dknight27

Even with the low curve and aether vial, 19 lands is mighty slim. I would consider upping it to 20 and knocking up the fetch lands (ostensibly evening out the dead topdecked lands) so you have fewer mulligans/slow starts.

Side grave hate would do a good consideration too, especially as you have white so you can run rest in peace

I gotcha. Even if this is casual, there are some tweaks I would propose. If you're playing in vintage, you get to use the awesome vintage cards (budget version) that you don't get to use anywhere else. The budget cards you positively need to use are: Gitaxian probe, Brainstorm, Sol ring, Ponder, Skullclamp. Everything but Skullclamp is restricted in vintage, so you can only use 1 copy. Skullclamp you can use 4 copies.

Exalted is sort of a unique strategy in magic, as you want critters on the field, but you only want to attack with 1 every turn. So, the deck is vulnerable to mass removal (nukes), but doesn't get the benefit of doing massive swarm damage. So, you have to take advantage of the critter drop every turn to boost the attacker. Meaning, every turn you want to play a critter with exalted in mainphase 1, and attack with the critter from last turn, taking advantage of the exalted boost. This makes up for the vulnerability with speed. Unfortunately, that means your critter drops need to be as reliable and fast as possible. To that end, I recommend maxing out the easy to cast (mana color wise) and low cost critters over the "better" mid-tier critters. 4 akrasan squire, 4 aven squire, 4 knight of glory for sure. Then take a look at qasali pridemage and sighted-cast sorcerer. Giltspire avenger is too hard to get out (color wise) on a budget, as is sigled paladin. Court archers is "ok" but you don't really care about blocking in this deck (you want to outrace opponent), so a cheaper option might be better.

Your support spells are ok, but realistically aren't needed for what this deck is trying to do. You're trying to outrace opponent, so you don't need to gain life or anything like that. Aqueous form is nice for unblockable, but it doesn't produce good card advantage. Selesnya charm is ok, but there are better versions. I would suggest cutting most of them in favor of cards like swords to plowshares and preordain.




However, taking into account that this is a budget build so you can't use exalted's grand master, noble hierarch, I would give some thought to forgetting the bant color scheme entirely and just going mono-white. Yes, you don't get to use rafiq, but going monowhite fixes the mana problems, lets you use sleeker cards more quickly, and realistically doesn't lose much (if any) momentum when compared to a budget bant verison. Or, if you want to keep some diversity, go white/blue and you can use the cool vintage cards, the white cards above, plus ardent plea and ethercaste knight. Realistically, that's what I'm gunna recommend, as its a compromise between power and speed/playability.

This is how I would build that deck:

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/vintage-budget-exalted/

What format are we aiming for here?

It's entirely possible, I'm by no means claiming it is "good" at the things it does, but the reason I want to consider it, at least in a budgetary capacity, is because it has such a wide array of effects (even if those effects are impotent compared to their hyper-specific alternatives). Basically what I'm getting at is that it can possibly save some slot space to keep the sideboard less crowded. I run into the problem all the time of filling out a sideboard and going deck by deck on the matchups and finding at least one that I basically don't have room to side against. And, although I hate to use a fantasy sports term, I think dovin is a candidate for a "flex" spot, that sides against enough hyper-specific matchups to be a consideration.

That's just my thought process, maybe I'm way off base here

Biggest advice I can give is to pull down the curve and up the lands. Speed is more important than pretty much anything else

All is dust goes a long way in builds like this, and is realistically a must have.

I've had a lot of success in my karn build with doubling cube, mystic forge, winter orb, and silent arbiter. Just some considerations

No problem. Happy its working out

Ya, you're probably right. I use it in all the other control builds that will have it, I'm just always wary of the specific mana cost forcing it to miss on turn 2 or in the early middle game.

I never run fewer than 20 lands in a deck like this, as eating mulligans loses games and being stuck at 1 land for 3 turns technically lets you "survive" but puts you so far behind that it arguably doesn't matter.

The 1-drop tactics cards will indeed help you solve the 1 land problems (and 9 of them is wonderful, agreed), but as the wastelands don't pump out blue you're only running 14 cards that give you mana, which is just bad math and is super vulnerable to land hate and interference in general.

You're running 7 fetch lands, so top decking lands shouldn't be too terrible a concern. Karakas should be a consideration for sure. I would also suggest looking at fiery islet. In a build like this I would trim out 1 wasteland, add in 2 fiery islets and karakas (maybe trip 1 nemesis and 1 arcanist?). But that's me.

18 lands in a tri-color with 4 wastelands seems way too light to me. Even with the low curve and force of will/daze, you're going to eat mulligans and 1-land games all day

Even with a semi-low curve, 19 lands is very low for a build like this. The only decks that can really get away with 19 in modern are things like burn that have things that only cost 1 or 2. With 19, you're gunna eat mulligans and 1-land hands that will slow you down too much to justify the extra material slots. Some good ways around this are with fetch lands (thin the deck, but are higher price), man lands (mutavault, blinkmoth nexus), and cycling lands (barren moor). Assuming you can't afford fetch lands for the build, I would suggest going to 21 lands, 19 swamps and 2 barren moors. Another way to up the lands and not suffer for it is with discard effects to ditch them when you topdeck them, with stuff like pack rat. Pack rat is worth a consideration because it works beautifully with your necro boys.

Just my initial thoughts

I'm personally a big fan of the rhino in decks like this. It bolts opponent, counters a bolt to you, and is a 4/5 beatstick for 4. It's basically an alt win to the swords and its cost effective. Plus its a mainboard against burn, which seems pretty popular right now.

Only tweak that comes to mind is a possible leyline of sanctity in the side to protect against combos. Other than that, this looks deadly

Biggest thing that stands out to me off the bat is that the curve is too high. This deck won't get going until it hits 4 mana, and there isn't enough ramp to get you there consistently. I also see an imbalance of support vs token generators, which is generally a problem.

Asceticism is slow and with tokens you don't really care if they get targeted, so it's less effective. Greatworm is a boss, but it's conditional and slow as hell, so 4 copies is no good. It will clog your hand until you are in the late middle game, and is an absolute brick in the opening hand. I would cut it down to 1 or 2 so you are more likely to topdeck it. March of the multitudes is unfortunately too slow to be relied upon, as you need tokens on the field already to really make it worth while.

I would take a look at call of the conclave, emmara soul of the accord, entreat the angels (1 copy), legion's landing, nissa voice of zendikar, oviya pashiri, secure the wastes, white sun's zenith (1 copy).


Just my initial thoughts

Are we going for vintage or casual here? And what's the budget looking like?

Perhaps consideration could be made for 4 copies of arcum's astrolobe, and then just run snow-islands. Excellent target for the 5/5 transformers and for sai.

Also master of etherium and cranial plating go a loooong way in builds like this.

Just my initial thoughts

What's the budget? And are you going for modern legal?

I like sword of light and shadow in here over feast and famine. Helps with the bleeding from confidant and fetches back bodies for itself (and all the bodies in here are heavy hitters).

Just my initial thought

18 lands is too light for a curve like this. You're going to eat mulligans and 1-land midgames quite a bit.

Also, cathartic reunion is in general a bad option as it takes 2 cards in hand that you don't want, plus itself, to use, so its about the worst top deck you can get.

Ashiok doesn't seem like it warrants a spot mainboarded either.

Just my initial thoughts

Ya, Kess seems, at least to me, like the newest gift to grixis control. I would personally shave off a Tasigur for her

Training grounds is, without a doubt, this deck's very best friend