I'm not sure what you mean by proactive control, but I'd guess stax.
Nah, think more like draw-go blue and tuned low-cost removal (e.g. esper point-removal).*
I mostly just figured you'd be out-tempoed a lot of the time** and was wondering what you might do about it, but I'm guessing that your meta might also account for it, and you're not getting overly outpaced as long as you aren't getting focused.
* Stax is often known as "static control" - cards like spheres, Moat, Oppression, and so on. Draw-Go, Doom Blades, Path to Exiles, and the like are often known as "proactive control" in parallel to "static control."
** Specifically, there seemed to be a lack of low-cost control options, so that the heavy removal opponents would hamper you significantly.
Ah, okay. I always assumed counterspells and point removal to be forms of reactive control.
And, if Daxos were to actually get focused by a deck like that, he would get melted, yes. But a lot of decks would, wouldn't they? Point removal/counterspell heavy builds taper off as the number of foes increases. Once again, the low-key beauty of Daxos comes out of the shadows. What are you going to counter - my No Mercy or Maelstrom Wanderer's Jokulhaups? In fact, sometimes you're going to use the stuff Daxos does to your advantage - that Rule of Law is the only reason why the Marath who untapped with 26 mana isn't going to go through half his deck in this turn. True, the more high caliber plays like Skybind or Thoughtrender Lamia may eat a counter, but that's still an experience counter that "anthems" your guys.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong here, but do you mean that I take a tempo hit early because I have to expend a lot of mana to deal with problems (I don't see how opposing removal plays into this)? Frankly, there isn't much low cost removal worth running that I'm not running, with the ones that come to mind being Condemn, Soul Snare and Seal of Cleansing. Most good removal kicks in at 3CMC. And yes, I will likely take a tempo slug if I have to throw my mana at problem solving early in the game, but that typically means that the problem was one hell of a problem and the tempo hit is preferable to a game loss. You don't win speed races with this thing. Later on, holding mana becomes easy, and if something needs to do then the Anguished Unmaking just means you get to make one less spirit that go. But yes, I have stressed time and time again that the deck's early game is atrocious, and whilst it's not ideal there's not much that can be done about it, and careful card selection like New Benalia and Sword of Rampant Growth help nurture the overwhelmingly pathetic early game scrambling. I can't imagine most "proper" GWx enchantress decks to be much quicker than this anyway, as they have to set up the enchantress real estate etc.
Journey to Nowhere: I'll keep one of these effects to tutor for (Grasp of Fate) and ditch the rest. They come with baggage and sorcery speed removal forces you to be proactive in removing threats which is unpolitical.
Merciless Eviction This was a tough one, but Elspeth is a sweeper as well as a army-maker. I only need so many expensive sweepers, so I put this as a high consideration and will probably try to make room for it later. It's in limbo right now.
Plains I shaved a land down now that I have Weathered Wayfarer.
IN
Anguished Unmaking Upgrade to O-Ring, No baggage and instant speed allow me to deal with things reactively.
Swords to Plowshares Cheap way to interact early, exiling is often important vs Ulamog and friends.
Path to Exile Same as Swords, a little worse, but probably still good enough.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion Adds board presence for free, still a little wary as most of our pillowfort effects don't protect planeswalkers very well, but she protects herself so it may not matter, she counts as a pillowfort effect herself too which is a plus.
Phyrexian Reclamation Helps abuse stuff and makes Daxos cost no more than 5 in the late game.
New Considerations list:
Act of Authority Keeping an eye on how much artifact/enchantment removal I need, this will be next to go in.
Ajani's Chosen Still seems good enough to run as it profits from everything.
Island Sanctuary Another Decent Pillowfort, don't know if I need it though.
Burnished Hart Breaks my Stony Silence Rule, but gets me lands for Emeria and is super easy to recur in the deck. Daxos is pretty mana hungry.
Merciless Eviction This card will definitely make it back in, just not sure what I should axe yet.
Maximum_Intelligence, I agree with all the changes you've made, and I'm sure you'll get good mileage out of them. The Hartebeest is not ideal as well, as it's five mana, but if it's been performing well then what more could one want, really. O-Ring itself might not be a bad thing to put on the "may try to fit in again" list with Merciless Eviction as you do get the potential of wording abuse with Curio and you seem to be fond of the effect. And, in the end, the main thing a deck is to do is offer you a play experience you find rewarding. Otherwise we'd all be netdecking Arcums, Zurs, Sidisis, Bragos or something.
Sorry about the accidental snipe, MRB_Illustration, I hope you're not too upset :/ The list looks like a pretty solid value enchantment construction, and the only things I'd point out would be that Cage of Hands is possibly preferable to Shackles whilst Shielded by Faith outclasses Indestructibility (as you can potentially transfer it over to a token instant-speed for safekeeping). If you find the list is not pulling its weight, you can try to spice it up with some fort or resource denial, but it looks pretty functional.
I'm still super, super iffy about Coffers, but I might just need to give it a shot instead of being iffy and see how it plays out. There's been a fair few people recommending it by now, so maybe I'm just being too paranoid.
The thing with O-ring is that I have to target things before they necessarily threaten me. That Akroma, Angel of Wrath might be needing an answer, but only if it is attacking me, if I kill it and it was going to attack somebody else than that is damage I lose out on. O-ring forces me to kill something before I know if will be a threat to me. Vedalken Orrery get around this a bit, and there are shenanigans I can do with O-ring so who knows...
I too am iffy about coffers, it might be good enough with some things that can tutor it. (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric tutor, Expedition Map, Weathered Wayfarer. I wouldn't count it as a land though, since on it's own it doesn't do anything.
So another overhaul on the deck. Cut some of the fat and made it a bit more efficient and Emeria friendly. Also forgot about the bomb known as Emeria Shepherd.
I'll just repost the list because alot of changes have been made.
I cut Elspeth because she is expensive and my deck can't protect her all that well. Bitterblossom is out because it doesn't do enough in the deck. All O-ring effects are officially out, because it's too annoying to have them removed and give stuff back (Plus Faith's Fetters usually does the job better.) Added Vault of the Archangel because it's boss in pillowfort.
Heh, by contrast I've hugely warmed up to Elspeth in my list. The 1/1s make great fodder for all sorts of stuff, and the wrath is almost as asymmetric as Extinguish All Hope as Daxos can just start barfing bodies again. She's one of those cards that you often hold for a while, only to slam her down at woefully inopportune times, like Crackdown. Or Humility for those of you that have the chutzpah to run it
I'd keep Phyrexian Reclamation, it's not clashing with Sun Titan et al but rather helping them be even more bonkers. If you need room, you still have Three Dreams loitering around the 99 Planar Collapse also seems iffy, as it has to live a whole go around the table for anything to happen. So, the two most likely outcomes are you getting slammed with everything on the table before it gets wiped, or the Planar Collapse getting removed. Possibly one after the other true, the thing is dope with Vedalken Orrery, but you can't count on that happening every time.
Glad to see you running Expedition Map and a handful of mana rocks, and Vault of the Archangel is a boss of a land in pillowfort or not. Lifelink is incredible in this deck, and the deathtouch is a good thing to have in a pinch as well. I'm not sure pushing Emeria, the Sky Ruin this heavily is a good idea, especially as the Phat Mana you usually get tends to be white more often than black, but playtesting will answer this for you, I guess.
Congratulations on hitting Primer status! Always loved this commander and I'm happy to see someone put in the time and energy to delve this deep into his strategy.
Thank you all for the kind words I'll be sure to glide in the shadows for many a game to come, and continue getting stunned "Wait, what?!" looks as I swing with seven 6/6s at someone after chilling behind my unthreatening, defensive/speed-bump plays.
So, what better way to celebrate primerdom than with a horribly overcosted pimp card?
Okay, fair enough, I lied. It's not primerdom that's driving this change, it's Eternal Masters. The primerdom is a pretty sweet coincidence though Mana Crypt is flat-out ridiculous in a manner that puts Sol Ring to shame. Two colourless mana out of completely nowhere. Turn one becomes turn three, threatening plays get chased out ahead of time (out of completely nowhere), you get the drill. The self-damage is not ideal, but can be stomached in a 40-life format. The card dipped to ~40 euro on MCM, which is still more than I've ever paid for cardboard before (and I sincerely hope I won't pay this much for cardboard again), but it's so utterly busted that I need one in my life and I have a heck of an easier time justifying 40 euro in front of myself than the twice-that price tag of the original English version. It's probably at a severe local price minimum. So I jumped on it.
Daxos uses the crypt... fairly. It does not immediately break the game on the spot, it merely plants a swift kick on the deck's tempo buttocks and it almost feels like you're playing something with a bit more pizazz to it. The very first game I drew it, I got accidentally caught in a 'trice battle with a Maelstrom Wanderer and a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I rushed out Daxos turn two (after giving literally no indication this will be happening turn one), and promptly got Null Rodded by the Derevi. That was enough of a speed boost though, and I got out Bottomless Pit turn three and Rule of Law turn four. The Pit devoured Derevi's Winter Orb immediately and the deck never really got off the ground, whilst the Wanderer was held firmly in place by the Law. I eventually ground out a win, even through a Stasis (Elspeth, Sun's Champion might have had a hand in it, a pretty big one in fact). One of the games for the ages, really. But Rumpy, I can hear a 40-euro-richer me piping up smugly, wouldn't this have been possible if you just drew Sol Ring? Well, old me, this doesn't replace Sol Ring, this makes it twice as likely for this dumbness to happen. Also, if I signalised turn one that ramp city, I might have gotten Null Rodded before I even got to ramp city at all. The magic of Mana Crypt, ladies and gentlemen.
Needed to find room, Thran Dynamo ended up getting the axe. That's really unfortunate, as the Dynamo is a hell of a power lifter in the shadows. Costs one mana less than Gilded Lotus, produces the same amount of mana on tap, yet gets you just about no attention. The mana rock base is tight enough that the Dynamo got cut because it sometimes led to awkward turn fours and the large mana chunk is colourless. Mana Crypt still makes colourless, and one less of it, but at literally no up front investment.
The card dipped to ~40 euro on MCM, which is still more than I've ever paid for cardboard before (and I sincerely hope I won't pay this much for cardboard again), but it's so utterly busted that I need one in my life and I have a heck of an easier time justifying 40 euro in front of myself than the twice-that price tag of the original English version.
this is my french rules deck for Daxos that I am building. I like the concept but haven't play tested at all yet with proxies. pretty excited to give it a whirl soon. this is only my second deck so be kind in your critique if interested in giving feedback.
With regards to the list, it feels like you took the precon and threw in some random enchant'y stuff you had sitting around without much of a coherent theme. You have Grave Pacts without sac outlets, you have the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond infinite shoehorned in for good measure, you have a sizeable protection-granting equipment package which spills out into the inefficient, for some reason there's Recurring Nightmare with 13 creatures on the list yet Phyrexian Reclamation is nowhere to be seen, and then you have nuggets like Armored Ascension or Agent of the Fates which are just confusing. Crucially, you also have no ramp whatsoever. Not all rocks are banned in French, a number of good things ranging from signets to Gilded Lotus are fair game, and you'll soon find out the list is very mana hungry.
You should pick a clear game plan and try to work around it, sanding off a fair share of the leftover chaff. You seem to have kept the precon's secondary token barfers in Ajani's Chosen and Sigil of the Empty Throne, and added some cool combat-related stuff in Cover of Darkness, Intangible Virtue and True Conviction. Maybe try to follow through on this? It's probably easier to overwhelm one dude with aggro in a can. Add some more efficient width generators, some more cool combat stuff (Reconnaissance comes to mind, and swapping Dictates over to Heliod seems like a good call). Tempo slugs like Blind Obedience become even more brutal than usual as it becomes hard to set up a perimeter against you. If you feel brutal, and, crucially, have enough backup token generation, Humility would be ridiculous. This would probably be the easiest cohesive direction to take the list in from what you've got. Whatever direction you do decide to go in, don't forget about ramp though
Also, I may be stereotyping here, but isn't French for cutthroat 1v1 play with some of the variance removed? If so, you're probably going to have a bad time, regardless of what you do or don't do.
this is my french rules deck for Daxos that I am building. I like the concept but haven't play tested at all yet with proxies. pretty excited to give it a whirl soon. this is only my second deck so be kind in your critique if interested in giving feedback.
Love this deck. Just starting playing Commander and I have built this and am really enjoying it. It has a reasonably strong late game and powerful cards, while remaining very fair.
Rumpy how do you prioritize which lands to grab with effects like Weathered Wayfarer? Nykthos sometimes seems better mid game than Sanctum and both are somewhat poor early. Just curious about sequencing.
I gotta say, I really love this deck, however I have changed a few things in my list. Tell me what you think.
-1 Rout +1 Damnation (I just have the card already and I really wanted to put it in)
-1 Graveborn Muse +1 Sensei's Divining Top (99% of the time I get graveborn out, it usually dies within a couple of turns, usually only netting me 2 or 3 cards. However sensei doesnt cost life, and dodges most destruction, it also helps with the somewhatsortofkindalike scrying)
I also want to put in Yawgmoth's Will, but I have no idea what to take out. I feel like Yawgmoth could help with some key plays on your turn, although it is a little risky if somebody tries to kill your stuff when you do it, having it exiled. But I feel like it usually isnt an issue when you have so much protection in this deck. What do you think?
Glad to hear you're liking Daxos! He's grown from a mere precon to my favourite deck.
The Wayfarer land grabs, as you noticed, tend to be flexible and depend on the scenario. I'd say there's a very rigid hierarchy to Expedition Map though - you only get one shot, so getting a fat mana land is a no-brainer. There's a lot of rocks and the lands are reasonably dense too, so you typically won't need to crack the Map to get in Daxos range. If you have three mana, you Map for the Sanctum 90+% of the time as the enchantment curve is low and it will rebound in production soon enough. If you open two lands and don't draw a third (or a cheap mana rock) in your first two draws, then you go for Nykthos. If you're awkwardly stuck on one colour after the two lands, you suck it up and get colour fixing. The joy of Wayfarer is that you can work around all this with multiple activations, and you only need to skew him towards what you'd do with a Map if you smell he's gonna die quickly.
I gotta say, I really love this deck, however I have changed a few things in my list. Tell me what you think.
-1 Rout +1 Damnation (I just have the card already and I really wanted to put it in)
-1 Graveborn Muse +1 Sensei's Divining Top (99% of the time I get graveborn out, it usually dies within a couple of turns, usually only netting me 2 or 3 cards. However sensei doesnt cost life, and dodges most destruction, it also helps with the somewhatsortofkindalike scrying)
I also want to put in Yawgmoth's Will, but I have no idea what to take out. I feel like Yawgmoth could help with some key plays on your turn, although it is a little risky if somebody tries to kill your stuff when you do it, having it exiled. But I feel like it usually isnt an issue when you have so much protection in this deck. What do you think?
Oh, missed this post. I was drafting the land order write-up a little bit longer than I should have.
Rout is the best sweeper in the deck, if you HAVE TO run Damnation I'd look for cuts elsewhere, possibly with Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Still, Sunspeth is one hell of a walker. Maybe elsewhere altogether, and just up the sweeper count?
I don't think Top and Muse serve the same purpose, and you're going to have a mediocre time here with Top unless you made ghost changes to the list and are running more shuffle (fetches come to mind). These sort of effects tend to perform at their best when you routinely rotate the top three cards you get to see. That's just my opinion, and you can get some reliable shuffling going with Land Tax, so it could work for you. I mean, Muse works for me, so different strokes for different folks.
With regards to Yawgmoth's Will, it feels less reliable at recursion than the existing options. Don't get me wrong, it's a crazy powerful card, and super flexible in what can get back, but you'd need a fat burst of mana to make something really good happen. And a fat burst of mana typically involves a corresponding fat board to fuel Sanctum/Nykthos. Different strokes for different folks, if it works for you please report back so I can motivate myself to give it a try
I gotta say, I really love this deck, however I have changed a few things in my list. Tell me what you think.
-1 Rout +1 Damnation (I just have the card already and I really wanted to put it in)
-1 Graveborn Muse +1 Sensei's Divining Top (99% of the time I get graveborn out, it usually dies within a couple of turns, usually only netting me 2 or 3 cards. However sensei doesnt cost life, and dodges most destruction, it also helps with the somewhatsortofkindalike scrying)
I also want to put in Yawgmoth's Will, but I have no idea what to take out. I feel like Yawgmoth could help with some key plays on your turn, although it is a little risky if somebody tries to kill your stuff when you do it, having it exiled. But I feel like it usually isnt an issue when you have so much protection in this deck. What do you think?
Oh, missed this post. I was drafting the land order write-up a little bit longer than I should have.
Rout is the best sweeper in the deck, if you HAVE TO run Damnation I'd look for cuts elsewhere, possibly with Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Still, Sunspeth is one hell of a walker. Maybe elsewhere altogether, and just up the sweeper count?
I don't think Top and Muse serve the same purpose, and you're going to have a mediocre time here with Top unless you made ghost changes to the list and are running more shuffle (fetches come to mind). These sort of effects tend to perform at their best when you routinely rotate the top three cards you get to see. That's just my opinion, and you can get some reliable shuffling going with Land Tax, so it could work for you. I mean, Muse works for me, so different strokes for different folks.
With regards to Yawgmoth's Will, it feels less reliable at recursion than the existing options. Don't get me wrong, it's a crazy powerful card, and super flexible in what can get back, but you'd need a fat burst of mana to make something really good happen. And a fat burst of mana typically involves a corresponding fat board to fuel Sanctum/Nykthos. Different strokes for different folks, if it works for you please report back so I can motivate myself to give it a try
Well, the reason I wanted Rout out of the deck, is because it can be really situational to leave 7 mana open JUST in case you need to use it on an opponents turn (save from silly mana flickering with skybind). Almost every time I have used Rout, it has been on my turn. I feel like with the Skybind and other targeted removal for almost anything deadly, it isn't necessary to save a so much mana just in case. I feel it's a better idea to simply exile or flicker the one or two things that "could" kill you in that turn, then use Elspeth/Damnation to destroy everything on your turn. Maybe this is just my meta, which has a lot of infinite combos/stax like decks, that I feel like rout isnt as needed.
With Sensei, I feel like you draw so much in this deck, that sensei will usually have at least 2 new cards to look at every time you use it. Their have been a few games where I have used top 2 or 3 times before my next turn even started because of the card draw/skybind/cloudstone curio shenanigans. Also, unless I am just blind, their is really only one way to gain life in this deck, and thats with Vault of the Archangel. I have found myself at lowish amounts of life, purely caused by me because of Greed, Phyrexian Arena, Phyrexian Reclamation, e.t.c and feel like having another self harming source of damage might not be a good idea, but sensei's alleviates some of that pain by not costing you much.
I feel like people assume Yawgmoth's will is supposed to be some ultimate recursion-last ditch effort-super card that brings back everything you have in your grave. While that may be true 90% of the time, I have used it for some smaller plays that help me go into mid/late game. For example, I have used it on turn 4 when i had 6 mana. Used 3 of it for the will, got back my urborg that got strip mined, and used the demonic tutor I had previously used that game, and well as a land tax that got hated on earlier too. It doesn't always have to be used with a fat graveyard, and even if you do have a big graveyard, you could simply use it to get tutors/ramp to help you for the next turn. I find it very versatile, and I have not once regretted casting it.
Thing is, if you hold that 7+ mana, if you don't end up Routing you can just make spirits or something. Depends on the infinites, I guess, but I'd like to think that having the power to instant speed gib the board would be beneficial for stopping combos.
There are two sources of lifegain - you also get True Conviction, which is one of the more "gg no re" spells to resolve as your creatures pop open the can of pure ludicrous. True, it's not ideal, but black is quite trigger-happy with its life for some pleasantly potent effects. If you want extra lifegain (and card draw!), you could try Disciple of Bolas - I ran him for a long time, and he only got cut because I realised his window of optimal performance is more narrow than other draw options.
Well, now I'm really tempted. What did you cut for Yawgmoth's Will? I've been considering trimming down the top of my curve again, potentially taking out Debtors' Knell, Black Market and some other stuff in the 5+ range. I'm really considering Reconnaissance, Spirit of the Labirynth (and possibly Chains of Mephistopheles as my playgroup seems to have relaxed its approach to proxies) and potentially some combat-centric stuff.
Thing is, if you hold that 7+ mana, if you don't end up Routing you can just make spirits or something. Depends on the infinites, I guess, but I'd like to think that having the power to instant speed gib the board would be beneficial for stopping combos.
There are two sources of lifegain - you also get True Conviction, which is one of the more "gg no re" spells to resolve as your creatures pop open the can of pure ludicrous. True, it's not ideal, but black is quite trigger-happy with its life for some pleasantly potent effects. If you want extra lifegain (and card draw!), you could try Disciple of Bolas - I ran him for a long time, and he only got cut because I realised his window of optimal performance is more narrow than other draw options.
Well, now I'm really tempted. What did you cut for Yawgmoth's Will? I've been considering trimming down the top of my curve again, potentially taking out Debtors' Knell, Black Market and some other stuff in the 5+ range. I'm really considering Reconnaissance, Spirit of the Labirynth (and possibly Chains of Mephistopheles as my playgroup seems to have relaxed its approach to proxies) and potentially some combat-centric stuff.
Honestly, I could not cut virtually anything for Yawgmoth's Will. I had to resort to cutting a basic land to just test it out. I figured with all the mana rocks and the little ramp I had, that I could trim it to 35 lands instead of 36. I highly don't recommend you do this however, as I am going to go back to 36 once I find a suitable replacement.
I guess the only reason why I don't find Rout good for my meta, is because the infinites I have to deal with are typically non-creature infinites. Some of them aren't infinite, but basically put them in such a board position where you might as well surrender the game (Omniscience+Enter the Infinite for example). But I guess it really just depends on meta really.
I might try the graveborn muse just 1 more time to see if it could work. I totally forgot about true conviction (literally never gotten it out in a game lol....)
Fair enough, different metas are different. Mine's more about phat battlecruiser-style creatures. There's a couple of UR spellslinger decks, but they fall on their face and die when Rule of Law hits.
Yeah, that's the joke - there's no real obvious cuts in the 99 anymore. I'll probably re-evaluate how the deck fares once the meta shifts in October and find room then.
I mean, if the Muse doesn't work for you, then don't force yourself into it. If anything, try Disciple of Bolas out. Sounds like he might work better.
EMN actually gave us an okay card in Oath of Liliana. A fleshbag effect is not a bad thing to have, and Act of Authority has shown that the potential to milk value off Cloudstone Curio is a great thing. I might slot it in some time, but no obvious slot comes to mind.
For now, a batch of changes hinted at up-thread comes to fruition
There's nothing wrong with Black Market or Debtors' Knell. Their only problem is that they're not 100% guaranteed to do something crazy good while costing 5 and 7 mana respectively. Mystic Barrier had a similar problem and got offed, and now these fellows are following suit. Both are great cards, but if something costs this much mana it needs to have a more reliable impact on the board.
Spirit of the Labyrinth joins Necropotence and other "lucky" cards cut from the list at the wrong time. You seriously couldn't come up with a worse time to off the Spirit - the very update that put in heavier discard took out the Spirit, which handily impedes hand size development. As such, it gets to return, in spite of its horrible 3/1 squishiness. Reconnaissance is a card I've been eyeing since I realised I kind of want Intangible Virtue in the list, and realised this is a stronger version of that effect. Vigilance is awesome, and the potential to pull out creatures from unfortunate blocks is just ridiculous. All this for a single white. Don't mind if I do. If it fails, then that's an obvious spot to try enchantment fleshbag in. Somehow I don't feel it will fail though.
Also, I followed through on the Chains of Mephistopheles consideration and tried to "money out" the list online to see what would happen. Well, I added Chains, and I added Grim Tutor, and spiffed the mana base with fetches and a Scrubland. The deck played more less as is now. I might score a Chains proxy anyway, as it's a less feeble version of the sort of interaction that Spirit of the Labyrinth offers. Not super high priority though.
Nah, think more like draw-go blue and tuned low-cost removal (e.g. esper point-removal).*
I mostly just figured you'd be out-tempoed a lot of the time** and was wondering what you might do about it, but I'm guessing that your meta might also account for it, and you're not getting overly outpaced as long as you aren't getting focused.
* Stax is often known as "static control" - cards like spheres, Moat, Oppression, and so on. Draw-Go, Doom Blades, Path to Exiles, and the like are often known as "proactive control" in parallel to "static control."
** Specifically, there seemed to be a lack of low-cost control options, so that the heavy removal opponents would hamper you significantly.
And, if Daxos were to actually get focused by a deck like that, he would get melted, yes. But a lot of decks would, wouldn't they? Point removal/counterspell heavy builds taper off as the number of foes increases. Once again, the low-key beauty of Daxos comes out of the shadows. What are you going to counter - my No Mercy or Maelstrom Wanderer's Jokulhaups? In fact, sometimes you're going to use the stuff Daxos does to your advantage - that Rule of Law is the only reason why the Marath who untapped with 26 mana isn't going to go through half his deck in this turn. True, the more high caliber plays like Skybind or Thoughtrender Lamia may eat a counter, but that's still an experience counter that "anthems" your guys.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong here, but do you mean that I take a tempo hit early because I have to expend a lot of mana to deal with problems (I don't see how opposing removal plays into this)? Frankly, there isn't much low cost removal worth running that I'm not running, with the ones that come to mind being Condemn, Soul Snare and Seal of Cleansing. Most good removal kicks in at 3CMC. And yes, I will likely take a tempo slug if I have to throw my mana at problem solving early in the game, but that typically means that the problem was one hell of a problem and the tempo hit is preferable to a game loss. You don't win speed races with this thing. Later on, holding mana becomes easy, and if something needs to do then the Anguished Unmaking just means you get to make one less spirit that go. But yes, I have stressed time and time again that the deck's early game is atrocious, and whilst it's not ideal there's not much that can be done about it, and careful card selection like New Benalia and Sword of Rampant Growth help nurture the overwhelmingly pathetic early game scrambling. I can't imagine most "proper" GWx enchantress decks to be much quicker than this anyway, as they have to set up the enchantress real estate etc.
1 Daxos the Returned
–¦| Creatures (13) |¦–
1 Academy Rector
1 Agent of Erebos
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Doomwake Giant
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Grim Guardian
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Mother of Runes
1 Sun Titan
1 Thoughtrender Lamia
1 Weathered Wayfarer
–¦| Enchantments (24) |¦–
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Angelic Renewal
1 Aura of Silence
1 Black Market
1 Conviction
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Dictate of Heliod
1 Flickering Ward
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Indestructibility
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Martyr's Cause
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Rule of Law
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Seal of Doom
1 Shackles
1 Skybind
1 Soul Snare
1 True Conviction
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Extinguish All Hope
1 In Garruk's Wake
1 Open the Vaults
1 Plea for Guidance
1 Replenish
1 Rout
1 Toxic Deluge
–¦| Instants (7) |¦–
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Faith's Reward
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Utter End
–¦| Artifacts (10) |¦–
1 Crystal Chimes
1 Expedition Map
1 Helm of the Gods
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Diamond
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots
–¦| Lands (36) |¦–
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Kor Haven
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scrubland
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Tainted Field
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of Silence
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Windswept Heath
5 Swamp
7 Plains
I know, no Cloudstone Curio. Haven't gotten around to picking a copy up yet. I also decided against the prison\pillowfort cards.
I've had good experiences with Cabal Coffers, between Weathered Wayfarer and Expedition Map it's fairly common to get it on the field with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
I've also lived the dream of having Sun Titan, Angelic Renewal and Martyr's Cause along with Skybind.
OUT
Open the Armory: Limited in use and not abusable like Heliod's Pilgrim or Totem-Guide Hartebeast.
Three Dreams: Limited in use, not abusable, a bit pricey.
Plea for Guidance: Same as Three Dreams, close to mana cost of Diabolic Revelation, which I don't even run due to cost.
Journey to Nowhere: I'll keep one of these effects to tutor for (Grasp of Fate) and ditch the rest. They come with baggage and sorcery speed removal forces you to be proactive in removing threats which is unpolitical.
Oblivion Ring: See Journey to Nowhere.
Merciless Eviction This was a tough one, but Elspeth is a sweeper as well as a army-maker. I only need so many expensive sweepers, so I put this as a high consideration and will probably try to make room for it later. It's in limbo right now.
Plains I shaved a land down now that I have Weathered Wayfarer.
IN
Anguished Unmaking Upgrade to O-Ring, No baggage and instant speed allow me to deal with things reactively.
Utter End Same as Unmaking.
Weathered Wayfarer Decided to not break my rule for now with Stony Silence, Expedition Map is a strong contender though.
Swords to Plowshares Cheap way to interact early, exiling is often important vs Ulamog and friends.
Path to Exile Same as Swords, a little worse, but probably still good enough.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion Adds board presence for free, still a little wary as most of our pillowfort effects don't protect planeswalkers very well, but she protects herself so it may not matter, she counts as a pillowfort effect herself too which is a plus.
Phyrexian Reclamation Helps abuse stuff and makes Daxos cost no more than 5 in the late game.
New Considerations list:
Act of Authority Keeping an eye on how much artifact/enchantment removal I need, this will be next to go in.
Ajani's Chosen Still seems good enough to run as it profits from everything.
Island Sanctuary Another Decent Pillowfort, don't know if I need it though.
Burnished Hart Breaks my Stony Silence Rule, but gets me lands for Emeria and is super easy to recur in the deck. Daxos is pretty mana hungry.
Merciless Eviction This card will definitely make it back in, just not sure what I should axe yet.
Expedition Map Breaks the Stony Silence Rule, but utility lands are pretty important, might include Cabal Coffers if I have this and Weathered Wayfarer.
Arahbo, Kitty Kat Beatdown Decklist
Mizzix of the Izmagnus Decklist
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow Decklist
My Current Set Cube Lists:
Kamigawa Re-Experience
Ravnica, City of Guilds Re-Experience
Alara Re-Experience
Maximum_Intelligence, I agree with all the changes you've made, and I'm sure you'll get good mileage out of them. The Hartebeest is not ideal as well, as it's five mana, but if it's been performing well then what more could one want, really. O-Ring itself might not be a bad thing to put on the "may try to fit in again" list with Merciless Eviction as you do get the potential of wording abuse with Curio and you seem to be fond of the effect. And, in the end, the main thing a deck is to do is offer you a play experience you find rewarding. Otherwise we'd all be netdecking Arcums, Zurs, Sidisis, Bragos or something.
Sorry about the accidental snipe, MRB_Illustration, I hope you're not too upset :/ The list looks like a pretty solid value enchantment construction, and the only things I'd point out would be that Cage of Hands is possibly preferable to Shackles whilst Shielded by Faith outclasses Indestructibility (as you can potentially transfer it over to a token instant-speed for safekeeping). If you find the list is not pulling its weight, you can try to spice it up with some fort or resource denial, but it looks pretty functional.
I'm still super, super iffy about Coffers, but I might just need to give it a shot instead of being iffy and see how it plays out. There's been a fair few people recommending it by now, so maybe I'm just being too paranoid.
The thing with O-ring is that I have to target things before they necessarily threaten me. That Akroma, Angel of Wrath might be needing an answer, but only if it is attacking me, if I kill it and it was going to attack somebody else than that is damage I lose out on. O-ring forces me to kill something before I know if will be a threat to me. Vedalken Orrery get around this a bit, and there are shenanigans I can do with O-ring so who knows...
I too am iffy about coffers, it might be good enough with some things that can tutor it. (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric tutor, Expedition Map, Weathered Wayfarer. I wouldn't count it as a land though, since on it's own it doesn't do anything.
Arahbo, Kitty Kat Beatdown Decklist
Mizzix of the Izmagnus Decklist
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow Decklist
My Current Set Cube Lists:
Kamigawa Re-Experience
Ravnica, City of Guilds Re-Experience
Alara Re-Experience
I'll just repost the list because alot of changes have been made.
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Burnished Hart
1 Auramancer
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Heliod's Pilgrim
1 Agent of Erebos
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Doomwake Giant
1 Thoughtrender Lamia
1 Sun Titan
1 Emeria Shepherd
Instant/Sorceries
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Tithe
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Replenish
1 Utter End
1 Three Dreams
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Austere Command
Artifacts
1 Expedition Map
1 Sol Ring
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Flickering Ward
1 Animate Dead
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Underworld Connections
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Enslave
Enchantment
1 Land Tax
1 Soul Snare
1 Planar Collapse
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Blind Obedience
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Gossamer Chains
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Stony Silence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Necropotence
1 Aura of Silence
1 Seal of Doom
1 Ghostly Prison
1 No Mercy
1 Pestilence
1 Humility
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Skybind
1 True Conviction
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Fetid Heath
1 Shambling Vent
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Temple of Silence
1 Scoured Barrens
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Command Tower
1 Kor Haven
1 Maze of ith
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Myraid Landscape
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vault of the Archangel
6 Plains
6 Swamp
In Summary I broke my rule a bit with Stony Silence and added Sol Ring, Orzhov Signet, Expedition Map, Burnished Hart.
I added Tithe, Expedition Map, Weathered Wayfarer, Knight of the White Orchid and Burnished Hart to make Emeria, the Sky Ruin easy to assemble, to fuel Emeria Shepherdand to help feed Daxos' mana addiction. One of the reasons Phyrexian Reclamation is out, since Sun Titan, Emeria the Sky Ruin and Emeria Shepherd do it better (free).
I cut Elspeth because she is expensive and my deck can't protect her all that well. Bitterblossom is out because it doesn't do enough in the deck. All O-ring effects are officially out, because it's too annoying to have them removed and give stuff back (Plus Faith's Fetters usually does the job better.) Added Vault of the Archangel because it's boss in pillowfort.
Arahbo, Kitty Kat Beatdown Decklist
Mizzix of the Izmagnus Decklist
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow Decklist
My Current Set Cube Lists:
Kamigawa Re-Experience
Ravnica, City of Guilds Re-Experience
Alara Re-Experience
I'd keep Phyrexian Reclamation, it's not clashing with Sun Titan et al but rather helping them be even more bonkers. If you need room, you still have Three Dreams loitering around the 99 Planar Collapse also seems iffy, as it has to live a whole go around the table for anything to happen. So, the two most likely outcomes are you getting slammed with everything on the table before it gets wiped, or the Planar Collapse getting removed. Possibly one after the other true, the thing is dope with Vedalken Orrery, but you can't count on that happening every time.
Glad to see you running Expedition Map and a handful of mana rocks, and Vault of the Archangel is a boss of a land in pillowfort or not. Lifelink is incredible in this deck, and the deathtouch is a good thing to have in a pinch as well. I'm not sure pushing Emeria, the Sky Ruin this heavily is a good idea, especially as the Phat Mana you usually get tends to be white more often than black, but playtesting will answer this for you, I guess.
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[RETIRED Primers]:
RW Aurelia, The Warleader --- R Daretti, Scrap Savant --- RUB Thraximundar
Thanks for the great read
U Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Knowledge is Power U [Primer]
R Heartless Hidetsugu - The Art of Ending Games R
GB Ishkanah, Grafwidow - The Cluster HungersBG
So, what better way to celebrate primerdom than with a horribly overcosted pimp card?
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Mana Crypt
Okay, fair enough, I lied. It's not primerdom that's driving this change, it's Eternal Masters. The primerdom is a pretty sweet coincidence though Mana Crypt is flat-out ridiculous in a manner that puts Sol Ring to shame. Two colourless mana out of completely nowhere. Turn one becomes turn three, threatening plays get chased out ahead of time (out of completely nowhere), you get the drill. The self-damage is not ideal, but can be stomached in a 40-life format. The card dipped to ~40 euro on MCM, which is still more than I've ever paid for cardboard before (and I sincerely hope I won't pay this much for cardboard again), but it's so utterly busted that I need one in my life and I have a heck of an easier time justifying 40 euro in front of myself than the twice-that price tag of the original English version. It's probably at a severe local price minimum. So I jumped on it.
Daxos uses the crypt... fairly. It does not immediately break the game on the spot, it merely plants a swift kick on the deck's tempo buttocks and it almost feels like you're playing something with a bit more pizazz to it. The very first game I drew it, I got accidentally caught in a 'trice battle with a Maelstrom Wanderer and a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I rushed out Daxos turn two (after giving literally no indication this will be happening turn one), and promptly got Null Rodded by the Derevi. That was enough of a speed boost though, and I got out Bottomless Pit turn three and Rule of Law turn four. The Pit devoured Derevi's Winter Orb immediately and the deck never really got off the ground, whilst the Wanderer was held firmly in place by the Law. I eventually ground out a win, even through a Stasis (Elspeth, Sun's Champion might have had a hand in it, a pretty big one in fact). One of the games for the ages, really. But Rumpy, I can hear a 40-euro-richer me piping up smugly, wouldn't this have been possible if you just drew Sol Ring? Well, old me, this doesn't replace Sol Ring, this makes it twice as likely for this dumbness to happen. Also, if I signalised turn one that ramp city, I might have gotten Null Rodded before I even got to ramp city at all. The magic of Mana Crypt, ladies and gentlemen.
Needed to find room, Thran Dynamo ended up getting the axe. That's really unfortunate, as the Dynamo is a hell of a power lifter in the shadows. Costs one mana less than Gilded Lotus, produces the same amount of mana on tap, yet gets you just about no attention. The mana rock base is tight enough that the Dynamo got cut because it sometimes led to awkward turn fours and the large mana chunk is colourless. Mana Crypt still makes colourless, and one less of it, but at literally no up front investment.
This Cardboard Crack comes to mind...
Congratulations on primer status.
this is my french rules deck for Daxos that I am building. I like the concept but haven't play tested at all yet with proxies. pretty excited to give it a whirl soon. this is only my second deck so be kind in your critique if interested in giving feedback.
With regards to the list, it feels like you took the precon and threw in some random enchant'y stuff you had sitting around without much of a coherent theme. You have Grave Pacts without sac outlets, you have the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond infinite shoehorned in for good measure, you have a sizeable protection-granting equipment package which spills out into the inefficient, for some reason there's Recurring Nightmare with 13 creatures on the list yet Phyrexian Reclamation is nowhere to be seen, and then you have nuggets like Armored Ascension or Agent of the Fates which are just confusing. Crucially, you also have no ramp whatsoever. Not all rocks are banned in French, a number of good things ranging from signets to Gilded Lotus are fair game, and you'll soon find out the list is very mana hungry.
You should pick a clear game plan and try to work around it, sanding off a fair share of the leftover chaff. You seem to have kept the precon's secondary token barfers in Ajani's Chosen and Sigil of the Empty Throne, and added some cool combat-related stuff in Cover of Darkness, Intangible Virtue and True Conviction. Maybe try to follow through on this? It's probably easier to overwhelm one dude with aggro in a can. Add some more efficient width generators, some more cool combat stuff (Reconnaissance comes to mind, and swapping Dictates over to Heliod seems like a good call). Tempo slugs like Blind Obedience become even more brutal than usual as it becomes hard to set up a perimeter against you. If you feel brutal, and, crucially, have enough backup token generation, Humility would be ridiculous. This would probably be the easiest cohesive direction to take the list in from what you've got. Whatever direction you do decide to go in, don't forget about ramp though
Also, I may be stereotyping here, but isn't French for cutthroat 1v1 play with some of the variance removed? If so, you're probably going to have a bad time, regardless of what you do or don't do.
My advice: Look at other white-black decks in French and maybe multiplayer.
Rumpy how do you prioritize which lands to grab with effects like Weathered Wayfarer? Nykthos sometimes seems better mid game than Sanctum and both are somewhat poor early. Just curious about sequencing.
-1 Rout +1 Damnation (I just have the card already and I really wanted to put it in)
-1 Graveborn Muse +1 Sensei's Divining Top (99% of the time I get graveborn out, it usually dies within a couple of turns, usually only netting me 2 or 3 cards. However sensei doesnt cost life, and dodges most destruction, it also helps with the somewhatsortofkindalike scrying)
I also want to put in Yawgmoth's Will, but I have no idea what to take out. I feel like Yawgmoth could help with some key plays on your turn, although it is a little risky if somebody tries to kill your stuff when you do it, having it exiled. But I feel like it usually isnt an issue when you have so much protection in this deck. What do you think?
The Wayfarer land grabs, as you noticed, tend to be flexible and depend on the scenario. I'd say there's a very rigid hierarchy to Expedition Map though - you only get one shot, so getting a fat mana land is a no-brainer. There's a lot of rocks and the lands are reasonably dense too, so you typically won't need to crack the Map to get in Daxos range. If you have three mana, you Map for the Sanctum 90+% of the time as the enchantment curve is low and it will rebound in production soon enough. If you open two lands and don't draw a third (or a cheap mana rock) in your first two draws, then you go for Nykthos. If you're awkwardly stuck on one colour after the two lands, you suck it up and get colour fixing. The joy of Wayfarer is that you can work around all this with multiple activations, and you only need to skew him towards what you'd do with a Map if you smell he's gonna die quickly.
Oh, missed this post. I was drafting the land order write-up a little bit longer than I should have.
Rout is the best sweeper in the deck, if you HAVE TO run Damnation I'd look for cuts elsewhere, possibly with Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Still, Sunspeth is one hell of a walker. Maybe elsewhere altogether, and just up the sweeper count?
I don't think Top and Muse serve the same purpose, and you're going to have a mediocre time here with Top unless you made ghost changes to the list and are running more shuffle (fetches come to mind). These sort of effects tend to perform at their best when you routinely rotate the top three cards you get to see. That's just my opinion, and you can get some reliable shuffling going with Land Tax, so it could work for you. I mean, Muse works for me, so different strokes for different folks.
With regards to Yawgmoth's Will, it feels less reliable at recursion than the existing options. Don't get me wrong, it's a crazy powerful card, and super flexible in what can get back, but you'd need a fat burst of mana to make something really good happen. And a fat burst of mana typically involves a corresponding fat board to fuel Sanctum/Nykthos. Different strokes for different folks, if it works for you please report back so I can motivate myself to give it a try
Well, the reason I wanted Rout out of the deck, is because it can be really situational to leave 7 mana open JUST in case you need to use it on an opponents turn (save from silly mana flickering with skybind). Almost every time I have used Rout, it has been on my turn. I feel like with the Skybind and other targeted removal for almost anything deadly, it isn't necessary to save a so much mana just in case. I feel it's a better idea to simply exile or flicker the one or two things that "could" kill you in that turn, then use Elspeth/Damnation to destroy everything on your turn. Maybe this is just my meta, which has a lot of infinite combos/stax like decks, that I feel like rout isnt as needed.
With Sensei, I feel like you draw so much in this deck, that sensei will usually have at least 2 new cards to look at every time you use it. Their have been a few games where I have used top 2 or 3 times before my next turn even started because of the card draw/skybind/cloudstone curio shenanigans. Also, unless I am just blind, their is really only one way to gain life in this deck, and thats with Vault of the Archangel. I have found myself at lowish amounts of life, purely caused by me because of Greed, Phyrexian Arena, Phyrexian Reclamation, e.t.c and feel like having another self harming source of damage might not be a good idea, but sensei's alleviates some of that pain by not costing you much.
I feel like people assume Yawgmoth's will is supposed to be some ultimate recursion-last ditch effort-super card that brings back everything you have in your grave. While that may be true 90% of the time, I have used it for some smaller plays that help me go into mid/late game. For example, I have used it on turn 4 when i had 6 mana. Used 3 of it for the will, got back my urborg that got strip mined, and used the demonic tutor I had previously used that game, and well as a land tax that got hated on earlier too. It doesn't always have to be used with a fat graveyard, and even if you do have a big graveyard, you could simply use it to get tutors/ramp to help you for the next turn. I find it very versatile, and I have not once regretted casting it.
There are two sources of lifegain - you also get True Conviction, which is one of the more "gg no re" spells to resolve as your creatures pop open the can of pure ludicrous. True, it's not ideal, but black is quite trigger-happy with its life for some pleasantly potent effects. If you want extra lifegain (and card draw!), you could try Disciple of Bolas - I ran him for a long time, and he only got cut because I realised his window of optimal performance is more narrow than other draw options.
Well, now I'm really tempted. What did you cut for Yawgmoth's Will? I've been considering trimming down the top of my curve again, potentially taking out Debtors' Knell, Black Market and some other stuff in the 5+ range. I'm really considering Reconnaissance, Spirit of the Labirynth (and possibly Chains of Mephistopheles as my playgroup seems to have relaxed its approach to proxies) and potentially some combat-centric stuff.
Honestly, I could not cut virtually anything for Yawgmoth's Will. I had to resort to cutting a basic land to just test it out. I figured with all the mana rocks and the little ramp I had, that I could trim it to 35 lands instead of 36. I highly don't recommend you do this however, as I am going to go back to 36 once I find a suitable replacement.
I guess the only reason why I don't find Rout good for my meta, is because the infinites I have to deal with are typically non-creature infinites. Some of them aren't infinite, but basically put them in such a board position where you might as well surrender the game (Omniscience+Enter the Infinite for example). But I guess it really just depends on meta really.
I might try the graveborn muse just 1 more time to see if it could work. I totally forgot about true conviction (literally never gotten it out in a game lol....)
Yeah, that's the joke - there's no real obvious cuts in the 99 anymore. I'll probably re-evaluate how the deck fares once the meta shifts in October and find room then.
I mean, if the Muse doesn't work for you, then don't force yourself into it. If anything, try Disciple of Bolas out. Sounds like he might work better.
For now, a batch of changes hinted at up-thread comes to fruition
1 Black Market
1 Debtors' Knell
1 Reconnaissance
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
There's nothing wrong with Black Market or Debtors' Knell. Their only problem is that they're not 100% guaranteed to do something crazy good while costing 5 and 7 mana respectively. Mystic Barrier had a similar problem and got offed, and now these fellows are following suit. Both are great cards, but if something costs this much mana it needs to have a more reliable impact on the board.
Spirit of the Labyrinth joins Necropotence and other "lucky" cards cut from the list at the wrong time. You seriously couldn't come up with a worse time to off the Spirit - the very update that put in heavier discard took out the Spirit, which handily impedes hand size development. As such, it gets to return, in spite of its horrible 3/1 squishiness. Reconnaissance is a card I've been eyeing since I realised I kind of want Intangible Virtue in the list, and realised this is a stronger version of that effect. Vigilance is awesome, and the potential to pull out creatures from unfortunate blocks is just ridiculous. All this for a single white. Don't mind if I do. If it fails, then that's an obvious spot to try enchantment fleshbag in. Somehow I don't feel it will fail though.
Also, I followed through on the Chains of Mephistopheles consideration and tried to "money out" the list online to see what would happen. Well, I added Chains, and I added Grim Tutor, and spiffed the mana base with fetches and a Scrubland. The deck played more less as is now. I might score a Chains proxy anyway, as it's a less feeble version of the sort of interaction that Spirit of the Labyrinth offers. Not super high priority though.