The plan of this deck is to get down Gideon of the Trials emblem as soon as possible and then control the board with removal, and also cards such as pacts and take-extra turn effects without experiencing their penalty. I am currently still testing the deck, but so far it has yielded relatively positive results against some of the strongest decks in the meta, but struggles still against many popular play styles. I'll now briefly go over some of the card choices and other info. Feedback is appreciated!
Gideon of the Trials
/
Gideon Blackblade
/
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
The Gideon tribal package. Gideon of the Trials allows us to get away with most of our pacts and extra turns, and the other Gideons are incredibly hard to deal and also keep us alive while the emblem is up.
Chance for Glory
/
Glorious End
These are some of our strongest tools to lock our opponent from playing the game. Glorious End is great as you can hold on to it until the opponent starts combo-ing off (just be wary of counter magic), and Chance for Glory can give some of our non-indestructible creatures resiliency as well as a guaranteed extra turn if our opponent is tapped out.
Pact of Negation
/
Slaughter Pact
/
Intervention Pact
The rest of the cards that work great with Gideon of the Trials Emblem, Pact of Negation is a surprise counter, Slaughter Pact is free removal, and Intervention Pact can keep us alive against aggressive decks, and entirely shut off
Lightning Storm
.
Smuggler's Copter
/
Mogg Fanatic
/
Thraben Inspector
Our creature package presents us with ways to keep drawing cards and not run out of steam, as well as some boots on the ground to support the Gideon army. Copter is a flier that lets us loot, Fanatic kills off humans, and the inspector is a 1 drop that draws us cards in the long run and crews copter as well. Great!
Path to Exile
/
Lightning Helix
/
Mana Tithe
The removal package here is pretty simple, path for universal exile, helix to stay alive against aggro, and mana tithe because its the best magic card ever printed, so we run one of them.
Wrath of God
/
Anger of the Gods
Board clears that don't hit Gideon, so they are mostly one-sided. Also works great with copter as we can keep it as an artifact so it doesn't die.
The lands are pretty simple, 4 fetches, some shocks, one
Field of Ruin
to deal with annoying lands, and
Needle Spires
for surprise damage.
In the sideboard, some
Blood Moon
to kill tron and other decks, with also
Rest in Peace
against graveyard shenanigans, and
Leyline of Sanctity
against discard and burn. The rest is more board clears and artifact removal.
Overall, the deck has proven to be very effective if the Gideon emblem hits the field. It hasn't been too clunky when drawing pacts and extra-turns without the emblem, but it does happen so that is definitely a weakness of the deck. In addition, it seems to struggle against
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
a lot, and just can't seem to win against swarm decks like Spirits and Humans. I'll be updating the win rate statistics but here they are so far:
Humans 0-2
Arclight Phoenix 2-0
Spirits 1-4
Mill 1-0
Burn 4-1
Ad Nauseum 2-1
Tron 1-2
So far, 52.4% win rate.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to up-vote! I'm all open to suggestions on how to combat this decks weaknesses and making it as competitive as possible. Thanks again, and keep meta breaking!
