otherwise dead Rays before getting any value out of it.
If you think your opponent is on the plan of siding out Curses and Virtues, it might be right to side out a Ray of Revelation or two and side back into Intangible Virtue. It can be a guessing game in this regard, but I usually like to stick with the Rays and not risk getting blown out by not having it.
Planeswalkers and Bloodline Keeper (which is basically a planeswalker) are the most important cards in the mirror match, and you should do whatever you can to keep your opponent off of these cards while playing them yourself. A common situation that occurs when you’re on the play is something like this:
You play Lingering Souls on turn 3 and pass. Your opponent hits his third land drop and passes back to you. You play a Sorin and +1 to make a Vampire token. Do you attack with your Spirits? The answer is no, because your opponent is representing Midnight Haunting, and there’s no reason to give him a free whack on Sorin, or worse yet, let him kill Sorin by playing an end of turn Haunting followed by an Intangible Virtue the following turn. Those two points of damage are generally not going to be relevant, but keeping Sorin around a few extra turns certainly will.
Boros Tokens
 The Boros Token deck plays Intangible Virtue with the usual token generators, but instead of Sorin, Bloodline Keeper and Sever the Bloodline they play Hellrider, Brimstone Volley, and Devil’s Play. Some versions play a lot of creatures, like Champion of the Parish and Doomed Traveler, and some just play Hellrider with token generators.
-3 Bloodline Keeper
-2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
+2 Tragic Slip (if they have Champion of the Parish and Humans otherwise +1 Slip and +1 Ray of Revelation)
+1 Sever the Bloodline
+2 Curse of Death’s Hold
All of the creatures come out for this matchup because they’re easy pickings for Devil’s Play and Brimstone Volley. Curse of Death’s Hold and Intangible Virtue are both exceptional against their deck because they only play either Silverchase Fox or Urgent Exorcism to handle problem enchantments. Since those cards are a one-for-one unlike Ray of Revelation, it’s a good idea to maximize on the number of problem enchantments they have to remove and overload their spells.
This is a very favorable matchup outside of one card: Hellrider. That card does a huge amount of damage and you should always be mindful of it and set up situations where you don’t lose to it. It is usually correct to throw away as many tokens as you need to get rid of Hellrider. For example, if they have two Spirit Tokens and you have two Spirit Tokens and two Human Tokens, the natural play would be to swing with the two Humans and leave back to the two Spirits to trade with theirs. However, if they have the ability to cast Hellrider, I would not attack with anything. That way if they play Hellrider, you can triple block the Hellrider with tokens and also trade with a Spirit.
Be mindful of Brimstone Volley and Devil’s Play, which can do a lot of damage, and preserve your life total at all costs.
Mono-Black Zombies
-2 Ray of Revelation
-2 Midnight Haunting
-1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
+1 Bloodline Keeper
+1 Sever the Bloodline
+2 Tragic Slip
+1 Curse of Death’s Hold
Zombies is a very aggressive deck, but it lacks reach. Its gameplan is to do a bunch of damage to you early with one-drops and then grind out the last few points of damage with a bunch of two-for-ones and card advantage spells.
This is often a pure battle of attrition. They can’t really burn you out beyond Geralf’s Messenger, so you can let your life total dip a bit, but between Gravecrawler, Messenger, Altar’s Reap, Ghoulraiser, and Sever the Bloodline they have a lot of ways to grind you down on resources.
If your opponent keeps passing with two mana open, this probably means they have Altar’s Reap and they’re trying to “get you” when you try to Sever the Bloodline one of their creatures. If you have the luxury of playing around it, you should.
The two most important cards in this matchup are Bloodline Keeper and Sorin. They have no answer for Sorin and he even lets you block Ghoul. Sever the Bloodline is their only answer for Bloodline Keeper, so if you can get them to burn their Severs on your tokens you can usually then ride a Keeper to victory.
They often bring in Curse of Death’s Hold against you, but you can’t afford to keep in Ray of Revelation because every card counts in this matchup and having a dead one is not something you can afford. They also cannot answer Intangible Virtue, so if you have a Virtue it will negate a Curse.
They also have no answer to your own Curse of Death’s Hold. One of those in play completely locks them out of Gravecrawler recursion, which is a big advantage. Two in play locks out all of their Zombies except for Geralf’s Messenger, but be wary that this can lead to you taking four points of damage from it, since it will immediately die and then…undie.
Werewolves
-2 Ray of Revelation
-2 Bloodline Keeper
-2 Curse of Death’s Hold
+2 Tragic Slip
+4 Garruk Relentless
Respect the Moonmist. If your opponent is dead on board and not scooping or is making plays that don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, there’s a good chance they have a Moonmist in hand and are playing to maximize that card. Doing something like swinging with all your tokens when they’re at two life is unnecessary, especially if it opens you up to a counter-attack the following turn. You’re just asking to get Mooned. One thing to remember is that Moonmist still lets your Wolves from Garruk deal damage.
I had an awesome situation come up in an earlier version of my deck. My opponent was at three life. I was attacking with a pair of 2/2 Spirits and a 2/2 deathtouch Wolf from Garruk. I was pretty certain my opponent had Moonmist, so I didn’t get greedy and attack with more. He declared no blocks and cast Moonmist. The Moonmist flipped my Mayor of Avabruck over to the backside, turning my Wolf into a 3/3 which dealt him exactly lethal. Whoops!
I guess you could say my opponent…”mist”…that interaction. YEAAAAAAAAAH.
Garruk Relentless is great against their deck because he gets around the aforementioned Moonmist, kills Mayors, Daybreak Rangers, and Huntmaster of the Fells without dying, and they have serious issues dealing with the stream of 1/1 deathtouch Wolves.
Jund/RUG Control
The last one is a new deck that has started to see some play. It features Huntmaster of the Fells and a bunch of removal and control elements. I haven’t yet worked out a sideboard guide against the list, but I’m pretty sure you want to take out Tragic Slips, Ray of Revelations, and Curse of Death’s Hold and just maximize on threat density. I’m not sure if those should be Mentor of the Meek, Garruks, or Bloodline Keepers, though. I haven’t played against it enough to get an exact feel for what’s right.
If you’re looking to play Block Constructed on Magic Online, I hope this has helped you get an idea of the most powerful deck in the format and how to play it against the other decks you’ll run up against.
If you have any questions about this deck or any others, please let me know in the comments. I have played a lot of Block Constructed and know a good deal about the format; I’d be happy to help you out.
Thanks for reading,
Brian Braun-Duin
@BraunDuinIt in the Land of Tweets
BBD on Magic Online