Okay so I have been working on this deck for a long time now, since a couple of months after Dragon's Maze came out, and this is what countless hours of play testing and tinkering have gotten me. The current meta is filled with heavy removal decks like mono black devotion (red splash or green splash versions), esper control, azorious control, red/red white burn, and even some American control decks. I wanted to run a hexproof deck because of it this and create a deck that was very difficult to stop and could dish out some serious damage. So if you don't know by the hubs or title the idea of the deck is to get a couple hexproof creatures on the field, enchant the crap out of them and swing for gold. So next I will go into a description of why I have each card, maindeck first then sideboard, then I will talk about the cards that I am teetering on including into the deck, then how this deck fairs against some of the top decks, and finally how I did FNM when I went 7-1. Okay lets get started.
Maindeck Cards
Creatures
Gladecover Scout
--- One of the main bread and butter cards of the deck. Hexproof is the theme which makes this gym hard to deal with and it gets things started really quickly.
Bassara Tower Archer
--- Probably my favorite card Journey Into Nyx gave us. The two green casting cost can be hard to land on turn 2 sometimes but I manage it the majority of the time. Another great hexproof creature and it having reach is very handy, allows me to stop stormbreath dragonss,
Desecration Demon
,
Nightveil Specter
, any solid flyer you can think of. the only real downside is the fact that it has only 1 toughness, makes blocking the first couple of turns not recommended and gets killed by -1/-1 removals like
Golgari Charm
or early game removals like
Anger of the Gods
.
Witchstalker
--- not the quickest creature in the deck but he is nothing to scoff at. Has a nice 3/3 solid body, hexproof of course, and him get a +1/+1 counter every time blue or black text play anything on my turn can do really help out. The 2 green casting cost is the only down side but not that hard to get to by turn 3. I only have 2 of him though because I feel like the deck has enough hexproof creatures and some other creatures are stronger in the deck
Fleecemane Lion
--- Early two drop 3/3 that has a very devasting ability. Making him hexproof and indestructible can be really difficult to deal with but most of the time is he just a great card to get in some early damage and keep around for some chump blocking or the bane of this decks existence,
Devour Flesh
.
Boon Satyr
--- Not hexproof but in case I need a early aggro creature he helps out a lot, and defends me well against
Devour Flesh
and can work around
Supreme Verdict
. He also combos well with
Ethereal Armor
and last game bestowing him onto a creature at instant speed allows for a nice combat trick and a lot of damage.
advent of the warm --- this card sees a lot a play in selesnya aggro deck that run
Loxodon Smiter
and
Voice of Resurgence
but he is still a good fit in the deck. It being an instant allows to work around a
Supreme Verdict
or if I must, hose off a
Devour Flesh
but more importantly he is just a tank. A 5/5 trampler is nothing to scoff at needs an answer really fast, plus the fact that it is an instant allows for a nice blocking combat trick.
Enchantments
Ethereal Armor
--- Another bread and butter card. This is the all-star of the deck and allows the deck to rack up some seriously big creature very quickly and very cheaply. In my opinion it is 1 of the top 5 best 1 drops in standard.
Unflinching Courage
--- This is my favorite card in the deck. It is a so cheap for what it is, only being three mana, it gives a creature a nice +2/+2 buff and trample and lifelink. The trample prevents chump blocking my huge creature but the lifelink is the best part. It creates a serious cushion to fall back on just in case you get hosed down and have to rebuild and laughs in the face of any aggro deck.
Gift of Orzhova
--- Not quite as good as
Unflinching Courage
but has its own benefits. The flying hopefully allows me to swing unblocked and in other cases allows me to stop annoying flyers like
Desecration Demon
,
Stormbreath Dragon
and
Nightveil Specter
. Once again though the lifelink is crucial, it doesn't give as big of a buff as
Unflinching Courage
, only +1/+1, but it is the only other lifelink enchantment option and I already said why that is so important.
Alpha Authority
--- Sometimes I am kind of torn on this card. I used to have ]]holy mantle]] in the spot, I actually used to run 4
Holy Mantle
s, but it turned out the card was just too slow and tapping out for it was to much of a hinderance. This doesn't make my creature unblockable like
Holy Mantle
does but my creature only being able to be blocked by 1 creature is usually all I need, and it being a 2 drop is nice. Sometimes I really need that ability because my enchanted creature my be big but my opponent could double or triple block to kill it. The other use of the card is to give my
Boon Satyr
's, advent of the warm's, or possibly fleecmane lion (a little early) hexproof, this just add little more of a threat to these creatures.
Banishing Light
--- This is just a really solid removal that Journey Into Nyx gave us and boy have I missed
Oblivion Ring
. Unless they can kill it this gets rid of just about anything and it combos well with
Ethereal Armor
.
Other Spells
Selesnya Charm
--- One of the best charms in Ravnica and serves a very relevant purpose in Journey because of the gods. The +2/+2 and trample is great creature saver and if god forbid I can't get damage through because I don't have an
Unflinching Courage
, it is another way to give me trample for a turn. The exile target creature with power 5 or greater is my favorite ability though, hosing down desecration demon, kills jund, junk, and gruul monsters like entire deck, and eats gods for breakfast, just takes care of any major threat. Dedicating 6 slots ( 2 banishing light ) is hard to do in a aggro creature deck but
Selesnya Charm
allows for it to be not just a removal slot. The last ability is the one I used the least but it does have its purposes. Against aggro I can flash in a creature if need be or if I am in an aggro race and need to end things quickly without a lot of enchaments gives me a bear with vigilance. What I usually use it for is against
Devour Flesh
. I straight up hate this card and it kills this deck, but having a charm is great, allows to flash in the knight to save my creature.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride
--- The aggro player best planeswalker friend. The continual +1/+1 counter closes the game out quicker and allows for my early game creatures to keep up the pace later game, the flying and double strike usually ends the game and if it doesn't it is a serious threat in this deck, the ultimate isn't the best thing ever but with how much life gain this deck has it can give me a lot of kitties and baring no
Supreme Verdict
,
Anger of the Gods
, or
Drown in Sorrow
, it can win the game.
Sideboard
Alpha Authority
--- Already explained how I feel about this card but I only have one in the sideboard because but it comes in instead of one
Gift of Orzhova
if I find myself not being able to get damage through because of multiple blocking.
Mistcutter Hydra
--- I love this guy so much. It so satisfying ever time I get to play one of these against a blue player, ever time it hits the field I can't help but to smile. He is great playing early to keep the pressure on and is an amazing late game drop.
Ajani's Presence
--- A lot of people run
Rootborn Defenses
instead of this card but I find it more effective. I usually only need it to save one creature so it is very profitable to only have to leave open 1 mana open for it, but if i do need it saving two creatures is more that enough since the only thing I need it against are control decks.
Celestial Flare
--- This can be a hard card to play with the double white cost but usually its not a problem and I only ever need it late game. This card is aimed directly at the mirror match (not seen often) and mainly at
Stormbreath Dragon
and blood baron of viskopa.
Glare of Heresy
--- Aimed at
Detention Sphere
,
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
, and
Banishing Light
. It also does great agains
Voice of Resurgence
and any white permanent you can think about.
Deicide
--- This is an extremely enchantment heavy block and this card does really well at just removing normal pesky enchantments but shines at taking care of the gods, especially the
Thassa, God of the Sea
and
Nylea, God of the Hunt
that I see so much of.
The deck description is all I have time for right now, I will get to the rest I talked about shortly.
