Hey there, sorry I've been away for so long. I gained a lot of responsibilities at work which greatly reduced my available time to keep up with the forums.
I guess I should start by saying that I ultimately had to concede Vig's effectiveness for exclusively 1v1 play. The commander metagame has shifted dramatically; such that a fragile 5 mana general without an immediate board impact simply doesn't cut it anymore. That being said, I still enjoy playing Vig as much as the next guy, I just had to change my audience. I've been keeping a more multiplayer oriented list up to date here but I haven't been putting as much time into it as of late. Note that I have a 15 card sideboard listed in the link as well which are intended to be substitutions for 1v1 play per the French Duel Commander banlist.
These are just the cards that I have integrated into my list, but I recognize that there are many other great cards as well, Master Biomancer, for example, as mentioned above. I'd be interested to see the direction others have gone with the deck since my last round of updates. To be honest, I haven't even gotten to play the deck much, due to both time constraints and the resentment of my local playgroup. At this point there are probably many others in a better position to be administering advice moreso than myself.
Nonetheless, thank you guys for your praise, continued support, and interest. I'll do my best to stay involved, and I should be able to update the OP in the near future.
I think you can make it feel a lot less "generic" by swapping out Jeleva for Nekusar. At which point you could add a few readily available inexpensive cards to support his strategy. Think Reforge the Soul, Time Reversal, and Whispering Madness.
Blue aggro plays differently than other aggro combinations. Blue doesn't need Isamarus to be good in aggro. Blue is already great in aggro, with all the cards we're already playing. Add in the splashable counters, bounce and the good blue creatures alongside any other color's aggro package and you'll have yourself a beastly tempo deck with no requirement to change your blue section at all.
I play almost no blue aggro/tempo exclusive cards, and U/X tempo decks are consistent draft winners.
I agree wholeheartedly, though I certainly appreciate adding a few specific pieces like KGGS and/or Daze to inject some archetype support without compromising overall card quality.
For the reasons stated I think the Seer is pretty solid. Obviously testing would be required to establish its baseline power against the gauntlet of archetypes. Blue/Black tempo, while not actively pushed in my cube is certainly a deck that emerges with notable regularity, and often makes quite a showing. This card seems like a fantastic curve topper for that deck. I'm not sure it will make my list because I agree that Tog, Finkel, Tezz and the Strix are likely superior, but I'll certainly keep a watchful eye on him.
EDIT: With regard to the sideboard discussion, I've convinced myself it's actually less of a liability to allow people to keep their remaining cards as a sideboard, that way at the end of the session your drafters count off 45 cards back to you and there is no question about how many cards are in circulation. I simply tell everyone that they are responsible for their 45, and if by chance something goes missing, it is their responsibility to replace it.
Either the Silverheart is paired, in which case Zegana enters with at least 8 +1/+1 counters and draws 9 cards, or he's unpaired, in which case Zegana enters with at least 4 +1/+1 counters, pairs with Silverheart, and draws nine cards.
Either way, winsauce.
Can you stack both of her etb's to resolve after she's soulbonded with the Silverheart and draw more cards? If so, she would enter with 8 +1/+1 counters and also gets the +4/+4 bonus from the Silverheart on top of her 1/1 base to draw 13 cards. Again, not sure if this works.
I very much agree with the sentiment that "power" becomes more balanced as the size of the cube is trimmed down. The relative power level of the contextual cards in the pack and/or deck will be higher and the differential will be far less apparent. Also, the larger the cube, the higher the likelihood that drafting "power" becomes algorithmic since there will likely be a more pronounced raw-power differential.
I don't mind the occasional blowout game. Though I suppose that drafting on MODO, where there is an associated cost, might be frustrating if you're on the receiving end.
I personally tend to play this card very aggressively in terms of the drawing option. If I see three lands on top I usually have no problem taking 8 to get a much higher probability of drawing live over the course of the next turns and vice versa.
I didn't play the first sealed event yesterday morning but I'm told Azorius dominated there. I played in the second event (45 +/- players) with Rakdos and split first going 5-0-1 (against Selesnya). I had a pretty bomby pool, however, (Rakdos himself and Vraska) though neither came out to play very often. The bread and butter of the Rakdos deck are the uleash commons and uncommons at 2 and 3 mana, which 90% of the time is probably correct to unleash them and simply smash face.
There were 2 other Rakdos decks in the top 8 along with another Selesnya and an Azorius, I'm not sure about the other 2.
I just picked up my Kraj deck again after a long hiatus (the reason I put it down in the first place was the prevalence of board wipes in my meta). I am currently using these cards that can stop and/or recover from boardwipes:
At the end of the day, no matter how many cards you run to alleviate it, boardwipes will always pose a problem for this deck as the general Kraj strategy is inherently flawed in that it functions at its best when overextended.
As we play it, the Horde doesn't gain life, draw cards, or count tokens towards storm, though I may be willing to make that concession since Hunting Pack looks like it would be great. I like Spider Spawning quite a bit too, but it bugs me that there is a black mana symbol in the flashback cost, to me it takes away from the flavor (for similar reasons I don't run the Penumbra creatures).
Living Plane is great is great as an anti-stabilization card. The most predominant way to stabilize against the Horde deck is mass removal spell or effect. Living Plane makes it so you can't wipe the board without everyone losing all of their lands as well. If nothing else, it generally buys the Horde time since you have to deal with the enchantment before their creatures. Additionally, it essentially reads "all lands enter the battlefield tapped" since they all now have summoning sickness. At the same time it leads to increased combat decision trees since lands are capable of chump blocking.
I've already put together a fairly standard Zombie Horde but I wanted to try something a bit different to provide some variance to our horde games. While green loses out on the ability to recur masses of creatures, it has a number of ways to create huge swings in board presence and damage output, not to mention a few cards to prevent its opponents from stabilizing. I figured I'd post my current list as a way to promote some discussion, and in all likelihood improve upon the list over time. I should also mention, as a matter of preference, I like to keep my Horde decks singleton aside from the tokens themselves; it keeps things interesting in an otherwise occasionally redundant format.
So far from my testing Shardless Agent is the real deal. At his worst he's a 2-1 (without Vig in play) and has the greatest probability of cascading into another creature, most of which produce some sort of value in their own right. At his best (Coiling Oracle scenario) he's a veritable 5-1 which as we all know is ridiculous for 3 mana. Personally I think the Agent is even better in the 1v1 environment than in multiplayer since establishing an early board presence is often a necessity; besides a random value bear will get you a lot more mileage in a 30-life format.
@Eph: Thank you very much for the accolades, I'm glad that this deck has had such a positive impact on you. Currently I don't have a non-French 1v1 decklist, but I'd be glad to share my thoughts on what that deck might look like. I don't have the time to respond in full for the time being, but give me a couple of days to get the gears turning.
I'm pretty sure it's only good in Momir where you get to stack what it's cascading into (You can stack it Momir's green trigger, cascade, blue trigger, right?)
Exactly. That's how the card works. In a reasonable scenario it results in being a 5 for 1 with Momir in play. Cast Agent, let the "play a green" trigger resolve first putting Coiling Oracle on top, trigger cascade which gets Oracle, allow Oracle's "play a green" trigger resolve putting a creature on top, let his "play a blue" trigger resolve putting that creature in your hand, let his ETB trigger resolve netting you another card, finally resolve Agent's "play a blue" trigger and hope to hit a creaure on top.
Of course, by finding a green or green/blue creature with flash with the Oracle, you can cast it prior to resolving Agent's "play a blue" trigger and continue the tutor chain provided you have the mana available.
Shardless Agent doesn't do anything in particular that Momir can't already do, but there's no doubting that he can lead to some sick value plays.
I guess I should start by saying that I ultimately had to concede Vig's effectiveness for exclusively 1v1 play. The commander metagame has shifted dramatically; such that a fragile 5 mana general without an immediate board impact simply doesn't cut it anymore. That being said, I still enjoy playing Vig as much as the next guy, I just had to change my audience. I've been keeping a more multiplayer oriented list up to date here but I haven't been putting as much time into it as of late. Note that I have a 15 card sideboard listed in the link as well which are intended to be substitutions for 1v1 play per the French Duel Commander banlist.
Let's see, it looks like the OP hasn't hasn't been updated since...New Phyrexia...dear God. Since then, we've gotten some pretty stellar cards for this deck. The original Commander product brought us Edric, Spymaster of Trest. Innistrad Block brought us Snapcaster Mage, Deadeye Navigator, Soul of the Harvest, and Cavern of Souls. M12 brought us Phantasmal Image. Planechase brought us Shardless Agent. RtR block brought us Prime Speaker Zegana. And most recently Theros brought us Prophet of Kruphix and Horizon Chimera.
These are just the cards that I have integrated into my list, but I recognize that there are many other great cards as well, Master Biomancer, for example, as mentioned above. I'd be interested to see the direction others have gone with the deck since my last round of updates. To be honest, I haven't even gotten to play the deck much, due to both time constraints and the resentment of my local playgroup. At this point there are probably many others in a better position to be administering advice moreso than myself.
Nonetheless, thank you guys for your praise, continued support, and interest. I'll do my best to stay involved, and I should be able to update the OP in the near future.
I agree wholeheartedly, though I certainly appreciate adding a few specific pieces like KGGS and/or Daze to inject some archetype support without compromising overall card quality.
EDIT: With regard to the sideboard discussion, I've convinced myself it's actually less of a liability to allow people to keep their remaining cards as a sideboard, that way at the end of the session your drafters count off 45 cards back to you and there is no question about how many cards are in circulation. I simply tell everyone that they are responsible for their 45, and if by chance something goes missing, it is their responsibility to replace it.
Can you stack both of her etb's to resolve after she's soulbonded with the Silverheart and draw more cards? If so, she would enter with 8 +1/+1 counters and also gets the +4/+4 bonus from the Silverheart on top of her 1/1 base to draw 13 cards. Again, not sure if this works.
I don't mind the occasional blowout game. Though I suppose that drafting on MODO, where there is an associated cost, might be frustrating if you're on the receiving end.
There were 2 other Rakdos decks in the top 8 along with another Selesnya and an Azorius, I'm not sure about the other 2.
I'd like to add:
Sublime Archangel - I recognize that Paladin En-Vec and Yosei, the Morning Star are probably the most out of place at 360 but I, as well as my playgroup, have major soft spots for these cards. Ideas?
Ajani, Caller of the Pride > Glorious Anthem. Easy.
Searing Spear, Flames of the Firebrand, Thundermaw Hellkite - I'm open to suggestions here. Me thinks that it might be high time to boot the Reckless Waif as it hasn't done much at all. Otherwise I'm not so sure. Fireslinger?
Thragtusk > Bramblecrush. Easy.
Anything I missed?
At the end of the day, no matter how many cards you run to alleviate it, boardwipes will always pose a problem for this deck as the general Kraj strategy is inherently flawed in that it functions at its best when overextended.
As we play it, the Horde doesn't gain life, draw cards, or count tokens towards storm, though I may be willing to make that concession since Hunting Pack looks like it would be great. I like Spider Spawning quite a bit too, but it bugs me that there is a black mana symbol in the flashback cost, to me it takes away from the flavor (for similar reasons I don't run the Penumbra creatures).
Living Plane is great is great as an anti-stabilization card. The most predominant way to stabilize against the Horde deck is mass removal spell or effect. Living Plane makes it so you can't wipe the board without everyone losing all of their lands as well. If nothing else, it generally buys the Horde time since you have to deal with the enchantment before their creatures. Additionally, it essentially reads "all lands enter the battlefield tapped" since they all now have summoning sickness. At the same time it leads to increased combat decision trees since lands are capable of chump blocking.
10x Lizard Token (2/2)
10x Wolf Token (2/2)
10x Elephant Token (3/3)
10x Beast Token (3/3)
10x Beast Token (4/4)
10x Wurm Token (6/6)
1x Barishi
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
1x Bestial Menace
1x City of Solitude
1x Cloudthresher
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Crush of Wurms
1x Essence of the Wild
1x Fangren Firstborn
1x Gaea's Anthem
1x Hall of Gemstone
1x Kessig Cagebreakers
1x Living Plane
1x Lurking Predators
1x Molder Slug
1x Moldgraf Monstrosity
1x Natural Balance
1x Overrun
1x Overwhelming Stampede
1x Parallel Evolution
1x Parallel Lives
1x Primal Forcemage
1x Primal Surge
1x Root Maze
1x Rooting Kavu
1x Triumph of the Hordes
1x Vigor
1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1x Whirlwind
@Eph: Thank you very much for the accolades, I'm glad that this deck has had such a positive impact on you. Currently I don't have a non-French 1v1 decklist, but I'd be glad to share my thoughts on what that deck might look like. I don't have the time to respond in full for the time being, but give me a couple of days to get the gears turning.
Exactly. That's how the card works. In a reasonable scenario it results in being a 5 for 1 with Momir in play. Cast Agent, let the "play a green" trigger resolve first putting Coiling Oracle on top, trigger cascade which gets Oracle, allow Oracle's "play a green" trigger resolve putting a creature on top, let his "play a blue" trigger resolve putting that creature in your hand, let his ETB trigger resolve netting you another card, finally resolve Agent's "play a blue" trigger and hope to hit a creaure on top.
Of course, by finding a green or green/blue creature with flash with the Oracle, you can cast it prior to resolving Agent's "play a blue" trigger and continue the tutor chain provided you have the mana available.
Shardless Agent doesn't do anything in particular that Momir can't already do, but there's no doubting that he can lead to some sick value plays.