Indeed. Your help in making these, to say nothing of what you've done for the forum have really been a solid support for us all. We'll miss seeing you in the mod cave.
I'm glad your last mod piece made it to publication though, and that you got to talk about Ephara.
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- bobthefunny
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Member for 13 years and 11 days
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Jan 11, 2015
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #4 - Engines of CommandPosted in: Articles -
Dec 3, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersYour method of letting players tumble out into their own camps can be a good one when you have enough room to do it. People will naturally gravitate into the games that fit their decks' schedules.Posted in: Articles
In smaller environments where you may only have one or two pods going though, it can be a bit more difficult. Also, you then get problematic players like me who like to play across the entire spectrum.
I also believe that casual environments can provide excellent learning areas, but you have to be careful of it as well. One trap that my own group has been running into now is being too lenient on take-backs. Originally implemented to allow the newer players some freedom of thought and to help them work through what courses of actions to take. It can start to be abused into not fully thinking through a situation. An example being that one player cast Council's Judgment to remove my Commander. The second player voted for another permanent in order to set up a double exile option for player C, and player C then mistakenly selected a third permanent for more exily goodness, at which point I selected one of the other targets for my vote in order to save my Commander. Player C hadn't really thought things through (and I'd also quickly jumped the gun on my own vote, I'll admit), but we ended up rewinding that play so he could properly select his vote.
I find it helps best to properly (and as honestly as possible) represent the board state for newer players. For example, with cards with the Will of The Council, such as Council's Judgment, I find that it helps to explain to newer players what the consequence of their vote will do to the options the next player in line will be able to make. After a while, you can scale back the aid you give to after the play or game is over, that way they can learn from their own choices, but still have the benefit of a different viewpoint.
In one game, my brother should have had lethal on me since he had a pro-black creature, and he was paranoid about a Duplicant in my Chainer deck's graveyard... except that he misplayed having forgotten that Chainer would reanimate it as a black creature and opted to spread his equipments out instead. Since my brother should have known better, that was an observation I made at the end of the game (a few turns later). He has never forgotten it again.
These kinds of interactions though can really help all players improve their own levels of play. -
Nov 8, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #3 - Welcoming New CommandersAbsolutely! The greatest way to truly learn anything is to teach it. It really makes you get an in-depth understanding of the subject.Posted in: Articles
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. -
Sep 28, 2014
bobthefunny posted a message on Word of Command #2 - KHAAAAANS!Should have been Corpsejack Menace, I guess.Posted in: Articles
Indeed, much thanks to the entire editorial staff, this wouldn't be possible without them. -
Mar 29, 2012
bobthefunny posted a message on Tibor & LumiaSol Grail, while getting points for being oldschool, has never impressed me in EDH. Here are a few alternatives (some less budget than others):Posted in: Deck Compilation
Coalition Relic - the most expensive of them, but far more useful.
Phyrexian Lens - a bit painful, but may be worth the added color utility
Star Compass - the best budget alternate. Taps for either color we have; CiPT, but costs 1 less, so same net mana gain when played.
Also, do not overlook Fire diamond and Sky diamond
Also, for storm count, do you have a Frantic Search? -
Aug 22, 2011
bobthefunny posted a message on Being a substitute teacher is no substitute to teachingTeachers have been cut, this means there are less teachers that are teaching to get sick; this also means there are more teachers now looking for work, and thereby more substitutes looking for work.Posted in: Stoogeslap Blog
A full time teacher's resume will look better when a school is looking for a sub, so they'll be called in first. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
You obviously have the deck very well tuned, I can keep suggesting cards that would fit the theme, but it looks like you have it nailed down. The only really advantageous one I can think of is sorceress queen so that you can save some of your bigger utility creatures.
Grim Harvest has started becoming a staple in my black decks. In yours, you can control the recover much better, and only need to use it for the bigger creatures. Malevolent Awakening may work better for the theme though, although its a bit more fragile in itself.
Mind's Desire
spelljack
While both would be a hefty hit on the ad nauseam, they both will do insane things in the deck. Each one will be worth its weight and then some in the hit you take. (assuming you don't kill yourself).
For a triple hit
Seize the day would work well to take out multiple opponents.
I personally wouldn't run them due to the composition of my playgroup, but they would fit very well to clear blockers and make the deck more competitive. They would draw a lot more hate too though.
This is one of the biggest questions I get. Why Tibor and Lumia as far as they go, even I have to admit they are comparatively weak to other 4 cost generals. Olivia Voldaren alone is equal in stature, has flying by default, and still does damage to whichever targets you want, and has a devastating extra ability. Jenara, likewise, is another powerful 3/3 flyer for cheaper. What makes Tibor and Lumia so special?
I have always been partial to the blue/red pairing. Early on, one of my favorite archetypes was a traditional counter/burn deck. Tibor and Lumia is one of the earliest EDH decks I built; vying with Nemata and Vaevictis, shortly after my Cromat deck. I chose Tibor and Lumia over other blue/red generals (notably Niv-Mizzet, who I jokingly claim T&L would rather be) for several reasons:
- Whereas Niv really characterizes the unity of both colors, in turning draw into damage, he feels more like a red general playing blue spells to me. T&L showed me instead a general who still wants to cast spells, but would interact more with the board in general, and would need a combination of both spell colors to really shine.
- Blue and Red are the two worst colors for mana acceleration. Blue gets a bit of help from its illicit affair with artifacts, but that really pales in comparison to every other color: Thus, I aimed for a cheaper general.
- Niv is done to death, and has too many "I win" combos that just steal the thunder away from the Johnny in me. It's not about the combo for me... it's about doing stuff, and T&L is happy to comply.
What it really comes down to is that T&L is cheap enough to matter, has no definitive easily foreseen gameplan to be a threat with, isn't a massive combo target, and does stuff, without taking up your mana, letting you do more stuff. What it really comes down to, is that Tibor and Lumia is fun.What you could do with T&L
The first version of this deck was much more good stuff. I then modified it with a clear goal of attempting to deck myself in EDH, using a lot of card draw and cantrips, while I have come close, I have not yet actually managed this feat. Sphinx-Bone Wand and Cast through Time made prominent appearances in the deck after the volume of spells I could play became evident. This is one way to abuse slinging multiple spells. I fount it a bit too fragile.
Another option for T&L aspirers is to focus on the red ability. The capability to burn the ground is very powerful, couple it with powerful equipment/auras like Charisma or Sword of Kaldra and you have a threat to reckon with. This build lends itself to a very strong control approach, using red to inflict pain, keep your enemies under control, with support from blue for the stack war and protection.
Another take on the red option, is to run repercussion/Mog Maniac type effects (though not the maniac himself, he's not so good with T&L). Other notable ones are Stuffy Doll (which you can clone) and Coal hauler swine.
Yet another option goes in the other direction again. Focus on the blue side of the twins: Run small utility "on connect" creatures like Surrakar Spellblade, or Kukemssa pirates. Use the flying ability to ensure they connect. Mystic Decree and gravity sphere work well in both of these color-specific versions, as does Phyrexian Splicer.
The last option, is quite surprisingly a combination of the two decks above, as well as the current version. Gelectrode and Cinder Pyromancer as well as another untapper with Quicksilver Dagger also plays well with a large number of instant/sorceries, as well as all the controlling equipments. Curiosity and Ophidian Eye then make a close approximation to a cheaper (mana cost) Niv-Mizzet type combo (without actually being boring). It's an extra way to gain cantrips off of your massive spell slinging.
This Version
Rather than focus directly on T&L abilities, this version focuses on the power of blue and red: the two colors best able to fight on the stack. As such, the decks main weapons are in its instants and sorceries, creating spell chains of immense advantage, to bury your opponents under sheer quantity of cards. The deck capitalizes on blues love of artifacts to use equipment such as Runechanter's Pike and Leering Emblem to further take advantage of the spell slinging. T&L fits this strategy by providing a cheap evasive general, with relevant abilities to trigger off of the spell-slinging.
Other Decks!
TheEndIsNear has posted his Storm Combo version, with a higher emphasis on mana rocks to get the early mana needed to fuel cheap spells. Also includes a fair set of 'free' spells.
4 Tibor and Lumia
Instants - 24
1 Shadow Rift
1 Mind Games
1 Skred
1 Quicken
2 Snap
2 Reality Ripple
2 Psychotic Fury
2 Ignorant Bliss
2 Echoing Truth
3 Frantic Search
3 Oona's Grace
3 Repulse
3 Long-Term Plans
3 Cerebral Vortex
3 Chaos Warp
4 Turnabout - *
4 Inspiration
4 Fact of Fiction
4 Overblaze
4 Plagiarize
2x Flash of Insight
1 Vex
1 Arcane Denial
1 Dream Fracture
Sorceries - 15
1 Artful Dodge
1 Flame Jab
1 Gamble
1 Faithless Looting
2 Merchant Scroll
3 Fabricate
3 Windfall
3 Wheel of Fortune
4 Mystic Retrieval
4 Deep Analysis
4 Concentrate
4 Seize the Day
4 Past in Flames - *
5 Ignite Memories
6 Time Spiral - trial
2 Walking Atlas
3 Guard Gomazoa - trial
3 Gomazoa - trial
4 Anger
5 River Kelpie
Artifacts - 14
2 Swiftfoot Boots
2 Leering Emblem - *
2 Runechanter's Pike
3 Diviner's Wand
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Sol Ring
2 Izzet Signet
3 Darksteel Ingot
4 Paradise Plume
2 helm of Awakening
2 Sapphire Medallion
3 Catalyst Stone
5 Stone Calendar
6 Mana Matrix
Enchantments - 3
3 Secrets of the Dead - *
3 Burning Vengeance
5 Spellweaver Volute - *
Planeswalker - 1
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
----
LANDS - 37
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
12 Snow-Covered Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Temple of the False God
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Buried Ruin
1 Academy Ruins
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Strip Mine
Notable Themes:
Playing the Deck
Step 1: Draw cards.
Step 2: When you have a full hand of cards, Draw more cards.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Draw cards.
That is exactly how the deck plays out; the goal is to stick one of the awesome equipment on T&L. To get them, you draw cards until you get them, once you have one of them, you draw more cards to make them stronger. Somewhere in there you attack and kill someone. Mostly you look impressive by doing lots of stuff, most of which doesn't do much except let you do more stuff. The fact that some of your stuff does stuff while you do stuff is inconsequential. Until you kill someone with your stuff.
Spellweaver Volute
A card so awesome, it gets its dedicated paragraph.
In a deck where playing spells is good, and volume of spells is great, and running lots of instants is awesome... replaying them all for free is simply sheer brilliance.
The obvious all star here, is Flame Jab, allowing you to suddenly replay any instant you choose, for the simple cost of R.
So here are the fun things to note: The Volute enchants (and attaches) to an instant card in a graveyard. Yes, that means anybodies grave yard. You can cast other peoples cool spells; something I had not been entirely aware of before.
The Volute creates a copy of the card then casts the copy. Many people may groan at the creating a copy part, but here are the important distinctions:
Tibor and Lumia - A cheap aggressive general, who can give themselves evasion on the cheap, as well as handle threats on the ground. Inherently good against token swarms. Have been a bit overshadowed by their more recent rivals, Jenara, Asura of War, and Olivia Voldaren, yet because of this hold a strength in surprise and in their colors. Whereas Jenara and Olivia require some amount of mana dedicated to themselves, T&L's abilities fire off as a consequence of other actions. This allows the deck to be much faster than its rival generals.
Instants
Shadow Rift - Instant speed evasion. For almost all practical purposes, shadow = unblockable, especially when flying as well. While there is no inherent flashback, the cantrip is nice.
Mind Games - Repeatable blue spell for a source of flying, and able to open otherwise closed attack routes. Do note that it taps things other than creatures, shutting down problematic mana sources or mazes prior to your turn/attack is very useful.
Skred - Burn baby burn. This is red's best single mana removal spell in this format.
Quicken - Technically in trial phase, this synergies with a lot of the deck. With 15 sorceries, and a built in cantrip, this is never a dead draw. Flashing back a Past in Flames for a blowout counterspell action is also very strong.
Snap - Good creature bounce, that happens to be 'free.' With the spell reductions I run, it tends to generate mana for me. A good way to go off sooner.
Reality Ripple - My secret gem of a card, it answers anything, or saves whatever you want. It answers almost anything for the mere cost of 1U.
Psychotic Fury - Double Strikes our T&L for a quick kill, and cantrips in red. Awesome!
Ignorant Bliss - Saves our hands from enemy removal (rarely), or more often from our own wheels. Turns any wheel effect into pure advantage.
Echoing Truth - Blue bounce that hits non-creatures. This is how you deal with problematic enchantments. Side effect of being effective against tokens, if you can't deal with them with T&L for some reason.
Frantic Search - See snap. Card filtration/draw, that is 'free.'
Oona's Grace - On its own, it cycles lands for 2U. Nothing terribly awesome. As soom as you turn it into advantage with a Kelpie/Secrets of the dead, it starts to shine. If you reduce the cost, it positively glows. Turning all your lands into Ancestral Recall has never been cooler.
Repulse - Instant speed answer, with a cantrip!
Long-Term Plans - Tutoring power.
Cerebral Vortex - Can be used on opponents EoT as an instant speed draw 2. Otherwise it punishes card drawers, or whoever you want when you chain wheels.
Chaos Warp - Reds answer all.
Turnabout - Generates absurd amounts of mana. This is one of those cards that was practically a mistake to print. You can also use it to shut out one player's defense if needed.
Inspiration - Drawing cards is cool.
Fact of Fiction - Drawing lots of cards is even cooler.
Overblaze - Can boost T&L with a double damage, akin to Psychotic Fury, but shines as it also doubles T&L tremor ability, as well as being able to stack multiple times for insane damage.
Plagiarize - Currently testing, it's an evil blowout with wheel effects, and is brutal with anyone abusing card draw. Do not cast versus a Sphinx player. (should probably be Jace's Ingenuity, but I can't find one atm.)
Flash of Insight - Blue draw/search, with an easy flashback cost.
----
Vex - counter (disputed by others)
Arcane Denial - counter + card advantage
Dream Fracture - counter + card advantage
Sorceries
Artful Dodge - Unblockable for 2 uses, flashback also synergies with the rest of the deck. Spot used to be held by Distortion Strike, which is good in its own way, but this fits better for the deck.
Flame Jab - A true allstar in the deck: the river kelpie/secrets of the dead combo allows you to chain multiples off at a time.
Gamble - tutor
Faithless Looting - filtration with a flashback.
Merchant Scroll - tutor
Fabricate - tutor
Windfall - wheel effect
Wheel of Fortune - wheel
Mystic Retrieval - Returns more spells for you to play. Essentially card advantage.
Deep Analysis - Drawing cards is awesome!
Concentrate - Repeated!
Seize the Day - Our glorious combat trick to eliminate multiple opponents in a single turn. Because once you kill one person in a single hit, others get worried.
Past in Flames - When this card was printed, this deck really cranked it into overdrive. This allows about 40% of the deck to be reused. Typically the turn you cast this, you win.
Ignite Memories - When casting lots of spells, anything that takes advantage of that is pretty cool. Not only does this lay serious pain on someone, it does it with style.
Time Spiral - (trial) Fits under the wheel/draw 7 idea, as well as generating more mana. I have some concern over losing my graveyard, as that's my goto for quick answers, especially if some spells are already exiled, as that would dilute the spell-nonspell ratio of the deck. Still, it was a broken card once, I don't see why that would end now.
Creatures
Walking Atlas - Mana acceleration (while he lasts). Getting going in the early game is crucial.
Guard Gomazoa - I'm trying out the 2 jellyfish as early deterrents. Updates to come.
Gomazoa
Anger - haste.
River Kelpie - Oh sweet awesome the draw.
Artifacts
Swiftfoot Boots - haste/hexproof/awesome (greaves prevents you from giving T&L flying, as well as other self buff spells, like psychotic fury)
Leering Emblem - Oh sweet heaven, this is responsible for many a blowout. With only 2 spells it makes T&L a 7/7, which is a 3 hit kill. For two more, at 11/11 is 2 hit, which happens to work well with psychotic fury, Overblaze and Carpe Diem.
Runechanter's Pike - You may think this doesn't work well with flashback, but let me educate you: Every spell you flashback gets you more cards. More cards means more spells to play, which means more spells in the graveyard. It's cool. Don't trust me on this, just try it.
Diviner's Wand - Auto equips to T&L, and a wheel effect alone puts T&L in kill zone (1 card for your turn, +7 off of wheel puts T&L up to an 11/11. Add Overblaze/Double Strike, etc = dead opponent)
----
Wayfarer's Bauble - ramp
Sol Ring - rock
Izzet Signet - rock
Darksteel Ingot - non-dying rock
Paradise Plume - rock that gains sick absurd amounts of life.
----
helm of Awakening - cheap
Sapphire Medallion - cheap for me
Catalyst Stone - cheaper for me sometimes
Stone Calendar - cheap for me for everything
Mana Matrix - I'm a cheapskate
Enchantments
Secrets of the Dead - Kelpie version 2.0
Burning Vengeance - (kinda trial) Alternate damage options are useful at times.
----
Spellweaver Volute - It is awesome, see the dedicated section.
Planeswalker
Tezzeret the Seeker - searchy stuff, or untap the mana stuff you have.
----
LANDS
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
12 Snow-Covered Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Temple of the False God
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Buried Ruin
1 Academy Ruins
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Strip Mine
Crucible of Worlds - The retrace spells absolutely beg for this; and yet it never makes the final cut. It is always just 1 card away.
Trade Routes - Another card that retrace loves, it is a bit more of a suicidal approach. Very strong, but eventually I found it to really be just on par. Great, but not necessary.
Empyrial Plate - For a deck that loves to draw cards, this is another great equipment for an aggressive build. Overall, I felt that 3 equipment served the job plenty fine, and oddly, I found this one to be the one hardest to charge up to lethal (though gives the best permanent return as well).
Surrakar Spellblade and friends - Great cards, goes for a different version of the deck. ;-P (imagine a blue cantrip theme with "on connect" creatures like Kukemsa Pirates, using T&L's blue ability as free connection tool)
Radiate - A beastly monster of a card, this can do so much, though you never know game to game what it will do. Further in this thread, one advocate of this card used it to Reality Ripple everything during an opponents end step, so he was the only one with permanents. No blockers, no counterspell mana... Seems like a cool way to win to me.
Reckless Charge - Probably the only place you will ever see this card on a Notable Exclusions list. I still need to wrangle one into my deck, extra haste sources allow that blowout kill from anywhere, and built in pump as well as flashback make this a no-brainer.
POWERFUL STORM CARDS:
Volcanic Awakening - Powerful land destruction.
Temporal Fissure - Powerful bounce.
Mind's Desire - More of everything.
To put storm spells in perspective, I have hit over 30 spells in a turn before. I believe I have hit over 40.
Nemata, Grove Guardian 2g: saproling
sacred mesa 1w: pegasus (1w upkeep)
mobilization 2w: soldier
Dragon roost a lot: dragons (flying)
one per turns and slightly harder to destroy:
squirrel nest enchant land 0: squirrel
leafdrake roost enchant land 2: drake(flyers)
Kjeldoran Outpost land 2: soldier = awesome.
Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree land 4: saproling
Urza's factory land 7: assembly worker
Deserted temple can be used to untap lands+enchanted lands
upkeep producers:
(each upkeep, not just yours)
The best fatty ever printed
verdant embrace
dragon broodmother
There's also a white guy that pitches a card to make 2 soldiers.
and of course, since you'll be losing tokens:
jotun owl keeper
and for the infinite combo:
earthcraft
Those actually work very well together, as you can disk while your creatures are phased out (although anything unearthed will then RFG on your next turn). A notable mass removal is Jokulhops or Obliterate, both leave enchantments intact and was the basis of the sneak/veil deck.
It's rather hard to survive long when you have nothing and your opponent keeps sneaking out big things for one red.
and
It does not leave the battlefield.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/MagicCompRules_20110204.txt
Curse you for giving away the awesome spoils! It used to be used with Sneak Attack a lot. Which, speaking of, is great in sedris as well.
R: sneak out a fatty and smash, 2B: do it again.
I've been running a Cromat deck for quite a while, although I run a large number of nonbasics for mana fixing. While many manafixing non-basics can be rather expensive (duals) or bad (city of brass, not a fan of the pain) there are several easy to acquire common and uncommon lands that help a lot:
The 4 tainteds I find are absolutely excellent, they dual black+* which is always good for destroying combatants or regenerating the general.
The ravnica bounce lands are great, they essentially get you an extra land drop, and if you decide to only add the color pairs for cromats abilities, you have an ability on one land. Simic Growth chamber and Golgari Rot Farm are well worth their weight. If you also run a lot of basics, they combo well with thawing glaciers (slightly more expensive).
Finally the new triple lands from shards are great as well.
As a recap, I was rebuilding my Cromat deck, which has been disbanded for near about a year now. The past theme was creatures that say "Draw a Card" (in some form or capacity), and equipment. The new theme was going to be effective beaters+heavier equipment. Think of things like Glissa, the traitor, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Thada Adel, Acquisitor, and Jenara, Asura of War, (probably Olivia would have made it if I had gotten that far).
As is typical when building a deck without planning it online first, I pulled way too many cards, I hit about 500+ cards and hadn't even looked through all the colors I wanted. In fact, all the equipment stuff was lying to a side, and after staring at the pile of cards I had, and the fact that it was predominantly Green/White, I decided to put aside my current plans, and just build the shell into Jenara instead, which left me still with about 300 cards out.
The current rough shell, which is still not to original expectations (Azusa, Lost but Seeking is still in, instead of Loxodon Warhammer, which I have managed to misplace, again).
3 Jenara, Asura of War
CREATURES
2 Saffi Eriksdotter
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Zameck Guildmage
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
3 Cold-Eyed Selkie
3 Eternal Witness
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Frontline Medic
3 Mentor of the Meek
3 Stonecloaker
3 Spirit en-dal
4 Archaeomancer
4 Forgotten Ancient
4 Mystic Snake
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Steelshaper Apprentice
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Glory
5 Karmic Guide
5 Sigarda, Host of Herons
5 Stonehewer Giant
6 Sun Titan
ENCHANTMENTS
1 Exploration
2 Trade Routes
3 Aura of Silence
3 Mobilization
3 Sacred Mesa
5 Cathar's Crusade
5 Mirari's Wake
5 Perilous Forays
SPELLS
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Arcane Denial
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Familiar's Ruse
2 Life from the loam
3 Bant Charm
3 Cackling Counterpart
4 Plasm Capture
4 Rite of Replication
5 Global Ruin
5 Hallowed Burial
1 Sol Ring
3 Chromatic Lantern
3 Coalition Relic
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Evolution Vat
3 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Rings of Brighthearth
EQUIPMENT
1 Skullclamp
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Ring of Thune
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Behemoth Sledge
3 Champion's Helm
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
5 Batterskull
=====
LANDS
3 Forest
3 Island
6 Plains
1 Command Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Flooded Strand
1 Krosan Verge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Buried Ruin
1 Deserted Temple
1 Gavony Township
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Vesuva
1 Winding Canyons
Notable Omission goes to Dead-Eye Navigator. Amusingly enough, I didn't want to be "that guy" with DEN + E.wit,or DEN+Snake, etc. Ironically, I run familliars ruse to do almost the same thing, but worse.
Other notable Omissions: Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph. After I put the deck together, I saw them still sitting right next to it in the spot I placed to reserve for them so they wouldn't get omitted, and realized that I had accidentally omitted them. I didn't feel like figuring everything back out again.
Thoughts so far:
When it runs smoothly, it runs smooth.
My first game, I should have died, but someone wrathed for me, which was nice since I had just dropped Cathar's, and had shenanigans in hand. I proceeded to win with E.witt + Familiar's Ruse soft lock. And Sacred Mesa + Cathar's, of course, though I had Counterpart in hand to go with witness as well, but I ended up using it as an extra counterspell instead in that game.
I've had color issues a few games, but it's also been amusingly to my advantage in a few games.
In a 1v1 while waiting, I kept a hand of plains, plains, plains, Sol Ring, Sacred Mesa, and Stonehewer Giant. Was awesome.
The equipment, while is something I want to do, feels a bit like not what I want to do with this deck. Then again, some of the equipment face beat wins have been all so delightfully rewarding.
I think I want to go more ETB, and also more +1 counter theme. Put in Sage of Fables, some of the decent grafters, like Cytoplast Root-Kin, etc. Maybe the few decent proliferate spells that are decent on their own.
Removal is an issue, especially with my lack of tutoring. Not running Mystical and Worldly Tutor, let alone Eladamri's Call (which was already out as part of a sunforger package for the Cromat that I was building)... I don't know what went through my mind.
Back to removal, having only one wrath effect, with it being 50% of my non-targeted removal (rift), has put me in a bind a few times.
Lack of grave hate hasn't come up, but is stupidly absent, again.
I feel like my engines are too diverse, and too spread out. And that I need more of them.
So, for a first rough build, it's proven itself rather resilient, but I think now I need to decide what path I want to take the deck down, and how to split it apart into it's two themes.