The History
I've been playing this deck for a while now, and it is really fun and complex to play. It's probably not a top tier deck, but it can hold its own against many of the top decks right now. I fell in love with the morph mechanic when I began playing, with
Trail of Mystery
as my prerelease foil in Khans of Tarkir, and I've been playing it ever sense. I've posted many winning records with this deck, tweaking the sideboard for my local meta, and even earning a nickname, "Face Down Elves" after out elfing an elf deck.
The Deck
First thing to note, this deck runs 61 cards. I ran 60 for quite some time, and ultimately did the math and decided that the correct decision was to run a 61st card, a third
Mastery of the Unseen
. I have not regretted this decision.
This deck has the ability to go wide and go strong. Sagu Mauler is a nearly unstoppable killing machine and always eats at least one creature, often 2-for-1 ing an opponent. Mastery of the Unseen
+
Prophet of Kruphix
makes opponents cry.
Trail of Mystery
guarantees my mana base, and if it's early and I'm stuck, I can often Den Protector
+
Windswept Heath
to get another land. I used to run
Kheru Spellsnatcher
in the main deck, but the prevalence of Red Deck Wins and UR Thopters relegated it to side, but it comes in vs midrange, control, or a planeswalker based deck. It is damned amusing to fight a 5 color walker deck, and steal their Garruk, Apex Predator.
Strategy
The general strategy is to ramp out first turn, with the priority of Elvish Mystic >
Obscuring AEther
>
Ghostfire Blade
. Turn 2, I am typically playing either a morph or
Trail of Mystery
. Turn 3 onwards, things get very interesting. Sometimes, I end up with two
Obscuring AEther
or have a morphed Rattleclaw Mystic and dump two morphs, other times, flipping makes more sense, and other times, I'll have ramped into a whipserwood elemental orProphet of Kruphix by turn 3 or 4. Many times, I'll play a morph to bait out a removal spell, only to follow it up with the morph that's more useful in that situation. Deathmist Raptor is a great first play, with any other morph to play the following turn. There are a ton of decisions to make at any point playing this deck, which is tough, but even tougher for your opponent.
The deck runs 24 creatures in the main board, 17 of them morphs. The (simplistic, based on the full deck) odds of manifesting a morph creature is 28%, and a creature in general 39%. These numbers rise very quickly when
Trail of Mystery
removes all the lands from my deck. I run 14 basics, 5 fetches, and three pain lands, none of which etb tapped for maximum speed. I have at least 3 fetchable lands of each color, with a playset of Windswept Heath to usually find a Plains, a single Flooded Strand to find whichever of my lesser colors I'm missing, and extra blue sources in Rattleclaw Mystic and Yavimaya Coast. Assuming I mulligan if I don't start with a green source, I'm rarely missing a color of mana, even if I don't resolve a
Trail of Mystery
.
Ultimately, it's hard to convey exactly how interesting this deck is to pilot until you try it out for yourself. Every single morph is a combat trick, and because I'm playing so many different ones, it's impossible for my opponent to know what I'm going to throw at them next. Sometimes, that means holding back a creature based on what I expect them do do on their turn, other times, it means dumping my hand so they have to play morph roulette with their removal, and hope that they got the one that's the bigger threat to them.
Another unique thing with this deck is its removal - the main piece is Reality Shift, which is really good in this meta, as it exiles, it doesn't kill. Hangarback Walker, Darksteel Citadel + Ensoul Artifact
, opposing Deathmist Raptors are all easily dealt with by this. While not as prevalent, it was also very handy against whip decks. In addition, both Reality Shift and Valorous Stance can be used to protect my board presence.
Key cards and synergies
-
Stratus Dancer
- This card's countering abiltiy is great vs control decks or burn. Against the former, I tend to save it against a board wipe.
-
Icefeather Aven
- Returns manifested removal to my hand, and resets pesky things like Darksteel Citadel + Ensoul Artifact
- Reality Shift - removal that sometimes doubles as a defensive option.
- Dromoka's Command - used to be
Polymorphist's Jest
, but ultimately, this was useful in more matchups.
- Sagu Mauler - Big beatstick that's hard to kill
-
Kheru Spellsnatcher
- the morph they never see coming. Absolutely fantastic at stealing planeswalkers or preventing board wipes.
-
Ainok Survivalist
- Artifact and enchantment removal. A face down Reclamation Sage
- Prophet of Kruphix - very powerful and important. to play morphs for their effect, the casting cost is higher...BUT the casting cost is divided. Prophet solves this problem by letting me flash in morphs on your turn and use the mana to flip them on my turn. In this deck, prophet essentially doubles my mana. If I resolve a prophet, I typically win.
-
Obscuring AEther
- psuedo ramp, great for letting you drop multiple morphs at a time. Also, notably, this is a hilariously fantastic defence against
Foul-Tongue Invocation
and is a much better sac target for Dromoka's Command than
Trail of Mystery
or
Obscuring AEther
- Deathmist Raptor
+
Den Protector
- I think this one goes without saying
- Den Protector
+
Windswept Heath
- sneaky mana fixing
- Trail of Mystery
+
Whisperwood Elemental
and Mastery of the Unseen
+
Trail of Mystery
- these manifest cards ensure I never worry about mana, and also ensure that I'm much more likely to be manifesting creatures.
- Elvish Mystic
+
Reality Shift
+
Trail of Mystery
- if I'm low on useable creatures and mana, I can reality shift the mystic, and trigger the and fetch on the
Trail of Mystery
. Additionally, vs a control matchup, this is great to use vs a
Reave Soul
or Hero's Downfall to immediately replace a creatue that was going to die anyways. On rare occasions, I can even attack, then cast this on the attacker so I have a blocker. An uncommon interaction, but a useful one to remember.
- Stratus Dancer
+
Trail of Mystery
and/or Ghostfire Blade
+
Icefeather Aven
- my way of making a 4/4 flyer, very useful to stop attacking dragons. For example, I was once facing down a duo of Thunderbreak Regent, with a trail out and a morphed
Icefeather Aven
. I flipped the aven, using it to bounce one dragon and block and kill the other.
- Den Protector
+
Ghostfire Blade
- an Elspeth killing machine. Even deadlier if just flipped via
Trail of Mystery
. This combo breaks board stalemates, and is great for killing opposing planeswalkers or players with low life total.
- Deathmist Raptor
+
Mastery of the Unseen
- More of a note than a synergy - always put the deathmist returning to the battlefield trigger on the stack after the mastery lifegain trigger, so it resolves first and you gain another life.Kheru Spellsnatcher
+
Stratus Dancer
These have a slightly different text in a standard environment. Flipping these up has the effect of "Counter target spell. This can't be countered". An opponent holding up two mana for Negate is going to get run over by this interaction, as even killing the creature in response doesn't negate the trigger going on the stack and resolving.
Sideboard strategies
vs red deck wins, - -1 Sagu Mauler- -3
Trail of Mystery
- -1 Valorous Stance- -2 Prophet of Kruphix- -2
Ghostfire Blade
- -1 Mana Confluence- +2
Ainok Survivalist
- +1
Icefeather Aven
- +1
Stratus Dancer
- +1
Hidden Dragonslayer
- +1 Hornet Nest- +2
Sedge Scorpion
- +2
Monastery Flock
Morphs are played face up unless I land an
Obscuring AEther
. Special note for
Hidden Dragonslayer
's lifelink and
Ainok Survivalist
against Impact Tremors variants. The goal is to run them out of stuff, gain life, and stabilize.
vs thopters, - -1 Sagu Mauler- -3
Trail of Mystery
- -2 Prophet of Kruphix- +2
Ainok Survivalist
- +1
Stratus Dancer
- +1 Dromoka's Command- +1 Valorous Stance
vs. control and midrange, what i take out will vary based on the deck, but usually going in is- +1 Sagu Mauler- +1
Kheru Spellsnatcher
- +1 Valorous Stance. Temur, Grixis, or Jund Dragons will get all my removal sided in, including
Hidden Dragonslayer
.
Kheru Spellsnatcher
can end up qualifying as removal in this matchup.
Mastery of the Unseen
is a card that shines in the control matchup, as it's a flow of uncounterable creatures once it sticks. 1-2 Reality Shift is usually boarded out vs control unless I see Ojutai.
vs. elves. Pretty much stick with the main deck, just siding in the
Sedge Scorpion
s and
Stratus Dancer
to negate Collected Company.
vs. Turbo fog or Sphinx's Tutelage millthis deck is hilariously good against these decks. I'll typically just take out
Trail of Mystery
for my counter creatures, as thinning my lands out hurts me against the mill, but
Den Protector
gets back anything important I mill, maybe with a bonus Deathmist Raptor, and
Stratus Dancer
and
Kheru Spellsnatcher
is an uncounterable counter spell for their fog or AEtherspouts, leaving them dead on board.
Weaknesses
The deck is weak to board wipes, such as Languish, Eye-blight massacre, Anger of the Gods, and Drown in Sorrow, but is often resilient enough to come back from it, or counter it being cast. The other weakness of the deck is large amounts of big beefy flyers. My weakest match gameday was against a mono-white devotion opponent who dropped 2 Archangel of Thune and 2 raid triggered
Wingmate Roc
. Against monored, I have a disadvantage, but it's not unbeatable, and much better post board, when I lower my mana curve. I do worst vs. Mono red when they drop a T1 Monastery Swiftspear as the 2 toughness + prowess trigger often churns through my creatures. Any other mono-red creature is easily chumped, and stabilizes me.
In Conclusion
I've been playing iterations of this deck in various forms since I've started playing magic during the Khans of Tarkir prerelease. I've played a Temur morph deck, a Simic morph deck, and I've finally settled on this Bant one, thanks to the lifegain options really helping me out. The deck is incredibly challenging, as I often have to make a decision on how to play the deck vs each opponent. For example, I played a match against someone who brought out Phyrexian Revoker against me, naming Elvish Mystic to cut off my ramp. Game 2, I just sided out my mystics, and when he named them again, I had nothing to fear. The deck is capable of flooding the board, gaining insurmountable lifegain, or punching through their big creature and leaving up a wall of defense, and even outpacing control decks by forcing them to choose which morph to deal with and countering their board wipes. I expect this deck to entertain me through standard, and I look forward to playing the Theros and M15 pieces for as long as I can.
