The main objective of this deck is simple. You play Dueling Grounds, you play creatures, you make those creatures stronger with enchantments, and you protect both your creatures and enchantments long enough to deal lethal damage. Your main contenders are of course Dueling Grounds, but also Giltspire Avenger, and Sterling Grove. Pretty nice combination for controlling combat. I'm pretty sure this could even be modern legal with a few alternative choices. But this variant is decent for a casual game amongst friends I feel.
Anyways, you play the Dueling Grounds, suddenly everyone can only attack and block with one creature. Protect it with Sterling Grove, it tutors itself or other enchantments, overall good time to be found. Giltspire Avenger is your premiere creature. It has Exalted, so it's always gonna be at least a 3/3 when it attacks. It also acts as a good deterrent while you setup your board.
Other creature cards help to support this combination. Qasali Pridemage also has exalted, and can get rid of troublesome enchantments or artifacts. It's a good sideboard piece you can add in, just in case you face an enchantment or artifact heavy deck. Umbra Mystic just makes it harder to kill creatures that are enchanted. Aegis of the Gods just makes you a lot harder to kill as a player, and can also be tutored. I found Akrasan Squire as a good 1 drop. It has exalted as well, so it's good overall. Eidolon of Blossoms can help you draw cards during the later half where you might have excess lands you'll wanna use up.
Enchantments that help supplement the core strategy. Privileged Position combos with Sterling Ground giving everything hexproof. Spirit Mantle makes whatever it's enchanted with unblockable plus immune to creature abilities like deathtouch. Ancestral Mask gives +2/+2 for every enchantment that's on the board; including your opponent's enchantments. Shield of the Oversoul helps to protect creatures with indestructible. Mammoth Umbra not only gives +3/+3, but also keeps Giltspire Avenger untapped for his activated ability or to block. Armadillo Cloak gives +2/+2, trample, and lifelink; and can help keep you alive if you took a lot of damage while the deck snowballs.
Other enchantments that could fit in the main deck, or in the sideboard. You could add in any of the other g/w totem armor enchantments. Alpha Authority gives a creature hexproof, and could help early game against stuff like red or black aggro. Angelic Benediction could be nice, as it's another source of exalted. Also, if something attacks alone, you can tap a target creature. Nice for board control. An alternative could be something like marital Law, as it can detain any target opponent's creature during your upkeep.
Ethereal Armor gives +1/+1 for each enchantment (it's only your enchantments though) and first strike. You could argue Hyena Umbra is better cause it gives totem armor on top of a +1/+1 and first strike, and you have Ancestral Mask already. There's Sphere of Safety, which taxes opponents who try to attack you or your planeswalkers. I'd argue it's good, if you don't have Dueling Grounds out. But with Dueling Grounds, this may not be necessary to have. Still, could be useful against certain decks like other control decks.
Other cards that aren't creatures or enchantments. Idyllic Tutor or Enlightened Tutor are pretty much a given for the deck. Idyllic is 2W to play and puts an enchantment in the hand. Enlightened only cost W, but puts an artifact or enchantment on top of the library. Idyllic is more budget friendly and probably the one I suggest, as you probably don't need to be too concerned with how fast you use your tutor anyways.
I highly suggest Having Faith's Reward either in the main deck or sideboard. It's just a good card to have in case of board wipes. Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, and Calix, Destiny's Hand, are two Planeswalkers I highly suggest. Ajani does well with searching for creatures and aura cards. Plus, gaining 100 life is always nice. Calix is good for searching for any enchantment, plus can help with getting back all enchantments from the graveyard. Finally, you could throw in either a Retether or a Replenish. They both get back enchantments from the graveyard. Difference is Retether only does aura enchantments, however is much more budget friendly.
Notes on Playtesting and Play in General:
As I've tried the playtest tool out with this deck, I've noticed the deck tends to have everything it needs out around turn 9. It's a tad slow, but I didn't make it to be a super aggressive or fast winning deck. It's more of a fun, casual deck that's fun to play with and against. Yeah, it has it's control elements in it. Once it gets the ball rolling, it's likely you're gonna win. But, I wanted to build something where everyone can enjoy it.
The ideal starting hand is probably Giltspire Avenger, Dueling Grounds, Sterling Grove, and maybe either another Sterling Grove or an Idyllic Tutor and 3 lands. Or an alternative is the first three aforementioned cards, then 4 lands. The ideal hand can get the deck rolling as early as turn 4. As mentioned previously though, I've found the deck hits full momentum at turn 9. During playtesting, I was able to draw a hand that hit full momentum during turn 7. That's only if you have amazing draws.
I originally had Alpha Authority in the main deck, and Eidolon of Blossoms as a sideboard piece. But, I recently switched them, due to how Alpha Authority seems to fall off the longer a game goes on. Where the deck mainly shines during late game, Alpha Authority doesn't see much use during that time. Ideally, you'll have Sterling Grove and Privileged Position out, giving all permanents hexproof anyways. Eidolon of Blossoms however is not only a tutorable piece, but also grows in potential the longer the game goes on. As explained earlier, Alpha Authority could still be useful against decks like red or black aggro.
Two cards I added to the maybeboard recently are Angelic Benediction and Martial Law. Both are just regular enchantments, so it doesn't work with Ajani unfortunately. But, both could be added in to give even more board control. I'd say you only need 1 copy of each in the deck, as it's something you can just tutor, and probably don't want to draw multiples of anyways. These are 2 cards I'm heavily considering adding to the official sideboard, or maybe even to the main deck if I find room. It's possible you could take out two lands, and add them in their place. Just don't wanna have too little lands.
