Unusual MTG Soldier Deck Appears in High-Powered Format

Legacy is one of MTG’s oldest and most ruthless formats, especially when it comes to trying brews. Because of this, when a brew does something interesting, it makes it all the more exciting. This past Friday, a Soldier Typal deck 5-0d a Magic Online Legacy League, certainly fitting the unorthodox mold. While this deck may not be the most competitive, it is capable of some gnarly draws.

Building Around the Soldier Type

While Soldiers may seem like a rather weak creature type to build around, the payoffs this deck utilizes provide decent rewards for staying on theme. Enlistment OfficerEnlistment OfficerFirst strike
When this creature enters, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Soldier cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order., for example, provides a solid burst of card advantage, while Siege VeteranSiege VeteranAt the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
Whenever another nontoken Soldier you control dies, create a 1/1 colorless Soldier artifact creature token. doubles as board protection and a massive damage dealer.

Where Soldiers gets its biggest edge, however, is with the presence of Preeminent CaptainPreeminent CaptainFirst strike (This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.)
Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a Soldier creature card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking., capable of cheating in massive threats like Captain of the Watch with just one attack. Palace Jailer or Brutal Cathar helps this further, clearing potential blockers to get multiple Preeminent Captain attacks.

Unfortunately, as rewarding as Preeminent Captain is, your odds of actually getting to turn it sideways are quite low without some protection. To help, this deck comes prepared with four copies of Chalice of the VoidChalice of the VoidThis artifact enters with X charge counters on it.
Whenever a player casts a spell with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact, counter that spell., which can shut off all one-mana removal spells. In games where you don’t draw Chalice, a quick Thalia, Guardian of Thraben backed up by WastelandWasteland{T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target nonbasic land. can also mana screw your opponent.

Given how reliant this deck is on slamming these two and three mana plays ahead of schedule, your accelerants also play a super important role. Both Chrome Mox and Ancient Tomb give you a chance to play Chalice turn one, and if you have them both in your opening hand, you can even slam Preeminent Captain right away.

More Fun Than Competitive

As a whole, what makes Mono-White Soldiers intriguing is that it has a reasonable game plan against the various tempo decks of the format. Both Dimir Tempo and Izzet Delver rely on one-mana cantrips for consistency, making Chalice, Thalia, and Esper Sentinel all nuisances. From there, Cavern of Souls completely blanks Daze and Force of Will, making it trivial to resolve your impactful threats.

While playing this anti-tempo strategy might sound good in theory, especially with Dimir on the rise thanks to Bilbo, Thief in the NightBilbo, Thief in the NightSpells you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost {1} less to cast.
Whenever Bilbo attacks, you may cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If an instant or sorcery spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead., there are still numerous concerns that hold it back. The biggest problem Mono-White Soldiers faces by far is that it can’t race fast combo decks like Storm and Reanimator. You essentially need sideboard cards like Deafening Silence and Surgical Extraction to steal games, which isn’t a reliable plan.

On top of your weakness to combo, your lack of removal can also come back to bite you against Death and Taxes. This strategy can easily out-grind you with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd while also keeping your best threats in check thanks to Solitude and Swords to Plowshares.

Ultimately, these issues keep Mono-White Soldiers from being anywhere near the top tier of Legacy archetypes. Still, there’s no denying that the deck is fun, so if you’re looking to catch your tempo-loving friends off guard at your next FNM, consider taking this deck for a spin.

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