Magic the Gathering TCG Army Decks- Black and White Army Build Strategies and History

Magic the Gathering TCG Army Decks- Black and White Army Build Strategies and History

Hey y'all, I'm back with another one. I wanted to give credit for all the Magic the Gathering TCG aart in this post to Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro 1993 to present. All artists are credited in the card pictures themselves, and all these pictures were taken by me on my smartphone. Let's get into it.

At the beginning of the game Magic the Gathering, the forces of good evil were at odds with each other. White decks and Black decks squared off, and the similarities between the two were immediately evident. Bad moon and Crusade were the two cards printed in the original set to boost white armies and black armies that were a common sight on the battlefield. The forces of good were led by White Knight, and the forces of bad or evil were led by the Black Knight. Since the beginning, black and white faced off and Magic the Gathering supported their feud. Cards like Savannah Lions, Scathe Zombies, the pump knights from Fallen Empires of other cards were there with the soul intent of fighting each other in the form of creature armies thus were born the two decks.

At the very beginning of the game, a very popular tournament structured deck was what was called the "White Weenie" deck. Similarly, the Black Army deck arose alongside it. White Weenie took advantage of all the creatures in the game with mana cost 3 or less that could swarm and overwhelm the opponent. Cards like Savannah Lions, White Knight, Order of Leitbur, Storm Spirit and others including the underpowered Pikeman were used with the card Crusade at the center to pump them all up. The deck was backed up with spot removal like Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant. The deck utilized no mana ramp, but was quick with most of the creatures costing two mana or less. The weaker creatures in your army could be pumped with either Crusade or the pump knight abilities found in the Fallen Empires and Ice Age set creatures. This deck build was very popular because it was cheap to build and it had a fun army theme. It was referred to as "White Weenie" because the creatures were small and you could easily overwhelm your opponent by dropping lots of creatures to create an army. Swarming your opponent backed up with spot removal is a bonus, but really the key to the deck was dropping your creatures as fast as you could. It was white and Black's answer to aggressive deck builds commonly seen in red and green at the time.

Black and White Army Builds in MTG

at the same time that White Weenie decks prowled the tournament scene, Necropotence decks entered the scene. We also had the emergence of the black army deck, and it was incredibly close in build structure to the White Weenie deck. This build used the pump knights Order of the Ebon Hand, Hypnotic Specter and Black Knight and it was backed up similarly with some spot removal like Terror. The deck also utilized Bad Moon to pump all the creatures and Unholy Strength, which was not seen in the white weenie deck in the analog of Holy Strength. Some Black Army decks utilized Necropotence as a draw mechanism, which gave the deck a distinct advantage against the White Weenie deck.

White Weenie and Black Army decks saw a lot of popularity after the release of the Fallen Empires expansion. After Ice Age was released, a new set of pump knights with 2-mana costs and Necropotence enabled the build once more. After that, there were times when White Weenie and Black Army decks woukd square off. This happened again during the Tempest block, and what really spurred these decks' construction was the presence of cheap white and black creatures. The shadow ability enabled both decks with Dauthi Horror, Soltari Champion and those creatures with evasion abilities costing three mana or less. The builds themselves are incredibly similar. Spot removal is a key component of the decks to take out big creatures or finishers and they concentrate on dropping a lot of smaller creatures to be pumped. During the Tempest block, both decks had a resurgence as there were some cheap shadow creatures which had evasion abilities and fit the bill. Curser Scroll was also utilized in these builds, as the deck could empty it's hand early and drop direct damage from a colorless source onto opposing creatures. It's really important to notice too that both decks utilized Howling Mine to continuously draw cards to improve tempo. Since all players would draw cards from the Mine, technically, this was not card advantage. Card advantage wasn't as present in these builds and the tempo was really dropping creature after creature to create an army.

The pros and cons of this deck are interesting. Both of decks are incredibly similar in construction, so the pros and cons are almost the same. When you're playing a Weenie or Army deck, be it black or white, you really need to get your creatures out quickly and pump the. A big vulnerability is that there is going to be board wipers including Wrath of God, Route and Nevinyrral's Disc that are going to be potentially fatal to the deck build. Spot removal not so much, as the deck can use around 24 to 30 creatures, so you shouldn't be as worried. You will likely utilize cards like Crusade and Bad Moon to pump all your creatures or use creatures like the pump knights themselves which can increase their strength through ability. This deck build is incredibly viable and affordable to the masses. I enjoy dropping armies, and feel like a commander summoning my troops to do my bidding. Make sure to playtest and have fun.

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