I started playing Derevi over six years ago, somewhere around December 2013. For quite a long time it was a bunch of nonsense – I had some obvious things like Winter Orb, Hokori or Birthing Pod, but I was trying to pull into several different directions at once. I had a ton of counters and all sorts of removal, then I had a combo that didn’t even win (Peregrine Drake + DEN), after that I had a different combo that required a lot of mana and a bunch of less than optimal creatures (Survival + Llark/Karmic Guide/Mirror Entity/Venser), I had very cute, but very useless equipment like Diviner’s Wand... I could go on and on, it didn’t have much coherence anyway. I managed to win some games against weaker opponents, but the really good decks were an uphill battle.
Then one day I saw Glix’s list and his usual boasting about it. Like all his decks, it was a total glass cannon designed to prey on other glass cannons (“a million threats and no answers, because in multiplayer answers are bad, yo”); moreover, it was heavily skewed towards Partial Paris mulligans, which my playgroup have never used. The basic idea underneath was very sound though and I took a deep look to see what I could use in my deck.
I ripped my deck apart. I cut all cute, but unreliable cards, all the wacky combos, I lowered the mana curve considerably, added a ton of taxing effects and put together the all-in prison deck. To the surprise of exactly no one, it was much better than my previous version and I started to win a lot more. Through the next several months I purchased some missing pieces, experimented with various cards, tested and tuned until I came to something I could share with others without blushing too much. My list isn’t perfect by any means and there are several cards I’m not happy about, but it’s solid enough to crush casual decks and fight with the top dogs on equal terms.
This deck is not for you if:
you like your opponents and want them to have a good time
Three duals, three shocklands, nine fetches: a cornerstone of every three-color deck. They’re just the best, not much to say here.
Command Tower, City of Brass, Mana Confluence, Thran Quarry: the best rainbow lands I can play. Due to Derevi activated ability and an abundance of mana dorks and other cheap creatures, Thran Quarry doesn’t really have a drawback in this deck.
Sea of Clouds, Bountiful Promenade, Rejuvenating Springs: they come into play untapped 99% of the time, but more importantly, they're always untapped in the first several turns (barring some serious shenanigans), when it's the most important.
Brushland, Adarkar Wastes: the next best color fixers after the above. They provide two colors each and always come into play untapped, which is very important.
Horizon Canopy, Waterlogged Grove: they come into play untapped, give me two colors of mana, play very well with my Mirage tutors and on top of that they act as protection from mana flood - what’s not to like?
Gaea's Cradle: it makes approximately a million mana, ‘nuff said.
One basic Forest: a concession to cards like Blood Moon, Ruination etc. I’d rather not play any basics, but when I sit across a player that can drop turn two Blood Moon, I often fetch a basic Forest first just in case.
Gemstone Caverns: this deck is all about speed and tempo in the early game. Gemstone Caverns is yet another chance to catch up with other players’ explosive starts and the opportunity cost of playing two colorless lands is usually negligible.
Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl: two ramp pieces that help under Orb effects and are great with Derevi untap triggers.
Carpet of Flowers: in like 90% of competitive games there's at least one blue opponent (usually more), so Carpet of Flowers produces a lot of mana, even under Orb effects.
Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Elvish Mystic, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise: the best and fastest mana dorks available (Boreal Druid makes only colorless, which doesn’t help me with turn two Derevi, so he’s out). They ramp, they work under Orbs, they can also attack and trigger Derevi when possible. Two weeks ago I even killed someone with commander damage by attacking seven turns in a row with Noble Hierarch out – it’s very rare, but possible.
Arbor Elf: slightly less reliable than the above, but with all the fetches and duals he usually gives me at least two different colors, sometimes all three. He’s also great with Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl.
Bloom Tender: it’s the only ramp that costs more than one mana, but it’s the best ramp by a mile, hence the exception. I almost always have my commander in play, so Bloom Tender constantly taps for GWU. Protip: you can cast Derevi, target the elf with her untap trigger, in response to the trigger tap Tender for three mana, untap Tender and then tap for three mana again. It enables the most explosive starts, especially if I managed to cast it on turn one via Crypt, ESG, Petal, Caverns or one of the moxen: things like T1 Tender into T2 Derevi + Grand Arbiter Augustin IV + Collector Ouphe or T1 Tender into T2 Derevi + Tangle Wire + Vryn Wingmare tend to win games pretty quickly.
Captain Sisay: a repeatable tutor with 12 targets in my deck. She’s not fast - four mana plus needing to survive a turn is asking quite a lot - but after turning online she’s just awesome. The usual sequence is grabbing Cradle with the first activation, swing with the team, untap Sisay and activate her again for whatever I need at the moment.
Judge's Familiar: it’s far from perfect, but I need a critical mass of fliers to reliably trigger Derevi and I also need a critical mass of disruptive creatures to keep my opponents in check while constantly attacking. Judge’s Familiar fits both bills – I tried Spiketail Hatchling for a while, but one extra mana makes a big difference.
Thorn of Amethyst, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare: the tax package that hurts most control/stax and blue-based combo decks pretty badly while being relatively harmless for me. The only problem are creature-based combo decks like Selvala or Yisan, which don’t care much for these taxes.
Lodestone Golem: another tax effect, but a bit weaker – many decks run a lot of mana rocks, which Golem doesn’t affect. It’s better against certain decks (like aforementioned Selvala or Yisan), but weaker against most of the field. It hits pretty hard though.
Sphere of Resistance, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: the most effective taxes that hurt every opponent, no matter what they’re playing. GAAIV is obviously the best, because it helps me while disrupting others.
Trinisphere: the best or the worst tax, depending on the situation. It’s obviously great when dropped turn one or two, but in late game it’s often redundant to other tax effects and/or negated by mana development. Explosive openings aside, there are two situations when Trinisphere shines. The first is when I drop Orb effects or Stasis – adding Trinisphere to that mix reduces the threat of breaking my lock with Nature's Claim, Swords to Plowshares, Snuff Out or whatever to a minimum. The second is when I play against decks that don’t care much about my taxes, such as Mizzix of the Izmagus, Narset, Enlightened Master, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, or anything with Omniscience – they can have every cost reduction they want, but Trinisphere still says “pay three for that”.
Collector Ouphe, Stony Silence, Kataki, War's Wage: the anti-artifact package. The first two are very effective, some decks (like Arcum or Breya) are heavily crippled under these effects. Kataki is less effective, but still worth playing – he can also attack when needed and he’s one of the few ways to get rid of my Mana Crypt when I’m at low life.
Aura of Silence: yet another tax piece with an option of being a point artifact/enchantment removal. A bit narrow, but serves its purpose. It’s also one of my two outs to resolved Humility.
Deafening Silence: slows most opponents down pretty hard when dropped early, but even in the late game it stops many combos like Dramatic Scepter, Chain Veil Teferi, Breakfast Hulk etc.
Reclamation Sage: a necessary evil. Artifacts can be shut down by Stony Silence & Co., but I need a fast way to eliminate enchantments as well. There are some that need to die as soon as possible – if someone resolves an early Survival of the Fittest, Food Chain or even Cursed Totem etc., a single Aura of Silence is often not enough to deal with them (especially because I have way more tutors for creatures than for enchantments). Yes, Nature's Claim exists, but with all my taxes it costs two or three anyway, it doesn’t leave a body to attack with and most importantly, it isn’t tutorable.
Tangle Wire: a great way to slow my opponents down and buy me some time to lock the board. Works wonderfully with Stasis and Orb effects.
Root Maze: a perfect complement to all Orbs, Stasis or a Tangle Wire. You can also play it just to slow the opponents down: T1 mana dork into T2 Derevi + Root Maze is often a very reasonable play.
Nature's Will: being a 4CMC noncreature spell is a bit awkward, but this one is well worth it. It breaks all Orbs and even Stasis effects in half, it basically doubles my mana and it’s the most efficient way to tap my opponents down.
Birthing Pod: it slices, it dices, it does everything – it even made me a coffee once when I managed to activate it four times on the same turn. It’s one of the best, if not THE best card in this deck, because with Derevi untap ability I can use it multiple times per turn. Most of my best creatures cost four mana, so I can fetch them one by one just by sacrificing Derevi and replaying her again. I can also turn my excessive mana dorks into things like Gaddock or Thalia, I can turn Venser into Willbreaker etc. – the world is my oyster.
Swords to Plowshares, Cyclonic Rift: I don’t need much of removal because my whole gameplan is to keep my opponents from casting spells, but sometimes something slips through the cracks and has to be dealt with.
Mana Drain, Counterspell, Arcane Denial: the cheapest hard counters I can reliably run. Make no mistake: I’m not trying to play control, these counters are mainly for protecting my locks in mid to late game.
Mental Misstep: narrow, but great. In early game it counters most of the good ramp (from Sol Rings and Mana Vaults to mana dorks, even Carpet of Flowers, Exploration or GSZ on 0), later on it counters many good tutors (Mirage ones, Vampiric, Imperial Seal, Gamble) plus random things like Reanimate, Goblin Welder, Skullclamp or Sensei's Divining Top. Last but not least, it also counters various cheap removal trying to break my locks: Swords to Plowshares, Nature's Claim, Vandalblast or Chain of Vapor.
Glen Elendra Archmage: probably the best counterspell in my deck. It’s a creature, so most of the taxes don’t apply to her; it’s 4CMC, so it can be fetched with Pod by sacrificing Derevi; it attacks in the air, it can be used twice and most importantly, it’s pretty hard to deal with, because typical counterspells can’t counter her activated ability.
Venser, Shaper Savant: a Swiss army knife that can be used either as a counter or as a removal, depending on the situation. It’s also a body that can attack, a 4CMC creature to get with Pod and the best way to get my commander back when she’s stolen by Gilded Drake.
Scavenging Ooze: a silver bullet against decks that try to abuse the graveyard. It’s also one my two only ways to gain life, which is rarely relevant, but helps a bit with Crypt, Pod, Library and so on.
Aven Mindcensor: a disruptive flier with flash, which is basically the perfect combination. It stops tutors, land ramp, even fetches, which is kind of hilarious.
Hushbringer: another disruptive flier, also a silver bullet against creature decks that try to abuse ETB effects (Karmic Guide + Reveillark, Palinchron + DEN, Melira + Redcap and the like) or death triggers (like Academy Rector, Blood Artist or Protean Hulk).
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: yet another disruptive flier, but much more important due to her unique ability. She stops all sorts of creature based combos (Thrasios, Viscera Seer, Yisan, Palinchron, Prossh, Urza, what have you), but she also turns off enemy mana dorks, which is amazing in conjunction with Orb effects.
Drannith Magistrate: one of the most important creatures here. He turns off Food Chain combo, all kinds of graveyard recursions (Yawgmoth's Will, Underworld Breach, Kess etc.) and various things like Elsha, Urza or Bolas's Citadel, but most importantly he prevents opposing commanders from being cast.
Gaddock Teeg: a bane of many blue-based combo and stax decks – some of them (i.e. Narset or Teferi) can't really win until they remove the mighty kithkin from the table, so getting him onboard is often a high priority.
Willbreaker: doesn’t do much against spell-based decks, but it’s awesome against creatures. I’ve stolen with him all sorts of things, from mana dorks to huge monsters like Sheoldred, Void Winnower or Consecrated Sphinx. Under normal circumstances one removal spell would negate all my stealing, but that’s why we play taxes, counters and various lock pieces.
Phyrexian Metamorph: its main purpose is copying my taxing effect, usually without being taxed himself. He’s a creature, so Thorn of Amethyst, Glowrider and Vryn Wingmare don’t affect him, he’s also an artifact, so Lodestone Golem doesn’t affect him either (neither do Thalia or Grand Arbiter, but those are legendary). You may also copy Tangle Wire – even if it has zero fading counters, the copy will come into play with four. It’s also 4CMC creature that you can fetch with Pod, and there’s nothing wrong with copying opponents’ things too, if it suits me at a given moment.
Sakashima the Impostor: he’s here mostly for copying Derevi and doubling her tap/untap triggers, which leads to all sorts of shenanigans. He copies Derevi like 85% of the time, in 10% of cases he copies Grand Arbiter and only in 5% of cases something else.
Scryb Ranger: fliers with flash are always welcome, but that’s not enough to warrant a slot. I’m running him for two more reasons: one, he can serve as a temporary mana burst (untap my mana dork, return tapped forest and play it again), and two, with Tropical Island he can break Stasis. On rare occasions he can also enable pretty hilarious plays – yesterday I won a game in which I’ve been stealing creatures with Willbreaker once per every opponent’s turn thanks to Scryb Ranger activated ability.
The Maybes:
There are several cards that I’m either willing to try out or keeping on the backburner with the possibility of a comeback:
Aura Shards: I used to play it instead of Aura of Silence. Both cards serve a very similar purpose; one is slightly better early, the other is slightly better late. They are mostly interchangeable though and I might swap them back in the future.
Patron Wizard: Again, I used to play him earlier along with Prophet of Kruphix and Vendilion Clique. He was pretty good – with PoK and Derevi he created repeatable Mana Leaks, which was awesome. But Clique eventually got cut, Prophet got hit by the banhammer and suddenly my Wizard count became too low to properly support him. I might try him again at some point, but only along with at least one other Wizard.
Null Rod: Yet another card I used to play. Before Collector Ouphe was printed, I played Null Rod for many years along with Stony Silence, but now that Ouphe is out, I don't think I need all three of them.
Concordant Crossroads: I tried it for a while and I have very mixed feelings. Against some decks it’s awesome, but against others (i.e. Zur, Najeela, Narset or even Prossh) it’s a suicide. Even if my opponents don’t have commanders that benefit much from haste, they can have something like Goblin Welder, Fauna Shaman, Metalworker etc., or simply a bunch of mana dorks, and my playgroup runs quite a lot of these. Overall it’s mostly a meta call, I guess.
Rhystic Study: on paper it looks great, but in reality it’s mediocre at best. Sure, it’s great when dropped on turn one or two, but that means I’m not dropping disruption, which is way more important. In early game I don’t have time to play it and in late game it’s either a minor nuisance that doesn’t do much or just a “win more”. I ran it for a while out of fear that having only three draw engines may not be enough, but ultimately it's not worth it.
The Plan:
If Commander games were constricted by tournament clock, this deck would be hardly playable, because the most common win comes by concessions. I lock down the board, they can't do anything and slowly die by taking several points of damage per turn – when they have enough and realize that I won't let them break my lock, they concede and move to the next game. There's no combo here and no way to end the game quickly – I just starve my opponents to death. There are some rare cases when I amass a big army and kill the table in a few swings or deal 21 points of commander damage, but these cases are few and far between.
The Locks:
The most common lock is Winter Orb/Hokori, Dust Drinker/Rising Waters plus a tax effect (Thalia, GAAIV, Sphere etc.). I tap my opponents' lands every turn by attacking with creatures and using Derevi triggers, their spells cost more to cast, their life is hard, mine is easy. Against casual decks this strategy is often enough, but competitive decks can break it in several different ways, so I usually need more.
The easiest route is adding other tax effects. When their spells cost not one more, but three or four mana more, and they can untap only one land per turn, it's pretty hard to cast anything. However, most competitive decks pack either a lot of mana rocks or a lot of mana dorks (sometimes both), which aren't affected by Winter Orb & Co. – that's what Collector Ouphe, Stony Silence, Kataki and Linvala are for. Aven Mindcensor, Tangle Wire and Root Maze help to slow them down, and there's Gaddock Teeg, which is amazing against combo, stax and most heavy blue decks in general.
Much harder, but much more rewarding route is a Stasis lock. The infamous seesaw is very hard to play around, because no amount of mana rocks or mana dorks would break it (things like Seedborn Muse or recently banned Prophet of Kruphix won't help here either) – there just aren’t any untap steps anymore. The problem is that I don't have an easy way to break it as well. Sure, I can attack and untap my creatures with Derevi triggers, but I have to pay one blue mana every turn to keep Stasis onboard and I don't tap down my opponents – they can just play a land each turn until they have enough to destroy or bounce Stasis. I need to have something more and there are only three ways to break it in my deck: Nature's Will, Sakashima the Impostor (copying Derevi for double triggers) and Scryb Ranger (with Tropical Island to bounce and play again).
There's a possibility to establish an actual hard lock, but it requires several pieces and happens only once in a blue moon. I need to have Stasis, a way to break it (Will/Double/Ranger) and Root Maze. If I tap my opponents down, the only way to generate any mana under that is SSG/ESG, so adding something like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV or Sphere of Resistance into the mix puts all hopes away.
The Nonbos:
This deck has many different combination of cards that are hardly synergistic. I'm playing four cards that are uncastable under my own Gaddock Teeg. I'm playing nine fetches and Root Maze. I'm playing like three dozens 0/1/2-drops and Trinisphere. I'm playing counterspells and seven tax effects. I’m playing Hushbringer and two creatures with ETB triggers, not to mention Derevi herself. I'm playing seven artifacts with activated abilities and Stony Silence/Collector Ouphe. I'm playing Spirit of the Labyrinth with four different draw engines. The thing is, I just don’t care.
There are three reasons for that. First: all these Teegs, Mazes, taxes and so on are way more annoying for my opponents than for me – I have a very low mana curve, my commander can untap my lands when needed, I don’t rely on my artifacts too much, uncastable cards can be replaced in most cases by something else etc. Second: most of them are at least partially negated by Derevi, which is virtually immortal – commander tax doesn’t apply to her and she’s uncounterable, so I can replay her over and over again when needed. Third: some of these nonbos are silver bullets aimed at specific decks, so I don’t have to play them if I don’t need to.
The only nonbos that are actually pretty annoying involve Birthing Pod, which is probably the best card in this deck. Just three weeks ago I lost a game that I would otherwise win because I couldn’t cast Birthing Pod and find the lacking lock piece – I had Gaddock Teeg on the table. It’s painful, sure, but overall well worth it: I have won way more games thanks to Teeg, Collector Ouphe and Stony Silence than I have lost because of useless Pod.
The Scary:
There are a few very annoying cards that can throw a big wrench in my works. First one is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite – it’s one-sided wrath against me and I can’t really win unless I do something about her. I have to either counter her (or rather the reanimation spell aimed at her) or get her off the table, although I had a game recently when I simply copied her with Phyrexian Metamorph and it bought me enough time to assemble a Stasis lock.
Another one is Gilded Drake stealing my commander, which is a disaster – this deck relies very heavily on Derevi and can’t operate properly without her. Gilded Drake is very popular in my meta, so I have to be prepared – apart from counterspells I have Phyrexian Metamorph, Swords to Plowshares, Venser, Cyclonic Rift and sometimes I even catch the pesky thief with his pants down by playing Hushwing Gryff in response.
Yet another annoying little bugger is Peacekeeper, which turns off my entire gameplan. Like with Elesh Norn, I have to get rid of him in order to function properly. Easier to deal with than the Praetor (he doesn't wipe my board and often bouncing him away for a turn is enough), but still very annoying.
The fourth one is Humility, which turns my whole deck into a pile of useless cardboard. Fortunately it’s a four-mana enchantment, so unless it’s being cheated into play by something like Academy Rector, I can usually prevent it from hitting the table. If it hits though, I have only two ways to remove it: Cyclonic Rift and Aura of Silence.
Finally there is The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale – it cuts me off my mana, doesn’t let me develop my board and often kills some of my creatures. It’s a land, so it’s uncounterable and pretty hard to remove – I have to find either Strip Mine to destroy it or Gaea's Cradle to negate its effect. Fortunately, nobody in my meta owns a Tabernacle yet, so as long as I’m staying home, I’m safe.
The Tips:
Mulligan very aggresively. I have a very low curve and a ton of cheap ramp – two-land hands are usually perfectly keepable, even some one-landers will do just fine. Every seven-card hand without anything to play on turn one is an instant mulligan.
The importance of colors obviously depends on the content of my hand, but it usually goes like this: G > W > U. If you're not sure what to fetch on the first turn, Savannah is the safest bet.
This deck has a great early game and can establish a lock very fast. However, if I go to the late game and someone manages to break my lock, I’m often screwed – I don’t run powerful, high impact cards that can turn the tides and bring me back in the driver’s seat singlehandedly, I have to put my pieces together one by one. That’s why you have to be fast when playing this deck: no durdling around, no wasting time for value, just lock them down as soon as possible.
Sol Ring and Mana Crypt are much worse here than in most decks (especially the Crypt – I’m aiming for a long game of starvation and between Crypt, Sylvan Library, Phyrexian mana and various painlands I can sometimes accidentally kill myself). Colored mana is crucial for playing turn two Derevi and these rocks provide only colorless. If you have two lands, a mana dork and Sol Ring, it’s often correct to start with a dork, unless you have something powerful to drop (like T1 Thorn of Amethyst or T2 Lodestone Golem).
In most cases it doesn’t make much difference what I’m going to imprint under Chrome Mox, because the vast majority of my deck is interchangeable. I try to avoid imprinting lock pieces if possible, but sometimes I just have to do it. The only cards both very important and not interchangeable are Gaddock Teeg, Drannith Magistrate and especially Linvala, Keeper of Silence, so I’d rather keep the mox rotting in my hand than imprint the angel.
Sacrificing a creature with Birthing Pod is a cost, not an effect – you can sacrifice Derevi, put her in command zone and in response to the search ability flash her into play again. This way you can find Sakashima the Impostor and still make him a copy of Derevi.
You can turn Trinisphere off by tapping it on your upkeep with Tangle Wire, then cast your spells as normal, attack and use Derevi trigger to untap and turn it on again.
Why don’t you play...:
Force of Will? I would love to, but my blue cards count is too low, I simply don’t have enough of pitch fodder.
Gilded Drake? This deck relies heavily on connecting with creatures to enable Derevi tap/untap triggers, which is why fliers are at a premium. Giving my opponent a 3/3 flier for blocking purposes is the last thing I want.
Pact of Negation? I’m operating on a very low mana count, I’m also playing multiple Orb effects and I could easily die to my own upkeep trigger.
Sword of Feast and Famine? I’ve played it for quite some time, but it’s very clunky: costs three to cast (actually more like four or five due to all the tax effects I run), two to equip and if someone has removal or bounce, I’ve just timewalked myself. It’s also not really needed, because my commander breaks Orb effects all by herself. Yes, Sword was the fourth way to break Stasis, but even then it required a lot of hoops to go through – equipped creature has protection from green and thus from Derevi untap trigger, so I needed at least two attackers and one of them was unable to attack every other round, because I had to move the sword after every swing. There are easier and cheaper ways to do it, so I ultimately cut it and never looked back.
Static Orb? Unless my opponents are heavy on mana rocks or mana dorks, it’s worse than Winter Orb & Co., because it lets them untap two lands per turn. Attacking under Static Orb isn’t easy as well, because Derevi alone is not enough to fully break it, I need something else. Static Orb actually had a place in my deck for quite some time, mostly for redundancy reasons, but ultimately there are better cards to play than this.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite? I used to play her as well. Elesh Norn is awesome against mana dorks, prevents many creature-based combo decks from going off (Najeela, Prossh, Flash Hulk etc.) and speeds up your clock significantly. There are two problems with her though. First: she costs seven mana, which is a lot. Without something like Survival + Loyal Retainers (and I tried it too – it’s not worth the hassle) she’s not easy to cast, especially in the early game. Second and much more important: if someone takes her via something like Gilded Drake or Reanimate, it’s an absolute disaster, and these spells are pretty popular in my meta, especially the drake. I’d rather not play the mighty Praetor at all than risk facing her on the other side of the table – she’s just that dangerous.
Chord of Calling: It went in and out of my deck every couple of weeks, depending on what I was currently testing, but for now it's out. It's the most powerful of my tutors, but also the most expensive one – doesn’t work well under all my taxes and doesn’t work at all under Gaddock Teeg. Besides, I need my creatures to either tap for mana or to attack my opponents for Derevi triggers, so keeping them untapped for convoke purposes is often very awkward.
Engine cards like Birthing Pod are extremely powerful in Derevi prison. I would highly recommend taking a closer look at: Yisan, Survival, Tezzeret, Hibernation's End. I disagree with your exclsion of Elesh Norn. She is needed to clear the way for your dorks to generate untap triggers, and she is one of the few good creature-based creature removal options. I like her over Willbreaker.
I would highly recommend taking a closer look at: Yisan, Survival, Tezzeret, Hibernation's End.
I've played with both Tezzeret and Survival, ultimately cut them and don't plan to look back:
Tezzeret is very clunky: it's yet another card uncastable under Gaddock Teeg, it costs a ton (with all my taxes it's usually around 6-7 mana) and it doesn't even do that much - I don't have many mana rocks and I have only 2-3 good tutor targets, namely Winter Orb and Birthing Pod, sometimes also Phyrexian Metamorph.
Survival is great, but only with a proper support, of which I have none: no Retainers, no reanimation, no Llark/Karmic Guide combo, I don't even have Eternal Witness. I would have to seriously rebuild my deck in order to play Survival, making it less prison and more value/control/combo, which would be an entirely different thing.
Regarding Hibernation's End: I admit that I didn't try it, but it looks awfully slow to me.
And finally Yisan: yes, I've considered it, I even bought a copy some time ago, but ultimately didn't pull the trigger yet. From the look of it, I would have to play Concordant Crossroads and Quirion Ranger to make it really good, and I'm not sure if it is worth it.
I disagree with your exclsion of Elesh Norn. She is needed to clear the way for your dorks to generate untap triggers, and she is one of the few good creature-based creature removal options. I like her over Willbreaker.
You might be right that I should play her anyway, but not over Willbreaker - if I decide to put her back in the deck, it will be over something like Trygon Predator or Rhystic Study. Willbreaker is amazing: it won me a lot of games and it works against many things that Elesh Norn can't handle (Void Winnower, BUG Praetors, ConSphinx etc.).
I've had good success with Vedalken Mastermind for Stasis locks. He's useful with other lock pieces, provides protection for your creatures and can abuse your few ETB triggers (I hardly run any either). Plus he can bounce Teeg for a turn if you need him gone.
My only suggestion right now is + Crop Rotation + Homeward Path. Why? Because of how much OP is Cradle, it's the best land in this deck and CR is really nice and cheap tutor which allows a little toolbox as well with homeward path which is very decent answer to your opponents' drakes.
I thought about it, but I'm still not sure. You see, this deck works kinda like communicating vessels - pull one piece apart and others start to dive as well. Derevi is very color sensitive: I want all three colors by turn 2 and soon after I want double green, double white and double blue, which is why I run so few colorless lands. Strip Mine is non-negotiable, so I would have to either run three colorless lands or cut Gemstone Caverns (and find a slot for Crop Rotation on top of it all)... It's tempting though and I may try it some day.
I've had good success with Vedalken Mastermind for Stasis locks. He's useful with other lock pieces, provides protection for your creatures and can abuse your few ETB triggers (I hardly run any either). Plus he can bounce Teeg for a turn if you need him gone.
A pretty interesting suggestion - while I don't like the tap symbol in his ability, he's cheap enough to warrant a try. I'll look around for a copy next week and see how it works.
I used to run Llark back in the day, but after some time I came to a conclusion that I want all my creatures to either produce mana, give me draw or be a disruption piece. Llark is neither, and he costs a whopping 5 mana.
Four mana cards that need to survive a turn to do anything and then require additional resources to be useful? I think I'll pass. I don't like creatures that need to survive a turn (unless they're mana dorks) and if I ever decided to try one, it will be either cheap (Vedalken Mastermind) or useful in any circumstances (Captain Sisay, maaaybe Yisan, the Wanderer Bard).
armageddon and ravages - they basically let u back in a game u lost inex: when opponents are at 8 lands and no one cares about tax
It's not the first time I hear the suggestion of playing geddons... The only problem I have with them is that they're 4CMC noncreatures, which is awkward with my taxes and especially with Teeg. I might try them eventually, we'll see.
Yeah, I agree with you - it's the worst of my tutors. I even mentioned that it goes in and out, depending on what I'm testing. If I ever decide to run geddons, Chord of Calling will be the first card to cut.
-i think the same way about strip mine vs homeward path
which scenario is the one you face/fear more?
It's hard to say - Gilded Drake is pretty popular in my meta and while nobody in my playgroup owns a Tabernacle yet, I'm facing Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers and Mishra's Workshop every week. Tabernacle is the hardest to beat though.
Trygon Predator is on his way out, that's for sure. Aura Shards has its merits though - it's a repeatable removal and it answers Humility, while Needle and Revoker feel a bit like Vendilion Clique to me (a hit or miss, depending on your hunch and luck). If I decide to cut it, I'll probably play Aura of Silence instead.
And yeah, I agree with everything you wrote about Survival - that's why I'm not running it anymore.
If you're trying Crop Rotation I strongly recommend giving Simic Growth Chamber (or I suppose Azorius Chancery if you think that's more useful) a shot. Yeah you'll usually grab Cradle instead but having it as an option is really nice. Early it can help you hit land drops in a pinch and it's really fantastic with untap effects obviously. If you untap it the turn you play it you don't even lose out on any mana despite ETB tapped. Another nice little trick is grabbing it with Crop Rotation in response to Strip Mine on Gaea's Cradle to save it. I definitely wouldn't run multiple karoos but I think having one is a good idea. It's also one of the best lands you can have with Winter Orb/Rising Waters in play. With Root Maze ETB tapped isn't even a drawback. Getting it hit with a Strip Mine does suck and happens which is certainly not something you can ignore but I feel the upsides are worth the risk. Personally I dislike the buddy lands in 3 color decks and would run basics over them so Hinterland Harbor would be a very simple swap for me.
U should consider drop the same reason u run kataki it hurts u but helps with stax and drop is something u lack a creature removal u simply kill other dorks with it thus stax that helps with winter orb or hokori
Kataki I can simply pay for - it doesn't cost me any cards, only mana. Drop of Honey requires sacrificing a creature every turn, which is a serious card disadvantage: if heavy blue decks (such as yours ) simply don't play creatures when I have Drop of Honey on the table, I will slowly lose my entire board. It's good only against creature-heavy decks with a lot of mana dorks, which is way too narrow for me. I'm willing to try geddons, but Drop of Honey doesn't convince me at all.
My deck is all about speed and tempo in the early turns, which is why I run only two colorless lands and only one "tapland" (Dryad Arbor). Karoos are great in the late game, when I have multiple ways to untap my lands anyway, but horrible in the early game, especially in the opening hand. For a while I was considering lands like Forsaken City (which can sustain Stasis) or Undiscovered Paradise (pretty nice with Orbs), but ultimately decided against them for the same reason I don't run karoos - they're very bad when it matters the most.
My deck is all about speed and tempo in the early turns, which is why I run only two colorless lands and only one "tapland" (Dryad Arbor). Karoos are great in the late game, when I have multiple ways to untap my lands anyway, but horrible in the early game, especially in the opening hand. For a while I was considering lands like Forsaken City (which can sustain Stasis) or Undiscovered Paradise (pretty nice with Orbs), but ultimately decided against them for the same reason I don't run karoos - they're very bad when it matters the most.
It's definitely not something you want to play turn 1 or 2 of course but turn 3 is OK. A very reasonable draw is turn 1 dork, turn 2 Derevi and on turn 3 you can work it into play without being down mana (though you do need to spread it out). It's like Dryad Arbor where you don't want to draw it but it's a useful target sometimes. I would at least keep in mind that it exists when you draw Crop Rotation to see if it would be useful.
also tutoring for disenchant means being way behind? if so that will probably not help.
if you are not behind it should not be the described problem scenario: early bombs dropped by opponents to deal with emediately.
First off, it depends on the tutor I'm using - if it's Pod or Eladamri's Call, I might be way behind indeed, but if it's Green Sun's Zenith, it's usually OK. Besides, cutting Reclamation Sage would weaken Green Sun's Zenith: on turn one I'm searching for Dryad Arbor, later on I'm usually going for Gaddock Teeg, Edric or Reclamation Sage, depending on the situation (back in the day I used to search for Prophet of Kruphix as well, but that's not an option anymore). Cutting RecSage leaves only two good tutor targets for turns 2+, which makes GSZ a bit questionable.
Overall it's starting to become a game of percentages. Someone suggests cutting Golem in favor of a geddon, someone else suggests cutting RecSage for Nature's Claim, then Trygon Predator for Aura of Silence etc. - suddenly I'm several creatures down and several noncreatures up, which doesn't really go well with my taxes, my Cradle and my game plan in general. The same goes for lands: I'm already stretching my manabase pretty thin with Dryad Arbor, two colorless lands and three buddy lands, because some of the openers I have to ship due to not having GWU on turn two. Adding Homeward Path as a third colorless land (instead of cutting Gemstone Caverns for it) and adding a karoo would make my percent of shipped hands even higher. It's a fine line I have to walk here.
are there any problems about getting double white mana?
or is it consitent turn 2 or 3?
Getting double white in general isn't a problem with all my fixing, but getting it consistently that early might be. For starters I would have to change my fetching pattern from the usual Tropical Island > Savannah > Tundra to Savannah > Tundra/Temple Garden > Trop.
tap architect for 2 colorless mana to add a charge counter to gemstone array, remove that counter to add U to change Pili-pala blue, then ramp away in unlimited mana, cast things and laugh while your opponents are still stuck.
Three cards that don't do squat on their own and even after assembling the clunky three-card combo still don't win me the game - you seriously think that this is even remotely playable here?
Concerning the Elesh Norn argument, the best Derevi Prison builds in existence (Glix's Empyre and Cobblepott's Derevi Prison) run Elesh Norn as a finisher. It, along with Jin Gitaxias, make a Bant Reanimator subtheme in the form of survival of the fittest, fauna shaman, and loyal retainers worth running. The first two are worth running in any green deck regardless due to their immense power. Retainers just happen to be the best enabler for such game-breaking combos.
Private Mod Note
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"Instead of building a fast car to win the race, you fill the race track with manure and drive your tractor to victory.
That is stax."
~cmv_lawyer, 2016
Concerning the Elesh Norn argument, the best Derevi Prison builds in existence (Glix's Empyre and Cobblepott's Derevi Prison) run Elesh Norn as a finisher.
While I might be wrong in not running Elesh Norn, Glix's build is pretty far from being "best build in existence". Like I already wrote, it's a total glass cannon designed to prey on other glass cannons - it might have had some merit under Partial Paris mulligans, but under Vancouver it's actually unplayable. It's filled to the brim with things that are either awesome early and horrible late (i.e. Chancellor of the Annex or Aether Vial) or the other way around (Undiscovered Paradise, Forsaken City, Jin, Elesh Norn etc.), and on top of that it runs only 28 lands. Under Paris you could mull away all those Jins or FCities while digging for lands, Vials or Survivals, but under Vancouver you'll just mull yourself into oblivion.
My playgroup have never used Partial Paris system, but I've tried Survival, Fauna Shaman and whatnot anyway. It's just not worth it - for every game when you'll manage to reanimate Jin or Elesh you'll have ten more games when Retainers or Jin rot uselessly in your hand.
Concerning the Elesh Norn argument, the best Derevi Prison builds in existence (Glix's Empyre and Cobblepott's Derevi Prison) run Elesh Norn as a finisher.
While I might be wrong in not running Elesh Norn, Glix's build is pretty far from being "best build in existence". Like I already wrote, it's a total glass cannon designed to prey on other glass cannons - it might have had some merit under Partial Paris mulligans, but under Vancouver it's actually unplayable. It's filled to the brim with things that are either awesome early and horrible late (i.e. Chancellor of the Annex or Aether Vial) or the other way around (Undiscovered Paradise, Forsaken City, Jin, Elesh Norn etc.), and on top of that it runs only 28 lands. Under Paris you could mull away all those Jins or FCities while digging for lands, Vials or Survivals, but under Vancouver you'll just mull yourself into oblivion.
My playgroup have never used Partial Paris system, but I've tried Survival, Fauna Shaman and whatnot anyway. It's just not worth it - for every game when you'll manage to reanimate Jin or Elesh you'll have ten more games when Retainers or Jin rot uselessly in your hand.
While Glix's list is outdated with the recent rules change, it's still far more competitive than this build. Cobblepott's is, needless to say, miles ahead of either, since he keeps his build thoroughly up to date. You'd do well to learn a thing or two from it. It will greatly aid your deck's performance, as well as your overall deck building skills.
"Instead of building a fast car to win the race, you fill the race track with manure and drive your tractor to victory.
That is stax."
~cmv_lawyer, 2016
There is no StP on legs even remotely comparable to Nature's Claim on legs that is Reclamation Sage - if there was, I would run it in a heartbeat.
I don't think Fiend Hunter is a bad option, playable at least. Swapping sage for Caustic Caterpillar is an option. There are pros and cons for both cards but it may play nicer with your deck.
I don't think Fiend Hunter is a bad option, playable at least. Swapping sage for Caustic Caterpillar is an option.
Caustic Caterpillar isn't really what I'm looking for - I prefer to leave a body behind for attacking purposes or as a Pod fodder. If I were to run such effect, I'd rather play Qasali Pridemage. Fiend Hunter is a good suggestion though, I'll give him a try sometime soon.
Crop Rotation was pretty decent and this change will stay, at least until I find something better. Homeward Path I'm not sold on - it's very narrow and I think I'd rather stick with Gemstone Caverns. As for Armageddon, I have no idea - I never drew it during the whole evening, so I guess I'll give it another run next week.
There is another problem though - I have a hard time getting back into the game when someone manages to break my prison in the late turns. I have zero graveyard recursion and no big cards like Time Spiral, so putting the pieces together again when everyone has a lot of mana is pretty dificult. I'm considering two different ways to fix it:
1) Cut either Rhystic Study or Trygon Predator for Reveillark. He's awesome with Pod (saccing spare Venser/Snake/Glen Elendra/whatever for Llark and then saccing Llark for Consecrated Sphinx can get me back in the saddle pretty quickly), he attacks in the air and I can always evoke him if need be. The thing is, he costs a whopping five mana (six when evoked) and he doesn't disrupt anything by himself.
2) Cut Rhystic Study and maybe Crop Rotation for Armageddon and Ravages of War. With all my mana dorks they can reset the game very efficiently, but they are pretty awkward with my taxes and even more awkward with Gaddock Teeg.
Is it issues with sweepers or getting a key piece destroyed? It could be worth taking a look at Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward (Faith's Reward in particular is very good in my meta because you see a lot of mass LD) or simply adding some more permission to prevent this. Reveillark does seem quite clunky in this deck.
Is it issues with sweepers or getting a key piece destroyed?
With all my taxes and Teeg I'm rarely scared of sweepers (unless it's Toxic Deluge, which sometimes gets through). The most common situation is: I have a table soft locked with an Orb effect plus some taxes, but at this point I'm playing Archenemy - someone finally manages to bounce/destroy the Orb effect, then the next two opponents untap and either destroy the rest, or simply sit behind a million open mana with hands full of counters. On my next turn I'm usually without a board presence or - in the best case - without some key pieces and with all my opponents fully untapped and ready to fight me. Sometimes the key bounced/destroyed piece is not an Orb, but Willbreaker, Null Rod/Stony Silence, Linvala, Keeper of Silence or even Gaddock Teeg, depending on the situation.
It could be worth taking a look at Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward (Faith's Reward in particular is very good in my meta because you see a lot of mass LD)
I don't care about mass LD in the slightest (in fact, I'm going to try it myself), but I can rarely keep 4-5 mana open all the time, not to mention it doesn't do anything against bounce effects.
I'd love to, but there aren't many more cheap and hard counters I could run - maybe Delay, but past that I don't see any good options.
Delay is fine but I would try Mana Leak first, if it's not a hard counter things probably aren't going well anyways. Spell Pierce and Negate could also be fine. I'm not playing the deck in your meta so I can only speculate as to which one would be the best. I play all 4 in Edric and they're all good in their own way.
I don't think Fiend Hunter is a bad option, playable at least. Swapping sage for Caustic Caterpillar is an option.
Caustic Caterpillar isn't really what I'm looking for - I prefer to leave a body behind for attacking purposes or as a Pod fodder. If I were to run such effect, I'd rather play Qasali Pridemage. Fiend Hunter is a good suggestion though, I'll give him a try sometime soon.
Crop Rotation was pretty decent and this change will stay, at least until I find something better. Homeward Path I'm not sold on - it's very narrow and I think I'd rather stick with Gemstone Caverns. As for Armageddon, I have no idea - I never drew it during the whole evening, so I guess I'll give it another run next week.
There is another problem though - I have a hard time getting back into the game when someone manages to break my prison in the late turns. I have zero graveyard recursion and no big cards like Time Spiral, so putting the pieces together again when everyone has a lot of mana is pretty dificult. I'm considering two different ways to fix it:
1) Cut either Rhystic Study or Trygon Predator for Reveillark. He's awesome with Pod (saccing spare Venser/Snake/Glen Elendra/whatever for Llark and then saccing Llark for Consecrated Sphinx can get me back in the saddle pretty quickly), he attacks in the air and I can always evoke him if need be. The thing is, he costs a whopping five mana (six when evoked) and he doesn't disrupt anything by himself.
2) Cut Rhystic Study and maybe Crop Rotation for Armageddon and Ravages of War. With all my mana dorks they can reset the game very efficiently, but they are pretty awkward with my taxes and even more awkward with Gaddock Teeg.
In my experience, there are two main problems with Derevi and Stax as a whole.
1. We're playing Archenemy. Every relevant piece of interaction is aimed at our orbs and taxes. It's in no one's best interest to let the board get locked. One way to combat this is to play more recursion and midrangey stuff at the cost of speed; EWit, Lark, Sun Titan, etc.
2.Once we soft-lock the table, we take forever to actually kill everyone. Elesh Norn helps but isn't a foolproof solution. I've tried incorporating Swift's DEN/Gilded Lotus/inf mana outlet combo plan, but it can be pretty clunky.
For your specifc deck/problem, I would recommend adding more draw/tutor engines. Yisan is way better than he looks as he can get Weathered Wayfarer, which can get Gaea's Cradle, making his activated ability pretty much free. Captain Sissay also looks slow but gets so many relevant cards (10 in your list, more if you run Elesh Norn and Jin). Also, I'm surprised you don't like Survival. Cashing in mana dorks for a Hokori seems pretty good. Since you don't run Survival, you can slot in a Rest in Peace over your Scooze. If you miss the life gain, you could run a High Market (I know, I know, it's another colorless land), which also does double duty against Gilded Drake.
We're playing Archenemy. Every relevant piece of interaction is aimed at our orbs and taxes. It's in no one's best interest to let the board get locked.
That's true. Sometimes it's actually pretty funny, like the game I played last Thursday against Azusa and Jeleva Storm. It was a kind of a rock-paper-scissors table, because with a good opening and a bit of luck Azusa can try to overwhelm me with her dumb fatties, but she can never win against Storm - however, Storm has a very bad matchup against me. I quickly started to drop taxes and Azusa was between a rock and a hard place - on the one hand, she couldn't let me do my stuff, because sooner or later I would lock the board completely, but on the other hand, I was the only one keeping Storm from going off. Eventually Azusa decided to kill my GAAIV, which gave Jeleva an opening - she tapped out for Toxic Deluge, wiping my board. I was very lucky to topdeck Stasis, which won me the game immediately (I had Nature's Will on the table), but if I didn't draw it, Jeleva probably would have won next turn.
One way to combat this is to play more recursion and midrangey stuff at the cost of speed; EWit, Lark, Sun Titan, etc.
Yeah, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Funny as it sounds, this deck is a bit like Storm - like you said, I can add more resiliency, but at the cost of my most powerful weapon, which is speed. I'm keeping that option in mind though, especially Reveillark.
Once we soft-lock the table, we take forever to actually kill everyone. Elesh Norn helps but isn't a foolproof solution. I've tried incorporating Swift's DEN/Gilded Lotus/inf mana outlet combo plan, but it can be pretty clunky.
Elesh Norn is most probably a meta decision - if my playgroup wasn't that much infested with Gilded Drakes, Briberies, Necromancies and so on, I would probably run her, because she's very good.
Swift's approach however doesn't convince me at all, because it looks like a classic "Jack of all trades, master of none". He's trying to combine three different strategies (stax, combo and value midrange), but dedicated stax is faster, dedicated combo is also faster and true midrange has more resiliency. My deck has enough nonbos already - I don't see myself playing Gilded Lotus along with Thorn of Amethyst and Null Rod.
For your specifc deck/problem, I would recommend adding more draw/tutor engines. Yisan is way better than he looks as he can get Weathered Wayfarer, which can get Gaea's Cradle, making his activated ability pretty much free. Captain Sissay also looks slow but gets so many relevant cards (10 in your list, more if you run Elesh Norn and Jin).
Captain Sisay is already on my watchlist: I'll try geddons first, but after that she's next in the queue. Yisan however requires a setup - I think I would need either Concordant Crossroads or Quirion Ranger, because right now he would be doing something useful after two turns (first turn he's summoning sick, second turn he can fetch only mana dorks or Judge's Familiar, which doesn't impress anyone).
Also, I'm surprised you don't like Survival. Cashing in mana dorks for a Hokori seems pretty good.
It is good, but it's more of a dream scenario than real life unfortunately. There are two problems with Survival in my deck:
1) It's pretty good when dropped early, but that means I'm not dropping disruption, which is usually more important. If I draw it late, it usually costs about 4 mana (it's a noncreature, nonartifact, nonblue/nonwhite spell that gets affected with all my taxes) and another one to activate, which is quite a lot, especially under orbs.
2) I have no graveyard recursion and there aren't that many creatures I could pitch without worries. Sure, if I happen to have a spare mana dork or a silver bullet without a target (say, Hushwing Gryff without any creature combo deck across me), I could exchange them for something more useful. There are many cases though when my hand is something like Linvala, Thalia, Glen Elendra plus Sakashima and I don't really want to pitch any of those, even if I need Hokori.
I could maybe consider Survival again, but only with a payoff package (Loyal Retainers plus Elesh Norn), and that means three slots to find.
Captain Sisay is already on my watchlist: I'll try geddons first, but after that she's next in the queue. Yisan however requires a setup - I think I would need either Concordant Crossroads or Quirion Ranger, because right now he would be doing something useful after two turns (first turn he's summoning sick, second turn he can fetch only mana dorks or Judge's Familiar, which doesn't impress anyone).
I definitely think it's worth adding support for Yisan. He's one of the strongest tutor engines we have available and works extremely well with Derevi untaps and an active Cradle (which he can fetched by tutoring up a Weathered Wayfarer).
Also, I'm surprised you don't like Survival. Cashing in mana dorks for a Hokori seems pretty good.
It is good, but it's more of a dream scenario than real life unfortunately. There are two problems with Survival in my deck:
1) It's pretty good when dropped early, but that means I'm not dropping disruption, which is usually more important. If I draw it late, it usually costs about 4 mana (it's a noncreature, nonartifact, nonblue/nonwhite spell that gets affected with all my taxes) and another one to activate, which is quite a lot, especially under orbs.
2) I have no graveyard recursion and there aren't that many creatures I could pitch without worries. Sure, if I happen to have a spare mana dork or a silver bullet without a target (say, Hushwing Gryff without any creature combo deck across me), I could exchange them for something more useful. There are many cases though when my hand is something like Linvala, Thalia, Glen Elendra plus Sakashima and I don't really want to pitch any of those, even if I need Hokori.
I could maybe consider Survival again, but only with a payoff package (Loyal Retainers plus Elesh Norn), and that means three slots to find.
I would definitely consider trying it. You have a few cards that both you and I are not excited about (Trygon Predator and Lodestone Golem).
P.S. If you were looking to add more counterspells, Deprive and Unified Will might be worth looking into. They both have serious drawbacks but depending on your meta and boardstate could work out. Have you ever tested Druid's Repository? It fulfills a similar role to Nature's Will.
The History:
I started playing Derevi over six years ago, somewhere around December 2013. For quite a long time it was a bunch of nonsense – I had some obvious things like Winter Orb, Hokori or Birthing Pod, but I was trying to pull into several different directions at once. I had a ton of counters and all sorts of removal, then I had a combo that didn’t even win (Peregrine Drake + DEN), after that I had a different combo that required a lot of mana and a bunch of less than optimal creatures (Survival + Llark/Karmic Guide/Mirror Entity/Venser), I had very cute, but very useless equipment like Diviner’s Wand... I could go on and on, it didn’t have much coherence anyway. I managed to win some games against weaker opponents, but the really good decks were an uphill battle.
Then one day I saw Glix’s list and his usual boasting about it. Like all his decks, it was a total glass cannon designed to prey on other glass cannons (“a million threats and no answers, because in multiplayer answers are bad, yo”); moreover, it was heavily skewed towards Partial Paris mulligans, which my playgroup have never used. The basic idea underneath was very sound though and I took a deep look to see what I could use in my deck.
I ripped my deck apart. I cut all cute, but unreliable cards, all the wacky combos, I lowered the mana curve considerably, added a ton of taxing effects and put together the all-in prison deck. To the surprise of exactly no one, it was much better than my previous version and I started to win a lot more. Through the next several months I purchased some missing pieces, experimented with various cards, tested and tuned until I came to something I could share with others without blushing too much. My list isn’t perfect by any means and there are several cards I’m not happy about, but it’s solid enough to crush casual decks and fight with the top dogs on equal terms.
This deck is not for you if:
The List:
3 Derevi, Empyrial Tactician
Lands (30)
0 Forest
0 Command Tower
0 Thran Quarry
0 Mana Confluence
0 City of Brass
0 Savannah
0 Tropical Island
0 Tundra
0 Temple Garden
0 Breeding Pool
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Windswept Heath
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Flooded Strand
0 Arid Mesa
0 Marsh Flats
0 Polluted Delta
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Bountiful Promenade
0 Sea of Clouds
0 Rejuvenating Springs
0 Brushland
0 Adarkar Wastes
0 Horizon Canopy
0 Waterlogged Grove
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Gemstone Caverns
0 Strip Mine
Creatures (36)
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Arbor Elf
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Judge's Familiar
2 Bloom Tender
2 Scryb Ranger
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Collector Ouphe
2 Hushbringer
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Drannith Magistrate
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Runic Armasaur
3 Glowrider
3 Vryn Wingmare
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Loyal Drake
3 Hullbreacher
3 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Hokori, Dust Drinker
4 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Captain Sisay
4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
5 Willbreaker
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Instants (9)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mental Misstep
2 Counterspell
2 Mana Drain
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Eladamri's Call
3 Fierce Guardianship
Enchantments (11)
1 Wild Growth
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Root Maze
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Deafening Silence
2 Stony Silence
2 Sylvan Library
2 Stasis
3 Aura of Silence
4 Rising Waters
4 Nature's Will
Artifacts (12)
0 Lotus Petal
0 Mana Crypt
0 Chrome Mox
0 Mox Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
2 Winter Orb
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sphere of Resistance
3 Tangle Wire
3 Trinisphere
4 Birthing Pod
The Choices:
The Maybes:
There are several cards that I’m either willing to try out or keeping on the backburner with the possibility of a comeback:
The Plan:
If Commander games were constricted by tournament clock, this deck would be hardly playable, because the most common win comes by concessions. I lock down the board, they can't do anything and slowly die by taking several points of damage per turn – when they have enough and realize that I won't let them break my lock, they concede and move to the next game. There's no combo here and no way to end the game quickly – I just starve my opponents to death. There are some rare cases when I amass a big army and kill the table in a few swings or deal 21 points of commander damage, but these cases are few and far between.
The Locks:
The most common lock is Winter Orb/Hokori, Dust Drinker/Rising Waters plus a tax effect (Thalia, GAAIV, Sphere etc.). I tap my opponents' lands every turn by attacking with creatures and using Derevi triggers, their spells cost more to cast, their life is hard, mine is easy. Against casual decks this strategy is often enough, but competitive decks can break it in several different ways, so I usually need more.
The easiest route is adding other tax effects. When their spells cost not one more, but three or four mana more, and they can untap only one land per turn, it's pretty hard to cast anything. However, most competitive decks pack either a lot of mana rocks or a lot of mana dorks (sometimes both), which aren't affected by Winter Orb & Co. – that's what Collector Ouphe, Stony Silence, Kataki and Linvala are for. Aven Mindcensor, Tangle Wire and Root Maze help to slow them down, and there's Gaddock Teeg, which is amazing against combo, stax and most heavy blue decks in general.
Much harder, but much more rewarding route is a Stasis lock. The infamous seesaw is very hard to play around, because no amount of mana rocks or mana dorks would break it (things like Seedborn Muse or recently banned Prophet of Kruphix won't help here either) – there just aren’t any untap steps anymore. The problem is that I don't have an easy way to break it as well. Sure, I can attack and untap my creatures with Derevi triggers, but I have to pay one blue mana every turn to keep Stasis onboard and I don't tap down my opponents – they can just play a land each turn until they have enough to destroy or bounce Stasis. I need to have something more and there are only three ways to break it in my deck: Nature's Will, Sakashima the Impostor (copying Derevi for double triggers) and Scryb Ranger (with Tropical Island to bounce and play again).
There's a possibility to establish an actual hard lock, but it requires several pieces and happens only once in a blue moon. I need to have Stasis, a way to break it (Will/Double/Ranger) and Root Maze. If I tap my opponents down, the only way to generate any mana under that is SSG/ESG, so adding something like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV or Sphere of Resistance into the mix puts all hopes away.
The Nonbos:
This deck has many different combination of cards that are hardly synergistic. I'm playing four cards that are uncastable under my own Gaddock Teeg. I'm playing nine fetches and Root Maze. I'm playing like three dozens 0/1/2-drops and Trinisphere. I'm playing counterspells and seven tax effects. I’m playing Hushbringer and two creatures with ETB triggers, not to mention Derevi herself. I'm playing seven artifacts with activated abilities and Stony Silence/Collector Ouphe. I'm playing Spirit of the Labyrinth with four different draw engines. The thing is, I just don’t care.
There are three reasons for that. First: all these Teegs, Mazes, taxes and so on are way more annoying for my opponents than for me – I have a very low mana curve, my commander can untap my lands when needed, I don’t rely on my artifacts too much, uncastable cards can be replaced in most cases by something else etc. Second: most of them are at least partially negated by Derevi, which is virtually immortal – commander tax doesn’t apply to her and she’s uncounterable, so I can replay her over and over again when needed. Third: some of these nonbos are silver bullets aimed at specific decks, so I don’t have to play them if I don’t need to.
The only nonbos that are actually pretty annoying involve Birthing Pod, which is probably the best card in this deck. Just three weeks ago I lost a game that I would otherwise win because I couldn’t cast Birthing Pod and find the lacking lock piece – I had Gaddock Teeg on the table. It’s painful, sure, but overall well worth it: I have won way more games thanks to Teeg, Collector Ouphe and Stony Silence than I have lost because of useless Pod.
The Scary:
There are a few very annoying cards that can throw a big wrench in my works. First one is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite – it’s one-sided wrath against me and I can’t really win unless I do something about her. I have to either counter her (or rather the reanimation spell aimed at her) or get her off the table, although I had a game recently when I simply copied her with Phyrexian Metamorph and it bought me enough time to assemble a Stasis lock.
Another one is Gilded Drake stealing my commander, which is a disaster – this deck relies very heavily on Derevi and can’t operate properly without her. Gilded Drake is very popular in my meta, so I have to be prepared – apart from counterspells I have Phyrexian Metamorph, Swords to Plowshares, Venser, Cyclonic Rift and sometimes I even catch the pesky thief with his pants down by playing Hushwing Gryff in response.
Yet another annoying little bugger is Peacekeeper, which turns off my entire gameplan. Like with Elesh Norn, I have to get rid of him in order to function properly. Easier to deal with than the Praetor (he doesn't wipe my board and often bouncing him away for a turn is enough), but still very annoying.
The fourth one is Humility, which turns my whole deck into a pile of useless cardboard. Fortunately it’s a four-mana enchantment, so unless it’s being cheated into play by something like Academy Rector, I can usually prevent it from hitting the table. If it hits though, I have only two ways to remove it: Cyclonic Rift and Aura of Silence.
Finally there is The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale – it cuts me off my mana, doesn’t let me develop my board and often kills some of my creatures. It’s a land, so it’s uncounterable and pretty hard to remove – I have to find either Strip Mine to destroy it or Gaea's Cradle to negate its effect. Fortunately, nobody in my meta owns a Tabernacle yet, so as long as I’m staying home, I’m safe.
The Tips:
Why don’t you play...:
- Chord of Calling
+ Crop Rotation
- Rhystic Study
+ Reveillark
- Trygon Predator
+ Captain Sisay
- Static Orb
+ Spirit of the Labyrinth
- Sunpetal Grove
+ Horizon Canopy
- Aura Shards
+ Aura of Silence
- Island
+ Carpet of Flowers
- Crop Rotation
+ Mental Misstep
- Glacial Fortress
+ Sea of Clouds
- Reveillark
+ Loyal Drake
- Hinterland Harbor
+ Bountiful Promenade
- Mystic Gate
+ Waterlogged Grove
- Null Rod
+ Collector Ouphe
- Mystic Snake
+ Dovin, Hand of Control
- Sakashima the Impostor
+ Spark Double
- Joraga Treespeaker
+ Boreal Druid
- Dovin, Hand of Control
+ Deafening Silence
- Consecrated Sphinx
+ Runic Armasaur
- Hushwing Gryff
+ Hushbringer
- Spark Double
+ Sakashima the Impostor
- Boreal Druid
+ Wild Growth
- Arcane Denial
+ Fierce Guardianship
- Dryad Arbor
+ Drannith Magistrate
- Yavimaya Coast
+ Rejuvenating Springs
- Spirit of the Labyrinth
+ Hullbreacher
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
BRGrenzo, Dungeon Warden EDH
GAzusa, Always in a Rush EDH
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Warlord EDH
Trade thread on MOTL
I've played with both Tezzeret and Survival, ultimately cut them and don't plan to look back:
And finally Yisan: yes, I've considered it, I even bought a copy some time ago, but ultimately didn't pull the trigger yet. From the look of it, I would have to play Concordant Crossroads and Quirion Ranger to make it really good, and I'm not sure if it is worth it.
You might be right that I should play her anyway, but not over Willbreaker - if I decide to put her back in the deck, it will be over something like Trygon Predator or Rhystic Study. Willbreaker is amazing: it won me a lot of games and it works against many things that Elesh Norn can't handle (Void Winnower, BUG Praetors, ConSphinx etc.).
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
I thought about it, but I'm still not sure. You see, this deck works kinda like communicating vessels - pull one piece apart and others start to dive as well. Derevi is very color sensitive: I want all three colors by turn 2 and soon after I want double green, double white and double blue, which is why I run so few colorless lands. Strip Mine is non-negotiable, so I would have to either run three colorless lands or cut Gemstone Caverns (and find a slot for Crop Rotation on top of it all)... It's tempting though and I may try it some day.
A pretty interesting suggestion - while I don't like the tap symbol in his ability, he's cheap enough to warrant a try. I'll look around for a copy next week and see how it works.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
I used to run Llark back in the day, but after some time I came to a conclusion that I want all my creatures to either produce mana, give me draw or be a disruption piece. Llark is neither, and he costs a whopping 5 mana.
Four mana cards that need to survive a turn to do anything and then require additional resources to be useful? I think I'll pass. I don't like creatures that need to survive a turn (unless they're mana dorks) and if I ever decided to try one, it will be either cheap (Vedalken Mastermind) or useful in any circumstances (Captain Sisay, maaaybe Yisan, the Wanderer Bard).
OK, OK - I'll try it next week.
It's not the first time I hear the suggestion of playing geddons... The only problem I have with them is that they're 4CMC noncreatures, which is awkward with my taxes and especially with Teeg. I might try them eventually, we'll see.
Why would I? Things that would die to it the most often are my mana dorks, which isn't exactly optimal.
Yeah, I agree with you - it's the worst of my tutors. I even mentioned that it goes in and out, depending on what I'm testing. If I ever decide to run geddons, Chord of Calling will be the first card to cut.
It's hard to say - Gilded Drake is pretty popular in my meta and while nobody in my playgroup owns a Tabernacle yet, I'm facing Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers and Mishra's Workshop every week. Tabernacle is the hardest to beat though.
Trygon Predator is on his way out, that's for sure. Aura Shards has its merits though - it's a repeatable removal and it answers Humility, while Needle and Revoker feel a bit like Vendilion Clique to me (a hit or miss, depending on your hunch and luck). If I decide to cut it, I'll probably play Aura of Silence instead.
And yeah, I agree with everything you wrote about Survival - that's why I'm not running it anymore.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
Kataki I can simply pay for - it doesn't cost me any cards, only mana. Drop of Honey requires sacrificing a creature every turn, which is a serious card disadvantage: if heavy blue decks (such as yours ) simply don't play creatures when I have Drop of Honey on the table, I will slowly lose my entire board. It's good only against creature-heavy decks with a lot of mana dorks, which is way too narrow for me. I'm willing to try geddons, but Drop of Honey doesn't convince me at all.
My deck is all about speed and tempo in the early turns, which is why I run only two colorless lands and only one "tapland" (Dryad Arbor). Karoos are great in the late game, when I have multiple ways to untap my lands anyway, but horrible in the early game, especially in the opening hand. For a while I was considering lands like Forsaken City (which can sustain Stasis) or Undiscovered Paradise (pretty nice with Orbs), but ultimately decided against them for the same reason I don't run karoos - they're very bad when it matters the most.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
I have tried out Forsaken City and did not care for it though that was in a different deck.
There is no StP on legs even remotely comparable to Nature's Claim on legs that is Reclamation Sage - if there was, I would run it in a heartbeat.
First off, it depends on the tutor I'm using - if it's Pod or Eladamri's Call, I might be way behind indeed, but if it's Green Sun's Zenith, it's usually OK. Besides, cutting Reclamation Sage would weaken Green Sun's Zenith: on turn one I'm searching for Dryad Arbor, later on I'm usually going for Gaddock Teeg, Edric or Reclamation Sage, depending on the situation (back in the day I used to search for Prophet of Kruphix as well, but that's not an option anymore). Cutting RecSage leaves only two good tutor targets for turns 2+, which makes GSZ a bit questionable.
Overall it's starting to become a game of percentages. Someone suggests cutting Golem in favor of a geddon, someone else suggests cutting RecSage for Nature's Claim, then Trygon Predator for Aura of Silence etc. - suddenly I'm several creatures down and several noncreatures up, which doesn't really go well with my taxes, my Cradle and my game plan in general. The same goes for lands: I'm already stretching my manabase pretty thin with Dryad Arbor, two colorless lands and three buddy lands, because some of the openers I have to ship due to not having GWU on turn two. Adding Homeward Path as a third colorless land (instead of cutting Gemstone Caverns for it) and adding a karoo would make my percent of shipped hands even higher. It's a fine line I have to walk here.
Getting double white in general isn't a problem with all my fixing, but getting it consistently that early might be. For starters I would have to change my fetching pattern from the usual Tropical Island > Savannah > Tundra to Savannah > Tundra/Temple Garden > Trop.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
Grand architect + Pili-pala and use gemstone array as a battery to pay stasis upkeep.
tap architect for 2 colorless mana to add a charge counter to gemstone array, remove that counter to add U to change Pili-pala blue, then ramp away in unlimited mana, cast things and laugh while your opponents are still stuck.
Three cards that don't do squat on their own and even after assembling the clunky three-card combo still don't win me the game - you seriously think that this is even remotely playable here?
Yeah, me neither.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
That is stax."
~cmv_lawyer, 2016
WUI Don't Mean to Brago, But... RWBI'll Kaalia Back Later GBWKaradora the Graveyard Explorer BRGLive Long and Prosshper
BGUMuscle Plasm URGImperial Animarch BGLemon Meren Pie GWStop Being Such a Sisay UTefearsome RGWMarath of the Titans
UBRNow Watch me Trai Trai RWBAleshstax GWUPrison Can Roon Your Life BRGrenzo: Your Doom UArcum's Asylum of Stax
BGFeel the Ground Croak GThe All New 2016 Yisan Wanderer URFo Rizzle Mah Mizzle UBRA Game of Marchess
While I might be wrong in not running Elesh Norn, Glix's build is pretty far from being "best build in existence". Like I already wrote, it's a total glass cannon designed to prey on other glass cannons - it might have had some merit under Partial Paris mulligans, but under Vancouver it's actually unplayable. It's filled to the brim with things that are either awesome early and horrible late (i.e. Chancellor of the Annex or Aether Vial) or the other way around (Undiscovered Paradise, Forsaken City, Jin, Elesh Norn etc.), and on top of that it runs only 28 lands. Under Paris you could mull away all those Jins or FCities while digging for lands, Vials or Survivals, but under Vancouver you'll just mull yourself into oblivion.
My playgroup have never used Partial Paris system, but I've tried Survival, Fauna Shaman and whatnot anyway. It's just not worth it - for every game when you'll manage to reanimate Jin or Elesh you'll have ten more games when Retainers or Jin rot uselessly in your hand.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
While Glix's list is outdated with the recent rules change, it's still far more competitive than this build. Cobblepott's is, needless to say, miles ahead of either, since he keeps his build thoroughly up to date. You'd do well to learn a thing or two from it. It will greatly aid your deck's performance, as well as your overall deck building skills.
That is stax."
~cmv_lawyer, 2016
WUI Don't Mean to Brago, But... RWBI'll Kaalia Back Later GBWKaradora the Graveyard Explorer BRGLive Long and Prosshper
BGUMuscle Plasm URGImperial Animarch BGLemon Meren Pie GWStop Being Such a Sisay UTefearsome RGWMarath of the Titans
UBRNow Watch me Trai Trai RWBAleshstax GWUPrison Can Roon Your Life BRGrenzo: Your Doom UArcum's Asylum of Stax
BGFeel the Ground Croak GThe All New 2016 Yisan Wanderer URFo Rizzle Mah Mizzle UBRA Game of Marchess
Caustic Caterpillar isn't really what I'm looking for - I prefer to leave a body behind for attacking purposes or as a Pod fodder. If I were to run such effect, I'd rather play Qasali Pridemage. Fiend Hunter is a good suggestion though, I'll give him a try sometime soon.
Last Thursday I went to play EDH with the following changes:
+ Crop Rotation, - Chord of Calling
+ Homeward Path, - Gemstone Caverns
+ Armageddon, - Rhystic Study
Crop Rotation was pretty decent and this change will stay, at least until I find something better. Homeward Path I'm not sold on - it's very narrow and I think I'd rather stick with Gemstone Caverns. As for Armageddon, I have no idea - I never drew it during the whole evening, so I guess I'll give it another run next week.
There is another problem though - I have a hard time getting back into the game when someone manages to break my prison in the late turns. I have zero graveyard recursion and no big cards like Time Spiral, so putting the pieces together again when everyone has a lot of mana is pretty dificult. I'm considering two different ways to fix it:
1) Cut either Rhystic Study or Trygon Predator for Reveillark. He's awesome with Pod (saccing spare Venser/Snake/Glen Elendra/whatever for Llark and then saccing Llark for Consecrated Sphinx can get me back in the saddle pretty quickly), he attacks in the air and I can always evoke him if need be. The thing is, he costs a whopping five mana (six when evoked) and he doesn't disrupt anything by himself.
2) Cut Rhystic Study and maybe Crop Rotation for Armageddon and Ravages of War. With all my mana dorks they can reset the game very efficiently, but they are pretty awkward with my taxes and even more awkward with Gaddock Teeg.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
With all my taxes and Teeg I'm rarely scared of sweepers (unless it's Toxic Deluge, which sometimes gets through). The most common situation is: I have a table soft locked with an Orb effect plus some taxes, but at this point I'm playing Archenemy - someone finally manages to bounce/destroy the Orb effect, then the next two opponents untap and either destroy the rest, or simply sit behind a million open mana with hands full of counters. On my next turn I'm usually without a board presence or - in the best case - without some key pieces and with all my opponents fully untapped and ready to fight me. Sometimes the key bounced/destroyed piece is not an Orb, but Willbreaker, Null Rod/Stony Silence, Linvala, Keeper of Silence or even Gaddock Teeg, depending on the situation.
I don't care about mass LD in the slightest (in fact, I'm going to try it myself), but I can rarely keep 4-5 mana open all the time, not to mention it doesn't do anything against bounce effects.
I'd love to, but there aren't many more cheap and hard counters I could run - maybe Delay, but past that I don't see any good options.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
In my experience, there are two main problems with Derevi and Stax as a whole.
1. We're playing Archenemy. Every relevant piece of interaction is aimed at our orbs and taxes. It's in no one's best interest to let the board get locked. One way to combat this is to play more recursion and midrangey stuff at the cost of speed; EWit, Lark, Sun Titan, etc.
2.Once we soft-lock the table, we take forever to actually kill everyone. Elesh Norn helps but isn't a foolproof solution. I've tried incorporating Swift's DEN/Gilded Lotus/inf mana outlet combo plan, but it can be pretty clunky.
For your specifc deck/problem, I would recommend adding more draw/tutor engines. Yisan is way better than he looks as he can get Weathered Wayfarer, which can get Gaea's Cradle, making his activated ability pretty much free. Captain Sissay also looks slow but gets so many relevant cards (10 in your list, more if you run Elesh Norn and Jin). Also, I'm surprised you don't like Survival. Cashing in mana dorks for a Hokori seems pretty good. Since you don't run Survival, you can slot in a Rest in Peace over your Scooze. If you miss the life gain, you could run a High Market (I know, I know, it's another colorless land), which also does double duty against Gilded Drake.
Legacy: Grixis Delver
EDH: Derevi Stax
Pauper: Goblins
That's true. Sometimes it's actually pretty funny, like the game I played last Thursday against Azusa and Jeleva Storm. It was a kind of a rock-paper-scissors table, because with a good opening and a bit of luck Azusa can try to overwhelm me with her dumb fatties, but she can never win against Storm - however, Storm has a very bad matchup against me. I quickly started to drop taxes and Azusa was between a rock and a hard place - on the one hand, she couldn't let me do my stuff, because sooner or later I would lock the board completely, but on the other hand, I was the only one keeping Storm from going off. Eventually Azusa decided to kill my GAAIV, which gave Jeleva an opening - she tapped out for Toxic Deluge, wiping my board. I was very lucky to topdeck Stasis, which won me the game immediately (I had Nature's Will on the table), but if I didn't draw it, Jeleva probably would have won next turn.
Yeah, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Funny as it sounds, this deck is a bit like Storm - like you said, I can add more resiliency, but at the cost of my most powerful weapon, which is speed. I'm keeping that option in mind though, especially Reveillark.
Elesh Norn is most probably a meta decision - if my playgroup wasn't that much infested with Gilded Drakes, Briberies, Necromancies and so on, I would probably run her, because she's very good.
Swift's approach however doesn't convince me at all, because it looks like a classic "Jack of all trades, master of none". He's trying to combine three different strategies (stax, combo and value midrange), but dedicated stax is faster, dedicated combo is also faster and true midrange has more resiliency. My deck has enough nonbos already - I don't see myself playing Gilded Lotus along with Thorn of Amethyst and Null Rod.
Captain Sisay is already on my watchlist: I'll try geddons first, but after that she's next in the queue. Yisan however requires a setup - I think I would need either Concordant Crossroads or Quirion Ranger, because right now he would be doing something useful after two turns (first turn he's summoning sick, second turn he can fetch only mana dorks or Judge's Familiar, which doesn't impress anyone).
It is good, but it's more of a dream scenario than real life unfortunately. There are two problems with Survival in my deck:
1) It's pretty good when dropped early, but that means I'm not dropping disruption, which is usually more important. If I draw it late, it usually costs about 4 mana (it's a noncreature, nonartifact, nonblue/nonwhite spell that gets affected with all my taxes) and another one to activate, which is quite a lot, especially under orbs.
2) I have no graveyard recursion and there aren't that many creatures I could pitch without worries. Sure, if I happen to have a spare mana dork or a silver bullet without a target (say, Hushwing Gryff without any creature combo deck across me), I could exchange them for something more useful. There are many cases though when my hand is something like Linvala, Thalia, Glen Elendra plus Sakashima and I don't really want to pitch any of those, even if I need Hokori.
I could maybe consider Survival again, but only with a payoff package (Loyal Retainers plus Elesh Norn), and that means three slots to find.
GWU Derevi, the Prison Queen UWG
I definitely think it's worth adding support for Yisan. He's one of the strongest tutor engines we have available and works extremely well with Derevi untaps and an active Cradle (which he can fetched by tutoring up a Weathered Wayfarer).
I would definitely consider trying it. You have a few cards that both you and I are not excited about (Trygon Predator and Lodestone Golem).
P.S. If you were looking to add more counterspells, Deprive and Unified Will might be worth looking into. They both have serious drawbacks but depending on your meta and boardstate could work out. Have you ever tested Druid's Repository? It fulfills a similar role to Nature's Will.
Legacy: Grixis Delver
EDH: Derevi Stax
Pauper: Goblins