Yes, 3/4 are very hard to remove for most decks. That is the reason I still play 3-4 Resto Angels. 3/4 flying with flash even without blinking something for value is awesome. I used Brimaz for a little while. My issue was he had no evasion and with only 3 power could not get past x/4 blockers. I have not tried him since the Splinter Twin ban (exarch once being the main x/4 blocker). With the increase in bolts flying around, might be time to try Brimaz again!
Depending on what you expect, Brimaz is really the all star. It's not just the 4 toughness, it's also the vigilance. I know it probably doesn't come up very often because how many Nahiris are ticking down, but Brimaz will never be tapped to get exiled, which may be something that can change the game. It's also the reason Serra Avenger is good. It also just wrecks creature decks, which surprisingly I ran into way more than I thought I would.
A quick exert about my choices, because some, again, worked great, others were a terrible choice.
- Judge's Familiar
Personally I just like the card. I won a lot of games because my opponent wouldn't be able to play a spell because it was a double tax for there spells. And the ability to fly allowed me to get some chip shots in on a stalled board. Going forward, I probably would not play a single one and switch back to Dryad Militant, for multiple reasons, some of which will be mentioned later. - Kytheon
I just wanted to test him out. Honestly, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't great. There was a few times that people didn't think about his ability, but overall, I would cut him going forward, again, didn't do anything great for me. It was just a test for him. - Brimaz
The all star here. The ability to dodge lightning bolt, anger of the gods, pyroclasm, the list could go on, was so valuable the entire weekend. People would just Anger of the Gods and just look upon the board in dispair as Brimaz stared them down and clocked them for 4. There was a few times he wasn't great, but he was always the first target for most peoples discard effects and Path to Exiles, so he wasn't terrible. 2 was the right number, but it can be changed. - The entire sideboard
Mostly just ignore it. I don't play much in person magic due to a terrible schedule so I do most of my research from the internet with articles and videos and coverage. I knew going in Ancestral Vision was a card, so was Nahiri, so the Spirits were a small amount of tech against it. Never used them for that, but they were awesome against my win against a Turns player. The Firewalkers were ok. I faced 2 burn and a Zoo deck, which they were all stars, every other match though I wish they were Kitchen Finks. Something I'm considering. Sunlance was garbage. It was ok against the burn/zoo decks, but I was already so heavily favored. I never faced Affinity, but Stony Silence should handle that well enough. I am looking to replace those as well.
Cards I Wished I Had All Weekend Long Wilt-Leaf Liege
In testing, this card was so good for me against anything playing Liliana, but going in, I wasn't so sure how much I would face. Turns out it was all of my losses, being 2 Jund and a Mardu which was basically white Jund. My hand just kept getting ripped to shreds by Liliana and Pyroclasms, I just wish I had the pump and the ability. I'll be trying some in the sideboard now. Mutavault
Sea Gate Wreckage was cute, I drew some cards. But again, against decks like Jund and Mardu, I wish I had the creature land to get the beats in. In my last round to give me my fourth loss, if I had Mutavault instead of Sea Gate, I would have won that game so easily. Live and learn, will be playing 3 going forward. Card is worth it.
Overall, I really liked the deck. I've always liked it. The numbers still need to be worked on, mostly because it's a very meta-dependent deck, but I think I made some good calls and some bad ones. My rounds for the weekend
1 - Infect - W - 2-1
2 - Grixis Control - W - 2-1
3 - Blue Moon - W - 2-0
4 - Jund - W 2-1
5 - Burn - W 2-1
6 - Burn - W 2-0
7 - Cant remember to save my life, but I won - W 2-0
8 - Jund (Mike Sigrest) - L 0-2
9 - UWR Control - L 0-2
Day 2
10 - Zoo - W 2-0
11 - Mono Blue Turns - W 2-1
12 - Mardu - L 1-2
13 - Blue Moon - L 1-2
I never got paired down the entire tournament unlike a lot of people. If you don't know about what happened at GP Charlotte, look it up, it was crazy. But all my opponents records were the same as mine.
Hey, I don't think I've ever posted here, but I've been playing death and taxes (the mono white version) for awhile now, and living in North Carolina now, decided I should have my first gp ever be GP Charolette.
I ended day one at 7-2 after facing a bad last two rounds, but started day two at 9-2 after two rounds. I quickly found myself running out of steam as I got two losses back to back and ended up just dropping at 9-4.
My deck was a little unconventional because I attempted to meta, and some worked amazingly, others are the reason I didn't do so well. I'll add spoiler tags with deck lists and the match ups after I write it all up here.
As a quick note. Brimaz was easily the reason I won most of my matches. People showed me there hands after full of just bad cards like bolt or anger or pyroclasm or gut shot and it really felt good.
When I first saw him, the first thing I thought that I wanted to do was make an EDH deck with him at the helm. He seems amazing!
My goal with my list was to try and just kill everyone in one go, so the first two cards in my list was Hellkite Charger and Sword of Feast and Famine for that infinite combat step so I can just take out the entire table with him. I don't like to always do it, but it's a nice way to end a game that's going on too long. Also, Martial Coup seems like it'd be pretty good.
I acutally think Mono Green Devotion would be a really good deck to start investing in. The cards in it include some of what will probably be format staples for at least a few months after rotation in the form of Courser of Kruphix, Sylvan Caryatid, Elvish Mystic, Polukranos, World Eater, and Voyaging Satyr/Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. The only real cards in that deck that are going to rotate is Garruk, Caller of Beasts, and you can probably get a few on the cheap and just run it with maybe more beaters like Arbor Colossus. You could also run the Eidolon of Blossoms package and maybe splash black for some gods or something, kind of like Gerry Thompsons list that he ran at the invitational.
I dislike the black splash. Athreos is actually a horrible synergy with Quickling and Deputy and Spirit Bonds because Athreos wants stuff to die, and the goal of using these cards are to avoid death. Bouncing something in response to a removal spell, or making something indestructible is the goal of being able to generate lots of spirits. Same thing goes for Xathrid Necromancer, the dude wants things to die, but the goal of using this style of deck is to not allow that to happen.
Ephara, God of the Polis is where the deck should go, because generating all these flash creatures and looping them with one another and making a spirit per bounce is an incredible way to provide card advantage and win some stellar games. This is the current list I'm looking at trying out asap.
Drawing a ton of cards off of all the tokens and flashers with Ephara is amazing, and then using Ajani to turn them all into huge threats backed up with Dictate of Heliod seems like it'll be a huge crushing blow. The only problem I've found in the little testing I've done is the lack of instant speed interaction with your opponents side. Leaving mana up sometimes becomes a bit of a problem and I've thought about playing some Peel from Reality to reuse creatures like Skyknight and the bouncers and also bounce something of my opponents. Either that or Void Snare, but the blue splash isn't really supported for super early blue, usually around turn 3 or 4 is when it's needed the most.
Some things to think about with this kind of a deck...
Soul of Innistrad - Honestly, I think this is a really weak soul to play. As a 6/6 deathtoucher, it's ability is pretty much wasted because it's going to eat most creatures in combat, and if it ever goes up against something like a Soul of Shandalar, you'll just lose, along with it's ability being probably one of the weakest actually for the amount of mana. If you're looking for a giant creature to do lots of damage with the added bonus of haste, maybe try something like this...
Turn 2 - Generator Servant
Turn 3 - Sacrifice GS, play... Underworld Cerberus ; as a 5 mana creature, it allows for the Servant to ramp it out on turn 3 with it's 2 mana and it's also an extremely evasive creature to play and attack with. Most decks won't have enough blockers and if they do, you'll probably just end up eating all of them. Not to mention it dodges most of early removal in the form of Ultimate Price/Doom Blade, leaving Heroes as pretty much the long death blow dealer to it. Which I think is really good with a huge beater. And once it dies, you get Servant back to do it and maybe more next turn. Chaining together Servants could be pretty amusing too.
Also a bunch of the creatures you have are double color. And while it would be nice to play two creatures both with haste with the mana from Generator Servant, that won't happen most of the time until turn 4 because they're all 3 drops, and you'll need 4 lands plus the 2 colorless to take full advantage. Chances are it would of been better to just play a 3 drop turn 3 instead of waiting because it's like you're wasting a turn. Maybe look into something else to do with Servant. Like, maybe using some Unleash cards and Exava could be really good. Having some early plays in something like Rakdos Cackler will make the deck more aggressive and you could drop things like the Enforcer, because playing a one mana 2/2 that could have haste is better than a 2/2 for 3 that has a semi-relevant ability.
Cerberus says that cards in graveyards can't be targetted, but Tormod's doesn't target the cards, but rather the graveyard itself, correct?
Because that might be a fun deck right there.
I believe that it should still exile the players graveyard. Tormad's targets a player, not the graveyard or anything in it. It's like how Mortars targets a creature, but the overload doesn't which allows for it to work around things such as hexproof and fiendslayer paladin.
I've seen a few MUD Splash red running around my LGS a while ago, they seemed fun and they played the Purphoros/Master combo, and it was cute, especially when you can Nykthos into a bunch of pumps of Purphoros to help push through that last bit of damage.
The main thing that sticks out to me is the 1 Blood Crypt. I played the hell out of Mono Blue Splash White for detention sphere back before Mana Confluence, and let me tell you having a Godless shrine in the deck to allow for the casting of Nightveil and Detention Sphere was the worst thing in the entirety of the deck. Having that Godless Shrine and an island Mutavault hand just makes little babies cry. It's horrible. If you're going to splash a color, either do a Mana Confluence, or try a scry land. I have played Mono Blue with a few scry lands added to the mix just for the scry, and while they slow you down sometimes, other times they can be a great late game tool to allow for you to smooth out draws even more with Thassa. I would say start with a Mana Confluence instead of a Blood Crypt. I get that it's more life in the long run, but I think a trade off for having to mulligan more, and getting it when you need that blue will outweigh it in the long run. I'd rather win at 3 life than lose with most of my hand stranded due to lack of blue mana in a super blue mana intensive deck.
Those are two of the best 'lockdown' creatures in Standard, with the Skyknight being amazing at keeping something like a Jace from ticking up or an Elspeth.
I've played a lot of WU Midrange that features the skyknight with cards like Brimaz and Ephara to just go straight value, and the amount of times that a surprise Skynight locking down something like a packrat for a turn, or a demon, or a planeswalker to a Polukranos. I think regaining value from it would be amazing. Not to mention there's another creature in those colors that's just like Quickling, in the form of Deputy of Acquittals
I get the addition of the Primadox as a way to rebuy your bouncers, but I don't think the deck really needs something like that.
I just need to know, this card also is a no go with Ephara, God of the Polis right? Because her ability triggers off a creature coming into play, and because of this creature, you will not be able to draw a card on your opponents upkeep? I gotsa know!
Yes, consistency my friend, is what that deck needs.
You have way to many one drops for a deck that thrives when it can get what it needs when it needs it. Not to mention it seems you're on this Beatdown/Enchantment path, but the best enchantments to put onto creatures, Ethereal Armor and Unflinching Courage are just 1 ofs. If you want the deck to be better, maybe something more like this...
So pretty much, took out a bunch of the 1 of's that didn't really impact the game as much, along with Garruk which can brick to much of the time to really be worth the 6th drop slot. Oath of the Ancient Wood is just much worse than a lot of cards because the +1/+1 probably won't be enough and it's expensive for that type of effect. This will free up 17 slots, try adding...
Adding this will give the deck better consistency. It takes hexproof creatures so you won't get blownout by enchanting a bunch of stuff onto one of them. No more suit up and get Doombladed out. Eidolon of Blossoms will also go really good with Ethreal Armor allowing it to cantrip into hopefully more gas and allow you to close out a game quicker.
I think the deck could use a few changes, High Priest of Penance is not as good as I wish it was. Sure you have a chance to get a free vindicate, but for the most part, it'll just eat a removal spell. I think if they're gonna let a creature in, you should use Precinct Captain. It's a win con in itself and really good with everything else in the list.
Also, Banisher Priest could be much better as Banishing Light I think. Less devotion, and less interaction with Athreos and Necromancer, but catches a lot more threats. Also is not as weak to opposing removal. Nothings worse than taking a Polukranos, loosing your priest, then they monsterous again.
- 3 HPoPenance
- 3 Spiteful Returned
- 3 Master of the Feast
+ 4 Precinct Captain
+ 1 Cartel Aristocrat
+ 4 another one drop
Master of the Feasts is not as good. Herald of Torment is better if you're looking at three drop flyers, mostly because they'll draw a card then destroy it and you lost a lot of tempo and value. Adding another one drop gives you a more explosive start and makes Athreos a lot better.
Also with all these new cards, mana requirements get a little more intensive. Taking out some Swamps for Mana Confluence would be really good. Also, I think you meant Swamps and not Mountains.
Instead of High Priest I would put in Cartel Aristocrat. It puts the oppenent on a clock and has crazy synergy with both necromancer and the god.
You get to recur the High Priest which seems good, I did have Cartel in also but cut him, he probably should be played though.
I get the idea behind the 'recuring' High Priest, but it's really only a thing if it dies during combat. You can't actually 'force' the effect the way someone would want to. Thus, it might as well most of the time read 'Unblockable' and it'll just ding for 1. All the while the Cartel can 'ding' for two and is an amazing sac outlet for Athreos and allows for some possibly useful things, such as if they try and detention sphere something you can always sac out to it, or if they banishing light sac it out, maybe recur it. Much more useful than High Priest.
Not to mention you're in the colors famous for blanking removal, namely Brave the Elements. For a mere three mana you too can save your entire team from an Anger of the Gods and laugh as you swing next turn for huge damage. Worst case, you can survive with a Cartel Aristicrat and work back up later. The cards are there, and yeah, it's a choice for your opponent, and usually cards like that have never been all that good because your opponent will always pick the one they can best handle. The thing is, most people just base the gods on there abilities and less about there creature status thinking it won't be a creature all that much, kind of like they did with Thassa, and as a 3 mana scry effect each turn with a pay to be unblockable, it was never the most amazing god of the bunch. But as a 5/5 for 3 with all the same abilities, it was extremely good. I think Athreos is the same. For investing 5 more devotion, something 2 two drops and a 1 drop can do, or a 2 drop and a reckoner, or a 1 drop, 2 drop and a brimaz/banisher/fiendslayer/godsend/spear can do, you also get a 5/4 that can deal a lot of damage.
Think of it this way. You opponent can only allow 6 creatures to go to the graveyard before they're at 2 life. If they ever play a shockland untapped, that means they are dead. That means with maybe a few attacks, the number goes down, and every creature they then destroy and you bring back, with say a removal spell or in combat, is just gravy for you then.
Depending on what you expect, Brimaz is really the all star. It's not just the 4 toughness, it's also the vigilance. I know it probably doesn't come up very often because how many Nahiris are ticking down, but Brimaz will never be tapped to get exiled, which may be something that can change the game. It's also the reason Serra Avenger is good. It also just wrecks creature decks, which surprisingly I ran into way more than I thought I would.
So, for GP Charlotte, I ran the following 75
3 Judge's Familiar
1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Leonin Arbeiter
3 Serra Avenger
1 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Flickerwisp
3 Blade Splicer
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Restoration Angel
4 Path to Exile
4 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
Lands
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
13 Plains
1 Ejandgo Castle
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
2 Sunlance
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Kor Firewalker
A quick exert about my choices, because some, again, worked great, others were a terrible choice.
- Judge's Familiar
Personally I just like the card. I won a lot of games because my opponent wouldn't be able to play a spell because it was a double tax for there spells. And the ability to fly allowed me to get some chip shots in on a stalled board. Going forward, I probably would not play a single one and switch back to Dryad Militant, for multiple reasons, some of which will be mentioned later.
- Kytheon
I just wanted to test him out. Honestly, he wasn't bad, but he wasn't great. There was a few times that people didn't think about his ability, but overall, I would cut him going forward, again, didn't do anything great for me. It was just a test for him.
- Brimaz
The all star here. The ability to dodge lightning bolt, anger of the gods, pyroclasm, the list could go on, was so valuable the entire weekend. People would just Anger of the Gods and just look upon the board in dispair as Brimaz stared them down and clocked them for 4. There was a few times he wasn't great, but he was always the first target for most peoples discard effects and Path to Exiles, so he wasn't terrible. 2 was the right number, but it can be changed.
- The entire sideboard
Mostly just ignore it. I don't play much in person magic due to a terrible schedule so I do most of my research from the internet with articles and videos and coverage. I knew going in Ancestral Vision was a card, so was Nahiri, so the Spirits were a small amount of tech against it. Never used them for that, but they were awesome against my win against a Turns player. The Firewalkers were ok. I faced 2 burn and a Zoo deck, which they were all stars, every other match though I wish they were Kitchen Finks. Something I'm considering. Sunlance was garbage. It was ok against the burn/zoo decks, but I was already so heavily favored. I never faced Affinity, but Stony Silence should handle that well enough. I am looking to replace those as well.
Cards I Wished I Had All Weekend Long
Wilt-Leaf Liege
In testing, this card was so good for me against anything playing Liliana, but going in, I wasn't so sure how much I would face. Turns out it was all of my losses, being 2 Jund and a Mardu which was basically white Jund. My hand just kept getting ripped to shreds by Liliana and Pyroclasms, I just wish I had the pump and the ability. I'll be trying some in the sideboard now.
Mutavault
Sea Gate Wreckage was cute, I drew some cards. But again, against decks like Jund and Mardu, I wish I had the creature land to get the beats in. In my last round to give me my fourth loss, if I had Mutavault instead of Sea Gate, I would have won that game so easily. Live and learn, will be playing 3 going forward. Card is worth it.
Overall, I really liked the deck. I've always liked it. The numbers still need to be worked on, mostly because it's a very meta-dependent deck, but I think I made some good calls and some bad ones. My rounds for the weekend
1 - Infect - W - 2-1
2 - Grixis Control - W - 2-1
3 - Blue Moon - W - 2-0
4 - Jund - W 2-1
5 - Burn - W 2-1
6 - Burn - W 2-0
7 - Cant remember to save my life, but I won - W 2-0
8 - Jund (Mike Sigrest) - L 0-2
9 - UWR Control - L 0-2
Day 2
10 - Zoo - W 2-0
11 - Mono Blue Turns - W 2-1
12 - Mardu - L 1-2
13 - Blue Moon - L 1-2
I never got paired down the entire tournament unlike a lot of people. If you don't know about what happened at GP Charlotte, look it up, it was crazy. But all my opponents records were the same as mine.
I ended day one at 7-2 after facing a bad last two rounds, but started day two at 9-2 after two rounds. I quickly found myself running out of steam as I got two losses back to back and ended up just dropping at 9-4.
My deck was a little unconventional because I attempted to meta, and some worked amazingly, others are the reason I didn't do so well. I'll add spoiler tags with deck lists and the match ups after I write it all up here.
As a quick note. Brimaz was easily the reason I won most of my matches. People showed me there hands after full of just bad cards like bolt or anger or pyroclasm or gut shot and it really felt good.
My goal with my list was to try and just kill everyone in one go, so the first two cards in my list was Hellkite Charger and Sword of Feast and Famine for that infinite combat step so I can just take out the entire table with him. I don't like to always do it, but it's a nice way to end a game that's going on too long. Also, Martial Coup seems like it'd be pretty good.
Oh, and Sunforger package? You can get stuff like Return to Dust/Unmake/Boros Charm/Rakdos Charm/tons of utility, and it gives Zurgo a nice boost in damage.
Love your list, I already made a proxy Zurgo so I can play it at my shop, he just seems to perfect hah.
I dislike the black splash. Athreos is actually a horrible synergy with Quickling and Deputy and Spirit Bonds because Athreos wants stuff to die, and the goal of using these cards are to avoid death. Bouncing something in response to a removal spell, or making something indestructible is the goal of being able to generate lots of spirits. Same thing goes for Xathrid Necromancer, the dude wants things to die, but the goal of using this style of deck is to not allow that to happen.
Ephara, God of the Polis is where the deck should go, because generating all these flash creatures and looping them with one another and making a spirit per bounce is an incredible way to provide card advantage and win some stellar games. This is the current list I'm looking at trying out asap.
3 Precinct Captain
3 Deputy of Aquitials
4 Lyev Skyknight
2 Ephara, God of the Polis
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
3 Quickling
4 Detention Sphere
2 Dictate of Heliod
2 Banishing Light
2 Ajani Steadfast
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Mutavault
2 Temple of Ephiniany
3 Mana Confluence
10 Plains
Drawing a ton of cards off of all the tokens and flashers with Ephara is amazing, and then using Ajani to turn them all into huge threats backed up with Dictate of Heliod seems like it'll be a huge crushing blow. The only problem I've found in the little testing I've done is the lack of instant speed interaction with your opponents side. Leaving mana up sometimes becomes a bit of a problem and I've thought about playing some Peel from Reality to reuse creatures like Skyknight and the bouncers and also bounce something of my opponents. Either that or Void Snare, but the blue splash isn't really supported for super early blue, usually around turn 3 or 4 is when it's needed the most.
Soul of Innistrad - Honestly, I think this is a really weak soul to play. As a 6/6 deathtoucher, it's ability is pretty much wasted because it's going to eat most creatures in combat, and if it ever goes up against something like a Soul of Shandalar, you'll just lose, along with it's ability being probably one of the weakest actually for the amount of mana. If you're looking for a giant creature to do lots of damage with the added bonus of haste, maybe try something like this...
Turn 2 - Generator Servant
Turn 3 - Sacrifice GS, play... Underworld Cerberus ; as a 5 mana creature, it allows for the Servant to ramp it out on turn 3 with it's 2 mana and it's also an extremely evasive creature to play and attack with. Most decks won't have enough blockers and if they do, you'll probably just end up eating all of them. Not to mention it dodges most of early removal in the form of Ultimate Price/Doom Blade, leaving Heroes as pretty much the long death blow dealer to it. Which I think is really good with a huge beater. And once it dies, you get Servant back to do it and maybe more next turn. Chaining together Servants could be pretty amusing too.
Also a bunch of the creatures you have are double color. And while it would be nice to play two creatures both with haste with the mana from Generator Servant, that won't happen most of the time until turn 4 because they're all 3 drops, and you'll need 4 lands plus the 2 colorless to take full advantage. Chances are it would of been better to just play a 3 drop turn 3 instead of waiting because it's like you're wasting a turn. Maybe look into something else to do with Servant. Like, maybe using some Unleash cards and Exava could be really good. Having some early plays in something like Rakdos Cackler will make the deck more aggressive and you could drop things like the Enforcer, because playing a one mana 2/2 that could have haste is better than a 2/2 for 3 that has a semi-relevant ability.
Just some food for thought for ya!
I believe that it should still exile the players graveyard. Tormad's targets a player, not the graveyard or anything in it. It's like how Mortars targets a creature, but the overload doesn't which allows for it to work around things such as hexproof and fiendslayer paladin.
The main thing that sticks out to me is the 1 Blood Crypt. I played the hell out of Mono Blue Splash White for detention sphere back before Mana Confluence, and let me tell you having a Godless shrine in the deck to allow for the casting of Nightveil and Detention Sphere was the worst thing in the entirety of the deck. Having that Godless Shrine and an island Mutavault hand just makes little babies cry. It's horrible. If you're going to splash a color, either do a Mana Confluence, or try a scry land. I have played Mono Blue with a few scry lands added to the mix just for the scry, and while they slow you down sometimes, other times they can be a great late game tool to allow for you to smooth out draws even more with Thassa. I would say start with a Mana Confluence instead of a Blood Crypt. I get that it's more life in the long run, but I think a trade off for having to mulligan more, and getting it when you need that blue will outweigh it in the long run. I'd rather win at 3 life than lose with most of my hand stranded due to lack of blue mana in a super blue mana intensive deck.
Lyev Skyknight
Lavinia of the Tenth
Those are two of the best 'lockdown' creatures in Standard, with the Skyknight being amazing at keeping something like a Jace from ticking up or an Elspeth.
I've played a lot of WU Midrange that features the skyknight with cards like Brimaz and Ephara to just go straight value, and the amount of times that a surprise Skynight locking down something like a packrat for a turn, or a demon, or a planeswalker to a Polukranos. I think regaining value from it would be amazing. Not to mention there's another creature in those colors that's just like Quickling, in the form of Deputy of Acquittals
I get the addition of the Primadox as a way to rebuy your bouncers, but I don't think the deck really needs something like that.
You have way to many one drops for a deck that thrives when it can get what it needs when it needs it. Not to mention it seems you're on this Beatdown/Enchantment path, but the best enchantments to put onto creatures, Ethereal Armor and Unflinching Courage are just 1 ofs. If you want the deck to be better, maybe something more like this...
- 1 Courser of Kruphix
- 1 Soldier of the Pantheon
- 1 Sylvan Caraytid
- 1 Bow of Nylea
- 1 Spear of Heliod
- 3 Oath of the Ancient Wood
- 2 Celestial Archon
- 1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
- 2 Brave the Elements
- 4 Hero of Iroas
So pretty much, took out a bunch of the 1 of's that didn't really impact the game as much, along with Garruk which can brick to much of the time to really be worth the 6th drop slot. Oath of the Ancient Wood is just much worse than a lot of cards because the +1/+1 probably won't be enough and it's expensive for that type of effect. This will free up 17 slots, try adding...
+ 3 Ethreal Armor
+ 3 Unflinching Courage
+ 3 Witchstalker
+ 4 Gladecover Scout
+ 4 Bassara Tower Archer
Adding this will give the deck better consistency. It takes hexproof creatures so you won't get blownout by enchanting a bunch of stuff onto one of them. No more suit up and get Doombladed out. Eidolon of Blossoms will also go really good with Ethreal Armor allowing it to cantrip into hopefully more gas and allow you to close out a game quicker.
Hope I helped!
I think the deck could use a few changes, High Priest of Penance is not as good as I wish it was. Sure you have a chance to get a free vindicate, but for the most part, it'll just eat a removal spell. I think if they're gonna let a creature in, you should use Precinct Captain. It's a win con in itself and really good with everything else in the list.
Also, Banisher Priest could be much better as Banishing Light I think. Less devotion, and less interaction with Athreos and Necromancer, but catches a lot more threats. Also is not as weak to opposing removal. Nothings worse than taking a Polukranos, loosing your priest, then they monsterous again.
- 3 HPoPenance
- 3 Spiteful Returned
- 3 Master of the Feast
+ 4 Precinct Captain
+ 1 Cartel Aristocrat
+ 4 another one drop
Master of the Feasts is not as good. Herald of Torment is better if you're looking at three drop flyers, mostly because they'll draw a card then destroy it and you lost a lot of tempo and value. Adding another one drop gives you a more explosive start and makes Athreos a lot better.
Also with all these new cards, mana requirements get a little more intensive. Taking out some Swamps for Mana Confluence would be really good. Also, I think you meant Swamps and not Mountains.
Good luck!
I get the idea behind the 'recuring' High Priest, but it's really only a thing if it dies during combat. You can't actually 'force' the effect the way someone would want to. Thus, it might as well most of the time read 'Unblockable' and it'll just ding for 1. All the while the Cartel can 'ding' for two and is an amazing sac outlet for Athreos and allows for some possibly useful things, such as if they try and detention sphere something you can always sac out to it, or if they banishing light sac it out, maybe recur it. Much more useful than High Priest.
Think of it this way. You opponent can only allow 6 creatures to go to the graveyard before they're at 2 life. If they ever play a shockland untapped, that means they are dead. That means with maybe a few attacks, the number goes down, and every creature they then destroy and you bring back, with say a removal spell or in combat, is just gravy for you then.