I have a deck extremely similar to this, it has a few changes though.
Instead of 3 spear of heliod it runs 1 spear, 1 path to bravery, and 1 fortify causing a generally similar function.
I run no scry lands, run 4 shocks and 2 mana confluence, as most of the time you have the two color and don't need to worry.
Your choice in orzhov charm is a bit curious as you will likely not use it to regain a creature, and if you use it to kill a creature that is likely a lot of life loss you have seen threw the game.
Turn one your only option is thoughtseize
Turn two your options are devour flesh or Boros charm (which the charm is really not an option for what it appears you want it for. And you only have 2 devour flesh so that is unlikely as well.
Turn three your options are heroes downfall, read the bones, or underworld connections (or two card options that are going to cost more life, and a removal that most of the time you want to wait.)
Turn four your options are desecration demon, or war leaders helix
This looks like you Are gonna have a bad time against mono black and any of the red aggro variants, primarily because in most games your first play that matters is turn 4
Devour flesh should be celestial flare, it will make it more likely to kill what you want killed.
Read the bones should be underworld connections, with a possible split to liliana of the dark realms (it seam like an odd choice till you realize she pulls land as a "draw" effect, securing the fifth land). She can also kill gods, her ultimate never matters for this deck though.
You need some keening apparition 2 in the main would be nice, they answer d-sphere against control, banishing light against midrange, courser against monsters, underworld connections against black devotion and variants, dredge the outright kill most creatures, and chained to the rocks against Boros. The reason for this suggestion is because they are not terrible to play earlier as they can swing for two, and still answer whatever.
It looks like you are gonna have a bad time against red decks, especially with no creatures in the board to board out obzedat for. Sin collectors can do a lot of work in that matchup.
You may want to consider whips for the main deck, they let you catch back up on life pretty fast.
Have you considered combo control? Control the board state till you can set off a combo.
It would be amusing to see bearer of the heavens resurrected then a sac effect from a creature into Boros charm destroy all of your opponents permanents leave yours.
The current build is running 17 land.
with 17 land
The first card drawn from the deck has a probability of .2833 of being a land
The second .2881 if not a land
The third .2931 if not a land
The fourth .2982 if not a land
The fifth .3035 if not a land
The sixth .3090 if not a land
The seventh .3148
If 20 land
The first .3333 if not a land
The second .3389 if not a land
The third .3448 if not a land
The fourth .3508 if not a land
The fifth .3571 if not a land
The sixth .3636 if not a land
The seventh .3703
Your addition suggestion of 3 land only produces ~5.5% bump that is within tolerance of most science of being "on target" he should not see any real significant difference unless he played an absurd amount of matches with it.
Put another way your addition of 3 lands causes 55 less mulligans in 1000 games of magic most players don't keep their deck together long enough to play a thousand matches with it.
Now look I am not saying you are wrong that the deck needs more land, i am saying that the impact will be not as significant as you seem to think it will be.
This deck is combo aggro, which historically is known for running exceptionally low land. Look at affinity(an early combo aggro deck), typically runs less than 16.
Perhaps replace warriors lesson with ordeal of Thassa? You get one less potential heroic trigger, but you still get a trigger, likely 2 counters (one for heroic one for swing) still get two cards and allow for the improved mana base I had previously suggested.
There are way better things to trigger heroic with then trait doctoring
Actually from the magical Christmas land stand point there are not.
Turn 1 land niv magus (5 cards in hand)
Turn 2 hidden strings untap the land cipher on niv magus, either white one cost heroic trait doctoring triggering heroic cipher onto niv magus swing target heroic with both eat both spells with niv magus leaving at the end of turn 2 a 5/6 and either a 3/7 or a 4/5 opponent at 19, and 2 cards in hand.
Next turn swing for 8 or 9 which the next turn could turn into more if Boros charm for double strike as the 5/6 would deal 5 first strike and 9 regular damage (or 14) and the other creature would deal 5 or 6 damage killing on turn 3
Now with that being said, not very likely, however more likely if mana base was more consistent and more Boros charm.
Been messing with this lately and I like it, originally it was Bant but Boros Charm is too good with Cipher so I added red, I had too much green mana anyways. The biggest weakness is that the mana doesn't support a T2 Boros Charm, but you don't really want that on T2 very often anyways.
Keep going back and forth on Hero of Leina Tower, on one hand she's a good way to protect against mana flood (which happens at 4 land basically), but on the other hand she's pretty bad in the first 3 turns or so because you have better things to do than pump her. Maybe they should be two drops instead.
So.... Yeah
Look I am willing to meet you half way here running the low lands and what not looking at your list
4 Favored Hoplite can be played by all but 4 land
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer can be played by all but 4 land
4 Nivmagus Elemental can be played by all land
3 Sage of Hours
1 Battlewise Hoplite
2 Hero of Leina Tower can be played by 4 land
If you replace the hero of leina tower with the one cost red heroic satyr from journey into nyx, and replace the breeding pool with steam vents your consistency emproves
Sage seems like an odd choice here as you are unlikely to ever get that extra turn, and the one of battle wise would be better as an additional satyr. Phalanx leader may be a better choice than sage
Please explain trait doctoring? What does it do for you? Are you using it to mana fix? Are you using it to make your opponents chained to the rocks fall off the land? Because you are not triggering any of the heroic creatures you have listed as they do not have a basic land type or a color specified in their text. Yes it is amazing with niv magus, but he alone is not good enough reason to run it.
Assuming you take my advice and cut the green and go with red replace the warriors lessons with the strive creature can't block because it lets you use it both offensively getting damage threw and generating cipher triggers and defensively giving heroic creatures triggers.
Replace trait doctoring with launch the fleet or triton tactics, or the blue +1/+1 and flying strive
I still really like Assemble in the main and it's a reason I run the deck. I also completely agree with your last post.
Swope,
Sorry but while you had some good ideas you also had some horrible ones. You get extremely defensive about any changes to your deck and i'm not sure if the only reason you posted here was for adulation at your greatness or actual conversation for improvement. Get over the victim mentality.
Gift is still a really bad card most of the time because of the chances for a 2 for 1. Wight will not ever be a competitive option and you will still be the only person advocating that average at best card. Victim is awesome but possibly hard to cast at BB.
Just because some people didn't like your deck doesn't mean anything though does it? I will still play Obzedat(probably with Baron) even if others think the baron is better. No one here gets paid a fortune just to post on these forums so don't take opinions so personally.
gift is a two for one? I haven't heard that argument enough..... Guess what if that argument was true bant enchant would not exist. Does it have the potential to be a two for one, yes, will it be, that is entirely dependent on the deck you are playing against.
Most aggro decks are not running any removal that can hit a x/4 creature, so if they are tapped out and you play it on a 3/3 it is now a minimum 2 card investment for them to kill, making it a 2 for 2.
Junk rites has no removal main deck, (except angel if you count that as removal). Making the play onto any sizable creature a clock that they must do something about.
Most aristocrats run 4 to 6 removal spells, so you wait for them to remove something then you play it, because most of the time they will not have the other removal spell.
Rwu flash has auzorius charm, but mostly use the draw option so if you place it on a x/4 it will be fine against them (now out of reach of mizzium for the builds that run it)
Wight with all the aggro/midrange going around is comparable in power to a tarmogoyf. When tarmogoyf came out it was a $2 rare and people said similarly it was terrible/ not competitive. Next time you play at a tournament at end of each game count the number of creatures in opponents grave, even against control the answer will likely be 3+. It is a card that should be being run, but is not. It is just plain silly against junk they fill up the yard with creatures wight gets really big(and most of them act like he isn't a problem for them).
As I stated I am moving away from the gifts for blood baron, but that is because I was looking for a good life gain role, and at the time in the colors gift was the best choice, now that baron is out I have high hope for him, we shall see though.
Kensanity, yes you have been one of the few on here who has been considerate of actual ideas/innovation on this deck thank you for that. I was just fairly annoyed that some of my card choices that had been argued against are now being accepted, and it looks like it is just on impulse ( ohh I will have chocolate ice cream today instead of vanilla)
I am beginning to find this thread more and more humorous. All the cards I ran in my version (which is why pretty much everyone here told me to stop posting in this thread) are now being discussed as though they are new ideas to the thread...
4 cost good against aggro.. Alms beast thanks for that synack
People have been talking Using victim of night as a two of which holy north had an entire rant about how it was a bad card choice towards me....
There is even discussion on lingering souls not really doing much (part of the reason I never ran it) from kamahl.
Pretty sure a few pages back people were even talking about how mizzium mortars was not doing enough so they were reducing the number and finding other kill spells.
And it took blood baron for people to cut obzedat, when the solution I did was gift of obzedat with any of the good creatures to get the life to fully stabilize.
I totally intend to cut gift now that blood Baron is here.
But this is just silly, I stop discussing, and you all start moving towards what my deck was/is. But when I posted it here I pretty much received the message your deck is bad and you should feel bad.
Well, you can't reanimate him with animate dead. Since that card isn't anywhere close to the standard format, I think it'll be OK.
Animate dead: Enchant creature card in a graveyard
When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Pretty sure baron is a legal target for this. Granted he will just die again, and you are effectively just discarding animate dead that way, but it is still a legal target.
you attack in, your opponent blocks, you play arcbond, it copies for all of your creatures, and causes a chain reaction that deals a lot of damage?
A zada and 3 goblins
if a goblin is blocked by a 2/2
from arcbond alone deals 10 damage to everything
2 from the blocked goblin, dealing 2 to everything else,
causing other goblins and zada to deal 2 a piece (that totals 8)
then zada gets hit again dealing 2 a third time. (this totals 10).
And that is not accounting for other combat damage
bing zada boom?
Instead of 3 spear of heliod it runs 1 spear, 1 path to bravery, and 1 fortify causing a generally similar function.
I run no scry lands, run 4 shocks and 2 mana confluence, as most of the time you have the two color and don't need to worry.
Your choice in orzhov charm is a bit curious as you will likely not use it to regain a creature, and if you use it to kill a creature that is likely a lot of life loss you have seen threw the game.
Turn one your only option is thoughtseize
Turn two your options are devour flesh or Boros charm (which the charm is really not an option for what it appears you want it for. And you only have 2 devour flesh so that is unlikely as well.
Turn three your options are heroes downfall, read the bones, or underworld connections (or two card options that are going to cost more life, and a removal that most of the time you want to wait.)
Turn four your options are desecration demon, or war leaders helix
This looks like you Are gonna have a bad time against mono black and any of the red aggro variants, primarily because in most games your first play that matters is turn 4
Read the bones should be underworld connections, with a possible split to liliana of the dark realms (it seam like an odd choice till you realize she pulls land as a "draw" effect, securing the fifth land). She can also kill gods, her ultimate never matters for this deck though.
You need some keening apparition 2 in the main would be nice, they answer d-sphere against control, banishing light against midrange, courser against monsters, underworld connections against black devotion and variants, dredge the outright kill most creatures, and chained to the rocks against Boros. The reason for this suggestion is because they are not terrible to play earlier as they can swing for two, and still answer whatever.
It looks like you are gonna have a bad time against red decks, especially with no creatures in the board to board out obzedat for. Sin collectors can do a lot of work in that matchup.
You may want to consider whips for the main deck, they let you catch back up on life pretty fast.
Your current list is very weak against pack rat.
It would be amusing to see bearer of the heavens resurrected then a sac effect from a creature into Boros charm destroy all of your opponents permanents leave yours.
The current build is running 17 land.
with 17 land
The first card drawn from the deck has a probability of .2833 of being a land
The second .2881 if not a land
The third .2931 if not a land
The fourth .2982 if not a land
The fifth .3035 if not a land
The sixth .3090 if not a land
The seventh .3148
If 20 land
The first .3333 if not a land
The second .3389 if not a land
The third .3448 if not a land
The fourth .3508 if not a land
The fifth .3571 if not a land
The sixth .3636 if not a land
The seventh .3703
Your addition suggestion of 3 land only produces ~5.5% bump that is within tolerance of most science of being "on target" he should not see any real significant difference unless he played an absurd amount of matches with it.
Put another way your addition of 3 lands causes 55 less mulligans in 1000 games of magic most players don't keep their deck together long enough to play a thousand matches with it.
Now look I am not saying you are wrong that the deck needs more land, i am saying that the impact will be not as significant as you seem to think it will be.
This deck is combo aggro, which historically is known for running exceptionally low land. Look at affinity(an early combo aggro deck), typically runs less than 16.
Are you attempting to troll?
Actually from the magical Christmas land stand point there are not.
Turn 1 land niv magus (5 cards in hand)
Turn 2 hidden strings untap the land cipher on niv magus, either white one cost heroic trait doctoring triggering heroic cipher onto niv magus swing target heroic with both eat both spells with niv magus leaving at the end of turn 2 a 5/6 and either a 3/7 or a 4/5 opponent at 19, and 2 cards in hand.
Next turn swing for 8 or 9 which the next turn could turn into more if Boros charm for double strike as the 5/6 would deal 5 first strike and 9 regular damage (or 14) and the other creature would deal 5 or 6 damage killing on turn 3
Now with that being said, not very likely, however more likely if mana base was more consistent and more Boros charm.
So.... Yeah
Look I am willing to meet you half way here running the low lands and what not looking at your list
4 Favored Hoplite can be played by all but 4 land
4 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer can be played by all but 4 land
4 Nivmagus Elemental can be played by all land
3 Sage of Hours
1 Battlewise Hoplite
2 Hero of Leina Tower can be played by 4 land
If you replace the hero of leina tower with the one cost red heroic satyr from journey into nyx, and replace the breeding pool with steam vents your consistency emproves
Sage seems like an odd choice here as you are unlikely to ever get that extra turn, and the one of battle wise would be better as an additional satyr. Phalanx leader may be a better choice than sage
4 Ajani's Presence
3 Bioshift
2 Boros Charm
4 Gods Willing
3 Warriors Lesson
4 Hidden Strings
4 Trait Doctoring
Please explain trait doctoring? What does it do for you? Are you using it to mana fix? Are you using it to make your opponents chained to the rocks fall off the land? Because you are not triggering any of the heroic creatures you have listed as they do not have a basic land type or a color specified in their text. Yes it is amazing with niv magus, but he alone is not good enough reason to run it.
Assuming you take my advice and cut the green and go with red replace the warriors lessons with the strive creature can't block because it lets you use it both offensively getting damage threw and generating cipher triggers and defensively giving heroic creatures triggers.
Replace trait doctoring with launch the fleet or triton tactics, or the blue +1/+1 and flying strive
gift is a two for one? I haven't heard that argument enough..... Guess what if that argument was true bant enchant would not exist. Does it have the potential to be a two for one, yes, will it be, that is entirely dependent on the deck you are playing against.
Most aggro decks are not running any removal that can hit a x/4 creature, so if they are tapped out and you play it on a 3/3 it is now a minimum 2 card investment for them to kill, making it a 2 for 2.
Junk rites has no removal main deck, (except angel if you count that as removal). Making the play onto any sizable creature a clock that they must do something about.
Most aristocrats run 4 to 6 removal spells, so you wait for them to remove something then you play it, because most of the time they will not have the other removal spell.
Rwu flash has auzorius charm, but mostly use the draw option so if you place it on a x/4 it will be fine against them (now out of reach of mizzium for the builds that run it)
Wight with all the aggro/midrange going around is comparable in power to a tarmogoyf. When tarmogoyf came out it was a $2 rare and people said similarly it was terrible/ not competitive. Next time you play at a tournament at end of each game count the number of creatures in opponents grave, even against control the answer will likely be 3+. It is a card that should be being run, but is not. It is just plain silly against junk they fill up the yard with creatures wight gets really big(and most of them act like he isn't a problem for them).
As I stated I am moving away from the gifts for blood baron, but that is because I was looking for a good life gain role, and at the time in the colors gift was the best choice, now that baron is out I have high hope for him, we shall see though.
Kensanity, yes you have been one of the few on here who has been considerate of actual ideas/innovation on this deck thank you for that. I was just fairly annoyed that some of my card choices that had been argued against are now being accepted, and it looks like it is just on impulse ( ohh I will have chocolate ice cream today instead of vanilla)
4 cost good against aggro.. Alms beast thanks for that synack
People have been talking Using victim of night as a two of which holy north had an entire rant about how it was a bad card choice towards me....
There is even discussion on lingering souls not really doing much (part of the reason I never ran it) from kamahl.
Pretty sure a few pages back people were even talking about how mizzium mortars was not doing enough so they were reducing the number and finding other kill spells.
And it took blood baron for people to cut obzedat, when the solution I did was gift of obzedat with any of the good creatures to get the life to fully stabilize.
I totally intend to cut gift now that blood Baron is here.
But this is just silly, I stop discussing, and you all start moving towards what my deck was/is. But when I posted it here I pretty much received the message your deck is bad and you should feel bad.
Animate dead: Enchant creature card in a graveyard
When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Pretty sure baron is a legal target for this. Granted he will just die again, and you are effectively just discarding animate dead that way, but it is still a legal target.