Need help killing Soldier deck?

[sandman423]

My friend has been kicking my a** in Magic..and I am using cards from Ice Age, 5th Edition, and Mirage...I ordered some Wrath of Gods x4 just to try and kill all his crazy monsters...

I tried to build a Creatureless Mill Deck but not working very well due to the fact my friend can easily OVERWHELM me with A LOT of monsters/equip cards...

this is the deck I am running...

4 Angelsong
3 Cancel
3 Essence Scatter
2 Hindering Light
4 Howling Mine
4 Invincible Hymn
2 Memory Erosion
4 Mind Funeral
3 Offering to Asha
4 Ponder
3 Tome Scour
2 Traumatize

Spells [38]
4 Arcane Sanctum
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
5 Plains


It works fairly well but he keeps hitting me with the DAM Soldiers and the Plainswalkers...

Please help...What can I do to get rid of them? Also if the opponent uses an Artifact and equips it to a monster and I play Unsummon on their monster does the Artifact Equip go to the GY?

[Nyth]

Suggestions to help you out...

Try using Wall of Frost and Sleep to slow down his creatures. Since you're using white in your mill, you can also use Wall of Shroud. Sanity Grinding would have been a great mill engine but you're dipping into white and black so it won't be as effective as you want it to be. Jace Beleren is almost a must in a mill deck as you can focus on getting his counters high enough while forcing your opponent to draw into their deck with the Howling Mines on the board. Chances are that your opponent will not be trying to kill you and focus their efforts on Jace giving you precious turns. Other great cards to include are Twincast (to double your Traumatize or Mind Funeral. If you want a few creatures, consider putting in one or two Nemesis of Reason.

Get rid of Cancel, Essence Scatter, Hindering Light, Invincible Hymn and Offering to Asha as you want more versatile counterspells. Consider running a set of Broken Ambitions, Cryptic Command (if you have them) and Dream Fracture (better than Cancel since you get them to draw more while you refill your hand with counters). I'd also remove the Tome Scours as even Twincasting them only gets you 10 cards. You should also run three or four Shelldock Isle to spring a spell for cheap when you get their deck down a notch.

[staggerwingjtstw]

Without knowing what he's running, it's hard to guess, but a good ol' Engineered Plague works wonders on WW!

Yeah, your 1/1 white Soldier tokens are now 0/0 white soldier tokens... they go to the graveyard.

[sandman423]

Well he runs a Lot of soldiers...Before I get into my rant I just want to say a lot of my cards are old and I am returning to a game that I haven't played in 8 years. I don't have TONS of money to spend but I did buy x4 Wrath of God and I wanted to get some Dual lands like Underground Sea, but they are so much money...Looked into Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand (sorry if I got the name wrong) and also Moat to prevent his soldiers from attacking but Moat is SO MUCH MONEY!!! (Sorry for the caps)

I was thinking on buying x2 Jace Beleren (Plainswalker), but 13+ bucks for x1...is it worth it? Plus can't Plainswalkers be killed by cards like Terror, Wrath of God, or any other removal?

That doesn't help much I know, but he runs a Soldier that gets a Counter when it it comes into play and he can remove it to do 1 damage to Target Creature or Player...

He runs some of the following cards, but I am trying to build a Mill deck that isn't to expensive that will crush him or at least a Control deck to help me deal with the MASS Amounts of +1/+1 Powerups he gets for all monsters.

I ordered Dream Fracture and it should be coming in...Mind Funeral seems to hit him HARD and also Traumatize but the biggest problem I have is MANA...He can get HUGE Monsters out very quickly within turn 3 or later depending on his draws...the biggest issue I have is Captain of the Watch...This card pisses me off and it gets hell of tokens so when it hits the field I have to deal with +2/+2 Soldiers with Vigilence...This card pisses me off plus he gets a ton of equips which is the reason for my Mill idea to destroy his deck before he can get his setup. Lands are an issue for me at times due to my high cost of Mill effects like Traumatize, but Mind Funeral is AMAZING...I was trying to run Land Destruction with my Mill but didn't work out so well due to dead draws...also getting land fast for me is an issue as well.

::His Deck from what I have seen::
Veteran Swordsmith
Soul Warden (For Life Gain)
Silvercoat Lion (Not Soldier)
x2 Rhox Pikemaster
x1 Captain of the Watch (I hate this thing)
x1 Veteran Armorer

::Spells::
Spirit Link
Pacifism
x4 Honor of the Pure (Such a b*atch)
Divine Transformation
Disenchant


He also runs an Artifact that has the Ability Equip pay 2 mana to add artifact to another soldier as an equip card.

I had a question about that artifact equip...if he equips artifact to a monster and I unsummon the monster does the artifact go to the Graveyard? I told him yes yesterday but he was saying since it is an artifact it stays on the field but I am pretty sure I am right.

[Kl3p_co.]

Sandman, your problem is, as you state, that you run a creatureless deck
Try to fit in 4x Baneslayer Angel, I guarantee to you, that the matchup gets better
+ Why do you play dead cards like mind funeral or Cancel, and not things like Path to Exile or Negate / Soul Scatter? Trust me, Cancel is REALLY bad and mind funeral is one of those cards, which are nice in the theory, but not so good irl.
Anyway, milling will NEVER work. Just bear with it. Milling is NOT viable in Standart nowadays(actually, it was never viable, but lets just set that fact aside).Just wait 1 day for Zendikar to come out and make a normal deck

The other thing is, that you are obviously messing up with formats and card legalities. Wrath of God is no longer legal in Standard, and so are the dual and fetch lands.
Try to read this:
www.wizards.com/Default.asp?x=judge/resources/banned

Afterwards, just tell us, if you are playing just casually or do you intend to play in tournaments

And yea, Jace is really good, as Mulldrifter rotates out in 2 weeks

[sandman423]

Well me and my friend just play for fun...So what kind of deck would be a good cheap deck that could be effective with a mill engine?

Also what about the issue with Mana? How can I resolve it?

Also even though Baneslayer is an Amazing card 20+ dollars for one card is way to much for me and for x4 it would be like 80+...so any CHEAPER ideas..

[sandman423]

I ended up buying 5 Intro Pack of Zendikar just to get a feel for the new set..Vampires look awsome

[sandman423]

So what is the recommendation??

I like Control...I thought Unsummon is good, but he just outspeeds me every time...

Control Deck is what I am all about...I wanted to make a Hand/Mill Deck with Land Destruction, but it is to many strategies to lock in one deck due to the inconsistency of getting dead cards..

Also Mana is a problem at times for me it seems...High Cost Mana Deck is what my mill deck is at the moment...

I like Blue control and Black destruction...I need to get some Doom Blades, but looking to build with what I have currently...

::Blue/Black Randomness::

::Monsters::
x1 Urborg Panther
x2 Zephyr Falcon
x4 Hypnotic Spectre
x1 Black Knight (I love this guy)
x1 Drudge Skeleton
x1 Dread Spectre
x1 Restless Dead
x1 Dream Prowler
x2 Apprentice Wizard
x1 Bay Falcon
x1 Prodigal Sorcerer
x1 Knight of Stronghold
x1 Vampire Hounds

::Spells::
x1 Ray of Command
x1 Phantasml Terrain
x1 Blight
x1 Drain Life
x1 Ether Well
x1 Thirst
x1 Thrull Retainer
x1 Unstable Mutation
x3 Ebony Charm
x1 Tidal Surge
x1 Snow Devil
x1 Paralyze
x1 Dark Ritual
x1 Jolt
x1 Portent
x1 Dissipate
x1 Choking Sands
x2 Songs of the Damned (For Faster mana)
x2 Mind Ravel
x1 Twiddle
x2 Counterspell
x1 Unholy Strength
x1 Terror
x1 Ray of Erasure
x1 Power Leak
x2 Power Sink
x1 Unsummon
x1 Flight
x1 Touch of Death

::Land::
x5 Snow-Covered Island
x1 Snow-Covered Swamp
x3 Island
x12 Swamp

This deck is Huge and random I know but it is my blue and black cards...I have more...But mostly using stuff from Mirage, Ice Age, and 4th & 5th Edition...So ANY HELP Please...would be awsome...

A few cards I just picked up...

x4 Arcane Sanctum
x4 Dream Fracture
x4 WrATH of God
X4 Bloodchief Ascension
X4 Mind Funeral
x2 Memory Erosion
x2 Traumatize
x8 Duress
x4 Cruel Ultimatum (Amazing card with HIGH Multi Cost though)
x4 Forced Fruitation
x4 Academy Ruins
x4 Evacuation (I am thinking against soldiers would be AMAZING)
x4 Glacial Fortress
x4 Drowned Catacomb
x4 Angelsong (For Stopping ALL Combat damage aka Anti-Aggro)
x4 Tome Scour
x4 Ponder
All 5 Intro Box of Zendikar (Vampires look awsome)!!! (I thought this would be the best way to get back into the game, but I want to build a current deck for fun so I can beat my Friend...He plays mostly Aggro decks Green n Red and his Soldiers are a pain in the arse.

I have a lot of cards like Chromium Dragon and Phyrexian Dreadnought 12/12 from back in the day but Phyrexian dies Unless you Sac up to 12 Power I believe creatures.

Chromium is Amazing but a lot of cost to bring the x1 card out.

I wanted to get a Jace Beleren x2 but he is 14 bucks for 1...

Can anyone please help me?

[Kl3p_co.]

Id recommend you to stick to vampires, as they are pretty cheap(no expensive lands or jace or baneslayer) and they look pretty competetive and interesting as well

Btw, you knew that Phyrexian Dreadnought is extremely rare and expensive in Europe? (He is played in control decks in Legacy)

Just wait like 2 weeks for the first big tournaments and then you check the site http://deckcheck.net , you find a nice looking deck, and you try to get the cards for it. But I warn you, Baneslayer Angel is pretty much played everywhere, so get it no matter what(in comparison to Europe, its pretty cheap in the USA or on eBay - in Europe a playset costs about 80€, in Usa about 90USD, see the difference? )

[staggerwingjtstw]

I have to agree on the vamps, Nighthawk is AMAZING! I could go on and on about vamps, because that was my sideboard decks (Had enough good cards in WBRG to build two decks) but i just need to say they rock.