I really like the idea of Spirit of the Sun. Maybe Soulbond would be a better way to achieve the desired effect "As long as Spirit of the Sun is paired with another creature, both creatures have double strike and deal damage as though they were your commander"
would also be cool to see some sort of Sunforger on a stick living weapon commander.
The lack of annihilator: Overall, my recommendation for that would be build around the fact Kozilek now has to slug through the field if playing the Great Distortion as the leader goes. One thing this does is make the new Kozilek a more inherently "fun" card. Opponents are much less snippy about him than Butcher of Truth. At least until someone figures out a sure-fire way to break him.
With this new block, it seems like we now have a few more ways to tutor and even copy our big threats. Besides the changes to lands & ramp, I can see see myself running essential the same deck we've had here but running Butcher of Truth as the more brutal "competitive" version and then being able to swap in the Great Distortion as the commander and playing a more "fun" less brutal game with the deck but also still being explosive and threatening the table. what a time to be alive.
Sleeved up and played a similar list to this yesterday after I found this. So much fun. I'm definitely known in my group to be the one who plays politics all the time to compensate for the lack of so many good (expensive) cards. After building several political decks lead by Seizan, Perverter of Truth, Nin the pain artist, ashling, the pilgrim, and even nekusar, this by far seems like the most resilient and consistent one I've played.
Its great to have 2 different modes of play:
1)'just don't f*ck with me and everything will be cool!' rattlesnaking / answers where you just watch the rest of the table battle amongst themselves or
2)'Im in charge here just accept it!' proactive game management, with favor for a favor plays + "Im doing this because its best for all of us'.
At one point I was basically handing my graveyard to the one player with the weakest deck whenever he was in trouble and said "whatever you give me I will play right now.' keeping him alive against the other two players who were playing aggressive dropping dudes and equipment on the battlefield, leaving those 2 basically resigned to taking each others life down. Then when everyone had or were close to single digit life totals, the favors stopped. Soon there was just one other player left. 2 swings with tasigur and a dimir keyrune and I walked away with the victory. kudos on this deck. Will be playing this one for a long time!!!!
I'm running 52 lands, pretty much every 0 or x cmc artifact and the rest is discard spells, combo pieces/win-cons or mana accel. I can usually draw 80% of the deck without lethal. and theres always dark sphere or even zuran orb. I actually just counted. The total CMC for the entire deck minus ad naus comes in at 37.
I've got a similar Sidisi combo deck thats doesn't get brought out often enough. Sidisi into Ad Naus into sickening dreams as the primary win con. Put all these cards into your hand and then pitch them for lethal using dark sphere to save yourself. Then theres also tendrils for the storm win or altar of the brood + zombie infestation to pitch lands to and you drop all your 0/X cmc spells for the mill win. Yawgmoths Will is always good to have. And then if all that fails I have Empty the pits as the last resort.
Besides keeping as few creatures possible on your side while waiting to draw a wrath, how else can we deal with other players who are swarming with tokens when its time to swarm ourselves and mirror entity for the win? The only thing thats been keeping me from consitently winning is when the last player left other than me has been building up a swarm of dudes and theres no way to go wider than him for the win.
It seems like with each block recently we've gotten 1 new card to improve the deck. Aspect of Hydra from Theros and then Avatar of the Resolute from Khans. What does this deck need most that we would hope for from either Oath of the Gatewatch or even Shadows over Innistrad? Another 1 drop (hopefully with haste like a green Goblin Guide)? a better 3 drop?
I've been running Surrak as my one 4 drop until I can get a Thrun, the Last Troll. The few times I've drawn him, Ive either ended up having to discard him via inquisition, thoughtsieze or whatever or had him countered. If the game is going more than 4 turns, I feel like we need more that just a haste-y dude for a longer game.
would running Ashnod's Altar be worth it? sacking a rebel that may already be on its way to the graveyard to help reduce the cost of putting it on the bottom of your library to 1 or helping reduce the cost of tutoring up another rebel you may need in any situation.
or maybe even putting it on Solemn Simulacrum pressuring opponents by swinging it at whoever may block it and kill it which would give you some cards every turn.
I've been working on a deck with a similar concept but maybe more controlling that runs Kazuul as the commander and then Fumiko and all the other creatures and spells that double damage and force attacks in red. the goal is to basically sit back and watch everyone else drown in the bloodbath while I sit there hopefully barely touched because no one wants to swing through my ogres or pay to attack me. I think I want to run a bunch of instant speed pumps & anthems to help other players push even more damage through on each other after kazuul hits the board. Then finish whoever is left off with big haste-y dragons. To me having access to the kazuul pillow fort in the command zone seems stronger than Fumiko.
love this list. working on one similar. My playgroup is probably too sensitive for the Yosei lock. planning on abusing stonehorn dignitary in a similar fashion though.
Kalonian Tusker is one of the weakest cards in the deck. We need some sort of upgrade if we ever want to become more competitive. And no, Garruk's Companion is not it.
Scavenging Ooze is king against a lot of matchups. Too bad he just eats a bolt most of the time.
Three Dismembers in the mainboard seems about right for me.
Dryad Militant is good in theory, but the only thing it ever seems to do for me is evolve my E1.
Vines of Vastwood is the uncontested MVP of this deck.
Choke has been really underwhelming lately. The tempo loss is so huge, I don't even know if I want to board it in for blue decks anymore.
Skylasher is pretty good against delver, but we knew that already.
All in all the deck felt a bit weak lately. Maybe the meta is not right for it, I'm not sure.
Avatar of the Resolute has been pretty chill upgrade from Kalonian Tusker. I love T3 Dismember on Strangleroot Geist he undies and puts another counter on Experiment One and then cast Avatar putting 2 counters on him and then adding another counter to Experimental One. giving you a 4/4 E O an 3/2 Strangeroot and a 5/4 Avatar.
would also be cool to see some sort of Sunforger on a stick living weapon commander.
With this new block, it seems like we now have a few more ways to tutor and even copy our big threats. Besides the changes to lands & ramp, I can see see myself running essential the same deck we've had here but running Butcher of Truth as the more brutal "competitive" version and then being able to swap in the Great Distortion as the commander and playing a more "fun" less brutal game with the deck but also still being explosive and threatening the table. what a time to be alive.
Its great to have 2 different modes of play:
1)'just don't f*ck with me and everything will be cool!' rattlesnaking / answers where you just watch the rest of the table battle amongst themselves or
2)'Im in charge here just accept it!' proactive game management, with favor for a favor plays + "Im doing this because its best for all of us'.
At one point I was basically handing my graveyard to the one player with the weakest deck whenever he was in trouble and said "whatever you give me I will play right now.' keeping him alive against the other two players who were playing aggressive dropping dudes and equipment on the battlefield, leaving those 2 basically resigned to taking each others life down. Then when everyone had or were close to single digit life totals, the favors stopped. Soon there was just one other player left. 2 swings with tasigur and a dimir keyrune and I walked away with the victory. kudos on this deck. Will be playing this one for a long time!!!!
I've got a similar Sidisi combo deck thats doesn't get brought out often enough. Sidisi into Ad Naus into sickening dreams as the primary win con. Put all these cards into your hand and then pitch them for lethal using dark sphere to save yourself. Then theres also tendrils for the storm win or altar of the brood + zombie infestation to pitch lands to and you drop all your 0/X cmc spells for the mill win. Yawgmoths Will is always good to have. And then if all that fails I have Empty the pits as the last resort.
also, what about heartstone?
How about Gift of Immortality ?
wouldn't it basically let's you sac and recur Children of Korlis every turn.
or having an endless rattlesnake setup with this on Defiant Vanguard
or maybe even putting it on Solemn Simulacrum pressuring opponents by swinging it at whoever may block it and kill it which would give you some cards every turn.
Avatar of the Resolute has been pretty chill upgrade from Kalonian Tusker. I love T3 Dismember on Strangleroot Geist he undies and puts another counter on Experiment One and then cast Avatar putting 2 counters on him and then adding another counter to Experimental One. giving you a 4/4 E O an 3/2 Strangeroot and a 5/4 Avatar.