Alert Heedbonder

Creature — Human Scout

Vigilance

At the beginning of your end step, you gain 1 life for each creature you control with vigilance.

Discussion (2)

Kazierts on Bant Stoic Control [Budget/Casual/Primer]

1 month ago

There's a reason why there aren't more creatures with vigilance besides the angel, it's because there's no need for them. I'll use the creatures you suggested as an example. Let's say I play either Alert Heedbonder or Tajuru Pathwarden. What do any of the these do to help develop my strategy? Nothing, especially the Heedbonder. The Pathwarden at the very least is big, but that's about it. Nether of them help to keep my opponent's creatures tapped. Taranika, Akroan Veteran I actually stopped to think about a little bit. However, it basically works the same way as the others. Sure she can untap my creatures and maybe grow some of them a little bit, which is important to know as a lot of the creatures wouldn't receive that big of a buff, but there's someone else that can also "untap" while also being an Engine. Soulherder. It doesn't technically untap but effectively is the same thing. To wrap up this point about vigilance, the only creatures that would benefit from having it would be the Bounding Krasis and Icefall Regent. Another thing to mention is Evolutionary Leap, which can turn useless tapped creatures into something more useful.

Icy Manipulator is an interesting one, but is kinda mana intensive due to the mana cost. Thankfully, I found other cards with similar effects, like Pacification Array. While I think the deck has sufficient tapping effects, this is something that caught my attention enough to make me want to playtest it.

Thanks for the opinion and suggestions!

ClockworkSwordfish on Bant Stoic Control [Budget/Casual/Primer]

2 months ago

Since you're completely built around Stoic Angel, I'm surprised you aren't running more creatures with Vigilance! After all, her drawback applies to you too, meaning you can swing with a vigilant army turn after turn and save your one untap for a mana dork or whatever. There are plenty of solid budget options, including Alert Heedbonder, Tajuru Pathwarden and Taranika, Akroan Veteran. Of course, you can also just staple Vigilance onto your whole crew with something like Brave the Sands or the humble Serra's Blessing!

The other thing to consider is having a repeatable, reliable tapping effect. Bounding Krasis and Icefall Regent can tap a creature... once. But maybe something nastier shows up later - then you'd be better served by something like Icy Manipulator. Having more cards that can tap a creature on demand than just the mana-intensive Verity Circle is likely to keep your opponent down once the Angel is in play.