I'm fairly new to MtG (started playing earlier this year), and I'd love some feedback on a deck I'm thinking of building. Ignore the sideboard.

https://deckbox.org/sets/792502

Thanks :) !

Hey there,

Firstly: I took a look through a fair number of cards, but take everything I say with a grain of salt. I started playing magic again in August after a haitus since about 2008, so I don't have anything Modern memorized and I'm just starting to learn the new dynamics.

To start, it looks like you're going for placing counters on a lot of different creatures as opposed to focusing on a few. Therefore, I'd recommend pulling the Hardened Scales.

Creature cards you may want to consider are Ainok (for first strike) and Mer-Ek (for deathtouch). Phalanx Leader can be used in combination with Feat of Resistance (below) or Dragonscale Boon to keep the counters coming.

Instants: Feat of Resistance. I utilize these as self defense; if someone tries to target one one of your creatures with any kind of spell or ability, simply give them protection from one of the colors in that spell. Your creature gets a counter, lives to tell the tale, and any spell an opponent used is effectively countered. I've saved Anafenza quite a few times in my drafts this way; she tends to pull a lot of aggression.

Planeswalkers: I like Ajani, Mentor of Heroes far better than Steadfast in this instance. It's true that Steadfast seems to play well off of Sorin, but with only 1 Sorin the deck and only 2 Steadfast, the chances of getting them together are low. Assuming you did, and very early in the game, this casting them both is 4 mana and 5 mana in respective turns that cannot be used to cast outlast/counter producing spells, etc. My experience with these decks is that there is always something you can do with your mana every turn, so I want as much of it to focus on my main deck theme as possible.

Enchantment: I highly recommend Brave the Sands. I haven't had the opportunity to use it myself yet, but it has been against me several times and it been a game-changer time and time again. With outlast, you can attack with your creatures first. This leaves them open for blocking or outlast (if your characters have it). Should you draw one of those handy elephants that untap countered creatures during upkeeps, you can attack, outlast, then they untap for blocking. And if they are blocking, you have doubled the amount of creatures you can block.

I hope this helps some! And, as always, the best way to test if your deck is effective is to print out proxies and play casual matches until you've found a setup that plays the way you want it against many decks.

I'm trying to figure out how to best build a similar deck, and so I'm trying out a variety of creatures rather than running the full complement of four while I figure out what works best in the deck. Here's my decklist:

http://deckbox.org/sets/789138

I think that at a minimum you need more land, and ideally add Sylvan Caryatid as well. The Caryatid will help provide you access to all three colors, and it will help with an early blocker. If you run Sylvan Caryatid you should probably go up to 22 land. If you don't run Sylvan Caryatid then you should probably go to 23 or 24 land.

Another improvement could be made to the mana to try to get about half of your lands to come into play untapped. Running four Windswept Heaths and some basic Plains and Forests would help immensely. This will at least give you the option of choosing between land to use that turn if you really need it or playing a tapped land.

Thanks, you two! It's much appreciated!

In case it's of interest to you, I've made a few revisions to the deck that I linked to in my post. I've been able to play it a few times, and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is fabulous, as being able to get either counters or another creature is a huge help. It's a fun deck, though I have no idea how competitive it is.

For your manabase, isn't a good idea to have plains instead of Blossoming Sands or at least 2 forests and 2 plains? so you could have a turn 1 Herald of Anafenza and turn 2 Fleecemane Lion?

Other than that, sweet blueprint. I am looking forward to build an Abzan deck as well.

This isn't an Abzan deck, but uses some similar tactics. I'm using gaining life to get more counters on creatures. I would suggest throwing at least 1 Bow of Nylea into the mix, just because it's so versatile and can add counters to cards that don't have them or get their own.

My Deck.
https://deckbox.org/sets/802994

In these colors your notably missing Favored Hoplite. I would play it over Herald of Anafenza.

Read this article:

http://manadeprived.com/surviving-standard/

And some discussion here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/2ir31j/my_article_on_building_an_outlast_deck/