Champion of Silverheart

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

This Magic the Gathering blog, as you may know, is all about the casual gamer's approach to the standard format with an eye to rock the local Friday Night Magic event at your local gaming store.  We've taken a lot of crazy / kooky builds to our local store, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario of which most have fallen flat but the important thing was the fun building that pile of 60 cards.  In our post yesterday, we republished from the mothersite, the Top 5 cards of Pro Tour Avacyn Restored as seen at last weekend's Pro Tour Avacyn Restored Barcelona.

One card which we've wanted to build with since we first saw it previewed was the top card as declared in Barcelona - Wolfir Silverheart.  The most straightforward partner for just such a card in our opinion is Champion of Lambholt.  We were huge fans of the Rise of the Eldrazi green common, Aura Gnarlid and that Beast's ability to sneak past unblockable damage on an opponent - you do not often get this sort of unblockable ability in green, so when we do get such a card in a set, we see it as a special treat and need to strategise a standard format build with it.



But what to include ?
One thing we do when shaping a new deck to to lay out all the possible cards which will support the card we do want to see in every hand but these cards will still have to be decent on their own.  We've read and re-read Champion of Lambholt and then went to work.

Firstly, how do we get those +1/+1 counters on.  We grabbed cards we could think of and laid it all out.  There was a lot of support in green - Travel Preparations, Timberland Gude, Ulvenwald Bear, Hunger of the Howlpack, Increasing Savagery, Blessings of Nature, etc.  Some support in white with good Mike, the lovely Gavony Township land and the red enchantment Curse of Stalked prey.

Secondly, we looked at cheap and  efficient token producers to rack up those +1/+1 counters on Champion of Lambholt.  These are almost all white with the popular cards being Entreat the Angels, Hero of Bladehold, Lingering Souls, Doomed Traveller, Timely Reinforcements, White Sun's Zenith, etc.  Some colourless help was found with Shrine of Loyal Legions.

Lastly, picking and choosing suitable cards amongst the finalists we produced to be a part of the Champion of Lambholt / Wolfir Silverheart team.  The final result was mostly green with a splash of white for Gavony Township.  Avacyn's Pilgrim, Timberland Guide, Wandering Wolf, Increasing Savagery, Somberwald Sage, Ranger's Guile, and others.

We don't want to provide a real list here without some playtesting but can say that after just three games, we've decided that we rather like to include some of the undying tech creatures from the last set.  Cards such as Young Wolf and Strangleroot Geist help trigger (and re-trigger) a creature eotb effect to get a counter on the Champion.

We'll let you know how it goes so stay tuned.  Until then, what would you suggest to include in a standard constructed list featuring Champion of Lambholt / Wolfir Silverheart ??
~
Finally,
Since we are rather focused on Top X lists today, here, from the folks over at MTG Mint Card are the ten most sold single cards . . .
1. Huntmaster of the Fells / Ravager of the Fells
2. Kessig Wolf Run
3. Hellrider
4. Delver of Secrets / Insectile Aberration
5. Forbidden Alchemy
6. Drogskol Captain
7. Tragic Slip
8. Intangible Virtue
9. Skaab Ruinator
10. Dungeon Geists
~