The deck was able to overrun opponents very fast, while not being afraid of sweepers. Titans were problematic, but they were not relevant at the time when I built Allies. Real threats—the devastating Day of Judgment and Gideon Jura—were easy to avoid for a sufficient amount of time.

Seeing this list now, I want to sell my soul to Mephistopheles Rosewater in exchange for Mana Tithe’s reprint in Dark Ascension. A good one-mana counterspell is crucial for aggro-control decks. R/U/G Snapcaster Mage / Werewolves can play many counterspells, but it is relatively slow and has a weak late game against U/B, so this choice is out of consideration.

After some tests with different blue decks, I convinced myself that I don’t want to play Mana Leak over Gavony Township; so the deck that I wanted to build slightly took its form: G/W aggro, fast enough to outrace Inkmoth Nexus, and powerful enough to provide more early pressure than control decks could digest.

Charging Troll

Township Tokens is the most popular G/W deck, but it is definitely not my deck of choice. Why? It’s slow midrange with its best second drop being Intangible Virtue and is full of cards like Shrine of Loyal Legions—powerful at the proper time, but useless in the late game (where the deck will end up because of the lack of early aggression). Do you want to convince me to play such a deck in a metagame full of Titans?

Remember the token generators used in the famous B/W Token deck. Spectral Procession and Cloudgoat Ranger. And… Kithkin wasn’t considered a “token deck” while having the same cards. It is because Spectral Procession, Cloudgoat Ranger, and Windbrisk Heights were great and high-value cards by themselves and especially in combination. Midnight Haunting is not close to Spectral Procession, so why should I play it?

Only two good token generators are available right now—Hero of Bladehold and Blade Splicer—so I tried to build something with these cards when I saw the deck from the finals of GP Brisbane. I was immediately sold. I’ve tested the deck and realized that, despite seven manadorks, it still has problems providing early pressure. I also put Thrun, the Last Troll into the maindeck: old troll is just a perfect threat against any control deck, and fast mana allows Thrun to swing early.

After additional tweaks and ruthless cuts of all singletons and narrow cards, my deck looked something like this:

Three-Drop Tokens

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 10-30-2011

Standard

Creatures (20)

• 3 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Hero of Bladehold
• 3 Thrun, the Last Troll
• 2 Viridian Emissary
• 4 Blade Splicer
• 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim

Planeswalkers (6)

• 3 Elspeth Tirel
• 3 Garruk Relentless

Lands (24)

• 8 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Gavony Township

Spells (10)

• 2 Overrun
• 4 Oblivion Ring
• 2 Mortarpod
• 2 Beast Within

I don’t recommend playing this deck, and it’s easy to understand why: The mana curve is far from even “acceptable.” The second problem is that Blade Splicer is not as good as I wanted her to be, so I decided to add some swords. The draft then looked somehow similar to Geist of Saint Traft decks, but Thrun is so much better than the hexproofed ghost, so I never looked back. Bant decks weren’t even considered: I know they exist, but I don’t want to play three-colored aggro in this format.

The comparison with Geist decks led me to an interesting statement: if I want my token deck to provide early pressure, I should agree that Thrun, the Last Troll under Angelic Destiny is the best token! Obviously, swords and powerful enchantments only worsened the mana curve problem, especially when I added four Mirran Crusaders (who are industry standard in Angelic Destiny decks).

To solve this problem, I decided to cut all the Splicers and then run a search on the StarCityGames.com spoiler generator, searching for a two-mana creature for the replacement of Elspeth Tirel (who is too slow to fit into the new deck). I intended to try them all, or almost all. I ended up with a huge amount of options, which would never properly fit into the sixty-card restriction.

Search Results

I didn’t know how to clearly show the mana curve problem until Lauren Lee showcased an amazing tool for sealed decks to the SCG authors. First, I looked through the letter without significant attention—I don’t intend to write Limited articles—but later I realized that this tool is just amazing. So, I’m introducing “Build your own G/W Aggression!” This “sealed pool” is primarily to build a green-based deck with many mana dorks, but I also included additional cards (like Champion of the Parish and Grand Abolisher) to allow building of a white-based deck (for the comparison of both versions).

Notes:

1. Use the “cost” button in the upper-right corner of the pool to sort by mana curve;
2. there is some free space under the pool to hide my own build until you try to build the deck;
3. there are many real sealed pools on Lauren’s blog (Mulldrifting.com if you somehow don’t know). They are amazing as practice for Limited PTQs.

 

• 4 Gavony Township

 

• 4 Razorverge Thicket

 

• 4 Sunpetal Grove

 

• 4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim

 

• 4 Birds of Paradise

 

• 4 Champion of the Parish

 

• 4 Elite Vanguard

 

• 2 Gideon’s Lawkeeper

 

• 4 Doomed Traveler

 

• 3 Viridian Emissary

 

• 4 Grand Abolisher

 

• 4 Mayor of Avabruck

 

• 4 Accorder Paladin

 

• 3 Jade Mage

 

• 4 Skinshifter

 

• 4 Leonin Arbiter

 

• 4 Mirran Crusader

 

• 4 Blade Splicer

 

• 2 Mentor of the Meek

 

• 3 Thrun, the Last Troll

 

• 4 Hero of Bladehold

 

• 2 Geist-Honored Monk

 

• 4 Oblivion Ring

 

• 4 Beast Within

 

• 3 Garruk Relentless

 

• 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter

 

• 3 Elspeth Tirel

 

• 3 Sword of Feast and Famine

 

• 3 Sword of War and Peace

 

• 4 Angelic Destiny

 

• 3 Mortarpod

 

• 3 Overrun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uthden Troll (just because he’s soooo cute)

Okay, you’ve probably tried to build some decks (hope you had fun), and now it’s time to show my own attempt.

Trollface Aggro

Valeriy Shunkov

Test deck on 10-30-2011

Standard

Creatures (23)

• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Mirran Crusader
• 3 Hero of Bladehold
• 3 Thrun, the Last Troll
• 3 Viridian Emissary
• 2 Jade Mage
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim

Planeswalkers (2)

• 2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Lands (24)

• 8 Forest
• 4 Plains
• 4 Sunpetal Grove
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Gavony Township

Spells (11)

• 1 Overrun
• 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 2 Mortarpod
• 3 Beast Within
• 3 Angelic Destiny

Sideboard

• 2 Gideon Jura
• 2 Leonin Arbiter
• 1 Mortarpod
• 3 Suture Priest
• 1 Beast Within
• 2 Act of Aggression
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Timely Reinforcements

Was your maindeck similar to mine? I would be glad to see your comments about differences. There are some controversial slots, but overall I’m very pleased with these seventy-five.

Jade Mage is not exciting, but she is a two-mana creature, and she is better than Viridian Emissary as a midgame topdeck. They both are annoying threats against control. Although I can see Mayor of Avabruck in these slots in some circumstances, Jade Mage is good for me right now. Simultaneously, Skinshifter definitely does not belong in this deck because his ability costs mana each turn, while the deck tends to use as much mana as possible. Mentor of the Meek is just a “random creature”: I don’t want to play more than one, but I also don’t want to play just one Blade Splicer, and I don’t want to play a two-mana creature instead of Mentor.

Garruk, Primal Hunter is the most controversial point. Elspeth is definitely too slow and useless in many matchups, but both Garruks are viable choices. I finally stopped on Primal Hunter because he is so stupidly good against control decks. But the other one should definitely be used if Infect becomes a serious problem—the ability to “fight” is even better against these anorexic, sick creatures. I thought about playing three copies, but finally decided to run a single Overrun. This card is not the primary win condition, but it’s a good way to take an opponent by surprise.

The sideboard features a lot of different stuff, divided and as wide as possible. There are many two-ofs, which may become less diverse according to metagame. First candidate to cut is Timely Reinforcements (I don’t believe in Mono Red); second one is probably Act of Aggression.

The next point is Mono-Black Infect. You have a ton of removal—Mortarpod (who kills about twelve creatures), Beast Within, Dismember. Keep in mind that the opponent will probably side in Phyrexian Vatmother. The goal in this matchup is to prevent Lashwrithe from being equipped and to remember about the existence of the hasty Dragon (sorry, but I can’t write the Dragon’s name without a billion of mistakes, so I call him just “infected dragon”). Opponent also has a ton of removal and a reasonably fast clock, so this match is not an easy one. Green creatures are good at chump-blocking Phyrexian Crusader (Saprolings!), so your chances will be higher if you’re able to control the skies over the battlefield.

The rest of the sideboard is mostly self-explanatory: options against Inkmoth Nexus ramp (Mortarpod, Beast Within, Act of Aggression, and Leonin Arbiter), against Blade decks (Gideon Jura and Beast Within), and even options against Mono Red (Timely Reinforcements). Leonin Arbiter is probably better than Mana Leak against Wolf Run decks: he delays land drops for the turn, but he also adds a 2/2 body!

The last and the most interesting tech that I found in the spoiler generator is Suture Priest. Turn-2 Shrine of Loyal Legions? Cool story, bro! Priest is weak by herself (mostly because of opposing Mortarpod), but if you’re able to equip her with sword or at least Mortarpod, she improves significantly. Suture Priest doesn’t win games alone, but with Priest you’ll normally have more threats than your opponent can handle.

The deck has proven itself great and interesting to play during my testing; turn-3 attack for twelve is just unfair, and less powerful starts are normally good enough to punish opponents. Moreover, the deck has enough flexibility to be tuned for almost any metagame. I hope you find it a legitimate choice for SCG Open: Kansas City or for any other way of PWP grinding that you chose for tomorrow. Good luck!

Bonus section: Golgari Grave-Troll

The last but not least for today: I want to congratulate Dmitriy Nikitin and Dmitriy Moiseev, who were respectively 17th and 21st at Legacy Grand Prix Amsterdam. For the record, they were 17th and 34th at Legacy GP Madrid a year ago, and now they proved themselves as well-respected Eternal specialists on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. You can find Nikitin’s R/G/W Aggro Loam in the GP coverage while I want to post Moiseev’s deck right here: his list includes the troll (whom I promised at the beginning of the article).

Dredge

Dmitry Moiseev

21st Place at Grand Prix on 10-23-2011

Legacy

Creatures (25)

• 1 Yosei, the Morning Star
• 4 Putrid Imp
• 4 Ichorid
• 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
• 2 Golgari Thug
• 4 Stinkweed Imp
• 1 Angel of Despair
• 4 Narcomoeba
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

Lands (16)

• 1 Island
• 4 Underground Sea
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 4 Cephalid Coliseum

Spells (19)

• 4 Careful Study
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 4 Breakthrough
• 3 Dread Return
• 4 Bridge from Below

Sideboard

• 3 Null Rod
• 4 Chain of Vapor
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

The deck is full of great and unusual card choices (how about Yosei, the Morning Star?) and very well tuned (Dmitriy is the man who will not stop until his deck is ideal), so I clearly recommend it as a choice for the Legacy part of SCG Open: KC.

That’s all; good luck to everyone playing this weekend!

Valeriy Shunkov

@amartology in Twitter