Have you considered Thousand-Year Elixir? You've got enough tap abilities to make it relevant outside of just Pang Tong.
Also I totally appreciate the desire to make a deck for a commander that doesn't have one yet. I regularly look down the list of commanders in the database here that don't have decks and see if any of them strike a chord, and did in fact knock Lathliss off the list.
Any chance that you can change how decks display when previewing a post? I thought I was doing something wrong yesterday cause my decks were previewing as one long list of cards.
Have you considered Bind? Over the course of a game there's a lot you can point it at, and it cantrips! Also nobody expects the green player to counter a PW ultimate.
You could cut Hollow Trees for the Llanowar Reborn, at least it'll give you mana the following turn rather than having to wait around till the turn after.
Just noticed, no Hardened Scales. Deliberate choice or just didn't have one to hand?
Thanks for the response!
No worries, this is exactly the kind of deck I can actually help with. I'm not great at combos, or honing to peak efficiency, but my god I can faff around with random tat and zany restrictions!
Ulvenwald Hydra can grab any land when it comes in, might be worth a punt.
Treasure Mage only has three targets. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty good targets, but it feels a bit underwhelming. Could just be a difference in playstyle though. Speaking of, have you considered the artifact lands so that Trinket Mage has a couple more no-brainer targets?
Graft creatures can be quite interesting with easy proliferation, also good for resetting any persist stuff you've got knocking about. Llanowar Reborn fits the theme quite nicely as well.
I often advocate for clones.dec in these circumstances. After all, if you're playing the opponents stuff, you'll naturally be at the power level of the table. Personally I'm planning on making mine with The Mimeoplasm as that means I get access to stuff like Gonti, Lord of Luxury and also Villainous Wealth.
Or you can go truly off the wall and play something like my Ramos alt-wincon tribal deck. It's got fifteen ways to win but at least six of them are terrible. Good luck!
Feel free to check out any of the decks in my sig, as that sounds like a playgroup I'd be right at home in.
I can't really help with the mentality disconnect as I hit it from the other end to you - I just wouldn't run that Grim Monolith package unless there were a lot of artifacts in the deck anyway, and even then possibly not (at least deliberately). Feels like something where I'd throw the cards in the 15 games later the stars would align and I'd be like "Huh, that goes infinite".
So I'm not the world's greatest deckbuilder, someone will probably be along in a bit to tell you if any aspect is out of whack. However, I can suggest upgrades/replacements for some of the stuff, especially creatures and lands. I'll tag everything as you may or may not have heard of the stuff I'm recommending.
Personally I'd cut the creature based ramp (other than possibly Yavimaya Elder, he's card advantage) for either more mana rocks such as Darksteel Ingot, Rakdos Signet, Golgari Signet and Gruul Signet or spell based ramp such as Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. Reason being, there's a lot of wraths in the average game of commander, and suddenly having three less mana than you expected because some other guy's board needed to die is a real pain.
All in all, looks like a solid first run, mainly hampered by the age of your collection in terms of power level. Kudos on trying to make an older legend work as well, I feel like older generals gets overlooked in favour of newer, shinier toys sometimes.
My advice? Read up on a few things like the edhrec link darrenhabib posted and maybe some decklists from the database in this forum. See if there's any cards in there you like/have access to and throw them in. Then fill the rest of the slots with stuff out of your collection and/or buy some cards to fill the gaps.
I also find the 8x8 method handy as a starting point. If you google it you'll find loads of examples, but the idea is you identify 8 things you want your deck to do, find 8 cards for each category. That's 64 cards, plus your commander is 65, then you add 35 lands and job done. It's not the be all and end all of deck construction, but it's a useful heuristic to start from.
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Also I totally appreciate the desire to make a deck for a commander that doesn't have one yet. I regularly look down the list of commanders in the database here that don't have decks and see if any of them strike a chord, and did in fact knock Lathliss off the list.
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Dragonlover
Just noticed, no Hardened Scales. Deliberate choice or just didn't have one to hand?
No worries, this is exactly the kind of deck I can actually help with. I'm not great at combos, or honing to peak efficiency, but my god I can faff around with random tat and zany restrictions!
Dragonlover
Treasure Mage only has three targets. Don't get me wrong, they're pretty good targets, but it feels a bit underwhelming. Could just be a difference in playstyle though. Speaking of, have you considered the artifact lands so that Trinket Mage has a couple more no-brainer targets?
Graft creatures can be quite interesting with easy proliferation, also good for resetting any persist stuff you've got knocking about. Llanowar Reborn fits the theme quite nicely as well.
Dragonlover
Or you can go truly off the wall and play something like my Ramos alt-wincon tribal deck. It's got fifteen ways to win but at least six of them are terrible. Good luck!
Dragonlover
I can't really help with the mentality disconnect as I hit it from the other end to you - I just wouldn't run that Grim Monolith package unless there were a lot of artifacts in the deck anyway, and even then possibly not (at least deliberately). Feels like something where I'd throw the cards in the 15 games later the stars would align and I'd be like "Huh, that goes infinite".
Dragonlover
Personally I'd cut the creature based ramp (other than possibly Yavimaya Elder, he's card advantage) for either more mana rocks such as Darksteel Ingot, Rakdos Signet, Golgari Signet and Gruul Signet or spell based ramp such as Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. Reason being, there's a lot of wraths in the average game of commander, and suddenly having three less mana than you expected because some other guy's board needed to die is a real pain.
Change Druid Lyrist out for Caustic Caterpillar. Sure it's one more mana overall, but you can do it the same turn and it'll hit artifacts as well. Ravenous Chupacabra is a straight upgrade on Nekrataal. You aren't running enough Beasts to make Ravenous Baloth worthwhile, maybe swap it for something like Soul of the Harvest for the extra card draw? At he end of the day, more cards is batter than more life. Maybe Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner over Abyssal Gatekeeper? Oh, I'd probably try and find room for Solemn Simulacrum
There's a few things I'd cut but I've got no specific swap in for them, namely Spiritmonger, Vaevictis Asmadi, Thunderscape Master and Thunderscape Battlemage. There's just better fatties out there nowadays, have a tool around on Gatherer/Scryfall and see what takes your fancy.
Right then, land. Savage Lands in for Koskun Falls would be my first swap, followed swiftly by Evolving Wilds in for Terminal Moraine. Depending on budget as well, there's also the option of running the fetches/shocklands in your colours such as Bloodstained Mire and Blood Crypt.
All in all, looks like a solid first run, mainly hampered by the age of your collection in terms of power level. Kudos on trying to make an older legend work as well, I feel like older generals gets overlooked in favour of newer, shinier toys sometimes.
Dragonlover
My advice? Read up on a few things like the edhrec link darrenhabib posted and maybe some decklists from the database in this forum. See if there's any cards in there you like/have access to and throw them in. Then fill the rest of the slots with stuff out of your collection and/or buy some cards to fill the gaps.
I also find the 8x8 method handy as a starting point. If you google it you'll find loads of examples, but the idea is you identify 8 things you want your deck to do, find 8 cards for each category. That's 64 cards, plus your commander is 65, then you add 35 lands and job done. It's not the be all and end all of deck construction, but it's a useful heuristic to start from.
Dragonlover