Hmm... I would play Lark, from the Sideboard, only against Tron and Grind. Grind meaning control or, for example, Jund. But it does have potential, although that doesn't mean I in the end would run it.
And I know I keep saying potential, but that is only in the reference window that I would have tried it eventually within a year of testing. I have no idea how many of the people reading and participating in the this thread played Kiki-Pod back in the day, but I will remind you that there were only two revolutions within three years. First was a major, the shift from Melira-Pof to Kiki-Pod and the second was a minor, the "discovery" of Deceiver Exarch Then came mother ******* Siege Rhino! and the cute little deck I had been running for almost three years, that actually needef brains to run, turned into an abomination!
But keep on brewing. I'm just an Old Beard who had seen enough stuff to know what can work and what won't work.
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I tried a Saheeli Felidar Vannifar list rather like daviusminimus's on Cockatrice, and I must admit that it does the combo game better and faster than mine:
This deck has more trouble against Humans due to its higher noncreature count, and both decks' Game 1s against Spirits are troublesome, but this has a Gx Tron match-up that's much closer to 50/50, and its Burn match-up is surprisingly good despite not loading up on anti-Burn measures maindeck.
@thErgonomic I was mainly on Melira pod wave back in the time, mostly because I didn't had Grove of the burnwillows and the were quite unavailable to get. But time has come, when I switched to Kiki and it was awesome, hovewer it's so long ago, I have troubles remembering the decklist, lands especially, I could write a melira pod decklist in a minute, though Yeah, Siege Rhino revolution was fine, that was a hit for me, love at first glance.
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So, I've been brewing a bit and a version, which I'll test and try to tune id this - similar to both previus Sahheli/Vannifar lists, there's not much to change obviously and little diffrences are definitely about card preferences.
no sideboard yet, because there is plenty of cards to consider, but definitely Avalanche Riders, Eidolon of rhetoric, Knight of Autumn, maybe Kitchen finks,Linvala, Worship, Scooze... I'm not sure about the main spellskite though, without Chord it's not as good as it could be
Hey guys,
First of all, @Lectrys, I'd like to see a cobra or 2 more in place of hierarch. It does allow some good lines with rallier... if you took that route, an extra rallier or 2 would make sense. Also, I'm not sure what Phantasmal Image offers any more. If we have a 1-drop, we can just combo, no need for image. If we don't, well, you're hoping to naturally draw image and get value. Seems a bit strange to me. Quite an easy change would be something like -1 hierarch, -1 image, +1 rallier +1 cobra. Think that'd smooth out your draws a bit.
Second - please all take this with a massive pinch of salt. I played 2 whole matches on MTGO last night (should have been sleeping, oh well). I'm going to stream later today, a few times if possible. Follow me on twitch.tv/daviusminimus so you get the notifications
Anyway, in my 2 matches, playing the more midrangy/controlly version with 3 chords... I beat a RW Humans deck, and even had a hasty Vannifar off a Hall of the Bandit Lord. It was pretty nice, but I had naturally drawn the Kiki and it was practically uncastable in my hand (I had hierarch + wall of roots, no BOP). But, a T3 Vanifar in post-board games gives you so much value that you're a massive favourite. In that particular match, I podded up ranger, into rallier. Ranger into deceiver into resto which flickered rallier to return a fetch which allowed me to cast a voice of resurgence. So, I went from Dork, Wall, Vannifar to... Rallier, Resto, Voice, Wall, Vannifar... all on Turn 3 against an agro deck. They were never getting through all that, which gave me time to just make land drops and cast kiki, eventually!
I also played storm. A modo bug that doesn't let me undo a wall of roots activation meant that I lost G1 (I woulda had a tonne of mana up and a scooze). I then lost Game 2 from flooding out.
Before I played any matches at all, I was concerned with the 23 land 10 dork set-up I was running. In every 1 of my games, I was able to keep a hand with lands + dork, but multiple times I flooded out. I'm going to try cutting a dork (wall of roots first) and possibly even a 2nd. Compared to old kiki-pod lists, this is a) less likely to pod away a creature, since vannifar isn't as sticky b) has ralliers that can return fetches/lands and c) has less mana sinks in township. I may cut the 3rd Hierarch yet too, but we'll see how I get on with 9 dorks!
Ok guys, I've been playing the list I've posted some days ago, and, even if it works better, I feel that it's still clunky somehow. Now, I'm reading a lot of posts (including the ones in this discussion) about the Saheeli-cat variant, and I'm curious if it works better than the "classic" version of the deck. I must admit that I'm interested, even if it looses completely the toolbox element that I love about the previous list, and I'm curious about its performance. I've played a couple of games with Lectrys's list, and I'm quite getting the hang of it. What are your opinions on the comparison between the two versions?
EDIT: I've edited the list a bit according to personal preferences (wanted to add some utilities, toolbox-style):
I really like the sinergies this variant allows, expecially the tons-o-mana interaction between Lotus Cobra and Renegade Rallier. I added a couple of cards from my previous list, some in particular beacuse I wanted to emulate the combo path with Vannifar (I'm talking about Restoration Angel and the second copy of Renegade Rallier). Do you think I messed up or this list could be viable with the small tweakings I did?
that's why I want two copies of Kiki in my main, in case of drawing one, I can still go for the other... bad luck happens, but taht wuld have to be bad bad luck to draw both of them. there were times when I was trying mardu Nahiri with one Emrakul. well I drew Emrakul so may times when Nahiri had enough counters to search for her... I know statistics works, but I don't beleive in statistics when it comes to MtG, I would apply Murphy's laws instead. Do you play one sigleton card, which you don't want in your opening hand? Be sure, you draw it in your seven 99% of your games...
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@zyrgul_CZ - but as I said, in postboard games in particular, a hasty pod on 3 is going to win the game even if you can't combo because of bad luck... you just get the bomb you need or the value you need, and force the opp into an impossible position. I wont be adding the 2nd kiki just yet. I don't want to draw the card, so adding a 2nd makes it more likely. If I'm winning with POD even when I draw kiki, that means the deck is working well!
@Sgears - your list looks fine, but I'll say the same I said to Lectrys... First, Cobra is 1 of the things that made Saheeli Cat great before, so cutting that doesn't seem right to me. Second, Resto Angel doesn't add anything other than 2 power. You're pretty all-in on the combo still, and felidar lets you do the pod chain and the saheeli flicker AND the kiki kill. No need for resto. Also, look at your curve. You have 9x 4 drops, its way too many. You also have very few cards that you want to sac to evo in the 2-drop slot. So you want to evo from 2 to 4, but you have no 2s and tonnes of 4s.
You have value you can sac at 3, but only 1x 5 drop to fetch.
My own Saheeli version had 0 hierarch, 4 bop, 4 cobra. You have an extra 2 dorks to me, which may be because of the 4-drops, but I think it's a little unncessary. What you're doing there is going all-in on the "if my dork lives" plan, instead of having a nice curve., which I think will just create really skewed match-ups. You'll be poor across bolt decks, better against combo, but occasionally just flood out too.
If I were you, I'd cut the restos altogether, and the tracker probably belongs in the side for grindy matches. With Deputy in the main as a bullet for problem cards, I think Knight is probably unnecessary too. Cutting those gives you space for cards like Coiling Oracle or Wall of Omens, which gives you chump blockers, re-draws towards combo pieces, and sac fodder to get you to your 4-drops. Oracle even ramps occasionally.
With 2 Ralliers and 2 Cobras, I could see a 9th fetch squeezing into your manabase as well.
All in all, I dont think your list is bad, but there's a balance issue imo. So many 4 drops and so few 2 drops makes no sense in an Evo deck. Your SB looks pretty good to me, though I do like Cataclysmic Gearhulk in the board, and potentially Thragtusk. You do have a couple of 3s to sac (knight, rallier) that could take you up to 5 in the MUs where that matters. The 2nd Shalai in the board doesn't excite me either, especially with MD township already.
@daviusminimus I got it, I'll try today and I'll see, whether I'll cut one Kiki or not. I think it's mostly about the approach, if you rely heavily on combo, then 2x kiki, if not, then not I imagined a play against aggro opponent with chain vannifar - finks, sac finks for resto, blink finks, repeat next turn.
Is there any card, that would override vannifar's sorcery speed clause to inastant? That would be awesome. but i don't think, there esists such possibility.
@SGears I like Your list, sir, I really do
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Yeah you're right Zyrgul, it is list dependant. If I had hippos, Conscripts, Sun Titans etc I'd definitely run 2 Kiki's, and probably an extra Deceiver too. I'd want fire-lit thicket in those lists most likely.
Hey guys,
First of all, @Lectrys, I'd like to see a cobra or 2 more in place of hierarch. It does allow some good lines with rallier... if you took that route, an extra rallier or 2 would make sense. Also, I'm not sure what Phantasmal Image offers any more. If we have a 1-drop, we can just combo, no need for image. If we don't, well, you're hoping to naturally draw image and get value. Seems a bit strange to me. Quite an easy change would be something like -1 hierarch, -1 image, +1 rallier +1 cobra. Think that'd smooth out your draws a bit.
My main aim with the Quadlazer VanniCopyCat build is to combo off on Turn 3 as often as possible without playing that painful land called Hall of the Bandit Lord. 1-cmc mana dorks enable those Turn 3 combos just fine, and this deck has no combo chains that involve a lone arbitrary 2+-drop, so I want to maximize my chances that Turn 3 Haste Vannifar can generate the combo. This means 4 Hierarchs and 4 Birds.
It's true that Lotus Cobra can lead to a Turn 2 combo, but even that chain demands a Turn 1 1-cmc mana dork.
The Turn 3 Cobra No Dork combo needs a fetch, Saheeli, Felidar or Eldritch Evolution, 2 other lands, and a Cobra, which seems rather low-probability to me compared to the combined two Turn 3 Dork combos (both Saheeli Felidar and Saheeli Vannifar--2 Forests are easier to get than an uncracked fetch).
It's quite possible that I should replace the Phantasmal Image with a second Exarch. Either way, I want a 1-drop and 2-drop chain that doesn't involve the graveyard, as I don't want opposing maindeck Scavenging Ooze, Remorseful Cleric, or Relic of Progenitus to ruin my day that much. (Actually, the Phantasmal Image chain also completely dodges opposing Spellskite, while the second Exarch chain requires a Scryb Ranger and therefore doesn't.)
What makes me suspect that the VanniCopyCat build is very viable is how often it can Hail Mary a win despite getting the combo disrupted, just by comboing off again. Yes, I found this out from testing.
So if you're running saheeli as a 4 of (which I think is right because of the additional combos and giving vannifar haste), why not use one slot for sun titan. It goes infinite with two saheeli in the yard and the only other card in the main that really cares about the yard is Rallier. Even if it's in the side, I think it's fine for the 75.
Unfortunately there isn't a combo yet that's really bolt proof right? Unless I missed something.
Opponents can respond to any of the ETBs with bolt during the pod chain and you can't pod in response, or face saheeli during the copycat combo, and Kiki is also susectible to bolt.
I think that there is probably some good innovation that can come to setting up something disruptive/peotective during the chain to ensure it fires off that is a creature. Control/grind decks really don't mind very much when it comes to leaving mana up. Thinking of the following:
Obviously need to test various things, and maybe some of the tax effects could be enough (baby Thalia). I'm not sure.
The other thing I severely want in the deck is another effective copy of saheeli. I dunno what that would be, but she seems pretty integral to a lot of where these lists are going. Protecting her/finding her is super relevant. There is nothing quite like her imo, so I'm at a loss here.
Copycat isn't Tier 1 because the combo unfortunately relies on a PW, like other comboes rely on enchantments (these are the 2 least supported card types to dig and tutor). If Twin worked, it's because, instead of searching for the combo pieces, you controled the game and comboed off when possible. That's what Jeskai Copycat tries to do nowadays.
Green decks, however, need to dig or tutor for the combo pieces. In a format where Stirrings digs for 5 to find a land or an artifact, here we have a deck that don't want to run noncreature spells, and the best at that for PWs is Oath of Nissa that digs for only 3.
Unfortunately there isn't a combo yet that's really bolt proof right? Unless I missed something.
Don't worry this is not very important. I believe Lectrys's focus is more important than whether the combo can succeed through a bolt :
how often it can Hail Mary a win despite getting the combo disrupted, just by comboing off again
@Lectrys,
what I'm the most worried about is the lack of synergy between 4 Vans and 4 Cats. When your opening hand is a bunch of 4-drops (8 is quite the load !), you mulligan with a tear in the eye. The Cat can't blink Van for value, multiple Vans can't co-exist... as close as they look, the mix of 2 different archetypes might be a huge trap. Isn't it more important to have a nice curve ready to welcome Cat blinks and Saheeli's clones ?
I feel like Vannifar only lacks slightly better chain pieces, but I hope I'm wrong, or I hope Wizards will accidentally print cards for the archetype very soon !
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It would allow the deck to combo on T3 even though it may be too cute. But It would be hard to remove game 1 while beeing a huge help to win the race against the fast combo decks. For game 2 you could sideboard it out to bring in silver bullets for the Deck you are facing, exchanging velocity for disruption. Just as a thought.
@Lectrys,
what I'm the most worried about is the lack of synergy between 4 Vans and 4 Cats. When your opening hand is a bunch of 4-drops (8 is quite the load !), you mulligan with a tear in the eye. The Cat can't blink Van for value, multiple Vans can't co-exist... as close as they look, the mix of 2 different archetypes might be a huge trap. Isn't it more important to have a nice curve ready to welcome Cat blinks and Saheeli's clones ?
I feel like Vannifar only lacks slightly better chain pieces, but I hope I'm wrong, or I hope Wizards will accidentally print cards for the archetype very soon !
Unless you drop the number of Vannifars in the deck (realistic in slower metas, where I have gotten multiple Vannifars in my opening hand), this deck is always going to be clogged with 4+-drops. Even in the no-Saheeli builds, you want some Restoration Angels, a Shalai, Voice of Plenty would be great (mostly combo protection, some hate, one of the best win cons in the deck), a Glen Elendra Archmage would also be a good idea (mostly combo protection, arguably better hate but much worse at winning the game, insane with Gavony Township)...you're easily back at 8 4-drops again, and that's before considering Kiki-Jiki and Chord.
Vannifar and Felidar not having much synergy in this deck can hurt a bit, but I'm not quite convinced that going midrange is the way to go when we can combo off so fast and so consistently. The other builds had to go midrange because it often took multiple turns to set up the win. Trying to go midrange against stuff like Burn, Affinity, and combo decks won't win you games fast enough unless you also find the right hate bears. (Going midrange against BR Hollow One might work if you're willing to lose quite a few bodies in the process. I've generally found that all my wins against Humans involved something unfair: either the combo or something semi-degenerate involving Kiki-Jiki and opposing hosers on everything else and the game going extremely long as a result.)
I'm finding that both builds have unfavourable Game 1's against Spirits and UR Phoenix. Spirits counters our most relevant Turn 3-4 plays, spams fliers that we cannot completely block, and plays well-placed Path to Exile, which generally buys enough time to win and ensures they don't have to counter everything. UR Phoenix Gut Shots the mana dorks, then makes Thing in the Ice flip and bounce our entire board, clocking us significantly in the process. They can save Bolts for the combo pieces as a result. My wins with my non-Saheeli build against them generally involve removal for Thing in the Ice.
this deck is always going to be clogged with 4+-drops
I disagree. I think you can do well with 6/7 4-drops, which will always be smoother than 8. Even though you wanna go up to 8 cards, they won't be 4 identical legendary creatures, or things that you can't flicker for some sort of value, as it is the case for the 4 Vannifars (and some of its pieces). My point is that 4 Van + 4 Cat is the clunkiest 4-drop package of all time, and I don't trust it on paper.
Vannifar and Felidar not having much synergy in this deck can hurt a bit, but I'm not quite convinced that going midrange is the way to go when we can combo off so fast and so consistently
I didn't mean to go midrange. If you want to be even more combo-ish with Felidar, you can play early drops that go infinite, like Auriok Champion, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit or Champion of Lambholt, but it seems nobody plays that configuration, so...
If you take Vannifar on the other hand, you want more early drops to curve nicely and have something to sacrifice. What if your board is Vannifar + Felidar ? How do you combo off ? Here's another way to make Vannifar quite useless if you don't have a Zealous Conscripts to untap her, for example.
I'd rather have 4 Vans along with 1 Resto, Shalai and Elenda for a total 7 4-drops, and make sure I have enough 2/3-drops to assemble and recur the combo chain, which is one of your concerns by the way. But it's criticism that I make while I haven't tested your list posted above, so I will in order to sharpen my pov.
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Tested the Quadlazer VanniCopyCat list against Mardu Midrange today (the one with Young Pyromancer, Bedlam Reveler, Lingering Souls, often Blood Moon). VanniCopyCat won Game 1 most of the time. Seems that Mardu runs out of removal first and often can't kill VanniCopyCat fast enough before it combos off yet again, possibly with protection or something with Haste. Admittedly, the singleton Knight of the Reliquary in my list stresses out their removal, tutoring for the Haste-granting Hanweir Battlements and becoming a beatstick if not dealt with.
Hey guys, so I've done some testing with my previously posted deck and I'd like to share my obseravtions. As my friend said "You are a combo deck, and when you sit against nonreactive deck, you should defeat him T3 on regular basis, if not, you are slow combo deck, not viable in modern meta" So we played about 30+ games against dredge, which we considered as a prototype of super fast almost non-rective deck. My friend was concentrating on killing me before I combo off, I was concetrating on comboing off before getting killed.
So to the Saheeli+Vannifar combination: It resembled me some gemaes with Jund, when I drew the right half of the deck, the deck was awesome, when I drew wrong half of the deck, it was a disaster.
T1 dork -> T2 saheeli -> T3 Vannifar win is awesome, but susceptible to timely removal on bird. It also happens that you have the option of T1 and T2 play, but don't have T3 Vannifar/Cat/Evo and you just sit with your hand full of cards, that are good with Vannifar but awful with Saheeli.
Lotus cobra is awesome and even without dork on T1 she can generate absurd amount of mana, I had a play T1 oath of nissa, T2 cobra, T3 cobra, fetch -> rallier, fetch -> cat, fetch -> Evo for Kiki.
Eldritch evolution seems somehow better than Chord, especially when we need to find combo pieces quite fast and playable chord is at the best on T3.
Vannifar + two two-drops makes kill with two exarchs in library, so I'm not going below two exarchs. I drew kiki naturally on T4, If I had not another one in my library, I would not win, so two Kikis it is.
Body double was horrible, never wanted to search for it and as a cursed singleton, I drew it almost every game. Maybe against reactive deck it could be better, but for 5 mana... Seems like another rallier or Witness is going to take It's place.
Relying on combo T2 Saheeli+T3 Vannifar is a disaster, as Saheeli won't survive, you don't even cast it. Doing it opposite means T3 vannifar and T4 useless Saheeli. I think, it's the worst on the Saheeli+Vannifar combination, that botch combos although with similar effect, have different timing. With Vannifar, you want to play Vannifar first and combo off later, with Saheeli you want combo pieces and Saheeli as a last card or combo off the same turn saheeli hits the board.
oath of nissa offers some nice card filtering, especially, when you wait for some specific cards. However it doesn't get you much close to victory played on T1. Withous Saheeli it is just filtering, which could be done with serum visions maybe.
Single spellskite is fine, but without Chord shenanignas is quite bad, Shalai is probably better, as it is a much better target for Evo.
To cast vannifar on T3 reliably means, we have to maximize on T1 dorks, still I'm not fond of plying full set of birds + hierarchs plus some cobras.
So even though I was a great defender of mainly combo oriented build, I'm dropping saheeli/cat shell, still will keep some Oaths in to smothen my draws. It seems like
4x Saheeli, 3X felidar, 1x Oath, 1x spellskite, 1x body double are leaving and making room for
1x Restoration angel
1x Shalai
one more evo
one more exarch
2x kitchen finks
1x Glen elendra
2x Noble hierarch
1x eternal witness or another rallier
looks like I'm getting more into the value build
few think I forgot: If there were something similar to Kalitas, traitor of Ghet that is a creature with some value can't imagine 5c variant and dropping any of our core colours is unthinkable.
Question is, whether there won't be better chances with some sort of temur more control like version, dropping white and mana dorks entirely and adding drawing/counters to survive long enough to manage protected combo kill, not sure, if it won't be just worse version of UR kiki.
another card, which came to my mind as a combo protector was Pact of negation. When we plan to combo kill our opponent, it offers good interaction and upkeep clause seems irrelevant. If we are losing to upkeep, we are probalby losing on board, which doesn't make much difference either.
Hey Guys,
Thought I'd do something similar to zyrgul and write up my weekends testing. I did stream some of the testing (twitch.tv/daviusminimus) and the VODs will be there for 14 days.
First off, my current record is 12-9, though a good chunk of wins were in the 2-mans, and a good chunk of losses were after some bad changes to the deck. I've made some other tweaks that I'm not sure about too, but just need to get more games under my belt.
So, I'll start by sharing the decklist that I'm planning to play next time I stream (hopefully tonight).
Next I just want to discuss the individual cards, and highlight which ones are feeling stock and which are in testing and I'm unsure on.
Rhythm of the Wild - this card has been pretty damn good. I don't think you want them vs BGx, and you don't particularly want to draw 2 in any match-up. However, casting this on Turn 2 and slamming Vannifar on 3 is insanely good, as is resolving this card vs any counter-spell deck (as you would imagine). It's an unbelievable feeling to know your voice of resurgence is resolving!! Knight of Autumn vs kitchen finks - I tested out both briefly. I prefer finks vs agro, knight vs control, finks vs midrange, knight vs combo (well KCI/Ad Nauseum). As soon as I made the change, I went on to lose vs Ad Nauseum where Knight would have won, and since there's very little in it outside of those MUs, I think Knight is the correct card to play. Lightning Bolt vs Path to Exile - Its obvious where Path is better and when bolt is better. The main reason for testing bolt is that pointing it at the dome and then witness-ing it back is a geniune way to steal some games. The fact that Path ramps decks like Storm is really relevant, but bolt not dealing with Thing in the Ice / Pheonix's is also relevant. I am not sure which should be main, and it's possible that it's a meta call. It's also possible that neither belong in the main. Path does belong in the 75 somewhere though. gavony township - In short, I don't know if this card is good. There's no persist in my list at present, and against anything fast you never activate it. It doesn't add green. I have a feeling horizon canopy may just be better, but I can't afford them. hall of the bandit lord - I know everyone hates this card, but so far it's not punished me for having it, and have won 1 game for having access to it. Pretty marginal. However, since I've added Rhythm of the Wild, I think it's time for this to go. Like township, it feels like canopy is the card to replace it, but I dont have access to it kiki-jiki, the mirror breaker No.2 - I don't know if I want 2 of these or just 1. Occasionally you draw it and cant cast it, and adding a 2nd makes that worse. But occasionally you draw it and win when you cast it, and that's good. Also, path on kiki isn't great. It's worth noting that I'll add a Fire-lit Thicket (probably for Hall) if I go to 2 kiki's. chord of calling No.3 - I also don't know if I want 3 of these or just 2. Kiki 2 or Chord 3 are in the same slot for me at present, otherwise the deck gets too clunky. The 3rd Chord helps vs combo since you can find your bombs a bit easier. However, it's a clunky magic card. eternal witness No.2 - the 2nd copy was to help re-buy cards like path / bolt and SB bombs more than anything. Rallier is better at getting creatures back for the most part, since the games where you need a creature to stick, it's usually better to get voice / scooze than resto from the GY. However, the witness isn't great in your opener, and is a bit clunky, especially if you don't have 1 of your 2 bolts. As a result, I can see this going back to 1 copy.
Everything other card I'm happy with, and it's doing what it should. I consider 23 lands, 9 dorks to be pretty close to correct, and the rest of the creatures are pretty well balanced.
And I just want to share my opinion on the MUs at this current spot. First of all, the deck will occasionally lose to itself. It has 32 mana sources, and you almost always want ramp in your opener. As a result, you sometimes keep a mana-heavy hand and loose, or keep a hand without ramp and get over-run. That does effect your winrate obviously.
However, the rest of the time, I have the feeling that:
1) Fast combo/Tron is heavily unfavourable G1 but somewhere between even/slightly favoured G2/G3. As a result, you're swimming against the tide but these are winnable. If you manage to steal a G1, then you are a heavy favourite to win the match, but otherwise it comes down to drawing the right hate pieces in time during G3.
2) Any Uxx control decks are heavily favourable. The combination of Voice of Resurgence + Rhythm of the Wild makes these hard to lose, plus the fact that we have a combo finish if they tap out to answer something.
3) Agro decks (burn/8-whack/affinity) tend to be favoured, because all your creatures generate some sort of value and clog up the board. As an example, against burn, voice of resurgence almost always saves you 2 life and leaves a body behind, wall of roots gains you 5+ (block a critter and take a bolt) etc. You continue to be favoured post-board.
4) Bxx Midrange decks tend to be difficult to beat. Although you have value cards, they can use discard to pick apart the most valueable pieces (like witness/resto) and use creature kill to deal with the combo. Your then left with a bunch of voice / knights to try and beat cards like Goyf, Liliana, Young Pyromancer etc. There's also games where they can disrupt your mana dorks and you're instantly behind. You continue to be unfavoured post-board.
Overall, I'd say you want to face control and agro, don't love combo but dislike midrange a bit more.
Hopefully that gives people a feel for where I'm at right this second.
According Rhythm of the wild, I was also tempted to try it and at some time, I will. I wouldn't be so sceptical about multiples, beacuse it grants riot and not only haste, so you can play a voice and make it 3/3 with haste, it also does quite well with persist creatures, so with rhythm I would try finks instead of knight.
Chord, however I love the card, seems not so good to me, you can not chord for anything on T1 or T2, and tapping out on T3 for a 3 mana creature makes almost no sense to me. It's perfect when you have bunch of creatures and/or mana, but I'd say, we do not have such potential and searching for big threats is difficult. I'd rather pay 3 mana and sac 2 mana creep for shalai/resto/something than spend 7 mana+creatures to do the same. Decks are too punishing now, so you can't even rely on having bird or noble on T2 or T3.
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MODERN:BGRJund, RBGUDredge, LEGACY:BUReanimator, BRWGU Dredge
"Aut vincere aut mori"
Just came to my mind, Vannifar is a legend, so it works with Goryo's Vengeance I know, I wrote about black few posts before, but has anyone else considered it? It would be probably different shell than ordinary "kiki-pod" but maybe it could work, it would need some discard+reanimate part, creature-combo card and protection part, I don't know. Any opinions about that?
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MODERN:BGRJund, RBGUDredge, LEGACY:BUReanimator, BRWGU Dredge
"Aut vincere aut mori"
And I know I keep saying potential, but that is only in the reference window that I would have tried it eventually within a year of testing. I have no idea how many of the people reading and participating in the this thread played Kiki-Pod back in the day, but I will remind you that there were only two revolutions within three years. First was a major, the shift from Melira-Pof to Kiki-Pod and the second was a minor, the "discovery" of Deceiver Exarch Then came mother ******* Siege Rhino! and the cute little deck I had been running for almost three years, that actually needef brains to run, turned into an abomination!
But keep on brewing. I'm just an Old Beard who had seen enough stuff to know what can work and what won't work.
Remember, I don't know *****. ...Oh chungus I forgot that the PG-13 rules are enforced.
1 Hanweir Battlements
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Gavony Township
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
1 Plains
Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Lotus Cobra
4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Spellskite
2 Coiling Oracle
1 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Eldritch Evolution
1 Deputy of Detention
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Stony Silence
2 Spell Pierce
1 Path to Exile
1 Fiery Justice
This deck has more trouble against Humans due to its higher noncreature count, and both decks' Game 1s against Spirits are troublesome, but this has a Gx Tron match-up that's much closer to 50/50, and its Burn match-up is surprisingly good despite not loading up on anti-Burn measures maindeck.
"Aut vincere aut mori"
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Body Double
2x Deceiver Exarch
3x Felidar Guardian
2x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4x Lotus Cobra
4x Prime Speaker Vannifar
2x Renegade Rallier
1x Scryb Ranger
1x Spellskite
2x Wall of Omens
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Oath of Nissa
4x Saheeli Rai
Lands
2x Breeding Pool
2x Forest
2x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Hall of the Bandit lord
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Horizon Canopy
2x Misty Rainforest
1x Plains
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Ground
1x Temple garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
no sideboard yet, because there is plenty of cards to consider, but definitely Avalanche Riders, Eidolon of rhetoric, Knight of Autumn, maybe Kitchen finks,Linvala, Worship, Scooze... I'm not sure about the main spellskite though, without Chord it's not as good as it could be
"Aut vincere aut mori"
First of all, @Lectrys, I'd like to see a cobra or 2 more in place of hierarch. It does allow some good lines with rallier... if you took that route, an extra rallier or 2 would make sense. Also, I'm not sure what Phantasmal Image offers any more. If we have a 1-drop, we can just combo, no need for image. If we don't, well, you're hoping to naturally draw image and get value. Seems a bit strange to me. Quite an easy change would be something like -1 hierarch, -1 image, +1 rallier +1 cobra. Think that'd smooth out your draws a bit.
Second - please all take this with a massive pinch of salt. I played 2 whole matches on MTGO last night (should have been sleeping, oh well). I'm going to stream later today, a few times if possible. Follow me on twitch.tv/daviusminimus so you get the notifications
Anyway, in my 2 matches, playing the more midrangy/controlly version with 3 chords... I beat a RW Humans deck, and even had a hasty Vannifar off a Hall of the Bandit Lord. It was pretty nice, but I had naturally drawn the Kiki and it was practically uncastable in my hand (I had hierarch + wall of roots, no BOP). But, a T3 Vanifar in post-board games gives you so much value that you're a massive favourite. In that particular match, I podded up ranger, into rallier. Ranger into deceiver into resto which flickered rallier to return a fetch which allowed me to cast a voice of resurgence. So, I went from Dork, Wall, Vannifar to... Rallier, Resto, Voice, Wall, Vannifar... all on Turn 3 against an agro deck. They were never getting through all that, which gave me time to just make land drops and cast kiki, eventually!
I also played storm. A modo bug that doesn't let me undo a wall of roots activation meant that I lost G1 (I woulda had a tonne of mana up and a scooze). I then lost Game 2 from flooding out.
Before I played any matches at all, I was concerned with the 23 land 10 dork set-up I was running. In every 1 of my games, I was able to keep a hand with lands + dork, but multiple times I flooded out. I'm going to try cutting a dork (wall of roots first) and possibly even a 2nd. Compared to old kiki-pod lists, this is a) less likely to pod away a creature, since vannifar isn't as sticky b) has ralliers that can return fetches/lands and c) has less mana sinks in township. I may cut the 3rd Hierarch yet too, but we'll see how I get on with 9 dorks!
EDIT: I've edited the list a bit according to personal preferences (wanted to add some utilities, toolbox-style):
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Lotus Cobra
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Spellskite
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Deputy of Detention
2 Renegade Rallier
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Knight of Autumn
3 Prime Speaker Vannifar
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2 Restoration Angel
3 Felidar Guardian
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
Lands (22)
1 Hanweir Battlements
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Gavony Township
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
2 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Stony Silence
2 Spell Pierce
3 Path to Exile
1 Fiery Justice
I really like the sinergies this variant allows, expecially the tons-o-mana interaction between Lotus Cobra and Renegade Rallier. I added a couple of cards from my previous list, some in particular beacuse I wanted to emulate the combo path with Vannifar (I'm talking about Restoration Angel and the second copy of Renegade Rallier). Do you think I messed up or this list could be viable with the small tweakings I did?
"Aut vincere aut mori"
You have value you can sac at 3, but only 1x 5 drop to fetch.
My own Saheeli version had 0 hierarch, 4 bop, 4 cobra. You have an extra 2 dorks to me, which may be because of the 4-drops, but I think it's a little unncessary. What you're doing there is going all-in on the "if my dork lives" plan, instead of having a nice curve., which I think will just create really skewed match-ups. You'll be poor across bolt decks, better against combo, but occasionally just flood out too.
If I were you, I'd cut the restos altogether, and the tracker probably belongs in the side for grindy matches. With Deputy in the main as a bullet for problem cards, I think Knight is probably unnecessary too. Cutting those gives you space for cards like Coiling Oracle or Wall of Omens, which gives you chump blockers, re-draws towards combo pieces, and sac fodder to get you to your 4-drops. Oracle even ramps occasionally.
With 2 Ralliers and 2 Cobras, I could see a 9th fetch squeezing into your manabase as well.
All in all, I dont think your list is bad, but there's a balance issue imo. So many 4 drops and so few 2 drops makes no sense in an Evo deck. Your SB looks pretty good to me, though I do like Cataclysmic Gearhulk in the board, and potentially Thragtusk. You do have a couple of 3s to sac (knight, rallier) that could take you up to 5 in the MUs where that matters. The 2nd Shalai in the board doesn't excite me either, especially with MD township already.
Is there any card, that would override vannifar's sorcery speed clause to inastant? That would be awesome. but i don't think, there esists such possibility.
@SGears I like Your list, sir, I really do
"Aut vincere aut mori"
My main aim with the Quadlazer VanniCopyCat build is to combo off on Turn 3 as often as possible without playing that painful land called Hall of the Bandit Lord. 1-cmc mana dorks enable those Turn 3 combos just fine, and this deck has no combo chains that involve a lone arbitrary 2+-drop, so I want to maximize my chances that Turn 3 Haste Vannifar can generate the combo. This means 4 Hierarchs and 4 Birds.
It's true that Lotus Cobra can lead to a Turn 2 combo, but even that chain demands a Turn 1 1-cmc mana dork.
The Turn 3 Cobra No Dork combo needs a fetch, Saheeli, Felidar or Eldritch Evolution, 2 other lands, and a Cobra, which seems rather low-probability to me compared to the combined two Turn 3 Dork combos (both Saheeli Felidar and Saheeli Vannifar--2 Forests are easier to get than an uncracked fetch).
It's quite possible that I should replace the Phantasmal Image with a second Exarch. Either way, I want a 1-drop and 2-drop chain that doesn't involve the graveyard, as I don't want opposing maindeck Scavenging Ooze, Remorseful Cleric, or Relic of Progenitus to ruin my day that much. (Actually, the Phantasmal Image chain also completely dodges opposing Spellskite, while the second Exarch chain requires a Scryb Ranger and therefore doesn't.)
What makes me suspect that the VanniCopyCat build is very viable is how often it can Hail Mary a win despite getting the combo disrupted, just by comboing off again. Yes, I found this out from testing.
Unfortunately there isn't a combo yet that's really bolt proof right? Unless I missed something.
Opponents can respond to any of the ETBs with bolt during the pod chain and you can't pod in response, or face saheeli during the copycat combo, and Kiki is also susectible to bolt.
I think that there is probably some good innovation that can come to setting up something disruptive/peotective during the chain to ensure it fires off that is a creature. Control/grind decks really don't mind very much when it comes to leaving mana up. Thinking of the following:
burrenton forge-tender cmc 1,
spellskite or grand abolisher at cmc 2,
spell queller or void grafter at cmc 3?
Obviously need to test various things, and maybe some of the tax effects could be enough (baby Thalia). I'm not sure.
The other thing I severely want in the deck is another effective copy of saheeli. I dunno what that would be, but she seems pretty integral to a lot of where these lists are going. Protecting her/finding her is super relevant. There is nothing quite like her imo, so I'm at a loss here.
Green decks, however, need to dig or tutor for the combo pieces. In a format where Stirrings digs for 5 to find a land or an artifact, here we have a deck that don't want to run noncreature spells, and the best at that for PWs is Oath of Nissa that digs for only 3.
Don't worry this is not very important. I believe Lectrys's focus is more important than whether the combo can succeed through a bolt :
@Lectrys,
what I'm the most worried about is the lack of synergy between 4 Vans and 4 Cats. When your opening hand is a bunch of 4-drops (8 is quite the load !), you mulligan with a tear in the eye. The Cat can't blink Van for value, multiple Vans can't co-exist... as close as they look, the mix of 2 different archetypes might be a huge trap. Isn't it more important to have a nice curve ready to welcome Cat blinks and Saheeli's clones ?
I feel like Vannifar only lacks slightly better chain pieces, but I hope I'm wrong, or I hope Wizards will accidentally print cards for the archetype very soon !
So many more chains than Pod.
1 Drop + 2 Forest
1 Drop + 1 Drop + 1 Forest
1 Drop + 2 Drop
1 Drop + 3 Drop
1 Drop + 4 Drop
2 Drop + 2 Drop (Requires 2 Exarch)
2 + 3
2 + 4
3 + 4
Single Persist 4 Drop
Single 2 Drop
Tempo/Control
RUGRUG Traverse - https://deckbox.org/sets/1725849
BUGSultai Death's Shadow - BUG Shadow - https://deckbox.org/sets/1725863
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/773885-sultai-deaths-shadow-bug-shadow
It would allow the deck to combo on T3 even though it may be too cute. But It would be hard to remove game 1 while beeing a huge help to win the race against the fast combo decks. For game 2 you could sideboard it out to bring in silver bullets for the Deck you are facing, exchanging velocity for disruption. Just as a thought.
Unless you drop the number of Vannifars in the deck (realistic in slower metas, where I have gotten multiple Vannifars in my opening hand), this deck is always going to be clogged with 4+-drops. Even in the no-Saheeli builds, you want some Restoration Angels, a Shalai, Voice of Plenty would be great (mostly combo protection, some hate, one of the best win cons in the deck), a Glen Elendra Archmage would also be a good idea (mostly combo protection, arguably better hate but much worse at winning the game, insane with Gavony Township)...you're easily back at 8 4-drops again, and that's before considering Kiki-Jiki and Chord.
Vannifar and Felidar not having much synergy in this deck can hurt a bit, but I'm not quite convinced that going midrange is the way to go when we can combo off so fast and so consistently. The other builds had to go midrange because it often took multiple turns to set up the win. Trying to go midrange against stuff like Burn, Affinity, and combo decks won't win you games fast enough unless you also find the right hate bears. (Going midrange against BR Hollow One might work if you're willing to lose quite a few bodies in the process. I've generally found that all my wins against Humans involved something unfair: either the combo or something semi-degenerate involving Kiki-Jiki and opposing hosers on everything else and the game going extremely long as a result.)
I'm finding that both builds have unfavourable Game 1's against Spirits and UR Phoenix. Spirits counters our most relevant Turn 3-4 plays, spams fliers that we cannot completely block, and plays well-placed Path to Exile, which generally buys enough time to win and ensures they don't have to counter everything. UR Phoenix Gut Shots the mana dorks, then makes Thing in the Ice flip and bounce our entire board, clocking us significantly in the process. They can save Bolts for the combo pieces as a result. My wins with my non-Saheeli build against them generally involve removal for Thing in the Ice.
I disagree. I think you can do well with 6/7 4-drops, which will always be smoother than 8. Even though you wanna go up to 8 cards, they won't be 4 identical legendary creatures, or things that you can't flicker for some sort of value, as it is the case for the 4 Vannifars (and some of its pieces). My point is that 4 Van + 4 Cat is the clunkiest 4-drop package of all time, and I don't trust it on paper.
I didn't mean to go midrange. If you want to be even more combo-ish with Felidar, you can play early drops that go infinite, like Auriok Champion, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit or Champion of Lambholt, but it seems nobody plays that configuration, so...
If you take Vannifar on the other hand, you want more early drops to curve nicely and have something to sacrifice. What if your board is Vannifar + Felidar ? How do you combo off ? Here's another way to make Vannifar quite useless if you don't have a Zealous Conscripts to untap her, for example.
I'd rather have 4 Vans along with 1 Resto, Shalai and Elenda for a total 7 4-drops, and make sure I have enough 2/3-drops to assemble and recur the combo chain, which is one of your concerns by the way. But it's criticism that I make while I haven't tested your list posted above, so I will in order to sharpen my pov.
So to the Saheeli+Vannifar combination: It resembled me some gemaes with Jund, when I drew the right half of the deck, the deck was awesome, when I drew wrong half of the deck, it was a disaster.
T1 dork -> T2 saheeli -> T3 Vannifar win is awesome, but susceptible to timely removal on bird. It also happens that you have the option of T1 and T2 play, but don't have T3 Vannifar/Cat/Evo and you just sit with your hand full of cards, that are good with Vannifar but awful with Saheeli.
Lotus cobra is awesome and even without dork on T1 she can generate absurd amount of mana, I had a play T1 oath of nissa, T2 cobra, T3 cobra, fetch -> rallier, fetch -> cat, fetch -> Evo for Kiki.
Eldritch evolution seems somehow better than Chord, especially when we need to find combo pieces quite fast and playable chord is at the best on T3.
Vannifar + two two-drops makes kill with two exarchs in library, so I'm not going below two exarchs. I drew kiki naturally on T4, If I had not another one in my library, I would not win, so two Kikis it is.
Body double was horrible, never wanted to search for it and as a cursed singleton, I drew it almost every game. Maybe against reactive deck it could be better, but for 5 mana... Seems like another rallier or Witness is going to take It's place.
Relying on combo T2 Saheeli+T3 Vannifar is a disaster, as Saheeli won't survive, you don't even cast it. Doing it opposite means T3 vannifar and T4 useless Saheeli. I think, it's the worst on the Saheeli+Vannifar combination, that botch combos although with similar effect, have different timing. With Vannifar, you want to play Vannifar first and combo off later, with Saheeli you want combo pieces and Saheeli as a last card or combo off the same turn saheeli hits the board.
oath of nissa offers some nice card filtering, especially, when you wait for some specific cards. However it doesn't get you much close to victory played on T1. Withous Saheeli it is just filtering, which could be done with serum visions maybe.
Single spellskite is fine, but without Chord shenanignas is quite bad, Shalai is probably better, as it is a much better target for Evo.
To cast vannifar on T3 reliably means, we have to maximize on T1 dorks, still I'm not fond of plying full set of birds + hierarchs plus some cobras.
So even though I was a great defender of mainly combo oriented build, I'm dropping saheeli/cat shell, still will keep some Oaths in to smothen my draws. It seems like
4x Saheeli, 3X felidar, 1x Oath, 1x spellskite, 1x body double are leaving and making room for
1x Restoration angel
1x Shalai
one more evo
one more exarch
2x kitchen finks
1x Glen elendra
2x Noble hierarch
1x eternal witness or another rallier
looks like I'm getting more into the value build
few think I forgot: If there were something similar to Kalitas, traitor of Ghet that is a creature with some value can't imagine 5c variant and dropping any of our core colours is unthinkable.
Question is, whether there won't be better chances with some sort of temur more control like version, dropping white and mana dorks entirely and adding drawing/counters to survive long enough to manage protected combo kill, not sure, if it won't be just worse version of UR kiki.
another card, which came to my mind as a combo protector was Pact of negation. When we plan to combo kill our opponent, it offers good interaction and upkeep clause seems irrelevant. If we are losing to upkeep, we are probalby losing on board, which doesn't make much difference either.
"Aut vincere aut mori"
Thought I'd do something similar to zyrgul and write up my weekends testing. I did stream some of the testing (twitch.tv/daviusminimus) and the VODs will be there for 14 days.
First off, my current record is 12-9, though a good chunk of wins were in the 2-mans, and a good chunk of losses were after some bad changes to the deck. I've made some other tweaks that I'm not sure about too, but just need to get more games under my belt.
So, I'll start by sharing the decklist that I'm planning to play next time I stream (hopefully tonight).
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
3 Forest
1 Gavony Township
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Chord of Calling
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Rhythm of the Wild
1 Deceiver Exarch
2 Eternal Witness
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Knight of Autumn
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Prime Speaker Vannifar
1 Renegade Rallier
3 Restoration Angel
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Roots
1 Avalanche Riders
3 Damping Sphere
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Fiery Justice
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Path to Exile
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Stony Silence
2 Tireless Tracker
Rhythm of the Wild - this card has been pretty damn good. I don't think you want them vs BGx, and you don't particularly want to draw 2 in any match-up. However, casting this on Turn 2 and slamming Vannifar on 3 is insanely good, as is resolving this card vs any counter-spell deck (as you would imagine). It's an unbelievable feeling to know your voice of resurgence is resolving!!
Knight of Autumn vs kitchen finks - I tested out both briefly. I prefer finks vs agro, knight vs control, finks vs midrange, knight vs combo (well KCI/Ad Nauseum). As soon as I made the change, I went on to lose vs Ad Nauseum where Knight would have won, and since there's very little in it outside of those MUs, I think Knight is the correct card to play.
Lightning Bolt vs Path to Exile - Its obvious where Path is better and when bolt is better. The main reason for testing bolt is that pointing it at the dome and then witness-ing it back is a geniune way to steal some games. The fact that Path ramps decks like Storm is really relevant, but bolt not dealing with Thing in the Ice / Pheonix's is also relevant. I am not sure which should be main, and it's possible that it's a meta call. It's also possible that neither belong in the main. Path does belong in the 75 somewhere though.
gavony township - In short, I don't know if this card is good. There's no persist in my list at present, and against anything fast you never activate it. It doesn't add green. I have a feeling horizon canopy may just be better, but I can't afford them.
hall of the bandit lord - I know everyone hates this card, but so far it's not punished me for having it, and have won 1 game for having access to it. Pretty marginal. However, since I've added Rhythm of the Wild, I think it's time for this to go. Like township, it feels like canopy is the card to replace it, but I dont have access to it
kiki-jiki, the mirror breaker No.2 - I don't know if I want 2 of these or just 1. Occasionally you draw it and cant cast it, and adding a 2nd makes that worse. But occasionally you draw it and win when you cast it, and that's good. Also, path on kiki isn't great. It's worth noting that I'll add a Fire-lit Thicket (probably for Hall) if I go to 2 kiki's.
chord of calling No.3 - I also don't know if I want 3 of these or just 2. Kiki 2 or Chord 3 are in the same slot for me at present, otherwise the deck gets too clunky. The 3rd Chord helps vs combo since you can find your bombs a bit easier. However, it's a clunky magic card.
eternal witness No.2 - the 2nd copy was to help re-buy cards like path / bolt and SB bombs more than anything. Rallier is better at getting creatures back for the most part, since the games where you need a creature to stick, it's usually better to get voice / scooze than resto from the GY. However, the witness isn't great in your opener, and is a bit clunky, especially if you don't have 1 of your 2 bolts. As a result, I can see this going back to 1 copy.
Everything other card I'm happy with, and it's doing what it should. I consider 23 lands, 9 dorks to be pretty close to correct, and the rest of the creatures are pretty well balanced.
However, the rest of the time, I have the feeling that:
1) Fast combo/Tron is heavily unfavourable G1 but somewhere between even/slightly favoured G2/G3. As a result, you're swimming against the tide but these are winnable. If you manage to steal a G1, then you are a heavy favourite to win the match, but otherwise it comes down to drawing the right hate pieces in time during G3.
2) Any Uxx control decks are heavily favourable. The combination of Voice of Resurgence + Rhythm of the Wild makes these hard to lose, plus the fact that we have a combo finish if they tap out to answer something.
3) Agro decks (burn/8-whack/affinity) tend to be favoured, because all your creatures generate some sort of value and clog up the board. As an example, against burn, voice of resurgence almost always saves you 2 life and leaves a body behind, wall of roots gains you 5+ (block a critter and take a bolt) etc. You continue to be favoured post-board.
4) Bxx Midrange decks tend to be difficult to beat. Although you have value cards, they can use discard to pick apart the most valueable pieces (like witness/resto) and use creature kill to deal with the combo. Your then left with a bunch of voice / knights to try and beat cards like Goyf, Liliana, Young Pyromancer etc. There's also games where they can disrupt your mana dorks and you're instantly behind. You continue to be unfavoured post-board.
Overall, I'd say you want to face control and agro, don't love combo but dislike midrange a bit more.
Hopefully that gives people a feel for where I'm at right this second.
Chord, however I love the card, seems not so good to me, you can not chord for anything on T1 or T2, and tapping out on T3 for a 3 mana creature makes almost no sense to me. It's perfect when you have bunch of creatures and/or mana, but I'd say, we do not have such potential and searching for big threats is difficult. I'd rather pay 3 mana and sac 2 mana creep for shalai/resto/something than spend 7 mana+creatures to do the same. Decks are too punishing now, so you can't even rely on having bird or noble on T2 or T3.
"Aut vincere aut mori"
Remember, I don't know *****. ...Oh chungus I forgot that the PG-13 rules are enforced.
"Aut vincere aut mori"
Remember, I don't know *****. ...Oh chungus I forgot that the PG-13 rules are enforced.