SasukeUchiha Ohhh no! a 2/2 bird, yes keep swinging at me with your bird, meanwhile I'll be on the ground with my 7/7 Favored Hoplite . Swan Song , who cares if they get a bird? how many life points you have doesn't matter if you win.

You are correct I_H8_U_M8 a 2/2 bird poses you little threat, and I doubt it could ever become a win-con, unless your opponent buffs it to be a 5/5 or a 7/7 bird, at which point you could counter by copying it with Artisan of Forms . Most match-ups you require Swan Song for shouldn't benefit enough from the token to beat you as long as you keep them locked down, which is possible with some of your spells. It might be smart to add a couple more spell counters just to be less susceptible to removal. Also Brave the Elements could be extremely useful to use as a finisher to bring in the last damage required, even though it doesn't trigger heroic. good deck +1

Ok just had to chime in that i was actually killed by a 2/2 bird token vs my friends azorious controll deck. I never drew into answers and it slowly cut me down. If it didnt kill me jace would have milled me out in another turn or so. Just because its highly unlikely does not mean it couldnt happen.

After taking this to my Sunday Standards the other day, I learned a few things.

1) Control is annoying as hell. If you drop your hand and even do a lot of damage and Supreme Verdict hits, then you're top decking. And you lose.

2) Elite Arcanist is way too situational and slow. He doesn't belong in here, unfortunately. The combo is amazing, but hard to pop off without him getting destroyed, especially since a four drop is kind of a mana-sink. Daxos of Meletis works better in his place, but still a little slow unless you can beef him up to a 4/4 with Bioshift , so that he's Lightning Strike proof.

3) The deck needs more draw power. Like, it's begging for it. Ordeal of Thassa is asking to be put in here, as well as Bident of Thassa .

4) I definitely recommend Fabled Hero mainboarded, as he's very aggressive. Even just blocking, he helps so much.

Felixlives well that just means that you didn't have the heart of the cards :); and or they hate you.

Oh, the with Fabled Hero in, the mana could use more white. And Rootborn Defenses should be mainboarded. Maybe two.

@MaliciousMac yea you should really look at the board first ;) Then look at post (#15), Still thinking about card draw, believe me.

Ok, awesome. Haha. What do you usually copy with Artisan? Just curious.

I have used Artisan of Forms to copy Centaur Battlemaster which is the most noteworthy :P Thank you for giving me a Centaur Battlemaster when I have two sets of Hidden Strings on the field lol. Swing, Gods Willing , Now I have a 9/9 Centaur Battlemaster . I also have copied Emmara Tandris which was nice, but not as funny as Centaur Battlemaster . Your basically asking me what I can clone :S

I have cloned early game Sylvan Caryatid to later game Heliod, God of the Sun who was an active creature for me. It was probably my best artisan of forms copy plus my artisan already had 4 1/1 counters on him. I have cut Elite Arcanist from my version of the deck he is really cool and i will probably put him back in for casual multiplayer games for the lulz but as far as competitive tourny settings hes to slow and situational also why the heck is he a 1/1 he should be a 1/4 or at very least a 1/3 for 4 mana especially considering the fastest he will be online is t5 and you will be tapped out with him as an obvious target for removal. Im trying all kinds of different cards in it befor friday when i play it at my local card store. Currently running 2 Bident of Thassa as when i had it as a 1 of i never seen it come out. I am thinking about changing it to a 1 of and putting in 3 Ordeal of Thassa . I really like Daxos of Meletis but has cut him completly for Fabled Hero also bumped him to a 3 of and am playing 21 lands. Its to hard to get 2 plains and an island by t3 otherwise. Although if i cut bident back down to a 1 of i may go back down to 20 lands. This is my favorite theros based deck out now i love heroic and it being so budget is the winning factor for me due to the uhh economy, (thanks obama). Still tweaking it to get it just right. My biggest quam with Daxos of Meletis is when i have got him out and hitting fairly easy with Ethereal Armor +Aqueous Form combo i always wiff and he scores me a land. He would be better in a combat phase with multiple attackers and Azorius Charm from the side board. They block something with Boros Reckoner you bounce it with charm hit with daxos gain three life and play a post combat reckoner of your own.

@Felixlives

Your changes to this build sound frighteningly similar to mine from taking out Elite Arcanist right down to switching in more Fabled Hero over Daxos of Meletis . I'm not currently running Bident of Thassa in my build, but I'm considering adding it before FNM. I like the idea of using Daxos with Azorius Charm and cherry picking a creature for Daxos' ability.

@I_H8_U_M8

Love this build by the way. I've been playing with it for close to two weeks, and it's the best bang for the buck out of any deck I currently play.

I like bident to force an attack into a triton tactics potentially recking the oppositions defensive strategy

Just found im pretty weak against rdw. Maybe imposing sovereign but its just as weak to removal as anything else. I found that id play a one drop on turn two so i can use triton tactics or gods willing to save him from a burn spell play two drops on turn three and dont block untill after my turn 4 because if i block and use triton tactics to make it profitable to block my guys get popped in response. I did beat it once by preventing him from playing his Fanatic of Mogis turns 4 and 5 but that was pure luck of the draw. Also his mistake was attack with Firedrinker Satyr while i had a blue mana untapped to cast triton tactics and block it with a 6/6.

Murder Investigation , anyone? Played a guy earlier who was using it and Ordeal of Heliod . He put both on a Favored Hoplite , and swung in for 4 that I couldn't stop. Even if I DID get rid of the Hoplite, he would've gotten 4 Soldiers.

Hey I_H8! I recently copied some of your deck but added a few more or maybe even a few less! Just wanted to give a shout out and thanks! It'd be greatly appreciated if you checked out my modified version of yours!

Updated the Deck, Wtih a few different cards. RIP perfect 50/50 Color Wheel lol. I think the deck is even a little cheeper? 0_0. Please guys, try it out :)

Testing The 18 lands 100 times, I got the land I needed 71 out of those 100 times. out of The 29 times I had to mulligan, 22/29 times I got the land I needed. Of the 7 times I had to mulligan again I got the land I needed 3/7 times. Out of the 4 times I had to mulligan again, I lucked out and got land every time, but I was limited to 4 cards opening. Best only to mulligan once. Also It really is just luck of the draw. I don't wanna continually flood myself, which happens in allot of games, but maybe when the next set of the Theros block comes out, I'll put in some W/U Scry lands.

Change side board. 3 Mizzium Skin , 3 Silence 3 Celestial Flare 3 Swan Song 3 Azorius Charm perfect against just about everything. Had trouble against rdw mizzium skin / azorius charm is the answer. Ready to rock tomorrow. Cut Bident of Thassa added 3 Ordeal of Thassa playing 2 Fabled Hero 2 Spear of Heliod 20 lands cut Elite Arcanist its cool tricks but too weak in a tournament but in casual multiplayer its fun. Thats all the news i got so far.

Dang i just test played your newer version and still managed to get flooded out 2/3 times. But for some reason when i actually play my version i get mana skrewed. Its hard to get two plains tur. 2 and an island turn 3. Earlier tonight i played against my friends sliver deck and some dimir devotion deck he made and i rocked his sox off. He sided all kinds of kill spells and i sided mizzium skin and between that and gods willing he was unable to kill a single creature. I can play fast against everything but controll or rdw when i want to make sure im able to cast a creature and protect it with gods willing, triton tactics or against controll by first attempting a silence to draw out a counterspell.

@Felixlives Did you look at the updated boards? The side board has the most control thus far for matches against control players. Celestial Flare I found was never used. Yes I can make someone sac something, however whats the point when I have an unblockable 6/6. Mizzium Skin can target and cause a single card to have heroic, but I have Gods Willing If I need more then Gods Willing I'll go with Brave the Elements . Silence is great too, I just choose Render Silent over it though.

Also Elite Arcanist is cut from my board already as well, (look at the update) :P.

Looking good M8!

I would suggest an additional Fabled Hero , maybe cut a one drop for it.

Hmm yeah Celestial Flare does seem like it can get cut. I mean i like the idea of getting rid of Chandra's Phoenix or Stormbreath Dragon with it but honestly im better off trying to gain life with an Azorius Charm and just racing for the win. Render Silent got cut from my sideboard because with as few lands as the deck plays and as aggressive as it needs to be i rarely can afford to dedicate that much mana to a counterspell. I need to be using all of my mana for some kind of creature protection combat tricks or playing out enchantments to get my guys fat and sassy. Maybe Brave the Elements could be good Mizzium Skin just seems so right. Protection is good against Anger of the Gods and Mizzium Mortars but i prefur the mizzium skin against azorius charm and every other target removal spell from blue/black Say you have a fatty fabled hero pumped with Aqueous Form and you put on some Ordeal of Thassa so they pop your dude with Voyage's End you save your guy from being bounced with either Gods Willing or Brave the Elements but you lose both your enchantments in the process. As creatures with protection cant be targeted by, dealt damage from, be blocked by, or enchanted by, the color they have protection from also i commonly only have one creature out anyway i wouldnt want to waste a chance to trigger heroic. Just some thoughts i am probably going to be keeping the deck the way it was as i feel it has plenty of tricks and Ethereal Armor +Aqueous Form +Fabled Hero =6/6 unblockable double striker. And any creature + 2 ethereal armor= huge threat for cheap.

I built this deck and I absolutely love it! I'm confused about Nivmagus Elemental ability... If you cast a spell, trigger heroic, then exile it, does heroic still trigger? Because it says the spell won't resolve.

If you cast a spell and it gets countered, the spell is still casted. So yes, Harperod, I think it still triggers heroic.

@Harperod

The trigger for heroic is "Whenever you cast a spell targeting (this creature)." This means that all you need to do is cast a spell which targets the creature. Once the spell is on the stack, it is considered cast and heroic will trigger. Whether or not the spell resolves is of no consequence. here's an example:

You cast Triton Tactics targeting Phalanx Leader and Favored Hoplite . Now Triton Tactics is on the stack. This triggers heroic on both the Phalanx Leader and Favored Hoplite , making the stack look like this:

Heroic Favored Hoplite
Heroic Phalanx Leader
Triton Tactics

Now you activate the Nivmagus Elemental ability and exile Triton Tactics for the activation cost, making the stack look like this:

Ability Nivmagus Elemental
Heroic Favored Hoplite
Heroic Phalanx Leader

Once everything resolves, the Nivmagus Elemental will receive two +1+1/counters from its ability, then Favored Hoplite will receive a +1/+1 counter from its heroic ability, and then each creature you control will receive a +1/+1 counter from the Phalanx Leader heroic ability. Triton Tactics was exiled and will thus not resolve.