I'm into testing more dorks, but one of the big reasons we can get away with fewer accelerators is Oath of Nissa. It covers a lot of ground for us, and it's one of the benefits of our deck - we're able to mitigate dork flood a bit because we have access to a Ponder affect that both digs for mana sources, and color fixes. I also don't think Pod is a great comparison point, even though Evo feels similar. Pod decks could get away with running a bunch of dorks, because it would slowly turn every one of them into something more valuable. Drawing our mana dudes as the game goes on is pretty terrible for us.
I am still nowhere near convinced regarding Primeval Titan, but great if it works for you, and good luck tonight!
On another topic, can you guys imagine the new Orcish Vandal in our deck? Saheeli's copies are artifacts (sacrificing a copied Voice of Resurgence would even give us an Elemental token), and if we ran 2-3 Tireless Tracker, we might have a reasonable amount of fuel for the Orc. (Actually, we most likely need a few more than that. Ideas?) Probably the card is neither powerful nor reliable enough for us, but it caught my eye somehow, and I might give it a try.
I love where your head's at, but Grim Lavamancer probably does this thing (if we want it) at a decent enough rate, and more reliably, right?
A more defensive list (0 Lotus Cobras and 4 Wall of Omens)
Magus of the Tabernacle in the board (!!!)
3 Qasali Ambushers in the board (I don't quite get this one)
Removing Paths from the main seems like the norm at this point. Reflector Mage is more abusable, enables more aggressive draws, and allows us to cut Eternal Witness altogether. The G/W value lists are also trending towards some amount of Blood Moon effects in the main. This is particularly strong for us, as very few people expect it out of a "four color deck" at all, let alone Game 1.
Went 5-2-1 at the SCG Open yesterday before scooping to my round 9 opponent (paired up) to put him into day 2. Not a bad result, and the draw (which killed me) could have been a win with tighter play. I just couldn't get the Devoted Druid list to a place I was happy with, and ended up shifting back to a more traditional list late in the week:
Not the spiciest Saheeli deck I've played, but our deck is already pretty spicy as it is.
Wins: G/W Company (2-1), Jeskai Control (2-0), Mono Green Tron (2-0), Bant Eldrazi (2-0), Humans (2-1)
Losses: Temur Kiki Brew (2-1), Temur Midrange Brew (2-1)
Draw: Jeskai Saheeli (1-1)
I scooped to a Boggles player for those interested. It felt kind of dirty.
Both losses were against rather odd Temur lists, and I ran pretty cold both matches. The matchups felt very winnable, and I'm not going to worry too much about losing to brews. It's worth noting that this list has no real way to handle a Stormbreath Dragon. In previous events, Ponza has been an issue largely due to that card.
Against Jeskai Saheeli, I took game 1 easily, and felt in control of game 2, but goofed up and shuffled a Blood Moon away when it would have locked my opponent out the next turn. I've got to play a bit cleaner when it comes to fetch/scry timing in general. After the mistake, my opponent drew a sweeper, and was able to cast real spells to slowly turn the game around from there. We ran out of time soon after starting game 3.
Excitingly, all of my wins were against legitimate meta decks. The G/W Company matchup didn't feel particular close (which lines up with previous experience), even though he stole game 1 when I bricked on drawing a land, Oath, or Evo over multiple turns. Both Tron and Bant Eldrazi felt good, especially with the maindeck Blood Moons. Our good draws beat their good draws, and we have access to a handful of cards that cripple them post board. Jeskai Control was a grindy affair, but I eventually ran him out of gas both games. I think the G/W "go big" Saheeli lists are generally favored against midrange fair decks. The Humans matchup was a nail-biter, and I think he could have played it better, but both EE and Blood Moon did amazing work. Their Meddling Mages and Freebooters are huge pains, but EE turned around game 2 by Plague Winding his team, and a turn 2 Blood Moon stole game 3. Overall I still want to make that matchup a bit better for the future.
A decent showing, and the "traditional" list continues to feel good in large events. I didn't love the Pia and Kiran, and Sun Titan continues to be very boom/bust. I like having a non Guardian target at 4cmc, but Rallier often feels like a better Evo target when sacrificing a Voice for value and tempo. Perhaps there's a more useful silver bullet that can fit into that slot? Also, 2 fetchable red sources feels wrong in a deck running Kiki-Jiki. There were a couple of games where I had a Kiki stuck in my hand because I didn't have a dork to allow me to actually cast him. Regarding the board, the jury is still out on Auriok Champion, I suspect another Blood Moon or Magus is better than Ghost Quarter, and Settle the Wreckage should have been a Worship.
Wow. Shalai is a big card for us. It accomplishes a bunch of our utility goals at once, and the body is very reasonable. I'd guess it's probably a lock for the 75, and a strong contender for the maindeck going forward.
Very well thought-of build Siefer! Can you share some comments about 3rd Finks instead of 3rd Voice and about 3rd Guardian instead of 3rd Evo?
We're already pretty loaded at the 2cmc slot, and while I love Voice, it has a bunch of matchup overlap with Finks, which is very strong in this shell. I could definitely see going -1 Guardian, and +1 Evo, because as noted above, Guardian is particularly weak in this build. My main concern with Evo is getting flooded with spells that require some work to cast (Chord and Evo primarily) when I'm under pressure. I'm going to test a few tweaks on mix, and report back.
I love how smoothly Devoted Druid slots into the deck. It enables the turn 3 one shot (Saheeli, copy Druid) kills just like Cobra, but it's more stable, and allows us to play the infinite mana combo with only a couple of devoted slots. The last couple of slots are a bit up in the air, but it feels smooth, and I'm digging the improvements to the Humans matchup.
Saucy bits include: Jace AND BBE, no Evolutions, no Voice, and a full set of Fiery Justices in the main. I think this list is rather untuned, but goodness if it's not all in on the thing we do. It's almost like a more powerful version of the Aether Vial lists that did decently for a stretch around the Holidays.
MTG has been on the back-burner for me lately (closing on a house tomorrow!), but I'm still lurking the thread, and I wanted to pop my head in and offer my perspective regarding the recent Hoogland list. I really like what the Hoogland version of the deck is doing, in large part because it addresses one of the biggest issues I've had with the deck - Felidar Guardian is a terrible card in Modern. If you're not comboing off, it's power level is embarrassingly low for the format, and drawing multiple copies can sink matchups. Yes, flickering an Oath is neat, but it's a consolation prize because you just spend 4 mana on a 1/4. I don't love all of Hoogland's card choices, and I think 2 Guardians might still be correct, but it's big game if we can run less of our worst card.
@Siefer, Shelldell
I appreciate the more in-depth analysis for Titan - I had been facing a number of uninteractive matchups for a long time it appears.
@Siefer
I'm hesitant on Baneslayer, since Tusk feels similar while synergizing better with the flicker aspect of the deck (it also stabilizes immediately, which matters against burn). But I tried 3 Knights + 7 1 CMC dorks (I'm playing wolf-run instead of township) and it felt very powerful (more extensive testing later). Maaaaybe we need to be on 23 lands if we play the knight.
Edit: Also, we can run a Sejiri Steppe to make the knight protect our combo (or itself) against removal.
I think the big payoffs for Baneslayer are Affinity and Eldrazi Tron. Both have very limited options for getting it off the board, making it a credible blocker as soon as it comes down. I agree Thragtusk is significantly better against Burn.
Keep us posted on how Knight tests for you. I considered Wolf Run, but Gavony is easier on the mana, and more efficiently pays off the dorks. Perhaps giving big dumb KotRs trample is worth a second look, though. I also considered Sejiri Steppe, but I'm very hesitant to run a land that enters the battlefield tapped. It's likely less of an issue with 23 lands, but I'm iffy on upping the land count. Prior to adding KotR, I was trying to figure out how to cut down to 21.
I really liked the 8 dorks. I was at a critical mass of important 3 drops, and Knight increased my access to Gavony Township, which helps pay off the glut of one-drops later in the game.
Baneslayer was there as a general purpose trump card. It's very good against Affinity, Humans, and Eldrazi, and is a credible bit of action against GDS, Dredge, and many of the B/G/x rock lists due to their limited ways to get it off the board. It also can steal games against Burn, but that wasn't the primary function. I was able to close out a game against Dredge with it and Angel of Sanctions, otherwise it never came up. Either I didn't have access too it, or I wanted to do something else (often just getting Felidar Guardian). I still like what it does, and way to give it a bit more run in the 75.
Knight does a few important things for us. It gives us another credible midrange threat, it gives us more value out of our lands (thinning, Ghost Quarter, Horizon Canopy, Gavony Township, Bojuka Bog), and ramps us. One of the reasons I felt good about 8 dorks, instead of the 6 dork/2 Cobra split I'd run previously, was that Knight could team up with a turn 1 mana dork to help us hit 5 mana on turn 3, like Cobra. Once in play, KotR was a must answer card that warped the game around it. This isn't a new thing for KoTR, but when combined with our ability to just combo off, placed incredible early pressure on decks trying to keep up with our threats. Note, it's a very legitimate Saheeli -2 target. In one game against Dredge, I was able to sit on the threat of Bojuka Bog (he had a sluggish hand) while I clocked him with a Rallier. Eventually I fetched up a Township, and put the game out of reach. Without the KoTR, it's plausible he could have drawn into the action he needed. In testing against Affinity and Eldrazi Tron, just being able to get to my Ghost Quarter on command was huge. KotR, fetch GQ, Rallier, GQ sequences are not uncommon, and can be crippling.
I like Angel of Sanctions in a meta full of Eldrazi Tron, GDS, Big Tron, and Rock decks, but will happily side it out against the likes of Humans, Storm, and Burn. If you feel like your meta doesn't warrant it, cut it.
Went 3-3 at the RPTQ, but that's a bit misleading. I started 2-0 (beat GDS and Dredge), then lost to Green Devotion when I punted away game 3. My opponent brought in Blood Moon (which hurt him more than it hurt me), but had two Birds, and was doing fine. Turns out, the play here is NOT to target your opponent's Birds with an Izzet Staticaster. This is largely a failure to get sufficient reps leading up to the event. I didn't have much experience with Staticaster outside of the Affinity matchup. Know what your cards do, folks. I cut myself off the mana I needed to combo out and win, then died to a Craterhoof. I was on auto-pilot, sniping all of his dorks one by one, and I botched. No one to blame but myself, but I would have been 3-0, needing to win one of my next two rounds to draw into top 8. I fell into the wild west bracket, and lost to Grixis Control (tons of targeted removal, counters, and sweepers), beat Infect, and lost to Burn. The top tables were populated with Affinity, Humans, GDS, Titanshift, and Eldrazi Tron.
I'm going to be bummed about the punt for awhile, but there are a few big positives for us. Here's the list I ran:
The deck is well positioned in the meta. Lots of linear decks, rock decks without Dark Confidant, and a decided lack of pure control and burn at the top tables. Knight of the Reliquary was brilliant, and I'm considering adding a 3rd copy. Baneslayer only came up once, and was rad, but it might be a sideboard card moving forward. I continue to be "fine" with Sun Titan, but not in love. That slot might be a good candidate for the 3rd Knight.
I board out Sun Titan in ~50% of games, but often, it's just because I have better things to post board as opposed to it being particularly weak. Usually this is because I'm up up against a linear deck that doesn't care as much about Titan's size and efficiency. If you're seeing a lot of linear decks, Titan's value drops, but against many decks in the format, and particularly game 1, Titan can steal games.
Because of how the deck functions, interactive decks are actively encouraged to get our cards off the table ASAP. Voice and Saheeli are often kill on sight. Even Rallier and Witness are subject to removal spells if they're targeted by a flicker or clone effect. The Thoughtseize based control decks (GDS, Mardu, Jund, etc) have very few ways to overcome the Titan once it comes down. Usually they need to find one of 1-2 Terminates or they're out of luck. I think it's reasonable to cut Titan, especially if your meta is flooded with decks like Affinity, Storm, and Valakut, but I don't think it's reasonable to call it a bad Witness effect.
So, I'm tinkering around with the flex slots in the deck, and there are just so many options. The RPTQ is tomorrow and I'm still undecided on 7 of my 75.
A couple of notes. Mostly a traditional build here, with the dorks, combo, evo core. The most interesting thing I have going on is the lack of Cobras, and 2 KoTR. Cobra's come out for the Knights, as I want 1-2 more dorks with the increased emphasis on 3 drops, and Knight is additional ramping for the top of the curve. I tested Knight when I was monkeying around with Retreat, and while Retreat was a dud, KoTR was incredible for me. It jumps us to 5 mana, allows for more flexibility with utility lands, and is a sizable threat on its own. It might look a bit wonky, but I'm sold on it. It's another turn 2 or 3 threat that every fair deck has to interact with to proceed, and it allows us a low cost toolbox option with our lands. T2 Knight, T3 fetch Ghost Quarter, Rallier, Ghost Quarter is a crowbar to the knees of a bunch of decks, this allows us to do it consistently.
On to the openings in the 75.
Maindeck I'm looking at Domri Rade, Noble Hierarch #4, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Sun Titan, Glen Elendra Archmage, another Rallier, Baneslayer Angel, Glorybringer, and Qasali Pridemage. The lands are also adjustable, particular with KoTR adding so much flexibility.
I'm mostly happy with the 75 I ran at the 1k, but the GW shell is so robust, I can't help tinkering with different builds ahead of the RPTQ. I know this has come up before, but i want to revisit KoTR. It provides a ton of utility with our land base, and plays well with cards we're already running like Oath, Evolution, Saheeli, Courser, and Sun Titan. Trying to sneak in Retreat naturally follows, and it provides some bonus utility similar to Cobra in that it allows us to go off from a standing position with a mana dork. The most obvious drawback, is we're adding 2 more cards that are individually weak (Retreats). This is purely theorycraft territory, but I wanted to poke at it and see if there's a bit more power to be had going down this road.
Curious to see what y'all think. I keep trying to find a way to slip Lark and Reflector Mage into this build, but I haven't been able to squeeze them in.
I haven't run into it yet, but I could see the Humans matchup being pretty rough. Beyond a reasonably fast clock, Freebooter, Path, and Reflector Mage all interact with us profitably. I'm willing to concede that we're not going to be good versus everything. Is it worth dedicating slots to this matchup, or should we just write it off?
I love where your head's at, but Grim Lavamancer probably does this thing (if we want it) at a decent enough rate, and more reliably, right?
Another 5-0 list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1036155#paper
Highlights include:
Removing Paths from the main seems like the norm at this point. Reflector Mage is more abusable, enables more aggressive draws, and allows us to cut Eternal Witness altogether. The G/W value lists are also trending towards some amount of Blood Moon effects in the main. This is particularly strong for us, as very few people expect it out of a "four color deck" at all, let alone Game 1.
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Lotus Cobra
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Renegade Rallier
2 Reflector Mage
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Thragtusk
1 Sun Titan
Spells
4 Oath of Nissa
2 Blood Moon
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Arid Mesa
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stony Silence
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Settle the Wreckage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Auriok Champion
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Ghost Quarter
Not the spiciest Saheeli deck I've played, but our deck is already pretty spicy as it is.
Wins: G/W Company (2-1), Jeskai Control (2-0), Mono Green Tron (2-0), Bant Eldrazi (2-0), Humans (2-1)
Losses: Temur Kiki Brew (2-1), Temur Midrange Brew (2-1)
Draw: Jeskai Saheeli (1-1)
I scooped to a Boggles player for those interested. It felt kind of dirty.
Both losses were against rather odd Temur lists, and I ran pretty cold both matches. The matchups felt very winnable, and I'm not going to worry too much about losing to brews. It's worth noting that this list has no real way to handle a Stormbreath Dragon. In previous events, Ponza has been an issue largely due to that card.
Against Jeskai Saheeli, I took game 1 easily, and felt in control of game 2, but goofed up and shuffled a Blood Moon away when it would have locked my opponent out the next turn. I've got to play a bit cleaner when it comes to fetch/scry timing in general. After the mistake, my opponent drew a sweeper, and was able to cast real spells to slowly turn the game around from there. We ran out of time soon after starting game 3.
Excitingly, all of my wins were against legitimate meta decks. The G/W Company matchup didn't feel particular close (which lines up with previous experience), even though he stole game 1 when I bricked on drawing a land, Oath, or Evo over multiple turns. Both Tron and Bant Eldrazi felt good, especially with the maindeck Blood Moons. Our good draws beat their good draws, and we have access to a handful of cards that cripple them post board. Jeskai Control was a grindy affair, but I eventually ran him out of gas both games. I think the G/W "go big" Saheeli lists are generally favored against midrange fair decks. The Humans matchup was a nail-biter, and I think he could have played it better, but both EE and Blood Moon did amazing work. Their Meddling Mages and Freebooters are huge pains, but EE turned around game 2 by Plague Winding his team, and a turn 2 Blood Moon stole game 3. Overall I still want to make that matchup a bit better for the future.
A decent showing, and the "traditional" list continues to feel good in large events. I didn't love the Pia and Kiran, and Sun Titan continues to be very boom/bust. I like having a non Guardian target at 4cmc, but Rallier often feels like a better Evo target when sacrificing a Voice for value and tempo. Perhaps there's a more useful silver bullet that can fit into that slot? Also, 2 fetchable red sources feels wrong in a deck running Kiki-Jiki. There were a couple of games where I had a Kiki stuck in my hand because I didn't have a dork to allow me to actually cast him. Regarding the board, the jury is still out on Auriok Champion, I suspect another Blood Moon or Magus is better than Ghost Quarter, and Settle the Wreckage should have been a Worship.
We're already pretty loaded at the 2cmc slot, and while I love Voice, it has a bunch of matchup overlap with Finks, which is very strong in this shell. I could definitely see going -1 Guardian, and +1 Evo, because as noted above, Guardian is particularly weak in this build. My main concern with Evo is getting flooded with spells that require some work to cast (Chord and Evo primarily) when I'm under pressure. I'm going to test a few tweaks on mix, and report back.
I'm prepping for SCG Milwaukee next weekend, and this is what I'm testing right now:
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Devoted Druid
2 Voice of Resurgence
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
2 Vizier of Remedies
1 Eternal Witness
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Felidar Guardian
1 Walking Ballista
Spells
4 Oath of Nissa
2 Eldritch Evolution
4 Chord of Calling
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Stony Silence
2 Unified Will
2 Path to Exile
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Avalanche Riders
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Thragtusk
I love how smoothly Devoted Druid slots into the deck. It enables the turn 3 one shot (Saheeli, copy Druid) kills just like Cobra, but it's more stable, and allows us to play the infinite mana combo with only a couple of devoted slots. The last couple of slots are a bit up in the air, but it feels smooth, and I'm digging the improvements to the Humans matchup.
Saucy bits include: Jace AND BBE, no Evolutions, no Voice, and a full set of Fiery Justices in the main. I think this list is rather untuned, but goodness if it's not all in on the thing we do. It's almost like a more powerful version of the Aether Vial lists that did decently for a stretch around the Holidays.
I think the big payoffs for Baneslayer are Affinity and Eldrazi Tron. Both have very limited options for getting it off the board, making it a credible blocker as soon as it comes down. I agree Thragtusk is significantly better against Burn.
Keep us posted on how Knight tests for you. I considered Wolf Run, but Gavony is easier on the mana, and more efficiently pays off the dorks. Perhaps giving big dumb KotRs trample is worth a second look, though. I also considered Sejiri Steppe, but I'm very hesitant to run a land that enters the battlefield tapped. It's likely less of an issue with 23 lands, but I'm iffy on upping the land count. Prior to adding KotR, I was trying to figure out how to cut down to 21.
Baneslayer was there as a general purpose trump card. It's very good against Affinity, Humans, and Eldrazi, and is a credible bit of action against GDS, Dredge, and many of the B/G/x rock lists due to their limited ways to get it off the board. It also can steal games against Burn, but that wasn't the primary function. I was able to close out a game against Dredge with it and Angel of Sanctions, otherwise it never came up. Either I didn't have access too it, or I wanted to do something else (often just getting Felidar Guardian). I still like what it does, and way to give it a bit more run in the 75.
Knight does a few important things for us. It gives us another credible midrange threat, it gives us more value out of our lands (thinning, Ghost Quarter, Horizon Canopy, Gavony Township, Bojuka Bog), and ramps us. One of the reasons I felt good about 8 dorks, instead of the 6 dork/2 Cobra split I'd run previously, was that Knight could team up with a turn 1 mana dork to help us hit 5 mana on turn 3, like Cobra. Once in play, KotR was a must answer card that warped the game around it. This isn't a new thing for KoTR, but when combined with our ability to just combo off, placed incredible early pressure on decks trying to keep up with our threats. Note, it's a very legitimate Saheeli -2 target. In one game against Dredge, I was able to sit on the threat of Bojuka Bog (he had a sluggish hand) while I clocked him with a Rallier. Eventually I fetched up a Township, and put the game out of reach. Without the KoTR, it's plausible he could have drawn into the action he needed. In testing against Affinity and Eldrazi Tron, just being able to get to my Ghost Quarter on command was huge. KotR, fetch GQ, Rallier, GQ sequences are not uncommon, and can be crippling.
I like Angel of Sanctions in a meta full of Eldrazi Tron, GDS, Big Tron, and Rock decks, but will happily side it out against the likes of Humans, Storm, and Burn. If you feel like your meta doesn't warrant it, cut it.
I'm going to be bummed about the punt for awhile, but there are a few big positives for us. Here's the list I ran:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Renegade Rallier
1 Eternal Witness
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Angel of Sanctions
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Sun Titan
Spells
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Path to Exile
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Unified Will
2 Blood Moon
1 Fiery Justice
The deck is well positioned in the meta. Lots of linear decks, rock decks without Dark Confidant, and a decided lack of pure control and burn at the top tables. Knight of the Reliquary was brilliant, and I'm considering adding a 3rd copy. Baneslayer only came up once, and was rad, but it might be a sideboard card moving forward. I continue to be "fine" with Sun Titan, but not in love. That slot might be a good candidate for the 3rd Knight.
Because of how the deck functions, interactive decks are actively encouraged to get our cards off the table ASAP. Voice and Saheeli are often kill on sight. Even Rallier and Witness are subject to removal spells if they're targeted by a flicker or clone effect. The Thoughtseize based control decks (GDS, Mardu, Jund, etc) have very few ways to overcome the Titan once it comes down. Usually they need to find one of 1-2 Terminates or they're out of luck. I think it's reasonable to cut Titan, especially if your meta is flooded with decks like Affinity, Storm, and Valakut, but I don't think it's reasonable to call it a bad Witness effect.
So, I'm tinkering around with the flex slots in the deck, and there are just so many options. The RPTQ is tomorrow and I'm still undecided on 7 of my 75.
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Renegade Rallier
1 Eternal Witness
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Angel of Sanctions
3 open slots
Spells
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Path to Exile
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Unified Will
2 Blood Moon
4 open slots
A couple of notes. Mostly a traditional build here, with the dorks, combo, evo core. The most interesting thing I have going on is the lack of Cobras, and 2 KoTR. Cobra's come out for the Knights, as I want 1-2 more dorks with the increased emphasis on 3 drops, and Knight is additional ramping for the top of the curve. I tested Knight when I was monkeying around with Retreat, and while Retreat was a dud, KoTR was incredible for me. It jumps us to 5 mana, allows for more flexibility with utility lands, and is a sizable threat on its own. It might look a bit wonky, but I'm sold on it. It's another turn 2 or 3 threat that every fair deck has to interact with to proceed, and it allows us a low cost toolbox option with our lands. T2 Knight, T3 fetch Ghost Quarter, Rallier, Ghost Quarter is a crowbar to the knees of a bunch of decks, this allows us to do it consistently.
On to the openings in the 75.
Maindeck I'm looking at Domri Rade, Noble Hierarch #4, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Sun Titan, Glen Elendra Archmage, another Rallier, Baneslayer Angel, Glorybringer, and Qasali Pridemage. The lands are also adjustable, particular with KoTR adding so much flexibility.
Sideboard I'm considering Gaddock Teeg, Bojuka Bog, Thragtusk, Scavenging Ooze, Ramunap Excavator, Fiery Justice, and Blood Baron (seriously thinking about it).
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Ramunap Excavator
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Angel of Sanctions
1 Sun Titan
Spells
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Path to Exile
2 Retreat to Coralhelm
4 Saheeli Rai
3 Eldritch Evolution
1 Arid Mesa
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Gavony Township
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Unified Will
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
Curious to see what y'all think. I keep trying to find a way to slip Lark and Reflector Mage into this build, but I haven't been able to squeeze them in.