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Introduction

Hong Kong is a white deck with red support that overwhelms the board with numerous amounts of creatures and tokens. Hong Kong wins games by abusing creature enter the battlefield effects that make our creatures stronger and gain us ridiculous amounts life along with restricting our opponents' options. 

While this deck is Modern legal it is a fun deck to play that is budget friendly and designed for kitchen table casual matches. The deck performs well in both casual versus and multiplayer games but tends to work better in the latter. The deck's name is based on the colors of the Hong Kong flag (White and Red).

Card Choices 

  


These three cards are the primary stars of this deck. Champion of the Parish  gets freakishly huge very quickly due to the synergy this deck has.  Norin the Wary  constantly re enters the battlefield which allows us to make  Champion of the Parish  stronger among many other things (more on that later). Genesis Chamber  creates an enormous army for us due to the constant flickering of Norin the Wary .

   

These four creatures support the deck. Soul Warden  and Soul's Attendant  are fantastic because not only do they help us gain a lot of life traditionally, but in this deck, the lifegain really becomes absurd due to the tokens from Genesis Chamber  and the constant flickering of Norin the Wary . Soul Warden  and Soul's Attendant  are also humans which means they synergize well with Champion of the Parish . While Suture Priest  is not a human, he helps us gain even more life and dramatically hinders our opponents because of the tokens they will be forced to spawn because of the Genesis Chamber . Even if there are just two Suture Priest s on the battlefield and one Genesis Chamber  our opponents will have a very difficult time casting creature spells. I have always thought Mentor of the Meek  was an underrated card. He brings us card draw, and in this deck due to the vast number of one drops along with the Myr tokens from Genesis Chamber  and Norin the Wary  we will have plenty of opportunities to activate his ability. Mentor of the Meek  is also a human which helps our good friend Champion of the Parish . I should also mention Ranger of Eos , although I don't run it in my version of the deck, he's certainly a obvious contender. He pumps tutors and pumps Champion of the Parish and also helps us find Norin the Wary along our Soul Sisters. While Ranger of Eos does cost more than anything in this deck to cast, he can help build our board back after a wrath effect.

    

These are our utility cards. Oblivion Ring  needs no introduction and hits major threats, primarily those pesky enchantments and planeswalkers. Lightning Helix  is creature removal (or burn) that can also heal us. Proclamation of Rebirth  brings back Norin the Wary and Champion the Parish who will become targets, it also brings back our soul sisters. Following a devastating wrath effect like Day of Judgment , Proclamation of Rebirth  can help us get back to a quick pace. Chalice of Life  is great for a number of reasons. Early game it can gain us life and help us against aggressive agro but with the inevitable lifegain, once the card transforms into Chalice of Death  you suddenly have an alternate win condition and an activated ability that in multiplayer screams "Don't attack me or I'll burn you hard." Raid Bombardment deals a lot of damage throughout the game due to our Myr tokens from Genesis Chamber and late game can win us the game. It also allows us to do something offensive with the tokens Kher Keep producers.

There certainly are other support options that work here that are definitely worth mentioning.  Ghostly Prison  slows down many agro decks and is always solid in white multiplayer control.   Intangible Virtue  also supports your token army. Odric, Master Tactician is very scary and must be dealt with immediately because makes our entire army unblockable including our freakishly huge Champion of the Parish .   Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer  turns our measly Myr tokens into a vicious army. Blasting Station  is similar to Raid Bombardment .

   

Nothing too fancy with the land base here. Mountain s and Plains  need no introduction and because the deck only needs one Mountain  to function you really don't need to go overboard with them. Battlefield Forge  is a very budget friendly dual land but to be entirely honest doesn't seem entirely necessary. Kher Keep  is an underrated Legendary Land that uses red mana to create tokens we can use to help us draw cards via Mentor of the Meek , chump block threats, and with help us gain even more life. Forbidden Orchard  is another option that works well with Suture Priest  but is a little less budget friendly. Eiganjo Castle  is not super budget friendly, but is certainly worth running one of. It is a Legendary Land that acts as a Plains  that can also protect Norin the Wary  from threats such as Grim Lavamancer  and Seal of Fire . It is certainly is worth running if you choose to also add Odric, Master Tactician  or Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer . The deck is running 21 lands now, but to be honest it could probably go lower.

The Deck

Creature (23)
4x Champion of the Parish
4x  Norin the Wary
4x  Soul Warden
4x  Soul's Attendant
4x  Suture Priest
3x  Mentor of the Meek
Land (21)
9x  Plains
6x  Mountain
4x  Battlefield Forge
1x  Kher Keep
1x   Eiganjo Castle
Instant (3)
3x  Lightning Helix
Artifact (5)
4x  Genesis Chamber
1x  Chalice of Life
Sorcery (3)
3x  Proclamation of Rebirth
Enchantment (5)
3x  Oblivion Ring
2x Raid Bombardment

Thanks for taking the time to read over this deck, I would really appreciate some feedback on how I can make this deck stronger (without breaking the bank) along with what is good about the deck as it stands. This is the first time I've ever made a deck with red, so I'm particularly concerned about overlooking red cards.

I really like the setup, especially with the Genesis Chamber.

Increasing Devotion is one of my favourite token cards, as well as Lingering Souls , though I think you'd be good without either of them. Thraben Doomsayer may be an idea, but again your deck list looks really good to me. Lots of life gain, lots of token gen, lots of power in it all, and a very low average CMC to boot.

Serra Ascendant perhaps due to the large amounts of lifegain?

Jan 20, 2013 -- 3:46PM, Cregnacht wrote:

I really like the setup, especially with the Genesis Chamber.

Increasing Devotion is one of my favourite token cards, as well as Lingering Souls , though I think you'd be good without either of them. Thraben Doomsayer may be an idea, but again your deck list looks really good to me. Lots of life gain, lots of token gen, lots of power in it all, and a very low average CMC to boot.

Serra Ascendant perhaps due to the large amounts of lifegain?

I'm glad you like the setup. I was considering Serra Ascendant , but I think that if this deck gets to over 30 life, it will probably end up winning regardless. A lot of those token cards are solid, paricuarly Increasing Devotion  because it makes Champion of the Parish larger, but I don't know where I would fit it.

I am strongly considering cutting a couple Chalice of Life for Odric, Master Tactician  

All I can say is WOW. This deck looks awesome. I'm sorry that I don't really have any suggestions but I'm really impressed with this deck and idea. Seems good to me. :D

Jan 21, 2013 -- 12:37AM, BobbertZhubert wrote:

All I can say is WOW. This deck looks awesome. I'm sorry that I don't really have any suggestions but I'm really impressed with this deck and idea. Seems good to me. :D

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. If there's anything you or anyone else has to say I really am looking for some more specific feedback, positive or constructive. I'm a little disappointed at so little I've gotten, I worked kind of hard on this primer/deck thread :p


Regarding the deck, the more I think about it, as cool as Odric, Master Tactician is, Raid Bombardment  does basically the same thing but costs less mana to play, is more budget friendly, allows me to deal damage with tokens and the small creatures immiedately rather than waiting a whole turn for the summoning sickness to go away and is less fragile because it is not a creature. It also has the ability to stack, so for now I'm thinking two Raid Bombardment and one Chalice of Life .

I've looked the thread over, both here and at MTGS, and haven't commented because I don't know what to add.

The formatting is awesome, though it took my phone a while to load it (no problems at home on the computer, though).

Having played Raid Bombardment , as well as having died to it, I can attest to its effectiveness.  Even though the Chalice will take bigger bites out of an opposing life total, I can't help but wonder if Raid Bombardment wouldn't be a more... efficient means to deal damage?  In the end, no Chalice might be the best option. Playtesting will show. 

Cheers!

I was fortunate enough to get two Odrics in boosters alone; I recommend it him, but the Bombardments look equally as nasty, especially with so many tokens...

I like Intangible Virtue in my token deck, but I run with a LOT of spirit tokens, so they're pretty much all unblockable anyway.

Again, really nice looking deck. Jealous!

I'm glad people like the deck, really makes me feel good that players here, many who are probably better than me, enjoy the deck. I would love it if some day someone online build the deck and also tested it. I spend a quite a bit of time on building it, and a lot of time on the primer that I think looks pretty good even though loads poorly on phones, haha (and trust me, I know about the phone thing, I have to put my phone in landscape or I can't see everything on the original post).

I think I pulled a couple Odric, Master Tactician as well, but I don't think he's particuarly valuable for what it's worth, so anyone could just buy them. I like him because he can help Champion of the Parish swing, but I don't think that alone makes him better than Raid Bombardment . One thing I like about Intangible Virture is it pumps the tokens from Kher Keep , but so does Raid Bombardment . Another great thing like Raid Bombardment , like Intanigible Virture is the ability stacks which can get pretty silly!

Anyways, I edited the original thread, with a quite a few tweaks. I added 1 Eiganjo Castle , and mentioned  Odric, Master Tactician and Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer  (also pretty good, in some ways better than Odric, Master Tactician because you don't have to wait a whole turn before you win with it, but he doesn't help Champion of the Parish ) as alternate options. I fixed some grammer issues and I also changed a couple of other things, so it might be worth re-reading.

I'm still looking for general feedback on the deck, positive or constructive, it's all helpful. I was wondering a few things specifically as well:

What are some other alternate win conditions that are not creatures?

What do you guys think about Blasting Station ?

Are there any other legendary lands that could fit here that are bugdet friendly?

And finally, may it be worth it to run Immortal Servitude (New Gatecrash card, don't want to spoil it for anyone so look it up if you aren't aware) in place of Proclimation of Rebirth ?

Edit: I THOUGHT I edited the original post, but I guess I didn't, I'll do it after the server update.

you're running Proclamation of Rebirth but not Martyr Of Sands ?  I guess that's OK, since you're gaining life 1 at a time through Soul Warden effects.

You might consider running Ranger of Eos and a toolbox of 1 mana creatures like Kami of False Hope and the martyr.  Or you could just run him because he tutors out about 80% of your creatures.

you should probably find room for a 4th Lightning Helix too.  3 is probably plenty, but it's a card I always run 4 of in any deck that uses it.

Cool deck though.  I usually only see Norin the Wary in Pandemonium decks, so it's refreshing to see him used in a different style

I'll second Ranger of Eos, he is really a fantastic card and less mana-intensive then the mentor. Goblin Bushwacker might be a good creature to have one-of to tutor for with him.

I almost want to suggest Varchild's War-Riders because of the suture priest, but you might not have enough ways to handle to tokens. Which got me thinking that Thunderstaff might be that card, since it protects your from their tokens and the pump effect can help you overrun them with yours. Electrickery also seems solid for this. Hero of Oxid Ridge or

This guy from the new set Show

also seem good.

Neat deck '-')b

I'm surprised that Vigilante Justice hasn't been mentioned. Although costly, It has great synergy with Norin the Wary and all of your other humans

Great advice guys.

The Soul Sisters will gain more more life in a multiplayer game with this deck then Martyr Of Sands  will. I really like Ranger of Eos , but he would cost more than anything in the deck right now and I feel due to all the card draw I get from Mentor of the Meek I really don't need him.  I've been trying to fit in a 4th removal spell, maybe I'll cut one land.

Varchild's War-Riders  isn't Modern, but I was considering Forbidden Orchard , fand to be honest I am still considering it, what do you think of that card? Thunderstaff and Electrickery are cute, but I honestly am confident I will have way more tokens than any of my opponents will so I'm not too worried about them, especially because of all the life I will be gaining.  Hero of Oxid Ridge  is cool, but does pretty much the same thing Raid Bombardment does for more mana and it is less fragile.

Vigilante Justice is cool and I considered it, but it costs too much, sure I'll be blinking Norin the Wary , but that's only poking them for one each turn and I won't be playing humans each turn. Raid Bombardment will probably hit my opponent harder and I can cast it earlier.

BTW, I did update the OP finally.

You will be drawing lots of cards... off of a creature that dies to all the removal.

sure Ranger of Eos dies too, but once he's in play you don't care what happens to him.  He triggers your mentors himself as wellso you'll get 3 cards total out of him.  A great card in any deck with lots of 1 mana dorks like this 

Mentor of the Meek in this deck brings way more card advantage, even if he's on the battlefield for a few turns. Honestly, if I were going against this deck, I'd be much more concerned about blowing up Suture Priest and Champion of the Parish than Mentor of the Meek .

On another note, I wrote up a pratical situation that highlights why this deck can perform so well for anyone who doesn't totally understand the combo:

Suppose I am playing a game with 3 other players and on the battlefield I control one Genesis Chamber[c/] , two [c] Soul Warden s and Norin the Wary . I feel this is a very practical and frankly modest and underwhelming situation. Now suppose it is my turn and I play a Champion of the Parish . I get two Myr tokens that turn because two nontoken creatures entered the battlefield that turn. I also gain 8 life (2 life for each Myr token + Champion of the Parish  + Norin the Wary ). Then Matt starts his turn and he plays a Reassembling Skeleton , he gets a Myr token but I also get a Myr token (because Norin the Wary  blinks). Four creatures enter the battlefield on Matt's turn (2 Myr tokens + Norin the Wary  + Reassembling Skeleton ) so I gain another 8 life. Then Nikhil starts his turn, he decides not to play a creature but he does cast Ponder[c/]  and a [c] Soul Snare . Norin the Wary  blinks so I get another Myr token and gain 4 life. Then Eli starts his turn and plays Vampire Nighthawk . He gets 1 Myr token, and I get 1 Myr token as well, Norin the Wary  blinks again and I gain another 8 life. Now it is finally my turn again, since my last turn I gained 28 life and 5 Myr tokens. Meanwhile each of my opponents got 1 Myr token (or none) and gained zero life. Again this is a very modest scenario (for instance, if I also had one Suture Priest  I would have gained 35 life and my opponents would have lost some life), but I still have so much board presence, in both creature advantage and life advantage. 

Pretty sure my math is (mostly) right here but please correct me if I'm wrong (seriously, because I might add this in the primer). 

personally, I'd go for Mentor of the Meek over the soul sisters every time because if you have no cards then I don't care how much life you gain, you'll run out of steam eventually.  To each his own I guess

I totally get how your deck works, it's not that hard to figure it out.  I was only suggesting Ranger of Eos because he seems like he'd work really well in your deck and is not as succeptible to removal as a mentor is.

also it's worth noting that Norin the Wary doesn't blink like Momentary Blink he flickers like Flickerform .  Just sayin

EDIT:

Have you considered Forbidden Orchard for this deck? I thought you'd mentioned it, but I couldn't find it skimming previous posts

Jan 23, 2013 -- 3:52PM, El_Pared wrote:

personally, I'd go for Mentor of the Meek over the soul sisters every time because if you have no cards then I don't care how much life you gain, you'll run out of steam eventually.  To each his own I guess

I totally get how your deck works, it's not that hard to figure it out.  I was only suggesting Ranger of Eos because he seems like he'd work really well in your deck and is not as succeptible to removal as a mentor is.

also it's worth noting that Norin the Wary doesn't blink like Momentary Blink he flickers like Flickerform .  Just sayin

EDIT:

Have you considered Forbidden Orchard for this deck? I thought you'd mentioned it, but I couldn't find it skimming previous posts

I have considered Forbidden Orchard , but I think that early game it hurts me a little too much, not in multiplayer, but more in versus, and later game I don't need the mana fixing. Giving them the token for Suture Priest  is cool, but I don't think it's worth running, especially beacuse it's not super budget.

Good point about flicker/blink, I'll probably edit that in the primer eventually.

If I was playing this deck and I only had like 6 removal spells (a generous amount, and in a multiplayer game you certainly aren't only going to remove one player's creatures) I would focus on Champion of the Parish and Mentor the Meek before Suture Priest and the Soul Sisters, but the problem is they cause a major problem. The lifegain is insane. Everything in this deck combos so well, the only problem is a wrath effect.

maybe test out Orchards with proxies or something and see how it works out for you, it seems perfect for this deck

I'll look into it for sure.

I think I've decided to run   Immortal Servitude  in place of Proclimation of Rebirth . It is much cheaper ($$$) to run, and it allows me to get more creatures back along with Suture Priest if I want to. It's mroe difficult to cast (3 white mana) but I usually would play it mid to late game anyways. I was at first worried about two Norin the Wary being in the graveyard and having to bring them both back which would be bad but there are so few situations when Norin the Wary goes to the graveyard. The only ones I can think of are if it's discarded from my hand or Seal of Fire and Grim Lavamancer (but Eiganjo Castle can stop those last two). What are some other ways Norin the Wary goes to the graveyard (other than blocking)? 

confusion in the ranks is amusing with norin.

You could consider running Frontline Medic & Day of Judgment since you can easily activate the Battalion with the Myr Tokens and deny them the creature advantage generated from Genesis Chamber .  This forces your play group to drop more creatures to deal with the life gain which in turn makes them lose even more life from Suture Priest . 

In the even that you do not draw the two together, the cards are great individually in multiplayer since Frontline Medic offers some niche utility and Day of Judgment allows you to stabilize in the even that your play group turns on the life gain deck.  And I know Matt does not enjoy life gain. 

Jan 24, 2013 -- 9:19PM, Athenor wrote:

You could consider running Frontline Medic & Day of Judgment since you can easily activate the Battalion with the Myr Tokens and deny them the creature advantage generated from Genesis Chamber .  This forces your play group to drop more creatures to deal with the life gain which in turn makes them lose even more life from Suture Priest . 

In the even that you do not draw the two together, the cards are great individually in multiplayer since Frontline Medic offers some niche utility and Day of Judgment allows you to stabilize in the even that your play group turns on the life gain deck.  And I know Matt does not enjoy life gain. 

That's actually pretty clever, Frontline Medic + Day , especially in this type of deck, don't know what I'd cut though. Lol at Matt does not enjoy lifegain. Lifegain is the best!

You know, on a side note, I might make another Genesis Chamber deck that uses black which would allow me to run Blood Artist . I tried splashing black in this, but the mana base got too complicated and expensive. 

Godless Shrine & Sacred Foundry should settle to around 10 bucks or so each but if it's on a budget, you can go for the guildgates since it seems like your deck has low CMC.  Might not be ideal for early plays, but splashing black could open up some removal options or even Exsanguinate (because I know you love that card).

Jan 24, 2013 -- 9:58PM, Athenor wrote:

Godless Shrine & Sacred Foundry should settle to around 10 bucks or so each but if it's on a budget, you can go for the guildgates since it seems like your deck has low CMC.  Might not be ideal for early plays, but splashing black could open up some removal options or even Exsanguinate (because I know you love that card).

Yeah, I mean I could just use the pain lands, I really don't like the gates. They really need to reprint the Innistrad duals so they go down in price like the M10 duals. Running Exsanguniate is a little too powerful, I've won too many games that way, that card was probably a mistake. It would be hillarious with Crypt Ghast though.

Edit: There also are the Keyrunes, they aren't that bad. 

for black I've always though Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond was a funny combo.  Infinite lifegain/loss ftw!

oh and since you're giving your opponents creatures, you could run Gideon, Champion of Justice