In my last War Report entry, I spoke about how I had haphazardly thrown together a deck and went up against a friend who not only had played the game in the more recent past, but also had a head start in coming back to the game. As such, my decks were no match for his, though they did put up a bit of a fight and a general theme started to emerge. I was centering around life-gain, with a mix of control spells and creatures. However, the main weakness became clear: not enough creatures, and not enough power to end a game despite at one point having a massive life total lead.

I have since spent about $20 on singles and have revamped the deck. I was just using what seemed best out of the cards I had at the time, and now I’ve focused on shoring up the weaknesses. This deck is still not 100% where I’d like it to be, and I’ve already found another card that I need to get in this deck called the Felidar Sovereign, which gives a win condition if you have 40 or more life during your upkeep. It’s another win condition outside of the Aetherflux Reservoir.

I would also like to get more copies of a few cards, and whittle down the amount of singles, but I have several legendaries and cards that play off of one another that it feels like having all of them there is a win/win. Here’s the deck list for my current White/Black set up:

Lands:
x2 Forsaken Sanctuary
x1 Unknown Shores
x1 Crumbling Vestige
x1 Blighted Steppe
x1 Warped Landscape
x8 Plains
x7 Swamp

Creatures:
x3 Aerial Responder
x3 Fairgrounds Warden
x2 Zulaport Cutthroat
x2 Restoration Gearsmith
x2 Lone Rider
x1 Demon of Dark Schemes
x1 Sengir Vampire
x1 Night Market Lookout
x1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
x1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
x1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
x1 Thalia’s Lancers
x1 Sujugator Angel
x1 Angel of Invention
x1 Aegis Angel
x1 Serra Angel

Artifacts:
x1 Aetherflux Reservoir
x2 Scrapheap Scrounger

Spells:
x2 Diabolic Tutor
x2 Shamble Back
x2 Fumigate
x2 Skywhaler’s Shot
x2 Authority of the Consuls
x1 Fortuitous Find
x1 Campaign of Vengeance
x1 Collective Effort
x1 Gideon’s Reproach

For lands I have a couple of the dual lands (give white/black mana of your choice), a couple of lands that give colorless but can be used to create other colors, along with some that allow you to search for a basic land. This means I’m always covered no matter how bad the top decking is.

Creature wise, I’ve focused on shoring up the size and utility. Adding 3 Aerial responders is a nice touch, as they have flying vigilance and lifelink for a cheap casting cost. I’ve also found some legendary creatures that have various effects including being able to search for other legendaries. My big dogs are the angels, and they feel like a great fit. Mainly, most of the creatures have some way to help me gain life, and in some cases also cause damage to my opponent. This helps with the theme of the deck, and goes hand in hand with the main artifact, Aetherflux Reservoir. The other two artifacts are the Scrapheap Scrounger, which can come back from the dead over and over again. Speaking of which…

My spells are mostly for board control, but I have a few others that allow me to search for any card (Diabolic Tutor), or give life and bring things back from the dead. The combination of white and black has allowed me to find these sorts of spells and creatures in each color, so theoretically unless they have a super aggro deck, I should be able to out sustain just about anything. And I have a few fumigates for board clear if necessary, along with spells to bring my own creatures back from death. I can’t wait to try this out, and am supposed to meet up to play this weekend. Will be back with that report next week. Until then, happy gaming everyone!