Ramping into Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Planar Bridge, Marionette Master and goodies.
I am under the impression that deathtouch is an underrated ability right now as it answers a lot of the scary threats in standard right now (Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra, Carnage Tyrant, etc). Not to mention a lot of the deathtouchers in the format are great cards in and of themselves. Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Gifted Aetherborn are power houses in their own right, but I wanted to take it a step further and make their deathtouch even more powerful with first strike.
There are a few ways to do this in standard right now. My original idea was to play Neheb, the Worthy and Arcane Adaptation to make all of my creatures Minotaurs. Although fun, this strategy proved to be too unreliable very quickly. I then tried to use Sure Strike both as a way to pump my creatures to close out a game and to first strike the important targets from my opponent. However, I didn't like that it only gave the target first strike until end of turn.
I knew Cartouche of Solidarity was an option from the beginning, but I really didn't want to splash white just for the card. I must say though that after testing with this card it may be the strongest option. At 1 mana it is easy to squeeze into the same turn I play my creatures and the +1 to toughness is very strong as well. Making a Gifted Aetherborn a 3/4 gets it out of Abrade/Lightning Strike range (which I ran into a lot in testing). I can't tell you how many times I played a Gifted Aetherborn and watched it die to Abrade/Lightning Strike with Sure Strike in my hand and the mana to cast it. So far I am a fan of Cartouche of Solidarity for these reasons.
Along with the strength of Cartouche of Solidarity itself, it has allowed me to play copies of Trial of Ambition/Trial of Knowledge and get insane value in the form of card advantage and the insane repeatable edict effect that is Trial of Ambition.
Any recommendations I will consider and more than likely test so thanks in advance for any input.
