How has Higure been for you? I'm still getting the pieces of my deck together so I've had no experience, but it seems like you won't often get in multiple hits with multiple changelings at a time to make Ingenious Infiltrator good, whereas with Higure you only need 1 hit and then you can tutor your best changeling (or Yuriko) and then repeatedly make Higure or your changelings unblockable. I do like that Infiltrator is only 2 mana to Ninjutsu, that's twice as cheap as Higure, but it still seems like Higure would get more mileage in the long run. How important has Higure's unblockability been?
I've played with this deck a lot, but I just haven't really draw Higure that much. It's a little hard to say. I can only remember drawing him like 4 times. I only put him into play once or twice. The other times his ninjutsu cost was just too expensive. I've never used his ability to make a ninja unblockable. However, I did put in a bunch of ramp creatures so maybe his cost will feel less prohibitive?
Basically Higure, the still wind is a lot cooler in the deck, so I'm going to keep him for now. However, if the next 3-4 times I draw him I just don't play him because he's too expensive I'll likely cut him for this Ingenious Infiltrator
Unfortunately that doesn't work, as Unsettled Mariner needs to be in play when the casting/activation/triggering of the spell or ability happens for its ability to trigger.
We're pretty much on the same page for everything else. :>
Oh... that is how that works. That makes me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less excited then.
For Hibernation Sliver, have you considered cutting Sliver Hivelord? HS and Hivelord both essentially do the same thing, protect your board from wraths and removal, but HS protects from all kinds of removal, not just destroy effects, admittedly at a loss of life and tempo, made up for slightly by its much cheaper casting cost. Plus cutting a sliver keeps your equilibrium of creature types in check.
I'm cutting Sliver Hivelord. Honestly the primary reason is because I just put together a sliver EDH deck and I only have one Hivelord while I own 3 Sliver Overlords. But also I think Hibernation Sliver is probably just better in this deck. It is better defensively (against exile effects and what not) and offensively (c-c-c-combos). It also costs 3 mana less and $20 less.
Those 3 were also the first ones I landed on for cutting. I also decided to break up the O-Ring changeling loop by cutting 2 of the 3 Champion changelings, as the deck has better combos now and it feels like any hand where I have 2 or 3 of them at once would be a bit awkward. I think I'm gonna keep 1 in though just because having the ability to fetch one out with Skyshroud Poacher and friends to save an important creature from a wrath seems like a play I'd like to have available once in a game (not sure if I'll go with Changeling Hero for lifegain, considering how much I seem to be abusing Hibernation Sliver, or Changeling Titan just because he's gigantic).
I don't really agree with cutting any of the three champions. I've never had a problem casting any of them. The loop is too efficient at winning me the game for me to cut any of the three. They're also some of the best with Widespread Brutality (about as effective as deathtouchers) and Didgeridoo. Plus championing a changeling allows that changeling to get an extra ETB trigger when the champion dies/gets bounced. They're also much more likely to survive attacking into a player later in the game to trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and the like.
Only thing that springs to my mind is Thran Temporal Gateway since it plays effectively every card in your deck and your curve is pretty high. It also functions as Raff #2 in case he's getting murdered a lot. It would actually ramp pretty well and you can just play it end of turn when you have spare mana floating around. Extra points if you also add unwinding clock.
Man, this set really added a lot to help this deck become more refined. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on some of the new cards. Here's all the ones I'm looking at:
This set is super fantastic! The only thing that saddens me is that it'll make changelings more mainstream and thus my deck will be less super hipster original feeling. Overall a minor concern.
Irregular Cohort - This one seems like a slam-dunk; two changeling bodies at a reasonably cheap 3 mana to double-trigger our Unesh and such while also providing multiple bodies to tap for mana. It also goes infinite a number of ways. Haste outlet + mana outlet + Walker of Secret Ways + Cryptic Gateway = infinite ETBs (EDIT: Nope nevermind, this is a nonbo, forgot that you're tapping the creatures for Gateway and thus can't also tap them for mana). The previously mentioned Hibernation Sliver + Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves synergy alongside Cryptic Gateway gets infinite life + ETBs AND infinite (tapped) tokens by responding to the Gateway activation by bouncing Cohort back with the Sliver's ability.
Yeah. This card is super awesome. I look forward to abusing it greatly.
Valiant Changeling - This one I'm unsure how to evaluate. The new set added enough 1 mana changelings that this will sometimes be castable on turn 2 which is great, but without a changeling it's sketchy. The deck has enough creatures with two or more creature types that I think it'll be castable for 3-4 a reasonable amount of the time even when we don't have another changeling, but even then that's pretty bad, and lategame it seems likely to be bricked by larger creatures. It does have some neat synergies with Yuriko and Seshiro though. I'll probably try it but I think the deck actually has better options.
I'm really interested in the fact is has double strike. However, I'm really concerned about it costing WW. My mana-base is baaaaaad. There's 7 other changelings I like more in this set. I doubt I'll be able to find room for it.
Graveshifter - This is definitely worth including right? It's a bit awkward that there's going to be spots early game where we want to play a changeling for tribal synergies but don't have a creature in the yard, but being able to get back our strong tribal card lategame seems more than worth it.
I'm going to cut Wort, Boggart Auntie. She's only ever gotten me back 1 card before, so this does that but is also a changeling. This is also really good with Unholy Grotto. It'll make that land effectively get back any creature instead with a 2/2 changeling body bonus.
Undead Augur - I'll just mention that maybe in a version of this deck that's more sacrifice heavy this would be a good include. As is it's probably too difficult to trigger reliably without sac outlets.
Yeah, I can see it being ok. I just don't want to sacrifice my changelings ever.
Venomous Changeling - As mentioned, this card is great with a couple of cards in the deck like Widespread Brutality. Definitely makes it in.
1-mana changeling dance.
Ayula, Queen Among Bears - I think this card requires too much work to be good. Needing to play this out BEFORE playing changelings, and then needing to build up enough counters on one of our tiny changelings to be big enough to fight seems real bad. Maybe just because it's cheap and has a unique tribe that makes it appealing, but I'm unconvinced.
I thought about her for a while, but I don't think she does nearly enough. Look how poorly she matches up against Seshiro. I've found I only get 1-2 triggers out of most of my non-changeling cards. Getting +2/+2 on two creatures just isn't enough.
Webweaver Changeling - Seems wayyy too expensive. The lifegain is whatever, and being a big reach body is fine, but I don't want to spend 4 mana on a medium changeling.
I'd have been really happy about this if it costed 4G instead so it could go infinite with a bit of help. I think I like it better than Chameleon Colossus. Being able to tutor it up for some life-gain padding is really nice. On its own I'd have slammed it in three weeks ago... but there's so many good new changelings.
Cloudshredder Sliver - Both flying AND haste are abilities this deck wants a lot and there's no other card that does both this efficiently, it's just unfortunate it's attached to a sliver (since I've taken your stance in trying to diversify creature types as much as possible). I think it's likely this makes it in for me though.
Oh... I hadn't even thought about adding this guy. I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to cut to add Hibernation Sliver. This one is super fantastic for sure... but I have way too many slivers. I'm going to pass on it.
The First Sliver - I feel like there's some sort of silly combo this enables, but right now I'm not seeing it. As is, it's another Sliver that's expensive and is doing something the deck already does (draw cards/generate value) with a creature type we already run plenty of. Seems like an easy pass. I'd rather play Sliver Overlord.
Most of the time we're bouncing and spamming changelings. I doubt they'd really cascade particularly well. I'm also going to pass on him.
Universal Automaton - Ohhhhh boy they did it. 0 mana changeling. Everything I said about Irregular Cohort applies to this guy except you can totally remove Cryptic Gateway from the equation (EDIT: and add in Training Grounds for the first combo I guess). There's gotta be something else that goes off with this guy, but I don't feel like diving into that now. Never thought I'd be this excited for a Memnite. EDIT: Hah, well if nothing else Hibernation Sliver + this + Reaper King is "Pay 2 life: Destroy target permanent", which is incredibly amusing.
Universal Automaton is actually the changeling I'm most excited about.
Here's my Shirei Aristocrats deck. Mine's a little more of a combo-y go wide -> Zulaport Cutthroat to kill the table. It's more about looping my own creatures for personal value than as removal but it's got a ton of creatures with triggered abilities on death that you might find worthwhile to try out.
Looking at this deck it feels almost plodding to me. I personally bask in mana-inefficiency. I really enjoy slowly looping stuff for card advantage, but at some point you gotta kill the table. I struggle to see how casting a six drop a turn and then attacking people with them (especially since most don't have any evasion) is actually going to get there. If that's good enough for your meta then awesome, but it wouldn't stand up the the hate that I usually see. I guess my best example is that I don't think that this deck can beat basically any maelstrom wanderer deck.
Lord of Extinction goes well with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. He might also help you actually kill the table a little faster. Plus if you have extra lands around he can recur himself nicely for pod and such.
Do Torment of Hailfire and Marionette Master actually do enough? You can generate some additional mana for Torment, but it doesn't look like a back breakingly large amount. With Marionette Master it looks like you only sacrifice one or two creatures a turn. Is 4 damage really enough? Is the token making really that helpful either? There's only a small handful of token synergies.
Welp, I've gotta start ordering the cards I need now. Making the Ur-Dragon cost 4 mana with a giant tutorable body is pretty slick.
Yeaaaaaaah. This fella is definitely going in. For reasons you stated. It also makes the Ur-dragon 2 shot people after costing 4-mana.
Combined with the Ur-Dragon it’ll make a bunch of changelings cost 0 mana (like that new Imposter of the Sixth Pride). I’ll need to find some more infinite combos based around that I think.
Yay another deathtouch changeling! Handful of tiny combos. Removal with our Friend of Wolves Elf. Widespread Brutality kills everything. Tutorable deathtouch blockers make attacking annoying. Fun fun! There’s going to be some new green, blue and red changelings almost certainly too! Weeeeeeee!
You've got 33 creature types but none of them are Zombie?
Unholy Grotto is going in the moment I acquire one. I also felt like this was super wrong. I spent a fair amount of time digging through the zombies and they all felt underwhelming.
Graveborn Muse seems like the best candidate to me, as a Phyrexian Arena on a body, except this Arena can easily draw you 5+ cards a turn if you flood the board with Changelings which compensates for the main weakness of Arena (drawing cards too slowly). If you're losing too much life, you can Champion it away, chump attack/block with it etc.
I had graveborn muse in for a while, but she was just too slow. I was never happy to cast her and the life loss added up way too much. Muse is way worse than Sea Gate Loremaster because the loremaster can be tutored with Seahunter and I'm not currently even running the loremaster.
For less damaging card draw, Gisa and Geralf act like Wort, Boggart Auntie #2, with some minor downsides and upsides: they can't get back Crib Swap; they don't let you hoard changelings in your hand, you have to cast one every turn or lose value; you get to cast a changeling the turn you play them; they mill you to make it more likely to have stuff to cast; they've got a bigger body but no evasion. I'd try and fit both in if you can.
Wort, Boggart Auntie is actually fairly underwhelming to me currently. There's a good chance she'll get cut in the next few sets. She's primarily in here as a moggcatcher target.
I'll also mention two other options though I think they're both weaker. Cryptbreaker does his best impression of Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca's good ability while also being way cheaper and providing additional bodies to block, attack, and tap for cards. Rooftop Storm is expensive and is pretty bad at casting your mostly cheap changelings, but combined with Artificial Evolution of Arcane Adaptation it can do some silly stuff.
Rooftop storm was in the original deck, but it got cut. Most of my changelings are already so inexpensive it was unnecessary. It got replaced by Cryptic Gateway.
Cryptbreaker suffers from requiring to much set-up for too little payoff. He also suffers from not being tutorable by Seahunter like Kumena.
It is quite funny to see someone else come up with the same idea with Ur-Dragon at the helm and a lot of similar creatures. I have a whole 'pack' of cards that fit the tribal bill but I did not consider worthy including (yet).
I've actually had this deck sitting around for a little while. It was more beat stick focused with Karona, False God at the helm. I also found it to be very lack luster until I changed it to be more combo-y/card-advantage focused. What other cards were you thinking of considering?
How strong did you find Call to the Kindred, Descendants' Path. I'm always worried they'll be either too vulnerable or wiff too often (respectively).
Joraga Treespeaker is great. Its a slightly less good sol ring, which is still really good.
Weak links? Thunderfoot Baloth - You're slamming huge creatures not a bunch of tokens. He seems underwhelming. Mage-Ring Network - This seems waaaay slow. I get you can dump extra mana in it while rattlesnaking with flash cards. But eh? There's got to be something better right? Garruk Wildspeaker - Does he do enough? You're not really tapping lands during your turn anyway. I guess he's good with cradle?
Boring card recommendations - Sol Ring and tooth and nail. Everyone plays them because they're boringly good. I assume they'd be boringly good here too.
Less boring recommendation - Crop Rotation. I heard Gaea's Cradle is a good card, this effectively lets you play two of them. It also allow for some hilarious end of turn plays with Yeva. Flash in Cradle, make a ton of mana, flash in a lethal board that no one was expecting. If you're really on the Gaea's Cradle abuse train you can also add Magus of the Candelabra and Sylvan Scrying.
Speaking of cards that are good with Gaea's Crade, Wolfbriar Elemental can make a large army if you're generating as much mana as it looks like you want. It's super weak to wraths, but Yeva sidesteps that nicely.
Least boring recommendation - Hunting Pack. Not the most competitive but Hunting Pack could definitely be hilarious here since you're always holding up so much mana. Probably not worth it from a strict power level perspective, but definitely worth it for the look on the face of the first opponent you blow out with it.
Some more tweaks now that I've gotten around to my War of the Spark updates.
+1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Vivid Marsh
Probably a strict downgrade in terms of actual mana-fixing for the trade off of uncounterable general and changelings.
+1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
-1 New Blood
I knew I wanted to put in Tolsimir since I saw him spoiled as this deck really needed some incidental lifegain. He also wraths most of the board with the oblivion ring loop (7/7 titan fighting everything) while gaining infinite life. He's also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. New Blood is kinda neat, but I never really cast it and it doesn't enable truly stupid plays, which is more what I'm looking for.
Had a funny 1v1 game against Animar, Soul of Elements. I had Tuktuk Scrapper and Moggcatcher on board.
My opponent casts Ancestral Statue to try and go infinite (by bouncing and replaying itself with his general having a few counters).
I said "Ancestral trigger on the stack, I'm going to tutor for a changeling". My opponent said "Wait Tuktuk Scrapper triggers every time an ally ETBs?"
So I let him take the play back and instead he targeted Tuktuk with Beast Within. I response I tutor'd up Changeling Berserker and championed my Tuktuk. He passes turn, I pass turn. Opponent casts Ancestral Statue again. "Ancestral trigger on the stack", tutor up Changeling Titan. Changeling Titan champions Changeling Berserker. Beserker leaves play, Tuktuk Scrapper returns to play and destroys Ancestral Statue with its bounce trigger on the stack. My opponent was so confused as to what was happening it was great.
This deck seems really weird to me. I have a hard time imagining it doing good in my area. Purely because its win-conditions are slow and they kill people in a way that is highly annoying. For example Painful Quandary is super strong, but I've found cards like that rapidly turn the game into archenemy until you're dead.
Also, I assume there isn't many super-friends decks in the metagame because this deck looks extremely weak against planewalkers.
I don't understand Venser's Journal. I feel like its to help cover the life loss from your general. Yet, you're also running Null Brooch. Has the journal been good enough? Maybe Druidic Satchel? Yeah, druidic satchel seems really good here, it either gains you 2 life (effectively a card draw) or ramps you. Seems good.
Note that nothing in your scenario allows you to sacrifice any permanents. In general, you can sacrifice a permanent only if a cost or effect allows or requires you to do so, since the rules themselves don't provide a window to sacrifice permanents except as an incidental part of another action or event (such as sacrificing a creature to pay a spell's cost). See also this thread.
Assume you have priority and it's your opponent's turn, and you control Marionette Master and your opponent controls Bloodchief Ascension. Then:
If you control Nantuko Husk and activate that ability several times, sacrificing a nontoken artifact creature you own and control to pay for that ability each time, then for each such creature, Marionette Master's and Bloodchief Ascension's last abilities will each trigger once and go on the stack (where the latter ability will go on the stack before the former ability since it's your opponent's turn) before you get priority again (C.R. 601.2i, 116.5, 603.3, 603.3b, 603.2, 603.4, 701.16a).
If you cast Soulblast and sacrifice all creatures you control to pay for it, Marionette Master's last ability will trigger for each artifact creature sacrificed this way and Bloodchief Ascension's last ability will trigger for each nontoken creature you own sacrificed this way; those abilities will then go on the stack all at once, and since it's your opponent's turn, the Bloodchief Ascension abilities will go on the stack before the Marionette Master abilities (C.R. 601.2i, 116.5, 603.3, 603.3b, 603.2, 603.4, 701.16a).
One last question. Assume the first situation but it is my turn, then my opponent doesn't die because Marionette Master's trigger will go on the stack before my opponent's Bloodchief Ascension (hence his triggers resolve first)?
My opponent has an active Bloodchief Ascension (so with 3 quest counters) and is at 13 life.
I attempt to kill my opponent on his turn by sacrificing 6 servo tokens while controlling Marionette Master with 3 +1/+1 counters on it.
I was under the impression that because it was my opponents turn, each time I sacrificed a servo token his Bloodchief trigger go on the stack and then my Marionette trigger would go on the stack above it. This would result in his life total going
starting -> MM trigger -> Bloodchief Trigger
13 -> 9 -> 11
11 -> 7 -> 9
9 -> 5 -> 7
7 -> 3 -> 5
5 -> 1 -> 3
3 -> -1 (dead with a Bloodchief trigger on the stack).
If my knowledge is correct this means that if it was my turn and I attempted the same thing he'd live at 1 life?
starting -> bloodchief -> MM
13 -> 15 -> 11
11 -> 13 -> 9
9 -> 11 -> 7
7 -> 9 -> 5
5 -> 7 -> 3
3 -> 5 -> 1
However, the other person we asked for clarification thought that the bloodchief/MM triggers were ordered by who had priority. What is the correct way to stack these triggers?
Volcano Hellion is a really cool card. Is it just a reoccurring removal spell for this deck or is there some other synergy I'm missing? If so, I've been impressed with Patron of the Vein in my other decks. It might be better for you especially with Olivia turning everyone into vampires.
I've played with this deck a lot, but I just haven't really draw Higure that much. It's a little hard to say. I can only remember drawing him like 4 times. I only put him into play once or twice. The other times his ninjutsu cost was just too expensive. I've never used his ability to make a ninja unblockable. However, I did put in a bunch of ramp creatures so maybe his cost will feel less prohibitive?
Basically Higure, the still wind is a lot cooler in the deck, so I'm going to keep him for now. However, if the next 3-4 times I draw him I just don't play him because he's too expensive I'll likely cut him for this Ingenious Infiltrator
Oh... that is how that works. That makes me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less excited then.
I'm cutting Sliver Hivelord. Honestly the primary reason is because I just put together a sliver EDH deck and I only have one Hivelord while I own 3 Sliver Overlords. But also I think Hibernation Sliver is probably just better in this deck. It is better defensively (against exile effects and what not) and offensively (c-c-c-combos). It also costs 3 mana less and $20 less.
I don't really agree with cutting any of the three champions. I've never had a problem casting any of them. The loop is too efficient at winning me the game for me to cut any of the three. They're also some of the best with Widespread Brutality (about as effective as deathtouchers) and Didgeridoo. Plus championing a changeling allows that changeling to get an extra ETB trigger when the champion dies/gets bounced. They're also much more likely to survive attacking into a player later in the game to trigger Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and the like.
Also, Rout for sure.
This set is super fantastic! The only thing that saddens me is that it'll make changelings more mainstream and thus my deck will be less super hipster original feeling. Overall a minor concern.
Yeah. This card is super awesome. I look forward to abusing it greatly.
1 Mana changelings are fantastic. I'm slamming them all of them in. This is the least exciting of the 3 but I'm still super happy about it.
I'm really interested in the fact is has double strike. However, I'm really concerned about it costing WW. My mana-base is baaaaaad. There's 7 other changelings I like more in this set. I doubt I'll be able to find room for it.
Slam in for reasons stated.
I'm going to cut Wort, Boggart Auntie. She's only ever gotten me back 1 card before, so this does that but is also a changeling. This is also really good with Unholy Grotto. It'll make that land effectively get back any creature instead with a 2/2 changeling body bonus.
Yeah, I can see it being ok. I just don't want to sacrifice my changelings ever.
1-mana changeling dance.
I thought about her for a while, but I don't think she does nearly enough. Look how poorly she matches up against Seshiro. I've found I only get 1-2 triggers out of most of my non-changeling cards. Getting +2/+2 on two creatures just isn't enough.
I'd have been really happy about this if it costed 4G instead so it could go infinite with a bit of help. I think I like it better than Chameleon Colossus. Being able to tutor it up for some life-gain padding is really nice. On its own I'd have slammed it in three weeks ago... but there's so many good new changelings.
Oh... I hadn't even thought about adding this guy. I'm too busy trying to figure out what I'm going to cut to add Hibernation Sliver. This one is super fantastic for sure... but I have way too many slivers. I'm going to pass on it.
Most of the time we're bouncing and spamming changelings. I doubt they'd really cascade particularly well. I'm also going to pass on him.
I still run Higure of the Still Wind. I wonder if this guy would be better. Waaay less awesome, but I might make that swap.
I look forward to countering some spells with a moggcatcher activation.
C-C-C-COMBO TIME.
I want 1-mana changelings not 7 mana changelings. Well except for Morophon.
Universal Automaton is actually the changeling I'm most excited about.
Order of excitement
Tier 1 - SQUEEEEE
1 Universal Automaton
2 Morophon, the Boundless
3 Changeling Outcast
4 Irregular Cohort
5 Graveshifter
Tier 2 - Windmill Slam
6 Venomous Changeling
7 Impostor of the Sixth Pride
8 Unsettled Mariner
Tier 3 - I'm very interested
9 Valiant Changeling
10 Webweaver Changeling
Tier 4 - Not even remotely considering
Birthing Boughs
I just looked over my changeling list... there's only like 2-3 I actually want to cut. Ghostly Changeling, Chameleon Colossus, and Cairn Wanderer are the only obvious cuts. Sigh.
My favorite random dumb beater win condition is Darksteel Colossus or Avacyn, Angel of Hope + Worldslayer
I also find that True Conviction rapidly accelerates the death of the table to random dumb beaters.
Also a fan of Baneslayer Angel, Restoration Angel, archangel of thune, and Sigarda, Host of Herons
I like angels. Sue me.
This deck seems like it would enjoy Lurking Predators
For a TL;DR of that deck though...
From experience my Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar are the best free sacrifice outlets available.
Attrition and Vampiric Rites are also exceptionally good sacrifice outlets (that require a mana cost).
Pitiless Plunderer is filthy strong. You should really give him a whirl.
Harvester of Souls draws a bunch of cards, and extra off your general.
Black Market and Revel in Riches both get extra triggers off Teysa Karlov. I've not actually cast either of them, but I get the feeling they'll be good.
Non-Shirei cards I'd recommend...
Pitiless Pontiff if you really need another sacrifice outlet
martyr's bond seems better than Butcher of Malakir.
Academy Rector would be great.
After shirei, shizo's caretaker dies twice, Balthor the Defiled brings him back with friends to kill the table
Damia, Sage of Stone runs 35 1-drop creatures. Honestly, Damia is more of a second-in-command to Gaea's Cradle than actually being the general.
The Ur-Dragon with Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign makes every changeling cost 3 less and minor fact or fiction.
Chromium doesn't have a second in command. He's above needing assistance. Sharuum the Hegemon, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Thada Adel, Acquisitor all wish they're as cool as him but sadly fall short.
Looking at this deck it feels almost plodding to me. I personally bask in mana-inefficiency. I really enjoy slowly looping stuff for card advantage, but at some point you gotta kill the table. I struggle to see how casting a six drop a turn and then attacking people with them (especially since most don't have any evasion) is actually going to get there. If that's good enough for your meta then awesome, but it wouldn't stand up the the hate that I usually see. I guess my best example is that I don't think that this deck can beat basically any maelstrom wanderer deck.
Anyway, onto card suggestions... on the more expensive side: this deck seems really reliant on Birthing Pod and your only tutors are on Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Rune-Scarred Demon. Demonic Tutor is a pretty good card.
Mana Reflection or Zendikar Resurgent might allow you to be a little more explosive in actually slamming multiple spells a turn.
Lord of Extinction goes well with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. He might also help you actually kill the table a little faster. Plus if you have extra lands around he can recur himself nicely for pod and such.
Reassembling Skeleton would be good with skullclamp, trading post, Smokestack, birthing pod and a handful of other cards.
Do Torment of Hailfire and Marionette Master actually do enough? You can generate some additional mana for Torment, but it doesn't look like a back breakingly large amount. With Marionette Master it looks like you only sacrifice one or two creatures a turn. Is 4 damage really enough? Is the token making really that helpful either? There's only a small handful of token synergies.
Yeaaaaaaah. This fella is definitely going in. For reasons you stated. It also makes the Ur-dragon 2 shot people after costing 4-mana.
Combined with the Ur-Dragon it’ll make a bunch of changelings cost 0 mana (like that new Imposter of the Sixth Pride). I’ll need to find some more infinite combos based around that I think.
Yay another deathtouch changeling! Handful of tiny combos. Removal with our Friend of Wolves Elf. Widespread Brutality kills everything. Tutorable deathtouch blockers make attacking annoying. Fun fun! There’s going to be some new green, blue and red changelings almost certainly too! Weeeeeeee!
Unholy Grotto is going in the moment I acquire one. I also felt like this was super wrong. I spent a fair amount of time digging through the zombies and they all felt underwhelming.
I had graveborn muse in for a while, but she was just too slow. I was never happy to cast her and the life loss added up way too much. Muse is way worse than Sea Gate Loremaster because the loremaster can be tutored with Seahunter and I'm not currently even running the loremaster.
Wort, Boggart Auntie is actually fairly underwhelming to me currently. There's a good chance she'll get cut in the next few sets. She's primarily in here as a moggcatcher target.
Rooftop storm was in the original deck, but it got cut. Most of my changelings are already so inexpensive it was unnecessary. It got replaced by Cryptic Gateway.
Cryptbreaker suffers from requiring to much set-up for too little payoff. He also suffers from not being tutorable by Seahunter like Kumena.
By all means... steal away. This deck is super great to play.
I've actually had this deck sitting around for a little while. It was more beat stick focused with Karona, False God at the helm. I also found it to be very lack luster until I changed it to be more combo-y/card-advantage focused. What other cards were you thinking of considering?
How strong did you find Call to the Kindred, Descendants' Path. I'm always worried they'll be either too vulnerable or wiff too often (respectively).
Weak links?
Thunderfoot Baloth - You're slamming huge creatures not a bunch of tokens. He seems underwhelming.
Mage-Ring Network - This seems waaaay slow. I get you can dump extra mana in it while rattlesnaking with flash cards. But eh? There's got to be something better right?
Garruk Wildspeaker - Does he do enough? You're not really tapping lands during your turn anyway. I guess he's good with cradle?
Boring card recommendations - Sol Ring and tooth and nail. Everyone plays them because they're boringly good. I assume they'd be boringly good here too.
Less boring recommendation - Crop Rotation. I heard Gaea's Cradle is a good card, this effectively lets you play two of them. It also allow for some hilarious end of turn plays with Yeva. Flash in Cradle, make a ton of mana, flash in a lethal board that no one was expecting. If you're really on the Gaea's Cradle abuse train you can also add Magus of the Candelabra and Sylvan Scrying.
Speaking of cards that are good with Gaea's Crade, Wolfbriar Elemental can make a large army if you're generating as much mana as it looks like you want. It's super weak to wraths, but Yeva sidesteps that nicely.
Least boring recommendation - Hunting Pack. Not the most competitive but Hunting Pack could definitely be hilarious here since you're always holding up so much mana. Probably not worth it from a strict power level perspective, but definitely worth it for the look on the face of the first opponent you blow out with it.
+1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Vivid Marsh
Probably a strict downgrade in terms of actual mana-fixing for the trade off of uncounterable general and changelings.
+1 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
-1 New Blood
I knew I wanted to put in Tolsimir since I saw him spoiled as this deck really needed some incidental lifegain. He also wraths most of the board with the oblivion ring loop (7/7 titan fighting everything) while gaining infinite life. He's also tutorable with Skyshroud Poacher. New Blood is kinda neat, but I never really cast it and it doesn't enable truly stupid plays, which is more what I'm looking for.
-1 Rakdos, the Showstopper
+1 Widespread Brutality
Widespread Brutality is just a much more consistent card. It does require a changeling to be truly a wrath. However it has much cooler synergies like Mirror Entity making it one-sided, Moonglove Changeling to for sure kill everything, and Changeling Hero to gain 6 health per creature.
Had a funny 1v1 game against Animar, Soul of Elements. I had Tuktuk Scrapper and Moggcatcher on board.
My opponent casts Ancestral Statue to try and go infinite (by bouncing and replaying itself with his general having a few counters).
I said "Ancestral trigger on the stack, I'm going to tutor for a changeling". My opponent said "Wait Tuktuk Scrapper triggers every time an ally ETBs?"
So I let him take the play back and instead he targeted Tuktuk with Beast Within. I response I tutor'd up Changeling Berserker and championed my Tuktuk. He passes turn, I pass turn. Opponent casts Ancestral Statue again. "Ancestral trigger on the stack", tutor up Changeling Titan. Changeling Titan champions Changeling Berserker. Beserker leaves play, Tuktuk Scrapper returns to play and destroys Ancestral Statue with its bounce trigger on the stack. My opponent was so confused as to what was happening it was great.
Also, I assume there isn't many super-friends decks in the metagame because this deck looks extremely weak against planewalkers.
Starting recommendations:
Crucible of Worlds. I mean you're running Smallpox.
Mindslicer. You want everyone with no hands, this does that.
I don't understand Venser's Journal. I feel like its to help cover the life loss from your general. Yet, you're also running Null Brooch. Has the journal been good enough? Maybe Druidic Satchel? Yeah, druidic satchel seems really good here, it either gains you 2 life (effectively a card draw) or ramps you. Seems good.
I feel like Liliana of the Dark Realms, Liliana of the Veil, Liliana Vess, Liliana, Dreadhorde General would all compliment your gameplan very well. Could also add in Liliana's Triumph instead of Chainer's Edict.
This deck seems really light on instant speed removal. I'd try to squeeze in some Go for the Throat and friends.
Whoops, I guess I should read my opponents cards a little better.
One last question. Assume the first situation but it is my turn, then my opponent doesn't die because Marionette Master's trigger will go on the stack before my opponent's Bloodchief Ascension (hence his triggers resolve first)?
Thanks a bunch!
I attempt to kill my opponent on his turn by sacrificing 6 servo tokens while controlling Marionette Master with 3 +1/+1 counters on it.
I was under the impression that because it was my opponents turn, each time I sacrificed a servo token his Bloodchief trigger go on the stack and then my Marionette trigger would go on the stack above it. This would result in his life total going
starting -> MM trigger -> Bloodchief Trigger
13 -> 9 -> 11
11 -> 7 -> 9
9 -> 5 -> 7
7 -> 3 -> 5
5 -> 1 -> 3
3 -> -1 (dead with a Bloodchief trigger on the stack).
If my knowledge is correct this means that if it was my turn and I attempted the same thing he'd live at 1 life?
starting -> bloodchief -> MM
13 -> 15 -> 11
11 -> 13 -> 9
9 -> 11 -> 7
7 -> 9 -> 5
5 -> 7 -> 3
3 -> 5 -> 1
However, the other person we asked for clarification thought that the bloodchief/MM triggers were ordered by who had priority. What is the correct way to stack these triggers?
Thanks.
Volcano Hellion is a really cool card. Is it just a reoccurring removal spell for this deck or is there some other synergy I'm missing? If so, I've been impressed with Patron of the Vein in my other decks. It might be better for you especially with Olivia turning everyone into vampires.
I'm rather fond of Balthor the Defiled as a mass reanimation spell.
Wouldn't Grim Haruspex and Midnight Reaper be better than Phyrexian Rager? In a similar vein Harvester of Souls is a beefy version that triggers off everyone.
Soldevi Adnate is an exceptional ramp creature, especially with Olivia giving him haste. It's basically Burnt Offering on a creature.
Also if you like Sire of Insanity, Mindslicer is a cheaper 1-shot of the same effect.