KnightoftheHokeyPokey

Barracuda may be green, but he has vision and takes advice well. He never fails to improve his decks, and that's what puts them over the top. A lot of the token generators were his idea, too.

Barracuda, mmmjkx2, and I had a good long conversation on this sort of deck. Barracuda went and made this budget deck, finding Olric to boot! He thought of most of the token generators as well.

Wait! You need an alternative to Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth ... yeah, use another deck. You simply need Mentor of the Meek and Hero of Bladehold here ...

This is one sick deck, be proud!

Nice Izzet deck! You should be proud of 27 instants!

I think cascade bluff would serve you better than steam vents.

Oh, and that thing you are "missing" is a creature that directly benefits from casting instants. Oh well, you don't need one.

Think about removing stormbreath dragon ... I don't see how he fits. I think that Gelectrodre, Wee Dragonauts, or Nivix Cyclops are all better choices.

I love Keranos, God of Storms. He has good art, a good ability, and an interesting set of problems. Plus, his art is awesome!

But how to cast it ... with manabond!

Nicely done man!

Just a massive suggestion =). Don't feel pressured to do anything!

Alright, here's my 2 cents:

Let's start with the obvious. Take out Barren Blessing; you are trying to win by satisfying Felidar Sovereign with lifegain. Since he costs so much, he is obviously the last card in the combo you will play.

Now, onto deck streamlining! My favorite part! Everyone has to do it; Northern is the only player I have met who can make decks darn near perfect without revision.

Let's refine the deck's strategy and make the deck leaner and meaner. (We will take care of that abominable mana curve later).
You stated this is a life gain deck. There are multiple ways to approach this. PURE lifegain - either in order to pump your enchantments and creatures, or gain so much life the enemy CAN'T kill you, is more of a mono-white thing. I think you should use it to give yourself breathing room (you are able to let guys not be blocked, like if they have deathtouch) and make your opponents think twice about attacking, since this strategy works best with green. It also combos well with the unstated theme of indestructibility you having going.
Secondly, you like enchantments. So free yourself and use more than one of each! This will also make the deck more consistent. Therefore, this is now an enchantment deck! Let's get down to it then.

Creatures (keep in mind that you want 8 1-mana creatures, and only 4 6-mana creatures. This rule is readily broken, but stick with it, since this is a traditional because it's green-white. your main problem here is a few creatures that don't fit your theme and too few starting creatures.

Fleecemane Lion - cut it! it's too expensive with the monstrosity ability, and it doesn't benefit from enchantments
Krond the Dawn Clad - cut it! only 1 6 mana creature, and that's Felidar Sovereign
Sigarda Host of Herons - cut it! again, it's 5 mana, and you must lower your mana curve.
Wilt leaf liege - oh man are you going to not like my advice here, but cut her. You need that 4-mana slot for other things, and you don't have many multicolored permanents you will be keeping. =(.
Dauntless escort - tough call, but he's history. Instants will take his place.
Elderwood Scion - mana cost again ... he's gone.

Ah .. feel all that breathing room?
Add Deadly Recluse. A good spider, with deathtouch. Just wait till he is stroner =)
Rhox Faithmender - it's a REALLY nice card, but ... you aren't here for pure lifegain. This is a tough call, but you might have to cut it. With green, you want to think about blocking enemies, not just RAMPING up your health. He's a card specialized for pure lifegain decks, which yours is not. =(. On the other hand, now you have room for ... Ajani's Chosen! Hehehe .... let the enchantments rain from the sky!
Goldenglow moth - It looks cute now, but wait until it reaches BEEFY levels.

Alright, to summarize, you now have 18 creatures.
3 Anjani's Pridemate
3 Felidar Sovereign
3 Serra Ascendent
3 Goldenglow Moth
3 Deadly Recluse
3 Anjani's Chosen

Now let's back these dudes up with some sick enchantments!

Umm.... most of your enchantments cost a lot. You want a load of cheap ones.

Let's just keep Felidar, Hyena, and Rancor.
Bring in Forced Adaptation, and Trollhide Armor.

Viola! Aim for 15 spells.

For artifacts, consider inflitrator's lens or skullclamp for card draw, 3 of one or the other.

Just have the instant Rest for the Weary x4.

You don't have much space for a planeswalker.

Well, just add some removal. Crushing Vines will work nicely. Bring 3!

20 lands.

That's 70 cards! Oh no ... now just slim this down to 60 by taking out 10 cards (choose wisely), and you are golden!

Sure thing man.

Oh well, imprint fork onto isochron scepter!

Do you live near a card shop or MTG warehouse? Buy your cards there.

The best option is head to a garage sale or find a friend with cards to spare. Friday Night Magic helps with the last option.

Treasure Hunt is an instant =).

Dude, I totally agree with you. My friend in Boy Scouts had a filthy exalt deck (Aurelia was his main). I wanted to beat him, but on my own terms.

This token deck will seriously hamper his exalt or infect decks. Creature token decks fear very little. Removal & blocking are almost entirely useless.

Yes, but you have a 1 - (56/60)×(55/59)×...×(50/54) chance of getting one. That's pretty good odds (around 50%).
That translates to a virtually guaranteed chance by the 5th or 6th mulligan.

In fact, the risk of not starting with a Treasure Hunt is negligible compared to the risk of your combo being countered.


Sorry about the difficulty of seeing combos. I tried to list them in the description.

Wheel of sun and moon? Countryside Crusher? Isochron Scepter or Panoptic Mirror?

So is Lake of the Dead, if your pocket book can afford it.

How about ... Gilden Age?

We will help you. That guy sounds like a classic A grade @$$#@£€ to me. The 1$ deck is out, since he will probably flip.

Can you tell me what deck he has? If you hit him with the right style and type of deck, you can pull it off easy. For example, I nailed my friend's powerful Dimir mill deck with white weenies. In turn, my other friend steamrolled me with a Simic evolve deck, though he could not stand up to the Dimir mill. This sort of rock-paper-scissors (aggro-midrange-control) is very useful and powerful if exploited. Otherwise, Simic Hydras is a particularly potent budget deck from Nothern.

Don't worry, Magic at it's core attacks this kind of s***, which is called "rich kid syndrome". Plus, you got us on your side. Too bad you aren't playing for ante!

P.S. If there is any way to get a picture of his face when you best him and/or tell him how much money your deck cost, please do.

I second that motion, if Barracuda's coffers agree!