The Adaptive Automaton as a 3cc drop was kind of questionable but it worked out pretty well, acted as extra lords. I liked the Phantasmal Image a lot - once you have a Crystalline Sliver down he does work but can be run out regardless. It's the Crystalline and Galerider that make Slivers even remotely playable. I'd like to play a version similar to the one in the SCG Open, but it just seems like with so many non-blue cards and non-island lands, trying to run the counter strategy can be iffy and that you'd be better served staying with Merfolk in that case. I've since changed my list a bit, dropped the Automatons and added 2 Gaddock Teeg and the 4th Phantasmal Image. I might also test Noble Hierarch in the future, it gives some resilience against land-denial strategies, the exalted triggers can be relevant, and it's another 1-drop, it could also enable adding another Cavern of Souls. Standstill is also an option but without running much countermagic (in my list) the general concept of potentially finding an answer to whatever powerplay your opponents making by breaking the Standstill won't be present, as it is in Merfolk, so I wrote that off for now. Perhaps in a reimagined version it will have a place.
Personally I think the Crystalline Slivers alone give the deck pretty good game against a lot of the fair decks, but I also struggle quite a bit against heavy-discard decks; if they can T1 Thoughtseize/IoK and remove your key cards it's pretty miserable.
Anyway just food for thought; I don't think this is a highly competitive deck but it's a fun one that can perform decently in the right environment. I also think deck construction is extremely tight when it comes to Slivers, you either make a fantastic list or a bad list, there's not much room in the middle, and I don't think that perfect build has been discovered just yet.
For protection remember DEBT. Damage, Enchant/Equip, Block or Target. If it does any of those things and is controlled by the chosen player, no effect.
Jace's bounce targets, so it wouldn't work.
Terminus doesn't damage or target, so it would work.
Thanks that's what I figured, just wasn't 100% on Jace since I wasn't sure if it was somehow considered a separate entity from the player who cast it.
Anyway after thinking on it, this Identity Nemesis might even be a 3 or 4-of in Legacy Merfolk, replacing Reejerey completely, and going back upto 4 Phantasmal Image and maindeck Jitte. Could sort of reinvent the deck. Then again it might contribute to other decks/strategies even better, something with Stoneforge mystics to tutor up the gear or whatever. Going to be interesting, these Commander releases usually have a few gems, wonder if we'll be seeing any more legacy playables?
As someone who plays a fair bit of Merfolk in Legacy, I like this guy. I'll try him as a 2-of most likely. I was doing a bit of testing with Thassa and she can be good but she also sort of detracts from the aggressive plan (when you don't have devotion that is, which can be a fair bit of the time) and isn't synergistic with the deck as much as I'd hoped.
This new guy will be a beast in the Jund matchup which is one I sometimes struggle with; any grindy/disruptive, non-island-based deck can be miserable for Merfolk.
I'm not entirely clear on what "Protection from Players" entails though, I get that it means you can't be damaged by their creatures, or direct-target spells/damage-based sweepers, but I assume things like Terminus are still fair game? What about Jace bounce?
Either way this creature should be beastly in the B/G/R-centric matchups
Fiendslayer Paladin1WW
Creature - Human Knight
First strike, lifelink
Fiendslayer Paladin can't be the target of black or red spells your opponents control.
Illus. Wesley Burt #18/249 2/2
Any chance it will have any impact in Legacy Knights ;)?
I think it has potential in certain BW lists alongside Dark Confidant for example. It can be a huge risk to run Bob in a list heavy on 3-drops (Knight Exemplar, Mirran, if you're splashing black maybe Haakon, etc) and with very few reliable ways to gain life back - you can run Meadowgrain but they'll likely just remove it, whereas this Fiendslayer evades a lot of the common removal, and the stuff it doesn't evade (white) is generally played in the matchups where your life total means the least. It's unfortunate he's a 3 drop and not a 2-drop, hell they should have made him a 2/1 body and cost 2cc and it would have been a lot more insane, but regardless I think it's not awful in certain decks.
Does anyone have any good resources (videos/articles) on piloting this deck through hate?
I've played Tin Fins for the past couple months, and I definitely deal with hate, but the speed of that deck means that its often just 1 hate card I have to get through before I can kill, like Chain of Vapors their Relic, kill them, or Reverent Silence, kill them, simple, easy.
Recently I've tried playing this version of Reanimator, and it always feels like by the time I'm able to start going off the opponent has such a huge amount of hate on the board that it's insurmountable, like I'm talking several pieces at once, between RiP, DRS which are both played maindeck in several popular decks, in addition to Relic, Cannonist, Thalia, Tormods, Surgicals, etc. in G2/3 I'm often facing a situation that's so ridiculously demoralizing and can't hope to win. Maybe I've seen extreme cases and not the norm, as I said I'd be interested in watching videos or reading articles on good Reanimator pilots and how they deal with hate, maybe I'm just not being proactive enough with my mulligans and not seeking hands with the proper balance of threats & counterspells or something but the deck just feels very clunky to me.
I felt naked against combo though. Literally helpless.
I don't play this deck often but I play against it quite a bit, I think the problem is that most lists just pack more of the same in their sideboard, I mean look at all the lists posted on the last couple pages, most are running 8+ removal spells MD, and then feel the need to pack in 3-4 more removal spells, plus random sweepers (or engineered plagues) in the sideboard. It seems redundant and is likely overkill most of the time.
Some number of Ethersworn Cannonists (many lists DO have these) are a good start as a catch-all against most sorts of combo decks; one thing I advocate for decks running DRS is to have some number of Grafdiggers Cages in your sideboard to combat GY-based combo. The reason being is that many GY-based combo decks will bring in Pithing Needle as a sort of catch-all against DRS, Karakas, and presumably Relic of Progenitus/Tormods; Needle is truly amazing most of the time, but when an opponent drops a Grafdiggers and I have 2 Needles in hand (as the combo player) I generally want to scoop on the spot.
Surgical Extraction (or to a lesser extent Extripate) is of course another option, but in my experience playing combo it's much more manageable than an on-board permanent (cage, relic, tormods, karakas, cannonist, etc) other than on Turn 0 - if you expect to face a lot of decks that will attempt to beat you on your Turn 0, Surgical is probably the single best answer, but if you expect to at least get to play one land I would say it's the worst answer.
It is sad to me because I want to support SCG a lot since they are probably the one reason that this format is as large as it is, but at the same time I feel like this price choke on cards is going to be the downfall if it continues...
This has been discussed to death but it's the inherent problem with the "no-reprint list."
Eventually most of the staples that won't ever be reprinted will be in the hands of people not looking to sell, be it active players or long-term investors, which means the very few copies that are actively on the market will continue to rise in price since supply will diminish.
There's absolutely no reason to hate on SCG or any other card dealer for this reason, if anything blame WoTC for their reprint policies which inherently create a barrier for Legacy/Classic entry.
If I ran a successful card dealership I'd gouge as much as possible, as long as there were buyers I'd raise my prices as high as I could before it became impossible to sell and once I reached that point I'd reel it back slightly and stabilize my price.
SCG currently has LED priced at $80-100 depending on condition, I'm surprised they don't quadruple that price, they'd still sell. People would be mad, sure, but the folks that could afford it would pay. Being a poor MTG player sucks, especially if you like diversity and playing a variety of competitive decks (versus just one) but such is life.
edit:
I mean there are so many solutions that WoTC could try if they actually cared to lessen the Legacy entry barrier, modifying staples to be functional but with some change to allow the reprint. Yes, it could create a situation where the 'best' version of a deck would use this reprint together with the original, but there are circumstances where the deck wouldn't want both versions so the card would allow newcomers to play at a much lower price.
For example a "new" Lion's Eye Diamond that read: Sacrifice [card name], Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Your Life Total becomes 1. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
Or another version: Sacrifice [card name], Discard your hand: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
As I said, it's possible the existing decks would just incorporate such cards into their lists along with LED which would be problematic, but then again WoTC could just create all sorts of rule amendments as well, such as: "Applicable to Legacy/Vintage formats, no deck construction can contain cards named Lion's Eye Diamond and [new card] simultaneously" or something to that effect.
Anyway this is all just thinking out loud but the point is that the onus is on WoTC above all else.
While not the same deck, I feel the increasingly popular OmniShow (or even classic Show & Tell) decks have sort of taken the role of the NO decks. Basically powering out an overpowered creature (or Enchantment as it were) in the early turn and ending the game immediately.
Personally I prefer the flavor of the NO decks more, but it seems the effect is slightly outclassed compared to similar effects being played right now.
edit:
If you're simply looking to play NO for the 'overpowered creature cheated into play' aspect, perhaps look into the OmniShow deck for a similar style; it's also more resilient to hate IMO (if you Show & Tell the Omniscience into play and opponent tries to drop an O-ring or Seal of Primordium or something to that effect you can Cunning Wish for a Trickbind, or other similar shenanigans.) There are of course answers to the deck but it's pretty solid.
If you're splashing enough Green to support Abrupt Decay then I'd run Sylvan Library over Top; it's true you can't drop it T1 but it doesn't restrict your mana afterwards and in my experience this deck doesn't want to be forced to leave mana open as it has many ways to maximize its mana use at sorcery speed. Plus Library has the potential to be card advantage at the cost of life, it's not often you'll want to use this function but in certain matchups, for example against Combo where you may have stripped them of one of their combo pieces and delayed the game, you can safely draw extra cards off the Library without much risk.
In my experience Library+Bob is game over and I'll try to run the package in any deck that can support it.
So with a Brainstorm or Ponder, what's the best tactic if we have a choice about whether to stop it with a Familiar? Is it worth it in a deck where we're not worried about an early more earth-shattering sorcery (like Show and Tell or Burning Wish or something)?
It's situational, but Finn is right, it's a tax that they have to play around. Now instead of being able to cast Show and Tell for 3, they need 4 (or a way to first remove your Familiar.)
Without perfect information you can't know if stopping their Brainstorm or Ponder is worthwhile because they might be digging for lands/removal/combo pieces or they might just be baiting you.
Personally I probably wouldn't use the counter unless it was for a spell during the opponents turn (so not on a Brainstorm at the end of my own turn) else they just untap and combo, but if you can essentially buy an extra turn sometimes that's all you need to land a Thalia and begin assembling a strong board.
Skirge Familiar is also very good in these sorts of decks, has a similar effect to Putrid Imp but each card you discard also adds B to your mana pool, if you can get him in your yard with a Necrotic on board it's very easy to go off.
I've been playing a list recently similar to jamis's above, it's very fun. Although I don't think Hymn is necessary in this deck as that's more of a grind-em-out card which isn't really what you're doing. 1cmc discard is better here (Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, even IoK) to hit their specific disruption so that you can combo off.
I also like at least one Chrome Mox in the deck, and have recently added a single Children of Korlis à la TinFins for additional Griselbrand shenanigans.
Big problem with Dryad Militant is that it's pretty awful in multiples, yet you want it down early since it doesn't remove instants/sorceries already in the yard, so you're left between wanting consistency but not wanting multiples. Not really a good prospect.
Goyf on the other hand is almost always good (barring fringe cases like a Rest in Peace being in play) and drawing multiples is fine.
I mean if you're having Goyf nightmares and all you want to do is hose them then you can certainly build a deck to do it but if you're talking about general consistency/competitiveness I don't think much comes close to Goyf in his role.
i dont like the idea of carrion feeder. it doesnt benefit you anything at the current meta, the sacced creature becomes food for opposing shamans
...
how about myr servitor in place of gravecrawler? crawler seems very problematic.
Carrion Feeder has been an all star in the aggro matchups, I mean besides the synergy with Gravecrawler his sac ability is great with Lingering Souls when you get into complicated board states. I can't count the number of games where I've been playing against RUG for example, them swinging in with a Goyf, Delver, and Mongoose, I put my 3/3 Carrion in front of the Goyf, and one Lingering Soul token in front of the Delver/Mongoose, and then sac both to the Carrior before combat damage to negate all the damage and kill/block the Goyf.
Furthermore while Gravecrawler is conditional (and the lack of synergy with Bloodghast and DRS can be frustrating, why oh why couldn't DRS have been a Zombie! :P) he pairs amazingly with Carrion, and Tidehollow. If you aren't running Tidehollow I could see it being a marginal cut but I don't think Myr Servitor is the solution, I mean part of what makes the engine great is the machine-gun aspect and the Servitor's reanimation mechanic is so much more clunky than Gravecrawlers.
@MikeZack2
Sorry but I don't really like the concept of this list very much.
Torpor Orb hurts Snapcaster, the idea of using your Stifles aggressively and then banking on using Snapcaster puts more mana constraints on your combo turn, and you're running less blue cards than a typical Dreadstill list which makes your 4x FoW worse.
Mother might be worth trying out in some fashion but overall this list just seems less efficient, and between the moms and vials I'm sure there's some very ugly starting hands.
Port is a "better card" but he's simply saying that if you run Leonin Arbiter (assumingly as a 3 or 4-of) there's a good chance your Ghost Quarters can become straight up Wastelands, rather than having to continuously invest mana and strategic planning into Port.
I personally haven't played much with Arbiter, but I could imagine the potential in a typical meta filled with greedy 3 & 4 color decks running 8+ fetchlands and various other tutor effects. Landing an Arbiter against someone with a couple fetchlands and a stoneforge mystic in hand for example is virutally an insta-scoop. I mean T1 Mother T2 Arbiter if they can't disrupt that they're in bad shape, although they're typically in just as bad of shape (or worse) landing a T1 mom T2 Thalia so it might be excessive; in the lists running the Aven Mindscensors it might be worth attempting a swap with Arbiters, although the Mindscensors effect is one-sided albeit slightly weaker. One additional upside to the Arbiter over Mindscensor is that it's more incentive to keep Vial at 2 which is generally a good thing (imo) unless your hand's stacked with Wisps.
I'm going to give it a shot either way, get a feel for their effectiveness against the slew of competitive decks.
The Adaptive Automaton as a 3cc drop was kind of questionable but it worked out pretty well, acted as extra lords. I liked the Phantasmal Image a lot - once you have a Crystalline Sliver down he does work but can be run out regardless. It's the Crystalline and Galerider that make Slivers even remotely playable. I'd like to play a version similar to the one in the SCG Open, but it just seems like with so many non-blue cards and non-island lands, trying to run the counter strategy can be iffy and that you'd be better served staying with Merfolk in that case. I've since changed my list a bit, dropped the Automatons and added 2 Gaddock Teeg and the 4th Phantasmal Image. I might also test Noble Hierarch in the future, it gives some resilience against land-denial strategies, the exalted triggers can be relevant, and it's another 1-drop, it could also enable adding another Cavern of Souls. Standstill is also an option but without running much countermagic (in my list) the general concept of potentially finding an answer to whatever powerplay your opponents making by breaking the Standstill won't be present, as it is in Merfolk, so I wrote that off for now. Perhaps in a reimagined version it will have a place.
Personally I think the Crystalline Slivers alone give the deck pretty good game against a lot of the fair decks, but I also struggle quite a bit against heavy-discard decks; if they can T1 Thoughtseize/IoK and remove your key cards it's pretty miserable.
Anyway just food for thought; I don't think this is a highly competitive deck but it's a fun one that can perform decently in the right environment. I also think deck construction is extremely tight when it comes to Slivers, you either make a fantastic list or a bad list, there's not much room in the middle, and I don't think that perfect build has been discovered just yet.
Thanks that's what I figured, just wasn't 100% on Jace since I wasn't sure if it was somehow considered a separate entity from the player who cast it.
Anyway after thinking on it, this Identity Nemesis might even be a 3 or 4-of in Legacy Merfolk, replacing Reejerey completely, and going back upto 4 Phantasmal Image and maindeck Jitte. Could sort of reinvent the deck. Then again it might contribute to other decks/strategies even better, something with Stoneforge mystics to tutor up the gear or whatever. Going to be interesting, these Commander releases usually have a few gems, wonder if we'll be seeing any more legacy playables?
This new guy will be a beast in the Jund matchup which is one I sometimes struggle with; any grindy/disruptive, non-island-based deck can be miserable for Merfolk.
I'm not entirely clear on what "Protection from Players" entails though, I get that it means you can't be damaged by their creatures, or direct-target spells/damage-based sweepers, but I assume things like Terminus are still fair game? What about Jace bounce?
Either way this creature should be beastly in the B/G/R-centric matchups
I think it has potential in certain BW lists alongside Dark Confidant for example. It can be a huge risk to run Bob in a list heavy on 3-drops (Knight Exemplar, Mirran, if you're splashing black maybe Haakon, etc) and with very few reliable ways to gain life back - you can run Meadowgrain but they'll likely just remove it, whereas this Fiendslayer evades a lot of the common removal, and the stuff it doesn't evade (white) is generally played in the matchups where your life total means the least. It's unfortunate he's a 3 drop and not a 2-drop, hell they should have made him a 2/1 body and cost 2cc and it would have been a lot more insane, but regardless I think it's not awful in certain decks.
I've played Tin Fins for the past couple months, and I definitely deal with hate, but the speed of that deck means that its often just 1 hate card I have to get through before I can kill, like Chain of Vapors their Relic, kill them, or Reverent Silence, kill them, simple, easy.
Recently I've tried playing this version of Reanimator, and it always feels like by the time I'm able to start going off the opponent has such a huge amount of hate on the board that it's insurmountable, like I'm talking several pieces at once, between RiP, DRS which are both played maindeck in several popular decks, in addition to Relic, Cannonist, Thalia, Tormods, Surgicals, etc. in G2/3 I'm often facing a situation that's so ridiculously demoralizing and can't hope to win. Maybe I've seen extreme cases and not the norm, as I said I'd be interested in watching videos or reading articles on good Reanimator pilots and how they deal with hate, maybe I'm just not being proactive enough with my mulligans and not seeking hands with the proper balance of threats & counterspells or something but the deck just feels very clunky to me.
I don't play this deck often but I play against it quite a bit, I think the problem is that most lists just pack more of the same in their sideboard, I mean look at all the lists posted on the last couple pages, most are running 8+ removal spells MD, and then feel the need to pack in 3-4 more removal spells, plus random sweepers (or engineered plagues) in the sideboard. It seems redundant and is likely overkill most of the time.
Some number of Ethersworn Cannonists (many lists DO have these) are a good start as a catch-all against most sorts of combo decks; one thing I advocate for decks running DRS is to have some number of Grafdiggers Cages in your sideboard to combat GY-based combo. The reason being is that many GY-based combo decks will bring in Pithing Needle as a sort of catch-all against DRS, Karakas, and presumably Relic of Progenitus/Tormods; Needle is truly amazing most of the time, but when an opponent drops a Grafdiggers and I have 2 Needles in hand (as the combo player) I generally want to scoop on the spot.
Surgical Extraction (or to a lesser extent Extripate) is of course another option, but in my experience playing combo it's much more manageable than an on-board permanent (cage, relic, tormods, karakas, cannonist, etc) other than on Turn 0 - if you expect to face a lot of decks that will attempt to beat you on your Turn 0, Surgical is probably the single best answer, but if you expect to at least get to play one land I would say it's the worst answer.
This has been discussed to death but it's the inherent problem with the "no-reprint list."
Eventually most of the staples that won't ever be reprinted will be in the hands of people not looking to sell, be it active players or long-term investors, which means the very few copies that are actively on the market will continue to rise in price since supply will diminish.
There's absolutely no reason to hate on SCG or any other card dealer for this reason, if anything blame WoTC for their reprint policies which inherently create a barrier for Legacy/Classic entry.
If I ran a successful card dealership I'd gouge as much as possible, as long as there were buyers I'd raise my prices as high as I could before it became impossible to sell and once I reached that point I'd reel it back slightly and stabilize my price.
SCG currently has LED priced at $80-100 depending on condition, I'm surprised they don't quadruple that price, they'd still sell. People would be mad, sure, but the folks that could afford it would pay. Being a poor MTG player sucks, especially if you like diversity and playing a variety of competitive decks (versus just one) but such is life.
edit:
I mean there are so many solutions that WoTC could try if they actually cared to lessen the Legacy entry barrier, modifying staples to be functional but with some change to allow the reprint. Yes, it could create a situation where the 'best' version of a deck would use this reprint together with the original, but there are circumstances where the deck wouldn't want both versions so the card would allow newcomers to play at a much lower price.
For example a "new" Lion's Eye Diamond that read: Sacrifice [card name], Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Your Life Total becomes 1. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
Or another version: Sacrifice [card name], Discard your hand: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant.
As I said, it's possible the existing decks would just incorporate such cards into their lists along with LED which would be problematic, but then again WoTC could just create all sorts of rule amendments as well, such as: "Applicable to Legacy/Vintage formats, no deck construction can contain cards named Lion's Eye Diamond and [new card] simultaneously" or something to that effect.
Anyway this is all just thinking out loud but the point is that the onus is on WoTC above all else.
Personally I prefer the flavor of the NO decks more, but it seems the effect is slightly outclassed compared to similar effects being played right now.
edit:
If you're simply looking to play NO for the 'overpowered creature cheated into play' aspect, perhaps look into the OmniShow deck for a similar style; it's also more resilient to hate IMO (if you Show & Tell the Omniscience into play and opponent tries to drop an O-ring or Seal of Primordium or something to that effect you can Cunning Wish for a Trickbind, or other similar shenanigans.) There are of course answers to the deck but it's pretty solid.
If you're splashing enough Green to support Abrupt Decay then I'd run Sylvan Library over Top; it's true you can't drop it T1 but it doesn't restrict your mana afterwards and in my experience this deck doesn't want to be forced to leave mana open as it has many ways to maximize its mana use at sorcery speed. Plus Library has the potential to be card advantage at the cost of life, it's not often you'll want to use this function but in certain matchups, for example against Combo where you may have stripped them of one of their combo pieces and delayed the game, you can safely draw extra cards off the Library without much risk.
In my experience Library+Bob is game over and I'll try to run the package in any deck that can support it.
It's situational, but Finn is right, it's a tax that they have to play around. Now instead of being able to cast Show and Tell for 3, they need 4 (or a way to first remove your Familiar.)
Without perfect information you can't know if stopping their Brainstorm or Ponder is worthwhile because they might be digging for lands/removal/combo pieces or they might just be baiting you.
Personally I probably wouldn't use the counter unless it was for a spell during the opponents turn (so not on a Brainstorm at the end of my own turn) else they just untap and combo, but if you can essentially buy an extra turn sometimes that's all you need to land a Thalia and begin assembling a strong board.
Just my 2 cents.
I've been playing a list recently similar to jamis's above, it's very fun. Although I don't think Hymn is necessary in this deck as that's more of a grind-em-out card which isn't really what you're doing. 1cmc discard is better here (Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, even IoK) to hit their specific disruption so that you can combo off.
I also like at least one Chrome Mox in the deck, and have recently added a single Children of Korlis à la TinFins for additional Griselbrand shenanigans.
List:
1 Children of Korlis
3 Necrotic Ooze
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Putrid Imp
1 Skirge Familiar
1 Triskelion
4 Entomb
1 Exhume
3 Reanimate
4 Shallow Grave
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scrubland
3 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Swamp
Goyf on the other hand is almost always good (barring fringe cases like a Rest in Peace being in play) and drawing multiples is fine.
I mean if you're having Goyf nightmares and all you want to do is hose them then you can certainly build a deck to do it but if you're talking about general consistency/competitiveness I don't think much comes close to Goyf in his role.
Carrion Feeder has been an all star in the aggro matchups, I mean besides the synergy with Gravecrawler his sac ability is great with Lingering Souls when you get into complicated board states. I can't count the number of games where I've been playing against RUG for example, them swinging in with a Goyf, Delver, and Mongoose, I put my 3/3 Carrion in front of the Goyf, and one Lingering Soul token in front of the Delver/Mongoose, and then sac both to the Carrior before combat damage to negate all the damage and kill/block the Goyf.
Furthermore while Gravecrawler is conditional (and the lack of synergy with Bloodghast and DRS can be frustrating, why oh why couldn't DRS have been a Zombie! :P) he pairs amazingly with Carrion, and Tidehollow. If you aren't running Tidehollow I could see it being a marginal cut but I don't think Myr Servitor is the solution, I mean part of what makes the engine great is the machine-gun aspect and the Servitor's reanimation mechanic is so much more clunky than Gravecrawlers.
Sorry but I don't really like the concept of this list very much.
Torpor Orb hurts Snapcaster, the idea of using your Stifles aggressively and then banking on using Snapcaster puts more mana constraints on your combo turn, and you're running less blue cards than a typical Dreadstill list which makes your 4x FoW worse.
Mother might be worth trying out in some fashion but overall this list just seems less efficient, and between the moms and vials I'm sure there's some very ugly starting hands.
Port is a "better card" but he's simply saying that if you run Leonin Arbiter (assumingly as a 3 or 4-of) there's a good chance your Ghost Quarters can become straight up Wastelands, rather than having to continuously invest mana and strategic planning into Port.
I personally haven't played much with Arbiter, but I could imagine the potential in a typical meta filled with greedy 3 & 4 color decks running 8+ fetchlands and various other tutor effects. Landing an Arbiter against someone with a couple fetchlands and a stoneforge mystic in hand for example is virutally an insta-scoop. I mean T1 Mother T2 Arbiter if they can't disrupt that they're in bad shape, although they're typically in just as bad of shape (or worse) landing a T1 mom T2 Thalia so it might be excessive; in the lists running the Aven Mindscensors it might be worth attempting a swap with Arbiters, although the Mindscensors effect is one-sided albeit slightly weaker. One additional upside to the Arbiter over Mindscensor is that it's more incentive to keep Vial at 2 which is generally a good thing (imo) unless your hand's stacked with Wisps.
I'm going to give it a shot either way, get a feel for their effectiveness against the slew of competitive decks.