In the long list of Planeswalker Decks that I am going through over the course of this Blaugust, there are decks that I would like to be good because of the character represented in it or the color combination at hand; and then there are decks that I expect nothing of for the very same reasons. I will be honest, I was never a big fan of Gideon as a character, so the idea of having him as the cover card does not exactly entice me. Well, I have written the entire article by the time I am writing this introduction and I can tell you that expectations are a fickle thing; and in this case, things definitely went into the right direction. Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon” is a White-Red Aggro deck, but one with a different twist and a solid card pool to work with. Let’s me show you what the deck can do. Here is the decklist for the Planeswalker Deck featuring “Gideon, Martial Paragon”: Creatures (24): 1x Glory-Bound Initiate (1W) 3x Gust Walker (1W) 1x Nef-Crop Entangler (1R) 1x Pathmaker Initiate (1R) 2x Honored Crop-Captain (WR) 3x Companion of the Trials (2W) 1x Devoted Crop-Mate (2W) 4x Graceful Cat (2W) 3x Ahn-Crop Crasher (2R) 2x Sparring Mummy (3W) 1x Tah-Crop Elite (3W) 2x Hyena Pack (2RR) Spells (12): 2x Cartouche of Zeal (R) 1x Impeccable Timing (1W) 1x Hazoret’s Favor (2R) 3x Trial of Zeal (2R) 2x Electrify (3R) 2x Gideon’s Resolve (4W) 1x Gideon, Martial Paragon (4W) Lands (24): 10x Mountain 10x Plains 4x Stone Quarry Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon” is certainly something: Not only is this another deck that does not start playing creatures in turn one, which is kinda weird for an Aggro deck to be honest, but one of its Rare is the first card in the list. Thankfully, “Glory-Bound Initiate” is not that bad, being a 3/1 for two mana that you can decide to exert when attacking, which does not untap it for it turn but makes it a 4/4 with Lifelink for that battle. As you will see, exert is the theme of this deck, with “Gust Walker” also making use of it being a 2/2 for two mana that upon exertion becomes a 3/3 with Flying; which is extra useful due to potentially getting past the opposing blockers that way. “Nef-Crop Entangler” is another two-mana option, this one being a 2/1 with Trample that can be exerted to turn it into a 3/3 with Trample for that battle. And all of those last creature even get some meaningful support with “Pathmaker Initiate“, a 2/1 for two mana that can be tapped to make one creature with power two or less unblockable for the turn. That means you can tap “Pathmaker Initiate” to turn, for example, “Nef-Crop Entangler” unblockable, and then still exert it for the power boost. “Honored Crop-Captain” seems like a pretty solid inclusion, being a 2/2 for two mana that gives other attacking creatures +1/+0 upon attacking and therefore makes something out of the cheap bodies you play and their effects so far all benefiting from higher power. The transition to three mana brings us “Companion of the Trials“, which is surprisingly good as a creature that gains an extra effect with the poster boy planeswalker Gideon around. It is a 2/2 with Flying, which is serviceable enough, but with a Gideon planeswalker on the field it can also untap creatures for two mana per usage, which is an amazing effect in a deck that constantly keeps untapping creatures because of exert. And to my positive surprise, there is yet more solid synergy in Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon”: “Devoted Crop-Mate” is a 3/2 creature for three mana, and can be exerted to revive a creature with mana cost two or less, which means that it has a pretty solid range of targets in this deck. The first real stinker in the deck is “Graceful Cat“, a 2/2 creature for three mana that gains +1/+1 upon attacking; and therefore becomes a 3/3 for three mana, making it worse than a vanilla creature. And yes, of course WotC included this f-ing card as a playset in a deck that looked pretty good so far. Thankfully, there are more options one can rely on: “Ahn-Crop Crasher” is the last three-mana creature in the deck, being a 3/2 with Haste that upon exertion can make one target creature unable to block for the turn; and therefore might open the floodgates for the rest of your creatures. “Sparring Mummy” is not a card that I would call good as a 3/3 for four mana, but untapping a creature upon entering the battlefield makes one of your beaters ready earlier than expected. “Tah-Crop Elite” uses the approach of strength in numbers, being a 2/2 with Flying for four mana and giving your board +1/+1 for the turn if it is exerted when attacking; including itself in the bonus, which is decent enough. But WotC does not want us to have nice things and instead of finishing the creature line-up with something at least semi-decent, we got two copies of “Hyena Pack“, 3/4 vanillas for four mana that have to be thrown out of the deck as soon as possible since they offer nothing of value. And to be fair, “Gideon, Martial Paragon” makes up for those vanilla creatures by being pretty amazing for the strategy at hand. The card costs only five mana instead of the usual six or more, comes into play with five loyalty, and won me over with its first effect that places two loyalty on Gideon to untap all your creatures and give them +1/+1 until the end of the turn. What else do you want in an Aggro deck that works with the exert ability? You can play this guy and ready your entire board for another round, plus they will now hit even harder which also works well with the low mana costs and therefore the fact that you will be able to place multiple creatures on the board before “Gideon, Martial Paragon” comes around. And the other effects are pretty good, too: For 0, “Gideon, Martial Paragon” can turn itself into a 5/5 Indestructible creature, which puts more pressure onto the opponent when you push your attackers forward, while the last effect for -10 gives your board +2/+2 and taps every creature the opponent controls, effectively giving you one free all-out attack to finish the game with. Kudos for this one WotC, this card is going places; in this deck. What I expect from the spells in Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon” is Aggro support by tapping or untapping creatures, potentially giving them evasion, and removal in form of burn and exiling; so let us see if the deck can deliver these things. “Cartouche of Zeal” is a pretty solid start, disabling one creature blocking-wise while also giving +1/+1 and Haste to the enchanted creature is good for the deck overall. “Impeccable Timing” serves as removal by dealing three damage to an attacking or blocking creature, although there are certainly better options available in the game. “Hazoret’s Favor” goes even further in the Aggro department, being an enchantment for three mana that allows you to give one target creature +2/+0 and Haste at the start of the combat, but it is sacrificed at the end of the next turn. Certainly a risky move, but it definitely works with the high risk, high reward playstyle that exert goes for. “Trial of Zeal” is the aforementioned burn damage I wanted, which is somewhat whack due to costing three mana for three damage, but can be recycled with the use of the “Cartouche of Zeal” in the deck. “Electrify” brings more removal, this one dealing four damage for four mana but only to creatures; which means that it definitely needs to go as soon as you work on the deck. And lastly, we have “Gideon’s Resolve“, which is the searcher for “Gideon, Martial Paragon“, but has the decency of also working as a “Glorious Anthem” by boosting your creatures by +1/+1. Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon” is a sign showing me that I should look at decks that I expect nothing from more often. The idea of using an Aggro deck in which you can boost your creatures by delaying when they are ready again is an interesting concept, and in my opinion the deck certainly does the exert ability justice by showcasing some solid plays. Sure, there are the usual bad cards in the mix, namely “Graceful Cat” and “Hyena Pack“, while “Electrify” does not really blow anyone away either. However, you should see massive improvements to this already promising deck skeleton by taking out the trash, adding a few more copies of key cards like “Glory-Bound Initiate” or “Devoted Crop-Mate“, playing some copies of “To Arms!” or something similar, and then introducing a solid set of removal effects to the deck to really make it shine. For a deckbuilding perspective, Planeswalker Deck “Gideon, Martial Paragon” gets a thumbs-up; and thankfully for this story, the deck is also cheap enough to be a good starting point for a new player or someone interested in a different take of playing Aggro in Magic the Gathering. It is rare enough that I come to a positive verdict with Preconstructed Decks in Magic the Gathering, but this is one of those cases where I can say that the package at hand is definitely worth buying.