So I was really disapointed with the Bant Awaken deck in BFZ but Oath provided the deck with some new tools that might actually make this a deck. The deck that I started with is:
However, this didn't do a whole lot. I also didn't really have much of a sideboard. Now that Oath has been released, I think there are some new cards to consider.
1. Sylvan Advocate. This card is begging to be played in an awaken ramp deck.
2. Crush of Tentacles. So I know this is not an awaken card, but this could be that card that is needed to clear up the board especially because our plan is to cast spells to make out lands into creatures. Crush leaves them on the battlefield so there is some synergy.
4. Elemental Uprising. I understand that this type of card wants to probably be played in limited, but this could provide us with the combat tricks that this deck lacks. I'm not convinced even a bit though.
I would really appreciate any suggestions that you all have. I have wanted to make this deck a thing for a while and I think that we have the resources to do it. I don't think that this will ever be tier 1 but it could at least take down an FNM. Let me know what you think!
Here's what I run with. Still fine-tuning but I think it could be FNM competitive.
I'm going back-and-forth between Horribly Awry (to slowdown aggros) or Sylvan Scrying (ramp). Comments welcome.
I really like both of your lists, the creature heavy list is interesting because you are not relying on noyan dar, there are plenty of other tricks. I personally am playing jeskai ascendency version of the deck and will prob switch over to a bant version once the fetches and ascendency rotate. Elemental Uprising and Slip Through space are two cards that helped make this deck a little more viable. And the one mana drop dork from origins, he's still I. Testing but might make my list game day
I feel that if the deck can get a few more combat trick to deploy in the early game like Slip through space then the Renown mechanic from origins might finally be constructed playable. Funnily enough Elemental Uprising could work here since it forces the opponent to block in the early game with their only creature and let Honored Hierarch through. The downside of course is it opens the deck up to a huge early game tempo loss if you opponent uses a kill spell on the land and then blocks the Hierarch.
I'm using slip through space and expedite with honored heirach on turn 2, using elemental uprising as more of a finisher for that very reason. You dont want to loose lands early game. It's nice with the manlands once you have the mana. Also if you are playing bant, the options of Retreat to Coralhelm, etc. I'm also liking the idea of staying five colors just for the option of bring to light. Too bad it won't fetch Crush of the Tentacles, that would be funny!
The base of the deck comes from Michael Majors' deck from the SCG Versus series. It's a blast to play, but has trouble against the Tier 1 decks, particularly ones that are Zulaport Cutthroat based.
...There is only one actual Awaken card in the list, so maybe this is the wrong place for this. But the idea is pretty similar. Crush of Tentacles leaves "awakened" lands in play while letting you replay Wall of Resurgence to grow the lands again. The rest of the deck is basically just cantrips that work with Crush.
If what is hurting the deck is the Rally the Ancestors aristocrats style of deck (sacrifice your creatures for fun and death triggers), graveyard or mass animate hate may be the best solution. You could try Cranial Archive and/or Hallowed Moonlight. Another option is more cheap counterspells, try running 4 Dispel in the sideboard.
Creatures like Arashin Cleric and Cleric of the Forward Order might also help in buying you time since they will keep adding to your life total every time you recast them after bouncing them and they're much cheaper to cast than Linvala.
You could also just go full four color and spam the hell out of Siege Rhino and have Anafenza, the foremost in the sideboard to bring in against graveyard based decks.
If you play Part the Waterveil with Nissa or Kiora, I'd look at Oath of Gideon. You can put your opponent on a very short clock before they ultimate, and it gives you a few chump blockers.
Silkwrap is best for Cutthroat, you don't want him in the GY. SB Dromoka's Command if you are playing a deck that doesn't use the GY, as it provides better options.
Thats the best I can remember from memory, I dont have access to the deck at the moment, the forest and island are like 50/50 I think. It's a bit different then what you guys are trying to do but I took 9th at a PPTQ, 1st at a gameday, and consistently get 1st at FNM's with it, I am playing another PPTQ this weekend with it.
You can ramp really hard and maintain your life with the Nissa's Renewal, eventually you get all the basics out of your deck so you're just drawing straight gas. It's not unrealistic to awaken a land with planar outburst then pump it with part the waterveil to get a 10/10 that gets two turns to swing. Ugin wins some games but he's mostly there as another board wipe or card advantage when you ult him. Ulamog is just a big dumb beater that can quickly end Rally's deck by hitting two white sources, as they are normally 4 color and strained for it.
Other than that, I have another Ulamog in the board, I've won games aggressive attacking with my Rattleclaw's but it's not the ideal way to win, Lumbering Falls has taken games as well. Late game you crack your Hedron Archives for a bit more card advantage, as well as the Blighted Cataract. Some games you just spam turn after turn to try and draw an out, I've taken 5 turns in a row just to draw another card and ended up taking the game when I found a dig.
After some FNM test, I've decided to pivot more towards Bant CoCo. The card advantage is just ridiculous, seeing how most of the creatures are 3CMC.
The mainboard interacts well with Aggro and Abzan. I drop the sweepers/removal for Dispel, Negate and Narset Transcendent when I play against Jeskai black and 4C Rally.
Will probably drop the Elemental Uprising if I can get another 1 each of Collected company and Scatter to the winds.
I'm playing an awakened deck in Jeskai right now but the Bant option looks like a lot of fun. I've found Displacement Wave t be good for clearing the board when needed.
I will post my deck after some tweaking.
Here's what I'm running currently. I'm planning on taking this to a PPTQ in two weeks but will not get a chance to FNM before then. Any thoughts on changes? The sideboard is more counters and removal. I was thinking Radiant Flames but that would kill any Noyan awakened lands.
I've actually fallen off standard the past few weeks in anticipation for the new set. It really sucks the fetch lands are rotating, makes playing the five color version of this impossible. I like your list above here cuz I don't think anything is rotating, it seems like a decent adaptation. Are you getting mana screwed?
So far with my deck I need some more Blue lands in it. I may cut a Forest for an Island. I was testing some last night and was untapping two lands with Kiora's +1 since they are both creatures and lands,so that's something to remember if your running her in the deck.
Displacement Wave has been great over Crush. Against CoCo or Rally you are casting it for x=3 and against tokens you can just cast it for X=0.
I was running Disciple of the Ring over Noyan Dar, but with the cheap spells that are available Noyan has been amazing if he sticks for a turn or two.
I was able to get a few test games in last night and Kiora's +1 with awakened lands is crazy. I had one game where I swung with my lands, +1 on Kiora to untap 2 lands since they are lands and creatures when they are awakened, and Negate during my oppenents turn to seal the game.
I dropped the red from my list above and the deck seems to be running smoother. Has anyone else done any testing/playing with their versions?
I posted this in a separate thread, but this one seems more in tune with the style of the deck.
I've been playing around with something similar... basically a tempo-based UGW deck abusing all the good bounce cards in Standard currently. The basic gameplan is to play Sylvan Advocate/Snapping Gnarlid on turn 2 and continually bounce their creatures while attacking, slowly building to 6 lands and awakening a flying Lumbering Falls etc. for the win. My main difference from the lists here is the Clutch of Currents and Roil Spout tech. Also I wanted something rotation-proof for a while, hence zero Collected Company or fetchlands.
Still tweaking cards which is why there's lots of 1 and 2 ofs everywhere.
Not completely sold on Eldrazi Displacer yet and probably need to add a Wastes so I can fetch it with the Evolving Wilds. Hoping for some good lands in SOI.
This is a lot closer to what I have! I put this deck together when BFZ came out and I never actually played it (to be fair I haven't played standard since Theros block but I thought this deck looked fun). Modern is not much fun these days so I thought I'd have another look at this deck (I love lands!).
The list is more of a combo with taking turns. Like I said I haven't actually had the chance to play the deck at FNM yet but I played online a bit and I often take 3-4 turns in a row when it goes off, swinging with 6/6 flying land creatures.
The 2 Embodiment of Spring are pretty good early blockers, I was hoping they'd be like Sakura-Tribe Elder, but 2 is an awkward number and they're a terrible draw. I want one in my opening hand then never see another one. I also had Rattleclaw Mystic first but decided to take them out for a reason I can't remember.
You tutor so much for lands that eventually every basic is in play and hopefully by that point each draw is useful, especially with dig. From Beyond is pretty good but I wish I could use it to its full potential and actually have something to tutor with it.
Best draw:
T1: U, Embodiment of Spring
T2: G + Sacrifice EoS on their turn
T3: X, Nissa, Explosive Vegetation or Hedron
T4: Nissa's Renewal for 3 more lands + 7 life
T5: 9 or 10 mana depending of land drop on T4
Deciding what lands to get with Nissa's Renewal will depend on what you plan to do on the next turn since you'll most likely WWW or UUU. At this point you could also Quarantine Field a couple of threats.
The one issue I noticed while testing is that I run out of basic lands to grab almost every game but at this point
Gaea's Revenge is a good alternative finisher and 7 mana is pretty easy to get and it closes the game fairly quickly after that. Feed the Clan once you have an awaken land is 10 life for 1G at instant speed which is almost like taking an extra turn assuming their board isn't insane. As I haven't played the deck much I'm not sure at all about the sideboard. I actually think some of the counterspells might be useful main board.
Anyways, I'd love to hear some notes on the list and hopefully the current list can be improved. I haven't looked at OGW much so maybe there are a couple of things that completely wreck this deck
Playing tomorrow is a Standard tournament and taking my deck posted above, but I've dropped Red and am going straight Bant. I've added Dromoka's Command to the deck.
Right now I have 3 Coastal Discovery but at 4 mana I'm thinking Comparative Analysis may be better. My curve is topping out at 5 for Noyan Dar so I should be able to Surge it without any problems.
Any thoughts on Dragonnlord Dromoka in a deck like this?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1 Blighted Cataract
2 Canopy Vista
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
5 Island
3 Lumbering Falls
2 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
4 Windswept Heath
3 Clash of Wills
4 Dig Through Time
2 Ojutai's Command
4 Scatter to the Winds
1 Part the Waterveil
4 Planar Outburst
2 Swift Reckoning
3 Halimar Tidecaller
4 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
2 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
However, this didn't do a whole lot. I also didn't really have much of a sideboard. Now that Oath has been released, I think there are some new cards to consider.
1. Sylvan Advocate. This card is begging to be played in an awaken ramp deck.
2. Crush of Tentacles. So I know this is not an awaken card, but this could be that card that is needed to clear up the board especially because our plan is to cast spells to make out lands into creatures. Crush leaves them on the battlefield so there is some synergy.
3. Wall of Resurgence. Great blocker who "awakens" when it enters the battlefield. It also synergizes well with Crush of Tentacles.
4. Elemental Uprising. I understand that this type of card wants to probably be played in limited, but this could provide us with the combat tricks that this deck lacks. I'm not convinced even a bit though.
5. Slip through Space. This is a cheap cantrip with synergizes with Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper.
So, now that we have taken a look at these, I propose a new awaken deck. I'm thinking it might look something like this.
3 Canopy Vista
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
5 Island
3 Lumbering Falls
2 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
4 Windswept Heath
3 Roil Spout
4 Clutch of Currents
3 Slip through Space
4 Scatter to the Winds
1 Part the Waterveil
3 Planar Outburst
3 Crush of Tentacles
4 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
4 Sylvan Advocate
2 Wall of Resurgence
Planeswalker (2)
2 Kiora, Master of the Depths
I would really appreciate any suggestions that you all have. I have wanted to make this deck a thing for a while and I think that we have the resources to do it. I don't think that this will ever be tier 1 but it could at least take down an FNM. Let me know what you think!
I'm going back-and-forth between Horribly Awry (to slowdown aggros) or Sylvan Scrying (ramp). Comments welcome.
3 Flooded Strand
3 Windswept Heath
4 Prairie Stream
1 Canopy Vista
1 Cinder Glade
4 Yavimaya Coast
2 Lumbering Falls
1 Blighted Cataract
3 Islands
1 Plains
1 Forest
Spells (18)
4 Clutch of currents
2 Rush of Ice
2 Anticipate
4 Elemental Uprising
2 Horribly Awry
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Planar Outburst
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Reflector Mage
2 Halimar Tidecaller
3 Eldrazi Displacer
2 Wall of Resurgence
2 Noyan Dar, Roilmage
1 Embodiment of Insight
2 Rending Volley
2 Natural State
3 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Sylvan Scrying
2 Scatter to the Winds
2 Radiant Flames
2 Narset, Transcendent
2x Canopy Vista
3x Flooded Strand
7x Forest
3x Island
2x Plains
2x Prairie Stream
2x Lumbering Falls
4x Windswept Heath
CREATURES (19)
4x Sylvan Advocate
4x Wall of Resurgence
3x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3x Elvish Visionary
2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1x Reflector Mage
1x Den Protector
1x Linvala, the Preserver
4x Crush of Tentacles
3x Oath of Nissa
3x Oath of Jace
2x Negate
2x Explosive Vegetation
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
1x Planar Outburst
3x Ojutai's Command
3x Scatter to the Winds
2x Dispel
2x Reflector Mage
2x Dragonlord Ojutai
1x Planar Outburst
4x Collected Company
4x Deathmist Raptor
3x Reflector Mage
2x Bounding Krasis
2x Den Protector
...There is only one actual Awaken card in the list, so maybe this is the wrong place for this. But the idea is pretty similar. Crush of Tentacles leaves "awakened" lands in play while letting you replay Wall of Resurgence to grow the lands again. The rest of the deck is basically just cantrips that work with Crush.
Creatures like Arashin Cleric and Cleric of the Forward Order might also help in buying you time since they will keep adding to your life total every time you recast them after bouncing them and they're much cheaper to cast than Linvala.
You could also just go full four color and spam the hell out of Siege Rhino and have Anafenza, the foremost in the sideboard to bring in against graveyard based decks.
I look forward to seeing your results. I haven't had a chance to build this yet.
Silkwrap is best for Cutthroat, you don't want him in the GY. SB Dromoka's Command if you are playing a deck that doesn't use the GY, as it provides better options.
3x Temporal Trespass
4x Nissa's Renewal
4x Explosive Vegetation
4x Hedron Archive
3x Embodiment of Spring
4x Planar Outburst
3x Dig Through Time
2x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1x Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger
4x Lumbering Falls
3x Blighted Woodland
1x Blighted Cataract
0x Island
0x Forest
Thats the best I can remember from memory, I dont have access to the deck at the moment, the forest and island are like 50/50 I think. It's a bit different then what you guys are trying to do but I took 9th at a PPTQ, 1st at a gameday, and consistently get 1st at FNM's with it, I am playing another PPTQ this weekend with it.
You can ramp really hard and maintain your life with the Nissa's Renewal, eventually you get all the basics out of your deck so you're just drawing straight gas. It's not unrealistic to awaken a land with planar outburst then pump it with part the waterveil to get a 10/10 that gets two turns to swing. Ugin wins some games but he's mostly there as another board wipe or card advantage when you ult him. Ulamog is just a big dumb beater that can quickly end Rally's deck by hitting two white sources, as they are normally 4 color and strained for it.
Other than that, I have another Ulamog in the board, I've won games aggressive attacking with my Rattleclaw's but it's not the ideal way to win, Lumbering Falls has taken games as well. Late game you crack your Hedron Archives for a bit more card advantage, as well as the Blighted Cataract. Some games you just spam turn after turn to try and draw an out, I've taken 5 turns in a row just to draw another card and ended up taking the game when I found a dig.
It's super fun, guess thats all I got.
The mainboard interacts well with Aggro and Abzan. I drop the sweepers/removal for Dispel, Negate and Narset Transcendent when I play against Jeskai black and 4C Rally.
Will probably drop the Elemental Uprising if I can get another 1 each of Collected company and Scatter to the winds.
4 Prairie stream
2 Canopy vista
1 Cinder glade
2 Lumbering falls
4 Windswept heath
2 Flooded strand
1 Blighted cataract
4 Yavimaya coast
2 Plains
2 Island
Creatures (22)
4 Sylvan advocate
2 Wall of resurgence
3 Eldrazi displacer
4 Halimar tidecaller
4 Reflector mage
4 Bounding Krasis
1 Noyan Dar, Roil shaper
2 Anticipate
2 Elemental uprising
1 Radiant flames
1 Kozilek's return
3 Scatter to the winds
3 Collected company
2 Planar outburst
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Roil spout
3 Hallowed moonlight
2 Narset Transcendent
2 Coastal Discovery
1 Noyan Dar, Roil shaper
1 Linvala, the Preserver
I will post my deck after some tweaking.
Has anyone tried any of the Embodiment creatures?
5x Plains
4x Forests
3x Evolving Wilds
2x Skyline Cascade
2x Cinder Glade
1x Canopy Vista
3x Halimar Tidecaller
4x Reflector Mage
3x Displacement Wave
4x Grip of the Roil
3x Dispel
2x Scatter to the Winds
3x Explosive Vegetation
4x Slip Through Space
4x Expedite
1x Part The Waterveil
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
Displacement Wave has been great over Crush. Against CoCo or Rally you are casting it for x=3 and against tokens you can just cast it for X=0.
I was running Disciple of the Ring over Noyan Dar, but with the cheap spells that are available Noyan has been amazing if he sticks for a turn or two.
I dropped the red from my list above and the deck seems to be running smoother. Has anyone else done any testing/playing with their versions?
This is a lot closer to what I have! I put this deck together when BFZ came out and I never actually played it (to be fair I haven't played standard since Theros block but I thought this deck looked fun). Modern is not much fun these days so I thought I'd have another look at this deck (I love lands!).
The list is more of a combo with taking turns. Like I said I haven't actually had the chance to play the deck at FNM yet but I played online a bit and I often take 3-4 turns in a row when it goes off, swinging with 6/6 flying land creatures.
The list I'm tinkering with:
2 Embodiment of Spring
Control
4 Planar Outburst (Awaken)
1 Quarantine Field
1 Scatter to the Winds (Awaken)
Acceleration
4 Nissa's Pilgrimage
3 Hedron Archive
1 From Beyond
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Nissa's Renewal
4 Part the Waterveil (Awaken)
3 Temporal Trespass
Card draw
1 Monastery Siege
3 Dig Through Time
Lands
4 Lumbering Falls
3 Plains
2 Prairie Stream
2 Blighted Woodland
3 Canopy Vista
6 Forest
6 Island
The 2 Embodiment of Spring are pretty good early blockers, I was hoping they'd be like Sakura-Tribe Elder, but 2 is an awkward number and they're a terrible draw. I want one in my opening hand then never see another one. I also had Rattleclaw Mystic first but decided to take them out for a reason I can't remember.
You tutor so much for lands that eventually every basic is in play and hopefully by that point each draw is useful, especially with dig. From Beyond is pretty good but I wish I could use it to its full potential and actually have something to tutor with it.
Best draw:
T1: U, Embodiment of Spring
T2: G + Sacrifice EoS on their turn
Alternative: T3 Rattleclaw Mystic, T4 unmorph
T3: X, Nissa, Explosive Vegetation or Hedron
T4: Nissa's Renewal for 3 more lands + 7 life
T5: 9 or 10 mana depending of land drop on T4
Deciding what lands to get with Nissa's Renewal will depend on what you plan to do on the next turn since you'll most likely WWW or UUU. At this point you could also Quarantine Field a couple of threats.
The one issue I noticed while testing is that I run out of basic lands to grab almost every game but at this point
The sideboard:
3 Dispel
3 Feed the Clan
1 Naturalize
4 Negate
2 Statis Snare
Gaea's Revenge is a good alternative finisher and 7 mana is pretty easy to get and it closes the game fairly quickly after that. Feed the Clan once you have an awaken land is 10 life for 1G at instant speed which is almost like taking an extra turn assuming their board isn't insane. As I haven't played the deck much I'm not sure at all about the sideboard. I actually think some of the counterspells might be useful main board.
Anyways, I'd love to hear some notes on the list and hopefully the current list can be improved. I haven't looked at OGW much so maybe there are a couple of things that completely wreck this deck
Modern
RGB Grishoalbrand
U Merfolks
Legacy
U Merfolks
Right now I have 3 Coastal Discovery but at 4 mana I'm thinking Comparative Analysis may be better. My curve is topping out at 5 for Noyan Dar so I should be able to Surge it without any problems.
Any thoughts on Dragonnlord Dromoka in a deck like this?