its_rully- I'm glad the deck performed well for you! It sounds like the atarka-red deck was more of a rogue deck to play against, but I can see having trouble against a non-human aggressive deck due to having a bunch of CITP tapped lands. Also flooding hurts if you don't have the Trackers to benefit from it. Using a bunch of creature lands was my way of trying to avoid flooding as much, but sometimes you just can't help it. My SB is there to torture opposing control decks, since lots of people in my meta prefer that playstyle. Sounds like you had a pretty good mix of agro and control in your meta, so I could see cutting a few SB cards for more removal if you need it. Other than that random red deck match it seemed like this deck held its own against everybody else! Thanks for the report!

NotSquishedYet- Sure go for it. I like hearing other people's reasons. I may not always agree, but hopefully that doesn't stop you from building this deck and trying out those changes yourself!

Alright. Sorry if that question seemed a bit harsh.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir is nice as a 5 turn clock, similar to Sylvan Advocate but less conditional. She covers the air alley and can sometimes outrun aggressive decks. Going for a hold-the-fort, win-the-game style of play that this deck should be able to easily support if you happen to draw her, she's a solid attacker/blocker on her own, being extremely hard to get through for low-curve decks. Pumping the team is a nice added bonus, but not at all necessary to prove her value.

I've rarely seen decks that can face off against Pitiless Horde, as there aren't many instant speed answers in Standard. I suppose it is more of a meta call, though. Without hexproof in Standard, haste is the next best thing for breaking out of Control locks.

I think, with fewer copies, the Seasons Past/Dark Petition engine is unlikely to be shut down by early hand disruption. It must be remembered that each card is powerful on its own, namely by Dark Petition fetching and paying for the proper removal for the situation, or performing a number of other functions, and by Seasons Past bringing back a whole curve that got hit hard by removal. Personally, the toolbox tutor and lose-less recursion are worth a splashy shot. Dark Petition would also allow for a wider range of answers without taking up as many slots. If they manage to pull you into the long game, it's a good way to never run out of fuel.

I've found that Gilt-Leaf Winnower hits a lot of sweet creatures and gets really hard to deal with when backed by removal. Again, similarly to Pitiless Horde, I can see that being a pure meta-call.

I'd love to build it, but I've got about a $20 budget for new cards and a Commander deck that needs worked on. :P It is a sweet deck; nice job building in a new direction! ;)

thank you for building such a good resilient deck. Yea in my meta there is a good mix and balance. but I have to say the no.1 enemy for everyone here is the 4color company which is the evolution of G/W tokens and Bant company. Me and a few friends working together now on how to deal with those.

Im thinking this deck can place Hallowed Moonlight in either main or sb. and just for the hell of it, an extra board wrath like a Planar Outburst.

its_rully- Feel free to change the SB as you see fit for your meta. I was also thinking that Flaying Tendrils might be a good SB inclusion to help with the GW token decks if you need another sweeper. That one will also keep the Advocates and Kalitas alive if you played them out earlier. But you could just be right about using Hallowed Moonlight. I've been meaning to try that one out, I just don't have as much time to test as I used to now that I have an 8-week old baby at home :)

Congratulations and i have to say thats good! XD lol

no worries on that, ill test the deck out more with those and give feedbacks! Im actually interested on what this deck can evolve into when eldritch moon comes in

Fun build, +1 from me. What does Ayli do for this deck? Maybe check out my standard Esper build? Esper, the path to winning Standard

Thanks for the upvote Jburk777! Ayli is there mostly to stymie early aggression from human decks. Ayli also keeps early Reflector Mages and Sylvan Advocates in check since it can trade advantageously with those cards, which are some of the most popular early creatures in the game. There is also the off chance that Kalitas or Ormendahl will gain me enough life to activate the other ability, but that is secondary to just using the sac ability for value when my opponent targets my creatures with removal. There's also the corner cases where I have multiple Advocates out and my opponent tries to remove them with a Declaration in Stone, I can sac the targeted one to Ayli and keep the others alive. All that being said, I've been contemplating cutting the 2nd one for something else like a MD Tragic Arrogance or a 2nd Eldrazi Displacer, but I'm not sure yet.

You should try out Liliana, the Last Hope for sure, maybe a 2-of in place of Eldrazi Displacer (since you don't have ETB effects anymore) and 1 Secure the Wastes or Ob Nixilis Reignited? SCG open proved she's really strong. Really good with Languish and Grasp of Darkness, etc. :)

abby315- That's a good suggestion! If I'm able to get a hold of a copy I'll try it out in place of a Secure the Wastes I think. Displacer is in here mostly to kill opposing tokens, Hangarback walkers, and to erase +1/+1 counters from my opponent's creatures. It also works well against flipped cards like Ormendahl, so I'd rather keep it in the deck to keep my options open. Depending on how standard shakes out, it might be correct to remove the MD black discard in favor of more powerful cards like the new Lily and another sweeper.

Hate to suggest her again since I know she's a lot of $$, but Liliana, the Last Hope is a great card to add in any number. She's on the rise again in popularity--a few midrange and control decks top 8'd standard events with 3-ofs--but has stabilized a LITTLE less expensive than before..!

Otherwise, I would suggest swapping Ob Nixilis Reignited with Nissa, Vital Force in the mainboard and going to 2 Tireless Tracker and 3 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, who is a total powerhouse these days.

I saw an Abzan midrange list (that top 8'd) running 2-of Oath of Liliana with the planeswalker suite, and I think that's super juicy and gets better the more Lilianas you can get your hands on.

I guess the configuration of removal heavily depends on your meta and what you expect to see. I think Appetite for the Unnatural or Fragmentize could find a home in the SB for Panharmonicon, Aetherworks Marvel, Smuggler's Copter, Dynavolt Tower, and the occasional Stasis Snare.

If you tell me more about your local meta I might be able to help out more. And I will say that the popular Abzan aggro lists unfortunately are running 4x Copter and 4x Grim Flayer, so if you're not going that route I would maybe build full control and drop the Sylvan Advocates and Ayli's for MB Fumigate, Murder, etc. GL!

abby315- Thanks for commenting once again! Unfortunately, Lily's are still too pricy for me to get right now, but I would add 1-2 in a heartbeat if I had access to them, swapping out 1 Ob Nix and something else for them. I've since added more artifact removal in my SB while you were replying above I think ;) The question is whether I should use Fragmentize over Natural State for my 1 mana artifact removal since it hits Panharmonicon and Aetherworks Marvel, but does so at sorcery speed. I will be using at least 1-2 Appetite for the Unnatural for sure. Also, what is making Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim a powerhouse right now? It seems like it's not as good as it once was due to more flyers in standard right now (spirits/UW flash).

I can't really tell you much about my local meta, other than I know at least one person is playing GR energy combo. I've been on an FNM hiatus recently, but want to try my hand at standard while they're giving out the 3-card rare/mythic packs as prizes. I'll know more in the coming weeks I'm sure.

Not sure if it would really have a spot but Syndicate Trafficker and tirless tracker play puff each other well. If you don't need the draw from the clue at that point use trafficker to sack it, both them get the +1/+1 but trafficker gets indestructible too.

GeminiSpartanX,
For the Marvel match-up, maybe ...

• More Natural Obsolescence, for Aetherworks Marvel.
• More Ruinous Path or Cast Out, for Chandra, Flamecaller.
• Declaration in Stone, Blessed Alliance, or more Cast Out, for Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.

clayperce- So more Anguished Unmaking, got it! ;)

GeminiSpartanX,
:-D

Though I actually like Anguished Unmaking a little less than the other options. The Instant speed is great, and the versatility is REALLY great. But I've regretted the loss of 3 life just one time too many.

If I could only have one more card, I think I'd probably go with Declaration in Stone, as it's just sooooo good against Zombie tokens too.

Nice write up. Do you know what was the record of the marvel player? Also, any control players?

mcstang1986- The Marvel player went 2-2 I think, however he wasn't one of the better players in the room in general. Perhaps a different pilot would have done better. There was a guy on straight UW control who did well, going either 2-2 or 3-1 I think but I didn't play him. There was also a jeskai PW deck that was pretty controlling that went 2-2. It looked like a fun list but it lost the last round to the humans list that I played in round 3.