I think you're trying to do too much in this deck, and you're relying too much on card synergies that don't give you enough output to be worth the trouble. Den Protector + Deathmist Raptor is a good combo because both cards are strong enough on their own, and together they create a ton of card advantage. Hardened Scales, on the other hand, is only good with a Hangarback Walker or Managorger Hydra in play. Silumgar's Scorn is pretty underwhelming without a dragon in hand or in play ... and you only have three in your deck. I assume your sideboard is a rough draft, but Ensoul Artifact with only two artifacts in the deck isn't going to cut it. Kytheon belongs in a very aggressive deck so you can flip him early, but it looks like a lot of your early game creatures are mana dorks, which you generally don't want to be attacking with. Mage-Ring Network isn't a strong card in general, especially not in a 3 color deck.

TL,DR: Cut the cards that depend on other cards to be good, and focus on one stage of the game. It's fine to have an aggressive deck with a few midrange creatures, or a midrange deck with some control elements, but trying to combine aggro, midrange, control, and combo all into one deck is a recipe for disaster.

I really dislike the Silumgar's Scorn and Hardened Scales in here. If you ran Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit I can see you making a case for the scales. If you also ran Dragonlord Ojutai I can see you making a case for Scorn. But otherwise, they have very low synergy in this deck. The new Gideon may be something to look at he creates dudes and he becomes a massive dude. I feel if you are also going the Den Raptor combo, you should be playing roughly 4 of each.

CharonSquared UpperDeckerTaco

Since both of you gave the same advice, I took a relook at the deck and tinkered a bit. Den Protector + Deathmist Raptor were removed and substituted for Orator of Ojutai and Dragonlord Ojutai

Does it look better?

Are you adding Noyan Dar Roil Shaper?

shepherdofire That's an excellent question... I hadn't saw that spoiler yet.

What do you think? Obviously in my head, it fits the colors perfect, and Hardened Scales could definitely make that ramp up faster... only issue I see is that I really only have 3 spells in my mainboard that would trigger that... so I'm not sure if I'd be getting the max value from it.

What do you think would be a good card to take out for it? It would occupy the 5 drop spot in my curve which Ojutai is currently holding.

What's the real point of having Orator of Ojutai?

IzzetGod Originally he was in the sideboard... moved him to the mainboard until I figured out something better to do instead.

In playtesting, the deck seemed to perform very well once it could get rolling... however in the early rounds it was quite weak. It seemed logical to throw in an early game blocker to keep myself alive against fast aggro like Goblins or Elves... something there to provide defense until the big creatures could come out. Obviously if push came to shove I could sacrifice my mana dorks as blockers... but that rather defeats the purpose of having mana dorks.

If you think there's a better opportunity I'm definitely open to suggestions.

Silkwrap isn't bad at getting rid of creatures that can threaten you early such as Mantis Rider Monastery Swiftspear, Abbot of Keral Keep, Savage Knuckleblade. Once rotation comes; Stasis Snare seems fantastic for removal as it'll remove any creature at Instant speed. I also think upping the Hangarback Walker to 4 is good as you can just play it for 1 or 2 and block and pump him to get a block with him and get more flying blockers until the Dragons hit the board. If you're also scared of early dudes I suggest removing Kytheon, Hero of Akros  ^Flip as he'll probably rarely flip. Replace him with the new Gideon, Ally of Zendikar or add some Swift Reckoning.

Very good comments all around... One of the new spoilers that just came out is Retreat to Coralhelm which I definitely think has a place in this deck. Retreat to Coralhelm

Suddenly I don't think the early game will be as bad as it might have been.... The interaction of landfall + fetches + Rattleclaw Mystic would technically create a situation where I can tap for 6 mana turn 3 and launch out Dragonlord Dromoka on turn 3... this deck can survive to turn 3...

Wait... bad math... turn 4

In order to hit the Dragonlord Dromoka on turn 4 you need both Rattleclaw Mystic which may be very difficult considering you only have 2.

You have to be careful, when building a deck like this one, on which aspect of your strategy you want to focus the more.

I don't want to say that your deck idea is all wrong, but trying to do a little bit of everything in a deck usually ends up poorly.

What do you prefer ? Ramping into dragonlords or playing a fast Hardened Scales deck with low-costed threats ?

Instead of cutting card and playing a inconsistent deck that tries to do both, you should probably make two decks :-D ! Bant Ramp and Bant Scales or some kind of fancy names, both ideas are good deckbuilding material.

Of course if you want to keep this deck as it is, you're totally free but I think it would be a wise choice to have 2 consistent, optimal decks.

IzzetGod Retreat to Coralhelm will allow me to triple tap Rattleclaw Mystic or Whisperer of the Wilds each turn.... so if I have Whisperer's ferocious triggered... I can be tapping 6 mana per turn off one creature each time I play a fetchland.

-Sylex- In theory, my optimal deck would a midrange aggro deck.... the original idea was to put out counter creatures early game, to provide early game threat and protection... which would then build themselves up over time while I worked to get the dragons out for the mid-game finisher...

Then again, with the spoiler of Retreat to Coralhelm, that's not quite as much time to waste. If I were to remove the Managorger Hydra and the Hardened Scales what would you recommend putting in their place?

Ohhhhh I got confused since retreat to coralhelm wasn't in the deck list...that does work and seems pretty cool too! But due to only having 5 mana dorks in the deck; the consistency of that combo early in the game isn't as high as it could be.

You are correct... I tried to add it, but Tapped Out doesn't recognize it as being a valid card yet... it just links to some dude's casual deck (who's probably getting a lot of views right now).

Once the card is updated, I'll be swapping 3 of them in for the Orator of Ojutai probably.

So would you say to remove Hangarback Walker maybe and up the dorks to 3x of and 4x?

To khaos2639 : Your idea was to try do to a bit of everything XD. I'll give you some suggestions for a Bant midrange deck. (You should do a new decklist for this one)

If you want a midrange build, I think a primary Green/White shell splashing blue for 2-3 Dragonlord Ojutai and 1-2 Kiora, Master of the Depths would be a good place to start.

The 4 Deathmist Raptor/3 Den Protector package slows down aggro deck while also providing late-game power. I think it's a good place to start because of how flexible and synergistic it is.

Dromoka's Command is another very good card for that deck. It's good at almost any point of the game and it can offer some clean 2 for 1.

1-2 copies of Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip could also work pretty well in there, this card is good at almost any point of the game and it lets you get a extra Forest towards your Dragonlord Ojutai and such.

Try building a list with thoses cards first then see what you could add in the mix with the remaining slots.A mix of ramp spells then some more removal, then the job's done.

Bant Midrange has a lot of potential and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were to become a tier 1 deck

Damn... I like that idea a lot... oddly enough that's almost identical to what the deck used to look like.

I took out the playset of Raptors/Protectors and put in the Hydras and Dragonlord Dromokas.

lol? "The interaction of new Kiora's +1 plus Hardened Scales also seems to be an excellent " - kiora's +1 doesen't work with Hardened Scales. Btw this card is useless in ur deck...

That note is specific to Hangarback Walker's ability.

Tap one land and add a counter (hardened scales doubles)

Kioras +1 untaps a land and untaps Hangarback

Tap again for another doubled counter. Basically equals 4 counters for tapping a single land.

2 more counters for 3 slots in deck? emm... it doesn't worth.

I see it - it's for "help" 9 cards, but really it isn't great idea (for example if u need smfn good from the top lib, but u get this enchant)

I like to see attempts like this at midrange decks with fun gimmicks, though as it has been suggested, and in my own experience as a /x midrange gimmick player, if you want to make a deck which works, you need to drop the gimmick or make it a strong precense in your deck. Hardened Scales can be very powerful, but if you just throw it into a deck where it does nothing with 22 of your spells (24 if you include the other 2 Hardened Scales), it won't be, it will be a 1-mana do-nothing enchantment, and you will be sad. I'll stop parroting other people eventually, but Kytheon, Hero of Akros  ^Flip is a good card because of its front side, you can make VERY little use of that front side, and if you are attacking with 3 creatures, you're already doing extremely well in most matchups (unless you're suiciding 2 of them and paying 3 mana), besides, you're only playing 18 non-mana creatures, that's too few to flip him reliably, an all of your other creatures are good even if they're your only threat. I've got more, but I don't feel like saying "you're building your deck wrong!" in a 3000-word essay, because you have some very good ideas, and I'm only commenting because I see some real potential here.

The better advice I can give you is to play more mana, if you play more lands, you get mana-screwed less, if you play more Lumbering Falls you mana flood less. If you add back in Deathmist Raptor + Den Protector you have something to do both early and late, when you have 3, 5 or 8 mana, which again helps you flood less. Personally I won't have less than 30 mana sources in my green midrange decks for the next year and a half, in fact, if you count Kiora, Master of the Depths and Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip, I don't think it's unreasonable to play upwards towards 40 mana sources in decks that are slightly top-heavy.

Here are the cards I thought of while writing this, they are good magic cards

• Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• Lumbering Falls
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• Deathmist Raptor
• Den Protector

If you're going to have Hangarback Walker anywhere in the 75 they should be in the Main.

I would take out 2x Kytheon for 2x Hangarback Walker. The reason why is Kytheon is used late-game when you have mana to protect him. This is also the time when you want to play one of your SIX giant Dragons. By using Hangarback Walker instead you have something else to do early that can be used during the late game also.