My Castle Has a Moat
Decklist
1 Condemn
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Fog Bank
1 Temporal Isolation
1 Selesnia Signet
1 Time Walk
1 Scroll Rack
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Serindib Efreet
1 Man-o-War
1 Wall of Denial
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Erratic Portal
1 Moat
1 Clone
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Rout
1 Force of Will
1 Archon of Justice
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Maze of Ith
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Glacial fortress
1 Plateau
1 Flooded Strand
6 plains
6 islands
In magic, you win some and you lose some. Surprisingly, this deck won more than it lost. I constructed this mash-up in a four man draft. After grabbing a first pick Gilded Lotus and a second pick Selesnia Signet (passing a moat), I was staring at a third pack full of wheelable flyers and a Hero of Bladehold. I try not to take commitments like Hero that early but there was really nothing else in that pack.
With double white sitting uncomfortably in my hand, I found myself thinking about that moat and trying to talk myself out of it. Moat was the only white card in the pack worth taking so I knew the others would take it as an option if they were playing white. And, I also knew that, since it was the only white card in the pack worth taking, they would probably start to think that white was getting ganked and, subsequently, backoff of my Moat. I played it heavy grabbing a Rout and a Temporal Isolation. And then I got a sign. BOOM! The double white, four mana, massive roadblock that is Moat came back to me. MIne. What is better than sitting behind a moat and taking your time? Besides, if they aren’t taking the moat, they aren’t taking the archon of justice. Good, now it’s time to start snatching up flyers.
And then it happened again; seventh pick Sower of Temptation? Is this really happening? I saw that pack. Sower was probably the best blue card in it the first time I saw the pack and it was definitely the best card in there the second time. Mine. Welp, looks like I’m going UW.
By the end of the first round, my playables were Gilded Lotus, Rout, Archon of Justice, Hero of Bladehold Moat, Sower of Temptation, Scroll Rack, Temporal Isolation, Fog Bank, Selesnia Signet, and Maze of Ith. Not too shabby. But needs work. Lets see what we have for help here…
First though, yes, I know I’m playing a plateau, I sided in a moltensteel dragon against Sam when I found out he was playing a Winter orb and the plateau was pretty handy.
Ah,there we go. Faerie Conclave is such a solid card in this deck. In a moat deck, you want to have some backup board wipe so you aren’t just hoping that Moat will save you. In this deck, I only managed to get a Rout. I would have loved a day of judgement, but hey, I’m not complaining. So board wipe, right? What goes good with board wipe? Man lands! Yay, man lands! What man lands go well with enchantments that prevent non-flyers from attacking? Flying man lands! See what I’m getting at here? Even if I was only playing the rout or only playing the moat, I would love to have a faerie conclave. Why? Because the conclave is an ace. Period. 
It’s really strange when you play a format where force of will is constantly criticized for being “not that good.” But I think the power of this “free” counter spell is entirely dependent on the deck you put it in. In a moat deck, it can be the perfect savior for their only answer. For me, this was exactly the case. Once you know their biggest threat, hold on to that force of will. And, as much as it pained me to pitch a mother-flogging time walk to my force of will, I was able to prevent a damnation and, as a result, win. Using the force is not an easy task in cube. After all, it’s not like you have three other copies of that card you just exiled. Knowing the meta is really important, and sometimes pitching the wrong card or wasting the counter on small peanuts will cost you.
I really wish I could say that this card is garbage. So here it goes, this card is ggggggaah. Well, maybe it isn’t garbage, but it is a crapshoot. The only reason I took this card was because I had a gilded lotus, a Moat, and, most importantly, Scroll Rack. The lotus took care of my triple while anxiety, the Moat screamed “gimme angels”, and Scroll Rack is one of the only reasons miracle cards even get played in the cube. Unfortunately, this card won me two (arguably 3) games. And, I have to say, when this crapshoot empties onto your opponent, it’s pretty satisfying. Looks like the cube will be seeing Entreat the Angels for a little while. Humbug.
Man o man, I love me a Man-o’-War. My plan in the moat deck for this guy was to have him be a “hold him ’til I need to clear a path” sort of spell. This strategy worked out well against the slower decks, but I found myself having to play the bounce-o-matic early against aggro. No biggie, erratic portal allowed me to keep popping him in and out. And, the bouncing was fairly easy to facilitate with moat, fog bank, and wall of denial to sit behind. There were a lot of pieces missing from this heap. That’s why in the beginning I expressed my surprise that this deck won. Had it been a larger draft, I would have had a better chance of getting stuff like Reveillark and maybe something to help deal with planeswalkers. But, in a small draft you have to work with what you get. This was a pretty good moat deck, but cards like Vendilion Clique should be high priority if you see them. Nevertheless, if you get a chance to build a moat deck, do it. You’ll end up felling like Borat; ” King of the castle, king of the castle. I have a moat!”
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Turn One Magic