The Mission
The aim of this deck is to investigate the strange occurrences in Innistrad. Luckily the Thraben constabulary have placed a mole that is providing useful information. As always however the poor old Thraben Inspectors are not well funded, so these investigations are happening on a very tight budget.
The Mission (with less poetic license)
- Generate a big stash of clues.
- Sac a big stash of clues to build a platoon of token soldiers and keep your health up.
- Overrun the evil in Innistrad (a.k.a. your opponent) with afore mentioned platoon.
The Deck
This deck has been through a number of iterations and is now playing pretty well considering it's budget focus.
The main stays of the deck are cluey cards Ulvenwald Mysteries, Bygone Bishop,
Graf Mole
, Thraben Inspector and Tamiyo's Journal. The mysteries, the bishop and the journal are the main clue generators; The mysteries and the mole have important side effects when you sac a clue; and the journal not only provides a way to sac clues en-masse for no mana cost, but also let's you tutor which is a huge advantage when the going gets tough.
The primary path to a win is to generate a bunch of 1/1 soldiers and use Valor in Akros with token generation from the mysteries to pump them into super-soldiers.
Hanweir Militia Captain
provides a second major threat, while
Lambholt Pacifist
can be great for either stalling an early game rush or doing some quick early damage. Duskwatch Recruiter
is good later in the game if things have stalled. (I am going to try adding one more of each werewolf in place of one militia captain and one inspector).
Thanks to Pkrplyr911 for a couple of great suggestions. Particularly for the militia captain, she really tightens up the deck.
Original ideas for this deck came from a deck that I played against on-line that used the Ulvenwald Mysteries to generate way too many tokens that were pushed to the line or fed to a Rot Shambler or
Unruly Mob
.
Some old descriptions below
These are various old descriptions that are somewhat relevant still.
I have been roundly beaten up on MTGO with versions I and II of this deck. Version III did much better and now that SOI prices have come down I am now at an interesting new IV.
The original version of this deck produced a lot more clues and relied on generating a swarm of soldiers. The soldiers would do the damage or feed a Rot Shambler or
Unruly Mob
.
Over time the Shamblers and Mobs have been replaced by:
Lambholt Pacifist
which is great early game; Hanweir Militia Captain
which is remarkably easy to get to transform and; Duskwatch Recruiter
which I haven't really found to be great yet, I might switch it back for more pacifists.
The main clue generators are Ulvenwald Mysteries and Bygone Bishop.
Once you have a couple of these on the battle field you should have a pretty secure clue income. To complement this there are Ulvenwald Mysteries and
Graf Mole
which give you a bonus when the clues go pop (and the mole is a pretty handy blocker for all those crazy vampires and werewolves out there).
To make sacrificing so much more fun (and mana free) we have Tamiyo's Journal... yes every time you tap this baby you score 9 life for each mole and 3 chumps for each mystery, oh and yes your choice of what ever card you really need next.
Now Angelic Purge is a gem here because not only can you exile those pesky cards your opponent plays, but it lets you sac something. Either a clue to get your clue sac bonuses or a creature to activate the mystery or your mob.
Valor in Akros has gone from three copies, to one, to three, to two where it seems to be happy. If you have a pile of clues and Ulvenwald Mysteries out then you can trick up +1/+1 on all your critters by sacing a clue. If you have the Mysteries and Tamiyo's Journal out and 5 clues you can:
- End step use the journal to tutor for Valor (gets three shiny new soldier)
- 1st Main play Valor
- Attach en-masse and then tutor for some card you like. All your attackers are +3/+3 so there are at least 3 4/4 Soldiers heading at the opponent. I have pulled this off a lot and it usually wins the game. With two Mysteries out to start you are swinging with 6 7/7 Soldiers which has never failed me.
So there you go. You can now make Thraben a better place for less than two tickets.
Didn't fully work
- Pious Evangel
initially was running 4 but he got relegated in favor of the
Graf Mole
as that is a better blocker and more consistent life source. Bought him back as a singleton because the direct damage can be handy.
- Second Harvest banaza soldiers and clues sounds good, but is mostly only playable when you are about to win anyway.
- Valor in Akros a little too dependent on having the mysteries out, used to run a few but now just as a singleton for when you need to crash over a plague of zombie tokens or the like.
-
Unruly Mob
and Rot Shambler not only provide fodder for the bishop and the mysteries, but all provide a win condition if you need to block with many many 1/1 white soldiers.
Tireless Tracker
This deck is ultra budget at the moment. So much so that I think you could trade one Tireless Tracker for two full copies of this online.
I have been doing some decent trading though and have a paper deck along these lines too now. I'll see if that's as effective as this one is.
