Hey everyone! The Brothers’ War is here, and with it, a deluge of sweet new strategies I’m seeing people trying out. I’ve been trying out a litany of decks myself, and not only have I found this deck to be excellent, but many others have as well! I even pre-emptively wrote about it in my Premium article, and let me tell you, it’s been living up to the hype. What deck am I talking about? Soldiers.
With whole worlds being condensed into smaller spaces, Wizards has been more forthcoming with what I would call “decks that build themselves”. In Kaladesh, we had the Energy midrange deck that you just played all the Energy cards, a few extras, and called it a day. In Eldraine, you threw all the good Food cards together, a few extra, and called it a day. For The Brothers’ War we put together all the good soldier cards, through in a few extras, and call it a day.
Azorius Soldiers
by DoggertQBones
Standard
Tribal
best of 3
4 mythic
42 rare
8 uncommon
6 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (32)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$296.54
Sideboard
15 Cards
$66.33
There’s nothing wrong with decks that have a lot of support inherently (though both Energy and Food proved overbearing), but it does make it easy to know what deck is being pushed by the set. With how many powerful Soldier cards there were and the Soldier lord being printed in Dominaria United, it’s no surprise that this deck is very powerful.
The most important function of an aggro deck is that you can start your curve at one, and with The Brothers’ War we have two solid options. Yotian Frontliner isn’t a super star, but it allows us to get on board early and has Unearth for some additional value in the late game.
Recruitment Officer, on the other hand, is quite the good one drop. A one mana 2/1 is the gold standard for one drops, and one that has a four mana activated ability so we have use for extra mana (more on this later) is quite powerful.
While I wish we had one more strong one drop, we have plenty of powerful two drops to make up for it! We don’t need much of an explanation for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but it’s an extremely powerful card naturally that’s also a Soldier!
Valiant Veteran was the aforementioned Soldier lord that’s both a two mana lord and a mana sink in the late game.
In a similar vein to Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Dennick, Pious Apprentice is a powerful card that I was surprised to see was also a Soldier!
Finally, Harbin, Vanguard Aviator is quite strong as a two mana 3/2, and if you manage to get to five Soldiers, will let you win the game most of the time on the spot.
The next Soldier payoff we get access to is Siege Veteran! While it reads like a weaker Luminarch Aspirant, the trigger you get on a Soldiers death can add up extremely quickly and let you make riskier attacks puhsing more damage.
As another powerful card that’s a Soldier, Brutal Cathar acts as one of the removal spells for this deck that’s also proactive.
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar isn’t a Soldier at all, but is just an excellent three drop that works well in aggro decks!
While most players would expect
An extremely underrated facet of the Azorius Soldiers deck, and why I like it more than the Mono White counterpart, is how obscenely good your mana base is. Not only do you get an extra dual land (that doubles as a mana sink) in Fortified Beachhead, you get excellent utility lands in Plaza of Heroes and Mishra's Foundry as well!
I’m playing 24 lands right now as the deck is writhe with mana sinks, but I’ve even considered playing 25 considering you have so much to do with your extra land drops!
The second reason I like Azorius over Mono White is your sideboard options become so much more powerful. We still get access to Destroy Evil and Wedding Announcement as they’re some of the best sideboard cards in the format, but also having access to counterspells and graveyard hate is a luxury Mono White doesn’t get.
With all these factors together, we end up with an extremely powerful deck that has a good aggressive game plan, powerful mid game in the form of numerous mana sinks, and a powerful sideboard to help shore up any potentially problematic matchup.
Thank you for reading!
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DoggertQBones
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