SpikeyMikey
02-10-2012, 01:19 PM
The Modern metagame has been shaping up in the last few weeks. As of today, the most significant factors in the metagame are Affinity, Jund and Splinter Twin, roughly in that order. While Twin was effectively hated out at Worlds and can still be hated out today, the recent focus on Affinity along with the spanking Twin took at Worlds has caused a lot of decks to cut back on Combusts and Torpor Orbs and towards anti-artifact cards. Even in the face of the hate, Affinity is still a strong option, as most opponents underestimate the strength of the deck and overestimate the strength of the hate they're bringing in. A number of people online have been vocal in their dismissal of the deck entirely (see Matt Sperling's article on Channel Fireball).
While the big 3 are still the top dogs in the paper meta (I'm not discussing MTGO because there's such a massive disconnect between the two), there is a new player that stands to completely change the game. If you're planning on going to the GP in Lincoln, Nebraska next weekend, you'll need to be prepared for this shift because I expect that Lincoln will be the turning point in the metagame. White tokens is a deck that matches up very favorably against Affinity and Jund. It's been seeing an increase in play recently and with Dark Ascension legal and new toys for the deck in the black splash (Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad) it stands to gain in popularity even more; people are always eager to try out new cards in the hopes of "breaking" the metagame. In this case, that may be exactly what happens.
Tokens runs a number of white token generators including Spectral Procession, Raise the Alarm and Midnight Haunting. It pairs these with cards like Leyline of the Meek and Intangible Virtue to create an army of midsize attackers that simply overwhelm opponents. Unlike other aggro decks, which often cannot compete with the massive evasive damage Affinity can churn out, Tokens runs enough fliers that it can seriously hamper a brown mage's combat plans. It's difficult to pin down a specific listing as "the" Tokens listing, as the deck is still very under the radar, but the two most promising builds, in my opinion, are R/W and B/W. R/W allows the deck to run two very powerful cards; Rally the Peasants and Arc Trail. Arc Trail is a board card, at best, but against decks like Affinity or in the mirror, it is incredibly potent. B/W gives the deck access to the aforementioned Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
The basic construction of the deck varies from player to player and the deck is highly customizable. For players expecting a fair amount of Splinter Twin, maximizing "Soul Wardens" is an excellent option. With Soul's Attendant and Auriok Champion, rendering the Twin combo irrelevant is fairly easy (any Warden wannabe will negate Deceiver Exarch/Village Bell-Ringer and two will negate a Pestermite) and provide the pilot with lifegain reminiscent of the Martyr-Proc decks that popped up around the time of Worlds. Of course, Twin still has a variety of available sweepers, but Tokens presents a respectable clock and can further board hate against Twin decks. In more control-heavy environments, loading up on pump effects (Leyline, Virtue, Honor of the Pure and Signal Pest) allows any token generating spell to be a serious threat. When Spectral Procession nets you 9 power in fliers, it becomes a must-counter spell. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a popular finisher for the deck as she's easy to protect and can grow your token army each turn. B/W decks will almost certainly switch to Sorin, but Elspeth is still the primary finisher for R/W variants.
Black/White Tokens
by Mike Torrisi
4 Soul Warden
3 Auriok Champion
2 Signal Pest
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Leyline of the Meek
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Path to Exile
1 Oblivion Ring
6 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Windbrisk Heights
3 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Thoughtseize
3 Beckon Apparition
2 Worship
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Auriok Champion
1 Oblivion Ring
With the Black/White listing above, I chose to go with a heavy dose of pump, making each token generating spell incredibly threatening. In addition to the 8 "Crusade" effects, the deck also packs 4 pumping planeswalkers and a pair of Signal Pests to maximize the size of the tokens as quickly as possible. The deck has less ways to interact with opponents, but as long as you're not facing a lot of non-Twin combo, that's not particularly relevant. I also chose to go with Honor of the Pure over Intangible Virtue because I feel like pumping the "Wardens" was more relevant for this deck than vigilance or the Sorin tokens. However, I think either is an acceptable choice.
While I think red has the edge in a mirror, black is not without options. Moving into black gives you access to Zealous Persecution. As surprise board tech, it can break the mirror wide open by suddenly making favorable blocks unfavorable and pushing through the last bit of damage necessary to finish off an unsuspecting opponent. Worship is also a good piece of tech for the mirror and against any deck that is potentially unable to kill Auriok Champions.
Black is definitely superior in a metagame with a strong combo presence, as red has less ways to fight decks like Hive Mind and Storm. Discard is a key tool against these kinds of decks (along with a respectable clock, of course) and depending on how much combo you expect to see, you can load your board up with it. Don't forget about Tidehollow Sculler, as it's a body that can strip key combo pieces out of an opponent's hand, fulfilling both the role of discard and clock. Against combo decks with red (like the two mentioned earlier), it's very important to bring in Burrenton Forge-Tender. As people realize just how scary Affinity actually is, Pyroclasm is seeing a significant uptick in play. Mid and late-game, your pump effects should keep your tokens out of burn-sweeper range, but you have few 1 drops to play anyway and sacrificing your turn 1 to prevent a blow-out on turn 2 or 3 can be the difference between a one-sided, furry ass-whooping and a long struggle to maintain board presence.
Red/White Tokens
by Mike Torrisi
4 Signal Pest
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Spectral Procession
3 Midnight Haunting
2 Devastating Summons
3 Rally the Peasants
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Leyline of the Meek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Arc Trail
7 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
2 Windbrisk Heights
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Contested War Zone
1 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Blood Moon
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Beckon Apparition
3 Disenchant
2 Combust
With the Red/White listing, I tried to go a little more aggressive and all-in on the token strategy. Rally the Peasants becomes deadly very quickly with large numbers of tokens. An EoT Midnight Haunting followed up by a Rally can very easily end a game, especially when backed with burn. The deck is still not as fast as Affinity or my pet deck, Kuldotha Red, but it has the same "win out of nowhere" ability that those decks do while maintaining the endless stream of creatures that makes Tokens so difficult for other red-zone decks to beat. Because it's more aggressive, I'm not running any of the "Warden" effects, which makes this somewhat weaker against both Splinter Twin and Burn. An aggro deck like Boros that's capable of fast starts can also potentialy beat a more all-in strategy like this.
Red gives Tokens access to one of the cards that makes Affinity so scary, Blood Moon. Most Jund listings have significantly better mana bases than the deck could ever dream for in Standard, but they're still incredibly non-basic heavy and shutting the deck off from green will generally end games all by itself. Even if they do manage to get a basic Forest down before you Moon them, it makes it difficult for them to operate; Kitchen Finks and Maelstrom Pulse (your worst enemy) are both nearly impossible to cast under a Blood Moon. Blood Moon also solves the problem of Engineered Explosives combined with Academy Ruins, a serious problem for any Token variant.
Of course, neither of these lists is all-encompassing when it comes to card choices. Time will tell what the best configuration is for the deck, but a number of other viable cards exist for a Tokens deck, including a few off-the-wall numbers like Hour of Reckoning, Rise of the Hobgoblins or Goblin Assault, a sort of poor man's Bitterblossom. Shrine of Loyal Legions is a solid card for any token deck and Mirror Entity can serve as a finisher for players not eager to spend the money on Sorin 2.0. No matter what variant you think is best, if you plan on doing well in Lincoln next weekend, you'd better be prepared for Tokens, because it will be there!
While the big 3 are still the top dogs in the paper meta (I'm not discussing MTGO because there's such a massive disconnect between the two), there is a new player that stands to completely change the game. If you're planning on going to the GP in Lincoln, Nebraska next weekend, you'll need to be prepared for this shift because I expect that Lincoln will be the turning point in the metagame. White tokens is a deck that matches up very favorably against Affinity and Jund. It's been seeing an increase in play recently and with Dark Ascension legal and new toys for the deck in the black splash (Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad) it stands to gain in popularity even more; people are always eager to try out new cards in the hopes of "breaking" the metagame. In this case, that may be exactly what happens.
Tokens runs a number of white token generators including Spectral Procession, Raise the Alarm and Midnight Haunting. It pairs these with cards like Leyline of the Meek and Intangible Virtue to create an army of midsize attackers that simply overwhelm opponents. Unlike other aggro decks, which often cannot compete with the massive evasive damage Affinity can churn out, Tokens runs enough fliers that it can seriously hamper a brown mage's combat plans. It's difficult to pin down a specific listing as "the" Tokens listing, as the deck is still very under the radar, but the two most promising builds, in my opinion, are R/W and B/W. R/W allows the deck to run two very powerful cards; Rally the Peasants and Arc Trail. Arc Trail is a board card, at best, but against decks like Affinity or in the mirror, it is incredibly potent. B/W gives the deck access to the aforementioned Lingering Souls and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
The basic construction of the deck varies from player to player and the deck is highly customizable. For players expecting a fair amount of Splinter Twin, maximizing "Soul Wardens" is an excellent option. With Soul's Attendant and Auriok Champion, rendering the Twin combo irrelevant is fairly easy (any Warden wannabe will negate Deceiver Exarch/Village Bell-Ringer and two will negate a Pestermite) and provide the pilot with lifegain reminiscent of the Martyr-Proc decks that popped up around the time of Worlds. Of course, Twin still has a variety of available sweepers, but Tokens presents a respectable clock and can further board hate against Twin decks. In more control-heavy environments, loading up on pump effects (Leyline, Virtue, Honor of the Pure and Signal Pest) allows any token generating spell to be a serious threat. When Spectral Procession nets you 9 power in fliers, it becomes a must-counter spell. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a popular finisher for the deck as she's easy to protect and can grow your token army each turn. B/W decks will almost certainly switch to Sorin, but Elspeth is still the primary finisher for R/W variants.
Black/White Tokens
by Mike Torrisi
4 Soul Warden
3 Auriok Champion
2 Signal Pest
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Leyline of the Meek
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Path to Exile
1 Oblivion Ring
6 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Windbrisk Heights
3 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Thoughtseize
3 Beckon Apparition
2 Worship
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Auriok Champion
1 Oblivion Ring
With the Black/White listing above, I chose to go with a heavy dose of pump, making each token generating spell incredibly threatening. In addition to the 8 "Crusade" effects, the deck also packs 4 pumping planeswalkers and a pair of Signal Pests to maximize the size of the tokens as quickly as possible. The deck has less ways to interact with opponents, but as long as you're not facing a lot of non-Twin combo, that's not particularly relevant. I also chose to go with Honor of the Pure over Intangible Virtue because I feel like pumping the "Wardens" was more relevant for this deck than vigilance or the Sorin tokens. However, I think either is an acceptable choice.
While I think red has the edge in a mirror, black is not without options. Moving into black gives you access to Zealous Persecution. As surprise board tech, it can break the mirror wide open by suddenly making favorable blocks unfavorable and pushing through the last bit of damage necessary to finish off an unsuspecting opponent. Worship is also a good piece of tech for the mirror and against any deck that is potentially unable to kill Auriok Champions.
Black is definitely superior in a metagame with a strong combo presence, as red has less ways to fight decks like Hive Mind and Storm. Discard is a key tool against these kinds of decks (along with a respectable clock, of course) and depending on how much combo you expect to see, you can load your board up with it. Don't forget about Tidehollow Sculler, as it's a body that can strip key combo pieces out of an opponent's hand, fulfilling both the role of discard and clock. Against combo decks with red (like the two mentioned earlier), it's very important to bring in Burrenton Forge-Tender. As people realize just how scary Affinity actually is, Pyroclasm is seeing a significant uptick in play. Mid and late-game, your pump effects should keep your tokens out of burn-sweeper range, but you have few 1 drops to play anyway and sacrificing your turn 1 to prevent a blow-out on turn 2 or 3 can be the difference between a one-sided, furry ass-whooping and a long struggle to maintain board presence.
Red/White Tokens
by Mike Torrisi
4 Signal Pest
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Spectral Procession
3 Midnight Haunting
2 Devastating Summons
3 Rally the Peasants
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Leyline of the Meek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Arc Trail
7 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
2 Windbrisk Heights
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Contested War Zone
1 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Blood Moon
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Beckon Apparition
3 Disenchant
2 Combust
With the Red/White listing, I tried to go a little more aggressive and all-in on the token strategy. Rally the Peasants becomes deadly very quickly with large numbers of tokens. An EoT Midnight Haunting followed up by a Rally can very easily end a game, especially when backed with burn. The deck is still not as fast as Affinity or my pet deck, Kuldotha Red, but it has the same "win out of nowhere" ability that those decks do while maintaining the endless stream of creatures that makes Tokens so difficult for other red-zone decks to beat. Because it's more aggressive, I'm not running any of the "Warden" effects, which makes this somewhat weaker against both Splinter Twin and Burn. An aggro deck like Boros that's capable of fast starts can also potentialy beat a more all-in strategy like this.
Red gives Tokens access to one of the cards that makes Affinity so scary, Blood Moon. Most Jund listings have significantly better mana bases than the deck could ever dream for in Standard, but they're still incredibly non-basic heavy and shutting the deck off from green will generally end games all by itself. Even if they do manage to get a basic Forest down before you Moon them, it makes it difficult for them to operate; Kitchen Finks and Maelstrom Pulse (your worst enemy) are both nearly impossible to cast under a Blood Moon. Blood Moon also solves the problem of Engineered Explosives combined with Academy Ruins, a serious problem for any Token variant.
Of course, neither of these lists is all-encompassing when it comes to card choices. Time will tell what the best configuration is for the deck, but a number of other viable cards exist for a Tokens deck, including a few off-the-wall numbers like Hour of Reckoning, Rise of the Hobgoblins or Goblin Assault, a sort of poor man's Bitterblossom. Shrine of Loyal Legions is a solid card for any token deck and Mirror Entity can serve as a finisher for players not eager to spend the money on Sorin 2.0. No matter what variant you think is best, if you plan on doing well in Lincoln next weekend, you'd better be prepared for Tokens, because it will be there!