Battalion doesn't seem worth the slot. The other two are solid though.
For drops, I would lose Elvish Vanguard - You're swarming, and it's a lot more fragile than the variable power ones. Mul Daya Channelers - Not a lot of library manipulation means it's not reliable for either mode. Multani's Acolyte - If you really want card draw on a body, run visionary. 4 mana for a cantripping 2/1 is a little underwhelming.
Do you run into issues with wraths/other creature kill relying so heavily on the mana dorks, or is the curve low enough?
That was clearly a joke at the poster who said he wouldn't run any equipment in this deck. But I agree with you, why not play any equipment? Kira won't be in play 100% of the time.
I know it was a joke. The joke didn't make sense. Not too worried about it.
Some equips are still solid, despite having to pay double equip costs. Any of the swords are still powerful, despite the higher cost. Deathmantle doesn't target with the second ability, and can protect Kira through a wrath. You can also take advantage of the times when Kira isn't on the field to equip. All that said, you might want a combo win condition or something else for an alternate wincon over equips.
Definitely post up the list, though. Not having a full 100 makes it easier sometimes because you don't need to figure out cuts.
Mana symbols are all that count, and only if they are in rules text or cmc. If they are in reminder text (are there any with symbols in reminder text?) they don't count.
Words don't count, ever.
Words count, but only if they're explicitly stating what color a card is (eg Transguild Courier or the aforementioned Evermind).
As an aside, Trinisphere has colored symbols in its reminder text.
Cryptologist makes this deck work along with surrakar spellblade. Since blue IS(for me anyway) the slowest color when it goes full aggro, cryptologist would serve as your early game mana sink/thrummingbord proliferate target/draw engine to dig for your beatdown cards early game (Wurmcoil, Grand Architect, Chimeric Mass, Rebounds).
Salvage scout would serve as an early game sun titan if ever your wurmcoil gets countered since it'll just cost you tapping blue creatures to play it. and it brings back your massess, slaver and effigies too.
Silence and mindslaver serves as your free pass to get those last points of damage in late game without worrying about removal.
I'm still not sold on Salvage Scout or Mindslaver. Scout doesn't get back effigy (exiles itself), and playing a creature to protect against counters while you're in mainly blue seems silly. Mass isn't going to die frequently bar artifact hate, and one of the common ones exiles anyways. There's not much quality instant speed creature kill, so it's easy to play around. The other use you mentioned is Mindslaver. How often are you really going to need to recur Mindslaver? If you're playing that, odds are you can damage their plan enough to kill them after that.
I don't see where Mindslaver is saving you from removal. For 10 mana, you're better off just playing another threat. The only thing it really stops is DoJ, and only for a turn at that. Why not just run acounter in its place?
Silence works marginally better, but you'd still be fine with something else.
If Cryptologist works, go for it. This isn't really an aggro deck anyways. Just note that you probably don't want to build around Thrummingbird, and I have rarely needed an early mana sink in any of my Architect variants. More power to you if it's getting you there, though.
If you can trigger it reliably, say with Sensei's Divining Top, you have a huge card-drawing-engine going on. Notice how most red spells tend to be cheaper and do less than the counterparts from other colours, meaning that you need the cards more. Also notice that it triggers during your upkeep, so blue decks have issues preparing to counter your stuff.
Consider Cultivate? While you look like you'd generally skip your 3-drop, you won't always want to wrath turn 3 and won't always have an Oracle in hand. Cultivate ramps you some more, ensures another land drop, color fixes, lets you play one of your many CiPT lands without losing tempo, or hold open bolt mana.
I agree that you want more synergy with Lash, especially running four of them. Splashing for a rebound spell (Prey's Vengeance/Virulent Swipe) is definitely worth considering. You might also throw a couple Smoldering Spires in there to make sure your less evasive beaters can get in to do their stuff.
Someone else was just talking about Quest for Pure Flame earlier. You've already got a lot of the support cards you would want for it (Ember Hauler, Goblin Arsonist), and it could get some big damage in. It might be worth testing.
I was looking at this deck a few days ago and thought it was a pretty cool deck. I put it together and i love it ill show u my deck list.
*DECK*
This is my deck list right now i may try out frost titan, but i do like have wurmcoil to portal after i already have a mindslaver on its lock down. When i get the extra turns with lighthouse i mindslaver basically everytime its my double turns. This basically makes the deck infinite turns. I was able to take elves with this deck. It can be pretty explosive. ppl say why do u run coralhelm commander. Thats wat i thought at first, but there enough merfolks for ir to be good and its jsut a good card in my opinion. But what do u guys think of the frost titan in stead of the wurmcoils?
I (and everyone who tried it, I think) found Mindslaver/Portal to be WAY too fragile and expensive to rely on. Supporting it with a removal magnet who needs a pretty fair mana investment doesn't really help it enough to make it work. In this deck, Coralhelm isn't being run to support the merfolk, at least in my case. He's there as a fairly efficient beater, blue creature for Architect, and occasional mana sink. A turn 2 CC that gets leveled a couple times and starts swinging for 3 has gone all the way for me a couple times. They're solid threats on their own.
I don't like Frosty over Wurmcoil because you lose the option of using Architect mana. Even aside from the turn 3 godhand, being able to play your bomb while leaving mana open is nice, even if you're just going to bluff a counter. I'd love to see some testing of the Titan, though.
@Venai: How's Blade of the Bloodchief working out for you? I tried it out (albeit without proliferate) and found it really underwhelming. If the counters went on the sword, I would love it, but it never seemed to do much for me. I'd also love to hear your experiences with Venser's Journal.
EDIT: I'll post a list of my own before too long. I promise I'm not just playing devil's advocate here. In that vein, is anyone else trying an equipment build?
Master Transmuter is a beautiful card. Protects itself, protects/reuses Sharuum, protects any other artifact that needs it, and cheats artifacts into play. Inkwell Leviathan is a great piece of evasive, hard to kill artifact fat.
@razefire: How often do you get metalcraft on the sphinx? With five artifacts, I can't see you getting three out at a time that often, even with Trinket Mage.
@Lionheart17: I guess if it works for you, go for it. I really don't see how it helps against WWQuest, seeing as their biggest threat is guaranteed 7 on the rear and you can't use the myr to respond to an equip. Similarly against Boros, you won't be able to hit the landfallers if you're on defense. If control has a Doom Blade for your 1/1, they're probably in a spot where they can handle the 2 damage. I can see where it works against RDW and as minor sweep protection, though.
@dilton: What does Memnite do for you?
@Vinci: I kind of like this take on it. Some considerations: Cryptologist is really not a great aggro card, seeing as it can never do damage without help, and your deck doesn't get a whole lot of advantage out of it. Salvage Scout seems too narrow. Silence seems out of place, as you want to be playing and supporting threats, not keeping your opponent from doing so. Mindslaver also seems out of place.
Consider Mirri's Guile or Sylvan Library if you want some more Intet abuse or general card filtering.
I feel like Harmonize is underwhelming draw when you have access to blue, but I can't think of a specific replacement. Maybe I'm overvaluing blue card draw. Future Sight and Magus of the Future are both great, especially when you already have some library top manipulation going.
You might consider a counter or two. Even if you don't plan to stop everyone, the threat is nice. Any of the standard ones are nice - I use Cryptic in my Intet (in the sig, if you want to trawl for ideas. Mine is a little different theme, though).
Mighty Emergence if your black creatures are huge.
Ezuri wasn't out when the original list was made.
Changeling - Mistform Ultimus
Every tribe! Even if you only get 4 other changelings.
Battalion doesn't seem worth the slot. The other two are solid though.
For drops, I would lose
Elvish Vanguard - You're swarming, and it's a lot more fragile than the variable power ones.
Mul Daya Channelers - Not a lot of library manipulation means it's not reliable for either mode.
Multani's Acolyte - If you really want card draw on a body, run visionary. 4 mana for a cantripping 2/1 is a little underwhelming.
Do you run into issues with wraths/other creature kill relying so heavily on the mana dorks, or is the curve low enough?
What? Skullclamp is a great card, especially when your deck centers on making 1/1 tokens.
I know it was a joke. The joke didn't make sense. Not too worried about it.
This doesn't make any sense.
Some equips are still solid, despite having to pay double equip costs. Any of the swords are still powerful, despite the higher cost. Deathmantle doesn't target with the second ability, and can protect Kira through a wrath. You can also take advantage of the times when Kira isn't on the field to equip. All that said, you might want a combo win condition or something else for an alternate wincon over equips.
Definitely post up the list, though. Not having a full 100 makes it easier sometimes because you don't need to figure out cuts.
Words count, but only if they're explicitly stating what color a card is (eg Transguild Courier or the aforementioned Evermind).
As an aside, Trinisphere has colored symbols in its reminder text.
I'm still not sold on Salvage Scout or Mindslaver. Scout doesn't get back effigy (exiles itself), and playing a creature to protect against counters while you're in mainly blue seems silly. Mass isn't going to die frequently bar artifact hate, and one of the common ones exiles anyways. There's not much quality instant speed creature kill, so it's easy to play around. The other use you mentioned is Mindslaver. How often are you really going to need to recur Mindslaver? If you're playing that, odds are you can damage their plan enough to kill them after that.
I don't see where Mindslaver is saving you from removal. For 10 mana, you're better off just playing another threat. The only thing it really stops is DoJ, and only for a turn at that. Why not just run a counter in its place?
Silence works marginally better, but you'd still be fine with something else.
If Cryptologist works, go for it. This isn't really an aggro deck anyways. Just note that you probably don't want to build around Thrummingbird, and I have rarely needed an early mana sink in any of my Architect variants. More power to you if it's getting you there, though.
I'd forgotten about that one. Thanks for reminding me. I'll need to see if that fits into the mono-R I'm working on.
Someone else was just talking about Quest for Pure Flame earlier. You've already got a lot of the support cards you would want for it (Ember Hauler, Goblin Arsonist), and it could get some big damage in. It might be worth testing.
I (and everyone who tried it, I think) found Mindslaver/Portal to be WAY too fragile and expensive to rely on. Supporting it with a removal magnet who needs a pretty fair mana investment doesn't really help it enough to make it work. In this deck, Coralhelm isn't being run to support the merfolk, at least in my case. He's there as a fairly efficient beater, blue creature for Architect, and occasional mana sink. A turn 2 CC that gets leveled a couple times and starts swinging for 3 has gone all the way for me a couple times. They're solid threats on their own.
I don't like Frosty over Wurmcoil because you lose the option of using Architect mana. Even aside from the turn 3 godhand, being able to play your bomb while leaving mana open is nice, even if you're just going to bluff a counter. I'd love to see some testing of the Titan, though.
@Venai: How's Blade of the Bloodchief working out for you? I tried it out (albeit without proliferate) and found it really underwhelming. If the counters went on the sword, I would love it, but it never seemed to do much for me. I'd also love to hear your experiences with Venser's Journal.
EDIT: I'll post a list of my own before too long. I promise I'm not just playing devil's advocate here. In that vein, is anyone else trying an equipment build?
Inkwell Leviathan is a great piece of evasive, hard to kill artifact fat.
@Lionheart17: I guess if it works for you, go for it. I really don't see how it helps against WWQuest, seeing as their biggest threat is guaranteed 7 on the rear and you can't use the myr to respond to an equip. Similarly against Boros, you won't be able to hit the landfallers if you're on defense. If control has a Doom Blade for your 1/1, they're probably in a spot where they can handle the 2 damage. I can see where it works against RDW and as minor sweep protection, though.
@dilton: What does Memnite do for you?
@Vinci: I kind of like this take on it. Some considerations: Cryptologist is really not a great aggro card, seeing as it can never do damage without help, and your deck doesn't get a whole lot of advantage out of it. Salvage Scout seems too narrow. Silence seems out of place, as you want to be playing and supporting threats, not keeping your opponent from doing so. Mindslaver also seems out of place.
I feel like Harmonize is underwhelming draw when you have access to blue, but I can't think of a specific replacement. Maybe I'm overvaluing blue card draw.
Future Sight and Magus of the Future are both great, especially when you already have some library top manipulation going.
You might consider a counter or two. Even if you don't plan to stop everyone, the threat is nice. Any of the standard ones are nice - I use Cryptic in my Intet (in the sig, if you want to trawl for ideas. Mine is a little different theme, though).