I gotta say I like the Hero's build a lot, it absolutely oozes synergy. I'd almost replace Kytheon with Mardu Woe-Reaper since I believe it would boost our defense against other aggro decks and anything w/ delve pretty considerably. But yeah that's a really solid deck and I want to test it on cockatrice immediately.
Looking at the full BFZ spoiler two cards really stood out to me: [[Stone Haven Outfitter]] and [[Stoneforge Acolyte]]. These cards check off a number of boxes in my mind that make them appealing:
They're allies
They're cost-efficient weenies
They both have the potential to generate some serious card advantage.
Of the two Stoneforge Acolyte might be the more impressive specimen as you can get him working as early as turn 2 if you play him turn 1. Now these two cards in a vacuum are impressive but honestly far from game-winning, but the crazy thing is everything these cards need to be successful in their own right seems to be provided by OGW in the form of a particularly cute package consisting of:
-Bone Saw - Free enabler
-Stoneforge Masterwork]]/Captain's Claws - Potential for incredible blowouts
-Weapons Trainer - With this deck's focus on Allies and Equipment there's no way I wouldn't include him.
I'm still working out the kinks and figuring the right creatures to include, but currently the deck looks something like:
W/g is probably more likely than W/u, but a man can dream. In addition Harbinger probably wouldn't be treated like a t2 drop but a t3 drop. Also with my build I think having some taplands might not be a death sentence since most cards cost 2 or 4 cmc, meaning you don't sacrifice alot by dropping a tapland t1 or t3. That being said ensoul artifact seems like a terrible route for this deck, especially since two of the cards you'd pair it with are pretty much totally useless without it. Ornithopter helps activate Kytheon but even then unless you have two of them and Kytheon in hand t1 you still cant activate him until t3 at the earliest, it's a total waste of a slot. Likewise for Darksteel citadel, which is a terrible option when you're running ww creatures.
So based on the spoilers we've seen so far, Magic Origin is giving white a ton of new toys to play with, especially bears with perks. White weenie hasn't really been big for a while but I think that the combination of what is already out there and what's coming is going to make the archetype very competitive. Initially I thought just WW was the was to go, but after Harbinger of the Tides was spoiled I'm now beginning to believe that W/u is the way to go. The manabase would be a little more rough, but doing so would allow for a very interesting aggro-tempo hybrid deck that could wreck face.
This is a super hastily constructed deck, but it gives you an idea of what I think could work. All of its creatures have upsides which shut down RDW style aggro, are cheaper than most midrange options and offer utility that can still give this deck an edge lategame.
Yeah visionary isn't perfect but it gets the job done, especially in the 10+ lord variants I've been testing. Thanks to Archdruid, Nykthos and Heritage Druid, paired with the general lack of board-wipes which currently see play atm, visionary contributes a lot to your ramp, especially since my variation of the deck has more issues with spending mana than finding the mana required to cast it + 1 more creature/spell. Thanks to its cantrip ability its never a dead draw, and in a slow game its ability to dig just a little deeper is often crucial. Sure visionary is a less fun Collected Company target than a Lord but its one more source of fuel in a deck that never wants to run out.
Pyroclasm is definitely this deck's biggest weakness, but even that doesn't see the most play atm. It's next to useless against many of the top decks, and B/W tokens is good but still isn't seeing enough play to justify pyroclasm.
Also Lead the Stampede was a great call, thanks destroyermaker. So far I've won every match I've played, though I have a lot more playtesting to do before I feel secure. So far I'm really liking the 18 lands + 6-8 CC/Lead the Stampede + 10-12 lords variant. It's fantastic against Junk because we can generally pump out creatures faster than they can deal with them, and all it takes is one aright draw to fill our board back up.
I'm pretty concerned about our hyper-aggro matchup though. Especially infect, which I honestly don't know how to deal with since they can outspeed us and we can't bounce back from the damage we've taken. Green has ways of dealing with Burn, Affinity and even Bogles, even if making space in the 75 for answers might be difficult, but nothing that great for infect.
So far I really enjoy this deck, and have found Collected Company to be the craziest bomb imaginable. I'm working on a super-aggressive brew with 9 lords in order to take advantage of it, since all you need is 2 lords on the field to put both out of bolt range. I'm not 100% sold on my spell package though, 4x CC is a must but I'm still trying to figure out the relevant benefits of Chord vs Shamanic Revelation. Chord would allow me to run a more diverse creature package with a few valuable 1/2-ofs like Spellskite and Reclamation Sage, but Shamanic Revelation is a fantastic mana-sink in a deck that's great at finding mana but sometimes has difficulty spending it without running out of steam. I think that baring glimpse what this deck really needs is Quirion Ranger in addition to some sort of viable mana sink and/or a green creature that can generate recurring card advantage for mana, but I don't know what that would entail.
I'm really interested in this deck and have been testing it to reasonably good results. I have a question for the more experienced players though: do you think with Collected Company this deck might be at least Tier 1.5, and if not why and what would it need to push it into Tier 1 territory?
Since they can both only be cast at sorcery speed, I'd say outburst is a better card overall. You can get a lot more mileage out of three creature tokens than out of two, and while they seem similar (each costs 1 mana per goblin), outburst is a much better deal when you take card advantage into consideration (1/2 a card per goblin vs 1/3) that's not to say you couldn't run both in the same deck though, depending on what you're looking for.
Goblins are rally bad in modern atm, they're basically just worse burn. They're even worse than Shrine/Quest Red, which is saying a lot. As for your current deck, adding in some obelisk of urd is a swell idea. Sadly due to the lack of hard removal and Maurader of Mogis goblins will never be as strong as mono-b humans are right now.
Wow I'm really loving this deck, and am considering buying it. That said wouldn't Knight of The White Orchid be a better choice than Pilgrim's eye on almost all accounts?
I for one am extremely disappointed in the lack of Return to the Ranks found in these decks, as well as the general avoidance of Abzan. I think this deck is strong as is, but with those two components it really reaches a new level of threat. Green offers a lot of gas to this deck in the form of Sunblade Elf, Warden of the First Tree and Fleecemane Lion, all of which are reasonably efficient creatures in their own right which provide tons of gas late game even if your hand is empty. They also work fantastically well with the warrior shell, as well as Return to the Ranks, a card which allows you to shrug off boardwipes and keep going. I call my current list Boyhood Abzan since it focuses on a bunch of small creatures and watches them grow up.
Reinforcements is a pretty straightforward deck: focus on reasonably efficient beatdown creatures earlygame with abilities that become useful late game, pump out an absurd amount of tokens midgame and win via massive swings late game. Blue is mostly splashed in to protect this deck from mass removal and, baring that, to help it bounce back quickly. Green provides most of the raw muscle while white focuses on filling the board with an ungodly amount of tokens and removing threats. Help greatly appreciated I've been playing magic all my life but I'm new to THS-KTK Standard.
Damn, Pod was one of my favorite decks, it's sad to see it go.
I'm glad they didn't unban BBE on top of everything else. If it was unbanned Jund would probably be too powerful in the wake of all these other bans, even accounting for the DRS ban.
Also this probably helps non-Cruise Burn in the long run, since less decks will run Chalice.
Of the two Stoneforge Acolyte might be the more impressive specimen as you can get him working as early as turn 2 if you play him turn 1. Now these two cards in a vacuum are impressive but honestly far from game-winning, but the crazy thing is everything these cards need to be successful in their own right seems to be provided by OGW in the form of a particularly cute package consisting of:
-Bone Saw - Free enabler
-Stoneforge Masterwork]]/Captain's Claws - Potential for incredible blowouts
-Weapons Trainer - With this deck's focus on Allies and Equipment there's no way I wouldn't include him.
I'm still working out the kinks and figuring the right creatures to include, but currently the deck looks something like:
4x Ally Encampment
4x Battlefield Forge
7x Plains
7x Mountain
//Creatures
3x Expedition Envoy
4x Stoneforge Acolyte
4x Stone Haven Outfitter
4x Weapons Trainer
3x Firemantle Mage
2x Chasm Guide
2x Munda, Ambush Leader
4x Stoneforge Masterwork
3x Captain's Claws
//Removal 6
3x Silkwrap
3x Roast
As you can see it's currently somewhat imbalanced and definitely needs fine-tuning, but I think the shell has a lot of potential. Any recommendations?
4x Mana Confluence
4x Temple of Enlightenment
4x Flooded Strand
11x Plains
1x Island
4x Valorous Stance
4x Ojutai's Command
3x Return to the Ranks
1x Hall of Triumph
Creatures (24)
4x Knight of the White Orchid
3x Soulfire Grand Master
3x Anafenza Kin-Tree Spirit
4x Harbinger of the Tides
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Topan Freeblade
This is a super hastily constructed deck, but it gives you an idea of what I think could work. All of its creatures have upsides which shut down RDW style aggro, are cheaper than most midrange options and offer utility that can still give this deck an edge lategame.
Also Lead the Stampede was a great call, thanks destroyermaker. So far I've won every match I've played, though I have a lot more playtesting to do before I feel secure. So far I'm really liking the 18 lands + 6-8 CC/Lead the Stampede + 10-12 lords variant. It's fantastic against Junk because we can generally pump out creatures faster than they can deal with them, and all it takes is one aright draw to fill our board back up.
I'm pretty concerned about our hyper-aggro matchup though. Especially infect, which I honestly don't know how to deal with since they can outspeed us and we can't bounce back from the damage we've taken. Green has ways of dealing with Burn, Affinity and even Bogles, even if making space in the 75 for answers might be difficult, but nothing that great for infect.
4 Arbor Elf
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Elvish Champion
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Visionary
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Imperious Perfect
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
14 Forest
//Spells: 7
2 Shamanic Revelation
4 Collected Company
1 Chord of Calling
4x Windswept Heath
4x Mana Confluence
4x Plains
2x Forest
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Llanowar Wastes
2x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Caves of Kolios
4x Sunblade Elf
4x Warden of the First Tree
4x Mardu Woe-Reaper
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
//Two-drop Creatures (10)
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Chief of the Edge
2x Heir of the Wilds
4x Return to the Ranks
2x Whisperwood Elemental
//Disruption (7)
4x Valorous Stance
3x Thoughtseize
Thoughts?
4x Mana Confluence
4x Windswept Heath
4x Temple of Plenty
1x Temple of Enlightenment
2x Flooded Strand
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Temple of Mystery
1x Temple of Enlightenment
3x Forest
3x Plains
1x Island
2x Selfless Cathar
4x Sunblade Elf
2x Jeskai Sage
4x Monastery Mentor
2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2x Hornet Queen
//Spells (21)
4x Triplicate Spirits
4x Raise the Alarm
4x Valorous Stance
3x Swan Song
2x Treasure Cruise
2x Chord of Calling
2x Launch the Fleet
Reinforcements is a pretty straightforward deck: focus on reasonably efficient beatdown creatures earlygame with abilities that become useful late game, pump out an absurd amount of tokens midgame and win via massive swings late game. Blue is mostly splashed in to protect this deck from mass removal and, baring that, to help it bounce back quickly. Green provides most of the raw muscle while white focuses on filling the board with an ungodly amount of tokens and removing threats. Help greatly appreciated I've been playing magic all my life but I'm new to THS-KTK Standard.
I'm glad they didn't unban BBE on top of everything else. If it was unbanned Jund would probably be too powerful in the wake of all these other bans, even accounting for the DRS ban.
Also this probably helps non-Cruise Burn in the long run, since less decks will run Chalice.