I can't stop building with Elesh Norn and Nissa, I knew there was something interesting there. I'm more of a control player at heart and like to interact so I prefer this style of play to ramping into a trampling win condition or comboing off - just personal preference on how I want to spend my evening. BUT...This seems pretty interesting.
Chord of Calling and Nissa are a great match. Those 0/1s are now mana too! There's plenty of Green mana symbols to get the devotion count reasonably high and the flexibility offered by Chord is amazing. Path gives me more interaction. Eldrazi Displacer...I mean c'mon how sweet is that! And the sideboard options are ridiculous: Kataki, War's Wage, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Gaddock Teeg, Spellskite, Aven Mindcensor etc. etc.
These are all the cards I love. I may have found an interesting way of putting them together that is half-viable as a strong FMN deck. I feel like I'm part of the way to something awesome but need some help to 'bring it home.' Here's what I have:
This deck ramps and at the same time attempts to disrupt the opponents mana development to overcome the 'un-fair' combo decks that are much faster than it.
Basically it's a Hatebears deck style deck It aims to force other decks to 'play fair,' while also trying to break the 'fair' symmetry with ramp.
Combining Ghost Quarter with Crucible and Mindcensor is quite awful for most decks who are running very few basic lands. Crucible provides card advantage as well. Add in Azusa and you'll likely sweep their lands off the table. Courser increases your chances of getting your Ghost Quarters. Also good turn 2 play and a little life-gain.
Specific Hosers Linvala, Keeper of Silence - Shuts down many combos and utility creatures. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Shots down a lot of creature strategies and tokens. Gaddock Teeg - Hoses a lot of combo decks as well as card like Collected Company. Kataki, War's Wage - Affinity, maybe Lantern Control but I don't know that deck. Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Hopefully helps against Burn...may be too slow. Spellskite - Boggles, Infect, Removal heavy decks Rest In Peace - Graveyard strategies Stony Silence - Tron, Affinity, Lanter...etc. Choke - Helps with mana denial against Blue decks. Very strong hoser on turn 2. Speading Algae - Same as above but for black. God help you if you are Black and Blue.
Ramp. is a critical aspect to the deck. Jumping the curve allows the land destruction/mana denial plan to be effective. It also breaks the symmetry of cards like Hokori, Dust Drinker and Magus of the Tabernacle. Utopia Sprawl Arbor Elf Garruk Wildspeaker Birds of Paradise
The Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Garruk combo is very strong and utilized in other decks: Turn 1 Arbor Elf. Turn 2 Utopia Sprawl. Tap Enchanted Forest for 2, untap it with Arbor Elf, tap for 2 more, play Garruk, untap both lands, tap for 3 more mana to get whatever at 3CMC all on turn 2. If you don't get the 'nuts' or Elf gets killed any turn 1 accelerator is fine to get Aven Mindcensor or Courser or Time of Need plus a Path, etc.
Lands
This deck needs a lot of capital 'F' forests to make it's ramp package work. This limits the colourless options. I've chosen to included Gargoyle Castle as a reccurable way to create board presence if needed. Horizon Canopy synergizes nicely with Crucible as well.
Misc. Brimaz, King of Oreskos - Good beater/defender. Comes down turn 2 like a boss. Tutorable. Saffi Eriksdotter - Protects important hate cards. Could be Spellskite instead. Tutorable. Time of Need holds the strategy together and helps keep it consistant yet flexible. The 'build around me card' that started the deck.
Weaknesses: What I see at the core weakness is that it is very hard to come back from a weak board position. There's not much removal, no sweeper effects. I don't know how to resolve that. There's a strong possibility of running Worship with the hexproof legends from the sideboard.
I'm looking for creative input/analysis on this deck concept! Thank-you for your attention.
That's a great response thank-you so much. She's powerful in subtle ways is what I'm getting. Looking at her and other token producers seems strong, Xenagos and Garruk and her seem like a good team since their abilities all overlap so well. It also seems like she's an easy flip with Genesis Hydra. Empty board into a 3/3, Nissa and an 0/1 seems great.
It's really helpful to read that focusing on Craterhoof Behemoth has had strong results for people. I'm a sucker for White so I'm going to keep plugging away on a token version with Elesh Norn.
So Doubling Season (DS) is powerful, obviously. Trouble with DS is that you have to sequence your walkers after you play it to get maximum value. DS is great with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar -2 ability and Gavony Township but it seems like, so far, Township doesn't have a place in the deck. Parallel Lives does the majority of what DS does at one less mana, which is a large amount when you factor in that we can generate 4 mana on turn 2 AND it's one less to flip off of a Genesis Hydra. Anyone tried Parallel Lives over DS? It's also under $10.
Before I buy 4x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can you guys help me understand why I should or should not get her? A 2 drop (with ramp) walker seems super sweet...but also a bit do nothing.
Seems like if I'm going devotion walkers having some Karn Liberated also seems important. Again...worth the price tag?
For those playing tokens and Chord. Think about Hokori, Dust Drinker. This should shut down the opponent's game really fast and only effect us minimally. I could even see boarding in a few more. 2nd turn Hokori should really hurt a lot of decks. 2nd turn Hokori implies we still retain access to 4 mana via Elf/Sprawl too!
No Vials, more mana dorks. Hate kept high. No Smiters, no Wilt-Leaf. Trying to maximize on Exalted triggers for Fiendslayer, including some sketchy looking Cathedral of War. Rancor is king. This deck will aggressively sac it's lands OR ramp depending on opening hand and opponent. Jotun Grunt seems like it could be great against certain decks - Delver, Jeskai, Grixis, Infect and wears Rancor very well. Silent Arbiter helps against all the creature decks, Eldrazi and Merfolk included. I'm likely to have a large dude either with trample flying overhead or trampling with First strike. Overall pretty aggressive with the possibility of hanging on via Lifelinking racers.
Suppression Field in the board is something I'd like to try as it fills the role that Stony Silence does AND it punished fetch-lands hard. Since I am weak to discard I went to 3 Leyline in the board.
What do people think about putting a few Honor of the Pure into the mix if cards like Fiendslayer are coming up? This gets him (and Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworn Cannonist) out of Pyroclasm/Electrolyze range first of all, secondly a 3/3 first strike, lifelink is no joke, add Exalted and maybe a Liege to the mix and you can race the Eldrazi! Loxodon becomes a 5/5 and tussles with Reality Smasher. Honor has big downsides, like not being a creature but most of our guys are white already and take advantage.
Also Fiendslayer and Basilisk Collar is insane. Collar works well with Thalia's First Strike as well. Turn 1 Collar, Turn 2 Thalia...
Painter's Servant seems ok but if you're already making their removal bad for them with x/4s, protection from COLOUR guys and cards like Voice or Finks that sandbagged removal is going straight to the Servant.
I personally think the idea of Honor of the Pure is a great one. It makes Fiend Hunter a 2/4 and gets him our of Bolt/Helix range which is a big deal. It also makes Magus of the Moat a 1/4, again out of bolt range, which is huge against a lot of decks. Sure don't dodge Dismember but Spellskite helps there. Magus of the Moat seems like such a trump against Eldrazi and many other decks.
I like Fiendslayer Paladin with Honour of the Pure as well. Great way to race/stabilize and tough as hell for a lot of decks to deal with. Elspeth could help get him in the air and up and over the 'moat'.
Does anyone run Jotun Grunt these days? He seems like such a strong beater at 2 and easy to reset with Displacer/Wisp.
Doesn't affect Noble Hierarch, that's a mana ability.
I don't mind paying 2 mana for to activate a few things in a game when it is likely to hurt my opponent much, much worse. Against any 3 colour deck it ups the chance we get to turn off their Fetches early in the game. Our deck still functions with Field out, I suspect it cripples a lot of other decks cold. Field won't win you the game on its own but it provides the window through which you can take your beats and get through for the win. I don't mind paying extra for Ghost Quarter if it's going to deeply impact the game, otherwise I just keep it for mana.
Does saccing Eldrazi tokens count as a mana ability?
I keep looking at Suppression Field as a catch-all sideboard option. It does most of what Stony Silence does but so much more! With our game plan of disruption and beats it seems ideal. It essentially shuts down so much stuff: Melira comobs, Lantern, Planeswalkers, Expedition Map, Kiki combo, Griselbrand activations, Aether Vial, (bl)inkmoth lands, equips and the best one Fetch lands. It makes out Ghost Quarters cost more but I'm ok with that.
It seems like such a super high-impact card that doesn't see play mainly because people are playing fetches - it's an instant non-bo. For us it's like Leonin Arbiter 5-8. Better than arbiter in many ways. Obviously does not play well with Aether Vial which many posters here have dropped anyhow.
@dcovino: List looks good. Fit a lot of great stuff in there, Oath helps with getting those utility 1-ofs I hope. Would you consider a 1-of Eldrazi Displacer? with the Finks, Witness, etc? He removes blockers, resets opposing Oozes, stops big attacks, etc.
Did you end up playing that 2x Archangel of Tithes at all? Was she good?
Would you play an indestructible 6/6 that gives the team trample? Just going to 3 Wilt-Leaf Lieges is probably better but this is the fun of a new set and bannings! Brewers paradise!
This version tries to maximize the possible # of Ghost Quarter/Arbiter activations by drawing more. I suppose to that end it could use a Mindcensor. I'm liking how much card draw/selection is baked into the pie here between Oath, Courser, Domri and Canopies. Nylea is a bit of a gamble but seems quite strong with Oath and all the green mana symbols. She breaks stalled boards and can make use of extra mana and turns top-decked birds into threats. She gives those Exalted guys super reach. I like Heliod better because on a empty or behind board state he can generate dudes and blanket vigilance to all our guys is strong for racing. Not sure I can get to 5 white mana pips reliably though. I'm not too happy to cut Vials but 6 t1 dorks have their own advantages, t2 Strip mine being the best one.
I expect to see a lot of Blood Moon, Fulminator Mages and Ghost Quarters as people try to fight Tron and Eldrazi with the same hate. So 5 basics and a Crucible in the board. Crucible also serves in the mirror as well as in mid-range games for more LD or card draw.
Missing Stirring Wildwood but not sure how to squeeze it in and still have enough sources for the t1 mana dork.
Still brainstorming:
I was considering what I would want in a Planeswalker (PW) for this deck.I want, in this order: card draw, removal and a way to race.
Liliana: I don't think her +1 can count as card advantage for us, as it's only good on a board where we are already doing well. I'd prefer to draw cards so I can tighten the noose or dig out of a bad board state. Other decks are much better able to make use of her (ie. Lingering Souls) ; her +1 may be a liability. She has removal but it's doesn't deal with specific guys like Dark Confidant or Eidolon of the Great Revel but likely eats a token or some lame chumper. She certainly doesn't help the race.
I'm leaning on Domri Rade as a 1-of in the main and a Chandra, Pyromancer in the side. Domri is very flexible and can help dig a bit in a deck with 26+ creatures. Loxodon/Liege/Voice fight like champs as do Exalted guys. He doesn't race but I think he's good enough for the maindeck for his utility. Playing with Domri brings Courser of Kruphix to mind as a possibility.
Chandra, Pyromancer's 0 ability is as good as drawing a card most of the time. The +1 ability seems a little weak at first look, only 1 damage. But the clause about not blocking means racing gets easier and 1 damage a turn will add up. I'd love a way to kill spirit tokens and other annoying X/1s as well as challenge walkers. Again, Courser seems good with her.
Ajani Vengeant does the racing and the removal really well but no card draw. I love that he reinforces the mana denial plan. Does he have enough impact on matches where we would want him though?
Sorin, Solemn Visitor does the racing like a boss but no draw, no removal. He's really great at the mid-range/aggro fights though so he fills that specific role well.
I don't think it's worth considering on colour planeswalker at this time because...they have never made the cut in the past. Does the banning of Twin change that?
2x Birds of Paradise
2x Voice of Resurgence
2x Eternal Witness
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Eldrazi Displacer
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Acidic Slime
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Chord of Calling
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
3x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4x Utopia Sprawl
1x Canopy Vista
4x Forest
2x Gavony Township
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Plains
4x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
2x Wooded Bastion
2x Wooded Foothills
I can't stop building with Elesh Norn and Nissa, I knew there was something interesting there. I'm more of a control player at heart and like to interact so I prefer this style of play to ramping into a trampling win condition or comboing off - just personal preference on how I want to spend my evening. BUT...This seems pretty interesting.
Chord of Calling and Nissa are a great match. Those 0/1s are now mana too! There's plenty of Green mana symbols to get the devotion count reasonably high and the flexibility offered by Chord is amazing. Path gives me more interaction. Eldrazi Displacer...I mean c'mon how sweet is that! And the sideboard options are ridiculous: Kataki, War's Wage, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Gaddock Teeg, Spellskite, Aven Mindcensor etc. etc.
Anyone out there splashing white this hard?
4x Arbor Elf
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Aven Mindcensor
2x Courser of Kruphix
2x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
2x Magus of the Tabernacle
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Path to Exile
3x Time of Need
2x Crucible of Worlds
Land (23)
5x Forest
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Plains
1x Gargoyle Castle
4x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Spellskite
3x Stony Silence
2x Rest in Peace
2x Choke
1x Spreading Algae
This deck ramps and at the same time attempts to disrupt the opponents mana development to overcome the 'un-fair' combo decks that are much faster than it.
Basically it's a Hatebears deck style deck It aims to force other decks to 'play fair,' while also trying to break the 'fair' symmetry with ramp.
The Hate
Aven Mindcensor
Ghost Quarter
Magus of the Tabernacle
Hokori, Dust Drinker
Path to Exile
This is the core hate aspect. Attack fetchlands, attack search effects. Aven Mindcensor is VERY GOOD on turn 2. Still good later, but insane on 2.
Bolster the Hate
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
Crucible of Worlds
Courser of Kruphix
Combining Ghost Quarter with Crucible and Mindcensor is quite awful for most decks who are running very few basic lands. Crucible provides card advantage as well. Add in Azusa and you'll likely sweep their lands off the table. Courser increases your chances of getting your Ghost Quarters. Also good turn 2 play and a little life-gain.
Specific Hosers
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - Shuts down many combos and utility creatures.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - Shots down a lot of creature strategies and tokens.
Gaddock Teeg - Hoses a lot of combo decks as well as card like Collected Company.
Kataki, War's Wage - Affinity, maybe Lantern Control but I don't know that deck.
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Hopefully helps against Burn...may be too slow.
Spellskite - Boggles, Infect, Removal heavy decks
Rest In Peace - Graveyard strategies
Stony Silence - Tron, Affinity, Lanter...etc.
Choke - Helps with mana denial against Blue decks. Very strong hoser on turn 2.
Speading Algae - Same as above but for black. God help you if you are Black and Blue.
Ramp. is a critical aspect to the deck. Jumping the curve allows the land destruction/mana denial plan to be effective. It also breaks the symmetry of cards like Hokori, Dust Drinker and Magus of the Tabernacle.
Utopia Sprawl
Arbor Elf
Garruk Wildspeaker
Birds of Paradise
The Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Garruk combo is very strong and utilized in other decks: Turn 1 Arbor Elf. Turn 2 Utopia Sprawl. Tap Enchanted Forest for 2, untap it with Arbor Elf, tap for 2 more, play Garruk, untap both lands, tap for 3 more mana to get whatever at 3CMC all on turn 2. If you don't get the 'nuts' or Elf gets killed any turn 1 accelerator is fine to get Aven Mindcensor or Courser or Time of Need plus a Path, etc.
Lands
This deck needs a lot of capital 'F' forests to make it's ramp package work. This limits the colourless options. I've chosen to included Gargoyle Castle as a reccurable way to create board presence if needed. Horizon Canopy synergizes nicely with Crucible as well.
Misc.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos - Good beater/defender. Comes down turn 2 like a boss. Tutorable.
Saffi Eriksdotter - Protects important hate cards. Could be Spellskite instead. Tutorable.
Time of Need holds the strategy together and helps keep it consistant yet flexible. The 'build around me card' that started the deck.
Weaknesses: What I see at the core weakness is that it is very hard to come back from a weak board position. There's not much removal, no sweeper effects. I don't know how to resolve that. There's a strong possibility of running Worship with the hexproof legends from the sideboard.
I'm looking for creative input/analysis on this deck concept! Thank-you for your attention.
It's really helpful to read that focusing on Craterhoof Behemoth has had strong results for people. I'm a sucker for White so I'm going to keep plugging away on a token version with Elesh Norn.
So Doubling Season (DS) is powerful, obviously. Trouble with DS is that you have to sequence your walkers after you play it to get maximum value. DS is great with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar -2 ability and Gavony Township but it seems like, so far, Township doesn't have a place in the deck. Parallel Lives does the majority of what DS does at one less mana, which is a large amount when you factor in that we can generate 4 mana on turn 2 AND it's one less to flip off of a Genesis Hydra. Anyone tried Parallel Lives over DS? It's also under $10.
Seems like if I'm going devotion walkers having some Karn Liberated also seems important. Again...worth the price tag?
I think Westvale Abbey is strong with [card]Nissa,Voice of Zendikar/card] and token strategies. Speaking of...what do you think of this departure?
Devotion Shell with Tokens and Glittering Wish.
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Jotun Grunt
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Silent Arbiter
4x Path to Exile
3x Rancor
3x Forest
2x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
3x Horizon Canopy
1x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
1x Stirring Wildwood
2x Cathedral of War
4x Temple Garden
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Gaddock Teeg
3x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Mark of Asylum
1x Rest in Peace
1x Spreading Algae
1x Sunlance
4x Suppression Field
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
No Vials, more mana dorks. Hate kept high. No Smiters, no Wilt-Leaf. Trying to maximize on Exalted triggers for Fiendslayer, including some sketchy looking Cathedral of War. Rancor is king. This deck will aggressively sac it's lands OR ramp depending on opening hand and opponent. Jotun Grunt seems like it could be great against certain decks - Delver, Jeskai, Grixis, Infect and wears Rancor very well. Silent Arbiter helps against all the creature decks, Eldrazi and Merfolk included. I'm likely to have a large dude either with trample flying overhead or trampling with First strike. Overall pretty aggressive with the possibility of hanging on via Lifelinking racers.
Suppression Field in the board is something I'd like to try as it fills the role that Stony Silence does AND it punished fetch-lands hard. Since I am weak to discard I went to 3 Leyline in the board.
Rancor could be a potential alternative to Honor.
Also Fiendslayer and Basilisk Collar is insane. Collar works well with Thalia's First Strike as well. Turn 1 Collar, Turn 2 Thalia...
Painter's Servant seems ok but if you're already making their removal bad for them with x/4s, protection from COLOUR guys and cards like Voice or Finks that sandbagged removal is going straight to the Servant.
I like Fiendslayer Paladin with Honour of the Pure as well. Great way to race/stabilize and tough as hell for a lot of decks to deal with. Elspeth could help get him in the air and up and over the 'moat'.
Does anyone run Jotun Grunt these days? He seems like such a strong beater at 2 and easy to reset with Displacer/Wisp.
I don't mind paying 2 mana for to activate a few things in a game when it is likely to hurt my opponent much, much worse. Against any 3 colour deck it ups the chance we get to turn off their Fetches early in the game. Our deck still functions with Field out, I suspect it cripples a lot of other decks cold. Field won't win you the game on its own but it provides the window through which you can take your beats and get through for the win. I don't mind paying extra for Ghost Quarter if it's going to deeply impact the game, otherwise I just keep it for mana.
Does saccing Eldrazi tokens count as a mana ability?
It seems like such a super high-impact card that doesn't see play mainly because people are playing fetches - it's an instant non-bo. For us it's like Leonin Arbiter 5-8. Better than arbiter in many ways. Obviously does not play well with Aether Vial which many posters here have dropped anyhow.
Why does it see essentially no play?
Did you end up playing that 2x Archangel of Tithes at all? Was she good?
2x Birds of Paradise
2x Courser of Kruphix
4x Leonin Arbiter
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
3x Qasali Pridemage
3x Scavenging Ooze
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Path to Exile
4x Oath of Nissa
Land (22)
3x Forest
1x Gavony Township
4x Ghost Quarter
3x Horizon Canopy
2x Plains
4x Razorverge Thicket
1x Tectonic Edge
4x Temple Garden
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Choke
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x Spellskite
2x Sunlance
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Crucible of Worlds
This version tries to maximize the possible # of Ghost Quarter/Arbiter activations by drawing more. I suppose to that end it could use a Mindcensor. I'm liking how much card draw/selection is baked into the pie here between Oath, Courser, Domri and Canopies. Nylea is a bit of a gamble but seems quite strong with Oath and all the green mana symbols. She breaks stalled boards and can make use of extra mana and turns top-decked birds into threats. She gives those Exalted guys super reach. I like Heliod better because on a empty or behind board state he can generate dudes and blanket vigilance to all our guys is strong for racing. Not sure I can get to 5 white mana pips reliably though. I'm not too happy to cut Vials but 6 t1 dorks have their own advantages, t2 Strip mine being the best one.
I expect to see a lot of Blood Moon, Fulminator Mages and Ghost Quarters as people try to fight Tron and Eldrazi with the same hate. So 5 basics and a Crucible in the board. Crucible also serves in the mirror as well as in mid-range games for more LD or card draw.
Missing Stirring Wildwood but not sure how to squeeze it in and still have enough sources for the t1 mana dork.
How good do people think Archangel of Tithes may be coming up?
I was considering what I would want in a Planeswalker (PW) for this deck.I want, in this order: card draw, removal and a way to race.
Liliana: I don't think her +1 can count as card advantage for us, as it's only good on a board where we are already doing well. I'd prefer to draw cards so I can tighten the noose or dig out of a bad board state. Other decks are much better able to make use of her (ie. Lingering Souls) ; her +1 may be a liability. She has removal but it's doesn't deal with specific guys like Dark Confidant or Eidolon of the Great Revel but likely eats a token or some lame chumper. She certainly doesn't help the race.
I'm leaning on Domri Rade as a 1-of in the main and a Chandra, Pyromancer in the side. Domri is very flexible and can help dig a bit in a deck with 26+ creatures. Loxodon/Liege/Voice fight like champs as do Exalted guys. He doesn't race but I think he's good enough for the maindeck for his utility. Playing with Domri brings Courser of Kruphix to mind as a possibility.
Chandra, Pyromancer's 0 ability is as good as drawing a card most of the time. The +1 ability seems a little weak at first look, only 1 damage. But the clause about not blocking means racing gets easier and 1 damage a turn will add up. I'd love a way to kill spirit tokens and other annoying X/1s as well as challenge walkers. Again, Courser seems good with her.
Ajani Vengeant does the racing and the removal really well but no card draw. I love that he reinforces the mana denial plan. Does he have enough impact on matches where we would want him though?
Sorin, Solemn Visitor does the racing like a boss but no draw, no removal. He's really great at the mid-range/aggro fights though so he fills that specific role well.
I don't think it's worth considering on colour planeswalker at this time because...they have never made the cut in the past. Does the banning of Twin change that?