by Phoenix A. Desertsong, Staff Writer, Healer & Advocate
Humanity’s Vengeance is the Avacyn Restored blue/white event deck. Overall, this deck may be the better value of the two Avacyn Restored Event Decks, but it may not be head and shoulders better than its mono-black Zombie counterpart, Death’s Encroach.
Let’s see what we have:
1 Blade Splicer
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Mirran Crusader
3 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Nephalia Smuggler
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Tandem Lookout
2 Wingcrafter
2 Dismember
1 Divine Deflection
2 Mental Misstep
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Righteous Blow
2 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
1 Moorland Haunt
12 Plains
Let’s see what we have:
1 Blade Splicer
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
1 Mirran Crusader
3 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Nephalia Smuggler
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Tandem Lookout
2 Wingcrafter
2 Dismember
1 Divine Deflection
2 Mental Misstep
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Righteous Blow
2 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
1 Moorland Haunt
12 Plains
Right off the bat, looking at this list, there are a lot of good cards here. Besides the three copies of the always useful Oblivion Ring, we have several pretty good rares in here as well, Blade Splicer, Mirran Crusader, Phyrexian Metamorph, Glacial Fortress, and Moorland Haunt, as well as Divine Deflection. That last rare isn’t so exciting, but still somewhat useful. Like it has been with the event decks with each set, though, one deck has more cards that are very playable now and the other has more cards from the current block.
From purely a Standard player’s standpoint, this deck wasn’t really as great a value because most of these cards cycled out of the competitive Standard format in October 2012. This includes all of the rares besides Moorland Haunt, Glacial Fortress and Divine Deflection, plus Dismember, Mental Misstep, Porcelain Legionnaire, and Gideon’s Lawkeeper.
Death's Enroach doesn't have the same number of money cards, perhaps, but more cards that stayed in the Standard format and be worth more to Standard players. Still, from purely a money standpoint, the big three rares from the Scars of Mirrodin block - Blade Splicer, Mirran Crusader, and Phyrexian Metamorph - continue to have value in other formats. So, it’s still a good value when you consider all of the Innistrad block cards in the deck, as well.
As for the deck itself, it is very much keen on the idea that Soulbond will carry you to victory. Wingcrafter can make your guys fly, Tandem Lookout can draw you cards, and Nephalia Smuggler can blink your guys so that they can re-Soulbond at your leisure. You also have Nearheath Pilgrim’s Soulbond ability to give itself and another creature lifelink. Fiend Hunter is excellent creature removal (and will be for quite some time in Standard) and Gideon’s Lawkeeper can help you keep big threats tapped down.
Righteous Blow, Dismember, and Oblivion Rings are a good removal package. Divine Deflection is an interesting card that can turn damage you would take into a pseudo-burn spell; it’s not bad, but it needs to be played at just the right time to be truly effective. For the mana base, you get two copies of Glacial Fortress, which was reprinted in Magic 2013, and is always a useful dual land. You also get Moorland Haunt, a great card for crapping out 1/1 flying Spirit tokens for a minimal mana investment (UW and tap).
The sideboard is interesting:
SIDEBOARD
3 Cathedral Sanctifier
2 Cloudshift
2 Inquisitor Exarch
4 Mana Leak
3 Negate
1 Pacifism
There seems to be this theme in the deck of gaining life often enough that you can stay ahead of your opponent. Cloudshift is a sort of replacement for Nephalia Smuggler if you find his ability to be too expensive to be worth using. The Mana Leak and Negate are good if you need that control element. The Inquisitor Exarchs and Cathedral Sanctifiers are interesting for their life gain aspect. The one copy of Pacifism doesn’t do much for me, but I could see cases in which you may want it to stop that one big creature you just can’t deal with.
My problem with this deck is that it does a nice job of keeping your life total up and occasionally giving you the ability to fly over things and perhaps draw some cards. As is, though, this deck doesn’t really do much but wear down your opponent. The deck is built around a hold-out sort of strategy. It doesn’t really have a finisher. It has enough removal and moves quickly enough that it can serve as an OK white weenie deck. This deck can stay on the curve consistently enough that you should never have too many dead draws.
It’s not a bad deck, and if you’re jumping back into the game and need a deck to play, it’s worth a look. But the Zombie deck I think is a bit better and needs less tweaking than perhaps this one does. I’d just pick up Restoration Angels, Champions of the Parish, and Silverblade Paladins, then build a deck around them. It’s obviously a lot pricier than buying a couple copies of this deck, but it’s more worth it, considering that those cards cause a lot more problems more quickly than anything here does. It’s just an underwhelming deck.
From purely a Standard player’s standpoint, this deck wasn’t really as great a value because most of these cards cycled out of the competitive Standard format in October 2012. This includes all of the rares besides Moorland Haunt, Glacial Fortress and Divine Deflection, plus Dismember, Mental Misstep, Porcelain Legionnaire, and Gideon’s Lawkeeper.
Death's Enroach doesn't have the same number of money cards, perhaps, but more cards that stayed in the Standard format and be worth more to Standard players. Still, from purely a money standpoint, the big three rares from the Scars of Mirrodin block - Blade Splicer, Mirran Crusader, and Phyrexian Metamorph - continue to have value in other formats. So, it’s still a good value when you consider all of the Innistrad block cards in the deck, as well.
As for the deck itself, it is very much keen on the idea that Soulbond will carry you to victory. Wingcrafter can make your guys fly, Tandem Lookout can draw you cards, and Nephalia Smuggler can blink your guys so that they can re-Soulbond at your leisure. You also have Nearheath Pilgrim’s Soulbond ability to give itself and another creature lifelink. Fiend Hunter is excellent creature removal (and will be for quite some time in Standard) and Gideon’s Lawkeeper can help you keep big threats tapped down.
Righteous Blow, Dismember, and Oblivion Rings are a good removal package. Divine Deflection is an interesting card that can turn damage you would take into a pseudo-burn spell; it’s not bad, but it needs to be played at just the right time to be truly effective. For the mana base, you get two copies of Glacial Fortress, which was reprinted in Magic 2013, and is always a useful dual land. You also get Moorland Haunt, a great card for crapping out 1/1 flying Spirit tokens for a minimal mana investment (UW and tap).
The sideboard is interesting:
SIDEBOARD
3 Cathedral Sanctifier
2 Cloudshift
2 Inquisitor Exarch
4 Mana Leak
3 Negate
1 Pacifism
There seems to be this theme in the deck of gaining life often enough that you can stay ahead of your opponent. Cloudshift is a sort of replacement for Nephalia Smuggler if you find his ability to be too expensive to be worth using. The Mana Leak and Negate are good if you need that control element. The Inquisitor Exarchs and Cathedral Sanctifiers are interesting for their life gain aspect. The one copy of Pacifism doesn’t do much for me, but I could see cases in which you may want it to stop that one big creature you just can’t deal with.
My problem with this deck is that it does a nice job of keeping your life total up and occasionally giving you the ability to fly over things and perhaps draw some cards. As is, though, this deck doesn’t really do much but wear down your opponent. The deck is built around a hold-out sort of strategy. It doesn’t really have a finisher. It has enough removal and moves quickly enough that it can serve as an OK white weenie deck. This deck can stay on the curve consistently enough that you should never have too many dead draws.
It’s not a bad deck, and if you’re jumping back into the game and need a deck to play, it’s worth a look. But the Zombie deck I think is a bit better and needs less tweaking than perhaps this one does. I’d just pick up Restoration Angels, Champions of the Parish, and Silverblade Paladins, then build a deck around them. It’s obviously a lot pricier than buying a couple copies of this deck, but it’s more worth it, considering that those cards cause a lot more problems more quickly than anything here does. It’s just an underwhelming deck.
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