More reprints is always good. The bread and butter of the M:TG community are the ones actively spending for product, and even if anybody could establish themselves as a 'promisee', the amount of gains WotC/Hasbro would swing would be more than enough to offset the costs incurred. Tear down this wall!
I like it, though I think swapping hexproof for fear would give it a well deserved bit of extra oomph.
Ugin Refounded :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
(o)Planeswalker - Ugin
Ugin is colorless.
Whenever an ability of Ugin is activated, for each colorless permanent you control, you may put a counter onto it of any type that permanent has.
[+3]: Name a player or a creature. Ugin deals 3 damage to each player or creature of that name.
[+1]: Gain control of target colorless non-land permanent.
[-17]: Take two extra turns after this one. If Ugin is still on the battlefield, exile him. If he was exiled this way, return him to the battlefield at the beginning of your next non-extra turn.
{7}
Veramot - I think the cost is just about right, but it should be more of a 'choose target creature, both equipped and chosen creature are sacrificed' kind of deal. Less indestructible abuse that way.
Faceted Eidolon :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Flying
Spells cost you up to :1mana:, :symw:, :symu:, :symb:, or to cast.
0/5
Veramot - I think the cost is just about right, but it should be more of a 'choose target creature, both equipped and chosen creature are sacrificed' kind of deal. Less indestructible abuse that way.
Faceted Eidolon :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Flying
Spells cost you up to :1mana:, :symw:, :symu:, :symb:, or to cast.
0/5
I had to check, but yes, he's been errata'd so the anthems are mostly moot. My suggested changes would be the following:
-1 Gaea's Anthem
-1 Marshal's Anthem
-1 Glorious Anthem
-1 Saproling Cluster
-1 Krosan Tusker
+1 Illusionist's Bracers (Rings of Brightearth's little bro)
+1 Enchanted Tutor (Combo piece tutoring, it's always nice to have more)
+1 Skullclamp (Simply insane with one of the altars on board)
+2 lands (33 land count seems a bit low IMO; I tend to run 35 at the lowest, and that's in a deck with lots of ramp and mana dorks; Fetchlands would probably help this deck out a fair bit)
The only anthem besides Mirari's Wake I would try to fit in would be Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, for greatly obvious reasons.
Might be a tad too narrow. It could perhaps be broadened to affect players somehow? Might be the best way to manage it. Reform from Æther :symu::symu:
Enchantment (R)
Whenever an opponent would put a land from their library into their graveyard, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
Whenever an opponent would put a creature card from their library into their graveyard, put a 1/1 blue Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Whenever an opponent would put a non-creature, non-land card from their library into their graveyard, tap or untap target permanent.
Made some drastic changes to the decklist, and I'm much more satisfied with the results from this rendition, especially since it went tournament tested tonight and went 3-1-1.
Round 1: Junk Reanimator
First game, I landed out Voice on T2 off the top, and ramped next turn and swung. He proceeded the next turn, with the second swing, to flash in Resto and block Voice, which then led to me casting Lingering Souls and flashing it back the next turn and getting in with two 6/6s. I felt very confident with its performance there.
The second game started much the same, except he also got his Voice out. Suddenly I wasn't sure what to do since I didn't see them on his side in the first game, else I would have boarded a bit differently. I Azor-charmed it on my turn the first swing with my own, to slow him down, but I don't know if it was the best line of play. Eventually, because this slowed the mid-game down as I drew a heavy land mitt, he proceeded to hardcast Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity, etc.; it was all downhill from there.
And then game 3! Oh, it was a marvel. He mulled to 6, I kept my hand with two mana dorks, Farseek, Restor and three land. We both proceeded to get dork flooded... he had 7/8 of his dorks out and I had 4/6. I was about to get a big Sphinx's Rev off when Time was called, and it proceeded to give me two Thragtusks, two Azorius Charm, two land. We both kind of just stalled out.
Result: 1-1-1 - Draw.
Round 2: Naya Blitz
It seemed he was suffering from a shortage of resources in both games, and with the amount of lifegain and postboard for this, I kept ahead of him until I had the force.
Fun fact: In the total of 10 games, I boarded in Abrupt Decay 3 times, and saw them once.
Result: 2-0-0
Round 3: American Aggro
Kickin' it oldschool, this match featured Lyev Skynight, Reckless Waif, Ajani, Caller of the Pride, and a bunch of crazy low-end control business. They were interesting games with the way his deck interacted and what I had to toss in the way and bait out, with the second game the only loss on my side due to a major flooding and lack of creatures drawn, then a fatal Aurelia's Fury,
Result: 2-1-0
Round 4: American Tempo
This was a bit more modern, and a much scarier matchup, Augur of Bolas, Snapcaster Mage, 4 Sphinx's Revelation (I saw my own one each game though), Warleader's Helix, Aurelia the Warleader, Charms - all good ones in those colors - Some countermagic and other tech.
First game went 30 minutes long, I was whittling him down and taking out his outs constantly, eventually getting him down.
Games 2-3 were rushed due to time, and I made some sloppy plays, but he's a good buddy so we were being pretty casual with it too. I think I amassed a force of over 30 at one point... yeah, major overcommitment. I lost both of the latter games mostly due to a sideboard-in of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Great games overall.
Result: 1-2-0
Round 5: 4-color Anti-Blue(?)
This was another all-in business deck like mine, featuring Huntmasters and Olivia Voldaren in place of the blue mythics on my side of things. Also, more burn.
Game 1, he mulled to 5 and stuck on 2 lands. Both BW sources. I had no idea what he was playing, other than the fact that I guessed one of his draws was a Bonfire from his overall reaction to seeing the card (ones of those little overt things you see people do for the most part).
Game 2, he fared much better, but I fared really well too. Eventually, it got to a point where he had Olivia out, and I had 11 mana with a full mitt from Prime Speaker. He started taking my things -first my Prime Speaker, of course - and I didn't draw an out to clear the board. Instead, I was forced to overcommit to the max. In one turn, two Master Biomancers followed a Lingering Souls from hand. Two 7/7 Spirit Mutant Mutants joined the fray. He took the big Biomancer next turn, but didn't have the resources to get more creatures. I swung in full force next turn, taking out his airforce (leaving me with one of the mega-mutated spirits) and Azor charming Prime Speaker back to the top of my own library. Olivia died as well, so I freed my Biomancer. He couldn't get an out to that from there.
Result: 2-0-0
I think the list needs at least one more Sphinx's Revelation to really shine. Also open to suggestions.
Something I've been tossing about lately and have been fairly satisfied with. Has some issues with aggro but in the post-board it's usually a synch, as generally the entire board comes in against it. The deck is designed to maintain presence and then grow it. Some of the one-offs may need to come out, but I find they've been serving me fairly well. I'm open to suggestions on how else to take this though.
Interesting test I did today was a best of 5 with a GU Legacy Madness deck - Rootwallas, Flashback business, Vengevines, the works. His Mongrels didn't appear at all in the first two games and he suffered for it, with Jace coming down one game and halting most of the damage from his sources and led to me being able to blink Thragtusk without him having an answer. He then took the next two rather easily since he just got the most consistent draws, and though I was pulling fairly well it wasn't enough to keep up with the pressure, and the countermagic flowed like honey. The last game, rough start with the pilgrims, he commits for the kill, I peel Verdict and dodge, and proceed to re-establish with Thragtusk and a Vault of the Archangel.
The 'pool cycle' came up as an idea regarding new ways to consider some of the lesser zones of M:TG. Effectively, it counts the currently pooled mana as an X variable.
Shared Efforts :symg::symg:
Instant
Untap up to X creatures you control, where X equals the amount of green mana in your mana pool.
---
In each case it should reflect something the color is known for.
--- Shared Struggles :symw::symw:
Sorcery
Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the amount of white mana in your mana pool.
--
Yet each color should be interesting in how it approaches it as well, to be powerful, but controllable.
-- Shared Excitement :symr::symr:
Sorcery
Add to your mana pool for each red mana in your mana pool.
Shared Vitals :symb::symb:
Sorcery
Shared Vitals deals X damage to target creature or player and you gain X life, where X is equal to half the black mana in your mana pool, rounded up.
Shared Disruption :symu::symu:
Instant
Counter target spell unless it's controller pays X, where X is equal to twice the blue mana in your mana pool.
Probably just strong enough. Maybe a little too strong, but perhaps could be justified as a 2/2 for more, but at the same time it feels unique enough and forces enough build-around that it's probably acceptable.
Thief of Faces
Creature - Shapeshifter Rogue (M)
Flash
:symu:: Change the name of Thief of Faces to that of any creature on the battlefield.
:symu:: Return this creature and all creature's that share a name with this creature to their owner's hand.
1/1
For the last few weeks I've been tinkering with a RUG Evolve deck in Standard for one of the Dublin PTQs coming up, and managed to go 5-0-1, 4-1 and 5-0 in three separate tournaments. I'm happy enough with the idea, but I was wondering how such a deck could fare outside of the Standard environ? Here's what I've whipped up so far:
I understand that you are trying to hose counterspells....
Not quite. It allows things to be countered still, but changes some orders of resolution. Namely, it means that permanents can't repeatedly abuse their triggers. It does permit you to get things like a Primeval Titan trigger even if the body is countered, but that's hardly a great use for it.
(As for Necromancy, it fails, because it's not on the battlefield. Oblivion Ring perma exiles. It's actually relatively straightforward how it words it).
Frontier Veteran - Erhm, that's very powerful. It would be less powerful if it put something like a 1/1 white Soldier or some such into play; that much land advantage possibility, even if it's up to your opponent, seems degenerate.
Boilerstress Weird :symur::symur:
Creature - Weird
Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery, Boilerstress Weird gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
When Boilerstress Weird is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, it deals damage equal to its power to all creatures and players.
3/2
Slow Ogre seems doable, probably as an uncommon. I'd try it.
Vilheim, the Enactor :symr::symg::symw:
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman
First Strike
Replace all instances of 'When this enters the battlefield' with 'When you cast this spell' on all non-land permanents and spells. (This applies to cards referring to their own card name in their ability. If this would apply a change to a permanent as it is being cast, apply that change as it enters the battlefield.)
3/4
I've had the same happen to me in draft as well :X It's not a good feeling. I'm running some tests right now with 21 and it seems to be going okay, but it's a small sample size as of now. That board does look interesting, might try to adapt some of it. Ruinator would definitely be handy vs. control. As for the Alpha strike thing though, I was thinking of that and was considerng perhaps trying Glaring Spotlight, also as some additional tech vs. Stalker/Geist. Might even try it as a one or two of mainboard.
-----
Human Reanimator matchup - 2-1. First game I lucked out fairly hard, as when he tried to go for the combo, I had a Hybridize in hand and couldn't protect his Fiend Hunter, which perma-exiled his Angel. He would have had infinite life and infinite wolves by turn 5, but due to that luck I was able to resolve my Loyalist with a Biomancer with Rancor on field, which in addition to the field I already had of four creatures, meant I was able to sweep over his forces. Second game, I boarded in Annihilating Fire as a three of and Searing Spear as a three of, as they ended up in my test board. He got an aggro-midrange nuts from his postboard - turn 3 and 4 Huntmaster of the Fells with a T2 Fiend Hunter taking out my E1 and the Huntmasters proceeding to chump with their wolves and then flip out to kill my guys. I got swept hard there. I made to sideboard again but ended up with the same choices. He boarded back to reanimation. I got fairly lucky in this game, as when he went to combo out turn 4 this time, I had held back three mana for Hybridize and Spear, mostly to kill his thing and get more damage through Geist. I went to spear his Fiend Hunter, and he Faith's Shield; I Hybridized it and he didn't have a second way to defend it. He had little left in hand and had the mill wincon guy and nothing else, and I drew into Biomancer while already having Rancor in hand and then a Legion Loyalist... made short work of him from there.
It was a bit too close for comfort though. He showed me his post-board, which included Thragtusk and Sigarda : / He boarded back expecting me to change my hate to kill his aggro strategy... which I did AND didn't do, apparently.
-Set symbol looks a little odd, but I think it might be the image/angle. The text 'Legendary Creature - Troll Warrior' would certainly take it right to the edge of the symbol.
-The deathtouch thing seems very in-tune with the life/death philosophy of Golgari, channeling the life gained from death into more death.
-Instead wouldn't work here. To say to regenerate him instead of destroying him means that he'd never get destroyed and the regen shield would never be used, which wouldn't make sense. To note, this also means destroy effects WILL remove him from combat/tap him. Which could be very important.
-Short forms of Legendary creatures name after the first instance of it being used on the card isn't so odd. Look at Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.
-This isn't overpowered. There's a billion-and-a-half destroy, exile, bounce, restrain, detain, tapdown, etc. effect out there to deal with things like this. Diversify your game, that's what it's pretty much about in the end anyhow.
Ugin Refounded :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
(o)Planeswalker - Ugin
Ugin is colorless.
Whenever an ability of Ugin is activated, for each colorless permanent you control, you may put a counter onto it of any type that permanent has.
[+3]: Name a player or a creature. Ugin deals 3 damage to each player or creature of that name.
[+1]: Gain control of target colorless non-land permanent.
[-17]: Take two extra turns after this one. If Ugin is still on the battlefield, exile him. If he was exiled this way, return him to the battlefield at the beginning of your next non-extra turn.
{7}
Faceted Eidolon :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Flying
Spells cost you up to :1mana:, :symw:, :symu:, :symb:,
0/5
Faceted Eidolon :symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Flying
Spells cost you up to :1mana:, :symw:, :symu:, :symb:,
0/5
-1 Gaea's Anthem
-1 Marshal's Anthem
-1 Glorious Anthem
-1 Saproling Cluster
-1 Krosan Tusker
+1 Illusionist's Bracers (Rings of Brightearth's little bro)
+1 Enchanted Tutor (Combo piece tutoring, it's always nice to have more)
+1 Skullclamp (Simply insane with one of the altars on board)
+2 lands (33 land count seems a bit low IMO; I tend to run 35 at the lowest, and that's in a deck with lots of ramp and mana dorks; Fetchlands would probably help this deck out a fair bit)
The only anthem besides Mirari's Wake I would try to fit in would be Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, for greatly obvious reasons.
Reform from Æther :symu::symu:
Enchantment (R)
Whenever an opponent would put a land from their library into their graveyard, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
Whenever an opponent would put a creature card from their library into their graveyard, put a 1/1 blue Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Whenever an opponent would put a non-creature, non-land card from their library into their graveyard, tap or untap target permanent.
2 Arbor Elf
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Master Biomancer
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
2 Prime Speaker Zegana
4 Farseek
4 Azorius Charm
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Hinterland Harbor
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Woodland Cemetery
3 Sunpetal Grove
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Vraska the Unseen
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Putrefy
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Acidic Slime
Round 1: Junk Reanimator
First game, I landed out Voice on T2 off the top, and ramped next turn and swung. He proceeded the next turn, with the second swing, to flash in Resto and block Voice, which then led to me casting Lingering Souls and flashing it back the next turn and getting in with two 6/6s. I felt very confident with its performance there.
The second game started much the same, except he also got his Voice out. Suddenly I wasn't sure what to do since I didn't see them on his side in the first game, else I would have boarded a bit differently. I Azor-charmed it on my turn the first swing with my own, to slow him down, but I don't know if it was the best line of play. Eventually, because this slowed the mid-game down as I drew a heavy land mitt, he proceeded to hardcast Thragtusk, Angel of Serenity, etc.; it was all downhill from there.
And then game 3! Oh, it was a marvel. He mulled to 6, I kept my hand with two mana dorks, Farseek, Restor and three land. We both proceeded to get dork flooded... he had 7/8 of his dorks out and I had 4/6. I was about to get a big Sphinx's Rev off when Time was called, and it proceeded to give me two Thragtusks, two Azorius Charm, two land. We both kind of just stalled out.
Result: 1-1-1 - Draw.
Round 2: Naya Blitz
It seemed he was suffering from a shortage of resources in both games, and with the amount of lifegain and postboard for this, I kept ahead of him until I had the force.
Fun fact: In the total of 10 games, I boarded in Abrupt Decay 3 times, and saw them once.
Result: 2-0-0
Round 3: American Aggro
Kickin' it oldschool, this match featured Lyev Skynight, Reckless Waif, Ajani, Caller of the Pride, and a bunch of crazy low-end control business. They were interesting games with the way his deck interacted and what I had to toss in the way and bait out, with the second game the only loss on my side due to a major flooding and lack of creatures drawn, then a fatal Aurelia's Fury,
Result: 2-1-0
Round 4: American Tempo
This was a bit more modern, and a much scarier matchup, Augur of Bolas, Snapcaster Mage, 4 Sphinx's Revelation (I saw my own one each game though), Warleader's Helix, Aurelia the Warleader, Charms - all good ones in those colors - Some countermagic and other tech.
First game went 30 minutes long, I was whittling him down and taking out his outs constantly, eventually getting him down.
Games 2-3 were rushed due to time, and I made some sloppy plays, but he's a good buddy so we were being pretty casual with it too. I think I amassed a force of over 30 at one point... yeah, major overcommitment. I lost both of the latter games mostly due to a sideboard-in of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Great games overall.
Result: 1-2-0
Round 5: 4-color Anti-Blue(?)
This was another all-in business deck like mine, featuring Huntmasters and Olivia Voldaren in place of the blue mythics on my side of things. Also, more burn.
Game 1, he mulled to 5 and stuck on 2 lands. Both BW sources. I had no idea what he was playing, other than the fact that I guessed one of his draws was a Bonfire from his overall reaction to seeing the card (ones of those little overt things you see people do for the most part).
Game 2, he fared much better, but I fared really well too. Eventually, it got to a point where he had Olivia out, and I had 11 mana with a full mitt from Prime Speaker. He started taking my things -first my Prime Speaker, of course - and I didn't draw an out to clear the board. Instead, I was forced to overcommit to the max. In one turn, two Master Biomancers followed a Lingering Souls from hand. Two 7/7 Spirit Mutant Mutants joined the fray. He took the big Biomancer next turn, but didn't have the resources to get more creatures. I swung in full force next turn, taking out his airforce (leaving me with one of the mega-mutated spirits) and Azor charming Prime Speaker back to the top of my own library. Olivia died as well, so I freed my Biomancer. He couldn't get an out to that from there.
Result: 2-0-0
I think the list needs at least one more Sphinx's Revelation to really shine. Also open to suggestions.
2 Arbor Elf
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Restoration Angel
3 Master Biomancer
4 Thragtusk
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
4 Farseek
3 Azorius Charm
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Lingering Souls
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Collective Blessing
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Gavony Township
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Centaur Healer
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Azorius Charm
3 Selesnya Charm
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Supreme Verdict
Something I've been tossing about lately and have been fairly satisfied with. Has some issues with aggro but in the post-board it's usually a synch, as generally the entire board comes in against it. The deck is designed to maintain presence and then grow it. Some of the one-offs may need to come out, but I find they've been serving me fairly well. I'm open to suggestions on how else to take this though.
Interesting test I did today was a best of 5 with a GU Legacy Madness deck - Rootwallas, Flashback business, Vengevines, the works. His Mongrels didn't appear at all in the first two games and he suffered for it, with Jace coming down one game and halting most of the damage from his sources and led to me being able to blink Thragtusk without him having an answer. He then took the next two rather easily since he just got the most consistent draws, and though I was pulling fairly well it wasn't enough to keep up with the pressure, and the countermagic flowed like honey. The last game, rough start with the pilgrims, he commits for the kill, I peel Verdict and dodge, and proceed to re-establish with Thragtusk and a Vault of the Archangel.
Shared Efforts :symg::symg:
Instant
Untap up to X creatures you control, where X equals the amount of green mana in your mana pool.
---
In each case it should reflect something the color is known for.
---
Shared Struggles :symw::symw:
Sorcery
Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the amount of white mana in your mana pool.
--
Yet each color should be interesting in how it approaches it as well, to be powerful, but controllable.
--
Shared Excitement :symr::symr:
Sorcery
Add
Shared Vitals :symb::symb:
Sorcery
Shared Vitals deals X damage to target creature or player and you gain X life, where X is equal to half the black mana in your mana pool, rounded up.
Shared Disruption :symu::symu:
Instant
Counter target spell unless it's controller pays X, where X is equal to twice the blue mana in your mana pool.
Thief of Faces
Creature - Shapeshifter Rogue (M)
Flash
:symu:: Change the name of Thief of Faces to that of any creature on the battlefield.
:symu:: Return this creature and all creature's that share a name with this creature to their owner's hand.
1/1
4 Spark Elemental
4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Experiment One
4 Hellspark Elemental
3 Lightning Mauler
3 Keldon Marauder
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
Lands - 18
4 Steam Vent
4 Stomping Ground
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Forest
Tarmogoyf will, someday, be a great addition, but I don't think that's happening for a while. So besides that, any other suggestions?
Not quite. It allows things to be countered still, but changes some orders of resolution. Namely, it means that permanents can't repeatedly abuse their triggers. It does permit you to get things like a Primeval Titan trigger even if the body is countered, but that's hardly a great use for it.
(As for Necromancy, it fails, because it's not on the battlefield. Oblivion Ring perma exiles. It's actually relatively straightforward how it words it).
Frontier Veteran - Erhm, that's very powerful. It would be less powerful if it put something like a 1/1 white Soldier or some such into play; that much land advantage possibility, even if it's up to your opponent, seems degenerate.
Boilerstress Weird :symur::symur:
Creature - Weird
Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery, Boilerstress Weird gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
When Boilerstress Weird is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, it deals damage equal to its power to all creatures and players.
3/2
Vilheim, the Enactor :symr::symg::symw:
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman
First Strike
Replace all instances of 'When this enters the battlefield' with 'When you cast this spell' on all non-land permanents and spells. (This applies to cards referring to their own card name in their ability. If this would apply a change to a permanent as it is being cast, apply that change as it enters the battlefield.)
3/4
-----
Human Reanimator matchup - 2-1. First game I lucked out fairly hard, as when he tried to go for the combo, I had a Hybridize in hand and couldn't protect his Fiend Hunter, which perma-exiled his Angel. He would have had infinite life and infinite wolves by turn 5, but due to that luck I was able to resolve my Loyalist with a Biomancer with Rancor on field, which in addition to the field I already had of four creatures, meant I was able to sweep over his forces. Second game, I boarded in Annihilating Fire as a three of and Searing Spear as a three of, as they ended up in my test board. He got an aggro-midrange nuts from his postboard - turn 3 and 4 Huntmaster of the Fells with a T2 Fiend Hunter taking out my E1 and the Huntmasters proceeding to chump with their wolves and then flip out to kill my guys. I got swept hard there. I made to sideboard again but ended up with the same choices. He boarded back to reanimation. I got fairly lucky in this game, as when he went to combo out turn 4 this time, I had held back three mana for Hybridize and Spear, mostly to kill his thing and get more damage through Geist. I went to spear his Fiend Hunter, and he Faith's Shield; I Hybridized it and he didn't have a second way to defend it. He had little left in hand and had the mill wincon guy and nothing else, and I drew into Biomancer while already having Rancor in hand and then a Legion Loyalist... made short work of him from there.
It was a bit too close for comfort though. He showed me his post-board, which included Thragtusk and Sigarda : / He boarded back expecting me to change my hate to kill his aggro strategy... which I did AND didn't do, apparently.
-The deathtouch thing seems very in-tune with the life/death philosophy of Golgari, channeling the life gained from death into more death.
-Instead wouldn't work here. To say to regenerate him instead of destroying him means that he'd never get destroyed and the regen shield would never be used, which wouldn't make sense. To note, this also means destroy effects WILL remove him from combat/tap him. Which could be very important.
-Short forms of Legendary creatures name after the first instance of it being used on the card isn't so odd. Look at Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.
-This isn't overpowered. There's a billion-and-a-half destroy, exile, bounce, restrain, detain, tapdown, etc. effect out there to deal with things like this. Diversify your game, that's what it's pretty much about in the end anyhow.