WARNING: This deck is built for my local meta which consists of control, reanimator, Jund, etc. VERY little aggro. If you're in an aggro/Naya heavy environment, consider Selesnya Charm or more
Strangleroot Geist
22 lands is OP. 4 of all the shocks cause Turn 2 Geist.
4 Simic Charm because it's a big deal. +3/+3 to survive/win the game, hexproof to prevent things like Detention Sphere hitting your enchants and making you sad, all kinds of stuff. Remember, Simic Charm is all PERMANENTS. Also moves a creature back to your hand, so you can save something from a Supreme Verdict or Terminus or whatever.
2 Gift of Orzhova because life gain is good every now and again, but it's not as much damage as we usually like and it's a bit expensive. It's more for beating midrange and aggro decks.
3 Spectral Flight because 4 just felt cumbersome, and 2 Gift of Orzhova puts more flying in the deck, which is sometimes all you're looking for... cough Boros Reckoner
3
Silverblade Paladin
because 2 makes it too sketchy of a wincon and 4 will get in your way.
2
Strangleroot Geist
I used to run 4, but sometimes it's a dead card in hand. Just a card that beats out Supreme Verdict and makes a good target for Rancor also, remember it's a spirit for Cavern of Souls to share with Geist of Saint Traft
SIDEBOARD:
2
Angelic Overseer
another reason not to run more
Strangleroot Geist
. Have a lot of humans out so you can keep this dude on the field. Simic Charm to protect him all day. Strong card.
2 Detention Sphere to beat things like Liliana of the Veil and Boros Reckoner, whatever is in the way.
2 Gift of Orzhova Sometimes a stray aggro player will show up
3 Ground Seal beats Rest in Peace and Tormod's Crypt and all that other crap because it's a field enchant and you get to draw a card. I hate reanimator with a passion, as well.
2 Nevermore for anything that you don't like. Careful for Abrupt Decay targeting this, as they have nothing else to target (hexproof).
4 Syncopate because Negate wasn't cutting it when your opponent barely gets off an
Angel of Serenity
or Thragtusk and whatnot. Countering creatures in this format of ridiculously strong creatures is too important. I pick this over
Dissipate
because casting it for X=1 is all you need a vast majority of the time. Soon, all you'd have is this card in your hand and all your mana up. You get to sit there and watch them flail.
2 Witchbane Orb to make you an illegal target of the landmilling Angel of Glory's Rise,
Burning-Tree Emissary
, Undercity Informer, Unburial Rites combo, or silly things like Borborygmos Enraged. Also makes you an illegal target for Huntmaster of the Fells
flip and Bonfire of the Damned and Liliana of the Veil, Devour Flesh, etc. Stronger than people give it credit for.
IMPORTANT DETAILS:
Knowing how to use Simic Charm is a big thing. Namely the creature return. I had this situation come up when my opponent flashed in a Restoration Angel (targeting nothing) at the end of my Declare Attackers phase. I had lethal damage on board if an angel hadn't appeared, but I messed up. Here's how it would happen:
You declare your attacks. Pass priority to opponent. Opponent flashes in Restoration Angel. Pass Priority to you, you pass to them to resolve it. Before you trade off priority to enter the Declare Blockers phase, you Simic Charm the Restoration Angel into their hand, Since it won't be there for the start of Declare Blockers, you will hit for maximum amount.
If you have trample, however, and do this during the blockers phase, you will trample over for all your damage, as 0 is lethal to the blocker (who doesn't exist) and your damage is assigned to the player.
Also, the +3/+3 is good when you have a
Silverblade Paladin
out so you technically get 6 damage out of it if you go unblocked. Huehue.
