W/b Token Mania!

[klaus]

Looks like Ajani's 2nd ability "must be nice" in a deck like this.

Also: despite Hour of Reckoning, 3 Stoneforge Mystic + 2 equipments would be a reasonable inclusion.

[Hanni]

I tried your old list and agree with almost all of the changes. Vindicate is something this list had been missing. I still think there is a case for Jitte without Stone Forge, maybe the Hour of Reckoning covers for those situations but it is a good solid offensive weapon.

I tried Vault of the Archangel too, I also find it far too hard to use. I really like Zealous Persecution, it doesn't look like much but its low cost makes it usable and the effects can be interesting in either defence or offence.

Hour of Reckoning has been doing most of the things I would want Jitte to do (minus the lifegain vs Burn), but it does it faster and more efficiently.

I haven't tried Zealous Persecution, but it just seems too narrow. For the same 2 mana, I could have Intangible Virtue as a permanent +1/+1, and there's not a whole lot of decks running masses of x/1's. Against the mirror, it would be excellent... but the mirror, seriously? This is a rogue off-the-radar deck. Most people see me cast a turn 2 Raise the Alarm and think I'm playing some bad janky deck, until I beat them 2-0.

Looks like Ajani's 2nd ability "must be nice" in a deck like this.

Also: despite Hour of Reckoning, 3 Stoneforge Mystic + 2 equipments would be a reasonable inclusion.

Ajani's second ability only affects tokens that are currently in play, whereas Sorin's Emblems last forever. Ajani doesn't even make any tokens, he just pumps. At 4 mana, the effect doesn't seem worth it. The first and third abilities are awful. My deck is already a bit topheavy. I had considered Ajani, but cut it in preliminary testing.

As far as SFM is concerned, I'll give it a whirl tomorrow. I can cut the 4 Gather the Townsfolk for 4 SFM. Not sure what to cut for the equipments, but I'm thinking the 2 Vindicates for now. Probably gonna go with 1 Jitte and 1 SoFI, but both SoBM and SoFF could be pretty useful too, so I'll keep those in mind.

I don't think the SFM + equips are going to improve my bad matchups much, and I don't think the package is necessary for my good matchups, but this deck is still very new, and I'd like to playtest with some different configurations to try and find the best one.

[Barook]

How many tokens is the deck able to spare?

If it can spare some tokens, then Diabolic Intent for tutoring and Dark Triumph for the alpha strike might be interesting.

[Hanni]

How many tokens is the deck able to spare?

If it can spare some tokens, then Diabolic Intent for tutoring and Dark Triumph for the alpha strike might be interesting.

The deck can spare tokens. Diabolic Intent sounds pretty frickin epic actually. Not sure if sacc'ing two creatures to cast a Dark Triumph would be worth it, but as a 1-of in the deck it seems pretty plausible, and the Diabolic Intent itself is something I'm definitely going to playtest tomorrow.

With the amount of tokens I run, it's basically a Demonic Tutor.

Diabolic Intent would allow me to run combo pieces in the maindeck and silver bullets in the sideboard, too. Thanks for the suggestion, that's the best idea I've heard so far!

EDIT: Hell, I could even cut down to 2 Sorin's if I was running 4 Diabolic Intent. Shit man, I could cut down on alot of shit with Diabolic Intent, and still have a more consistent deck overall. I cannot express how much more interested I am in this deck now, and I didn't think that was even possible.

This deck was already destroying people on MWS before, and I'm thinking that Diabolic Intent is about to make things alot more interesting...

I'm starting to think this deck is going to be a force to be reckoned with. The rise of linears! :)

I'll keep you guys posted once I finish testing the changes. Feel free to throw out more suggestions, too.

[Hanni]

Here's the list I'm going to start off with:

// Lands
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [R] Scrubland
6 [UNH] Plains
1 [UNH] Swamp
4 [US] Gaea's Cradle

// Creatures
1 [LRW] Mirror Entity

// Spells
4 [PS] Diabolic Intent
2 [DKA] Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 [MOR] Bitterblossom
4 [MR] Raise the Alarm
2 [DKA] Gather the Townsfolk
4 [DKA] Lingering Souls
4 [SHM] Spectral Procession
4 [IA] Swords to Plowshares
1 [RAV] Hour of Reckoning
1 [AP] Vindicate
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [TE] Humility
SB: 1 [TE] Disenchant
SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 1 [TE] Wasteland
SB: 1 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [SOM] Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 1 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 1 [OD] Aegis of Honor
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 4 [M11] Leyline of Sanctity

I thought about it, and the Mirror Entity plan seems like the best way to win. Now that I can run it as a singleton and tutor for it, it's actually worth running. As long as I can cast Mirror Entity and the pump all my tokens immediately after it resolves without passing priority, it dodges Swords to Plowshares. I added Gaea's Cradle to make that plan more consistent, and the Cradle itself is useful, although 4 may be too many. I did go up to 23 lands, though.

With Intent, I can cut down to 2 Sorin, and 1 each of Vindicate and Reckoning maindeck. I'm still undecided if I want more of each in the sideboard.

My sideboard is literally a throw-together right now, and I have no idea how much of it I'm actually going to use. I'll need to do some serious playtesting to hammer out the fine details. Suggestions are welcome.

EDIT: With Cabal Therapy and Diabolic Intent, it may be time for me to revisit Doomed Traveler. 1 mana for a 1/1 itself isn't spectacular, but if I sac him to Therapy or Intent, he replaces himself with a 1/1 flying token. Seems like great synergy to me, plus he's great for the curve. Now I need to figure out what to cut. I'm thinking I should go with 2 Gather the Townsfolk, but I'm not sure what the other two should be. I definitely don't want to cut any Raise the Alarm's, but I'm not sure what 3cc token creator I should cut. Maybe cut a land and either 1 Lingering or 1 Procession? I'm not sure yet.

[Barook]

4 Cradle's seem excessive. You run only 19 on-color lands. And Cradles by themselves do absolutely nothing.

[Hanni]

4 Cradle's seem excessive. You run only 19 on-color lands. And Cradles by themselves do absolutely nothing.

Maybe. I did go up to 23 lands though, and 22 was working just fine. I was at one point running 22 lands with 2 Vault of the Archangel, which was working well enough, so it's not too much different from that. With even two tokens in play, Cradle is an Ancient Tomb. Past that, it taps for a bunch. Don't forget, Spectral Procession doesn't have to be cast for WWW, it can also be cast for 6 (or 2WW, or 4W). Lingering has 2 colorless in its cost, and the Planeswalker's have 2 colorless in their cost too.

I ran the game through one match on MWS, and the mana was just fine in both games. I might cut 1 Cradle, 2 Townsfolk, and 1 of something else to fit in 4 Doomed Traveler though.

At any rate, I still need to do alot more testing.

[Freggle]

Vindicate can be Mangara of Corondor.

I will be trying a list today at the star City. I do not have time to post it, but it will still have a small, but relevant Soul Sister package, 4 SFM, 2 Elspeth Tirel, and a bunch of token generorators.

Hopefully it doesn't suck :) I'll let you guys know later.

[bruizar]

On the topic of utility lands, Tower of the Magistrate could help against both Batterskull and Umezawa's Jitte. With Intent you can tutor for it easily. Also take note that Mirror Entity gives all your men island walk versus Lord of Atlantis.


Also, why don't you run Humility in the main? It combos with your entire deck and it makes it impossible for you to lose to anything except combo. You probably can't squeeze a third color in this build, but opposition seems like a winning card for this deck

[Gheizen64]

Zealous persecution double as removal against maverick (kill moms, hierarch, arbors, quirion sprites and whatsnot, all while dodging protections), RUG tempo (one of the few cards that kill mongoose, at least pre-threshold) and sometimes against Dredge (kill all narco and Imps), while being a good pump/finisher spell in some situations.
It's better than it looks. I'm playing 3 in my SB for those decks and the occasional Elf/Goblin/Affinity deck.

I've been playing a similar list to this, but with moxen, Dark confidants and SFM for that T1 bomb (SFM, Confidant or Bitterblossom). I've been testing a bit also with Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Looks like she sucks.

[wert]

On the topic of utility lands, Tower of the Magistrate could help against both Batterskull and Umezawa's Jitte. With Intent you can tutor for it easily. Also take note that Mirror Entity gives all your men island walk versus Lord of Atlantis.


Also, why don't you run Humility in the main? It combos with your entire deck and it makes it impossible for you to lose to anything except combo. You probably can't squeeze a third color in this build, but opposition seems like a winning card for this deck

I think Tower of the Magistrate would be worth a look. I have alot of trouble with Jitte if it lands early while playing this deck online. Also, I like Doom Traveler simply for the lack of 1 drops.

[jlagrav]

I dont know why you would ever run Raise the Alarm over Gather the Townsfolk. They are basically the same card except Gather can help bring you back into the game if you're low on life.

[Gheizen64]

I dont know why you would ever run Raise the Alarm over Gather the Townsfolk. They are basically the same card except Gather can help bring you back into the game if you're low on life.

Being an instant is pretty relevant, surprise blocker, force countermagic their turn etc...

[wert]

Being an instant is pretty relevant, surprise blocker, force countermagic their turn etc...

So totally agree, the surprise element is very good to punish the unwary, Gather the Townsfolk is not exactly the turn-the-tables card you want to draw when you are behind and at 5 lives.

To go back to the earlier point with Jitte. Jitte alone can be dealt with Vindicate, but coupled with Mother of Runes, it is really quite tough to take a hold of the game, especially it is rather slow to start off.

EDIT: With Diabolic Intent, karakas should be included as a one-of too.

[bruizar]

I would still consider Timely Reinforcements. Perhaps this is totally off but, you have Bitterblossom to get your life lower than your opponent and 6 life is a lot. You could even use Godless Shrine and fetchlands to give you more control over how often Timely Reinforcements could crack.

[lyracian]

I have also been playing around with the idea of Sorin Lord of Tokens. Not convinced about only going down to two though. While you can tutor for them you if they get destroyed/countered you have no way of getting them back.

Also 4 cradles when you have Diabolic Intent seems too many.

[Hanni]

After alot more testing, this is the maindeck I have settled on for now:

// Lands
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [R] Scrubland
6 [UNH] Plains
2 [UNH] Swamp
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

// Creatures
4 [ISD] Doomed Traveler
1 [LRW] Mirror Entity

// Spells
4 [PS] Diabolic Intent
2 [DKA] Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 [MOR] Bitterblossom
4 [MR] Raise the Alarm
4 [DKA] Lingering Souls
4 [SHM] Spectral Procession
4 [IA] Swords to Plowshares
1 [RAV] Hour of Reckoning
1 [AP] Vindicate
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy

The deck feels alot more streamlined around the mana curve now. I'm up to 12 1cc spells, to give me plenty to do in the early game, and to help me curve out better in general. I'm also at a solid 12 2cc spells, 8 3cc spells, and 4 4cc spells. Compare that to my original list, which was significantly more topheavy, and the slow start issues have pretty much been fixed.

I cut down to 21 lands. By lowering the curve significantly, I feel that 21 lands is now appropriate. If I get stuck on 2 lands with a token in play, I have the option to Diabolic Intent for another land if need be. I also cut down to 1 Gaea's Cradle, because the Entity + Cradle combo is unecessary for actually winning, and I want to increase overall consistency.

I'm pretty satisfied with that maindeck right now, but that's liable to change again with more testing.

The sideboard... is an entirely different story. The sideboard is going to take alot of time to figure out. The only real way to determine what the sideboard should include is going to require alot of playtesting. Suggestions for sideboard options is welcome.

[baghdadbob]

I agree with Klaus Ajani is the stone cold nuts and in my opinion much better than Elspeth in this deck. Other then that I really like the deck Hanni.

[Greenpoe]

For the SB...a 1-of Worship could be pretty strong but then again, Ensnaring Bridge might be just plain better. You'd probably want a Perish in there as well. Maybe a Runed Halo, too, since it's a tutor target that will answer Progenitus, but also fights Jace/any creature/Tendrils/Intuition/etc.

[Freggle]

So I finished 54th out of 141. Going 4 and 4

Losses were to high tide, Natural Order Bant, UR Delver, BW Stoneblade.

Wins were against BW stone blade, UW Stoneblade, UW Stoneblade, and Plainswalker control.

All and all the list I ran was a bit frustrating. Last minute being influenced by a few of the things here I added 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and 2 Elspeth Tirel. I did not however up the total land count to support it.

Here was the list run:

4 Soul Warden
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Elspeth Tirel
4 Lingering Souls
2 Midnight Haunting
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
4 Gather the Townsfolk
2 Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Auriok Champion
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

11 Plains
4 Scrubland
3 Marsh Flats
2 Vault of the Archangel
1 Swamp

SB
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Serenity
4 Cabal Therapy

MVP's were Umezawa's Jitte, Batterskull, Stoneforge Mystic, Soul Warden, Vault of the Archangel.

Most Lame: Timely Reinforcements (were amazing at times, and completely dead many others), Auriok Champion ( basiclay wish i didn't play it. I brought it along since it tested very good against burn and batterskull germs it didn't do to well today.)

Match 1 Plainswalker control: felt like the mirror I blew out my opponent G1 with Sorin emblems and fliers

G2: super grindy, he lands Elspth, KE and Sorin to my 0 Plainswalkers whom were countered. I fly over his troops to keep both off of ultimate, and stay alive with Vault of the archangel and Soul Wardens. My opponent conceded when he couldn't do anything meaningful, and I was at 54 life.

Match 2: Bant Natural order.

I keep a 1 land hand with Soul Warden, and get blown out by Jace fatesteals. I missed my window to plow the early Noble to keep my opponent off of 4 mana to allow me to draw land. Rookie mistake.

G2: Early game Stoneforge into a Jitte tears me up. I finally Stoneforge into my own Jitte envoking the legend rule, however the damage was done, and I die.

Match 3 RUW delver:

These were long and drawn out both basically revolve around me staring at uncastable plainswalkers in my hand as I slowly die.

Match 4: BW Stoneblade. This was the most disappointing match of the day. My opponent get an early stoneforge and grabs Sword of light and shadow rendering my token army useless. I hang in there in a very grindy match by swords-ing the targeted creatures on the equip activation, and by gaining tons of life off of soul sisters. It eventually gets equiped to a Serra Avenger, and I can't do anyhthing about it. My opponent starts taking chunks of life out of my 30 + life total. I am now down to 3 I have 4 creatures on board and I top deck an elspeth Tirel Serra is getting in for 7.

I use Elspths plus 1 to get the 7, and then while looking for an answer to just live to the next turn to nuke I notice I have a lingering souls in the yard. I miss played this, that would have given me the life to live an then I could have used tirel ultimate nuke the board equips and all and swung in for lethal. ...but I missed it and this causes game, then time so match. Vault of the Archangle was also active here for lifegain, but the pro white rendered the deathtouch useless.

Match 5 UW stoneblade. Tokens vs plows is not much of a match. Stoneforge-ing into Jitte's to legend rule Jittes was relevant here. Shrine of loyal legions took out his whole army in 1 critical turn g2.

Match 6: G1 not much of a game. I loose.

G2 I bring in all 8 leylines and the 3 Cabals. I start the game with 2 Leyline of Sanctity in play. and get a good fast start. I'm showing leathal on board so my opponent starts reluctantly going into the routine. Time is called, he finishes his epic turn echoing truth-ing my Sanctitys and finishing me.

Match 7: BW stoneblade. I rock my opponenet with the jitte game 1. Game two he returned the Jitte favor with Bitterblossom. G3 I make around 10 fliers Bitterblossom never shows and I finish him.

Match 8: UW stoneblade. Relatively the same.

I think this is a good archetype. I think I made both poor card choices in (Champion and 3 main Timelys, and the land plainswalker issue) as well as some poor play decisions, but overall it is good, and with a bit more work on it and play under my belt this could be really good.

If I make it I will try this at GP indy next week.