I’ve been playing MTGPQ for about two and a half months now. Since one of the recommended first moves is to purchase the 50 Crystal planeswalkers, I played with Gideon1 quite a bit when DOM came out. Due to the cards present, and what I had available to me, I played a deck that had a lot of historic cards, which ultimately ends up making creatures with a lot of keywords. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to maximize the amount of keyword symbols I can stick on one creature.
Did you know? Once you reach more than 9 symbols on your card, the symbols actually shrink to accommodate more!
Using Gideon1, the most keyword symbols I got on one creature is fifteen! Of course, you can do more than this. But, this was with only cards that were available to me.
Can you guess the cards I used to get this state?
The philosophy behind using Arvad here is that he comes with three symbols already: deathtouch, lifelink, and legendary. The problem with legendary is that it has to be baked in to the creature. In monowhite, there are a handful of legendary creatures. The best candidates for this adventure are therefore:
- Arvad — deathtouch, lifelink
- Baird — first strike, vigilance
- Danitha — first strike, lifelink
- Kwende — double strike
- Lyra — flying, first strike, lifelink
- Shanna — hexproof
- Tiana — flying, first strike
- Kozilek — menace
- Brisela — flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, melded, legendary
Looking at this list, we notice that Arvad is one of the better choices, since deathtouch is hard to acquire in monowhite.
Below is a picture of the possible keyword symbols.
Unfortunately, if we want to include the legendary symbol, that means it is impossible to get the renown and SOI transform symbols. This is okay, since we have a lot more to work with.
Berserker — this one is easy to get since Gideon’s 3rd ability grants it. However, if we somehow aren’t using that ability, it’s available in a bunch of cards.
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Brawler’s Plate — this one is good because it’s a support, and therefore lasts until destroyed. However, it only gives one keyword.
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Decimator of the Provinces — we can treat this as a spell, since it doesn’t need to stay on the board for the effect to work. Notably, this gives trample AND haste alongside berserker. These keywords are uncommon in white.
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Forebear’s Blade — better than Brawler’s Plate because it gives trample, but also a mythic.
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Hedron Blade — grants deathtouch and berseker, but requires your enemy to control a colorless creature.
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Make a Stand / Hero of Goma Fada — pretty much identical in this situation. Grants prevent damage and berserker until end of turn.
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Odric, Lunarch Marshal — grants reach & lifelink on your opponent’s turn, and flying, berserker, trample on your turn.
Deathtouch -
Hedron Blade
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Wurmcoil Engine — grants deathtouch to your creature when it dies. However, it has a huge body and we can’t really afford sacrifice / self-discard effects here
Defender — Again, Gideon’s 3rd ability also grants defender, so it’s unlikely we need to explore this heavily. Also, there are not many ways to grant this ability either. -
Adamant Will — grants defender and prevent damage until end of turn.
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Unconventional Tactics — grants flying and defender until the beginning of your next turn.
Double Strike — hard to find because it’s so strong. -
Kwende, Pride of Femeref — gives double strike to creatures with first strike. This is good because we plan to have first strike already.
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Resolute Blademaster — gives double strike until end of turn when it comes into play.
First Strike -
Benalish Marshal — not ideal because it has to be on board to work, and creature spots are very limited.
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Cartouche of Solidarity / Dub / Jousting Lance — supports that regrettably only give one keyword
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Helm of the Gods / Vampire’s Zeal / Kor Bladewhirl — temporary sources of first strike
Flying — Gideon’s first ability grants flying. -
Odric, Lunarch Marshal — only on your turn, but also gives berserker & trample
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On Serra’s Wings — grants flying, vigilance, and lifelink
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Unconventional Tactics — flying, defender
Haste — haste is hard to find in white -
Decimator of the Provinces — trample, haste, berserker
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God Pharaoh’s Gift — requires you to have the creature in your graveyard, and give it all the keywords on the same turn. Rough, but doable.
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Haunted Cloak — vigilance, haste, and trample; a true MVP card that gives two hard-to-find keywords
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Lightning Greaves / Strider Harness — in a pinch, these supports can give haste, but the first is a masterpiece.
Hexproof -
Shalai, Voice of Plenty — takes up a creature slot and only gives one keyword, but necessary, as the only good white source of hexproof.
Lifelink — hard to grant, since it’s so powerful in MTGPQ -
On Serra’s Wings — flying, lifelink, vigilance
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Squire’s Devotion — just lifelink
Menace — as far as I know, you cannot grant menace in white. However, the only legendary creature with menace is Kozilek.
Prevent damage — most of these effects below only last temporarily, which plays to our advantage. Dauntless Bodyguard requires a creature slot, so we should try to avoid him.
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Adamant Will — defender & prevent damage until end of turn
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Archangel Avacyn — prevent damage & reach until your next turn
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Hero of Goma Fada / Make a Stand — prevent damage & berserker until end of turn
Reach -
Archangel Avacyn
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Give No Ground — just grants reach until end of turn
Regenerate — one of the reasons we use Gideon1 is that his 3rd ability grants regenerate. There are no other good ways to grant this ability in monowhite.
Trample
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Decimator of the Provinces — trample, haste, berserker
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Forebear’s Blade — berserker & trample
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Haunted Cloak — vigilance, haste, trample
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Odric, Lunarch Marshal — flying, berserker, trample
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Rhonas’s Monument — trample until end of turn, and one of the few easily accessible cards to do so in monowhite.
Unblockable -
Rogue’s Passage — grants it every turn
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Skeleton Key — spell that gives unblockable forever
Vigilance — Gideon’s 1st ability grants this, but white has other ways too -
Haunted Cloak — vigilance, haste, trample
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On Serra’s Wings — flying, vigilance, lifelink
Therefore, I propose the following deck:
Gideon1 — flying, vigilance, defender, berserker, regenerate
- Arvad the Cursed — deathtouch, lifelink, legendary
- Haunted Cloak — haste, trample (and vigilance)
- Archangel Avacyn — reach, prevent damage
- Dub — first strike
- Kwende, Pride of Femeref — double strike
- Shalai, Voice of Plenty — hexproof
- Rogue’s Passage — unblockable
This is a grand total of 16 keywords, for 7 cards!
Gideon1 — defender, regenerate
- Bruna
- Gisela — flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, melded, legendary
- Decimator of the Provinces — trample, haste, berserker
- Kwende, Knight of Femeref — double strike
- Archangel Avacyn — prevent damage, reach
- Shalai, Voice of Plenty — hexproof
- Rogue’s Passage — unblockable
- Hedron Blade — deathtouch
Total symbols: 17
If anyone has these cards and wants to make my dreams come true, please do so and I will be eternally grateful.
