Heroic Soldiers of Urd - 2nd Place at FNM!

Standard Nelstone

SCORE: 67 | 85 COMMENTS | 14104 VIEWS | IN 53 FOLDERS


FRF Spoilers: Maybe one change to the deck. —Jan. 9, 2015

The only Soldiers in Fate Reforged Abzan Skycaptain and Elite Scaleguard, both of which have a converted mana cost exceeding this deck's limits. Pressure Point is an interesting cantrip, but not better than either Chosen by Heliod or Defiant Strike.

Valorous Stance could take the place of Ajani's Presence in the sideboard. I've ordered a playset just in case.

So, until Dragons of Tarkir is spoiled, I don't see this deck changing much.

Nelstone says... #1

aDynamite, that's so awesome! :D Congrats on the performance! Sultai control (and control in general) is a tough matchup for this kind of deck. You did well!

My plan against Abzan/Sidisi Whip and G/B Constellation is to hold back Erase specifically for Whip of Erebos. I will hold off on exiling Courser of Kruphix if they run Whips. The Whip is the most dangerous card in their deck. They will mill out Hornet Queen, Siege Rhino, and other huge creatures just to whip them in later. Take away their Whip, maintain your board state, bash their skull.

I'm not too concerned with Doomwake Giant, so long as an Obelisk of Urd is in place. If you have an uncountered Phalanx Leader and a bunch of Soldier tokens out waiting for an Obelisk, then the Giant is bad news.

The tinkering continues. I am going to modify the deck before the next FNM. I'm going to drop 2x Abzan Falconer and 2x Launch the Fleet in favor of 3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos and 1 more Plains.

It's been my experience that Launch the Fleet can be a difficult card to take full advantage of. To get more out of it than a few Heroic triggers, you have to attack (says the man that says obvious things.) I'm finding that this deck will need to stabilize the board and have a strong board state before it is safe to attack, more often than not. That means that Launch will either sit in your hand unused, or be used only as a way to add a few counters, or cat soldiers in the case of Vanguard of Brimaz. That being said, I think Brimaz, King of Oreskos will offer a faster and more reliable means of getting more soldiers (vigilant ones, no less) onto the field. Regarding Abzan Falconer, by the time making everyone flying becomes a lethal option, the creatures are usually big enough on the ground to not have to fly to kill. They will just bash through.

I thought about going with 2 Brimaz and 2 Archetype of Courage instead, but I think it's more important to make land drops on time, which is why I'm bumping it to 22. I know that to truly make it most likely that you'll hit your lands on time 24-25 need to be run. Since this deck curves out at 3 mana, I think 22 is the right place to be. My one loss at FNM was due to being mana screwed twice, once having to mulligan to 5. I do think including the Archetype in the deck is a great idea, though.

So far, I have seen nothing in the FRF spoilers that will benefit this deck. As of this writing (01.08.2015) 104/185 cards have been spoiled, which includes almost all of the Uncommons, Rares and Mythic Rares. I'm not holding out much hope that anything is left to be spoiled that will take the place of something in this deck. We shall see.

January 8, 2015 10:34 a.m.