You have to run 4x copies of hydroid krassis if you are running GU, IMO. It fuels all the things you wanna do, hedges life and is a super threat.
Unless you aren't playing him due to cost, you are making a mistake i feel.
Strongly disagree. As I mentioned before I believe running Krasis in an Arkbow deck is wrong. Sure, there will be times where Krasis will win the game on its own without having to rely on the Bow, but if we're trying to build around said Bow, we don't need Krasis. While at first glance the card draw from the Krasis seems great for fueling the Bow, I believe it's unnecessary as both cards play a very simlar role: they're both great mana sinks and help in sustaining the "flow" of our threats. But they do so in a very different way and that's why I believe they not only play very poorly together, but need a different build-around approach. For example, the list quoted here:
Sadly, I was mistaken. It was just Vivien in the deck, not the arkbow and no Hero either....I had it confused with another bant deck I saw on coverage. But here's a link to the list that placed in the top 8 for reference
This I think it's the perfect Krasis deck, with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds in place of Arkbow. Having the option to leave open mana for either a Frilled Mystic or Krasis at EOT is insanely powerful, whereas having to choose between sinking all our mana in a main phase Krasis and leaving mana open for an instant speed Arbow activation is just awkward.
Speaking of Frilled Mystic, I'm going to (sadly) cut 3 copies of Prime Speaker Vannifar from my list and going all-in on the Bow, also adding God-Eternal Oketra. In my quick testing, I felt like Vannifar was just another piece to protect, really taking its toll on my card choices. Mystic gives the list more elasticity to opposing threats, something that Deputy of Detention cannot do by himself, while Oketra is just a huge, hard to deal with threat that turns our late game Elves and Druids into more power on board. Also, she can be replayed immediately after being tucked thanks to the Bow, which is nuts.
Hey, big fan of Vivien's Arkbow here, nice to meet you. The first thing that I noticed is that you're playing Absorb and Quench when you really shouldn't. If you're trying to build a deck around Arkbow, you need to play the least amount of noncreature spell possible: the more creatures you run the more effective the Arkbow becomes. If you're running any noncreature spell you need a really good reason to do so, and 6 copies of mixed counterspells just don't make much sense. A good noncreature spell that I run in my Prime Speaker Vannifar and that is good in any creature based toolbox strategy is Incubation // Incongruity which can double as removal spell. Run 4 of them instead.
Speaking of Vannifar, she and the Arkbow complement each other very well. I would run 3 copies of her alongside the Arkbow.
4 copies of Fblthp, the Lost are too much. He's very cute but doesn't really do much once he's on the battlefield. You don't need him in multiple copies since he can be reshuffled and you're trying to put him in play from the library, more than from the hand. I'd play 1 or 2 copies.
Lastly, this deck doesn't look like a Hydroid Krasis deck. He's just useless when revealed by the Arkbow so I wouldn't play 4 copies of him. Personally I don't run any (also because I don't have one eheh), instead I run 4 copies of Elite Guardmage which basically does the same thing and work way better with both the Arkbow and Vannifar.
My Bant Arkbow list would look something like this:
What's up! It's been quite some time since my latest update and I feel after WAR this deck has received some really good cards, mainly Cruel Celebrant and God-Eternal Bontu. So let's get to the new list.
Quick recap on my experiences with the deck: I love it to death. So much so that I played with it every single Standard Showdown and FNM at my store through both good and horrible times. The meta is filled with control decks, which doesn't really favor this archetype, Cry of the Carnarium is damn near unbeatable and is seeing play MD these days. The only time I played against Sultai or any midrange deck, I won fairly often. I got to play against Mono U three times piloted by the same guy which was so freaking slow he dragged every match to a 1-1 every single time, even though the MU is definitely favorable. Pretty flipping tilting, since it denied me some top finishes. All in all, the results were so average I didn't feel the need to update the list here; still the deck is good and a lot of fun. If you're reading this, thank you for your time and interest, love ya.
About the new cards: Cruel Celebrant doesn't really need to be discussed, does she? Well, if you insist... She's the only Blood Artist available in Standard currently and every Aristocrat deck isn't an Aristocrat deck without good ol' Artist. Oh, she also survives that damn Goblin Chainwhirler which is a nice upside. God-Eternal Bontu does a couple good things. She digs for more pieces while losing practically nothing. She can one-shot people thanks to Cruel Celebrant and if she doesn't, there's a 5/6 Menace recursive body on the battlefield. There's also a really cool trick with her: sacrifice her to Priest of Forgotten Gods with the ETB still on the stack, put her back as the third card and then resolve Bontu's ETB, which let us draw her again. That is so neat, I love it.
About some other new cards: Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is very good and I would advise you to run it, but I personally prefer Gruesome Menagerie, since this deck was born with it as a centerpiece. Despark is a phenomenal sideboard piece of interaction. Run 2x-3x.
Can't wait to bring this list to the next tournament, this format looks really exciting right now.
Is Karn's Bastion Just good as a 1-of? or can you only have 1 in the deck?
I'm usually not a big fan of running multiple copies of colorless lands especially in a deck like this that aim to curve out. Chamber Sentry also requires colored mana, so I'm good with running only one. Doesn't mean you can't try out two copies.
To build around a mechanic like proliferate, which does nothing on its own, we have to move from bottom to top. First things first: what kind of counters do we want to proliferate?
Pelt Collector is the perfect one drop as it grows as the game progresses and will eventually gain trample;
Chamber Sentry can be both a one and a two drop that gets crazy with proliferate and does a nice impersonation of Walking Ballista;
Growth-Chamber Guardian is another card that with proliferate goes nuts and helps establish a good board presence;
Venerated Loxodon has proven itself to be a power house in weenies strategies and here is as good as ever, pumping up the entire team and spiraling out of control after a couple proliferatin';
Unbreakable Formation protects from sweepers and pump the whole team. The question is "what doesn't it do?";
Ajani, the Greathearted is another way to put counters on everybody and granting vigilance is actually pretty good. The +1 can be relevant sometimes.
Not bad, right? Now that the backbone of the deck is laid out, let's proliferate these flipping counters!
Grateful Apparition is insanely good. Keeps the aggression going and if it goes unanswered quickly closes out the game. Paired with Ajani, the Greathearted feels like cheating;
Huatli's Raptor / Pollenbright Druid: I still haven't decided which one plays better. The raptor provies a big body and natural viglance, while the druid has more flexibility as it can put a counter itself to start the engine. Maybe a 2/2 or 3/1 split?;
Evolution Sage is ridiculous. Turning lands into more power on the board leads to basically never drawing dead in the mid-late game and a sequence like cast sage, convoke loxodon, play land is just gross;
Alright! Since this is a green deck and Llanowar Elves is in the format, we just have to play 4 of 'em, and Finale of Devastation is really good, especially post sideboard, we can play at least 1 MB. That finally brings us to the list (keep in mind this is just a "first attempt"):
Looks good? Looks garbage? Let me know! Also if you have a good name for it, I'm open for suggestion. I was thinking something like Selesn' and Dicin'. You know, slicin' and dicin' cause you're using lots of dices... yeah just help me.
Seven-Seas Conch7
Legendary Artifact
Sacrifice Seven-Seas Conch: You may pay 0 rather than pay the mana cost of the next seven spells you cast this turn.
Weirdly appealing card. Very original and creative design, though the "seven spells" may be a bit overkill. Like, you're probably wanting to win with just a single spell rather than seven, but I can see the upside of casting cantirps to find your killing spell. Rarity is missing but it's not a big deal, overall a nice, fresh card.
Deal with the DevilBR
Instant (U)
Exile the top seven cards of your library.
Until end of turn, you may play a card exiled this way.
Woah, seven cards is a lot for just two mana, definitely overblown. At instant speed nonetheless. Light up the Stage is already a very powerful card. Just noticed that you can play only one card from those seven. Ok, alright, now we're talking about fair and balanced Magic. Got me worried there for a second.
I'd like this to have some sort of cheesy flavor text to go along that cheesy name, there's a lot of empty space on that cardboard. Feels rushed.
Naavka, the Crystal CornucopiaURW
Legendary Artifact (R)
Whenever a player casts a spell or activates an ability that isn't a mana ability, put a charge counter on Naavka. T, Remove seven charge counters from Naavka: Draw a card, create a 2/2 white Knight creature token with vigilance, and add CCC.
What a strange combination of effects. It feels like it wants to be a build around card but it's more of a slow, grindy "taxing" effect with almost no impact as it comes down. And even when it finally gets to seven counters, our opponent probably doesn't care anymore about a knight, or a single card drawn. It's a very neat design, it just seems so underpowered to me.
Late night entries again, HWG Frenzied Insights2UUR
Sorcery (MR)
Draw seven cards. Until the end of your next turn, your maximum hand size is zero. "The lengths you have gone for this project are worrisome. Do not forget: genius does not preclude madness." - Ral Zarek, to Niv Mizzet
5 mana for seven cards with drawback feels perfectly fine. The potential to combo off from there is very high but also mitigated by the clean up step. I feel this could even be a rare, but whatever.
May I be includad? My phone broke down and I couldn't get it to function until now.
Ecstatic CelebrantsG
Creature - Nymph Shaman (u)
Hexproof
Ecstatic Celebrants has +2/+2 as long as an opponent has seven or more cards in his or her hand. A clouded judgement is only dangerous if you have a judgement to cloud.
1/1
I like how hexproof and the second ability kinda work together, leaving targeted removal stuck in hand. However, seven cards stuck in hand is a lot. Neat and interesting design nonetheless.
Azure MarauderWW
Creature - Bird Scout (U)
Flying Preparation — U: Exile Azure Sentinel. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. Activate this ability only if you have seven or more cards in hand. The Azure are trained escape artists, making them excellent reconnaissance forces.
2/2
I don't really see what this card is trying to achieve honestly. Keeping seven cards in hand just to blink doesn't seem a good plan. It also needs U to do that, all while costing double WW, really stretching the mana base. Kinda all over the place.
Prophet of the Pantheon4W
Creature - Human Cleric (Rare)
God spells you cast have miracle 0.
Miracle WW "You believe in me, and so the whole pantheon will believe in you."
2/4
This thing oozes with flavor and it's pretty awesome. On the other hand, it has very narrow applications but it sparks some interest in the more hardcore deck builder out there. Very cool card.
Archon's Armor4
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Miracle 3WW
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has indestructible.
When Archon's Armor enters the battlefield, if you cast it for its Miracle cost, create a 5/5 white Archon token creature with flying. Attach Archon's Armor to that creature.
Equip 4
The pseudo-living weapon is really interesting and makes sense without it feeling like a reused concept. It's a really original and tasteful take on both the living weapon and miracle mechanics. Nicely done.
Blazing Messenger3WW
Creature — Angel (M)
Miracle 2RW
Flying, hexproof
When you cast Blazing Messenger for its miracle cost, it gains haste until end of turn. You may return an Aura from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to it.
5/5
I don't get the RW in the miracle cost while it being a mono W card. Ok it gains haste but it feels out of place to me honestly. The added bonus of returning an Aura is fine. All in all nothing really stands out for me on this one apart from being a really big beater.
Spark of Damnation2BB
Instant (M)
Exile target creature or planeswalker. If Spark of Damnation's miracle cost was paid, you control the active player for the rest of this turn.
Miracle 4BBB One moment can save your soul or damn it for eternity.
While I like the idea of overcosted miracle with unique bonuses, this one seems a bit clunky. The fact that you need to draw it on oppo's turn to control him is ok, but to use this for maximum effect you should draw it on his upkeep or draw step, which seems very demanding since you're already paying 7+ mana. Don't know, I feel like it needs some polishing but the concept is cool.
Divine Denial (Common) 1UU
Instant
Counter target spell.
Miracle 0 The most common answer to prayer is “no”.
Ah, the good old search for the Holy Grail of Magic: the Gathering, the infamous "free counterspell". This version is perfectly fine as it's never truly "free", so you got this. Maybe uncommon is more reasonable for such a unique effect. But do we really need it? Hell no. Do I like it? Hell yes.
Realm Cleanser5WW
Creature - Angel {M}
Miracle 2WW(You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)
Flying, vigilance
When Realm Cleanser enters the battlefield, if it was cast, destroy each other creature. She heralds the dawn of a new world.
5/5
Nothing wrong with a huge beater with a wrath effect attached onto it. Sadly miracle here does nothing really special or interesting. Clean, polished design, just a bit bland.
Gitaxian Brand2UB
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Enchanted player hand size is reduced by seven.
If a card would be put into enchanted player's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it. "Once your former self is completely extracted, we make sure it never returns."
— Velsid, Gitaxian morphologist
Kami of the Unheeded2W
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flying
Whenever Kami of the Unheeded blocks or becomes blocked, return it and each other creature that's blocking or is being blocked by it on top of their owners' libraries. Then those players shuffle their libraries.
Miracle 0 "There are no right answers. Only right questions."
1/1
Oh my god that's even better! I'm officially hyped.
Strongly disagree. As I mentioned before I believe running Krasis in an Arkbow deck is wrong. Sure, there will be times where Krasis will win the game on its own without having to rely on the Bow, but if we're trying to build around said Bow, we don't need Krasis. While at first glance the card draw from the Krasis seems great for fueling the Bow, I believe it's unnecessary as both cards play a very simlar role: they're both great mana sinks and help in sustaining the "flow" of our threats. But they do so in a very different way and that's why I believe they not only play very poorly together, but need a different build-around approach. For example, the list quoted here:
This I think it's the perfect Krasis deck, with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds in place of Arkbow. Having the option to leave open mana for either a Frilled Mystic or Krasis at EOT is insanely powerful, whereas having to choose between sinking all our mana in a main phase Krasis and leaving mana open for an instant speed Arbow activation is just awkward.
Speaking of Frilled Mystic, I'm going to (sadly) cut 3 copies of Prime Speaker Vannifar from my list and going all-in on the Bow, also adding God-Eternal Oketra. In my quick testing, I felt like Vannifar was just another piece to protect, really taking its toll on my card choices. Mystic gives the list more elasticity to opposing threats, something that Deputy of Detention cannot do by himself, while Oketra is just a huge, hard to deal with threat that turns our late game Elves and Druids into more power on board. Also, she can be replayed immediately after being tucked thanks to the Bow, which is nuts.
Speaking of Vannifar, she and the Arkbow complement each other very well. I would run 3 copies of her alongside the Arkbow.
4 copies of Fblthp, the Lost are too much. He's very cute but doesn't really do much once he's on the battlefield. You don't need him in multiple copies since he can be reshuffled and you're trying to put him in play from the library, more than from the hand. I'd play 1 or 2 copies.
Lastly, this deck doesn't look like a Hydroid Krasis deck. He's just useless when revealed by the Arkbow so I wouldn't play 4 copies of him. Personally I don't run any (also because I don't have one eheh), instead I run 4 copies of Elite Guardmage which basically does the same thing and work way better with both the Arkbow and Vannifar.
My Bant Arkbow list would look something like this:
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Paradise Druid
2x Incubation Druid
1x Fblthp, the Lost
4x District Guide
3x Deputy of Detention
3x Prime Speaker Vannifar
3x Elite Guardmage
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1x Riverwise Augur
1x Biogenic Ooze
1x Trostani Discordant
4x Vivien's Arkbow
Instants and Sorceries:
4x Incubation // Incongruity
24 Lands
I hope you got something useful from this post and I wish you a safe and happy brewing!
4x Hunted Witness
4x Priest of Forgotten Gods
4x Cruel Celebrant
4x Tithe Taker
4x Orzhov Enforcer
4x Plaguecrafter
4x Ministrant of Obligation
2x God-Eternal Bontu
4x Conclave Tribunal
Sorceries:
3x Gruesome Menagerie
Lands:
4x Godless Shrine
4x Isolated Chapel
8x Plains
7x Swamp
About the new cards:
Cruel Celebrant doesn't really need to be discussed, does she? Well, if you insist... She's the only Blood Artist available in Standard currently and every Aristocrat deck isn't an Aristocrat deck without good ol' Artist. Oh, she also survives that damn Goblin Chainwhirler which is a nice upside.
God-Eternal Bontu does a couple good things. She digs for more pieces while losing practically nothing. She can one-shot people thanks to Cruel Celebrant and if she doesn't, there's a 5/6 Menace recursive body on the battlefield. There's also a really cool trick with her: sacrifice her to Priest of Forgotten Gods with the ETB still on the stack, put her back as the third card and then resolve Bontu's ETB, which let us draw her again. That is so neat, I love it.
About some other new cards:
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is very good and I would advise you to run it, but I personally prefer Gruesome Menagerie, since this deck was born with it as a centerpiece.
Despark is a phenomenal sideboard piece of interaction. Run 2x-3x.
Can't wait to bring this list to the next tournament, this format looks really exciting right now.
I'm usually not a big fan of running multiple copies of colorless lands especially in a deck like this that aim to curve out. Chamber Sentry also requires colored mana, so I'm good with running only one. Doesn't mean you can't try out two copies.
Also while brainstorming yesterday, I realized God-Eternal Oketra can synergize well with Growth-Chamber Guardian so I might try a couple of those out.
To build around a mechanic like proliferate, which does nothing on its own, we have to move from bottom to top. First things first: what kind of counters do we want to proliferate?
Not bad, right? Now that the backbone of the deck is laid out, let's proliferate these flipping counters!
Alright! Since this is a green deck and Llanowar Elves is in the format, we just have to play 4 of 'em, and Finale of Devastation is really good, especially post sideboard, we can play at least 1 MB. That finally brings us to the list (keep in mind this is just a "first attempt"):
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Pelt collector
4x Chamber Sentry
4x Growth-Chamber Guardian
4x Huatli's Raptor
4x Grateful Apparition
3x Evolution Sage
4x Venerated Loxodon
3x Unbreakable Formation
1x Finale of Devastation
Planeswalkers:
3x Ajani, the Greathearted
Lands:
4x Temple Garden
4x Sunpetal Grove
7x Forest
6x Plains
1x Karn's Bastion
Looks good? Looks garbage? Let me know! Also if you have a good name for it, I'm open for suggestion. I was thinking something like Selesn' and Dicin'. You know, slicin' and dicin' cause you're using lots of dices... yeah just help me.
Weirdly appealing card. Very original and creative design, though the "seven spells" may be a bit overkill. Like, you're probably wanting to win with just a single spell rather than seven, but I can see the upside of casting cantirps to find your killing spell. Rarity is missing but it's not a big deal, overall a nice, fresh card.
Woah, seven cards is a lot for just two mana, definitely overblown. At instant speed nonetheless. Light up the Stage is already a very powerful card.Just noticed that you can play only one card from those seven. Ok, alright, now we're talking about fair and balanced Magic. Got me worried there for a second.I'd like this to have some sort of cheesy flavor text to go along that cheesy name, there's a lot of empty space on that cardboard. Feels rushed.
What a strange combination of effects. It feels like it wants to be a build around card but it's more of a slow, grindy "taxing" effect with almost no impact as it comes down. And even when it finally gets to seven counters, our opponent probably doesn't care anymore about a knight, or a single card drawn. It's a very neat design, it just seems so underpowered to me.
5 mana for seven cards with drawback feels perfectly fine. The potential to combo off from there is very high but also mitigated by the clean up step. I feel this could even be a rare, but whatever.
I like how hexproof and the second ability kinda work together, leaving targeted removal stuck in hand. However, seven cards stuck in hand is a lot. Neat and interesting design nonetheless.
I don't really see what this card is trying to achieve honestly. Keeping seven cards in hand just to blink doesn't seem a good plan. It also needs U to do that, all while costing double WW, really stretching the mana base. Kinda all over the place.
This thing oozes with flavor and it's pretty awesome. On the other hand, it has very narrow applications but it sparks some interest in the more hardcore deck builder out there. Very cool card.
The pseudo-living weapon is really interesting and makes sense without it feeling like a reused concept. It's a really original and tasteful take on both the living weapon and miracle mechanics. Nicely done.
I don't get the RW in the miracle cost while it being a mono W card. Ok it gains haste but it feels out of place to me honestly. The added bonus of returning an Aura is fine. All in all nothing really stands out for me on this one apart from being a really big beater.
While I like the idea of overcosted miracle with unique bonuses, this one seems a bit clunky. The fact that you need to draw it on oppo's turn to control him is ok, but to use this for maximum effect you should draw it on his upkeep or draw step, which seems very demanding since you're already paying 7+ mana. Don't know, I feel like it needs some polishing but the concept is cool.
Ah, the good old search for the Holy Grail of Magic: the Gathering, the infamous "free counterspell". This version is perfectly fine as it's never truly "free", so you got this. Maybe uncommon is more reasonable for such a unique effect. But do we really need it? Hell no. Do I like it? Hell yes.
Nothing wrong with a huge beater with a wrath effect attached onto it. Sadly miracle here does nothing really special or interesting. Clean, polished design, just a bit bland.
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Enchanted player hand size is reduced by seven.
If a card would be put into enchanted player's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it.
"Once your former self is completely extracted, we make sure it never returns."
— Velsid, Gitaxian morphologist
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flying
Whenever Kami of the Unheeded blocks or becomes blocked, return it and each other creature that's blocking or is being blocked by it on top of their owners' libraries. Then those players shuffle their libraries.
Miracle 0
"There are no right answers. Only right questions."
1/1