KotR is in-color, potentially large (would've been 5/5 to 6/6 ish last night), is fueled by my land base and finds Ghost Quarter, yes, and has been used together with Rallier in Todd Stevens's CoCo-based GW value town, so it's not an unreasonable suggestion.
However this isn't a CoCo value town list, it's a Wg weenie Aggro deck. We want to be low-curve and explosive, generally going wide rather than tall. Here the average CMC is already a bit heavier than most White Weenie builds, so I could fit at most maybe one more 3 CMC creature before we start to lose the point of building off Honor of the Pure and Brave the Elements. Once you have a playset of both Rallier and KotR you might as well swap BtE out for CoCo, swap out aggressive 1-drops for Hierarch, maybe use Hierarch as support to dip into Bant for Reflector Mage... it's an optimization domino effect that ends with "Big Aggro" IMO.
Now Bant CoCo is a good human deck and maybe even the best one in the current meta, but one with a different matchup spread and different problems. My goal is to assess the limits of Wg Weenie in the current meta -- does it perform better against Tron, Burn, and some of the unfair decks that can prey upon Big Aggro while still maintaining acceptable matchups against the current gatekeepers of DSJ and Eldrazi? That's what I'm trying to figure out.
As for Mardu Woe-Reaper vs Soldier of the Pantheon: I, too, thought that Soldier was a no-brained at first. But as I was optimizing against DSJ & Eldrazi I noticed that Soldier's multi-color Protection perk came up pretty rarely. There weren't any multicolored creature to slip through or block (except 1x Grim Flayer in some builds), and most of the removal spells were mono-colored, Path & Push. Furthermore Soldier is usually pretty low on the removal priority list anyways. Conversely, DSJ often recurs threats with Kolaghan's Command and Bant Eldrazi runs Eternal Witness to get threats back, both of which are value plays that can outgrind a traditional Aggro deck. Being able to snuff this play with Woe-Reaper's ETB seems potentially more useful than protection from multicolored in these matchups and would be even more useful as a MB angle against graveyard-centric decks. I still need to test this further but I think a good case can be made for either one depending upon the meta. Soldier is probably a better choice vs burn (Helix, Boros Charm). I'll have to compare them in a broader variety of mathups.
As I mentioned previously I was messing with an interactive Esper list for spot Path+Push, Bob, Reflector Mage, and Tasigur... it was a fun experiment but it fell apart pretty quickly in the face of hand disruption. I didn't get to untap with Bob once, lol. Doesn't matter if you're packing gobs of hard removal if it gets picked out before you can cast it.
That experience led me to back to green for Rallier:
Again, this list is built around Rallier, with plenty of ways to trigger Revolt and juicy 2-drop rez targets. Thalia + Ghost Quarter add a land hate angle, and when we really need it (Tron etc) I'll board in Wayfarer to help fetch GC (This SB option seems promising but I need to get more matches in). Added to the mix is a full set of Selfless Spirit in the MB, which has really wonderful synergy with Rallier and also becomes a 3/2 flyer with Honor of the Pure -- definitely seems worth breaking the human tribe req based on the benefits it brings. As we discussed I have a pretty bleak estimate of Kytheon's life expectancy but Selfless Spirit makes flipping Kytheon considerably more manageable, and if that fails Rallying Kytheon back is still an option.
I played a few close matches against DSJ -- the matchup seems unfavorable but manageable. My previous experience with traditional Mono-white vs DSJ was that it fell apart pretty quickly once disrupted. Here Rallier + Spirit kept things together.
I'm not sure how I feel about Brave the Elements yet. It's one of the main reasons to be running monoish-white.. Against a mono colored board it's the alpha strike we've always wanted. But for instance in the DSJ match we're facing green Goyfs, black Shadows, and even white Spirits. And it won't get you any help vs the creatures in Affinity, Eldrazi, or Tron. So from an evasion standpoint these days it's a mixed bag and often just bad. However, effectively countering my opponent's Push with BtE won me one of my games, so it's at least somewhat useful in any matchup where you're facing colored incoming removal. I'm not sure if I should keep the full 4x in my MB with the current Meta.. Any suggestions? Tried out Mana Tithe.. it was bad. lol.
Between 4x Horizon Canopy & 3x Ghost Quarter I haven't had any issues with flooding yet, although I wouldn't mind a little more gas in grindy matchups. I'm not sure if this will be Eternal Witness, Lead the Stampede, Gideon of the Trials, Return to the Ranks, or something else.
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I haven't found any humans I want to incorporate from Amonkhet yet, but thoughts on Open into Wonder?
Maybe 1-2 somewhere in the 75? Pay 3UU, get your 3 biggest creatures through, draw 3. There's a misconception that removing one of the creatures in response will cause the whole thing to fizzle, but this is incorrect. UU casting cost hurts but it's probably manageable in Bant builds. Obviously it doesn't do anything without a board, but I could see it helping to resolve close board stalls.
I don't find any of the new humans to be particularly useful to us and like Dennis I'm skeptical of Glory-Bound Initiate. However, I am looking forward to the full spoilers tomorrow because the tokens revealed that we can expect one more human with embalm:
The value really depends on how they end up costing it. 2 mana for a 3/2 vigilance which you could return as a zombie human (yes they retain the human subtype!) for, say, 2 or 3 mana would be really pushed and great for us. A 3 mana 3/2 that you could Embalm it for 1 mana miiiight even be ok. I'm not sure what to expect because the costing on this set has been so awful (by modern standards), but Wizards loves to make pushed creatures so there's a chance it might be good.
EDIT: Oh lol, Unwavering Initiate was already revealed. Costs 3 to play, 4 to embalm. Pass.
I think the most interesting card for Humans so far might be Dusk // Dawn:
It could make White Weenie significantly more competitive against the gigantic Shadows, Goyfs, and Eldrazi lumbering around. The biggest challenge is the casting cost. You could build a weenie list with 22 lands that hits 4 CMC in a timely enough manner, but I don't know if you'll be able to hit 5 for Dawn very reliably. Nailing the asymmetry is difficult, too -- it works very well with Savannah Lions but once you add a lord you hit all your own creatures.. Any Champion of the Parish that's still on the board will get wiped for sure =/
EDIT 2: Yeah this is probably just not asymmetric enough to be worth hitting 4-5 CMC :<
If you're going to raise your curve enough to hit 5 drops Lavinia of the Tenth is probably a better choice since it solves the deck's evasion problem rather than just being another goodstuff card.
In my testing I had the opposite experience with Mono White Humans vs DSJ: humans rely on synergy and the combination of hand disruption and removal left me running on bad topdecks.
Out of curiosity, why are you running 2 Flooded Strand? And 2 Path + 1 Declaration in Stone? If it's budgetary restrictions maybe trade your fetches for the rest of the Paths? And why 1 Dragon Hunter over the better 4th Soldier of the Pantheon or Woe-Reaper? How had Hanweir Militia Captain performed?
He's competing with Accorder Paladin and possibly Seeker of the Way. Definitely better than both with a Vigilance enabler like Always Watching but possibly worse without it.
In my experience T1 Kytheon -> T2 Mauler+BTE -> flip only works if your opponent has zero blockers and is tapped out. If your opponent has any removal or even a measly 1-drop 1/X body sitting there they will use it to trade and kill Kytheon, guaranteed. Realistically the only way you're flipping Kytheon against a good player is if it's late enough into the game that you've exhausted their removal and you either hold up mana for his indestructible ability or cover him against blockers with spot removal. As an aside, Kari Zev is a better Kytheon enabler than BTE+Mauler IMO, because if Kytheon gets hit by their removal Kari is still a good card on her own
I've been thinking about Combat Celebrent as well. For him to perform at all two things have to happen:
Celebrent sticks to the board long enough to attack.. he could be given haste, or CoCo'd in EoT to help out here
You are in a favorable enough board state where you can attack profitably and push damage through
Let's just assume that you only get to attack with him once. He'll most likely be blocked and die (X/1) the first time he attacks, but even in the scenario that you've covered him with spot removal or the opponent didn't have a good blocker for him and he survives you then have to wait for the turn after next to swing with him again -- which for the sort of aggro deck that would run him means you've probably already won or lost by that point.
Being in a favorable board state where you can push damage through is a big problem. As we've discussed ad nauseum the human archetype as a whole is constrained in its aggro potential by its limited evasion. Building around a card that lets you attack twice without addressing this issue is only going to exacerbate the problem. Overall, Celebrent currently looks slow and win-more. Furthermore the Naya lists that he would slot into are mediocre in the current meta and mostly function as poorer versions of revolt zoo decks... /shrug
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I've been thinking a lot about how to build a human deck that can handle the Death's Shadow and Eldrazi variations. Hard removal is at a premium, and running less than 8 pieces of hard removal in the 75 is asking for a difficult matchup. Most people here have always run Path, but a playset of Fatal Push is sounding increasingly essential. Additionally, Reflector Mage provides a clean (albeit temporary) answer to these threats. Having a high density of removal can help compensate for the tribe's lack of evasion. We also need a hefty dose of card advantage & card quality to power through incoming disruption. CoCo is one way to achieve this, but Dark Confidant, Smuggler's Copter, Thraben Inspector, Gideon AoZ, and even Tasigur (!) are also options... Putting this together I've been working on a lower curve Esper list that can grind and interact. It seems promising, and I'll share the list once I can test it a bit more.
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Speaking of Gideon, the new 3-drop Gideon was spoiled:
I was trying to imagine some janky mono-white Gideon-Human deck running Kytheon + Gideon Trails + Gideon Ally and Smuggler's Copter / Heart of Kiran. It would probably be clunky as hell, but it'd be nice to have a somewhat "unfair" angle to the deck.
@kingcards: In my most recent 4C list I ran both Rallier & Rider. I think Rallier has the potential to be a more powerful card in theory but it needs to be built around (3 colors max, lots of fetches / Ghost Quarter, good 2 CMC targets) and Revolt can be a little finnicky sometimes. Conversely Rider always gives you those quick, dependable, evasive beats. I haven't decided yet whether a WGu list or WGru is better positioned yet but they both seem strong in their own ways.
@dr. sanchez: The 4 ghost quarters haven't been a problem but I have had some T2 sequencing issues. I'm going to need to re-tool a bit. To be continued.
I agree that Crucible is probably too cute for us.
I'm hesitant to add Avacyn's Pilgrim in part because Gavony Township is our only mana sink and the deck can weather the occasional mana screw better than mana flood. The Pilgrims would also have to come out of our Skyship Plunderer count, taking a slight edge off our beatdown potential and subtracting another 2 good Image / Rallier targets. Lastly Todd is playing 13x 3-drops (compared to 11x here), so he needs the extra dorks more than we do. I would start without the Pilgrims and then add them back in if you find that you're getting screwed too often. Like I said, so far it seems manageable to me but I'll let you know if that changes.
Based upon your creature curve you are building a CoCo deck and you should run all four copies of CoCo pretty much without question – it will usually be the best card in your deck. The issue is that you should probably trim your non-creature spells down to 10x or less.
As for the composition of your 10 spells, having unconditional, hard creature removal (4x Path) is also borderline mandatory right now. The last two slots are going to be a meta call but I suspect that you will probably get more mileage out of running Abrupt Decay, Collective Brutality, or Fatal Push over Dromoka's Command. I know you have a few fun synergies with D-Command but the standalone power and consistency of the previously mentioned cards will probably win you more games unless you are in a meta that features a lot of Anger of the Gods and Worship.
As for creatures I think you can trim Falconer down to 2x copies since he provides little extra benefit in multiples. Tireless tracker would be a good choice as he fits with your counter and grind themes.
@Dr. Sanchez, I've shared most of the same thoughts from your list there. I'm not sure that Auriok Champion is aggressive enough to run in our lists, Blessed Alliance might be a more versatile choice. Also, if you're looking for a more self-sufficient 2-drop to replace Mayor you could try Skyship Plunderer. It's a good proactive T2 play, decent on its own and gets even better with Champ/Lt/Gavony. I still haven't settled on a SB counterspell choice, so I can't help you there.
I think casting Rallier, returning Image to copy Rallier to grab a another card and rapidly repopulate your board for 3 mana is pretty awesome! It's really neat to see these high value scenarios work out.. however it's hard to say how much better having a second Image would be. Obviously Image is only great if you already have a 3-drop on the board, and running closer to 10-11 3-drops would help make this more likely. Image is like Lieutenant and Mayor in that they're often a better T4 play than T2 play. I could imagine that running more copies of Image might lead to more awkward sequencing scenarios where you just don't have a strong T2 play – in this instance the tempo gained by being able to effectively cast a pseudo 3-drop for 2 mana might be offset by being forced to cast it later.
Lastly it seems like people are starting to come around to how powerful Renegade Rallier + Ghost Quarter is. Many greedy manabases can't handle Ghost Quarter crack -> Rallier back GQ -> Re-crack GQ, especially when their basics are simultaneously stressed with Path to Exile. I know you had mentioned this previously, it popped up in that GW Human list above, and now it's one of the centerpieces for Todd Stevens's current successful GW CoCo Value list. Personally I think it might be worth trying the full 4x Rallier, 4x Ghost Quarter. In my testing so far you obviously have to mull a bit more but it's still significantly more comfortable than the 4c manabase or other non-Bant 3c manabases.
I'm unsure of Saffi. She's great when she can protect a game-winning combo per Melira decks or recur a value creature like Voice but there aren't as many great targets for us. I think I would rather just have another must-answer threat in that slot that naturally draws away removal but is still proactive and powerful if you've already exhausted your opponent's removal, but she's worth testing.
For reference, my current Bant MB testing list looks like this:
[quote from="Shelldell »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/769652-modern-humans?comment=80"]I could be wrong on a lot of things, but I like this idea. Maximizing use of Burning-Tree Emissary is worthwhile. Giving you another way to T2 flip Kytheon ain't nothing, even if it means running Lightning Mauler.
I have mixed feelings on Lightning Mauler. Yes, it is attractive to push more damage through T2 before the ground gets cluttered, and flipping Kytheon T2 is very strong. And that can definitely happen against some linear decks! But the format is being nudged in the direction of "Interact or Perish" at the moment and I think we have to assume that the first Kytheon to hit the board will probably bite the dust. And then what do we have left behind? A 2/2 BTE and 2/1 Mauler? In this sense the value of "Must-Remove Lightning Rods" is only as strong as the cards they died to protect, and if those enablers and filler cards aren't very strong on their own then your deck will fall apart in the face of disruption. With this in mind part of me wonders if the best Kytheon deck is actually a low-curve 5 color list with the strongest cards of every color (Dark Confidant, Mantis Rider etc.), where even if he doesn't flip as fast as a Blitz deck he's more likely to stick, or if he doesn't stick he'll at least clear the way for other good cards.
With that said please don't let me stop you from testing those Naya lists, I'm always happy to read more data. The only thing I will say is that everyone who has tested Hamlet Captain has found him to be a bit too slow to play. Metallic mimic is better if you really need a ninth+ lord.
@Wesste – I played a few games on cockatrice a couple months ago against some un-tiered decks but I don't have enough data to comment on specific matchups, sorry. It seemed promising but I wouldn't encourage anyone to rush out and buy the list as the meta has shifted a fair bit since then. Namely, Eldrazi & Death's Shadow Jund are quickly becoming "gatekeepers" to the format. Decks need to operate through incoming disruption, pick off important creatures, and generally grind a bit, whereas the Naya Blitz lists are typically very "all-in", occasionally explosive but fragile and linear.
As for Mutagenic Growth your mileage will vary. In the global meta Lightning Bolt is losing a bit of its luster in favor of hard removal, so Mutagenic also loses defensive application when fewer people are trying to Bolt your threats. If your local meta still has a lot of burn-based removal Mutagenic will perform very well, though.
Temur Battlerage usually just goes on the biggest attacker you have (ideally 4/X+) so you get the most benefit from double-strike. Doesn't matter much if they're blocked or not since trample pushes the damage through anyways.
If I were to update the list to better handle the current meta I might start with something like this:
I think that 4x Bolt, 4x Path is the "correct" option right now but I'm not sure about the other 4x spells in the MB. Might be some combination of Boros Charm : Atarka's Command, Rancor, Manamorphose, or something completely different.
Without Mutagenic Growth Monastery Swiftspear isn't quite as reliable. You'd have to run more matches to find out if she's still good enough or needs to be replaced by Warden of the First Tree.
However this isn't a CoCo value town list, it's a Wg weenie Aggro deck. We want to be low-curve and explosive, generally going wide rather than tall. Here the average CMC is already a bit heavier than most White Weenie builds, so I could fit at most maybe one more 3 CMC creature before we start to lose the point of building off Honor of the Pure and Brave the Elements. Once you have a playset of both Rallier and KotR you might as well swap BtE out for CoCo, swap out aggressive 1-drops for Hierarch, maybe use Hierarch as support to dip into Bant for Reflector Mage... it's an optimization domino effect that ends with "Big Aggro" IMO.
Now Bant CoCo is a good human deck and maybe even the best one in the current meta, but one with a different matchup spread and different problems. My goal is to assess the limits of Wg Weenie in the current meta -- does it perform better against Tron, Burn, and some of the unfair decks that can prey upon Big Aggro while still maintaining acceptable matchups against the current gatekeepers of DSJ and Eldrazi? That's what I'm trying to figure out.
As for Mardu Woe-Reaper vs Soldier of the Pantheon: I, too, thought that Soldier was a no-brained at first. But as I was optimizing against DSJ & Eldrazi I noticed that Soldier's multi-color Protection perk came up pretty rarely. There weren't any multicolored creature to slip through or block (except 1x Grim Flayer in some builds), and most of the removal spells were mono-colored, Path & Push. Furthermore Soldier is usually pretty low on the removal priority list anyways. Conversely, DSJ often recurs threats with Kolaghan's Command and Bant Eldrazi runs Eternal Witness to get threats back, both of which are value plays that can outgrind a traditional Aggro deck. Being able to snuff this play with Woe-Reaper's ETB seems potentially more useful than protection from multicolored in these matchups and would be even more useful as a MB angle against graveyard-centric decks. I still need to test this further but I think a good case can be made for either one depending upon the meta. Soldier is probably a better choice vs burn (Helix, Boros Charm). I'll have to compare them in a broader variety of mathups.
That experience led me to back to green for Rallier:
4x Champion of the Parish
3x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3x Mardu Woe-Reaper
1x Student of Warfare
4x Selfless Spirit
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Renegade Rallier
//Instant (8)
4x Brave the Elements
4x Path to Exile
4x Honor of the Pure
//Land (22)
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Flooded Strand
3x Ghost Quarter
4x Horizon Canopy
3x Plains
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
2x Weathered Wayfarer
3x Blessed Alliance
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Rest in Peace
3x Stony Silence
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
I played a few close matches against DSJ -- the matchup seems unfavorable but manageable. My previous experience with traditional Mono-white vs DSJ was that it fell apart pretty quickly once disrupted. Here Rallier + Spirit kept things together.
I'm not sure how I feel about Brave the Elements yet. It's one of the main reasons to be running monoish-white.. Against a mono colored board it's the alpha strike we've always wanted. But for instance in the DSJ match we're facing green Goyfs, black Shadows, and even white Spirits. And it won't get you any help vs the creatures in Affinity, Eldrazi, or Tron. So from an evasion standpoint these days it's a mixed bag and often just bad. However, effectively countering my opponent's Push with BtE won me one of my games, so it's at least somewhat useful in any matchup where you're facing colored incoming removal. I'm not sure if I should keep the full 4x in my MB with the current Meta.. Any suggestions? Tried out Mana Tithe.. it was bad. lol.
Between 4x Horizon Canopy & 3x Ghost Quarter I haven't had any issues with flooding yet, although I wouldn't mind a little more gas in grindy matchups. I'm not sure if this will be Eternal Witness, Lead the Stampede, Gideon of the Trials, Return to the Ranks, or something else.
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I haven't found any humans I want to incorporate from Amonkhet yet, but thoughts on Open into Wonder?
Maybe 1-2 somewhere in the 75? Pay 3UU, get your 3 biggest creatures through, draw 3. There's a misconception that removing one of the creatures in response will cause the whole thing to fizzle, but this is incorrect. UU casting cost hurts but it's probably manageable in Bant builds. Obviously it doesn't do anything without a board, but I could see it helping to resolve close board stalls.
However, I am looking forward to the full spoilers tomorrow because the tokens revealed that we can expect one more human with embalm:The value really depends on how they end up costing it. 2 mana for a 3/2 vigilance which you could return as a zombie human (yes they retain the human subtype!) for, say, 2 or 3 mana would be really pushed and great for us. A 3 mana 3/2 that you could Embalm it for 1 mana miiiight even be ok. I'm not sure what to expect because the costing on this set has been so awful (by modern standards), but Wizards loves to make pushed creatures so there's a chance it might be good.EDIT: Oh lol, Unwavering Initiate was already revealed. Costs 3 to play, 4 to embalm. Pass.
I think the most interesting card for Humans so far might be Dusk // Dawn:
It could make White Weenie significantly more competitive against the gigantic Shadows, Goyfs, and Eldrazi lumbering around. The biggest challenge is the casting cost. You could build a weenie list with 22 lands that hits 4 CMC in a timely enough manner, but I don't know if you'll be able to hit 5 for Dawn very reliably. Nailing the asymmetry is difficult, too -- it works very well with Savannah Lions but once you add a lord you hit all your own creatures.. Any Champion of the Parish that's still on the board will get wiped for sure =/
EDIT 2: Yeah this is probably just not asymmetric enough to be worth hitting 4-5 CMC :<
Out of curiosity, why are you running 2 Flooded Strand? And 2 Path + 1 Declaration in Stone? If it's budgetary restrictions maybe trade your fetches for the rest of the Paths? And why 1 Dragon Hunter over the better 4th Soldier of the Pantheon or Woe-Reaper? How had Hanweir Militia Captain performed?
Could be good in a hatebears-esque list with Thalia and Renegade Rallier?
Here's another "alllmost good enough" human.
He's competing with Accorder Paladin and possibly Seeker of the Way. Definitely better than both with a Vigilance enabler like Always Watching but possibly worse without it.
Being in a favorable board state where you can push damage through is a big problem. As we've discussed ad nauseum the human archetype as a whole is constrained in its aggro potential by its limited evasion. Building around a card that lets you attack twice without addressing this issue is only going to exacerbate the problem. Overall, Celebrent currently looks slow and win-more. Furthermore the Naya lists that he would slot into are mediocre in the current meta and mostly function as poorer versions of revolt zoo decks... /shrug
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I've been thinking a lot about how to build a human deck that can handle the Death's Shadow and Eldrazi variations. Hard removal is at a premium, and running less than 8 pieces of hard removal in the 75 is asking for a difficult matchup. Most people here have always run Path, but a playset of Fatal Push is sounding increasingly essential. Additionally, Reflector Mage provides a clean (albeit temporary) answer to these threats. Having a high density of removal can help compensate for the tribe's lack of evasion. We also need a hefty dose of card advantage & card quality to power through incoming disruption. CoCo is one way to achieve this, but Dark Confidant, Smuggler's Copter, Thraben Inspector, Gideon AoZ, and even Tasigur (!) are also options... Putting this together I've been working on a lower curve Esper list that can grind and interact. It seems promising, and I'll share the list once I can test it a bit more.
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Speaking of Gideon, the new 3-drop Gideon was spoiled:
I was trying to imagine some janky mono-white Gideon-Human deck running Kytheon + Gideon Trails + Gideon Ally and Smuggler's Copter / Heart of Kiran. It would probably be clunky as hell, but it'd be nice to have a somewhat "unfair" angle to the deck.
@dr. sanchez: The 4 ghost quarters haven't been a problem but I have had some T2 sequencing issues. I'm going to need to re-tool a bit. To be continued.
I'm hesitant to add Avacyn's Pilgrim in part because Gavony Township is our only mana sink and the deck can weather the occasional mana screw better than mana flood. The Pilgrims would also have to come out of our Skyship Plunderer count, taking a slight edge off our beatdown potential and subtracting another 2 good Image / Rallier targets. Lastly Todd is playing 13x 3-drops (compared to 11x here), so he needs the extra dorks more than we do. I would start without the Pilgrims and then add them back in if you find that you're getting screwed too often. Like I said, so far it seems manageable to me but I'll let you know if that changes.
As for the composition of your 10 spells, having unconditional, hard creature removal (4x Path) is also borderline mandatory right now. The last two slots are going to be a meta call but I suspect that you will probably get more mileage out of running Abrupt Decay, Collective Brutality, or Fatal Push over Dromoka's Command. I know you have a few fun synergies with D-Command but the standalone power and consistency of the previously mentioned cards will probably win you more games unless you are in a meta that features a lot of Anger of the Gods and Worship.
As for creatures I think you can trim Falconer down to 2x copies since he provides little extra benefit in multiples. Tireless tracker would be a good choice as he fits with your counter and grind themes.
I think casting Rallier, returning Image to copy Rallier to grab a another card and rapidly repopulate your board for 3 mana is pretty awesome! It's really neat to see these high value scenarios work out.. however it's hard to say how much better having a second Image would be. Obviously Image is only great if you already have a 3-drop on the board, and running closer to 10-11 3-drops would help make this more likely. Image is like Lieutenant and Mayor in that they're often a better T4 play than T2 play. I could imagine that running more copies of Image might lead to more awkward sequencing scenarios where you just don't have a strong T2 play – in this instance the tempo gained by being able to effectively cast a pseudo 3-drop for 2 mana might be offset by being forced to cast it later.
Lastly it seems like people are starting to come around to how powerful Renegade Rallier + Ghost Quarter is. Many greedy manabases can't handle Ghost Quarter crack -> Rallier back GQ -> Re-crack GQ, especially when their basics are simultaneously stressed with Path to Exile. I know you had mentioned this previously, it popped up in that GW Human list above, and now it's one of the centerpieces for Todd Stevens's current successful GW CoCo Value list. Personally I think it might be worth trying the full 4x Rallier, 4x Ghost Quarter. In my testing so far you obviously have to mull a bit more but it's still significantly more comfortable than the 4c manabase or other non-Bant 3c manabases.
I'm unsure of Saffi. She's great when she can protect a game-winning combo per Melira decks or recur a value creature like Voice but there aren't as many great targets for us. I think I would rather just have another must-answer threat in that slot that naturally draws away removal but is still proactive and powerful if you've already exhausted your opponent's removal, but she's worth testing.
For reference, my current Bant MB testing list looks like this:
1x Breeding Pool
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Flooded Strand
1x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
2x Plains
1x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Noble Hierarch
3x Skyship Plunderer
1x Phantasmal Image
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Reflector Mage
4x Renegade Rallier
4x Path to Exile
4x Collected Company
With that said please don't let me stop you from testing those Naya lists, I'm always happy to read more data. The only thing I will say is that everyone who has tested Hamlet Captain has found him to be a bit too slow to play. Metallic mimic is better if you really need a ninth+ lord.
As for Mutagenic Growth your mileage will vary. In the global meta Lightning Bolt is losing a bit of its luster in favor of hard removal, so Mutagenic also loses defensive application when fewer people are trying to Bolt your threats. If your local meta still has a lot of burn-based removal Mutagenic will perform very well, though.
Temur Battlerage usually just goes on the biggest attacker you have (ideally 4/X+) so you get the most benefit from double-strike. Doesn't matter much if they're blocked or not since trample pushes the damage through anyways.
If I were to update the list to better handle the current meta I might start with something like this:
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
2x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
4x Voltaic Brawler
Spells (12)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
1x Rancor
3x Atarka's Command
2x Arid Mesa
3x Cavern of Souls
1x Forest
2x Horizon Canopy
3x Inspiring Vantage
2x Mountain
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Blessed Alliance
2x Boros Charm
2x Deflecting Palm
1x Destructive Revelry
1x Dromoka's Command
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
2x Lead the Stampede
Without Mutagenic Growth Monastery Swiftspear isn't quite as reliable. You'd have to run more matches to find out if she's still good enough or needs to be replaced by Warden of the First Tree.