Card/Deck Fencing Ace

[James Stevenson]

I run Fencing Ace and I want to make it work. However, I just made some massive changes, cutting all 5 swords and all 1 Batterskulls. Naturally, there's a lot fewer ways to do cool things with Fencing Ace. These are all the cards I see in my list that work well with it:

Mirror Entity
Pianna, Nomad Captain
Hero of Bladehold
Griffin Guide
Angelic Destiny
Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Glorious Anthem
Accorder Paladin
Stonewright
Pyrewild Shaman
Goblin Wardriver
Noble Hierarch
Rancor
Elephant Guide
Garruk Wildspeaker
Wolfir Silverheart
Craterhoof Behemoth
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Kessig Wolf Run
Mirari's Wake
Selesnya Charm
Behemoth Sledge
Qasali Pridemage
Sunhome Guildmage
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Dreg Mangler
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Rafiq of the Many
Bonesplitter
Grafted Wargear
Loxodon Warhammer
EDIT: I forgot Edric, Spymaster of Trest

I'm also testing these right now:

Swift Justice
Brute Force
Darksteel Axe
Trusty Machete
Adventuring Gear


These are in here because I'm looking ways to make Fencing Ace good. I am now also trying out Viashino Slaughtermaster. I almost cut Spikeshot Elder, but I want to keep him in too. If I can improve the performance of one of these, I'll improve all of them, and there could be an interesting aggro deck to be drafted.

I'm looking to add Vow of Duty as well.

What I would like is any thoughts you have on these cards. Am I running crap for no good reason? Are they awesome anyway? Should I bother? Should I not? Is Vow of Duty terrible? Can you think of cards I should add? Equipment I overlooked? Should I try to shift my removal to sorcery speed to improve the auras?

EDIT: For reference, here's the list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArD0L8O5X_TkdGEwUXN3UlQ1VDdvRWMxS3hTM3ZFVXc

 

[Chris Taylor]

Personal Favorite: Reckless Charge
Last draft we had a guy go Spikeshot Elder, Equip Wargear, Charge, Swing for 7, activate elder for the final 7 (Going to 1 off his city of brass no less)

I always found Machette and Darksteel axe to be super awkward in their costs. Vow seems interesting, but I fear giving them such a good blocker might not make it so great. Maybe Bonds of Faith might work? It's the same basic concept, pump on my guy or pacifism on theirs.

 

[James Stevenson]

Yeah I am thinking vow might just be bad. If you run it, you want both modes => You're probably aggro to want to pump one of your guys => Stopping an opposing creature from attacking is not really what you want to be doing, let alone giving it +2/+2 to stop all your guys.
I think I'll give Reckless Charge a whirl if I can find one. It's definitely looking more interesting now.

 

[Lucre]

What you've got here is an ideal target looking for a deck that knows what to do with it. I guess auras and such are nice because they make all your guys reasonable in a fight but those guys usually are value guys that are working for you on their own. What you're talking about here is making your wire section into some sort of weird pants combo deck. Either seriously support this with lots of redundancy or take fencing ace out for cards that are not only aggressive when they are augmented but can stand on their own two feet as cards without.

Are you getting that much value out of an equipped swift blade to justify the unequipped turns. Is it that much better than putting the cloak on my lions or creature with protection? How many cards are you willing to ram into your white section for the sake of a single bad dude.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Reckless Charge is amazing, fun, and a fun resource management / output maximization card. Don't forget you can cast it twice in one turn. Reckless Charge is also awesome on Fencing Ace. Adventuring Gear is a total house in my cube. Fencing Ace + Gear results in 10 point Turn 3 swings with a mana to spare.

It looks like you have a lot of interactions, but stuff like Dreg Mangler won't really contribute much, as it requires a very specific 3-color build.

I have liked Ajani, Caller of the Pride as a supporter of the double-strike theme. He pumps the double-strikers, and can double-strike pumped creatures. He's not amazing in terms of raw power, but I enjoy his design. Original Ajani is also amazing with Fencing Ace, of course.

The other thing to do is to run a few other double-strikers, to make taking synergy (pump) over raw power a worthwhile deck choice.

 

[James Stevenson]

I'm currently not running either Ajani. I never found either of them to be great. I'm trying to push tokens a bit right now though, do you think I should add one of them? Or both?

 

[Lucre]

If you are looking to field a lot of great aura targets in your cube there are lots of great new hexproof guys running around. Doublestrike is a fun way to make creature augmentation fit into aggro decks to make them into cute combo decks but so is protection! It always felt sorta the same to me, knowing I was on a clock on board that I would have to find a silver-bullet for as knowing that around the corner that eventual rude awakening or whatever was about to swing the game drastically out of my control. I guess it depends on the availability of answers though.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Ajani Goldmane doesn't sound insane as a walker, and mostly that's because he isn't: He's the best glorious anthemn ever printed.
Caller of the Pride is a nice card for the double striking theme. He's been solid, but not oppressive.

I'd add both, they've been sweet for me.

 

[CML]

Goldmane has been very strong in my Cube, maybe stronger than Elspeth K.E. Nobody wanted to play 1WW Ajani (he's not all that close to constructed-playable, which may be biasing our picks if he really is as good as you guys say)

I don't recommend Machete, Axe, Brute Force, Swift Justice. wish they worked, have tried, nobody wanted them

 

[Jason Waddell]

I don't think 3CMC Ajani is that good. But he's very synergistic. That's a very positive trait when it comes to walkers, in my opinion. I prefer to run ones whose value is deck dependent (see both Sarkhans).

 

[Lucre]

3cc ajani is like... impossible to kill when dropped on the board turn 3 with a guy on the field. That guy is so biiiiiiiiiiiiiig

 

[Peter Angell]

Fencing Ace is one my personal favorites. Vulshok Morningstar is another solid equipment, and the two toughness can be quite relevant for the non-first strikers who might pick it up. Vines of Vastwoodprobably won't get kicked onto the Ace itself often, but the option is there and Vines is a sweet utility spell for green (it doesn't grant hexproof, so you can counter auras and equips and other targeted buffs on your opponents guys). Other suggestions in this thread have been good as well.

Don't forget that Fencing Ace is also a human and a soldier, so he's a great add if you want to include some tribal synergies.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Man I wish vines was the other way around. (Kicker for hexproof)
I know that would be too good, but it'd be so sweet

 

[CML]

yeah but lucre you dont need to kill him. ignoring other planeswalkers comes with a steep penalty (especially the ones that can defend themselves). ignoring ajani cop means ... they have an ajani cop

 

[James Stevenson]

I've been trying to cut way down on hexproof and shroud for a long time. Mostly it was because of things like Sphinx of Jwar Isle which felt kind of unbeatable when they came down. Are there some fun ones at the lower end of the curve?

 

[Chris Taylor]

Sphinx you can at least win around, sometimes he comes down and you're still dead to the swingback

 

[CML]

the low end of the curve is the problem isnt it? at least in constructed, bogle, stalker, geist are vomit-inducing, while thrun and troll ascetic are harmlessish

 

[James Stevenson]

I took Geist of Saint Traft and Thrun, the Last Troll out in my last cut, for lack of them being any fun, really. Geist is really good in the WU tempo decks that I really adore, but not necessary. The same goes for Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary. He is the best card in ramp, but ramp doesn't really need him, and the games with Rofellos tend not to be games. Troll Ascetic came out a little while ago because I didn't see his benefit, but maybe it's time to try him again.

EDIT (Just so not to double post): Maybe Invisible Stalker is ok now that the swords and Umezawa's Jitte are gone. What do you guys think? That card was a house in Innistrad if he got equipped. Maybe he's worth trying.

 

[Jason Waddell]

In my cube Geist is really not even overpowered, and is a good design I think. These cards all seem very environment dependent, so it's hard to make a statement in the abstract. I'd rather have Geist than Invisible Stalker in my cube though.

EDIT: I also don't run Rofellos, but mainly because I don't want to punish people for playing utility lands.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I've always found Geist okay since he's easily dealt with by bears, the base creature in my cube.
Thrun I have a slightly bigger problem with, since there's really little you can do but race him or have a giant blocker.
Troll is just a victim of the times in my opinion. Would that he had 1 more toughness, or his regen was , or he had one more keyword or something.
Stalker seems either horrible (on his own) or bonkers (with equipment). I wouldn't add it, though I bemoan the lack of good aggressive blue creatures more than anyone

 

[James Stevenson]

I just did a quick search to see if there's any good cheap white regenerators to work with auras (yay Revered Dead). The answer was pretty much "No.", but have you guys seen Debt of Loyalty? That seems like quite a cool card, and I've never heard of it.
EDIT: The written text is obviously insane, but look up the oracle text. That's what I originally saw, seems cool. And swingy.

 

[Chris Taylor]

An old EDH favorite of mine
there's a similar card coming out in M14 costed at , but it just needs the creature to die, not regenerate. Could work if Debt of Loyalty works out for you.

 

[James Stevenson]

Has anyone tried Gift of Orzhova?

 

[Dom Harvey]

I haven't, but now you mention it... I kinda want to. I don't want to uses a gold slot on that kind of effect, but a hybrid version could be decent.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Bonus for black!