I must admit that my testing so far has been very disappointing. You do jack shit against Merfolk and Elves, you do jack shit against Twin, you do jack shit against Affinity and Infect and it even feels like you're always behind against Jund. So far I have not beaten a single T1 deck, but maybe that's just me failing at piloting the deck.

Well with only Bant your only option against those decks(aside from Twin and Jund) is to Combo. Otherwise they are faster and 4 paths are just not enough or effective to stop them. Also with the current build Goyf and Ooze are really weak in those matchups, because there's just not enough ways to give them Graveyard fodder.

Twin should actually be a good matchup. If they don't Combo they usually can't handle Zoos Threats.Jund is tougher and very dependant on the die roll and who manages to get an Ooze on the board that survives for 1-2 Turns. Especially in Game 1 Smiters are really strong aswell.

In every one of those matchups except maybe Twin Lightning Bolt is just so strong, that i think adding red as 4th Color is necessary to make the deck competitive. Aside from Nacatl, Wolf Run and Side Board Options.

JakeHarlow, Putrefy, ItsArtayon: I have tested yes. Easy wins versus abzan, aristocrats (weird deck), allies tribal (weird deck), grixis control. Poor against tron. Average against twin and tokens.

It's an aggro deck first and foremost so it preys on slower decks that struggle to stabilise. Versus Abzan or Jund it comes down to top decks often - can they top deck the right removal, can you top deck the right creatures? If you have a Retreat to Coralhelm it helps because you can scry constantly. We have good sideboard options here anyway. The aggro nature of the deck can also occasionally take Twin by surprise (though no always) and is perfect against those slower Grixis decks.

Now against other aggro decks it can struggle but we ARE in GW which gives us the best sideboard options imaginable.

Merfolk and elves are pretty bad unless you can race them (which you can occasionally do anyway). Affinity is pretty easy. Stony Silence. Kataki, War's Wage. Creeping Corrosion. Fracturing Gust. Ghostly Prison. Pithing Needle. Spellskite. Rhox War Monk. These are all options against the early aggro. Though you have to play well to not lose to the subsequent Inkmoth Nexus. Burn is so-so. Dromoka's Command, Rhox War Monk, Feed the Clan, Kor Firewalker, Spellskite. We have options. I am unsure about Infect.

Twin is really favoured for us. You have to open with an aggressive plan and then try to set up things like Ghostly Prison or a Pithing Needle naming Deceiver Exarch. Bring in Qasali Pridemage in case it all goes wrong and they do manage to play out Splinter Twin. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is another option. She makes it hard for them to even play counterspells - and 5 mana for a twin is tough. Negate is always an option too, or Annul.

Abzan is an easy win because they find it harder to control out your threats than Jund. Without Dark Confidant they just can't come up with answers for all your threats and exalted triggers. Jund is hard but we do have a lategame Woodland Bellower or Sun Titan if you prefer. There's also Sigarda, Host of Herons and Thrun, the Last Troll. I have not tested Jund and landed a Sun Titan but I know that they can't do much about it except Maelstrom Pulse. Not even Liliana would work because he reanimates smaller creatures and therefore you always have something else to sacrifice. All are able to steal wins and stall for a little while against Jund. Remember that with Retreat to Coralhelm we can tap down blockers and allow big swings or untap our attackers to give them pseudo-vigilance. You have Pithing Needle for liliana if you want to go that route, and you have Voice of Resurgence to force unfavourable removal and punish instants. It's a hard matchup though and it often comes down who top decks the best. Oh also, Geist of Saint Traft can often push through a "free" 4 damage. The geist may well be blocked and die but Jund and Abzan both usually bring their own life totals to about 15 or 16 through Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, fetchlands and shocklands. Therefore having a threat that almost guarantees 4 damage is a pretty huge deal.

This deck can be very fast, and very dangerous. It also has some fantastic sideboard options but IS soft against some aggro (notably those tribal decks) and has a tough time versus Jund and Tron. But having favourable matchups versus Twin (and doubly so post board), Abzan, Affinity (post board), is something. Let me put it this way - I've never played this deck and been absolutely thrashed to the point where it felt bad. But I have lost a fair number of close games.

Testing Geist of Saint Traft because it's the better aggro option when compared too Loxodon Smiter. Harder to remove and is more guaranteed damage, though equally is a lot easier to block.

Testing Elspeth, Knight-Errant because giving +3/+3 to Geist of Saint Draft is disgusting and because she could be key in the Jund and Abzan matchup.

TheAlexGnan: The beauty of a deck such as this is two things. 1) It plays more threats than you can counter. 2) It has a natural way to get around blockers that would otherwise threaten it. Like zoo or wilt-leaf abzan you drop threats and don't care if they die because you'll either have more in hand or an elspeth or a collected company or something else. We also have the silver bullets of Thalia, and Thrun. It is designed like wilt-leaf abzan - to play so many creatures the control player just folds. I played against both UWr and Grixis control last night. I 2-0d UWr and 2-1d grixis. I did this by playing all the creatures imaginable. However it is worth noting that last night I was playing 4 Loxodon Smiter instead of Geist of Saint Traft.

Against Abzan midrange, again I would mention that Collected Company and Wilt Leaf Abzan are specifically designed to win. They don't have enough removal or threats of their own to stop you. Flooding the board is an effective strategy against any deck that wants to 1-for-1 you because eventually they get a poor top deck and suddenly that poor top deck results in a Qasali Pridemage swinging for 5. It's about stretching their resources. You kill my Loxodon Smiter? That's a shame but I still have my mana dorks and two drops with exalted. Give it a turn and suddenly that two drop is swinging big. You play liliana? Ok I sacrifice a mana dork. You play Tarmogoyf? Mine is bigger with exalted. Also Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is an annoying card for them to deal with. Not game winning, but annoying. Oh, and Thrun again. 5/5 with a single exalted trigger, hexproof, and regenerate. And then the late game Woodland Bellower that fetches up another creature. What are they going to do? Abzan is on 3 paths, a dismember, a maelstrom pulse and it's likely some of them have gone. Similar for Jund. It's about really stretching them so that they run out of resources.

Twin is slowed by Retreat to Coralhelm. Destroyed by Qasali Pridemage and destroyed by Path to Exile. Thats 7 cards in the mainboard that disrupt the combo and 3 that slow it down. You also play cards on T2 that swing for 7 on T3. If they don't have a perfect hand - thats a big deal. To compete with that they need a really solid hand. Sideboard has far more answers also.

I would say that it's probably stronger when I play it because it's coming on 8 or 9 days that Ive been intensively testing now, and I probably think it's better than it is. Both of those are likely true.

This sees to be as flimsy as Jeskai ascendancy

Yeah. It's a really poorly constructed deck that relies on the combo to win.

There were definitely no big zoo or company decks that placed highly in GP oklahoma....

Well there were 5 CoCo-Zoo lists in the top 32, so...

Yeah I was being sarcastic. Decks like this are both popular and successful right now.

Kitchen finks is for grindier decks I think. I want my 3 drops to be swinging for 4 at least. 5 would be nice.

We have a fairly bad turn 1. Perhaps Wild Nacatl is actually the answer.

I agree that I gave up control to play this. It's kind of why I'm enjoying it. It's very different to what I'd normally play and im still making mistakes with it. In some ways that's a good thing.

If you're looking for more 1-drops, perhaps you could revisit the idea of adding another Birds or 2 to assure a big turn 2 play. Turn 3 CoCo is really good on the play as well, so having a dork is pretty important. I also think that Temple Garden should be maxed out as opposed to running the 2nd Hallowed Fountain, since turn 1 green source is what this deck wants almost every time.

It looks decent. My gut instinct is that you're trying to to do too much with this deck, by including a lot of 1-ofs for a beatdown strat, while having little counter protection for your actual combo. I'd pick one, cutting some of the odder choices (Sigarda is a house against some decks, yes, but you can't drop her off CoCo, which makes her an odd choice in this deck. I question whether or not this deck needs CoCo, but if you're going for a beatdown hybrid, then I can understand it.)

You're also missing Rogue's Passage. Since you untap with buttons of mana when you combo off, there's no reason why you can't end the chain by making KotR unblockable.

Just imo, it'd be better to either go full beatdown strat with 2x Coralhelm as just a blowout, twin-style, or go full coralhelm, full combo control.

I like it. I like the aggro combo approach and the combo has potential. (I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on it on the viability of the combo itself...but its fascinating to brew with.)

Keep it going!

It wouldn't. The combo gives it reach against things like Twin and Tron game 1. Also irritates GB/x. It makes it waaaay more explosive and gives you a lot more ways to get around blockers. Before you couldn't do anything about a 4/5. Now you can ignore it and swing anyway.

If you are looking for more turn 1 plays, manlands are a good place to look.

Jeez. This is pretty brutal. Love it!

Good idea Femme_Fatale

malfeischylde - Thank you. It is possible to swing for 10 damage on T3 with this build. T1 Noble Hierarch, T2 Geist of Saint Traft, T3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Of course if the combo goes off you can also win the game instantly on T3!

I'm not so sure about the Elspeth. I think just having more beaters is a better option because you can hit them with Collected Company and between Primeval Titan, Sun Titan, Knight of the Reliquary, Loxodon Smiter, Geist of Saint Traft, Eternal Witness, Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence, Scavenging Ooze, Tarmogoyf, Noble Hierarch, and Birds of Paradise, you have plenty of better things to run. I get that it is hard to removal and whatnot, but the point of this deck is to overload the field with more creatures than the opponent can answer. I don't think Elspeth does that effectively enough.

To look at it differently, this deck is basically Bant Zoo, with the same game plan as Naya Zoo, but a little slower and without Lightning Bolt. Zoo doesn't run planeswalkers because they're anti-synergy with Collected Company and not impactive enough. Perfect for a midrange or a token deck where they have the time, but when you want to be playing an aggro game, Elspeth is not the card to play. And for the midrange matchups, Loxodon Smiter is soooo much better because it shuts off counterspells against Grixis Control and makes BGx players cry when you put them into play off of Lili. Yes, Smiter is smaller than the 4/5 BGx staples, but exalted and removal and Titans and KotR and unblockability and, well, you get the idea. Elspeth isn't worth it.

This deck is indeed Bant Zoo in many ways. If you check my latest update I linked to a primer by Reid Duke who went 11-4 at a recent GP with a list that is very similar. He cut CoCo entirely from his list which I dont fully agree with but what I do agree with is that Elspeth has a place.

BG/x players and Grixis control tend to fear things they can't remove that produce constant tokens or allow your other creatures to swing in past blockers (flying etc). In fact one of BG/x's hardest matchups is BW tokens. Her whole point is that she produces a steady stream of creatures! Another thing Elspeth does that makes her totally worth it is her buff ability. If you play a creature and then follow up with Elspeth you can give that creature +3/+3 and flying on the swing. That's 9 damage with a Geist, or 7 with a Lox. It's pretty aggressive. I played agaisnt someone last night who said 'wow, that was brutal', and I felt super vindicated hahaha.

I understand the concern with Collected Company, it is valid. I'm on 24 CoCo targets right now. Of which 19 are not mana dorks I think. Its enough to hit reliably but not enough to hit something huge reliably. Thankfully my mana dorks have exalted though, which softens the blow if I don't hit anything huge.

Figag:Elspeth, Knight-Errant is a beast. I run/ran her in my Junk Pox deck, and she often won me games when combined with Knight of the Reliquary just by basic beats. Because of the flying / double striking ability, if she sticks, she makes creatures that are usually deal-with-able go right out of range.

ChiefBell: How do you feel about Ajani Steadfast for his lifegain? I liked that way he played in my Junk deck. The first strike made my knights lethal to creatures, and it won my grindier games with the massive amount of life I was gaining....

Well, it sounds like the general consensus is that elspeth is good, so maybe it fits. Then again, it is all midrange / control players talking, so more testing wouldn't hurt.

I'm going to make another suggestion then: cut 1 elspeth for a different planeswalker. Elspeth is good (as I've been told), but the second is always dead because her whole point is that she's hard to remove. Perhaps cut it for Ajani Steadfast that malfeischylde suggested. I've seen lots of pros do it before. Not in BGx builds because Lili is Lili, but in something like zoo you have a lot of options for your planeswalker imo. I do think you're better off with only singleton planeswalkers.

We just can't stop being midrange :(

I'm honestly not a big fan of Elspeth and Ajani. They might improve matchups against Midrange decks, but those matchups are already pretty good. They won't however do anything against bad matchups like Infect, Affinity, Merfolk etc.