Whispers of the Muse: Jackson P’s Repel the Dark (INN)
One of the great things about Intro Pack decks is how well they lend themselves to some rudimentary deckbuilding. Our Whispers of the Muse feature is dedicated to precisely that! With a deck idea submitted by a reader, we turn to the preconstructed community to offer ideas and suggestions on how to improve the deck. Today we return to Innistrad, with the Green/White Human tribal offering, Repel the Dark.
Today’s submission comes to us by way of Jackson P. Says Jackson,
I am a bit of a Magic novice, only ever having played with my friends. I have, however, become fed up with having to borrow their decks to play. I decided to buy the Repel the Dark intro pack but i would like to customize it a little to make it a bit better. I was hoping to get a bit more removal and help it run a little faster. I like the human tribal theme and i would like to keep it White/Green and be Standard legal.
Jackson’s already done a bit of tinkering with the stock list, and here’s what he’s come up with so far.
- 4x Oblivion Ring
- 3x Bramblecrush
- 2x Bonds of Faith
- 2x Butcher’s Cleaver
- 2x Silver Inlaid Dagger
- 14x Plains
- 10x Forest
Jackson concludes with a few final thoughts on how he’d like to see the deck crafted.
I would like to keep the deck aggressive but i’m not sure if changes should be made to help it later in the game. I realize there are a few rares listed and for price and convenience’s sake I have considered using Elder Cathar and Selfless Cathar as replacements for a few of the pricier cards. I would like to avoid spending a fortune but i would also like to see what the deck could look like with a large budget.
So, who has some thoughts and ideas for an upgraded Repel the Dark? With what’s looming on the horizon with Dark Ascension, the Humans need all the help they can get!
Ertai's Lament 
Hey Jackson! Looks like your deck has hit kind of a middle-ground between the Intro Pack “Repel the Dark” and the Event Deck “Hold the Line.” Interesting…
I meddled this deck too, so I have some ideas on where I went with it. First, I’d recommend Naturalize over Bramblecrush. Yes, Bramblecrush would let you kill lands, but in the games I’ve played 9 times out of 10 I would’ve preferred a Naturalize for being cheaper/faster. Of course, you’ve got some Oblivion Rings too, so… actually with Bramblecrush, Oblivion Rings, Fiend Hunters and even sometimes Bonds of Faith, you may have enough removal to reduce those numbers a bit.
As far as equipment goes, I chose to keep Sharpened Pitchfork in the deck, and I’ve been really happy to have the first-strike time and time again.
You mentioned swapping in Elder and Selfless Cathars for some of the pricier cards… if you do that, your deck may actually want to change even more… from a deck where you want your creatures simply entering the battlefield to one where you want (some) of them to die… at which point I’d try to find a place for some Unruly Mobs to take advantage of that.
A card you might find helpful that’s coming out in just a few weeks with Dark Ascension (and which was recently spoiled) is… SPOILER BELOW STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE IT!
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…”Gather the Townsfolk,” a common 1W sorcery that lets you put 2 1/1 human creature tokens onto the battlefield, OR if you have 5 or less life (Fateful Hour), FIVE of those tokens instead. That’ll beef your Champion up fast, and let you draw some cards off your Mentor of the Meek as well.
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Oops, two other things!
1. If you can afford one or two (they’re actually cheaper than Champions of the Parish right now, looks like), an Angelic Overseer would be a nice card. I added one to my deck too, and have always been happy to see her.
2. Protection of some form, either Ranger’s Guile (hexproof and +1/+1), Apostle’s Blessing (not only guards against removal, but is easy to cast and can make your guys unblockable), or even Titanic Growth (guard against burn decks, or use it to get in some extra damage to the opponent or as a combat trick)?
Thanks for the advice, I’ll look into getting a naturalize or two! And I like the angelic overseer idea.