One of my favorite mechanics in Magic the Gathering, is to manipulate the top of your deck to gain advantage in the various forms that are offered by cards. Both skill intensive and fun, this deck is more designed for the Mel player* (Melvin/Melanie) who wants to challenge their ability to find the best lines of play for value, rather than breaking the format.
* Mel is the "mechanic player", someone focused on the craft of Design & Development. A Mel is characterized for appreciating cards with delicate and interesting interactions, as well as strong mechanics. A Mel appreciates that there are many different elements that have to come together to make a Magic card function structurally, from the color pie to the mana system to the rules to the templating to the mechanical needs of the set.
Nissa ability to Scry 2 is a very powerful ability in this deck. We have numerous cards that gain advantage off setting up the top of your library.
Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde allow you to cast creatures off the top of your deck. They additionally help, as you are able to know what your top card is priory to using a lot of the cards in the deck, including Nissa herself. I'm super excited to give you a run down of all the other cards in the sections below!
We also run a number of creatures that "explore" on entering the battlefield. This allows you to reveal the top card of your library, and then put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard. With so many cards that allow you to manipulate the top of your library, you can setup plays and turns in quite precise ways. These will help with potential flooded land clumps, and get you your land drops, plus filter away cards that you feel will not help you at that stage. Because the majority of cards are creatures, you can decided to either keep them on-top, possibly for Nissa, Steward of Elements to put it into play, or you can put them into your graveyard.
Now we do have a way of abusing putting your creatures into graveyard, with the very powerful God-Pharaoh's Gift . Having a selection of cards to bring back, will help with your overall ability to attack and block with creatures through the course of the game, as well as gaining value off all their abilities twice. Because of the explore ability to put creatures into graveyard, with Gate to the Afterlife needing 6 creatures in your graveyard, you are able to leverage off it consistently to get God-Pharaoh's Gift. It must be noted that Gate to the Afterlife can also be used to get God-Pharaoh's Gift back from the graveyard, if it has been removed from play.
The deck is rounded out by creatures that have draw, generate mana, and removal, so that you have an overall balance to the deck, as well as a select number of non-creature cards which help with the general strategy of the deck.
This deck is priced at around $96, if you were to buy them as singles.
I would love to hear of any cards that you feel could help with this deck.
There are a number of intricate interactions, and this deck is all about sequencing things in a way that will help you get more value from each card than you would first believe.
Let's start with Nissa, Steward of Elements. I will point out that with planeswalker commanders, it makes a huge difference if you are going first or last. Often if you go last, you're probably not going to have an opportunity to cast her and protect her through the early, to even mid game. Simply I play a lot of games where I don't cast her until the late game. However often if going first, then you can cast her out and she might just stick for the whole game. So the luck of the die is a factor.
Nissa, Steward of Elements Scry 2 ability is perfect for setting up plays with the rest of your 59 cards. You might be needing to get more loyalty counters because of damage to her, so using her to peer through the first couple of cards on your library will allow you to calculate plays for maximum value. I find that I'm mainly using the +2 Scry 2 ability most of the time, as using her +0 ability without knowing the top card, can be too random. However you can always setup the top 2 cards, so you can calculate by putting the card you are going to get for your normal draw step, then also knowing what your top card is, so her loyalty can be exact for gaining value the next time for the +0 ability.
There are 22 creatures in the deck. Using Nissa +0 ability to put these creatures into play from your deck, it's reasonable to only have 3 or 4 loyalty counters. This is important, because often you will want to cast Nissa as soon as possible. You can cast her for the minimum 1 loyalty counter, then use her +2 Scry 2 to get her up to 3 loyalty.
The creatures in this deck are not necessary powerful or scary as attackers or blockers at first. But they are not meant to be. Their purpose is to gain you value, as well as gum up the board to protect Nissa. It's perfectly fine to multiple block with your creatures, to trade at 2 for 1, etc, as you have a longer term goal with getting your creatures back with God-Pharaoh's Gift. Once they start coming back as 4/4 then their ability to threaten become the real deal.
How you sequence your turns, is going to come down to what you need at the time. With 5 explore creatures and Path of Discovery, you can make sure that you almost invariably have lands to play each turn. Wayward Swordtooth can make sure that you can make better use of any extra land draws. The explore creatures also allow you to decide if you want to put a card into your graveyard or keep it on top. If you have Nissa on the appropriate loyalty counters to put that creature into play, then you might decide to keep it on top. However often you will be putting creatures into your graveyard, so that you can get value off God-Pharaoh's Gift later in the game, as well as filtering further through your deck.
The explore creatures are nicely costed as well, as often you will get the +1/+1 counter. So their ability to keep up with what your opponents are putting out stats wise with creatures, should keep you in a better than average position of protecting Nissa at least early to mid game. With God-Pharaoh's Gift they can come back as 5/5, which can deal with the bigger creatures in the later stages of the game.
Playing off the top
With Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde, bottlenecks are often when it's lands that are your top card(s). The explore creatures will allow you to draw those lands, to free up for potential creatures instead. Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde are also great because they give you the necessary information to make a lot of decisions. Often you actually want to use Nissa to ramp lands into play. So you will have the required knowledge to calculate for extra mana.
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter is another card that you can set up plays efficiently given knowledge. With 13 cards at 4 mana or more, you want to try and set up, for a maximum value of 3 cmc off the top. Statistically speaking once you are casting 3 cmc or less spells you are less likely to get the free cast, and draw the card instead.
Oracle's Vault can be used to filter away the top of your deck if you have prior knowledge and are wishing to get rid of it, or better still, cast it if you have the mana. It also allows you to land ramp, while being yet another card that prevents you flooding out with land. Once it is fully online, then you can cast those cards for free.
Treasure map is another Scry card, which as you see has major purpose in this deck. The transform is also nice as it is further land ramp and draw.
Naga Oracle does everything you want, both enabling you to stack your deck, as well as put creatures into your graveyard for God-Pharaoh's Gift.
Utility creatures Oashra Cultivator is cheap land ramp, which goes to graveyard, so you can get value with God-Pharaoh's Gift later. Anything that shuffles your library is really important in this deck, as it allows you to get extra looks at the top of your library.
Narnam Renegade is a nice cheap incentive for opponents not to send their creatures in at Nissa.
River Hoopoe is used as a 1/3 flying blocker for any other pesky flying creatures that might threaten Nissa, as well as it's ability to draw in the later stages of the game.
Champion of Wits gets you more looks at the top of your library, as well as simply drawing cards. Any creature at 3 cmc are important in this deck to try and get consistent value.
Tendershoot Dryad is the only creature that doesn't cost 4 mana or less, but it's so powerful at generating blockers in a multiplayer game that it's too good not to include in the deck.
There are two Gods, Kefnet the Mindful and Rhonas the Indomitable, which are mainly to block incoming creatures attacking Nissa. With explore triggers you will be drawing extra lands, so the ability to have the necessary threshold of 7 cards for Kefnet the Mindful is very feasible. Blocking flying creatures is important for Nissa, so you might have to draw with Kefnet the Mindful, to get the threshold. Rhonas the Indomitable is a little bit more mana intensive, but as long as you hold up 3 mana to pump one of your creatures, you will be able to threaten to kill most creatures that come your way. Indestructible is the real deal, in a singleton format which has limited exile options and mass removal will be popular.
Vehicles dominating the skies
There are 4 vehicles in the deck, Heart of Kiran, Aethersphere Harvester, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Weatherlight. After testing the deck a lot, I found that I was too weak to flyers. So even though these vehicles are not creatures for the top deck hits, their ability to protect Nissa is super important. They also provide a way of being stronger against sorcery mass creature removal. It must also be noted that with the indestructible Gods in play, you can really make opponents creature wipes ineffective against you.
Alpha strikes! I've found that with Nissa ultimate ability to produce 2 x 5/5 creatures, that you can attack in the air for a potential 27 damage with all the vehicles as well.
Non-creature cards Thaumatic Compass is mainly used for its transform land Spires of Orazca, so that you can protect Nissa against some of the bigger threats. It also allows you to shuffle your library, which always has value. Because of Nissa ability to put extra lands into play you will be reaching the 7 lands a lot sooner than other decks.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc is one of the power cards of the format. You have enough cheap creatures to consistently transform into Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, which will allow you to function on all cylinders. It also gives you a fresh look at the top of your library when you cast it, which is what this deck is all about.
Bounty of the Luxa has been described as a pseudo planeswalker thats hard to remove, and I agree. Further draw and mana is always welcome.
Uncage the Menagerie is the best tutor in Brawl period. The ability to cast it on any 3 or more mana curve means that you can get value in a number of ways. GG1 you can get Narnam Renegade if you need something to dissuade opponents from attacking Nissa. You might want one of the mana creatures instead. GG2 can get you two of these, Ixalli's Diviner, Merfolk Branchwalker or River Hoopoe. GG3 is where you can get a lot of value. There are 12 creatures you can search for.
If you need to build a brick wall of defense then getting Kefnet the Mindful and Rhonas the Indomitable together will mean that Rhonas will be able to attack and block naturally. GG4 can get you these, Vizier of the Menagerie, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Naga Oracle, World Shaper. All of these cards are perfect for your engines.
It must also be noted that Uncage the Menagerie also shuffles your library if necessary.
River's Rebuke is a catch-all for the opponent who is most likely to win.
I've already mentioned shuffling your library can be important for further looks at the top of your library, so Evolving Wilds and Field of Ruin can do this. Make sure you don't unnecessarily crack these until you might get value off them this way.
Conclusion
You don't need to be too worried about mass removal of creatures, as most of yours are being played for their initial value. As long as it's a level playing field after a wipe, then the deck is designed to rebuild fast with it's combination of synergies.
I hope that you've been able to see how all these strategies make for an amazing value deck. It's easy to look at the cards individually at first and think of them as a little under-powered for a multiplayer format. But when you start casting these things for free and not even needing to draw them, that it starts to pile up and you can really get ahead.
But it is a tricky deck to play, multiplayer presents even more decisions. If you're willing to play the deck to hone your skills at deck manipulation, then you will come out a better player. Commander players have access to cards like Oracle of Mul Daya and Sensei's Divining Top, so will have exposure to this sort of archetype, but if you're coming from newer standard environments, you probably won't have had the chance to explore this way of playing Magic much. So having access to a card like Nissa, Steward of Elements as a commander, is the perfect excuse to really explore the mechanic. It rewards good play, and punishes bad play, so be prepared to have a few knocks at first if you're newer to the foray, until you get used to the deck and your decision making gets more fine tuned.
I've added a section "How to Pilot" to hopefully better describe how the decks works, it can be confusing to see exactly how the deck operates just reading the list.
The only changes I've made is adding Wayward Swordtooth and removing a land, as you really do hit land drops with explore and the various other draws. Once you get get the cities blessing (which can happen quickly with land ramp and cheap creatures), provides a solid blocker for Nissa.
[edit]
I also removed Aid from the Cowl. It's just too hard to get Revolt in this deck. Added Disallow as a catch all for later game states.
But you can just attack with World Shaper to put the top three cards into graveyard when you wanting to mill yourself. Another way of getting creatures and lands to graveyard. Plus you don't mind it getting killed on the attack, where you really want the Emperor's Vanguard to survive.
I've got about 20 games with this deck now, and I found I was a weak to flyers. So I added the super strong flying vehicles, and now the deck is much better at protecting Nissa. When you win you do go through most of your library, such is it's ability to really filter through your deck. I've won a few games with only a few cards left in library. I also added Sandwurm Convergence as further protection against flying and another finisher.
BTW your land is off, you run 21 lands in your list making your deck 59 cards including your General.
Let us know how your weekend goes
It's a Forest, so 7 Forests.
I've been unimpressed with Memorial to Unity and Memorial to Genius, I just don't think you ever get the "opportunity" to use them. So if you want to just run an extra Forest and Island over these then I think the deck would probably be better. But I'll test them more, better to really make sure.
It the sort of deck that requires some reps, I find myself using the Scry +2 way more often than I first anticipated, but that ability I find is just as powerful as the +0. I have a lot of games where I've never had the opportunity to cast Nissa, as the board is flooded with creatures. It happens, but you can still function and win games without her.
I've had quite a few games where I've really had to manage the cards left in library. You have so many filtering effects in the deck, that often you're down to a few cards in the library by the end of the game.
The last game I played was coming down to whether I was going to have no cards left. I managed to get one more turn, by using Sequestered Stash in my upkeep to put a card back on top.
The thing is that I had to stop using all my draw/filter effects by the time I had 10 cards left in the deck.
So I've simply replaced World Shaper with Ramunap Excavator. I found the World Shaper to be pretty inconsistent. Ramunap Excavator not amazing in the deck either, but can be used to never run out of cards by putting Sequestered Stash back into play and using it every turn to always have a card back on top of library. Hilarious, but actually a needed mechanic in the deck, as 59 cards is an easy number to get through Normally there is a vehicle or two to put back to get those extra turns, but you can do it indefinitely if you just keep putting Gate to the Afterlife back and keep sacrificing it for no effect if God-Pharaoh's Gift is already in play.
One of my favorite mechanics in Magic the Gathering, is to manipulate the top of your deck to gain advantage in the various forms that are offered by cards. Both skill intensive and fun, this deck is more designed for the Mel player* (Melvin/Melanie) who wants to challenge their ability to find the best lines of play for value, rather than breaking the format.
Nissa ability to Scry 2 is a very powerful ability in this deck. We have numerous cards that gain advantage off setting up the top of your library.
Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde allow you to cast creatures off the top of your deck. They additionally help, as you are able to know what your top card is priory to using a lot of the cards in the deck, including Nissa herself. I'm super excited to give you a run down of all the other cards in the sections below!
We also run a number of creatures that "explore" on entering the battlefield. This allows you to reveal the top card of your library, and then put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard. With so many cards that allow you to manipulate the top of your library, you can setup plays and turns in quite precise ways. These will help with potential flooded land clumps, and get you your land drops, plus filter away cards that you feel will not help you at that stage. Because the majority of cards are creatures, you can decided to either keep them on-top, possibly for Nissa, Steward of Elements to put it into play, or you can put them into your graveyard.
Now we do have a way of abusing putting your creatures into graveyard, with the very powerful God-Pharaoh's Gift . Having a selection of cards to bring back, will help with your overall ability to attack and block with creatures through the course of the game, as well as gaining value off all their abilities twice. Because of the explore ability to put creatures into graveyard, with Gate to the Afterlife needing 6 creatures in your graveyard, you are able to leverage off it consistently to get God-Pharaoh's Gift. It must be noted that Gate to the Afterlife can also be used to get God-Pharaoh's Gift back from the graveyard, if it has been removed from play.
The deck is rounded out by creatures that have draw, generate mana, and removal, so that you have an overall balance to the deck, as well as a select number of non-creature cards which help with the general strategy of the deck.
This deck is priced at around $96, if you were to buy them as singles.
I would love to hear of any cards that you feel could help with this deck.
1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
Top Deck Matters
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
1 Oracle's Vault
1 Garruk's Horde
Explore Creatures
1 Ixalli's Diviner
1 Merfolk Branchwalker
1 Jadelight Ranger
1 Siren Lookout
1 Tishana's Wayfinder
Top Deck Manipulation
1 Treasure Map
1 Naga Oracle
Draw Creatures
1 River Hoopoe
1 Champion of Wits
1 Kefnet the Mindful
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Utility Creatures
1 Narnam Renegade
1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
1 Manglehorn
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Tendershoot Dryad
1 Heart of Kiran
1 Aethersphere Harvester
1 Weatherlight
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Non-creature permanents
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Thaumatic Compass
1 Gate to the Afterlife
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Path of Discovery
1 Bounty of the Luxa
1 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Instant and Sorcery
1 Negate
1 River's Rebuke
1 Uncage the Menagerie
Lands (22)
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Woodland Stream
1 Ipnu Rivulet
1 Desert of the Indomitable
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Sequestered Stash
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Memorial to Unity
1 Memorial to Genius
7 Forest
4 Island
There are a number of intricate interactions, and this deck is all about sequencing things in a way that will help you get more value from each card than you would first believe.
Let's start with Nissa, Steward of Elements. I will point out that with planeswalker commanders, it makes a huge difference if you are going first or last. Often if you go last, you're probably not going to have an opportunity to cast her and protect her through the early, to even mid game. Simply I play a lot of games where I don't cast her until the late game. However often if going first, then you can cast her out and she might just stick for the whole game. So the luck of the die is a factor.
Nissa, Steward of Elements Scry 2 ability is perfect for setting up plays with the rest of your 59 cards. You might be needing to get more loyalty counters because of damage to her, so using her to peer through the first couple of cards on your library will allow you to calculate plays for maximum value. I find that I'm mainly using the +2 Scry 2 ability most of the time, as using her +0 ability without knowing the top card, can be too random. However you can always setup the top 2 cards, so you can calculate by putting the card you are going to get for your normal draw step, then also knowing what your top card is, so her loyalty can be exact for gaining value the next time for the +0 ability.
There are 22 creatures in the deck. Using Nissa +0 ability to put these creatures into play from your deck, it's reasonable to only have 3 or 4 loyalty counters. This is important, because often you will want to cast Nissa as soon as possible. You can cast her for the minimum 1 loyalty counter, then use her +2 Scry 2 to get her up to 3 loyalty.
The creatures in this deck are not necessary powerful or scary as attackers or blockers at first. But they are not meant to be. Their purpose is to gain you value, as well as gum up the board to protect Nissa. It's perfectly fine to multiple block with your creatures, to trade at 2 for 1, etc, as you have a longer term goal with getting your creatures back with God-Pharaoh's Gift. Once they start coming back as 4/4 then their ability to threaten become the real deal.
How you sequence your turns, is going to come down to what you need at the time. With 5 explore creatures and Path of Discovery, you can make sure that you almost invariably have lands to play each turn. Wayward Swordtooth can make sure that you can make better use of any extra land draws. The explore creatures also allow you to decide if you want to put a card into your graveyard or keep it on top. If you have Nissa on the appropriate loyalty counters to put that creature into play, then you might decide to keep it on top. However often you will be putting creatures into your graveyard, so that you can get value off God-Pharaoh's Gift later in the game, as well as filtering further through your deck.
The explore creatures are nicely costed as well, as often you will get the +1/+1 counter. So their ability to keep up with what your opponents are putting out stats wise with creatures, should keep you in a better than average position of protecting Nissa at least early to mid game. With God-Pharaoh's Gift they can come back as 5/5, which can deal with the bigger creatures in the later stages of the game.
With Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde, bottlenecks are often when it's lands that are your top card(s). The explore creatures will allow you to draw those lands, to free up for potential creatures instead.
Vizier of the Menagerie and Garruk's Horde are also great because they give you the necessary information to make a lot of decisions. Often you actually want to use Nissa to ramp lands into play. So you will have the required knowledge to calculate for extra mana.
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter is another card that you can set up plays efficiently given knowledge. With 13 cards at 4 mana or more, you want to try and set up, for a maximum value of 3 cmc off the top. Statistically speaking once you are casting 3 cmc or less spells you are less likely to get the free cast, and draw the card instead.
Oracle's Vault can be used to filter away the top of your deck if you have prior knowledge and are wishing to get rid of it, or better still, cast it if you have the mana. It also allows you to land ramp, while being yet another card that prevents you flooding out with land. Once it is fully online, then you can cast those cards for free.
Treasure map is another Scry card, which as you see has major purpose in this deck. The transform is also nice as it is further land ramp and draw.
Naga Oracle does everything you want, both enabling you to stack your deck, as well as put creatures into your graveyard for God-Pharaoh's Gift.
World Shaper can be setup for extra land ramp and use it's attacking ability to sculpt the top of your library more. Putting creatures and lands into graveyard will mean that there are more creatures for Gate to the Afterlife and God-Pharaoh's Gift. You don't mind getting it killed when attacking or blocking as you should be getting value from it. There are 8 lands that go to graveyard by themselves. Ipnu Rivulet, Desert of the Indomitable, Desert of the Mindful, Evolving Wilds, Field of Ruin, Sequestered Stash, Memorial to Unity, Memorial to Genius.
Utility creatures
Oashra Cultivator is cheap land ramp, which goes to graveyard, so you can get value with God-Pharaoh's Gift later. Anything that shuffles your library is really important in this deck, as it allows you to get extra looks at the top of your library.
Narnam Renegade is a nice cheap incentive for opponents not to send their creatures in at Nissa.
Manglehorn and Thrashing Brontodon can be used to remove threatening artifacts and enchantments.
River Hoopoe is used as a 1/3 flying blocker for any other pesky flying creatures that might threaten Nissa, as well as it's ability to draw in the later stages of the game.
Champion of Wits gets you more looks at the top of your library, as well as simply drawing cards. Any creature at 3 cmc are important in this deck to try and get consistent value.
Tendershoot Dryad is the only creature that doesn't cost 4 mana or less, but it's so powerful at generating blockers in a multiplayer game that it's too good not to include in the deck.
There are two Gods, Kefnet the Mindful and Rhonas the Indomitable, which are mainly to block incoming creatures attacking Nissa. With explore triggers you will be drawing extra lands, so the ability to have the necessary threshold of 7 cards for Kefnet the Mindful is very feasible. Blocking flying creatures is important for Nissa, so you might have to draw with Kefnet the Mindful, to get the threshold. Rhonas the Indomitable is a little bit more mana intensive, but as long as you hold up 3 mana to pump one of your creatures, you will be able to threaten to kill most creatures that come your way. Indestructible is the real deal, in a singleton format which has limited exile options and mass removal will be popular.
Vehicles dominating the skies
There are 4 vehicles in the deck, Heart of Kiran, Aethersphere Harvester, Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Weatherlight. After testing the deck a lot, I found that I was too weak to flyers. So even though these vehicles are not creatures for the top deck hits, their ability to protect Nissa is super important. They also provide a way of being stronger against sorcery mass creature removal. It must also be noted that with the indestructible Gods in play, you can really make opponents creature wipes ineffective against you.
Alpha strikes! I've found that with Nissa ultimate ability to produce 2 x 5/5 creatures, that you can attack in the air for a potential 27 damage with all the vehicles as well.
Non-creature cards
Thaumatic Compass is mainly used for its transform land Spires of Orazca, so that you can protect Nissa against some of the bigger threats. It also allows you to shuffle your library, which always has value. Because of Nissa ability to put extra lands into play you will be reaching the 7 lands a lot sooner than other decks.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc is one of the power cards of the format. You have enough cheap creatures to consistently transform into Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun, which will allow you to function on all cylinders. It also gives you a fresh look at the top of your library when you cast it, which is what this deck is all about.
Bounty of the Luxa has been described as a pseudo planeswalker thats hard to remove, and I agree. Further draw and mana is always welcome.
Uncage the Menagerie is the best tutor in Brawl period. The ability to cast it on any 3 or more mana curve means that you can get value in a number of ways.
GG1 you can get Narnam Renegade if you need something to dissuade opponents from attacking Nissa. You might want one of the mana creatures instead.
GG2 can get you two of these, Ixalli's Diviner, Merfolk Branchwalker or River Hoopoe.
GG3 is where you can get a lot of value. There are 12 creatures you can search for.
If you need to build a brick wall of defense then getting Kefnet the Mindful and Rhonas the Indomitable together will mean that Rhonas will be able to attack and block naturally.
GG4 can get you these, Vizier of the Menagerie, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Naga Oracle, World Shaper. All of these cards are perfect for your engines.
It must also be noted that Uncage the Menagerie also shuffles your library if necessary.
River's Rebuke is a catch-all for the opponent who is most likely to win.
I've already mentioned shuffling your library can be important for further looks at the top of your library, so Evolving Wilds and Field of Ruin can do this. Make sure you don't unnecessarily crack these until you might get value off them this way.
Sequestered Stash can be used to get God-Pharaoh's Gift back from your graveyard, as well as filtering through more of your top deck.
Conclusion
You don't need to be too worried about mass removal of creatures, as most of yours are being played for their initial value. As long as it's a level playing field after a wipe, then the deck is designed to rebuild fast with it's combination of synergies.
I hope that you've been able to see how all these strategies make for an amazing value deck. It's easy to look at the cards individually at first and think of them as a little under-powered for a multiplayer format. But when you start casting these things for free and not even needing to draw them, that it starts to pile up and you can really get ahead.
But it is a tricky deck to play, multiplayer presents even more decisions. If you're willing to play the deck to hone your skills at deck manipulation, then you will come out a better player. Commander players have access to cards like Oracle of Mul Daya and Sensei's Divining Top, so will have exposure to this sort of archetype, but if you're coming from newer standard environments, you probably won't have had the chance to explore this way of playing Magic much. So having access to a card like Nissa, Steward of Elements as a commander, is the perfect excuse to really explore the mechanic. It rewards good play, and punishes bad play, so be prepared to have a few knocks at first if you're newer to the foray, until you get used to the deck and your decision making gets more fine tuned.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The only changes I've made is adding Wayward Swordtooth and removing a land, as you really do hit land drops with explore and the various other draws. Once you get get the cities blessing (which can happen quickly with land ramp and cheap creatures), provides a solid blocker for Nissa.
[edit]
I also removed Aid from the Cowl. It's just too hard to get Revolt in this deck. Added Disallow as a catch all for later game states.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
But you can just attack with World Shaper to put the top three cards into graveyard when you wanting to mill yourself. Another way of getting creatures and lands to graveyard. Plus you don't mind it getting killed on the attack, where you really want the Emperor's Vanguard to survive.
[edit]
Also replaced Search for Azcanta for Thaumatic Compass. The protection Spires of Orazca offers Nissa is amazing, and shuffling your library is beneficial as well as getting lands.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
- Heart of Kiran
- Aethersphere Harvester
- Weatherlight
- Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
- Sandwurm Convergence
- Tatyova, Benthic Druid
- Memorial to Unity
- Memorial to Genius
RemovedNiv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
It's a Forest, so 7 Forests.
I've been unimpressed with Memorial to Unity and Memorial to Genius, I just don't think you ever get the "opportunity" to use them. So if you want to just run an extra Forest and Island over these then I think the deck would probably be better. But I'll test them more, better to really make sure.
It the sort of deck that requires some reps, I find myself using the Scry +2 way more often than I first anticipated, but that ability I find is just as powerful as the +0. I have a lot of games where I've never had the opportunity to cast Nissa, as the board is flooded with creatures. It happens, but you can still function and win games without her.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The last game I played was coming down to whether I was going to have no cards left. I managed to get one more turn, by using Sequestered Stash in my upkeep to put a card back on top.
The thing is that I had to stop using all my draw/filter effects by the time I had 10 cards left in the deck.
I'm not keen on a card like Perpetual Timepiece or The Mending of Dominaria, as it's counter productive to the God-Pharaoh's Gift.
So I've simply replaced World Shaper with Ramunap Excavator. I found the World Shaper to be pretty inconsistent. Ramunap Excavator not amazing in the deck either, but can be used to never run out of cards by putting Sequestered Stash back into play and using it every turn to always have a card back on top of library. Hilarious, but actually a needed mechanic in the deck, as 59 cards is an easy number to get through
Added
+ Ramunap Excavator
Removed
- World Shaper
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Added
+ Dryad Greenseeker
Removed
- Weatherlight
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith