B/W Tokens

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

For today's Magic the Gathering article we wanted to provide you a current list of what our black / white (B/W) Tokens build in order to brainstorm a possible evolution of this into the new standard.  The new coolness for token strategies to live in is decidedly in Green / White Selesnya and populating tokens with stronger bodies.  Perhaps the saving grace here is that there with the exception of Precinct Captain or Ash Zealot, there are few choices for a First Strike creature which makes the lifelink / death touch ability on Vault of the Archangel just a bit more valuable.

Anywhoos, this is or rather was a decent strategy but we feel that it may be the end of the road without a mjor overhaul in order to be competitive with the local meta-game.  We may retire it to the kitchen table or let it chill on the shelf until we see what lovely Orzhov cards we get in the next set, Gatecrash.  We already have made several purchases at MTG Mint Card to this end but first wanted your judgement on whether to Pump It or Dump It, along with your sage opinions.

Here's the decklist  . . .

37 Spells -
4x Tragic Slip
4x Doomed Traveller
4x Gather the Townsfolk
4x Intangible Virtue
4x Lingering Souls
3x Midnight Haunting
3x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Angel of Jubilation
2x Entreat the Angels
3x Increasing Devotion

23 Lands -
11x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Isolated Chapel
3x Vault of the Archangel
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The most obvious hinderance at the moment is of course the loss of Honor of the Pure with the standard rotation.  To this end, we now have Angel of Jubilation, which will pump all our non-black critters on the game table.  The build was already a titch bi-polar with Honor as it did not do anything for Sorin's vampire tokens so there really is not much change here other than the extra mana now needed on a card now suspectible to spot removal.  This also means that Altar's Reap in our sideboard is less valuable should we stall out mid game and need some card draw.

Tragic Slip and Oblivion Ring are still relevant in today's new standard constructed but may not be as well suited against the new midrange aggro builds.  Most players we know playing / splashing red are using this for Pillar of Flame or Searing Spear which hints at what the new standard decks need to defend against - Zombie builds.

We can only say that the only card in the above list we feel very, very good about in any build going forward is Entreat the Angels.  The last few games we've had on the kitchen table, this was a saving or butts more often than not.

Drop us a line -
Should we retire this now and persue another build or can we save the core list with some amendments ?
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DKA B-W Tokens

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

We have a series of posts over the next few days in which we provide a decklist of real Magic the Gathering cards the group has collected and present to you, the reader for a critical review. We hope to take said finished build and slay the local meta-game at the next FMN. Oh - When we say critical review, we mean constructive suggestions and not stuff like, yo dude - your dog is fugly - that sort of thingy.


Anywhooos - first build up for your review Elspeth Tirel, beautiful mysterious knight from Alara (and Mirrodin) goes on this date with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, and the pair promptly has tokens, and loads of 'em. Righto - here's the first build - post Dark Ascension B/W Tokens -


38 Spells
4 x Doomed Traveler
3 x Shrine of Loyal Legions
4 x Intangible Virtue
4 x Gather the Townsfolk
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Altar's Reap
4 x Lingering Souls
4 x Midnight Haunting
3 x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 x Elspeth Tirel
2 x Sun Titan

23 Lands
2 x Vault of the Archangel
2 x Evolving Wilds
3 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Swamp
12 x Plains

Sideboard
3 x Tragic Slip
3 x Revoke Existence
3 x Oblivion Ring
3 x Divine Offering
3 x Dismember

Solid enough of a start but only one 1-drop. No Honor of the Pure here as we thought that Sorin's little 1/1 vampire tokens would not benefit as well as the Myr tokens from Shrine of Loyal Legions. Alter's Reap provides a cheap card draw and GftT is our spot removal. Best uncommon from DKA is Lingering Souls and we've paired this up with Midnight Haunting.

For the moment, we have 3 Elspeth and 3 Sorin in here. Following is Sun Titan which can and will bring back almost every card in the build. Vault of the Archangel is this deck's Gavony Township. The lands are continued to be tweaked to provide maximum effeciency.

UPDATE : Pop on over to our buddy Vergil's (Vergil's Magic Emporium) site for a very decent summary of this deck archetype he posted on the same day as us. He's been writing about MTG since 2010 and is much less derpy than us.

Righto, your turn.
We admit we are not the best brewer and given our love of the casual game, will often include cards because of righteous artwork. Your job, if you so choose, is to take this build and provide improvements so it's not sad panda time at FNM.

Lastly,

If your are looking to pimp up your deck beyond just having a number of foils and / or alternate art / promos in your stack, we suggest you check out MTG Mint Card which has excellent prices not only on foils but Chinese language cards - which looks Kung-Fu Kewl.
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