Here’s a little bit about me (Tristan), I’m a control player at heart, I didn’t know it for a while and used to oust those who packed 4x counterspell and 4x doom blade into a deck but now I am one of them. I have been playing control for 5-6 years and have been loving it no plans on stopping and we just had Gearhulk and now we have Teferi so there is no time like the present to be a control player.
With Guilds of Ravnica opening up standard I decided to come out of my control player shell and branch out into a deck I wasn’t comfortable with. I want to be good with other kinds of decks and see the other side of the mountain err… forest and plains. So I decided on G/W tokens to be the best way to try something new. So here is how its going.
I started my GW journey by just copying some list that placed well to get a feel for how the deck runs.
I went 2-1 at Saturday Showdown losing my first match (also my first time playing the deck) but winning my back two matches after getting an understanding on how the deck went.
After my first run with the deck I found a few things that I did like about the deck and a few I didn’t. The first thing I did was cut all 4 of the Venerated Loxodon, I still see the card as 3x and 4x in most lists but I really don’t like it. Maybe I’m not playing it right, but I always felt like tapping my creatures down wasn’t worth the 4/4 and all the +1/+1 counters. I also felt like I was super weak to flyers, I had no game vs Rekindeling Phoenix or Bolas or any other pesky flyers and often died to them very quickly so in place of the Loxodon I put in 2x Lyra Dawnbringer and 2x Shalai, Voice of Plenty.
Next saturday I played the deck again to another 2-1 finish. This time I realized I was having a bunch of problems keeping cards in my hand past turn 7-8 and if I did have cards it would be Emmara that I effectively can’t cast because I already have one on the battlefield. So I cut 2 of the Emmara and a plains and added two Karn, Scion of Urza and an Arch of Orazca.
Here is my current list
GW Tokens
Lands (22)
7x Plains
6x Forests
4x Temple Garden
4x Sunpetal Grove
1x Arch of Orazca
Creatures (12)
2x Emmara, Soul of the Accord
4x Thorn Lieutenant
2x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2x Trostani Discordant
2x Lyra Dawnbringer
Instants/Sorcery (12)
4x Saproling Migration
4x March of the Multitudes
4x Flower Flourish
Enchantments (12)
4x History of Benalia
4x Conclave Tribunal
4x Legions Landing
Artifacts: (0)
Planeswalkers: (2)
2x Karn Scion of Urza
Sideboard: (15)
1x Dawn of Hope
2x Adanto Vanguard
2x Nullhide Ferrox
2x Kraul Harpooner
2x Knight of Autumn
2x Ixilans Binding
2x Sheild mare
2x The Immortal Sun
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I’m not 100% on this list by any means. Venerated Loxodon being a major cut from the deck I have thought about bringing back in. I could be playing the card wrong but I don’t really like tapping my creatures on my turn unless I’m attacking with them and it is a Vanilla 4/4 otherwise. Thorn Lieutenant as a 4 of seems excessive its what works right now and has been my replacement for Loxodon. I am very weak to Deafening clarion pre-board but that is to be expected anyway, Steel leaf champion is the card I’m most worried about as most of my deck can’t even block it.
I have plans to continue playing GW for a while and will post more notes and improvements
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!
-Tristan
