I hate to bump my own posts, but this is a legitimate calling. I am looking to get away from the infinite persist loop and into something more suitable. The reason is well...Prossh kinda does it and now Roon is doing Boonweaver with various sack outlets. Anafenza needs a new gimmick. I am thinking Stax, but a softer version. Lemme know what ya'll think. Should I go more tokens? Equipment? Stax? Keep it the way it is?
Also, Shadows over Innistrad review is up (been up for a little while).
Could you explain how living death is a one sided wipe with Anafenza?
With Anafenza, the Foremost on the battlefield, every time a creature would enter the graveyard it is exiled instead. So when you use Living Death they lose everything on the battlefield and get nothing back since there are no creatures left. There are easier ways to make it 1 sided for sure.
Upon further reflection I probably should have changed the wording "is" to "can be"
I hate to bump my own posts, but this is a legitimate calling. I am looking to get away from the infinite persist loop and into something more suitable. The reason is well...Prossh kinda does it and now Roon is doing Boonweaver with various sack outlets. Anafenza needs a new gimmick. I am thinking Stax, but a softer version. Lemme know what ya'll think. Should I go more tokens? Equipment? Stax? Keep it the way it is?
Also, Shadows over Innistrad review is up (been up for a little while).
I think soft stax is the way to go. Razzilox has an Anafenza deck as well, but uses stax tools like Thalia, Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare, Trinisphere and Thorn as opposed to ones like smokestacks, winter/static orb etc. Maybe you can get some inspiration from that?
Hatebears + Tax (version 1.0) is up. I'm gonna save the massive re-write of the Primer till after its tested throughly. Lemme know what you think and please pass along any suggestions.
Looks good so far! Obviously the bears you use are all entirely meta-dependent so can't recommend much there, but I do have a few suggestions to improve the deck's consistency.
Bane gives you a tutorable and potentially recurrable version of Gust, though not at instant speed.
Tireless Tracker is just more card draw. I've read Ohran Viper is super good too. I'm going to splash it in my deck and test.
Deluge is just nuts. Merciless Eviction is an amazing board wipe. But you have so much spot removal I don't think its necessary for its cmc.
Birds and Bloom are great color generators especially in a color intensive deck like this. I'd cut the elves of deep shadow because its more important to generate green or white in this deck IMO.
Yisan is amazing in a control deck like this. First Turn it'll grab you a dork or Deathrite. Turns 2+ are instant speed hate bears from your library. With all the tax effects it'll be difficult for players to kill your permanents and it'll allow Yisan to go nuts.
If your meta is super mana rock heavy, I'd consider going full artifact hate with Null Rod/Stony/Kataki and drop the equipment package and rocks and instead run more 1 cmc dorks and card draw etc. Only activated ability artifacts I run now are Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Skullclamp.
Looks good so far! Obviously the bears you use are all entirely meta-dependent so can't recommend much there, but I do have a few suggestions to improve the deck's consistency.
Bane gives you a tutorable and potentially recurrable version of Gust, though not at instant speed.
Tireless Tracker is just more card draw. I've read Ohran Viper is super good too. I'm going to splash it in my deck and test.
Deluge is just nuts. Merciless Eviction is an amazing board wipe. But you have so much spot removal I don't think its necessary for its cmc.
Birds and Bloom are great color generators especially in a color intensive deck like this. I'd cut the elves of deep shadow because its more important to generate green or white in this deck IMO.
Yisan is amazing in a control deck like this. First Turn it'll grab you a dork or Deathrite. Turns 2+ are instant speed hate bears from your library. With all the tax effects it'll be difficult for players to kill your permanents and it'll allow Yisan to go nuts.
If your meta is super mana rock heavy, I'd consider going full artifact hate with Null Rod/Stony/Kataki and drop the equipment package and rocks and instead run more 1 cmc dorks and card draw etc. Only activated ability artifacts I run now are Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Skullclamp.
I played a bunch of Yisan, the Wanderer Bard in my Roon deck. I didn't love how it came down turn 3, and didn't like how it escalated every time. Æther Vial gives you the choice to put the counter on, but it might be a reasonable cut since I still have Hunting Grounds.
Birds of Paradise and Bloom Tender are totally possible, but I'm not positive that they're better than Chromatic Lantern, since it fixes all of my lands - even if I can't tap the Lantern itself.
Oops I totally forgot to recommend Mentor! I think Mentor is better for sure. Especially when you are running 30+ creatures like yourself. Sorry about that haha.
I've mostly been playing a build extremely close to your old one (persist loops as a wincon) until recently and just converted over to a more taxing list with Living Plane + Linvala/Norn being a primary wincon. I only have about 10 EDH games under my belt with it and so far I've been enjoying the list a lot so far.
Any chance you could put together a budget list for this deck. I really love the idea, but many of the cards are out of my price range. Thanks!
I would like to preface this by saying I'm not quite a good budget builder. It has been a weakness of mine for sure, which is mostly the reason I end up with fewer, costly decks rather than multiple inexpensive ones. I'd one day like a deck in every single color combination, but I need to rein in my budget. I will certainly try my best in the coming weeks to get to it, what kind of budget do you have for it?
Maybe not a full decklist, but possibly some budget options for some of the more expensive cards like [Linvala, Keeper of Silence[/card], Gaddock Teeg, Stoneforge Mystic and the Swords, ect. Basically anything over the $10-$15 range.
or maybe yes all of those card hurt this deck, but it hurt your opponent a lot more ?
how do you work around this ?
with all the hate bears you run that augment the mana cost of spells, why don't you run any mana doubling card like Mirari's Wake or land fetching card like Kodama's Reach?
or maybe yes all of those card hurt this deck, but it hurt your opponent a lot more ?
how do you work around this ?
with all the hate bears you run that augment the mana cost of spells, why don't you run any mana doubling card like Mirari's Wake or land fetching card like Kodama's Reach?
Living Death, Vraska, and Living Plane are the only things Teeg blocks in the deck.
The rest of the cards you are mentioning are only affecting 2-3 cards each. Hardly an issue and easy to work around especially when these hate bears are going to slow down your opponents much more.
Mirari’s wake and 3cmc+ ramp isn’t necessary. This deck’s average cmc is between 2-3.
Edit: Oops Action beat me to it.
Also @Action, how are you liking the tax variant you're running now? Are the swords still pulling their weight with Null Rod and Stony around? I feel like the Living Plane lock isn't enough for a win con in my deck. The deck isn't hardcore stax and feels more midrange-y than anything so I think having an additional win-con is necessary. I'm considering on putting in Iona in as another win-con.
Living Death, Vraska, and Living Plane are the only things Teeg blocks in the deck.
The rest of the cards you are mentioning are only affecting 2-3 cards each. Hardly an issue and easy to work around especially when these hate bears are going to slow down your opponents much more.
Mirari’s wake and 3cmc+ ramp isn’t necessary. This deck’s average cmc is between 2-3.
Edit: Oops Action beat me to it.
Also @Action, how are you liking the tax variant you're running now? Are the swords still pulling their weight with Null Rod and Stony around? I feel like the Living Plane lock isn't enough for a win con in my deck. The deck isn't hardcore stax and feels more midrange-y than anything so I think having an additional win-con is necessary. I'm considering on putting in Iona in as another win-con.
I love the equipment still. I'm not running Null Rod currently, I might in the future. I've had several gold fishing sessions and 1 game against Zedruu Voltron, it was a game of parity that went on for a long time until eventually Zedruu won from Commander Damage, but I think if we did it again it could have went the other way, there wasn't something obviously missing. The true test comes from multiplayer games and I just haven't been able to put one together yet.
Excellent primer! Has the "soft stax" approach been worthwhile? And, have you encountered any significant issues within your meta when running the deck?
Here's my list. If you have any input, I'm all for it!
Excellent primer! Has the "soft stax" approach been worthwhile? And, have you encountered any significant issues within your meta when running the deck?
Here's my list. If you have any input, I'm all for it!
We've got several drastic differences in our decks! The type of deck I'm going for is a less oppressive Stax variant that is mostly just Tax for now, thus the "soft stax". Your list looks like it could do either way, like a full on Boonweaver combo or a creatureless Stax deck. How is your version of the list?
I haven't tested my list in a multiplayer setting yet, it might need some tweaking to find the specific cards that I specifically need against the other cards in my meta.
We've got several drastic differences in our decks! The type of deck I'm going for is a less oppressive Stax variant that is mostly just Tax for now, thus the "soft stax". Your list looks like it could do either way, like a full on Boonweaver combo or a creatureless Stax deck. How is your version of the list?
I haven't tested my list in a multiplayer setting yet, it might need some tweaking to find the specific cards that I specifically need against the other cards in my meta.
The only difficulty I've encountered is that my list can get off to some slow starts. When playing against fast combo and hyper aggro lists, holding them off can be a challenge if I'm not able to lock them down early. I thought about going with more board wipes, but cuts are getting to be difficult.
Within your list, do you want additional forms of board control outside of tax effects?
We've got several drastic differences in our decks! The type of deck I'm going for is a less oppressive Stax variant that is mostly just Tax for now, thus the "soft stax". Your list looks like it could do either way, like a full on Boonweaver combo or a creatureless Stax deck. How is your version of the list?
I haven't tested my list in a multiplayer setting yet, it might need some tweaking to find the specific cards that I specifically need against the other cards in my meta.
The only difficulty I've encountered is that my list can get off to some slow starts. When playing against fast combo and hyper aggro lists, holding them off can be a challenge if I'm not able to lock them down early. I thought about going with more board wipes, but cuts are getting to be difficult.
Within your list, do you want additional forms of board control outside of tax effects?
I've been thinking about maybe "borrowing" my Nether Void and Moat, taxing creature attacking Ghostly Prison and whatnot. My Meta is very creature based so adding a few more cards could really help. I'm not into the land destruction thing as much
So do you feel the Living Plane combo is preferable to the persist combo? Are there less feel bads with one over the other? I realize that you took it out to avoid redundancy with your other lists.
I had a friend running Captain Sisay drop it on us a couple weeks ago and it wasn't all that bad, it just meant we were locked out of the game. Do you do anything to make sure it resolves or do the hatebears tend to do that job for you?
I guess my concern is, is Living Plane lock the only way to win other than getting in with 2/2s?
So do you feel the Living Plane combo is preferable to the persist combo? Are there less feel bads with one over the other? I realize that you took it out to avoid redundancy with your other lists.
I had a friend running Captain Sisay drop it on us a couple weeks ago and it wasn't all that bad, it just meant we were locked out of the game. Do you do anything to make sure it resolves or do the hatebears tend to do that job for you?
I guess my concern is, is Living Plane lock the only way to win other than getting in with 2/2s?
I used to run Action's list with persist combo and living plane both in the deck and the Living Plane combo was much more consistent due to it requiring less cards and the combo pieces are relevant to the deck.
Now that I cut the persist pieces out I can fit more tutors, card draw and answers and its been great. Depending on my opening hand I either try to play into the combo as fast as possible or I try to slow everyone else down and apply pressure with the bears. I personally also run Armageddon as its a great way to seal your or outpace everyone when you've got dorks and tax cards in play.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways is also a decent plan C. Though I haven't played enough games with my new deck to see yet.
@Action I like the idea of cards like Ghostly Prison and Peacekeeper in creature heavy metas. I'll have to try them out myself.
I used to run Action's list with persist combo and living plane both in the deck and the Living Plane combo was much more consistent due to it requiring less cards and the combo pieces are relevant to the deck.
Now that I cut the persist pieces out I can fit more tutors, card draw and answers and its been great. Depending on my opening hand I either try to play into the combo as fast as possible or I try to slow everyone else down and apply pressure with the bears. I personally also run Armageddon as its a great way to seal your or outpace everyone when you've got dorks and tax cards in play.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways is also a decent plan C. Though I haven't played enough games with my new deck to see yet.
That's fair. I love Shaman, personally, and he's great for the color intensive hate bears the list runs as well.
I'm curious why Torpor Orb isn't in here? It hoses a LOT of different strategies. Seems like a perfect hate card.
I used to run Action's list with persist combo and living plane both in the deck and the Living Plane combo was much more consistent due to it requiring less cards and the combo pieces are relevant to the deck.
Now that I cut the persist pieces out I can fit more tutors, card draw and answers and its been great. Depending on my opening hand I either try to play into the combo as fast as possible or I try to slow everyone else down and apply pressure with the bears. I personally also run Armageddon as its a great way to seal your or outpace everyone when you've got dorks and tax cards in play.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways is also a decent plan C. Though I haven't played enough games with my new deck to see yet.
That's fair. I love Shaman, personally, and he's great for the color intensive hate bears the list runs as well.
I'm curious why Torpor Orb isn't in here? It hoses a LOT of different strategies. Seems like a perfect hate card.
Torpor Orb is in Zedruu Voltron already, it's the only list not curated by myself and probably does need it a bit more than Anafenza.
And yes, Green Squiggly nailed it. Less moving parts, after the removal of the Persist loop I ended up with 12 or so open spots on the list which allowed me room for more action. There is nothing wrong with the persist loop, only other decks are already doing sacrifice themes so I didn't want to have 3 decks work similarly. Cutting it out allowed me to play with the theme of taxing.
Some of the new additions are still in the works and will be updated accordingly. Currently I'm looking to include Armageddon, Ghostly Prison and possibly Defense Grid
I've been playing a similar list to great success, and I've had a lot of success with some Eldritch Moon cards.
It's a little deep but Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are pretty strong. I used to run Baneslayer Angel as a filler card and found it to be a really solid finisher, and Gisela is pretty similar. Bruna animates most things in the deck, since you're mostly humans or angels, and you don't have to worry about Torpor Orb. Getting them both out makes a very strong hatebear and game finisher.
Eldritch Evolution is a creature tutor you can cast under Gaddock Teeg. Can't say the same for Chord, GSZ, Natural Order, Pod, etc. Normally I like all those cards better but I'm running this purely for being usable with Gaddock Teeg on the field.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like an autoinclude. Having a soft Kismet on a cost effect creature is really nice. Stops Kiki combos outright and generally slows down your opponents.
Also I like Tireless Tracker for card advantage in a deck that's pretty hard pressed for it. You'll get clues even under Torpor Orb/Hushwing Gryff and it gets around Spirit of the Labyrinth when you just crack a clue on every person's turn. Also if you want, you can generate a ton of clues, then slam Kataki and not pay their upkeep cost. Tireless Tracker gets +1/+1 counters when they all get sacced and now you have a decent beater on your hands.
I run Exhume in my deck too for the same reasons as Living Death. Having a 1B "reanimate any creature" spell with no downside is pretty sweet.
Also, Shadows over Innistrad review is up (been up for a little while).
Could you explain how living death is a one sided wipe with Anafenza?
With Anafenza, the Foremost on the battlefield, every time a creature would enter the graveyard it is exiled instead. So when you use Living Death they lose everything on the battlefield and get nothing back since there are no creatures left. There are easier ways to make it 1 sided for sure.
Upon further reflection I probably should have changed the wording "is" to "can be"
I think soft stax is the way to go. Razzilox has an Anafenza deck as well, but uses stax tools like Thalia, Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare, Trinisphere and Thorn as opposed to ones like smokestacks, winter/static orb etc. Maybe you can get some inspiration from that?
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/anafenza-staxhatebears/#c2709650
Some suggested cuts and adds:
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Aether Vial
1 Bane of Progress
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloom Tender
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Bane gives you a tutorable and potentially recurrable version of Gust, though not at instant speed.
Tireless Tracker is just more card draw. I've read Ohran Viper is super good too. I'm going to splash it in my deck and test.
Deluge is just nuts. Merciless Eviction is an amazing board wipe. But you have so much spot removal I don't think its necessary for its cmc.
Birds and Bloom are great color generators especially in a color intensive deck like this. I'd cut the elves of deep shadow because its more important to generate green or white in this deck IMO.
Yisan is amazing in a control deck like this. First Turn it'll grab you a dork or Deathrite. Turns 2+ are instant speed hate bears from your library. With all the tax effects it'll be difficult for players to kill your permanents and it'll allow Yisan to go nuts.
If your meta is super mana rock heavy, I'd consider going full artifact hate with Null Rod/Stony/Kataki and drop the equipment package and rocks and instead run more 1 cmc dorks and card draw etc. Only activated ability artifacts I run now are Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Skullclamp.
I played a bunch of Yisan, the Wanderer Bard in my Roon deck. I didn't love how it came down turn 3, and didn't like how it escalated every time. Æther Vial gives you the choice to put the counter on, but it might be a reasonable cut since I still have Hunting Grounds.
Birds of Paradise and Bloom Tender are totally possible, but I'm not positive that they're better than Chromatic Lantern, since it fixes all of my lands - even if I can't tap the Lantern itself.
Bane of Progress is in Roon also, because it's an EtB effect. Overall thank you for the suggestions, I will most likely be getting rid of Merciless Eviction, Elves of Deep Shadow and æther Vial. Do you think Tireless Tracker is better than Mentor of the Meek?
Oops I totally forgot to recommend Mentor! I think Mentor is better for sure. Especially when you are running 30+ creatures like yourself. Sorry about that haha.
Here is my Anafenza deck http://deckstats.net/decks/9126/453406-anafenza?saved=1&lng=en
I've mostly been playing a build extremely close to your old one (persist loops as a wincon) until recently and just converted over to a more taxing list with Living Plane + Linvala/Norn being a primary wincon. I only have about 10 EDH games under my belt with it and so far I've been enjoying the list a lot so far.
I would like to preface this by saying I'm not quite a good budget builder. It has been a weakness of mine for sure, which is mostly the reason I end up with fewer, costly decks rather than multiple inexpensive ones. I'd one day like a deck in every single color combination, but I need to rein in my budget. I will certainly try my best in the coming weeks to get to it, what kind of budget do you have for it?
Thanks!
(sorry for the bad english, not my first language)
i feel like there is many "anti-combo" card in this list and i want to know how it can work out
explanation by exemple
Gaddock Teeg is good but with him on the field you can't cast almost 10-ish card of the deck.
Stony silence makes all your equipment kinda useless.
Spirit of the Labyrinth make Mentor of the Meek and Phyrexian Arena useless
Containment Priest make cards like Hunting Grounds and Meren of Clan Nel Toth kinda useless
or maybe yes all of those card hurt this deck, but it hurt your opponent a lot more ?
how do you work around this ?
with all the hate bears you run that augment the mana cost of spells, why don't you run any mana doubling card like Mirari's Wake or land fetching card like Kodama's Reach?
Great questions.
The specific things that specifically hurt this deck, outside of Gaddock Teeg, do so in a fairly narrow circumstances. Is it worth it to run Hunting Ground even through I can get blown out by my own Containment Priest? I argue that it is, because the potential for that interaction to come up is quite low. Can I afford to not run Containment Priest in a meta with Roon of the Hidden Realm and Sedris, the Traitor King? No. Can I afford to not run Spirit of the Labyrinth? Probably not, but then I also need to draw cards.
Playing 1 card in the 99 that might shut off other cards is troubling, but sometimes I cant afford not to run them.
The rest of the cards you are mentioning are only affecting 2-3 cards each. Hardly an issue and easy to work around especially when these hate bears are going to slow down your opponents much more.
Mirari’s wake and 3cmc+ ramp isn’t necessary. This deck’s average cmc is between 2-3.
Edit: Oops Action beat me to it.
Also @Action, how are you liking the tax variant you're running now? Are the swords still pulling their weight with Null Rod and Stony around? I feel like the Living Plane lock isn't enough for a win con in my deck. The deck isn't hardcore stax and feels more midrange-y than anything so I think having an additional win-con is necessary. I'm considering on putting in Iona in as another win-con.
I love the equipment still. I'm not running Null Rod currently, I might in the future. I've had several gold fishing sessions and 1 game against Zedruu Voltron, it was a game of parity that went on for a long time until eventually Zedruu won from Commander Damage, but I think if we did it again it could have went the other way, there wasn't something obviously missing. The true test comes from multiplayer games and I just haven't been able to put one together yet.
Here's my list. If you have any input, I'm all for it!
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/death-and-staxes-3/
We've got several drastic differences in our decks! The type of deck I'm going for is a less oppressive Stax variant that is mostly just Tax for now, thus the "soft stax". Your list looks like it could do either way, like a full on Boonweaver combo or a creatureless Stax deck. How is your version of the list?
I haven't tested my list in a multiplayer setting yet, it might need some tweaking to find the specific cards that I specifically need against the other cards in my meta.
The only difficulty I've encountered is that my list can get off to some slow starts. When playing against fast combo and hyper aggro lists, holding them off can be a challenge if I'm not able to lock them down early. I thought about going with more board wipes, but cuts are getting to be difficult.
Within your list, do you want additional forms of board control outside of tax effects?
I've been thinking about maybe "borrowing" my Nether Void and Moat, taxing creature attacking Ghostly Prison and whatnot. My Meta is very creature based so adding a few more cards could really help. I'm not into the land destruction thing as much
I had a friend running Captain Sisay drop it on us a couple weeks ago and it wasn't all that bad, it just meant we were locked out of the game. Do you do anything to make sure it resolves or do the hatebears tend to do that job for you?
I guess my concern is, is Living Plane lock the only way to win other than getting in with 2/2s?
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
I used to run Action's list with persist combo and living plane both in the deck and the Living Plane combo was much more consistent due to it requiring less cards and the combo pieces are relevant to the deck.
Now that I cut the persist pieces out I can fit more tutors, card draw and answers and its been great. Depending on my opening hand I either try to play into the combo as fast as possible or I try to slow everyone else down and apply pressure with the bears. I personally also run Armageddon as its a great way to seal your or outpace everyone when you've got dorks and tax cards in play.
Shaman of Forgotten Ways is also a decent plan C. Though I haven't played enough games with my new deck to see yet.
@Action I like the idea of cards like Ghostly Prison and Peacekeeper in creature heavy metas. I'll have to try them out myself.
I also want to try out Ohran Viper as a wannabe 2nd Phyrexian Arena
That's fair. I love Shaman, personally, and he's great for the color intensive hate bears the list runs as well.
I'm curious why Torpor Orb isn't in here? It hoses a LOT of different strategies. Seems like a perfect hate card.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
Torpor Orb is in Zedruu Voltron already, it's the only list not curated by myself and probably does need it a bit more than Anafenza.
And yes, Green Squiggly nailed it. Less moving parts, after the removal of the Persist loop I ended up with 12 or so open spots on the list which allowed me room for more action. There is nothing wrong with the persist loop, only other decks are already doing sacrifice themes so I didn't want to have 3 decks work similarly. Cutting it out allowed me to play with the theme of taxing.
Some of the new additions are still in the works and will be updated accordingly. Currently I'm looking to include Armageddon, Ghostly Prison and possibly Defense Grid
It's a little deep but Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are pretty strong. I used to run Baneslayer Angel as a filler card and found it to be a really solid finisher, and Gisela is pretty similar. Bruna animates most things in the deck, since you're mostly humans or angels, and you don't have to worry about Torpor Orb. Getting them both out makes a very strong hatebear and game finisher.
Eldritch Evolution is a creature tutor you can cast under Gaddock Teeg. Can't say the same for Chord, GSZ, Natural Order, Pod, etc. Normally I like all those cards better but I'm running this purely for being usable with Gaddock Teeg on the field.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like an autoinclude. Having a soft Kismet on a cost effect creature is really nice. Stops Kiki combos outright and generally slows down your opponents.
Also I like Tireless Tracker for card advantage in a deck that's pretty hard pressed for it. You'll get clues even under Torpor Orb/Hushwing Gryff and it gets around Spirit of the Labyrinth when you just crack a clue on every person's turn. Also if you want, you can generate a ton of clues, then slam Kataki and not pay their upkeep cost. Tireless Tracker gets +1/+1 counters when they all get sacced and now you have a decent beater on your hands.
I run Exhume in my deck too for the same reasons as Living Death. Having a 1B "reanimate any creature" spell with no downside is pretty sweet.
Mind sharing your list? It is always good comparing to what we all have to inspire new ideas.