Welcome back to the Jank Bank. As your janky banker, I am proud to tender another budget Magic: the Gathering deck for your consideration. This time it will be Standard!
Do you remember Wildfire or Upheaval? Both of these cards are supposed to have a symmetrical effect on the battlefield, only they tend to leave the controller with a significant advantage over their opponent. Karn Liberated’s -14 ability grants its controller a similar dominating game state. There is a seldom played mythic in Standard that provides the same sort of effect as these cards: Gideon, Champion of Justice.
Gideon’s -15 ability lets you to win in spectacular fashion, leaving you with permanents and your opponent with none. The key is to float all your mana just before you activate this ability, and then cast your spells after the -15 resolves. Gideon usually remains on the battlefield too, which gives you a huge advantage even if you have no follow up spells to cast with your floating mana. Unfortunately getting Gideon to 15+ loyalty can be difficult, which is probably why he sees so little play. However with the right supporting cards on the battlefield, the threat of “Gidaggedon” is a very real.
Sphere of Safety does a great job protecting Gideon, Champion of Justice. It is so good at derailing opposing creatures it almost like Supreme Verdict. However, instead of sending creatures to the useless graveyard like a board wipe, the Sphere leaves them on the battlefield where they help Gideon tick up faster! Playing Sphere of Safety requires deck to be jam packed with other enchantments though. At least we are in the middle of an enchantment block, so there are plenty of good ones to choose from.
Now don’t forget that Gideon, Champion of Justice has the ability to attack like a creature. He hits hard too, swinging in for at least 5 a turn if he is undamaged. The best way to take advantage of Gideon’s ability to attack is to have other creatures for him to attack along side with. I have found enchantment creatures to be fitting for this roll, since they give Sphere of Safety a boost as well. I begin most games aggressively attacking with these creatures. Gideon’s -15 is a good “plan B” if those creatures get outclassed.
All in all, what we have is a deck that has the unique ability to go from offense to defense in the blink of an eye. Here is the list:
This deck has many unusual card choices, so I suppose a primer of sorts is in order. Without further ado, here it is:
Gideon, Champion of Justice is the poster child of this deck. His ultimate is absurdly powerful, and this deck is designed to help him reach the 15+ loyalty needed to make it happen. I just want to remind you to float all your mana before you activate his -15 ability, so you can cast some spells right after it resolves. Even if you don’t have spells to cast, you should be able to win as long as Gideon is still on the battlefield after losing the 15 loyalty. Gideon’s ability to attack opponents and planeswalkers is very useful as well, and this is probably the proper way to use him in games where you are the aggressor.
By now you can see this is basically a Sphere of Safety deck, especially post-board. With 25 enchantments in the main deck, a single Sphere is difficult to attack through and the “double bubble” should be impenetrable. Sphere of Safety is key in protecting Gideon until he has enough loyalty for his -15 ability. It is even helpful when you are the aggressor because most opponents won’t have enough mana to attack back and try to race.
Hero of Iroas is kind of the catalyst of this deck. You could say that he is the early game plan, while Sphere of Safety is the late game plan. While playing Hero, I have noticed that one mana Pacifisms are pretty nice, as are 2 mana Security Blockades, and paying only 3 mana to bestow Eidolon of Countless Battles is a bargain. Also note that Hero’s ability stacks, so having multiples on the board decreases these costs further. If only he was an enchantment creature too. Shucks! I guess we can’t have it all.
I just want to go ahead and say that Eidolon of Countless Battles is an insane card. At first I thought of it as just a glorified Crusader of Odric, but bestow makes it so much more than that. Bestowing upon Hero of Iroas makes a 5/5 that can attack on turn 3 and grow larger as the game goes on. Bestowing upon the Security Blockade token makes the soldier at least a 5/5 with vigilance. These large creatures are nice blockers too when Sphere of Safety is the game plan. My favorite thing about bestowing the Eidolon is that a body stays behind when the enchanted creatures dies, thus providing resiliency against board wipes and spot removal. There is also synergy with Pacifism, which gives Eidolon or the bestowed creature a boost while disposing of an opposing creature.
Nyx-Fleece Ram is an 8/13 thanks to the bestowed Eidolon.
The inclusion of Security Blockade has probably left most of you scratching your heads, but I assure you that it is a great card in this deck. I have already explained its synergy with Hero of Iroas and Eidolon of Countless Battles (it boosts Eidolon +2/+2 if you didn’t catch that), but it also works great with Sphere of Safety. Many times the soldier token dies, but the actual Security Blockade aura sticks around to buff up the Sphere. The ability to prevent damage is pretty relevant as well, and it is absurd in multiples. While it can’t protect Gideon when creatures attack him, it does protect him from burn spells and the like.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is another early attacker, while being an enchantment to help boost Sphere of Safety. It is often the first card boarded out against aggressive decks in favor of defensive creatures like Nyx-fleece Ram. Although the text on Spirit of the Labyrinth is sometimes relevant (hello Eidolon of Blossoms), he is basically just Blade of the Sixth Pride against most decks.
I am surprised Hundred-Handed One doesn’t see more play. A 3/5 vigilance creature is already a great deal for 4 mana, and the monstrous ability makes him even better. He fits this decks theme by being good both on offense and defense. Too bad he isn’t an enchantment.
Heliod, God of the Sun has some sweet synergy with Sphere of Safety. You see, he makes creatures that are enchantments too so Sphere of Safety gets better with each one that hits the board. This is also a reasonable win condition, since these little creatures can eventually swarm your opponent. Heliod is also quite large himself, and he attacks nicely along side the other large creatures in this deck. Don’t forget that he gives all of your other creatures vigilance too.
Pacifism doesn’t see much play outside of limited, but it sure does some good things for this deck. Although it acts as a removal spell, instead of sending creatures to the graveyard, it leaves them on the battlefield where Gideon can still claim loyalty counters off them. Pacifism also has synergy with Hero of Iroas, Sphere of Safety, and Eidolon of Countless Battles, plus it is contributes to devotion and is pretty hilarious when enchanting something like Master of the Feast.
Banishing Light is one card that I probably don’t need to justify playing. Although it is a great card in general, it is kind of a nombo with Gideon. When Gideon’s ultimate resolves, whatever was exiled by Banishing Light before comes back. This will leave your opponent with at least one permanent when they’d normally have none. While this can be easily overcome, it is best to be careful with Banishing Light when Gideon’s -15 is the game plan.
Iroas, God of Victory is a newer addition to this deck and I have only had a couple opportunities to test him. Originally I played Spear of Heliod (as pictured above), but found it to be kind of boring. I feel Iroas could have more impact on the board than the Spear, but only time will tell.
Nyx-Fleece Ram is probably the most used of my sideboard cards. Most early creatures can’t swing past it, and it is super good with Sphere of Safety. It doesn’t really contribute to the beat down plan though, unless it is bestowed with Eidolon of Countless Battles.
Eidolon of Rhetoric is another defensive enchantment creature in my sideboard. Like the Ram, this card blocks pretty well and helps with the Sphere of Safety cause. I find that the “one spell a turn” clause slows me down a lot, so I prefer to only play this card if I am on the draw. It is also pretty bad against decks that play lots of instants or flash creatures, since they can just play those spells on your turn.
Aegis of the Gods often comes in against opponents playing discard spells like Thoughtseize or burn spells like Boros Charm. It swaps out nicely with Spirit of the Labyrinth.
Assemble the Legion is another win condition to unleash from under the Sphere of Safety. The Sphere usually offers enough protection to amass a huge number of soldier tokens to attack with. I almost always sideboard this card in place of Iroas, God of Victory because my mana base can realistically only support one red card in the deck at a time (there are only 6 red sources in the deck).
The Banishing Light and Gideon in the sideboard are just extra copies. Bring them in accordingly, but remember there is some anti-synergy between the two cards. You might not want to bring them both in at the same time, especially if ultimating Gideon is your primary game plan.
I use somewhat of a transformational sideboard with this deck. It basically goes from an aggressive strategy with the main deck, and turns into to a into a defensive juggernaut post-board. Here is an example of how my deck might look post-board if I am facing an aggressive opponent and I am on the DRAW (I don’t like all 4 Eidolon of Rhetoric if I am on the play):
Hero of Iroas and Spirit of the Labyrinth come out to make room for Nyx-Fleece Ram and Eidolon of Rhetoric. The defensive creatures usually slow down my opponent enough so I can land Sphere of Safety. At that point, the game should come to a grinding halt. From there it is often just a matter of waiting and eventually winning through Gideon, Champion of Justice or Assemble the Legion. Eidolon of Countless Battles can be another win condition in these situations, but it usually just takes on a defensive role. Bestowing upon a creature like Nyx-Fleece Ram creates a huge blocker, and it is almost impossible to attack past it when Sphere of Safety is on the table.
As sweet as this defensive strategy is, I like relegating it to sideboard use only. The ability to win though combat provides the deck with another angle of attack when ultimating Gideon is not an option. The deck is less resilient when Gideon and Assemble the Legion are the only win conditions.
Whether on offense or defense, there are plenty of other options out there for this deck. The first card I would add is Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, but then it wouldn’t be a budget deck would it? Please let me know what you think of the deck and any suggestions you have. Thanks for reading.