Not sure if jace's archivist will work in your deck. You won't be emptying your hand fast due to holding mana up 6 counterspells so windfalling won't be good for you most of the time. And if you're running jace you should probably run visions of beyond as well.
The missteps are all for mono red, I don't board all 4 in against tempered steel but I do board in some for glint hawk/signal pest/hex parasite. Mono red has a variety of options in one drops now even with goblin guide rotating including: Grim lavamancer, furnace scamp, goblin grenade/arsonist/fireslinger, spikeshot elder, kuldotha rebirth, galvanic blast, and stormkirk noble, so misstep will always have a variety of targets, and keeps a hand of turn one guy turn two stormblood berserker from almost auto winning against me. Because the maindeck is pretty focused on beating control I felt like I really needed to dedicate slots to make my terrible matchup vs mono red in particular at least winnable games 2 and 3.
Here is my little brew of a G/U tempo deck. The deck is built around playing a land destruction spell turn 3 and Titan turn 4 to lock your opponent out of the game. Failure to land D turn 3 is not the end of the deck, Garruk can easily win the game simply by himself giving you either an army to beat down with or insurmountable card advantage, or a fast army of dungrove elders and phantasmal image copies can put a quick clock on your opponent
I've tried a few different combinations of land destruction spells and the 3/3 split between acidic slime and bramblecrush has been my favorite. Slime can be tutored for with GSZ, is actual card advantage, gives an excellent blocker, can be copied with phantasmal image, but is harder to play on turn 3 due to needing two ramp spells rather than one, and it does not kill planeswalkers.
Sword of feast and famine is there to make birds of paradise a threat in the late game as well as making Dungrove Elder an almost unstoppable threat. I tested this deck with 3 originally but having 2 swords in your hand is almost never good.
Dungrove elder is an all star in this deck and provides plenty of reason to stay two colors and commit to heavy green. He is one of the best sword wearers in standard right now, does a great job at protecting Garruk while also being a great target for his soul's majesty ability, puts a really fast clock on any control deck while being an excellent blocker against aggro, and has excellent synergy with phantasmal image.
The maindeck is very good against slower controlling decks so the sideboard pretty much ignores the control matchups other than the misers Thrun which I am looking to swap for something else at this point.
The sideboard attempts to remedy the abysmal game one against mono red aggro in particular, and the tempered steel matchup which while more manageable due to the abundance of cards able to deal with the enchantment, still isn't great. The deck also has trouble dealing with Mirran crusader and sword of body and mind/feast and famine so I also added 3 tumble magnets to take care of those cards specifically. The only slot I'm not entirely happy with is the miser Thrun I have for control matchups but for now it has been good enough.
I dunno why people whine about sorin and sphinx so much, there are so many worse things you could be doing. They both answer degenerate infinite lifegain strategies, and I'd rather go to 10 than see my opponent resolve something like primeval titan or consecrated sphinx which are infinitely worse.
Animar is definitely one of the more popular generals I've seen on these forums and I wanted to share my take on this very powerful and interesting general. What makes my list a bit different is that I abandoned the aluren/cloudstone curio ETB bounce shenanigans that many lists are running because in my play testing it caused an over reliance on the general and without Animar most of the pieces weren't all that great on their own. I've found that by taking these cute combo pieces out of the deck and focusing on card advantage and Animar's ability to dump all the creatures in your hand into play at once if left alone for a short time the deck is far more consistent. I'd love some further input from others on how to improve my list.
Animar + Palinchron: infinite mana/infinitely large animar with either enough animar counters already on him or can be done from 0 counters if you have roughly 12 (haven't bothered to do the exact math) lands in play.
Niv-Mizzet + Card draw: The lone copy of Niv is great and doubles as a removal spell which the deck is very light on. The deck draws enough cards to make niv's burn ability very relavent even without adding the usual combo elements to him, and at worst he's just another card each turn.
Tooth and nail ---> Vorinclex/Palinchron: infinite mana without animar
Tooth and nail ---> Avenger of Zendiar/Regal force: Draw enough cards to almost certainly just win the game
I left out the pestermite/kiki combo on purpose because pestermite was frequently just a dead card in my hand, I'm not running a lot of one for one tutoring in the deck to find both parts of the combo, a resolved tooth and nail can still pretty much just win the game every time, and the combo is really unfun to play with and against.
It's between consecrated sphinx and primeval and theres definitely situations where I'd want one over the other but both are insane and kokusho isn't even close in terms of power level
Mindslaver + glissa + forbidden orchard is an infinite lock on one player.
Oblivion stone, wayfarer's bauble, nihil spellbomb, duplicant, mana rocks are all good, I like sylvok replica in the deck but moriok replica is just too slow. Don't feel like you have to force things into the deck just because glissa is there though. I run a glissa list myself and often the recursion is just incidental to other things I'm doing. You don't need many cards to work with glissa.
I've built and tested a glissa deck pretty extensively over the past month or two. The deck makes a ton of mana and tries to do as much as it can with it. I found myself cutting a lot of the spot removal and creature sacrifice I originally put in the deck preferring instead to speed it up with more ramp spells/reanimation. my build relies more on sweepers and executioner's capsule to get back all the artifacts that end up dying over the course of the game. Here's my list for refrence:
Not really. 9 times out of 10 I'm using GSZ pretty early on to find rofellos or joraga treespeaker, and my build is pretty creature light especially lower on the curve so convoke isn't all that great. Later in the game I've never had problems not having enough mana to use GSZ to get Primeval Titan or Terastodon which are on the high end of targets for it.
I've wanted to make a glissa deck as soon as I saw the general spoiled, and I love green black as a color combination. The deck is mostly about getting big mana and doing as much as you can with it all with some recursion and reanimation. What I like about this list in particular is that the general is not the central plan of the deck, and it is very resiliant to having the general bottomed or even taken from it. The deck has problems against extremely fast combo decks, but does very well against aggro/voltron strategies like uril and rafiq due to Glissa being one of the best blockers ever and control/lockdown decks because of all the mana and threats I can throw out at once in the late game. Any and all feedback and questions are appreciated:
True conviction (rafiq already gives double strike and you don't need to have a huge field of creatures to win which is what true conviction wants)
Steward of valeron: filler, there's better ramp out there and his body is insignificant
rhox war monk: 3/4 lifelink isn't all that great in edh
loxodon hierarch/dauntless escort: while protection from wraths is a good idea in theory, the nice thing about rafiq is you don't have to commit a lot of creatures to the board. Often times you just need a good creature and rafiq and your board already looks better than theirs so wraths generally won't bother you all that much.
Glorious anthem: three mana for what is essentially one exaulted trigger isnt that great considering you're only going to be attacking with one creature most of the time.
Propaganda/teferi's moat: only really hurts token decks/decks relying on large board states. Doesn't really do anything against combo/control decks that aren't trying to kill you with creatures.
Angelic benediction: there's better things you could be running
Captain sisay: more of a build around me card imo, and there are better tutor effects that you aren't running.
iridescent angle: still takes 4 attacks with rafiq out to kill one player. not worth 7 mana imo.
knotvine paladin: rafiq doesn't need a commitment to the board and trying to abuse this just sets you up to get wrathed.
Cards to consider adding:
Sol ring
Sensei's divining top
Trinket mage
cultivate/kodama's reach
Primeval titan
Green sun's zenith
mystical tutor
miraris wake
noble hierarch
tooth and nail
terastodon
lightning greaves
eternal witness
hall of the bandit lord
skyshroud claim/explosive vegetation
I get a lot of hate for my rafiq deck even when I have slow starts. I cant say its unjustified because the deck can pretty much kill out of nowhere but its frustrating sometimes.
Put in dueling grounds and lightning greaves and took out final judgement and felidar soverign and I'm loving them both. The spot removal I'm kinda iffy on because I do sometimes play my deck in multi player and even in 1 vs 1 I am somewhat underwhelmed by even swords to plowshares, not that I'm anywhere near cutting it but I never feel like I wanna have more of those types of effects in the deck.
4 Mana Leak
2 Dismember
Sorceries:
4 Rampant Growth
2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Bramblecrush
Artifacts:
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
Planeswalkers:
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Acidic Slime
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Frost Titan
3 Dungrove Elder
Land:
15 Forest
5 Island
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Creeping Corrosion
4 Mental Misstep
2 Sword of War and Peace
3 Tumble Magnet
I've tried a few different combinations of land destruction spells and the 3/3 split between acidic slime and bramblecrush has been my favorite. Slime can be tutored for with GSZ, is actual card advantage, gives an excellent blocker, can be copied with phantasmal image, but is harder to play on turn 3 due to needing two ramp spells rather than one, and it does not kill planeswalkers.
Sword of feast and famine is there to make birds of paradise a threat in the late game as well as making Dungrove Elder an almost unstoppable threat. I tested this deck with 3 originally but having 2 swords in your hand is almost never good.
Dungrove elder is an all star in this deck and provides plenty of reason to stay two colors and commit to heavy green. He is one of the best sword wearers in standard right now, does a great job at protecting Garruk while also being a great target for his soul's majesty ability, puts a really fast clock on any control deck while being an excellent blocker against aggro, and has excellent synergy with phantasmal image.
The maindeck is very good against slower controlling decks so the sideboard pretty much ignores the control matchups other than the misers Thrun which I am looking to swap for something else at this point.
The sideboard attempts to remedy the abysmal game one against mono red aggro in particular, and the tempered steel matchup which while more manageable due to the abundance of cards able to deal with the enchantment, still isn't great. The deck also has trouble dealing with Mirran crusader and sword of body and mind/feast and famine so I also added 3 tumble magnets to take care of those cards specifically. The only slot I'm not entirely happy with is the miser Thrun I have for control matchups but for now it has been good enough.
Any comments/feedback/ideas are appreciated
1 Animar, Soul of Elements
Creatures: 29
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Eternal Witness
1 Primeval Titan
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Terastodon
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Gilded Drake
1 Inferno Titan
1 Palinchron
1 Duplicant
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Regal Force
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Riku of Two Reflections
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Gruul Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Simic Signet
1 Gilded Lotus
Instants: 6
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Pact of Negation
1 Negate
1 Krosan Grip
Sorceries: 16
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Three Visits
1 Nature's Lore
1 Recurring Insight
1 Time Spiral
1 Genesis Wave
1 Rite of Replication
1 Tidings
1 Time Warp
1 Time Stretch
1 Farseek
1 Braingeyser
Planeswalkers: 1
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Enchantments: 5
1 Mana Reflection
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Treachery
1 Greater Good
1 Command Tower
1 Homeward Path
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Flooded Grove
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Strip Mine
1 Mosswort Bridge
6 Island
6 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Notable combos/synergy:
Animar + Palinchron: infinite mana/infinitely large animar with either enough animar counters already on him or can be done from 0 counters if you have roughly 12 (haven't bothered to do the exact math) lands in play.
Niv-Mizzet + Card draw: The lone copy of Niv is great and doubles as a removal spell which the deck is very light on. The deck draws enough cards to make niv's burn ability very relavent even without adding the usual combo elements to him, and at worst he's just another card each turn.
Tooth and nail ---> Vorinclex/Palinchron: infinite mana without animar
Tooth and nail ---> Avenger of Zendiar/Regal force: Draw enough cards to almost certainly just win the game
I left out the pestermite/kiki combo on purpose because pestermite was frequently just a dead card in my hand, I'm not running a lot of one for one tutoring in the deck to find both parts of the combo, a resolved tooth and nail can still pretty much just win the game every time, and the combo is really unfun to play with and against.
Oblivion stone, wayfarer's bauble, nihil spellbomb, duplicant, mana rocks are all good, I like sylvok replica in the deck but moriok replica is just too slow. Don't feel like you have to force things into the deck just because glissa is there though. I run a glissa list myself and often the recursion is just incidental to other things I'm doing. You don't need many cards to work with glissa.
1 Glissa, the Traitor
Artifacts (20):
1 Caged Sun
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lashwrithe
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mindslaver
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Creatures (18):
1 Coffin Queen
1 Duplicant
1 Elvish Harbinger
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Terastodon
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
Sorceries (15):
1 Buried Alive
1 Cultivate
1 Damnation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Genesis Wave
1 Growth Spasm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Night's Whisper
1 Promise of Power
1 Reanimate
1 Sign in Blood
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Instants (4):
1 Entomb
1 Natural Affinity
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
Lands (36):
11 Forest
8 Swamp
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Glissa, the Traitor
Artifacts (20):
1 Caged Sun
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lashwrithe
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mimic Vat
1 Mindslaver
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Creatures (18):
1 Coffin Queen
1 Duplicant
1 Elvish Harbinger
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Primeval Titan
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Terastodon
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
Sorceries (15):
1 Buried Alive
1 Cultivate
1 Damnation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Genesis Wave
1 Growth Spasm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Night's Whisper
1 Promise of Power
1 Reanimate
1 Sign in Blood
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Instants (4):
1 Entomb
1 Natural Affinity
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
Lands (36):
11 Forest
8 Swamp
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Strip Mine
1 Temple of the False God
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold
True conviction (rafiq already gives double strike and you don't need to have a huge field of creatures to win which is what true conviction wants)
Steward of valeron: filler, there's better ramp out there and his body is insignificant
rhox war monk: 3/4 lifelink isn't all that great in edh
loxodon hierarch/dauntless escort: while protection from wraths is a good idea in theory, the nice thing about rafiq is you don't have to commit a lot of creatures to the board. Often times you just need a good creature and rafiq and your board already looks better than theirs so wraths generally won't bother you all that much.
Glorious anthem: three mana for what is essentially one exaulted trigger isnt that great considering you're only going to be attacking with one creature most of the time.
Propaganda/teferi's moat: only really hurts token decks/decks relying on large board states. Doesn't really do anything against combo/control decks that aren't trying to kill you with creatures.
Angelic benediction: there's better things you could be running
Captain sisay: more of a build around me card imo, and there are better tutor effects that you aren't running.
iridescent angle: still takes 4 attacks with rafiq out to kill one player. not worth 7 mana imo.
knotvine paladin: rafiq doesn't need a commitment to the board and trying to abuse this just sets you up to get wrathed.
Cards to consider adding:
Sol ring
Sensei's divining top
Trinket mage
cultivate/kodama's reach
Primeval titan
Green sun's zenith
mystical tutor
miraris wake
noble hierarch
tooth and nail
terastodon
lightning greaves
eternal witness
hall of the bandit lord
skyshroud claim/explosive vegetation