Uncommons are a great starting place for budget decks. In Return to Ravnica, Fencing Ace was one that caught my eye. I love double strike, and putting it on such a cheap creature is always a kickstarter for some good times. Equipment are often the easiest way to abuse double strike, and despite the rotation of Scars of Mirrodin block, we still have some pretty good pieces in Standard. Here's the deck I've been working with:

"Mono-White Equipment"

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Fencing Ace
• 4 Knight of Glory
• 4 Nearheath Pilgrim
• 4 Precinct Captain
• 4 Silverblade Paladin
• 4 War Falcon

• Spells (13)
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 2 Inquisitor's Flail
• 4 Ring of Thune
• 4 Silver-Inlaid Dagger

• Lands (23)
• 23 Plains

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The Creatures

Silverblade Paladin is essentially a bigger Fencing Ace. It comes with a bit of an upside in that it can give another creature double strike, but a bit of a downside as well—it won't have double strike unless there's another creature to pair it with.

War Falcon is an additional offensive threat. Although it doesn't have double strike, it does pack some evasion and a high power for its cost. If your opponent is gumming up the ground with creature, this will often become your threat of choice.

Precinct Captain's first strike will make blocking much more painful for your opponent, especially when it's holding a piece of Equipment. When it does push through for damage, you make a free 1/1 Soldier, perfect for chump-blocking or pushing in a bit of extra damage. If the Captain dies later on, the Soldier tokens will ensure that your War Falcons and Silverblade Paladins still have buddies to help them reach their full potential.

Although Nearheath Pilgrim isn't the greatest attacker, it can give lifelink to whatever creature you're attacking with. This helps you come back from behind against a faster draw or pull further ahead when your opponent might otherwise be able to try to race you to 20 damage.

Knight of Glory can fill multiple roles in this deck. It's most common role is to give a little boost to your Fencing Ace, War Falcon, or whatever creature you happen to be attacking with. Against black decks, however, it becomes a devastating attacker in its own right and a great blocker as well. As such, suiting this guy up with a Ring of Thune will often be the best way to win the game. It will grow bigger and bigger every turn, and with vigilance from the Ring, it can be on both offense and defense each turn, putting your opponent in an impossible situation.

The Spells

Ring of Thune will grow whatever creature you equip it to every turn, making it an ever more dangerous attacker. Since it grants vigilance, that creature gets to be an ever more dangerous blocker as well. Although it's slower than Silver-Inlaid Dagger and unfortunately has to start over whenever it's equipped to a new creature, it does have the bonus of making your threat immune to most damage-based removal after a few turns. Those creatures that don't have double strike also become increasingly difficult to trade with. War Falcon won't be steered away by a few Spirit tokens once it has a counter or two on it, and Precinct Captain can do battle with 3/3s and win after just a single turn.

Inquisitor's Flail is reminiscent of another early Equipment: Fireshrieker. Unlike Fireshrieker, however, it works even on creatures that already have double strike. In fact, it works better. A Silverblade Paladin with an Inquisitor's Flail can take down all but the largest creatures in the format in a single strike, and a Fencing Ace with a Silver-Inlaid Dagger can kill just about anything short of Worldspine Wurm when suited up with the Flail as well. The Flail's drawback is mostly irrelevant in this deck since many creatures have only 1 toughness and would be trading with anything that blocks them anyway. Those with more than 1 toughness have first or double strike, allowing them to kill their enemies before they even have the chance to deal damage.

Oblivion Ring is the catch-all piece of removal, and it actually will often reside at the top of your curve in many games. It's perfect for taking out pesky blockers, especially those with undying, such as Strangleroot Geist. You can often catch your opponent by surprise with this spell, exiling the Avacyn's Pilgrim or other small creature he left back in order to get in for lethal with a pumped-up Fencing Ace.

Playtesting

Once again, I'll be testing against the deck I wrote about last week. In this case, that means the G/W beatdown deck from “Not Quite Vanilla,” which is certainly some tough competition.

Game 1

Another Guildgate was followed up by an Avacyn's Pilgrim, and my opponent passed back. I drew a second Precinct Captain, played a Plains, and cast one of them. I ended my turn.

My opponent slammed down a Loxodon Smiter before turning it over to me. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Silverblade Paladin, pairing it with the Captain. I attacked, and my opponent chose to trade off his Loxodon Smiter rather than let me get in for 4 and make two Soldier tokens. I passed the turn.

My opponent cast a second Smiter and passed back. I drew another Silverblade Paladin and cast Precinct Captain, pairing it up. I attacked with my Paladin, and my opponent decided to trade again. I cast Inquisitor's Flail and passed the turn.

My opponent cast Strangleroot Geist and ended his turn. I drew another Plains, played it, and equipped the Flail onto my Precinct Captain. I cast Silverblade Paladin, paired them up, and attacked for 8. My opponent blocked with his Strangleroot Geist, and I passed the turn.

My opponent passed back with no play. I drew another Inquisitor's Flail, cast it, and equipped it to the Paladin. I then attacked with both creatures. My opponent blocked the Captain with Strangleroot Geist and took 8 from Silverblade Paladin. I ended my turn, and he cast a Wolfir Avenger during my end step.

On his turn, he put a Sunpetal Grove into play tapped, then cast an Arbor Elf and passed. I drew another Plains and cast Oblivion Ring on Wolfir Avenger. I attacked with my two creatures, and my opponent blocked Precinct Captain with his Arbor Elf, dropping to 4. I passed the turn.

My opponent played a Forest on his turn and cast a second Goliath before passing. I drew another Plains and ended my turn with no play again.

My opponent played a Forest and passed the turn. I drew another Plains and passed back, and my opponent activated Gavony Township during my end step.

On his turn, he played a Forest and passed again. I drew a Silver-Inlaid Dagger, cast it, and equipped it to Silverblade Paladin. I attacked for 20, and my opponent chump-blocked with an Arbor Elf. I ended my turn, and he activated Gavony Township again.

My opponent activated Gavony Township a third time on his turn, then cast Rancor on a Deadbridge Goliath to make it a 10/8. He attacked, and I took the damage. He ended his turn. I drew Knight of Glory and attacked with the Paladin again. My opponent blocked with his Avacyn's Pilgrim this time, and I cast Knight of Glory and passed the turn.

My opponent attacked with both Goliaths. I blocked the Rancored one with Precinct Captain and the other with Knight of Glory. Both of my creatures and the Rancored Goliath died, and I dropped to 2 from trample damage. My opponent cast another Deadbridge Goliath and put Rancor on the tapped one before passing the turn.

I drew a Plains, equipped Silverblade Paladin with the second Inquisitor's Flail, and attacked for 20. Without trample, however, it wasn't enough, and I died on my opponent's turn.

Game 2

I drew a Plains, played it, and cast a Precinct Captain before ending my turn. My opponent played a Forest and cast Arbor Elf. He passed the turn.

I drew Silver-Inlaid Dagger, then cast Silverblade Paladin, pairing it with Precinct Captain. I attacked with the Captain, and my opponent took the 4. I put two Soldier tokens onto the battlefield and passed the turn. My opponent played a Plains and cast Deadbridge Goliath. He ended his turn.

I drew another Plains, played it, and cast Silver-Inlaid Dagger. I equipped it to the Precinct Captain and attacked for 10. My opponent dropped to 6, and I made two more Soldiers and passed the turn. My opponent cast Strangleroot Geist and Call of the Conclave, putting a 3/3 Centaur token onto the battlefield before ending his turn.

Precinct Captain¬ received a +1/+1 counter during my upkeep, and I drew a Plains. I equipped the Dagger to Precinct Captain and attacked with it. My opponent blocked with Loxodon Smiter and the Centaur token, and all three of them died. I cast Knight of Glory, paired it with Silverblade Paladin, and equipped it with Ring of Thune before passing the turn. My opponent made another Centaur with Call of the Conclave and passed the turn.

Knight of Glory received a counter during my upkeep, and I drew another Plains. I equipped my Silver-Inlaid Dagger to Silverblade Paladin and attacked with everything. The Centaur token and the 3/2 Strangleroot Geist traded with the Knight of Glory, while the 2/1 Geist chump-blocked Silverblade Paladin. My opponent dropped to 2 from the Soldier tokens, and I equipped one of them with Ring of Thune and passed the turn. My opponent passed back with no play.

My Soldier token grew bigger, and I equipped the other Soldier with Silver-Inlaid Dagger. I attacked with everything, and my opponent died despite his flashed-in Wolfir Avenger.

Game 3

My opponent played a Forest and made a 3/3 with Call of the Conclave, then passed the turn. I drew another Silver-Inlaid Dagger, cast Fencing Ace, and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Plains, cast a Loxodon Smiter, and passed back. I drew a Precinct Captain and equipped Fencing Ace with Silver-Inlaid Dagger. I played a Plains, then cast the second Dagger and passed the turn.

My opponent played Gavony Township and cast Deadbridge Goliath. He ended his turn. I drew another Silver-Inlaid Dagger, cast it, equipped it, and passed the turn.

My opponent cast a second Deadbridge Goliath and passed back. I drew a War Falcon, equipped the final Dagger, and attacked for 20. My opponent blocked with everything but the second Deadbridge Goliath, and all of them died, taking Fencing Ace down as well. I cast the War Falcon and passed the turn.

My opponent suited up his Centaur with Rancor and swung for 5, dropping me to 8. He ended his turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Precinct Captain. I equipped it with a Dagger and passed the turn.

My opponent drew the land he needed to scavenge his Deadbridge Goliath, making the Centaur token a 10/8. He attacked, and I was forced to chump-block with both creatures to stay alive at 1 life. I drew the Oblivion Ring I needed, exiling the Centaur token. I cast a War Falcon and ended my turn.

My opponent passed the turn with no play. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Knight of Glory. I equipped the War Falcon with a Dagger and attacked for 5. I passed the turn, and my opponent made a 2/2 with Selesnya Charm, giving it Rancor on his turn to kill me.

Wrapping Up

Ring of Thune was fairly disappointing despite providing the bit of extra damage necessary to win the second game. It takes too much time for it to build up the creature’s power. Another thing that did not escape my attention was my envious glares at my opponent's trample-giving Rancor. If you can get your hands on some G/W dual lands, I'd highly recommend a small splash for Rancors instead of Ring of Thune. Without a large set of dual lands, the mana base suffers significantly, but Rancor might still be worth it. Precinct Captain would quite possibly have to be removed for a less color-intensive 2-drop such as Azorius Arrester, however.

Despite some flaws, this is still a very powerful deck and is remarkably easy to put together as well. Precinct Captain can be swapped out for Azorius Arrester if necessary, leaving you with a play set of Silverblade Paladins as the only rares in the deck. If you're having trouble putting together a deck in time for States this weekend or if you just want to swing for 20 with your 2-drops, be sure to give this deck a try.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under@Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.