Yeah I know the deck list looks vanilla, but when you play it, the win just creeps up on you.
Got the idea from a really sneaky Jeskai deck that Skaev built combined with a few Lifegain and +1/+1 Counter tricks from my Abzan deck to Frankenstein this deck together.
The strategy is to gain life, add +1/+1 counters and sneak through damage. Every card has been selected to accomplish one or more of these tasks.
Aqueous Form, Gods Willing and Feat of Resistance all allow damage to sneak through and protect my creatures from removal.
Fabled Hero and Ajani's Pridemate are the powerhouses of the deck, they get huge quickly through different tactics which makes the deck versatile.
Nyx-Fleece Ram and
Sungrace Pegasus
gain life every turn which pumps the Pridemate into a beast.
Vortex Elemental
is a huge deterrent to big attackers and gets around Indestructible and Hexproof. The Vortex and Ram can stop most attackers in their tracks and are not defenders so when they get +1/+1 counters they can attack.
Abzan Battle Priest gives any creature with a counter Lifelink and I usually have more than one of those out already.
Sunbond
is a finisher to those standoff games and cast onto
Sungrace Pegasus
early it just grows into a GG.
Ajani Steadfast gains life and gives everyone +1/+1 counters, he's the perfect Planeswalker for this deck.
Sideboard:
Revoke Existence gets rid of Gods and other nasty Enchantments and Artifacts
Banishing Light gets rid of everything
Stubborn Denial and Negate counter against Control cards
Triton Tactics makes for awesome Combat tricks