Welcome One and All to to the fabulous eccentric billionaire Gideon's Blood Drive for charity!
This deck looks to play a game of hand disruption, mid range token generation, and then to combo off with a sacrifice outlet and a Blood Artist. Additionally it can often just turn into a beaty token deck and win through those means. I've been slowly optimizing this deck to be both competitive and fun to play, and I think I struck a healthy balance.
Main board non-land card choices:
Our 4x Blood Artist and it's singleton brother Zulaport Cutthroat act as our combo engine. They require a sacrifice outlet, and several bodies to sac in order to win the game.
We run 2x Cartel Aristocrat as a sac outlet. If Eldrazi didn't exist I'd probably run more, but as it is, the fact that this card can't protect itself from colorless makes it often an easy card to cut down to one of when sideboarding. Against certain decks however, it's great. It's the only non-token creature we have that survive world -1-1 effects like Night of Souls' Betrayal. Also against burn and general spot removal, this card rekts with things to sacrifice, laughing in the face of removal and Goblin Guides alike.
A play-set of Dark Confidant, because value value value. We desperately need draw in this deck, and if this guy lives, hes a great accelerate to counteract what otherwise may leave us running out of gas.
2x Falkenrath Aristocrat. This card turns eyes and makes people read it. A 4/1 with evasion and haste lets this deck turn into a beats deck, and the fact that it survives destroy effects with a sac outlet means it's pesky to remove and can win games itself.
2x Fatal Push, because this deck also runs 2x Tragic Slip, so it feels like basically running a playset of mostly the same good kill spells. Push of course is a little better most of the time, but Slip becomes much better some times.
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. This card works well almost all the time. If my board state is wide, and I have a lot of fliers that I'm sure will get through, it's often not common to drop Gideon and instantly kill him for his emblem. Then go wide. If that's not the case, the 2/2's offer constant bodies to be sacrificed, or to just swing. Additionally, Gideon's plus one is crazy, so long as your opponent isn't holding a Path to Exile. This card is it's own combo, a house.
1x Gideon of the Trials because this deck looks to grind games out, and Gideon's emblem is the perfect solution for such things. Also it makes this deck Gideon tribal now, which is awesome.
1x Rally the Ancestors for another alternate win con.
3x Inquisition of Kozilek and 2x Thoughtseize, to ensure rather consistent early game and turn one hand disruption, but not to much for the mid and late game, as it often can become dead.
4x Lingering Souls: The best token production in modern and for this deck. Lots of bodies to go wide with and to sac. The flashback makes this so efficient.
3x Mogg War Marshal: One of the reason's I run red in this white black tokens variant is Moggy boy. This guy is so efficient, becoming a body to sac that makes 2 guys. 3 sac outlets and 2 guys. Beautiful. People say stuff like: "You should run Doomed Traveler, and then Marshal leaps out of the card and slaps people for their foolishness. It even sacs itself :D
3x Path to Exile: Though the exile sometimes feels bad, this is still the best spot removal in the format alongside Lightning Bolt, who sadly didn't make the cut. The drawbacks are minimal, and until something better comes along it's a staple I have to oblige by.
2x Viscera Seer because hes the best sacrifice outlet usually. Great efficient body.
I'm not explaining the lands, save 2x Concealed Courtyard. These lands are amazing, especially paired with a turn one Thoughtseize effect. The other lands are check lands rather than tangos, because it's more likely to draw into the singletons later when you have one of the required land sub-types to enter untapped.
The SideBoard is often the most crucial part of piloting this deck, and it's gone through many tweaks:
2x Worship to deal with pesky decks that like to go faster than me or disrupt my tempo then beat me down.
2x A friend showed me this beautiful tech to ruin Storm and Controls day: Kambal, Consul of Allocation.
2x Pithing Needle, because it's a one drop that turns off so many things.
2x
Slaughter Games
is a prime reason to run red. This turns combos off, and can't be stopped, so long as I make it to turn 4. Great Scapeshift hate. It's also fun to name stuff like peoples planeswalkers, especially those pesky Nahiri, the Harbinger decks. Again, it's good against storm, save you last that long.
2x Stony Silence shuts down affinity and tron decks to a lesser extent sometimes. Ruin's Thopter Foundry's day lol. Other such degenerate things yadayad...
They banned Gitaxian Probe, but yea 2x Surgical Extraction is fair.
2x Wear / Tear, because it's just really good at killing two birds with one Stone. Extra hate against Affinity? Check. Worried about Blood Moon? No problem float some white mana.
1x Engineered Explosives for my board wipe. Helps fight against other token decks and creature decks, and board wipes are nice as they often help me get alot of Blood Artist triggers and can flat out win the game for me.
