Fall of the Titans could maybe be Chandra Tourch, 2nd Commit // Memory, or Kozy's Return for another sweeper effect, but I've been reasonably happy with Fall as a mini sweeper plus option to go to face.

Removed Geistblasts. They were a little too cute, and I wanted to get more focused than the utility 2 damage for 3 mana offered.

Removed Brutal Expulsion. Was useful at times, but Cast Out is waaay better use of 4 mana.

Removed Exquisite Firecraft. Wanted to reduce the requirements at the 3 spot. Defiance is more versatile, plus Firecraft was mostly for Geistcasting (which got reduced) so Firecraft got the boot.

Removed Zendikar Gideon. His ally tokens just die right away, his emblem is effectively useless (can pump man lands, Chandra elementals, and his creature form, sure - but you're hard pressed to spend 4 loyalty on that). Realized he mostly functioned as a diversion, so wanted to do something better with the mana.

Added Trials Gideon. Waaay better than Zendikar Gideon in this build. Nurfing damage is very useful here and forces opp to add more to board, so sweepers can hit more targets. Rarely use emblem, but have to buy a turn, when I never used Zendikar emblem. 4/4 body an acceptable consolation prize from losing Zendikars slightly larger body. Yes, dies to Grasp, but the change has been worth that risk. Does more work here overall.

Added Kefnet. Indestructible draw engine is good here. Also being able to pick up extra lands late game to loot them with Nahiri and wheel effects is useful. His 5/5 flying body has won games, and is a decent proxy for the 5/5 body I lost when cutting Zendikar Gideon.

Added Cast Out. Versatile instant speed removal that can be cycled to mill harder is the best thing this deck got from the later sets. Yes please.

Added 1 Commit//Memory. Card saved my butt a few times. Commit is effectively hard removal with 1 Tutelage in play, and with 2 or more in play Memory mills like a boss while refilling hand. Plays well with Visions out. Might be worth running both copies, but having trouble seeing what to cut with its casting demands. 1 has been good enough in practice.

Added 1 land. This deck needs to hit its land drops, and there are plenty of ways to loot excess lands later game.

Reworked colors in mana base slightly. Reducing the demands from Firecraft allows me to trade mountains for island/plains, and makes it a little easier to cast everything else.


A few things considered but left unchanged:

Removing Bombardments for something else. Thought about it, but in the end it was too important to have a 1 mana removal spell. Helps to have removal you can cast for 1 mana when playing 3cc spells T4 or 4cc spells T5, etc. with the looting this deck does, I still like this better than the other 1 mana burn options.

Using Towers. Adding Cast Outs to the already notable number of planeswalker and enchantment spells just didn't feel right to run Towers. T3 I'd rather be casting other things.

Using any creatures that aren't indestructible. One of the better features of the deck is blanking opps removal and making them hold more cards for Visions damage. Every non indestructible creature I tried just helped opp cast otherwise dead cards. This a major reason Zendikar Gideon got cut.


General thoughts on the deck in post update Duels world:

This has been an absolute blast to revisit. I run into so many goofy brews on the ladder, enchantment hate hasn't been much of a problem. Think it's hard to dedicate slots to that in a meta with so much strange variety. Mill might not work in a tourney with the full cardpool (especially w/ sideboards), but on ladder it's worthy of running.

This deck is all about exploding for a ton of damage around T4/5. Aim is to play out doods capable of generating bodies during the attach phase on T2/3, then cast Valor in Akros T4 to generate immediate value and create an explosive attack.

Mana base is pretty greedy, but I'm ok trading a game here and there where I mulligan a string of Hub/Battlements/Abbey (no stable color source) hands to death for those games here and there where I flip Abbey or transform a Garrison for a glorious victory. If you prefer consistency, trade in some Stone Quarrys to help you hit your T4 double color spells on curve (only a single 1 drop makes it no problem to spend T1 playing a tapped land). I wouldn't go above 24 lands cause flooding out with this deck is the worst. Deck is very resilient and can overcome some awkward draws or stalled board states - but it doesn't have any way to power through floods in this version, so taking out a couple spells for Boros tapped lands is no bueno.

Thalia's Lieutenant, Crop-Captain, and Gideon Emblems help you pump weenies to win games you don't draw Valor in. Abbey helps you win stalled games where you can't find/stick pumpers, and I'd run a single copy even in decks I'm subbing Stone Quarrys in for better color consistency. Battlements is primarily a just for fun card - occasionally you'll use the haste option to send in a creature who just valor pumped your team for a bigger swing, and every so often you'll be able to transform Garrison for a Feels Good Man attack. Mostly it's just a colorless land source that's as likely to frustrate you by not producing a color as it is to entertain you with its abilities tho. If you're looking to establish a stronger mana base, this is an easy first cut for Quarry.

I've run versions with Smuggler's Copter for the loot effect to power through floods, and that's a viable option to sub in (just remember to pilot it before your Valor triggers resolve so you can get dem big Copter swings). Another vehicle I've run at times is Aethersphere Harvester - more energy plays well with Hubs, Lightning, and Chasers - lifegain is useful at times, and it's a big butt on defense. They're good cards and proved powerful options in other versions - but current version doesn't use any vehicles cause I got bored with using them in decks. This version is more focused on aggressive synergy and T4/5 wins. If opp durdles till turn 3 or 4, they're ded. This goldfishes like a mother****er, and doesn't leave time for opp to mess around.

There are different ways you can go to make the deck more midrange - using cards like Collective Effort, Chandra, Flamecaller, more removal, vehicles, or even Dragon Fodder. I've tried a bunch of versions and even took Boros Body Bag: Valor in Asskros (posted down in SOI era lists below) to a decent finish in a tourney NGA did - but the list above is best version IMO for ladder play in a post updates Duels world. Best here meaning just the right combination of lethality and fun.

Fun aggro deck with a twist. Idea is to play out a sacrifice outlet ASAP - looking to cast Evolutionary Leap and/or Hazoret's Favor as high priority. Once those are in play, you can start stealing opps creatures with treason effects, attacking with them, and sacrificing them EOT. If having trouble drawing a sac outlet, deck is able to play more straight forward aggro and if you can get any creature advantage, you can just steal their blockers and overwhelm them. But it's way more fun when you can steal/sac.

Charioteer's are to give trample to things that are Favor pumped. Maybe they should be replaced for something with better raw stats, but team trample is winning that spot for now.

Evoleap, Visionaries, Abbots, and Stonewalkers work to keep gas in the tank. I should probably trade out Arlin for Chandra Torch (for even more gas), but haven't done that yet.

Without instant speed removal (and with the only removal it does have being contingent on other cards), it struggles mightily against certain types of decks. But it's hella fun the rest of the time

#1 Tip = be aware of the way the game is wanting to auto tap your mana when you have Gift of Paradise enchanting a land. If your spell isn't needing the double color from it and/or isn't requiring all your mana to cast, the game likes to tap the land for a single mana rather than the 2 mana the enchantment ability grants. This can screw you if you're needing the extra mana to hold up an instant.

General Piloting Tips:
Depending on the draw the deck can have aggressive starts, like T2 Lone Rider into T3 Gift of Paradise. Outside of that type of opening, the deck wants to play defensively until you can get your Bloodlord combos rolling.

There are several ways to recur creatures (Pulse of Murasa, Greenwarden of Murasa, Ever After, both Lilianas), so don't worry about losing doods along the way. You've got a ton of lifegain in this build so your focus is staying alive until Bloodlord combos or planeswalker ultimate win you the game.

Depending on the situation, you may not want to trigger Greenwarden's card recursion on death, since you can get him back with other GY recursion spells and get more than two total triggers off him through the course of a game. If you don't need some spell to keep you alive when he dies, it's often better to not use the ability that exiles him - so put thought into that decision before you pull the trigger.

It's ok to cast Nissa on curve just to make sure you're hitting your land drops (very important with this deck as it has a lot of high end spells). You can recur her later when at 6+ lands to flip her, and you want to draw out removals to help your Bloodlord stick later anyways.

Pulse of Murasa on Lone Rider with mana to cast both is a nice play.

Obviously you don't want Bloodlord to die, but he's a high priority target when he drops so he invariably will draw out removal. That's why there are several ways to recur creatures. Ever After fetching back Bloodlord + Arborback Stomper is a nice combo. EA can put a metric **** ton of power toughness on the board fetching back a pair of Caracals, and can auto flip Lone Rider fetching him back plus an Arborback.

Don't forget Shambling Vent has lifelink. Unless multiple GoP's got you to cast Bloodlord, you should have 6 mana to get Sylvan Advocate's buff when you untap, so Vent can help you close out quick in those situations.

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim can get her 2nd ability going in this deck, and deck has ways to generate zombie tokens for expendable removal/sac fodder. Remember that Lone Rider has 1st strike, so if he's going to die in combat, you can trigger her first or second ability targeting Rider after he gains you 4 life but before other damage resolves. Use her abilities to gain life or kill things when your other creatures are targeted with temoval - ESPECIALLY if Bloodlord is being targeted with exile removal. You can do nifty things with her in this deck - and she's one way to quickly close out a game when you cast Bloodlord (sacing creatures to gain life for a single mana). If you are planning to do this with more than one creature using a GoP enchanted land, remember #1 Tip and manually tap GoP to generate 2 mana first.


In testing, this deck didn't lose to AI ever so it's at least that good. I went 3-0 on xbone ladder with this exact version, and total games with other versions in testing process were better than 50% wins so it's not total garbage there. Probably will be rough on Steam ladder at higher ranks tho... def a deck built more to have fun with Bloodlord than to steamroll opponents. Requires a good deal of thought with what to cast your removal on, what to recur from graveyard, and what to do with your planeswalkers. But when you get those sick Bloodlord combos going it Feels Good Man.

Haven't unlocked all the cards for the following list, so not Play Tested, Mother Approved yet. I have an alternate version of the core idea I'm currently using with SOI/BFZ/ORI cards that works fine and is a ton of fun to play with. I expect once I get and add the OGW, it will only get better...

8 Creatures
2 x Thing in the Ice
3 x Reflector Mage
3 x Wall of Resurgence

2 Plainswalkers
1 x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

26 Other Spells
4 x Clutch of Currents
3 x Telling Time
2 x Displacement Wave
2 x Roil Spout
2 x Scatter to the Winds
2 x Spell Shrivel
2 x Radiant Flames
2 x Geistblast
2 x Fevered Visions
2 x Brutal Expulsion
2 x Planar Outburst
1 x Crush of Tentacles

24 Land
7 x Island
3 x Plains
2 x Mountain
2 x Prairie Stream
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Clifftop Retreat
2 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Wandering Fumarole
2 x Needle Spires


Idea is to control the board early, create some man-lands along the way, and then start the big bounce. Excluding Thing in the Ice's transformation, all global bounce spells will leave your awoken lands alone; Planar Outburst does the same. Awaken man-lands for some larger beaters post board wipe. Fevered Visions might be better substituted for a 3rd Geistblast and Scatter to the Wind / Roil Spout, but wouldn't know till play testing (really wanted to cause some pain post global bounce, so that's why it's there for now).

Might not work like I want it to, but really wanted to play with the idea.

22 Creatures
1x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Kor Castigator
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3x Skyrider Elf
3x Bounding Krasis
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Woodland Wanderer
2x Primal Huntbeast
2x Outland Colossus
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
2x Plated Crusher

2 Plainswalkers
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths

12 Other Spells
2x Slab Hammer
3x Telling Time
3x Elemental Bond
2x Wildsize
2x Sheer Drop

24 Land
2x Plains
3x Island
6x Forest
2x Prairie Stream
2x Hinterland Harbor
2x Sunpetal Grove
1x Rogue's Passage
2x Skyline Cascade
2x Sandstone Bridge
2x Evolving Wilds

This requires more thought and skill to pilot than the Jund version. Variety of options and choices keeps it feeling fresh even after you've played with it a lot. Looking forward to adjusting/improving it with new cards though. Having more 5+ CMC creatures than the Jund version creates some problems with the hammer that I'd like to clean up.