MTG Salvation

Well, it looks to me as if this new set has only provided one potentially playable (or at least testable) Soldier card for this deck.

Court Street Denizen
:2mana::symw:
Creature - Human Soldier

Whenever another white creature enters the battlefield under your control, tap target creature an opponent controls
2/2


The 2/2 body for 2W is pretty mediocre, but his combat ability could potentially be useful in this deck to get an alpha strike past blockers.

Might warrant some testing, but unfortuantely, Wizards seems intent upon only printing weak Limited-fodder soldiers in every set.

Yeah pretty disappointed with not having anything worth considering in this release. If any guild was to produce a playable card it would be boros.
But what card would you actually want printed? Tutor soldier would be nice. A suppression field soldier for 2 mana would be awesome, or if aven mind censor was a soldier.

Every time I play this deck I get the striking feeling that this is basically a single really good Soldier away from being a legitimate Tier-1 deck.

A tutor soldier might do it, as long as it was aggressively costed - 2W or 1W, and he let you tutor for any Soldier card and put it directly into your hand. Then you could run 1-ofs of powerful but niche cards like Loxodon Gatekeeper and Crib Swap.

A soldier with a really great combat ability would do it. Something with the same power level as Tarmogoyf or Stoneforge Mystic. Say, a 3/4 with lifelink and doublestrike for 2W or something similarly powerful.

A soldier with a highly disruptive ability would do it. I love Suppression Field, but it's mostly a sideboard card for me becausein some matchups it doesn't do much. But if you put that abilty on a 2/2 Soldier, and made it cost 2W or something, then you'd have an insane maindeck card.

I hope wizards pushes for some competitive prints. Pretty much all colors bar white have had good tribal decks in some format lately. A walking suppression field or winter orb would def achieve that. Here's hoping.

The good news is that Wizards is definitely printing more and more Soldiers with every set. So far the Dragon's Maze spoiler is up to 62/166 and I already see FOUR Soldiers. The bad news is that two of the Soldiers are 3U and 3B respectively, and the 3W Soldier is pretty "blah" as usual for recent soldiers.However, this one is very interesting:The blue mana in the casting cost is the major downside, but against certain types of decks this is just an amazing effect. Casting this against Goblins is really great. And the effect works against non-creatures as well, so it could be useful in a bunch of different situations.Cavern of Souls and Preeminent Captain make this somewhat playable, but non-white mana is still bad. In the end, it probably won't see play because of the casting cost, but if Soldiers could just be granted a Tutor, then we could play this as a 1-of in the sideboard.

Now that the entire spoiler is up, I think the only other creature that is really relevant to Legacy Soldiers is:

Haazda Snare Guard

:2mana::symw: Creature - Human Soldier Whenever Haazda Snare Guard attacks you may pay :symw:. If you do, tap target creature an opponent controls.They've been probation officers, army grunts, bouty hunters—anything to make their district safer.Illus. David Palumbo #2/1661/4

For 2W you basically get Whipcorder that can attack while it's tapping a creature down.

I'm interested in building a Soldier Stompy Deck, but I'm not too sure how the deck has changed since Deathblade and Shardless have started to reign supreme in the legacy world. I have been looking at this list as a place to start:

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=3122&d=219617

Does anyone have any ideas or lists they would like to share?

I feel as if the deck is solid, but is still 1 major piece away from being a contender. It still needs one more really good disruptive soldier, or a soldier tutor, or just a beastly combat soldier. Also, since the dominance of Deathrite Shaman, Suppression Field seems stronger.

Lists seem to run 3x Cavern of Souls and my instinct would be to go with 4. Any specific reasons to go with 3?

Quote from BasqueRootwalla

Lists seem to run 3x Cavern of Souls and my instinct would be to go with 4. Any specific reasons to go with 3?

I play 4 and I don't see any reason to run less unless a.) you can't afford 4 for budget reasons or b.) you play Suppression Field and feel like you need the white mana for a non-soldier spell

I've been fiddling around online with this list. It's performing better than I expected it to, although that may be the competition I'm facing more than the deck itself (went 2-2 in the only daily I've had time for). I'm inclined to think this would be worse in paper, since force of will is much more prevalent there than online.

Quote from oracle03

I've been fiddling around online with this list. It's performing better than I expected it to, although that may be the competition I'm facing more than the deck itself (went 2-2 in the only daily I've had time for). I'm inclined to think this would be worse in paper, since force of will is much more prevalent there than online.

mtgaccount's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Ballyrush Banneret 4 Captain of the Watch 4 Chalice of the Void 4 Chrome Mox 2 Commander Eesha 4 Daru Warchief 4 Enlistment Officer 2 Field Marshal 2 Gustcloak Savior 4 Preeminent Captain 4 Suppression Field 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 4 Ancient Tomb 4 Cavern of Souls 2 Karakas 8 Plains		3 Cursed Totem 2 Gustcloak Savior 3 Kor Firewalker 3 Oblivion Ring 4 Rest in Peace

It looks alright, but it has no draw ability, and it's not a turn 3-4 win deck so you're definitely going to need it later in the game. Enlistment Officer is a good one, inheritance, Mentor of the Meek which are about the only good ones. I've also found Brave the Elements useful.

Quote from oracle03

I've been fiddling around online with this list. It's performing better than I expected it to, although that may be the competition I'm facing more than the deck itself (went 2-2 in the only daily I've had time for). I'm inclined to think this would be worse in paper, since force of will is much more prevalent there than online.

This deck really doesn't fear Force of Will. It plays 4 Caverns, 4 Thalia, and alot of redundant threats. If anything, it would do *better* in a Force of Will-heavy metagame.

What this deck currently loses to is a.) Batterskull b.) True Name Nemesis c.) Terminus.

That's really it. Terminus decks can be a good matchup if you play Winter Orb and Suppression Field together alongside Chalice... but Batterskull and TNN are still the roadblocks.

With that in mind, the new Soldier recently spoiled looks *very* promising - much more so than anything printed since Cavern of Souls and Thalia.



This guy could easily fit the 3cc slot in place of maybe Field Marshal / Veteran Swordsmith. I'm excited to test him and see how it improves the bad matchups this deck currently has.

I agree, Brimaz is sick in this deck, and we could not have asked for a better 3 drop unless it was another captain.

So what does this deck look like now with Brimaz?

Probably like this

Here is my current list:

Soldiers #1:

I'm also testing a RW list with Foundry Champion instead of Captain of the Watch, and a more disruption-heavy mono-W list with 4 Suppression Field, 4 Winter Orb, and 4 Chalice maindeck and less soldiers, and less lands (only 16).


I don't yet know how to fit Brimaz into the deck. I like to play more colorless mana than white mana, and I like to keep my WW casting costs down as much as possible. I feel that the Tombs/Cities and colorless stuff is the strength of this deck. If Brimaz cost 2W it would be so much easier to slot into this deck... as it stands, the 1WW cost means it isn't an early-game beater and probably has to compete for deck space with Daru Warchief and Captain of the Watch.

I think as a 3 drop he is far better than Porcelain Legionnaire and Veteran Swordsmith, so either of those being dropped seems right to me.

Quote from Wildfire393

Porcelain Legionnaire really costs 2, and Veteran Swordsmith is much easier to play off of Sol Lands.

True enough, though I can say that with 4 ancient tombs if you can ever cast legionnaire for 3, you need to. Either way though, I would much rather Have a Brimaz in play than either of them. He survives bolt, provides consistent blockers (everything he makes has vigilence, and he has it as well), and makes tokens for our lords to pump. If you are looking at it from a cost-to-reward ratio he gets you more for your money than either of them.

Quote from -spooky-

True enough, though I can say that with 4 ancient tombs if you can ever cast legionnaire for 3, you need to. Either way though, I would much rather Have a Brimaz in play than either of them. He survives bolt, provides consistent blockers (everything he makes has vigilence, and he has it as well), and makes tokens for our lords to pump. If you are looking at it from a cost-to-reward ratio he gets you more for your money than either of them.

No doubt that Brimaz is a better creature than both Swordsmith and Legionairre, but this is a tempo deck first and foremost. I've won many games with quick pressure brought on by Legionnaire cast turn1 off a single sol-land or mox+land. I've also played Swordsmith many times for lethal damage via pumping attackers with only one white mana source in play. Killing fast is so vitally important for this deck which means that Legionaire and Swordsmith potential as one and two drops with sol-lands is huge.

Of course Brimaz has more value over time as a consistent attacker and blocker but it is not as valuable as a fast early game threat.

Quote from Coinman

With the Legendary bouncing it seems to me that a (it may be a little slow) Mikaeus, the Lunarch would be useful because with all of this mana potential a Mikaeus can buff a lot without having to tap it to add +1/+1 counters to it. It may not be buffed by your other creature but it can buff everything else on your board.

A.) Not a soldier. This deck doesn't want to play any creature that is not a soldier. If it did, the only creature that would even be remotely considered is Stoneforge Mystic.


B.) Pumping guys is NOT the problem this deck has. This deck dies to stuff like Punishing Fire, Batterskull, True Name Nemesis and Terminus. AKA anti-aggro strategies that wouldn't really be solved by a guy like Mikaeus, because all of this stuff stymies creatures early in the game. Mikaeus is eons slower than stuff this deck already has - i.e. Daru Warchief, Captain of the Watch, etc.

If this deck is to take a step forward, the use of Gustcloak Savior is going to be crucial to this deck's strategy.

The three things that this deck has struggled against in my testing have been a.) Early flipped Delver, b.) Batterskull, and c.) True Name Nemesis. Gustcloak Savior provides answers to all three. He is a blocker that kills Delver and lives, and he allows the deck's other soldiers to attack unabated into TNN and Batterskulls without allowing the opponent to gain any favorable position on the board. With Gustcloak Savior in play, the Soldier deck is free to race any opposing deck without worrying about sustaining casualties and weakening board position.

At 5 mana, he is costly, but only one white mana is required to cast him, so Tombs and Cities make it easier, as well as Banneret and Warchief. I can't believe I missed this guy when I searched magiccards.info for Soldiers to play in this deck, but he is clearly integral to this strategy and I might even play him as a 4-of in the main deck.

So I have been experimenting with this deck and I have also concluded Gustcloak Savior is a 4 of maindeck. The card I recommend removing is actually Captain of the Watch. Yes she is an extremely powerful card, but she helps you win when you're ahead, much like Siege Gang Commander does in Goblins. The problem is you're not always ahead, and Gustcloak helps you win from behind.

One problem I have is consistently getting mana for the bigger creatures. Red stompy decks have Simian Spirit Guide to help get free R when needed, but there really isn't an equivalent here. I noticed you only run 17 land, but I've gone up to 20 and still have issue with costs.