I dig it.. if you wanted to go slightly heavier blue and reduce the cost of your pump spells, throw in some Battlefield Thaumaturge . It turns your Feats into Gods Willing, but with +1/+1 counters, you can cast Incremental Growth for TWO GREEN! It's totally badass.

Ordeal of Nylea gives crazy mana surge in this type of deck. T1 plains, Favored Hoplite T2 forest, Hardened Scales then Gods Willing the Favored Hoplite to swing free and clear. The hoplite has 2 counters now as well.T3 land of your choice though you don't need it, Ordeal of Nylea on the hoplite giving it 2 more counters attack giving 2 more counters. Ordeal of Nylea is then sacrificed and you get 2 more lands.T4 potentially 5 lands and a very menacing hoplite on your side of the board. Also there should be a Soldier of the Pantheon in the sideboard if you make one to deal with all that multicolored craziness going on in standard now.

I played it as is today. I noticed that there was a huge issue with not having enough cards in hand around turn 4 or 5. Once my tricks are played, I can't do anything unless I can win with the cards on board. The ordeal of nylea is great for ramp, but I found that the ordeal of thassa was better, and honestly not enough. I am thinking about putting 2 more warriors' lesson in for the extra card draw.Thaumaturge is amazing. I've always loved it, but I don't see enough use for it unless I centered more around it, and it would hurt the deck if it wasn't on board constantly. I am still considering incremental growth, but I am not sure the curve can handle it. Maybe as a one of? Problem is also that I tended to only have 2 creatures on the board at one time tonight, and giving the opponent a +1/+1 would not be good! Soldier of the pantheon is a great card for the sideboard. I will definitely consider that, but I didn't have much problems with dealing with many creatures since my guys were always beefy, and had protection for backup. I will definitely think about that for a solid sideboard though.I really don't know what I am going to do to fix this deck yet, but draw power seems to be a big issue. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the removal since I didn't have many creatures. Anyone have any suggestions for some help with my issues?

I'm working on a similar idea, I run Ephara's Enlightenment and Vanguard of Brimaz check out my version Pass the Turn

Ephara's Enlightenment is a good card when combo'd right. I want to make a Jeskai deck that revolves around auras.

I plan on using Ephara's Enlightenment, Chosen by Heliod, Dragon Mantle, Stratus Walk and Fate Foretold. Possibly a couple other cheap bestows. Jeskai Ascendancy will be an important part of this deck. Creatures will be Hero of Iroas, Akroan Crusader, Vanguard of Brimaz, and Artisan of Forms. I am gonna need some more, just not sure which I am gonna use yet.

Main idea about the new deck is to continuously place auras and draw cards or replay Ephara's Enlightenment for more counters and more tokens. Could be good, who knows.

Sounds good, what do you think about Ephara, God of the Polis? I feel like there's a "token army" deck waiting to be brewed, maybe with Akroan Horse...?

Here's my attempt: Akropolis

I really like Ephara, God of the Polis and Akroan Horse. Problem I have with the horse is his cost. Not only does he give the opponent a 0/4, but he costs 4. Seems like it's too many drawbacks, but I love the idea of him. If he were a little cheaper I would use him in a heartbeat. Ephara is really a good idea too for atoken deck, I am just not sure if she can be afforded at her 4 mana cost either. I think I would have to play test her in there, to be sure, but the fact that she doesn't help me in early game and she takes away my turn 4 play which is very important to me, makes her seem bad. In a longer match she would be good, but token decks usually are not long lasting players.

Sweet, fun times! If you want to move beyond budget, I would suggest Ajani, Mentor of Heroes.

Definitely considered Ajani, but his upside doesn't justify the 5 CMC. I like the dig power, but the deck is not short on +1/+1 counters and that would not really push anything over the top for me. I may playtest with him, but I don't see him as super useful in the deck. This deck is actually not budget by design, it just is cheap because that's the cards that were the best. Thanks for the suggestion. I think he will be put in the sideboard for now.

@Jdvanliew lol again you prove you know very little about this type of deck. You trolled on that deck and now are trolling on mine. But I will indulge you in this and explain why you know little.

This deck runs 16 creatures because it is a deck that REVOLVES around buffing creatures. Ergo you NEED heavy instants in the deck to work. Having more than 16 creatures would cause you to draw creatures more often than you want. In this type of deck you do NOT want 4 creatures on the board at one time unless you are forced to be on the defensive. You will want 1 or 2 that you use the 22 instants (12 of which are protection) to buff them up and draw more cards. 16 creatures works great if you do not over extend yourself and you make sure you use all your protection effects to save the creature you are currently buffing up. The only removal spell that really is powerful against this deck is Crackling Doom and the sideboard I use takes care of that somewhat if not completely.

If you had actually read the description and the Updates, you would know how this deck is meant to be played and how it works. Your suggestion is asinine in that more creatures and less spells would destroy the deck completely. When you have some time play test this deck. You will see that it wins at a competitive level if you are good at magic at all, a fact you cast doubt on every time you post.

Now stop trolling my page and worry about your own decks. Once you have a deck that wins at FNM at least, come talk to me. Until then, don't bother me.

Solidarity of Heroes + Hardened Scales on Sage will give you five counters. First heroic will trigger, then scales to that, you have 2 counters, then you double it and have 4 counters, then scales will trigger again makeing it 5. Thats why i run 4 Solidaritys.

@Prfbadass Correct, One casting will give you 5 counters. If you cast a double casting of it the way I described in my update, you will have 19. I completely understand running 4, but I feel like it's a bit much. I usually only ever play one per game and I save it until I can use it to win the game or get a bunch of turns. Normally I would rather have a protection spell in my hand so I can keep my guys alive. Solidarity of Heroes does not protect from anything but damage, and the guys are usually big enough to not need to be protected from that. I am attempting to run the Ranger's Guile to have a little more protection instead of 2 of the Solidarity of Heroes to keep more guys up after I buff them. I don't really know any other protection spells to use. We will see how it runs, but I think 4 Solidarity of Heroes is a great game plan when it works. Other than that, I need more protection and that is my reasoning for lowering the number to 2. Thanks for your comment.

I would definitely run Ajani, Mentor of Heroes. I had a deck just like this and he really helped especially with the +1/+1 counters and once the eight counters happened, 100 life helped me win. as for a good damage prevention spell, I would like to say Hunter's Ambush. This also helped me with protecting my planeswalker.

@SnadroWraith

I may try adding Ajani in here just to see how it works. I still think the deck is dead, but there is a chance that it may give it enough kick to beat more decks. I don't think it has enough power to consistently beat the Jeskai Token deck that's out there, but I will give it a go. As for Hunter's Ambush... it's helping green creatures, and I have none. There are probably more viable choices for fog effects. Being that only a few creatures ever are on the board I think targeted protections would work a lot better than a mass one.

w4arped, I got here from the comments section of mortem's thread. I really like this deck, but can't afford the mana base. Is it possible to build this budget-style? Thanks.

@Elesh-in-Wonderland

The deck will work budget style, though not as well obviously. The mana base just has to be consistent enough to get you the mana you need when you need it. The majority of this new build that I came up with is white. So Dual lands can work for the other colors. The scry lands are also a good choice. But I highly suggest getting a play set of the Mana Confluence at minimum because they are extremely useful here. Honestly that is likely all you need. Scry lands and a few of the new dual lands should cover almost anything you need if you need to go very budget friendly. You could also do Evolving Wilds if you want even more budgety. The only issue with budget is the fact that lands coming into play tapped slows the deck down. It will still work, just a little slower, which isn't always a problem. The deck wins, so a turn behind is not always a huge deal.

I was wondering if you've taken this to any FNMs. I had to take a little vacation from magic because of student teaching, but summer's coming up which means i have some time to start up again. I had an okay u/w heroics deck that abused the shit out of Hidden Strings and Triton Tactics back in RtR and Theros blocks, and usually topped 8 at the very least. If you have taken this to any FNMs, how did it go?

@Caleb42

Took this basic deck to a bunch of FNMs, but that was before the last block. I have had a small break from actually playing as well. But the card changes that I have done basically are indifferent to the overall play of the deck. Biggest change was taking out Sage of Hours, and Hardened Scales. I loved the way they worked, but in testing they worked less well than the cards I used instead. This deck works very well. I suggest trying it on cockatrice or something like that to do some testing to see if you like it before buying it because it is definitely not for everyone. Plus, you should try to learn "how" the deck needs to be played, or you might lose every game. This play style works awesome as long as you don't like to be super aggressive. I will take this to an FNM if I can get time between building my house. If not it will just be theory and cockatrice games for me. Let me know if you take it for a spin. I'd like some feedback on things that didn't work well.

Ordeal of Nylea can get you some counters and search for land if you need it. Also Hardened Scales

@Ashlibithia

Hardened Scales was a tough removal for me since it's why I created the deck. The hard truth about it is that it just doesn't do enough to keep it in. When I removed it the testing worked so much more smoothly that I had to keep it out.

Ordeal of Nylea is a good card sometimes, but the searching of lands is done by the fetches. If I were to add another ordeal I would add heliod for the 10 life. I think the deck works well as it is (though I still intend to monkey with it after seeing a bant heroic win an open!). Adding another ordeal looks right on the outside, but in practice it doesn't work as well as it looks like it would.

I am planning on adding Treasure Cruise back to the deck. I think it would work if I could work it in there just right.