I need to stop taking such long pauses between Friday Night Magic bouts. I mean, I can’t help it with the family reunion coming up next week, but if I’m not careful, some of my best cards will rotate out with the advent of Return to Ravnica in October! And we certainly can’t have that.
On a related note, my favorite planeswalker has thus far been underused. This may be because he can have some difficulties defending himself, and he seems to walk a line between control and aggression that can make him hard to place. But two of the colors towards which I lean most strongly are represented in him, and considering the raw deal he got at the hands of that amateur novelist Robert Wintermute, I really want to get him out there before the Scars of Mirrodin block becomes a Modern relic.
I speak, of course, of [mtg_card]Venser, the Sojourner[/mtg_card].
Let’s ignore his ultimate ability for now (even if it is highly kickass). It was the -1 ability that caught my eye and got me thinking. You see, until recently, I was working on a deck that was mostly about building card advantage and used creatures that took advantage of that, such as [mtg_card]Sturmgeist[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Psychosis Crawler[/mtg_card]. It tested all right but I felt there was something missing. It took a little too long to get going without proper control or means to defend itself, and single beefy creatures are also big fat targets to matter how exalted they become (thanks for bringing that back, M13).
But lots of creatures, suddenly unblockable? Now there’s a game-winning notion. But how to generate enough creatures to be a legitimate threat?
Oh, hello there, Vengeance at Dawn, I didn’t see you standing there.
Seriously, the amount of synergy that exists between these three planeswalkers is astounding. Both Elspeth and Sorin create creatures, which Venser then makes unblockable. Ah, but how to make sure Venser does not get owned, outside of using the tokens the other two generate? Enter [mtg_card]Blade Splicer[/mtg_card]. She generates a token every time she enters the battlefield, and a pretty beefy one at that. Combined with [mtg_card]Intangible Virtue[/mtg_card] you’re talking some serious bodyguards. I played around with a couple configurations before reminding myself that you can’t just throw every card you like into a deck and see if it works.
Much like in writing, I had to kill my darlings. So out came [mtg_card]Consecrated Sphinx[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Captain of the Watch[/mtg_card]. Instead, [mtg_card]Champion of the Parish[/mtg_card] and [mtg_card]Silverblade Paladin[/mtg_card] provide some great power-for-cost ratios. There aren’t as many humans in the deck as there were when I ran [mtg_card]Gather the Townsfolk[/mtg_card] but both the Champions and my planeswalkers will benefit from [mtg_card]Tezzeret’s Gambit[/mtg_card]. The Paladins are also good blink targets for Venser, as I can always re-pair them if the non-Paladin of the pair is destroyed for some reason. The means to make creatures exalted and the pair of Swords I have round out this deck.
[mtg_deck title=”WUB Planeswalker Shenanigans”]
Creatures
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Blade Splicer
2 Champion of the Parish
2 Silverblade Paladin
1 Sublime Archangel
Spells
4 Lingering Souls
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Tezzeret’s Gambit
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
Planeswalkers
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Elspeth Tirel
2 Venser, the Sojourner
Lands
6 Plains
4 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Isolated Chapel
2 Vault of the Archangel
2 Moorland Haunt
2 Cathedral of War
2 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Revoke Existence
3 Celestial Purge
3 War Priest of Thune
2 Terminus
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Devastation Tide
[/mtg_deck]
I know it’s technically an Esper deck with its color combinations, but the WUB joke was just too good to resist. Besides, it’s predominantly white and blue now outweighs black, so the order makes sense.
I’ve tested this deck so far with Deck Stats and opening hands are promising. I need to get my hands on the Blade Splicers to make it a reality, and I have time for that to happen before the October deadline.
Come on, guys. Let’s get some wins happening!
