Resolute Survivors

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Resolute Survivors

Creature — Human Warrior

You may exert Resolute Survivors as it attacks. (It won't untap during your next untap step.) Whenever you exert a creature, Resolute Survivors deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain 1 life.

legendofa on The more I think about …

7 months ago

Dragging this back out to obsess about it some more with the release of the Planeswalker's Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 2. The city is being rebuilt with outside help, and it seems like enough living people and mummies survived to facilitate that. That answers two of my questions, but I still have no idea what the population numbers are. Either the city of Naktamun was much bigger than I assumed, the death toll of two wars was much lower than I assumed, or both.


Point 1: What counts as a survivor? Are only living people counted as survivors, or are mummies included? Grisly Survivor, Resolute Survivors, and Survivors' Encampment don’t provide many useful hints. There’s also Disposal Mummy, Dutiful Servants, Mummy Paramount, and Unraveling Mummy as the Amonkheti mummies in the Hour of Devastation set. In the 2017 online stories, there’s almost no mention of the mummies once the Hour of Devastation starts, and they don’t show up in the card art unless they’re the focus, so the number of mummies after the Hours is a complete unknown.

As a side point, there’s no real indication that the mummies of Amonkhet are independent, or even sentient, before the Aetherdrift Guide. In fact, cards like Dutiful Servants carry the implication that they are very much not self-aware, but Unconventional Tactics make that more ambiguous. In the Aetherdrift Guide, though, they suddenly demand independence and partnership, and have opinions and desires. This is the sort of detail I would have loved to see in the Amonkhet stories (and I was reading them as they came out). Even just a couple of paragraphs from a mummy’s point of view would flesh out the world that much more.

The March of the Machine story doesn’t offer anything else. The Amonkhet cards in March of the Machine are Blossoming Sands, Djeru and Hazoret, Injector Crocodile, Invasion of Amonkhet  Flip, Khenra Spellspear  Flip, Ruins Recluse, Sandstalker Moloch, Swamp, and Unseal the Necropolis, none of which offer too much insight.

So the number of mummies helping clear rubble and replant farms and construct a racetrack is a giant question mark. They’re simply there when they need to be and not there when they don’t. Do they count as survivors? I honestly have no idea, and that bugs me.


Point 2: How many survivors are there? The current population of Amonkhet is apparently enough to have "crowds lining the route and packing the grandstands", which to me suggests more than a few hundred, or even a few thousand. I would take this as at least tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand, going off typical capacities for major motor sports stadiums. This probably includes mummies as well as living people, but the total is still several orders of magnitude larger than what I would have expected.

Incidentally, I would expect the mummies—who explicitly failed the trials, usually with a major injury—to be the first ones to die. I don’t pretend to know much about invading, but cutting off supply lines seems to be pretty popular, and neither Nicol Bolas or Elesh Norn seem to have thought of that. Nicol Bolas even made sure that the people of Naktamun were entirely reliant on mummy labor, and he doesn't take advantage of that. So much for masterminds and tactical geniuses... Mummies are explicitly said to massively outnumber the living in the Aetherdrift Guide, so either Amonkhet was like 75% mummy for the Hour of Reckoning (not especially borne out by the story or cards), or they had a very low casualty rate across two invasions.

The Aetherdrift Guide includes the sentences "The Phyrexian invasion saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Amonkheti. Newly risen under the Walking Curse, these fresh undead were not eager to submit to the old order of servile mummification." I'm getting two inferences from this. First, the Phyrexians did not process, convert, or utilize tens of thousands of dead Amonkheti for whatever reason--were they immediately coated in lazotep as soon as they died?. Second, the living population of Naktamun after Hour of Devastation was at least in the tens of thousands.

So after the Accounting of Hours, there were enough living people for tens of thousands to die against Phyrexia. After Phyrexia, there were still enough survivors (probably including both living people and mummies) to form crowds of significant size to watch the Aetherdrift rally. So we’re blowing way past the 30,000 population of ancient Memphis, the most populated city in the world at its height and a major inspriastion for Naktamun. I’m not going to fault a city in a fantasy story being unrealistically big, but I would like to at least have an idea on how unrealistically big it is, besides just “big enough to support the story”.


Time to start headcanoning some numbers.

Starting with what I would consider at the upper edge of realistic, put the living and mummy population of Naktamun at 30,000 each, for a total of 60,000. Let's then assume a devastating, plane-threatening 80% mortality rate for each group, each conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 6,000 living and 6,000 mummies for a total population of 12,000. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,200 living people and 1,200 mummies, for a total of 2,400. That could probably serve as a base to rebuild from, but it doesn't capture grandstands full of cheering crowds or Phyrexians killing tens of thousands of people.

Try some different numbers. Now, the initial total population of Naktamun is 3,000,000. Of that, let's say 2,000,000 were mummy servants and 1,000,000 were living soldiers in constant training. (This is still very high, given the apparent technology and appearance of the city.) Let's further say that there was a 50% casualty rate among the living and 25% casualty rate among the mummies for each major conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 1,500,000 mummies and 500,000 living. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,125,000 mummies and 250,000 living. That feels too high for a city struggling to keep itself alive.

Tweaking numbers until I'm happy. 400,000 mummies; 150,000 living; 550,000 total. 60% casualty rate for both groups, each conflict. After HoD, there would be 160,000 mummies and 60,000 living survivors. After Phyrexia, there would be 64,000 mummies and 24,000 living survivors. That feels pretty okay to me. Mummies outnumber the living by about a 3:1 ratio, the Phyrexians could have killed tens of thousands of people, and there's still enough for crowds to fill grandstands and line racetracks, assuming it's mostly mummies.


On other notes from the previous discussion, there’s still no real word on where Crested Sunmare came from, which is interesting, and the “Death Race” set does go through Amonkhet.

Also... (spoilers) Show

mrweaselman on War Champs

3 years ago

Take out Garna, the Bloodflame, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Rushblade Commander, and Intimidation Bolt and this deck is pioneer legal. Some of them aren't all that good here anyways and they're not worth being in a much higher power format.

Cards that are also not very good: Chief of the Scale, Goma Fada Vanguard, and Pacifism. Cut Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants if you have trouble finding space for other cards.

Your best creatures would probably be Blood-Chin Rager and Chief of the Edge, so run 4 each.

Since you have Herald of Dromoka, you can do some pretty cool things with exert creatures. Brave the Sands also has this effect. Ahn-Crop Crasher, Combat Celebrant, Devoted Crop-Mate, and Glory-Bound Initiate are all really good warriors when paired with vigilance. Resolute Survivors too if you want to commit this route, although Brutal Hordechief is probably better. Path of Mettle  Flip is an interesting one too for grindy matches, maybe more of a sideboard card.

If you want more wide aggro, run Bloodsoaked Champion and either Gutterbones or Zurgo Bellstriker, take out vigilance or toughness effects, and work to increase power. You can win with a couple Arashin Foremost, Brutal Hordechief, and more Secure the Wastes.

Fatal Push is probably the best pioneer removal spell, but if you find larger CMC creatures in your meta Cast Down or Heartless Act will hit almost anything.

For mana base, Battlefield Forge and Caves of Koilos are better budget dual options than anything that comes in tapped. Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory are almost auto includes for tribal.

jamochawoke on

4 years ago

I like how the guy above this comment just casually strolls in and tells you to put in a bunch of moxen...

That said, warriors is one of my favorite tribes and I've made a ton of decks with them! Plus Najeela is such a badass commander! These are my suggestions that you haven't included and could serve as some better synergy with your deck than your non-warriors:

  • God-Eternal Oketra make huge 4/4 zombie warrior tokens on every warrior cast.

  • Oketra the True make warrior tokens and acts as a big beater itself.
  • Oketra's Monument tons and tons of warrior tokens.
  • Rush of Battle warrior themed overrun that gains you tons of life.
  • Herald of Anafenza gets bigger and makes warrior tokens at the same time.
  • Raiders' Spoils probably the best card draw you'll see for warrior tribal.
  • Gilt-Leaf Ambush elf warrior tokens with sometimes deathtouch.
  • Hunting Triad elf warrior tokens or modal +1/+1 counters.
  • Presence of Gond give a creature a tap for elf warrior token ability.
  • Lovisa Coldeyes more warrior lord buffs!
  • Obsidian Battle-Axe haste and auto-attach to warriors equipment!
  • Regna, the Redeemer and Krav, the Unredeemed act as a sac outlet and warrior token generation combo.
  • Lord Windgrace deck filtering, color fixing, and generation of a ton of cat warrior tokens
  • Great Hall of Starnheim gets you a 4/4 angel warrior token in a pinch
  • Base Camp cheap 5 color land for warriors
  • Starnheim Unleashed make a ton of 4/4 angel warrior tokens!
  • Emeria's Call  Flip make angel warrior tokens and give your non-angel warriors indestructible or make it a land
  • Ascent of the Worthy pretty fun tricks on this.
  • Firja's Retribution make a 4/4 angel warrior token and give angels destroy and double strike.
  • Battle for Bretagard make warrior tokens, then make copies.
  • lolboy on

    7 years ago

    maybe also add Resolute Survivors

    BlackKnightJack on Red-Green (AKH - HOU)

    7 years ago

    If this is suppose to be an exert deck then you've put in a lot of bad cards in lieu of good ones like Glorybringer and Ahn-Crop Crasher. Likewise you're completely neglecting white which has many more exert cards that are good or at least better than what you have here like Glory-Bound Initiate, Resolute Survivors, and even Vizier of the True isn't absolutely awful for the them here.

    beast_of_war on Exert

    7 years ago

    I found Resolute Survivors goes well in this deck theme as well. I was doing 8 to 10 damage with the exertion alone, then combat damage.

    beast_of_war on

    7 years ago

    Resolute Survivors is a great card. I had it in my boros exert. But no Glorybringer? Your deck is awesome.

    K1ngr3ese on Big Bad Boros

    7 years ago

    1 drops... sacred cat 2, bomat courier 2, magma spray 3

    2 drops... adorned pouncer or glory-bound initiate 3, skyterror 3, tormenting voice 4

    3 drops... aerial responder 2, combat celebrant 2, devoted crop-mate 2, sunscourge champion 2, sweltering suns 3

    4 drops... gideons intervention or ixalans binding or cast out 2

    5 drops... angel of invention, glorybringer total of 4

    7 drops... god-pharaohs gift 4

    22 Lands

    So to answer your question i think it would look something like this. Maybe some adjustments to ensure a gift midgame. Maybe Inventors' Fair if you keep scrapheaps and such or the gate. Maybe gideon walkers. Main thing is lots of creatures in an agro style, and enough draw so you dont gas out and enough life(lots of lifegain from creatures to help counter other agro decks) to pull a wincon if game goes long. Gideon/ixalans for scrab god or other troublesome things. Then gift to stay going midgame.

    Some other thoughts... -you could make a semi exertion style deck with Combat Celebrant + Resolute Survivors type deal and run anointed procession for double tokens off gift and basically win off drain from survivors- i have been messing with my mardu again because of the success with my boros... anointed processions and panharmonicons are both pretty sick in reanimators(i like procession better). Ixalans binding is under-rated. Yes it is slow, but, for example, it locks ramunap red out of the scarey stuff they play multiples of (ferocidon, glorybringer, hazorets). Ixalans is reactive, gideons intervention is proactive. I like both. Your 1,3 & 4 drop slot become great sideboard slots for the deck as you can customize your removal packages with flexibility. 4 interventions for control, 4 settle the wreckage for agro/energy, 4 bindings... doesnt matter, go nuts. Hope that helps.

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