What do Watchwolf and I have in common?
We both like green and white paired together.
In Magic, instead of liking specific colors (even though blue is probably my favorite one to play), I try to have favorite color combinations. When I am playing aggressive decks, green is my go-to color. The two times I have qualified for the JSS/MSS nationals, I played G/B and Gruul (R/G), respectively. Green just always has a good feel to it when you want to be aggressive. However, my real soft spot is when it comes to token decks.
There is just something to be said when you get to just make cards appear that are not in your deck. While most people prefer to use the appropriate tokens for their cards, I enjoy seeing what people use for their tokens. It can tell you a lot about a player’s personality and sense of humor.
Personally, I prefer to use Pokémon cards. At my first Pro Tour, which was the second Pro Tour in Honolulu, I was seen using Elspeth, Knight-Errant to make a Dratini. I had a judge ask me what the Pokémon card was supposed to represent, and when I told him why it was there, he consulted other judges about it. By the time he returned, I had just played Broodmate Dragon and had a Charizard next to him. The judge just shook his head and left.
Even though I’m sure you are probably reading this article for tips and entertainment, I should probably get back to the topic. We all know that the current Standard format is going to be very important for people who want to play in StarCityGames.com events in St. Louis and then Charlotte. My recommendation for anyone who has even the slightest soft side for token decks is G/W Tokens. Here is the list I have been trying (a similar list was played by Cenora_MG on Magic Online):
Creatures (22)
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Mirran Crusader
- 4 Hero of Bladehold
- 3 Blade Splicer
- 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (24)
Spells (8)
This list has a lot of things going for it that I like a lot. How about we break it down?
4 Birds of Paradise, 4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim, 1 Llanowar Elves
These types of decks always want their one-drop on turn one. However, I have seen a lot of G/W Tokens and Birthing Pod decks only play seven to eight one-drop mana producers. I have to admit that having nine gives me the consistency I like for a turn one mana producer. I have considered cutting a Mortarpod or Mikaeus, the Lunarch for second Llanowar Elves. Being the math major I am, I’ll probably calculate later the probability of a turn-one one-drop. For now though, I will leave this number the way it is.
3 Blade Splicer and 4 Mirran Crusader
This is the duo that I loved playing together in Grand Prix Pittsburgh earlier this year. As I have mentioned plenty of times in previous articles, there are pros and cons to both Blade Splicer and Mirran Crusader. However, having the versatility and option to play either is really useful. I’ll recap my points again, with some current Standard updates.
Blade Splicer is a lot better against Red Deck Wins. The ability to have two bodies from one card is pretty amazing, especially with Gavony Township. While this isn’t always relevant, the fact that Blade Splicer requires only one white source makes it just a little bit easier to cast than Mirran Crusader (which once again, could be another calculation done in the future). Liliana of the Veil is still a very real card, and Blade Splicer still passes the Liliana Test, while Mirran Crusader fails. Lastly, Mirran Crusader dies to Shock and Galvanic Blast, which are cards that have been seeing play in current Wolf Run Ramp decklists.
Mirran Crusader, on the other hand, is a total house against U/B Control and the other green aggressive decks. The clock that Mirran Crusader presents with a Sword of War and Peace is unmatched. Mirran Crusader is also a card that I would prefer to have against decks with Vapor Snag. He also is the best Garruk Relentless slayer I know.
Another reason to play both of these guys is the fact that you’ll be able to play a lot of dudes with first strike on the battlefield. Combined with Gavony Township, this can make attacking near impossible for your opponent. With all of these combined together, I have to say I am definitely liking these seven, but depending on the metagame, I could see a switch to four Blade Splicer and three Mirran Crusader.
3 Garruk Relentless and 3 Gideon Jura
These guys really help to put G/W Tokens over the top. With both of these in your deck, it gives you a ton of ways to be able to kill your opponent’s creatures. They can allow you to take on either the aggressive role or the control role.
Usually, Garruk Relentless will supply an endless stream of Wolf tokens. If you can resolve one of these against control decks, they will either have to tap out for an Oblivion Ring or will quickly fall behind, especially if you have Gavony Township in play. However, don’t be afraid to simply use Garruk Relentless as a Lightning Bolt. Lastly, a flipped Garruk can finish the game quickly with his -3.
Perhaps, Gideon Jura needs more of an explanation. He allows you to really change the game. I have seen a lot of situations where if a player (regardless of role) plays a Gideon Jura, the game will change completely. He hardly is ever “just” a Fog or “just” an Assassinate that will gain you a few life. Gideon Jura just makes them have to play completely differently. I have seen a lot of people playing Elspeth Tirel over Gideon Jura. It is time for another round of the pros and cons game!
Elspeth Tirel is really only a planeswalker with two abilities in G/W Tokens, since the -6 will hardly ever be used. The +2 is really only relevant against Red Deck Wins and Illusions. If Red Deck Wins gets an aggressive start, you will probably lose before landing an Elspeth, and when you do, you will probably have no creatures on the board. Against Illusions, you do not have any creatures with flying, so your Elspeth Tirel will surely die to their flipped Delver of Secrets and/or Stitched Drake.
All of this just means that you will be using Elspeth Tirel mostly to just give you a few tokens. While this has potential to be good against control decks (the ability to make three Soldier tokens every other turn), I do not think it is worth running this card in the five-drop slot. Two cards that can be better than Elspeth Tirel in this role would be Kessig Cagebreakers and Geist-Honored Monk. I have been experimenting with a list of G/W Tokens that plays a few Green Sun’s Zeniths to fetch up Kessig Cagebreakers, Thrun, the Last Troll, and Jade Mage. I don’t know if you have ever hit someone with a Sword of Feast and Famine with Jade Mage out, but it feels pretty good.
Now, the case for Gideon Jura. In my opinion, he is almost always the perfect follow-up to a turn-four Hero of Bladehold. A cool side effect to running Gideon Jura is that your opponent will block on turn five as though they will be able to proceed as normal, i.e. not be forced to attack. The Garruk Relentless/Gideon Jura combo reminds me a lot of the Elspeth, Knight-Errant/Gideon Jura combo. Just please try out Gideon Jura over Elspeth Tirel before criticizing it.
2 Sword of War and Peace
These are pretty much in place of Overrun. Honestly, they will probably do the same amount of damage, except you can play Sword of War and Peace on turn three and just be able to threaten equipping every turn. I had a very amusing sequence of events against a U/W Control player.
He led with a Seachrome Coast, while I played Razorverge Thicket into Birds of Paradise. Since it was post-sideboard, he had a turn-two Ratchet Bomb (which could be maindeck if he is playing a list similar to Gainsay’s from the Magic Online Championship). I saw this as an opportunity to run out my Sword of War and Peace, to which he responded with charging his Ratchet Bomb. On the third turn, he played a land and passed. I equipped my Birds of Paradise with Sword of War and Peace and bashed. He thought for a little bit and then decided to blow up the Ratchet Bomb. Second main phase, I cast an Avacyn’s Pilgrim. After tanking for a little bit more, he decided to Day of Judgment. I decided to play Llanowar Elves and equipped Sword of War and Peace. He elected to Day of Judgment again. Needless to say that the three Hero of Bladeholds in my hand were able to play clean up duty. If this doesn’t sell Sword of War and Peace alone, I don’t know what else will.
2 Mortarpod
While I can see this card being in the sideboard, it can do quite a bit in the maindeck. First of all, it plays a similar role as Gut Shot except instead of being free, it allows you to have an equipment that can do it again. This is especially useful against G/W Tokens, Birthing Pod, and Illusions.
Second, it gives you a lot of reach. It is similar to how Puresteel Paladin used to gain the ability to burn out your opponent by just shooting your opponent with Mortarpod about a billion times.
Lastly, have you ever had this card in conjunction with a flipped Garruk Relentless? Those deathtouch Wolves allow you to kill any creature on the board with Mortarpod. It makes you feel pretty much invincible.
Now, instead of posting a specific sideboard, I will just go over various options.
1 Sword of War and Peace and 1 Garruk Relentless
It is important to be able to round out the cards in your deck after sideboarding. However, I feel like these cards are really amazing in this deck and will probably be moved to the maindeck, once I find room.
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
As everyone probably knows by now, this card is where you want to be against the blue control decks. Another good use is against Red Deck Wins because it gives you a hexproof creature to wield your Sword of War and Peace. Lastly, it is not a Human, so those Stromkirk Nobles can finally stop harassing you.
4 Gut Shot
Personally, I do not really like this card in the sideboard, and I have yet to have it “wow” me. However, I can see the merits of playing a card like this when you are on the draw against the mirror or just against Illusions in general. Another card that could be considered here instead would be a third Mortarpod.
2 Elspeth Tirel
These would only come in against the matchups where the +2 is useful as stated before. However, I feel this list should already have a very good chance against Red Deck Wins and Illusions.
Well, I suppose it is time for a rather abrupt ending. Personally, I know that when I read an article about a specific deck, I do not usually enjoy them as much as other articles. Maybe part of the reason is the fact that the article always seems to end with, “Well, I like this deck, and it worked for me; hopefully it works for you!” However, I wanted to take a crack at it because I know that there are people in the world who do enjoy these articles. Usually, I will only accompany this type of article with a tournament report to give it a nice setting. Please leave feedback on how you liked the article! I would really appreciate it (and more on the article style than the deck itself). If the feedback is good, I’ll try to include more of these! Thanks again and good luck to those going to St. Louis.
Thanks for reading,
Jonathan “Watchwolf92” Sukenik