Someday, We'll Be Famous
Standard Aggro Casual Collected Company GW (Selesnya) Midrange Theme/Gimmick
Creature (20)
Land (20)
Enchantment (3)
Instant (17)
Sideboard
Creature (3)
Instant (12)
TO GLORY, MEN!
The time has come for this band of mercenaries to make their names known across the planes! Anointed with holy blessings of the martyred Anafenza and armed with fearsome steeds large enough to crush foes beneath their hooves, they can ride down their craven enemies while their wall of blades holds the line. Even if the enemy manages to stall the army's advance, the finest hieromancers and scouting parties will always find a way through their defenses to let these brave soldiers claim the honor and glory they seek.
The Citadel Castellan rallies her company.
This is a renown deck with a whole boatload of fun synergies, like free +1/+1 buffs at instant speed, trample and evasion serving both as renown triggers and removal defense, mid- and late-game unblockability and lifelink, and some sideboarded removal of its own to take care of those pesky Siege Rhinos.
MEET THE TROOPS
Anointer of Champions is a deceptively solid one-drop. The 1/1 body is nothing special, and her ability can't be used on herself, so you're essentially trading an attack for a buff on another attacker. Her real value doesn't become apparent until you have two or three other creatures on the board (which you should, thanks to the mass of 2-drops and Collected Company). Once her teammates show up, Anointer really starts to shine as an instant speed no-mana +1/+1 buffer, forcing your opponent to declare blocks without knowing who you'll choose to improve. Using her effectively, you can force trades, let your beefier fighters shrug off Lightning Strikes and Searing Bloods, get extra lifelink with War Oracle , abuse the first striking abilities of Consul's Lieutenant , and win fights from Dromoka's Command. She might not be renowned, but she certainly deserves it!
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is not the best 2-drop in this deck, but she makes an excellent third. You should be playing creatures almost every turn (unless you're going against removal-heavy red or black, see sideboard), and those bolster counters quickly add up. A couple Topan Freeblade s in, and even Anointer will be a respectable 2/2 or 3/3, able to attack in her own right when not buffing. Anafenza rarely attacks unless the enemy board is wide open, as her bolster effect is too valuable to risk in combat.
Topan Freeblade is the workhorse of this army. A 2/2 with vigilance for 1W is pretty good, but combined with one of the deck's many evasive spells her renown triggers and she becomes a fairly scary 3/3 (4/4 with Anointer, enough to save against a lightning strike at instant speed without using any mana, I can't emphasize that enough!) vigilant on turn 3. If she gets any more buffs from Anafenza or later on, Citadel Siege, she can start soloing Siege Rhinos. And putting a Grasp of the Hieromancer on her is very intimidating indeed, as she becomes exceedingly difficult to block while remaining able to block herself. This is a viable alternative to putting GotH on Citadel Castellan, who is surely going to be your enemy's primary target once she becomes renowned.
Consul's Lieutenant is the heaviest hitter in the ranks. If he comes out supported by Anointer on turn two, his turn three attack as a 3/2 first striker is very difficult to stop. Once he triggers renown, the real pain starts. Anointer can now attack as a 2/2, or buff his first strike even more, and the Freeblades and Castellans can punish really gruesomely and safely thanks to vigilance. The WW is a bit constricting, as many opening hands may leave you with no second plains/fetch, but Topan Freeblade is a good backup choice to hold the line while the Lieutenant makes his way to the front.
Company Captain Citadel Castellan likes to lead from the front, and with her reasonable cost and Collected Company you'll often be fielding two of them at a time. 2/3 with Vigilance is decent for defensive purposes; but get an attack through with evasion or trample and she becomes a frankly terrifying 4/5, which can further get buffs from Anointer and the Lieutenant. Provided you have a decent mana base and a combat trick or two in your hand, she's fully capable of beating your opponent to death in a few turns right through their creatures.
War Oracle , the company medic, isn't going to get fielded until the mid or late game--which is just fine, because that's where she shines the most. Midgame lifelink with a renown trigger and Anointer buffs can keep you alive for a very long time, as she'll be giving you 5 life with every swing. You can also use Dromoka's Command to fight a creature before combat, letting her net you a full 10 life in one turn as well as killing a creature before blocks! Her biggest downside is her mana cost, which both makes her a poor initial draw and means she gets skipped over by Collected Company. She's much more situational than the rest of the deck, so think of her as a late-game heavy hitter and game-extending contingency rather than someone you want to rush out as quickly as possible.
STOP BY THE ARMORY
Mighty Leap and Tread Upon are the meat and potatoes of this deck. Renown will trigger off of a single point of damage to your opponent, and as all of the renown creatures in this deck are at least 2/1, either of these spells will typically be enough both to let them survive hitting a blocker and dealing damage to trigger their renown. In a pinch, you can also use these spells as pure attack or body buffs, dealing the last 2 points of damage to a weakened opponent, winning a Dromoka fight, or combining with Anointer to save Consul's Lieutenant from a Lightning Strike. They're cheap, have a colorless component, and work great with every creature in the deck. You should have at least four Leaps at all times, and Tread Upons unless you know you're facing quick fatties (like ramping green or abzan, where protection is more important).
Grasp of the Hieromancer is my favorite Origins card, because it's dirt cheap at 1W and gives any aggro creature a serious boost. It's especially potent in this deck, which depends so heavily on getting that first hit in past defenses. While you might want to save this for a turn 4 or 5 renowned Citadel Castellan, that makes the creature such a removal magnet that it probably won't be able to exploit Hieromancer more than one or two turns. Instead, consider putting this on your early game guys like Anointer of Champions and Consul's Lieutenant . This spreads out the threat, as well as giving you the ability to force more trades (and then cheat the trade with Anointer). The +1/+1 is a nice bonus, but since Auras are at sorcery speed it doesn't have much utility beyond making your tiniest creatures a little beefier.
Collected Company is a delightful card, for obvious reasons. In a deck like this, where nearly 1/3rd of the cards are creatures callable by CoCo, you're virtually guaranteed at LEAST one per cast, and usually two (one of which will probably be Citadel Castellan, usually giving you more than the CoCo value). As always, cast this during your opponent's end step, not your main phase, or you're opening yourself to mass removal of those lovely creatures you just summoned up. If you have 3 or 4 creatures on the field already, consider holding on to this--casting it is likely to send a bunch of useful combat tricks and War Oracle to the bottom, where they'll be useless.
Utility, utility, utility: Dromoka's Command is a staple in GW. Two mana for burn protection, fight removal (with a counter to help if need be, not to mention Anointer), or an unblockable though untargeted enchantment removal. What's not to love?
Citadel Siege is a bit of a sentimental choice from my beloved Heroic decks, as I don't expect it will actually see much play unless you end up in a protracted lifegain game (which can happen against Abzan... where you should side this out for a Valorous Stance anyway!). The tapping ability isn't all that useful for a deck that has this much vigilance in it, so it basically acts as a free double pump every turn. This is a wincon if you get it out with a couple renowned creatures on the board already, but by then you'll likely already be sealing the deal with steady evasion attacks or weeping over the shattered bodies of your troops after a Hero's Downfall. Either way, this is the card I'd most consider changing, possibly to Hardened Scales.
The final card in the mainboard is a rather quirky one: Rogue's Passage. I would have preferred a painland, but in their infinite wisdom, WotC decided not to reprint the GW one. As most important cards in the deck with the VERY notable exception of Consul's Lieutenant have a colorless component, this land provides a bit of extra speed over a tap or gainland, as well as providing a nice mid to late game effect that synergizes extremely well with late-bloomer renown triggers and huge creatures like those 6/7 anointed Citadel Castellans. Feel free to replace these with basics or even gainlands if you prefer, just be aware that with Temples rotating out, you'll be slowed down considerably for a pretty worthless life point. GW's dual land selection is looking rather grim until Zendikar.
REARM AND REMATCH
As you may have gathered from the various caveats, this deck's biggest weakness is the usual bane of pumping creature strategies: hardcore removal. Against a pure red burn deck, you have a natural defense in Dromoka's Command and some emergency lifesavers in Mighty Leap and Tread Upon , but your best strategy is going to be triggering renown as quickly as possible so that Anointer of Champions is enough to save your creatures for free. This is especially true for Consul's Lieutenant , whose small body makes him especially vulnerable to Searing Blood and Wild Slash . When facing burn, feel free to slow down the pace of your creatures a little, as protecting the ones you have is almost always more important than putting a mass of them out (especially if your opponent has an Anger of the Gods or a Bile Blight tucked away).
Against black removal, however, your options are much more limited. Dromoka's Command is worthless against spells with sacrifice, exile, or destroy effects (although you can frequently squeeze out one last fight from your doomed soldier to make an unexpected trade after a Hero's Downfall), and those feature very heavily in the super-popular Abzan. Thus, the sideboard is almost entirely dedicated to dealing with this archetype:
First off, we get rid of all the Tread Upon s. Abzan can get out some nasty creatures on turn two, but the real danger are the fat 4/4s and 4/5s that show up later on, which trample won't help against. We can afford to save our mana and take a few hits from Fleecemane Lion and Rakshasa Deathdealer in order to protect/renown our Consul's Lieutenant with Anointer and Mighty Leap. The 3-4 delay before Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Siege Rhinos appear is vital for getting your mana base up and running; if you don't think you can have at least 1G or 1W open by turn 3, you're probably going to lose someone to a Hero's Downfall or an Abzan Charm the turn before or after a Siege Rhino drop, which is a very bad position to be in.
The 1G is for Display of Dominance , which is your primary defense now that the venerable Gods Willing is rotating out. This has the benefit of protecting against the exile effect on Abzan Charm as well as the various destroy effects, although it will NOT protect you from the untargeted Drown in Sorrow. For that, and for getting rid of those irritating Rhinos, Anafenza (the traitor!), and most vitally Brimaz, King of Oreskos you have four copies of Valorous Stance replacing Citadel Siege and Grasp of the Hieromancer . You can also put in some Surge of Righteousness to further hinder Rhinos, Ana, and Rakshasa.
The final sideboard cards are a bit wishy-washy. Dragon Hunter is in there because my local meta has a few die-hard dragon lovers, and Naturalize is just a generally nice thing to have on hand (for instance, against Obelisk of Urd BW standard elves).
This is a very fun deck once you have an Anointer and another creature or two out, though it still struggles whenever Abzan gets a mana base going, and straight burn or red aggro can often outpace it. I'm still working on it in my ongoing attempt to make a viable Renown deck with the upcoming loss of the Heroic mechanic, so I'm open to any suggestions!
RECRUIT NEW BLOOD
A few edits I'm considering:
Hardened Scales instead of Citadel Siege and Grasp of the Hieromancer -- With all the renown triggers, if you can get out HS on turn 2 or 3 then your guys will be getting absolutely huge in no time, but it has to be out BEFORE the renown triggers and in the first three or four turns when most of those triggers are going off, you want more white mana than green in order to play Consul's Lieutenant and Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. Still undecided on this one.
Feat of Resistance vs. Display of Dominance -- FoR is both more general in protection AND gives a freebie +1/+1 counter; however, the white mana instead of green is a bit annoying since you'll usually want to be using most of your white on creatures. If you really want to scale back the aggro and keep your first two drops totally safe, then FoR is probably the better choice, but in tests against Abzan I keep ending up with all my white tapped and a pair of forests or a Rogue's Passage free on the turns I get hit by Charm and Downfall.
Hope you enjoy the deck!
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 9 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 12 - 0 Rares 22 - 13 Uncommons 12 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.30 |
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