Hi, I just found out about this deck and i got interested in building it.
How important are the noble hierarchs in the deck? Does it make much difference to use Avacyn's Pilgrim instead?
Thanks.
Noble Hierarch isn't too terribly important. Losing Exalted and the ability to generate Blue for Incongruity will come up occasionally but most games you shouldn't notice. I'm not sure if Llanowar Elves or Pilgrim is better? You do sometimes need double White for Shalai kills and Gideon, but the deck is definitely base Green. I'd probably just go with Elves personally.
I meant that getting Surgical'd is okay when we have a real beatdown plan since we don't rely on winning with the combo anyway.
When do we have a real beatdown plan? When do we not rely on winning with the combo? I've never found a situation where this happens.
Sorry, I shouldn't say that we don't rely on comboing. I meant that as in we try and have a beatdown plan that's equally viable or better to the combo plan. Against Jeskai and BGx we board around 4 or so value cards in like Tracker, Voice, Gideon etc and oftentimes they Surgical us but it's far from game over since we aren't putting all our eggs in the combo basket anyway.
However, my board plan against Phoenix is decidedly risky since they have Surgical. However I do not see the beatdown plan as being a viable option against them since their threats fly and evacuate our board. Maybe we could try and board in Paths and prioritize using the back half of Incubation, but since they mainly just interact with removal instead of removal + discard or counters I'm happier trying to play around Surgical and not try and beat them down.
Our beatdown plan is a joke. 12 0 power creatures and nothing is over 2 power except a couple shalai and a few flipped duskwatches. Also most of our creatures are really bad on their own.
You're taking that post out of context. mirrislegend asked about Surgical and I responded saying that I didn't view getting Surgical'd against Jeskai and BGx as game over because I'm boarding into a real beatdown plan with Trackers, Mystic Enforcer, and Gideon AoZ.
I'll be the first to agree our game one beatdown plan is all but nonexistent.
It seems like AcademyRuins leaves in the Lunges v Burn which is good when the opponent has a hand with little interaction, but my instinct is to board them out due to the obvious life loss. Especially if they see the card game one a savvy Burn player will not expose himself to getting combo'ed if he has the option. I have definitely not tested the matchup enough to know what is exactly correct though, I'm just giving my opinion
Yet another reason I don't like sideboard guides (: Not only do I honestly not have the reps in against Burn to really say for certain how I'll board everytime, but there's many ways to think about how to position yourself in the matchup.
I meant that getting Surgical'd is okay when we have a real beatdown plan since we don't rely on winning with the combo anyway.
When do we have a real beatdown plan? When do we not rely on winning with the combo? I've never found a situation where this happens.
Sorry, I shouldn't say that we don't rely on comboing. I meant that as in we try and have a beatdown plan that's equally viable or better to the combo plan. Against Jeskai and BGx we board around 4 or so value cards in like Tracker, Voice, Gideon etc and oftentimes they Surgical us but it's far from game over since we aren't putting all our eggs in the combo basket anyway.
However, my board plan against Phoenix is decidedly risky since they have Surgical. However I do not see the beatdown plan as being a viable option against them since their threats fly and evacuate our board. Maybe we could try and board in Paths and prioritize using the back half of Incubation, but since they mainly just interact with removal instead of removal + discard or counters I'm happier trying to play around Surgical and not try and beat them down.
Against Burn I would look to bring in the second Scooze I think, yes. Not sure what I'd cut.
For KCI, we should keep Lunge in before boarding in BFT given EE and the fact that you can't provide protection when your hand wants you to curve dork into Evo for Druid like Lunge does. They only have 5 ways to kill T2 Druid on the draw and 8-9 on the play so we're just looking to race them mostly, which isn't hard since I believe they take out Mind Stones for Bolt effects normally. For Crypt effects vs KCI, the reasoning is mostly that it's common for them to just not slow them down at all. I've found given that, Cleric is actually too narrow so I've replaced it in my list for a Gideon AoZ since I seem to face Jeskai and UW often.
RE: Scooze vs Phoenix, I don't know that I really care too much if they are recurring Phoenix, and it's easy for them to get them in play before I can even activate Scooze. A 3/2 haste flyer isn't that fast a clock and my plan currently isn't trying to beat them down. You could try and shave more of the combo and try attacking for wins, but TitI makes that difficult. Basically, I value Path more already — and don't bring it in — since it kills everything and most importantly I don't ever plan to Chord or Evolve for Scooze in the matchup so I don't know that Scooze being attached to a creature really matters outside it sometimes being the best creature in a Commune.
Not sure what I think about Riftsweeper since most removal + Surgical decks outside Phoenix we do have a real beatdown plan. It's pretty narrow in my eyes.
Yes, I take out Ballista when it on 1 or 2 doesn't kill anything meaningful, and now that I play Witness I have a way to get Shalai back if it dies.
I see Linvala in a LOT of sideboards. Is she relevant against any competitive decks besides Hardened Scales? Sure she shuts off Elves, but we're faster and more consistent than them already.
I'm personally not a Linvala fan either. The deck I'd bring it in against don't make up a big metagame share. Not to mention most decks we want Linvala against don't pack much removal, so we're not really searching bullets up as often.
Your original advice on sideboarding was very useful this weekend, but I was still consistently stumped on what to cut. For example, sideboarding against Burn requires a minimum of 5 sideboard cards, but optimally 8 in my current list. KCI requires 4 but optimally 10. The Phoenix matchup would like 10. Your advice helped me figure out 3-5 MD cards to trim for sideboard options, but I cannot find enough things to carve out of the maindeck to bring in a sufficient number of highly effective sideboard cards while managing to maintain consistency.
It sounds like you may be trying to bring in too many cards, but I don't know what all you're considering. I try to look the main and ask what cards am I not happy with first, rather than ask what's relevant out of the sideboard. Balancing interaction vs goldfish speed/consistency is hard, but I always side with being not interactive enough since we turn 3 and 4 so often.
Against Burn I go -4 Chord, -1 Vizier, -1 Ballista for +2 Forge-Tender, +1 Knight of Autumn, +1 Scooze, +1 Spellskite +1 Selfless Spirit. It might be right to take out a Lunges or two but I'm not sure.
For KCI, I go -1 Lunge, -1 Rallier, -1 Ballista for +1 Spirit, +1 Pridemage, +1 Meddling Mage. My talented KCI buddy told me I shouldn't bring in gravehate.
Phoenix has been changing so much and a newer deck overall so it's hard for me to keep a consistent board plan. I go -1 Rallier, -1 Ballista, -2 Chord, +1 Skite, +2 BFT, +1 Selfless Spirit. I don't like Scooze or Cleric, Paths could be worth it. Proactive protection is important so we don't lose to Surgical.
Part of me wonders if I'm taking Ballista out too much. It is annoying when you can't win because you don't have WW.
Hello ! Cannot find an updated guide for the side. can someone help me?
I do not plan to develop a typical "-X this +X of that" sideboard guide for the primer because they tend to be pretty contentious as people vary their plan and value certain cards differently than others. Not to mention they go outdated quickly. I do look to add a "card breakdown" section to the primer at some point, so I'll give some guidelines in the there.
That said, I did respond to a post earlier asking about sideboarding and gave some tips. Take a look here.
@Shwivel, @AcademyRuins: You're both on Tireless Tracker in the SB for midrange matches. After testing them last night, I've been very unhappy. They get shot all the time and the constant discard means you can't hold a Tracker until you have a land to play after. Have Trackers really been good for you vs decks chock full of removal? I'm seriously considering switching my 3x Tracker for 3x Gideon, Ally (or 2x Gideon and 1x Mystic Enforcer).
The issue with our grindy sideboard plan is that we can either play value creatures that are found consistently but are easily answered, or we can play non-creatures like Gideon that we have to naturally draw that are more likely to stick.
Some of the drawback with Tracker can be mitigated by waiting to play Tracker late after you've exhausted their removal. It's tough because this plan doesn't really work if the opponent keeps an interaction heavy hand where they simply one-for-one everything. I do wait to play Tracker until I have a land up, but often you'll be forced to play it into open mana and just get it killed with a fetch activation on the stack.
I'd say it's worth trying Gideons out. I don't view Tracker as better than Gideon, it just has different strengths.
Thanks for sharing your list Shwivle. I've been debating with my sideboard a lot recently too. Here's my current list I'm testing for post-RNA Modern. I've been having a lot of difficult deciding what to play as my anti-combo bullet. I've been unhappy with the disynergy that Eildon and Teeg have been giving me. While they are great at bringing opposing combo decks to a halt, too often I'm in the same slot where I then can't combo either while the opponent is floundering.
Right now I'm playing Meddling Mage since I'm pretty convinced the Breeding Pool is worth it. Mage comes in all the matchups I want the slot (KCI, Storm, Ad Naus) and it's a nice to have against things like Amulet and Goroyo's.
I'd say above all else, Duskwatch is already a Chordable finisher. A mana sink that works as a good beatdown plan B that also beats white Leyline is important, so Rhonas used to be played in this deck to fulfill that slot, but it has been replaced by Shalai.
By the way, does anyone have a sideboard guide? Cards to bring in are easy to chose. What to cut is driving me nuts!
The decklist for Druid Evolution isn't as tight as something like KCI, so building a sideboard guide isn't that simple currently. I can give a few guidelines I use though.
- A mana sink can be cut if Shalai or Ballista performs poorly.
- Flex slots like Witness can be cut.
- Sometimes I would cut Dryad Arbor but I tend to not do this anymore given fetch, Evo it happens frequently for me in postboard games because lots of bullets are at two.
- Against removal light decks I trim on Lunge, but never go below 2 since every deck is going to have more removal postboard.
Sideboarding against Control and Midrange is where you'll be swapping the most cards. Against unfair and removal light decks we just try to cut a few cards and bring in bullets, some removal/utility like Selfless Spirit and Spellskite to have more protection, but fair opponents have too much interaction to hinge on only comboing. So, we shave on the combo and bring in two-for-ones like Voice, Tracker, Company or difficult to answer permanents like Mystic Enforcer and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. I generally look to cut some number of Chords, Evolutions, mana dorks, and Viziers.
Vizier is the worst combo piece — especially in Finks-less versions — because the card is not all that threatening. To compare, Druid untapping can lead to them getting combo'd and Duskwatch draws card.
You'll side a little different for Control and Midrange. Control's secondary interaction in countermagic makes Chords better and Evolution worse. I often try and "Infect them" against Control where I assemble a hand and board state that bottlenecks the opponent's mana and removal all in one turn. EoT Chord is a big part of that.
As for Midrange, Chords are worse because combo'ing against countermagic is easier than discard, but Evolutions are better given we don't have to worry about getting them countered. While two-for-one'ing ourselves with Evolution isn't really what we want to do against Midrange, I tend to get a sideboard card with the Evolution or mitigate flood a bit by Evolving a Dryad Arbor. Midrange is truly the most difficult matchup in my experience because they usually also present a fast clock on top of being the most disruptive. So you may need to bring in Paths as well, but the Commune to Incubation upgrade helps with this a bit. With the combo plan being at its worst here, trimming on Lunge is a good idea too.
Be optimistic about Vannifar everyone Remember that testing out new cards or variants always leaves you at worst with confirmation of a hipfired assessment. At best, you're the one piloting a busted deck weeks before it tops a GP. Here's a few funny quotes to encourage testing before dismissing.
I've been playing [Abzan Company] since before twin got banned, and I'm of the opinion that this [Druid Vizier] combo is garbo. We don't really have the tools to take advantage of infinite green mana, and putting in duskwatch requires yet another slot. With renegade rallier, tireless tracker, Saffi, fiend hunter/pontiff, and the Angel Combo already vying for spots, I don't see this as where the deck wants to be right now. Probably you want some new deck with Genesis Wave and Craterhoof.
[Siege Rhino] is worse than Obstinate Baloth [in Melira Pod]. You don't necessarily care about the extra damage to your opponent, rather you care about the life gained by the ETB. It is also much harder to cast, pods mana base is already under serious strain and replacing a card that's double green (which is relatively easy for pod) to then 3 different colours is not what you want to be doing, you could take a lot of damage off your mana base just to even attempt casting it.
I don't think the trample or the extra point of toughness is worthwhile. I'm struggling to articulate exactly why, so it's really just my opinion at this point.
The biggest point against rhino, what four drop do you remove? Common four drops in pod are Redcap, Resto, Metamorph in the mainboard. Redcap is integral to pods gameplan and is a solid 2-4-1 anyway, it breaks stalled board states and kills random utility creatures.
Resto and Metamorph fall under a similar guise. They both 'reset' kitchen finks, and each can provide a meaningful threat. The most important thing is the amount of synergy the have in the deck, which Rhino doesn't have.
If rhino was in the sideboard, what would it replace there? And what matchup is good in? Melira pod generally runs Entomber Exarch and Thrun as additional four drops in the board. I don't think Rhino can replace either of those, Exarch comes in for matchups like control or Scapeshift where spell quality and quantity will win the match rather than life total. Thrun is just a beating for BGx and Control, he is utterly unique.
[Traverse Shadow] looks spicy, but in all honesty not that potable. The main advantage deaths shadow zoo had against other aggro decks, was being able to just go off and go crazy and beat them even faster than they could. This list kind of dilutes that, leaving it in a weird place where you kind of to kill yourself, but even if you do get low enough to cast a big shadow you're still kind of dead cause you don't have as much otk potential. And yeah, this deck would just get smoked by regular control. Interesting idea, but I don't think it's there yet
Silver bullets are fun, but I greatly value Commune/Incubation more for its ability to go T1 Commune, find Druid T2 play Druid. Besides, there are still at least 2 flex slots if you are a fan of Steven Riecken's main, more if you want to go to 3 Lunge or 3 Commune. For example, I personally do not like the second Sahali and play a Rallier instead, and the Witness isn't required.
I think you'll find Tracker works well in the sideboard. The deck plays twelve mana creatures and upwards of ten fetches. Common play pattern is to try and force an early combo then play or Evo for tracker, play and crack fetch. It's does everything you want in a value creature really, clocks quick and draws cards.
I think a MD Scavenging Ooze has a lot of value right now. Huge against the top decks plus it can eat the target of an opponent's Surgical Extraction. Maybe my deckbuilding choices are just being influenced by my expected meta.
Also, I'm not sure that Commune will perform as hoped. My Company shell had 30 creatures and dug 6 cards deep yet whiffed on one or both targets with high frequency. This deck has 24-26 hits and Commune digs 5 deep... does anyone feel like their Commune whiffs often?
Sure I can see a Scooze being valuable. I think you find you can still definitely find room for one with 4 Commune.
As for whiffs, it's about as common as hitting one creature on a Company.
Say you cast Company with 50 cards in deck (turn 3 or 4) having drawn 3 creatures already in your 30 card deck. Plug that into a hypergeometric calculator and you're 99.4% to hit 1 creature and 93.6% to hit 2 creatures. Looking at Commune here, if you cast it turn 1 after keeping 7 with 2 creatures in hand already, your population is 53 cards, with 22 creatures left, your sample is the 5 deep on Commune, and you're looking to see at least 1 creature. You're 94.1% to see 1 or more.
I just realized that Commune with Nature takes up your maindeck silver bullet slots. Does anyone regret that tradeoff?
Also, how is Tracker doing in people's sideboards? It seems awkward in a 20 land deck with no land shenanigans.
What silver bullets are you missing?
Silver bullets are fun, but I greatly value Commune/Incubation more for its ability to go T1 Commune, find Druid T2 play Druid. Besides, there are still at least 2 flex slots if you are a fan of Steven Riecken's main, more if you want to go to 3 Lunge or 3 Commune. For example, I personally do not like the second Sahali and play a Rallier instead, and the Witness isn't required.
I think you'll find Tracker works well in the sideboard. The deck plays twelve mana creatures and upwards of ten fetches. Common play pattern is to try and force an early combo then play or Evo for tracker, play and crack fetch. It's does everything you want in a value creature really, clocks quick and draws cards.
On the note of grindy sideboard options, fans of the red splash can try testing the new Domri. Might be better than cards like Company or Gideon. Granting Druid haste and digging for combo pieces is great.
Adding Scryb Ranger, Bounding Krasis, and Kiki-Jiki to the mix allows for a clean kill from any one drop in play.
Pod Dork -> Scryb Ranger. Return Forest untap Vannifar, Pod Scryb Ranger -> Rallier. Return Ranger, return Forest untap Vannifar, Pod Ranger-> Bounding Krasis untap Vannifar. Pod Rallier -> Felidar flicker Krasis untap Vannifar. Pod Feldiar -> Kiki and combo with Krasis
It looks like Vannifar fits the best in this preexisting shell for sure. The big problems that she faces is you'd really like to either be able to cast her early or with haste. It's really easy to make a Vannifar deck that's just worse than the Druid combo decks given you're relying on untapping with a four drop compared to a two.
The benefit from being in the Saheeli shell is that have a turn two Vannifar line in T1 BoP T2 Cobra fetch Evo Cobra to Vannifar. On top of that, T2 Saheeli into T3 Vannifar Saheeli minus grants her haste to T3.
Once I'll get more reps in with the deck I'll definitely post my thoughts about it
Postmortem Lunge is spiking like crazy by the way ^^;
The new Pod creature is probably not good enough but I could see it being run as a 1 of with eldritch evolution. It's unfortunately likely too cute though.
Prime Speaker Vannifar is one of the most fun cards I've seen printed in a while. Hard for me to visualize it in Druid Evolution without seeing to Pod chains or playing some Lightning Greaves or something. Going a bit off topic, I do see people talking about how you can go infinite from Vannifar and a one drop.
1 -> Scryb Sprite -> Rallier return Sprite -> Pod Sprite for Pestermite -> Pod Rallier for Resto blink Pestermite -> Pod Resto for Kiki
Part of me thinks, "What a low bar. Untap with a BoP and this and there's the W." While the other half is looking at this theoretical deck thinking it has the same problems as Druid Evolution but with Vannifar you need to untap with a four instead of a two. I'll be interested to see how the card is built around, but I'm having a hard time building decks that aren't just worse versions of decks of existing options. With Kiki Chord you can play your first half at instant speed, and I see people talking about Through the Breach or reanimating it with Goroyo's but replace Vannifar with Griselbrand and you get to lose the one drop.
I'll be the first to agree our game one beatdown plan is all but nonexistent.Yet another reason I don't like sideboard guides (: Not only do I honestly not have the reps in against Burn to really say for certain how I'll board everytime, but there's many ways to think about how to position yourself in the matchup.
However, my board plan against Phoenix is decidedly risky since they have Surgical. However I do not see the beatdown plan as being a viable option against them since their threats fly and evacuate our board. Maybe we could try and board in Paths and prioritize using the back half of Incubation, but since they mainly just interact with removal instead of removal + discard or counters I'm happier trying to play around Surgical and not try and beat them down.
For KCI, we should keep Lunge in before boarding in BFT given EE and the fact that you can't provide protection when your hand wants you to curve dork into Evo for Druid like Lunge does. They only have 5 ways to kill T2 Druid on the draw and 8-9 on the play so we're just looking to race them mostly, which isn't hard since I believe they take out Mind Stones for Bolt effects normally. For Crypt effects vs KCI, the reasoning is mostly that it's common for them to just not slow them down at all. I've found given that, Cleric is actually too narrow so I've replaced it in my list for a Gideon AoZ since I seem to face Jeskai and UW often.
RE: Scooze vs Phoenix, I don't know that I really care too much if they are recurring Phoenix, and it's easy for them to get them in play before I can even activate Scooze. A 3/2 haste flyer isn't that fast a clock and my plan currently isn't trying to beat them down. You could try and shave more of the combo and try attacking for wins, but TitI makes that difficult. Basically, I value Path more already — and don't bring it in — since it kills everything and most importantly I don't ever plan to Chord or Evolve for Scooze in the matchup so I don't know that Scooze being attached to a creature really matters outside it sometimes being the best creature in a Commune.
Not sure what I think about Riftsweeper since most removal + Surgical decks outside Phoenix we do have a real beatdown plan. It's pretty narrow in my eyes.
Yes, I take out Ballista when it on 1 or 2 doesn't kill anything meaningful, and now that I play Witness I have a way to get Shalai back if it dies.
Against Burn I go -4 Chord, -1 Vizier, -1 Ballista for +2 Forge-Tender, +1 Knight of Autumn, +1 Scooze, +1 Spellskite +1 Selfless Spirit. It might be right to take out a Lunges or two but I'm not sure.
For KCI, I go -1 Lunge, -1 Rallier, -1 Ballista for +1 Spirit, +1 Pridemage, +1 Meddling Mage. My talented KCI buddy told me I shouldn't bring in gravehate.
Phoenix has been changing so much and a newer deck overall so it's hard for me to keep a consistent board plan. I go -1 Rallier, -1 Ballista, -2 Chord, +1 Skite, +2 BFT, +1 Selfless Spirit. I don't like Scooze or Cleric, Paths could be worth it. Proactive protection is important so we don't lose to Surgical.
Part of me wonders if I'm taking Ballista out too much. It is annoying when you can't win because you don't have WW.
That said, I did respond to a post earlier asking about sideboarding and gave some tips. Take a look here.
Some of the drawback with Tracker can be mitigated by waiting to play Tracker late after you've exhausted their removal. It's tough because this plan doesn't really work if the opponent keeps an interaction heavy hand where they simply one-for-one everything. I do wait to play Tracker until I have a land up, but often you'll be forced to play it into open mana and just get it killed with a fetch activation on the stack.
I'd say it's worth trying Gideons out. I don't view Tracker as better than Gideon, it just has different strengths.
Right now I'm playing Meddling Mage since I'm pretty convinced the Breeding Pool is worth it. Mage comes in all the matchups I want the slot (KCI, Storm, Ad Naus) and it's a nice to have against things like Amulet and Goroyo's.
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Eternal Witness
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Walking Ballista
Spells (16)
4 Incubation // Incongruity
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Chord of Calling
4 Postmortem Lunge
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Forest
1 Plains
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Path to Exile
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Spellskite
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Meddling Mage
1 Deputy of Detention
1 Knight of Autumn
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Mystic Enforcer
- A mana sink can be cut if Shalai or Ballista performs poorly.
- Flex slots like Witness can be cut.
- Sometimes I would cut Dryad Arbor but I tend to not do this anymore given fetch, Evo it happens frequently for me in postboard games because lots of bullets are at two.
- Against removal light decks I trim on Lunge, but never go below 2 since every deck is going to have more removal postboard.
Sideboarding against Control and Midrange is where you'll be swapping the most cards. Against unfair and removal light decks we just try to cut a few cards and bring in bullets, some removal/utility like Selfless Spirit and Spellskite to have more protection, but fair opponents have too much interaction to hinge on only comboing. So, we shave on the combo and bring in two-for-ones like Voice, Tracker, Company or difficult to answer permanents like Mystic Enforcer and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. I generally look to cut some number of Chords, Evolutions, mana dorks, and Viziers.
Vizier is the worst combo piece — especially in Finks-less versions — because the card is not all that threatening. To compare, Druid untapping can lead to them getting combo'd and Duskwatch draws card.
You'll side a little different for Control and Midrange. Control's secondary interaction in countermagic makes Chords better and Evolution worse. I often try and "Infect them" against Control where I assemble a hand and board state that bottlenecks the opponent's mana and removal all in one turn. EoT Chord is a big part of that.
As for Midrange, Chords are worse because combo'ing against countermagic is easier than discard, but Evolutions are better given we don't have to worry about getting them countered. While two-for-one'ing ourselves with Evolution isn't really what we want to do against Midrange, I tend to get a sideboard card with the Evolution or mitigate flood a bit by Evolving a Dryad Arbor. Midrange is truly the most difficult matchup in my experience because they usually also present a fast clock on top of being the most disruptive. So you may need to bring in Paths as well, but the Commune to Incubation upgrade helps with this a bit. With the combo plan being at its worst here, trimming on Lunge is a good idea too.
As for whiffs, it's about as common as hitting one creature on a Company.
Say you cast Company with 50 cards in deck (turn 3 or 4) having drawn 3 creatures already in your 30 card deck. Plug that into a hypergeometric calculator and you're 99.4% to hit 1 creature and 93.6% to hit 2 creatures. Looking at Commune here, if you cast it turn 1 after keeping 7 with 2 creatures in hand already, your population is 53 cards, with 22 creatures left, your sample is the 5 deep on Commune, and you're looking to see at least 1 creature. You're 94.1% to see 1 or more.
Silver bullets are fun, but I greatly value Commune/Incubation more for its ability to go T1 Commune, find Druid T2 play Druid. Besides, there are still at least 2 flex slots if you are a fan of Steven Riecken's main, more if you want to go to 3 Lunge or 3 Commune. For example, I personally do not like the second Sahali and play a Rallier instead, and the Witness isn't required.
I think you'll find Tracker works well in the sideboard. The deck plays twelve mana creatures and upwards of ten fetches. Common play pattern is to try and force an early combo then play or Evo for tracker, play and crack fetch. It's does everything you want in a value creature really, clocks quick and draws cards.
On the note of grindy sideboard options, fans of the red splash can try testing the new Domri. Might be better than cards like Company or Gideon. Granting Druid haste and digging for combo pieces is great.
Pod Dork -> Scryb Ranger. Return Forest untap Vannifar, Pod Scryb Ranger -> Rallier. Return Ranger, return Forest untap Vannifar, Pod Ranger-> Bounding Krasis untap Vannifar. Pod Rallier -> Felidar flicker Krasis untap Vannifar. Pod Feldiar -> Kiki and combo with Krasis
It looks like Vannifar fits the best in this preexisting shell for sure. The big problems that she faces is you'd really like to either be able to cast her early or with haste. It's really easy to make a Vannifar deck that's just worse than the Druid combo decks given you're relying on untapping with a four drop compared to a two.
The benefit from being in the Saheeli shell is that have a turn two Vannifar line in T1 BoP T2 Cobra fetch Evo Cobra to Vannifar. On top of that, T2 Saheeli into T3 Vannifar Saheeli minus grants her haste to T3.
1 -> Scryb Sprite -> Rallier return Sprite -> Pod Sprite for Pestermite -> Pod Rallier for Resto blink Pestermite -> Pod Resto for Kiki
Part of me thinks, "What a low bar. Untap with a BoP and this and there's the W." While the other half is looking at this theoretical deck thinking it has the same problems as Druid Evolution but with Vannifar you need to untap with a four instead of a two. I'll be interested to see how the card is built around, but I'm having a hard time building decks that aren't just worse versions of decks of existing options. With Kiki Chord you can play your first half at instant speed, and I see people talking about Through the Breach or reanimating it with Goroyo's but replace Vannifar with Griselbrand and you get to lose the one drop.