Love this deck so far, I have brought it back from a pretty much certain loss a couple of times now. Clearly needs tweaked to be better, but it's a pretty solid idea. So much CA from souls.
Did you play my list? Care to post the list you made and played with if not?
This deck looks preeettttty fun.. I think it needs a strong sideboard, 2-3 negates transforms our deck into alot more of a controlling one. Precursor Golem looks SICK. Anybody with little to no removal can get crushed by that card. The rest of my sideboard cards are rushed so they are more loose and suggestions would be great :). Im not sure if my manabase is good enough, so suggestions about that too!
The reason they were able to get away with 8 creature slots for their equipment was because one of them was actually four creatures, and the other actually fetched the equipment in the first place. While you could play Squadron Hawks out one at a time, we don't have that luxury, nor can either of our creatures be played on turn 2.
I disagree with your evaluation of my list. It's not a Delver deck at all. It's a lot more controlling, and has cards like Forbidden Alchemy and Dissipate which Delver wouldn't run in a million years. If you want the deck to be competitive, it's not necessarily going to fit with your vision of the deck.
When I started playing Burning Vengeance around 4 months ago, I never envisioned the shape the deck is taking now. It started as a Grixis creatureless build that won with Sorin's Vengeance + Chandra, the Firebrand/Snapcaster Mage. After going through every URx colour combination under the sun (including URw, URwg, URbg, and five colour at one point) DKA came out, and Lingering Souls completely changed the dynamic of the deck, to one that's way more aggressive and versatile. Did I ever envision that? No! Did I think we'd cut Sorin's Vengeance for Devil's Play in less than a week? Or that we'd end up playing a 5-colour deck that actually *gasp* hit its colours? Nope.
My issue with that list is the same as with the list in the OP: There aren't enough creatures. A sword is a dead card if you have nothing to equip it to, and even Caw-blade started playing cards like Sun Titan and Emeria Angel to supplement the engine.
If you were to play another 4 or so creatures, you'd end up being way more consistent. You're going to get eaten alive when you try to equip a sword, and they Vapor Snag in response.
The deck has a gaping hole, and that hole is best filled by either Geist of Saint Traft, Mirran Crusader or Dungeon Geists, as little as you like the idea. Dungeon Geists, unlike the others, doesn't ruin the curve.
And Consecrated Sphinx is going to win you a lot of games, by the way. If you want to be more controlling, it's a shoe-in IMO. Unfortunately Sun Titan can't recur Lingering Souls, or it would be perfect.
Ill ignore that your tone is unnecessarily hostile and condescending. Forbidden alchemy was a good suggestion, which i adopted. Maybe the deck does need more creatures, at the moment there is 4 lingering souls, 4 snapcasters, 2 inkmoth nexus, and 1 batterskull. Thats 11, but inkmoth nexus doesnt entirely count as a whole creature as it only operates as an alternate win con.
Dismember is pretty bad in this metagame when it doesn't kill titans; Doom Blade is going to be much better. And Consecrated Sphinx is a boss when you have dudes to draw removal away from it.
By the way, Alchemy is going to be really good in this kind of archetype. It fills a slot vaguely reminiscent of Jace TMS, in the sense that it generates CA and card selection. You can't really play a list like the one in the OP because it's only got Ponder. Caw-blade had Squadron Hawk, Jace and Preordain for card advantage/manipulation, and he only has Ponder.
I really like the feel of this list. I'm going to proxy it up next week and try it out.
EDIT: Mirran Crusader is amazing with Swords, and straight-up kills Wolf Run. I certainly wouldn't argue with you if you maindecked it. Also keep in mind that Geist of Saint Traft is nuts with a Sword, and survives Curse of Death's Hold.
I agree with most of what you said actually but the problem is.. Take a look at your list. Thats basically one of the tempo decks that uses equipment.. but without a delver. Once you go that creature heavy and play cards like geist of saint traft you are just playing a delver deck thats worse then the actual delver deck. I want to build a U/W control deck that ultilizes swords with little to no creatures. I considered dungeon geists but thats a board control card that is mainly useful when run amongst alot of other creatures. It doesnt fit therefore at all with my vision for the deck. Mirran Crusader looks good for our sideboard
More plans of attack with inkmoth nexus, and batterskull. More consistent with 7 cards for digging. Better sideboard. Timely Reinforcements seems INSANE in this deck but i dont feel like i can fit it in too the main, and with the amount of control decks at my LGS plus UB's showing at baltimore, its probably fine to have it in the side for the amount it would be sided out game one anyways.
Spellskite seems like a pretty decent option right now. It helps fight RDW's burn spells and holds off theirsmaller ground guys, it can keep a lot of UW Humans' guys at bay, it can redirect Kessig Wolf Run to itself, and it can protect your creatures and swords from removal.
Seems pretty versital to me. And did I mention that it carries a sword?
I'm also a huge fan of Gideon Jura right now. Nearly everyone is attacking with creatures right now and Gideon is able to control the tempo of the game and allow you to get sword attacks through a field of creatures.
The problem with spellskite is that as a deck slot dedicated to holding a sword, hes mediocre compared to the other better options we have because he doesnt generate card advantage or replace himself or anything. And as a utility / control card hes not as good as the controlling elements wed be taking out to include him (removal or counter-magic or whatever).
I agree gideon is quite good and fits here and thats why ill leave him at 2
I liked playing Caw Blade in Zen, just hated playing against it. A possible solution to your Curse dilemma if you're looking for a creature is Leonin Relic-Warder. I know he's not a recursive threat but he locks down the enchantment as well as being a 2/2.
Good sideboard tech suggestion! Thank you. My thought when trying to analyze Curse of Death's Hold being a problem was that it isnt value to dedicate spending a card(s) to get rid of the curse, because the U/B player would still be quite happy (ahead) with you having to do even that. Sort of like how anyone playing snapcaster mages and little to no other graveyard effects would be pleased with you spending a card in Grafdiggers cage just to shut it down, the snapcaster player is still really ahead in that scenario. Therefore i was looking for creatures to provide a plan b that just isnt weak to Curse of Death's Hold without directly dealing with it. However, Leonin Relic-Warder is probably good sideboard tech against Honor of the Pure, Curse of Death's HoldBirthing Pod etc
This isnt spirit tribal its U/W control with swords. Hero of bladehold is some option. Mirran crusader is a sideboard option, that card is only maindeckable when his being a human is a positive stat. What we need in a blade wielding card is a creature that creates card advantage through drawing cards or replacing itself directly. Like Squadron Hawk. Looking through gatherer i found these as considerable blade wielders :
These cards are lower cmc and resilient. The problem is, Doomed Traveler and the back half of Loyal Cathar dont get around our current lists Curse of Death's Hold problem, and i think loyal cathar is too slow with him only recurring EOT. Solemn is also fairly slow sense the mana ramp is not really relevent for this deck often enough, where as for other decks he says draw a card on the way in and out, for us its less value then that. Ultimately, i really really wish we could play Shadowmage Infiltrator.
I wish this card was good enough. It basically says 7cc, 6/5, flying, lifelink, Double Strike when Drogskol Reaver deals combat damage draw 2 cards. It dies to dismember as a 7 drop, which actually is pretty irrelevant in the current meta. The doublestrike is probably insane with a sword, but a 7cc creature that doesnt have any immediate impact on the board upon his resolution, is probably just too bad :(.
There might be a version of this deck that is somewhat more creature heavy allowing 3 Moorland Haunt, but that again doesnt help us with our curse of death's hold problem. That version could play
We can sideboard 2-3 Mirran Crusader against Curse of Death's Hold decks, but all that does is make all of their removal dead except Tribute to Hunger which is actually a 2 of in most U/B lists atm. Maybe, i can just test Drogskol Reaver and live the dream..
EDIT : Batterskull is the plan b against Curse of Death's Hold before side boarding.. Duh. Now 1-2 in the main and what to take out?
One issue that I think you might run into that was never really an issue for caw-blade is Curse of Death's Hold.
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
O.O
GG
Funny that i didnt think of that because i just built U/B with 2 of those main to take to fnm next week.. What can we use to hold swords that is resilient and hopefully generates card advantage through drawing more cards or replacements of itself.. That also has more then 1 toughness... Im off to gatherer. Caw-Blade had manlands in celestial colonnade..
The format is full of W and R, with bunches of Lingering Souls decks being played.
It's pricey, but it'd probably behoove you to do it.
Interesting. The list i posted had only 5 swords. Lets say we go 4 WaP and 2 FaF. What would you cut for the sixth sword?
Edit : Also maybe that is your local meta but if you look at GP Baltimore the delver deck is back to U/W, the Drogskol captain deck is pretty much gone to Corrosive Gale, and the top eight was U/B Control, U/W Delver, U/B Zombies, and one R/G aggro.
Hello! The goal of this thread is to make a deck imitating Caw-Blade in the current standard format. I was out of magic during Caw-Blades day, which was not at all intentional as the deck looks absolutely beautiful to me and i wish i was there to play it. Basically i will be analyzing caw-blade decklists and looking at what cards they used and for what purposes and what options that we have today. I hope everyone will contribute and we can build this deck together.
Please avoid trying to tell me to play a delver U/W deck,
that is a tempo deck and not what this thread is for.
Now the most obvious blade wielding option we have to replace the resilient Squadron Hawk, is Lingering Souls, which is what made me think of trying to make this deck. Cawblade decks played 8 blade wielding creatures, 4 Squadron Hawk and 4 Stoneforge Mystic. One other option i thought of as a blade holder and alternate win condition is Inkmoth Nexus this version probably plays Batterskull to maximize equipment.
The two cards that made this deck the best of the best, were as powerful as they were because they were so unique. There will be no replacing Stoneforge Mystic or Jace the Mind Sculptor for our decklist. However, one option we do have to try to help us consistently see our artifacts, although not nearly as well as Stoneforge Mystic, is Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas the problem is this planeswalkers abilities outside of its first one are not really fitting in with our deck very well. Also i plan to make it basically U/W control with B only for Lingering Souls and optionally to soften Dismember.
For permission we have Mana Leak and Dissipate and thats basically it, but that should prove good enough as Spell Pierce would be bad in our current format anyways. Therefore :
For removal we can still play Day of Judgment, and Dismember. This leaves us exposed mainly to titans, so we could play more black to try to have answers to titans. If we do it would probably be 3 Tragic Slip 2 Doom Blade, cutting the dismembers. However, i want to keep the manabase from having to stretch at all, and we can answer titans with Oblivion Ring, our sideboard and some amount of help from Gideon Jura. Therefore :
We dont have Preordain but we do have Ponder, and we are going to be looking for our Day of Judgments in enough matchups that i think this card is better for this deck then Think Twice by a mile. If we play Runechanter's Pike as part of our blade suite, Forbidden Alchemy is probably also worth including, but if we stick to just the Mirrodin Block Swords, we can just stick to Ponder. Therefore :
i hope this EnsoZero guy gets banned, it almost seems like hes straight trolling claiming hes won 3 ptqs and topped gps. If zombies is such an amazing deck that even the cards which most blatantly obviously counter it dont at all, then why didnt it top the pro tour? why hasnt it won ANYTHING besides a single scg open?
The main point of blue is to copy hellrider, Possible huntmaster and have a few of them flipping if you dont draw a hellrider early. The "ramp" thrown in there isnt really to ramp its just to establish a good balance of land since I have 2 RR cards and I want atleast 1 island out so I can use phantasmal image or phyrexian metamorph without paying 2 life. Beguiller of wills Is actually the last card I would consider copying unless I had Urabrask on the field.
Beguiller of wills just seemed appealing to me since Huntsman can put so many creatures on the field and using phantasmal image or phyrexian metamorph to copy a hellrider makes them the first target of removal.
basicly beguiller of wills and pyreheart are to get rid of some blockers to get that damage through quick.
Im thinking about taking out solemn and adding another urabrask and pyreheart since With 22 land rampant growth 4 birds and 2 llanowar elves I should be fine for mana and it just seems Like a waste of a 4 slot since all my heavy hitters are 4 slots.
Also dudebro the only reason Im running ascetecism is so phantasmal image cant be targeted and hellrider can be regenerated since hes the main win condition. It also works well when having a few huntmasters out So If I want to skip my turn to make them flip I can go ahead and do that and not worry about losing a turn since his flip will be an attack and then I can still use them to defend and regen them.
The things dudebro said were correct, but im going to try to analyze the way you are analyzing (lol) cards and card synergies when building this deck, so that hopefully you can learn from it. Synergy is important in magic, but basically the only time you can justify playing a card in a deck with as specific a reason as you have in this post, is when your deck is a combo deck designed to kill the opponent immediately or as close to immediately as possible upon the resolution of your combo. Basically, the cards you choose for your deck (outside of a combo deck) need to be strong enough cards to justify play on their own, but also have synergies with your deck. You can't justify playing bad cards based on extremely specific synergies, as it sounds like you have. That just doesnt play out and lead to winning. Beguiler of wills, for example, is virtually constructed unplayable.
I don't think you should put too much focus on that format when it is played a lot less than other ones. In Modern and Standard, there are creatures that are just as relevant/amazing as Snapcaster that just attack and block.
Sigh. I tried to make it clear that my point was simply that for a card to be good relative to the legacy card pool (alot of cards) is more impressive (that card is stronger) then a card that is only good relative to a small card pool (standard).
There have been winning decks throughout the history of magic that focused around attacking/blocking as their primary strat. Overall the creature pool was weaker before, but there were still strong creatures.
So Snapcaster is amazing? Yes. Abilities other than attacking/blocking needed for creatures to be amazing? Quite often no (I'm not sure if we're including trigger effects on combat damage or not, I assume so since you have to attack).
This is really quite off topic, but it entirely depends on what level of "amazing" you mean when you say "needed for creatures to be amazing." If you mean "needed for creatures to be in the top 10 of creatures ever printed." Then yes, although im not sure what that list is, i strongly feel the only creature card in the top 10 (power level wise) creature cards ever printed that ONLY attacks and blocks is Tarmogoyf, and like i said that is because the singular exception is if the curve is absolutely thrown out the window, which is what Tarmogoyf is. Again, really off topic.
Frost Titan is really bad in this deck because you are playing an all in reanimator deck with a non interactive strategy, you just need to outrace your opponents by going over the top and slamming a high impact strong clock fattie before they can win. Frost Titan is the opposite of this plan. Replace it with grave titan if your sticking to esper colors.
deranged assistant is a terrible card in any constructed deck, drogskol reaver is too weak until titans rotate and isnt good in reanimator anyways, and sunblast angel is a bad card.
Did you play my list? Care to post the list you made and played with if not?
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Loyal Cathar
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Mirran Crusader
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Honor of the Pure
2 Angelic Destiny
2 Dismember
LANDS [24]
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Moorland Haunt
13 Plains
Acidic Frost
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Acidic Slime
2 Bloodgift Demon
4 Frost Titan
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
ENCHANTMENTS (4)
4 Heartless Summoning
SPELLS (14)
4 Ponder
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Vapor Snag
LANDS (24)
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Woodland Cemetery
6 island
4 Swamp
2 Forest
3 Precursor Golem
3 Negate
2 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Thrun, the last Troll
1 Vapor Snag
This deck looks preeettttty fun.. I think it needs a strong sideboard, 2-3 negates transforms our deck into alot more of a controlling one. Precursor Golem looks SICK. Anybody with little to no removal can get crushed by that card. The rest of my sideboard cards are rushed so they are more loose and suggestions would be great :). Im not sure if my manabase is good enough, so suggestions about that too!
Ill ignore that your tone is unnecessarily hostile and condescending. Forbidden alchemy was a good suggestion, which i adopted. Maybe the deck does need more creatures, at the moment there is 4 lingering souls, 4 snapcasters, 2 inkmoth nexus, and 1 batterskull. Thats 11, but inkmoth nexus doesnt entirely count as a whole creature as it only operates as an alternate win con.
I agree with most of what you said actually but the problem is.. Take a look at your list. Thats basically one of the tempo decks that uses equipment.. but without a delver. Once you go that creature heavy and play cards like geist of saint traft you are just playing a delver deck thats worse then the actual delver deck. I want to build a U/W control deck that ultilizes swords with little to no creatures. I considered dungeon geists but thats a board control card that is mainly useful when run amongst alot of other creatures. It doesnt fit therefore at all with my vision for the deck. Mirran Crusader looks good for our sideboard
SOUL-BLADE
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Lingering Souls
BLADES (5)
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of War and Peace
1 Batterskull
DRAW (7)
4 Ponder
3 Forbidden Alchemy
REMOVAL (8)
4 Day of Judgment
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Dismember
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
LANDS (26)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
2 Inkmoth Nexus
7 Island
5 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Timely Reinforcements
3 Celestial Purge
3 Divine Offering
2 Negate
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Nihil Spellbomb
More plans of attack with inkmoth nexus, and batterskull. More consistent with 7 cards for digging. Better sideboard. Timely Reinforcements seems INSANE in this deck but i dont feel like i can fit it in too the main, and with the amount of control decks at my LGS plus UB's showing at baltimore, its probably fine to have it in the side for the amount it would be sided out game one anyways.
The problem with spellskite is that as a deck slot dedicated to holding a sword, hes mediocre compared to the other better options we have because he doesnt generate card advantage or replace himself or anything. And as a utility / control card hes not as good as the controlling elements wed be taking out to include him (removal or counter-magic or whatever).
I agree gideon is quite good and fits here and thats why ill leave him at 2
Good sideboard tech suggestion! Thank you. My thought when trying to analyze Curse of Death's Hold being a problem was that it isnt value to dedicate spending a card(s) to get rid of the curse, because the U/B player would still be quite happy (ahead) with you having to do even that. Sort of like how anyone playing snapcaster mages and little to no other graveyard effects would be pleased with you spending a card in Grafdiggers cage just to shut it down, the snapcaster player is still really ahead in that scenario. Therefore i was looking for creatures to provide a plan b that just isnt weak to Curse of Death's Hold without directly dealing with it. However, Leonin Relic-Warder is probably good sideboard tech against Honor of the Pure, Curse of Death's Hold Birthing Pod etc
This isnt spirit tribal its U/W control with swords. Hero of bladehold is some option. Mirran crusader is a sideboard option, that card is only maindeckable when his being a human is a positive stat. What we need in a blade wielding card is a creature that creates card advantage through drawing cards or replacing itself directly. Like Squadron Hawk. Looking through gatherer i found these as considerable blade wielders :
These cards are lower cmc and resilient. The problem is, Doomed Traveler and the back half of Loyal Cathar dont get around our current lists Curse of Death's Hold problem, and i think loyal cathar is too slow with him only recurring EOT. Solemn is also fairly slow sense the mana ramp is not really relevent for this deck often enough, where as for other decks he says draw a card on the way in and out, for us its less value then that. Ultimately, i really really wish we could play Shadowmage Infiltrator.
Drogskol Reaver
I wish this card was good enough. It basically says 7cc, 6/5, flying, lifelink, Double Strike when Drogskol Reaver deals combat damage draw 2 cards. It dies to dismember as a 7 drop, which actually is pretty irrelevant in the current meta. The doublestrike is probably insane with a sword, but a 7cc creature that doesnt have any immediate impact on the board upon his resolution, is probably just too bad :(.
There might be a version of this deck that is somewhat more creature heavy allowing 3 Moorland Haunt, but that again doesnt help us with our curse of death's hold problem. That version could play
Fiend Hunter
Archon of Justice
We can sideboard 2-3 Mirran Crusader against Curse of Death's Hold decks, but all that does is make all of their removal dead except Tribute to Hunger which is actually a 2 of in most U/B lists atm. Maybe, i can just test Drogskol Reaver and live the dream..
EDIT : Batterskull is the plan b against Curse of Death's Hold before side boarding.. Duh. Now 1-2 in the main and what to take out?
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
O.O
GG
Funny that i didnt think of that because i just built U/B with 2 of those main to take to fnm next week.. What can we use to hold swords that is resilient and hopefully generates card advantage through drawing more cards or replacements of itself.. That also has more then 1 toughness... Im off to gatherer. Caw-Blade had manlands in celestial colonnade..
Interesting. The list i posted had only 5 swords. Lets say we go 4 WaP and 2 FaF. What would you cut for the sixth sword?
Edit : Also maybe that is your local meta but if you look at GP Baltimore the delver deck is back to U/W, the Drogskol captain deck is pretty much gone to Corrosive Gale, and the top eight was U/B Control, U/W Delver, U/B Zombies, and one R/G aggro.
Hello! The goal of this thread is to make a deck imitating Caw-Blade in the current standard format. I was out of magic during Caw-Blades day, which was not at all intentional as the deck looks absolutely beautiful to me and i wish i was there to play it. Basically i will be analyzing caw-blade decklists and looking at what cards they used and for what purposes and what options that we have today. I hope everyone will contribute and we can build this deck together.
Please avoid trying to tell me to play a delver U/W deck,
that is a tempo deck and not what this thread is for.
Cards Caw-Blade played.
Squadron Hawk
Stoneforge Mystic
Mana Leak
Spell Pierce
Day of Judgment
Dismember
Oust
Preordain
Jace the Mind Sculptor
Gideon Jura
Sword of Feast and Famine
Batterskull
Todays Options
Now the most obvious blade wielding option we have to replace the resilient Squadron Hawk, is Lingering Souls, which is what made me think of trying to make this deck. Cawblade decks played 8 blade wielding creatures, 4 Squadron Hawk and 4 Stoneforge Mystic. One other option i thought of as a blade holder and alternate win condition is Inkmoth Nexus this version probably plays Batterskull to maximize equipment.
So for our blade-holder's we can surely say
4 Snapcaster Mage
The two cards that made this deck the best of the best, were as powerful as they were because they were so unique. There will be no replacing Stoneforge Mystic or Jace the Mind Sculptor for our decklist. However, one option we do have to try to help us consistently see our artifacts, although not nearly as well as Stoneforge Mystic, is Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas the problem is this planeswalkers abilities outside of its first one are not really fitting in with our deck very well. Also i plan to make it basically U/W control with B only for Lingering Souls and optionally to soften Dismember.
For permission we have Mana Leak and Dissipate and thats basically it, but that should prove good enough as Spell Pierce would be bad in our current format anyways. Therefore :
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dissipate
For removal we can still play Day of Judgment, and Dismember. This leaves us exposed mainly to titans, so we could play more black to try to have answers to titans. If we do it would probably be 3 Tragic Slip 2 Doom Blade, cutting the dismembers. However, i want to keep the manabase from having to stretch at all, and we can answer titans with Oblivion Ring, our sideboard and some amount of help from Gideon Jura. Therefore :
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dissipate
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Dismember
We dont have Preordain but we do have Ponder, and we are going to be looking for our Day of Judgments in enough matchups that i think this card is better for this deck then Think Twice by a mile. If we play Runechanter's Pike as part of our blade suite, Forbidden Alchemy is probably also worth including, but if we stick to just the Mirrodin Block Swords, we can just stick to Ponder. Therefore :
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Dissipate
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Dismember
Now for our Blades. We have Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of War and Peace, and Runechanter's Pike. Without Stoneforge Mystic we have to play more blades, so its possible to play all 3. Im unsure how good Runechanter's Pike is without Forbidden Alchemy or Thought Scour...
Therefore :
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
2 Gideon Jura
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
4 Day of Judgment
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Dismember
3 Forbidden Alchemy
LANDS (26)
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
1 Moorland Haunt
7 Island
6 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Celestial Purge
2 Divine Offering
2 Smite the Monstrous
2 Negate
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Batterskull
What do you think about the deck? What options for this archetype have i missed? Is this too few equipment?
The things dudebro said were correct, but im going to try to analyze the way you are analyzing (lol) cards and card synergies when building this deck, so that hopefully you can learn from it. Synergy is important in magic, but basically the only time you can justify playing a card in a deck with as specific a reason as you have in this post, is when your deck is a combo deck designed to kill the opponent immediately or as close to immediately as possible upon the resolution of your combo. Basically, the cards you choose for your deck (outside of a combo deck) need to be strong enough cards to justify play on their own, but also have synergies with your deck. You can't justify playing bad cards based on extremely specific synergies, as it sounds like you have. That just doesnt play out and lead to winning. Beguiler of wills, for example, is virtually constructed unplayable.
Sigh. I tried to make it clear that my point was simply that for a card to be good relative to the legacy card pool (alot of cards) is more impressive (that card is stronger) then a card that is only good relative to a small card pool (standard).
This is really quite off topic, but it entirely depends on what level of "amazing" you mean when you say "needed for creatures to be amazing." If you mean "needed for creatures to be in the top 10 of creatures ever printed." Then yes, although im not sure what that list is, i strongly feel the only creature card in the top 10 (power level wise) creature cards ever printed that ONLY attacks and blocks is Tarmogoyf, and like i said that is because the singular exception is if the curve is absolutely thrown out the window, which is what Tarmogoyf is. Again, really off topic.
deranged assistant is a terrible card in any constructed deck, drogskol reaver is too weak until titans rotate and isnt good in reanimator anyways, and sunblast angel is a bad card.