I don't think Herald of the Pantheon dying is an issue. The biggest problem these decks face is aggro strategies. You pretty much rely on Languish or Planar Outburst to win against 'em. And Herald of the Pantheon allows you to cast your retreat a turn earlier or activate it a turn earlier. Wich can be the difference between life and death against aggro. Also, if they do burn it with a Twin Bolt or something, you set them one turn back. Also 2nd turn Herald of the Pantheon into 3rd turn Retreat to Kazandu and Evolving Wilds is OP as hell.
Oh. And you would be surprised how hard is Nantuko Husk hard to deal with. If you have some tokens, he pretty much just dies to Reprisal and Angelic Edict (Excluding board wipes). And getting rid of one Angelic Edict sets you up for your Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger play. Also it costs 5 mana so you get some advantage there aswell.

Really beast deck Kryder.
I think im like 6-2 with it so far.
One change I did was: -2 Rising Miasma -1 Read the Bones + 3 Jaddi Offshoot
To improve the aggro matchup. I think Jaddi Offshoot is just better against aggro than Rising Miasma.

I'm playing something similar, but I'm running the full suite of retreats (ALL 3 OF THEM...) and the roil in conjunction with some ramp and sweepers. I'm not running any of the higher end stuff like Ulamog or anything though. I'm usually just making a bunch of tokens and draining/gaining life until I hit an Animist's Awakening for a large enough amount to just kill my opp out of nowhere. It's got a positive W/L right now, but it still needs some tweaking.

Retreat to Emeria is nuts though and should NOT be overlooked.

I built something like that previously...check it out and let me know how yours differs, if you please.

viewtopic.php?f=52&t=10311&start=176

Retreat to Hagra is not as good as I expected. I guess the fact that Evolving Wilds is the only Fetch land we have makes it kinda weaker, since you can't activate it that often during your opponents turn and the fact that it brings the land tapped doesn't let you keep a land as a spell very well, if you can't affort to set yourself one land behind or don't want to risk drawing into another land etc. But Retreat to Emeria can create so many dudes... And make some surprise wins. Retreat to Kazandu... Well.. I had two of 'em and pretty much outhealed RDW while waiting for some creature... Yea... But I've seen a lot of Reclamation Sages lately.

My attempt to make Unified Front work, please help lol

4 x Kalastria Healer
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
2 x evolutionary Leap
3 x Gideon's Reproach
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2 x Veteran Warleader
3 x Retreat to Emeria
2 x From Beyond
3 x Unified Front
4 x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 x Angelic Edict
1 x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 x Oblivion Sower
1 x Nissa's Renewal
1 x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Land
3 x Plains
2 x Swamp
5 x Forest
2 x Shambling vent
2 x Cinder Glade
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Woodland Cemetery
2 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Evolving Wilds

Azban Control

1 x Felidar Cub
3 x Gatecreeper Vine
1 x Elvish Visionary
3 x Reave Soul
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4 x Natural Connection
2 x From Beyond
2 x Languish
4 x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 x Gideon, Ally Of Zendikar
2 x Planar Outburst
1 x Tragic Arrogance
1 x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 x Angelic Edict
1 x Greenwarden Of Murasa
1 x Oblivion Sower
1 x Gaea's Revenge
1 x Emeria Shepherd
1 x Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger
3 x Plains
3 x Swamp
5 x Forest
2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Woodland Cemetery
1 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Sunpetal Grove
4 x Evolving Wilds

Here is a list mostly from Blue with a few minor changes by myself. I will post more info once I'm back from the range. Feel free to spin it or give me your thoughts.

damn it lockhammer

???

look at the deck you just posted, now hover over the cards, notice the problem yet?

Using a tablet, sup?

Edit: Ah. I'm using the Card code, why is it doing that?

you put the number of cards in the auto card

Sorry, rusty. Fixing now.

Edit: Done.

Tried this in multiplayer, 5 wins 2 losses - one again versus white-red aggro (old Golgari problem), the other one in a ridiculous game against red-green landfall when his Ulamog exiled my Ulamog. It's a great deck, yet I would replace the Shepherd with another Gaea's Revenge to act more forceful towards the opponent...

Might go that route. Was using her as another means to gain Planeswalkers from graveyard.

honestly lockhammer the list looks really schizo with all of those one-ofs I think this archetype runs better if you were to cut out the black all to gether and run selesnya (like maybe this one here ;p viewtopic.php?f=52&t=10297&start=180#p393894 )

Well, I am just speaking for myself but I love the black control cards. I don't know if I could renounce Languish and the great Ob Nixilis.



Can't quite go with that - Shepherd either comes in turn seven or later which means in turn seven, you have to play your land before casting her so you can use her ability in turn 8 if you happen to draw a land which is a lucky shot at this phase of the game. Getting Planeswalkers back is a good idea, especially because Ob Nixilis is likely to have already died when he had to kill off a creature. But you can cast him again only the turn after having cast sheperd. With a Gaea's revenge, you get plain 16 damage in those two turns which will probably decide the game or at least hold off the opponent until Ulamog comes.

I am not too happy with felidar cub either. It can destroy a turn two bloodlust on some weenie but for that, you have to have it on your starting hand. in the later game, it is just a worse Edict. Maybe play another actual edict or a reclamation sage which is only one mana more and can kill off any Chief of Foundry of all the players who haven't heard yet that Thopter aren't really cool anymore (and probably have never been).

And maybe Retreat to Kazandu instead of either one Moss or Natural Connection? Both cards are crucial, yet I am still worried about people playing mono red or red white who beat you down to 6 or 7 life and then finish you off with damage spells. I somehow want to re-gain life against those decks...

Those are my thoughts so far, I apologize for bad English, since I am from Germany.

Abzan lifegain, early days version. Enjoying it so far. Wanted to use the 2 new flying girls, emeria shepard and defiant bloodlord

If you like the idea, drop a comment help shape the deck



1 Kytheon, hero of akros
3 Jaddi offshoot
2 Gatecreeper vine

1 Liliana, heretical healer
3 Malakir familiar
1 Nissa, vastwood seer
3 Drana's emissary

2 From beyond
1 Gideon, ally of zendikar

2 Planar outburst
2 Tragic arrogance
4 Angelic edict
1 Ob nixilis reignited

1 Oblivion sower
2 Nissa's renewal

2 Emeria shepherd
2 Defiant bloodlord
2 Nissa's revelation

1 Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger

5 plains
5 swamp
4 forest
2 shambling vent
2 canopy vista
2 Woodland cemetary
2 isolated chapel
2 sunpetal grove

Thanks for the advice everyone! I have actually been playing Shepard quite a bit at Turn 5 sometimes as From Beyond provides great acceleration to the deck. Same with Natural Connection and Acid-Moss. Also provides purpose to those cards in the late game.

As for Cub, it was a really cheap way to deal with enchantments. I am okay with him, but I do miss that interaction with artifacts that Reclamation Sage brings. I will try swapping out Shepard for GR and Cub for Reclamation and see how it plays out.

Kazandu is an interesting choice. I will toy with the list and see what we can do.

As for removing the Black, that won't happen. My new friend Ob is dating Nissa and they are inseparable. Languish gives me 5 sweepers when paired with Planar Outburst and my single Tragic Arrogance. And it kills lands where Arrogance and Outburst have trouble. Lilly provides replay value on cards like Fleshbag and Cub/Reclamation. And putting back out a Visionary or Gatecreeper to accelerate a bit more never hurts. Rotting out the other guy is simply fun.

As for my list of Singletons, that really is my thing. Mythic Rares are among the most powerful cards in the game and sometimes it good to have just a single card to answer a single threat. Especially with the ways to pull lands out of your deck and draw cards are many for this deck.

Overall, it has 5 sweepers, Planeswalkers, and options to go wide with Gideon and From Beyond, or simply race out that instant threat that controls the board the moment it arrives.

Just my thoughts on this deck and where I'm at now. I am adjusting and changing this, so it is not the final list, just the general direction I'm heading in.

Also, passed my conceal carry class today at the range! ^.^; Just got done celebrating. If y'all have anything else, please let me know. I am very much still streamlining this deck.

Wow congratulations!

Yes, you are right with your thoughts - just wanted to explain again what I meant with shepherd: it's not important for my thoughts whether she comes into play at turn 5 or 7, it's just that this very turn, you will very probably already have played the land to be able to cast her. So no activated abilitiy in that turn. And even if via from beyond that ability triggers the first round, you won't be able to play the card you chose from your graveyard. It will be the next turn. Can also happen that you play the last land to summon her and then the next 3 rounds draw no land at all - then you just have an oversized 4/4 chicken lying on your table. It's a little bit of gambling playing her whereas GR deals 8 damage when it comes into play and another 8 damage the next round for granted.

That's just what I meant

And for the dating between Ob and Nissa ... yeah it's always the bad boys who get the best girls. Poor Gideon.