Talking about discussions and what has been discussed before and what not:
I don't know who is in charge of that, but I think it'll be really good if all the comparisons and ideas/bad card choices and reasoning are put in the primer, which is pretty outdated.
It has a playset of Kalonian Tusker in the mainboard, and talks about obsolete decks in the card choice section (Cruise/Dig decks, Splinter Twin, freaking Pod is there as well)
If we could clean up the primer, and have an up-to-date list of card choices, updated splashes and revolt-builds, as well as a 'to be tested' section, than that would help an awful lot and makes these questions (basically) obsolete!
I don't think I've seen much about this card, but what is your opinion/experience on Life Goes On versus Feed the Clan? Is it strictly better, or are there good reasons to play either?
As someone who also plays Cheerios, Leyline is not a card you want to play against the deck; G2 Echoing Truth will be sided in, and once you combo off it is easy to bounce the Leylines just before Grapeshotting. It is much better to side in removal or more hand disruption.
Also small thing, Merfolk do play tokens, in the form of Master of Waves.
I'm looking to build this deck, is there any baseline decklist that I can begin and tinker with? Is there any general consensus on the most efficient build currently?
I appreciate the various inputs. I see where treetop is useful, just with 20 lands, and how fast we are it feels slow. If I made the change, I'd see me going to 21 lands (not the worst thing, helps with landfall for groundswell I suppose) and the number would definitely just be one. as far as the 3 avatar, I seen a number of lists only running 3, and as it doesn't hit off of experiment one turn two (unless I play it off of Herbalists) it feels more like a "mid game" play (and by mid for this deck, I mean turn 3-4) which was my reasoning for doing 3. The groundbreakers are in the list at such a heavy number because I feel with losing Aspect of the Hydra in this list, we will lose some of the abrupt power swings that the traditional lists go, so I felt this was my way to get extra damage in. I do like going to 4 geists, as getting the damage in an amount of fast damage in seems super important, and would probably cut a groundbreaker for it. What are some auto include sideboard cards for this deck? I like natural state, guttural response and (for my list in-particular) I'm going to run the dismembers sideboards. Any suggestions on some cards for matches the deck typically struggles with?
Some sideboard cards that I think you should have are Natural State, Pithing Needle and Gut Shot. For gravehate most people use Scavenging Ooze, but I have seen others use Relic. For lifegain, I personally have Obstinate Baloth and Feed the Clan, although Kitchen Finks and Pulse of Murasa have been used as well. Other than that I use a single Thrun against control, one Creeping Corrosion against affinity and one Spellskite against removal heavy decks, but those can definitely change upon your meta. If you see a lot of Merfolk and/or Eldrazi, Fog might be good, and Back to Nature is good against Bogles, but not much else.
People are talking about wanting to have more protection, has Apostle's Blessing been tested? I think it would work pretty well, you normally don't care about the 2 life, and although I haven't tested, I think it'd work nicely in a SSG build!
Hey, nice to see your results! A few questions:
How did you beat the RW prison deck in the situation you described?
And I saw that you were running one Dispel in the side, why didn't you run another Swan Song?
Would you change one or more cards in the main/side?
Regarding the discussion on Leyline of the Meek, I don't think this has been said before but you have to careful when playing against decks like Abzan and Faeries (and maybe Tron) because it gives ALL creature tokens +1/+1.
I think it would be a good idea if we put something on the primer like "strategies proven to be ineffective" or "bad card choices", to prevent the same discussions from happening over and over. We could even have a "to be tested" section, to encourage people to try those cards/strategies out and provide more data. (Also the images under "card choices" are still broken, or is that just me?)
I can answer your last question:
You want to have a certain number of fetchlands, so you can get the Godless Shrine you need early game, and a Plains later on. Therefore, the colour that's most important is W, and that's the reason many people play Windswept Heaths in addition to the Marsh Flats; they can fetch both the Godless Shrine and the Plains (and they choose WH because that's the cheapest fetch that fetches W).
You sometimes want to fetch a Swamp though, especially against Blood Moon; that's why most people run 4 Marsh Flats and 3 Windbrisk Heights.
I don't know who is in charge of that, but I think it'll be really good if all the comparisons and ideas/bad card choices and reasoning are put in the primer, which is pretty outdated.
It has a playset of Kalonian Tusker in the mainboard, and talks about obsolete decks in the card choice section (Cruise/Dig decks, Splinter Twin, freaking Pod is there as well)
If we could clean up the primer, and have an up-to-date list of card choices, updated splashes and revolt-builds, as well as a 'to be tested' section, than that would help an awful lot and makes these questions (basically) obsolete!
Also small thing, Merfolk do play tokens, in the form of Master of Waves.
I think the sample decklist on page 1 is pretty good, I'd only add some Fatal Push, 4 Concealed Courtyard, 2 or 3 Shambling Vent and maybe 1 or 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. (Remove the Murderous Cut, Dismember, 2 Godless Shrine and 2 Isolated Chapel, the Windbrisk Heights, and maybe 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor. (Also, most people play with 6 hand disruption, but 7 is very acceptable as well.))
Some sideboard cards that I think you should have are Natural State, Pithing Needle and Gut Shot. For gravehate most people use Scavenging Ooze, but I have seen others use Relic. For lifegain, I personally have Obstinate Baloth and Feed the Clan, although Kitchen Finks and Pulse of Murasa have been used as well. Other than that I use a single Thrun against control, one Creeping Corrosion against affinity and one Spellskite against removal heavy decks, but those can definitely change upon your meta. If you see a lot of Merfolk and/or Eldrazi, Fog might be good, and Back to Nature is good against Bogles, but not much else.
You have 55 cards main, did you miss 4 Mox Opal and 1 Grapeshot?
How did you beat the RW prison deck in the situation you described?
And I saw that you were running one Dispel in the side, why didn't you run another Swan Song?
Would you change one or more cards in the main/side?
You want to have a certain number of fetchlands, so you can get the Godless Shrine you need early game, and a Plains later on. Therefore, the colour that's most important is W, and that's the reason many people play Windswept Heaths in addition to the Marsh Flats; they can fetch both the Godless Shrine and the Plains (and they choose WH because that's the cheapest fetch that fetches W).
You sometimes want to fetch a Swamp though, especially against Blood Moon; that's why most people run 4 Marsh Flats and 3 Windbrisk Heights.