Of course you can run those creatures; I've considered Tasigur and Terrastodon in particular, as they seem like very good candidates for what the deck tries to do. If you get around to testing them, let me know how it goes. I've been a bit busy with college finals coming around, so I haven't been testing as many options as I would like to.
So i'm starting to get into nic fit in legacy, and one of the biggest things that the deck does is grab random stuff back from the yard while also being able to grab certain pieces from the deck. Is there any way that this could emulate that strategy and have the capacity to find things from the library green sun's zenith style? Or are we looking to gain that sort of advantage strictly from having a more expanded graveyard?
Either way, Tasigur for sure is coming into my build because all of our cards are just better than the opponent's individually.
There's Traverse the Ulvenwald for searching out bullet creatures/lands. Although I would assume that Tasigur is awkward with Delirium. Leaving jank like Utopia Sprawls in your graveyard for Delirium but wanting good cards back with Tasigur. Or maybe it'd work out, and it's one of those manageable nonbos.
Well, it happens. I had a pretty poor record at the GP, going 2-5 my seven non-bye rounds. I went on full tilt, letting that feature match get to my head, and didn't really recover from it. But I'm feeling better now, so I got back to brewing with it. And I only just realized how bad Razorverge Thicket is when your one drops are Sprawl and Arbor Elf, which caused a lot of my mulligans this weekend, which occurred much more frequently over the longer stretch of rounds. Can't believe I never put that together until recently but it was too late to adjust the decklist. This is what I'm currently playing, and it's super sweet. I just flipped Westvale Abbey turn 4 on Cockatrice. I attached an image of the replay. Westvale is about to flip, after which I attack with the 7/7 Knight and 9/7 demon. Have fun, Eldrazi brewer.
I mainly just lurk here, and this is my first time posting but I will say this deck has really grabbed my attention after seeing it at GPLA. Sorry about the record at the event, but your deck is something to be proud of. Seems a lot of fun and does a lot of cool things.
That all aside, I was wondering if anyone has considered Worm Harvest as a one-of in this deck?
Yes, I have considered it. As always, this deck has so many directions it can go in that I encourage you to test it on your own and report your results here. That said I've been playing a package of 4 Lingering Souls and Westvale Abbey with 2 KotR, and it has stolen quite a few matchups. I've been loving it in the deck.
I'm brewing my own version of this list but I don't play competitively, so I was wondering how necessary mainboard hand disruption is in a format filled with fast but vulnerable decks like Ghrishoalbrand or Tron and whether they have a place in this deck?
I'm brewing my own version of this list but I don't play competitively, so I was wondering how necessary mainboard hand disruption is in a format filled with fast but vulnerable decks like Ghrishoalbrand or Tron and whether they have a place in this deck?
I would say that is important but not in the main deck as you suggest it. This deck is not really looking to interact a lot with what ever your opponent is doing before you assemble your own game. This is why I'll leave hand disruption to the side and just focus on silver bullets for some match-ups.
I would say that finding a flexible & redundant main board is better in this kind of decks rather than being responsive.
Well, it happens. I had a pretty poor record at the GP, going 2-5 my seven non-bye rounds. I went on full tilt, letting that feature match get to my head, and didn't really recover from it. But I'm feeling better now, so I got back to brewing with it. And I only just realized how bad Razorverge Thicket is when your one drops are Sprawl and Arbor Elf, which caused a lot of my mulligans this weekend, which occurred much more frequently over the longer stretch of rounds. Can't believe I never put that together until recently but it was too late to adjust the decklist. This is what I'm currently playing, and it's super sweet. I just flipped Westvale Abbey turn 4 on Cockatrice. I attached an image of the replay. Westvale is about to flip, after which I attack with the 7/7 Knight and 9/7 demon. Have fun, Eldrazi brewer.
So I had to test this out and it's a bit refreshing from playing tokens.
A couple of things I've noticed between match ups like tron or infect is that we don't carry alot hate but we do seem to have the tools for it. It's just a matter of how and what to have in the 15. We already have KotR and that paired with thoughtseize, duress, and Stony Silence on the side should Definitely be part of the help. Another thing and I know it will sound crazy but adding 2 or 3 ghost quarters on the side with a extricate or surgical extraction. You can always side out Gavony, vault, and Abbey (it sorta sucks, but you then play a more tuned version to hurt tron. Planting a knight on the field can help dig those lands out and feed the yard with lands, more pressure on tron. That's just my two cents. Also Liliana should be in it along with at least 2 decays
Edit* I have no idea why it thinks your list is my deck lol sorry..I'm also on my phone
OK I've been playing a lot with this deck and have a couple opinions to share. I hope we can keep the thread going and continue to find improvements!
1. Gavony Township > Westvale Abbey. Westvale competes with Gavony for creatures and Westvale Abbey is waaaaaay worse if they have an answer to Ormendahl, Profane Prince, since you have to sacrifice your board (and having that big of a board usually means you are in a good spot anyway)
2. Courser of Kruphix is super non-impact, though the value it generates over many turns is powerful I feel like too many match-ups are just too fast for it to generate enough of an advantage.
3. Knight of the Reliquary is a powerhouse when the opponent doesn't interact with the graveyard, and even opens up more utility lands. I like to run a Tectonic Edge that I can fetch at instant speed to catch out a Raging Ravine/Collenade. I also like to put a Bojuka bog in the side which you can fetch with knight and turn off snapcasters, shrink tarms, destroy dredge and many other interactions at instant speed. Arena is actually a really sick piece of tech that can work as a 1 of in the sideboard and fetch with Knight (who I think should be run as 4 of to improve consistency. Without the typical hand disruption of BGx decks, I find that many match-ups we aren't consistently dealing with (without a turn 2 rhino or demon and going over them) to stabilize against problematic creatures (Leonin Arbiter, Young Pyromancer, Dark Confident to name a few), and since running more removal other than the paths takes away from the GY synergy (it's painful to see Path to Exile's get milled instead of the lingering souls or unburial rites that we actually want to see in the GY), whereas though much more costly, Arena is a great way to repeatedly remove your opponent's board state without taking away from the synergy. This one is only worth throwing in for more grindy matchups though not tapping for mana hurts it (although Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can fix that issue). Since our creatures are larger than most in the format I think this card might be a decent addition to help the attrition war.
and some SB stuff:
1 Languish is great against most modern creature decks, and usually doesnt hit our demons/knights/rhinos
2 A card I never thought I would think good Memoricide has been working wonders against many combo decks we are weak to like scapeshift, ad nauseum, tooth + nail, blood moon, bigger reanimator strategies (eg Iona, shield of emeria), basically a more reliable Pick the Brain in certain matchups
3 Zealous Persecution works WONDERS against many decks we are weak to when darkblast doesn't hit enough - infect, affinity, it can help race in the matchups where damage matters, and can even help trade lingering souls for X/3's like zoo
These are some of my thoughts, I've been doing more thinking than testing, though at FNM recently I went 2-0 against esper control, 1-2 against Eldrazi and Taxes (turn two rhino won me game one, draws didn't add up in the second two and I didn't have an answer to Rest in Peace; and 0-2 against grixis delver (first game mulled to 4, second game stuck on 1 land. I think 22 is definately the right number of lands, but might start doing more forest sources and a couple less fetches(the grindy matchups I tend to run out of fetchable sources before I have mana to hardcast angel of serenity. Regarding Tron - as soon as they land one major threat the game pretty much ends, so if stony silence doesn't work out then the ghost quarter/surgical extraction combo works as a pseudo crumble to dust (again made more consistent with more knight of the reliquary's. This combination of post sideboard is about the best I think we'll ever be able to do for now (I play this matchup too much).
I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts and keep the thread going!
Thoughts on including Eldritch Evolution? What will we need to do to take advantage of it? Sacrifice Thragtusk to get Angel and buyback Thragtusk for later seems powerful. And we could add bullets to the side like Elesh Norn against small creature decks, Gaddock Teeg for Tron, and Sigarda, Heron's Grace for Burn.
Two things to conisder about Eldrich Evo, the first being that it doesn't have to resolve before you lose the creature, so against most blue decks a remand will put you pretty far behind, and secondly because having random sorceries doesn't synergize with our graveyard gameplan.
Since pyroclasm/firespout are mainboard in the tron I think GQ and/or tec edge + KOTR are still our best plans against them. I think the thragtusk into elesh norn sounds good but if we hit 6+ mana we're likely in decent shape anyway, and angel is probably just as good as norn. Eldrich evo seems like it is much better for toolbox strategies or melira combo decks than our one.
For our burn matchup, Collective Brutality seems like it pretty consistently 3 for 1's in our deck which seems really strong post board. It also seems more flexible than straight lifegain strategies which we were almost forced into before, also looking really strong against infect, melira combo and a lot of other weak matchups. A common but worth noting from Eldrich moon is Crop Sigil, I'm gonna test it out along with Grim Flayer in the next few weeks. Crop sigil fills a one mana spoit I've been wanting for a while and grim flayer is a more risky but rewarding version of satyr.
Collective Brutality?! How did I miss this... Good catch! I'm aware of the Remand problem with Eldritch Evolution but it has been working super powerfully for me whenever I find an opening or can just cast it. I think two maindeck may be worth it.
I'd say so; I've tested 1 Grim Flayer in place of 1 Grisly Salvage and he has quite impressed me so far. Collective Brutality has also proven to be very flexible outside burn matchups.
Interesting; I don't know about the red splash just Faithless Looting in the main, since his mana base looks very awkward. How has it performed? I wouldn't think we need a red splash; FL is a mediocre engine unless you abuse it with dredge.
Yeah after playing with them for a while most of my suggestions have been pretty awful but here are some of my recent findings
Crop Sigil - Great in grindy matchups, can fetch bullet lands that get LD'd, or bring back tech edge, fuels delerium and hits that 1 drop slot a bit more, but pretty useless outside the grindy games and our grind is already pretty consistent and real Gavony Township - Still think this is better than westvale Knight of the reliquary - Should be 4x in MD imo, becomes a huge beater later on but early on ramps and gets the bullet lands Arena - This card is awful Collective Brutality - I'm throwing this card in so much its versatility is astounding
One thing that hinders my deck building ability is putting in instants and sorceries that don't synergize with the graveyard. Every time I dump a path from a grisly salvage or satyr it makes me rethink my whole build. Though I see the potential of eldrich evolution, it feel really bad when you dump it from the self milling when there's no sorcery recursion in the deck.
All and all though this deck is great. I think our biggest weakness is the small creature decks and fast combo matchups, which I do not know how to shore up without diluting our primary gameplan.
Currently testing Traverse the Ulvenwald a lot. I don't know why it's taken so long for me to do so, but it definitely feels like the real deal-an almost "more busted" Green Sun's Zenith when it's on (well, if it's online, it IS more busted unless you want to debate the reuse part). Long story short, I tested Traverse with Tarfire in tempo-y decks and was super impressed, so I decided to put it in an actual graveyard deck. This is the list I've been using (forgive the formatting).
I tried traverse the ulvenwald a long time ago for quite a while and I wasn't thrilled with our deck's consistency in having delerium that early in the game, although it can be pretty nuts when it is on. It's a great topdeck though I just don't know if our deck can support 4 card types consistently enough to make it super powerful. If we could get either that or eldritch evolution running then I think the deck's power goes way up. I love the 1 of eternal witness though. Shriekmaw also feels really right because we lack a lot of interaction some other decks have. Tarmogoyf is obviously good, but I personally prefer knight of the reliquary as a beater and toolbox for the deck.
OH I was brewing standard and this card -Decimator of the Provinces seems actually incredible in this deck.
Its trigger is on cast so it is just a 7/7 haste trample when you reanimate it (which is still pretty good imo).
With a few lingering souls on board or a knight this guy pretty consistently ends the game when he resolves and sometimes even just with the cast trigger and his emerge cost is pretty attainable turn 4 or 5 in our deck. I feel like he can take the place of angel and I'll definately be testing him. He works pretty well with angel and with traverse the ulvenwald so maybe I'll try a 1/1 split of both instead of just one or the other
OH I was brewing standard and this card -Decimator of the Provinces seems actually incredible in this deck.
Its trigger is on cast so it is just a 7/7 haste trample when you reanimate it (which is still pretty good imo).
With a few lingering souls on board or a knight this guy pretty consistently ends the game when he resolves and sometimes even just with the cast trigger and his emerge cost is pretty attainable turn 4 or 5 in our deck. I feel like he can take the place of angel and I'll definately be testing him. He works pretty well with angel and with traverse the ulvenwald so maybe I'll try a 1/1 split of both instead of just one or the other
Isn't craterhoof not better?
It sort of depends. Unless you are reanimating onto an empty board Craterhoof is going to be better. However Decimator has the benefit of being a reasonable cast off of a Siege Rhino or Mindwrack. And if you are running Delve cards it could be really good.
By going with craterhoof you are pretty much guaranteeing that you are going to have to reanimate it, which when it works yes it will also probably win you the game, and in my experience with this deck, we get plenty of board presence, so the overrun etb is great. The problem in modern in a deck like this is that it's hard to get both combo pieces in the yard. If we just wanted to reanimate a creature for the win there are gifts strategies that can do that better. Our strategy can and does often hard cast the big dudes, which is why we play angel of serenity instead of iona, shield of emeria for instance. With that in mind we are looking at Decimator of provinces as something we want to be able to hardcast. And decimator fills this role really well with his emerge cost; we run lots of 3-4-5 drops to enable this (with etb's so they themselves aren't wasted just to cast the emerge card). Plus the sacrificed creature can be put to use eventually with Unburial Rites. Plus with this new Eternal Witness + Traverse the Ulvenwald package, we are making a really flexible environment that I believe the new craterhoof could fit well into.
Plus relying on graveyard interactions means our deck would be really vulnerable to graveyard hate, which already bites us a little.
One thing I think we should settle is whether Grim Flayer is good enough or whether it is too inconsistent. I haven't tested it as much as I would like to have. What are your guys' thoughts?
I've tested one Grim Flayer for a little and he was impressive, but if we ever hit Delirium, Traverse is just so much more powerful. For example, I don't run KotR anymore because Traverse is almost like Canopies/Townships 2-5 and between Satyr and Salvage I hit Delirium in all but the fastest match-ups. Traverse has just been so good for me between fixing one land hands and late game bombs. Flayer certainly has potential and perhaps should take the place of 'goyfs in my list. Perhaps I'll test that next: swapping 3 Flayer for 3 'goyf.
I tried out Traverse a bit tonight and found it a little bit hit or miss. I don't like relying on it to have relevant hits because I don't think that we consistently hit it with just a satyr or salvage. I think the power is definitely insane there but I still love the brute force and consistency of KOTR (This might have been influenced by my opponent playing B/W eldrazi with 4 relic of progenitus main (still destroyed him though)) This is the list I'm running right now; I haven't had too much time with it just yet but I'm enjoying a few traverse's for late game gas. I've taken out Satyr for now and letting Grim Flayer get the grave flowing (with mindwrack backup). Only drew Decimator of the Provinces once, but it was very impressive and won out of nowhere.
Looks good; I definitely think you should swap a Swamp or Wildwood for any Forest-type. I've had a lot of issues with awkward Utopia Sprawl/Arbor Elf hands that had a non Forest green source or just no green source, and since then I've kept a high Forest count. Also, I definitely think Craterhoof is better in our deck than Decimator.
Perhaps it's just personal preference with Traverse; I cut down to 20 lands since I've now got 13 one drops and Traverse has greatly helped with consistency there. Also, having four Traverse gets around Blood Moon so easily when you grab that first Forest, it's astounding how trivial beating Blood Moon has been recently. I haven't mentioned it yet but maindeck Phyrexian Revoker with Traverse has stolen quite a few matches recently: RG Tron and RG Titan ramp (I've found these to be nightmares in the past), Ad Nauseam, U Tron, and various planeswalker control strategies. Definitely secret mvp.
Yeah I've noticed the lack of consistent forest sources and I don't think I have ever wanted two Wildwoods so I'll definitely axe one for that.
I want to challenge the Craterhoof argument with two points - 8 drops are unlikely to be hardcast except in the longest games and Decimator definitely does not have that weakness due to his accessible emerge cost. He also has the advantage of not relying on reanimation (while still being a solid target) so he isn't weak post board or to things like Scavenging Ooze, Kalitas and other mb hate. In my eyes he just screams reliability and power in a deck like ours and I'd love to hear your reasoning against him.
Following on that point I don't think we should overcommitt to graveyard strategies as our primary engine - there are better graveyard decks like dredge or gifts with a lot more power than ours, but we trade some of that power for versatility and consistency even against hate by being able to hard cast our threats. With things like grisly salvage and unburial rites we can still tap into the graveyard as an additional resource but I feel like by relying on the delerium Traverse gameplan we open ourselves up to a lot of weaknesses. I feel also that Traverse without delerium is very rarely worth casting; my intuition says the higher land count might just be better to avoid mana screwing though I haven't tested your current list. I'm not sure if blood moon is a strategy large enough to merit changing our main deck to but I don't know your local meta. As for Phyrexian Revoker I think it can be a solid bullet but that it should be limited to the side unless you want to go full toolbox.
I think my list is a little shy on 1 drops post cutting crop sigil but I think traverse is good enough for that slot to make sure I always have a turn 1 play - I'm just thinking 4 is a lot.
One last thing I really wanna stress how good Vault of the Archangel is and I was so sad to see you cut it. In your list it makes sense because of the number of lands you have and your cutting of lingering souls but this card has won me so many match-ups and is good in both aggro and grindy matchups. Also even in your list I think you should consider a GQ or tech edge. I don't think tron is our worst matchup anymore due to the land accessibility we have now, plus it opens up a lot of lines with our land fetching (KOTR or Traverse).
Let me know how your list goes though! I'd love to hear your testing results and I'll be posting mine again soon. I enjoy discussing the fine details and I feel like the list gets better with every post.
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Either way, Tasigur for sure is coming into my build because all of our cards are just better than the opponent's individually.
Edit for deck list inclusion:
Modern Nic Fit / Reanimator
Legacy: GWB Rhino Fit
Commander: RKurkesh Onakke AncientR
Creatures 20
2 Angel of Serenity
4 Arbor Elf
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Mindwrack Demon
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Siege Rhino
2 Thragtusk
Instants 7
4 Path to Exile
3 Grisly Salvage
Sorceries 7
4 Lingering Souls
3 Unburial Rites
Enchantments 4
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Windswept Heath
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Darkblast
1 Duress
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Painful Truths
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Pulse of Murasa
1 Sin Collector
2 Stony Silence
2 Thoughtseize
1 Worship
That all aside, I was wondering if anyone has considered Worm Harvest as a one-of in this deck?
I would say that is important but not in the main deck as you suggest it. This deck is not really looking to interact a lot with what ever your opponent is doing before you assemble your own game. This is why I'll leave hand disruption to the side and just focus on silver bullets for some match-ups.
I would say that finding a flexible & redundant main board is better in this kind of decks rather than being responsive.
So I had to test this out and it's a bit refreshing from playing tokens.
A couple of things I've noticed between match ups like tron or infect is that we don't carry alot hate but we do seem to have the tools for it. It's just a matter of how and what to have in the 15. We already have KotR and that paired with thoughtseize, duress, and Stony Silence on the side should Definitely be part of the help. Another thing and I know it will sound crazy but adding 2 or 3 ghost quarters on the side with a extricate or surgical extraction. You can always side out Gavony, vault, and Abbey (it sorta sucks, but you then play a more tuned version to hurt tron. Planting a knight on the field can help dig those lands out and feed the yard with lands, more pressure on tron. That's just my two cents. Also Liliana should be in it along with at least 2 decays
Edit* I have no idea why it thinks your list is my deck lol sorry..I'm also on my phone
1. Gavony Township > Westvale Abbey. Westvale competes with Gavony for creatures and Westvale Abbey is waaaaaay worse if they have an answer to Ormendahl, Profane Prince, since you have to sacrifice your board (and having that big of a board usually means you are in a good spot anyway)
2. Courser of Kruphix is super non-impact, though the value it generates over many turns is powerful I feel like too many match-ups are just too fast for it to generate enough of an advantage.
3. Knight of the Reliquary is a powerhouse when the opponent doesn't interact with the graveyard, and even opens up more utility lands. I like to run a Tectonic Edge that I can fetch at instant speed to catch out a Raging Ravine/Collenade. I also like to put a Bojuka bog in the side which you can fetch with knight and turn off snapcasters, shrink tarms, destroy dredge and many other interactions at instant speed. Arena is actually a really sick piece of tech that can work as a 1 of in the sideboard and fetch with Knight (who I think should be run as 4 of to improve consistency. Without the typical hand disruption of BGx decks, I find that many match-ups we aren't consistently dealing with (without a turn 2 rhino or demon and going over them) to stabilize against problematic creatures (Leonin Arbiter, Young Pyromancer, Dark Confident to name a few), and since running more removal other than the paths takes away from the GY synergy (it's painful to see Path to Exile's get milled instead of the lingering souls or unburial rites that we actually want to see in the GY), whereas though much more costly, Arena is a great way to repeatedly remove your opponent's board state without taking away from the synergy. This one is only worth throwing in for more grindy matchups though not tapping for mana hurts it (although Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can fix that issue). Since our creatures are larger than most in the format I think this card might be a decent addition to help the attrition war.
and some SB stuff:
1 Languish is great against most modern creature decks, and usually doesnt hit our demons/knights/rhinos
2 A card I never thought I would think good Memoricide has been working wonders against many combo decks we are weak to like scapeshift, ad nauseum, tooth + nail, blood moon, bigger reanimator strategies (eg Iona, shield of emeria), basically a more reliable Pick the Brain in certain matchups
3 Zealous Persecution works WONDERS against many decks we are weak to when darkblast doesn't hit enough - infect, affinity, it can help race in the matchups where damage matters, and can even help trade lingering souls for X/3's like zoo
These are some of my thoughts, I've been doing more thinking than testing, though at FNM recently I went 2-0 against esper control, 1-2 against Eldrazi and Taxes (turn two rhino won me game one, draws didn't add up in the second two and I didn't have an answer to Rest in Peace; and 0-2 against grixis delver (first game mulled to 4, second game stuck on 1 land. I think 22 is definately the right number of lands, but might start doing more forest sources and a couple less fetches(the grindy matchups I tend to run out of fetchable sources before I have mana to hardcast angel of serenity. Regarding Tron - as soon as they land one major threat the game pretty much ends, so if stony silence doesn't work out then the ghost quarter/surgical extraction combo works as a pseudo crumble to dust (again made more consistent with more knight of the reliquary's. This combination of post sideboard is about the best I think we'll ever be able to do for now (I play this matchup too much).
I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts and keep the thread going!
Since pyroclasm/firespout are mainboard in the tron I think GQ and/or tec edge + KOTR are still our best plans against them. I think the thragtusk into elesh norn sounds good but if we hit 6+ mana we're likely in decent shape anyway, and angel is probably just as good as norn. Eldrich evo seems like it is much better for toolbox strategies or melira combo decks than our one.
For our burn matchup, Collective Brutality seems like it pretty consistently 3 for 1's in our deck which seems really strong post board. It also seems more flexible than straight lifegain strategies which we were almost forced into before, also looking really strong against infect, melira combo and a lot of other weak matchups. A common but worth noting from Eldrich moon is Crop Sigil, I'm gonna test it out along with Grim Flayer in the next few weeks. Crop sigil fills a one mana spoit I've been wanting for a while and grim flayer is a more risky but rewarding version of satyr.
Crop Sigil - Great in grindy matchups, can fetch bullet lands that get LD'd, or bring back tech edge, fuels delerium and hits that 1 drop slot a bit more, but pretty useless outside the grindy games and our grind is already pretty consistent and real
Gavony Township - Still think this is better than westvale
Knight of the reliquary - Should be 4x in MD imo, becomes a huge beater later on but early on ramps and gets the bullet lands
Arena - This card is awful
Collective Brutality - I'm throwing this card in so much its versatility is astounding
One thing that hinders my deck building ability is putting in instants and sorceries that don't synergize with the graveyard. Every time I dump a path from a grisly salvage or satyr it makes me rethink my whole build. Though I see the potential of eldrich evolution, it feel really bad when you dump it from the self milling when there's no sorcery recursion in the deck.
All and all though this deck is great. I think our biggest weakness is the small creature decks and fast combo matchups, which I do not know how to shore up without diluting our primary gameplan.
Creatures-22
4 Arbor Elf
1 Thragtusk
2 Angel of Serenity
4 Satyr Wayfinder
3 Siege Rhino
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Restoration Angel
1 Shriekmaw
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Eternal Witness
Enchantments-4
4 Utopia Sprawl
Instants-6
3 Grisly Salvage
3 Path to Exile
Sorceries-8
2 Unburial Rites
2 Lingering Souls
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
Lands-20
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Gavony Township
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 1 Fracturing Gust
SB: 1 Pulse of Murasa
SB: 2 Abrupt Decay
SB: 3 Collective Brutality
SB: 1 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Sin Collector
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Anafenza, the Foremost
Its trigger is on cast so it is just a 7/7 haste trample when you reanimate it (which is still pretty good imo).
With a few lingering souls on board or a knight this guy pretty consistently ends the game when he resolves and sometimes even just with the cast trigger and his emerge cost is pretty attainable turn 4 or 5 in our deck. I feel like he can take the place of angel and I'll definately be testing him. He works pretty well with angel and with traverse the ulvenwald so maybe I'll try a 1/1 split of both instead of just one or the other
It sort of depends. Unless you are reanimating onto an empty board Craterhoof is going to be better. However Decimator has the benefit of being a reasonable cast off of a Siege Rhino or Mindwrack. And if you are running Delve cards it could be really good.
Plus relying on graveyard interactions means our deck would be really vulnerable to graveyard hate, which already bites us a little.
One thing I think we should settle is whether Grim Flayer is good enough or whether it is too inconsistent. I haven't tested it as much as I would like to have. What are your guys' thoughts?
1 Angel of Serenity
4 Arbor Elf
1 Decimator of the Provinces
1 Eternal Witness
3 Grim Flayer
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Mindwrack Demon
3 Siege Rhino
Enchantment (4)
4 Utopia Sprawl
Instant (7)
4 Grisly Salvage
3 Path to Exile
Sorcery (8)
4 Lingering Souls
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Unburial Rites
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Temple Garden
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Windswept Heath
Perhaps it's just personal preference with Traverse; I cut down to 20 lands since I've now got 13 one drops and Traverse has greatly helped with consistency there. Also, having four Traverse gets around Blood Moon so easily when you grab that first Forest, it's astounding how trivial beating Blood Moon has been recently. I haven't mentioned it yet but maindeck Phyrexian Revoker with Traverse has stolen quite a few matches recently: RG Tron and RG Titan ramp (I've found these to be nightmares in the past), Ad Nauseam, U Tron, and various planeswalker control strategies. Definitely secret mvp.
I want to challenge the Craterhoof argument with two points - 8 drops are unlikely to be hardcast except in the longest games and Decimator definitely does not have that weakness due to his accessible emerge cost. He also has the advantage of not relying on reanimation (while still being a solid target) so he isn't weak post board or to things like Scavenging Ooze, Kalitas and other mb hate. In my eyes he just screams reliability and power in a deck like ours and I'd love to hear your reasoning against him.
Following on that point I don't think we should overcommitt to graveyard strategies as our primary engine - there are better graveyard decks like dredge or gifts with a lot more power than ours, but we trade some of that power for versatility and consistency even against hate by being able to hard cast our threats. With things like grisly salvage and unburial rites we can still tap into the graveyard as an additional resource but I feel like by relying on the delerium Traverse gameplan we open ourselves up to a lot of weaknesses. I feel also that Traverse without delerium is very rarely worth casting; my intuition says the higher land count might just be better to avoid mana screwing though I haven't tested your current list. I'm not sure if blood moon is a strategy large enough to merit changing our main deck to but I don't know your local meta. As for Phyrexian Revoker I think it can be a solid bullet but that it should be limited to the side unless you want to go full toolbox.
I think my list is a little shy on 1 drops post cutting crop sigil but I think traverse is good enough for that slot to make sure I always have a turn 1 play - I'm just thinking 4 is a lot.
One last thing I really wanna stress how good Vault of the Archangel is and I was so sad to see you cut it. In your list it makes sense because of the number of lands you have and your cutting of lingering souls but this card has won me so many match-ups and is good in both aggro and grindy matchups. Also even in your list I think you should consider a GQ or tech edge. I don't think tron is our worst matchup anymore due to the land accessibility we have now, plus it opens up a lot of lines with our land fetching (KOTR or Traverse).
Let me know how your list goes though! I'd love to hear your testing results and I'll be posting mine again soon. I enjoy discussing the fine details and I feel like the list gets better with every post.