pie chart

Bant God Pharaoh

Standard GWU (Bant) Midrange Reanimator

ReinGX

Edit Live Edit
Edit
Upvote 0
0
Deckcycle Feature Queue
Feature Queue
Playtest v1
Similar Deck Space Card Recommendations

Land (24)

Creature (22)

Sorcery (6)

Enchantment (3)

Artifact (3)

Instant (2)

Sideboard

Creature (6)

Artifact (2)

Instant (4)

Sorcery (2)

Enchantment (1)

God-Pharaoh's Gift

What is this Deck?

This deck is a different take on God-Pharaoh's Gift Decks; it gives access to a more mid-range game plan while still having good targets for GPG when it resolves. I've been playing around with UW GPG for a while now using a variant of the list used in PT HOU and the list that won the MTGO PPTQ. I have qualms about how at times it just loses to variance, and is almost dead when a Crook of Condemnation resolves. I wanted to have another game plan aside from chump blocking with my early drops while self milling to cheat out a GPG. This deck doesn't necessarily need a fast GPG on the battlefield, but it still has the capability to do so; but what separates it from the UW GPG list is that it can provide a mid-range game plan. In the past GPG iterations the creatures weren't great pre-GPG, and their main use was to chump block to create time to drop GPG and start doing insane stuff. The deck did not have any back-up game plan if they couldn't resolve a GPG, the beats provided by the creatures were too slow and they were easily killed by spot removal.

Card Choices:

  1. God-Pharaoh's Gift - This card is busted when it hits the field and your opponent has no answer for it. It constantly produces 4/4 creatures with haste. It's especially good with creatures that have ETB abilities as they trigger as well. This deck can potentially put down a GPG on turn 3 on a nut draw.

  2. Refurbish - Cheats out our God Pharaoh's Gift; gets back our Gearhulks from the graveyard. It's not only a way to cheat our powerful artifacts on the board, it also gives the deck added resilience.

  1. Servant of the Conduit - Mana dork on a 2/2 body that can produce any color of mana. It can help us cast our threats faster and block early when needed

  2. Sylvan Advocate - It helps us stall the board while also pressuring our opponent. It's under-costed for its stats, and vigilance is really strong against creature-based strategies. It also has an upside of getting +2/+2 once we hit our 6th land; and becomes a 6/6 Vigilance creature when brought back with God-Pharaoh's Gift

These cards are what we use to mill our library to start putting creatures, and potentially GPG in our graveyard.

  1. Strategic Planning - It helps us sculpt our hand while putting cards in the graveyard.

  2. Champion of Wits - 2U Faithless Looting on a body that we can eventually bring back with GPG or use it's eternalize ability to draw 4 more cards. It's our best hand sculpting tool in the deck. Its Eternalize ability is on the slow side, but drawing 4 cards and putting a 4/4 body on the board is very strong.

  3. Sunscourge Champion - does double duty as our life gain source and can discard our pay off cards with his Eternalize ability. It's effectively a gain 6 life on a decent body, not to mention it will probably chump block a creature or eat removal. It's particularly strong on curve as well as its Eternalize ability is just 4 mana to activate.

These cards allow us to bounce back in the game either by gaining a ton of life or stabilizing the board.

  1. Angel of Invention - It's pretty mediocre when hard-cast; and will usually just buy you a turn. At times it can set you up for favorable trades because of its anthem effect. The real payoff is when this card is brought back from God-Pharaoh's Gift, it does a really good Baneslayer Angel impression with a 6/6 Flying Vigilance Lifelink body.

  2. Cataclysmic Gearhulk - Does a good Tragic Arrogance impression and will almost always save 2 creatures for your board state as you can declare the Gearhulk for the artifact role. It clears the board on turn 4 if Refurbished allowing us to catch up. It's particularly good with gumming up the ground because of its Vigilance ability.

  1. Prepare / Fight - This card has been working great for me. It gives us the ability to race and functions us a pseudo-removal spell. We can even discard or mill it and we can still use the Fight part of the spell to remove our opponent's creatures. Our creatures are usually larger than our opponent's and when used in tandem, it can really swing life totals. It might just be working now since it's more of a surprise card that opponents don't really expect.

  2. Cast Out - I have found this card to be a necessity as the deck's main weakness is its difficulty to handle a powerful threat, because it can only do so by blocking that particular creature or attacking that particular walker, it had no pinpoint removal spells in the main and Cast Out is our best option as it handles basically everything. The floor with this card is incredible as we can cycle it out if we are in need of something different.

  1. Bristling Hydra - We board in Bristling Hydra against control to increase our threat density. We also board in Bristling Hydra in more aggressive matches as we need to lower our curve and cut some God-Pharaoh's Gift and some Refurbish . It has been amazing in the mono-red match-up because of its ability to become hexproof.

  2. Aethersphere Harvester - It works wonders in the mono-red match-up as its resilient to the can't block abilities of their creatures and has a strong upside of having Lifelink.

  3. Fumigate - At times stabilizing with Cataclysmic Gearhulk just doesn't cut it against some decks like BG Constrictor or Temur Energy as they will leave their most powerful threat on the battlefield. Fumigate helps us in those match-ups by just completely wiping the board. Which is terrible for them, but okay for us since we can eventually bring back our creatures with Eternalize or God-Pharaoh's Gift

  4. Angel of Sanctions - This deck has trouble with dealing with single high value targets. We board this in match-ups that present threats like that to able to handle them more effectively in conjunction with Cast Out . Having its Embalm ability happen on curve can easily 2 for 1 opponents if they want to remove the angel.

  5. Blessed Alliance - Another MVP out of the sideboard against aggressive match-ups. All the modes of this card helps us further our game plan against aggressive strategies.

  6. Saving Grace - This has been working wonders as a pseudo-fog. It counters Hour of Devastation and buys us a turn against aggressive decks, especially against the all-in turn of RG Pummeler.

  7. Negate - Counters burn spells; Planeswalkers; Hour of Promise against ramp; very valuable against the control match-up to help us resolve timely threats.

  8. Greenwarden of Murasa - Trump card for the control match-up as it gives the deck added resilience while also being a huge beatstick.

Updates:

I cut:

1x Verdurous Gearhulk for 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk- There's a lot of creature strategies and Cataclysmic Gearhulk really bails us out when the opponent is developing a sizeable board.

1x Honored Hydra for 1x Rogue Refiner- Honored Hydra was making my hand clunky, when I cut 1 for variance purposes, it smoothened out my draws as I normally now have a discard outlet for my Honored Hydra

Added sideboard information.

I made a near overhaul of the deck after play-testing my prototype list after some time. I identified the key areas that I could shore up my weaknesses and compensated for them with the following changes:

Minister of Inquiries for Strategic Planning

Honored Hydra for Angel of Invention

Rogue Refiner for Sylvan Advocate

I cut some cards down in quantity to be able to make room for some mainboard tricks.

I added Cast Out and Prepare / Fight

Minister of Inquiries has been MVP in the UW style of the deck of fast milling our library and get out a turn 4 God-Pharaoh's Gift. It hasn't been useful in this more midrange approach. I set it aside for Strategic Planning as it gives us better card selection.

Honored Hydra seemed to be a great idea on paper, but play-testing has said otherwise. It is terrible in our hand and it happens way too often to count. In the end I switched back to Angel of Invention as it has a very strong upside when brought back with God-Pharaoh's Gift and has a floor of being an anthem and stalling the board with the servos. I will also no longer underestimate its ability to gain us continuous 2 or 4 life when left unchecked.

Rogue Refiner was a tough card to cut as it does so many great things for just 1 card. I needed to round out the curve some more and the 3-drop slot was too crowded. In the end Rogue Refiner did the least for our game plan against Champion of Wits and Sunscourge Champion. It made room to have more cards in the 2-drop slot which I eventually decided on Sylvan Advocate as it's a great under-costed creature with great abilities. Sylvan Advocate can eventually be brought back by God-Pharaoh's Gift as a 6/6 creature with Vigilance.

I once again made revisions to the list and brought it to my local Game Day all the way to a TOP 8 FINISH.

Main

1x Verdurous Gearhulk for 1x Angel of Invention

1x Verdurous Gearhulk for 1x Hostile Desert

1x Refurbish for 1x Sunscourge Champion

I cut Verdurous Gearhulk and consequentially had to go down 1 Refurbish as there were now lesser targets and I didn't want it to be a dead card in my hand. I think the reason why Verdurous Gearhulk did not work out in this particular deck; even with the strong upside of being a great God-Pharaoh's Gift target is that this deck is usually playing on the back foot and is looking to come back with swing plays such as gaining life with Sunscourge Champion and Angel of Invention; or wiping the board with our Cataclysmic Gearhulk. Eventually stalling the board to a halt and then slowly whittling down our opponent as we continue to slowly swing back the board into our favor using our God-Pharaoh's Gift and our Eternalize creatures. Verdurous Gearhulk was terrible at that; it was only a good card when we were ahead and this deck is rarely ahead.

Side

2x Longtusk Cub for 2x Aethersphere Harvester

2x Longtusk Cub for 2x Blessed Alliance

2x Essence Scatter for 2x Fumigate

1x Saving Grace for 1x Greenwarden of Murasa

The Longtusk Cub wasn't performing great out of the side board; and my suspect is that it was because I lacked more Energy effects to make it a relevant card. I added Blessed Alliance and Aethersphere Harvester in its place instead to shore up my aggro match-ups and it has been great since.

Essence Scatter wasn't great with our game plan as we are more reactive than proactive. Keeping up mana to potentially counter a threat was not working well with how the deck is meant to be played (or how I play the deck). I added Fumigate in its place for a more reactive choice against creature-based strategies.

I could afford to cut 1 Saving Grace for 1 Greenwarden of Murasa because of the changes I made following the exclusion of Longtusk Cub. Greenwarden of Murasa is a great trump card for control as it's able to make our deck a lot more resilient by being able to bring back a maximum of 3 cards.

Maybe board

Farm / Market - I've been looking at this card for a while and it looks to be a perfect card to further our game plan. It first removes a creature and then lets us do some card filtering when we need it.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Gameday: Hour of Devastation — Aug. 5, 2017
Edit

TOP 8 FINISH at my local Gameday.

The deck went 3-2 in the Swiss and secured the 8th slot in the Top 8.

UR Control (2-0 WIN)

I was expecting this match-up to be easy. We are after all favored in this match-up. Both games proceeded in almost the same fashion. I pressures early with my creatures, forcing the Control Player to either trade 1 for 1 or tap out with a board wipe. I resolve a timely God-Pharaoh's Gift and first bring back Champion of Wits to refill our hand and just take over the game from there

Monored (0-2 LOSS)

Game 1: I kept a great hand with 2 Prepare / Fight with Sylvan Advocate and Sunscourge Champion; I initially had 2 lands and it looked like a great keep. The red player used Incendiary Flow on my Sylvan Advocate and I never hit my 3rd land or drew another 2-drop creature, eventually costing me the game.

Game 2: I mulled to 6 and kept a fair hand with 2 lands, Servant of the Conduit, Bristling Hydra, Champion of Wits, Strategic Planning. Once again I didn't hit 3rd land and the red player just ran me over. It was a painful loss to variance.

Monored (2-1 WIN)

Game 1: The red player had near a perfect curve and just blew me out.

Game 2: I kept a fair hand; I played a land and passed. He dropped Falkenrath Gorger. I dropped my Sylvan Advocate and was answered by Incendiary Flow. I dropped my Sunscourge Champion and was met with an Earthshaker Khenra. I attacked with my Sunscourge Champion on my turn, and passed the turn. He dropped Ahn-Crop Crasher, I caught him by surprise with Prepare / Fight and blocked his Ahn-Crop Crasher gaining 4 life. I dropped Champion of Wits on my turn and found a Cataclysmic Gearhulk. He dropped an Earthshaker Khenra again not allowing my Sunscourge Champion to block. He cast another creature post-combat and I answered with Cataclysmic Gearhulk on my turn, spelling the end of the game for him as I already stabilized the board and eventually gained more life.

Game 3: The mono-red player was going first and lead with Bomat Courier. I played a land on my turn and passed. He attacked again and passed the turn. I dropped another land and passed again. He attacked with his Bomat Courier and I cast Blessed Alliance with the exile ability on the stack. He Sacrificed his Bomat Courier getting 2 cards and discarded 2 lands. He dropped another Falkenrath Gorger and passed. I played Champion of Wits and found Aethersphere Harvester and discarded Sunscourge Champion and a land. He dropped Earthshaker Khenra and attacked. I used the Eternalize ability of my Sunscourge Champion on my turn and passed. He dropped Hazoret the Fervent and attacked with her, I blocked with my Champion of Wits. I cast Cataclysmic Gearhulk on my turn and passed. He just land dropped and attacked with Hazoret the Fervent i declared no blocks. I cast Aethersphere Harvester on my turn and another Sunscourge Champion. This started the end of the game for him as I started gaining more life and I eventually found another Aethersphere Harvester to seal the deal.

BG Constrictor (0-2 Loss) - This was a tough match-up to lose as the deck in play-testing was favored against it.

Game 1: The BG Constrictor's cards just perfectly matched up against mine. My Sunscourge Champion ran into a Greenbelt Rampager + Fatal Push combo. My Verdurous Gearhulk ran into a Dissenter's Deliverance, all of which was perfectly on curve. I stabilized with a Cataclysmic Gearhulk but he closed out the game with a 3-of Walking Ballista.

Game 2: Another loss to variance as I couldn't find my 3rd land even with Strategic Planning, Champion of Wits and Servant of the Conduit in the opening hand.

Mardu Vehicles (2-0 WIN) - I ran into one of my play-testing buddies. The deck was tested against his Mardu Vehicles and declared favored in the match-up. He had to leave so I took the win by default. The play-testing results are what I have to go on for this match-up, I won by a clear 3-0 in a best of 5 games and probably would have won the match again.

RG Pummeler (1-2 LOSS)

Game 1: I kept a decent hand of 7 with 2 lands Servant of the Conduit, Champion of Wits, Sunscourge Champion, Strategic Planning, Cast Out. My opponent kept more of a mid-range hand. He played first as he was top seed. He played a land into Attune with the Aether. I played a land and passed. We both played Servant of the Conduit on our 2nd turns. He played Bristling Hydra and I missed a land drop on my 3rd turn, I used Strategic Planning to try and find a land but they weren't in my top 3 cards. I passed the turn after discarding God-Pharaoh's Gift and a Sylvan Advocate, choosing Cataclysmic Gearhulk from Strategic Planning. He attacked and passed the turn, I opted not to block as I needed to ensure my Champion of Wits next turn. I cast Champion of Wits drawing 2, and finding 1 land. I discarded Sunscourge Champion and Cast Out. My opponent attacked again and I blocked Bristling Hydra with my Champion of Wits, he passed the turn. I needed to draw a land to stabilize with Cataclysmic Gearhulk, but I didn't and he took the W.

Game 2: My opponent and I kept similar hands in our first game. Notable this time was that I had 2 Servant of the Conduit in my opening hand. On turn 2 he opted to kill 1 Servant of the Conduit. He eventually got to a board of Glorybringer, Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra and, Servant of the Conduit. I cast a Fumigate and took over the game from that point on.

Game 3: My opponent cast Attune with the Aether turn 1 and passed the turn. I just played a land and passed. He played a land and passed the turn. I cast Servant of the Conduit and was met with Shock. He cast Electrostatic Pummeler on his turn. I cast Champion of Wits on my 3rd turn thinking I was still safe. My opponent killed my Champion of Wits with Harnessed Lightning and went up to 7 energy; he cast 2 pump spells, activated Electrostatic Pummeler's ability twice and brought my life from 20 to 0 on that turn.

Takeaways:

The deck definitely has some legs; There were definitely matches I could have won if not for land drought. I don't think the deck was inconsistent at all and has a solid game-plan throughout.

I have found Verdurous Gearhulk to be an under-performer

I have decided to keep Prepare / Fight in the main as it does amazing stuff.

Aggressive decks are less of a problem now, especially the dreaded mono-red match-up. Aethersphere Harvester is MVP in the mono-red match up and will be kept in the sideboard from this point on.

Sylvan Advocate does a lot of work for the deck and is a really great addition.

Sunscourge Champion is an insane card to draw out matches in time to build a better board-state. Effectively gains us 6 life and provides us a blocker, it's an absolute nightmare to deal with.

Looking forward to refine the deck some more, and excited for what Ixalan provides for the deck's improvement.

Image View Timeline
Card Odds v1 Draw hand
Add to folder Copy
Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Date added 7 years
Last updated 7 years
Legality

This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 3 Mythic Rares

28 - 7 Rares

18 - 3 Uncommons

3 - 2 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 3.69
Tokens Angel of Sanctions 3/4 W, Champion of Wits 4/4 B, Copy Clone, Energy Reserve, Servo 1/1 C, Sunscourge Champion 4/4 B
Folders Standard, Home Brew Decks
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views