I am interested where a cryptolith ramp deck could go with crytolith rites plus tokens, cryptolith fragment and then big eldrazi like ulamog and emrukal. Hanweir Garrison and hanweir militia captain coupled with cryptolith rite is grossly good in my opinion, but that ties in white and red. You have some other explosive options in red using cryptolith rite like thopter engineer and pia and kirran nalaar. cryptolith fragment allows you to play green also if you want to stick with the usual ramp shell. I realize I'm not being helpful since I am just throwing out ideas and not testing, but I think this will be what I would be testing if these were the cards that I wanted to play.
If you are trying to run seasons past in u/g with journal, you should really run the 5 cmc counter spell that creates tokens, so that you get a 3 card combo loop(that's what makes seasons past powerful is looping it). Luckily you only need one Seasons Past and one Confirm Suspicions (and most likely one Nissa's Renewal).
As for the consideration to bring white into the mix, it is very doable since the best ramp spells also fix your mana, but I don't know if there is enough of a reason to do it. I have tested Dragonlord Dromoka, Bygone Bishop, Archangel Avacyn, even Narset Transcendent, and though they each added something to the dynamic of the deck it was not worth it to me even with reflector mage and declaration in stone being so strong in this standard they didn't feel right in this deck. Maybe EMN will have a great bant spell that makes it worth it.
This could easily be broken. Turn to Frog combos nicely (and turns off avacyn before a creature dies) with Triskaidekaphobia and Assault Formation as alternatives. The mana base allows you to play pain lands to protect yourself from triskaidekaphobia and Cryptolith Fragment can do the same while also finishing the game if you pull off the frog combo. Obviously the hard part is protecting the combo, but I think that this deck is basically being forced by wizards.
This deck wants to use a lot of ETB effects and humans to create a big Thalia's Lietenant. I have 8 "blink" effects for added value and protection. The card I don't know if it belongs here or not is Avacyn Missionaries. It makes it so I can exile permanently when I blink it with the exile trigger on the stack, but it also pushes to have the equipment in the deck.
I posted this list 30 minutes before this Primer went up, but I think you did a great job with this primer. I am missing Always Watching and I think I might cut whirler rogue for it since the UU has been hard on me in a couple games.
This deck wants to use a lot of ETB effects and humans to create a big Thalia's Lietenant. I have 8 "blink" effects for added value and protection. The card I don't know if it belongs here or not is Avacyn Missionaries. It makes it so I can exile permanently when I blink it with the exile trigger on the stack, but it also pushes to have the equipment in the deck.
Combo decks are normally not very competitive, but this one looks like enough fun to temp me to try my hand at it. I think that Cluelamog can be a thing, but every combo deck needs redundancy so that is going to be the main focus I have. Here is my go at it:
Ok, I saw someone who used a quote tag instead of a box and though that is just a gray background it's probably the closest I can get to the effect I wanted.
You are probably right about savage ventmaw, without the combination of him and Arlinn it sounds weak and you aren't guaranteed to draw both. I think I will try to work out consistently turning on traverse the Ulvenwald and put him in as a one of to tutor for in certain situations. Maybe I should side him in even. As for the hydra I am torn because searching for shrine has been successful in my play testing.
A lot of pros are saying that ramp is one of the strongest decks post rotation since it doesn't lose much other than Ugin and mystic which have easy replacements in Chandra and death cap cultivator. I also have been reading a lot of the speculation pages about people predicting Emrukel to be on this planes. This has peaked my interest in the deck and I realized something I think is extremely powerful. First with traverse the Ulvenwald and oath of Nissa on turn one we can reliably play ruin in their wake or Atarka's command. I find this to be a great swing in power because we will ramp on turn 2 consistently instead of a turn later when our opponent might already be able to go lethal with a nut draw. Turn 3 we need to be ready to start winning and taking control of the game instead of casting a pilgrimage and waiting another turn. I have also been testing a lot of 4 Cmc walkers because of this and realized that Arlinn Kord and savage ventmaw can be broken. I really want to know what you guys think of this. Turn five we get to cast 6 damage points for free, have a blocker, and next turn we get 12 mana instead of our normal 10 on turn 6. The downside of ventmaw to me is he is a 4/4, but on your turn he is a 6/6 flyer with vigilance.
Thank you for your comment. I found this very useful. I am honestly most curious about your win rates agadir your gauntlet of decks. Have you kept track of the win percentage and could you post a list of which decks this does best/worst against?
Declaration has been mentioned above and I have to agree that it should have been on the poll. It's also very splashible so it could see play in decks that don't really have any place run it. But the deck I'm most excited about is u/w control with avacyn at the top of the curve for a thing in the ice shell and I think that declaration is definitely a playset in that deck.
Interesting opinion. I agree that white looks very powerful in the new set, but I'm not sure we can agree that Thing is a bad card. Archangel needs just as much of a build around to flip it and in U/x it will flip very often and be a 7/8 for 2 mana. Sylvan advocate is a 4/5 for 2 that sees a lot of play and this reminds me of how people thought flip jace was bad because it would take too long to flip, but he's now viewed as one of WOTC's biggest mistakes.
As for the consideration to bring white into the mix, it is very doable since the best ramp spells also fix your mana, but I don't know if there is enough of a reason to do it. I have tested Dragonlord Dromoka, Bygone Bishop, Archangel Avacyn, even Narset Transcendent, and though they each added something to the dynamic of the deck it was not worth it to me even with reflector mage and declaration in stone being so strong in this standard they didn't feel right in this deck. Maybe EMN will have a great bant spell that makes it worth it.
4 Graf Mole
3 Tamiyo's Journal
4 Tireless Tracker
3 Weirding Wood
6 Forest
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Expose Evil
2 Alhammarret's Archive
3 Den Protector
4 Canopy Vista
4 Fortified Village
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
9 Plains
4 Briarbridge Patrol
2 Cryptolith Rite
I posted this list 30 minutes before this Primer went up, but I think you did a great job with this primer. I am missing Always Watching and I think I might cut whirler rogue for it since the UU has been hard on me in a couple games.
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy-
1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Hanweir Militia Captain
4 Reflector Mage
3 Whirler Rogue
4 Avacynian Missionaries
4 Eerie Interlude
4 Essence Flux
Equipment
4 Stoneforge Masterwork
2 Neglected Heirloom
Land
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Prairie Stream
4 Port Town
8 Plains
6 Island
4 Declaration in Stone
4 Archangel of Avacyn
2 Dragon Hunter
4 Cleric of the Forward Order
1 Westvale Abbey
3 Expose Evil
4 Ruin in Their Wake
1 Sylvan Advocate
1 Den Protector
2 Kozilek's Return
4 Weirding Wood
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Briarbridge Patrol
3 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Woodland Bellower
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Wastes
8 Forest
1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
1 Sanctum of Ugin
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Mirrorpool
2 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Needle Spires
3 Oath of Nissa
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Atarka's Command
4 Ruin in Their Wake
4 Arlinn kord
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Savage Ventmaw
2 Ulvenwald Hydra
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 World Breaker
3 Void Winnower
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
2 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
4 Sanctum of Ugin
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Wastes
2 Mountain
10 Forest
It still needs to be tested, but here is an example build.