A couple of weeks ago, Dark Ascension previewed this little gem:
When Sorin was previewed, I figured that BW Tokens – already a fringe deck that shows up a little here and there in Daily results – would become insane. At that point, the only other card I knew about that would fit into the deck would be the new Raise the Alarm that makes Humans, Gather the Townsfolk, which already helps the curve of the existing BW Tokens deck considerably. So I wanted to take the current iteration of BW Tokens through a Daily and to see what its strengths and weaknesses were — how it played, bad matchups, that sort of thing.
Then, more and more cards that were seemingly made for BW Tokens were previewed: Lingering Souls, Vault of the Archangel, Thraben Doomsayer. Then I became really glad I decided to show off BW Tokens today; it looks to be really high on the relevance scale right now.
This is the list I played:
ISD Block BW Tokens by Gard
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Decklist Video
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Innistrad Block Constructed Daily Event Round 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Innistrad Block Constructed Daily Event Round 2
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Innistrad Block Constructed Daily Event Round 3
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Innistrad Block Constructed Daily Event Round 4
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.So, with a 4-0 record before Sorin, I guess I’m virtually on lock to showcase the updated version once Dark Ascension comes out. The Innistrad version pleasantly surpassed my expectations. But until then, I’ll be patiently waiting for Dark Ascension!
gardevior[at]gmail[dot]com
Gard on MTGO
@leemcleo on Twitter
Thanks for reading!
-Lee McLeod
Grats on making a sweet deck. Looks fun.
What you did wrong:
Got irritated about the zombie tokens being different when you play Moan of the Unhallowed. This might even qualify as being beyond a first world problem.
Thank you very much for the video
Good deck.
After the article about Splinterfright i tried that deck and lost 0-3… with this deck I’m 2-0 for now, so good job
!
Its definitely obvious that you were so far ahead it wouldn’t really matter but in your last match you were choosing to go to your attack step and swing out with your zombie tokens while he had his fox against you. I don’t know if there were any tricks you need to bluff having but if you play your orb pre combat you are able to sidestep taking two brimstones to the face for 10 total if he just chumps with his fox. Either way you were really far ahead and it probably would not have mattered and I may just be wrong.
Either way, would love to try playing this deck but the price of Sorin upon release will keep me from playing it for a bit
Awesome video, play, analysis, and attitude. I look forward to more in the future!
@Tokamak: I just want my cards to match and be pretty!
@Brandon: I think swinging prior to Orb is defensible. If he just wants to chump with the Fox (he doesn’t have mana to get my enchantment and double Volley), and then double Volleys me for 10, I’m at 4 with a Witchbane Orb in play, a Sever the Bloodline in my graveyard, and he has 0 cards in hand. And, because he didn’t remove my enchantment, I have lethal in zombie tokens. I can’t think of a card that gets him out from under my board presence off the top of his deck (Monk’s spirit tokens would die to Sever and the other two zombies would kill him). Playing the Orb first eliminates giving him that possibility, and kind of just forces him into making the play that he made anyway – chump/sac’ing the Fox and single-Volleying me.
Doesn’t matter either way, but as I don’t know the 2 cards in his hand, I can always hope that he has the two Volleys and just really wants to try and get me.
Cool deck with plenty of upside in the next set.
I can say based on this limited selection of games against all W/x aggro decks that you would probably be better off having 2 more lands as the biggest stumbling block you seemed to have in games wasn’t what your opponent was doing but getting to that 4th and 5th land. Your chance to hit all your land drops on 4 and 5 are 63.1% and 46.7% OTP and 72.6% and 57.3% OTD. I think generally the rule of thumb when you have inevitability is that you want these numbers to be in the 70-80% range. At 26 lands, these same values OTP are 71.6 and 56.7 and OTD are 80.2 and 67.2.
Again, this is based on the limited number of games observed but the 2 cards I would cut (or move to the sideboard) would be the Mentors as it seemed like they were mostly just an Ogre for you as you either never had the mana or would rather cast Haunting.
Now take this with a grain of salt as I don’t know the format and there could be matchups where Mentor shines. Based on what I saw I would assume that Mentors are for the control matchup as increased threat density (particularly a threat that can give card advantage) might be more important than getting to your large drops on time. It depends on whether they have to deal with every threat or not.
Anyway, not telling you what to do at all just giving you something to think about. You have far more games against a much larger variety of opponents than I have seen and based on that you’ll probably know in your gut whether I’m right or if i have no idea what I’m talking about.
Man, you got lucky. I have been playing either the BW Liliana Token Deck, or BWg Liliana Garruk Token deck, and I go 2-0, but then run into a guy who is playing either RW and get’s his entire deck out by turn 4, or I run head first into URB Burning Vengeance, which destroy’s BW, or BRGu Control or BRUg control, which is just un-winnable for a BW deck.
I think you got a little lucky against W/G because Token W/G runs travelers amulets and he wasn’t, you didn’t run into the RU agriculture deck, and you didn’t play annoying control decks. You got good matchups against people who got slightly mana-screwed.
Either way, I already have my W/B/g ISD Block deck with DKA built, just need to get to the pre-release.
Either way, it’s
4x Sorin
4x Liliana
4x Grafdiggers Cage
4x Witchbane Orb
And you have your opponent controlled if you get the 3. out by turn 4 along with some sort of creature as a blocker like Doomed Traveler, and 1 removal spell, because Liliana is a removal spell herself.
But that there is a turn 5 win.
@OSUBeavBane: I agree with you, another land would be good for this deck. And Mentor is one of the weaker cards in the deck – it’s very mediocre in the “Gotta race ‘em” aggro mirrors, but gains a lot of value against control and Splinterfright where you have time to build up a board presence and you’re trying to stretch their removal thin. i’ve played versions with no mentors and lilianas, and versions with 25 land. Right now, I like the 25 land and Liliana version, as it’s a better card against control anyway, and isn’t dead vs Boros like Mentor basically is.
@TERROl2: i don’t really think you can afford to play Cages or Orbs maindeck both as 4-ofs. I certainly wouldn’t play Cage maindeck at all, as it’s useless against a bunch of decks that will just seek to beat you down (Boros, various Token decks), and you don’t want too many cards that dilute your plan of actually killing them.
How does this deck beat garruk and liliana? I’ve been trying it out and doing well against everything but the deck that plays those with sever and blasphemous act.
What are your thoughts on running Skirsdag High Priest over the Bloodline Keeper? I know it’s toughness is risky but in conjunction with virtue it’s easier to pull off while maintaining some pressure.
@Anon1: The control matchups are significantly harder than the aggro ones. To beat planeswalkers, you basically have to have a Virtue and/or two or more Midnight Hauntings or Moan of the Unhallowed (to play around Liliana’s edict effect). You have to hope they don’t draw Sever (or you have a diverse token army) until you can play a five-drop or Keeper so that you aren’t super behind if they waste either your tokens or your Keeper/five-drop.
@Anon2: Skirsdag High Priest was in a few versions I tried. It did basically nothing. The first thing they’ll kill will always be High Priest because a Demon is so threatening, so it never gets to activate. Most versions with Skirsdag try to use Altar’s Reap and Mausoleum Guard to make it a little more effective to trigger morbid without them killing your Skirsdag, but that just dilutes the deck to make it more of a combo version, where the combo is making your deck less effective to get a Demon token out. Bloodline Keeper is mediocre, but can at least take over a game on its own, without additional help.
Thanks for replying! Long time listener, first time caller. Hope to see more vids with this deck soon. Keep up with the awesome website!
I totally agree on your comments about Mentor of the Meek. When he works, he’s amazing but he so rarely works, especially in a tournament level game. You’ve spent 3 mana and a card, which only works when you’re ahead already. His best purpose is to soak up the removal spell, to which you’d be better off with an imposing 2 drop you never really expect to work (like Skirsdag High Priest!). I’d imagine Thalia will be the key to this part of the deck when DKA arrives.
I’ve already starting seeing the B/W Tokens around the traps, likely it will become as common as the R/W Boros in anticipation of Dark Ascension. To blow my own trumpet (with no evidence because I don’t blog magic) I had a gut feeling W/B was going to be big for DKA because of Cloistered Youth – such a flavourful card that stuck out a bit different to rest of ISD… I felt it was going to be a key to the DKA themes.
I can commiserate a bit with @TERROl2, I’ve tried a few “netdecks” which won 100% on the video blogs, to struggle to scrap a 20% victory. With some decks I could tell it was more to do with just how I played it… decks that are heavy burn and removal never work for me, but creature and combo decks I “get” so much more. Think I’ll be giving this one a go, R/W Boros got boring quickly and most 2-player games quickly turned into a match up and luck/order of the draw… but I dare say this will follow a similar path