Match 1 vs Amulet - this was an epic 3. game 1 I had a good draw (T1 Dork, T2 Knight for Amulet, T3 Prime Speaker). Game 2 went mega long. They had trinket mage grabbing pithing needle for my prime speaker, then they landed a turn 6(!!) titan after having played a path and a radiant flames to wipe away a lot of my stuff (including my magus of the moon, and i had boarded out witness). At this point, i have a choice. I can use Shaman to grab knight of autumn, remove coalition relic, meaning my opp would have just titan and 2 available mana (had a pact to pay for). Or, get knight and remove pithing needle. Or just jam a prime speaker and hope i untap with the shaman to grab knight (i only had 4 mana available). I could also get deputy to remove titan, but know that im basically dead and buried by a removal spell then. I chose to take them off some mana, but I think Prime Speaker and make them have it was the line. It goes quite a bit longer before I eventually die to infinite interaction off of their t-wests (double EE and Ballista) and trinket mage (needle).
Game 3 is a littleeee less exciting, but some really good play from my opp all the same (he played really well for all 3 games). Its pretty quickly estabilished that we're both racing, as I go T1 Dork, T2 spellskite that got pathed, T3 Prime Speaker. They make an amulet, but are missing any more ramp (or a bounceland, 1 or the other). T2-T3 they just make land drops, so i am predicted path or something. T4 they tap out for azusa, play a bounce land 3 times and make a titan, and go into the tank. It turns out they had infinite options. They know pact of negation isnt worth getting. But they have trinket mage in hand so attack with titan and then get double-bounce so they can make mage into needle naming speaker. I have deputy of detention, remove needle and win. But, they did naturally have ballista in hand, which could have removed my dork. However, in that spot, I could deputy the ballista then play a fauna shaman (thanks to the ramp from path) to combo from there. I basically had the nuts for that particular hand of my opponents.
Match 2 vs UR Control - won in 2, dont remember the details, but game 1 was a quick win (i didnt even know what i was facing, just saw 3 lands and opt). I boarded as if they were storm and they lead T2 Titi. I paniced a bit, but spell pierce and eidolon were actually great. Makes me think I should run Eidolon vs UW Control. The good thing about it was that I could use fauna shaman + resto to respond to any spell they might have, so as long as i stayed ahead on board, i couldnt lose.
Match 3 vs Storm - won in 2, my opp kept a bad hand G1 and I had interaction in the form of eidolon (off shaman), into spellskite, into kiki-jiki. I then just had to be careful and make sure i wasnt blown out by echoing truth.
Match 4 vs Humans - game 1 they dont have an answer to my Turn 4 Prime Speaker, so I use a fauna shaman and a courser to chump block some big champions and untap and win. Game 2 a Fiery Justice clears up 2 bobs and a champion of the parish, then the follow-up kitesail x2 and tax-thalia did nothing and i took over with shaman + squee (they scooped very quickly).
Currently 4-0
Match 5 vs Grixis Control with Titi - Basically, the deck destroyed me Game 1. They had lots of removal but they didnt even have to rush to use it, because they have a titi just sitting there. Eventually they go bolt flip titi, snap bolt, swing win.
Game 2 is closer(ish), but I get stuck on 2 lands, a scryb ranger and a bop, with shaman + squee active. But they have counter-magic and titi, and i just cant get going. I eventually die on Turn 8 having never made land drop 3. I had a decent chance if i could get moving, since i had cards like scryb ranger to block titi and resto to protect it. Had an uncastable Deputy because the BOP came back to hand. That felt bad.
Last 3 leagues are 5-0, 2-3, 4-1. Pretty good, 11-4 is pretty reasonable imo.
Hey Everyone,
I am guessing most people reading here are already on Discord and so may have seen my updates. However, the below is a document that I've made, with my current decklist and a mini-sideboard guide for the top 14 match-ups and whether its favourable or not (all decks more than 2%).
My list has been pretty steady for the last couple of weeks, with only small tweaks happening. I have been grinding the friendly leagues, and on 2 occasions went 3-2, 4-1, 5-0 (so 12-3 twice). That record has started to pay out nicely, so I took a punt on a competitive league when MODO got back up running yesterday. I went 3-2, so was indifferent payout to a friendly league, but then followed that with a 4-1, beating UW Control, Mardu Pyro, Spirits, Valakut and loosing to Grixis Shadow in Match 5. Unfortunately the deck does struggle with the faster Death Shadows hands (they landed a shadow on T1 G1 on the play), and in G2 I drew 8 lands to 4 non-lands by turn 6 (i kept a 4 spell 3 land hand and drew lands every draw step). That's not to say I would have won G2 with a good spell distribution, and definitely doesn't say I'd win Game 3, but it's dissapointing that I didn't get to try!
Overall, I think the list is great. I will continue to work on it, but the maindeck feels very smooth. The mana works, and the toolbox creatures are all perfectly acceptable in your opener (there's very few MUs where Scooze, Spellskite, Deputy, Knight or Cratermaker are not relevant). The sideboard will continue to get updated as time goes on.
Would love more people to test this list, because it is really quite good imo. Feel free to ask any questions.
Wanted to do a big write-up. those of you on discord may have seen most of this!
So, I've been playing MTGO (friendly) leagues, and my last 4 have finished 4-1, 4-1, 5-0, 5-0. Lets have a discussion! Here's the decklist: https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/w5wBOi9feh
And here's what I played against (for interest only)!
League 1 (4-1)
Goblins
Dredge
UW Control (loss)
Eldrazi & Taxes
4c shadow
League 2 (4-1)
Elves (loss)
UW Control
Affinity
Ad Naus
Storm
League 3 (5-0)
UB Mill
mono U curiosity
5c agro
abzan midrange
BG rock
League 4 (5-0)
Ad Nauseum
Amulet
Abzan "creatures" (Aether Vial, KotR, hatebears)
Humans
Affinity
So, I've not played the big decks lately (no pheonix, burn or grixis shadow, but did play 4c shadow and dredge).
Anyway, there's some obvious questions about cards that I bet most of you have!!
1. Fauna Shaman - this card looks rubbish on paper, or at best, average. It dies to everything in the format, pretty much. For me, it's replacing Eldritch Evolution. So here's a comparison. Fauna Shaman when left unchecked takes over the game (will explain more in part 2). Eldritch Evo will get your best card for you, but nothing more. When facing interaction, Fauna Shaman dies and you don't get to tutor anything. However, it trades 1-for-1 with the opp. Eldritch Evo, on the other hand, costs 2 cards to get 1. Depending on what you fetch, you can be down a card at the end of the exchange, and very rarely up on the exchange.
The big downside to Shaman is that it's impossible to tutor up a 3-drop on turn 2 with it - against a deck like storm/tron, grabbing Eidolon / Magus of the Moon on Turn 2 can be the difference between a win and a loss.
The other upside on Shaman is that it plays around Grafdiggers' Cage! Win!
Having said that, the way Shaman carries a game shouldn't be overlooked... which leads me nicely onto:
2. squee, goblin nabob - this card looks odd too. It's pretty weak by itself, though I have used it on chump duty and on "discard to lili" duty before, generally speaking this isn't a card you ever want to see without Fauna Shaman. So, why run it?
Well - if your shaman is staying in play (which it will sometimes, even against control decks, it just may be later in the game), then you can use your first activation on the opps end-step to grab squee. Your 2nd activation now gets whatever you need - so at this point, you have turned "random creature in hand" into "best creature in deck", and put squee in the yard. That's pretty inefficient. BUT, for the rest of the time that shaman lives, you get "G, search for your best card". That's mental! You still get your draw step. I realize that 3 activation's is a lot, but if you get 3, you never lose, thanks to squee. AND, then there's the bonus of "I drew squee whilst having shaman". In that spot, 2 activations is usually enough to tie up the game.
In short - the payoff for the deck space is massive, and its well worth the slot. Its what took shaman from bad to good in my opinion.
3. Rhythm of the Wild - this deck makes better use of Rhythm than any other i've seen. When you only have prime speaker in your list, Rhythm can be a little hit and miss. But with 4 Shaman too, you have more pay-offs for this card. It's been pretty good, but I could see 1 being cut.
4. Goblin Cratermaker - very few games go by where I dont search this up. It's not always the 1st card you get, but you use it way more than you expect, and it's reusable with Rallier + Witness. It's great to ahve some removal MD that you can tutor up with your 8 re-useable tutors.
I would recommend the doubters out there to check my stream for gameplay examples (https://www.twitch.tv/daviusminimus/). A LOT of my wins can be attributed to Shaman and/or Rhythm. I hope you get inspired to try it out.
Few things on my list:
1. Arbor Elf in place of Hierarch is a budget choice that I’d switch if I had the chance!
2. Goblin Cratermaker wouldn’t make the cut but its my only out to Torpod Orb so it stays!
3. Negate and Avalanche Rider have meant that Tron is actually a positive match-up now, so are worth their slots
4. Relic in place of Surgical, but I think it MAY be the better option. Questionable since it’s a nonbo with Knight of the Reliquary specifically, but I do like it vs Snapcaster / search for azcanta decks, and goyf decks, and deaths shadow decks, which are all places I dont want surgical.
5. Incubation // Incongruity is certainly in the testing phase. So far its been ok, but it does take a couple of slots. For example, I could drop 1 for a MD Tracker and then I’d have space for a Chameleon Colossus in the SB.
6. 3rd Forest over 1st Horizon Canopy is another budget option, but until I get the Hierarch’s, I need forests for Arbor Elf.
7. I’m not sure if I want Negate or Unified Will. Unified Will is better vs Valakut specifically, whereas Negate is slightly better vs UW where I don’t want to overcommit to the board and/or when I’m trying to recover from a wrath effect.
Deck has been decent recently, quite happy with where it’s at. I do wish I could make space for more SB bombs. I have a small list of cards that I like and wouldn’t mind having access to, but they currently don’t make the cut:
1. 4th path
2. Kataki,
3. Chameleon Colossus
4. Gaddock Teeg
5. Swagtusk
End of my write-up. My results are still a little inconsistent but I’m basically playing modo for free. Varying results, but 2-3, 3-2 and 4-1 are all happening. Not yet hit a 5-0, but no real scrubbing outs either.
@BurstOfAnger - I'll try respond to your comments
1. Deceiver is better than Krasis - woodland bellower is the reason to run krasis. However, if you want a combo chain that doesn't require white (renegade rallier) and doesn't need the GY to function (Sun titan can fill the Bellower role), then you have to go Bellower + Krasis. That's not to say it's the only way to go, but it's the way that some go.
2. Rhythm of the Wild I tested for 100+ games. I think the card is stunning vs UWx, terrible vs any deck that doesn't give you time to play a 3-drop do nothing (burn, storm) and good in some other spots (like vs tron, you don't have a tonne of hatebears you can tutor up, so playing this on T2 and a Vannifar on T3 is good). It's a terrible topdeck against decks like BGx. If they care about it, they'll use a trophy to remove it AND it'll pump goyf, if you don't have any persist creatures, they'll just ignore it.
Rhythm is a much better magic card than Torch Courier. For the most part, you just want good cards in your deck. That's why I would stay well clear of Torch Courier. Some more recent lists have run Knight of the Reliquary + hanweir battlements, since you will occasionally get to line up a fast hand with a haste land, but the rest of the time both cards are very playable. I'd recommend this over Courier.
For everyone else - I think the best versions of these decks have cleaner mana. Field of Ruin is a real magic card, and Burn really punishes our fetch/shock manabase (and Burn is a pretty strong deck right now). As a result, the Knight of the Reliquary list is pretty nice, since it's straight GW with 4 blue cards (vannifar) and 2 red (kiki), making the mana a little cleaner. The Temur version that skimps on white and goes bellower is also successful, in part due to the ease of casting cards. I would recommend those 2 lists before any proper 4 colour decks (decks with GW + reflector mage + deputy of detention etc really stretches your mana). That's just my 2 cents at this point in time!
@Lectrys - I maybe haven't been fully clear. If you have 1 forest when you start to combo, you return it to hand for scryb ranger to untap. Then you re-play that forest for the turn. I can honestly say I've never been caught without it. I can see the upside to podding a 1-drop into a 2-drop that can then copy a 3 or 4 drop, that's a real upgrade on your manadork, but I just don't really see the upside in terms of comboing.
@Lectrys - i think the "not having 2 forests" has to be pretty rare? You only need 1, because then you re-play the 2nd during the combo.
How does the Image combo work? I assume it needs more than 1 creature to get started? I dont feel the need for image, but i haven't tested it.
I'm having the most success with Kurusu's build (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1667455#online). I've changed the odd card (don't own hierarchs, surgicals or horizon canopy, so i'm fully budget), and changed up the SB a little bit. The list is a lot better than it looks, and I think it's a good place to start. Double-spellskite has been really nice for what it's worth.
@kOno - I can talk about some of those cards, not all!
Phantasmal Image - this was in the old lists to copy Deceiver, as you said. It was your pod target from a 1-drop. However, since we now have Scryb Ranger to enable a combo, I don't think Image is ever the correct POD target (or very rarely). As a result, the question is "do you want to naturally draw Image", and i think the answer is mainly no. I can see a few scenarios where it is a good POD target, but I'm not sure if there's enough.
Murderous Redcap - it does allow a combo, and blinking it is nice. But I think Glen Elendra is just better in almost all spots. Plus, both cards are pretty clunky when your against a linear deck.
Izzet Staticaster - it's a good card, but it just doesnt have many good MUs anymore. It was great when infect and affinity were everywhere, but that's just not the case anymore. Even lingering souls is at an all-time low. I had it in my SB for about 20 matches and it just wasn't ever that good... perhaps the mirror!
I've not tested the other 2 to be honest, but I do think we're already pretty heavy on 4-drops, with resto/hippo, vannifar and shalai all being pretty great cards to run.
@Slowman - there's a lot of different lists floatin around but they generally have the following setup:
21 lands + 11 dorks - this set-up has 3 wall of roots
22 lands + 10 dorks - 7x 1-drop & 3 walls
23 lands + 9 dorks - 4 BOPs 4 Hierarch and a wall
They all run 32 mana sources. Pignorton's list that you linked above is a different beast altogether, and the first i've seen of its kind.
My personal opinion is that you don't really need to run so many combo pieces. I think Scryb Ranger + Rallier is sufficient, and I don't see the need for the 6-drops or the Ranger of Eos package. Having said all of that, my results are not great either. So, it could be that I'm going down the wrong route and I should have more combo pieces. I'm not sure though, i think just having better creatures in general helps vs midrange and control.
Thalia has been good though, so Pignortons onto something there!
Ok another write-up from me:
I recently dropped my 23rd land and added the 4th chord without any mana troubles. I also added Deputy of Detention which has certainly been worth a slot.
I added Burrenton-Forge Tender and Lone Missionary to my sideboard, and that seems to have fixed the burn match-up.
However, I have a few things I'm not confident with. First, the Deaths Shadow MU seems pretty rough. Second, Tron felt kinda grim without Damping Sphere, so those are going back in. I left the deck at something like this: http://deck.tk/3pWd5QEG
There's a few things I want to think about, have a read because I share my thoughts on card selection and also ask for some help!
1. Do I beat tron consistently enough with Damping Sphere + Riders in the SB? Need to test more, and potentially there's a slot to play with to fix that.
2. Can I fix the Deaths Shadow match with the sideboard? Worship is an option, as is Fiery Justice or Chameleon Colossus. Any thoughts?
3. Do I beat decks like Jeskai Control without the trackers? If so, can I cut those and add better cards for the Bx match-up, which is usually a bit tougher.
4. Is Glen Elendra that good? It rarely lines up with Rhythm of the Wild, plus you almost always want double-blue when you cast it, making it quite rough on the manabase.
5. Is Rhythm of the Wild that good? The answer is actually yes, it's great. It helps in a race and it helps grind. The times where it's bad are against BGx and some of the faster decks where you're not really trying to combo (e.g. Against Burn, it sounds great to have unlimited finks, but actually you don't have time to take a turn off to play it, and you don't have the manabase to play it pain-free). The other issue, which is a much bigger issue, is that it's taking up slots which could be given to creatures. The deck wants creatures all the time, I'm now playing Thalia which taxes Rhythm. In addition, I really wanted to try and blank Stubborn Denial vs DS and this card makes that much much harder to achieve.
6. How do I change the manabase to better support Deputy of Detention? I wouldn't mind an extra blue source, but i'm already low on white (so swapping Sacred Foundry for Steam Vents doesn't appeal). If I drop Foundry for Fountain, I cannot search up red sources to cast my kiki-jiki quite as easily. I also want enough green sources for T1 Dork (about 18 ideally, giving me about 97% chance to cast BOPs).
7. The last thing I worry about the most is my 2-drops. The fewer Voice of Resurgence I play, the worse my UWx match-up becomes. The more of them I play, the less flexibility and options I have (e.g. scooze, pridemage, selfless spirit, thalia etc). There's only so many slots which makes it tricky (hence the Rhythm question earlier).
Much to think about, any thoughts from you guys would be great.
My recent record is a 3-2 and then 4x 4-1. I'm 0-1 in this league. My losses of late have been to Burn a couple of times, Grixis Shadow, U-tron and the mirror. The mirror is generally hard for me because I have very little relevant interaction and I am lower on combo pieces (e.g. the Saheeli Rai version is quicker than mine, so decks have MD Path etc).
Hey Guys,
Another long update from me... I'm getting some pretty good results now, the list is getting better - and the streams have been great fun! Think it's time for me to look at fancy add-ons and maybe a webcam!
Since the last run, I've tried a couple of new cards and adjusted the sideboard some more. I'm going to just leave a link to the list, since I'll keep that updated and you can see what i'm testing at any given time. https://deckstats.net/decks/86739/1173545-value-kiki-pod
Some more discussion on cards:
1. Glen Elendra + Rhythm of the Wild is a sick combo, but I don't currently run Elendra in the 75. I want to find space, but just haven't yet. I'm on 7x 4 drops, and feel like that's plenty in the main.
2. I'm making a concious effort to reduce the curve and have sticky creatures. This makes my chord of calling much more consistent.
3. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has been really good maindeck, and I'm thinking of upping it to 2 copies.
4. Qasali Pridemage/Knight of Autumn are both pretty medium, but I want access to the effect, and putting them in the SB gives me less flexibility in the board.
5. Spellskite got cut. I like the card a lot, but some of the MUs where you want that effect (against removal) they can just ignore it, since it doesn't attack. It then just gets sweeped away by terminus or edict-ed by Liliana. It also grows opponents Goyfs. You don't particularly want it in a race. It basically becomes a card you want against Infect, but is below average everywhere else.
6. Fiery Justice is up in the air still. When you have 3 path to board in, bringing in 2 more pieces of removal actually stretches what you can board out. It's also not particularly impressive vs Spirits, and hard to resolve against Deaths Shadow. But, matches like Affinity & Elves this is a breaker.
7. 2nd Township has been pretty good.
8. I'd like a single Horizon Canopy over the 3rd Grove, if I could pick em up.
9. Burn is a tougher match-up than it looks on paper, and so I've added Burrenton Forge Tender (since it's also good vs Anger of the Gods.dec). Unsure if it's good enough just yet, and Lone Missionary is a consideration.
I'm pretty happy with about 68 of my 75 cards, and results have picked up. Long may it continue!
Hey Guys,
Thought I'd do something similar to zyrgul and write up my weekends testing. I did stream some of the testing (twitch.tv/daviusminimus) and the VODs will be there for 14 days.
First off, my current record is 12-9, though a good chunk of wins were in the 2-mans, and a good chunk of losses were after some bad changes to the deck. I've made some other tweaks that I'm not sure about too, but just need to get more games under my belt.
So, I'll start by sharing the decklist that I'm planning to play next time I stream (hopefully tonight).
Next I just want to discuss the individual cards, and highlight which ones are feeling stock and which are in testing and I'm unsure on.
Rhythm of the Wild - this card has been pretty damn good. I don't think you want them vs BGx, and you don't particularly want to draw 2 in any match-up. However, casting this on Turn 2 and slamming Vannifar on 3 is insanely good, as is resolving this card vs any counter-spell deck (as you would imagine). It's an unbelievable feeling to know your voice of resurgence is resolving!! Knight of Autumn vs kitchen finks - I tested out both briefly. I prefer finks vs agro, knight vs control, finks vs midrange, knight vs combo (well KCI/Ad Nauseum). As soon as I made the change, I went on to lose vs Ad Nauseum where Knight would have won, and since there's very little in it outside of those MUs, I think Knight is the correct card to play. Lightning Bolt vs Path to Exile - Its obvious where Path is better and when bolt is better. The main reason for testing bolt is that pointing it at the dome and then witness-ing it back is a geniune way to steal some games. The fact that Path ramps decks like Storm is really relevant, but bolt not dealing with Thing in the Ice / Pheonix's is also relevant. I am not sure which should be main, and it's possible that it's a meta call. It's also possible that neither belong in the main. Path does belong in the 75 somewhere though. gavony township - In short, I don't know if this card is good. There's no persist in my list at present, and against anything fast you never activate it. It doesn't add green. I have a feeling horizon canopy may just be better, but I can't afford them. hall of the bandit lord - I know everyone hates this card, but so far it's not punished me for having it, and have won 1 game for having access to it. Pretty marginal. However, since I've added Rhythm of the Wild, I think it's time for this to go. Like township, it feels like canopy is the card to replace it, but I dont have access to it kiki-jiki, the mirror breaker No.2 - I don't know if I want 2 of these or just 1. Occasionally you draw it and cant cast it, and adding a 2nd makes that worse. But occasionally you draw it and win when you cast it, and that's good. Also, path on kiki isn't great. It's worth noting that I'll add a Fire-lit Thicket (probably for Hall) if I go to 2 kiki's. chord of calling No.3 - I also don't know if I want 3 of these or just 2. Kiki 2 or Chord 3 are in the same slot for me at present, otherwise the deck gets too clunky. The 3rd Chord helps vs combo since you can find your bombs a bit easier. However, it's a clunky magic card. eternal witness No.2 - the 2nd copy was to help re-buy cards like path / bolt and SB bombs more than anything. Rallier is better at getting creatures back for the most part, since the games where you need a creature to stick, it's usually better to get voice / scooze than resto from the GY. However, the witness isn't great in your opener, and is a bit clunky, especially if you don't have 1 of your 2 bolts. As a result, I can see this going back to 1 copy.
Everything other card I'm happy with, and it's doing what it should. I consider 23 lands, 9 dorks to be pretty close to correct, and the rest of the creatures are pretty well balanced.
And I just want to share my opinion on the MUs at this current spot. First of all, the deck will occasionally lose to itself. It has 32 mana sources, and you almost always want ramp in your opener. As a result, you sometimes keep a mana-heavy hand and loose, or keep a hand without ramp and get over-run. That does effect your winrate obviously.
However, the rest of the time, I have the feeling that:
1) Fast combo/Tron is heavily unfavourable G1 but somewhere between even/slightly favoured G2/G3. As a result, you're swimming against the tide but these are winnable. If you manage to steal a G1, then you are a heavy favourite to win the match, but otherwise it comes down to drawing the right hate pieces in time during G3.
2) Any Uxx control decks are heavily favourable. The combination of Voice of Resurgence + Rhythm of the Wild makes these hard to lose, plus the fact that we have a combo finish if they tap out to answer something.
3) Agro decks (burn/8-whack/affinity) tend to be favoured, because all your creatures generate some sort of value and clog up the board. As an example, against burn, voice of resurgence almost always saves you 2 life and leaves a body behind, wall of roots gains you 5+ (block a critter and take a bolt) etc. You continue to be favoured post-board.
4) Bxx Midrange decks tend to be difficult to beat. Although you have value cards, they can use discard to pick apart the most valueable pieces (like witness/resto) and use creature kill to deal with the combo. Your then left with a bunch of voice / knights to try and beat cards like Goyf, Liliana, Young Pyromancer etc. There's also games where they can disrupt your mana dorks and you're instantly behind. You continue to be unfavoured post-board.
Overall, I'd say you want to face control and agro, don't love combo but dislike midrange a bit more.
Hopefully that gives people a feel for where I'm at right this second.
Yeah you're right Zyrgul, it is list dependant. If I had hippos, Conscripts, Sun Titans etc I'd definitely run 2 Kiki's, and probably an extra Deceiver too. I'd want fire-lit thicket in those lists most likely.
@Sgears - your list looks fine, but I'll say the same I said to Lectrys... First, Cobra is 1 of the things that made Saheeli Cat great before, so cutting that doesn't seem right to me. Second, Resto Angel doesn't add anything other than 2 power. You're pretty all-in on the combo still, and felidar lets you do the pod chain and the saheeli flicker AND the kiki kill. No need for resto. Also, look at your curve. You have 9x 4 drops, its way too many. You also have very few cards that you want to sac to evo in the 2-drop slot. So you want to evo from 2 to 4, but you have no 2s and tonnes of 4s.
You have value you can sac at 3, but only 1x 5 drop to fetch.
My own Saheeli version had 0 hierarch, 4 bop, 4 cobra. You have an extra 2 dorks to me, which may be because of the 4-drops, but I think it's a little unncessary. What you're doing there is going all-in on the "if my dork lives" plan, instead of having a nice curve., which I think will just create really skewed match-ups. You'll be poor across bolt decks, better against combo, but occasionally just flood out too.
If I were you, I'd cut the restos altogether, and the tracker probably belongs in the side for grindy matches. With Deputy in the main as a bullet for problem cards, I think Knight is probably unnecessary too. Cutting those gives you space for cards like Coiling Oracle or Wall of Omens, which gives you chump blockers, re-draws towards combo pieces, and sac fodder to get you to your 4-drops. Oracle even ramps occasionally.
With 2 Ralliers and 2 Cobras, I could see a 9th fetch squeezing into your manabase as well.
All in all, I dont think your list is bad, but there's a balance issue imo. So many 4 drops and so few 2 drops makes no sense in an Evo deck. Your SB looks pretty good to me, though I do like Cataclysmic Gearhulk in the board, and potentially Thragtusk. You do have a couple of 3s to sac (knight, rallier) that could take you up to 5 in the MUs where that matters. The 2nd Shalai in the board doesn't excite me either, especially with MD township already.
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Match 1 vs Amulet - this was an epic 3. game 1 I had a good draw (T1 Dork, T2 Knight for Amulet, T3 Prime Speaker). Game 2 went mega long. They had trinket mage grabbing pithing needle for my prime speaker, then they landed a turn 6(!!) titan after having played a path and a radiant flames to wipe away a lot of my stuff (including my magus of the moon, and i had boarded out witness). At this point, i have a choice. I can use Shaman to grab knight of autumn, remove coalition relic, meaning my opp would have just titan and 2 available mana (had a pact to pay for). Or, get knight and remove pithing needle. Or just jam a prime speaker and hope i untap with the shaman to grab knight (i only had 4 mana available). I could also get deputy to remove titan, but know that im basically dead and buried by a removal spell then. I chose to take them off some mana, but I think Prime Speaker and make them have it was the line. It goes quite a bit longer before I eventually die to infinite interaction off of their t-wests (double EE and Ballista) and trinket mage (needle).
Game 3 is a littleeee less exciting, but some really good play from my opp all the same (he played really well for all 3 games). Its pretty quickly estabilished that we're both racing, as I go T1 Dork, T2 spellskite that got pathed, T3 Prime Speaker. They make an amulet, but are missing any more ramp (or a bounceland, 1 or the other). T2-T3 they just make land drops, so i am predicted path or something. T4 they tap out for azusa, play a bounce land 3 times and make a titan, and go into the tank. It turns out they had infinite options. They know pact of negation isnt worth getting. But they have trinket mage in hand so attack with titan and then get double-bounce so they can make mage into needle naming speaker. I have deputy of detention, remove needle and win. But, they did naturally have ballista in hand, which could have removed my dork. However, in that spot, I could deputy the ballista then play a fauna shaman (thanks to the ramp from path) to combo from there. I basically had the nuts for that particular hand of my opponents.
Match 2 vs UR Control - won in 2, dont remember the details, but game 1 was a quick win (i didnt even know what i was facing, just saw 3 lands and opt). I boarded as if they were storm and they lead T2 Titi. I paniced a bit, but spell pierce and eidolon were actually great. Makes me think I should run Eidolon vs UW Control. The good thing about it was that I could use fauna shaman + resto to respond to any spell they might have, so as long as i stayed ahead on board, i couldnt lose.
Match 3 vs Storm - won in 2, my opp kept a bad hand G1 and I had interaction in the form of eidolon (off shaman), into spellskite, into kiki-jiki. I then just had to be careful and make sure i wasnt blown out by echoing truth.
Match 4 vs Humans - game 1 they dont have an answer to my Turn 4 Prime Speaker, so I use a fauna shaman and a courser to chump block some big champions and untap and win. Game 2 a Fiery Justice clears up 2 bobs and a champion of the parish, then the follow-up kitesail x2 and tax-thalia did nothing and i took over with shaman + squee (they scooped very quickly).
Currently 4-0
Match 5 vs Grixis Control with Titi - Basically, the deck destroyed me Game 1. They had lots of removal but they didnt even have to rush to use it, because they have a titi just sitting there. Eventually they go bolt flip titi, snap bolt, swing win.
Game 2 is closer(ish), but I get stuck on 2 lands, a scryb ranger and a bop, with shaman + squee active. But they have counter-magic and titi, and i just cant get going. I eventually die on Turn 8 having never made land drop 3. I had a decent chance if i could get moving, since i had cards like scryb ranger to block titi and resto to protect it. Had an uncastable Deputy because the BOP came back to hand. That felt bad.
Last 3 leagues are 5-0, 2-3, 4-1. Pretty good, 11-4 is pretty reasonable imo.
I am guessing most people reading here are already on Discord and so may have seen my updates. However, the below is a document that I've made, with my current decklist and a mini-sideboard guide for the top 14 match-ups and whether its favourable or not (all decks more than 2%).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D-OmZYhRIYAeNQowT-wOCoFR2_JYEVEqf0lcXdHZ8Qc/edit#gid=0
My list has been pretty steady for the last couple of weeks, with only small tweaks happening. I have been grinding the friendly leagues, and on 2 occasions went 3-2, 4-1, 5-0 (so 12-3 twice). That record has started to pay out nicely, so I took a punt on a competitive league when MODO got back up running yesterday. I went 3-2, so was indifferent payout to a friendly league, but then followed that with a 4-1, beating UW Control, Mardu Pyro, Spirits, Valakut and loosing to Grixis Shadow in Match 5. Unfortunately the deck does struggle with the faster Death Shadows hands (they landed a shadow on T1 G1 on the play), and in G2 I drew 8 lands to 4 non-lands by turn 6 (i kept a 4 spell 3 land hand and drew lands every draw step). That's not to say I would have won G2 with a good spell distribution, and definitely doesn't say I'd win Game 3, but it's dissapointing that I didn't get to try!
Overall, I think the list is great. I will continue to work on it, but the maindeck feels very smooth. The mana works, and the toolbox creatures are all perfectly acceptable in your opener (there's very few MUs where Scooze, Spellskite, Deputy, Knight or Cratermaker are not relevant). The sideboard will continue to get updated as time goes on.
Would love more people to test this list, because it is really quite good imo. Feel free to ask any questions.
So, I've been playing MTGO (friendly) leagues, and my last 4 have finished 4-1, 4-1, 5-0, 5-0. Lets have a discussion! Here's the decklist:
https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/w5wBOi9feh
And here's what I played against (for interest only)!
League 1 (4-1)
Goblins
Dredge
UW Control (loss)
Eldrazi & Taxes
4c shadow
League 2 (4-1)
Elves (loss)
UW Control
Affinity
Ad Naus
Storm
League 3 (5-0)
UB Mill
mono U curiosity
5c agro
abzan midrange
BG rock
League 4 (5-0)
Ad Nauseum
Amulet
Abzan "creatures" (Aether Vial, KotR, hatebears)
Humans
Affinity
Anyway, there's some obvious questions about cards that I bet most of you have!!
1. Fauna Shaman - this card looks rubbish on paper, or at best, average. It dies to everything in the format, pretty much. For me, it's replacing Eldritch Evolution. So here's a comparison. Fauna Shaman when left unchecked takes over the game (will explain more in part 2). Eldritch Evo will get your best card for you, but nothing more. When facing interaction, Fauna Shaman dies and you don't get to tutor anything. However, it trades 1-for-1 with the opp. Eldritch Evo, on the other hand, costs 2 cards to get 1. Depending on what you fetch, you can be down a card at the end of the exchange, and very rarely up on the exchange.
The big downside to Shaman is that it's impossible to tutor up a 3-drop on turn 2 with it - against a deck like storm/tron, grabbing Eidolon / Magus of the Moon on Turn 2 can be the difference between a win and a loss.
The other upside on Shaman is that it plays around Grafdiggers' Cage! Win!
Having said that, the way Shaman carries a game shouldn't be overlooked... which leads me nicely onto:
2. squee, goblin nabob - this card looks odd too. It's pretty weak by itself, though I have used it on chump duty and on "discard to lili" duty before, generally speaking this isn't a card you ever want to see without Fauna Shaman. So, why run it?
Well - if your shaman is staying in play (which it will sometimes, even against control decks, it just may be later in the game), then you can use your first activation on the opps end-step to grab squee. Your 2nd activation now gets whatever you need - so at this point, you have turned "random creature in hand" into "best creature in deck", and put squee in the yard. That's pretty inefficient. BUT, for the rest of the time that shaman lives, you get "G, search for your best card". That's mental! You still get your draw step. I realize that 3 activation's is a lot, but if you get 3, you never lose, thanks to squee. AND, then there's the bonus of "I drew squee whilst having shaman". In that spot, 2 activations is usually enough to tie up the game.
In short - the payoff for the deck space is massive, and its well worth the slot. Its what took shaman from bad to good in my opinion.
3. Rhythm of the Wild - this deck makes better use of Rhythm than any other i've seen. When you only have prime speaker in your list, Rhythm can be a little hit and miss. But with 4 Shaman too, you have more pay-offs for this card. It's been pretty good, but I could see 1 being cut.
4. Goblin Cratermaker - very few games go by where I dont search this up. It's not always the 1st card you get, but you use it way more than you expect, and it's reusable with Rallier + Witness. It's great to ahve some removal MD that you can tutor up with your 8 re-useable tutors.
I would recommend the doubters out there to check my stream for gameplay examples (https://www.twitch.tv/daviusminimus/). A LOT of my wins can be attributed to Shaman and/or Rhythm. I hope you get inspired to try it out.
http://deck.tk/4brT9kyO
Few things on my list:
1. Arbor Elf in place of Hierarch is a budget choice that I’d switch if I had the chance!
2. Goblin Cratermaker wouldn’t make the cut but its my only out to Torpod Orb so it stays!
3. Negate and Avalanche Rider have meant that Tron is actually a positive match-up now, so are worth their slots
4. Relic in place of Surgical, but I think it MAY be the better option. Questionable since it’s a nonbo with Knight of the Reliquary specifically, but I do like it vs Snapcaster / search for azcanta decks, and goyf decks, and deaths shadow decks, which are all places I dont want surgical.
5. Incubation // Incongruity is certainly in the testing phase. So far its been ok, but it does take a couple of slots. For example, I could drop 1 for a MD Tracker and then I’d have space for a Chameleon Colossus in the SB.
6. 3rd Forest over 1st Horizon Canopy is another budget option, but until I get the Hierarch’s, I need forests for Arbor Elf.
7. I’m not sure if I want Negate or Unified Will. Unified Will is better vs Valakut specifically, whereas Negate is slightly better vs UW where I don’t want to overcommit to the board and/or when I’m trying to recover from a wrath effect.
Deck has been decent recently, quite happy with where it’s at. I do wish I could make space for more SB bombs. I have a small list of cards that I like and wouldn’t mind having access to, but they currently don’t make the cut:
1. 4th path
2. Kataki,
3. Chameleon Colossus
4. Gaddock Teeg
5. Swagtusk
End of my write-up. My results are still a little inconsistent but I’m basically playing modo for free. Varying results, but 2-3, 3-2 and 4-1 are all happening. Not yet hit a 5-0, but no real scrubbing outs either.
1. Deceiver is better than Krasis - woodland bellower is the reason to run krasis. However, if you want a combo chain that doesn't require white (renegade rallier) and doesn't need the GY to function (Sun titan can fill the Bellower role), then you have to go Bellower + Krasis. That's not to say it's the only way to go, but it's the way that some go.
2. Rhythm of the Wild I tested for 100+ games. I think the card is stunning vs UWx, terrible vs any deck that doesn't give you time to play a 3-drop do nothing (burn, storm) and good in some other spots (like vs tron, you don't have a tonne of hatebears you can tutor up, so playing this on T2 and a Vannifar on T3 is good). It's a terrible topdeck against decks like BGx. If they care about it, they'll use a trophy to remove it AND it'll pump goyf, if you don't have any persist creatures, they'll just ignore it.
Rhythm is a much better magic card than Torch Courier. For the most part, you just want good cards in your deck. That's why I would stay well clear of Torch Courier. Some more recent lists have run Knight of the Reliquary + hanweir battlements, since you will occasionally get to line up a fast hand with a haste land, but the rest of the time both cards are very playable. I'd recommend this over Courier.
For everyone else - I think the best versions of these decks have cleaner mana. Field of Ruin is a real magic card, and Burn really punishes our fetch/shock manabase (and Burn is a pretty strong deck right now). As a result, the Knight of the Reliquary list is pretty nice, since it's straight GW with 4 blue cards (vannifar) and 2 red (kiki), making the mana a little cleaner. The Temur version that skimps on white and goes bellower is also successful, in part due to the ease of casting cards. I would recommend those 2 lists before any proper 4 colour decks (decks with GW + reflector mage + deputy of detention etc really stretches your mana). That's just my 2 cents at this point in time!
How does the Image combo work? I assume it needs more than 1 creature to get started? I dont feel the need for image, but i haven't tested it.
I'm having the most success with Kurusu's build (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1667455#online). I've changed the odd card (don't own hierarchs, surgicals or horizon canopy, so i'm fully budget), and changed up the SB a little bit. The list is a lot better than it looks, and I think it's a good place to start. Double-spellskite has been really nice for what it's worth.
Phantasmal Image - this was in the old lists to copy Deceiver, as you said. It was your pod target from a 1-drop. However, since we now have Scryb Ranger to enable a combo, I don't think Image is ever the correct POD target (or very rarely). As a result, the question is "do you want to naturally draw Image", and i think the answer is mainly no. I can see a few scenarios where it is a good POD target, but I'm not sure if there's enough.
Murderous Redcap - it does allow a combo, and blinking it is nice. But I think Glen Elendra is just better in almost all spots. Plus, both cards are pretty clunky when your against a linear deck.
Izzet Staticaster - it's a good card, but it just doesnt have many good MUs anymore. It was great when infect and affinity were everywhere, but that's just not the case anymore. Even lingering souls is at an all-time low. I had it in my SB for about 20 matches and it just wasn't ever that good... perhaps the mirror!
I've not tested the other 2 to be honest, but I do think we're already pretty heavy on 4-drops, with resto/hippo, vannifar and shalai all being pretty great cards to run.
21 lands + 11 dorks - this set-up has 3 wall of roots
22 lands + 10 dorks - 7x 1-drop & 3 walls
23 lands + 9 dorks - 4 BOPs 4 Hierarch and a wall
They all run 32 mana sources. Pignorton's list that you linked above is a different beast altogether, and the first i've seen of its kind.
My personal opinion is that you don't really need to run so many combo pieces. I think Scryb Ranger + Rallier is sufficient, and I don't see the need for the 6-drops or the Ranger of Eos package. Having said all of that, my results are not great either. So, it could be that I'm going down the wrong route and I should have more combo pieces. I'm not sure though, i think just having better creatures in general helps vs midrange and control.
Thalia has been good though, so Pignortons onto something there!
I recently dropped my 23rd land and added the 4th chord without any mana troubles. I also added Deputy of Detention which has certainly been worth a slot.
I added Burrenton-Forge Tender and Lone Missionary to my sideboard, and that seems to have fixed the burn match-up.
However, I have a few things I'm not confident with. First, the Deaths Shadow MU seems pretty rough. Second, Tron felt kinda grim without Damping Sphere, so those are going back in. I left the deck at something like this:
http://deck.tk/3pWd5QEG
There's a few things I want to think about, have a read because I share my thoughts on card selection and also ask for some help!
1. Do I beat tron consistently enough with Damping Sphere + Riders in the SB? Need to test more, and potentially there's a slot to play with to fix that.
2. Can I fix the Deaths Shadow match with the sideboard? Worship is an option, as is Fiery Justice or Chameleon Colossus. Any thoughts?
3. Do I beat decks like Jeskai Control without the trackers? If so, can I cut those and add better cards for the Bx match-up, which is usually a bit tougher.
4. Is Glen Elendra that good? It rarely lines up with Rhythm of the Wild, plus you almost always want double-blue when you cast it, making it quite rough on the manabase.
5. Is Rhythm of the Wild that good? The answer is actually yes, it's great. It helps in a race and it helps grind. The times where it's bad are against BGx and some of the faster decks where you're not really trying to combo (e.g. Against Burn, it sounds great to have unlimited finks, but actually you don't have time to take a turn off to play it, and you don't have the manabase to play it pain-free). The other issue, which is a much bigger issue, is that it's taking up slots which could be given to creatures. The deck wants creatures all the time, I'm now playing Thalia which taxes Rhythm. In addition, I really wanted to try and blank Stubborn Denial vs DS and this card makes that much much harder to achieve.
6. How do I change the manabase to better support Deputy of Detention? I wouldn't mind an extra blue source, but i'm already low on white (so swapping Sacred Foundry for Steam Vents doesn't appeal). If I drop Foundry for Fountain, I cannot search up red sources to cast my kiki-jiki quite as easily. I also want enough green sources for T1 Dork (about 18 ideally, giving me about 97% chance to cast BOPs).
7. The last thing I worry about the most is my 2-drops. The fewer Voice of Resurgence I play, the worse my UWx match-up becomes. The more of them I play, the less flexibility and options I have (e.g. scooze, pridemage, selfless spirit, thalia etc). There's only so many slots which makes it tricky (hence the Rhythm question earlier).
Much to think about, any thoughts from you guys would be great.
My recent record is a 3-2 and then 4x 4-1. I'm 0-1 in this league. My losses of late have been to Burn a couple of times, Grixis Shadow, U-tron and the mirror. The mirror is generally hard for me because I have very little relevant interaction and I am lower on combo pieces (e.g. the Saheeli Rai version is quicker than mine, so decks have MD Path etc).
https://discord.gg/gtxEvQe
That link shouldn't expire. 100+ members at the minute.
Another long update from me... I'm getting some pretty good results now, the list is getting better - and the streams have been great fun! Think it's time for me to look at fancy add-ons and maybe a webcam!
Since the last run, I've tried a couple of new cards and adjusted the sideboard some more. I'm going to just leave a link to the list, since I'll keep that updated and you can see what i'm testing at any given time.
https://deckstats.net/decks/86739/1173545-value-kiki-pod
Some more discussion on cards:
1. Glen Elendra + Rhythm of the Wild is a sick combo, but I don't currently run Elendra in the 75. I want to find space, but just haven't yet. I'm on 7x 4 drops, and feel like that's plenty in the main.
2. I'm making a concious effort to reduce the curve and have sticky creatures. This makes my chord of calling much more consistent.
3. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has been really good maindeck, and I'm thinking of upping it to 2 copies.
4. Qasali Pridemage/Knight of Autumn are both pretty medium, but I want access to the effect, and putting them in the SB gives me less flexibility in the board.
5. Spellskite got cut. I like the card a lot, but some of the MUs where you want that effect (against removal) they can just ignore it, since it doesn't attack. It then just gets sweeped away by terminus or edict-ed by Liliana. It also grows opponents Goyfs. You don't particularly want it in a race. It basically becomes a card you want against Infect, but is below average everywhere else.
6. Fiery Justice is up in the air still. When you have 3 path to board in, bringing in 2 more pieces of removal actually stretches what you can board out. It's also not particularly impressive vs Spirits, and hard to resolve against Deaths Shadow. But, matches like Affinity & Elves this is a breaker.
7. 2nd Township has been pretty good.
8. I'd like a single Horizon Canopy over the 3rd Grove, if I could pick em up.
9. Burn is a tougher match-up than it looks on paper, and so I've added Burrenton Forge Tender (since it's also good vs Anger of the Gods.dec). Unsure if it's good enough just yet, and Lone Missionary is a consideration.
I'm pretty happy with about 68 of my 75 cards, and results have picked up. Long may it continue!
Thought I'd do something similar to zyrgul and write up my weekends testing. I did stream some of the testing (twitch.tv/daviusminimus) and the VODs will be there for 14 days.
First off, my current record is 12-9, though a good chunk of wins were in the 2-mans, and a good chunk of losses were after some bad changes to the deck. I've made some other tweaks that I'm not sure about too, but just need to get more games under my belt.
So, I'll start by sharing the decklist that I'm planning to play next time I stream (hopefully tonight).
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Chord of Calling
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Rhythm of the Wild
1 Deceiver Exarch
2 Eternal Witness
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Knight of Autumn
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
1 Renegade Rallier
3 Restoration Angel
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Roots
1 Avalanche Riders
3 Damping Sphere
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Fiery Justice
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Path to Exile
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Stony Silence
2 Tireless Tracker
Rhythm of the Wild - this card has been pretty damn good. I don't think you want them vs BGx, and you don't particularly want to draw 2 in any match-up. However, casting this on Turn 2 and slamming Vannifar on 3 is insanely good, as is resolving this card vs any counter-spell deck (as you would imagine). It's an unbelievable feeling to know your voice of resurgence is resolving!!
Knight of Autumn vs kitchen finks - I tested out both briefly. I prefer finks vs agro, knight vs control, finks vs midrange, knight vs combo (well KCI/Ad Nauseum). As soon as I made the change, I went on to lose vs Ad Nauseum where Knight would have won, and since there's very little in it outside of those MUs, I think Knight is the correct card to play.
Lightning Bolt vs Path to Exile - Its obvious where Path is better and when bolt is better. The main reason for testing bolt is that pointing it at the dome and then witness-ing it back is a geniune way to steal some games. The fact that Path ramps decks like Storm is really relevant, but bolt not dealing with Thing in the Ice / Pheonix's is also relevant. I am not sure which should be main, and it's possible that it's a meta call. It's also possible that neither belong in the main. Path does belong in the 75 somewhere though.
gavony township - In short, I don't know if this card is good. There's no persist in my list at present, and against anything fast you never activate it. It doesn't add green. I have a feeling horizon canopy may just be better, but I can't afford them.
hall of the bandit lord - I know everyone hates this card, but so far it's not punished me for having it, and have won 1 game for having access to it. Pretty marginal. However, since I've added Rhythm of the Wild, I think it's time for this to go. Like township, it feels like canopy is the card to replace it, but I dont have access to it
kiki-jiki, the mirror breaker No.2 - I don't know if I want 2 of these or just 1. Occasionally you draw it and cant cast it, and adding a 2nd makes that worse. But occasionally you draw it and win when you cast it, and that's good. Also, path on kiki isn't great. It's worth noting that I'll add a Fire-lit Thicket (probably for Hall) if I go to 2 kiki's.
chord of calling No.3 - I also don't know if I want 3 of these or just 2. Kiki 2 or Chord 3 are in the same slot for me at present, otherwise the deck gets too clunky. The 3rd Chord helps vs combo since you can find your bombs a bit easier. However, it's a clunky magic card.
eternal witness No.2 - the 2nd copy was to help re-buy cards like path / bolt and SB bombs more than anything. Rallier is better at getting creatures back for the most part, since the games where you need a creature to stick, it's usually better to get voice / scooze than resto from the GY. However, the witness isn't great in your opener, and is a bit clunky, especially if you don't have 1 of your 2 bolts. As a result, I can see this going back to 1 copy.
Everything other card I'm happy with, and it's doing what it should. I consider 23 lands, 9 dorks to be pretty close to correct, and the rest of the creatures are pretty well balanced.
However, the rest of the time, I have the feeling that:
1) Fast combo/Tron is heavily unfavourable G1 but somewhere between even/slightly favoured G2/G3. As a result, you're swimming against the tide but these are winnable. If you manage to steal a G1, then you are a heavy favourite to win the match, but otherwise it comes down to drawing the right hate pieces in time during G3.
2) Any Uxx control decks are heavily favourable. The combination of Voice of Resurgence + Rhythm of the Wild makes these hard to lose, plus the fact that we have a combo finish if they tap out to answer something.
3) Agro decks (burn/8-whack/affinity) tend to be favoured, because all your creatures generate some sort of value and clog up the board. As an example, against burn, voice of resurgence almost always saves you 2 life and leaves a body behind, wall of roots gains you 5+ (block a critter and take a bolt) etc. You continue to be favoured post-board.
4) Bxx Midrange decks tend to be difficult to beat. Although you have value cards, they can use discard to pick apart the most valueable pieces (like witness/resto) and use creature kill to deal with the combo. Your then left with a bunch of voice / knights to try and beat cards like Goyf, Liliana, Young Pyromancer etc. There's also games where they can disrupt your mana dorks and you're instantly behind. You continue to be unfavoured post-board.
Overall, I'd say you want to face control and agro, don't love combo but dislike midrange a bit more.
Hopefully that gives people a feel for where I'm at right this second.
You have value you can sac at 3, but only 1x 5 drop to fetch.
My own Saheeli version had 0 hierarch, 4 bop, 4 cobra. You have an extra 2 dorks to me, which may be because of the 4-drops, but I think it's a little unncessary. What you're doing there is going all-in on the "if my dork lives" plan, instead of having a nice curve., which I think will just create really skewed match-ups. You'll be poor across bolt decks, better against combo, but occasionally just flood out too.
If I were you, I'd cut the restos altogether, and the tracker probably belongs in the side for grindy matches. With Deputy in the main as a bullet for problem cards, I think Knight is probably unnecessary too. Cutting those gives you space for cards like Coiling Oracle or Wall of Omens, which gives you chump blockers, re-draws towards combo pieces, and sac fodder to get you to your 4-drops. Oracle even ramps occasionally.
With 2 Ralliers and 2 Cobras, I could see a 9th fetch squeezing into your manabase as well.
All in all, I dont think your list is bad, but there's a balance issue imo. So many 4 drops and so few 2 drops makes no sense in an Evo deck. Your SB looks pretty good to me, though I do like Cataclysmic Gearhulk in the board, and potentially Thragtusk. You do have a couple of 3s to sac (knight, rallier) that could take you up to 5 in the MUs where that matters. The 2nd Shalai in the board doesn't excite me either, especially with MD township already.