So this deck has gone through tons of changes since its inception. But this is it's current form. Was originally running some restoration angels, but because I only have 2 thragtusks in the deck, I wasn't often blinking anything with her, and 9 times out of 10 she was merely a flashed-in blocker. In her stead, I tried out Sublime Archangel, changes some other cards around, and ended up with this.
It's been playtesting super well on cockatrice and things tend to synergize quite well between double strike, hexproof, trample, exalted etc., but I figured I would get some suggestions/ideas/critiques here.
This situation came up tonight at FNM and no one was quite sure how it would play out.
So my opponent had an invisible stalker with 2 auras enchanted. I oblivion ring the aura. On his turn, he oblivion ring'd by oblivion ring. What would happen to the aura when it returned to the field? Would it reattach to the creature? Would it "fall off" and go to the graveyard?
Which is what I was running as opposed to the traditional bant most in the thread were (only 5 blue cards, 3 geist, 2 azorius charm not counting negate in the board).
Sad to see the deck isn't really going anywhere
While my GWu has been running well enough for me, I guess I'll playtest G/W a bit and see how that goes.
So whats the current opinion of this deck? Discussion has slowed to a crawl, so I'm wondering if people have just moved on to other archetypes at this point.
What are our best options against G/W Midrange? That was my only loss last night during FNM. I won one of the matches, but games 2 and 3 were pretty much those perfect t1 mana dork, t2 loxodon smiter, t3 smiter and mana dork, t4 armada wurm. Just a bit too much for me to handle.
Control has been wreaking this list in our testing. MBC has just been dominate and games against it with Bant midrange (really with any midrange) haven't been close. In our testing, control decks are dominating and midrange has no chance.
Are you referring to solely MBC here when talking about control? I haven't played against one yet, and perhaps its because I'm running a slightly more aggressive list than many here, but I haven't had many issues against the grixis/uw/bant control decks in my playtesting. That being said, looking through the MBC thread here I can see why they would be problematic.
I run 3 O-rings MD, thinking of swapping out for D-spheres due to Gravecrawlers and entreat, but I think O-rings are better on the mana base and cover what I need just as well. They are a great answer to geralf's, planeswalkers, any 3-4 power creature I dont like, and then I have Selesnya Charm for 5+ power creatures like Desecration Demon and Rakdos.
Don't forget that while you have to be careful about it (IE, dont do it to a blue player with open mana), you can rancor an opponent's three power creature, then exile it with selesnya charm.
As for the Meta - nighthawks are continuing to be a problem card for this deck. While he isn't prevalent enough to warrant detention spheres maindeck, I find myself wanting more answers to that stupid card. Most likely, it just means that dungeon geists get more consideration after gatecrash.
Stuff like that is half the reason I put Silverblade into my deck. I don't even want him for the double strike half the time so much as the first strike phase keeping my creatures alive. (Though bonding to an angel token when an opponent has no fliers to block with is also plenty of fun :D)
Anyways, made my latest round of changes to the deck. Its been running super smoothly for me, with minimal losses on cockatrice (Ones that I probably could end up winning post-sideboard)
So blue isn't much more than a spash at this point, and the guys at the main WoTC forums were even telling me to drop the blue period, but Geist is just that good, and works so well with everything else in the deck. And Azorius charm just pisses zombie players off when you swing for 8+ life in one turn. (And the bounce has saved me once or twice as well in general)
How has Trostani been working for you Premier N7? In my playtesting she just wasn't making enough of an impact, so I swapped mine out for some silverblade paladins. Besides that and Sigarda (I have her sideboarded and Wolfir Silverheart in her place) we have virtually the same deck.
As for your question - Pretty much. I use her when I have something worth blinking, or if I need an emergency blocker without her dying.
5-2 With Selesnya with 81 players, not sure my exact placing. Got 2 shocklands, a jace, and a couple rares I needed for my upcoming standard deck. Overall quite pleased.
Doing some playtesting, I felt like I was hurting in the early game a bit too much. Avacyn's Pilgram wasn't doing it for me. Being the only mana dork, it had a tendency to not be in my opening hand, and was downright useless late game. Dryad Militant is a bit more aggressive, so in it went. New Prahv just wasn't doing it for me often enough. Detention Sphere is good, but I was trying to lower the amount of blue in my deck, so the two I had were swapped back to O-rings. Feeling of Dread is good, but its one of those cards that I just felt I was drawing when I didn't need it. That combined with Dryad Militant forcing it into exile and losing that flashback, I opted for more creature presence in the early game, adding Call of the Conclave and Lyev Skynight. Skynight has the benefit of evasion and a useful blink by Restoration Angel as well.
Definitely running more smoothly for me. That being said, I'm finding Trostani underwhelming. She tends to not make a big enough impact for me, and her WWGG cost has been occasionally prohibitive for me as well.
Any thoughts about the changes/possible replacements for Trostani?
My only blue splashes are GoST & Azorius Charm. Still working on what I really want my sideboard to be.
Think you still need as many Blue mana sources as you have? With only 7 blue cards, you could probably drop one of the Hallowed Fountains. Or do you want to keep them to ensure you get that occasional turn 2 GoST?
Edit: Actually your build isn't running mana dorks even, so trying to ensure that turn 3 GoST rather?
This is my deck so far. Made some changes to it since the previous Bant thread. Sad to admit that as it stands, Armada Wurm just doesn't have a place in this deck right now, so I put Wolfir Silverheart in it's place. Feeling of Dread seems to be a bit more useful than Inaction Injunction, though I'm disappointed to lose that cantrip.
The sideboard was just kind of thrown together looking at other people's lists.
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Silverblade Paladin
4 Sublime Archangel
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Thragtusk
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Spells
4 Selesnya Charm
3 Call of the Conclave
2 Farseek
2 Azorius Charm
3 Rancor
3 Oblivion Ring
Land
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Hallowed Fountain
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
3 Knight of Glory
3 Ray of Revelation
3 Negate
2 Centaur Healer
2 Detention Sphere
2 Rest in Peace
So this deck has gone through tons of changes since its inception. But this is it's current form. Was originally running some restoration angels, but because I only have 2 thragtusks in the deck, I wasn't often blinking anything with her, and 9 times out of 10 she was merely a flashed-in blocker. In her stead, I tried out Sublime Archangel, changes some other cards around, and ended up with this.
It's been playtesting super well on cockatrice and things tend to synergize quite well between double strike, hexproof, trample, exalted etc., but I figured I would get some suggestions/ideas/critiques here.
So my opponent had an invisible stalker with 2 auras enchanted. I oblivion ring the aura. On his turn, he oblivion ring'd by oblivion ring. What would happen to the aura when it returned to the field? Would it reattach to the creature? Would it "fall off" and go to the graveyard?
Which is what I was running as opposed to the traditional bant most in the thread were (only 5 blue cards, 3 geist, 2 azorius charm not counting negate in the board).
Sad to see the deck isn't really going anywhere
While my GWu has been running well enough for me, I guess I'll playtest G/W a bit and see how that goes.
Are you referring to solely MBC here when talking about control? I haven't played against one yet, and perhaps its because I'm running a slightly more aggressive list than many here, but I haven't had many issues against the grixis/uw/bant control decks in my playtesting. That being said, looking through the MBC thread here I can see why they would be problematic.
Don't forget that while you have to be careful about it (IE, dont do it to a blue player with open mana), you can rancor an opponent's three power creature, then exile it with selesnya charm.
Stuff like that is half the reason I put Silverblade into my deck. I don't even want him for the double strike half the time so much as the first strike phase keeping my creatures alive. (Though bonding to an angel token when an opponent has no fliers to block with is also plenty of fun :D)
Anyways, made my latest round of changes to the deck. Its been running super smoothly for me, with minimal losses on cockatrice (Ones that I probably could end up winning post-sideboard)
4 Dryad Militant
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Silverblade Paladin
2 Thragtusk
2 Wolfir Silverheart
Spells
4 Call of the Conclave
4 Selesnya Charm
2 Azorius Charm
3 Rancor
3 Oblivion Ring
Land
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Hallowed Fountain
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
3 Knight of Glory
3 Rest in Peace
3 Negate
2 Judge's Familiar
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Sundering Growth
So blue isn't much more than a spash at this point, and the guys at the main WoTC forums were even telling me to drop the blue period, but Geist is just that good, and works so well with everything else in the deck. And Azorius charm just pisses zombie players off when you swing for 8+ life in one turn. (And the bounce has saved me once or twice as well in general)
As for your question - Pretty much. I use her when I have something worth blinking, or if I need an emergency blocker without her dying.
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 New Prahv Guildmage
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2 Thragtusk
2 Wolfir Silverheart
Spells
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Azorius Charm
3 Feeling of Dread
Enchantments
3 Rancor
2 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
1 Grove of the Guardian
3 Judge's Familiar
3 Knight of Glory
3 Rest in Peace
2 Negate
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Ray of Revelation
Made some changes since then.
-4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
-3 New Prahv Guildmage
-3 Feeling of Dread
-2 Detention Sphere
-1 Hallowed Fountain
-1 Glacial Fortress
+4 Dryad Militant
+4 Call of the Conclave
+2 Lyev Skynight
+2 Oblivion Ring
+1 Sunpetal Grove
+1 Plains
Doing some playtesting, I felt like I was hurting in the early game a bit too much. Avacyn's Pilgram wasn't doing it for me. Being the only mana dork, it had a tendency to not be in my opening hand, and was downright useless late game. Dryad Militant is a bit more aggressive, so in it went. New Prahv just wasn't doing it for me often enough. Detention Sphere is good, but I was trying to lower the amount of blue in my deck, so the two I had were swapped back to O-rings. Feeling of Dread is good, but its one of those cards that I just felt I was drawing when I didn't need it. That combined with Dryad Militant forcing it into exile and losing that flashback, I opted for more creature presence in the early game, adding Call of the Conclave and Lyev Skynight. Skynight has the benefit of evasion and a useful blink by Restoration Angel as well.
So my deck currently looks like this -
4 Dryad Militant
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Lyev Skyknight
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2 Thragtusk
2 Wolfir Silverheart
Spells
4 Call of the Conclave
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Azorius Charm
3 Rancor
3 Oblivion Ring
Land
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
1 Grove of the Guardian
2 Judge's Familiar
3 Knight of Glory
3 Rest in Peace
3 Negate
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Ray of Revelation
Definitely running more smoothly for me. That being said, I'm finding Trostani underwhelming. She tends to not make a big enough impact for me, and her WWGG cost has been occasionally prohibitive for me as well.
Any thoughts about the changes/possible replacements for Trostani?
Think you still need as many Blue mana sources as you have? With only 7 blue cards, you could probably drop one of the Hallowed Fountains. Or do you want to keep them to ensure you get that occasional turn 2 GoST?
Edit: Actually your build isn't running mana dorks even, so trying to ensure that turn 3 GoST rather?
Say I have a Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, and I play a Wolfir Silverheart and Soulbond it enters the battlefield. Would I gain 4 life, or 8?
The sideboard was just kind of thrown together looking at other people's lists.
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 New Prahv Guildmage
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2 Thragtusk
2 Wolfir Silverheart
Spells
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Azorius Charm
3 Feeling of Dread
Enchantments
3 Rancor
2 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Harbor
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
1 Grove of the Guardian
3 Judge's Familiar
3 Knight of Glory
3 Rest in Peace
2 Negate
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Ray of Revelation
Thoughts?
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 New Prahv Guild Mage
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2 Thragtusk
2 Armada Wurm
3 Selesnya Charm
3 Rancor
3 Inaction Injunction
2 Azorius Charm
Enchantments - 3
3 Oblivion Ring
Land - 23
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Hinterland Hardbor
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Gavony Township
1 Grove of the Guardian
Haven't gotten around to designing a sideboard yet.