Can someone please explain Flagstones for me? I don't get it. It seems wrong in a deck that wants to stick an arbiter and gq lock an opponent out. I'd maybe understand it with Crucible. Where do you want to use the interaction of playing a second flagstones?
One important interaction (especially for splash colored lists) is that, in a pinch, you can GQ it for mana-fixing while maintaining your land count. (Nuking your own land with GQ simply to color-fix would typically leave you a land-drop behind.)
For example: You have TecEdge, GQ, Flagstones out with Crusader stuck in hand. Tap TecEdge and Flagstone to float 1W, then GQ your Flagstone to get an untapped basic Plains (thanks to GQ) and any other tapped plains (thanks to Flagstone), so you can tap the basic for the other W your Crusader requires. Crusader hits the ground and you still have three lands on the 'field. If you had GQ'd your TecEdge instead, then you'd have lost 2 lands but only regained 1 plains.
I agree that it can give you an edge, but it can also do the opposite. You add variance in that you now have garbage top decks and hands of multiple vials. I feel like the minor edge in extra damage or counterspells (which are hardly in the meta ATM) may not balance out in the end. I'm not really a fan of Serra Avenger anyway due to it being clunky and dying to bolt anyway. I'll definitely proxy up a vial and non vial list and post my results if I get a chance.
The entire D&T archetype (both Legacy and Modern) is basically designed around the existence of a turn-1 artifact that can cheat you ahead on mana/tempo while you're symmetrically Wasteland'ing (GQ+TecEdge in Modern) mana resources into oblivion (preferably while Thalia tips the scales further). Entirely taking out the mana-cheating tool just leaves you with a white weenie list that tries to run efficiently on low resources. (In which case, when you don't draw land denial you're just running anemic 1cmc-3cmc bears versus the remaining optimal-resource-tuned decks of the format.)
Sure, sometimes no-vial Weenies+Thalia can work (#NoVialVancouver), but the list has to be designed/tuned with that in mind otherwise most often you're filling in some occasional lows by cutting down on more powerful (and prevalent) highs. (It's very similar to taking all of any one of Stranglers/Displacer/EzTemples out of a stock E&T list in terms of consistency-for-variance value).
Most of Vial's true raw value lies in relation to asymmetrically weathering GhostQuarter/TecEdge, rather than "Gotcha!" plays involving Wisp, et al. That's not to say that "Gotcha!" plays involving Arbiter or Wisp don't add significantly to the deck's highs, though.
I've read a few articles now by people that seem to think the new Gideon would work well in this deck. I'd like to hear your opinions on this?
Is something preventing you from going back literally one page (to page 143) and reading people's opinions on it from the day it was spoiled? There was a fair amount of back and forth there; it should be enough to help you make your own judgement.
What do people think of the new white weenie? Might be interesting in more aggro builds, though it is somewhat awkward with exert.
Glory-Bound Initiate does look pretty sweet to me, especially since its an easy 2-drop that can go into any splash color of D&T you want (albiet it fits mostly into the more Wescoe-esque white-weenie style lists like you basically said). Swinging 4pts of lifelink damage ain't half bad for a 2-drop, even if it is every-other turn (barring flickerbusiness), and even if it dies to any damage-based instant. Being Human is also a decent little perk.
For red splashes, I'm actually pretty interested by Combat Celebrant. Gaining a 3cmc "additional combat phase"-effect is pretty good for the Modern cardpool, and all the better for us that the effect can be Vial'ed in. That being said, it does suffer from The Mangara Problem, so odds are quite high it'll peter out. (Though producing a game winning alpha-strike is often more high-impact than producing a single Vindicate effect.)
It may be a little too early to count chickens, but I'm liking the feel of a lot of mechanics coming out with Amonkhet. I'm not sure I see anything that's clearly the right effect at the right cmc pricepoint for D&T, but so far Embalm and Exert seem like promising abilities.
...if I were to play the mono-White version, would that deck still be viable in a competitive arena? If I were to get really tight with the deck, would that still be enough to say, win some local GPTs, or is the deck just too weak as Mono-W, as I've heard recently?
I think Monowhite is often incorrectly perceived as being much weaker (especially in comparison to BW Eldrazi) just because the individual power level of cards is lower on average and it's much easier to remember one-big-flashy-play-that-wins-a-single-game rather than many-small-incremental-gains-that-help-win-a-number-of-matches. BW Eldrazi can produce some very strong plays relatively often, but can also fumble with its manabase and "drawing the wrong half of the deck" and lose to itself; the strength of Monowhite is its anti-fumble dependability, but you'll have fewer blow-out wins.
The fact that you're coming from Merfolk and plan to "get really tight with the deck" suggest to me that you'd be able to appreciate the many-small-gains gameplan enough to really enjoy Monowhite. (If you were coming from Merfolk-->RG Scapeshift-->D&T instead, I'd be a little more worried you were leaning into bigger/stronger/flashier gameplans and might bore of Monowhite sooner.)
Monowhite also has much more flex room for utility lands, meta-choices, and personal-preference. This can be a good thing and a bad thing: it's great if you like to tweak your lists; it's bad if you just want to jam whatever list won last week. You'll have to think a little before picking up any individual Monowhite list. Some lists count on a few strong beaters, some go wider, some go tax-heavy, some go low-tax, etc. Whatever starting-point list you choose just make sure you're playing it the way it's supposed to be played (i.e. don't play a low-tax beater list like a tax-heavy go-wide list or vice-versa).
Also, starting in Monowhite means you'll generally have more room to flex and splash. That can be especially fun each new spoiler season
TL;DR - Monowhite D&T isn't a "known-worse quantity" compared to BW Eldrazi & Taxes by any significant amount. It's just that the playstyles are a little different (Eldrazi counts on somewhat-less-dependable big plays; while Monowhite counts on many small-but-very-dependable plays).
Like LtGlitter said, the decklist on the front page of the primer is fine.
Nothing core has changed, because the Strangler/Displacer/TKS package is still solid and the numbers stay stable to maximize the usefulness of Eldrazi Temple. (This is also unlikely to change until new Eldrazi are eventually printed to compete with the slots; probably some years off.)
The only (non-spicey) recent changes that you'll see are that most lists are starting to run Concealed Couryard in place of Godless Shrine (since comes-in-tapped mostly only matters for the early Sculler hardcast and the lifeloss can matter). Other than that it's just your personal choices for the few non-Eldrazi flex-slots and deciding whether or not you like Smasher as a topend.
So after watching a couple of Games with Eldrazi & Taxes and reading through the last couple of pages, i concluded the following (on par with most of the plaers here):
Tidehollow Sculler and Wasteland Strangler
These are the reasons to dig into Black. Sadly, Sculler is a bad card. I've played him a couple of months in BW Tokens, tried him in BW Eldrazi Processor and it shares the same problems in E&T: It costsBW which isn't available on turn 2 in many games.
Even worse, with Kolaghan's Command in the format, it's a basic 1-for-2 worsen our Matchup against Jund and Grixis.
A lot of Streams i saw he stucked in hand for a couple of turns. Without Vial it's a sorcery Thoughtseize, that can be killed.
That's quite bad. Even worse, it's a necessary evil to turn on Wasteland Strangler.
Strangler shines in a Game with Creatures and Cards in the Grave to be exiled. Sadly, the momentary Meta is a wild bunch of Ramp, Combo, Tempo and Aggro.
This leaves Wasteland Strangler as a high-variance Card. Soemtimes it's really great, sometimes a bad 3/2.
This is what i am agree with many players here. Cutting Black looks like a promising idea.
Thraben Inspector and Smuggler's Copter
I'm sorry for repeating myself, but Inspector is a promising candidate along Copter. I assume it let us cheat on a single Land because we are able to cantrip.
22 Lands is what i am aiming for.
Smuggler's Copter is kinda weird card. It's again a 1-for-2 against Kolaghan's Command, but paired with more impact.
I believe i'll dodge it for now, until i'm feeling the Meta has settled and Kolaghan's is played to a lesser extent.
Blade Splicer
Again, Kolaghan's Command, but in this case it's a simple 1-for-1 trade. It's agressiveness looks pretty nice, so it will take some spots in my list.
I'll keep you updated until my decklist is settled.
One of the weird things about D&T is that we don't need Sculler to survive to get real value out of it. If Sculler is Bolted, that becomes one less piece of removal our opponent can aim at Thalia/Arbiter. (This is in contrast to BW Tokens which cares little about 1-for-1 removal and worries more about Sculler stealing Wrath effects.)
All the Sculler/Strangler synergy should be considered a bonus that simply raises the power ceiling of Sculler. (After all, Sculler was good for BW far before Strangler was ever printed.)
So, seeing the full creature list you have here, I'd offer a few suggestions.
Cutting 1xWisp and 2xDisp doesn't seem like a good idea unless you have a very specific reason. Wisp plays very well with Strangler and offers the deck some much needed flyers (Restos are good too, but Resto can flicker Wisp so there's synergy there you're missing out on.) Displacer being a 3/3 is a decent body, but most importantly it offers flicker-on-demand if left alone which can seal a long game away, especially with Eldrazi Temples in main.
No Splicers can be fine, but Resto/Wisp/Disp would play nicely with them. Thraben Inspector may come down earlier, but it doesn't offer any attack potential, and very little beyond a chump-block-with-2cmc-cantrip.
I'd probably ditch the 1-drops to have 4xWisp and 3x-4xDisp. The 3xStrangler suggestion from kaosofmind is also good advice if you're too worried about that 3-drop slot being overfilled (but like my previous post stated, you should take the deck out for a spin before trying to retool the mana curve; Vial wants what it wants.)
...I got a list in my head, but the consensus here seem to be another one.
My idea is to run 3x Thraben Inspector and 2x Restoration Angel amongst TKS, Flickerwisp and Thalia.
...Other list seem to prefer Blade Splicer and 1-2 Smasher instead. This look quite clunky to me, because the deck
is filled with 3, 4 and even 5-Drops in this case. Is this kinda misevaluation of mine?
It's a little hard to comment on a list that's only in your head and not written down but...
The 2xResto is something a few E&T players have liked recently in place of Smasher, etc. so that's probably fine.
The Thraben Inspectors are a bit less defensible; Craig Wescoe's low-to-the ground (mono-) White-Weenie deck used them, but the 2xHonor of the Pure maindeck is what makes them more passable there.
Typically, BW Eldrazi D&T players go with 1-drops like Dryad Militant or Relic of Progenitus to feed the Stranglers; the 2-drop slot is actually pretty full with Leonin/Thalia/Sculler so they'll rarely get the "Turn 2: Nothing to do, crack a clue" play that Thraben Inspector can sometimes bring to the table.
As for the "the deck is filled with 3, 4, and even 5-drops" observation; that is a bit true and Aether Vial is part of the reason for that.
The mana curve of D&T decks is warped by the presence of Vial. Vial can be an amazing mana accelerant since it is effectively offering a Sol Ring (or Mana Vault) activation worth of mana each turn as long as you have a creature with the exact same cmc as the number of counters on Vial. The fact that you have to have the right cmc creature spells in hand to get any value off of Vial means it's generally best to park the Vial at a certain point rather than keep ticking it up and up. Typically, D&T pilots find Vial-on-3 to be the primo sweet spot; maximizing effective-cmc-per-activation, and minimizing the number of tick-up turns while keeping the curve hardcast-able. This means that the curve of a Aether Vial D&T list tends to be overfilled (relative to non-ramp pure-hardcast decks) around the 3cmc mark.
Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher break the default D&T curve rules a little, though. They don't play as well with the typical Vial-on-3 gameplan as the deck's other creatures, but Eldrazi Temple goes a long way toward making these cards hardcast-able. A number of folks feel that Smasher is clumsy because it nearly requires Eldrazi Temple in play to be cast, so those folks will shave down to 1xSmasher or drop it entirely. Essentially, most E&T lists treat TKS as an honorary 3-drop, and Smasher as a 4.5-drop or something like that.
Feel free to replace the Smashers you see in a E&T list with Restos, but don't worry too much about the 3cmc slot being too heavy without taking the deck out for a spin first.
... Like I said, I don't know if this typical or not. Especially when I see most people running more than the 6 non-white sources that I run and I don't understand how they don't get mana screwed as often.
Most people running 8x (or more) colorless utility lands (GQ, TecEdge, and Muta) in monowhite tend to run a lower number of double-white creatures (typically 6x-8x). This guy, for example, runs 13x white lands and 8x double-white creatures. His turn-3 manabase odds are technically about 5% worse than yours, but the fact that he runs a smaller percentage of WW creatures means that he's more likely to have some other turn-3 play that he can cast even when he can't cast his Wisp/Crusader/etc. Running 10x double-white means about 34.5% of your dudes are WW (compared to 27.6% for 8x, or 20.7% for 6x) which is actually a pretty significant fraction.
Depending on how aggressively you're mulling, you may actually be making things harder on yourself; a 2-land opener with only one W source will often get you there by turn-3 or turn-4, and not mulling your hand away means you'll likely have more non-WW plays to hold you over until you make that next W-land drop (especially if you cut down a smidge on the WW in reference t the above paragraph). When you can't cast a turn-3 Crusader but can cast a Mindcensor, it is a lot less tilting than having multiple WW creatures (and nothing else) dead in hand.
The other thing is about 40% of the time you should have a Vial opener, and that can sweep a bit of clunkyness under the rug. If your meta has you siding out Vials most-of-the-time you can't count on that 40% as much as other folks who don't. Keeping Vials in when you're on-the-play (even versus some of the grindier matchups) is something else you could try, as you have a decent likelihood of a solid non-Thoughtseized turn-1 play. You'll have to test out whether you find the manasmoothing and combat tricks is worth the worse occasional topdeck. (I usually keep mine in, and I know I've heard SpiderSpace advocate keepin em in more than once or twice.)
... If I don't have a vial, I genuinely have had problems getting double white on multiple occasions and it's been disastrous. Is this typical of the deck or have I just been getting varianced into losses?
It seems non-typical given the manabase you posted. You have 17 lands capable of producing W, so the mana tables say you should be having trouble casting turn-3 4xWisp/3xCrusader only 16% of the time (25% if you pretend tapped Vent isn't a W source); turn-4 odds are 14% (and 24% re Vent) for casting 3xSerra/4xWisp/3xCrusader; and later turns only get easier.
The 10x double-white creatures can be a bit high for most heavy-splash lists, but for your basically-monowhite list it's more mid-to-high normal. Plus, the fact that you're only running 6x non-W-producing lands should be mitigating a lot of the problem according to the manatable math. (The only time I'd imagine double-white difficulties in your list is under a Blood Moon; in which case you'd have to self-Path your way into a second basic.)
Hey all, I wouldn't call this list competitive* for any of you grinders out there, but it has been pretty fun over the 1.5 months I've been messing around with it.
*(It's not horribly uncompetetive at least; for Matches I'm going on 53-34 in MTGO's Tourney Practice Lobby, 109-84-0 in games.)
I've been super impressed by 1xGemstone Caverns and 2xMoodland Haunt and 2xTrophy Mage; Geist and Queller have been solid as usual. The fun-ofs Augustin and Sakashima have been pretty hilarious, and I'm strongly considering upping the population in the 4cmc slot just so I can park my Vial there more often.
Sakashima highlights include copying my opponents' Eidolon so that Bolts hurt them more than me, and Thassa so I could let a sword-bearer swing through for 1U; also copying my own Thalia/Augustin for uber-tax mode.
AugustinIV highlights include uber-tax mode, including specifically one Ad Nauseam opponent who had to pay 4cmc effective for a mid-game Sleight of Hand. Queller for UW was also pretty dope.
The sideboard is... umm... well?... I clearly have no idea what I'm doing.
Also, I'm a little upset that I didn't throw any Copters, Vensers, or Whiteclays in there, but maybe I can make some room in a UW MixedBag v2.0 or something.
It's been a while since I posted here but I've been playing death and taxes for the past few years. I'm kind of sad how fast most people have turned the vialess deck away. If people haven't I would highly recommend reading the report he posted about the deck on reddit. I've been playing the deck for the past few weeks and don't think I'll be putting it down any time soon.
I don't think anyone is pooh-poohing the GP Vancouver Top4 pilot or their list so much as saying it is a very uncommon/weird choice to go 0xVial. As such, new players jumping into D&T on the (Budget?) No-Vial-Bandwagon are going to get a lot of blank stares or eye-rolls when they ask things like "So what are the best No-Vial D&T sideboard choices?" or "What should my No-Vial D&T flex-slots be in this meta?" and especially "I think No-Vial is the way to go and will stand the test of time."
Another thing to remember is that the D&T archetype is notorious for flash-in-the-pan decklists. One good result doesn't shift everyone's card choices and/or playstyles overnight; for example this list didn't convince everyone here to buy up Mulldrifter and Drowner of Hope. That's why one Top4 (even at an event as large as GP Vancouver) isn't going to convince everyone here to sell of their Aether Vials and buy up Shining Shoals.
Regarding Vial in particualar, most of the folks in this forum like it because of the shenanigans it enables: Leonin fetch-killing, Wisp land-grabbing, targeted-removal-fizzling, and attacker-blanking, not to mention the fact that cheating on mana allows more aggressive land-destruction. To many players, those lines are a major draw of the deck, since the deck just edges closer and closer to a Monowhite-Humans Stompy deck without those sorts of plays. Granted, the No-Vial build makes up for some of this flickerbusiness with a full 4xResto and 4xHeights but there's still a much larger emphasis on brick-walling with Omens and hoping you can stomp through using combat tricks almost exclusively on your own turn. But don't assume the lack of fanboying means those lists are being completely dismissed/ignored; if it becomes clear the meta is super-soft to a more linear D&T style then even us Vial-lovers will start swapping out Vials for Anthems or Omens, albeit in a grumbling feet-dragging fashion. One Top4 is not enough to start the Vial-Exodus, however.
The "We're not a Stompy/Zoo deck" sentiment is essentially the main reason No-Vial and Wescoe lists get relatively little love here.
Question from somebody new to the deck: does the kill card actually have to have 1 cmc? Doesn't the combo loop give you free hulk activations?...
Yes, the combo loop can give enough free hulk activations to tutor you into basically any Reveillark-returnable wincons. In the first page of the primer, your same scenario is basically spelled out in the "Playing around creature kill" and "Playing around Leyline of Sanctity" sections under the "Winning with Bubble Hulk" spoiler.
But, like you said, drawing a Body Double is a concern. If Double was in your opener, you can absolutely discard one along with Hulk, but if you draw her on the turn you're planning to Goryos-off you've delayed your win by a turn. The default wincon of Hulk-->(Double(as Hulk)+Seer)-->(Mogg+Lark) is preferred because it only requires one of each piece. This means you can run a very minimal Hulk target 'package' within a deck that is mostly card selection and Hulk reanimation. Running a >1cmc kill card maindeck is trading the streamlined kill and some hand redundancy away, for the ability to beat a game-1 Leyline (which is pretty edge-case).
Tolaria being 1UU to tutor seems pretty costly when there's plenty of card selection with the Looting/Cantrip/Scheming plans that most folks are running. As it is, most Bubble Hulk lists play out more like Ad Nauseam than they do BTL Scapeshift; a 3cmc tutor like Tolaria seems like it'd be more at home in a reactive BTL type shell.
For example: You have TecEdge, GQ, Flagstones out with Crusader stuck in hand. Tap TecEdge and Flagstone to float 1W, then GQ your Flagstone to get an untapped basic Plains (thanks to GQ) and any other tapped plains (thanks to Flagstone), so you can tap the basic for the other W your Crusader requires. Crusader hits the ground and you still have three lands on the 'field. If you had GQ'd your TecEdge instead, then you'd have lost 2 lands but only regained 1 plains.
Sure, sometimes no-vial Weenies+Thalia can work (#NoVialVancouver), but the list has to be designed/tuned with that in mind otherwise most often you're filling in some occasional lows by cutting down on more powerful (and prevalent) highs. (It's very similar to taking all of any one of Stranglers/Displacer/EzTemples out of a stock E&T list in terms of consistency-for-variance value).
Most of Vial's true raw value lies in relation to asymmetrically weathering GhostQuarter/TecEdge, rather than "Gotcha!" plays involving Wisp, et al. That's not to say that "Gotcha!" plays involving Arbiter or Wisp don't add significantly to the deck's highs, though.
Is something preventing you from going back literally one page (to page 143) and reading people's opinions on it from the day it was spoiled? There was a fair amount of back and forth there; it should be enough to help you make your own judgement.
For red splashes, I'm actually pretty interested by Combat Celebrant. Gaining a 3cmc "additional combat phase"-effect is pretty good for the Modern cardpool, and all the better for us that the effect can be Vial'ed in. That being said, it does suffer from The Mangara Problem, so odds are quite high it'll peter out. (Though producing a game winning alpha-strike is often more high-impact than producing a single Vindicate effect.)
Somewhat unrelated, Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun has me excited to test out unblockable Blade Splicer golems. Are there any other good D&T-tested token producers? Maybe a stretch into Bant for Voice of Resurgence? Esper/Lingering Souls? WUx Geist of Saint Traft??
Also, fingers crossed for an awesome 2cmc-4cmc white god creature.
I think Monowhite is often incorrectly perceived as being much weaker (especially in comparison to BW Eldrazi) just because the individual power level of cards is lower on average and it's much easier to remember one-big-flashy-play-that-wins-a-single-game rather than many-small-incremental-gains-that-help-win-a-number-of-matches. BW Eldrazi can produce some very strong plays relatively often, but can also fumble with its manabase and "drawing the wrong half of the deck" and lose to itself; the strength of Monowhite is its anti-fumble dependability, but you'll have fewer blow-out wins.
The fact that you're coming from Merfolk and plan to "get really tight with the deck" suggest to me that you'd be able to appreciate the many-small-gains gameplan enough to really enjoy Monowhite. (If you were coming from Merfolk-->RG Scapeshift-->D&T instead, I'd be a little more worried you were leaning into bigger/stronger/flashier gameplans and might bore of Monowhite sooner.)
Monowhite also has much more flex room for utility lands, meta-choices, and personal-preference. This can be a good thing and a bad thing: it's great if you like to tweak your lists; it's bad if you just want to jam whatever list won last week. You'll have to think a little before picking up any individual Monowhite list. Some lists count on a few strong beaters, some go wider, some go tax-heavy, some go low-tax, etc. Whatever starting-point list you choose just make sure you're playing it the way it's supposed to be played (i.e. don't play a low-tax beater list like a tax-heavy go-wide list or vice-versa).
Also, starting in Monowhite means you'll generally have more room to flex and splash. That can be especially fun each new spoiler season
TL;DR - Monowhite D&T isn't a "known-worse quantity" compared to BW Eldrazi & Taxes by any significant amount. It's just that the playstyles are a little different (Eldrazi counts on somewhat-less-dependable big plays; while Monowhite counts on many small-but-very-dependable plays).
Nothing core has changed, because the Strangler/Displacer/TKS package is still solid and the numbers stay stable to maximize the usefulness of Eldrazi Temple. (This is also unlikely to change until new Eldrazi are eventually printed to compete with the slots; probably some years off.)
The only (non-spicey) recent changes that you'll see are that most lists are starting to run Concealed Couryard in place of Godless Shrine (since comes-in-tapped mostly only matters for the early Sculler hardcast and the lifeloss can matter). Other than that it's just your personal choices for the few non-Eldrazi flex-slots and deciding whether or not you like Smasher as a topend.
All the Sculler/Strangler synergy should be considered a bonus that simply raises the power ceiling of Sculler. (After all, Sculler was good for BW far before Strangler was ever printed.)
So, seeing the full creature list you have here, I'd offer a few suggestions.
Cutting 1xWisp and 2xDisp doesn't seem like a good idea unless you have a very specific reason. Wisp plays very well with Strangler and offers the deck some much needed flyers (Restos are good too, but Resto can flicker Wisp so there's synergy there you're missing out on.) Displacer being a 3/3 is a decent body, but most importantly it offers flicker-on-demand if left alone which can seal a long game away, especially with Eldrazi Temples in main.
No Splicers can be fine, but Resto/Wisp/Disp would play nicely with them. Thraben Inspector may come down earlier, but it doesn't offer any attack potential, and very little beyond a chump-block-with-2cmc-cantrip.
I'd probably ditch the 1-drops to have 4xWisp and 3x-4xDisp. The 3xStrangler suggestion from kaosofmind is also good advice if you're too worried about that 3-drop slot being overfilled (but like my previous post stated, you should take the deck out for a spin before trying to retool the mana curve; Vial wants what it wants.)
Typically, BW Eldrazi D&T players go with 1-drops like Dryad Militant or Relic of Progenitus to feed the Stranglers; the 2-drop slot is actually pretty full with Leonin/Thalia/Sculler so they'll rarely get the "Turn 2: Nothing to do, crack a clue" play that Thraben Inspector can sometimes bring to the table.
As for the "the deck is filled with 3, 4, and even 5-drops" observation; that is a bit true and Aether Vial is part of the reason for that.
The mana curve of D&T decks is warped by the presence of Vial. Vial can be an amazing mana accelerant since it is effectively offering a Sol Ring (or Mana Vault) activation worth of mana each turn as long as you have a creature with the exact same cmc as the number of counters on Vial. The fact that you have to have the right cmc creature spells in hand to get any value off of Vial means it's generally best to park the Vial at a certain point rather than keep ticking it up and up. Typically, D&T pilots find Vial-on-3 to be the primo sweet spot; maximizing effective-cmc-per-activation, and minimizing the number of tick-up turns while keeping the curve hardcast-able. This means that the curve of a Aether Vial D&T list tends to be overfilled (relative to non-ramp pure-hardcast decks) around the 3cmc mark.
Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher break the default D&T curve rules a little, though. They don't play as well with the typical Vial-on-3 gameplan as the deck's other creatures, but Eldrazi Temple goes a long way toward making these cards hardcast-able. A number of folks feel that Smasher is clumsy because it nearly requires Eldrazi Temple in play to be cast, so those folks will shave down to 1xSmasher or drop it entirely. Essentially, most E&T lists treat TKS as an honorary 3-drop, and Smasher as a 4.5-drop or something like that.
Feel free to replace the Smashers you see in a E&T list with Restos, but don't worry too much about the 3cmc slot being too heavy without taking the deck out for a spin first.
Depending on how aggressively you're mulling, you may actually be making things harder on yourself; a 2-land opener with only one W source will often get you there by turn-3 or turn-4, and not mulling your hand away means you'll likely have more non-WW plays to hold you over until you make that next W-land drop (especially if you cut down a smidge on the WW in reference t the above paragraph). When you can't cast a turn-3 Crusader but can cast a Mindcensor, it is a lot less tilting than having multiple WW creatures (and nothing else) dead in hand.
The other thing is about 40% of the time you should have a Vial opener, and that can sweep a bit of clunkyness under the rug. If your meta has you siding out Vials most-of-the-time you can't count on that 40% as much as other folks who don't. Keeping Vials in when you're on-the-play (even versus some of the grindier matchups) is something else you could try, as you have a decent likelihood of a solid non-Thoughtseized turn-1 play. You'll have to test out whether you find the manasmoothing and combat tricks is worth the worse occasional topdeck. (I usually keep mine in, and I know I've heard SpiderSpace advocate keepin em in more than once or twice.)
TL;DR - Lower the percentage of WW critters.
The 10x double-white creatures can be a bit high for most heavy-splash lists, but for your basically-monowhite list it's more mid-to-high normal. Plus, the fact that you're only running 6x non-W-producing lands should be mitigating a lot of the problem according to the manatable math. (The only time I'd imagine double-white difficulties in your list is under a Blood Moon; in which case you'd have to self-Path your way into a second basic.)
Hey all, I wouldn't call this list competitive* for any of you grinders out there, but it has been pretty fun over the 1.5 months I've been messing around with it.
*(It's not horribly uncompetetive at least; for Matches I'm going on 53-34 in MTGO's Tourney Practice Lobby, 109-84-0 in games.)
4x Leonin Arbiter
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Selfless Spirit
1x Phyrexian Revoker
4x Flickerwisp
2x Spell Queller
2x Trophy Mage
2x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Reflector Mage
2x Eldrazi Displacer
1x Vryn Wingmare
1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1x Sakashima the Impostor
1x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Moorland Haunt
1x Gemstone Caverns
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Seachrome Coast
2x Flagstones of Trokair
2x Adarkar Wastes
1x Eiganjo Castle
2x Plains
1x Island
Vial, Path, & Trophies (10)
4x Aether Vial
4x Path to Exile
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Aethersphere Harvester
3x Reflector Mage
2x Spell Queller
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
I've been super impressed by 1xGemstone Caverns and 2xMoodland Haunt and 2xTrophy Mage; Geist and Queller have been solid as usual. The fun-ofs Augustin and Sakashima have been pretty hilarious, and I'm strongly considering upping the population in the 4cmc slot just so I can park my Vial there more often.
Sakashima highlights include copying my opponents' Eidolon so that Bolts hurt them more than me, and Thassa so I could let a sword-bearer swing through for 1U; also copying my own Thalia/Augustin for uber-tax mode.
AugustinIV highlights include uber-tax mode, including specifically one Ad Nauseam opponent who had to pay 4cmc effective for a mid-game Sleight of Hand. Queller for UW was also pretty dope.
The sideboard is... umm... well?... I clearly have no idea what I'm doing.
Also, I'm a little upset that I didn't throw any Copters, Vensers, or Whiteclays in there, but maybe I can make some room in a UW MixedBag v2.0 or something.
Another thing to remember is that the D&T archetype is notorious for flash-in-the-pan decklists. One good result doesn't shift everyone's card choices and/or playstyles overnight; for example this list didn't convince everyone here to buy up Mulldrifter and Drowner of Hope. That's why one Top4 (even at an event as large as GP Vancouver) isn't going to convince everyone here to sell of their Aether Vials and buy up Shining Shoals.
Regarding Vial in particualar, most of the folks in this forum like it because of the shenanigans it enables: Leonin fetch-killing, Wisp land-grabbing, targeted-removal-fizzling, and attacker-blanking, not to mention the fact that cheating on mana allows more aggressive land-destruction. To many players, those lines are a major draw of the deck, since the deck just edges closer and closer to a Monowhite-Humans Stompy deck without those sorts of plays. Granted, the No-Vial build makes up for some of this flickerbusiness with a full 4xResto and 4xHeights but there's still a much larger emphasis on brick-walling with Omens and hoping you can stomp through using combat tricks almost exclusively on your own turn. But don't assume the lack of fanboying means those lists are being completely dismissed/ignored; if it becomes clear the meta is super-soft to a more linear D&T style then even us Vial-lovers will start swapping out Vials for Anthems or Omens, albeit in a grumbling feet-dragging fashion. One Top4 is not enough to start the Vial-Exodus, however.
The "We're not a Stompy/Zoo deck" sentiment is essentially the main reason No-Vial and Wescoe lists get relatively little love here.
But, like you said, drawing a Body Double is a concern. If Double was in your opener, you can absolutely discard one along with Hulk, but if you draw her on the turn you're planning to Goryos-off you've delayed your win by a turn. The default wincon of Hulk-->(Double(as Hulk)+Seer)-->(Mogg+Lark) is preferred because it only requires one of each piece. This means you can run a very minimal Hulk target 'package' within a deck that is mostly card selection and Hulk reanimation. Running a >1cmc kill card maindeck is trading the streamlined kill and some hand redundancy away, for the ability to beat a game-1 Leyline (which is pretty edge-case).
Tolaria being 1UU to tutor seems pretty costly when there's plenty of card selection with the Looting/Cantrip/Scheming plans that most folks are running. As it is, most Bubble Hulk lists play out more like Ad Nauseam than they do BTL Scapeshift; a 3cmc tutor like Tolaria seems like it'd be more at home in a reactive BTL type shell.