I think people are underestimating how powerful her ability is, by including generic goodstuff and slower, more gradual strategies. I think the best way to build her is going to be to focus on staying low-cmc, with low-cmc strategies. Anything that costs more than 2 has to really justify its inclusion. I think ramp is going to be necessary, but only cheap rocks to get Feather out and protected ASAP. With how much protection we can run without compromising our strategy, Feather is practically invincible.
From there, the plan is to exploit heroic creatures and other cast triggers. The obvious synergy is the cheap cantrips, but I'm focusing on a few things besides the obvious. Because so many of the best triggers require themselves to be targeted, one of my favorite synergies are functionally-useless spells that allow many targets for low mana, such as dwarven song and heaven's gate, so you can trigger all your heroic creatures for a single mana. The second focus of the deck is disruption in the form of removal - ideally removal that has a secondary utility when targeting your own creatures. Once we've drawn a million cards off cheap cantrips, the removal can be thrown out at enemy targets without worrying about getting value out of them. A good example of this is something like oblation and path to Exile, which both work great with anything producing tokens. Primal Amulet can make it possible to do both, hitting tokens for value and enemies for removal at the same time. And Paradox Engine with a mana rock can let us cast everything over and over.
As far as winning, we've got quite a few options. Firestorm can do tons of face damage while clearing the field constantly. Tokens are also an easy way to go off, with many ways to pump them, or just generate enough to overwhelm. heroic creatures can get huge, akroan conscriptor can use enemies against their controller, guttersnipe can do tons of damage, monastery mentor is a huge army in a can...and simplest of all, Feather herself can easily hit lethal damage with a few pumps.
Anyway, here's my decklist...it's a taaaad over 100 cards the right number of cards!
I'm having a hell of a time whittling down, there are a ton of really strong options. Any help on that front would be appreciated. It's currently at 113 cards, so there's plenty of work to be done.
Seize the Day seems like a no brainer, just for sheer value.
People seem to like this with Feather, and maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really get it.
Compare to any other red voltron commander - the first time you use this, it costs 4. The second time, it costs 3, but with Feather, it costs 4, because you have to exile and return it to hand. So you're actually losing value until you cast it a THIRD time, also for 4. By which point...I mean, what are you doing? You've already attacked at least 5 times - You haven't won the game yet? Plus you can't do the big pump into triple-swing turn, because it won't return to your hand until endstep.
I think it fits well into a Feather deck that is going heavy on pumps and trying to kill with Feather commander damage. For this version of the deck though, I'm focusing more on value from heroic creatures, cantrips, and removal, so putting together an early lethal attack with Feather is unlikely, making this card significantly less exciting. It's also really expensive, which makes it a bad way to trigger my heroic creatures for value. That's why I chose to run rush of blood and onward // victory instead, which also functionally double her damage but at a lower cost and instant speed, which makes them better for triggering my heroic dudes, and in combo with soul's fire and fall of the hammer.
I could see it making the cut for a commander-damage-focused build for sure, though. I might try one of those too. Feather is super cool, there's lots of ways to build her.
I'm sorry if this comes off as contrarian to the premise of the deck, but I feel you could shave some of the more vanilla heroic dudes and pump. In a perfect scenario all the guys will put on double digits of counters every single turn cycle, but in a more realistic game state you'll have to devote a lot of attention to something like Akroan Skyguard to have it do anything. Similarly, Brute Strength is just a straight up Giant Growth, which may help close out the game with Feather voltron but is otherwise relatively narrow. Firestorm feels a little on the winmore side. This may be me completely missing the point of what you're trying to do here though.
I'm sorry if this comes off as contrarian to the premise of the deck, but I feel you could shave some of the more vanilla heroic dudes and pump. In a perfect scenario all the guys will put on double digits of counters every single turn cycle, but in a more realistic game state you'll have to devote a lot of attention to something like Akroan Skyguard to have it do anything. Similarly, Brute Strength is just a straight up Giant Growth, which may help close out the game with Feather voltron but is otherwise relatively narrow. Firestorm feels a little on the winmore side. This may be me completely missing the point of what you're trying to do here though.
I also question the heroic triggers somewhat heavily. These are like.... limited level creatures we are trying to make do things in commander. They are slow to pick up speed and require a lot of very specific building and time to make them do things. I just feel like it might be one of those things where it takes too many cards to set up and make it do the cool and funky thing you are trying to get it to do.
I think its cool, I just think that it takes a lot of setup and the payoff might not justify the complexly to assemble.
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I think in most cases the spells we'll be casting most often - stuff like panic and heal do not care where they're pointed, and feather definitely doesn't care if they're pointed at her. So the bonus we get from targeting a heroic dude is basically free. So - to a certain extent - we can probably analyze the heroic dudes as though, rather than having a heroic ability, they had a "two times every turn or so" ability.
So to run down the list...
tenth district legionnaire - adding a scry to every cast is a pretty big freebie, plus it grows quickly. I think the scry puts it over the top, though, along with the low cmc.
akroan conscriptor - I don't love the high cost here, but the ability is pretty bonkers when used at instant speed since you can keep smacking people's creatures into each other, or go for a sweet alpha strike. It's possible it will end up being too slow and expensive if the deck is fast enough, but in a slower control game it seems busted.
akroan crusader - makes tokens, which amplifies a lot of our later combos. Plus it's super cheap.
akroan skyguard - this is the only one I've left in from the "just gets counters" club, primarily because it's cheap and evasive, and I'm guessing it's the most contentious. If it's growing by +5, +6, +7 every turn cycle that seems to me like the sort of thing that's going to be a serious win condition personally, but it may end up being too slow.
anax and cymede - they enable a lot of our token strategies and are also just pretty strong on their own. Also helps with feather lethals.
elite skirmisher - not as spicy as conscriptor, but it only costs 3 and you can eliminate multiple dudes from combat each turn like a citadel siege on steroids. Might end up being irrelevant in a meta where combat is irrelevant, but I usually assume it will not be.
fabled hero - with the double strike this seems like a fairly fast way to win, once it's a 10/10 which could happen pretty quickly. The lack of evasion might make it bad? But we have tools for that too.
phalanx leader - I think basically everyone is running this guy, not much needs to be said.
vanguard of brimaz - also enables token synergies
and that's basically all of them.
I think the only ones that are really contentious are probably(?) skyguard, skirmisher, and maybe fabled hero? anax and cymede might end up being a little underpowered since the buff doesn't stick around, but we don't have a ton of great enablers for tokens so I think we should take what we can get (plus the trample is fairly hard to find in RW). We're still talking about a functional 5-pt overrun if not more. There is a solid chance we should be running serra ascendant, since it compares roughly with something like skyguard and gets going faster. I want to test the deck and see what ends up being the primary wincon. But skyguard and skirmisher I think can both pretty easily knock people out basically on their own, especially with how much protection we can offer them.
I also question the heroic triggers somewhat heavily. These are like.... limited level creatures we are trying to make do things in commander. They are slow to pick up speed and require a lot of very specific building and time to make them do things. I just feel like it might be one of those things where it takes too many cards to set up and make it do the cool and funky thing you are trying to get it to do.
I think its cool, I just think that it takes a lot of setup and the payoff might not justify the complexly to assemble.
Well, it requires feather. And...targeting spells? Feather is a 3-cmc commander in a deck with tons of ways to protect her, and almost half the deck is targeting spells (although some won't work for obvious reasons...but still easily half the nonlands work just fine). I guess I don't get what you mean as far as setup. These seem like highly redundant combos with relatively few moving parts. If multiple removals get pointed at Feather every time she comes out then we could be in trouble, but I don't think it's reasonable to build this deck to withstand that level of hate. Historically boros has gotten by, when it does, primarily by being evaluated as a lesser threat and not drawing too much hate.
It does occur to me that this deck should almost certainly be running more fast mana, like mox diamond and chrome mox. Once we're in full-on combo mode the downsides are negligible and it'll help us get to that point ASAP. Might even be worth including some rituals too.
I think in most cases the spells we'll be casting most often - stuff like panic and heal do not care where they're pointed, and feather definitely doesn't care if they're pointed at her. So the bonus we get from targeting a heroic dude is basically free. So - to a certain extent - we can probably analyze the heroic dudes as though, rather than having a heroic ability, they had a "two times every turn or so" ability.
So to run down the list...
tenth district legionnaire - adding a scry to every cast is a pretty big freebie, plus it grows quickly. I think the scry puts it over the top, though, along with the low cmc.
akroan conscriptor - I don't love the high cost here, but the ability is pretty bonkers when used at instant speed since you can keep smacking people's creatures into each other, or go for a sweet alpha strike. It's possible it will end up being too slow and expensive if the deck is fast enough, but in a slower control game it seems busted.
akroan crusader - makes tokens, which amplifies a lot of our later combos. Plus it's super cheap.
akroan skyguard - this is the only one I've left in from the "just gets counters" club, primarily because it's cheap and evasive, and I'm guessing it's the most contentious. If it's growing by +5, +6, +7 every turn cycle that seems to me like the sort of thing that's going to be a serious win condition personally, but it may end up being too slow.
anax and cymede - they enable a lot of our token strategies and are also just pretty strong on their own. Also helps with feather lethals.
elite skirmisher - not as spicy as conscriptor, but it only costs 3 and you can eliminate multiple dudes from combat each turn like a citadel siege on steroids. Might end up being irrelevant in a meta where combat is irrelevant, but I usually assume it will not be.
fabled hero - with the double strike this seems like a fairly fast way to win, once it's a 10/10 which could happen pretty quickly. The lack of evasion might make it bad? But we have tools for that too.
phalanx leader - I think basically everyone is running this guy, not much needs to be said.
vanguard of brimaz - also enables token synergies
and that's basically all of them.
I think the only ones that are really contentious are probably(?) skyguard, skirmisher, and maybe fabled hero? anax and cymede might end up being a little underpowered since the buff doesn't stick around, but we don't have a ton of great enablers for tokens so I think we should take what we can get (plus the trample is fairly hard to find in RW). We're still talking about a functional 5-pt overrun if not more. There is a solid chance we should be running serra ascendant, since it compares roughly with something like skyguard and gets going faster. I want to test the deck and see what ends up being the primary wincon. But skyguard and skirmisher I think can both pretty easily knock people out basically on their own, especially with how much protection we can offer them.
Well, it requires feather. And...targeting spells? Feather is a 3-cmc commander in a deck with tons of ways to protect her, and almost half the deck is targeting spells (although some won't work for obvious reasons...but still easily half the nonlands work just fine). I guess I don't get what you mean as far as setup. These seem like highly redundant combos with relatively few moving parts. If multiple removals get pointed at Feather every time she comes out then we could be in trouble, but I don't think it's reasonable to build this deck to withstand that level of hate. Historically boros has gotten by, when it does, primarily by being evaluated as a lesser threat and not drawing too much hate.
It does occur to me that this deck should almost certainly be running more fast mana, like mox diamond and chrome mox. Once we're in full-on combo mode the downsides are negligible and it'll help us get to that point ASAP. Might even be worth including some rituals too.
My point being more along the lines of:
Most of the creatures in this deck don't kill anyone / accomplish anything quickly. It takes them a while in play to build things up. Sure most of it is cheap but it seems like its built on the back of setting up feather, multiple creatures, keeping spells up and never letting someone remove you from the board. The +1/+1 guys seem frail and slow to build up and I don't see a lot of synergy for the token stuff other than Zada / Mirror Dragon.
You can't protect your creatures from everything. Different protection effects have different weaknesses. Sac, Exile, Tuck, and -/- sweepers are all still things. I always assume that regardless of what I do someone will find a way to interact with what I am doing. In different metas different types of cards have different popularity but its worth noting that a lot of this protection is situational. Beyond that, its hard in the early turns to set up, draw cards, and have redundant protection up at all times.
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Most of the creatures in this deck don't kill anyone / accomplish anything quickly. It takes them a while in play to build things up. Sure most of it is cheap but it seems like its built on the back of setting up feather, multiple creatures, keeping spells up and never letting someone remove you from the board. The +1/+1 guys seem frail and slow to build up and I don't see a lot of synergy for the token stuff other than Zada / Mirror Dragon.
You can't protect your creatures from everything. Different protection effects have different weaknesses. Sac, Exile, Tuck, and -/- sweepers are all still things. I always assume that regardless of what I do someone will find a way to interact with what I am doing. In different metas different types of cards have different popularity but its worth noting that a lot of this protection is situational. Beyond that, its hard in the early turns to set up, draw cards, and have redundant protection up at all times.
Well, it may not be advisable to go balls-out as quickly as possible, but play it a little safe, both to keep up protection and to avoid drawing excessive hate. That's part of why I have a lot of 2-cmc rocks, to maximize my ability to protect Feather T3. That's also why the deck runs a lot of control, so I can keep myself in the game even if things don't work perfectly.
Of the +1/+1 counter guys, only 2 don't also contribute in other ways. Those 2 (hero and skyguard) might end up not being worth it, but I think there's still real potential for creatures that can grow that quickly and permanently, especially with how much protection we're running. Does that make them literally invincible? Well, no. But aggro never wins if control has the right answers at the right time. Aggro wins because they frequently don't, as long as aggro can put enough pressure on them that they don't have time to find them and cast them. playing hero on 3 mana into feather on 4 means you could easily be swinging for 10+ with the hero on the next turn and 20 by turn after that, while still keeping up protection and drawing cards at the same time. Have an answer, the right answer, right now, or die.
And it's also worth pointing out that, generally-speaking, whoever's throwing out removal has to pay for their mistakes. If they aim targeted removal and we have protection, or a board wipe and we have indestructible, then those spells are just getting countered and they don't get to try again. If they have something we can't protect against, then fine, but we haven't wasted our protection and it'll likely come in handy next time.
But only time will tell, I suppose. Feather is unique enough that it's hard to speculate with any certainty.
For tokens, there's mirrorwing, zada, phalanx leader, A+C...monastery mentor and golem provide their own support...and of course, they still attack and block just fine. With a couple token producers we could be spitting out 10+ power per turn cycle without any support at all. And since many of our spells help us draw/scry through the deck while making those tokens, hitting a way to support them doesn't seem unlikely, hopefully around the time we want one. The main reason for tokens is simply that they're all fine cards on their own, and go fairly ballistic when put together in the right ways. But that's why I haven't included cards that don't do anything without tokens (such as skullclamp).
The way I see it, if you have feather and you're casting targeted spells for draw/scry (which I assume will be the primary play pattern for most versions of the deck not going for ASAP commander-damage kills) - most of those spells don't do much of anything on their own. So if you don't have something that cares about being targeted, you're just losing that value. young pyromancer is no better than an overpriced akroan crusader if you don't have anything that cares about being targeted.
I'm also going pretty low cmc, which is why I cut some arguably more exciting heroic creatures like labyrinth champion. After playing this we'll see how I feel about the speed and play patterns of the deck, and whether it's worth focusing on more impactful heroic creatures and playing a slower more control-oriented game, or if the deck should aim for a fast win off quickly ratcheting up heroic creatures before someone finds an answer.
I like this concept. I'm looking forward to the finished cut.
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I am addicted to Sunforger, so I am wondering why it isn't on your list? You've got a lot of niche cards for the 'forger to tutor. Heck, you even get to Sunforger Aurelia's Fury, cast it for X = 0, and buy it back with Feather which is fun.
And I think you have room for it. Feather buys back every spell you cast, so I think running 46 instants and sorceries that interact with Feather is a liiiittttle overkill. I'd try to winnow it down to my favorite 30-35 so that you can boost your creature count and also run a few more sweet utility cards like Sunforger.
I also wonder if Launch the Fleet is worth running in your list.
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I like this concept. I'm looking forward to the finished cut.
Thanks! I need to make some serious cuts first though. Also one of my friends want to try brawl, so I guess me and my gf are making brawl decks first. Although maybe I'll make a Feather brawl deck.
I am addicted to Sunforger, so I am wondering why it isn't on your list? You've got a lot of niche cards for the 'forger to tutor. Heck, you even get to Sunforger Aurelia's Fury, cast it for X = 0, and buy it back with Feather which is fun.
And I think you have room for it. Feather buys back every spell you cast, so I think running 46 instants and sorceries that interact with Feather is a liiiittttle overkill. I'd try to winnow it down to my favorite 30-35 so that you can boost your creature count and also run a few more sweet utility cards like Sunforger.
I also wonder if Launch the Fleet is worth running in your list.
Sunforger is (or at least has in the past been) my favorite card, so it's kind of shocking that it's not included, but I don't think it makes a ton of sense here. Mostly from an efficiency point of view - it's 8 mana before it does anything major, and most of our spells cost 1-2 mana. Not an amazing bang for buck. Even the 3RW per spell afterwards is pretty rough. Until proven otherwise, I want this deck to be a low-curve, smash-and-grab deck that comes out swinging and doesn't stop until everyone is dead.
Also, unless you have evidence to the contrary I'm pretty certain that aurelia's fury does not return when cast off sunforger, since you can't assign 0 damage to a target with a "divided as you choose" spell. You'll have no damage and thus, no targets, and it will be dumped into the graveyard.
Launch the fleet is potentially interesting but the fact that I have to attack throttles the utility imo. If I were doing an all-in token build then I'd consider it more heavily, but I'm not so I didn't. I don't actually have many creatures, so in a lot of cases I won't have many targets. Also I value instants over sorceries by a lot, especially those that want me to pay a bunch of mana into them.
If I decide I have too many instants and sorceries (which is possible...but there's a variety of things I really need to reliably have, like draw power, protection, and removal, all ideally in multiples, sooooo) I'll probably end up putting in cards that do very efficient things without mana investment. Put bluntly, sunforger is a great mana sink, but Feather turns this entire deck into a much, much more efficient mana sink. That's why I'm running stuff like firestorm that let me turn card resources into a very efficient mana-wise win, when I'm flush with cards and short on mana. The other sorts of things I could see including would be stuff like dragonmaster outcast that do a lot of work for a small mana investment. Rather than sunforger, which does a ton, but requires a ton of mana at the same time.
Man, you continue to be too wise for me - it's why I go read your Phelddagrif primer every few months. That makes a ton of sense for sure; with Feather wanting you to be able to potentially hold up a minimum of like WWWW every round (to make sure you can Gods Willing or Pollen Remedy on every single turn each player takes) you probably won't have the ability to pay 3RW to go tutor for trickery, and like you also say most of your spells are 1 and 2 CMC so you aren't getting full value in the same way a standard Sunforger Package would by pulling out Master Warcrafts and Wild Ricochets and stuff. I was hoping Feather would be the first great home for Sunforger in my collection but seems like it might be a bit win-more and too slow.
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I'll agree that Sunforger is not spammable in Feather. However, it is a great silver bullet to hold up, while simultaneously making Feather sting like an OG elder dragon on impact. You don't pop it all the time, you whisk out whatever piece you direly need if in a bad spot and leave it unattended otherwise. I'm not saying it's a no-brain auto-include, and I actually cut it from my list for a while for the very reason Dirk outlines, but it is unique in what it can offer the build.
Yeah, we'll see, it might make it's way back in at some point. I think the more the deck moves toward slower control/ramp the more sense it makes. Right now I want to push her to the limit, though, so anything that slows me down is out, out, out. If that ends up sucking then I'll reevaluate and try some slower builds.
I will also say though - because I'm running more instants/sorceries than your build, I have more redundancy and thus less likelihood sunforger will be useful.
Aurelia's fury: very powerful and flexible...and expensive. I like the ability to block board wipes, but you're paying 4+ per turn for that. As far as targeting multiple minions of yours for triggers, it's worse than random non-value 1cmc chaff. Great for slow, but I want FAST! Cut!
Fell the mighty: sorcery, expensive, sucks at killing anything less than power 4. We want fat dudes who smash, and this does not play ball. Are we really casting this more than once anyway? Cut! Chandra's ignition stays in - easier to protect our important dudes from while still wiping enemy boards, and it's a solid finisher.
Martial glory: it's fine, but it's the least exciting pump. Cut!
Chaos warp: tough call, but I don't think it's really something I'd ever aim at my side of the board while I have so few permanents, so it's just a good removal spell. Cut! Oblation stays since it's ok to target my stuff sometimes.
Cloud key: I've got a loooot of 1 cmc instants. Cut!
Primal amulet: I love it, but it doesn't retrigger heroic and it has the cloud key problem. And cmc 4?? You crazy?? I want FAST! Cut!
Ok, now we're getting somewhere. 6 down, 8 more cuts to go!
Edit:
Btw @ispathfinder and @rumpy5897 - the heroic fat dudes also have another important function - they make fall of the hammer, souls fire, ignition, etc much, much better and more reliable.
Second edit: more cuts!
Zada, mirrorwing dragon, and precursor golem - all have great synergy with cantrip draws, but they don't work with hardly anything else and they're soooo expeeeeensive. And expensive means slow. We want fast, fast, FAST! Cuuuut!
Average cmc is now below 2! Even with pyrokinesis being a filthy liar.
gold myr, iron myr, coldsteel heart, fire diamond, marble diamond - all slow, enter tapped (or with summoning sickness). Replaced with fast mana like the moxen, so we can get moving ASAP, and drop them mid-game without sacrificing tempo. Cut 'em all!
gird for battle - were it an instant, it'd be an easy keep. As the last sorcery outside of ignition...too slow. Cut!
elite skirmisher - arguably the lamest effect, plus it dies to our 1-damage spells we'd like to be able to trigger him with. And he costs 3, which is increasingly the top of our curve. Cut!
rush of blood - basically only useful as a finisher, and 3 is a ton for something you're planning to recast. Too slow! Cut! Leaving in onward // victory, so we still have some burst potential as a finisher if we really need it, but mostly I prefer the 1-mana +3 pumps I think, since they're reasonable efficient heroic triggerers.
Also I cut a plains for an inspiring vantage. Not 100% sure about the mana split, time will tell. Worth pointing out that we're running almost zero utility lands, and I think that's correct. We have strict color requirements and we should always have better things to do with our mana than dump it into lands.
If you want more cuts, I will say that my Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow deck (which has a similarly low-curve principal with lots of repeated draw effects and cheap mana rocks) is often mana flooded at 34 lands and I've been tempted to go to 33 (especially as I am not currently running Chrome Mox and totally could as I do own a copy). And that deck has a MUCH higher curve since it does want to hit 5 CMC to start slamming Conspiracy or develop ninjas while holding up counterspell mana. Granted Yuriko is only CMC 2 and cheats the commander tax as long as I can keep the weenies coming, but I'd wonder if 35 lands is too much.
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Game 1 I cast Feather turn 1 off mox diamond and gemstone caverns, and then quickly recouped my hand with cantrip value. I was immediately public enemy number one from the beginning of the game and was last in turn order, but everyone else working together was unable to stop me going off with various trigger-happy minions, despite wipes and tons of colorless (grr) removal.
Game 2 I got into a bit of a tiff with one of the other players who didn't like me punching him in the head for having the biggest board. I tried to broker a temporary peace, which worked for about a turn until he cast dictate of erebos and started pressuring my board. In the meantime, another player ramped a ton and then resolved an omniscience and won. Sigh.
Game 3 Feather came out turn 2 and immediately got imprisoned in the moon (I didn't have protection in hand anyway, so running her out recklessly didn't really matter). I proceeded to do nothing whatsoever for many turns, until someone finally set her free with a nev's disk. I managed to kill them with repeated chandra's ignitions - the second one he was sure he could protect against by setting off o-stone, but he wasn't expecting the sheltering light in my hand. The last opponent then tried to remove it eot but met god's willing. He tried to put up a defense, but died to commander damage on the next turn.
Game 4 was a grindier one, I didn't have anything very explosive and I had 3 opponents to kill, but I was fairly in control of the game all the way though, bar one or two turns where a dragon player had a couple big ones in play. MVP was akroan conscriptor, who absolutely justified his high price tag. Being able to slam enemy minions around, wreck blocks, wreck attacks...the guy really did it all. Everyone eventually scooped when I was a few turns from winning.
So, 75% winrate. I'll take it.
It was a somewhat time-monopolizing deck, in that I took time out of everyone else's turns. So it might not be a good deck socially.
As far as prospective cuts:
cantrips and protection easily justified themselves.
I'm not 100% sure about ALL of the heroic guys, but most of them were very good. I might try going heavier on them.
I do think the low-curve approach is correct, I was hungry for mana all game, even with such a low curve.
Max hand size wasn't a big deal, I generally kept easily topped-up but was never discarding massive numbers of cards. Colorless mana was annoying early but fine late. Probably good enough to keep in, but I wouldn't go throwing in spellbook or whatever.
Pumps were good, I might include more. But only 1-mana ones I think. Maybe samut's sprint or something with +2 power and other benefits for 1 mana.
I found myself scrying to the top a LOT. Probably more than I should have. I think I'm just in love with all the cards in this deck.
The multi-target stuff was a bit of a letdown. I rarely had more than 1 heroic creature on board. So that stuff might get cut. Or maybe just MOAR HEROIC!
The fast mana was incredibly useful. Might add stuff like lotus petal and springleaf drum.
EDIT: so far as lands were concerned, I never felt excessively flooded (I mean, I discarded some to hand size, but I was never sitting on a hand full of them or anything) so I think 35 seems reasonable. The fact that none of our spells really ever go away made it much less of a concern - I basically always had plenty of gas. If anything, I might add a couple.
Small sample size, obviously, so I probably shouldn't draw too many conclusions.
I think people are underestimating how powerful her ability is, by including generic goodstuff and slower, more gradual strategies. I think the best way to build her is going to be to focus on staying low-cmc, with low-cmc strategies. Anything that costs more than 2 has to really justify its inclusion. I think ramp is going to be necessary, but only cheap rocks to get Feather out and protected ASAP. With how much protection we can run without compromising our strategy, Feather is practically invincible.
From there, the plan is to exploit heroic creatures and other cast triggers. The obvious synergy is the cheap cantrips, but I'm focusing on a few things besides the obvious. Because so many of the best triggers require themselves to be targeted, one of my favorite synergies are functionally-useless spells that allow many targets for low mana, such as dwarven song and heaven's gate, so you can trigger all your heroic creatures for a single mana. The second focus of the deck is disruption in the form of removal - ideally removal that has a secondary utility when targeting your own creatures. Once we've drawn a million cards off cheap cantrips, the removal can be thrown out at enemy targets without worrying about getting value out of them. A good example of this is something like oblation and path to Exile, which both work great with anything producing tokens. Primal Amulet can make it possible to do both, hitting tokens for value and enemies for removal at the same time. And Paradox Engine with a mana rock can let us cast everything over and over.
As far as winning, we've got quite a few options. Firestorm can do tons of face damage while clearing the field constantly. Tokens are also an easy way to go off, with many ways to pump them, or just generate enough to overwhelm. heroic creatures can get huge, akroan conscriptor can use enemies against their controller, guttersnipe can do tons of damage, monastery mentor is a huge army in a can...and simplest of all, Feather herself can easily hit lethal damage with a few pumps.
Anyway, here's my decklist...it's
a taaaad over 100 cardsthe right number of cards!1 Feather, the Redeemed
The Real Heroes (TM) (13)
1 tenth district legionnaire
1 akroan conscriptor
1 akroan crusader
1 akroan skyguard
1 anax and cymede
1 fabled hero
1 phalanx leader
1 vanguard of brimaz
1 burning prophet
1 monastery mentor
1 guttersnipe
1 young pyromancer
1 Paradox Engine
Targeting Spells (4)
1 pollen remedy
1 heaven's gate
1 dwarven song
1 coordinated assault
protection (11)
1 ajani's presence
1 sheltering light (also scry)
1 Ephemeral shields
1 valorous stance (also removal)
1 shelter (also draw)
1 gods willing (also scry)
1 emerge unscathed
1 otherworldly journey
1 long road home
1 eerie interlude
1 dawn charm
1 pyrokinesis
1 oblation (also draw)
1 soul's fire
1 dual shot
1 fall of the titans
1 firestorm
1 reckless rage
1 fall of the hammer
1 impact resonance
1 orim's thunder
1 path to exile
board wipes (1)
1 chandra's ignition
big pumpy pumps (7)
1 psychotic fury (also draw)
1 boros charm
1 titan's strength (also scry)
1 onward // victory
1 stand firm (also scry)
1 brute force
1 borrowed hostility
draw (8)
1 bandage
1 crimson wisps
1 defiant strike
1 expedite
1 heal
1 niveous wisps
1 panic
1 carom
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Boros Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Thought Vessel
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Amber
1 Jeweled Amulet
Land (35)
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Plateau
7 Fetchlands
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Command Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Inspiring Vantage
11 Plains
7 Mountains
1 aurelia's fury
1 martial glory
1 fell the mighty
1 chaos warp
1 cloud key
1 primal amulet
1 zada, hedron grinder
1 mirrorwing dragon
1 precursor golem
1 gold myr
1 iron myr
1 gird for battle
1 coldsteel heart
1 fire diamond
1 marble diamond
1 elite skirmisher
1 rush of blood
I'm having a hell of a time whittling down, there are a ton of really strong options. Any help on that front would be appreciated. It's currently at 113 cards, so there's plenty of work to be done.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
Compare to any other red voltron commander - the first time you use this, it costs 4. The second time, it costs 3, but with Feather, it costs 4, because you have to exile and return it to hand. So you're actually losing value until you cast it a THIRD time, also for 4. By which point...I mean, what are you doing? You've already attacked at least 5 times - You haven't won the game yet? Plus you can't do the big pump into triple-swing turn, because it won't return to your hand until endstep.
I think it fits well into a Feather deck that is going heavy on pumps and trying to kill with Feather commander damage. For this version of the deck though, I'm focusing more on value from heroic creatures, cantrips, and removal, so putting together an early lethal attack with Feather is unlikely, making this card significantly less exciting. It's also really expensive, which makes it a bad way to trigger my heroic creatures for value. That's why I chose to run rush of blood and onward // victory instead, which also functionally double her damage but at a lower cost and instant speed, which makes them better for triggering my heroic dudes, and in combo with soul's fire and fall of the hammer.
I could see it making the cut for a commander-damage-focused build for sure, though. I might try one of those too. Feather is super cool, there's lots of ways to build her.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
I also question the heroic triggers somewhat heavily. These are like.... limited level creatures we are trying to make do things in commander. They are slow to pick up speed and require a lot of very specific building and time to make them do things. I just feel like it might be one of those things where it takes too many cards to set up and make it do the cool and funky thing you are trying to get it to do.
I think its cool, I just think that it takes a lot of setup and the payoff might not justify the complexly to assemble.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
So to run down the list...
tenth district legionnaire - adding a scry to every cast is a pretty big freebie, plus it grows quickly. I think the scry puts it over the top, though, along with the low cmc.
akroan conscriptor - I don't love the high cost here, but the ability is pretty bonkers when used at instant speed since you can keep smacking people's creatures into each other, or go for a sweet alpha strike. It's possible it will end up being too slow and expensive if the deck is fast enough, but in a slower control game it seems busted.
akroan crusader - makes tokens, which amplifies a lot of our later combos. Plus it's super cheap.
akroan skyguard - this is the only one I've left in from the "just gets counters" club, primarily because it's cheap and evasive, and I'm guessing it's the most contentious. If it's growing by +5, +6, +7 every turn cycle that seems to me like the sort of thing that's going to be a serious win condition personally, but it may end up being too slow.
anax and cymede - they enable a lot of our token strategies and are also just pretty strong on their own. Also helps with feather lethals.
elite skirmisher - not as spicy as conscriptor, but it only costs 3 and you can eliminate multiple dudes from combat each turn like a citadel siege on steroids. Might end up being irrelevant in a meta where combat is irrelevant, but I usually assume it will not be.
fabled hero - with the double strike this seems like a fairly fast way to win, once it's a 10/10 which could happen pretty quickly. The lack of evasion might make it bad? But we have tools for that too.
phalanx leader - I think basically everyone is running this guy, not much needs to be said.
vanguard of brimaz - also enables token synergies
and that's basically all of them.
I think the only ones that are really contentious are probably(?) skyguard, skirmisher, and maybe fabled hero? anax and cymede might end up being a little underpowered since the buff doesn't stick around, but we don't have a ton of great enablers for tokens so I think we should take what we can get (plus the trample is fairly hard to find in RW). We're still talking about a functional 5-pt overrun if not more. There is a solid chance we should be running serra ascendant, since it compares roughly with something like skyguard and gets going faster. I want to test the deck and see what ends up being the primary wincon. But skyguard and skirmisher I think can both pretty easily knock people out basically on their own, especially with how much protection we can offer them.
Well, it requires feather. And...targeting spells? Feather is a 3-cmc commander in a deck with tons of ways to protect her, and almost half the deck is targeting spells (although some won't work for obvious reasons...but still easily half the nonlands work just fine). I guess I don't get what you mean as far as setup. These seem like highly redundant combos with relatively few moving parts. If multiple removals get pointed at Feather every time she comes out then we could be in trouble, but I don't think it's reasonable to build this deck to withstand that level of hate. Historically boros has gotten by, when it does, primarily by being evaluated as a lesser threat and not drawing too much hate.
It does occur to me that this deck should almost certainly be running more fast mana, like mox diamond and chrome mox. Once we're in full-on combo mode the downsides are negligible and it'll help us get to that point ASAP. Might even be worth including some rituals too.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
My point being more along the lines of:
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Of the +1/+1 counter guys, only 2 don't also contribute in other ways. Those 2 (hero and skyguard) might end up not being worth it, but I think there's still real potential for creatures that can grow that quickly and permanently, especially with how much protection we're running. Does that make them literally invincible? Well, no. But aggro never wins if control has the right answers at the right time. Aggro wins because they frequently don't, as long as aggro can put enough pressure on them that they don't have time to find them and cast them. playing hero on 3 mana into feather on 4 means you could easily be swinging for 10+ with the hero on the next turn and 20 by turn after that, while still keeping up protection and drawing cards at the same time. Have an answer, the right answer, right now, or die.
And it's also worth pointing out that, generally-speaking, whoever's throwing out removal has to pay for their mistakes. If they aim targeted removal and we have protection, or a board wipe and we have indestructible, then those spells are just getting countered and they don't get to try again. If they have something we can't protect against, then fine, but we haven't wasted our protection and it'll likely come in handy next time.
But only time will tell, I suppose. Feather is unique enough that it's hard to speculate with any certainty.
For tokens, there's mirrorwing, zada, phalanx leader, A+C...monastery mentor and golem provide their own support...and of course, they still attack and block just fine. With a couple token producers we could be spitting out 10+ power per turn cycle without any support at all. And since many of our spells help us draw/scry through the deck while making those tokens, hitting a way to support them doesn't seem unlikely, hopefully around the time we want one. The main reason for tokens is simply that they're all fine cards on their own, and go fairly ballistic when put together in the right ways. But that's why I haven't included cards that don't do anything without tokens (such as skullclamp).
The way I see it, if you have feather and you're casting targeted spells for draw/scry (which I assume will be the primary play pattern for most versions of the deck not going for ASAP commander-damage kills) - most of those spells don't do much of anything on their own. So if you don't have something that cares about being targeted, you're just losing that value. young pyromancer is no better than an overpriced akroan crusader if you don't have anything that cares about being targeted.
I'm also going pretty low cmc, which is why I cut some arguably more exciting heroic creatures like labyrinth champion. After playing this we'll see how I feel about the speed and play patterns of the deck, and whether it's worth focusing on more impactful heroic creatures and playing a slower more control-oriented game, or if the deck should aim for a fast win off quickly ratcheting up heroic creatures before someone finds an answer.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
And I think you have room for it. Feather buys back every spell you cast, so I think running 46 instants and sorceries that interact with Feather is a liiiittttle overkill. I'd try to winnow it down to my favorite 30-35 so that you can boost your creature count and also run a few more sweet utility cards like Sunforger.
I also wonder if Launch the Fleet is worth running in your list.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Also, unless you have evidence to the contrary I'm pretty certain that aurelia's fury does not return when cast off sunforger, since you can't assign 0 damage to a target with a "divided as you choose" spell. You'll have no damage and thus, no targets, and it will be dumped into the graveyard.
Launch the fleet is potentially interesting but the fact that I have to attack throttles the utility imo. If I were doing an all-in token build then I'd consider it more heavily, but I'm not so I didn't. I don't actually have many creatures, so in a lot of cases I won't have many targets. Also I value instants over sorceries by a lot, especially those that want me to pay a bunch of mana into them.
If I decide I have too many instants and sorceries (which is possible...but there's a variety of things I really need to reliably have, like draw power, protection, and removal, all ideally in multiples, sooooo) I'll probably end up putting in cards that do very efficient things without mana investment. Put bluntly, sunforger is a great mana sink, but Feather turns this entire deck into a much, much more efficient mana sink. That's why I'm running stuff like firestorm that let me turn card resources into a very efficient mana-wise win, when I'm flush with cards and short on mana. The other sorts of things I could see including would be stuff like dragonmaster outcast that do a lot of work for a small mana investment. Rather than sunforger, which does a ton, but requires a ton of mana at the same time.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I will also say though - because I'm running more instants/sorceries than your build, I have more redundancy and thus less likelihood sunforger will be useful.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Aurelia's fury: very powerful and flexible...and expensive. I like the ability to block board wipes, but you're paying 4+ per turn for that. As far as targeting multiple minions of yours for triggers, it's worse than random non-value 1cmc chaff. Great for slow, but I want FAST! Cut!
Fell the mighty: sorcery, expensive, sucks at killing anything less than power 4. We want fat dudes who smash, and this does not play ball. Are we really casting this more than once anyway? Cut! Chandra's ignition stays in - easier to protect our important dudes from while still wiping enemy boards, and it's a solid finisher.
Martial glory: it's fine, but it's the least exciting pump. Cut!
Chaos warp: tough call, but I don't think it's really something I'd ever aim at my side of the board while I have so few permanents, so it's just a good removal spell. Cut! Oblation stays since it's ok to target my stuff sometimes.
Cloud key: I've got a loooot of 1 cmc instants. Cut!
Primal amulet: I love it, but it doesn't retrigger heroic and it has the cloud key problem. And cmc 4?? You crazy?? I want FAST! Cut!
Ok, now we're getting somewhere. 6 down, 8 more cuts to go!
Edit:
Btw @ispathfinder and @rumpy5897 - the heroic fat dudes also have another important function - they make fall of the hammer, souls fire, ignition, etc much, much better and more reliable.
Second edit: more cuts!
Zada, mirrorwing dragon, and precursor golem - all have great synergy with cantrip draws, but they don't work with hardly anything else and they're soooo expeeeeensive. And expensive means slow. We want fast, fast, FAST! Cuuuut!
Average cmc is now below 2! Even with pyrokinesis being a filthy liar.
Stuff I for sure need to add:
And maaaybe...
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Cuts were:
gold myr, iron myr, coldsteel heart, fire diamond, marble diamond - all slow, enter tapped (or with summoning sickness). Replaced with fast mana like the moxen, so we can get moving ASAP, and drop them mid-game without sacrificing tempo. Cut 'em all!
gird for battle - were it an instant, it'd be an easy keep. As the last sorcery outside of ignition...too slow. Cut!
elite skirmisher - arguably the lamest effect, plus it dies to our 1-damage spells we'd like to be able to trigger him with. And he costs 3, which is increasingly the top of our curve. Cut!
rush of blood - basically only useful as a finisher, and 3 is a ton for something you're planning to recast. Too slow! Cut! Leaving in onward // victory, so we still have some burst potential as a finisher if we really need it, but mostly I prefer the 1-mana +3 pumps I think, since they're reasonable efficient heroic triggerers.
Also I cut a plains for an inspiring vantage. Not 100% sure about the mana split, time will tell. Worth pointing out that we're running almost zero utility lands, and I think that's correct. We have strict color requirements and we should always have better things to do with our mana than dump it into lands.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
My new meta allows partial mulligans, which makes low lands a LOT better, but I don't think I should let that warp my deckbuilding.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
It did not disappoint.
Game 1 I cast Feather turn 1 off mox diamond and gemstone caverns, and then quickly recouped my hand with cantrip value. I was immediately public enemy number one from the beginning of the game and was last in turn order, but everyone else working together was unable to stop me going off with various trigger-happy minions, despite wipes and tons of colorless (grr) removal.
Game 2 I got into a bit of a tiff with one of the other players who didn't like me punching him in the head for having the biggest board. I tried to broker a temporary peace, which worked for about a turn until he cast dictate of erebos and started pressuring my board. In the meantime, another player ramped a ton and then resolved an omniscience and won. Sigh.
Game 3 Feather came out turn 2 and immediately got imprisoned in the moon (I didn't have protection in hand anyway, so running her out recklessly didn't really matter). I proceeded to do nothing whatsoever for many turns, until someone finally set her free with a nev's disk. I managed to kill them with repeated chandra's ignitions - the second one he was sure he could protect against by setting off o-stone, but he wasn't expecting the sheltering light in my hand. The last opponent then tried to remove it eot but met god's willing. He tried to put up a defense, but died to commander damage on the next turn.
Game 4 was a grindier one, I didn't have anything very explosive and I had 3 opponents to kill, but I was fairly in control of the game all the way though, bar one or two turns where a dragon player had a couple big ones in play. MVP was akroan conscriptor, who absolutely justified his high price tag. Being able to slam enemy minions around, wreck blocks, wreck attacks...the guy really did it all. Everyone eventually scooped when I was a few turns from winning.
So, 75% winrate. I'll take it.
It was a somewhat time-monopolizing deck, in that I took time out of everyone else's turns. So it might not be a good deck socially.
As far as prospective cuts:
cantrips and protection easily justified themselves.
I'm not 100% sure about ALL of the heroic guys, but most of them were very good. I might try going heavier on them.
I do think the low-curve approach is correct, I was hungry for mana all game, even with such a low curve.
Max hand size wasn't a big deal, I generally kept easily topped-up but was never discarding massive numbers of cards. Colorless mana was annoying early but fine late. Probably good enough to keep in, but I wouldn't go throwing in spellbook or whatever.
Pumps were good, I might include more. But only 1-mana ones I think. Maybe samut's sprint or something with +2 power and other benefits for 1 mana.
I found myself scrying to the top a LOT. Probably more than I should have. I think I'm just in love with all the cards in this deck.
The multi-target stuff was a bit of a letdown. I rarely had more than 1 heroic creature on board. So that stuff might get cut. Or maybe just MOAR HEROIC!
The fast mana was incredibly useful. Might add stuff like lotus petal and springleaf drum.
EDIT: so far as lands were concerned, I never felt excessively flooded (I mean, I discarded some to hand size, but I was never sitting on a hand full of them or anything) so I think 35 seems reasonable. The fact that none of our spells really ever go away made it much less of a concern - I basically always had plenty of gas. If anything, I might add a couple.
Small sample size, obviously, so I probably shouldn't draw too many conclusions.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6