I never really thought of soldiers as a great creature type. Even with Onslaught, soldiers aren't the creature type you hear about breaking down the drawbridge. People normally talk about Beasts, Zombies, Clerics, Elves, Wizards, or Goblins; Soldiers are White's redheaded stepchild. Even when you check out the card list there isn't one really impressive soldier that stands out like Hystrodon, Ravenous Baloth, or Goblin Sparksmith. The closest you'd get is the Aven Brigadier - and for its casting cost, it doesn't stand out like Silvos or Visara.

So what would make Soldiers a force to be reckoned with? Becoming an army! One or two soldiers won't storm the castle - but fifteen thousand? Now you're talkin' Braveheart kickin' the gates in, defeating the evil wizard, and grabbin' the princess sort of thing! (When did Braveheart fight a wizard? - The Ferrett) What righteous man wouldn't want to do that?

When you watch a war movie (those starring Arnold Schwarzenegger do not qualify) like"Glory" and more recent flicks such as"Windtalkers," you don't see one or two soldiers, footin' it like they're all that, decimating the enemy with a couple of Rambo-like waves of the AK-47: You view a vast landscape of humanity fighting for freedom, land, or maybe even Fig Newtons. Whatever the reason, there are always a boat-load of soldiers in view.

That's what my draft deck became: A sea of soldiers, all ready to whup some enemy booty.

I don't get out that much anymore being the father of two, with my wife at school, and working one and a half hours away from the nearest place to play (I've moved into the boonies). I frequent a pre-release in Columbus, Ohio or two but other then that I don't have that many chances to play anymore.

So one day I was talking to my friend Cory from my old haunt Infinite Realms in Findlay, Ohio and he said this Thursday was the last Onslaught booster draft in awhile. I so wanted to jump in, and I wanted to find a way. I didn't do that great (1-2, Big D) at the prerelease, even considering that I had a pretty good deck (Silent Specter, Symbiotic Wurm, Centaur Glade, nine Elves and six Zombies). So I was ready for another matchup with the latest set.

Fortunately, God smiled upon me and my wife's parents were visiting that night to see the kids, so I had a semi-good reason to be freed up. Nevertheless, the wife was not pleased - but being that I haven't played since the prerelease, she didn't complain to my face.

Ahhhh... The small joys of marriage.

I arrived to the local store (the R&B newsstand where Infinite Realms resides) and by the time we all got started, we had eleven players! Being the non-sanctioned and generally casual place that we are, everyone played. We also didn't do single elimination; that way everyone could have a better playing experience.

The only thing I told myself was that if I saw either the Daru Cavalier or Screaming Seahawk, I was going to try and grab as many as I could. I just felt that the synergies of these cards are great in a booster draft compared to a sealed deck. Packs were cracked and the first thing I grabbed was the decent Daru Lancer. The rare bit the dust, so that pack was gone. The interesting thing with having eleven people booster drafting was you'd see your pack just once more - and then bye bye, birdie!

I continued to get passed soldiers upon soldiers. I also kept receiving Daru Cavaliers. One.... Then another...Then another.... I then was able to side in black once I saw a couple of Swats, and a Nantuko Husk to finalize it. Here is the deck I made from what I drafted:

6 Daru Cavalier (MVP #1 - the reason soldiers aren't anything without their brothers-in-arms)
2 Daru Lancer
2 Dive Bomber
2 Misery Charm
2 Piety Charm
2 Dirge of Dread (MVP #2 - saved my hind-quarters many times)
2 Swat
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Unified Strike
1 Gustcloak Harrier
1 Pacifism
1 Screeching Buzzard
1 Flooded Strand
1 Secluded Steppe
9 Plains
6 Swamps

Other sideboardable cards of any use:
1 Syphon Soul
1 Crown of Awe
1 Demystify
1 Disciple of Grace
2 Crown of Suspicion
2 Festering Goblin

That's the cool thing about booster drafts. With a card like the Daru Cavalier, you have the possibility to draft more than four. Throw in that first strike ability and you can have a tremendous ground army that really thins the deck out.

Now on to the draft:

Round 1 - Josh (G/R - Beasts and Goblins) 2-1
Josh is an okay player, but he's new and misses some opportunities to do damage. He is the only one who takes a game from me this night. The first game, I have a three-land hand - and it stops there for the next six turns. Josh gets the big beefy beast attack going and I'm saying,"Hello, game 2! I hope your feeling better than I am right now!"

Games 2 and 3, I throw Josh down the gauntlet and smash him. I ramp up to four mana and my Cavalier engine runs smoothly to stop any ground beats (both games I was able to have at least four on board) and I send a Dive Bomber and Gustcloak Harrier over to meet my friend Josh. Game 3, he was able to trade some of his creatures for three of my first strikers, but me having two flyers out didn't help his situation.

Round 2 - Matt #1 (W - Clerics) 2-0
Matt is a good player, but not familiar with the tribal goodness of Onslaught. He was full into two packs of Clerics and didn't grab any black clerics or direct damage like Profane Prayers until the third pack. But he had a great deck against me.

Game 1, my soldiers couldn't wade through all of his prevent damage-type cleric people. We both started with an equal amount of flyers, but I started to break through... Then he laid an Aurification on the table and everything ground to a halt. I was three-quarters into my deck before I realized that I would get decked before him (I ran through five of the Cavaliers and had the sixth one in hand). Thinking back to what I had drafted, I prayed that I had been smart enough to maindeck the one card that would give me the win: Dirge of Dread. In the heat of the moment I couldn't remember if I put them in or sided them out... And I drew down to my last 6 cards before I hit it. I spoke to the heavens"Thank you!" and then in turn alpha struck my 26/28 army of soldiers into my opponent.

Unfortunately for him, I did the same thing in Game 2 - but a lot faster.

Round 3 - Matt #2 (U/G - Illusions/Wizards/Beasts) 2-0
Eleven people here, and I play two people named Matt. That's what it's like: At one point, they had five people named Mike playing here - and with an average of only twenty players, that's a lot of Mikes.

This was my toughest match. Game 1, we both got out some quick flyers between my Gustcloak Harrier and his Mistform Dreamer. The Piety Charms helped in this case, and also in taking out his Mistform Wall a couple turns later. I started slower than Matt, and our life totals were reduced pretty quickly: I'm at ten, he is at six. I was able to send over a couple of Dive Bombers and smoke him with a Misery Charm to win. The next turn, he would have been able to alpha strike me.

Fliers...Gotta' love 'em.

Game 2 was even tighter than I knew. I started well and was whittling him down to ten, while I was around sixteen. He then played his bomb, Arcanis the Omnipotent. He was able to draw nine cards from this guy and was amassing an army. I had a Dirge of Dread in hand and the Nantuko Husk on board for the final kill, but I could only punch eight damage through. The turn before he would have decimated me, I topdecked a creature. I didn't care which one, for he and his three friends was going to take one for the team. I played the creature, cycled the Dirge of Dread to give the Nantuko Husk fear, drew another card, and smacked Matt #2 upside for ten.

He cursed a little (I always seem to pull out the win when I face him) and he showed me the Tribal Unity in his hand that would have wrecked my day.

Round 4 - Cory, the friend (G/R - Beasts/Elves) 2-0
Cory and I were both undefeated 3-0, and so went head-to-head. Unfortunately this match is anti-climactic compared to Round 3. Game 1, I started better and he had to mulligan once. I was still at seventeen - and by the time I got him to three, I could just Misery Charm him twice for the win.

The second game he started a lot better but I still had a good hand and within a few turns I had an army of first strikers on board, a flyer or two in the air, and finally slapped down a Dirge of Dreaded for the win. He even mentioned that I was the only one who won a game against him.... How sweet.

Hah! Soldiers can do some serious beats. So after that I was able to sit back, relax, throw back a tall cold one, and regale the legend of how the human race whipped a bunch of pansy cleric, wimpy elf, hairy beast, and ugly goblin butts.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the new Standard!

Odie
antam@defnet.com