Standard: Azorius Soldiers Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The new set, The Brothers' War, brought us a new deck for Standard:

Azorius Soldiers

is a tribal deck capable of generating an absurd value while pressuring the opponent and generating synergy between its creatures at the same time. The list I'm currently running in the ranked is as follows: The idea of the deck is simple: a tribe where you have many creatures that interact well with each other and with which you will race your opponent towards victory. Like every aggro deck, you will have to worry about the starting hand and the mulligans, to have a balanced hand between lands and creatures with a castable curve at the beginning of the game.

Main Cards and Synergies

The latest releases brought a good amount of cards that together made the archetype possible in Standard, including creatures like Recruitment Officer, a decent one drop that also keeps your resources running. I cannot fail to mention the deck's manabase, which has the Fortified Beachhead utility land, which in addition to bringing speed and consistency, can still function as an "extra lord" in later stages. Last but not least, we have a lord, Valiant Veteran is the heart of the deck, as in every tribal, a versatile card that fulfills its role even if it is removed to the graveyard. Skystrike Officer is another valuable piece of the deck and has one of the coolest synergies on this list, granting pure card advantage throughout the entire game while putting more creatures into play if it stays on the board. Harbin, Vanguard Aviator is another standout on this list, working well with creatures that populate the board like Skystrike and Resolute Reinforcements, enabling lethal damage with great ease and speed. Regarding the Sideboard, we should point out some obvious choices for the metagame. Destroy Evil manages to handle both Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Loran of the Third Path plays a very similar role. The Wandering Emperor is great in many games, I even considered a copy or two of it in the maindeck. Anointed Peacekeeper is an excellent card against midrange and control. Azorius Soldiers is, undoubtedly, one of the best Aggro options available in the format. A fast deck, full of interactions, and that manages to fight the Midranges. I had a lot of fun in all matches, even the ones I lost with this deck and looking at the latest sets, I see that this tribe can get even stronger in the format. A point to be highlighted about this guide is that Standard has a variety of decks that are very similar, just varying the color combination. Grixis, Esper, Mardu and even monocolor. All follow a similar play pattern, so the same sideboard strategy and game stance can be applied with few variations.

Vs. Grixis Midrange

In this matchup, as well as against other blue-based midranges, you will have to worry about ending the game in the early turns. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben plays a big role in delaying the opponent's spells, opening up space for other creatures to finish the game without having to worry about sweepers.

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Vs. Grixis Sacrifice

This is a delicate game. Combo decks are problematic, especially those that can end the game without using the combat phase. Harbin is a high-value creature in this match, giving evasion to his fellow soldiers. At game 1, we have no means of getting rid of the problematic Oni-Cult Anvil and Skystrike Officer proves indispensable to counter the card advantage that Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Saheeli, Filigree Master provide to the opponent.

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Vs. Mono-Blue Tempo

This matchup is simpler to analyze. I consider it a good match for the simple fact that mono blue doesn't have removals as effective as the decks discussed above, but we must be careful with the life totals and with a sequence of creatures falling on the opposing board. Haughty Djinn might be more of a problem here than Tolarian Terror. In Game 1, whoever imposes the best clock in the shortest time wins. On the Game 2, not much will change, but we must be equally cautious and try to be fast on the clock.

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Vs. Mono-White Midrange

Here we have a very interesting game. The opponent doesn't have access to black or blue, but still has effective removals and a problematic draw engine that can both populate the board and increase the clock, Wedding Announcement. One point in our favor is that the opponent usually doesn't have sweepers on Game 1, since Temporary Lockdown tends to appear post-sideboard. The idea remains the same adopted against the other midranges: accelerate the clock as much as possible and be careful with the opponent's bombs.

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Vs. Azorius Soldiers

A frantic match full of decisions. At first, it may seem that what defines the winner of this game is luck and that alone, but several decisions need to be made and yes, we will need luck, but more than that, we will need to know the deck to understand how to win it. In game 1 we will have the classic run. The one who keeps the best hand or who mulligans less may have more chances. Game 2, on the other hand, is much more complex and depends a lot on sideboarding. We must be careful with the deck's biggest threats and if the opponent fills the board.

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I highly recommend this deck to anyone who likes good aggro and wants to farm fast in the Arena or play a Challenge in Magic Online while enjoying fun and interactive games. Thanks for reading and if you have questions and/or suggestions, you can send them in the comments, and I'll try to answer them all.