Cleanse Elite

24May/09Off

Cleanse Elite

Need tip building successful white/blue soldier deck to be played against black/green vampire deck.?

I have a fairly new white/blue soldier deck that I've been working on, but I keep getting the s#!T kicked out of me. This is what I have so far:

Creatures:
3-Elite Vanguard
4-Palace Guard
4-Veteran Armorsmith
4-Veteran Swordsmith
2-Captain of the Watch
2-Baneslayer Angel
2-Blinding Mage
1-Undead Slayer
1-Azorius Herald

Artifacts/Spells:
1-Mind Control
2-Whispersilk Cloak
1-Holy Day
1-Planar Cleansing
1-Honor the Pure
3-Armored Ascension
4-Lifelink
2-Righteousness
2-Celestial Purge
2-Negate
4-Cancel

Land/Mana:
4-Terramorphic Expanse
6-Islands
16-Plains

My biggest opponent plays with a black/green vampire deck w/ 2 Liliana Vess. Would really like some help streamlining my deck, and strategy help if u've got it . Thx!

I'm kinda a rookie at deckbuilding so take this with a grain of salt.

What I see lacking here are direct damage spells and spells that take target creatures off the battlefield. Also, I'd get rid of Terramorphic Expanse for plains and islands--if you aren't trying to cheese a third color out of the deck, I can't see why you'd want colorless mana. (Kariba Crossroads gives you two life, but even basic lands would be better). If you can get a Soul Warden or two into that deck it would help, and allow you to get rid of a Lifelink card or two.

I think you have too many spells (but I like most of them!) for how many creatures you have, especially since most of them modify creatures rather than doing something all by themselves. As great as armored ascension can be, one of those may be another thing to take out (high cost)--save it for those creatures you really don't want to lose. And 4 Cancel spells--since you need two blue mana to play them, you won't get them working early in the game--replace 2 with Negate, or just get rid of them. And since you are playing blue, why not add a spell or two that lets you draw more cards--I'm betting you have more issues getting cards than you do with having mana to play them. And even though Levitation has the same problem I mentioned with Cancel, it can be great for endgame--and you have little to stop his flyers.

I'm guessing you are having trouble getting creatures out and keeping them alive, and that your opponent is getting creatures out faster and dealing you damage directly before you get your deck rolling. Do a search in the Gatherer for the Soldier type and see what other creatures (especially mana-cheap ones) go well with this deck. And maybe take a mulligan if you don't have either a mana or low cost creature in your hand. If you get Bane-Angel, Cancel, and Armored Ascension all in your starting hand, throw it out--you can't get off to a good start when three or four of your cards take 5 mana to play--you need to draw those cards later.