by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 23, 2009

Kithkin are a powerful tribe in magic the gathering, but they are by in large white weenie creatures and because of that they have some of the same weaknesses as any white weenie deck. These two weaknesses are very similar. They run out of cards early in the game and their small creatures can't stand up to creatures played later in the game. These really are the same problem, traditional white weenie has no end game. It either wins early or it flounders, and while a well timed wrath of god can clear the board long enough for you to get the last point of damage in sometimes this only works if you have cards in your hand to play after the wrath.

Kinsbaile Borderguard is a 1/1 kithkin soldier that can address both of these problems quite well if put into the right deck. Costing two white and one colorless its ability makes it possible for it to scale well with the time period of the game it is played in. This ability reads "Kinsbaile Borderguard enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each other Kithkin you control."

This means that it is quite possible, in a kithkin deck with a great many small creature for you to have put out a 1/1 kithkin on the first turn, two more 1/1 kithkin on the second and this on the third, making it a 4/4 creature. This can help considerably as it allows you to at least one creature that has a reasonable chance to trade with the creature your opponent has. On the other hand playing this later means that you may be able to put out a 6/6 creature for three mana.

The problem with this of course is that putting out enough kithkin to make this truly powerful forces you to overextend yourself. But Kinsbaile Borderguard addresses this problem with its second ability. "When Kinsbaile Borderguard is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token onto the battlefield for each counter on it." this means that it is far safer to play those three small kithkin before you put this out because even if your opponent has a board sweeper you will replace most of your losses with tokens while he is unlikely to do the same. In addition since most board sweepers are sorceries your kithkin will be able to attack during the next turn, allowing you a few free points of damage, which can be vital in late game white decks.

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