So after trying my hand at Standard with my Azorius deck ExalteD-Strike I am finding myself determined to build a worthy Standard deck. I couldn't get it done with Azorius so I switched to Orzhov. Burn Decks were killing me and I needed to keep my creatures on the board, enter Black meta.
I like the Exalted metric and decided that Life Gain would be the best way to keep me in the game to develop the big swings I need to win.
Daggerdrome Imp
and Vampire Nighthawk are the workhorses in this deck, Lifelink and Flying gets me past blockers and Life Gain all at the same time. Deathtouch on Vampire Nighthawk is a nice bonus to take out big threats as well.
Aven Squire
,
Duty-Bound Dead
,
Knight of Glory
and
Knight of Infamy
all give Exalted and the Protection on the Knights is invaluable for blocking as well as swinging through blockers.
High Priest of Penance is the ultimate deterrent for attackers and Burn cards, I get a chump block and removal of a Permanent, ie Planeswalkers and Enchantments.
Desecration Demon
is the game changer. He always needs attention from the opponent, making them sacrifice a creature or using him as a blocker when you drop him, he is just a menace. Add Exalted to him and it's a game winner.
Smite
and
Ultimate Price
are standard removal,
Smite
works great with Exalted decks because there is always a blocker left over and you just can't beat a "destroy any creature" for 1W.
Dark Favor
and
Moment of Heroism
are my pump cards that accelerate damage early on and
Moment of Heroism
gives any of my creatures Lifelink.
Inquisitor's Flail is a game winner. Equipped to creatures with Flying or Protection is a sure hit for double damage and with two stacked on one creature it becomes 4 times the damage. This can get devastating quickly with Exalted and Lifelink, plus if the equipped creature is killed, Inquisitor's Flail stays on the battlefield to be used again.
Sideboard
Dead Weight
adds additional removal for fast aggro decks with low toughness creatures.
Faith's Shield
protects my creatures from Burn and Removal and can also be used on offense to swing past flying blockers.
Skyblinder Staff
also comes in against decks with lots of fliers.
Nevermore stumps troubling cards like Lingering Souls,
Hellrider
and Searing Spear as well as Boardwipe and other nasty control cards.
Witchbane Orb protects from Burn damage, Milling effects and many Planeswalker abilities. It really interrupts many Control deck metrics as well.
I have tested with everything on the Maybeboard and most of it hasn't produced any significant improvement.
Comments and +1's are appreciated, Playtest it and let me know what you think.
