2 Catapult Squad
3 Darien, King of Kjeldor
4 Deftblade Elite
3 Field Marshal
4 Noble Templar
1 Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
4 Soul Warden
4 Whipcorder
3 Disenchant
2 Glorious Anthem
2 Privileged Position
2 Slate of Ancestry
3 Jinxed Idol
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Daru Encampment
3 Nomad Stadium
17 Plains |
 Darien's
Idol.
Description of deck by its author (quoted):
The obvious card of choice: Jinxed Idol. Who
would think to include this card in a deck full of Soldiers? I would, of
course. I think I have reigned as the supreme crazy-deck builder on
Magic Deck Vortex and why would I stop here! Oh wait! This is MTG
Salvation. Well, I’m sure I’m still a crazy deck builder here. Moving
along…
Jinxed Idol serves one major purpose – dealing damage to
you while Darien is in play. Mind you, it will only deal damage to you
during your upkeep. But who cares when you have Darien and a Soul Warden?
Like the first deck, when something deals damage to you, you will produce
that many creatures and that much life back thanks to the Darien-Warden
duo. While Jinxed Idol would normally make you want to sacrifice a
creature to make an opponent gain control of it, this deck would prefer
you keep it to generate two Soldier tokens during each of your upkeeps.
In the early game, you can still use Jinxed Idol as a
means for either creature control on your opponent’s side or damage to
your opponent. Jinxed Idol really doesn’t shine until you have both Darien
and Warden in play. So while you’re waiting to either find or cast Darien,
use the Idol to sneak in some damage against your opponent. Otherwise,
Jinxed Idol is almost like casting Diabolic Edict on your opponent every
turn so long as you can afford to sacrifice one of your own creatures to
give it back to your opponent.
Jinxed Idol aside, the deck performs like a tribal
Soldier deck should – with lots of Soldiers. Catapult Squad, Deftblade
Elite and Whipcorder are all efficient Soldier drops that give you a
little control in the early game. They are still efficient in the late
game too. Consider this, it’s mid game and you have about 20 Soldiers
thanks to King Darien. Should one of your opponent’s creatures attack or
block, just tap out a bunch of Soldiers to deal lethal damage to that
creature with Catapult Squad.
Because of the higher number of Soldiers in the deck
that are actually cards, Field Marshal has a more important role than the
last deck. Combined with a few copies of Glorious Anthem, your deck should
perform like a white weenie deck in the beginning while you’re waiting to
drop King Darien. And with Darien in play, the Field Marshal will still
give your tokens a boost to turn this deck into a mean beatdown deck. Does
white have an Overrun?
A little note about Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: she
doesn’t combo with anything in the deck. She does, however, have some nice
synergy. A deck with King Darien wants your opponent to attack you or at
the very least, throw some direct damage your way. The ultimate goal,
after all, is bringing your opponent down to zero life or less. With
Michiko in play, you get a double-edged sword. King Darien will generate
some tokens AND Michiko will make your opponent sacrifice a permanent.
Let’s hope they aren’t playing some WG token deck. I thought she was a
cool inclusion in the deck, but remember that this is just my concept.
Replace her with another Field Marshal if you like.
Some other cards in the deck, like Privileged Position,
offer some protection against your opponent’s removals spells. In the case
of Slate of Ancestry, this card can provide some card drawing/advantage
while you have lots of Soldiers in play. I originally played around with
the inclusion of Raise the Alarm, but decided that Disenchant was needed
with all of the new cool and exciting artifacts and enchantments running
amok in casual Magic.
Lastly, the mana base is interesting. I have 18 basic
Plains, two Ancient Tombs, some Nomad Stadiums and a lone Daru Encampment.
Both the Nomad Stadium and the Ancient Tomb provide some synergy with
Darien. Also, the Ancient Tombs can help power out a quick Privileged
Position or even a quick Darien! I even have Noble Templar in the main
decklist to help search out your Plains in case you’re experiencing either
a mana screw or lack of lands to cast a Darien. Noble Templar also makes
for an efficient blocker and a worthy attacker with vigilance.
I had considered some other Soldiers for the deck like
Soltari Emissary, Aven Farseer, Longbow Archer and Daru Warchief. Soltari
Emissary would have been nice with his gift of shadow walking, but I ended
up using Catapult Squad in his place. Longbow Archer would have also been
nice with his ability to block fliers but I was trying to stay away from
Soldiers that already had first strike since Field Marshal grants it while
in play. Daru Warchief would have also been a great inclusion but I
already had Field Marshal in the deck and most of the cards in this deck
don’t cost a whole lot. I would encourage you to try some other Soldiers
out to fit this deck to your liking.
This deck, while not perfect, should give you a good
idea of how Darien performs in a tribal Soldier deck. While I encourage
you to try this deck out, I also encourage you to make this deck list your
own with any additions you think are better.
|
. |
