oh god they went right back into it...someone help

@w4rped and Jdvanliew:

The sky is not the limit. You've crossed the bar. FUCK OFF or I block you two. If you want to argue, do it on your own pages and not my deck.

Mortem The deck plays great! I used it to teach my best friend how to play magic yesterday. He's hooked now. Well done though sir.

After I played this deck a little more as a reaction based deck rather than a buff and swing, it's really good. I took out the Reap What Is Sown and added Ranger's Guile in it's place. I also added Mortal's Ardor and Nyxborn Shieldmate to the sideboard. The bestow on that one has one me a couple matches. I also run two Ajani Steadfast in the mainboard. It's pure brutality when I have a Hardened Scales and Abzan Falconer out and -2 Ajani. The whole crew gets a counter, plus a counter, AND everyone flies. Simply amazing. I'll keep playtesting on MTGO and reporting in!

thank you mortem!

@Mortem

If you want to block me you have the right. I probably even deserve it. I feel bad that I have to respond to his posts on your page, but he blocked me from posting to his. I refuse to ignore ignorance being spouted at me. As I said I do feel bad, but look at all the people that are following you now! I'm sure it's mostly the deck, but I wanna believe that I had some small amount of the people as well lol.

Either way, as I had said before, I have no issue with Jdvanliew other than when he personally attacks me. I wont respond to him unless the attacks continue. So if that's a problem then feel free to block me. The only reason I follow your deck is because I like it. So when I make suggestions and read suggestions from other people, I am incorporating it into my own design as well. Maybe I need to promote my decks better, but I can't ever seem to get anyone following mine. And mine is the same idea as yours if not the exact same cards.

Anyways, I apologize for any inconvenience that things have caused.I admit it probably got out of hand a bit. But I have been here to comment on your deck and other's suggestions. That's really my only interest.

That being said... How do you like Valorous Stance like Mont3y suggested? It seems like a good fit, and gives some desperately needed removal in a pinch. Also... I just found out about Monastery Mentor. I'm not sure if it's budget, but it would be amazing in the deck for only 2 CMC. Might be able to fill some of the creature slots you are unsure about? I'm sure you know my feelings about Phalanx Leader, so that would be my idea for something to replace. Might speed the deck up a little too. Combined with Launch the Fleet it could be a very deadly card to have at your disposal.

Hope there's no hard feelings. If you have to block me I'll understand. Have a good one.

Monastery Mentor is 3 CMC

@Vito1014

Lol good catch. I must have looked at it too quickly. I havent had the time ive wanted to study the new set. Still think its viable for the deck though. Very powerful. 3rd turn is rough though since you cant protect him and he needs it. Maybe itd be better played turn 4 and then launch the fleet 5? guess it depends on what you would risk and the matchup.

OK, w4rped, you have a good argument, so you can comment on here, but I don't want to see any arguing. Thank you.

Won 3 tournaments so far with this list as follows:

4x Blossoming Sands
5x Forest
11x Plains
2x Ajani Steadfast
2x Ajani's Presence
4x Defiant Strike
4x Favored Hoplite
4x Gods Willing
3x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
3x Hardened Scales
2x Ranger's Guile
4x Akroan Skyguard
2x Feat of Resistance
1x Suspension Field
4x Phalanx Leader
3x Solidarity of Heroes
2x Abzan Falconer

Side:

1x Erase
3x Mortal's Ardor
2x Nyxborn Shieldmate
1x Glare of Heresy
1x Last Breath
1x Suspension Field
2x Honor's Reward
2x Ranger's Guile
2x Warriors' Lesson

I know Ajani isn't in the "budget" realm, but I got a really sweet deal on him. Basically, if I'm on the play, I leave the mainboard as is. If I'm not, in game 2 I replace Abzan Falconer with Honor's Reward, replace the Ajanis with Nyxborn Shieldmate, find a place for Mortal's Ardor and go all out blitz. That usually wins. Ranger's Guile comes in for red decks and removal heavy stuff, Glare of Heresy against Rhino and Seeker of the Way and others. Replacing Blossoming Sands with Temple of Plenty will take this deck over the top. Also thinking about replacing Suspension Field with Banishing Light, or just doing a 1 and 1. Not sure yet. It'll take it completely out of the budget realm, but man, it's gonna be awesome!

It's pretty solid Jdvanliew. I wish there was some way that I could tutor for cards though. I feel like it'd be unstoppable then! Anyone know of anything that has a similar effect?

@iischris

Not in those colors. Blue can provide card draw, but no real tutor effects. If you want to part ways with budget, you could add in fetch lands and they will decrease the chances to draw mana. You can add a good amount of them with only two colors. It's definitely effective when you don't need much mana to win the game.

Other than that, you have an interesting take on the deck. Seems like with Ajani you would want to be more offensive instead of reactive. I have never had luck with being strict offense in any version of this. Though U/W heroic is insanely offensive and wins a lot. But that's a totally different animal since it really is built around unblockable and auras. You say you've won three tournaments with it? How many participants? And what deck did you face in the final round? I ask because even though I have went far with the deck tech here, there are certain decks that it is near impossible to win against with any regularity. At FNM I tend to go 3-2 because of this. Every once in a while I end up at 4-1, but it's not common. Magic players in my area play tier 1 decks for the most part. Out of the 30 or so people at my FNM there are (estimates) 3 U/W Heroic, 5 Jeskai Tokens, 4 RDW/Boros Aggro types, and 7 Abzan Midrange, I also think there are around 4 U/B Control though I am not sure if that is considered Tier 1 yet. Other decks of note are Sultai reanimater, Abzan reanimater, Mardu Midrange, and Jund Walkers. Now I can almost guarantee that in 5 rounds I will face at least 3 tier 1 decks. Generally I can pull a win or two off against some tier 1s, but facing and beating 3 is a stretch to do once, let alone 3 times. But if it works at your FNM that is great. Winning is what you go there for right? I'd just like to know what you are going up against that is allowing you to win so often, and how many people are at your tournys.

ive noticed through playtesting that i sit with 1 or more Akroan Skyguards in hand early game, because im using my extra mana to cast cards that trigger heroic. maybe try Wingsteed Rider instead for a more solid flyer when heroic isnt working out or being activated all that much. or maybe some other creature like Fabled Hero and go without the flyer since you are going to have flyers normally anyway because of Abzan Falconer. Just some suggestions to help with more solid playing incase of some really early game removal like a jeskai burn, even though it will slow the deck down

@LuPaiPai

Totally agree with havinjg too many Akroan Skyguard in hand when I don't want them. Problem I always ran into was that I needed the creatures to make sure I got 1 or 2 in my opening hand. Akroan Skyguard may not be my first choice, but I'd take him over a hand full of instants with no creatures. I actually think that with the Monastery Mentor it would be ok to change them out for him. Or at least a couple of him (though I'd run 4 ideally). Granted it slightly raises your curve, but if you look at the deck on a CMC scale, the curve isn't that good to begin with. So flattening it out with a playset of 3 CMC creatures may help it curve out better since they will replace 2 CMC cards. It's worth noting that I do not play with Abzan Falconer in my list so my top CMC is 2 not 3.

@Jdvanliew

Yes, fetches work very well. In my deck list I run more fetches than I do some basics. May not make sense to you, but removing all those lands from the deck early on is a huge help. Hard on your life total for the RDW matchups, but works for most games since they go longer than 5 turns.

Also... Do you really not have many T1 deck lists at your FNM? I have played at 3 different stores in my area and they all have over half the people there running T1 decks. The rest run homebrew for fun, or combo decks they just wanna screw around with. Personally I use FNMs to test my current build against the top decks. I assumed it was like that everywhere, but if you don't face T1 in your FNM then in must not be. If not many play T1 around you, then where do T1 play? In my area we have a few stores that run big events (40+ people) and give away over a thousand dollars in prizes (5 boxes for 1st, 3 boxes for 2nd, 1 box for 3rd, rest of top 8 get a number of packs). At those everyone plays T1 since the entrance fee is $25. At our FNM we only pay $5, but first place walks away with $50 store credit and payouts are up to top 5. Everyone brings a pretty good deck to FNM. It's really surprising that it's not like that everywhere. I guess casual play is more prevalent in other areas.

@w4arped: Wow, impressive! Which store is it?

Sorry for the late reply. I built that deck on MTGO, and I saw a lot of red decks. I just made sure to leave up mana for Ranger's Guile and Gods Willing. If they let me swing for one, I just take it. If they block I Defiant Strike or Feat of Resistance. I lucked into a Phalanx Leader against a mono black deck when there was already one on the board, and the next turn I sent out the team, which was 2 Leaders and two hoplites. He blocked the leaders and I Solidarity of Heroes them using strive and everyone got MORE counters with Hardened Scales. Next turn was a Abzan Falconer. Then came the scoop. The deck is still kind of wonky, but I really use Ajani Steadfast in conjunction with Abzan Falconer to send the whole team in the air, or I use it for lifelink to try and keep me alive long enough to do lethal. Against the red decks, though, they both come out for Mortal's Ardor or Ranger's Guile.

@iischris

Sounds to me like you have the exact play style of the deck down. Being reactive instead of just pump swinging makes for a lot easier time. Although I am not sure you are playing the Phalanx Leader right. You understand that even if you solidarity of heroes the Phalanx Leader all your other creatures will still only get one counter right? In other words, no matter how many counters you put on the leader, you only put one on each other creature for every target of him. Unless you have hardened scales out of course in which they would all get one additional. Abzan Falconer is a cool card when it works. I took it out of my deck for all those times that it was in my hand and I didn't want it at all. There should be no card in your deck that you absolutely dread picking off the top of your deck in certain situations, and that was one for me. So I took it out. Same thing with Phalanx Leader, too many cases when I do not want him. Ajani Steadfast might work. I never tested it honestly. I just couldn't justify the 4 mana for a lifelink effect (essentially that's all it is for according to what you said) when I can use Seeker of the Way much earlier and generally to great effect if used properly.

@Jdvanliew

3 hours once a week hardly seems like a waste of time. I spend more time taking a crap each week. FNM is fun and interesting. This game is a social game, and I am not quite sure it is worth only playing online. Then again, I am old school. I've been playing since Ice Age, so I've been around for a while. Newer players gravitate towards the online stuff and I will never understand that really. Nothing beats having actual product in your hands. I used to play casual in high school. But I'm a grown up now, and don't have many magic parties anymore. Though I do at times. And my FNM doesn't give away all those boxes... FNM is between 20 - 50 dollars for the winner. Depending on how many people are there of course. Generally there are between 30 and 40 so it stays around 25 to 30 dollars. The 5 box tournament I spoke of is like 4 times a year and yes everyone uses online strategies. But since it's a game day tournament there are no pro tour decks available yet for copying. But yes most do use some form of net deck. That is why the competition is so fierce there. I came in 12th with a boros burn deck the last one I went to. Not enough even close to placing though. Most people leave after thy lose 1 match. We also play PTQs a few times a year as well. I'm not sure the prizes for those but I'm pretty sure they are high. Plus the winner gets an invite to pro tour so it's nice. People travel from hours away to go to these things so you can imagine the competition is high.

@Mortem

The one that does the 5 boxes for the winner is called Mythic Games in Elmira, NY. I personally go to my FNMs at Jupiter Games in Johnson City, NY. Elmira is a bit far away for an FNM even though they have bigger prizes (more people). Jupiter has many events besides FNM. Big legacy following there. 1-3k dollars per deck. Insanity as far as I'm concerned. But each week at my FNM the winner is usually someone who's deck is priced around $200. I'm sure it's not unheard of for a budget deck to win, but it's extremely rare at my store. I always try to win with a deck that is not in the top8. I rarely make it passed 3rd place. Though I have won at other stores with them since the competition is less harsh.

Let my friend learn how to play magic with this deck. And surprisingly after 3 games he caught on enough that I thought he could handle a tournament. So we went to free night FNM. I think he won 3 games of the 12 for the night. Which was pretty good for being his first real time playing the game outside of learning. The deck is pretty user friendly. But I thought it was funny, cause on his own he mentioned that Phalanx Leader was a difficult card to play due to the double white. Think im gonna replace it with Seeker of the Way

w4rped I totally agree. I can't stand playing online. Seems like more of a hassle. Playing with friends is fun but get's boring because you see the same decks and strategies. I want to get out and see different opponents and strategies. I think it makes you a better player. See how different players think.

try running 2 akroan skyguards and 2 wingsteed riders, or instead of wingsteed riders maybe 2 seeker of the way