Armies of Goldnight (Standard)

when i add in the clifftops, should i drop one plains and one mountain for them? and i can see the benefit of Rally the Peasants, it would deffinitely speed up the win a little more, but idk where i would squeeze them in, any ideas? or ways you think i could narrow down the deck list a little bit, seeing as i have alot of 1 and 2 ofs...

One of each land should do. As for what to take out for the Rally, hmmm... I feel the more mana expensive spells are slowing this deck down (the angel too), so I'd cut them for the Rally's and to increase the number of the good humans (like a 4th Silverblade Paladin or more Kessig Malcontents) or to ass in a set of Shock. Shocks are good for killing a Delver before he transforms or that Llanowar / Bird so the opponent doesn't out pace you. (Instant speed is awesome)

i was thinking about that, but i'm gonna have to find something other than gisela to remove, she's too good for ending a game when i do get outpaced... plus she has to be my fav card in avacyn restored, but i do like the idea of cutting my higher cost cards, to be honest, reforge the soul has yet to do me any good, cause it generally ends up giving my opponent shit they need too... i also agree with you on the shocks, but i've taken a strong liking to pillar, even though its sorcery speed, geist be gone? thank you and its just as effective in removing the bird/delver if need be, just sans instant speed, but they can't use them til turn 2 anyway

since i would really prefer to keep gisela in, would you think that some of my 5 drops would be the next thing in line to go? ie reforge the soul, zealous conscripts, maybe increasing devotion, actually i may sideboard reforge the soul instead of the riders, then sideboard devotion too, and take zealous conscripts out all together, then in those spaces add in the rally the peasants, or 3 rally the peasants and either a paladin or malcontent, does that sound like a decent idea, or not quite?

Not much more I can suggest. I'd try keep the casting cost of my spells to 3 or less (more if needed for specific cards, like Gisela), but that's just the way I would run this type of this deck.

how about sideboard? doe sit look like i have my bases covered, or is there something i'm missing i didn't think of?

Sideboards are a problem, they depend on the meta of your play group. My groups' meta is largely agro, so our sideboards often contain extra creature removal.

i'm getting this geared for a star city qualifier, so i'm looking at mostly top 8 decks, and the game store i pla at uses alot of decks that are top 8 metagame

Hmmm... I never check what the "Top decks" are, so it'd be a some research before I can give what I'd think would be good for the sideboard, but I've yet to go wrong with my 3 Ratchet Bombs :p
Going by what I've seen played by top players in my group:
Against decks with Snapcaster Mage, Surgical Extraction or Nihil Spellbomb help. These also work against any graveyard based deck. Grafdigger's Cage also helps with this.
Swarm decks die to Day of Judgment or Ratchet Bomb.
Stony Silence prevents opponents Ratchet Bombs from going off and prevents equipping of Swords.

Hope that helps.

damn, somehow i always forget about ratchet bomb, and that one doesn't decimate my field too, would dropping the orbs and a cloudshift be smart to take out? or would you suggest something else?

Honestly this is the first time I looked at that sideboard :p
I'd put the ORings mainboard (too powerful to leave in side).
I'm also wonder what "target player" spells you're afraid of? (ie the reason for putting Orbs in your side)
I don't see any "enters the battlefield" abilities (other than the Champion), so Cloudshift looks useless to me.
So, ja, the Orbs and Cloudshift can be removed for the Bombs. Don't forget you can kill bigger things with the Bombs (I've actually done that before), but also be careful of adding counters to them once they're in play as it could kill your stuff too (though sometimes that's a necessary sacrifice).
Lastly, don't forget about spells with Phyrexian Mana symbols (like Surgical Extraction or Dismember).

i was looking towards the malcontents for the cloudshifts, seeing as they deal obscene amounts of damage late game, plus it would help me protect a creature from a kill spell, or re bond something late game (those are my reasons for including it at all)
but yeah, i have a couple surgical extractions, but i just don't know what to remove for them in sideboard,
and O ring is sideboard just in case there are one or two things that i don't have removal for or that slow the deck down at all seeing as most of the time i just overwhelm my opponent, so there isn't much to O ring, so i keep them sideboard in case an indestructible nasty comes up

oh and i will be trying out the rally the peasants a couple times in a couple different slots, i may drop some of my 4 ofs down to 3 ofs to make them fit, but the more i think about how i play the deck, the more annoying and fun those seem, so thank you for telling me about them earlier

now you mentioned dismember? i would figure that would be rendered uneccessary by Oring/ pillar/bonfire

Makes sense, but with the speed I feel that this deck gets run at, Cloudshift would be almost useless. They way I see it is by the time you're in a position to use it for a combat trick or protecting a creature, you should have won / be winning (due to speed).

I read a comment by surewhynot on another deck and he said "Rally the Peasants was made for Boros" (or something like that, I'm going by memory here). I have to agree, it's just too good a card to leave out of most Boros builds.

True, Dismember is largely useless if you compare against the ORings, I just mentioned it as it's a good sideboard card that any deck can use. It does kill a large variety of creatures, including the indestructible ones (assuming they have 5 or less toughness).

ok, i get your point there with cloudshift, i'll replace them for my surgical extractions in my sideboard, maybe put the rally there, so in case i run against a deck where i need the extra oomph, i could toss them in then?

and i understand the dismember comment, i just feel O ring is more potent here is there is something i can't deal with

from a competitive standpoint, how do you think it'll do overall? and if there is anything i should be worried about, what should i change in sideboard for it?

The only problem I can see is if you play a deck centered around burns or counters. I only can think of a few things but maybe a crusade or two for some buff, and a couple of silences to keep them at bay. I think if you put in silence you should take out the Oblivion Rings and for the Crusades I'm not entirely sure, the other things in your side board really seem to do the trick maybe two somberwald vigilantes for them? I only picked those because it would kinda still get the same bonus but for all of your creatures.

crusade and silence aren't standard though, that's the only problem... otherwise i'd have better removal than shatter in my sideboard, i still need something for enchantment removal, and something to just kill counterburn, seeing as delver/devil is going to be annoying as hell

I don't play tournaments often so I forget about the issue of standard, my apologies. In the new set there is a card called Curse Break that i would recommend, because it has a low cost and you gain 2 life. You have Goldnight so burn shouldn't be a problem but if it is you should try Builder's Blessing to keep your creatures alive. Finding things to help against counters is much harder however. The only thing I saw that might help you is Curse of Exhaustion. It keeps them from countering more than one card a turn. With the way you build this deck and the way counter/burn decks work that should help out a great deal. If you find any other cards let me know because it would be nice to know. Hope this helps =)

i thought about currsebreak, but between gisela and the lifelinkers if someone's going to plow through my life, 2 more win't make much difference.... but hows the sideboard look now?

I like it. It seems to cover most of the things that people are playing now and does it well. I also think the Extraction was a good choice.

any other tricks you think i should include? or things i should take out and replace that wouldn't be thought of very often?

After you have put so much work into a deck I don' t think I can make any more suggestions. The only way to modify in a positive way now is to play it and cover what you think you should. Remember to go with your gut feelings and if they are wrong you can switch it back. I can tell you worked hard on this and you should be proud of that! Good luck playing it ! =)

ok, fair enough, i just want to make sure this is going to be a deck that can both beat metagame and also place decently, hopefully this achieves those goals, but unfortunately, i won't get to test it as much as i would like due to how far away the game store is for me... but hopefully it'll make a decent splash when i take it to a star city qualifier (i hope)

I'm sure you will do very well! Good luck =)

thank you so much!!

It was very nice of you to thank me in the deck description, it made me feel good and I thank you. If you ever need any help with a deck or anything let me know. Oh and let me know how this deck does competitively!

Thank you again for pushing this to the front page! lol and i will let you know, i should be running it Friday, and i have started work on another deck, believe it or not, the link is below!

from the looks of it, its a very playstyle then mine, yours is more towards full on attack where i burn a bit more, and try to amass an unruly mob (pardon the pun) but it definitely looks strong, i'll give it a more thorough look when i have more time

you're right ^.^ the chaplain would work a lot better, plus it helps malcontents and champion get sillier
however, burn at the stake is a clutch finisher when i can hit for more with that than say... 10 tokens

and i will take a look if i get a chance

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=341000


Ok sorry again im a noob please check out my deck everyone tbanks

make sure you put them as finished decks in the top right of the editor, and not as works in progress
and i'll take a look when i get the time

eh, i tried the mauler, haste just doesn't appeal to me as much as lifelink, seeing as this deck just hits harder from summoning humans, let alone giving them haste, but its a good thought

i like reforge the sould because it refreshes my hand, i start top decking really fast with this deck, and reforge helps me restock and speed up again, plus gets rid of any nasties sitting in someone's hand

the only reason i don't is because i'm normally tapping out summoning creatures, or burning the brains out of someone, but i agree, it would work, i just need the colored mana more ^.^

i actually was thinking along those lines, but i like being able to keep my tokens so i can chump block with them when i need to, plus, tokens are great to buff up kessig malcontent's damage output, same with burn at the stake's, plus the mob is slower than i would like, my field is based around swarming, not letting creatures die off that easily

i actually have the cage sideboard for that reason, plus surgical extraction, so if anything goes to the graveyard i know is combo friendly, its gone, but thank you for the look! and yes solar flare is popular in the US as well... stupid titans thank god they are gone this core set...

the beserkers just didn't do enough in my opinion when compared to gather or the pilgrim, i'd rather have extra life than a couple extra power on one creature, and as for sideboard, devout chaplin is in there for a reason :D

The problem with chaplain is that while yes it's a 2/2 body, it uses up three creatures to destroy a single artifact. You'll likely not end up with much more than 3 creatures out at a time (unless you're really confident they dont have a any sweepers in their deck), and you're playing an aggressive deck that wants to be attacking whenever possible, so using chaplain basically give the other player a timewalk at the cost of an artifact. I would much rather drop a silverblade paladin on turn three and pay 1 red to cast crush the next turn while swinging with 2 double strikers than drop chaplain and tap out all my creatures the next turn to blow up an artifact.

that is a valid concern, but when i play test this, and i eat a DOJ or killing wave, i regularly have five for ten humans out thanks to gather and inc. devotion, then this deck tends to get back on its feet rather quickly and tearing through for the win, plus, normally i do have one or two human's i'd rather keep alive rather than attack with (the pilgrims for instance) so when i board the chaplain in, its not that big of a deal to blow stuff up once in a while, plus i usually am only targeting one or two artifacts, so in a worst case scenario, i only attack with my champions to kill a pod or a torpor orb or a sword

only problem is your field dies to one low drop bonfire, once i get going, you need more and more to stop it, kind of like a train, but you have a good build overall

even without bonfire, the palidins make my creatures hit harder than yours, and to which you would reply with your hunters, and i reply with you have to have them, and not just have them but have more hunters than i do paladins, and also keep them alive long enough to do any real damage to my field also the majority of my humans stay bigger than yours, plus if a game makes it to turn 7 (which it probable will with as much punch for punch that we'd be doing) my deck has gisela, which by that point you;d have wasted your 3 hunters on paladins and gisela would make the gap that much further

i've played against a deck similar to yours, so far i'm 9W1L against it

Cool reasoning but wait:
1.My deck usually kills by turn 4.
2.My deck runs (including sb designed for your deck) 4 FH 3 O-rings 4NV which I believe its enough to deal with most of the mentioned threads.

But why don't let the people and time judge this: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=344170

Lol I'm just trolling dude don't feed me.

i know, but it helps me think of scenarios of decks to play at the same time, and technically our o rings would cancel each other out, or just make our fields smaller than we are used to, and my deck is usually turn 4 as well, so we'd slow eachother down lol

needless to say, it'd be a good match

Hell yeah it would! lol.

i have considered that, however the reforge the souls have tended to be a valuable asset for speeding up the aggro by replenishing my hand (i did at one point try the riders, but didn't like the tempo and conscripts are good, just again, didn't feel right)

the waif is still a human when it enters the battle field, which is nice, particularly cause it'd be a 3/2 body if my oponent doesn't play a spell, but believe it or not, werewolf decks haven't givien me as much of a problem as other human decks, my champions seem to out pace werewolves and then some, then wehn i drop gisela, it turns into a over run cause she makes the gap in damage HUGE

lol its 60 with a 15 sideboard
i have thought about adding another and the only thing i could remove would be burn at the stake, which tends to be a really handy finisher

yeah thats true. and nice work on the deck

thank you! built the skeleton at pre release, and this is what it's turned into