http://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments ... _the_best/
I've been meaning to type up a primer and this is a perfect reason to do so. I also shouldn't have posted a 'rogue' deck here in spikes without fully thinking about this first. My apologies to the subreddit.
So anyways, here we go:
Put 100 bant hexproof players in a room (oh god), sit them down and ask them all what is the number one thing that costs them the game. (Outside of the tendency of the deck to make you want to pull out your hair due to such high variance.) Almost 100% of them will say that wipes or pseudo-wipes is their bane. Now of course they can counter that come post-board (with a mediocre, reactive answer IMO, rootborn defenses.) Now this puts the hexproof deck in an awkward position, you can keep your 3 mana up when you expect a wipe next turn and fall behind when they just tempo you out instead or you can just pray they don't have it and put a bunch of auras on your dude. So let's do some thinking, what is a cheaper and overall better answer to wipes that also has 3 major uses and costs 1 less mana?
That is the bread and butter, and there are FOUR mainbdeck. The obvious use is the indestructibility, add in the fact you have reach with 4 damage off the top and you replace the whole Silverblade Paladin gimmick with this simple 2 mana instant and you have a card that bant hexproof can only wish they had access to. Since we have that out of the way let's go through the deck card type by card type.
CREATURES
All hexproof decks need access to a one drop, you simply will fall way too far behind if you don't have one in a lot of match-ups, especially on the draw. If worse comes to worst and they have an aggressive opening you simply CANNOT wait to put auras on your turn 2 creature during your turn 3 while they throw their one drop, Burning Tree, and insert card here at you.
The thing that makes the judge special is that is EATS up removal. When people see you play an untapped shockland and take two to get this dude out they knee-jerk react and put way too much priority on it. I've had so many games where they kill the owl just to have me drop a fencing ace and all the auras I have during the turns after. Also the sac ability is extremely relevant in regards to anti-countermagic and anti-tempo. You will not believe how many people forget about this ability.
Against a lot of decks you can get away with even putting your auras on him, not only does he have built in evasion but it's impossible not to be able to cast him on turn one because of the hybrid cost! When you look at all the one drops in standard in these colors this guy is leaps and bounds above the rest, and on top of that he actually fits into a 'hexproof/auras' deck rather well.
Invisible Stalker/Fencing Ace
The brothers-in-arms from hexproof decks past and present are at it again but with some new toys this time around (come the auras section you will see). They need no explanation. You play them as you would any hexproof deck. Play them safely and pay attention to how your opponent is playing. Invisible Stalker is the trusty 2 drop while if you are facing the right deck/don't mind taking risks you can drop the Fencing Ace on turn 2. Try to get a read on your opponent though, because I won't lie... dropping a fencing ace and trying to pants him up on turn 3 only to have him killed in response is always painful and quite hard to come back from. That's the nature of Fencing Ace though, if you can get him to stick he will win the game before turn 4 is over. He is just that good. He helps you learn risk/reward times 30,000.
Seriously, this dude makes me get goosebumps. How thrilling it is to play with him when he is the backbone in a deck and all the new auras he gets in this color shard makes me excited beyond compare. Playing with him is less straight-forward than you may think though. It's always hard to choose whether to sandbag your auras for him or go all in on a stalker/ace. How to use him is completely situational based on your opponent and what his opening is.
AURAS
Ethereal Armor/Furor of the Bitten
The good old one mana for a HUGE upside cards (even when they are the only auras the cost/effect is insane)
Armor is good on turn 3, armor is good on turn 13. Armor is always good. Whether it's adding +6/+6 and first strike or +1/+1 and first strike it is probably the aura you want to see in your opening hand above any other. The cost is so cheap and it works rather well with the other one drop aura.
Furor of the Bitten? What in the hell is that card you ask. Well Mangus Khan this little gem is efficient and effective on every-single-one of your creatures. It makes Geist big enough where he doesn't give a fuck about anything (obviously don't put it on him if they have defensive smiters.. you get the drill) and it makes everyone else effective beaters. (There have been many games where I've turn one familiar'd and turn 2 Furor'd him and outraced my opponent easily.) The 'drawback' of having to attack every turn is mitigated by the fact that you're going to be either getting in unblockable/with evasion. Or you are going to be on a double striking body/beefy Geist minimum. Furor plays excellently with other auras and multiple furors with an ethereal armor are the biggest bang for your buck you are going to get in any hexproof deck hands down. Double striking 8/8 Fencing Aces swinging in on turn 3 is actually the norm as cool as that sounds. Turn 4 kills are more or less when this deck wins and it's because of the power of Furor a lot of times.
Spectral Flight/Madcap Skills
Not much to say about Spectral, it's in every hexproof deck for a reason. Evasion and +2/+2 for one blue and one colorless is pretty hard to compete with. It lets Geist bust through ground pounders with the greatest of ease. Seriously, as a competitive magic player anyone of you will understand why this card works in this deck.
Now, part of me wants to say Boros Charm is the reason I play this deck. That would be wrong though, the only thing more fun than Boros Charm and all of it's massive uses is my little friend that gives 3 power and an EXTREMELY relevant ability for just one red and one colorless.
Madcap Skills my friends, this card is B O N K E R S on any of the creatures in this deck. In your head right now think about how it works with each creature, think about the power it adds and think about the pseudo-evasion it adds. It makes combat a nightmare for the opponents. Turn one Familiar into turn 2 Madcap Skills? Check. Turn 2 Fencing Ace into turn 3 Skills and Armor? Check. Turn 3 Geist into turn 4 double Madcap Skills? Check. Seriously, all of the auras in this deck mix and match soo well and the fact that big boomers are all TWO mana auras makes me giddy like a little girl on giddy little girl day. We more speed/quickness/explosiveness and the ability to rebuild after something bad happens much easier/cheaper than Bant hexproof: advantage USA.
Madcap skills has won me so many games where they only have one creature. Oh you have a defensive Loxodon that is going to murder Mr. Traft if he attacks? Sorry sir maybe next time.. and bring a friend. :/ Oh you have a defensive Reckoner that would usually end Mr. Trafts day early? Nope, sorry brother. You need two creatures now to stop my one and do you think I'm lollygagging while you set up your defense? Nope. I'm actually putting spectral flight on Sir Geisty and now you need two flying creatures just to slow him down for a turn. Thank you, come again.
Lastly we have this little treat. This is our Unflinching Courage, this helps up clamber back into the game against any nuts draw from aggro. This is Geists BEST FRIEND. This card is relevant late game, early game and during ANY part in the game. If you can connect even once with this aura attached to any of your creatures you have bought yourself a turn at minimum to set up your master plan. The mana is perfect for this deck as well. Double white and a colorless is the easiest to cast life-gaining aura in standard and I will trade flying for trample and +1/+1 any day. This card in itself makes it so your Geist is the most efficient machine. At minimum you are hitting for 7 and gaining 3 back. Trust me your usually not just going to have a creature with this aura only. Most of the time we are looking at Spectral Flight, Armor and Orzhova on St. Traft. Yeah I'll swing for 12 and gain 8 life back, thank you.
LANDS
(Yes, there is an extremely important land in this deck.)
Something that hexproof has always had trouble against was matches where their opponents can deal with their threats and make the game drag out a long time (think both players have ten lands) Many decks can do this but whereas with Bant you will topdeck a creature and drop it only to have them deal with it before you can swing this strange little Avacyns 50 cent rare changes EVERYTHING. Now you can actually put use to your late game topdecks with the haste function. I've gotten so many control decks to less than 10 life and they turn the corner and are able to deal with all my threats. This is BAD for hexproof. With bant I feel powerless, every time I drop a creature they smack it down before I can untap. Now I can sandbag a few auras and wait for a creature and BOOM attack with a topdecked Geist with 2 auras on it because of haste. This has caught more decks off-guard than you can shake a stick at, and if I wasn't in the USA colors I couldn't even dream of winning with hexproof when it comes to topdeck wars.
SIDEBOARD/MATCH-UP/SUMMARY
Ah the board, where the boys become the men. Against a lot of decks you actually will do NO boarding because you can race just the same, but some decks do cause some trouble post-board. When needed though, the board is where I feel this deck outperforms Bant again.
Nearhearth Pilgrim/Boros Reckoner/Gift of Orzhova
Nothing tells the oppositions aggro deck you love them like this suite. Oh hey there Naya Blitz, R/G aggro, Jund aggro or any creature based matchup.. hope you don't mind if I attach my Pilgrim to an unblockable stalker with 3 power boosting auras on him. You got me down to 5 life while you are at 17? Pretty normal occurrence to be honest, don't fret though. Now watch as I gain ten life per turn and you can do nothing about it. It's tempting to suit up an Familiar or Fencing ace in this matchup but they ALWAYS have the spear. Keep that in mind. Play smart and tight and even on the draw it's pretty hard to lose if you get even one of your sideboard cards.
Wait, you're telling me that my hexproof deck has the mana base to support Reckoner? Oh well let's see how it works. Let me assure you, it works. Once again against any creature based deck I will happily slow my roll a turn or two to play my Reckoner instead of my Geist. Obviously if I am on the play and have an opportunity to slam a Geist and they don't have the 'nuts Blitz draw' I will still do so.
Lastly 2 more copies of Gift, I cannot tell you how often I have fallen to sub 5-10 life and this single card has pulled me out of the hole when Bants Unflinching Courage could not. The evasion is absolutely amazing and once again well worth the 1 power and trample.
Tajic, Blade of the Legion/Cavern of Souls/Purify the Grave
One thing any kind of hexproof has trouble with as mentioned before in the Slayers Stronghold section is when control decks/jund midrange decks turn the corner versus you. Slayers Stronghold can only do so much when they have a grip full of counterspells, board wipes, Revelations, Olivias, and other creature kill. This is where our secret weapon comes in. The 4 mana CMC of Big Daddy Tajic really is negligible when the game goes on long and when he hits the table there are only a few cards in standard that can interact with him the way your opponents want to. Naming human with Cavern always get my opponents scratching their head until they see him come down. He suits up and finishes the game shortly after. A caverned Tajic is a lot of decks worst nightmare and once he puts an aura or two on, the indestructibility really shines. I would almost prefer it over hexproof to be honest.
The Purifies are there to keep Snapcaster Mage/Aristocrats/reanimator decks honest. You don't even really need to side them in that often because we have VERY good match-up versus these decks already but constant flash-backed lingering souls can gunk up the board just enough to slow us down to the point where they can turn the corner themselves.
The board is fairly self-explanatory, the only thing that throws people off is Tajic at first, but he shores up a lot of weaknesses while also being in our slice of color pie. I see this card seeing a lot of standard play post rotation and I'm just hopping on the train ahead of time. Post board he has single-handedly taken so many games off of control decks by himself (with the help of caverns of course) and will continue to do so.
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Do you ever have trouble with the mana base?
No, I have played over 100 matches with this list and I can honestly say this is a strength over Bant, we can always cast our turn one Familiar and literally every step on the curve is covered from most of our lands. Topping out at three and having Gift of Orzhova be hybrid mana (let alone how easy it is to cast reckoner post board) really help this super strong mana base. The fact that most of power enchantments cost ONE colored mana and maybe one colorless really help this cause. The power level of madcap skills versus the casting cost/how easy it is to cast in this deck really really push it hard.
How does this deck mulligan?
Very well for the same reasons as above. The owl being hybrid mana absolutely helps tons and having so many cheap CMC enchantments makes even mulligans to 5 extremely doable. I'd say I mulligan 1 out of 7 games, compared to when I played Bant I had to mulligan what seemed like every other game.
Describe your match ups?
Coming soon.
Do you choose this over bant because of the inevitability of surviving board wipes?
Coming soon.
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