Kaladesh:
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Here's where I'm at so far with Kaladesh. Negate seems even better now with control being prevalent and planes walkers and vehicles being viable targets that are everywhere. Angelic Purge is much better now because people aren't afraid of Dromoka's Command, so they run more enchantments. We can also hit artifact vehicles with it, (it becomes almost our only way to take down the flying vehicles which are such a headache, and we still have good sac targets for it, including the option of sacrificing a clue to cast angelic purge, while still getting to put a counter on tireless tracker.)
Primal Druid
is down to a one-of, it's nice, but can-tripping for a basic land with Pilgrim's Eye seems much more consistent than waiting for primal druid to die; and also more helpful than just drawing a card off
Filigree Familiar
, who got cut altogether. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter is a one-of for now, she might become a 2 of, I need to play more games with her in hand to really feel it out. I often find that getting more cards isn't really a problem, but then again if Tireless Tracker,
Primal Druid
, Pilgrim's Eye,
Wretched Gryff
and Duskwatch Recruiter
aren't there for me she can be pretty powerful. The land is mostly green because the deck is mostly green, and what we really need is 2 U for Elder Deep-Fiend and 3 G for
Decimator of the Provinces
.
Regarding the sideboard
Mockery of Nature
looks really good against any vehicle or artifact based deck, giving me the chance to destroy a big vehicle or a gearhulk on my main phase.
Pulse of Murasa
and Sigarda, Heron's Grace are for any burn based decks, which while I haven't seen any of them recently I'm sure FNM will be chock full of people still running altered Thermo alchemist lists.
Plummet
looks great because I can do it in response to someone crewing a flying vehicle before they attack. I can also see it coming in against spirits, though everyone on magic online seems to be onto new cards and spirits have been left behind, but they're still as good as ever so I expect to see them at FNM. Sumamry Dismissal is for emerge mirrors, and
Revolutionary Rebuff
is for other creature decks if we're on the play. I might sub that one out for
Horribly Awry
, since its just better for that purpose and I feel iffy about only being able to clash for 2 mana anytime past like turn 4. Dispel is mostly for Torrential Gearhulk decks that like to run 20 instants, of which I've run into a few. Blossoming Defense is a good card against any control deck, but having more than one might mean a better chance of a dead opening hand so I'm keeping it at one.
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Pre Kaladesh:
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Youtube videos of mtgo matchups:
G/W tokens:
https://youtu.be/0c-vSsjW0cE
Bant Company:
https://youtu.be/tgxa11U_2aM
Deck Tech
This is a grindy deck that wins most boardstalled games. We have a bunch of can-trips that help us stay ahead on cards, and the idea is to grind out the opponent and eventually hit one of our win conditions, or simply removal, to allow us to swing in and finish. The deck is weaker against control decks that can 1 for 1 our creatures and deny us combos like emerging elder deep fiend or wretched gryff, however with the option to go up to 4 negates and 1 clash of wills in the sideboard we stand a good chance post board. Thermo alchemist is also a weak matchup but again we have a lot of counters in the board to help with this. Onto the tech.
Duskwatch Recruiter
is great in the late game and the early, he helps us dig for emerge creatures, cast them for less mana, and we can even sacrifice him to emerge if we have too. Later in the game recruiting a bunch of times can be a great way to claw back into a game, and with 27 creatures in the deck we're looking to hit our recruits more often than not.
Primal Druid
is actually best as a source of mana fixing, but he's also a stellar early blocker on the ground. Even if he dies to languish we get a land, and if we can emerge
Wretched Gryff
off him, (the wombo combo,) we can get a land into play, shuffle our deck, and then get a cantrip off wretched gryff with one less land in the deck. This is pure value. He is also the ideal emerge target for all of our other big creatures.
Sylvan Advocate
is a 4 of in every green deck in standard. Read the card its nuts.
Tireless Tracker is at least a cantrip, as long as you use him right, and at best he's a serious threat and a serious card advantage engine as well. We want to use his clues to dig for negates and declaration in stones and dromoka's commands. Probably my favourite card in the format and always a 4 of in any deck I build.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Is yet another cantrip and card advantage engine, probably my favorite card after tireless tracker. The fact that you can flip her off a primal druid trigger is cool, and the fact that you can feed yourself clues by using her +1 ability while you have a tracker in play and/or get a card in hand is pretty spectacular.
Dromoka's Command is amazing in almost any matchup. Its anti-flying in a deck with only 4 flyers, its anti enchantment and burn against alchemist, and its a pump spell. Amazing. Will cry when this rotates.
Declaration in Stone
is so good, good early, good late, no reason not to have it main board.
Negate Dare I say the best 2 mana counterspell in the format? Pretty dead against humans, but having suprise negates in the mainboard is so golden most of the time.
Wretched Gryff
Better than it looks. Consider that we can potentially play it for 3 mana if we have a
Krallenhorde Howler
in play and we emerge it off of a
Primal Druid
, get a land and draw a card? The value is almost arousing.
Elder Deep-Fiend Is a great way to make people rage. Arguably a win-condition, its an insanely strong tempo play. Emerge off a creature that was going to die anyways at the last second with flash, tap your opponents land on their upkeep, tap their attackers before combat, tap their defenders before combat.... Really great.
Decimator of the Provinces
Is a one of because having 2 in your opening hand is terrible. He comes out against control decks and alchemist decks but he is almost always an insta-win if you have a wide board, considering that most of the other creatures we have are already pretty sizeable, (except for recruiter and primal druid,) we can easily attack for 30-50 damage with trample on one combat phase.
Rambling about the deck
Heading back into bant for declaration in stone and hallowed moonlight, as well as tamiyo. Still like the Primal druid+wretched gryph+tireless tracker combo dealy, as well as elder deep fiend being awesome. Dromoka's command is a necessary 4 of for now because like 5 people are playing thermo alchemist at my LGS... Also its just a great card in general in a deck full of creatures. Some of the other sideboard choices reflect the prevelance of zombie decks and white humans online. I really like the way this deck synergizes, and with primal druid the land should be very consistent. Have considered testing 2 explosive vegetation in place of some of the other spells for even more consistency but it doesnt really fit the midrangey feel of the deck itself. Will test all day tommorow and get back to you guys.
Ideally we go:
turn 2 duskwatch; turn 3 recruit and flip; turn 4 primal druid for 1, tracker for 2, evolving wilds, turn 5 play an untapped land, wretched gryff off primal druid, gryff trigger on the stack first, get a land of druid, get a clue, shuffle and then draw, turn 6 pass, flip recruiter, emerge deep fiend on upkeep off wretched gryff or the recruiter itself, next turn play nissa, transform her, dig for decimator or dec in stones or more deep-fiends to clear the board and win. So its a little grindy but I've been enjoying it. I've been able to win some close games against U/B zombies and U/R/B amalgam decks. Mono white is hard af but thats why we have extra dec in stones in the board, and we can take out nissa for pacifist. Tamiyo and summary dismissal are there for other emerge decks as well as haunted dead decks when we're on the play. Other counters are for thermo alchemist. I tried tragic arrogance but with only 12 white sources we're barely getting away with running dromoka's command; and I SOOOOOOO don't want to slow the deck down upfront just so I can board stuff. Obviously it's not going to look this peachy all the time, and I definitely don't think its a tier 1 deck, but it definetly can get there, and usually I win games that board stall due to all the card advantage and elder deep fiend+decimator. Games against control will probably be hard, and the crappy thing is it seems like not alot of people play B/W control or alchemist online, (at least when I'm queuing,) and everyone at my LGS is either on B/W control, Temur emerge or thermo alchemist. I was one of 2 guys doing bant company and I want to get used to company not being around anyways so this works out. I'm not posting a bunch of new cards in the deck because god knows what things will look like next month anyways, and everything for now is just speculation. I'll likely replace nissa with whatever the best card advantage engine is, (eterneties crafter thing?) and I'll replace dromoka's command with the best combat trick in the colours, or maybe something completely different. Only time will tell.
On a side note I didnt take this to fnm this week; played a companyless company deck and went 2-2, losing the first two rounds to alcehmist and b/w control. Hilariously the b/w control guy tried to tick one of his planeswalkers twice in one turn but I called him on it. Then he was about to scoop to a tragic arrogance but I was like.... uh, no, you've got one more draw step, and he top decked removal and killed me with a 2/2 knight token. I think I would have done better with this deck, but I don't know if the thermo alchemist matchup is any better without selfless spirit and reflector mage. Hoping dispel, surgery, commands and negates can make the difference for me.
Honestly I want to favor being a decent matchup against everything. I also like the flexibility of being able to hold up counters/clues/commands/deep-fiend or to just dump. I think the key to success will be finding a way to get consistent results against control decks as well as jund... which is obviously a tall order but it is what it is.
Its really mono- green splashing blue and white... The colour pie you see looks wrong because we only have one negate and 4 deep fiends main board, but the colour chart doesnt show the emerge cost of the fiends.... Really we need to have 2 blue up, and we need to have fast green. White is the splash, we only ever need one of it, and not necessarily right away.
