“Suffer my wrath!“
Art:Catapult Squad
by Brian Snoddy
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Now let’s start off by saying, no Catapult Squad this is not better than Daru Warchief
but if you are looking for a fun casual deck that can absolteuy disrupt creature-based strategies and cause a little bit of mono-white chaos at the table, then this certaintly is the deck for you, between our commander being able to throw off and sometimes kill attacking/blocking creatures to our creatures being buffed up and aggressive this deck really gives a lot, while it is mono-white and certainly has some tough matchups i had so much fun testing this deck and while not as good as Daru Warchief I had so much fun with all of the chaos in this deck. Without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Catapult Squad Soldiers!
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Why Catapult Squad?
Catapult Squad is a card we pretty much always want to have on the field, which is pretty easy to do since our commander only costs two and they can be on the field for a majority of the game, since we have quite a few cheap creatures we can activate our commander quite early and really disrupt early-game combat for our opponents. Being able to influence combat in the early-game can really slow down the pace and force opponents to play at our level. Catapult Squad should be on the field at pretty much all times, they are key to our gameplan.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Champion of the Flame
Record against Champion of the Flame 3-0
This is another matchup where killing their commander very early makes this matchup pretty easy, we go so wide, so even if we can’t kill their commander, this matchup really isn’t bad, they share a lot of the same card draw struggles as we do. I like this matchup a lot and found it was pretty easy in testing.
Fynn, the Fangbearer
Record against Fynn, the Fangbearer 5-0
We have so many creatures that we can easily chump block most of their creatures, if we are able to keep Fynn and keep them off of the board, they really can’t do much, we can afford to play slow in this game, and if we keep killing their commander, they just won’t do anything.
Dalek Squadron
Record against Dalek Squadron 3-1
They do have a decent bit of removal but overall are much more focused on their commander, if we are able to take out Dalek Squadron the rest of their deck really doesn’t pose much of a threat, I think this is a good matchup for our deck, the Dalek’s damage can pileup quite quickly so certainly don’t let your guard down.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Daru Warchief Record against Daru Warchief 2-2
Daru Warchief is by far the better soldier commander but since they run a lot of the same cards that we do as long as we can keep their commander off of the field we can easily takeover the game, using our commander wisely and keeping an aggressive and cheap hand so we can use our commander is key, if we cant kill their creatures/commander early this can be a really rough matchup. Even though it is winnable, I still categorize it as tough, we need to play really well and have good draws to win this game, Warchief can simply present more damage and have a much easier time.
Witherbloom Apprentice
Record against Witherbloom Apprentice 0-2
Consistent drain and gain combined with a near infinite amount of removal that they have, makes this matchup extremely tough, they are just set up to beat creature decks, and they really don’t care about what we are doing or what our commander is doing.
Crypt Rats
Record against Crypt Rats 0-3
This deck is just poised to beat us, they are great at clearing all of our small creatures, and they have so much removal in their deck, this is a terrible matchup for us. I would argue this matchup is one that we just can’t beat, unless they choose to never play their commander, we can’t beat them.
Strategy Overview:
Commit your commander early:
One of the best things you can do in this deck is commit your commander to the board early, they count as one of the soldiers if needed, and can be great to kill aggressive decks.
Be careful:
We don’t have a lot of removal, so we need to use it sparingly, using it on the first target is never a good idea.
Be alert in combat:
Whether it be our combat or our opponents, paying extra attention to combat and deciding when to use your commander on an attacker or a blocker can be a great political piece and help keep us alive. I always like to pay extra attention to combat in this deck.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have so many awesome creatures, so lets highlight some of the best, since we like having as many creatures as possible to activate our commander we get a lot of value out of our token producers like Icatian Crier
and Sergeant-at-Arms
these are both very much worth the extra cost for the tokens. Anotehr pair I love in the deck is Veteran Swordsmith
and Veteran Armorsmith
whether we have one or the other they are both great pieces for the deck and whatever buff we have is good, we are already pretty good at going wide and we will always take the additional help. Soldier support is really strong, especially like Ballyrush Banneret
, which reduces the cost of pretty much every creature in our deck, which can help be mana efficient and being able to commit more to our board allows us to use our commander more often, which is always nice. While we very rarely play it out Gempalm Avenger
is a nice cheap buff for the deck and being able to cycle it at instant speed is very strong. While a lot of our creatures aren’t super impressive, they do help activate our commander and fill up the board.
Instants:
Mono-white can be a struggle especially with some of our utility cards but we do have a decent amount of removal like Kill Shot
, Generous Gift
and Make Your Move
, while some of these are a little pricey they are what we have access too and can absolteuy help us throughout the game. We do have some instant speed token production, which not only provides some chump blockers if needed, but also gives us additional activations of our commander, both are quite cheap as well in Raise the Alarm
and You're Confronted by Robbers
. If we do have a bad combat, we can recover easily with Rootborn Defenses
and since we have at least a couple of tokens hanging around, the populate can be quite nice.
Sorceries:
Token production at sorcery speed for this deck is really good, we have some great token producers like Captain's Call
and Cenn's Enlistment
both of which are very good for activating our commander and work really well with the rest of our sorcery package, the rest of our sorcery package is pretty much just buffs like Silverflame Ritual
, Now for Wrath, Now for Ruin!
and Marshaling Cry
all of these are really strong ways for us to end the game, being able to go super wide is the main way that we end the game.
Artifacts:
It wouldn’t be a mono-white deck or a soldier deck if we didn’t include Greatsword of Tyr
this card needs absolutely no introduction and is a great way to remove an opponent’s best creature from combat while making our creature increasingly big. We need a little help in the supplemental card draw department, so being able to utilize Spare Supplies
and Wedding Invitation
to get some extra cards is really important, especially when the game goes on and we start running out of cards.
Enchantments:
Omen of the Sun
is one of my favorite cards in the deck, lifegain, scrying, and soldier token production for super cheap is extremely strong for our deck. Beyond that we are very defensive in our enchantment package, with cards like Oblivion Ring
and Journey to Nowhere
allowing us to temporarily exile our opponents best creatures/commanders, enchantment removal is not super prevalent within the format so we can often keep our opponents stuff underneath our enchantemnts for quite a few turns. If we have a creature or commander that is extremely problematic, we can use Reprobation
to turn their most problematic creature into nothing, this card is really useful and perfect for creatures with a ton of activated abilities.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are very strong against aggressive strategies.
- We are really good against pretty much any deck that wants to go to combat, since we are good at damaging their creatures, even if they are attacking opponents, we can tap our creatures and disrupt combat.
- We have a decent amount of removal of our own, allowing us to remove our opponent’s biggest threats.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t have very much card draw at all, one of the worst parts of being in mono-white.
- Control decks or pretty much any deck that doesn’t allow us to keep our commander can be rough.
- We can struggle against decks that are filled with removal.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this silly take on a solderis deck as I did, while I don’t think this is the best option for a soldiers deck I think its a ton of fun and is a great casual deck and perfect for a table filled with creature decks, Soldiers have been supported for a really long time and have so many awesome and cool effects/cards. This deck has been a blast to play and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did! Stay tuned and tap in!