divisionbyzorro
Member
Unless you can do broken stuff like ramp to Primeval Titan, Hornet Queen, Karn, Craterhoof etc., or have answers to literally everything, it's always good to be proactive. If you can't do broken things, then more often than not your opponent can. In your case I'd have played both the Opposition and Upheaval, and ditched Sorin, Ajani, Duplicant, Mentor of the Meek, Green Sun Zenith, Brago, and make room for Martial Coup, Student of Warfare, Phantom Centaur and Arbor Elf. Martial Coup might wipe out your board, but it can replace them with tokens, which works well with both Opposition and Spiritkeeper. I usually avoid G/W since it can't really interact with decks, but Opposition and Upheaval are game changers. Abuse them!
I was very close to just going full Bant. I got scared of my mana base (perhaps unreasonably so). I don't believe I would cut Brago, TBH. The upside with mana rocks and planeswalkers is just too much. If I was going Bant and playing Opposition and Upheaval, I would probably do this:
Add:
Opposition
Upheaval
Martial Coup
Remove:
Sorin
Ajani
Mentor of the Meek
The Sorin/Ajani are doing essentially what the Opposition would be doing: squeezing extra value out of creatures. They get kinda redundant. I would keep the Sorin in an Upheaval deck if the mana was better - a few more fetchlands/duals and things might look a little different.
Those three are actually all very good Brago targets, so I'm reducing his effectiveness by replacing three things he plays nicely with with three things he doesn't. So sure, I guess he could go for Phantom Centaur or something. Although, he does play really well with Opposition by giving all of your non-token creatures "vigilance," so maybe he does stay.
I left Arbor Elf in the board (being the least interesting of the Elfs) and left in the Green Sun's Zenith because it was an extra copy of a bomb, an Elf, and a utility piece. I would not leave out GSZ. Duplicant is also a fine piece of removal against bombs - I'm certainly not leaving it in the board.
I almost played this deck - and it's possible I should have. The only reason I went with what I did was because the mana was better. I was worried about playing double-blue cards when my foundation was a suite of double-white creatures and green mana accelerants. What's more likely is that I should have just pulled an abrupt 180 when I got the Upheaval late in P2 and just drafted for it.