Standard - WU - Hexproof Aggro

Deck Rating (at time of initial publication):

 ★★

"Can be fairly explosive. Hexproof creatures are extremely resilient."

      What This Deck Does

• Puts out an hexproof creature then loads it up with enchantments.
• Controls the board with yet more enchantments.

     Features Worth Noting

• Very strong hate exists for a deck like this, but it is fairly unlikely that hate will be encountered.
• This deck can be very fast, but because you are only running 8 creatures that cost 3 or less, you may find yourself stuck without a creature.
• Strong synergies.

     Deck List

Artifact - 1 1 x Silver-Inlaid Dagger Creature - 12 4 x Geist of Saint Traft 4 x Invisible Stalker 4 x Lone Revenant Enchantment - 19 4 x Curiosity 4 x Detention Sphere 4 x Ethereal Armor 3 x Oblivion Ring 4 x Spectral Flight

Land - 22 4 x Glacial Fortress 4 x Hallowed Fountain 8 x Island 6 x Plains Instant - 6 3 x Azorius Charm 3 x Think Twice

     I've seen similar decks spring up all over the place, typically running Bonds of Faith or other pacifism effects. These enchantments do allow you to shut down some decks, but more than likely they'll just lead to a slower match loss.
     The one-of Silver-Inlaid Dagger is entirely replaceable, and is mostly a throw-back to another deck I built for the format. Silver-Inlaid Dagger is a great equipment for Invisible Stalker, however it does not have very good synergy with the deck. I would strongly advise against adding more than one, even if you find it to be useful in the deck.

     This deck was originally built before Return to Ravnica came out, as a Bant deck. It had an amazing potential to explode, but it also had a lot of early game mana problems, even with Abundant Growth.


     What A Good Hand Might Look Like

• Land and an Invisible Stalker or Geist of Saint Traft with practically any enchantment is a good hand.
• Land and Ethereal Armor with a few draw cards is a mediocre hand.

• Land and Lone Revenant is not a good hand. Lone Revenant is a good deal too slow to be your first creature.
• Land and any number of good enchantments is not a good hand. With only 8 cheap creatures in the deck, you may never draw into something worth playing.

     Match Ups Worth Noting
     Board wipes are annoying but don't really spell out a game loss for this deck. Rolling Temblor and Mutilate are to be feared, but there's a very good chance you'll outrace both cards without trying. If not, you can delay yourself a turn to play your creatures--after all, if they're hoping to wipe the board, they aren't trying to race you for early game damage (and that's your trickiest match-up).
     Zombies and other aggro decks typically go about 50/50 with this deck. This is due in-large to the random nature of having so few hexproof creatures. Luckily those decks have a hard time removing your creatures without a very lucky Bonfire of the Damned, and if Bonfire is a card that gives you a lot of trouble, you can go so far as to sideboard in a Redirect for one of the funniest interactions in the standard format.
     Be sure to board in Pithing Needles against planeswalkers that can give you trouble (notably Jace, Architect of Thought and Lilliana, of the Veil).