This is a midrange deck built around the combo of exert creatures and Always Watching to have very powerful recurring effects, such as repeated removal with Glorybringer and just a 5/5 vigilance, lifelink for 2 with Glory-Bound Initiate. However, this deck is not reliant solely on that combo, as each piece of the combo and the deck as a whole is very powerful on its own. I will go through the card choices below:
One Drops
4x
Thraben Inspector
are our best one drops. This deck tends to peak from the 2-3 slots, but the Inspectors help us fill out our curve with some early blockers/weak attackers, also offering us card advantage down the line when we no longer have any plays. If we have Always Watching up, the Inspectors become 2/3s, all in all reasonably sized creatures.
2x
Loam Dryad
work very well with the vigilance granted by Always Watching , making it able to attack and then tap afterwards. The Dryads are definitely not great, but they help us accelerate into our four and five drops, or just to get some extra mana for a stray clue, cycling land, or random one drop.
Two Drops:
4x Glory-Bound Initiate is fantastic without Always Watching , but even better with it. A 3/1 for 1 is already a fine card, but the added lifelink and p/t boost allows us to either make huge life total swings early game or stabilize our life total late game. Very few early creatures can trade with an exerted Initiate, meaning that you'll either get free card advantage or 8 points of life total difference if you exert t3. Overall he is very good vs aggressive decks, as he is both bigger than most of their creatures and he increases our life, giving us the time we need to get out even scarier threats.
4x Channeler Initiate is both a super aggressively costed creature and a mana dork, my choice for one of the best Amonkhet cards. Early game, she can help us accelerate out Arlinn Kord
by t2, or Glorybringer /Verdurous Gearhulk by turn 4, or just allow us to activate mana-sinks and fire out the rest of our hand. She can also be incredibly aggressive if we don't need the mana and have a
Thraben Inspector
or two lying around to dump the counters on, coming out as a 3/4. The Initiate benefits from Always Watching as well, as it allows to her to first attack, then tap for mana. This only comes up in pretty niche situations though.
1x
Sylvan Advocate
has a bit of a nonbo with Always Watching , but is simply a fantastic card. Early game, he's a reasonable beater, and he gives us reach into the lategame. All around a solid card in the deck, that may get sided out if we need to be a bit faster.
Three Drops:
4x Always Watching is our ideal t3 play, comboing extremely well with Glory-Bound Initiate. Many decks will simply lose to t2 Initiate t3 This, providing us with a 5/5 vigilance lifelink body while most decks will have little more than a 3/3. Even without any exert creatures, it's a great card that benefits most every card in the deck.
2x Rhonas the Indomitable doesn't have too much trouble becoming a creature here. While a good portion of our creature are too small to trigger him, we have Glorybringer and Verdurous Gearhulk. In addition to that, we can use an amped up slyvan advocate, or any of our other two drops alongside Always Watching . Worst case scenario, we have to activate his ability to use him, which just provides us with a nice mana sink.
2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar is a hate card that is both reasonably sized and almost always relevant. First Strike is great with the p/t buff that Always Watching offers, allowing her to kill a good amount of relevant creatures without dying herself.
Four Drops:
2x Arlinn Kord
is sort of like a discount Always Watching . It provides us with a back up plan for granting vigilance, allowing us to make a 6/6 Initiate, which is even scarier. Once we do have an Always Watching up, Arlinn can flip, meaning she's still quite relevant. Her -1 gives us recurring removal, her +1 boosts the whole team and her ult has super synergy with Always Watching if we ever get the chance to activate it.
Five Drops:
4x Glorybringer is our prime five drop. It is great with Always Watching or Arlinn Kord
, but again, also good without it, at its worst a flying 4/4 with haste. Glorybringer can come down t4 with Channeler Initiate, offering an instant extremely powerful threat. Really there's not much more to say, the card is simply great as long as you can cast it, no matter how late in the game it is.
2x Verdurous Gearhulk is not quite as great as Glorybringer here, but still an amazing card. At its worst, its an 8/8 trampler for 5. At its worst! In better case scenarios, the +1/+1 counters can be spread throughout a team for devastating effects. Putting it on a Glorybringer gives us instant damage in the air, putting it on a Glory-Bound Initiate gives us extra life, putting it on Thalia, Heretic Cathar gives us a huge first striker that will kill almost any creature in combat etc etc. Again, the card is simply great, in both worst and best case scenarios.
Removal:
The deck runs 3x Magma Spray to deal with Scrapheap Scrounger as well as any other two toughness creatures. It is ran over Shock because the damage to planeswalkers/players is not particularly valued. It also runs 3x Cast Out to deal with any higher toughness creatures or noncreature threats. If we either cant cast it or don't have any great targets, it has a super cheap cycling cost.
