Skin Invasion seems like it could almost be a little too good.
It may be this set's Delver, though I don't know how playable it is in Modern or Legacy.
I have no idea about Modern or Legacy but I think Skin Invasion is going to make some waves, it's an insane anti-sweeper card, and it makes killing any weenie creature enchanted with it a doubtful proposition.
My earliest conclusion from looking at the spoiler as a whole is that Delirium is going to be much more decisive and widespread than we may have expected, there are no graveyard nukes or controllers,eatersor punishers , not even all-purpose pinpoint elimination. Non-creature cards are going to stay in the yard triggering Delirium in all certainty, so keeping opponents off Delirium isn't going to be so feasible, maybe Mindwrack Demon will turn out to be decent after all...what a missed opportunity, imagine keeping your opponent off Delirium with a Withered Wretch reprint =)
There is one pin-point removal card, albeit at sorcery speed and 2 mana: Not Forgotten
Generally +1/0 over 2+ creatures can help you close out a game if left unblocked and on defense can lead to some blow out blocking plays. Make a stand is a combat trick, a buff (that can potentially close out games) and protection from wipes. While rootborn defenses is only a trick and protection.
For sure neither one is strictly better, but I would personally almost always prefer the extra token over the +1 power... the power is more likely to be win-more to me whereas the extra tokens lets me grind out more. But I see your point as well.
EDIT: Also, don't forget that with 1 or more soul sisters out that can become a lifegain too. And with Ajani's Pridemate out, a permanent buff for him.
Am I the only one who thinks that Moldgraf Scavenger could be a budget Tarmogoyf?? For sure, it takes longer before it can hit, doesn't get as large, and is easier to turn off, but its also always outside of bolt range... don't get me wrong, Goyf is still better, but I feel this is worth paying hundreds of dollars less for...
I think this is more consistent with the allied version of scales. I'm still working on the sideboard, but I expect it to be similar to G/W Hatebears.
The new SOI cards, particularly Thalia's Lieutenant, is what makes this really great.
T4 kills are available with or without scales being drawn. Thalia's Leutenant and Champion, another human, and a falconer win you the game t4 unless they are stopped. Scales also gets you turn 4 kills with less humans required.
CoCo I stuck in b/c I'm running 24 human hits so why not. Maybe 4 CoCo and one less human would be better but I feel like 24 hits is low for CoCo. I think CoCo can be sideboarded out some games if the hit count is reduced because of sideboard.
This is really working for me in my testing right now. Pretty consistent against decent modern decks. Right now its cheap and fun to play!
I've been toying with 2 versions using Thalia's Lieutenant since he was spoiled - one was to add him to my Human/Allies deck where he is an allstar. The second was to modify my norin sisters deck to be a naya norin sisters. Again, he works great there.
I see several problems or areas of improvement with your deck, however:
1) Mikaeus, the Lunarch can be powerful, if he doesn't die to removal before he starts working, but should be no more than a 2-of IMHO and is a nonbo with Collected Company. I personally think there are betters cards to use and would only use him as a 1-of to fetch with Ranger of Eos or something like that.
2) Thalia is strong, but I don't like her in a Collected Company deck where she brings your curve out to 5 CMC. You want as low a curve as possible and don't want to go beyond 4. I might recommend her to the SB for when you need to play a grindier matchup.
3) The 1-ofs (Kytheon, Hero of Akros and Imposing Sovereign) don't make any sense... they aren't cards you are going to want at instant speed with Collected Company to make immediate impact and they just seem like trying to fill in slots with cards from your collection.
4) Servant of the Scale is a fun card - he can start as 2/2 with Hardened Scales and pass his counters onto someone else... but more often than not, he is a vanilla 1/1 for 1. I would recommend at least looking at some of the human 2/1s that white has to offer in modern.
5) You want something to keep yourself in the game, to grind out matches. I personally like incidental life gain on cards that already push your plan. In my human/allies deck, Lantern Scout is an allstar, allowing me to gain massive amounts of life to outlast the opponent. In my naya norin sisters deck, I have the soul sisters keeping me afloat for a long time. I don't actually play it as much like a traditional soul sisters deck - the life gain is there to keep me grinding it out. And Thalia's Lieutenant plus Gavony Township and Hardened Scales turns them into beaters.
Otherwise, I love seeing brews like this and hope to hear more from your testing!
Why don't you run Phantasmal Image anymore? In a build with Aether Vial it is much stronger than Kira. Is there just not enough to copy?
I guess Phantasmal Image works best in a creature heavy shell, though obviously in the list above, copying a captain to immediately protect your entire board is awesome. If you don't draw a captain though, I can't see many great plays available; you really want the image to have hexproof. If Geist weren't legendary there'd probably be enough decent targets (I'm pretty sure if image copies Rattlechains and tries to give itself hexproof until EoT, the image just dies immediately?)
Maybe dropping the Kiras and run 2 Drift of Phantasms and 2 Phantasmal Image could work. The idea being that you now have 8 cards in the form of 4 captains, 2 drifts and 2 images, and if you draw any two of them (except both images) you have a line to getting hexproof over your entire board, either by playing the cards out or by transmuting for a captain first. The only card that's pretty dead on its own is image, so I'd keep it to 2. Transmuting is sorcery speed and pretty slow, so I don't know how smooth this would play.
Nah, I don't think it's worth running 2 copies of a card as mediocre as Drift of Phantasms at all. Also, why would you be using Phantasmal Image copying a Rattlechains ability to give ITSELF hexproof? You'd want to be bringing it in response to a different creature getting targeted and saving that one.
My personal issue with Phantasmal Image is that it can only serve that kind of reactive role in the deck if you have an Aether Vial out, which means that you deck hinges pretty heavily on a card that I think is kinda mediocre when you're wanting to get it to 3 most of the time, and you don't have a ton of creatures in the first place.
Using Phantasmal Image to copy Rattlechains and give itself hexproof (or flashing in Rattlechains to give it hexproof) would kill the Image due to a targeted ability...
Perhaps the problem is you don't understand probability? The chance of drawing a land on your draw step is the same regardless of whether or not you have Sin Collector in play.
I just did the math and I am right. So please provide the math to prove your point. If you cannot, do not claim others don't understand stats or probabilities.
If you did the math why not present it? I have already presented a very VERY simple example that should prove the point. If you actually did math to prove how mill is effective at removing specific cards form a library then you have pretty much disproved something that has been considered a truth for very many years and so you should really show it to us.
Basically, the card you look for is exactly as likely to be in the second spot from the top as it is to be in the top spot. milling is more likely to dig you towards the card you need than it is to mill the card you need and these balance out to give a netgain of zero for milling cards.
In a set such as this where cars in the graveyard has additional functions it is positive to mill yourself if your deck makes use of delirium or similar things. If you had the opportunity to mill the top 10 cards of your library at your first upkeep you should most definitely take that chance if you have any interaction with your graveyard, and if you don't it doesn't matter unless you would run a real risk of drawing your entire library which isn't very likely in any deck that plays this dude.
Exactly, the thing with mill (or ingest for that matter) is you get a lot of emotions going when the opponent mills something you needed, but you remember those better than all those times dead draws were also milled from the top of your deck. Mill is never effective for getting rid of the cards they need unless you are getting rid of giant chunks of their library.
For example, in a burn/burn-heavy deck, both of these are pretty much just as likely (depending on exact spell counts):
top of library sample 1:
land
burn spell
land
top of library sample 2:
burn spell
land
burn spell
In the first example, you will be sad with Sin Prodder since you draw the lands on your normal draws and the burn spell was binned, only doing 1 (albeit free) damage rather than 3 or whatever. In the second example, you will be thrilled since you effectively improved your draw next turn my getting rid of a land (that you likely didn't need since you already have 3 lands). The truth will be somewhere in between on average - but anything in between is a bonus to what is ALREADY a 3/2 menace for 3.... In my quick testing thus far, he is proving to be quite effective... 1 turn of him being on the board is great, but 2-3 can be downright crazy...
Well the subsequent draw is random (assuming no scries) so them binning a land drop that you need or a good spell doesn't affect your draw step at all. I don't see many scenarios where you actually get an extra card from this; it comes down to whether a 3/2 menace that can deal some free damage is good enough or not.
Wrong because now your deck has 1 less land available for draw. Whereas you could've drawn it, you skipped a draw. Now let's say you needed different colors and you binned a land of a color you needed, now you're in an even worst situation. This is a big gamble in limited.
You mention this is a big gamble in limited, but most of us have been discussing constructed, so...
How often do you see aggressive red decks hurting for not drawing their fourth land in constructed? I usually am sad to see that extra land, so in most red decks I see this as a benefit, not a hurt. Also, just because a card is good, doesn't make it good in every deck - even Bob doesn't work in some decks due to the life loss (and no, I don't think this is as good as Bob, I'm just using a creature that is pretty universally considered good). This may not be what you want if you need land in hand after turn 3. But, you still have another draw each turn, so I see this more likely to reduce mana flood than to short you on the mana side of things. I have a deck that is mostly 1-3 CMC, but has Goblin Dark-Dwellers at 5 CMC - I wouldn't mind running this in that deck since not getting to 5 CMC ASAP isn't the critical path. And making them choose 5 damage or letting me have the goblin would be fun (sure, I'd prefer to draw the card, but CANNOT complain about a 5 point burn spell for free with my 3 drop - that's going to win games right there when it happens).
I really want to make a casual modern "sleuth"/"clues" deck and add Woodland Sleuth from original Innistrad. Morbid even works with Ulvenwald Mysteries
There is one pin-point removal card, albeit at sorcery speed and 2 mana: Not Forgotten
For sure neither one is strictly better, but I would personally almost always prefer the extra token over the +1 power... the power is more likely to be win-more to me whereas the extra tokens lets me grind out more. But I see your point as well.
EDIT: Also, don't forget that with 1 or more soul sisters out that can become a lifegain too. And with Ajani's Pridemate out, a permanent buff for him.
If you are going that route, why not use Rootborn Defenses and create an extra token?
I've been toying with 2 versions using Thalia's Lieutenant since he was spoiled - one was to add him to my Human/Allies deck where he is an allstar. The second was to modify my norin sisters deck to be a naya norin sisters. Again, he works great there.
I see several problems or areas of improvement with your deck, however:
1) Mikaeus, the Lunarch can be powerful, if he doesn't die to removal before he starts working, but should be no more than a 2-of IMHO and is a nonbo with Collected Company. I personally think there are betters cards to use and would only use him as a 1-of to fetch with Ranger of Eos or something like that.
2) Thalia is strong, but I don't like her in a Collected Company deck where she brings your curve out to 5 CMC. You want as low a curve as possible and don't want to go beyond 4. I might recommend her to the SB for when you need to play a grindier matchup.
3) The 1-ofs (Kytheon, Hero of Akros and Imposing Sovereign) don't make any sense... they aren't cards you are going to want at instant speed with Collected Company to make immediate impact and they just seem like trying to fill in slots with cards from your collection.
4) Servant of the Scale is a fun card - he can start as 2/2 with Hardened Scales and pass his counters onto someone else... but more often than not, he is a vanilla 1/1 for 1. I would recommend at least looking at some of the human 2/1s that white has to offer in modern.
5) You want something to keep yourself in the game, to grind out matches. I personally like incidental life gain on cards that already push your plan. In my human/allies deck, Lantern Scout is an allstar, allowing me to gain massive amounts of life to outlast the opponent. In my naya norin sisters deck, I have the soul sisters keeping me afloat for a long time. I don't actually play it as much like a traditional soul sisters deck - the life gain is there to keep me grinding it out. And Thalia's Lieutenant plus Gavony Township and Hardened Scales turns them into beaters.
Otherwise, I love seeing brews like this and hope to hear more from your testing!
Yes, new Sigarda and Ulvenwald Mysteries.
Using Phantasmal Image to copy Rattlechains and give itself hexproof (or flashing in Rattlechains to give it hexproof) would kill the Image due to a targeted ability...
Hmm, interesting.. Looking back through them, the first mountain does as well sort of...
Exactly, the thing with mill (or ingest for that matter) is you get a lot of emotions going when the opponent mills something you needed, but you remember those better than all those times dead draws were also milled from the top of your deck. Mill is never effective for getting rid of the cards they need unless you are getting rid of giant chunks of their library.
For example, in a burn/burn-heavy deck, both of these are pretty much just as likely (depending on exact spell counts):
top of library sample 1:
land
burn spell
land
top of library sample 2:
burn spell
land
burn spell
In the first example, you will be sad with Sin Prodder since you draw the lands on your normal draws and the burn spell was binned, only doing 1 (albeit free) damage rather than 3 or whatever. In the second example, you will be thrilled since you effectively improved your draw next turn my getting rid of a land (that you likely didn't need since you already have 3 lands). The truth will be somewhere in between on average - but anything in between is a bonus to what is ALREADY a 3/2 menace for 3.... In my quick testing thus far, he is proving to be quite effective... 1 turn of him being on the board is great, but 2-3 can be downright crazy...
You mention this is a big gamble in limited, but most of us have been discussing constructed, so...
How often do you see aggressive red decks hurting for not drawing their fourth land in constructed? I usually am sad to see that extra land, so in most red decks I see this as a benefit, not a hurt. Also, just because a card is good, doesn't make it good in every deck - even Bob doesn't work in some decks due to the life loss (and no, I don't think this is as good as Bob, I'm just using a creature that is pretty universally considered good). This may not be what you want if you need land in hand after turn 3. But, you still have another draw each turn, so I see this more likely to reduce mana flood than to short you on the mana side of things. I have a deck that is mostly 1-3 CMC, but has Goblin Dark-Dwellers at 5 CMC - I wouldn't mind running this in that deck since not getting to 5 CMC ASAP isn't the critical path. And making them choose 5 damage or letting me have the goblin would be fun (sure, I'd prefer to draw the card, but CANNOT complain about a 5 point burn spell for free with my 3 drop - that's going to win games right there when it happens).