War of the Spark was a rather underwhelming set for plenty of reasons. The introduction of non-Rare planeswalkers was cool, but was about it for what I found positive, with constant revisits to Ravnica becoming stale while the entire Nicol Bolas doing evil things lore certainly straining the patience of players. However, that is neither here nor there when it comes to Planeswalker Decks released during that time, which can still be alright from a quality standpoint as far as I am concerned. Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, the Oathsworn” goes in an interesting direction being White-Black and while the deck has its faults there is certainly potential here; as you are about to see in the article below. Here is the decklist for the Planeswalker Deck featuring “Gideon, the Oathsworn”: Creatures (22): 4x Charmed Stray (W) 3x Ajani’s Pridemate (1W) 1x War Screecher (1W) 1x Vampire Opportunist (1B) 3x Cruel Celebrant (WB) 3x Makeshift Battalion (2W) 2x Trusted Pegasus (2W) 3x Gideon’s Company (3W) 2x Enforcer Griffin (4W) Spells (14): 4x Desperate Lunge (1W) 3x Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty (2B) 1x Oath of Kaya (1WB) 2x Gideon’s Battle Cry (2WW) 1x Bond of Discipline (4W) 1x Gideon, the Oathsworn (4WW) 1x Command the Dreadhorde (4BB) 1x Kaya, Bane of the Dead (3 W/B W/B W/B) Lands (24): 4x Orzhov Guildgate 12x Plains 8x Swamp Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, the Oathsworn” seems to break with a lot of traditions for this type of Preconstructed Deck it seems. Starting off, we have a playset of one-drops, four copies of “Charmed Stray” which are 1/1 creatures that not only have Lifelink but also but a +1/+1 counter on each other copy of “Charmed Stray” when entering the battlefield, which makes opening with multiple copies kinda good. And while just gaining a bit of life is not that impressive per se, the deck has an idea of how it can be used: Three copies of “Ajani’s Pridemate“, which are 2/2 creatures that gain +1/+1 counters whenever you gain life points slowly growing into a massive beater as the game goes on. So far, so good. The Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, the Oathsworn” seems to aim for the long game in general, with options like “War Screecher“, a 1/3 Flying creature for two mana that gives every creature you control +1/+1 for six mana, while “Vampire Opportunist“, a 2/1 for two mana, drains each opponent for two life points if you are willing to pay the steep seven-mana cost for its effect. It seems that this White-Black deck does what the color combo does best: Life control, both in form of gaining life points as well as causing life loss. “Cruel Celebrant” is therefore an excellent addition to the strategy causing life loss to every opponent whenever a creature or planeswalker you control dies while you get the life points, all on a cheap 1/2 creature for two mana. Now, I have to admit that “Makeshift Battalion” feels like it is in stark contrast to the rest of the creatures so far, being a 3/2 for three mana that gains a +1/+1 counter if it attacks together with at least two other creatures; which is not the gameplan of the deck so far. Granted, a potential attack profits from “Trusted Pegasus“, a 2/2 Flying creature for three mana that also gives Flying to one other attacking creature, which is also evasion that a creature like “Ajani’s Pridemate” appreciates. In fact, I can go one higher than “Ajani’s Pridemate” with “Gideon’s Company“, a 3/3 creature for four mana that not only can place loyalty counters on a Gideon planeswalker and therefore helps the bigger effect of “Gideon, the Oathsworn” go live but also gains a very respectable two +1/+1 counters whenever you gain life points. The last creature in the deck is sadly “Enforcer Griffin“, which is way below par as a 3/4 Flying creature for five mana. Now, I said that Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, the Oathsworn” breaks with certain traditions, and one of those rules for Planeswalker Decks is the amount of planeswalkers; because this deck has two. Let’s start with the cover card: “Gideon, the Oathsworn” costs six mana and enters the battlefield with four loyalty, and has a static effect that states that whenever you attack with two or more non-Gideon creatures, they all get a +1/+1 counter. This non-Gideon clause might seem weird, but for +2 the card transforms into a 5/5 creature that doesn’t take damage until the end of the turn. The last effect is somewhat weird though: For -9, you exile all creatures the opponent controls; and also “Gideon, the Oathsworn“, which seems rather drastic in terms of drawbacks. Luckily, we have another planeswalker in form of “Kaya, Bane of the Dead“, also costing six mana while entering the battlefield with seven loyalty. Now, this is one of the planeswalker cards that cannot get any more loyalty counters on its own and will therefore die eventually, but the effects are not all that bad: “Kaya, Bane of the Dead” basically states that your spells and abilities ignore Hexproof while you can exile one target creature for -3 loyalty. Neither card is particularly amazing, but they get the job done. The spells, however, seem very promising. I mean, a playset of “Desperate Lunge” means that someone in the deckbuilding team understood what those counter-stacking creatures like “Ajani’s Pridemate” need, with +2/+2, Flying for evasion, and another trigger of the effect via the life gain for two absolutely being worth the two-mana cost. “Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty” is basically a worse version of “Dismember“, but that seems like an unfair comparison. In fact, -5/-5 for three mana at instant speed is absolutely fine in my opinion. “Oath of Kaya” provides more life drain and can even be used as removal with its first effect, which is okay in my opinion. The planeswalker searcher in this deck is “Gideon’s Battle Cry“, which simply gives each creature you control a +1/+1 counter and then fetches “Gideon, the Oathsworn” from either library or graveyard; and therefore feels like a card with missed potential. If it also stated as little as “Gain one life point” somewhere in its text, it would work wonders with the creatures that stack counter upon life gain and therefore be much more helpful instead of being just another boost. “Bond of Discipline” is interesting because it not only clears the way for attacks by tapping all opposing creatures, but gives you life points galore by giving every creature you control Lifelink. And in fact, the deckbuilders even thought about something you can do with all the life points you potentially amass: “Command the Dreadhorde” is a reanimation spell that allows you to pick creatures and planeswalkers from your graveyard to revive at your leisure, as long as you are willing to lose life points equal to the total converted mana cost of all your targets. Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, the Oathsworn” is a weird candidate to review. On a surface level, I feel like the deck is fine: White-Black with tons of cards that gain, lose, or drain life points is solid to begin with, and with both “Ajani’s Pridemate” and “Gideon’s Company” you have threats that the opponent has to deal with at some point if they do not want to have them flying in their face with tons of stats. However, there are many small little problems that I cannot quite get behind: Why does “Gideon, the Oathsworn” exile itself for its last effect? Not only is this not necessary from a power-level perspective since the effect would have been fine in my opinion by just exiling the opposing creature line-up, but it also makes the card unavailable for “Command the Dreadhorde“. Why does “Gideon’s Battle Cry” only give +1/+1 counters apart from the search in a deck where you have creatures stacking like crazy anyway and battling is not necessarily the first thing you want to do? And what Preconstructed Deck do you have to play against for the Hexproof-annuling “Kaya, Bane of the Dead” to be useful? Now, I say all that, but the core of the deck is fine, there are plenty of ways in which you can change and improve the deck, and for under a tenner it is an absolute steal that actually contains a few cards that make the entire thing worth buying regardless. My verdict is as follows: The deck could have been better, especially card effect-wise since some of the unique cards it features could have used a bit more juice, but I am still fine with recommending the deck since it does look like it works.