In the weeks before SCG Tampa there were some rumblings on our local “Gathering: For Magic!” Facebook page. Local players and friends Billy Vasilakis and Eric Beard mentioned a Junk Tokens deck they were playing that was testing pretty positively. Now I don't happen to recall their exact records from the event, but I remember Billy being X-2 at some point in the day, which I thought was impressive for having run a homebrew.
I sent him a message after the event, asking for the list since I was quite interested in it. What he sent me was as follows:
At the event he told me Vault was doing amazing work for him all day. I also would never fault someone for wanting another Sword of War and Peace, especially in a deck that has a million tiny creatures that are amazing at carrying weapons.
Based on his suggestions, I made the following changes before playing:
I basically wanted to retain access to at least one Sword of Feast and Famine in the sideboard. In addition, I don't feel like this deck will ever be behind on creatures or life, so I removed one of the Timely Reinforcements. I then replaced a single Ray of Revelation with an Oblivion Ring. I like Ray a lot, but I feel like one should be enough when you also have two Naturalizes. Also, Oblivion Ring fills a lot of the same roles as Ray of Revelation, only with more versatility. Of course whatever Naturalize and Ray of Revelation can do, so can Acidic Slime. I felt it was criminal to not have at least one copy of this guy in the sideboard with three Green Sun's Zenith in the main. Being able to search out a Naturalize that could potentially hinder your opponent's mana - kill an Inkmoth, a Wolf Run, etc. - that you can also pump with Township seems ridiculous.
So let's take a look at how the deck plays...
T2 Junk Tokens vs. Junk Superfriends, Match 1, Game 1
T2 Junk Tokens vs. Junk Superfriends, Match 1, Game 2
T2 Junk Tokens vs. BR Zombies, Match 1, Game 1
T2 Junk Tokens vs. BR Zombies, Match 1, Game 2
T2 Junk Tokens vs. BR Zombies, Match 1, Game 3
T2 Junk Tokens vs. UB Zombies, Match 1, Game 1
T2 Junk Tokens vs. UB Zombies, Match 1, Game 2
Sorry about that match with BR Zombies. I wasn't feeling quite right so I was more irritated than normal; hopefully it makes for some comical viewing. Anyway, recently there have been a ton of Junk decks (decks within the color combination of white, black, and green) popping up. In the past two weeks, on both Magic Online, and the SCG Circuit, we've seen the emergence of Junk Superfriends (with, like, eight Planeswalkers), as well as Junk Ramp. Well despite containing the same colors, this deck is actually much different than those.
The first major difference is that your goal is mainly to take advantage of your lands. Coupled with things like lifelink, deathtouch, and +1/+1 counters, your creatures can get out of hand very fast. You make blocking a Nightmare for your opponent, and cards like Hero of Bladehold and Mirran Crusader essentially allow you to gain +2/+2 thanks to things like doublestrike and battlecry. Landing a Primeval Titan is usually insane enough, but being able to land one, search out two utility lands, then attack with a 6/6 or 7/7 lifelinking, trampling, deathtoucher (you naughty deathtouccher, you) is usually more than enough. The best part is the rule about deathtouch, where an attacker only needs to deal a single point of damage to the blockers and the rest can trample over. Trust me, this is huge!
In addition, you also have things like Garruk Relentless to make tokens, kill things, or supply with you a secondary Overrun-esque ability. This is actually quite relevant since you often have plenty of tiny creatures that will bite the dust (Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrims, Strangleroot Geists, etc.). As you can see in one of the games, I was able to give +5/+5 and trample (again, huge) to all of my creatures, and if you happen to not win that turn, the boost in toughness is also very relevant.
Once again, Mirran Crusader is one of the best cards in the deck, especially when you combine him with Gavony Township and Vault of the Archangel. In one of the matches my opponent attacked me with two Primeval Titans. I blocked with two Mirran Crusaders, then gave them both deathtouch and lifelink. Needless to say it was a blood bath.
I do think some of the numbers might be off, however. For instance, the third Vault is nice, but the ability doesn't stack. There was a time after one of my Gavony Townships was killed that I wanted to search out two more from a Titan in order to double up on counters, but there was only one left. Unlike the Vault, which I had two of in my library. I get that you do want to draw a Vault, but basically any Vault over the first is redundant.
The next issue I had was the mana. several times I couldn't find a black mana. With Vault being so important as for Billy to want a third, I feel like there should be more black mana. Right now we're looking at a mere three sources of black mana, a number equal to the amount of Vaults we're playing that need black mana! I get that we also have Birds, but those do not last long. Why aren't we playing more than two Woodland Cemeteries or Isolated Chapels?
The reason we have one drops in the deck is to accelerate into a turn two Lingering Souls, Sword of War and Peace, or Mirran Crusader. Adding another Avacyn's Pilgrim helps us with all of those, and also gives us access to more white mana. We took out a Vault because the deck had 25 mana, and realistically, it can run on 24 when you have seven mana creatures. The Woodland Cemetery just seems more necessary than a Plains. It allows you to cast a second turn Strangleroot Geist, or actually activate your Vault of the Archangel. There were also plenty of times I was unable to flashback Lingering Souls, which is never what you want.
The sideboard is kind of all over as well. I think Ray of Revelation is actually unnecessary. While I love getting rid of two Enchantments for the price of one, it's just a very narrow card. Naturalize is much better and it allows you more versatility to also take out Swords, Batterskulls, and Phyrexian Metamorphs. While I think taking out both an Honor of the Pureand an Oblivion Ring would be awesome, I think being able to blow someone out mid-combat or end of turn by removing their well-placed Oblivion Ring is often good enough. Besides, I can think of only one deck that has multiple Enchantments, and it's Haunted Humans.
I also added a second Sword of Feast and Famine, as well as another Timely Reinforcements. I think that makes both our Zombies/Red Deck matchups and our Control matchups a little stronger. I cut the Corrosive Gales since I think we simply out token/flier the Spirit decks. Plus, we have both a permanent “Lord-esque” land, as well as a deathtouching land, so we should be okay.
Anyway, all things considered this is the list I finally ended up at:
I'm not sure if the numbers are perfect quite yet, but I think it's just as good of a contender as the other Junk decks that have been popping up. The deck has some insane synergy and your land suite really makes it feel like you can't lose in combat. You should give it a go; it's a deck where it's very possible to play a Lingering Souls for two tokens and simply sit on them until your opponent deals with them. I might even be tempted to add a third Garruk, but we'll leave that for another time.
That's all I have for this week. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in seven!
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