Elvish Mystic has worked fine so far, although there have been awkward times when I couldn't wrangle enough colored mana for Ascendancy. I'm going to try replacing it with Kiora's Follower tonight, although I'll miss being able to keep hands with one green land and an Elvish Mystic (I know, I shouldn't keep those anyway because one removal spell is a blowout, but mulliganing can be awful too as you need as many cards in hand as possible to consistently combo).
Karametra's Favor is essential with Elvish Mystics, both because it let's you tap them for colored mana but also because, after casting Jeskai Ascendancy you may only have a Mystic and a forest left to start your storm, so having as many spells that can be cast off of just green mana is essential. Even with Kiora's follower, though, I feel there are enough games where I want to win off of two Rattleclaw Mystics that I would want to keep the utility of Karametra's Favor.
I run Crater's Claws as a 3 of not only for the redundancy with Commune with the Gods but also because it is a 1 cmc spell. If I have two dorks and a Jeskai Ascendancy, I want to be trying to combo off, but to eventually cast a second Jeskai Ascendancy so I can actually start banking mana, I need to cast something for one mana. Running multiples of Craters Claws let's me do that more consistently than relying on Dragon's Mantle. And in a real pinch, I can potentially use it as a removal spell to buy more time to find my combo.
I can generally start storming Turn 4 or 5, although Turn 3 is possible with a God hand. I've had trouble deciding between Elvish Mystic and Kiora's Follower, Mystic is both cheaper and easier to cast but can't make non-green mana without Karametra's Favor. Phenax is a good idea I hadn't thought of, gives me a Win Con I can find off of Commune and doesn't require I store up 20 mana to win (If I can store up 5 I can probably do 20, but Phenax would also drastically cut down on the time required to combo off).
I like Soul of Innistrad in BG dredge. Mill him into the graveyard, bring back any Nighthowlers or Heralds you milled. You probably don't want him as a 4-of, though, because he's much worse drawn than milled (you can use Lotleth troll to pitch him now, but post rotation that's not an option).
I went 4-0 in last night's legacy daily with the Balustrade Spy version of this deck. Only saw one graveyard hate spell, which was a turn 3 Deathrite Shaman (one turn too late to stop me from comboing off). The only game I lost was to burn when I didn't have a dredge card in my first 10.
Overall, I think the meta is still pretty soft to Dredge. TNN encouraged everybody to play midrange-y StoneBlade decks, and nobody's playing enough graveyard hate because they expect their counterspells to stop the combo decks. Perfect environment for a super-consistent combo deck that isn't particularly fazed by counterspells. Unfortunately, Reanimator has also been making a resurgence recently (I would've thought them to have trouble with all the counter magic, but I guess I'm missing something) so the graveyard hate is probably coming back soon.
Aurelia, The War leader+Fellhide Spiritbinder+2 mana dorks, one of which can make red=Infinite Combat Phases! Surely This will be the deck to beat in standard.
They're saying that "Devotion to White and Blue" does not equal "Devotion to White plus Devotion to Blue." You don't count the devotions separately, you do it once. "Is this mana symbol white or blue? Count it."
4 mana for such a narrow spot removal spell is far too expensive for constructed. Especially when the only decks that can meet its mana requirements are mono red. Even in Theros Block, red decks are better off splashing 4 RW temple 4 plains and running Chained to the Rocks.
I'd rather splash White or Black for decent removal than run this, SB or main deck. Heck, I'd rather have SB Traitorous Instinct than this. Spending 4 mana on spot removal is not where mono red wants to be.
As LSV mentioned on stream, Theros seems to be a high synergy set, which I'm finding refreshing after a year of Thragtusk goodstuff decks. Maybe it loses that feel as the season develops and I'll lose interest, but so far I'm having fun with it.
While there are 4 Control decks in the top 8, there are only 5 in the top 16, while there are 8 Aggro decks in the top 16. Sphinx's Revelation decks are certainly well positioned, but I don't think we can declare the death of Aggro yet.
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Karametra's Favor is essential with Elvish Mystics, both because it let's you tap them for colored mana but also because, after casting Jeskai Ascendancy you may only have a Mystic and a forest left to start your storm, so having as many spells that can be cast off of just green mana is essential. Even with Kiora's follower, though, I feel there are enough games where I want to win off of two Rattleclaw Mystics that I would want to keep the utility of Karametra's Favor.
I run Crater's Claws as a 3 of not only for the redundancy with Commune with the Gods but also because it is a 1 cmc spell. If I have two dorks and a Jeskai Ascendancy, I want to be trying to combo off, but to eventually cast a second Jeskai Ascendancy so I can actually start banking mana, I need to cast something for one mana. Running multiples of Craters Claws let's me do that more consistently than relying on Dragon's Mantle. And in a real pinch, I can potentially use it as a removal spell to buy more time to find my combo.
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Enchantments
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Karametra's Favor
4 Dragon's Mantle
2 Nylea's Presence
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Divination
3 Crater's Claws
2 Dig through Time
I can generally start storming Turn 4 or 5, although Turn 3 is possible with a God hand. I've had trouble deciding between Elvish Mystic and Kiora's Follower, Mystic is both cheaper and easier to cast but can't make non-green mana without Karametra's Favor. Phenax is a good idea I hadn't thought of, gives me a Win Con I can find off of Commune and doesn't require I store up 20 mana to win (If I can store up 5 I can probably do 20, but Phenax would also drastically cut down on the time required to combo off).
Overall, I think the meta is still pretty soft to Dredge. TNN encouraged everybody to play midrange-y StoneBlade decks, and nobody's playing enough graveyard hate because they expect their counterspells to stop the combo decks. Perfect environment for a super-consistent combo deck that isn't particularly fazed by counterspells. Unfortunately, Reanimator has also been making a resurgence recently (I would've thought them to have trouble with all the counter magic, but I guess I'm missing something) so the graveyard hate is probably coming back soon.
Yeah, but you have 8 of them, so even if you've used 4-5 you still have enough mana to cast lab maniac.
Aurelia, The War leader+Fellhide Spiritbinder+2 mana dorks, one of which can make red=Infinite Combat Phases! Surely This will be the deck to beat in standard.
Huh, how bout that.
Edit: 3 of which are Draft.