It looks a lot better, that is for sure! There is a lot of recursion and activated abilities for card advantage. These are what it takes to compete in any format of commander.
To answer your questions:
1. Manabase isn't bad at all. You have 39 lands, and 10 other mana rocks or ways to find the lands. I consider this extremely solid for such a mana hungry deck. I still don't like tarnished citadel, mossfire valley, shadowblood ridge, or temple of the false god. Tarnished citadel will get you mana, but those bolts add up quickly. The others are non starters unless certain conditions are met. I believe basics to be better than these!
2. Lifegain isn't often relevant in edh. It's a resource, use it for card advantage or to win the game. You have constant mists. If you're worried about big damage, then you could add moment's peace as an additional fog (or spore frog/spike weaver which are super good with your general).
Compost is great if there is a lot of black in your meta. If not, it's a dead draw. Same with snake pit. If you want hosers to be ready, I will admit compost might be the best black has to offer, though pygmy kavu may have applications here. However, blue and green are the two most played colors in the format. I think that carpet of flowers is a better blue hoser, though.
These could be other cards. Consider the land destruction of some kind (decimate is the only way I see to hit a problematic land and in this format, there are many) that I mentioned before, haste outlets, or hull breach. You won't be disappointed I promise!
Incidentally, I neglected to mention them before, but the age and nature of your collection suggests you may have some of these:
(might as well read: B, find any creature I want, put it into my hand for RGB)
If you have a withered wretch or tormod's crypt, you might want to add those. Everyone either combos fast or runs interaction/recursion. Being able to snipe a graveyard can be awfully important!
Hello madcat! I am glad to see your deck is doing well and that my suggestion of combat celebrant panned out!
I don't think god eternal rhonas is particularly good here. Most of your other threats aren't particularly big by their own and something like this won't do much to add to that.
U/W control seems difficult. I think rhythm of the wild might be a valid solution here. Option of haste and giving a finger to the almighty counterspell seems pretty good. If you have a flex slot available, 2 main and maybe a 3rd (or 2 more) sideboard might be an option. Most decks that will give you trouble will be running cards like remand, mana leak, logic knot, or cryptic command to slow you down and this answers those proactively. Unfortunately, most of your deck isn't particularly beefy so hard core control will probably still be problematic.
You say the death's shadow match sided in 10 creature removal cards? Which were they? If we know more, we can theorycraft better ways to answer them. However, one suggestion that comes to mind is a burn package. You run what, 8 creature enhancement effects that aren't great here? I mean, yes you should have an advantage if you can get them down and kill the creatures, but that takes a lot of time and mana and they run lots of discard. For a sideboard option (mind you, I don't know your meta very well...), you could subtract the 8 creature enhancements and run with 4 lightning bolt and some other mix of burn spells. Death's shadow tends to go low on life and a handful of burn to say "surprise, you die!" is one of the best red ways to answer them. This is why I don't think chameleon colossus is fast enough to answer them. Obstinate baloth or kitchen finks might be, though.
Incidentally, could you please post your most current decklist? I would like to see what it has evolved to!
Wow. Old school magic cards. I love the deck, sir! In general, the previous poster is correct and there are many better cards that have been printed since your collection that are considered strictly better. However, even within the limits of your collection (probably), there are cards you could run that should be considered better optimized for commander. Therefore, I will focus on older cards that you probably have laying around.
Commander is a multiplayer format usually. Cards like verdant force that were pretty good in 1 on 1 become obscene in multiplayer. Do you have a seedborne muse floating around? If so, it will quickly get out of hand with your general and activated abilities.
Of course, I know they are expensive cards, but back in your day they weren't so expensive. Demonic tutor, vampiric tutor, worldly tutor, and gamble and grim monolith would be great additions. I had several of the tutors laying around from my collection back in those days and I wasn't what anyone woul call rich by any means.
krosan restorer is a good card. It's no worse than any other three mana option like ley druid,indeed it may be the potentially strongest out of all of them! Your graveyard will be full quickly. In a similar vein, far wanderings would be a solid addition. It's barely acceptable at regular cost and quickly goes nuts if you have threshold.
IF you have one, exploration would be a good addition. They still haven't made a better version of this card in magic's history. Mana bond or burgeoning are excellent as well and will help you keep up with modern, more powerful cards.
You seem to have already figured out that repeatable or multi-target removable is pretty darned good in a multiplayer format. I would add hull breach and rack and ruin (or possibly shatterstorm) to the list of removal spells. They are still very very good cards and this is a format of vandalblast and cyclonic rift. Plague wind may also be worth it if you can consistently ramp to it. Flexible removal is also good and you might want to consider aftershock as well.
Ramp: Generally, no comments here. However, I would suggest that fertile ground, overgrowth, and wild growth would be good considerations. They die less often than mana dorks and will provide a nice boost to your mana.
Lands: You really want a strip mine in here. It answers a lot of problems in this format. Wasteland, too, if you have one.
Winding canyons would be a good addition if you have one. Instant speed with your creatures is a good thing to have!
Mossfire valley, shadowblood ridge, and gemstone mine are playable, but you really want cards that don't have too many drawbacks. I think that shivan oasis, urborg volcano, llanowar wastes, and darigaaz's caldera are actually better lands in this format. Certainly current decks play common versions of these lands. No reason you can't run what you probably already have and keep up!
Koskun keep could come out as well. I would also consider mountain valley and rocky tar pit. (of course, bloodstained mire, wooded foothills, and aBUR duals if you have them are natural fits). They are slow fetches, but being able to fetch up the appropriate land is always useful even if you wait a turn.
I would consider terrain generator. You're running 28 basic lands and a very mana hungry deck. Any way of putting extra lands onto the battlefield is a very good thing.
For cards to consider removing for some of the additions I mentioned above.
Subversion: There are decks in which this card would be playable. This deck is not one of them. I think you would be better served by necropotence or attrition for card advantage.
Thundermare: Your fatties are pretty solid, but they aren't game endingly good in just one turn. This sort of card is better used as a hail mary kill one opponent sort of card and your only free way to cheat him in is defense of the heart. If you fetch him and one other card, the other card ends up tapped and likely doesn't have haste. Bollocks!! Speaking of haste, fervor or fires of yavimaya would be a great addition here! (or both...)
Tor wauki: Fun card and wish I had one. But, not here. There are decks where you want to force combat where he would be obscene, but you're not doing that here. Visara, the dreadful, shauku endbringer, or avatar of woe would have much more impact and aren't limited to the combat step.
Harbinger of night: Unless you're aiming to kill your own guys, this guy seems like a bad addition. If you're after your opponents weenies and utility creatures, then I would consider goblin sharpshooter. He will very quickly clean up the problems!
Wall of souls: This card doesn't seem very good here. Again, you don't seem to be trying to force combat so this sort of rattlesnake card doesn't seem to do much.
In general: You have a lot of utility guys and powerful removal, but winning will become problematic. To be blunt, you need a few more fatties to end the game. If you have them, dragons are always good. But avatar of fury, avatar of might, thorn elemental, etc. become problems for your opponent in a hurry and end the game quickly.
I have two other decks I do run wave of vitriol in even though it blows up my own permanents (including my general). It is a hell of a beating for decks not built to recur like mad, that's for sure.
I don't use wave of vitriol or bane of progress in my yeva build either since blowing up my own permanents en masse seems like a bad idea. Tornado is an excellent card, though. I rarely pay the upkeep as it tends to set out for one round with a seedborne muse or similar active and by the time it returns to my own turn having blown up 4 or 5 problematic permanents (and paid a lot of life in the process), it's well worth it.
It really depends on your meta. Mine isn't completely competitive, but in my Yeva build, I run tornado and song of the dryads to answer problems as well as the usual etb and on cast suspects. I don't run krosan grip or naturalize variants mainly because they don't fit the theme. I do think blast zone is worth a look, though. It's doing good work in some other decks I have laying around.
If you're not careful, there will be some douchebag packing a torpor orb or a humility. I always make sure to pack 3 or 4 ways of answering non creature permanents that aren't dependent upon entering the battlefield/activating an ability. Force of vigor is a strong contender for one of those slots, in my opinion.
Karn, the great creator? I would probably look for a way to vomit my deck onto the battlefield with card draw and mana ramp, the traditionally green ways of doing so. Genesis wave, genesis hydra, and kamahl's druidic vow surely do that. Another option would be to take advantage of green's recursion of anything (regrowth et al). Beware graveyard hate, though!
Incidentally, sideboards aren't allowed in commander generally speaking, at least according to the rules committee. You might want to look at that.
If you want to be a dick using mycosynth lattice, there are better ways, or more varied ways, I should say. You had better have a way to reliably find it and get it on the battlefield, however. Karn, the great creator seems nasty with it. I would also consider the new ouphe that acts as a null rod against artifacts. There a number of other cards such as root maze that have applications, too.
Arboria should be considered carefully. it prevents you from attacking, too. That is kind of bad when you are trying to win through combat.
Well, you have been given a lot of options. Instead of running an anti dragon deck, why not consider legendary tribal and then run a solitary rashida scalebane as a tutor target?
For example, if you run arvad the cursed as your general, then you get access to rashida scalebane, as well as all of those black tutors to go find it, and thalia's lancers, etc. but also various wrath effects (take your pick...black and white have lots of options). In this way, you still get a devastating counter card (not deck) to your friend's strategy, but get to have a deck that functions well for other situations, too.
Also, if you run legendary tribal, you get to run obnoxious cards like urza's ruinous blast, etc. that are absolutely devastating to most flying lizards!
Ok. Descendant's path seems bad when you have less than a 20% chance of hitting a wurm on top of your library. If I had sufficient top deck manipulation and a whole lot more wurms (at least 30% chance on their own, better is 50% chance), then I would consider that card.
While it is a wurm, tempting wurm seems really bad. A 2 mana 5/5 is something to consider in 60 card formats (still pretty bad in the world of tarmogoyf's and whatnot), but in a battlecruiser format it seems relatively suicidal.
Arboria: I love the card, but where is your flash outlet? I run it in my yeva, nature's herald deck and it puts in some serious work. I don't see that happening here, though. Similarly, seedborne muse basically acts as a vigilance outlet. Is it that important that you need it?
Upwelling is bad in a slow deck like this. I get that you want to store mana, but Omnath, Locus of mana seems a whole lot safer for that effect and it doesn't help your opponents.
Gauntlet of power over vernal bloom? I like Gauntlet, but it's an easy artifact to kill and your wurms really don't benefit much from the anthem effect. Your opponents elf tokens, on the other hand, would love it... If you're going to run a symmetric doubler, make sure it's one that doesn't actively kill you faster and is harder itself to kill.
You have a few wurms that really want to be blocked. Engulfing slagwurm is chief among them, but anything+kusari gama is pretty good, too. If you want to force blocking, how about nemesis mask and/or lure and laugh all the way to the bank?
Death's presence is an interesting card. How about a few more power matter's cards to go with it? You could run the mana dorks that tap for power...there are several, take your pick. You could also consider champion of lambholt for added evasion. If nothing else, champion prevents small chump blocks.
Awakening zone seems actively bad. Why do you need 1 token on your upkeep? There are better sources of mana.
If you're going to play grothama as your commander, do you have any idea how to make the rest of the deck synergize with him? I mean, vigor has to be a mandatory addition, I would think. Vigor + grothama=your guys huge, your opponents not drawing cards. Failing that, darksteel plate seems good.
If, on the other hand, you want to draw tons of cards off of him, then maybe instead of using vigor to just make your team gigantic (and thus preventing the card draw), you might instead consider conjurer's closet at the very least, though other cards like voyager's staff make for helpful additions. There is also cold storage, safe haven, endless sands, etc. You're in green, so finding the lands isn't too hard and recurring artifacts (or anything) is even easier. Just a thought!
Fantastic card. One of the best ways to screw over blue/black players who have been sculpting their hands (or drawing well beyond their normal 7), and mess with tutors, too.
I tend towards land ramp and land enchantments myself. Both are more survivable in my meta rather than mana dorks. The only mana dork I run is karametra's acolyte since it can get gross, quick.
To answer your questions:
1. Manabase isn't bad at all. You have 39 lands, and 10 other mana rocks or ways to find the lands. I consider this extremely solid for such a mana hungry deck. I still don't like tarnished citadel, mossfire valley, shadowblood ridge, or temple of the false god. Tarnished citadel will get you mana, but those bolts add up quickly. The others are non starters unless certain conditions are met. I believe basics to be better than these!
2. Lifegain isn't often relevant in edh. It's a resource, use it for card advantage or to win the game. You have constant mists. If you're worried about big damage, then you could add moment's peace as an additional fog (or spore frog/spike weaver which are super good with your general).
Compost is great if there is a lot of black in your meta. If not, it's a dead draw. Same with snake pit. If you want hosers to be ready, I will admit compost might be the best black has to offer, though pygmy kavu may have applications here. However, blue and green are the two most played colors in the format. I think that carpet of flowers is a better blue hoser, though.
These could be other cards. Consider the land destruction of some kind (decimate is the only way I see to hit a problematic land and in this format, there are many) that I mentioned before, haste outlets, or hull breach. You won't be disappointed I promise!
Incidentally, I neglected to mention them before, but the age and nature of your collection suggests you may have some of these:
- anger
- brawn
- black market
- entomb
(might as well read: B, find any creature I want, put it into my hand for RGB)If you have a withered wretch or tormod's crypt, you might want to add those. Everyone either combos fast or runs interaction/recursion. Being able to snipe a graveyard can be awfully important!
I don't think god eternal rhonas is particularly good here. Most of your other threats aren't particularly big by their own and something like this won't do much to add to that.
U/W control seems difficult. I think rhythm of the wild might be a valid solution here. Option of haste and giving a finger to the almighty counterspell seems pretty good. If you have a flex slot available, 2 main and maybe a 3rd (or 2 more) sideboard might be an option. Most decks that will give you trouble will be running cards like remand, mana leak, logic knot, or cryptic command to slow you down and this answers those proactively. Unfortunately, most of your deck isn't particularly beefy so hard core control will probably still be problematic.
You say the death's shadow match sided in 10 creature removal cards? Which were they? If we know more, we can theorycraft better ways to answer them. However, one suggestion that comes to mind is a burn package. You run what, 8 creature enhancement effects that aren't great here? I mean, yes you should have an advantage if you can get them down and kill the creatures, but that takes a lot of time and mana and they run lots of discard. For a sideboard option (mind you, I don't know your meta very well...), you could subtract the 8 creature enhancements and run with 4 lightning bolt and some other mix of burn spells. Death's shadow tends to go low on life and a handful of burn to say "surprise, you die!" is one of the best red ways to answer them. This is why I don't think chameleon colossus is fast enough to answer them. Obstinate baloth or kitchen finks might be, though.
Incidentally, could you please post your most current decklist? I would like to see what it has evolved to!
Commander is a multiplayer format usually. Cards like verdant force that were pretty good in 1 on 1 become obscene in multiplayer. Do you have a seedborne muse floating around? If so, it will quickly get out of hand with your general and activated abilities.
Of course, I know they are expensive cards, but back in your day they weren't so expensive. Demonic tutor, vampiric tutor, worldly tutor, and gamble and grim monolith would be great additions. I had several of the tutors laying around from my collection back in those days and I wasn't what anyone woul call rich by any means.
krosan restorer is a good card. It's no worse than any other three mana option like ley druid,indeed it may be the potentially strongest out of all of them! Your graveyard will be full quickly. In a similar vein, far wanderings would be a solid addition. It's barely acceptable at regular cost and quickly goes nuts if you have threshold.
IF you have one, exploration would be a good addition. They still haven't made a better version of this card in magic's history. Mana bond or burgeoning are excellent as well and will help you keep up with modern, more powerful cards.
You seem to have already figured out that repeatable or multi-target removable is pretty darned good in a multiplayer format. I would add hull breach and rack and ruin (or possibly shatterstorm) to the list of removal spells. They are still very very good cards and this is a format of vandalblast and cyclonic rift. Plague wind may also be worth it if you can consistently ramp to it. Flexible removal is also good and you might want to consider aftershock as well.
Ramp: Generally, no comments here. However, I would suggest that fertile ground, overgrowth, and wild growth would be good considerations. They die less often than mana dorks and will provide a nice boost to your mana.
Lands: You really want a strip mine in here. It answers a lot of problems in this format. Wasteland, too, if you have one.
Winding canyons would be a good addition if you have one. Instant speed with your creatures is a good thing to have!
Mossfire valley, shadowblood ridge, and gemstone mine are playable, but you really want cards that don't have too many drawbacks. I think that shivan oasis, urborg volcano, llanowar wastes, and darigaaz's caldera are actually better lands in this format. Certainly current decks play common versions of these lands. No reason you can't run what you probably already have and keep up!
Koskun keep could come out as well. I would also consider mountain valley and rocky tar pit. (of course, bloodstained mire, wooded foothills, and aBUR duals if you have them are natural fits). They are slow fetches, but being able to fetch up the appropriate land is always useful even if you wait a turn.
I would consider terrain generator. You're running 28 basic lands and a very mana hungry deck. Any way of putting extra lands onto the battlefield is a very good thing.
For cards to consider removing for some of the additions I mentioned above.
Subversion: There are decks in which this card would be playable. This deck is not one of them. I think you would be better served by necropotence or attrition for card advantage.
Thundermare: Your fatties are pretty solid, but they aren't game endingly good in just one turn. This sort of card is better used as a hail mary kill one opponent sort of card and your only free way to cheat him in is defense of the heart. If you fetch him and one other card, the other card ends up tapped and likely doesn't have haste. Bollocks!! Speaking of haste, fervor or fires of yavimaya would be a great addition here! (or both...)
Tor wauki: Fun card and wish I had one. But, not here. There are decks where you want to force combat where he would be obscene, but you're not doing that here. Visara, the dreadful, shauku endbringer, or avatar of woe would have much more impact and aren't limited to the combat step.
Vhati il-dal: See above.
Harbinger of night: Unless you're aiming to kill your own guys, this guy seems like a bad addition. If you're after your opponents weenies and utility creatures, then I would consider goblin sharpshooter. He will very quickly clean up the problems!
Wall of souls: This card doesn't seem very good here. Again, you don't seem to be trying to force combat so this sort of rattlesnake card doesn't seem to do much.
In general: You have a lot of utility guys and powerful removal, but winning will become problematic. To be blunt, you need a few more fatties to end the game. If you have them, dragons are always good. But avatar of fury, avatar of might, thorn elemental, etc. become problems for your opponent in a hurry and end the game quickly.
Incidentally, sideboards aren't allowed in commander generally speaking, at least according to the rules committee. You might want to look at that.
Arboria should be considered carefully. it prevents you from attacking, too. That is kind of bad when you are trying to win through combat.
For example, if you run arvad the cursed as your general, then you get access to rashida scalebane, as well as all of those black tutors to go find it, and thalia's lancers, etc. but also various wrath effects (take your pick...black and white have lots of options). In this way, you still get a devastating counter card (not deck) to your friend's strategy, but get to have a deck that functions well for other situations, too.
Also, if you run legendary tribal, you get to run obnoxious cards like urza's ruinous blast, etc. that are absolutely devastating to most flying lizards!
While it is a wurm, tempting wurm seems really bad. A 2 mana 5/5 is something to consider in 60 card formats (still pretty bad in the world of tarmogoyf's and whatnot), but in a battlecruiser format it seems relatively suicidal.
Arboria: I love the card, but where is your flash outlet? I run it in my yeva, nature's herald deck and it puts in some serious work. I don't see that happening here, though. Similarly, seedborne muse basically acts as a vigilance outlet. Is it that important that you need it?
Upwelling is bad in a slow deck like this. I get that you want to store mana, but Omnath, Locus of mana seems a whole lot safer for that effect and it doesn't help your opponents.
Gauntlet of power over vernal bloom? I like Gauntlet, but it's an easy artifact to kill and your wurms really don't benefit much from the anthem effect. Your opponents elf tokens, on the other hand, would love it... If you're going to run a symmetric doubler, make sure it's one that doesn't actively kill you faster and is harder itself to kill.
You have a few wurms that really want to be blocked. Engulfing slagwurm is chief among them, but anything+kusari gama is pretty good, too. If you want to force blocking, how about nemesis mask and/or lure and laugh all the way to the bank?
Death's presence is an interesting card. How about a few more power matter's cards to go with it? You could run the mana dorks that tap for power...there are several, take your pick. You could also consider champion of lambholt for added evasion. If nothing else, champion prevents small chump blocks.
Awakening zone seems actively bad. Why do you need 1 token on your upkeep? There are better sources of mana.
If, on the other hand, you want to draw tons of cards off of him, then maybe instead of using vigor to just make your team gigantic (and thus preventing the card draw), you might instead consider conjurer's closet at the very least, though other cards like voyager's staff make for helpful additions. There is also cold storage, safe haven, endless sands, etc. You're in green, so finding the lands isn't too hard and recurring artifacts (or anything) is even easier. Just a thought!