I have times where i draw 6-8 pump spells and not enough creatures. So i am hesistant in playing all 8. Does that never happen to you?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This is how I make mad money by doing what I already do, Shopping with Mr. Rebates. If you signup with my referral, send me an email and I will show you how to earn even more money.
I play last Saturday the PTQ Seattle with 144 players and 8 round + top8. It's a bad weather and many people give up to went to the PTQ. I play with the deck I put in #195, with a little change. I had some problems in my work Wednesday and I didn't played more after that day and didn't test it more. I only change the timely for the jubilation angels (that run very nice), and some little changes in the sideboard.
I went 3-1-4 and end at 72 place. Lose for Tezzeret, Delver (megablade), Wescoe's Token's, W/R Humans, draw with POD, and win from RDW, Bant POD/blink and Tokens. I didn't have much luck in my draws and I only feel that play wrong twice in all tournament, but the deck wasn't so strong as I believe
I will put a little report in the right topic. In top 8 were 2 token decks, one was the one I lose (I believe is a full copy of Wescoe's tokens) and the other I only see a little bit in the first quarters game (tokens mirror). I don't have right now this decklists, but when I have I will put here.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes Commander: Locust God
I'm sad to hear you didn't do well, that list is very close to the list I run that I've done very well with (it looks like 56 cards are the same though our sideboards are different).
I'm sad to hear you didn't do well, that list is very close to the list I run that I've done very well with (it looks like 56 cards are the same though our sideboards are different).
I'm with no lucky! The 3 times I see Entreat, 2 are in second turn one in turn 3 with only one white mana and with 2 plains in hand (that I don't play because I play 2 blackcliff's for their don't enter tap...). I only had colour screwed with black once for 3 turns, but when I need I draw a blackcliff that enter tap the turn before I need to use them.
I will put at least 2 removal in main board again. Maybe I cut the rallys or at least one. I choose Doom Blade for this tournament (usual I play Go for the throat) because in last week in tha qualifications for our nationals in top 8 are 2 tezzeret, 2 frites and 2 solar flare, so I change to doom blade to deal with wurmcoil in first game...
Can you tell me what are your list? What are the things that you play different?
That's my list. You run 2 more land than me, 2 Angel of Jubiliations and 1 Entreat the Angels where I run Timely Reinforcements and an extra Oblivion Ring.
What was your sideboard plan? I've found that against most matchups I want to take out the Doomed Travelers and replace them with removal. The only matchups I leave the Travelers in for are Zombies and RDW (and sometimes Tempered Steel, extra blockers early on can be quite useful against them).
I usual use Traveler to be a chump block and then use the remaining spirit in my offensive plan. My sideboard run the usual suspects, but I change it for what I think is my meta. I didn't had time to full test Blood Artist, but it seems to a capable option. In this tournament I choose:
I expect a strong presence of artefacts Tezzeret decks and wurmcoil, swords and ratchet bomb in many maindecks.
I choose for my first weapon Stony silence, and it put Mortarpod, Shrine of Loyal Legions, Nihil Spellbomb and Ratchet bomb out in my side. Because is a big tournament I choose more options with 2 and less 3 or 4 of one type. I choose to tried terminus against zombies (almost because the new blood artist interaction and unburial decks like frites). Celestial purge against the curse of death's hold, Zombies and anything new in RDW. Revoke for mirror, surgical against frites, lingering souls, and anything I think that will made me hurt (in my zombies I used surgical many times like a Gitaxian probe). Doom Blade was to be in mainboard, but at last minute I change swap it with the Angel of Jubilation. The Angel I think it to POD, Frites, Bant and Mirror and any thing that is paid with Phyrexian mana, I think maybe in some games Doom Blade can be a dead card in my hand and change.
I think I have to reserve 3 slots to gut shot, it will be the best against Thalia and Delver.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes Commander: Locust God
These last couple of lists just seem pretty bad. No Champion of the Parish takes away your best chance for an explosive start, and no Hero of Bladehold takes away your best chance for an explosive ending. I do not understand the logic.
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
I run Champion before and sometimes it's great, but in latte middle game it's only one more card that's is not relevant. I don't play Hero's because I don't have it, and I will not pay 40$ for a playset of an card that will be out in the rotation. If I have Hero maybe I take the Champion back in mainboard, and I have to go to Wescoe's Tokens. I like very much Day in mainboard, It's very nice against all that agroo decks that are running now, we don't overextend and then after day we can have advantage in creatures.
But I confirm my list is bad or I'm very unlucky.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes Commander: Locust God
I run Champion before and sometimes it's great, but in latte middle game it's only one more card that's is not relevant. I don't play Hero's because I don't have it, and I will not pay 40$ for a playset of an card that will be out in the rotation. If I have Hero maybe I take the Champion back in mainboard, and I have to go to Wescoe's Tokens. I like very much Day in mainboard, It's very nice against all that agroo decks that are running now, we don't overextend and then after day we can have advantage in creatures.
But I confirm my list is bad or I'm very unlucky.
If you don't want to spring for Hero of Bladehold, Angel of Jubilation is another possible option. I think we're all eyeing her for post rotation, as the rest of the deck will remain intact.
These last couple of lists just seem pretty bad. No Champion of the Parish takes away your best chance for an explosive start, and no Hero of Bladehold takes away your best chance for an explosive ending. I do not understand the logic.
Rally the Peasants is more explosive and less mana than Hero of Bladehold, it's also more difficult to disrupt since you're not relying on an individual creature.
Champion of the Parish is heavily reliant on a couple factors. You have to run several humans which don't have as much synergy with the deck (you trade synergy with Intangible Virtue for synergy with Champion, with the Champion easier to deal with), your opponent has to not have vapor snags to reset the Champion, he's more vulnerable to removal, and he's a terrible top deck later in the game.
Rally the Peasants is more explosive and less mana than Hero of Bladehold, it's also more difficult to disrupt since you're not relying on an individual creature.
Champion of the Parish is heavily reliant on a couple factors. You have to run several humans which don't have as much synergy with the deck (you trade synergy with Intangible Virtue for synergy with Champion, with the Champion easier to deal with), your opponent has to not have vapor snags to reset the Champion, he's more vulnerable to removal, and he's a terrible top deck later in the game.
Doesn't change T1 Champ T2 Gather the Townsfolk being the best start this deck is capable of. I think most of us would agree, Wescoe's list is the closest thing we have to an ideal list. He runs 4 champs, which says something. What would you run instead?
That puts you in the best position on turn 2, but it also puts you in a worse position in later turns since you need to build the deck around him. Champion isn't a bad card, but it's also pretty vulnerable to spot removal, and if he's gone you end up with a weaker deck. Besides that, it gives the opponent valuable cards to use 1:1 removal on, and even allows bounces to effectively remove champion. One of the biggest advantages tokens has is our virtual card advantage where the opponent has to spend a card to deal with part of one of our cards. A human heavy list works against that since the other cost to the champion is that it gives you worse options midgame. Midnight Haunting vs Blade Splicer for example. If you run Champion there's a big incentive to run the Blade Splicers which start off strong but end up worse than Midnight Haunting after a single Honor of the Pure (since you're rarely attacking with the splicer itself) or two Intangible Virtues.
Basically, I don't disagree that T1 Champ followed by a T2 Gather is the best start the deck is capable of, I just think there's too much extra baggage with the Champ in the form of vulnerability to Vapor Snag and the strong incentive to run more humans.
In my opinion tokens wants to look at turn 3 as being the crucial turn. Turn 3 is where your token producers come online, and turn 4 is where you can stabilize with board wipes. Which is another reason I don't like the idea of a turn 1 champion followed by turn 2 gather. It's not synergistic with a turn 4 Day of Judgment. Turn 1 Doomed Traveler (if anything), with a turn 2 anthem is a far better setup for that scenario.
That puts you in the best position on turn 2, but it also puts you in a worse position in later turns since you need to build the deck around him. Champion isn't a bad card, but it's also pretty vulnerable to spot removal, and if he's gone you end up with a weaker deck. Besides that, it gives the opponent valuable cards to use 1:1 removal on, and even allows bounces to effectively remove champion. One of the biggest advantages tokens has is our virtual card advantage where the opponent has to spend a card to deal with part of one of our cards. A human heavy list works against that since the other cost to the champion is that it gives you worse options midgame. Midnight Haunting vs Blade Splicer for example. If you run Champion there's a big incentive to run the Blade Splicers which start off strong but end up worse than Midnight Haunting after a single Honor of the Pure (since you're rarely attacking with the splicer itself) or two Intangible Virtues.
Basically, I don't disagree that T1 Champ followed by a T2 Gather is the best start the deck is capable of, I just think there's too much extra baggage with the Champ in the form of vulnerability to Vapor Snag and the strong incentive to run more humans.
In my opinion tokens wants to look at turn 3 as being the crucial turn. Turn 3 is where your token producers come online, and turn 4 is where you can stabilize with board wipes. Which is another reason I don't like the idea of a turn 1 champion followed by turn 2 gather. It's not synergistic with a turn 4 Day of Judgment. Turn 1 Doomed Traveler (if anything), with a turn 2 anthem is a far better setup for that scenario.
Why worry about always hitting a turn 4 DoJ? You trade blows with other aggro decks while getting advantage from your anthems and the fact that you make two creatures for one card.
Hell a turn 1 champion followed by a gather or even double one drops is enough to throw almost any deck on the defensive. Its the sort of start that gives you the breathing room to set up for a post board wipe enviroment. You can establish your anthems and board presence while getting in for high damage. If they wipe the field you can still have a lingering souls in hand to quickly rebuild.
Also how is there any pressure to run more humans? Gather is good enough, Hero wins games, and Blade splicer is a strong defensive answer. These cards are played on their own merits. The fact that they trigger Champion is icing on the cake.
That puts you in the best position on turn 2, but it also puts you in a worse position in later turns since you need to build the deck around him. Champion isn't a bad card, but it's also pretty vulnerable to spot removal, and if he's gone you end up with a weaker deck. Besides that, it gives the opponent valuable cards to use 1:1 removal on, and even allows bounces to effectively remove champion. One of the biggest advantages tokens has is our virtual card advantage where the opponent has to spend a card to deal with part of one of our cards. A human heavy list works against that since the other cost to the champion is that it gives you worse options midgame. Midnight Haunting vs Blade Splicer for example. If you run Champion there's a big incentive to run the Blade Splicers which start off strong but end up worse than Midnight Haunting after a single Honor of the Pure (since you're rarely attacking with the splicer itself) or two Intangible Virtues.
Basically, I don't disagree that T1 Champ followed by a T2 Gather is the best start the deck is capable of, I just think there's too much extra baggage with the Champ in the form of vulnerability to Vapor Snag and the strong incentive to run more humans.
In my opinion tokens wants to look at turn 3 as being the crucial turn. Turn 3 is where your token producers come online, and turn 4 is where you can stabilize with board wipes. Which is another reason I don't like the idea of a turn 1 champion followed by turn 2 gather. It's not synergistic with a turn 4 Day of Judgment. Turn 1 Doomed Traveler (if anything), with a turn 2 anthem is a far better setup for that scenario.
If champ is met with removal, it's one less removal spell they have for T4 Hero.
I find it odd that one would advocated dropping Champion but keeping Doomed Traveler. I personally don't even play Doomed. I prefer Elite Vanguard. Elite (with Champion) gives me two cards to play on turn one that put the opponent on a clock.
In summation.....Star Trek wins a prolonged naval battle against superior, yet less technologically advanced, numbers, with Picard leading the assault, while Kirk takes your soul by laying out Solo and probably his manservant Chewy as well, before impregnating and ditching your Princess.
If champ is met with removal, it's one less removal spell they have for T4 Hero.
Quite true, but I don't play Hero either. I have a playset but I've found Rally the Peasants to be a more effective finisher (the two work together amazingly well, but I've never found the deck room to run both). The tipping point for Rally is your opponent doesn't see it coming, even if they know the deck has it they don't know if it's in your hand until it's too late. They see Hero from a turn away and can do something about it. I've had countless games against good players playing good decks that simply fold to a surprise Rally.
Why worry about always hitting a turn 4 DoJ? You trade blows with other aggro decks while getting advantage from your anthems and the fact that you make two creatures for one card.
For the same reason you worry about a turn 1 Champ. Obviously it doesn't always happen, but when it does... that's what the card is for. The difference is when DoJ is good, it's good from turn 4 onwards. Champion rapidly loses value as you have fewer humans to play. I've got other ways to stabilize too such as Timely Reinforcements. The point being, it's more consistent than relying on the two card champ/gather combo (19% chance of happening on the play, 23% on the draw) and it's less vulnerable to removal although more vulnerable to counters.
Also how is there any pressure to run more humans? Gather is good enough, Hero wins games, and Blade splicer is a strong defensive answer. These cards are played on their own merits. The fact that they trigger Champion is icing on the cake.
Because if you're playing a list like mine the only humans you have are doomed traveler (they're all sided out in games 2/3 in most matchups) and gather the townsfolk. That's not enough humans to make the champ a great play. If you play champ, there's a very strong incentive to play other human cards. In a list which is relying on stabilizing (timely/doj) and dominating the midgame Champion isn't that good. If you run a straight aggro build then sure, champion is great but at that point you're probably playing
T1 - Champion
T2 - Gather
T3 - Something
T4 - Hero of Bladehold
That's very similar to the first 4 turns in humans, in which case... why not just play humans since they have more options to have devastating turn 1-4 plays if that's what you're after.
I find it odd that one would advocated dropping Champion but keeping Doomed Traveler. I personally don't even play Doomed. I prefer Elite Vanguard. Elite (with Champion) gives me two cards to play on turn one that put the opponent on a clock.
Doomed Traveler is for protection against aggro decks. Against anything but Zombies and RDW I side all 4 of them out in games 2/3.
Quite true, but I don't play Hero either. I have a playset but I've found Rally the Peasants to be a more effective finisher (the two work together amazingly well, but I've never found the deck room to run both). The tipping point for Rally is your opponent doesn't see it coming, even if they know the deck has it they don't know if it's in your hand until it's too late. They see Hero from a turn away and can do something about it. I've had countless games against good players playing good decks that simply fold to a surprise Rally.
For the same reason you worry about a turn 1 Champ. Obviously it doesn't always happen, but when it does... that's what the card is for. The difference is when DoJ is good, it's good from turn 4 onwards. Champion rapidly loses value as you have fewer humans to play. I've got other ways to stabilize too such as Timely Reinforcements. The point being, it's more consistent than relying on the two card champ/gather combo (19% chance of happening on the play, 23% on the draw) and it's less vulnerable to removal although more vulnerable to counters.
Because if you're playing a list like mine the only humans you have are doomed traveler (they're all sided out in games 2/3 in most matchups) and gather the townsfolk. That's not enough humans to make the champ a great play. If you play champ, there's a very strong incentive to play other human cards. In a list which is relying on stabilizing (timely/doj) and dominating the midgame Champion isn't that good. If you run a straight aggro build then sure, champion is great but at that point you're probably playing
T1 - Champion
T2 - Gather
T3 - Something
T4 - Hero of Bladehold
That's very similar to the first 4 turns in humans, in which case... why not just play humans since they have more options to have devastating turn 1-4 plays if that's what you're after.
Doomed Traveler is for protection against aggro decks. Against anything but Zombies and RDW I side all 4 of them out in games 2/3.
90% of the time my start is either T1 Champ, T2 Gather (For 3/3 Champ), T1 Champ, T2 DT (For 2/2 Champ), T1 Champ, T2 Honor of the Pure (For 2/2 Champ), T1 DT, T2 HotP (For 2/2 DT). Anyone of those starts are respectable. The deck is consistent.
Doomed Traveller has been good for me in most match ups. I'm surprised you are siding him out all the time. I think your playstyle must be a little different.
The angel has been ok, but I'm not really thrilled about paying 4 mana for a card that adds 1/1. I think Sorin is better in that regard (and I don't have a high opinion of Sorin) since he's more difficult to remove and his boost isn't contingent on him sticking around. The other thing is the WWW in the cost makes the sideboard a little more restrictive although it hasn't really been an issue so far. To flip the question around, have you tried Rally the Peasants? I'm not exaggerating when I say that card has won me several boxes worth of packs.
The reason I side Doomed Traveler out is he's usually just a blocker, and early creatures are the least efficient creatures to block. As mana costs go up and more powerful creatures come out, that's where you really want to be blocking. Early drops are best utilized to support a heavy aggro strategy where you simply overwhelm the opponent before they can stabilize. Decks that do that are RDW and Zombies. Against them blocking a 2 power 1 drop for 2 turns saves you 4 life, setting them back a turn. Against other decks it's not really all that crucial. Furthermore, Doomed Traveler lacks a lot of synergy with tokens unless you're also running Champion. In a token deck the opponent has a strong incentive to let him through for 1-2 damage a turn so that he never powers up and starts getting boosts off of Intangible Virtue as well.
Unless you're up against certain aggro decks I just find the traveler to be less than ideal when he could instead be extra damage in the form of Blood Artist, a Revoke Existence, a Go for the Throat, or even a Shrine of Loyal Legions.
The one spot where he helps, is that he's an extra token producer. The biggest downside in my list is the lack of cards which provide bodies, more human oriented lists have more of those cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
4 Isolated Chapel
9 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Vault of the Archangel
Creatures 4
4 Doomed Traveler
Planeswalkers 1
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Spells 31
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Lingering Souls
2 Angel of Jubilation
3 Rally the Peasants
3 Day of Judgment
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Entreat the Angels
2 Doom Blade
2 Terminus
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Celestial Purge
2 Revoke Existence
3 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
I went 3-1-4 and end at 72 place. Lose for Tezzeret, Delver (megablade), Wescoe's Token's, W/R Humans, draw with POD, and win from RDW, Bant POD/blink and Tokens. I didn't have much luck in my draws and I only feel that play wrong twice in all tournament, but the deck wasn't so strong as I believe
I will put a little report in the right topic. In top 8 were 2 token decks, one was the one I lose (I believe is a full copy of Wescoe's tokens) and the other I only see a little bit in the first quarters game (tokens mirror). I don't have right now this decklists, but when I have I will put here.
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
I'm with no lucky! The 3 times I see Entreat, 2 are in second turn one in turn 3 with only one white mana and with 2 plains in hand (that I don't play because I play 2 blackcliff's for their don't enter tap...). I only had colour screwed with black once for 3 turns, but when I need I draw a blackcliff that enter tap the turn before I need to use them.
I will put at least 2 removal in main board again. Maybe I cut the rallys or at least one. I choose Doom Blade for this tournament (usual I play Go for the throat) because in last week in tha qualifications for our nationals in top 8 are 2 tezzeret, 2 frites and 2 solar flare, so I change to doom blade to deal with wurmcoil in first game...
Can you tell me what are your list? What are the things that you play different?
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
3 Vault of the Archangel
8 Plains
3 Swamp
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Clifftop Retreat
Creatures 4
4 Doomed Traveler
Tokens 16
4 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Timely Reinforcements
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Intangible Virtue
Planeswalkers 1
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Removal 2
2 Oblivion Ring
Other 7
3 Day of Judgment
4 Rally the Peasants
3 Go for the Throat
3 Blood Artist
4 Revoke Existence
2 Celestial Purge
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
That's my list. You run 2 more land than me, 2 Angel of Jubiliations and 1 Entreat the Angels where I run Timely Reinforcements and an extra Oblivion Ring.
What was your sideboard plan? I've found that against most matchups I want to take out the Doomed Travelers and replace them with removal. The only matchups I leave the Travelers in for are Zombies and RDW (and sometimes Tempered Steel, extra blockers early on can be quite useful against them).
2 Doom Blade
2 Terminus
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Celestial Purge
2 Revoke Existence
3 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
I expect a strong presence of artefacts Tezzeret decks and wurmcoil, swords and ratchet bomb in many maindecks.
I choose for my first weapon Stony silence, and it put Mortarpod, Shrine of Loyal Legions, Nihil Spellbomb and Ratchet bomb out in my side. Because is a big tournament I choose more options with 2 and less 3 or 4 of one type. I choose to tried terminus against zombies (almost because the new blood artist interaction and unburial decks like frites). Celestial purge against the curse of death's hold, Zombies and anything new in RDW. Revoke for mirror, surgical against frites, lingering souls, and anything I think that will made me hurt (in my zombies I used surgical many times like a Gitaxian probe). Doom Blade was to be in mainboard, but at last minute I change swap it with the Angel of Jubilation. The Angel I think it to POD, Frites, Bant and Mirror and any thing that is paid with Phyrexian mana, I think maybe in some games Doom Blade can be a dead card in my hand and change.
I think I have to reserve 3 slots to gut shot, it will be the best against Thalia and Delver.
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
But I confirm my list is bad or I'm very unlucky.
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
If you don't want to spring for Hero of Bladehold, Angel of Jubilation is another possible option. I think we're all eyeing her for post rotation, as the rest of the deck will remain intact.
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
Post Rotation, I'll be running Wescoes list, swapping Hero of Bladehold for Angel of Jubilation, Go for the Throat for Doom Blade, and Elspeth, Knight Errant for Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. That's assuming we don't get any other goodies in M13 / the new set. I can't explain how much I enjoy this deck. It's not too shabby in multiplayer / archenemy either.
Rally the Peasants is more explosive and less mana than Hero of Bladehold, it's also more difficult to disrupt since you're not relying on an individual creature.
Champion of the Parish is heavily reliant on a couple factors. You have to run several humans which don't have as much synergy with the deck (you trade synergy with Intangible Virtue for synergy with Champion, with the Champion easier to deal with), your opponent has to not have vapor snags to reset the Champion, he's more vulnerable to removal, and he's a terrible top deck later in the game.
Doesn't change T1 Champ T2 Gather the Townsfolk being the best start this deck is capable of. I think most of us would agree, Wescoe's list is the closest thing we have to an ideal list. He runs 4 champs, which says something. What would you run instead?
Basically, I don't disagree that T1 Champ followed by a T2 Gather is the best start the deck is capable of, I just think there's too much extra baggage with the Champ in the form of vulnerability to Vapor Snag and the strong incentive to run more humans.
In my opinion tokens wants to look at turn 3 as being the crucial turn. Turn 3 is where your token producers come online, and turn 4 is where you can stabilize with board wipes. Which is another reason I don't like the idea of a turn 1 champion followed by turn 2 gather. It's not synergistic with a turn 4 Day of Judgment. Turn 1 Doomed Traveler (if anything), with a turn 2 anthem is a far better setup for that scenario.
Why worry about always hitting a turn 4 DoJ? You trade blows with other aggro decks while getting advantage from your anthems and the fact that you make two creatures for one card.
Hell a turn 1 champion followed by a gather or even double one drops is enough to throw almost any deck on the defensive. Its the sort of start that gives you the breathing room to set up for a post board wipe enviroment. You can establish your anthems and board presence while getting in for high damage. If they wipe the field you can still have a lingering souls in hand to quickly rebuild.
Also how is there any pressure to run more humans? Gather is good enough, Hero wins games, and Blade splicer is a strong defensive answer. These cards are played on their own merits. The fact that they trigger Champion is icing on the cake.
Standard-
WRG-Naya Humans
EDH-
RUG- Animar
RW- Brion Stoutarm
If champ is met with removal, it's one less removal spell they have for T4 Hero.
Quite true, but I don't play Hero either. I have a playset but I've found Rally the Peasants to be a more effective finisher (the two work together amazingly well, but I've never found the deck room to run both). The tipping point for Rally is your opponent doesn't see it coming, even if they know the deck has it they don't know if it's in your hand until it's too late. They see Hero from a turn away and can do something about it. I've had countless games against good players playing good decks that simply fold to a surprise Rally.
For the same reason you worry about a turn 1 Champ. Obviously it doesn't always happen, but when it does... that's what the card is for. The difference is when DoJ is good, it's good from turn 4 onwards. Champion rapidly loses value as you have fewer humans to play. I've got other ways to stabilize too such as Timely Reinforcements. The point being, it's more consistent than relying on the two card champ/gather combo (19% chance of happening on the play, 23% on the draw) and it's less vulnerable to removal although more vulnerable to counters.
Because if you're playing a list like mine the only humans you have are doomed traveler (they're all sided out in games 2/3 in most matchups) and gather the townsfolk. That's not enough humans to make the champ a great play. If you play champ, there's a very strong incentive to play other human cards. In a list which is relying on stabilizing (timely/doj) and dominating the midgame Champion isn't that good. If you run a straight aggro build then sure, champion is great but at that point you're probably playing
T1 - Champion
T2 - Gather
T3 - Something
T4 - Hero of Bladehold
That's very similar to the first 4 turns in humans, in which case... why not just play humans since they have more options to have devastating turn 1-4 plays if that's what you're after.
Doomed Traveler is for protection against aggro decks. Against anything but Zombies and RDW I side all 4 of them out in games 2/3.
I get the Hero of Bladehold takes a turn to come online, but Rally the Peasants just seems bad. Have you tried Angel of Jubilation?
I play with 4 Champion of the Parish, 4 Doomed Traveller, 4 Honor of the Pure and 4 Gather the townsfolk.
90% of the time my start is either T1 Champ, T2 Gather (For 3/3 Champ), T1 Champ, T2 DT (For 2/2 Champ), T1 Champ, T2 Honor of the Pure (For 2/2 Champ), T1 DT, T2 HotP (For 2/2 DT). Anyone of those starts are respectable. The deck is consistent.
Doomed Traveller has been good for me in most match ups. I'm surprised you are siding him out all the time. I think your playstyle must be a little different.
The reason I side Doomed Traveler out is he's usually just a blocker, and early creatures are the least efficient creatures to block. As mana costs go up and more powerful creatures come out, that's where you really want to be blocking. Early drops are best utilized to support a heavy aggro strategy where you simply overwhelm the opponent before they can stabilize. Decks that do that are RDW and Zombies. Against them blocking a 2 power 1 drop for 2 turns saves you 4 life, setting them back a turn. Against other decks it's not really all that crucial. Furthermore, Doomed Traveler lacks a lot of synergy with tokens unless you're also running Champion. In a token deck the opponent has a strong incentive to let him through for 1-2 damage a turn so that he never powers up and starts getting boosts off of Intangible Virtue as well.
Unless you're up against certain aggro decks I just find the traveler to be less than ideal when he could instead be extra damage in the form of Blood Artist, a Revoke Existence, a Go for the Throat, or even a Shrine of Loyal Legions.
The one spot where he helps, is that he's an extra token producer. The biggest downside in my list is the lack of cards which provide bodies, more human oriented lists have more of those cards.