The final pairing at the Pro Tour consisted of two Junk decks, this one and that of the champion Patrick Chapin. For those that aren’t aware Junk is a three color combination consisting of White, Black and Green. While the two decks both went for similar packages of removal, ramp and included Elspeth they went in different directions with the focus of their creatures. Nam Sung decided instead of going for raw power from monstrous creatures to work with the synergy of enchantments from Constellation.
The deck focuses itself around the card drawing engine from the Constellation ability on Eidolon of Blossoms and the 19 enchantments in the deck where Eidolon will draw you a card whenever you play an enchantment with it in play. There is also the formats standard Green excelleration package consisting of the two awesome anti-Aggro ‘walls’ Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix which happens to also be an enchantment for the Constellation engine. The beatdown plan comes in the form of another enchantment with Herald of Torment who is either able to Bestow itself to beef up one of the other creatures or just go to town itself, which is very relevant in the format as a Flying threat and possible blocker against Prognostic Sphinx. Another enchantment Brain Maggot is there as part of the disruption package in conjunction with Thoughtseize to strip away those hard to deal with threats and gain valuable information about the opponents game plan. It wouldn’t be right for a White Midrange deck to not play one of the most powerful cards in the format and we find the decks lone planeswalker Elspeth, Sun’s Champion to provide additional threats to the board, destroy any creature which are too powerful, or even create an emblem to pump your entire team into a Flying horde. The deck rounds itself out with an robust suite of removal with a full set of Hero’s Downfall to kill creatures or planeswalker threats, a pair of Silence the Believers to banish a few pesky creature threats in one shot, and also Banshing Light which not only hits a wide range of permanent threats but is also an enchantment to trigger Constellation. While the deck is already strong on draw, when you stick an Eidolon, it does also run all three sets of on color Temples to Scry through the deck as fast as possible.
Creatures (22)
Spells (15)
Sideboard
Archetype of Courage – this seemingly innocuous little soldier may be a linchpin in White Weenie moving forward, maybe sideboard in a Boros “White Weenie” or the more recent Orzhov Human. While it won’t affect your opponents Double Strike creatures granting your entire army First Strike while removing it from the enemies is going to create some very awkward blocking decisions, and also make it very difficult to profitably attack into you.
Archetype of Endurance – while this is a fearsome ability creature decks would love to counteract the overwhelming amount of removal, especially from decks like Mono-Black Devotion, I wonder if he is going to be in play fast enough. That huge cost does come with an equally huge sized body but may just not be good enough if the dorks you’d use to speed him out don’t stick around to work for him. I feel like he has more of a casual appeal against that guy who’s deck is all hexproof with creatures you couldn’t kill otherwise.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos – long live the King !!! Yet again another legendary cat creature appears that is able to bring along members of his clouder with him. There is some risk built in to his ability in that he does need to put his neck out by either attacking or blocking, but as Elspeth says “…soldiers most fervently follow generals who lead by example.”. Obviously pairing him with static pumps like Phantom General or Glorious Anthem ( editor’s note: Spear of Heliod ) makes him and his kin much more resilient and deadly.
Fate Unraveler – I love static abilities that are non-symmetrical especially when they are going to trigger every turn. Sure one point of damage per turn may seem like a slow bleed but when you factor in how it shuts down a very relevant half of Sphinx’s Revelation it look even more attractive. The 3/4 body is also significant being resistant to damage based removal, providing a useful wall or even crashing the red zone to end the game quickly.
Fated Conflagration – The ability to target a Planeswalker may be the saving grace of this removal spell. Five points of damage is really no small shakes but at four converted mana cost with triple red in there the amount of decks which will be able to cast this is rather narrow. Red decks will want to take advantage of the Scry 2 as it is the type of effect they are usually very hungry for.
Fated Infatuation – another in the cycle of triple cost ‘fated’ cycle. This one has a potentially much more powerful effect but is limited to what creature you have on your side to copy. The obvious play is to abuse this with Populate to get additional copies of your hellish beasts. Trostani is one that comes to mind which had already been paired with Cackling Counterpart when Return block was legal but wasn’t very popular. We will see if it is more playable this time around with an even more restrictive mana cost. As a plus it does have the extra little bonus of a Scry 2 when played on your turn.
Felhide Spiritbinder – I can totally get behind this latest Inspired creature. With a resilient body that will no doubt find his way into an aggressive deck you’re rewarded with additional fighters for a very reasonable price. I’m interested to see this in a deck like G/R Monsters which has some real worthy targets to clone out. My mind immediately wandered to Fanatic of Xenagos which will let you double up with a 4/4 Trample regardless of your opponents choice sine the Tribute will trigger when it enters play.
Raised by Wolves – this card seems to be a bit more on the cute side by oozing out tons of flavor. Showing the ‘Power of the Pack’ mentality of the wolf in a great way it still needs additional pieces to really get full value from it. Pairing it with other wolfers like Master of the Wild Hunt or Huntmaster of the Fells you might find the true thrill of the hunt. Really too expensive for constructed play even if it does add six power to the field
Reap What Is Sown – more of a nuisance then a blowout as far as combat tricks go, unless you have some just underpowered first strikers ready to block. If it was a divide three +1/+1 counters among up to three creatures then I’d like it much better. Still, it’s a surprise and might become a very desirable trick for limited.
Herald of Torment – just like a demon to give but also take a little in return. Losing one point of life per turn isn’t so bad when you get to grant a three power boost and flying to one of your creature to bleed your opponent out faster. While many of the Bestow costs are slightly excessive for their effect, this one seems to be pretty spot on.
