Kazzong

All the gates!

Not the same ratios I use, but clearly a copy/paste.
That being said, if you actually build the deck I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Interesting...

Hmm... concordant Crossroads is good, but it gives all creatures haste, including my opponent's. Now, Thousand-Year Elixir doesn't give haste, but it DOES allow me to use abilities as if my creatures had haste. so it doesn't work with Emrakul, but it works with everything else. and it lets me double up on an activation by untapping a creatures.
so that is the tradeoff.

I have tested a version with Crossroads, and I do like it. but if my Gen wave fails to be productive (albeit the small chance of that happening) it enables my opponent, and I am in a really bad position. so, therein lies my conundrum. which is really better here.

as for adding xenagos or mass hysteria, If I was going to use red, I would run TukTuk Rubblefort, which is a 0/3 with defender, reach, and gives all my creatures haste. so it is again, only one sided in my favor. but the goal of this deck was to not use any red. I already have a Naya defender deck, and I wanted this one to be different.

on a side note, running Emrakul with Xenagos is HILARIOUS!!! make her a 30/30 and give her haste. just win on the spot. might make another deck just for that interaction.

I almost want to suggest throwing in white somehow for Teferi's Protection.

Idea:
float enough mana to cast both TP and Upheaval, phase out all your stuff, bounce the rest of the board, lose all your freinds. rinse and repeat.

I suppose that is fair.

What do you think of swapping cranial archive for elixir of immortality. it is 1 cheaper and shuffles itself back into the deck along with your graveyard. doesn't draw you a card, but it does gain you 5 life.

reanimator is certainly a way to go. [[late to dinner]] could work to cheat out [[Guile]], but not many ways to cheat out [[dovescape]]. so it might save me a turn, but its still turn 6. I could try [[invoke justice]].

yeah, it is pretty reliant on not dying the first few turns. which often means the opponent has bricked pretty hard. so this is by no means a competitive deck. I am sure it could be done much better than I have here. this is just what I thought looked fun.

edited comment with more accurate details.

almost.
non-creature spells that get cast still get countered by [[dovescape]].
spells that are countered or would be countered give doves.

the Oracle ruling:
The Bird tokens are created even if the spell isn't countered by Dovescape's ability. This may happen because the spell can't be countered, because it's already been countered, or because it's otherwise been removed from the stack by the time Dovescape's ability resolves.


with [[Guile]] out the would be countered spells just get exiled AFTER they would get countered, and I can then cast them for free. If I do they also would get countered by [[dovescape]], which is the point because then it gives me the birds, and then the countered spell gets exiled again, letting me repeat the loop as many times as I want.

I CAN hijack everyone else's non-creature spells, but after the combo is in place there is very little incentive for anyone but myself to cast non-creature spells.

just heard back from the judge group. the copies made by conspire do resolve, as they are never cast, and [[dovescape]] only counters spells that are cast. which also means copies made by spells with storm would resolve too, as the copies are also not cast. might throw a few copies of [[brain freeze]] in the sideboard.

conspire is great, but doesn't really let me go completely shields down. with convoke I can tap out, and still be able to start the loop. with conspire you still have to pay the initial mana cost, and conspire just lets you copy it. so that doesn't really help me here.

now where the conspire MIGHT be interesting is getting around the dovescape, and letting you still play spells, because the copies don't get cast. that being said, I am not entirely sure if that works how I think it does. asking a judge group on facebook now.

in addition, there are no 1 mana instants in blue or white with convoke. which is fine, I just have to have 2 untapped creatures to start out, one of them being white because convoke still requires colors. example: can't pay for [[gather courage]] without a green creature.

There are 1 mana sorceries, but I can't really use those. the reason I need it to be an instant is so I can get birds on my opponent's turn, getting around summoning sickness, and swinging for the the win on my next turn. so I am stuck with [[ephemeral shields]] as my card.

noxious revival is an interesting option though. it does help in case my pieces get removed somehow or countered, and I don't need to add a third color to do it. might try to find a way to fit it in the deck.

added a few cheaper creatures, some life gain, and a couple convoke spells. might swap out a couple copies of [[Opt]] for a couple copies of [[marrow shards]]. too bad there are no 1 mana instants with convoke in white or blue.

A convoke spell isn't a bad idea at all. I was looking for a way to cheat out a spell and that would do it.

and that is fine. flavor is great, I just think you might want some way to protect him early on, or wait until you have at least 6-7 lands, so you can use his -6 right away.

perhaps instead of body double, you might use [[makeshift mannequin]].
instant so you could throw it out as a combat trick or just to get around summoning sickness, cheaper, than body double, and the Shroud from [[Inkwell Leviathan]] negates the downside of sacrificing it when it gets targeted.

oh, also I love ancient stirrings here. so many targets!

Dakkon is sweet, but doesn't protect himself at all. With no counters, and only a few interactive spells to police the board he might be hard to keep out for very long, particularly if played out really early, when he comes in with low loyalty, given that he can pull your haymaker out for free if you get him up to 6 or 7, which is at least a few turns. I was technically wrong when I said the deck had no ramp. Korlash can ramp, but has only a few targets.
Do you expect to be milling a ton of your lands? Or is crucible of worlds here to get value from saga?

How so? I could see benefit from being able to fateseal my opponent, so I can ensure I mill safely. But, other than being able to plan ahead, how can those three cards benefit from knowing my top card? I suppose using gomazoa as a shuffle effect to get rid of a top card I don't want is pretty useful.
As for the theme... I have a soft spot for defender cards, mostly because they are usually pretty bad, but when cards that care about defender come along as build arounds they tend to be pretty fun. Vent sentinel, Doorkeeper, and of course Axebane guardian being extremely strong.

either way, what do you think of this deck concept?