It's a Thing! (25-6-4 Record) (Standard MTG Deck)

It's a Thing! (25-6-4 Record)

Standard GWU (Bant) Midrange Mono-White

Apaquazy

Creature (23)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Land (24)

Enchantment (5)

Instant (7)

Sideboard

Creature (5)

Enchantment (4)

Instant (6)

Maybeboard

Creature (2)

2x Warden of the First Tree

Instant (3)

Current Record : 25-6-4

Mono white midrange deck, splashing blue and green to fill out the gaps. Strong early game with Kytheon, Hero of Akros and Warden of the First Tree , as well as Knight of the White Orchid to help fetch the dual lands to power the multi-colored spells. A handful of removal to help get you to the late game, where cards like Archangel of Tithes, Wingmate Roc, and Dragonlord Ojutai can seal out the game.

Creatures

Kytheon, Hero of Akros : At his worst, he's a 2/1 for 1, which isn't terrible. At his best, he's an early threat that flips into a serious mid-to-late game threat. Gideon, Battle-Forged can swing a game into your favor very quickly with any of his loyalty abilities. His +2 can force the opponent to make bad trades in your favor, his +1 can untap your Archangel of Tithes so they have to pay to both block and attack the following turn, or allows your Hangarback Walker to tick up quickly. Turning him into a 4/4 indestructible isn't terrible either.
Warden of the First Tree : A 1/1 for isn't terrible, but he's much more than that. If he isn't dealt with quickly, he can get out of hand extremely quickly. Potential downsides are his weakness to Silkwrap , even when he goes Super Saiyan, and also the likelihood of getting untapped on turn 1, but the upside makes it worth at least a 2-of so far, potentially even more.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit: Solid body for 2 mana, and the is never an issue. Bolstering a Hangarback Walker is always great, and she just facilitates trading up.
Hangarback Walker: Not much to say here. Great card, fills any gap in your curve, and can quickly get out of hand if left unchecked. Slightly worse with how many people play Silkwrap now, but still a force.
Knight of the White Orchid: One of the most important cards in the deck, for sure. A 2/2 first striker for 2 isn't bad, and can easily lock down early-game aggression by himself, but his secondary effect can be incredible. An ideal start on the draw would be playing 2 Plains on turns 1 and 2, dropping him on 3 to fetch for a Canopy Vista, then dropping a Prairie Stream. By turn 4, you more than likely have 5 mana, and all of your splash colors available, allowing you to play any card in the deck. Incredible in the early game, and still great late if you're behind on land drops.
Hidden Dragonslayer : At his worst, he's a 2 mana 2/1 lifelink, which is fine. At his best, he can come in face-down on turn 3, and flip up the following turn to take out their Siege Rhino then swing at them for 3. He's a versatile threat that can join in on the beat-down early game, or act as removal for their big guys. Siding in Mastery of the Unseen also gives us more life-gain synergy.
Archangel of Tithes: I love this card. Plain and simple, she can easily win you the game on turn 4. Unanswered, she completely shuts down any sort of "go wide" strategy, and can let your guys swing face without the fear of being blocked. She blanks Siege Rhino and Thunderbreak Regent, and can bait out hard removal that they would wish they had for the next cards. Easily my favorite card in the deck.
Wingmate Roc: I'm sure everyone understands how good this card is by now. With enough early drops to activate Raid, it's almost always for two 3/4 fliers with upside, which is insane value. The life you can gain with them and any other attackers is always valuable, and the 6 power you get in the air can sometimes be all you need to put your opponents on a 2-3 turn clock. I've stuck a pair of Rocs on the board, and gotten an auto-concede a few times now.
Dragonlord Ojutai: Yet another great card to swing the late game in your favor. You'll rarely be missing the needed for him by turn 5, so he is unlikely to be stuck in your hand. A 5/4 hexproof flyer is great for blocking, but where he really shines is the secondary ability. If he's able to swing in, your opponent will take the 5, and you'll trigger a free Anticipate, which can dig you right into the answers you need to close out the game. More than one trigger before he's dealt with, and you've basically won.

Enchantments

Silkwrap : Extremely powerful removal in the current format, especially with the premium enchantment hate being rotated out. 2 mana to take out a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy , Mantis Rider, Hangarback Walker, Monastery Swiftspear, Deathmist Raptor, or anything else that poses an early game threat is great value. Extra synergy points if have both this and a Stasis Snare out to protect against Dromoka's Command. Oh, sac and enchantment? Okay, cool, you can have back that 0/0 Hangarback Walker, no problem.
Stasis Snare: One extra mana for an instant speed "catch-all" for creatures makes it worth having a couple of these in here. Having a mainboard response to someone trying to go off with a combo or just swinging in with something big is a huge plus. As with Silkwrap , removal enchantments are very strong in the current meta, where the only common removal an opponent would have is Dromoka's Command. Might be one of the more flexible spots in the decklist, but I've liked it so far.

Instants

Valorous Stance: A very strong and flexible card in the current format. Any creature that can't be caught with Silkwrap can more than likely be hit with a Valorous Stance. It also can act as a way to protect your own creatures from opposing removal or can swing a trade into your favor. Strong in most matchups, but easily sided out against more aggressive decks.
Dromoka's Command: Currently the only reason to splash green in the deck, but I think that it's worth it. The counter/fight combo to respond at instant speed is an easy way to give you board control quickly. The other modes, while infrequently used, can definitely come in handy. Making your opponent sacrifice their Quarantine Field to get all your stuff back, or blanking out their Radiant Flames can put you in an extremely favorable position.
Ojutai's Command: Yet another versatile card, where any of its 4 modes can be utilized. It costing 4 seems a bit steep, but if you plan for it, it can be exactly what you want exactly when you need it. Leave that mana open to basically Bone to Ash their big guy, or even gain some life and flash back your Hidden Dragonslayer against an aggro deck. Another one of the more flexible spots in the list, but more times than not it has shown its usefulness.

Planeswalkers

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Easily one of the most powerful cards in the current standard format. Would likely be a 4-of if I felt like dropping another $120 on the deck. The 4-mana cost is relatively cheap, and all of his loyalty abilities are almost always relevant. The +1 can put serious pressure on the opponent, because who wants to deal with a 5/5 indestructible coming at you every turn? His 0 can be a source of infinite value, and his -4 permanently buffs up your guys. I don't know of any white deck that wouldn't want to run as many of this guy as possible, so he might be a future investment moving forward.

Lands

Flooded Strand + Windswept Heath : The 8 fetch lands in the deck are extremely valuable for multiple reasons. First off, they thin out the deck by simply removing another land from your library, increasing the odds you'll draw into the cards you want to see later on. Secondly, with the new BFZ battle lands, we can now fetch up dual lands, which is obviously a huge help with finding the colors we need to cast the few multi-color spells we have in the deck. Lastly, and probably most importantly, these fetches can grab any land (with one exception) in the entire deck. Need green mana? Go fetch a Canopy Vista with your Flooded Strand. Need more basics to activate your battle lands later on? Go fetch a Plains with your Windswept Heath. With the colors this deck is running, mana is extremely smooth, and these cards make it very likely that you'll have what you need to cast your spells when you need it.
Canopy Vista + Prairie Stream : The new BFZ battle lands have made mana in this standard format extremely easy (but expensive). No longer will you have to rely on throwing in inefficient dual lands or a few basics to tap into the splash colors you need. Now, in combination with fetch lands, you'll have the mana you want when you want it, and that's that. With this deck essentially being mono-white, it makes our job even easier, as the battle lands will almost always be online with our 12 basics in the deck.
Forest: Added one to facilitate the Warden of the First Tree to hopefully get him on the board on turn 1 through it or a fetch.

Sideboard

Stratus Dancer : Pretty underutilized card I think. A 2/1 flyer for 2 isn't bad, but obviously the upside comes from her effect. While essentially a less effective Negate, the surprise factor, the inability to counter the counter, and the 3/2 flyer afterwards makes this a cool pick.
Felidar Cub: With how good Silkwrap is nowadays, it's nice to have some extra hate for it somewhere. Originally, this spot was for Erase , but I felt like the ability to have a 2/2 guy on the board with the possibility of Ojutai's Command recursion beat out the instant speed and 1 less mana. Definitely a flexible spot though, feel free to use Erase instead.
Mastery of the Unseen : Originally in the mainboard, I think this card can easily win you a long game. Being able to make a morph at the end of your opponent's turn, with the option of flipping it up and gaining some life on your turn can be extremely hard to deal with against slower decks. It's not great against aggro, so that's why it was demoted to a sideboard option.
Quarantine Field : Another card against the control matchup. This is our only way to deal with Planeswalkers without having to swing at them, so it's basically a must against opponents that run Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. It's not terrible to take out a Siege Rhino with it, but ideally you'd want to hold out and drop a lot of mana to take out a couple of their major threats.
Surge of Righteousness : The more answers to Siege Rhino, the better. The life gain can be extremely helpful against red decks too, and it feels pretty great to take out a Monastery Swiftspear going off with Become Immense + Temur Battle Rage for 2 mana. Not to mention a Mantis Rider or Savage Knuckleblade, fantastic card. Probably the most sided-in card in the board.
Silkwrap + Valorous Stance : Just bring in more one of these if the matchup calls for it. Silkwrap for aggro, Valorous Stance for big guys, simple as that.
Dragonlord Dromoka: She is a beast, plain and simple. A 5/7 flying lifelinker that shuts the opponent down on our turn can be pretty insane. If you can live long enough to bring her in against aggro, you've basically just stabilized. Against midrange and slower decks, she's an uncounterable big body that can limit their options and needs to be answered quickly or things will swing into your favor. Costing can be a bit slow for the main deck, but she's a great card to bring in, and not enough people prepare to face her.
Hallowed Moonlight: With the surge of Rally the Ancestor decks in my local meta, this card has become a staple after game 1 against a few decks. Being able to essentially counter a Collected Company or See the Unwritten, or completely destroy a Rally the Ancestors and draw a card for just and is just insane. Also helps against Deathmist Raptor, Ojutai's Command, and Secure the Wastes to name a few. Awesome card.

Combos

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Hangarback Walker : Fairly simple combo, but being able to pump up the Hangarback Walker for free can be a great way to get ahead early.
Archangel of Tithes + Gideon, Battle-Forged : Being able to swing in with Archangel of Tithes forces the opponent to spend mana to declare blockers, but afterwards you can use Gideon's +1 to untap her, forcing them to also spend mana to attack you. It doesn't seem like much, but this really puts a strain on the opponent's mana, and may cause them to use more resources than they'd normally want to take either one of them out.
Gideon, Battle-Forged + Hangarback Walker : Again, just using Gideon's +1 allows Hangarback Walker to pump up twice, or attack once and leave him available to block and/or pump on the opponent's turn.
Canopy Vista + Knight of the White Orchid + Prairie Stream : You wouldn't notice it at first, but Knight of the White Orchid's ability allows him to fetch for any Plains, not just basic ones. This means that, in this deck, you can essentially have 12 fetch lands to grab whatever color of mana you need. Also, his ability doesn't count as your land for the turn, so you could ramp up to 4 mana on turn 3 if you're on the draw.
Dromoka's Command + Gideon, Ally of Zendikar + Gideon, Battle-Forged : Probably another combo most people wouldn't think of. When either Gideon uses their loyalty ability to become an indestructible creature, you can use Dromoka's Command to fight him with one of your opponent's creatures with no risk to him. This is a sequence your opponent might not be expecting, and is a nice way to remove a big creature of theirs without having to trade any of yours.

Suggestions

Updates Add

FNM: Second Place Again! (3-0-1) — Dec. 4, 2015

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Another Friday, another powerful performance at FNM, this week bringing home the new shiny promo Anticipate.

Round 1 - Aggro: This deck didn't seem to pose too much of a threat against ours. It looked like a Mardu Dragons deck, but with a bit of a twist with things like Soulfire Grand Master and Butcher of the Horde. Our deck's early game contested theirs, and by the time they could start getting out the Thunderbreak Regents, we had drawn into our answers. Game 2 went just as quick, but with the added benefit of a couple Surge of Righteousness and Dragonlord Dromoka. I didn't draw into any of the sideboard, but it didn't seem to matter. (2-0)
Round 2 - + : Seemed to be a fairly standard Abzan deck, but splashed in blue for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy ^Flip and some sideboard disruption like Disdainful Stroke. Game 1 started out unfavorably for me, with a couple Heir of the Wilds and a Warden of the First Tree staring me down. I was down to about 5 life when I was finally able to step on the brakes with an Archangel of Tithes, who was undoubtedly the MVP of this match. She was able to hold back his attacks while I slowly build up my board presence and keep ticking up my Hangarback Walker. Eventually the board was in my favor enough that I started swinging, and took game 1 soon after. Game 2, I boarded in Dragonlord Dromoka, Mastery of the Unseen, and Surge of Righteousness for the Siege Rhinos. This game started even worse than the first, with him dropping 3 different Rakshasa Deathdealers that I just couldn't seem to deal with. After that, a Siege Rhino had me down to 4 life, and things were looking grim. Our Gideon, Ally of Zendikars traded, I was able to Silkwrap a Rakshasa Deathdealer, and caught another Siege Rhino with and Ojutai's Command, so I was able to hang on for a while longer. Once again, dropping an Archangel of Tithes turned out to be the best possible play, because he only had 2 available, which meant his attacking/blocking options were limited with Rakshasa Deathdealer's ability. By the end, I had Mastery of the Unseen pumping out a guy a turn, and Dragonlord Dromoka was able to swing in once to take me out of a dangerous life range. The game ended with an exact lethal swing. He was able to block all but 10 damage, his life being at 11, but after blocks were declared, I flipped up the Hidden Dragonslayer for the extra 1 I needed. (2-0)
Round 3 - Aggro: Pretty scary all-out rush deck, with stuff like Bloodsoaked Champion, Flamewake Phoenix, and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury. He took game 1 pretty easily by filling up the board and getting me low enough that his flyers eventually took me out without flyers of my own. Game 2, I brought in the Surge of Righteousness, Dragonlord Dromoka, and Silkwrap. It started about the same, but I was able to get out some effective blockers in time. Dropping a raided Wingmate Roc sealed the deal, allowing me to swing in for 6 a turn and slowly gaining life back. Game 3 went similarly, but with Dragonlord Dromoka and Dragonlord Ojutai instead of the Roc. I ended the game with a Surge of Righteousness and Stasis Snare in hand, so I never felt in too much danger that time around. (2-1)
Round 4 - Rally: Whether through good starts on my part, bad starts on theirs, or a combination of the two, this deck hasn't given me much issue in the past. This time however, I've begun to understand why people say this matchup is so rough for my deck. Game 1, it was all I could do to just stick around as long as I could. The ability to block with creatures, then sacrifice them to activate the abilities of all his guys, all the while taking no combat damage from it just seems to be really effective against what I have. He took game 1 with a Rally the Ancestors, bringing back 3 Zulaport Cutthroats, a Nantuko Husk, and enough fodder to wipe me out instantly. Game 2 went a little less terribly, as I was able to bring in my new sideboard option, Hallowed Moonlight, as well as Dragonlord Dromoka, Stratus Dancer, and Silkwrap. Flipping up a Stratus Dancer on a Collected Company and Hallowed Moonlight on a Rally the Ancestors allowed me to live long enough to swing in with my flyers. Unfortunately we ran out of time before the match could run its course, but the two of us took the top 2 spots for the night. (1-1-1)

Once again, the deck had a strong presence at this week's FNM. At this point, it seems like the only things to work on would be perfecting the execution and fine-tuning the sideboard.

Changelog:

-1 Forest
+1 Plains

Sideboard
-2 Surge of Righteousness
+2 Hallowed Moonlight

FNM Again (3-1) — Nov. 20, 2015

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FNM: First Place! (3-0-1) — Nov. 13, 2015

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FNM: Second Place! (3-1) — Nov. 6, 2015

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FNM (3-1) — Oct. 30, 2015

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Game Day! (5-1-1) — Oct. 26, 2015

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More Tweaks — Oct. 23, 2015

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Slight Update — Oct. 19, 2015

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First FNM (3-1) — Oct. 9, 2015

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Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Key combos	Become Immense + Temur Battle Rage Flooded Strand + Windswept Heath Canopy Vista + Prairie Stream Silkwrap + Valorous Stance Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Hangarback Walker Archangel of Tithes + Gideon, Battle-Forged Gideon, Battle-Forged + Hangarback Walker Canopy Vista + Knight of the White Orchid + Prairie Stream Dromoka's Command + Gideon, Ally of Zendikar + Gideon, Battle-Forged
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 2 Mythic Rares 26 - 6 Rares 8 - 5 Uncommons 0 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.58
Tokens	Bird 3/4 W, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Manifest 2/2 C, Morph 2/2 C, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	New bfz decks, try, VERY NICE HOW MUCH, BFZ Playtest, BFZ Playtests, white, Bant, Budget standard, bant, standard brew
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