Ajani Unyielding Brawl (deck 3 in series) (Brawl)

My hope is to build at least one deck for each notable commander in the brawl format. This deck is a midrange Ajani Unyielding deck. It is playable in multiplayer, but I have found that it is great in 1v1.

Deck themes?
The deck is a midrange deck, that intends to curve out as well as possible. It will have elements of ramp in the early turns, with powerful permanents in the midgame.
The main theme for the decklist to include as many permanents as possible (to maximize Ajani's +2).
After I started building the deck I realized that I was playing a lot of "historic" cards and that I could utilize that as a further sub-theme.
White is the perfect color for a permanent themed deck as much of the key removal pieces I want to use are enchantments.

1) Ajani Unyielding (6) Commander.
*the average net off of Ajani's +2 is to get two permanents for your hand. That is a lot of gas in the late stages of the game.

(A) The first thing I want to do is to put together a ramp package. I want these cards to be permanents (to stick with the theme of the deck). I'd like to have at least 4 creatures that can enter in the first two turns and 8 total ramp pieces.

2) Llanowar Elves. (1)
*turn one ramp is important.

3) Drover of the Mighty. (2)
*has potential upside in the midgame.

4) Channeler Initiate. (2)
*another mana dork that has upside in the midgame.

5) Servant of the Conduit. (2)
*provides both colors of mana.
might be up-gradable

6) Renegade Map (1)
*cheap basic land fetch.

7) Traveler's Amulet (1)
*costs two overall to fetch, but is a solid turn 1 play.

8) Cultivator's Caravan. (3)
*slower mana fixer, however is effective due to duel purpose.

9) Merfolk Branchwalker (2)
helps either get a land or dig for one.
fixing your topdeck is very important in this deck for curving out.

10) Jadelight Ranger. (3)
*it is either a strong early game attacker or fills your hand up with land to get you to the midgame. Perfect creature for this deck.

(B) With lots of ways to fix our mana and ramp to the midgame, the deck now needs was to keep our hand full of cards. This is very difficult in our colors as white and green do not tend to be the greatest card draw colors. It is also important to note that to stay on theme i want these to be permanents.

11) Karn, Scion of Urza. (4)
fuels your hand for multiple turns and draws so much attention when he enters the battlefield.
with a loyalty that hits six of the turn he enters, Karn is very difficult to remove.

12) Azor's Gateway. (2)
card filtering is excellent in this deck. After the first couple turns are over we do not want to see anymore ramp cards and often do not need to see anymore land. Gateway lets us filter those out of our hand for threats.
the alternative is also true, sometimes you have a hand full of threats but need to dig for a land. Gateway helps with that as well.
*in longer games a flipped Gateway can mean a hand dump to run an opponent over.

13) Treasure Map. (2)
serves many of the same purposes as Azor's Gateway.
scrying is not card draw, but fixing your topdeck is much appreciated in this deck.
*if it flips and you no longer need the treasure to cast cards, drawing cards off them is more than acceptable.

(C) At this point I am 13 cards in and I feel I will finish off all the support cards for the deck. This will include 4 removal pieces, 2 additional mass removal pieces, and another card or two to help support the deck.

14) Cast Out. (4)
an important catch all that is also a permanent.
cycling saves this from ever being a dead card.

15) Ixalan's Binding. (4)
a way to permanently take care of a commander.
also a permanent.

16) Seal Away. (2)

• fantastic permanent that is cheap removal for any creature that attacks or needs to tap to activate an ability.

17) Thopter Arrest. (3)
*permanent that deals with both creatures and artifacts for a reasonable casting cost.

18) Settle the Wreckage. (4)
you have to watch the mana ramp in multiplayer, but in 1v1 this usually means a one-sided blowout victory if you can goad your opponent into over attacking at the right time.
a reminder here...the card says "attacking creatures" not attacking you, so you can blow away the creatures even if they are attacking another opponent.

19) Urza's Ruinous Blast. (5)
*we are playing a solid number of artifacts, planeswalkers, and many of our best creature options in the midgame are legendary. In most cases, we will come out on top of this sweeper.
if I find it too often leaves behind my opponents top threats this could easily be switched out for another sweeper.

20 ) Cataclysmic Gearhulk. (5)
*I'm going with one extra sweeper as this card has great upside when times correctly.

21) Heroic Intervention. (2)
a great defensive card against red and black sweepers and spot removal we may face.
can be an excellent combat trick as well.

22) Authority of the Consuls. (1)
this is just one the greatest effects, on a permanent, out there when running into other creature decks.
the lifegain is nothing to be sneezed at in multiplayer (and even makes a difference in 1v1).
*our midgame is so much more explosive when our opponents blockers enter the battlefield tapped.

(D) Now it is time to put together the meat of the deck. Here are the creatures and planeswalkers that allow us to put the hurt on our opponents. these fall under two categories: hate bear/removal permanents and evasive beat-sticks. Both types serve a great purpose to the deck.

3cc:

23) Kinjalli's Sunwing. (3)
continues off of the Authority of the Consuls motif.
flying helps put it over the top.

24) Prowling Serpopard. (3)
*4 power creature that prevents your creatures from being countered.

25) Deathgorge Scavenger. (3)
gains a few life throughout the game.
its main use is to pick off any recursion targets out there in graveyards.

26) Thrashing Brontodon. (3)
*solid removal on a beater.

27) Rishkar, Peema Renegade. (3)
*a bit of a toolbox card that doubles as a big attacker in the early game.

4cc:

28) Ripjaw Raptor. (4)
*a big body that has incidental card draw built in.

29) Shalai, Voice of Plenty (4)
*decent sized flyer that provides pump and protection for our other creatures.

30) Vizier of the Menagerie. (4)
*pseudo card draw since we have access to cast any topdeck creature in a deck that has ways to manipulate our topdeck.

5cc:

31) Angel of Sanctions. (5)
removal on a stick.
nice size flying attacker.

32) Nissa, Vital Force. (5)
allows us to get back a vital permanent from our yard.
creates a big 5/5 beater with trample to help finish off games.

33) Djeru, with Open Eyes. (5)
grabbing Nissa or Karn is well worth the slot.
a 4 powered vigilance creature is a decent secondary function.
*I often forget it myself, but Djeru helps to prevent damage to our planeswalkers as well. A fairly important point since it fetches one and our commander is a planeswalker.

34) Lyra Dawnbringer. (5)
outclasses most other creatures in the format, especially since she has flying.
one attack often swings games.
*we are playing other Angels in the deck as well.

35) Verdurous Gearhulk. (5)
*the perfect beater since it is flexible in its uses.

6cc+

36) Carnage Tyrant. (6)
*so difficult to deal with as there are only a few removal spells that can deal with it and very few creatures that match up well with it in combat.

(E) I'm intending on playing 24 lands in this deck. Without the ramp the deck would need 25 lands to stay on curve, however there are 10 cards that help us accelerate our mana (not to mention our card draw/filtering). We could probably play 23 lands and get by, however 24 means we hit our mark of being able to cast our 4/5cc bombs on curve with great regularity. We are playing a lot of cards with double mana symbols so we will need our mana fixers to help us curve out reasonably well.

Nonbasics.
Field of Ruin
Evolving Wilds
Shefet Dunes
Memorial to Unity
Scattered Groves
Sunpetal Grove
Tranquil Expanse

Basics
Forest 9
Plains 8