While The Brothers' War pushed Soldiers into the spotlight thanks to powerful, cost-effective threats like Harbin, Vanguard Aviator and Skystrike Officer, the Soldier creature type has a much deeper history inMagic: The Gatheringthan most players know, and that history doesn’t even involve the color blue.
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Looking at the success of Soldiers in The Brothers Wars' Standard, it only makes sense to consider what a Soldiers deck might look like outside of Magic’s most current competitive format. To this end, here’s a list of the best Soldiers cards for players interested in using the creature type in other popular formats, like Modern and Commander.
10Brimaz, King Of Oreskos
In a very rare instance of creature type sharing, Brimaz is a popular inclusion for bothCatand Soldier creature type decks. Not only is Brimaz himself a Cat Soldier, he also creates Cat Soldier tokens each time he attacks or blocks.
On top of pumping out tons of tokens, Brimaz is notably good for having enough toughness to survive common removal spells like Lightning Bolt. Additionally, the fact that the tokens he creates immediately involve themselves in combat puts Brimaz on another level as far as token creation cards are concerned.
9Valiant Veteran
As you might imagine, the purpose of a great Soldier deck is to create a ton of Soldiers. However, simply flooding the board with Soldiers isn’t enough. You need lord effects like the ones Valiant Veteran provides in order to successfully close out a game.
While Veteran dies to even the cheapest removal spells such as Shock, he does act as a sort of lightning rod forremoval cards. This paves the way for your more expensive threats on future turns. Furthermore, Veteran’s exile ability means he’s capable of providing value in the late game if necessary.
8Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Here’s a creature that ought to need no introductions. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is good enough to see play in Magic’s oldest and most brutal constructed format: Legacy. That should pretty much tell you all you need to know as far as reasons for including this card in your Soldier deck.
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It might not seem like Thalia’s tax effect is very impactful, but it ultimately can end up delaying opponents from playing cards turn after turn. Even in the best-case scenario where an opponent immediately kills Thalia, she’s already cost them one mana more than they built their deck to spend, and likely delayed their curve by a turn.
7Heroic Reinforcements
If you’ve drafted Core Set 2019 or Double Masters 2022, you know that this token generator commands more respect than most uncommon rarity cards. The +1/+1 anthem this card provides, as well as the haste keyword, make for threatening combat steps that will take any opponent off guard.
It goes without saying that Heroic Reinforcement is best when you’ve already got a board full of creatures, but you’d probably be surprised to learn that this card performs surprisingly well on small or empty boards as well. Swinging in for four damage immediately is a healthy chunk, even in formats like Commander. We could go on about how surprisingly well this sorcery performs, but you really need to try it out for yourself to fully understand.
6Bastion Of Remembrance
Yet another uncommon that punches well above its weight, Bastion of Remembrance was a bomb in its draft format. The life loss trigger upon creature death makes opposing removal quite a bit worse, especially when you’re going wide with a ton of tokens.
Thankfully, that’s exactly what the Soldiers deck does. For Commander players, it’s worth observing that this life loss occurs for each opponent as well.
5Company Commander
Company Commander doesn’t have stellar stats on his own, but the creature tokens he provides definitely make up for it. However, the real kicker here is the fact that he provides your entire board with deathtouch each time he goes to combat.
This trigger pretty much makes blocking impossible for opponents unless they want to trade their expensive, high-toughness creatures for one attacker in your endless army of Soldier tokens. All that said, opponents can block Company Commander himself to do away with future deathtouch board swings.
Even in this case, Commander trades for a good creature your opponent controls while leaving behind a ton of tokens for value.
4Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
Why stop the token value at creatures, enchantments, and sorcery spells though? This is the version of Elspeth that put the nowpopular planeswalkeron the map. Back in her own Standard format, Sun’s Champion was the curve topper of many control decks, thanks to her ability to remove opposing creatures while providing a win condition through Soldier tokens.
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For the same reasons and more, she’s a great card to include in a Soldier deck. As is the case with all great planeswalkers, Elspeth’s ultimate will likely end the game on the spot as well. As you can see, Elspeth became a popular Magic character for more reasons than her compelling story arc.
3Brutal Cathar
Another standout part of Standard, Brutal Cathar has been kicking butt and taking names ever since it was originally printed. White creatures that act as removal until they leave the battlefield are fairly common nowadays, but Cathar stands apart due to its use of daybound.
Thanks to daybound, clever players can actually manage to exile multiple opposing creatures beneath their Brutal Cathar by transforming the creature back and forth through patient use of their spells. It doesn’t happen often, but once you use Brutal Cathar in this manner, you’ll quickly come to respect why it’s so powerful.
2Myrel, Shield Of Argive
We’ve already dipped our feet into Cat Soldier creature tokens, so why not double-dip with Soldier artifacts? Myrel’s strength comes from the fact that she cancels abilities while also providing a high-ceiling attack trigger.
In other words, Myrel creates more and more Soldier tokens based on how many Soldier tokens you already have in play. In a dedicated Soldier deck, it’s easy to see Myrel commonly summoning up to four Soldier tokens or more if she manages to go to combat even once. That’s without even mentioning that most players won’t survive if you manage to untap and swing with her twice.
1Jirina Kudro
If you’ve been keeping track, all the colors of the cards featured on this list include red, black, and white. Consequently, we need a Mardu (red/black/white) colored Commander to go with it. The best choice currently available is certainly Jirina Kudro, though she does fall short of synergizing with some of the cards mentioned in this list.
Unfortunately, the Soldier tokens created by both Myrel and Brimaz are not Humans, so they do not benefit from her attack bonus. That being said, the large majority of Soldier cards and tokens in this deck are indeed Humans.
The pseudo-anthem that Jirina provides while on the battlefield is the best kind of boon we can expect from a Commander for a deck whose game plan is to go as wide as possible. Battle formations!
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