Standard Stompy

By Sam Black

Sam Black is a Platinum Pro Player and longtime writer for StarCityGames.com. He is a respected deck builder and took over Daily Decks for the first half of 2013.

Before Gatecrash came out, Bant Hexproof was one of the major contenders in Standard. Despite expectations that it could get better with the addition of Breeding Pool, the post-Gatecrash Standard metagame has largely left the deck behind.

Magic Online's _Slippery_ has not forgotten about the deck and has found new tools for it from Gatecrash outside of the dual lands, in the form of Gift of Orzhova and Simic Charm (and Hands of Binding in the sideboard). Outside of those additions, the strategy is the same as it used to be—play a hexproof creature and make it huge and evasive—fortunately, Invisible Stalker is already evasive, and Geist of Saint Traft is already huge, in its way, so that's not as hard as it might seem.

Despite the improved mana, _Slippery_ still uses Abundant Growth because of its synergy with Ethereal Armor.

I assume this deck's primary weakness in the new Standard metagame has been an inability to consistently race the aggressive decks that were never interested in targeting its creatures to begin with. Gift of Orzhova is an excellent card at winning these races, and _Slippery_ has Fog, Hands of Binding, and Nearheath Pilgrim in the sideboard to further swing these tight races.

Have people moved on from this deck too quickly?

_Slippery_'s Bant Hexproof

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (21)

3 Arbor Elf 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim 4 Geist of Saint Traft 4 Invisible Stalker 4 Silverblade Paladin 2 Sublime Archangel

Instant (1)

1 Simic Charm

Enchantment (17)

3 Abundant Growth 4 Ethereal Armor 2 Gift of Orzhova 4 Rancor 4 Spectral Flight

Land (21)

4 Breeding Pool 1 Forest 3 Glacial Fortress 4 Hallowed Fountain 1 Hinterland Harbor 4 Sunpetal Grove 4 Temple Garden

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Simic Charm 1 Fog 1 Hands of Binding 1 Increasing Savagery 2 Loxodon Smiter 3 Nearheath Pilgrim 2 Negate 2 Rest in Peace 1 Rootborn Defenses 1 Strangleroot Geist