Innistrad - Hold the Line

With the "Hold the Line" deck, the beatdown starts early and never stops. Use low-cost creatures like Elite Vanguard and Champion of the Parish to pressure your opponent starting from the first turn, then suit up your creatures with Equipment to maintain your advantage into the midgame.

You'll want to play your creatures in a way that maximizes their effectiveness. Champion of the Parish and Elite Vanguard are in your deck because of how much power you get out of them for only one mana, so you'll want to play them as early as possible. Gideon's Lawkeeper, on the other hand, isn't as important to play early; after all, if your opponent doesn't have any creatures, Gideon's Lawkeeper doesn't have much to do! Don't be afraid to hold on to your Fiend Hunters. Your creatures are excellent at fighting with smaller creatures, so try and save Fiend Hunter to exile a big creature you might not be able to get past otherwise.

Early in the game, you want to be very aggressive to keep your opponent on the back foot. However, be careful that you don't lose all of your creatures to a single mass-removal spell. Play out just enough creatures to force your opponent to react. If a spell like Day of Judgment clears the battlefield, you'll still have creatures in hand to recover quickly. Your Equipment is superb for getting in extra damage with the creatures you already have on the board.

This deck gives you plenty of ways to overcome opposing creatures. Tap enemy creatures with Gideon's Lawkeeper and then sneak some damage through, or exile enemy creatures with Oblivion Ring and Fiend Hunter to clear potential blockers out of the way. Bonds of Faith is another fun removal spell. If your opponent doesn't have any creatures, though, you can always cast Bonds of Faith on one of your own creatures and go to town!

After sideboarding, you have access to answers for specific threats. Get rid of problematic red or black permanents with Celestial Purge. Use Nihil Spellbomb to end any graveyard-based shenanigans. Call on Suture Priest for a hefty life drain against creature-based decks. Blow up annoying artifacts and enchantments with Leonin Relic-Warder. Lastly, prevent problem cards from being played entirely with Nevermore!

There are several ways you could change the deck to suit your own play style. You could make the deck even more aggressive with more cards like Champion of the Parish and Elite Inquisitor. Alternatively, you could "go bigger" with larger if slightly slower creatures. Hero of Bladehold brings along an army whenever it attacks, and Mikaeus, the Lunarch can add +1/+1 counters to build that army to colossal size.

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