Gaddock Teeg is great against them, especially if you play Meddling Mage to stop Path and such, but it’s not like Legacy Maverick where you can just Tutor it and protect it with Mother of Runes. Gaddock Teeg is susceptible to so many forms of interaction from their deck especially post-board where they can mold their deck to be better suited to answering threats.
Don’t get me wrong tho, I’ve had my fair share of casting it when my opponents hands were Cryptic Command x 2, Verdicts, and Elspeth. It can be super powerful, as well as hit many other decks, but I think your main goal alongside this (if you choose to play Gaddock Teeg) is to have ways to pump out creatures and create constant card flow. Tireless Tracker is just a step above, Courser and Witness are great options, Planeswalkers are excellent, and if you can afford to, play Geist of Saint Traft.
I still play Retreat at 1 copy. The capability of One-Shot Kills are so powerful that it's not cost to playing 1 copy when you have 4 Knights and 4 CoCo's to find them. There are people on JTMS (JTMS + CoCo is actually just unbelievable) and understandably so but it's nearly no cost to you by putting a single copy of Retreat in your deck when you're playing Knight, Courser, Tracker, and any other stuff you may be playing.
The reason to play blue is for Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, Retreat to Coralhelm, JTMS (Nissa UG or Tamiyo), and counterspells. All these cards are integral to what Knightfall is trying to do. If these don't fall within your play style, aren't doing you well at FNM, or how you want to enjoy MTG, then play a different G/W/x deck. There's actually no reason to play KotR outside Bant and G/W Value Town when Abzan Counter CoCo is strictly better at doing what an Abzan creature midrange deck with Knight is trying to do.
The Unified Will is for Primeval Titan and the creatures in Tron decks (6+ Creatures and Thoughtknot Seer). It does hit things like Snapcaster Mage but it’s primarily for those match-ups. You could play Disdainful Stroke but then your limited to 4 or greater instead of countering ANYTHING for just having more creatures than your opponent, which shouldn’t be too difficult with 8 mana dorks.
Lands:
Windswept Heath x 4
Misty Rainforest x 4
Breeding Pool x 1
Hallowed Fountain x 1
Temple Garden x 1
Stomping Ground x 1
Horizon Canopy x 1
Gavony Township x 1
Kessig Wolf Run x 1
Ghost Quarter x 1
Plains x 2
Forest x 4
Creatures:
Noble Hierarch x 4
Birds of Paradise x 4
Knight of the Reliquary x 4
Spell Queller x 4
Tireless Tracker x 4
Eternal Witness x 2
Voice of Resurgence x 4
Scavenging Ooze x 1
Qasali Pridemage x 1
Spells:
Path to Exile x 4
Collected Company x 4
Retreat to Coralhelm x 3
Sideboard:
Izzet Staticaster x 2
Kitchen Finks x 2
Reflector Mage x 2
Damping Sphere x 2
Worship x 2
Negate x 2
Unified Will x 2
Bojuka Bog x 1
I have been investing a lot of my time into Retreat to Coralhelm builds and this has felt very solid, especially from a deck building perspective.
Post-banning, I believe there are really only 2 builds of MIDRANGE builds of Knightfall, Retreat or Jace (straight up CoCo just seems so bad). If you're going to build Knightfall, you want to either emphasize on the Combo, or completely relinquish variance associated with CoCo with Jace.
By playing higher numbers of Retreats, your inclined to play a much grindier, higher value assortment of creatures that can accrue card advantage; you don't want more duds like Aven Mindcensor and Reflector Mage MB when you have a bunch of Retreats that are quite dead without Knight.
On the flip side, you're encouraged to play a wider array of disruptive, high impact cards LIKE Reflector/Meddling Mage, Aven Mindcensor, and especially Courser of Kruphix when you're playing JTMS. You don't need so many hard grind CA cards when Jace does all of that for you (especially when you can set up the top of your deck with JTMS for CoCo). More so, you want more disruptive creatures that help shape and defend Jace from all the silliness in modern espeically since you don't have Retreat to Coralhelm to win instantly.
Obviously you can choose to make a blend of both (do whatever you like) because Knightfall is SOOOOOOOOO flexible in it's builds but I think this primer needs a solid base operation for building this deck.
If you're playing Retreat then you want more cards within your deck that make Retreat good, as opposed to just having Knight of the Reliquary or bust. I found that while Courser has obvious synergies with Retreat, Eternal Witness is MUCH more powerful in Coralhelm builds because chaining CoCo's to find Knights or bring back Knights (or w.e. you like lol) to get your opponent dead is much higher impact as opposed to Courser + Coralhelm = play a land off the top -> Scry or tap/untap.
Tireless Tracker has always been SUPER awesome with Knight, but is absolutely ridiculous with Lotus Cobra. Every fetchland yields a free draw with the free mana from Cobra to crack a clue so drawing cards and dominating the board is much easier. Unfortunately Lotus Cobra sucks because it doesn't impact the board or actually accrue advantage except for allowing you more mana in the earlier turns. By having Retreat + Hierarch/BoP, you can build a pseudo Lotus Cobra, thereby giving extended purpose to the Retreat that can actually win the game aside from Knight (Fetchland = 2 Mana divination & +2/+2 Tracker).
I'm still in the wood works but these 3 changes (playing 3 Retreats, 3/4 Tireless Tracker, and exchanging Courser for Eternal Witness) has felt MUCH more powerful as opposed to previous builds including Retreat but not really having a direction, just a smattering of good stuff and a combo.
I haven't been working on Jace builds as of late, but I'm pretty sure the goal is to play a higher density of disruptive creatures and pull ahead with JTMS (interaction with CoCo).
As with the Sideboard, Damping Sphere has really changed the structure at which you build your board. We now have a card that puts in work against Tron AND Storm, which are in my opinion, some of the hardest MU's the deck had previously (albeit winnable) with Scapeshift at the top. I'm still unsure with how to build the SB in conjunction with the MB for the particular meta, but I think Damping Sphere has lightened the burden of our tight SB builds.
Courser is still reasonable, but the real value of having it is when you can elongate games to reap the rewards of the Life Gain and free lands off the top. Contrary to popular belief, she's not really the best against aggro decks. Yeah Courser has 4 toughness and gains life, but Humans gets HUGE really fast and can strike in the air, Hollow One punches with 4+ power most of the time, Affinity can just kill you before you get enough Land Drops for Life Gain, Bogles doesn't care, Death's Shadow (Delve threats and Goyf) all punch for huge amounts of damage, etc. We don't really have a build to take advantage of her in the current meta, more so it's just a good grind card. However, most of our deck is about high impact cards like Knight, Spell Queller, Tracker, Clique, etc. Only G/W Value Town can really take advantage of this because the deck can just spew out land drops via Azusa, Courser herself, Ramunap Excavator, and Knight of the Reliquary. There's more to say but kinda unnecessary. It's still a good choice especially if your meta is a bunch of fair decks.
Selfless Spirit is just a hit or miss for some people. Sometimes it's like the game changer but then sometimes it's just a 2/1. It doesn't have high impact MOST of the time but it's still a very useful utility creature when it's ability is applicable.
Reflector Mage is almost always serviceable and applicable in nearly all match-ups where creatures matter. This ranges from CoCo/Chord, Death's Shadow/Tarmogoyf decks, Burn, Humans, etc. His stock went down when Death's Shadow no longer reigned supreme in the format BUT that's not to say that Reflector Mage isn't an excellent creature. People always argue ALL THE TIME is that it's horrible in MU's where opponents aren't really playing creatures (Um, no ***** lmao) or that he's good in match-ups we're already good in. I think the flaw behind that rationale is people fail to realize it allows us to interact with our opponent's creatures while providing a body to develop board presence and can be hit off CoCo. It's HUGE game when you'r following up a Reflector Mage or two with pressure from Knight/Queller/Tracker/CoCo/etc. We could go back and forth but for the most part it's really subjective to what you believe is correct: playing Reflector Mage within the 75 or not.
I believe that the 4 Voice of Resurgence was a response to the unbannings and the predetermined meta shifts that would follow. An uptick in fair blue decks and Jund (not limited to these two) automatically screams attrition, which makes Voice applicable more often. It's incredibly infuriating to play against a resolved Voice as a Blue Mage and Voice offers resilience against Jund's removal and blocking BBE for value. Voice of Resurgence is also just an incredible blocker and leaves a bigger creature behind. The most successful decks, in terms of win percentage and meta share, are aggro decks: Humans, Hollow One, Affinty, and Burn, by mtggoldfish's standards. Voice being able to block Twice is A LOT of life and turns saved. Being multi purpose (representing value, resilience, and multiple bodies) it only seems correct to have 4 Voice at this current time. Until they unban stoneforge (WOOOO) voice is just the best right now.
Worship literally wins the game when you play it. They have NO WAYYY to kill you after it resolves so they kinda have to go all-in on the Kitesail Freebooter & Meddling Mage plan.
Triple Staticaster is completely obnoxious. I remember at GP Toronto I talked to Eli and he was completely on the 3-4 Staticaster plan.
Settle the Wreckage is great but is a one time thing and it doesn't necessarily win the game. Maybe if they're all in crashing in all their stuff then yeah it'll be game winning, but I'd rather have insta-win cards like Worship, Staticaster, and Reflector Mage as a means of winning.
Ghostly is also kinda narrow like Settle in that decks that, if you're in trouble by creatures attacking you, when your whole deck is creatures and Voice of Resurgence then you're already losing. In that scenario, Reflector Mage is better because it prevents threats from clocking you while developing your board. It's also 3 toughness so it's an okay blocker.
@Witty_Banterer I think having Knight as a Grave-Hate card is so valuable in the MU where Grave-Hate is a premium. Even if you have 2 Scavenging Ooze, a Bojuka Bog in the sideboard is so free when you have 4 cards (or drawing it) that can tutor it.
I don't know how valuable it is to have 2 Eternal Witness in your sideboard. Those are valuable slots to have when the meta is infested with a slurry of bull***** lmao. Think about the mana you have to invest to make an Eternal Witness useful as a SB card. IF you really want Eternal Witness, make some cuts in the main for it.
I also think Nissa is MUCH more valuable when you have main deck Reflector Mages to "0" into. Getting a free creature and removing creatures from their board is sickening.
Also, if you have 3-4 copies of Reflector Mage among the 75, you won't need Dusk // Dawn. Having resets are nice, but a lot of the time you can invalidate their threats with a gigantic Knight of the Reliquary and bouncing. If you're going to play a reset button then play Settle the Wreckage. Dusk is sickening value, but it's 9 mana. where as Settle the Wreckage is 4 mana, instant speed, and the MU where you want a reset are against things like Humans, Affinity, Eldrazi, and other various aggro decks where they're pressuring you and the efficiency of your mana (your deck is full of 3 drops so only casting 1 creature a turn while they smash in with like 3 or 4 creatures with high power). Dusk is nice vs. Shadow or Jund/Abzan, but you can just play Reflector Mage and beat them through attrition.
I remember just my Last FNM I completely whiff'd on CoCo (5 lands and Jace) and still won after my friend had turn 2 (UNCONTESTED) Dark Confidant, 2 Bloodbraid Elves, timely Discard and Removal, with a Scavenging Ooze and Goyf slowly beating in. Even game 3, I got stuck on 1 land for like 3 turns, got a second land, got that blown up by fullminator, and still won because the deck is so adept at grinding. You don't need Dusk // Dawn as a reset/grind card but I can see the appeal for having it in the 75.
Aven Mindcensor sucks lmao but if you like the card then power to you!
The Phyrexian Revoker eats a lot of slots when you can just play 3-4 Reflector Mage. If that's your answer for various Tron decks and Creature combo, then I think you should reconsider. your whole deck is so soft to big mana AND combo decks even with 4 Unified Will.
I also think you're underestimating Burn because your deck seems like it will get roflstomped by them.
I don't know if you even want 2-3 Retreat. I think 1 is fine because Jace will win a lot of games by itself especially since we can defend it with a plethora of creatures and Collected Company. I REALLY don't like a traditional midrange build because we don't have Green Sun's Zenith. You're not even playing Cantrips which is a necessity if you want to keep up in efficiency. The reason why CoCo is great is that even though we don't have the most efficient stuff, we can create a board state greater than the sum of it's parts.
I don't know what spell based combo will be as popular as storm, but I'm almost certain it's the aggro decks that will rise in popularity.
In regard to buying Jace, just be patient man! Magic isn't going anywhere. Wait for Masters 25 to come out and then consider buying it. Borrow from your friends or people or w.e. (buy fakes lol joking) so it doesn't hurt you financially. We're still people. We have bills to pay, food to buy, friends and family to see and spend time with. Probably wizards will recognize the demand and barrier of Jace (it'd be complete bull***** if you needed Jace to compete against fair decks AS a fair deck but couldn't afford it) and have an increase of supply for Masters 25, which will bring down the price by a lot.
Tireless Tracker will always be played with Knight no matter what the meta is. That interaction is so powerful that I can't imagine why you wouldn't include AT LEAST 2. Voice of Resurgence is the truth not the elephant my friend.
@TNDS I don't think you can afford to not play 4 Path to Exile because of the aggressive response the meta will have to the unbannings. You want the most efficient way to combat these decks and Reflector Mage, while very good, won't be able to hold. Also, because of these aggro/combo decks that presumably will run rampant in response to Jace/BBE decks is that Tron and Scapeshift will likely die down because they're quite slow and don't interact at all to these faster decks.
I don't think Retreat is as important as gearing your deck towards pummeling all the fair match ups and being resilient to aggro decks. That said, Retreat is just a freebie so if you want it, keep it in.
@Trasno I don't think Tron will be as prominent as you think it will be because of the early aggressive response the format will have towards the unbannings.
The reason why our deck exists is because of Spell Queller. Playing less Mana dorks decreases our chances of turn 3 Jace, which is complete asinine bull***** lol. Also, Queller + BBE is a non-bo.
@brosterman Playing a traditional Midrange deck in Bant or playing something close to the Bant Stoneforge decks in Legacy of yesteryear won't work because our color combination is still not as strong as the other combinations. We're literally playing 2 of the weakest colors in modern. Also, we don't have Green Sun's Zenith, which is HUGE.
I think Jace is great with CoCo in all honesty (Brainstorm + CoCo? lol ok), so I don't think cutting CoCo for more planeswalkers is worth it UNLESS you change the creature line-up drastically.
@unsterblich856 I don't think you can afford to cut a mana dork because a turn 3 Jace is too powerful to not give yourself the highest opportunity to do so.
I don't think we're dead because it's too early to tell whether or not the META that's evolving to the unbannings will kill us. Jace won't be the actual reason we may or may not die, rather the meta, that is responding to Jace and BBE, is what decides.
One of the hallmarks of this deck is how flexible we are and to be frank, finally Voice of Resurgence is a good card and has strong evidence to be relevant in the meta, at least during the early stages of development of this new meta. We finally have a 2 drop we can reliably have as a 3 or 4 of because Jace decks, BBE (synonymous with Liliana) decks, and Death Shadow decks will be so prominent and have a foothold on the meta. Also, Jace is now giving life to Elspeth, Knight-Errant as an option as well as Geist of Saint Traft to combat these POWERFUL fair decks. They may have Jace, but Elspeth is THE BEST planeswalker killer. We can now embrace the stronger midrange options that Bant has to offer to combat these unbannings; because there will be an uproar of aggro decks we can build our main and SB accordingly. Worship, Voice of Resurgence, Reflector Mage, Courser of Kruphix (having 4 toughness is huge vs. Jace decks that are capitalizing on efficiency by playing Lightning Bolt alongside Path/Push), Kitchen Finks, and the like are ACTUALLY relevant. We can build solid decks opposed to approaching the format with a ragtag group of creatures praying for good match ups in hopes of day 2'ing a GP with CONFIDENCE.
We can also just play Jace ourselves if the circumstances allow us too. Can you imagine manipulating the top of your deck in order to guarantee a solid CoCo? --Lemme just put these 2 Knights on top and... WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, MY COCO HIT 2 6/6 KNIGHTS WOW lol.
Instead of suggesting that our deck is dead, look towards the opportunities now available for our deck BECAUSE our color combination.
Don’t get me wrong tho, I’ve had my fair share of casting it when my opponents hands were Cryptic Command x 2, Verdicts, and Elspeth. It can be super powerful, as well as hit many other decks, but I think your main goal alongside this (if you choose to play Gaddock Teeg) is to have ways to pump out creatures and create constant card flow. Tireless Tracker is just a step above, Courser and Witness are great options, Planeswalkers are excellent, and if you can afford to, play Geist of Saint Traft.
The reason to play blue is for Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, Retreat to Coralhelm, JTMS (Nissa UG or Tamiyo), and counterspells. All these cards are integral to what Knightfall is trying to do. If these don't fall within your play style, aren't doing you well at FNM, or how you want to enjoy MTG, then play a different G/W/x deck. There's actually no reason to play KotR outside Bant and G/W Value Town when Abzan Counter CoCo is strictly better at doing what an Abzan creature midrange deck with Knight is trying to do.
Lands:
Windswept Heath x 4
Misty Rainforest x 4
Breeding Pool x 1
Hallowed Fountain x 1
Temple Garden x 1
Stomping Ground x 1
Horizon Canopy x 1
Gavony Township x 1
Kessig Wolf Run x 1
Ghost Quarter x 1
Plains x 2
Forest x 4
Creatures:
Noble Hierarch x 4
Birds of Paradise x 4
Knight of the Reliquary x 4
Spell Queller x 4
Tireless Tracker x 4
Eternal Witness x 2
Voice of Resurgence x 4
Scavenging Ooze x 1
Qasali Pridemage x 1
Spells:
Path to Exile x 4
Collected Company x 4
Retreat to Coralhelm x 3
Sideboard:
Izzet Staticaster x 2
Kitchen Finks x 2
Reflector Mage x 2
Damping Sphere x 2
Worship x 2
Negate x 2
Unified Will x 2
Bojuka Bog x 1
I have been investing a lot of my time into Retreat to Coralhelm builds and this has felt very solid, especially from a deck building perspective.
Post-banning, I believe there are really only 2 builds of MIDRANGE builds of Knightfall, Retreat or Jace (straight up CoCo just seems so bad). If you're going to build Knightfall, you want to either emphasize on the Combo, or completely relinquish variance associated with CoCo with Jace.
By playing higher numbers of Retreats, your inclined to play a much grindier, higher value assortment of creatures that can accrue card advantage; you don't want more duds like Aven Mindcensor and Reflector Mage MB when you have a bunch of Retreats that are quite dead without Knight.
On the flip side, you're encouraged to play a wider array of disruptive, high impact cards LIKE Reflector/Meddling Mage, Aven Mindcensor, and especially Courser of Kruphix when you're playing JTMS. You don't need so many hard grind CA cards when Jace does all of that for you (especially when you can set up the top of your deck with JTMS for CoCo). More so, you want more disruptive creatures that help shape and defend Jace from all the silliness in modern espeically since you don't have Retreat to Coralhelm to win instantly.
Obviously you can choose to make a blend of both (do whatever you like) because Knightfall is SOOOOOOOOO flexible in it's builds but I think this primer needs a solid base operation for building this deck.
If you're playing Retreat then you want more cards within your deck that make Retreat good, as opposed to just having Knight of the Reliquary or bust. I found that while Courser has obvious synergies with Retreat, Eternal Witness is MUCH more powerful in Coralhelm builds because chaining CoCo's to find Knights or bring back Knights (or w.e. you like lol) to get your opponent dead is much higher impact as opposed to Courser + Coralhelm = play a land off the top -> Scry or tap/untap.
Tireless Tracker has always been SUPER awesome with Knight, but is absolutely ridiculous with Lotus Cobra. Every fetchland yields a free draw with the free mana from Cobra to crack a clue so drawing cards and dominating the board is much easier. Unfortunately Lotus Cobra sucks because it doesn't impact the board or actually accrue advantage except for allowing you more mana in the earlier turns. By having Retreat + Hierarch/BoP, you can build a pseudo Lotus Cobra, thereby giving extended purpose to the Retreat that can actually win the game aside from Knight (Fetchland = 2 Mana divination & +2/+2 Tracker).
I'm still in the wood works but these 3 changes (playing 3 Retreats, 3/4 Tireless Tracker, and exchanging Courser for Eternal Witness) has felt MUCH more powerful as opposed to previous builds including Retreat but not really having a direction, just a smattering of good stuff and a combo.
I haven't been working on Jace builds as of late, but I'm pretty sure the goal is to play a higher density of disruptive creatures and pull ahead with JTMS (interaction with CoCo).
As with the Sideboard, Damping Sphere has really changed the structure at which you build your board. We now have a card that puts in work against Tron AND Storm, which are in my opinion, some of the hardest MU's the deck had previously (albeit winnable) with Scapeshift at the top. I'm still unsure with how to build the SB in conjunction with the MB for the particular meta, but I think Damping Sphere has lightened the burden of our tight SB builds.
Selfless Spirit is just a hit or miss for some people. Sometimes it's like the game changer but then sometimes it's just a 2/1. It doesn't have high impact MOST of the time but it's still a very useful utility creature when it's ability is applicable.
Reflector Mage is almost always serviceable and applicable in nearly all match-ups where creatures matter. This ranges from CoCo/Chord, Death's Shadow/Tarmogoyf decks, Burn, Humans, etc. His stock went down when Death's Shadow no longer reigned supreme in the format BUT that's not to say that Reflector Mage isn't an excellent creature. People always argue ALL THE TIME is that it's horrible in MU's where opponents aren't really playing creatures (Um, no ***** lmao) or that he's good in match-ups we're already good in. I think the flaw behind that rationale is people fail to realize it allows us to interact with our opponent's creatures while providing a body to develop board presence and can be hit off CoCo. It's HUGE game when you'r following up a Reflector Mage or two with pressure from Knight/Queller/Tracker/CoCo/etc. We could go back and forth but for the most part it's really subjective to what you believe is correct: playing Reflector Mage within the 75 or not.
I believe that the 4 Voice of Resurgence was a response to the unbannings and the predetermined meta shifts that would follow. An uptick in fair blue decks and Jund (not limited to these two) automatically screams attrition, which makes Voice applicable more often. It's incredibly infuriating to play against a resolved Voice as a Blue Mage and Voice offers resilience against Jund's removal and blocking BBE for value. Voice of Resurgence is also just an incredible blocker and leaves a bigger creature behind. The most successful decks, in terms of win percentage and meta share, are aggro decks: Humans, Hollow One, Affinty, and Burn, by mtggoldfish's standards. Voice being able to block Twice is A LOT of life and turns saved. Being multi purpose (representing value, resilience, and multiple bodies) it only seems correct to have 4 Voice at this current time. Until they unban stoneforge (WOOOO) voice is just the best right now.
Worship literally wins the game when you play it. They have NO WAYYY to kill you after it resolves so they kinda have to go all-in on the Kitesail Freebooter & Meddling Mage plan.
Triple Staticaster is completely obnoxious. I remember at GP Toronto I talked to Eli and he was completely on the 3-4 Staticaster plan.
Settle the Wreckage is great but is a one time thing and it doesn't necessarily win the game. Maybe if they're all in crashing in all their stuff then yeah it'll be game winning, but I'd rather have insta-win cards like Worship, Staticaster, and Reflector Mage as a means of winning.
Ghostly is also kinda narrow like Settle in that decks that, if you're in trouble by creatures attacking you, when your whole deck is creatures and Voice of Resurgence then you're already losing. In that scenario, Reflector Mage is better because it prevents threats from clocking you while developing your board. It's also 3 toughness so it's an okay blocker.
I don't know how valuable it is to have 2 Eternal Witness in your sideboard. Those are valuable slots to have when the meta is infested with a slurry of bull***** lmao. Think about the mana you have to invest to make an Eternal Witness useful as a SB card. IF you really want Eternal Witness, make some cuts in the main for it.
I also think Nissa is MUCH more valuable when you have main deck Reflector Mages to "0" into. Getting a free creature and removing creatures from their board is sickening.
Also, if you have 3-4 copies of Reflector Mage among the 75, you won't need Dusk // Dawn. Having resets are nice, but a lot of the time you can invalidate their threats with a gigantic Knight of the Reliquary and bouncing. If you're going to play a reset button then play Settle the Wreckage. Dusk is sickening value, but it's 9 mana. where as Settle the Wreckage is 4 mana, instant speed, and the MU where you want a reset are against things like Humans, Affinity, Eldrazi, and other various aggro decks where they're pressuring you and the efficiency of your mana (your deck is full of 3 drops so only casting 1 creature a turn while they smash in with like 3 or 4 creatures with high power). Dusk is nice vs. Shadow or Jund/Abzan, but you can just play Reflector Mage and beat them through attrition.
I remember just my Last FNM I completely whiff'd on CoCo (5 lands and Jace) and still won after my friend had turn 2 (UNCONTESTED) Dark Confidant, 2 Bloodbraid Elves, timely Discard and Removal, with a Scavenging Ooze and Goyf slowly beating in. Even game 3, I got stuck on 1 land for like 3 turns, got a second land, got that blown up by fullminator, and still won because the deck is so adept at grinding. You don't need Dusk // Dawn as a reset/grind card but I can see the appeal for having it in the 75.
Aven Mindcensor sucks lmao but if you like the card then power to you!
The Phyrexian Revoker eats a lot of slots when you can just play 3-4 Reflector Mage. If that's your answer for various Tron decks and Creature combo, then I think you should reconsider. your whole deck is so soft to big mana AND combo decks even with 4 Unified Will.
I also think you're underestimating Burn because your deck seems like it will get roflstomped by them.
In regard to buying Jace, just be patient man! Magic isn't going anywhere. Wait for Masters 25 to come out and then consider buying it. Borrow from your friends or people or w.e. (buy fakes lol joking) so it doesn't hurt you financially. We're still people. We have bills to pay, food to buy, friends and family to see and spend time with. Probably wizards will recognize the demand and barrier of Jace (it'd be complete bull***** if you needed Jace to compete against fair decks AS a fair deck but couldn't afford it) and have an increase of supply for Masters 25, which will bring down the price by a lot.
I don't think Retreat is as important as gearing your deck towards pummeling all the fair match ups and being resilient to aggro decks. That said, Retreat is just a freebie so if you want it, keep it in.
@Trasno I don't think Tron will be as prominent as you think it will be because of the early aggressive response the format will have towards the unbannings.
The reason why our deck exists is because of Spell Queller. Playing less Mana dorks decreases our chances of turn 3 Jace, which is complete asinine bull***** lol. Also, Queller + BBE is a non-bo.
@brosterman Playing a traditional Midrange deck in Bant or playing something close to the Bant Stoneforge decks in Legacy of yesteryear won't work because our color combination is still not as strong as the other combinations. We're literally playing 2 of the weakest colors in modern. Also, we don't have Green Sun's Zenith, which is HUGE.
I think Jace is great with CoCo in all honesty (Brainstorm + CoCo? lol ok), so I don't think cutting CoCo for more planeswalkers is worth it UNLESS you change the creature line-up drastically.
@unsterblich856 I don't think you can afford to cut a mana dork because a turn 3 Jace is too powerful to not give yourself the highest opportunity to do so.
One of the hallmarks of this deck is how flexible we are and to be frank, finally Voice of Resurgence is a good card and has strong evidence to be relevant in the meta, at least during the early stages of development of this new meta. We finally have a 2 drop we can reliably have as a 3 or 4 of because Jace decks, BBE (synonymous with Liliana) decks, and Death Shadow decks will be so prominent and have a foothold on the meta. Also, Jace is now giving life to Elspeth, Knight-Errant as an option as well as Geist of Saint Traft to combat these POWERFUL fair decks. They may have Jace, but Elspeth is THE BEST planeswalker killer. We can now embrace the stronger midrange options that Bant has to offer to combat these unbannings; because there will be an uproar of aggro decks we can build our main and SB accordingly. Worship, Voice of Resurgence, Reflector Mage, Courser of Kruphix (having 4 toughness is huge vs. Jace decks that are capitalizing on efficiency by playing Lightning Bolt alongside Path/Push), Kitchen Finks, and the like are ACTUALLY relevant. We can build solid decks opposed to approaching the format with a ragtag group of creatures praying for good match ups in hopes of day 2'ing a GP with CONFIDENCE.
We can also just play Jace ourselves if the circumstances allow us too. Can you imagine manipulating the top of your deck in order to guarantee a solid CoCo? --Lemme just put these 2 Knights on top and... WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, MY COCO HIT 2 6/6 KNIGHTS WOW lol.
Instead of suggesting that our deck is dead, look towards the opportunities now available for our deck BECAUSE our color combination.