Soldier Stompy (Tribal Tomb-Based Aggro)

[Sidneyious]

High bar for non-soldiers, high bar for 1 CMC spells, very high bar for something that's both. Nixed.

But she provides much value for saving and swinging.

They need to get it before the untap, or 2for1 themselves which buys you time to get more beats in.

Also bait

[James718]

What does soldiers offer over Merfolk? Chalice Slivers?

[kwèk]

What does soldiers offer over Merfolk? Chalice Slivers?

Merfolk Vs Soldiers

Merfolks' opening is way less explosive then Soldiers.
- Soldiers can play a chalice for 1 on turn 1
- Soldiers can open with a Thalia OR a preeminent captain (that last one can spiral out of control quickly)
Merfolk plays counterspells... Soldiers disruptions comes from permanents. (not saying that annyone is better here... just saying that it's diffrent)
Merfolk has a creature, that it can copy that is pretty hard to answer (True Name Nemesis) ... Most of the soldiers are by themselves superior then every creature in the Merfolk deck except true name nemesis.
... I think the best thing of Merfolk, is the island walk.
... And the best thing the soldiers have, is the card draw. Enlistment Officers can get insane. If you get sweeped, the merfolk will have a lot harder time to rebuild then the soldiers will.
... And soldiers have First strike (which is way underrated)


Silvers vs Soldiers

- Opening of Soldiers is way more explosive
- Most soldiers, by themselves (alone) are better then the average silver by itself
- Probably the best thing slivers have is crystaline
- Best thing that soldiers have is the card draw + First Strike



I'm not sure, but comparing Soldiers to Slivers / Merfolk is also comparing 2 diffrent archetypes.

Slivers/Merfolk... more fall in the bracket of pure aggro decks, they don't run a lot of prison elements
While Soldiers, are still a stompy deck. They do get more and more powerfull if certain soldiers hit the field (just like slivers and merfolk) ... but the prison elements + explosive starts make soldiers just a bit diffrent.


Soldiers are more a halfbreed of Stompy And Goblins.
Goblins are more of a control deck, with aggro elements.
While Soldiers are more aggro, with prison elements.

A lot of the soldiers are just good stuff on their own... and don't need lords to bring them over the top


Preeminent Captain - 2/2 First Strike
Thalia, Guardian of thraben - 2/1 First strike
Thalia, Heretic Cathar - 3/2 First Strike
Daru Warchief - 2/3 (believe me, the 3 in toughness is better then a 2, mainly because of stuff like "disfigure" and "punishing fire")
Field Marshall - 2/3 First Strike


Gale Rider / Winged Sliver - 1/1 Flying
Striking Sliver - 1/1 First Strike
Crystaline Sliver - 2/2 Shroud
Predatory / Muscle / Sinew Sliver - 2/2
Hibernation Sliver - 2/2 Bounce


Except for True-Name Nemesis ... Merfolk is a bunch of Grizly Bears, untill they get a back up in.





When it comes to Goblins... Goblins have "Matron" , and Goblins that take care of almost everything (no enchantments). But their creatures have really bad stats in comparisson to soldiers. Soldiers has less card selection, which most probably gives them less card draw then goblins. We can't go "Matron" for "Enlistment officer" (damn the guys at MTG to decide that "imperial recruiter" is an "advisor" while he's cleary a "soldier" )

I guess Soldiers Hit harder while Goblins control the board better.

[MGB]

What does soldiers offer over Merfolk? Chalice Slivers?

The big draw for me that Soldiers always had were the following:

- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: often uncounterable Thorn of Amethyst on a 2/1 body that can sometimes come down turn one off a Chrome Mox. Neither Merfolk nor Slivers have a creature as disruptive as this.

- Enlistment Officer: The power of a draw engine cannot be understated for an aggro/control deck such as this - it lets you win attrition matchups and matches against control decks with sweepers. Neither Merfolk nor Slivers have a card-draw engine in their deck.

- Preeminent Captain: In the soldier shell he is literally one of the most powerful creatures ever printed. The ability to gain massive tempo swings by cheating on mana and cheating on the "summoning sickness" clause for creatures is incredibly powerful. He is like a better Goblin Lackey in this deck, and neither Merfolk nor Slivers have anything that is comparable.

- Captain of the Watch: This is the ultimate "lord" creature. Yes, it's expensive but with Preeminent Captain and Sol-Lands it's manageable - and the ability to give +1/+1 vigilance *and* generate tokens (giving you a default 9/9 power toughness for 6 mana *and* bonuses to anyone already on the battlefield) is tremendous. Yes, both Merfolk and Slivers have good lords, but the "all in one" package of Captain of the Watch makes her arguably the best lord of them all.

Now don't get me wrong - Soldiers is far from demonstrably superior to Merfolk/Slivers as a whole - in fact, I think it's a weaker deck than both Merfolk and Slivers, but nevertheless, it has elements that are unique enough that those decks *don't* have (such as these that I mentioned above) that arguments can be made for playing Soldiers over those decks in certain metagames. And it's also a heck of a lot more fun to play.

[Amunshax]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/33482_.html looks like here is the missing recruiter :)

[Fatal]

It's like a matron for soldiers :-)

[Jon]

Except its not.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[MD.Ghost]

Pretty good, the deck already have Cavern, fast stompy mana 8x Thalia as a core. You can Mix up Captain, Warchief (it's a 1/1 ;)) and the real bonus: a lot of sideboard cards like Containment Priest, Revoker, Canonist etc.

Together with Officer this looks solid.

[Seraphix]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/33482_.html looks like here is the missing recruiter :)

Does this deck really want the new pseudo-Recruiter?

The creature suite is more focused on power than versatility. I don't know of any "toolbox" Soldiers worth getting a la Stingscourger/Settler (I'll happily be wrong about this though), and without such cards diluting the deck with this mediocre body isn't justifiable.

Pretty good, the deck already have Cavern, fast stompy mana 8x Thalia as a core. You can Mix up Captain, Warchief (it's a 1/1 ;)) and the real bonus: a lot of sideboard cards like Containment Priest, Revoker, Canonist etc.

Together with Officer this looks solid.

This might be a different White Stompy shell rather than a Soldier-focused one.

[nedleeds]

Neither Merfolk nor Slivers have a card-draw engine in their deck..

Merfolk in fact has the exact same draw engine ... a ringleader.

[civet five]

Merfolk in fact has the exact same draw engine ... a ringleader.

I can't recall Tidal Courier being useful for anything...even searching up a singleton Rootwater Thief is dumb

[MD.Ghost]

// Deck: Soldier Stompy .dec (60)

// Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
2 City of Traitors
2 Karakas
8 Plains

// Creatures
4 Enlistment Officer
4 Preeminent Captain
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Ballyrush Banneret
3 Captain of the Watch
2 Changeling Hero
2 Daru Warchief
1 Field Marshal
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Flickerwisp

// Spells
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Aegis of the Gods
SB: 1 Containment Priest
SB: 1 Intrepid Hero
SB: 1 Mangara of Corondor
SB: 1 Peacekeeper
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 Suppression Field


First raw brew with our new Soldier. A lot of ideas to test. Flickerwisp as 1off non soldier tutor target against stuff like moat (but it also works well with Officer etc).

I included Hero because he can catch useless Ballyrush, Recruiter, multiple Thalia copies or Officer (which also saves the deck against Sweeper cards) and should also work with our little Captain.

What I like with recruiter is that you can fetch Warchief to power up the field.

Sideboard is full of useful tutorable targets and common stuff against most decks. SField is my flexslot, i can also see Winter Orb, Jitte etc here. Note that recruiter can also fetch Phyrexian Metamorph.

[MGB]

Wow! They printed a tutor soldier?!


First Thalia 2.0 and now this? They're just begging me to play this deck again!

[MD.Ghost]

Wow...after years Soldier got a lot of love now...first Thalia 2.0, now Recruiter and (today spoiler) Palace Jailer!

All fits very well together, Thalia works good vs Wasteland/Fetches etc, which means slow down most legacy decks and also protect your own stompy mana base. On top of it, it will prevent early blocks which helps to race (after all Soldier Stompy is an Aggro Deck).

Recruiter now hold the deck togehter. Yes he misses the Office(Ringleader) option, but you can create a very good toolbox with him and in thanks to the tribal synergies he is way more than a tutor with a 1/1 body. I like that he can tutor Daru Warchief.

Finally Palace Jailer:



He comes with 2 relevant abilities, Monarch is a great way to draw more cards (for a deck which tends to empty his hand fast enough and afterall needs the right topdecks), but the ability to exile a creature is very important since soldier normally run zero removal (look at poor Kor Hookmaster). Sometimes you can't simply overrun your opponent so it is a great way to exile blockers/utility creatures.

• uncounterable with Cavern, check
• tutorable with new Recruiter, check
• profit from our Lord buffs, check
• cheaper with Ballyrush/Warchief, check
• cheatable with P.Captain, check
• doesnt matter if Jailer dies, check

See the list above (the same can count for Recruiter) it feels, that both cards are comparable to Deathrite Shaman. The Elf is played in every BGx Shell because he is very strong. Now all eyes look at DnT and some at White Eldrazi/Stompy to abuse the new Creatures. Afterall Deathrites best deck is his own tribe (Elves Combo) and i feel that Soldiers can show the real strength for Recruiter and Jailer.

[Infinitium]

You do realize your opponent becomes monarch if one of his attacks connect with you? Y'all should be playning Mirror Entity btw, it was what won me most games whe I played this deck back in Lorwyn block. Even threatening the pum allows you to put creatures through unblocked, and it wins the game within a few swings with Preeminent. Shining Shoal is a pretty good option as well given that you want to be playing creatures for the first few rounds of the game. Intrepid Hero loks like a good 1-of as well to force removal vs Tarmogoyf/ZombieFish and the like.

[MGB]

You do realize your opponent becomes monarch if one of his attacks connect with you? Y'all should be playning Mirror Entity btw, it was what won me most games whe I played this deck back in Lorwyn block. Even threatening the pum allows you to put creatures through unblocked, and it wins the game within a few swings with Preeminent. Shining Shoal is a pretty good option as well given that you want to be playing creatures for the first few rounds of the game. Intrepid Hero loks like a good 1-of as well to force removal vs Tarmogoyf/ZombieFish and the like.

Mirror Entity is too mana intensive from my testing. You want your lord effects to be as cheap as possible.

The "monarch" mechanic makes this new Jailer card not quite as good as Fiend Hunter, but...

it's still good against Show and Tell type strategies, especially as a tutor target. I don't know if you want 4 of these MD, but even something like 1 MD and 2-3 SB would be great now that Soldiers actually has a tutor guy.

[Kid]

More love for the soldier camp!

[MGB]

Got some testing in with the new cards on Cockatrice (because they aren't available on MTGO OR on Xmage yet).

This just in -

PALACE JAILER IS INSANE. I cannot emphasize this enough. This guy is stone-cold broken in this deck and in this format. Exile creatures? They don't come back when Jailer is removed? I get to draw an extra card every turn indefinitely as long as my opponent isn't attacking me (most decks don't have more than a few dudes, and some don't have any, and you have blockers for most of them)? Jailer gives this deck game against decks like Grixis Delver and other BGx decks that were otherwise tough matchups before the deck got actual removal. And he is maindeck hate for Show and Tell and Reanimator strategies as well. And he's never dead because he'll basically cantrip every time you cast him.

Sanctum Prelate is nice too, because you can just lock them out of spells at a certain point once you have Chalice @ 1 in play, and then name "two" witih Prelate - that was the downfall of this deck before because they could still do stuff like Abrupt Decay and PUnishing Fire, but if you name "two" with Prelate with Chalice @ 1 in play, alot of decks just completely collapse.

Recruiter is nice because he gets Jailer and Prelate when you need them.

[paradaxarada]

8 Plains
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
2 Karakas

4 Enlistment Officer
4 Preeminent Captain
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Captain of the Watch
2 Ballyrush Banneret
2 Daru Warchief
2 Palace Jailer
1 Field Marshal

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Suppression Field

[korstructure]

Did anyone see this random tweet by Julian Knab regarding the most recent BoM?

https://twitter.com/itsJulian23/stat...68737915699200

Any context or additional info from Julian or anyone else who was there? Who was it, how did they finish, etc?

Also, I have a general question about this deck: what keeps this deck from breaking through? From being more popular? From winning big events?

How much of it has to do with fundamental issues with the deck? How much is it that it's just not a popular deck/taken seriously by more players? Does this deck have unwinnable/terrible matchups?

I'm intrigued and I know you all have so much more experience with the deck, so I turn to you for your insight.

If I were to guess, I presume that there are three primary weaknesses: weakness to Wasteland, lack of disruption/interaction, and weakness to sweepers. Chrome Mox also offers some inherent card disadvantage (now shored up by Recruiter in addition to the already existing Ringleader). The weakness to Wasteland that this deck suffers from is similar to Eldrazi without having the super powerful standalone threats that Eldrazi has. This deck seems to need to preserve its mana to cast synergistic threats over multiple turns, some/most of those threats don't disrupt the opponent. That lack of disruption makes it nearly as weak to fast combo/creature-based combo as Goblins (with the notable exception of 4x Thalia, Guardian).

And lastly, this deck doesn't have the ability to comeback from a sweeper (Terminus, Toxic Deluge) like DnT. No instant-speed creatures at EOT, no Flickerwisp, no equipment package to make every body a dangerous one. I do recognize that it can draw raw cards, similar to how Goblins beats Miracles.

Mostly, I'm EXCITED about this archetype. It seems so fun and engaging. I want to really define the weaknesses so we can address them systematically.

Anyway, would love to hear your guys' insights! Thanks for reading.