- Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
Have I mentioned lately that I love Noble Heritage and how it affects the game?
Noble Volo: Updated My Journal is a political deck that encourages and enables your opponents to commit violence against each other while protecting itself with pillowfort effects. This two-tier protection system of its signature card, Noble Heritage, combined with those pillowfort cards makes attacking you incredibly unprofitable. When combined with the powerful card advantage engine of Volo, Itinerant Scholar, and his blue color identity, you can grow and protect your army simultaneously all while playing defensively. The goal is to never be the threat while still maintaining an imposing board state where the only real answer is to leave you alone.
How Does This Deck Play?
Since Noble Heritage curves into Volo, Itinerant Scholar you're going to want to play those on turns 2 and 3 almost every time. If you happen to have one of the two mana value ramp creatures like Loyal Warhound or something and someone opens with Exploration, then yeah you can delay Heritage, but most of the time those two will take up those turns. This has the side-effect of putting four +1/+1 counters on Volo. Since his activated ability is so much stronger than attacking, he tends to act as a solid blocker in the early game, establishing your defensive position early on.
On turn 4, you really want to be able to drop a two mana value creature, notch up your journal, and then be able to draw a card with Volo or counter something that interrupts your development. From there, you'll want to pile your counters onto your other creature so you can begin harassing the control player or anyone not playing ball while continuing to fill your hand up with Volo. I'd advise playing no more than two or three additional creatures before the first wipe you can't stop, as drawing two or three additional cards per turn is enough to allow you to slowly take over the game, like a polder reclaimed from the sea.
In the end game, you'll usually have one or two big threats and your opponents will be increasingly out of resources. If you've done your due diligence and kept a narrow, defensive threat profile, you should be well-equipped to handle whatever is thrown at your way while you take chunks out of life totals.
Card Analysis
I'm going to keep this simple for now. Let's go over this section by section to discuss stand-out selections.
Land
40 lands plus Sol Ring acting as a de facto land means I, statistically, will hit my first five land drops a significant majority of the time. My average mana value is around 2.6, which puts my critical turn around turn five, when I can comfortably activate Volo, Itinerant Scholar and cast a creature or protect him. Not much to say other than that in two-color decks I tend to eschew fetches because I hate constant searching. They would, of course, greatly improve the manabase, but I haven't had any serious mana problems that a mulligan didn't solve.
Ramp
The ramp package is... there. Not statistically significant enough to rely upon, especially since white is dependent upon catch-up ramp, but it's nice when it happens. Shout out to Space Marine Scout for being a fantastic combination of utility, offense, and defense.
Pillowfort
The beating, annoying heart of the deck. Ideally, you'll have a tax effect out in conjunction with your Noble Heritage to make attacking you unpalatable. Their opponents' creatures get larger and larger while they are forced to stunt their own development to attack. Not a great situation to be in. In addition to boring staple pillowfort cards like Ghostly Prison and Propaganda there's also Orzhov Advokist, which acts as a second version of your background, and Nils, Discipline Enforcer who is a very interesting combination of both.
Spot Removal
Lots of spot removal for artifacts and enchantments since I don't want to play a bunch of board wipes due to my journal and background. I originally played Pongify and Rapid Hybridization but found them awkward, since they left behind blockers. The bounce spells are used instead and often cantrip in the mid to late game. Pretty standard fare, here.
Board Wipe
What an awkward selection. Tragic Arrogance is a very powerful card here, allowing me to keep my background, commander, and journal while wiping my opponents of their most significant permanents. Austere Command can be awkward, but its utility is very high. Time Wipe bounces Volo and saves me some mana in the process. Some of the wipes, when combined with Teferi's Protection or Flawless Maneuver, really allow you to push the advantage.
Protection
Mom and sis are great. Loran's Escape is better than Blacksmith's Skill, which is pretty playable as a one mana pseudo-counterspell.
Countermagic
This was kind of awkward. We're not really a control deck, but we want a density of counters as they're generally pretty useful and particularly great at protecting your investments. I decided on 7, as that's around half of what I would play in a control deck, and also because that's the number of playable two mana value or less counters.
Card Advantage
I lumped Serra Paragon in here since I didn't want to have a single card in the "Recursion" section, This section is considerably smaller than it would be in another deck since our commander draws cards.
Tutor
Originally I ran Mystical Tutor and Solve the Equation but I cut them. Maybe this was a mistake, as they usually just find the best wipe, removal, or protection spell I need, but meh.
Beat
God-Eternal Oketra is an absolute house with the +1/+1 counters we vomit out, and the Day Man is just an all-around all-star.
Summary
This is my third stab at a Noble Heritage deck and I think it might be the best. It takes what I learned with Shadowheart and coverts that chassis into a more defensive version with countermagic. I often found myself helpless with Shadowheart and I think that addition will shore up some of the deck's weaknesses.