I've been experimenting a lot with green aggro and Karn, Scion of Urza. You are going down the same path that I did with this deck. I was into the Mox Amber hype, but I found that you have to play a lot of bad cards to make it work. It doesn't color fix except for double of the same color and it's legendary. Mox will find a home or two, but you should reconsider adding a few legends to your deck to play it. Even with the mox, your deck doesn't have enough artifacts to make Karn's token ability unfair. I switched from GB to GW and axe'd the mox. Karn got much better.
Turn 1: elf
Turn 2: Servo Exhibition (not a very good card but loads of synergy in GW Karn)
Turn 3: Karn- make a token (3/3)
Turn 4: Angel of Invention, make another Karn token (both 7/7 [6 artifacts + Angel pump]).
If your opponent has Vraska's Contempt, do they target Karn or Angel or one of your 7/7's? Of course that's a great start which doesn't always happen, but there are a lot of very good starts invovling Bomat Courier, vehicles, Shanna, Sisay's Legacy, etc.
The success of a ramp strategy depends on how broken the top end is. The most broken thing dinosaurs can do is go infinite with the Bellowing Aegisaur / Walking Ballista combo. It's not Annihilator 6, but sending with a couple of million power dudes on turn 5 or 6 puts the opponent to the test. The deck can bash pretty hard without the combo and there are some good cards to help assemble the combo, both of which help the deck. Here's my latest build:
Put 4 cards face down because, "&^#@ you! I'm not going to give you information and then let you choose like some sucker."
Seriously, I'm going to always be tempted to make the face up cards slightly better than face down pile just to stick it to the gamblers. Very fun card.
I created a deck that dips into Dragon Fodder to boost the convoke enablers for cards like Hangarback Walker (using Chief Engineer to convoke it) and Stoke the Flames. Pyromancer's Goggles can turn Dragon Fodder into 4 tokens. It's not bad with Stoke and Shrapnel Blast as well. Your deck looks faster and more consistent than mine. My deck might be too much of a "win more" strategy trying to generate huge Hangarback Walkers and copy Shrapnel Blasts. There are a lot of fun options for UR thopters.
I tried to speed up the deck by adding Elvish Mystic and Surrak, the Hunt Caller and replacing the slower cards like Salt Road Quartermaster and Scourge of the Scola Vale. Genesis Hydra seems like a natural card for the deck. You don't need to go for a huge hydra. X=4 will almost always find something good. If you do get the devotion mana going and can create a massive hydra and find a Surrak to give it haste, that's a bonus. Reverent Hunter is another perfect fit. I also added a couple Hunt the Weak which isn't my favorite card, but it goes with the counter theme and gives you a little removal.
I like the deck. I have a few suggestions regarding your list:
I'd go with 4 Sylvan Caryatid and 2 Rattleclaw Mystic instead of the other way around. Turn 1 elf into turn 2 morph Rattleclaw into turn 3 Dromoka is a thing, but Rattleclaw getting bolted could set you back quite a bit. Without any other morph synergies, I don't think it's worth it.
I did some testing with Managorger Hydra in a deck playing a lot of cantrips and protection spells and it was tough to get it rolling in that deck. I hope there's a way to make it work, but I don't think it'll be very good in a big creature deck.
Animist's Awakening seems a little slow. Have you tested it? How has it played out? I like the idea of playing it to combo with something like Zendikar's Roil. Four Animist's Awakening might be too many. I ran it through an odds calculator. The odds will vary based on no. of lands in the deck and lands drawn. Entering typical numbers, if you play it for x = 3, you'll miss completely about 20% of the time. Tapping out and getting nothing against a good deck puts you in a huge hole, so you probably don't want to cast it for less than x = 4.
I count six creatures in the deck having power > 2. That number should probably be higher if you're planning on playing a couple Chandra's Ignition. Also, two of the six deal 3 damage to you when you target them.
The manabase is constrained, but consider playing Haven of the Spirit Dragon with all the dragons in your deck.
Here's my latest creation. You'll notice there's no red. Originally I splashed red for Dragonlord Atarka and Xenagos, the Reveler, both of which are great in the deck. I removed them because this deck needs to fetch a lot of basic lands and going 3 colors takes out basics for more fetches. Have you had a problem running out of basics with your build?
I'm currently trying Nissa's Expedition, a 5 mana land ramp card with convoke. Explosive Vegetation is the typical ramp card. Animist's Awakening is an improvement over it if you have a lot mana already in play, and Nissa's Expedition is great value if you have creatures in play. Pick your poison. The Elvish Mystics and Sylvan Caryatids in this deck don't benefit from convoke since they can already tap for mana, but Warden of the First Tree, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, and Den Protector are low cc creatures that you don't usually want to block with which made me think of trying the convoke spell. Courser of Kruphix blocks small creatures well, but there are many matchups where it's better not to risk blocking with it and to use it instead to convoke out two lands and gain two life. In addition to Courser's life gain, Warden, Nissa, and Den Protector benefit from getting extra lands in play as well. I like being able to cast a creature or two and convoke Nissa's Expedition on the same turn.
It's a different take on ramp than your deck, but I thought posting it might give you some ideas. Give it a try. It's been fun to play.
Here's a fun one that's good against other creature strategies. Get out big dudes and protect them, then play tricks to win combat. It's pretty straightforward yet fun to play and can kill pretty quickly with a decent draw.
Jeskai Ascendancy in play.
Cast Raise the Alarm.
Do the tokens get +1/+1 until EOT from the Jeskai Ascendancy trigger due to Raise the Alarm being cast?
I assumed that they would not get the bonus because the tokens were not in play when Raise was cast, but I thought I saw the tokens get the bonus in a judged match, not sure about that which is why I ask.
The heroic decks can probably make better use of the pump spells. If you don't want to go the heroic route, try changing a few of the creatures and add more removal. If you cut the Bloodfire Enforcers and Dragon-Style Twins, you could also cut the Sylvan Caryatids because everything in the deck will be cheap except Become Immense which has delve. Replace Twins with the cheaper doublestriker Prophetic Flamespeaker and include some instant speed removal like Wild Slash, Lightning Strike, or Stoke the Flames.
I've been going with a more aggressive version of the deck that's fun to play if you like quick games. Ideally, your opponent plays a couple tapped lands and you get:
Turn 1 Hoplite
Turn 2 Ordeal, attack for 3.
Turn 3 Titan's Strength, Temur Battle Rage, attack for 18 trample + 3 burn or draw 2 depending on the Ordeal.
With 8 Hoplites and 8 Ordeals, it doesn't take extreme luck to get a great start. Titan's Strength and Temur Battle Rage are instants, so you can play Titan's Strength and respond with Gods Willing instead of Temur Battle Rage if they've got a removal spell. Turn 4 kills are ok.
The lands cause a lot of pain but you have to have the mana for the early plays and you'll lose the game anyway if it goes long. I'm not sure if the 3x Hammerhand and 1x Feat of Resistance should be Defiant Strike, Ajani's Presence, or some combination of those cards. All of them are great in the deck. Give it a try. Sometimes you don't get the right mix of creatures and pump spells even with all the scrying and card drawing and you just lose, but going over the top with Temur Battle Rage the next game makes up for it in terms of win percentage and more than makes up for it in terms of fun.
I think you've got to play Nylea's Disciple with Temur Sabertooth, just filthy.
Nylea's Disciple isn't good against control decks which should gain more traction with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Crux of Fate coming in. There are also combo decks that don't care if the opponent gains life. I think Nylea's Disciple is more of a sideboard card, but I agree that it can go nuts in this deck.
Turn 1: elf
Turn 2: Servo Exhibition (not a very good card but loads of synergy in GW Karn)
Turn 3: Karn- make a token (3/3)
Turn 4: Angel of Invention, make another Karn token (both 7/7 [6 artifacts + Angel pump]).
If your opponent has Vraska's Contempt, do they target Karn or Angel or one of your 7/7's? Of course that's a great start which doesn't always happen, but there are a lot of very good starts invovling Bomat Courier, vehicles, Shanna, Sisay's Legacy, etc.
To sum up- more artifacts but not mox.
2x Scattered Groves
9x Plains
9x Forest
4x Kinjalli's Caller
4x Drover of the Mighty
4x Ranging Raptors
4x Ripjaw Raptor
4x Walking Ballista
4x Bellowing Aegisaur
2x Merfolk Branchwalker
1x Kinjalli's Sunwing
3x Commune with Dinosaurs
4x Savage Stomp
Seriously, I'm going to always be tempted to make the face up cards slightly better than face down pile just to stick it to the gamblers. Very fun card.
4 Chief Engineer
4 Thopter Engineer
4 Chief of the Foundry
4 Hangarback Walker
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Dragon Fodder
3 Thopter Spy Network
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Shrapnel Blast
1 Ghostfire Blade
2 Wild Slash
1 Springleaf Drum
2 Pyromancer's Goggles
4 Temple of Epiphany
4 Shivan Reef
7 Mountain
8 Island
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Servant of the Scale
4 Avatar of the Resolute
4 Managorger Hydra
3 Den Protector
2 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
3 Genesis Hydra
3 Hangarback Walker
2 Reverent Hunter
4 Hardened Scales
2 Inspiring Call
1 Rangers Guile
2 Hunt the Weak
Land
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
18 Forest
I tried to speed up the deck by adding Elvish Mystic and Surrak, the Hunt Caller and replacing the slower cards like Salt Road Quartermaster and Scourge of the Scola Vale. Genesis Hydra seems like a natural card for the deck. You don't need to go for a huge hydra. X=4 will almost always find something good. If you do get the devotion mana going and can create a massive hydra and find a Surrak to give it haste, that's a bonus. Reverent Hunter is another perfect fit. I also added a couple Hunt the Weak which isn't my favorite card, but it goes with the counter theme and gives you a little removal.
It's difficult not to include white for cards like Dromoka's Command, Fleecemane Lion, Ainok Bond-Kin, Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, Feat of Resistance, Gleam of Authority, Abzan Falconer, Chronicler of Heroes, Ajani Steadfast, Daghatar the Adamant, Citadel Siege, High Sentinels of Arashin, Sunscorch Regent, Elite Scaleguard, Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, Enduring Scalelord. I wouldn't know where to start with GW so it's probably best to stay with mono green.
Here's my latest creation. You'll notice there's no red. Originally I splashed red for Dragonlord Atarka and Xenagos, the Reveler, both of which are great in the deck. I removed them because this deck needs to fetch a lot of basic lands and going 3 colors takes out basics for more fetches. Have you had a problem running out of basics with your build?
Edit: added the red splash back in for Atarka.
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
3x Plains
9x Forest
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Warden of the First Tree
4x Sylvan Caryatid
2x Den Protector
4x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4x Courser of Kruphix
4x Whisperwood Elemental
3x Dragonlord Atarka
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Spells (3)
3x Nissa's Expedition
I'm currently trying Nissa's Expedition, a 5 mana land ramp card with convoke. Explosive Vegetation is the typical ramp card. Animist's Awakening is an improvement over it if you have a lot mana already in play, and Nissa's Expedition is great value if you have creatures in play. Pick your poison. The Elvish Mystics and Sylvan Caryatids in this deck don't benefit from convoke since they can already tap for mana, but Warden of the First Tree, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, and Den Protector are low cc creatures that you don't usually want to block with which made me think of trying the convoke spell. Courser of Kruphix blocks small creatures well, but there are many matchups where it's better not to risk blocking with it and to use it instead to convoke out two lands and gain two life. In addition to Courser's life gain, Warden, Nissa, and Den Protector benefit from getting extra lands in play as well. I like being able to cast a creature or two and convoke Nissa's Expedition on the same turn.
It's a different take on ramp than your deck, but I thought posting it might give you some ideas. Give it a try. It's been fun to play.
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
2x Mana Confluence
4x Windswept Heath
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Llanowar Wastes
2x Temple of Plenty
2x Forest
3x Plains
Creatures (19)
4x Favored Hoplite
4x Seeker of the Way
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Siege Rhino
2x Anafenza, the Foremost
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4x Dromoka's Command
4x Gods Willing
4x Abzan Charm
2x Setessan Tactics
1x Ajani's Presence
1x Pressure Point
4x Mistcutter Hydra
4x Thoughtseize
2x Duress
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
1x Mardu Strike Leader
1x Nissa, World Waker
2x Utter End
Jeskai Ascendancy in play.
Cast Raise the Alarm.
Do the tokens get +1/+1 until EOT from the Jeskai Ascendancy trigger due to Raise the Alarm being cast?
I assumed that they would not get the bonus because the tokens were not in play when Raise was cast, but I thought I saw the tokens get the bonus in a judged match, not sure about that which is why I ask.
Please use card tags in future posts.
Kahedron
Turn 1 Hoplite
Turn 2 Ordeal, attack for 3.
Turn 3 Titan's Strength, Temur Battle Rage, attack for 18 trample + 3 burn or draw 2 depending on the Ordeal.
With 8 Hoplites and 8 Ordeals, it doesn't take extreme luck to get a great start. Titan's Strength and Temur Battle Rage are instants, so you can play Titan's Strength and respond with Gods Willing instead of Temur Battle Rage if they've got a removal spell. Turn 4 kills are ok.
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Shivan Reef
4x Flooded Strand
1x Island
2x Mountain
3x Plains
4x Satyr Hoplite
4x Hero of Iroas
2x Seeker of the Way
4x Ordeal of Thassa
4x Ordeal of Purphoros
4x Titan's Strength
4x Gods Willing
4x Temur Battle Rage
1x Feat of Resistance
3x Hammerhand
The lands cause a lot of pain but you have to have the mana for the early plays and you'll lose the game anyway if it goes long. I'm not sure if the 3x Hammerhand and 1x Feat of Resistance should be Defiant Strike, Ajani's Presence, or some combination of those cards. All of them are great in the deck. Give it a try. Sometimes you don't get the right mix of creatures and pump spells even with all the scrying and card drawing and you just lose, but going over the top with Temur Battle Rage the next game makes up for it in terms of win percentage and more than makes up for it in terms of fun.
Nylea's Disciple isn't good against control decks which should gain more traction with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Crux of Fate coming in. There are also combo decks that don't care if the opponent gains life. I think Nylea's Disciple is more of a sideboard card, but I agree that it can go nuts in this deck.