You know what new format I’ve become completely enamored with?
Tiny Leaders.
I love it.
The limitations make building a decent Tiny Leaders deck so challenging, and in turn, really really fun.
When Dragons of Tarkir spoilers started appearing on the interwebs, Tiny Leaders was also starting to build steam as a format. I was already pretty in love with DTK, what with the time travel aspect and the “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS IN THE NOW ALPHA TIMELINE?” panic. I was pleased to see Surrak was still doing well, given the current situation (THE FRONTIER REMAINS STRONG), Sidisi deserved it, Narset went the way we all knew she was going to, Zurgo REALLY deserved it and…
I can say with great honesty I almost cried when I discovered the fate of Anafenza, my second favorite of the Khans. But then I saw her ability and her CMC and went… wait, this might not all be bad. I can TOTALLY craft a Tiny Leaders deck out of that!
And thus began the journey of creating a white weenie soldier tribal deck headed by the Spirit Soldier Anafenza. This was one of my first times building a commander-styled deck on my own and completely from scratch (I will discuss my Nath deck at some other point), and I wanted to make sure it really worked. So I scoured Gatherer and other MTG databases, doing a little bit of research on TappedOut for synergistic cards that may work well together in this kind of a tribal deck (after all, I haven’t played for that long and I have a TON of years worth of cards that I don’t even know about). After about a week of planning and crafting, I finally made myself a Tiny Leaders deck I am proud of, complete with the legal ten-card sideboard. If you want to take a quick glance at what is in it, I did put it on TappedOut, and the link will be at the end of the post.
Well, let’s get to breaking it down!
I decided to build my deck around Anafenza and her amazing Bolster ability. To be completely honest, bolster was my favorite ability to come out of the Khans block. I just… liked the camaraderie of the ability. We’re going to help out the smaller, weaker members of our troop by giving them an extra power boost. It makes sure everyone’s performing up to snuff. So bring her out on turn two and then just start making everyone else bigger. The +1/+1 counters start to FLY.
I have my creatures in this deck broken down into four groups: soldiers that help other soldiers, soldiers that help me, soldiers that are really useful, and non-soldiers. Let’s break this down, shall we?
First, to the soldiers that help other soldiers:
As you can see, I tried to get a lot of value in that three CMC limit that was given to me. I made sure all the soldiers get +1/+1 tokens in any way possible, just in case something happens to Anafenza, make them cheaper to cast, and make sure they all have things like Flying or First Strike once they are boosted enough. These guys are real utility, and can also do a decent amount of damage on their own.
Next up are the soldiers that benefit me. When I say that, it means they do less for my creatures and more to mess with my opponents. There are only two in this group:
Yep. A soldier that gives me hexproof, and one that makes noncreature spells cost more. Yes, this does drag me down too, but when you have a majority creatures deck it doesn’t hurt all that much in the end. And that extra colorless tacked onto the price of your opponent’s spell may be the thing that saves you.
Next are the soldiers that are useful. They are all amazing, but they don’t have abilities that affect other soldiers on the board.
All of these soldiers are amazing and just get bigger with the boosting and bolstering from the upper two lists (my personal favorite strategy is to send a flying, double striking Fencing Ace right at my opponent after some buffing up). Brimaz is just one of the best soldiers out there, and while Bushi Tenderfoot loses his soldier-only buffs when he becomes Kenzo, that Bushido 2 combined with Double Strike is pretty sweet. With a majority human deck, Champion of the Parish really gets to shine, Doomed Traveler is a wonderful 2-for-1 deal, and Ballynock Cohort is a 3/3 right from the get go.
Then we have the only non-Soldier creature in the deck:
I put this lovely lady in to shut down any aggressive haste-heavy strategies. Plus, the fact that she’s a human helps buff up the Champion’s power as well.
Next up, I have my Enchantments.
First off, I have a pair of removal spells.
While they are not the primo removal from other colors, I am working with the CMC and color limitations. And they work well enough for what they are. Plus, there is more removal in sideboard if we need it.
Then we have the anthem and buff spells.
Vigilance is an awesome thing to have, as well as the ability to multiblock. And both anthems will make my soldiers more able to multiblock without dying. A good quality to have, if you ask me.
Finally, we have the bridge between the Enchantments and Artifacts. Part anthem, part removal. And at the CMC of 3, it is a pretty solid choice in any white tiny leaders, if you ask me.
I absolutely love the Spear of Heliod. Quite a bit of function in one card, if you ask me. It can get rid of some nasty threats and may give your army the edge it needs to overwhelm your opponent.
Then we have the only other artifact in this deck:
+2/+2 for most of the creatures in the deck, what with them all being white and almost all of them being soldiers. With an equip cost of 2, I’m surprised I don’t see this in more decks. Plus, if Anafenza leaves the field for some reason, it can always be equipped to either Thalia or Brimaz to keep those bonuses going (bonus if it’s equipped to Thalia, because then even the Imposing Soverign gets the +2/+2).
Next up are the two board wipes that are in the deck. Those wonderful “just-in-case” cards for when the field gets too scary to deal with.
In this deck, my board wipe preference goes to Harsh Mercy, but of course it’s useless if you are up against another tribal deck. Hence the reason Martial Coup is in the deck. Then you have all of your anthem effects to make those 1/1 soldiers into 3/3 or 4/4 soldiers instead, which at that point in the game might be the killing blow.
But what if you are fighting another tribal deck, or don’t get the oomph you want out of your soldier tokens? Well, we have a few cards in the deck to deal with that situation too!
Each is different, as Rally the Ancestors is for that alpha strike that will eliminate your opponent in one blow, and Return to the Ranks, while not getting as many of your guys back, may be all that it takes to win and may be better in the long run, as they stay on the battlefield as compared to Rally.
Next up are my lands. Seeing as I have a mono-colored deck, nonbasics are not as required for my deck to run smoothly. But there are a few that are useful to have:
Returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, hiding a possible board wipe for when I need it under some heights, scrying, and turning into an enormous soldier? All useful abilities for any white deck, not just mine. After the nonbasic lands, all that is really required is 15 plains.
“But what about the sideboard, Keyla?” I hear all of you ask. Well, it’s a simple little ten-card sideboard, with a handful of bolster abilities, a few more “no” cards, and some nice creatures that couldn’t fit into main board.
These two are meant to be played together if you feel your deck is lacking some life gain. Then you also get an extra bonus in a potential big thing/big thing for gaining life.
Next up in sideboard are two creatures that give more +1/+1 counters to the creatures in play through either death or bolster, and a nice piece of large creature removal if you need it.
Next up are two more “no” cards. One for exiling and another that is a pacifism effect. If you are fighting against another deck full of humans, though, you can use it to give one of your creatures +2/+2.
Next up are two more cards that strengthen the field in one way or another, either by giving another anthem or a few more soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield. Mind you, they don’t trigger Anafenza’s bolster ability, but sometimes you need more bodies as opposed to more buffs.
Finally, one Feat of Resistance in case you find yourself dealing with your opponent’s removal. Save your best creature and buff it up even more.
And there we go! A relatively inexpensive Anafenza Tiny Leaders deck! Altogether, the deck costs less than 80 dollars with most of the price coming from Brimaz. This deck is available for a more condensed look on TappedOut.net right here, where you can playtest it yourself if you want.
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