MTG Salvation

Well, I've decided to start building a deck for Anafenza, the Foremost. Now, the main issue I face with doing this is that Anafenza doesn't give me a clear-cut strategy to follow as I don't plan to follow as the Outlast mechanic doesn't really hold any appeal to me. Her exiling of my opponents' creatures is good enough and, on top of that, she's a good body for her low cost and has access to some great colors.

What I was thinking was of doing was building a combat/creature based deck. The creatures would have multiple effects either for combat or utility. The instant and sorcery cards would be removing obstacles or tutoring for the best creature needed for the time. Below is a rough idea of what I'm trying to do. Right now, I'm trying to smooth this idea out. Keeping what seems to work and dismissing what doesn't seem to work.

This is going to be a bit of an investment and I'd like to get most out it in the first go. Naturally, the deck is not optimized as there are better cards out there to add in. However, that is for a later date. This is all about making a working foundation to start with, so that I can at least start playing and gain experience with it to make improvements.

Some other cards I've thought to maybe include:

• Wilt-Leaf Liege
• Deathbringer Liege
• Loxodon Gatekeeper
• Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Also, I'll eventually cut Diabolic Tutor for Demonic Tutor and Beseech the Queen for Vampiric Tutor.

I think another theme I can add to improve the deck is more effects that slow down my opponents.

Quote from Griiverino »

Greetings!

Anafenza, the Foremost is usually used as the leader of a "hate bear" deck (with cards like Gaddock Teeg, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Aven Mindcensor, etc.). How does your usual playgroup look like? Is it more casual, or does it tend to the competitve side? This would be a pretty important information for further suggestions. At the moment, your list looks most like a "good stuff" deck (that isn´t necessarily bad) without a real direction. Overall, I wonder how you plan to cast expensive cards like Void Winnower.

Hello, there.

My meta is more on the competitive side of things. Even decks that don't have the best cards have been tweaked extensively with what they have to work efficiently.

As for the deck that I've hypothetically cobbled together: looking back, I was trying to straddle between hate bears and a heavy combat focus. As I looked over what I had put together, I realized, as you pointed out, that some of the cards I had put in were much more mana intensive than I had initially. I was thinking of including more mana ramp (Cultivate, Harrow) and mana doublers (Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection). I had also planned on cheating larger creatures like Void Winnower with things like Quicksilver Amulet and Birthing Pod.

However, I think that I've pulled the deck in a few too many directions, which is why it appears more good stuff than anything else.