Shalai seems pretty strong given that it is a respectable flying body, acts as protection from targeted removal if chorded, and has a persistent effect that can win the game on its own without needing infinite mana (in a more convincing way than Rhonas).
I'd definitely give that a try myself.
Indeed, but not in the main, or rather not alongside Ballista due to their 'difficult' casting costs; our troublesome Big Mana matchups require Ballista's speed to win most of the time, and I honestly see Shalai being used more in the grindy midrange and control matchups. Thus, as I tend to eke a better game 1 against Tron now in terms of plausible goldfish speed, I am considering Shalai as a 1-of in the side.
Why Ezuri and not one of the other three options I was considering*? Because with two active druids, Ezuri, and 2GGG, you can activate Ezuri's Overrun ability, generate three additional G from each Druid, rinse and repeat for an arbitrarily large amount of G, which can be used to activate Ezuri's Overrun ability for two infinitely large Druids.
In short, Ezuri provides protection for the combo as well as an easier method of assembling a combo without sacrificing much except for versatility with winning.
*Other considerations were Rhonas the Indomitable, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Nylea, God of the Hunt. Rhonas is typically the go-to, but I believe Ezuri is a sleeper as is Nylea (though Nylea requires an additional active creature to deal infinite combat damage, and does not generate infinite mana as well) because of the Double Druid combo possibility. Shalia, as good as it seems, I feel won't pull its theoretical weight thanks to costing 3W and not protecting itself.
Eh, not much except for rambling; trying to get better at deckbuilding. Feel free to ignore the spoiler and go straight to the decklist though ^_^"
So, after spending some time brewing for pauper Tortured Existence, I had an epiphany regarding how to build Vizier Company (properly, I should add). I will call this approach the 'Engine-based Approach', based on the vague workings of an automotive engine and its synergy within a car, and will detail my thought process in the following paragraphs:
Let's start with the engine itself: an obligatory full playset that makes the deck function. Now you may be thinking this is going to be the following.
But in truth, despite being crucial to the infinite mana combo, Vizier of Remedies is merely what I'll call the fuel (not to be confused with the more common slang of 'gas', which is typically card advantage in aggro decks). Devoted Druid, as the pivotal workhorse in the combo, is the sole component of the engine.
Not very impressive for a list, is it? Well, in basic terms, a car engine has three inputs--maintenance fluids, fuel, and ignition--and a single output--the drive train. In terms of constructing a Magic: the Gathering deck, they correlate respectively to the shell, any synergistic pieces, any tutors for the engine itself, and the win-con. I'll stick with the car analogy for now.
You'll recall I referred to Vizier of Remedies as 'fuel' just a few paragraphs above. Well, my point is that while running a max playset of it is preferred for consistency, dropping one in favor of the other two inputs may still get you there. Just be aware that you might have to push it the rest of the way.
Now we'll go to the ignition side of things; what starts our engine? Although it is not a perfect representation, think of the engine being inert until it enters the zone in which it can become a workhorse. In the case of Devoted Druid, that is the battlefield. Collected Company and Chord of Calling are both welcome here.
Before I delve into the bulk of an engine-based deck (maintenance), let's delve into the win-con. Obviously Walking Ballista is non-negotiable as a singleton, and so some number of Duskwatch Recruiter is preferred as well.
Finally, the bulk of the deck: maintenance fluids (ironically a relatively minor inconvenience in a car). For the sake of simplicity, we'll categorize cards as oil or coolant. Oil (including lands) keeps the deck from not working on its own and helps with goldfish speed; coolant deals with external influences and helps with longevity. As Vizier Company are primarily a combo deck, more emphasis will be placed on oil, though special consideration will be given to cards that perform multiple roles.
Of course, everybody has their favorite model of car, and I can assure you that everyone has a preferred build for Vizier Company. Outside of this spoiler is a complete example of one I'm entertaining:
I just played this deck for the first time yesterday. What is the best way to play against removal heavy decks? My sequencing was abysmal.
Pre-board play Companies and Chords at eot or in response to them tapping out and refrain from playing Druid by itself.
Post-board bring in Scavenging Ooze and whatever recursion you can; Ooze itself will weaken Snapcaster and Eternal Witness shenanigans whereas recursion for youself will help against almost all forms of removal.
Wow, how did I get matched up with Reid Duke round 1 o_o ... going 1-1 with 3 points though.
EDIT: Dropped at 1-5-0 Team, 2-4-0 Personal
Round 1: Reid on Jund - What can I say? His team mopped the floor with us. Still nice to get matchup experience. Also didn't help I bricked completely on Company twice. (0-1)
Round 2: Jeremy on RG Eldrazi - Can't remember much except winning, losing, then winning after a grindy af game where I was abusing recruiter to dig out a singleton Rec Sage. (1-1)
Round 3: Lance on Gifts Storm - Won game 1 easily enough, but unfortunately even with Canonist he gets there both game 2 and game 3. Takeaway: Learn when to be the control deck. (1-2)
Round 4: James on Jeskai Breach - Game 1 and 3 I combo off easily, Game 2 however he throws a curveball at me by Breaching into Emrakul 1.0. Despite winning that match though, my teammates dont do as well and we are down. (1-3)
Round 5: Caleb on G Tron - It's Tron. (1-4)
Round 6: Robert on Naya Humans - This goes to show how inexperienced I am with the formst anymore; I had not considered Humans running Thalia 2.0, which cripples a lot of things I can do especially with Knightfall. Game 1 and 2 went quickly in my opponent's favor. (1-6)
Blasting station, one of my pet cards, OMG ;-)
I like the evolution into trophy mage into blasting station... But I don't like the 4 rallies, even with 12 fetches...
Nice build, thanks for sharing your creativity. Sideboard needs rework, though (thinking of graveyard hate)
Rallier is a combo piece with Saffi and Blasting Station, while also letting you rebuy Druid, add to your board position with Voice or even Ramp/Draw. It's the best card in the deck!
Why do you say I need GY hate? Everything other than Grishoalbrand can be effectively raced, and without cantrips to find my hate pieces, I'm ok being bad against that.
I would personally throw a Scavenging Ooze in there simply for more attrition based graveyard shenanigans like Eternal Witness and Snapcaster Mage. Not sure if that is what the other person was referring to, but I have forgone Dredge hate myself.
Eldritch Evolution > Chord of Calling: Collected Company alone necessitates a low, Evolution-friendly mana curve, and while Chord is better in interactive scenarios, Evolution is better otherwise as it can tutor druid as early as turn 2.
Sidisi's Faithful > Viscera Seer/Stingscourger: Although this deck cannot produce infinite U, this card alone pulls double duty as both battlefield disruption and synergy piece that enables stalling out with Kitchen Finks and Vizier of Remedies (Exploit the Finks, target the Faithful with itself, rinse and repeat).
Failure // Comply > Spell Queller: Now here is where I get shaky about my decisions; whereas Failure // Comply can buy two turns in a row guaranteed (a boon to such an explosively fast combo such as ours), Spell Queller is probably better in the instances where removal is light.
Eidolon of the Rhetoric > ???: Honestly, I'd rather have another card other than another Storm hate card . . . or at least something that already works well with the postboard plan . . . maybe Renegade Rallier?
I know I'm of a not very popular decision on this, but a big reason why I'm running 8 Dorks 4 Company 4 Evolution and 2 Chord is because assembling the combo as fast as possible is crucial to winning against Tron variants; guaranteeing the turn 2 Druid or turn 3 Vizier does that reliably
I've seen a lot of push for turbo-druid builds recently, and I wanted to offer a counter-point. Do you guys remember when splinter twin played dispel and spellskite? Or when Death's Shadow played become immense and swiftspear? These decks were good doing something linear and fast, but the best version ended up being the one that was flexible and consistent.
UR Gifts Storm is a Tier 1 deck right now. In my opinion, that is currently the best version of "turbo druid": they get to play 7 to 8 copies of "druid", they all have haste, and everything in their deck that isn't involved in the combo is a cantrip. How can we realistically compete with that?
The real strength of counters company is its midrange plan B, like Twin's tempo game or GDS's control impression. If you want to be linear and crush Tron, I think switching decks makes more sense than completely giving up on your fair matchups.
100000% agree
This deck is good because it can combo fast but also fight pretty well against fair decks (some matchup still unfavourable I think,like Jeskai that is pretty hard). Play 4 Company 3 Eldritch 3 Chord and more combo pieces just do the matchup vs control and midrange a lot worse, and there are so many combo decks that can win more than this deck going full combo.
Key phrase there is Plan B; while we aren't reliant on comboing out to win, it is still the primary means of winning. What made Twin what it used to be was Twin itself; otherwise it would have just been Jeskai Flash or something similar.
And while I agree that the sheer redundancy of Gifts Storm is something we can't compete with, we also can't compete directly with the removal and disruption of control and midrange; even if we jam 4 Path to Exile and 4 Fatal Push/Lightning Bolt/Abrupt Decay in the side, we would have to cut back on the creature count for Collected Company just for them.
What I'm trying to convey is that yes, this deck does have a flexible playstyle with a solid plan B, but it's up to the deckbuilder on how much to focus on Plan A and how much to focus on Plan B, typically based around the meta played in.
Turbo-Druid (as I'm suggesting with 8 Dorks and 4 Evolution) would shore up our worst matchups (Big Mana) at the expense of even to difficult matchups in Midrange, Tempo, and Control. As for Combo and Aggro ... I believe that is where more pertinent issues may arise with either Evolution Druid or Chord Druid, at least game 1.
Yeah Epic, maybe trying to go turbo is something to explore, I just think it makes our DS, BGx, jeskai etc matchups unwinnable if they disrupt us early.
A fairly recent article or pair thereof on Modern Nexus has me thinking more about focusing on the proactive elements of our primarily proactive deck.
Since the end goal is to win via damage, I am of the opinion that against a primarily proactive meta (and I will group Tron in this category as well since it aims to assemble UrzaTron early) we should build this list to be as consistently fast as possible.
And while it's true that Evolution is bad against reactive decks like tempo, midrange, and especially control, we already combat spot removal and countermagic via Company's potential payoff and instant timing game 1. It's less consistent than Chord or Evolution for sure, but only requiring 3G to cast as opposed to 2GGG Convoke or 1GG Sacrifice is a lot more manageable.
Having said that, if playing in a known meta, build your list for that meta; we have the technology
On a separate note: if I'm not mistaken, we're the only deck in Tier 1 and Tier 2 that can threaten infinite life (if Abzan), evasive power, and noncombat damage. Out of the decks in Tier 1 and Tier 2, only G/x Tron and our own Counters Company can mitigate the advantage of infinite life. As such I'm contemplating the 2nd Seer in my single creature flex slot.
Well, I have to say after checking out some of GP OKC today I'm a little disappointed with the results- no company decks in the top 32, and a lot of big mana decks that have some disruption in valakut, tron, breach, and living end then also lot of control in jeskai, lantern.
Is it time to consider trying to do both what counters company does in the potential turn 3 combo, and add some of the land destruction elements of GW company (ghost quarter, ramunap, knight) and potentially some blue for counterspells? do we become Naya for blood moon effects? (although, i know they can expect that card and have answers). Do we at least need to start actually running Stony Silence even though it sucks with ballista/maybe need rhonas also....
I'm going to mess with it a bit, but it just seems like we will NEED land destruction and/or counters, but also need the fast clock we have in the infinite combo to expect to win if the meta shifts heavily toward big mana.
Any thoughts from you guys on this?
I know I'm of a not very popular decision on this, but a big reason why I'm running 8 Dorks 4 Company 4 Evolution and 2 Chord is because assembling the combo as fast as possible is crucial to winning against Tron variants; guaranteeing the turn 2 Druid or turn 3 Vizier does that reliably.
I actually believe Evolution should have a higher priority than Chord in Company lists, if only because Company necessitates an Evolution-friendly build already.
Currently I'm contemplating 8 to 10 Dorks out of 30 creatures, 4 Company, 3 Evolution, and 2 Chord out of a possible 10 Spells (10th is personal tech), and between 20 and 21 lands. Colors ranging between GW, GWb, GWr, and GWbr
Chaining Chords with infinite mana is great and all, but unless we get that convoke for X = 2 secured (effectively five mana for us), Chording without the combo is extremely slow compared to the high-risk high-reward of Evolution.
Also, and I swear I'm trying not to sound like a complete jerk here, but when does a combo deck care about disadvantage if it will win them the game?
Is there a way to determine combo density for Abzan lists? By that I mean the threat (or, to better relate to physics, the mass/weight) each combo piece or tutor/value cars that can get a combo piece divided by the volume (or rather slots) dedicated to those cards.
I mean, it's easy for Storm as their entire deck is focused on one combo, but Vizier Company can have two or three combos, often with overlapping pieces.
Also, before I lose myself to meaningless theoretics, should I jam 1x Saffi Eriksdotter if running 1x Renegade Rallier in addition to 1x Viscera Seer, 1x Anafenza Kin-Tree Spirit 4x Kitchen Finks, 3x Vizier of Remedies, and 4x Devoted Druid?
Birds is a staple so no questions there; Arbor Elf is both a budget and a tech substitute for Hierarchs (Sandbagging Murmuring Bosk on T2 after Elf on T1 raises some questions), and Wall of Roots is both Chord and Evolution fodder (food for thought, if you spend rhe 5th G made from WoR to cast Evolution, you can sac wall as part of the cost for Evolution ... or at least the rulings were valid for Birthing Pod's cost).
Going for a 3/1 split between Witness and Rallier: with any luck I won't be having to hardcast Rallier, but instead using Evolution to trigger it later on as a sort of Recurring Nightmare-ish synergy.
Going for an Eldritch Evolution Toolbox when it comes to our postboard hate-creatures. Still need to upgrade to Canopies and Hierarchs, but I can make due with Brushland and Arbor Elf until I have the money. More importantly, what am I missing in terms of sideboard material?
EDIT: Fleshed the list out to a full 75. Only thing I'm doubtinf now is the mana base (including dorks).
Indeed, but not in the main, or rather not alongside Ballista due to their 'difficult' casting costs; our troublesome Big Mana matchups require Ballista's speed to win most of the time, and I honestly see Shalai being used more in the grindy midrange and control matchups. Thus, as I tend to eke a better game 1 against Tron now in terms of plausible goldfish speed, I am considering Shalai as a 1-of in the side.
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4 Vizier of Remedies
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Walking Ballista
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Viscera Seer
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Eternal Witness
3 Spell Queller
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Chord of Calling
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Gavony Township
2 Horizon Canopy
Why Ezuri and not one of the other three options I was considering*? Because with two active druids, Ezuri, and 2GGG, you can activate Ezuri's Overrun ability, generate three additional G from each Druid, rinse and repeat for an arbitrarily large amount of G, which can be used to activate Ezuri's Overrun ability for two infinitely large Druids.
In short, Ezuri provides protection for the combo as well as an easier method of assembling a combo without sacrificing much except for versatility with winning.
*Other considerations were Rhonas the Indomitable, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Nylea, God of the Hunt. Rhonas is typically the go-to, but I believe Ezuri is a sleeper as is Nylea (though Nylea requires an additional active creature to deal infinite combat damage, and does not generate infinite mana as well) because of the Double Druid combo possibility. Shalia, as good as it seems, I feel won't pull its theoretical weight thanks to costing 3W and not protecting itself.
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Let's start with the engine itself: an obligatory full playset that makes the deck function. Now you may be thinking this is going to be the following.
4 Vizier of Remedies
But in truth, despite being crucial to the infinite mana combo, Vizier of Remedies is merely what I'll call the fuel (not to be confused with the more common slang of 'gas', which is typically card advantage in aggro decks). Devoted Druid, as the pivotal workhorse in the combo, is the sole component of the engine.
Not very impressive for a list, is it? Well, in basic terms, a car engine has three inputs--maintenance fluids, fuel, and ignition--and a single output--the drive train. In terms of constructing a Magic: the Gathering deck, they correlate respectively to the shell, any synergistic pieces, any tutors for the engine itself, and the win-con. I'll stick with the car analogy for now.
You'll recall I referred to Vizier of Remedies as 'fuel' just a few paragraphs above. Well, my point is that while running a max playset of it is preferred for consistency, dropping one in favor of the other two inputs may still get you there. Just be aware that you might have to push it the rest of the way.
3 Vizier of Remedies
Now we'll go to the ignition side of things; what starts our engine? Although it is not a perfect representation, think of the engine being inert until it enters the zone in which it can become a workhorse. In the case of Devoted Druid, that is the battlefield. Collected Company and Chord of Calling are both welcome here.
3 Vizier of Remedies
3 Chord of Calling
Before I delve into the bulk of an engine-based deck (maintenance), let's delve into the win-con. Obviously Walking Ballista is non-negotiable as a singleton, and so some number of Duskwatch Recruiter is preferred as well.
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
3 Chord of Calling
Finally, the bulk of the deck: maintenance fluids (ironically a relatively minor inconvenience in a car). For the sake of simplicity, we'll categorize cards as oil or coolant. Oil (including lands) keeps the deck from not working on its own and helps with goldfish speed; coolant deals with external influences and helps with longevity. As Vizier Company are primarily a combo deck, more emphasis will be placed on oil, though special consideration will be given to cards that perform multiple roles.
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Eternal Witness
3 Chord of Calling
4 Windswept Heath
2 Temple Garden
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
Of course, everybody has their favorite model of car, and I can assure you that everyone has a preferred build for Vizier Company. Outside of this spoiler is a complete example of one I'm entertaining:
4 Vizier of Remedies
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Eternal Witness
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Spell Queller
3 Chord of Calling
1 Eldritch Evolution
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Field of Ruin
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Pre-board play Companies and Chords at eot or in response to them tapping out and refrain from playing Druid by itself.
Post-board bring in Scavenging Ooze and whatever recursion you can; Ooze itself will weaken Snapcaster and Eternal Witness shenanigans whereas recursion for youself will help against almost all forms of removal.
Avatar and Signature by XenoNinja via Heroes of the Plane Studios
EDIT: Dropped at 1-5-0 Team, 2-4-0 Personal
Round 1: Reid on Jund - What can I say? His team mopped the floor with us. Still nice to get matchup experience. Also didn't help I bricked completely on Company twice. (0-1)
Round 2: Jeremy on RG Eldrazi - Can't remember much except winning, losing, then winning after a grindy af game where I was abusing recruiter to dig out a singleton Rec Sage. (1-1)
Round 3: Lance on Gifts Storm - Won game 1 easily enough, but unfortunately even with Canonist he gets there both game 2 and game 3. Takeaway: Learn when to be the control deck. (1-2)
Round 4: James on Jeskai Breach - Game 1 and 3 I combo off easily, Game 2 however he throws a curveball at me by Breaching into Emrakul 1.0. Despite winning that match though, my teammates dont do as well and we are down. (1-3)
Round 5: Caleb on G Tron - It's Tron. (1-4)
Round 6: Robert on Naya Humans - This goes to show how inexperienced I am with the formst anymore; I had not considered Humans running Thalia 2.0, which cripples a lot of things I can do especially with Knightfall. Game 1 and 2 went quickly in my opponent's favor. (1-6)
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I would personally throw a Scavenging Ooze in there simply for more attrition based graveyard shenanigans like Eternal Witness and Snapcaster Mage. Not sure if that is what the other person was referring to, but I have forgone Dredge hate myself.
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4 Birds of Paradise
3 Arbor Elf
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizier of Remedies
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Walking Ballista
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Sidisi's Faithful
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Eternal Witness
Spells (9)
4 Collected Company
3 Eldritch Evolution
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
4 Failure // Comply
3 Path to Exile
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Spellskite
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Kataki, War's Wage
Peculiar Card Choice Rationale:
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1) How well positioned is Vizier Company in the typical meta at the moment?
2) What are our matchups like? I assume big mana is still hell at times.
3) I'm considering dropping Viscera Seer in favor of either a red or a blue splash. What does each splash (or lack thereof) provide?
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Key phrase there is Plan B; while we aren't reliant on comboing out to win, it is still the primary means of winning. What made Twin what it used to be was Twin itself; otherwise it would have just been Jeskai Flash or something similar.
And while I agree that the sheer redundancy of Gifts Storm is something we can't compete with, we also can't compete directly with the removal and disruption of control and midrange; even if we jam 4 Path to Exile and 4 Fatal Push/Lightning Bolt/Abrupt Decay in the side, we would have to cut back on the creature count for Collected Company just for them.
What I'm trying to convey is that yes, this deck does have a flexible playstyle with a solid plan B, but it's up to the deckbuilder on how much to focus on Plan A and how much to focus on Plan B, typically based around the meta played in.
Turbo-Druid (as I'm suggesting with 8 Dorks and 4 Evolution) would shore up our worst matchups (Big Mana) at the expense of even to difficult matchups in Midrange, Tempo, and Control. As for Combo and Aggro ... I believe that is where more pertinent issues may arise with either Evolution Druid or Chord Druid, at least game 1.
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A fairly recent article or pair thereof on Modern Nexus has me thinking more about focusing on the proactive elements of our primarily proactive deck.
http://modernnexus.com/king-hill-using-flex-slots-open-meta/
http://modernnexus.com/another-thing-coming-building-sideboards-open-meta/
Since the end goal is to win via damage, I am of the opinion that against a primarily proactive meta (and I will group Tron in this category as well since it aims to assemble UrzaTron early) we should build this list to be as consistently fast as possible.
And while it's true that Evolution is bad against reactive decks like tempo, midrange, and especially control, we already combat spot removal and countermagic via Company's potential payoff and instant timing game 1. It's less consistent than Chord or Evolution for sure, but only requiring 3G to cast as opposed to 2GGG Convoke or 1GG Sacrifice is a lot more manageable.
Having said that, if playing in a known meta, build your list for that meta; we have the technology
On a separate note: if I'm not mistaken, we're the only deck in Tier 1 and Tier 2 that can threaten infinite life (if Abzan), evasive power, and noncombat damage. Out of the decks in Tier 1 and Tier 2, only G/x Tron and our own Counters Company can mitigate the advantage of infinite life. As such I'm contemplating the 2nd Seer in my single creature flex slot.
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I know I'm of a not very popular decision on this, but a big reason why I'm running 8 Dorks 4 Company 4 Evolution and 2 Chord is because assembling the combo as fast as possible is crucial to winning against Tron variants; guaranteeing the turn 2 Druid or turn 3 Vizier does that reliably.
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Currently I'm contemplating 8 to 10 Dorks out of 30 creatures, 4 Company, 3 Evolution, and 2 Chord out of a possible 10 Spells (10th is personal tech), and between 20 and 21 lands. Colors ranging between GW, GWb, GWr, and GWbr
Chaining Chords with infinite mana is great and all, but unless we get that convoke for X = 2 secured (effectively five mana for us), Chording without the combo is extremely slow compared to the high-risk high-reward of Evolution.
Also, and I swear I'm trying not to sound like a complete jerk here, but when does a combo deck care about disadvantage if it will win them the game?
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I mean, it's easy for Storm as their entire deck is focused on one combo, but Vizier Company can have two or three combos, often with overlapping pieces.
Also, before I lose myself to meaningless theoretics, should I jam 1x Saffi Eriksdotter if running 1x Renegade Rallier in addition to 1x Viscera Seer, 1x Anafenza Kin-Tree Spirit 4x Kitchen Finks, 3x Vizier of Remedies, and 4x Devoted Druid?
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2 Arbor Elf
1 Wall of Roots
Birds is a staple so no questions there; Arbor Elf is both a budget and a tech substitute for Hierarchs (Sandbagging Murmuring Bosk on T2 after Elf on T1 raises some questions), and Wall of Roots is both Chord and Evolution fodder (food for thought, if you spend rhe 5th G made from WoR to cast Evolution, you can sac wall as part of the cost for Evolution ... or at least the rulings were valid for Birthing Pod's cost).
3 Vizier of Remedies
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Walking Ballista
Standard.
1 Viscera Seer
1 Anafenza Kin-Tree Spirit
Standard.
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Flickerwisp
Going for a 3/1 split between Witness and Rallier: with any luck I won't be having to hardcast Rallier, but instead using Evolution to trigger it later on as a sort of Recurring Nightmare-ish synergy.
4 Chord of Calling
1 Eldritch Evolution
Speaking of Evolution ... I'm devating on swapping 1 Chord out for another Evolution, but I know that doesnt bode well for grindy games.
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Murmuring Bosk
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Gavony Township
Not much to say here either.
So there is my current 60, any advice would be appreciated (in particular with making Rallier and Evolution useful together and separately).
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4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
3 Vizier of Remedies
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Anafenza Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Viscera Seer
4 Eternal Witness
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Flickerwisp
Spells (9)
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
1 Eldritch Evolution
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Murmuring Bosk
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Gavony Township
3 Path to Exile
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Manglehorn
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Eidolon of the Rhetoric
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Spellskite
1 Caustic Caterpillar
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Walking Ballista
Going for an Eldritch Evolution Toolbox when it comes to our postboard hate-creatures. Still need to upgrade to Canopies and Hierarchs, but I can make due with Brushland and Arbor Elf until I have the money. More importantly, what am I missing in terms of sideboard material?
EDIT: Fleshed the list out to a full 75. Only thing I'm doubtinf now is the mana base (including dorks).
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