So far there's been very few great commons spoiled for M15. However, there is on guy that has been getting a bit of buzz in this subforum, Heliod's Pilgrim. We've seen a similar effect in the past with Totem-Guide Hartebeest but I've always had a problem with it's mana cost, so I'm happy to see something cheaper.
So the first thing to consider is what colors do you want to use? Obviously white, and that's good since Whites gives you access to some of the best Auras around. Your second choice obviously depends on the type of deck you want to make. Green would be great since you can pretty much go with the G/W Hexproof Aura deck and just add in the pilgrim. That's good, but I want to make something a bit different and with a bit more control and some recursion to offset the 2-for-1 downside of running auras, so naturally Black comes to mind. Using Black gives us access to Unearth which is a stupidly powerful common. Using this along with Heliod's Pilgrim and Auramancer will give us a good shell to keep our gameplan going. Then we just need to toolbox the rest of the deck with control and added power to get the win.
My other creatures are there to add some evasion and Mourning Thrull has the added benefit of lifegain. I also run a couple of Corrupted Zendikon so I have a creature I can search for with the Pilgrim if I need it. My creature package seems a little light at the moment, but so far it hasn't been too much of a problem in testing, so we shall see.
My pump Auras are pretty straight forward. Ethereal Armor is obviously the best choice so we run more copies of that than the other ones. Hyena Umbra and Skeletal Grimace do a great job of protecting our creatures while Shade's Form and Necromancer's Magemark give us some extra insurance with added recursion.
Pillory of the Sleepless and Dead Weight are our control options along with Bonds of Faith but Bonds can also pump a few of our creatures if needed. Normally, I don't like these cards since it leaves a creature in play, but they work great in this deck since you can search them up or bring them back with Auramancer.
Outside of that I run Pentarch Ward since it replaces itself and it has a splashable cost then I use Soul Link for some extra lifegain if I need it.
Epilogue
This is my first draft at a Pilgrim deck. So far it's been pretty good in testing but it could be better. Any suggestions? Comments and advice are always welcome!
Also, if you have a Pilgrim deck idea please feel free to post it here! Hopefully we can get a good discussion going here and find some good homes for this guy so he can stop his Pilgrimage.
The other way I could see possibly doing this is going the WG route and possibly adding it to an existing hexproof deck build, or making a new hexproof deck that specifically takes advantage of Heliod's Pilgrim effect. Will post more at a later date once I've had a chance to look at cards.
One of my favorite parts of Spoiler Season is thinking of all the new Pauper goodies and trying to use them!
I can't believe I forgot Vault Skirge! I'll probably run him in place of Thrull. Thrull was the main reason I used Edge of Divinity so I'll have to replace it. (Probably with Predator's Gambit, unless I find a better card)
G/W is definitely a good place for the Pilgrim since she also makes your sideboard more flexible/efficient. I definitely look forward to seeing other brews!
Current deck changes: -4 Mourning Thrull, +4 Vault Skirge. -1 Edge of the Divinity, +1 Predator's Gambit.
The Font of Return package, although not fetcheable, lets you have a lot of recursion to control the late game when coupled with your Unearth. You cast font, break it when you see it convenient, returnung Auramancer and two dead creatures, then cast Auramancer to retrieve back the Font. This engine, coupled with some Aven Riftwatchers should give you a lot of durability. Kor Skyfisher is a great body that lets you reuse all of your creatures, which have EtB effects, or simply bounce back Kabira Crossroads. A couple Pit Keeper can also be used to take the whole recursion theme even further.
That's a pretty good draft! I like how different our lists are. Really goes to show that there's a lot variety for the Pilgrim.
Font of Return can make your matches grind out which will give you an edge against control and Riftwatcher will help a lot against aggro. Pretty good choices all around.
very grindy, I like it! I also find going W/B is very interesting and original!
Is the cantrip of Pentarch Ward that much better than the cheaper and instant-speed Cho-Manno's Blessing?
Crown of Suspicion seems pretty tech as a sideboard card against weenie strategies like Goblins or Elves, or combo decks like Midnight-Gond. It can also be used a decent pump spell in a pinch. Skyfisher becomes a 4/2, for example, and can go alpha strike with other skyfishers and Riftwatchers, who are also soldiers.
I've seen Sinister Strength do some mighty things in Black aggro decks. It could be useful here.
Needs more Ethereal Armor. From past experience with the card, you want as many of these as you can get.
Soul Kiss is an interesting Aura that I think has good potential. A possible +6/+6 is not a bad deal, especially on a flying creature.
I've also experienced the power of Stab Wound first-hand when used against me in a draft. It's an excellent game-ender versus control decks. I could see this as a good play versus MBC.
For me, the deal-breaker with Pentarch Ward vs Cho-Manno's Blessing wasn't the cantrip (which is good in a deck like ours that hasn't got a lot of draw power) but the fact that it did not cost double W. Although both can be included for more protection plus flash shenanigans with the Blessing, I believe Pentarch is the better card overall.
Crown of Suspicion seems great against the decks you said, so it could indeed use some SB slot. It also helps that it pumps our creatures when unneeded, and also kills all of Delver's faeries.
More Ethereal Armor is indeed good, as it gives the deck just the late game power it needs to push through the final points of damage while dominating the board with a big, first striking creature. About Sinister Strength I could maybe use 1-of since my deck is more of a grindy toolbox approach than aggro. Same with Soul Kiss, because it's too expensive. Maybe Kiss is the better of the two, I will test.
Hyena Umbra feels like 5th Etereal Armor since it provides lesser pump and first strike for the same cost, it's only saving grace being Totem Armor. However, with Necromancer's Magemark, Pentarch Ward, other protection auras, Font of Return and Unearth, I believe we can let it slip for now in favor of more useful auras. Lifelink is on the radar for me, but for now the lifegain on Riftwatchers and Crossroads coupled with bounce from Skyfisher has been more than enough.
Stab Wound is definitely great, so maybe I will swap it with one Temporal Isolation or Pillory of the Sleepless. Both Pillory and Stab Wound are pretty similar, but the other player can just block with the stabbed creature to get rid of it, and if we don't attack we aren't speeding our clock like we should.
Also, we can definitely afford to run 1 land less, and Temporal Isolation has been less than stellar. Dead Weight is the only removal that we need (besides Pillory or Stab Wound against something more control oriented), since it can be fetched, it costs just 1, it counts towards Ethereal Armor's count, it can be reused with Auramancer and it's not even dead against bigger creatures because it shrinks them.
If we could, 2 Pit Keeper would make us a true nightmare if we aren't defeated in the first few turns by having a second, complementary infinite loop: first being Auramancer + Font of Return + 2 creatures, and the second being Pit Keeper + Kor Skyfisher. Even without pump of any kind, just beating again and again while we keep our life total stable thanks to avens and crossroads is more than enough to eventually come on top on a war of attrition. Also, note how both cycles can just be restarted if they get broken anyhow by Unearthing Auramancer / Pit Keeper.
Ethereal Armor definitely needs more space, but I think 3 is a good number. It gives you a bit of extra spell space plus you can tutor for them and recur them with this deck.
I chose Pentarch Ward for its cost also and the cantrip is just gravy.
One problem the deck will have in competitive play will be any sort of Graveyard hate. But this will just stop your recursion engine and hopefully you'll still have enough gas to get the win.
In my experience, people don't run much graveyard hate, and the hate comes usually in the form of Relic of Progenitus / Nihil Spellbomb / Bojuka Bog (rarer), all of which are one-shot effects. You just need to watch out and not have multiple Font of Return in the grave, as everything else is more or less expendable: we either run more copies of it or we can fetch more with Pilgrim. You just need to be aware if they try to get that 1-2 turn window to keep pressuring for the win, but since they have to stop to hate graveyard you will have an opportunity to stabilize and play around it.
Plus, they have to be aware of a big, first striking, probably flying creature.
My primary way with my build is to grab Ethereal Armor first and go from there. Once I see what colors my opponent is running then I'll make decisions from there.
I do like the Font of Return but I have plenty of other recursion options in my deck so I don't have any space for Font. It's definitely a great option if you have a lot of control in your Meta.
And with a deck like this you can bring a lot of sideboard options, especially if they're all fetchable.
Mine involves generating value and life through things like Phyrexian Rager or Aven Riftwatchers or Kabira Crossroads plus Kor Skyfisher or Unearth, and leave a Font of Return already set up while playing some removal in the first stages of the game (Dead Weight) which can be recurred through Auramancer plus Skyfisher. Since we already play healthy bodies and some robust fliers we establish board presence and exhaust the opponent's resources while being resilient. Part 2 is simple: play Heliod's Pilgrim and fetch whatever you feel you need, crack a Font if you have to, and proceed from there while beating with a Soul Kiss or Ethereal Armor bearing creature.
It drains the opponent from resources very, very quickly, because even against something like Delver, if they counter say both Font of Return and Auramancer (worst case scenario), we can straight away Unearth the Auramancer and get back the Font. With this play, we have taken away from them two counterspells and we have established board presence and retrieved back the Font for a mere cost of B. It also helps a lot that our removal only costs B, and recurring the Weights with Auramancer is something people tend to underestimate, and it quickly decimates any opposition.
About the Pit Keeper, I agree that it's value can be lost if they remove our graveyard or leave us with less than 4 creature cards somehow in a timely maner, but it's definitely worth a try because it complements Font so well, and, unlike against Tortured Existence and Songs of the Damned, an exiled graveyard doesn't spell doom for us.
I've started testing with Delver and MBC. Delver is a good matchup, since we have recurrable removal and Ethereal Armor makes us a nightmare for them. Resolving an Aven Riftwatcher often spells the start of the comeback, since it can reliably eat all of their creatures except Delver itself, with which it trades, while also netting us 4 life in the process. Kabira Crossroads helps with this as well.
Against Tron, our MB is pretty weak, so we could use some strong removal to help kill their Marauders faster. All I can do against a resolved Marauder is slap an Ethereal Armor on a creature to kill it, or trade with a Dead Weighted one. I'll also fetch Pillory of the Sleepless, but that won't stop them gaining life through Marauders ability. We also gain life, but eventually they'll just Torch us to death. In the SB we have the fetcheable Contaminated Ground and two Seal of Doom that will kill their marauders for good, and they are recurable. We could also run Rancid Earth or Choking Sands, which get rid of the land completely but aren't fetcheable, or Befoul which will also kill Marauders, but I think that it's not worth it for such a price. Seal of Cleansing breaking their manafixing artifacts also helps.
Vs MBC the matchup is easy if we stay out of Corrupts range by repeatedly gaining life with Aven and Crossroads. Gary is not even a problem since we will remove each and every creature they play with a lonesome recurring Dead Weight to lower their devotion count, and their removal / discard does nothing against us as we will just Font everything back. The real problem is Corrupt though because we can't do anything against their land count, so this is a very even matchup. CoP: Black might be a good idea since we can fetch it with Shred Memory, and since we have it as a tutor, I propose we use CoP: Green to as a tutorable aswer against Bogles, Elves, Stompy, or any form of green aggro. Similarly, CoP: Red could improve our already good Burn matchup while also shutting down WeeFiends.
We could use some more hard removal, preferably fetcheable with Pilgrim.
@YavimayaWurm: So far it hasn't been risky at all. Putting on an Ethereal Armor first is a great plan if or creature is Tormented Soul or Vault Skirge. Since I can bring back enchantments and Creatures from the dead it's not a problem if I lose the creature. Usually if I fetched Ethereal Armor then I'm sitting on 3 or more mana which means I most likely already have an Aura out or I can play Armor and another Aura in the same turn. But as I said, this deck can shift strategies fairly easy once I know what I'm facing. You just have to know your Meta and know your deck.
I like what I'm reading in this thread so far - here are some suggestions for the BW build and an idea for a mono W build.
1) The BW build (Zephyr's especially) has very few 1-2 drops. Agressive aura removal and font is pretty much it. Hasn't this been an issue? Could Hopeful Eidolon be of interest here?
2) Street Wraith seems like it could form a neat engine with the Font package and life gain.
3) Have you considered Stinkweed Imp? It develops the yard for creature/enchantment recursion and handles untargetables. Perhaps Ethereal Armor on a flyer is just as good?
So after considering the builds in this thread, I've come to the conclusion that it's really Dead Weight that makes it tick. Its unique property is actually killing the target, so that it goes to the grave where Auramancer can recur it - and so, with a single removal, the deck engine with Skyfisher etc. permits lots of creature killing. So I thought, is there a white card that could do this so that a mono white build (essentially a white weenie variant) could be considered? Yes there is.
Weight of Conscience. Interestingly, Pilgrim and 'mancer are both humans. Many WW staples are humans too, and almost all WW builds already abuse Kor Skyfisher. I envision three build variants of "aura WW" and wonder which you think would be most successful and why:
1) Traditional WW with humans that have utility or build in card advantage. Doomed Traveler, Icathian Javelineers and Loyal Cathar would be typical.
2) Soul sisters WW with Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant. Maybe there are other auras that have synergy with an ETB lifegain concept?
3) Rebels. Ramosian Sergeant is a human, but rebels in general will make it easy to satisfy Weight of Conscience's requirement. The combination of "vomiting" spot removal onto the board combined with vomiting threats could be quite something. Unfortunately, neither of Pilgrim, 'mancer or Skyfisher is a rebel.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
I've been playing GW control auras, and Weight of Conscience really shines with Squadron Hawks and Fists of Ironwood (which becomes a fetchable Gather the Townsfolk). But even in a decks like OPs it could work as a single copy. That's the good thing about playing tutors and recursion.
Here's how I evaluate your potential builds off the top of my head:
1) I feel that shoehorning Pilgrims and Mancers along with relevant Auras into WW will hurt the effectiveness of Traditional builds. The traditional builds already have access to some of the best removal spells in white anyway, so I don't feel Weight is necessary.
2) I actually like this idea, but I feel it would be better as a G/W since you can add Fists of Ironwood as Broco mentioned and you can add in the extra win con of Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond. Throw in Commune with the Gods to help find your combos and tools too! The more I think about it the more I feel this will be a very solid deck!
3) I haven't had a lot of experience with Rebel decks, but I feel you'd have a lot of games in which you don't see the non-rebel cards soon enough for them to be worth it.
Also, thanks for mentioning Tragic Poet! That could go a long way in other variations of these lists!
That's good food for thought right there, Darkninja! I worry about fitting the Midnight/Presence combo into a soul sisters shell due to the need for protection. Maybe it's possible to fit the entire aura package + soul sisters + protection like Flagbearer and Shelter + combo pieces and end up with a workable deck.
A thing that's occured to me is the relatively high curve of this shell. Since we're in paper pauper, Post builds are still fair game. I think an 8-post build could be quite interesting. We know these can support two colors, and the early life gain is very good compensation for our slower start (kind of like fitting those soul sisters in the very mana base). Mono white rebel post was a thing for a while on-line in 2013 - just saying. I'd love to make a veritable pauper enchantress deck somehow with lots of mana from posts, draw and ramp from land auras that also fix mana, enchantment recursion and some solid tutorable control auras and win conditions. I sense a build out there somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it will include posts, abundant growth, pilgrim, some combination of poet/mancer, commune and maybe a few splash color enchantments too. I feel it needs a secondary way to abuse Midnight Guard (like other strong tap effects combined with more token production from Sprout Swarm perhaps?) in order to include Presence combo as a win con, but it could be good.
@broco: Mind posting a list for your G/W control auras? I'm sure there will be useful tech inside!
EDIT: Hmm, Midnight Guard combos with Presence, it's a human for Weight of Conscience and it has synergy with its cost and with Sprout Swarm - which would do well in a post build. Sprout Swarm is also less risky, so maybe you can go light on main deck protection and only include one tutorable Presence as an opportunistic alternate win con when the cost is clear. Guard could be a real engine piece of the deck!
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
That definitely sounds like an interesting idea. I'd love to see a rough draft posted then maybe we can get to work on refining it and get feedback from everyone. I was thinking about how clogged our 3 drop spot is after my last comment and Post will definitely help that problem. Going low with our Aura counts also helps a lot since we can tutor them. Going light on protection in the main deck isn't a problem either for the same reason. Have a singleton Pentarch Ward or Cho-Manno's Blessing can go a long way, especially with Auramancer's in the deck.
Other good cards to use while running Guard are Prismatic Strands and Ramosian Rally but those cards work well even without him as long as you have a lot of tokens or Soul Sisters since you want attack with them.
Just a thought, but what about a 1-of Death's Approach to help handle bigger things that Dead Weight can't kill later game when there are 3+ creatures in your opponents' graveyard?
May want to consider Equinox as sideboard tech against land destruction decks.
I noticed Equinox when I was browsing Auras when brewing my list. Definitely a great sb choice if you feel you'll face land hate. Especially if you run things like Verdant Haven.
I could see Death's Approach and Dead Weight having a 2-2 or 1-3 split. Dead Weight can help get to the point where Approach will be the better play. Approach could also wreck Dredge and other GY-centric decks.
So far we've had a bit of variety for B/W lists and good ideas for a new G/W Soul Sisters so I'm happy with where this thread's been going. Any ideas on any other color splashes? What can Red and Blue bring to the table?
Here's my GW version of the deck. The idea is to kill by either bashing with pumped creatures or with the Midnight/Gond combo.
I currently devote 5 slots to the combo (4 Guardians/1 Pressence of Gond), but I'm not sure if it would be better as 3/1, as both are pretty much dead draws without the other piece. In any case, it's a pretty hard combo to assemble, but once it goes through, it just wins the game against most decks.
It has a ton of singleton auras since Pilgrims and Commune With the Gods can fetch a ton of stuff and I'm sure I'm missing on tons of interesting auras.
Oh, and I'm not sure what to do with the manabase. I wish I could ramp with utopia sprawl or fix with Abundant Growth for the delicious synergy with Kor Skyfisher, but I'm not sure what to cut for them or even if it's worth.
Wow, it's amazing how similar the list I was putting together in my head is to Broco's! I quickly abandoned the 8-post idea for a dual color deck - the lands and auras just take up too much space, and the business potential of even the most powerful auras has a hard time compensating for it. I still think you could squeeze an aura package of around 12-ish cards (about 6 tutors and recursion and about 6 targets) into mono white rebel post instead of the worst rebels, but I haven't explored this yet.
So here is my take on the GW build - no sideboard yet as this is completely untested and just goldfished for what feels like good numbers:
So the main variation here is to use Mine Excavation over Auramancer for recursion purposes. With access to black creature recursion, Auramancer is probably stronger, but Mine Excavation can gain CA more directly and exploit Midnight Guard and soldier tokens. Skyfisher can bounce Pilgrim just as well if it's more removal auras that you need. Commune develops the yard so I've decided to run the artifact lands to give me a few more options with Mine Excavation since there are only 14 auras and only 3 of them are really expected to see the yard unless you mill into them. The downside is that sideboarded disenchant effects now also hit your lands, but at least you can get them back or use them mainly for token production in such a scenario. Strands and Enlistment are also relevant when milled into, making Commune that much better - Strands is also good with Guard as Ninja pointed out and it protects the combo + token swarms.
I decided against any "frail" auras like Ethereal Armor and Armadillo Cloak in this build due to lack of hexproof. Instead I include MD Gnarlids as an alternate wincon. The deck really does attack from many angles, letting you win with a huge threat backed up by protective spells, souped up flyers, a large number of tokens or an infinite combo with resilience in Mine Excavation. I quickly discovered that Enlistment > Sprout Swarm when you're running Commune and no post manabase. It's also better against counters.
I do think Abundant Growth is mandatory since it turns a t2 Kor Skyfisher into an excellent play rather than a last resort, improves the mana base, lowers the curve and combines with Commune/Pilgrim to find you those singletons. Ramp from Utopia Sprawl is absolutely not needed IMO. A few final remarks on aura selection:
Moldervine Cloak: Better than the 3rd Rancor IMO. Good on flyers and tokens, develops the yard for Mine Excavation and is a pain for control to deal with. This + enlistment = rapid inevitable death for slow control decks.
Faith's Fetters: I run this for the utility of Temporal Isolation and Armadillo Cloak combined since I feel pressed for space, with a dash of equipment hate thrown in. My game 1 plan against burn is basically to spend turns 1-3 digging for this with commune, pilgrim and abundant growth and then bouncing the crap out of it with Kor Skyfisher. I do think 1 Armadillo Cloak has a place in the SB however, as just swinging once with that can be the game against burn if you have a 2+ toughness creature to put it on (notably: Pilgrim itself). However, if you fetch it on t3, you risk having Pilgrim killed before you can enchant it and swing, but that's almost as bad for Burn as they just wasted a spell to kill your 1/2 creature. Anyway, Fetters felt like the more robust MD answer.
Snake Umbra: Another "do everything" card. Turns a Hawk into a significant threat, protects the combo in ways that Strands can't and gives some added draw. Almost always replaces itself just like Pentarch Ward the same turn you play it, but has potential for more card advantage and lays down some additional smack as well. I have used this card a lot in Pauper EDH and it never disappoints.
As for the SB, I think combo is really the weak spot of the deck. It has some serious inevitability against control and no single control strategy can handle it. OTOH, it will be difficult for aggro to punch through creature swarms, 2/3 flyers, buffed weenies and recursive exiling removal. Not sure what green has to offer for combo hate, but Flagbearer and Suture Priest seem reasonable at least. With 4 Abundant Growth and Pilgrim/Commune, I think it would even be possible to include SB bombs in a splash color - perhaps even replacing the guildgates with fetches and a singleton splash color basic. You could probably even run 2x Font of Return in the main in this manner, if you really prefer Auramancer over Mine Excavation and artifact lands. Kabira Crossroads and Bojuka Bog might be good in such a build too with Skyfisher. Waddjathink?
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
Wow! All those deck lists look pretty good and there's some big differences!
@Imovefasteronmyown: Shield of the Oversoul is a great inclusion and your G/W creatures are good choices, especially the Healer! I also love Captured Sunlight being your curve topper since you're guaranteed to get value out of it!
@Broco: Not much criticism for your deck. The list is straight forward and solid. Your Sideboard is really good also! My only problem with the sideboard is that there's only one copy of Seal of Cleansing since it's the only non-tutorable answer that you have 1 copy of. Maybe bring down the count on Spider Climb to fix this problem, although I'm sure you have so many Spider Climb's to stop Delver.
@Urdjur: Wow! Your decklist is very impressive! You found a great way to negate the downside to Commune while adding in a pseudo-dredge strategy that really seems to work well. The addition of the artifact lands is great too! Some good Sideboard options would be Dawn Charm and Evolution Charm then probably use Mask of Law and Grace and Shield of Duty and Reason. Outside of that you can add in any other useful Auras you feel will help in your meta.
I just brewed up a G/W deck that is based off of Urdjur's strategy, but I added in some Soul Sisters and dropped Fetters for the lifegain options. I'm testing it a bit now and will see what changes to make.
I added in Marshaling Cry since it'll give a pump to all my flyers and tokens for some big swings. I also tweaked the numbers on some of the Auras since they are tutorable/recurable.
Glad you liked the list! Looking forward to how you find the soul sister package. There's also a green one - Essence Warden. I think it could be better because right now your mana base leans to white which is worse when you run Abundant Growth. It's better to have 12-13 green sources before Growth and 12-13 white sources with Growth, if that makes sense. Marshaling Cry is a great call! I think I like it better with a 1/1 split of Enlistment and Cry. There are more good cards with flashback/recover etc. to consider for greater Commune abuse - Folk Medicine could be useful SB. Another aura to consider is Elephant Guide btw - recently downgraded to common. I'm assuming Trinket Mage in your list is a typo and supposed to be the missing Heliod's Pilgrim But yeah, it really is a white Trinket Mage
Brewing with these cards got me thinking: Trinket Mage and Mystical Teachings are the only tutors that have made an on-line impression. Why? There are other tutors in pauper - transmuters mostly, but also narrow stuff like Wirewood Herald and Vedalken Aethermage. Arguably, Goblin Matron has made an impression on-line too, but she's not as key to the deck she features in - the variety in common goblins is only so big, and you want most in multiples (indeed, eightuplets!) anyway. Trinket Mage combines a bear with card advantage tutoring with a significant selection for the super low price of 3 mana. Teachings also comes with CA but pretty much requires a post manabase to work, since you're essentially adding a 4 mana tax (more if flashbacked) to the card.
Heliod's Pilgrim is one power short of Trinket Mage, but can arguably fetch more powerful things. Trinket Mage fixes mana via artifact lands - Pilgrim fetches green land auras. Mage gets Bonesplitter, Pilgrim gets Rancor and more. Mage gets Executioner's Capsule, Pilgrim gets an array of hostile auras that kill, maim or cripple.
However, it might be that the two can complement each other. Someone asked "what about other color combinations" - we've seen GW and BW. What about UW? This brings us Reality Acid which is like a blue Vindicate with Kor Skyfisher and Dream Stalker. But it also brings us Trinket Mage. We've already seen what use artifact lands are with graveyard builders, and the blue equivalent to Commune with the Gods is of course Forbidden Alchemy. Mine Excavation brings back the most useful targets for both mage and pilgrim for encore appearances, and most importantly: Alchemy can actually grab Mine Excavation while Commune can't. So how about a UWb build with Mage serving as extra mana fixing for the black splash? Same principle of artifact/enchantment targets, flashback stuff and synergistic spells. Brainstorm + Squadron Hawk would be a thing too of course.
The fact that Excavation can't be found with Commune makes me think that it might not be the way to go for a GW build anyway - looking forward to how it works in your testing. I'm thinking a black splash for Font of Return and a couple of Auramancers might be better, because they are found with commune and you only need one to return all the others. Making a GWb build work would be easy, and leave more opportunity for SB options.
So, my prognosis is to try to optimize a UWb build and a GWb build and see which strategies work best. I think we can safely forget about red. Squee's Embrace is probably the best we can do with it, making Pilgrim into a 3/4 for 5 mana that returns itself when it dies to search out another embrace. Pretty unimpressive IMO. That WR wellspring deck with cantripping artifacts might have some use for the pilgrim, but I doubt it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So the first thing to consider is what colors do you want to use? Obviously white, and that's good since Whites gives you access to some of the best Auras around. Your second choice obviously depends on the type of deck you want to make. Green would be great since you can pretty much go with the G/W Hexproof Aura deck and just add in the pilgrim. That's good, but I want to make something a bit different and with a bit more control and some recursion to offset the 2-for-1 downside of running auras, so naturally Black comes to mind. Using Black gives us access to Unearth which is a stupidly powerful common. Using this along with Heliod's Pilgrim and Auramancer will give us a good shell to keep our gameplan going. Then we just need to toolbox the rest of the deck with control and added power to get the win.
Here's what I've brewed so far:
3 Auramancer
4 Vault Skirge
4 Tormented Soul
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
Sorcery (4)
4 Unearth
Auras (19)
1 Bonds of Faith
2 Corrupted Zendikon
3 Dead Weight
1 Predator's Gambit
3 Ethereal Armor
1 Hyena Umbra
1 Necromancer's Magemark
1 Pentarch Ward
2 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Shade's Form
2 Skeletal Grimace
1 Soul Link
4 Orzhov Guildgate
8 Plains
10 Swamp
My other creatures are there to add some evasion and Mourning Thrull has the added benefit of lifegain. I also run a couple of Corrupted Zendikon so I have a creature I can search for with the Pilgrim if I need it. My creature package seems a little light at the moment, but so far it hasn't been too much of a problem in testing, so we shall see.
My pump Auras are pretty straight forward. Ethereal Armor is obviously the best choice so we run more copies of that than the other ones. Hyena Umbra and Skeletal Grimace do a great job of protecting our creatures while Shade's Form and Necromancer's Magemark give us some extra insurance with added recursion.
Pillory of the Sleepless and Dead Weight are our control options along with Bonds of Faith but Bonds can also pump a few of our creatures if needed. Normally, I don't like these cards since it leaves a creature in play, but they work great in this deck since you can search them up or bring them back with Auramancer.
Outside of that I run Pentarch Ward since it replaces itself and it has a splashable cost then I use Soul Link for some extra lifegain if I need it.
Epilogue
This is my first draft at a Pilgrim deck. So far it's been pretty good in testing but it could be better. Any suggestions? Comments and advice are always welcome!
Also, if you have a Pilgrim deck idea please feel free to post it here! Hopefully we can get a good discussion going here and find some good homes for this guy so he can stop his Pilgrimage.
Perhaps instead of Tormented Soul some Vault Skirge instead? Or replace the Mourning Thrull with them?
The other way I could see possibly doing this is going the WG route and possibly adding it to an existing hexproof deck build, or making a new hexproof deck that specifically takes advantage of Heliod's Pilgrim effect. Will post more at a later date once I've had a chance to look at cards.
I can't believe I forgot Vault Skirge! I'll probably run him in place of Thrull. Thrull was the main reason I used Edge of Divinity so I'll have to replace it. (Probably with Predator's Gambit, unless I find a better card)
G/W is definitely a good place for the Pilgrim since she also makes your sideboard more flexible/efficient. I definitely look forward to seeing other brews!
Current deck changes: -4 Mourning Thrull, +4 Vault Skirge. -1 Edge of the Divinity, +1 Predator's Gambit.
4 Auramancer
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Aven Riftwatcher
Lands (23)
3 Kabira Crossroads
4 Orzhov Guildgate
6 Plains
8 Swamp
1 Barren Moor
1 Secluded Steppe
4 Unearth
Enchantments (14)
3 Font of Return
4 Dead Weight
1 Pentarch Ward
1 Necromancer's Magemark
2 Ethereal Armor
2 Temporal Isolation
1 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Shield of Duty and Reason
1 Mask of Law and Grace
1 Skeletal Grimace
1 Ethereal Armor
3 Contaminated Ground
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Seal of Doom
2 Crypt Rats
The Font of Return package, although not fetcheable, lets you have a lot of recursion to control the late game when coupled with your Unearth. You cast font, break it when you see it convenient, returnung Auramancer and two dead creatures, then cast Auramancer to retrieve back the Font. This engine, coupled with some Aven Riftwatchers should give you a lot of durability. Kor Skyfisher is a great body that lets you reuse all of your creatures, which have EtB effects, or simply bounce back Kabira Crossroads. A couple Pit Keeper can also be used to take the whole recursion theme even further.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Font of Return can make your matches grind out which will give you an edge against control and Riftwatcher will help a lot against aggro. Pretty good choices all around.
Is the cantrip of Pentarch Ward that much better than the cheaper and instant-speed Cho-Manno's Blessing?
Crown of Suspicion seems pretty tech as a sideboard card against weenie strategies like Goblins or Elves, or combo decks like Midnight-Gond. It can also be used a decent pump spell in a pinch. Skyfisher becomes a 4/2, for example, and can go alpha strike with other skyfishers and Riftwatchers, who are also soldiers.
I've seen Sinister Strength do some mighty things in Black aggro decks. It could be useful here.
Needs more Ethereal Armor. From past experience with the card, you want as many of these as you can get.
I think Hyena Umbra is an excellent aura to have in the toolbox, as would be Lifelink/Vampiric Link.
Soul Kiss is an interesting Aura that I think has good potential. A possible +6/+6 is not a bad deal, especially on a flying creature.
I've also experienced the power of Stab Wound first-hand when used against me in a draft. It's an excellent game-ender versus control decks. I could see this as a good play versus MBC.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Crown of Suspicion seems great against the decks you said, so it could indeed use some SB slot. It also helps that it pumps our creatures when unneeded, and also kills all of Delver's faeries.
More Ethereal Armor is indeed good, as it gives the deck just the late game power it needs to push through the final points of damage while dominating the board with a big, first striking creature. About Sinister Strength I could maybe use 1-of since my deck is more of a grindy toolbox approach than aggro. Same with Soul Kiss, because it's too expensive. Maybe Kiss is the better of the two, I will test.
Hyena Umbra feels like 5th Etereal Armor since it provides lesser pump and first strike for the same cost, it's only saving grace being Totem Armor. However, with Necromancer's Magemark, Pentarch Ward, other protection auras, Font of Return and Unearth, I believe we can let it slip for now in favor of more useful auras. Lifelink is on the radar for me, but for now the lifegain on Riftwatchers and Crossroads coupled with bounce from Skyfisher has been more than enough.
Stab Wound is definitely great, so maybe I will swap it with one Temporal Isolation or Pillory of the Sleepless. Both Pillory and Stab Wound are pretty similar, but the other player can just block with the stabbed creature to get rid of it, and if we don't attack we aren't speeding our clock like we should.
Also, we can definitely afford to run 1 land less, and Temporal Isolation has been less than stellar. Dead Weight is the only removal that we need (besides Pillory or Stab Wound against something more control oriented), since it can be fetched, it costs just 1, it counts towards Ethereal Armor's count, it can be reused with Auramancer and it's not even dead against bigger creatures because it shrinks them.
If we could, 2 Pit Keeper would make us a true nightmare if we aren't defeated in the first few turns by having a second, complementary infinite loop: first being Auramancer + Font of Return + 2 creatures, and the second being Pit Keeper + Kor Skyfisher. Even without pump of any kind, just beating again and again while we keep our life total stable thanks to avens and crossroads is more than enough to eventually come on top on a war of attrition. Also, note how both cycles can just be restarted if they get broken anyhow by Unearthing Auramancer / Pit Keeper.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
I chose Pentarch Ward for its cost also and the cantrip is just gravy.
One problem the deck will have in competitive play will be any sort of Graveyard hate. But this will just stop your recursion engine and hopefully you'll still have enough gas to get the win.
Plus, they have to be aware of a big, first striking, probably flying creature.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
I do like the Font of Return but I have plenty of other recursion options in my deck so I don't have any space for Font. It's definitely a great option if you have a lot of control in your Meta.
And with a deck like this you can bring a lot of sideboard options, especially if they're all fetchable.
It drains the opponent from resources very, very quickly, because even against something like Delver, if they counter say both Font of Return and Auramancer (worst case scenario), we can straight away Unearth the Auramancer and get back the Font. With this play, we have taken away from them two counterspells and we have established board presence and retrieved back the Font for a mere cost of B. It also helps a lot that our removal only costs B, and recurring the Weights with Auramancer is something people tend to underestimate, and it quickly decimates any opposition.
About the Pit Keeper, I agree that it's value can be lost if they remove our graveyard or leave us with less than 4 creature cards somehow in a timely maner, but it's definitely worth a try because it complements Font so well, and, unlike against Tortured Existence and Songs of the Damned, an exiled graveyard doesn't spell doom for us.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Against Tron, our MB is pretty weak, so we could use some strong removal to help kill their Marauders faster. All I can do against a resolved Marauder is slap an Ethereal Armor on a creature to kill it, or trade with a Dead Weighted one. I'll also fetch Pillory of the Sleepless, but that won't stop them gaining life through Marauders ability. We also gain life, but eventually they'll just Torch us to death. In the SB we have the fetcheable Contaminated Ground and two Seal of Doom that will kill their marauders for good, and they are recurable. We could also run Rancid Earth or Choking Sands, which get rid of the land completely but aren't fetcheable, or Befoul which will also kill Marauders, but I think that it's not worth it for such a price. Seal of Cleansing breaking their manafixing artifacts also helps.
Vs MBC the matchup is easy if we stay out of Corrupts range by repeatedly gaining life with Aven and Crossroads. Gary is not even a problem since we will remove each and every creature they play with a lonesome recurring Dead Weight to lower their devotion count, and their removal / discard does nothing against us as we will just Font everything back. The real problem is Corrupt though because we can't do anything against their land count, so this is a very even matchup. CoP: Black might be a good idea since we can fetch it with Shred Memory, and since we have it as a tutor, I propose we use CoP: Green to as a tutorable aswer against Bogles, Elves, Stompy, or any form of green aggro. Similarly, CoP: Red could improve our already good Burn matchup while also shutting down WeeFiends.
We could use some more hard removal, preferably fetcheable with Pilgrim.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
1) The BW build (Zephyr's especially) has very few 1-2 drops. Agressive aura removal and font is pretty much it. Hasn't this been an issue? Could Hopeful Eidolon be of interest here?
2) Street Wraith seems like it could form a neat engine with the Font package and life gain.
3) Have you considered Stinkweed Imp? It develops the yard for creature/enchantment recursion and handles untargetables. Perhaps Ethereal Armor on a flyer is just as good?
So after considering the builds in this thread, I've come to the conclusion that it's really Dead Weight that makes it tick. Its unique property is actually killing the target, so that it goes to the grave where Auramancer can recur it - and so, with a single removal, the deck engine with Skyfisher etc. permits lots of creature killing. So I thought, is there a white card that could do this so that a mono white build (essentially a white weenie variant) could be considered? Yes there is.
Weight of Conscience. Interestingly, Pilgrim and 'mancer are both humans. Many WW staples are humans too, and almost all WW builds already abuse Kor Skyfisher. I envision three build variants of "aura WW" and wonder which you think would be most successful and why:
1) Traditional WW with humans that have utility or build in card advantage. Doomed Traveler, Icathian Javelineers and Loyal Cathar would be typical.
2) Soul sisters WW with Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant. Maybe there are other auras that have synergy with an ETB lifegain concept?
3) Rebels. Ramosian Sergeant is a human, but rebels in general will make it easy to satisfy Weight of Conscience's requirement. The combination of "vomiting" spot removal onto the board combined with vomiting threats could be quite something. Unfortunately, neither of Pilgrim, 'mancer or Skyfisher is a rebel.
EDIT: Also, Tragic Poet. Interesting?
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
Weight of Conscience can be a great addition!
Here's how I evaluate your potential builds off the top of my head:
1) I feel that shoehorning Pilgrims and Mancers along with relevant Auras into WW will hurt the effectiveness of Traditional builds. The traditional builds already have access to some of the best removal spells in white anyway, so I don't feel Weight is necessary.
2) I actually like this idea, but I feel it would be better as a G/W since you can add Fists of Ironwood as Broco mentioned and you can add in the extra win con of Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond. Throw in Commune with the Gods to help find your combos and tools too! The more I think about it the more I feel this will be a very solid deck!
3) I haven't had a lot of experience with Rebel decks, but I feel you'd have a lot of games in which you don't see the non-rebel cards soon enough for them to be worth it.
Also, thanks for mentioning Tragic Poet! That could go a long way in other variations of these lists!
A thing that's occured to me is the relatively high curve of this shell. Since we're in paper pauper, Post builds are still fair game. I think an 8-post build could be quite interesting. We know these can support two colors, and the early life gain is very good compensation for our slower start (kind of like fitting those soul sisters in the very mana base). Mono white rebel post was a thing for a while on-line in 2013 - just saying. I'd love to make a veritable pauper enchantress deck somehow with lots of mana from posts, draw and ramp from land auras that also fix mana, enchantment recursion and some solid tutorable control auras and win conditions. I sense a build out there somewhere but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it will include posts, abundant growth, pilgrim, some combination of poet/mancer, commune and maybe a few splash color enchantments too. I feel it needs a secondary way to abuse Midnight Guard (like other strong tap effects combined with more token production from Sprout Swarm perhaps?) in order to include Presence combo as a win con, but it could be good.
@broco: Mind posting a list for your G/W control auras? I'm sure there will be useful tech inside!
EDIT: Hmm, Midnight Guard combos with Presence, it's a human for Weight of Conscience and it has synergy with its cost and with Sprout Swarm - which would do well in a post build. Sprout Swarm is also less risky, so maybe you can go light on main deck protection and only include one tutorable Presence as an opportunistic alternate win con when the cost is clear. Guard could be a real engine piece of the deck!
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
Other good cards to use while running Guard are Prismatic Strands and Ramosian Rally but those cards work well even without him as long as you have a lot of tokens or Soul Sisters since you want attack with them.
May want to consider Equinox as sideboard tech against land destruction decks.
I could see Death's Approach and Dead Weight having a 2-2 or 1-3 split. Dead Weight can help get to the point where Approach will be the better play. Approach could also wreck Dredge and other GY-centric decks.
So far we've had a bit of variety for B/W lists and good ideas for a new G/W Soul Sisters so I'm happy with where this thread's been going. Any ideas on any other color splashes? What can Red and Blue bring to the table?
I currently devote 5 slots to the combo (4 Guardians/1 Pressence of Gond), but I'm not sure if it would be better as 3/1, as both are pretty much dead draws without the other piece. In any case, it's a pretty hard combo to assemble, but once it goes through, it just wins the game against most decks.
It has a ton of singleton auras since Pilgrims and Commune With the Gods can fetch a ton of stuff and I'm sure I'm missing on tons of interesting auras.
Oh, and I'm not sure what to do with the manabase. I wish I could ramp with utopia sprawl or fix with Abundant Growth for the delicious synergy with Kor Skyfisher, but I'm not sure what to cut for them or even if it's worth.
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
4 Auramancer
3 Midnight Guard
2 Presence of Gond
2 Ethereal Armor
2 Cho-Manno's Blessing
3 Rancor
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Fists of Ironwood
3 Weight of Conscience
3 Temporal Isolation
3 Selesnya Guildgate
8 Forest
9 Plains
1 Mask of Law and Grace
1 Temporal Isolation
3 Spider Climb
1 Shield of Duty and Reason
3 Dawn Charm
1 Armadillo Cloak
1 Artifact Ward
1 Seal of Cleansing
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Llanowar Knight
4 Valeron Outlander
4 Heliod's Pilgrim
2 Auramancer
4 Centaur Healer
1 Arrest
1 Temporal Isolation
2 Snake Umbra
4 Captured Sunlight
3 Armadillo Cloak
4 Shield of the Oversoul
9 Forest
5 Plains
So here is my take on the GW build - no sideboard yet as this is completely untested and just goldfished for what feels like good numbers:
3 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Tree of Tales
4 Ancient Den
6 Forest
3 Plains
CREATURES (16)
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Kor Skyfisher
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
3 Midnight Guard
2 Aura Gnarlid
4 Abundant Growth
3 Weight of Conscience
2 Rancor
1 Moldervine Cloak
1 Presence of Gond
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Snake Umbra
3 Commune with the Gods
3 Mine Excavation
2 Prismatic Strands
2 Cenn's Enlistment
So the main variation here is to use Mine Excavation over Auramancer for recursion purposes. With access to black creature recursion, Auramancer is probably stronger, but Mine Excavation can gain CA more directly and exploit Midnight Guard and soldier tokens. Skyfisher can bounce Pilgrim just as well if it's more removal auras that you need. Commune develops the yard so I've decided to run the artifact lands to give me a few more options with Mine Excavation since there are only 14 auras and only 3 of them are really expected to see the yard unless you mill into them. The downside is that sideboarded disenchant effects now also hit your lands, but at least you can get them back or use them mainly for token production in such a scenario. Strands and Enlistment are also relevant when milled into, making Commune that much better - Strands is also good with Guard as Ninja pointed out and it protects the combo + token swarms.
I decided against any "frail" auras like Ethereal Armor and Armadillo Cloak in this build due to lack of hexproof. Instead I include MD Gnarlids as an alternate wincon. The deck really does attack from many angles, letting you win with a huge threat backed up by protective spells, souped up flyers, a large number of tokens or an infinite combo with resilience in Mine Excavation. I quickly discovered that Enlistment > Sprout Swarm when you're running Commune and no post manabase. It's also better against counters.
I do think Abundant Growth is mandatory since it turns a t2 Kor Skyfisher into an excellent play rather than a last resort, improves the mana base, lowers the curve and combines with Commune/Pilgrim to find you those singletons. Ramp from Utopia Sprawl is absolutely not needed IMO. A few final remarks on aura selection:
Moldervine Cloak: Better than the 3rd Rancor IMO. Good on flyers and tokens, develops the yard for Mine Excavation and is a pain for control to deal with. This + enlistment = rapid inevitable death for slow control decks.
Faith's Fetters: I run this for the utility of Temporal Isolation and Armadillo Cloak combined since I feel pressed for space, with a dash of equipment hate thrown in. My game 1 plan against burn is basically to spend turns 1-3 digging for this with commune, pilgrim and abundant growth and then bouncing the crap out of it with Kor Skyfisher. I do think 1 Armadillo Cloak has a place in the SB however, as just swinging once with that can be the game against burn if you have a 2+ toughness creature to put it on (notably: Pilgrim itself). However, if you fetch it on t3, you risk having Pilgrim killed before you can enchant it and swing, but that's almost as bad for Burn as they just wasted a spell to kill your 1/2 creature. Anyway, Fetters felt like the more robust MD answer.
Snake Umbra: Another "do everything" card. Turns a Hawk into a significant threat, protects the combo in ways that Strands can't and gives some added draw. Almost always replaces itself just like Pentarch Ward the same turn you play it, but has potential for more card advantage and lays down some additional smack as well. I have used this card a lot in Pauper EDH and it never disappoints.
As for the SB, I think combo is really the weak spot of the deck. It has some serious inevitability against control and no single control strategy can handle it. OTOH, it will be difficult for aggro to punch through creature swarms, 2/3 flyers, buffed weenies and recursive exiling removal. Not sure what green has to offer for combo hate, but Flagbearer and Suture Priest seem reasonable at least. With 4 Abundant Growth and Pilgrim/Commune, I think it would even be possible to include SB bombs in a splash color - perhaps even replacing the guildgates with fetches and a singleton splash color basic. You could probably even run 2x Font of Return in the main in this manner, if you really prefer Auramancer over Mine Excavation and artifact lands. Kabira Crossroads and Bojuka Bog might be good in such a build too with Skyfisher. Waddjathink?
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
@Imovefasteronmyown: Shield of the Oversoul is a great inclusion and your G/W creatures are good choices, especially the Healer! I also love Captured Sunlight being your curve topper since you're guaranteed to get value out of it!
@Broco: Not much criticism for your deck. The list is straight forward and solid. Your Sideboard is really good also! My only problem with the sideboard is that there's only one copy of Seal of Cleansing since it's the only non-tutorable answer that you have 1 copy of. Maybe bring down the count on Spider Climb to fix this problem, although I'm sure you have so many Spider Climb's to stop Delver.
@Urdjur: Wow! Your decklist is very impressive! You found a great way to negate the downside to Commune while adding in a pseudo-dredge strategy that really seems to work well. The addition of the artifact lands is great too! Some good Sideboard options would be Dawn Charm and Evolution Charm then probably use Mask of Law and Grace and Shield of Duty and Reason. Outside of that you can add in any other useful Auras you feel will help in your meta.
I just brewed up a G/W deck that is based off of Urdjur's strategy, but I added in some Soul Sisters and dropped Fetters for the lifegain options. I'm testing it a bit now and will see what changes to make.
Current List:
4 Abundant Growth
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Moldervine Cloak
1 Presence of Gond
1 Rancor
1 Snake Umbra
2 Weight of Conscience
3 Kor Skyfisher
3 Midnight Guard
3 Soul Warden
3 Soul's Attendant
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Heliod's Pilgrim
Instant
2 Prismatic Strands
4 Ancient Den
2 Forest
6 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Tree of Tales
Sorcery
1 Cenn's Enlistment
3 Commune with the Gods
1 Marshaling Cry
3 Mine Excavation
I added in Marshaling Cry since it'll give a pump to all my flyers and tokens for some big swings. I also tweaked the numbers on some of the Auras since they are tutorable/recurable.
Brewing with these cards got me thinking: Trinket Mage and Mystical Teachings are the only tutors that have made an on-line impression. Why? There are other tutors in pauper - transmuters mostly, but also narrow stuff like Wirewood Herald and Vedalken Aethermage. Arguably, Goblin Matron has made an impression on-line too, but she's not as key to the deck she features in - the variety in common goblins is only so big, and you want most in multiples (indeed, eightuplets!) anyway. Trinket Mage combines a bear with card advantage tutoring with a significant selection for the super low price of 3 mana. Teachings also comes with CA but pretty much requires a post manabase to work, since you're essentially adding a 4 mana tax (more if flashbacked) to the card.
Heliod's Pilgrim is one power short of Trinket Mage, but can arguably fetch more powerful things. Trinket Mage fixes mana via artifact lands - Pilgrim fetches green land auras. Mage gets Bonesplitter, Pilgrim gets Rancor and more. Mage gets Executioner's Capsule, Pilgrim gets an array of hostile auras that kill, maim or cripple.
However, it might be that the two can complement each other. Someone asked "what about other color combinations" - we've seen GW and BW. What about UW? This brings us Reality Acid which is like a blue Vindicate with Kor Skyfisher and Dream Stalker. But it also brings us Trinket Mage. We've already seen what use artifact lands are with graveyard builders, and the blue equivalent to Commune with the Gods is of course Forbidden Alchemy. Mine Excavation brings back the most useful targets for both mage and pilgrim for encore appearances, and most importantly: Alchemy can actually grab Mine Excavation while Commune can't. So how about a UWb build with Mage serving as extra mana fixing for the black splash? Same principle of artifact/enchantment targets, flashback stuff and synergistic spells. Brainstorm + Squadron Hawk would be a thing too of course.
The fact that Excavation can't be found with Commune makes me think that it might not be the way to go for a GW build anyway - looking forward to how it works in your testing. I'm thinking a black splash for Font of Return and a couple of Auramancers might be better, because they are found with commune and you only need one to return all the others. Making a GWb build work would be easy, and leave more opportunity for SB options.
So, my prognosis is to try to optimize a UWb build and a GWb build and see which strategies work best. I think we can safely forget about red. Squee's Embrace is probably the best we can do with it, making Pilgrim into a 3/4 for 5 mana that returns itself when it dies to search out another embrace. Pretty unimpressive IMO. That WR wellspring deck with cantripping artifacts might have some use for the pilgrim, but I doubt it.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]