I saw the group's petition, which inspired me to go on a mission. I was to go on an expedition, to find a coalition for the ones that petition. I came across few and varied editions, but didn't like their compositions. Upon my own volition came my mission to forge my own rendition. Azorious was my original ambition, but other tacticians inspired a Green addition to make a Bant transition. With ambition and list revisions, trials and tribulations has given confidence that this edition has reached it's fruition.
The Commander
Again, after some thought, I wanted to build a Bant list. Unfortunately, there aren't much Bant commanders that play into the strategies that the Petitioners provide.
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis
draws everyone cards, mildly advances our strategy, and also masks our intentions. Our commander might let us slip under our opponents radars, all the way until we play our first Petitioner.
Even though our commander allows Red , I haven't found any fitting red cards that fit into the strategy, so we're actually not playing any inherent red sources.
The Task
Persistent Petitioners
by itself is an inherently bad card, despite being able to cram as much as possible in a 100 card deck. Paying and tapping to mill 1 is really bad. Tapping four Advisors and milling 12 is better, but still bad. You need 8 activations to mill out 92 cards, 24 activations to mill 3 opponents... As fun as the Petitioners look, they're going to need a lot of help.
The Help
Thankfully there's plenty of big-play cards that help with the Petitioners. 24 activations is a lot, but there are good combo pieces to help.
Paradox Engine
,
Intruder Alarm
,
Quest for Renewal
,
Seedborn Muse
,
Isochron Scepter
with
Dramatic Reversal
These cards are going to repeatedly untap all of our Petitioners, sometimes clearing out opponents when they hit the battlefield with enough Petitioners. These are our key win conditions.
Illusionist's Bracers
,
Fraying Sanity
,
Thrumming Stone
are all there to strengthen our mill.
Thrumming Stone
is almost a requirement for singleton-exception decks. 24 Petitioners is just enough to rip out every Petitioner onto the battlefield with a little luck. The more unconventional card
Doubling Chant
is also here to support this effort.
Many of our key cards are artifacts, so
Fabricate
helps get whatever we need.
Mystical Tutor
also searches for Fabricate, or it can get a
Dramatic Reversal
for our Isochron Scepter, or anything else really. Many of our instants and sorceries provide a lot of value.
The Bureaucracy
We don't really want to attack. We're going to be tapped out on creatures most turns, and we're going to attract a lot of attention as our opponents realize that we're going to spiral out of control. Or if someone really, really hates mill.
Crawlspace
,
Ghostly Prison
,
Propaganda
,
Aura of Silence
just make it increasingly hard for the opponents to interact with us.
Cyclonic Rift
Will reset the board when needed.
Dusk / Dawn
is an underrated wipe that all of our creatures duck under. It's pretty much a one sided board wipe. It also assists rebuilding our board. What more can you ask out of a board wipe. We also have
Reliquary Tower
and
Thought Vessel
to support Dusk to Dawn.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
is also here as Advisor support, but mainly because she shuts down pinging strategies such as
Niv-Mizzet, Parun
or weenie tokens.
The Nuances
I prefer
Disappearing Act
over
Counterspell
because it interacts a lot with our key cards. Counter a spell, bounce a Petitioner, trigger Thrumming Stone, Intruder Alarm, or Paradox Engine. It can also reset Isochron Sceptor if you used it for another spell and you finally draw
Dramatic Reversal
You can opt for Counterspell instead if preferred, especially since you can use it with Isochron Sceptor.
Silent Gravestone
is here as a budget replacement for
Rest in Peace
. I personally use it as of this posting, but also I wanted to bring a little attention to it.
There's also a sizeable handful of mana rocks, but it's to ensure Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal goes infinite, or to grab more value out of Paradox Engine.
Closing
A little janky and a little scary, I admittedly haven't trialed this deck into the ground. The games I have run with this list have turned out have performed past my original expectations building this list, so I wanted to share it as I love the more unconventional strategies in Magic. There are some things I might have missed, so feel free to add suggestions. I'm open to improvement.
