This is a deck built to counter the current controlling meta of Standard, with Grixis, Esper and Izzet at the top of the format. By using Vivien, Champion of the Wilds and her Arkbow, the deck plays at instant speed, and has tools to be competitive against aggro and midrange builds.
The deck is intended to mostly be creatures, as this allows for more hits from Vivien and the Arkbow. We run 4 Arkbows as they are so essential to the game plan, and we can pitch any extra copies to an Arkbow on the field, so we can justify running the full playset.
Vivien is our other key card. Since it allows us to flash out creatures, if we have her and the bow on the field then we have a very strong position; on our opponent's end step, we could either flash out a card in hand or one that has been exiled with Vivien, or we could spin the wheel with the Arkbow. This would be especially important if we are holding onto our hand for a specific play, for instance if we hold up Frilled Mystic to counter a Teferi, and none come down.
Llanowar Elves helps to ramp on Turn One, into a Vivien or Arkbow quickly, allowing the deck to begin to function properly.
Fblthp, the Lost, is our secondary draw engine, allowing us to refill our hand for cards that we can flash out in a pinch or pitch to the Arkbow.
Deputy of Detention is our main source of removal excluding flashing out creatures to eat others, and so we are relying on Deputies to get planeswalkers or other problematic permanents - unlockable creatures, per se.
Knight of Autumn is run in the main deck primarily to serve as a source of lifegain versus aggro and as an answer to problematic enchantments (or even opposing Arkbows!) due to their prevalence in Standard - Search for Azcanta, Dreadhorde Invasion, white enchantment based removal.
Shalai can be a counterspell if we or another creature are being targeted with a spell, and she can also serve as a late game mana sink if we have no need to spin the wheel with the Arkbow.
Speaking of counterspells, we run 4 Frilled Mystics to answer planeswalkers on the stack as well as other problematic spells. Since they also have flash themselves, they serve double duty, not needing Vivien to do what they need to do.
Lyra Dawnbringer pumps Shalai and can serve as a difficult-to-answer wincon, as Vraska's Contempt is one of the only removal spells in Standard that is commonly run and fully answers her.
The same cannot be said for God-Eternal Rhonas due to its recursive ability, which presents additional synergy with the Arkbow as we can be guaranteed to hit it if it dies.
Nullhide Ferox is the final main board creature, which is a brick wall versus aggro decks, and not only does the discard clause help versus Davriel and Carnage, but also has little downside since we only run 7 main board noncreature spells. The hexproof also makes this difficult to answer for control decks.
The manabase is skewed towards green mana runs all 12 possible shocks to ensure that our checks enter untapped as often as possible.
As far as the sideboard goes, Atzocan Archers are our response to mono blue tempo, Thieves of Sanity and X/1s, providing removal and a brick wall against small fliers, even those suited up with a Curious Obsession.
We run some Prison Realms which are, regrettably, not creatures, but we can still draw them with Fblthp, and these will mostly be used to answer planeswalkers. The scrying also helps us determine whether or not to Arkbow.
Settle the Wreckage helps against aggro decks and is our sweeper. It will be especially effective in some matchups, where few basic lands are being run due to how good the nonbasic lands in Standard are.
Vine Mares come in versus control (these could be upgraded to Carnage Tyrants, but the 4 CMC also helps us to hit it with Arkbow). Since most Standard removal is targeted, the hexproof provides us with a major advantage. And while Carnage Tyrant does have trample, the creatures in control decks (Zombie armies/Liliana tokens, Nicol Bolas and Thief of Sanity) are all black, and so can't block the Mare.
Deathgorge Scavengers are there for Jumpstart cards as well as for decks like Zombies, Sultai and Boris Feather. These could also be Remorseful Clerics, it depends on whether targeted graveyard removal or purging is more effective. The instant speed of the deck helps with this.
Finally, we run Dovin's Veto as another answer to early noncreature threats. Again, while these aren't creatures, Fblthp helps us to hit them. Also, versus noncreature decks, having an uncounterable counterspell can be enough for us to eke out a major advantage.
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