Blind obedience is great versus the aggro decks and extort can let you pull away with relative ease from them. loxodon smiter is a strong hate card for liliana of the veil and also against the decks running counters.
I don't think you really need to be worrying about aggro, considering that you're playing a life gain deck. I think the 4x Blind Obedience is unnecessary.
Manamorphose is the only "true" cantrip that does what you're looking for. But, there is one card that -almost- does the same thing, which is Terrarion.
From what you have posted about the only thing you did wrong was putting both the growing ranks triggers on the stack. As if a full turn has passed since the trigger should have fired it gets ignored.
Apart from that you handled the situation correctly.
So missed triggers can only be corrected within a single full turn?
I have a question for anyone who is a judge. I currently am a level 0 (rules adviser?) and I was judging an event yesterday - an RtR draft. One of the players had played a Pithing Needle naming Growing Ranks. The other player controlled Growing Ranks and had a number of creature tokens that he could have been populating. When I got to the table and asked my friend who was spectating how the game was going, he mentioned to me that the Growing Ranks triggers were stopped by Pithing Needle. At this point, I decided to stop the game and ask the players what was going on. The guy who controlled the Pithing Needle explained to me that he named Growing Ranks with his Pithing Needle which stopped the Growing Ranks trigger and ensured that his opponent couldn't populate using the card. The trigger from Growing Ranks had been missed twice according to both players. I explained to both players that while Growing Ranks can be named by Pithing Needle, it will have no effect since Growing Ranks is a triggered ability rather than an activated ability. I told the players to be more careful next time and that they should ask if they don't understand what a certain word on a card means (i.e. activated ability). In addition to this, I told the player that controlled the Growing Ranks to place two tokens onto the battlefield that could have been created at the time that the Growing Ranks triggers should have occurred.
Now, my question is, what would you do in this situation? I don't really know if the way I handled this situation is correct and would like some input.
Not sure if this is how I'm supposed to post spoilers, but I noticed these and figured I'd post them.
Spirit Mantle: 1W (Uncommon - Assumption here, as the rarity can't actually be seen)
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has protection from creatures.
Mighty Leap: 1W (Common)
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn.
I don't think you really need to be worrying about aggro, considering that you're playing a life gain deck. I think the 4x Blind Obedience is unnecessary.
So missed triggers can only be corrected within a single full turn?
Now, my question is, what would you do in this situation? I don't really know if the way I handled this situation is correct and would like some input.
BTW, this was my first time judging an event.
Please see my topic in the ruling section.
Spirit Mantle: 1W (Uncommon - Assumption here, as the rarity can't actually be seen)
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has protection from creatures.
Mighty Leap: 1W (Common)
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn.
Unmake: (W/B)(W/B)(W/B) (Common)
Instant
Exile target creature.