You may want to lower the mana curve on your creatures. It could result in often tapping out to cast a creature. May I suggest Sylvan Advocate or Kujar Seedsculptor? Seedsculptor will still get you counters while giving you a blocker early to combat aggro decks and Advocate is just straight green value.

Gearhead93 I really like Sylvan Advocate and I might take out Animation Module for him because it doesn't do much unless you have counters out. Also, paying 1 for durable handicraft is more of a win than animation module. Thanks for the help and collaboration!

Considered the new 1G instant that gives all your creatures indestructible / hexproof until EOT? what about Larger Than Life instead of Nature's Way?

Abacinator Heroic Intervention is definitely going to be in this deck. I guess Larger Than Life is also sorcery speed and allows for a bigger creature that can be blocked or not rather than dealing direct damage. Thanks for your input!

Yes! I been brewing this deck since Rishkar and winding constrictor was spoiled. I am glad you are using the aetherborn maurader. I have had suggestions to cut it. How is it working for you?

Sephirothix099, Aetherborn Marauder seems to be a pretty big play for this deck. With Durable Handicraft on board and Winding Constrictor, it gets 2 instances of counter buffs. Once, if you can pay the 1 mana for Durable Handicraft and Once again for grabbing counters off of other creatures. Throw in Implement of Ferocity and youve got a minimum of 6 +1/+1 counters going onto him. I dont see a downside of running him in a deck like this. Maybe message me your decklist? We could collaborate on this build together

Hey Budywolfe,

I am also very excited for Winding Constrictor and have put together a deck. Came across yours and figured I'd share what I have found. Aetherborn Marauder was in my original list but eventually got cut. The flying and lifelink was very alluring, however in practice I didn't quite like it as much as I did in theory. In an ideal situation it was coming down on turn four with a constrictor on the battlefield and a counter from somewhere to transfer. Quite frequently though I didn't have the constrictor, or no counters to transfer. The replacement I have found for it was Walking Ballista. It didn't seem great at first glance but in our counter decks it is a monster. Being a 2/4/6.. drop is good because it keeps our curve low, yet can still be a great top deck late in the game. It very effectively turns our counters into removal/direct damage, and is a late game mana sink.

My other suggestions are not as exciting. Tireless Tracker offers you a source of card advantage, while also having great synergy with our counter game plan. Also Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is another great card for our decks. Dropping a counter on every creature is huge for us, and in a slower game her card draw and life gain is back breaking for the opponent.

Also, I haven't have success with Decimator of the Provinces but I feel like it could be a great one of for theses decks. Emerging off your gearhulk does not seem ideal, but with a few other creatures on the field is more than worth it. It is a game winning play, and the ideal way to gives all your creatures trample.

Sorry for the wall of text, and hope you draw well and crush many opponents with this deck.

moonbeee, Thank you so much for the wall of text! In fact, it was what I was hoping for. Walking Ballista was one thing I was on the fence about. Your explanation about its curve also really brought it to light. I had the same issue with Aetherborn Marauder and was trying to find a way to use him more consistently but it didn't seem to work. Again, thank you for your help and I hope you much success with your version as well!

moonbeee, think about splashing white for Oath of Ajani?

@budywolfe I thought about it. I thought about splashing many different colors. I am not convinced that Oath of Ajani is what I'd want to splash for though. I think that fits better in a G/W token deck, as you are playing more planeswalkers and are trying to spit out as many tokens as you can. I think oath of ajani goes particularly well with Sram's Expertise.

I think if you are going to splash for any colour that you are better off splashing blue for counter spells. Blue gives you a few tools that help the deck. Negate is classic and is really good at stopping sweepers and other removal, as well as stopping Aetherworks Marvel and planeswalkers. You also get access to Lumbering Falls which is arguable the best manland in standard right now. The other lands in sultai colours also are good for the deck, as Botanical Sanctum gives you access to turn one green mana. I find this important for my deck because I play Oath of Nissa.

Speaking of which, I really like oath of nissa. It offers a good amount of card selection, as hitting land drops, and finding Winding Constrictor is important to us. My favourite part about nissa's oath though is turning on revolt for Fatal Push (also forgot to mention that Walking Ballista can be used to trigger revolt and allow you to take down many creatures in one turn).

All of that said, there may be a good reason to splash white. White does have better unconditional removal, and ajani's oath and other cards work well with our counter plan. Shoulder to Shoulder is card that has always intrigued me. Let me know if you play around with splashing for anything!

Here's my decklist. Hope it can help you out. The main goal of the deck is to be good without Winding Constrictor and be better with him on the battlefield.:).

BG Counters "Very competitive"

clark1424 Thanks for the comment and the list! I have been trying to find something to put in place of Durable Handicraft. Your list opens up some ideas for me

Thanks man. In my opinion, i dont think you will need Durable Handicraft. It wastes (well, not much) your turn 2 and you will have to cast your creatures with additional mana to pay to make it higher casting cost but in exchange, will give +1/+1 counters. I think you will need to put more pressure to your opponent instead rather than helping them recover for a while. It might cost you the game.

It's all up to you though.