Death Gaara's Junk Walker Control

Hey all, today I thought we would look at a deck list. This is a Junk Walker Control build. What is Junk you may ask? Well back in the Shards block days, some people who did not want to play Jund (RBG) instead played the core Green and Black cards but used White instead of Red. So Junk=WBG. Let’s look at the main contender for slots.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
This guy is the main contender for the 4 drop slot. Why? This is simple.  He protects himself. He easily ticks up his loyalty while protecting himself with creatures.  His emblem synergizes with another card that we will discuss later. And his ultimate is powerful against control and other creature based builds.

Gideon Jura
He has always been an ally to other planeswalkers by keeping fire off of them and destroying problematic creatures. Not only that, he also curves perfectly after a Sorin.

Liliana of the Veil
She is definitely strong against control and good early against aggro. I would not jump to conclusions and call her an instant 4 of, but she should still be somewhere in the 75.

Garruk Relentless
Not as useful as Sorin, but he does protect himself and create tokens for other purposes. He probably won’t make the cut but let’s keep all of our options open.

That’s it for all of the playable walkers. On to the removal spells.

Doom blade
It’s an all-star removal spell, not much else to say here

Go for the Throat
Doom Blades cousin that hits black, its applications should be just as obvious as the previous one.

Beast Within
This is very relevant. Why? It hits planeswalkers. This alone makes it worth running. It also hits Kessig Wolf Run, turns Primeval Titan into a 3/3 dwarf and hits the Grave Titan doom blade misses.  This is perfect for what we need.

Some other auto includes are
Lingering Souls
This card is just powerful on its own. It should be considered for every deck that runs white right now.
Birds of Paradise
He ramps, color fixes, chumps and can hold a sword. What more could we ask for.
Borderland Ranger
Perhaps not an auto include, but he does fix our colors and allow us to hit the 4th land for Sorin.
Sigarda, Host of Herons
This card is nuts. A 5 mana 5/5 with flying, sure why not. Plus it has hexproof and makes Tribute to hunger a dead card. This card is very powerful and should not be overlooked.

Now our list should look something like this.

Creatures- 13
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Borderland Ranger
4 Avacyn Pilgrim

Spells- 22
4 Lingering Souls
3 Gideon Jura
4 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
3 Beast Within
4 Oblivion Ring

Lands-25
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Woodland Cemetery
2 Isolated Chapel
2 Gavony Township
7 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp

So the general layout is pretty obvious. We want to see a turn 1 mana dork. This will let us get things started quickly. Turn 3 Sorin or Gideon is a powerful play; from there the deck plays like a token deck but gaining advantage off of the Sorin and Gideon. Making your opponent swing is just powerful, especially with Sorin’s tokens. This causes your opponents to make bad trades with your tokens letting you get even further ahead in board presence. Sorin will also help keep up a defense and let you create emblems that help win you games. His ultimate is also blowout against Frites. Gavony Township will give your mana dorks something to do when you are mana flooded or need to push just a little more to win a game.  Lingering souls is also benefitted from this. Beast Within and Oblivion Ring will also take care of Planeswalkers, Birthing Pod, enchantments in the token decks, and Swords. Although not as powerful as Solemn Simulacrum, Borderland Ranger has the ability to come down on turn 2 off of a hand with a mana dork. This is relevant as it gets under Mana Leak if you’re on the play. This is important as it allows us to guarantee our land and set up a turn 3 Sorin. Sigarda will allow us to finish games quicly as a flying beater that cannot be targeted. The deck also boasts the ability to play her on turn 3 which puts an incredible amount of pressure on control. The sideboard to a deck like this is completely customizable. I think the only mandatory thing is 3 Liliana of the Veil against control. Other than that, it can be an assortment of anything you want. Notable includes are Acidic Slime for its relevance against Wolf Run Ramp, Timely Reinforcements against the red decks, Nihil Spellbomb against Frites and Snapcaster decks, and Ray of Revelations against tokens. Any of the swords are also powerful SB cards. A bird holing a sword is sometimes enough to just get there.

In any case, the deck I have talked about today has not been tested at all. But if you are in the mood to play something under the radar or just want to play a deck that nobody else is playing, this deck offers a lot of power very quickly. The token theme makes it easy to get around removal, while the Gideon protects and forces awkward combat situations on the opponent. The removal in the deck should get there well enough with 7 instant speed cards in the main that can deal with Inkmoth Nexus. There is plenty of removal to deal with Wolf Run Ramp, which I feel is the deck you need to look out for the most right now.  I would also be on the lookout for Naya Pod, as I feel that deck is also a strong contender.  I hope you guys enjoyed this article and until next time, keep it real and have fun!

YESSSS!!!!!! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!! 

I just wanna say against tokens use bombs cause even though they'll destroy your tokens you can reraise your army fast with your build! Awesome article! Very enjoyable

I just can't believe I got sold on borderland ranger.  Awesome read!!!!  👍

This looks pretty fantastic, and fun. Good job.

i'm more familiar with the junk titans build but i must say your walker build is much more impressive

Sorins lifelink tokens, not deathtouch

Sorins lifelink tokens, not deathtouch

Yes, I noticed that after writing this at 3AM. Simply put, sub a land or two out for the one that gives lifelink  and deathouch if you want that kind of control. With lingering souls running around, you can still make complex combat with Gideon + Sorin.

Quote from: Willthomjr on May 05, 2012, 02:19:08 PM

Sorins lifelink tokens, not deathtouch

Yes, I noticed that after writing this at 3AM. Simply put, sub a land or two out for the one that gives lifelink  and deathouch if you want that kind of control. With lingering souls running around, you can still make complex combat with Gideon + Sorin.

Vault of the Archangel

Also instead of borderland Ranger (I see him as an early blocker) why not use Dawntreader Elk use it as a blocker but before it dies sac it?

You get immediate satisfaction with borderland. Btw...I like how your post still links to borderland haha

You get immediate satisfaction with borderland. Btw...I like how your post still links to borderland haha

You get ramp with the elk though :p and haha yea whoops :p

Also instead of borderland Ranger (I see him as an early blocker why not use Dawntreader Elk use it as a blocker but before it dies sac it?

Because then you cant trade with your opponents creature. Why Borderland Ranger is a good card for the reasons noted, he guarantees your 4th land and trades. Also, you dont need double green to take advantage of this (Unlike Elk). Both come down on turn 2 so Elk really has no upside over ranger. Yes, it puts the land in play, but it will not allow you to keep as many hands have an awkward combination of lands in your hand. When you see a hand with a pilgrim, forest, and a plains or a swamp, you will want the ranger more. I would rather have the borderland to trade with an aggressive deck or block a Sword wielding dude while fixing my colors in this scenario. Remember this deck plays 8 mana dorks, so it does not need to ramp to play stuff anyways. This decks curves stops at 5, which between 8 mana dorks and 25 lands with rangers should be easy to get to. With all of the dorks, this deck can turn 3 Sigarda off of a nuts draw. So ramping provides little benefit. But fixing your next land drop in a 3 color deck is invaluable. You can replace it if you wish as they difference is marginal, but that marginalization can cost a game. We are moving into an aggressive format, and trading creatues is about to become a better play if you can back it up. Also, vapor snag does not punish Ranger like it does Elk as you can get the ability again. Its a preferential call, but either is fine.

Oh okay I didn't think about the snag part and that makes a lot of sense! Cool!

I played with this deck a couple games.

I like the gavony township for dead draws. The greens purpose is only for mana and removal flexibility. Other than that it's a b/w token deck.

Had some trouble with Aggro. I imagine sideboard obviously.

I had a similar deck I was working on. However, I had a creature emphasis (grave, prime titans) but I can honestly say
Token generator is more consistent. I have heavy mass removal (judgement, black sun ).

But I like this idea for a deck.

(I'm still very new to the game)

Thanks for sharing.