Bogbrew Witch and its partners in crime make up a great little build-around package that can be quite powerful once you've searched up the pieces. Although most players have dismissed it as a limited or casual card only, the Witch might just be good enough to work in standard. There's only one way to find out, so I put together a deck to take advantage of this engine.
"Bogbrew Bond"
Creatures (12)
4 Bogbrew Witch
4 Festering Newt
4 Rhox Faithmender
Spells (24)
4 Congregate
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Angelic Accord
4 Sanguine Bond
3 Bubbling Cauldron
3 Elixir of Immortality
4 Trading Post
Lands (24)
10 Swamp
8 Plains
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Orzhov Guildgate
Sideboard (15)
4 Riot Control
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Debt to the Deathless
1 Plains
3 Profit // Loss
4 Celestial Flare
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Angelic AccordIn all honesty, this didn't start out as a Bogbrew Witch deck. In fact, the card I started with was Angelic Accord. There are quite a few cards in the current Standard format that make it easy to gain 4 life in one turn, and a 4/4 Angel token is a pretty big payoff. In addition, two of the biggest decks in Standard at the moment are Jund and R/W/U control, both of which play large amounts of removal. With Angelic Accord on the battlefield, removal isn't going to help much. You can simply make a new Angel token and continue from where you left off.
Trading Post seems to be a great way to gain 4 life each turn. With Angelic Accord on the battlefield, Trading Post allows you to pay 1 mana and discard a card to make a 4/4 Angel and gain 4 life, and you can repeat the process every turn until you've won the game. Discarding cards may seem like a big drawback, but really, what card are you going to draw that's better than a 1-mana Air Elemental?
For something a bit faster, Elixir of Immortality can give you a quick boost of life and an Angel token. It's not the most efficient way of doing things, but it does have one other benefit: If you have the Bogbrew Witch combo going, Elixir of Immortality can shuffle any Festering Newts in your graveyard back into your library to be searched out again. Sometimes, you'll have to throw a Newt or two under the bus before you bring all the pieces out, and the Elixir can make sure you don't run out of ammo.
Bubbling Cauldron seems to be another solid, repeatable way to gain 4 life. With Trading Post on the battlefield, you can pay 1 life for a Goat token and then sacrifice it to the Cauldron to gain 4 life without having to discard a card. If you have Angelic Accord, you can attack with your Angel token and then sacrifice it to Bubbling Cauldron, gaining 4 life and giving you a new token to block with.
Bubbling CauldronWith Bubbling Cauldron in the deck, Festering Newt seems to be a great way to mitigate early damage. It will usually trade with a 2/2 on defense, and when facing down 1/1s, it will often intimidate your opponent into not attacking at all. When combined with the Cauldron, it puts some extra hurt on your opponent while giving you the 4 life you need, and it can potentially kill a small creature as well.
Of course, once you have Bubbling Cauldron and Festering Newt, throwing in the final piece of the combo is pretty much a given. I was hesitant at first because a 4-mana 1/3 is not exactly what you want to be doing most of the time. However, if it does survive, you can start pumping out some serious card advantage, killing your opponent as well as all of his creatures with 4 toughness or less.
With black mana for Bogbrew Witch and Festering Newt, we also gain access to Sanguine Bond. The Bond serves as a supplemental or alternate win condition to Angelic Accord. With Trading Post, you enjoy a 1-mana Soul Feast every turn. Your opponent will be dead in five activations, and the 4 life you gain each turn makes it much easier to survive that long.
Rhox Faithmender makes it easier to stay alive against aggressive decks, and it also doubles the life you steal with Sanguine Bond, ending the game in half the time. Its 5 toughness makes it immune to damage-based removal, and it can block just about any creature other than Thragtusk, giving you 2 life in the process.
Congregate can give you a huge boost of life all at once—depending on the deck you're facing. Although it can definitely be underwhelming against control decks, the great thing about how the effect scales is that the more you need some extra life, the more it gives you. If your opponent is beating down with an army of small creatures, Congregate can give you a hefty chunk of life to help you survive. With Sanguine Bond on the board, you also have a chance to just murder your opponent out of nowhere.
The Sideboard
Debt to the DeathlessAgainst control decks, Debt to the Deathless gives you a powerful finisher for when the game goes long, and an extra Plains gives you some extra mana to accommodate the high mana cost. It can be tough to push through or play around counterspells enough to pull this off, but if you do, it can put out a ton of damage.
Celestial Flare has become my favorite tool for fighting Bant Hexproof decks. It hasn't yet become common enough that the majority of players have started playing around it, and even if an opponent does, you can often manipulate the board state enough that the Flare will still have a major impact.
Profit // Loss is less color-intensive than Cower in Fear, and the ability to cast it at instant speed gives it an edge over Shrivel, although it's possible I'm overvaluing that aspect. It causes major problems for the fastest aggro decks as well as the mono-green decks using Arbor Elf and Predator Ooze. When you time it right, it will usually give you at least two or three creatures.
Riot Control is another great tool for fighting aggro, preventing all damage for a turn and giving you a nice life boost as well, which might well trigger Angelic Accord. It will always buy you one extra turn, but it will give you two turns much of the time, allowing you to gain some more life and set up a better defense.
Playtesting
Jund – Game 1
Festering NewtI lost the roll and took a mulligan, keeping a hand of Orzhov Guildgate, Swamp, Bogbrew Witch, Bubbling Cauldron, Festering Newt, and Congregate. My opponent led with an Overgrown Tomb, and I drew a Plains. I played my Swamp, cast Festering Newt, and ended my turn.
My opponent played Woodland Cemetery, cast Scavenging Ooze, and passed back. I drew a Swamp, played it, and cast Bubbling Cauldron.
I ended my turn, and he hit me for 2 with the Ooze. He cast Farseek for a Stomping Ground, played Kessig Wolf Run, and passed the turn. I drew a Festering Newt, cast it, and played my Guildgate. I attacked for 1 with the Newt and ended my turn.
My opponent attacked for 2 again and then played a Swamp and cast Thragtusk. He passed the turn. I drew Oblivion Ring, played a land, and cast Bogbrew Witch.
I passed the turn, and my opponent killed the Witch with Dreadbore. He attacked with both creatures, and I dropped to 9. I drew another Bubbling Cauldron and passed the turn.
PutrefyMy opponent attacked for 7, and I chose not to block. He exiled my Witch with the Ooze, and I dropped to 1. He cast Huntmaster of the Fells and ended his turn. During his end step, I cast Congregate, gaining 12 life. I drew Rhox Faithmender, cast Bubbling Cauldron, and passed the turn.
My opponent attacked with everything, and I blocked Scavenging Ooze and Thragtusk with Newts. I sacrificed them both to the Cauldrons, draining 8 life from my opponent. I used the -1/-1 triggers to kill Huntmaster of the Fells. My opponent used Kessig Wolf Run on Thragtusk, and combined with the Wolf, I dropped to 11. I drew Evolving Wilds, played it, and cast Rhox Faithmender. I passed the turn.
My opponent killed the Faithmender with Putrefy and then exiled my Newts with the Ooze and attacked for lethal.
Game 2
Elixir of ImmortalityI kept a hand of Orzhov Guildgate, Plains, Swamp, two Oblivion Ring, Angelic Accord, and Elixir of Immortality. I played the Gate to kick things off, and my opponent played a Stomping Ground and passed back.
I drew a Swamp, played it, and cast Elixir of Immortality. I ended my turn. My opponent played a Woodland Cemetery and cast Farseek, finding another Stomping Ground.
He passed the turn, and I drew Trading Post. I played my Plains and passed the turn. My opponent played a tapped Blood Crypt and passed back.
I drew another Angelic Accord, played my Swamp, and cast one. I ended my turn. My opponent played Woodland Cemetery and cast Thragtusk. He passed the turn.
I drew Orzhov Guildgate, played it, and cast Angelic Accord. I ended my turn. My opponent hit me for 5 with Thragtusk and then cast Putrefy on Elixir of Immortality. He cast Farseek, fetching a Blood Crypt, and ended his turn.
I drew Bubbling Cauldron and cast Trading Post. I discarded one of my Oblivion Rings to gain 4 life and then ended my turn, making two Angel tokens. My opponent attacked with Thragtusk, and I traded an Angel token for it. He killed the other with Doom Blade and then cast Garruk, Primal Hunter. He made a Beast token and passed the turn.
Trading PostI drew Elixir of Immortality and cast it. I cast Bubbling Cauldron and paid 1 life to make a Goat with Trading Post. I ended my turn. My opponent played Kessig Wolf Run and attacked with his Beasts. After a big pump with the land, I dropped to 6 life. He made another Beast with Garruk, and I sacrificed my Goat token to gain 4.
I made two Angel tokens at the end of his turn and drew a Plains. I killed Garruk with the Angel tokens, played the land, and used Elixir of Immortality to gain 5 life. I ended my turn and made two more Angels. My opponent attacked with his three Beasts, and I blocked two of them with Angels. He pumped one of them by 5 with Kessig Wolf Run, and I dropped to 8. He passed the turn, and I paid 1 life for a Goat and then sacrificed it to gain 4. I made two more Angels, and my opponent killed one with Tragic Slip.
I drew a Plains and attacked for 16 with my tokens. I discarded my Plains to Trading Post and passed the turn, making two more Angels. My opponent drew his card and conceded.
Game 3
CongregateI kept a hand of Evolving Wilds, two Plains, a Swamp, two Elixir of Immortality, and Angelic Accord. My opponent led with a Stomping Ground, and I drew Trading Post. I used Evolving Wilds to find a Swamp and passed the turn.
My opponent played a Woodland Cemetery and cast Scavenging Ooze. He ended his turn. I drew Congregate, played my Plains, and cast both Elixirs.
My opponent swung for 2, played a tapped Blood Crypt, and passed the turn. I drew a Plains, played my Swamp, and ended my turn.
The Ooze hit me for 2 again, and my opponent played a land and cast Huntmaster of the Fells. I drew Rhox Faithmender, played my land, and cast Angelic Accord.
I ended my turn, and my opponent dropped me to 10 with his creatures. He cast Olivia Voldaren, played a land, and passed the turn. I drew Oblivion Ring, cast it on Olivia, and then played my land and activated an Elixir to gain 5 life. I ended my turn, making an Angel.
Rhox FaithmenderMy opponent cast Putrefy on my token and attacked me back down to 9 before ending his turn. I drew Orzhov Guildgate, played it, and cast Congregate to gain 6 life. I then passed the turn, making an Angel.
My opponent cast Thragtusk and passed the turn. I drew Bubbling Cauldron and attacked with my Angel token. I cast Rhox Faithmender and activated the Elixir, gaining 10. I then ended my turn, making another Angel.
My opponent attacked with Thragtusk, and I took the damage, dropping to 20. He cast Garruk, Primal Hunter and then drew five cards and passed the turn. I drew another Trading Post and attacked for 8 with my tokens. I cast Trading Post and activated it, discarding the other Post to gain 8 life. I ended my turn and made another Angel.
My opponent attacked with Thragtusk, dropping me to 23. He killed Trading Post with Putrefy and then cast Olivia Voldaren and passed the turn. I drew Bogbrew Witch and cast Bubbling Cauldron. My Angels dropped my opponent to 7, and I passed the turn.
My opponent cast Garruk, Primal Hunter and then used his −3 to draw five cards. He looked at his hand and conceded.
Wrap-Up
Angelic Accord is undeniably powerful when you work to build around it, and this deck certainly does a good job of producing some Angel tokens. Although the deck is a bit dependent on drawing the enchantment, I'm confident that you can with fairly easily with Sanguine Bond as well. If you like gaining a lot of life, give this deck a shot at your next Friday Night Magic.