Purphoros is a wicked evil machine, especially now that the fear of him getting tucked is gone, and it's up to you how you use him. You can optimise the deck for creature quantity, triggering Purphoros's ability lots of times and killing everybody. You can use the Purphoros triggers as icing on the cake as you execute a solid game plan that doesn't cling onto him for dear life. I'm about 80% creature quantity, with the overwhelming majority of the spells crapping out chumps to trigger Purphoros, but if the general gets tucked I can try and put up a fight using the goblin side of the deck and the massive mana ramp into X spells.
Aside from Purphoros, the most insane card in the deck is Mana Echoes, which lets you generate absolutely obscene amounts of mana. Yes, it sees creatures entering the battlefield and grants you mana even if it's just a single goblin tutor mook. This card and the fact that the best ramp is colorless (Ashnod's Altar, Thran Dynamo and so on) results in me playing lots of X-costed and colorless only token spells. It's quite possible I was the only guy playing Precursor Golem for a decent amount of time. Be it with or without Mana Echoes, the deck is very rarely short on colorless mana whilst red occasionally needs to be rationed.
There's a plethora of goblin tutors to fetch up Krenko, Mob Boss, a true star with or without Purphoros on the board. If you're feeling cheeky, grab Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and assemble a quick infinite. Flamekin Harbinger gets Grinning Ignus to turn all your red mana into Purphoros activations, or Ingot Chewer for emergency artifact removal. There's a decent chunk of hate cards - Blood Moon, Ruination and company tend to be a pain for multicolor decks, Ensnaring Bridge stops you (or anybody else, for that matter) getting slapped by that 11/11 double striking voltron, Stranglehold needs no explanation...
What's this susceptible to? Soul sisters lifegain. Mass artifact removal. Torpor Orb *shudder*. At its best, the deck is explosive and sequences massive bursts of tokens to instantaneously obliterate everybody else at the table. This typically happens with Mana Echoes out. Another good scenario involves hiding behind Ensnaring Bridge, making getting rid of you quite difficult, and hurling tokens until everybody dies. At its worst, the deck is a shambling mess struggling to do anything at all. This typically happens with an unfortunate influx of high-end spells and not enough ramp.
You've got a good list, and kudos for organizing by function, but my opinion is that Purphoros just doesn't make the best commander. He really shines in a deck that has more token production options, such as Prossh, Skyraider of Kher or Rith, the Awakener. Or you could just use Krenko as your commander... that would be a shortcut to fixing your inconsistency problems. I feel like I'm pretty much looking at a Krenko list anyway.
Going full out goblin deck will let you run Warren Instigator and Goblin Lackey which should give the deck a nice competitive edge. Works well with land destruction.
Guess that's pretty much it, good luck with the list.
If I go full-on goblins, I'll be sure to switch to Krenko as general. As is, I take the pride in pretty much never using the combat step, leaving my chumps behind to chump anything and everything
I followed your advice on curve lowering, and fit in some land hate that avoids blowing my own stuff up. I need the mana. There's some low-costed goblin generation, which isn't all that great by itself but works nice in conjunction with Krenko. Got rid of all the overcosted winmore and tutor-anythings. I never really used them anyway.
Still unsure if I'm running the right balance of token generation/goodstuff, but I'm really running out of token generation
Having found Mana Echoes, you've got a couple of really irritating options opened up. Myr Matrix can go infinite with Echoes pretty easily. Similarly, Krenko or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can turn into really boss acceleration, or go infinite off of repeatable mana:untap effects like Umbral Mantle or Staff of Domination. Jiki is awesome for getting another dose of your best etb token makers each turn (Battlesphere, Chancellor, etc.).
If you're looking for more places to make creatures into resources, Thermopod is another outlet and Skirk Prospector does the same and cheaper with your goblins. Battle Hymn and Brightstone Ritual do something similar as spells and are pretty good fuel leading up to Empty the Warrens or Tempt with Vengeance.
If I could use Mana Echoes as my commander, I'd be sure to include all of those cards as the synergy is beautiful. Umbral Mantle and Staff of Domination are particularly beautiful and make me want to try a Krenko all the more. Maybe I'll go for it. One of the things I love about Purphoros is how little of a damn he gives about board wipes. Also, finding useful mana-cheap goblins in large numbers is proving a bit difficult, maybe peeking at some other lists is in order.
After the recent changes the list plays reasonably well. If it doesn't hit mana rocks early it's awkwardly slow, but once Purphoros is on the field all is pretty fine and dandy thanks to the slight curve lowering. Running more mana rocks would be nice, but I think I have most of the low-cost ones (missing Mana Crypt and Mana Vault) and adding something like a Dreamstone Hedron won't help me power out a turn 2/3 Purphoros, will it
Turn 2/3 Purph is a brute, especially with say... Norin for turn one. My playgroup HATES Norin.
I was looking at my lists since you asked and remembered two more things I've seen omitted a lot. Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician can really help close out games when you need to squeeze out juuuuust a few more Purphoros triggers but haven't got much fuel.
And then there's Imperial Recruiter. If you can afford to invest in a couple, or play with proxies, use this dude. The Recruiter is just a freaking BEAST of a tutor in every single deck I've tried him in. Here he can grab a bunch of your other tutors, several of your token-makers, ramp (in the form of Sad Robot) and two of your VIPs, etc. All on a body, to trigger one more Purphoros hit.
Imperial Recruiter is a beast, yes. It would be cool if they could reprint him in one of the commander sets, they seem to have done so with a few of the other cards from that oriental set.
Ib's a really cool goblin, definitely putting him in if I build a Krenko. This guy comes with a huge target painted on him and doesn't reap rewards quite as insane as Krenko in the Purph list. The same goes for the rest of the sac outlets - they're ickle witty creatures that get slugged on the head with a boardwipe, and "help" Purph become a creature. Still, all ideas to consider.
Really looking forward to your lists, should be quite interesting to look at.
Such a horrific monster. My Animar build has never been the same since its inclusion.
Ib's function for me is always as a finisher - rather than a gobo with stats and all of that he gets played as a 4cc sorcery that says "Sacrifice an even number of Mountains: put that many 1/1 red Goblins into play". The upside is not needing haste to use him - I can drop Ib and answer removal or my own LD by spamming out 8 to 16 damage to each opponent. Turns where I get to tap my land for mana, feed it to Ib for bodies, then feed the bodies to altar effects to cast more bodies are usually blowouts
The serious list is up - here. Working on the Mono Red Blink one now.
Got rid of high-cost stuff that never really did anything (Chandra Ablaze may be a good draw engine, but costs 6 mana and doesn't bring much else to the deck; Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is a good defensive card but can be removed rather easily; both have a high devotion to red), plus situational utility (Goblin Warrens is neat for multiplying your goblin herd, but you explicitly need goblins and the three-mana allotment makes it a bit awkward to work around other spells; Young Pyromancer was inferior to Genesis Chamber as the closest instants/sorceries get to a Norin or Ignus is Molten Birth).
Most of the additions are low-cost utility stuff that can actually be played before Purphoros hits the board (always a good thing as in some early builds of the deck I found myself awkwardly holding most of my hand awaiting Purphoros's arrival). Quest for Pure Flame doubles the pain from a massive turn, but often baits Purphoros bouncing/tucking. This can be of potential strategic use. Spawning Pit is one of those two-for-one-new grind 'em up altars that the original Purphoros thread was so fond of, and its low two-mana cost combined with wipe resilience in the form of counter placement make it a good option to have. Mana Vault is a potentially brilliant mana rock, and fits well with the colorless mana burst theme of the list. Ensnaring Bridge is Kazuul on crack, and is less mana intensive. Additionally, the recent changes bump the list back up to 26 artifacts, making an early Myr Incubator a more reliable insta-kill.
Pentavus is there for the Mana Echoes, as it's an insta-kill with that enchantment on the table. It strikes a good balance between being mana-economical, versatile and useful outside of infinites - Thopter Squadron is a measly five mana, but you can only do the token thing at sorcery speed. Pentavus offers two more tokens, costs two more mana, lacks flying, but the operations can be performed at instant speed. In the case of a board wipe, there's nothing stopping you from popping out all five mooks to hurt the rest of the table for 10 (especially if you can Spawning Pit them all as well). There's nothing stopping you from popping out a chump blocker who you promptly return to the mothership - particularly useful against lifelinkers. Myr Matrix is more resilient than Pentavus, but offers barely any utility outside of going off with Mana Echoes. Additionally, it takes way more resources to get going - 15 mana if coming into play from the hand, or 10 if it's already there. Pentavus only needs the mana you cast him with, or 1 mana if he's on the table. Of course, running multiples of these infinite options is possible, but would be silly given how mana-intensive they are. As such, I just went with the most versatile looking one.
Well, this is interesting. Mono-Red...if the game goes long, you're staring at a disadvantage. I agree with the mass land hate, it's one of your only paths to card advantage. I'm not sure Price of Progress would make the cut for me, not with two Blood Moon effects and offering nothing but straight damage in a one-shot. I really like Trading Post a lot. Its utility in a deck like this is pretty amazing.
Price of Progress is still by far the best mana to damage 2-drop I have, I whacked people over the head for crazy amounts of damage with it in drawn-out games. It doesn't even need Purph on the board! True, moons get in its way, but if you manage to land a moon you should be in good enough shape to not have to worry about the fact one of your 99 just went a bit dead (until the moon gets removed).
Speaking of mass land hate, I'm toying with the idea of Shivan Harvest as suggested upthread. There's pretty much always some form of chumps around to activate it. Either this or Wake of Destruction to hose mono-colour decks unaffected by moons and ruination. I got a turn two blood moon out, locking two of my foes out of the game completely, whilst the green deck proceeded to not give a damn and ramp to victory. Tough choice. Leaning towards harvest at the moment. There's also Orcish Settlers, which is absolutely insane when the ramp engine takes off, but comes on a frail unhasted 1/1 body.
I've been tweaking the list a bit since the last post, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is absolutely insane with or without Purph. Running a miniature goblin toolbox and a snazzy combo now, not sure how far I should take it. Following this avenue makes me more susceptible to removal, but more resilient to Purph tucks. Goblins also tuck into artifact space, making it a bit more random if you can explode with Myr Incubator or not. I'm currently running 25 artifacts and I've managed to fizzle a rapidly ramped activation already (by 'fizzle' I mean 'leave everybody at a tiny smidgen of health and then have to play on a strange game where I have no artifacts in the deck').
Well, if Price of Progress works for you, that's awesome. I love it in my Legacy burn deck. I just have a thing against anti-synergy...just a hangup of mine. I'm sure it's an awesome feeling when someone finally finds a way to rid themselves of it and you simply punish them for THAT, too. Haha. Anyhow. I think I'm more or less with the Shivan Harvest school of thought, I'd rather blow up the lands than ping for them. The Settlers seem like the kind of thing that might be good too late. Orcish Squatters can really put the fear into some people, ha. Very underlooked card for slower metas. There's also Hellkite Tyrant, big swingy, scary effects are fun, and are ways for mono-red to lash out like the angry child it is. So, why no Zealous Conscripts for the Kiki combo? And, if you really want to punish that green ramp deck.. I might suggest Keldon Firebombers. These guys get no love, but they come to work.
I'm a fun of asymmetric land destruction - Keldon Firebombers hurts me too Shivan Harvest is great, but feels like more of a nonbo with moons than Price of Progress ever did for some reason. Probably because it takes longer to do its work than price, which just needs a tiny window of opportunity.
I haven't posted the updated list yet, as I'm still unhappy with bits of it (think Mimic Vat may get to be in), but there's no Zealous Conscripts. There's Changeling Berserker, blatantly ripped off from another Purphoros thread on this forum, which is pretty much like a conscripts you can tutor for using three goblin tutors. Not even Imperial Recruiter lets you dig for conscripts.
Yeah, I read that thread too..Mimic Vat is just awesome, one of those things that can fit almost anywhere. And as many token generating ETB guys as you have, a solid inclusion. Zealous Conscripts is something you should consider!! Not only is it "oops, I win" with Kiki.. even having it on the Vat can be seriously irritating for an opponent, stealing things on their turn is always fun. Keldon Firebombers is asymmetric and not, all at once. If your green buddy spends the first five turns ramping and is on 8 lands and you're on 4, with rocks out, sure, you both go to three lands but who gets hurt worse? I love them. Of course, I would never play them over Ruination or something of that nature, but still, they're great.
I'll keep that in mind. Yesterday I got kicked and banned by a guy on Cockatrice after he barfed out all his ramp in the first three turns, sitting on a crazy amount of nonbasics and I casually popped a Ruination. Apparently that was more wrong than him having a broken deck with stuff like Prophet of Kruphix, Rhystic Study, Avenger of Zendikar, Consecrated Sphinx et al. in a Maelstrom Wanderer deck. True, if I can pop that firebomber dude while low on lands to tame overramped opponents, that's about as amazing as possible.
You're making quite the case for conscripts. Why, oh why, why couldn't you have been a goblin
I'm also trying to test Thawing Glaciers to no avail, as whenever I draw it the game ends extremely rapidly for some reason. It seems like a good idea though.
Ditched Precursor Golem, who was a bit of a pet card for me, but producing 3 creatures for 5 mana (even if they are 3/3) isn't quite as good as what the new additions can pull off. Thatcher Revolt's tokens vanish EOT, making the card awkward without some form of sac outlet to abuse them. Molten Birth is neat with its potential return-to-hand'ness, but 3 mana for 2 tokens leaves a bit to be desired. Wheel of Fate offers a hefty warning, letting everybody barf out the parts of their hands that are relevant before the wheel takes them away. Goblin Offensive's cut may raise an eyebrow - it's an X spell, and makes goblins to boot! It's also the most overcosted of the X spells (you can split Snake Basket across two turns), making it rather inefficient outside of Mana Echoes mana bubbles.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker breathed new life into the list. True, his devotion is high and tips Purph into creature realms more often than not, but the utility he brings with him makes it more than worth it. He turns a goblin tutor into an infinite combo (thanks Ebline!), or just retriggers ETB. Why not retrigger the ETB when you need to chump? Amazing utility card, helps make the deck not plummet when Purph goes away. Mimic Vat is similar, and can even pick up stuff from your opponents. Nothing like pinching that Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite someone finally managed to remove. Goblin Bombardment is a neat sac outlet - it may lack the trigger cascade of Spawning Pit or Tooth and Claw, but it can ping all sorts of annoying creatures to make up for it.
Lightning Crafter and Skirk Prospector make up an infinite combo with Kiki that's independent of Purph being on the board. If Purph's on the board, even better - Lightning Crafter can "sac" himself, resulting in infinite ETB triggers. There's a debate to be had about whether Lightning Crafter or Changeling Berserker is better: crafter makes for a far stronger combo, pings annoying things when not in a combo, but only works for goblins; berserker's weaker in the combo and offers no additional utility outside of re-triggering ETB, but can re-trigger anything. For now it's crafter - I just won a game turn four with him, with Purph not budging out of the command zone. In spite of multiple soul sisters on the board. If that's not awesome, what is?
The land changes are pretty simple. Valakut's another source of pinging in drawn out games, and having one tap mountain in a deck should be bearable. Thawing Glaciers is yet to have its day, I keep not managing to test it out properly. It strikes me as a very cool thing to have though, a recurring land fetcher for when you have no lands on hand to drop.
Well, it's been a while. It took me a while to talk myself into the changes that I ended up making, but I believe that in the context of my meta they will be for the best.
Now, hear me out here. There are multicolor decks in the meta, but for some reason Blood Moon et al just aren't all that effective. It seems that those decks just run a very high percentage of basic lands, and when something of the moon family comes out, it shuts off like three, four lands across the table tops. Just a meta specific thing. I really didn't want to cut the moon, as it's the crowning achievement of my ruthless capitalistic tale of piecing the deck together, but it just doesn't do anything most of the time. So, all nonbasic hate out.
Since we're making drastic changes, I took the opportunity to re-evaluate some of the cards in the deck. Sensei's Divining Top is cute as hell, and does help me filter topdecks. Kind of. The cards are still there, so sometimes I'd be shoving two cards that were crap in that particular scenario away each turn, repeatedly, hoping for the best. Crystal Ball may be more mana intensive to come down, but at least it scries. As such, useless crap gets kicked out of the way altogether.
Solemn Simulacrum is a value engine, but not a crazy insane one. 4-drop, so if you can play him, you can (and probably should) play Purph. I never had Gilded Lotus in here as it felt that by the time I hit 5 mana, I should be doing something more significant somehow. As such, Depression Automaton can go be sad in my tech box, waiting to be placed in some other deck. Iron Myr is inferior in every way imaginable apart from cost. Helps power out T2/3 Purph? Sign me up.
Shattering Spree is fantastic, but I'd always miss the perfect moment to play it as I'd wait for more artifacts to come down. Viashino Heretic is a slower engine of a similar sort, but he also deals damage. Damage! Sweet, sweet, people-killing, game-ending damage! Yes, this is a bit of an experimental change, we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to EDH Worlds with this or anything, just slinging cards with my meta.
While thumbing through the tech box, I also found a Buried Ruin. Not bad. Slice out a mountain. I'm considering slotting in the cycler lands after their massive success in my Tromo build, especially now that there's no Ruination to occasionally blow them up.
Speaking of Ruination, now there's 4 slots to fill up.
Chandra's Spitfire is an ungodly stupid beatstick, a simple Krenko's Command in a 4-man pod makes this slam for 19. Plus hey, it's an elemental! Flamekin Harbinger's toolbox use broadens - if your hand is light on threats, grab Grinning Ignus and convert all your red to Purph pings. If you have some token making on hand, get the Spitfire and obliterate everyone. Gloriously stupid.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs was good times back when he was in the deck, I was missing some cards and he was a stand-in along with Mind's Eye. Both performed well, but the Eye now lives in my Patron. Still, I have a slot to work with, so Kazuul can come back and be useful again.
Impact Tremors is a DTK invention, and hey, if I can have half-a-Purph (literally, in every way possible), why not have half-a-Purph. +50% efficiency, yo!
So, final slot. The Eye was a good time, but I don't have another Eye and can't be bothered to get one. However, I do have a Slate of Ancestry. I also usually have some tokens sitting around, so this will be a good way to repeatedly refuel and avoid completely fizzling. Given this, and upgrading the top into the ball, the deck should bump up its consistency a little.
Crystal Ball seems way weaker than top. However, I feel you really need fetches to use top and crystal ball is much better without them. I'd consider running Ancient Tomb to rush both your general and other colorless-intensive threats.
Deck looks really powerful overall, I really like Chandra's Spitfire - a burn cards that scales beautifully in multiplayer.
It fills a similar role as you can pay 2 to trigger Purphy, but it goes infinite with Mana Echoes, and Pentavus cannot do that, not to mention its cheaper to cast which is important when the entire table wants you dead.
I like your list, I have got a few ideas from it, as I too am making a Purphy list.
I posted in your thread, in fact reading that thread got me thinking that it's about time I actually cut the moons 8) you'd better have Ensnaring Bridge when I next see your list 8)
I'm unsure how you're looking at Pentavus, it goes infinite with Mana Echoes with no problem. In fact, Pentavus is far superior than Thopter Squadron in every way imaginable aside from mana cost. The instant speed activation makes it more difficult to respond to you going infinite... and also makes it possible for you to crap out a chump and then promptly "reabsorb" the chump onto the Pentavus, negating something non-tramply coming your way. Left some mana up for whatever stuff you may have wanted to do during someone else's turn but it didn't happen? Bounce some chumps. Yee.
I acknowledge that Crystal Ball is inferior to Sensei's Divining Top, but you hit the nail on the head - there's barely any shuffle effects around. I'm probably not going to start running fetches - their thinning effect is not statistically significant, and the shuffle appeal is lost without the top (whilst at the same time I can't ensure top will be around). Ancient Tomb does look pretty cool, but I don't tend to have problems with colourless here between all the sac-for-mana and mana rocks. I may slide it in one day.
I stand corrected, I see Pentavus can go infinite also once I thought about it (I had to rethink about the mechanics of Mana Echoes, and I was not carrying the 1 over), but the mana investment is higher, and in my meta I am usually dead before I get to 7 mana.
Thopter Squadron can do it cheaper, though sorcery speed is a drawback.
I see your point on Crystal Ball, without fetches, Sensei's Divining Top is going to be less affective, though I like the "cheap and dirty" aspect of Top, since it can hide from Terastodon.
Ensnaring Bridge is a strong consideration (though its a tad pricey), I just wish there was a cheap way to tutor for it. (other than Gamble)
Thinking about it now, if I can find a Mana Echoes I might keep Pentavus in my list, but I need to cut some of the other dead weight. Maybe I am trying to justify it because my Pentavus is foil, I dunno.
Cheaper, but sorcery speed. Also getting to 7 mana isn't all that difficult for me, but I do run almost twice the number of mana rocks you do.
The way to go about things like Ensnaring Bridge is to bargain hunt. Scour multiple sites, wait for a while, repeat. Eventually you'll snag the card in question at a price that you'll be happy with. I picked up my bridge for a pittance as it was supposed to be absolutely mangled, I asked the guy for a scan and it turned out to be marginally scuffed. Since then he's been my main card vendor
*sighs, points at OP* "What's this susceptible to? Soul sisters lifegain. Mass artifact removal. Torpor Orb *shudder*." As a person who supposedly has a few Purph games under your own belt, you should know this stuff.
There was still a lot of residual cuteness left over in the list, some of which (Stranglehold) never really did anything and it's a bit of a mystery how it lasted that long. Crystal Ball worked as intended, helping filter draws, but there's no way to tutor it up reliably as hello red. What would you rather topdeck in a stalled out game - Crystal Ball, or something that will let you immediately punch through for the last bit of damage you need? Thought so. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is a lovely card, but isn't quite as back-breaking as Ensnaring Bridge, and the deck's being streamlined, so it's sideline time for him again. Trading Post, Empty the Warrens and Viashino Heretic are both neat in their own way, but similarly need to make way for streamlining changes.
So, what's red and hurts like a mofo? Heartless Hidetsugu. Obviously better early on, whilst life totals are high. Still, the ability to get 10 or so triggers' equivalent for 5 mana is too good to pass up. Precursor Golem makes a triumphant return, as he's a colourless body and combos nice with The Dualcaster Package TM. The Dualcaster Package TM includes Dualcaster Mage, Twinflame and Heat Shimmer. Combo any of the duplication sorceries with the dualcaster and you get a neat gg. Doable as early as turn two. Outside of the combo, all the components are useful - dualcaster's a fork, which can be kiki'd/vatted for good measure, and the sorcery dupers work neat with all the body-based token generation. Oh yeah, there's also the cycle lands based on their huge success in Tromo, and Commune With Lava for explosive all-or-nothing digging yourself out of stall pits.
So now, the deck should be more centred on making lots of bodies, with the side-cuteness helping you get more bang for your buck with your token spells. There's still a tinge of removal, but some stuff's just too good to pass up and every deck needs some degree of answers. Oh yeah, and there's some draw to help with running out of gas. I may sneak in more draw, I'm tempted to get Staff of Nin out of the tech box. We'll see how it goes.
Aside from Purphoros, the most insane card in the deck is Mana Echoes, which lets you generate absolutely obscene amounts of mana. Yes, it sees creatures entering the battlefield and grants you mana even if it's just a single goblin tutor mook. This card and the fact that the best ramp is colorless (Ashnod's Altar, Thran Dynamo and so on) results in me playing lots of X-costed and colorless only token spells. It's quite possible I was the only guy playing Precursor Golem for a decent amount of time. Be it with or without Mana Echoes, the deck is very rarely short on colorless mana whilst red occasionally needs to be rationed.
There's a plethora of goblin tutors to fetch up Krenko, Mob Boss, a true star with or without Purphoros on the board. If you're feeling cheeky, grab Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and assemble a quick infinite. Flamekin Harbinger gets Grinning Ignus to turn all your red mana into Purphoros activations, or Ingot Chewer for emergency artifact removal. There's a decent chunk of hate cards - Blood Moon, Ruination and company tend to be a pain for multicolor decks, Ensnaring Bridge stops you (or anybody else, for that matter) getting slapped by that 11/11 double striking voltron, Stranglehold needs no explanation...
What's this susceptible to? Soul sisters lifegain. Mass artifact removal. Torpor Orb *shudder*. At its best, the deck is explosive and sequences massive bursts of tokens to instantaneously obliterate everybody else at the table. This typically happens with Mana Echoes out. Another good scenario involves hiding behind Ensnaring Bridge, making getting rid of you quite difficult, and hurling tokens until everybody dies. At its worst, the deck is a shambling mess struggling to do anything at all. This typically happens with an unfortunate influx of high-end spells and not enough ramp.
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
VIP Box
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Mana Echoes
1 Norin the Wary
Wombo Combo #1
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Skirk Prospector
Wombo Combo #2
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Twinflame
Mana Rocks
1 Coalition Relic
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Fire Diamond
1 Hedron Archive
1 Iron Myr
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Ruby Medallion
1 Sol Ring
1 Star Compass
1 Worn Powerstone
The Goblins
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Goblin Marshal
1 Goblin Rally
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Krenko's Command
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Firecat Blitz
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Pentavus
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Precursor Golem
1 Skittering Invasion
1 Snake Basket
1 Tempt with Vengeance
The Big Finale
1 Chancellor of the Forge
1 Mogg Infestation
1 Myr Incubator
1 Quest for Pure Flame
Recycle Your Creatures!
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Spawning Pit
Tutors
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Goblin Matron
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Moggcatcher
Draw/Recurring/Utility
1 Commune with Lava
1 Embermaw Hellion
1 Genesis Chamber
1 Impact Tremors
1 Mimic Vat
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Skullclamp
1 Slate of Ancestry
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Chaos Warp
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Vandalblast
Land
1 Buried Ruin
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Kher Keep
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Smoldering Crater
26 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Springjack Pasture
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
VIP Box
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Mana Echoes
1 Norin the Wary
Wombo Combo
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Skirk Prospector
Mana Rocks
1 Coalition Relic
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Fire Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Ruby Medallion
1 Sol Ring
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Star Compass
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Worn Powerstone
The Goblins
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin Marshal
1 Goblin Rally
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Krenko's Command
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Firecat Blitz
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Pentavus
1 Skittering Invasion
1 Snake Basket
1 Tempt with Vengeance
The Big Finale
1 Chancellor of the Forge
1 Mogg Infestation
1 Myr Incubator
1 Quest for Pure Flame
Recycle Your Creatures!
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Spawning Pit
Tutors
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Goblin Matron
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Moggcatcher
Draw/Recurring/Utility
1 Genesis Chamber
1 Mimic Vat
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Trading Post
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Blood Moon
1 Chaos Warp
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Price of Progress
1 Ruination
1 Shattering Spree
1 Stranglehold
1 Vandalblast
Land
1 Kher Keep
1 Scrying Sheets
29 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Springjack Pasture
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
The VIP Box
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Norin the Wary
S.S. & The Mana Rocks
1 Sol Ring
1 Ruby Medallion
1 Star Compass
1 Fire Diamond
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Coalition Relic
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Mind Stone
1 Fellwar Stone
Mana Doublers
1 Caged Sun
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
Lotsa Goblins
1 Beetleback Chief
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Goblin Marshal
1 Goblin Offensive
1 Goblin Rally
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Krenko's Command
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Firecat Blitz
1 Molten Birth
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Precursor Golem
1 Skittering Invasion
1 Thatcher Revolt
1 Snake Basket
1 Tempt with Vengeance
1 Tetravus
The Final Push
1 Chancellor of the Forge
1 Hellion Eruption
1 Myr Incubator
1 Mogg Infestation
Grind 'Em Up!
1 Goblin Warrens
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Ashnod's Altar
Winmore/Purphoros Subs
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Warstorm Surge
Tutors
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Planar Portal
1 Goblin Matron
1 Moggcatcher
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Skullclamp
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Trading Post
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Charmbreaker Devils
Hate/Utility
1 Chaos Warp
1 Shattering Spree
1 Vandalblast
1 Price of Progress
1 Stranglehold
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Ruination
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Land
1 Buried Ruin
1 Kher Keep
1 Springjack Pasture
31 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Buried Ruin
1 Caged Sun
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Planar Portal
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Tetravus
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Blood Moon
1 Genesis Chamber
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Mana Echoes
1 Mogg Alarm
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Price of Progress
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Goblin Warrens
1 Hellion Eruption
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Mogg Alarm
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Mana Vault
1 Pentavus
1 Quest for Pure Flame
1 Spawning Pit
1 Goblin Offensive
1 Molten Birth
1 Precursor Golem
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Thatcher Revolt
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Mimic Vat
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Price of Progress
1 Ruination
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Shattering Spree
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Buried Ruin
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Crystal Ball
1 Impact Tremors
1 Iron Myr
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Slate of Ancestry
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Crystal Ball
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Stranglehold
1 Trading Post
1 Viashino Heretic
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Commune with Lava
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Heartless Hidetsugu
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Precursor Golem
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Twinflame
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Heartless Hidetsugu
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Embermaw Hellion
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Hedron Archive
Other, than that, I'd say that lowering your curve considerably and slotting in more land hate would do wonders for this list. Impending Disaster, Boom / Bust, Thoughts of Ruin, Shivan Harvest, Blood Moon, Keldon Firebombers, Bend or Break, Destructive Urge, Tectonic Break, Wake of Destruction, and Epicenter are all options here. Land hate is red's underhanded way of keeping competitive. If you go this route, make sure to slot in Crucible of Worlds
Other cards I like in a list like this:
Ogre Battledriver
Hellrider
Goblin Rabblemaster
Breath of Fury - combos infinitely
Wayfarer's Bauble
Aggravated Assault + Sword of Feast and Famine
Legion Loyalist
Gratuitous Violence
Going full out goblin deck will let you run Warren Instigator and Goblin Lackey which should give the deck a nice competitive edge. Works well with land destruction.
Guess that's pretty much it, good luck with the list.
MY PRIMER ON NIV-MIZZET, THE FIREMIND, MY CUSTOM CARDS ON DEVIANTART
My other decks:
Kaalia of the Vast: Certified Air Raid Material
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher: NOM NOM NOM!
Aurelia, the Warleader: Warclamp
I followed your advice on curve lowering, and fit in some land hate that avoids blowing my own stuff up. I need the mana. There's some low-costed goblin generation, which isn't all that great by itself but works nice in conjunction with Krenko. Got rid of all the overcosted winmore and tutor-anythings. I never really used them anyway.
Still unsure if I'm running the right balance of token generation/goodstuff, but I'm really running out of token generation
If you're looking for more places to make creatures into resources, Thermopod is another outlet and Skirk Prospector does the same and cheaper with your goblins. Battle Hymn and Brightstone Ritual do something similar as spells and are pretty good fuel leading up to Empty the Warrens or Tempt with Vengeance.
Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
After the recent changes the list plays reasonably well. If it doesn't hit mana rocks early it's awkwardly slow, but once Purphoros is on the field all is pretty fine and dandy thanks to the slight curve lowering. Running more mana rocks would be nice, but I think I have most of the low-cost ones (missing Mana Crypt and Mana Vault) and adding something like a Dreamstone Hedron won't help me power out a turn 2/3 Purphoros, will it
I was looking at my lists since you asked and remembered two more things I've seen omitted a lot. Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician can really help close out games when you need to squeeze out juuuuust a few more Purphoros triggers but haven't got much fuel.
And then there's Imperial Recruiter. If you can afford to invest in a couple, or play with proxies, use this dude. The Recruiter is just a freaking BEAST of a tutor in every single deck I've tried him in. Here he can grab a bunch of your other tutors, several of your token-makers, ramp (in the form of Sad Robot) and two of your VIPs, etc. All on a body, to trigger one more Purphoros hit.
Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
Ib's a really cool goblin, definitely putting him in if I build a Krenko. This guy comes with a huge target painted on him and doesn't reap rewards quite as insane as Krenko in the Purph list. The same goes for the rest of the sac outlets - they're ickle witty creatures that get slugged on the head with a boardwipe, and "help" Purph become a creature. Still, all ideas to consider.
Really looking forward to your lists, should be quite interesting to look at.
Ib's function for me is always as a finisher - rather than a gobo with stats and all of that he gets played as a 4cc sorcery that says "Sacrifice an even number of Mountains: put that many 1/1 red Goblins into play". The upside is not needing haste to use him - I can drop Ib and answer removal or my own LD by spamming out 8 to 16 damage to each opponent. Turns where I get to tap my land for mana, feed it to Ib for bodies, then feed the bodies to altar effects to cast more bodies are usually blowouts
The serious list is up - here. Working on the Mono Red Blink one now.
Most Used (of many dozens) EDH Decks:
Brago, King Eternal - Stax
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Aggro Combo
Wort, the Raidmother - Spellslinger Swarm Control
Animar, Soul of Elements - Tempo Combo
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Spellslinger
Exodia the Forbidden One:
Oona, Queen of the Fae - Combowins.dec
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Goblin Warrens
1 Hellion Eruption
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Mogg Alarm
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Mana Vault
1 Pentavus
1 Quest for Pure Flame
1 Spawning Pit
Got rid of high-cost stuff that never really did anything (Chandra Ablaze may be a good draw engine, but costs 6 mana and doesn't bring much else to the deck; Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is a good defensive card but can be removed rather easily; both have a high devotion to red), plus situational utility (Goblin Warrens is neat for multiplying your goblin herd, but you explicitly need goblins and the three-mana allotment makes it a bit awkward to work around other spells; Young Pyromancer was inferior to Genesis Chamber as the closest instants/sorceries get to a Norin or Ignus is Molten Birth).
Most of the additions are low-cost utility stuff that can actually be played before Purphoros hits the board (always a good thing as in some early builds of the deck I found myself awkwardly holding most of my hand awaiting Purphoros's arrival). Quest for Pure Flame doubles the pain from a massive turn, but often baits Purphoros bouncing/tucking. This can be of potential strategic use. Spawning Pit is one of those two-for-one-new grind 'em up altars that the original Purphoros thread was so fond of, and its low two-mana cost combined with wipe resilience in the form of counter placement make it a good option to have. Mana Vault is a potentially brilliant mana rock, and fits well with the colorless mana burst theme of the list. Ensnaring Bridge is Kazuul on crack, and is less mana intensive. Additionally, the recent changes bump the list back up to 26 artifacts, making an early Myr Incubator a more reliable insta-kill.
Pentavus is there for the Mana Echoes, as it's an insta-kill with that enchantment on the table. It strikes a good balance between being mana-economical, versatile and useful outside of infinites - Thopter Squadron is a measly five mana, but you can only do the token thing at sorcery speed. Pentavus offers two more tokens, costs two more mana, lacks flying, but the operations can be performed at instant speed. In the case of a board wipe, there's nothing stopping you from popping out all five mooks to hurt the rest of the table for 10 (especially if you can Spawning Pit them all as well). There's nothing stopping you from popping out a chump blocker who you promptly return to the mothership - particularly useful against lifelinkers. Myr Matrix is more resilient than Pentavus, but offers barely any utility outside of going off with Mana Echoes. Additionally, it takes way more resources to get going - 15 mana if coming into play from the hand, or 10 if it's already there. Pentavus only needs the mana you cast him with, or 1 mana if he's on the table. Of course, running multiples of these infinite options is possible, but would be silly given how mana-intensive they are. As such, I just went with the most versatile looking one.
Hordeling Outburst is just a direct upgrade of Mogg Alarm featured in the new set.
Price of Progress is still by far the best mana to damage 2-drop I have, I whacked people over the head for crazy amounts of damage with it in drawn-out games. It doesn't even need Purph on the board! True, moons get in its way, but if you manage to land a moon you should be in good enough shape to not have to worry about the fact one of your 99 just went a bit dead (until the moon gets removed).
Speaking of mass land hate, I'm toying with the idea of Shivan Harvest as suggested upthread. There's pretty much always some form of chumps around to activate it. Either this or Wake of Destruction to hose mono-colour decks unaffected by moons and ruination. I got a turn two blood moon out, locking two of my foes out of the game completely, whilst the green deck proceeded to not give a damn and ramp to victory. Tough choice. Leaning towards harvest at the moment. There's also Orcish Settlers, which is absolutely insane when the ramp engine takes off, but comes on a frail unhasted 1/1 body.
I've been tweaking the list a bit since the last post, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is absolutely insane with or without Purph. Running a miniature goblin toolbox and a snazzy combo now, not sure how far I should take it. Following this avenue makes me more susceptible to removal, but more resilient to Purph tucks. Goblins also tuck into artifact space, making it a bit more random if you can explode with Myr Incubator or not. I'm currently running 25 artifacts and I've managed to fizzle a rapidly ramped activation already (by 'fizzle' I mean 'leave everybody at a tiny smidgen of health and then have to play on a strange game where I have no artifacts in the deck').
And yeah, Trading Post is amazing.
I haven't posted the updated list yet, as I'm still unhappy with bits of it (think Mimic Vat may get to be in), but there's no Zealous Conscripts. There's Changeling Berserker, blatantly ripped off from another Purphoros thread on this forum, which is pretty much like a conscripts you can tutor for using three goblin tutors. Not even Imperial Recruiter lets you dig for conscripts.
You're making quite the case for conscripts. Why, oh why, why couldn't you have been a goblin
I'm also trying to test Thawing Glaciers to no avail, as whenever I draw it the game ends extremely rapidly for some reason. It seems like a good idea though.
1 Goblin Offensive
1 Molten Birth
1 Precursor Golem
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Thatcher Revolt
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Mimic Vat
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Ditched Precursor Golem, who was a bit of a pet card for me, but producing 3 creatures for 5 mana (even if they are 3/3) isn't quite as good as what the new additions can pull off. Thatcher Revolt's tokens vanish EOT, making the card awkward without some form of sac outlet to abuse them. Molten Birth is neat with its potential return-to-hand'ness, but 3 mana for 2 tokens leaves a bit to be desired. Wheel of Fate offers a hefty warning, letting everybody barf out the parts of their hands that are relevant before the wheel takes them away. Goblin Offensive's cut may raise an eyebrow - it's an X spell, and makes goblins to boot! It's also the most overcosted of the X spells (you can split Snake Basket across two turns), making it rather inefficient outside of Mana Echoes mana bubbles.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker breathed new life into the list. True, his devotion is high and tips Purph into creature realms more often than not, but the utility he brings with him makes it more than worth it. He turns a goblin tutor into an infinite combo (thanks Ebline!), or just retriggers ETB. Why not retrigger the ETB when you need to chump? Amazing utility card, helps make the deck not plummet when Purph goes away. Mimic Vat is similar, and can even pick up stuff from your opponents. Nothing like pinching that Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite someone finally managed to remove. Goblin Bombardment is a neat sac outlet - it may lack the trigger cascade of Spawning Pit or Tooth and Claw, but it can ping all sorts of annoying creatures to make up for it.
Lightning Crafter and Skirk Prospector make up an infinite combo with Kiki that's independent of Purph being on the board. If Purph's on the board, even better - Lightning Crafter can "sac" himself, resulting in infinite ETB triggers. There's a debate to be had about whether Lightning Crafter or Changeling Berserker is better: crafter makes for a far stronger combo, pings annoying things when not in a combo, but only works for goblins; berserker's weaker in the combo and offers no additional utility outside of re-triggering ETB, but can re-trigger anything. For now it's crafter - I just won a game turn four with him, with Purph not budging out of the command zone. In spite of multiple soul sisters on the board. If that's not awesome, what is?
The land changes are pretty simple. Valakut's another source of pinging in drawn out games, and having one tap mountain in a deck should be bearable. Thawing Glaciers is yet to have its day, I keep not managing to test it out properly. It strikes me as a very cool thing to have though, a recurring land fetcher for when you have no lands on hand to drop.
1 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Price of Progress
1 Ruination
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Shattering Spree
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Buried Ruin
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Crystal Ball
1 Impact Tremors
1 Iron Myr
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Slate of Ancestry
1 Viashino Heretic
Now, hear me out here. There are multicolor decks in the meta, but for some reason Blood Moon et al just aren't all that effective. It seems that those decks just run a very high percentage of basic lands, and when something of the moon family comes out, it shuts off like three, four lands across the table tops. Just a meta specific thing. I really didn't want to cut the moon, as it's the crowning achievement of my ruthless capitalistic tale of piecing the deck together, but it just doesn't do anything most of the time. So, all nonbasic hate out.
Since we're making drastic changes, I took the opportunity to re-evaluate some of the cards in the deck. Sensei's Divining Top is cute as hell, and does help me filter topdecks. Kind of. The cards are still there, so sometimes I'd be shoving two cards that were crap in that particular scenario away each turn, repeatedly, hoping for the best. Crystal Ball may be more mana intensive to come down, but at least it scries. As such, useless crap gets kicked out of the way altogether.
Solemn Simulacrum is a value engine, but not a crazy insane one. 4-drop, so if you can play him, you can (and probably should) play Purph. I never had Gilded Lotus in here as it felt that by the time I hit 5 mana, I should be doing something more significant somehow. As such, Depression Automaton can go be sad in my tech box, waiting to be placed in some other deck. Iron Myr is inferior in every way imaginable apart from cost. Helps power out T2/3 Purph? Sign me up.
Shattering Spree is fantastic, but I'd always miss the perfect moment to play it as I'd wait for more artifacts to come down. Viashino Heretic is a slower engine of a similar sort, but he also deals damage. Damage! Sweet, sweet, people-killing, game-ending damage! Yes, this is a bit of an experimental change, we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to EDH Worlds with this or anything, just slinging cards with my meta.
While thumbing through the tech box, I also found a Buried Ruin. Not bad. Slice out a mountain. I'm considering slotting in the cycler lands after their massive success in my Tromo build, especially now that there's no Ruination to occasionally blow them up.
Speaking of Ruination, now there's 4 slots to fill up.
Chandra's Spitfire is an ungodly stupid beatstick, a simple Krenko's Command in a 4-man pod makes this slam for 19. Plus hey, it's an elemental! Flamekin Harbinger's toolbox use broadens - if your hand is light on threats, grab Grinning Ignus and convert all your red to Purph pings. If you have some token making on hand, get the Spitfire and obliterate everyone. Gloriously stupid.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs was good times back when he was in the deck, I was missing some cards and he was a stand-in along with Mind's Eye. Both performed well, but the Eye now lives in my Patron. Still, I have a slot to work with, so Kazuul can come back and be useful again.
Impact Tremors is a DTK invention, and hey, if I can have half-a-Purph (literally, in every way possible), why not have half-a-Purph. +50% efficiency, yo!
So, final slot. The Eye was a good time, but I don't have another Eye and can't be bothered to get one. However, I do have a Slate of Ancestry. I also usually have some tokens sitting around, so this will be a good way to repeatedly refuel and avoid completely fizzling. Given this, and upgrading the top into the ball, the deck should bump up its consistency a little.
Deck looks really powerful overall, I really like Chandra's Spitfire - a burn cards that scales beautifully in multiplayer.
It fills a similar role as you can pay 2 to trigger Purphy, but it goes infinite with Mana Echoes, and Pentavus cannot do that, not to mention its cheaper to cast which is important when the entire table wants you dead.
I like your list, I have got a few ideas from it, as I too am making a Purphy list.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
I'm unsure how you're looking at Pentavus, it goes infinite with Mana Echoes with no problem. In fact, Pentavus is far superior than Thopter Squadron in every way imaginable aside from mana cost. The instant speed activation makes it more difficult to respond to you going infinite... and also makes it possible for you to crap out a chump and then promptly "reabsorb" the chump onto the Pentavus, negating something non-tramply coming your way. Left some mana up for whatever stuff you may have wanted to do during someone else's turn but it didn't happen? Bounce some chumps. Yee.
I acknowledge that Crystal Ball is inferior to Sensei's Divining Top, but you hit the nail on the head - there's barely any shuffle effects around. I'm probably not going to start running fetches - their thinning effect is not statistically significant, and the shuffle appeal is lost without the top (whilst at the same time I can't ensure top will be around). Ancient Tomb does look pretty cool, but I don't tend to have problems with colourless here between all the sac-for-mana and mana rocks. I may slide it in one day.
Thopter Squadron can do it cheaper, though sorcery speed is a drawback.
I see your point on Crystal Ball, without fetches, Sensei's Divining Top is going to be less affective, though I like the "cheap and dirty" aspect of Top, since it can hide from Terastodon.
Ensnaring Bridge is a strong consideration (though its a tad pricey), I just wish there was a cheap way to tutor for it. (other than Gamble)
Thinking about it now, if I can find a Mana Echoes I might keep Pentavus in my list, but I need to cut some of the other dead weight. Maybe I am trying to justify it because my Pentavus is foil, I dunno.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
The way to go about things like Ensnaring Bridge is to bargain hunt. Scour multiple sites, wait for a while, repeat. Eventually you'll snag the card in question at a price that you'll be happy with. I picked up my bridge for a pittance as it was supposed to be absolutely mangled, I asked the guy for a scan and it turned out to be marginally scuffed. Since then he's been my main card vendor
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
1 Crystal Ball
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
1 Stranglehold
1 Trading Post
1 Viashino Heretic
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Commune with Lava
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Heartless Hidetsugu
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Precursor Golem
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Twinflame
There was still a lot of residual cuteness left over in the list, some of which (Stranglehold) never really did anything and it's a bit of a mystery how it lasted that long. Crystal Ball worked as intended, helping filter draws, but there's no way to tutor it up reliably as hello red. What would you rather topdeck in a stalled out game - Crystal Ball, or something that will let you immediately punch through for the last bit of damage you need? Thought so. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs is a lovely card, but isn't quite as back-breaking as Ensnaring Bridge, and the deck's being streamlined, so it's sideline time for him again. Trading Post, Empty the Warrens and Viashino Heretic are both neat in their own way, but similarly need to make way for streamlining changes.
So, what's red and hurts like a mofo? Heartless Hidetsugu. Obviously better early on, whilst life totals are high. Still, the ability to get 10 or so triggers' equivalent for 5 mana is too good to pass up. Precursor Golem makes a triumphant return, as he's a colourless body and combos nice with The Dualcaster Package TM. The Dualcaster Package TM includes Dualcaster Mage, Twinflame and Heat Shimmer. Combo any of the duplication sorceries with the dualcaster and you get a neat gg. Doable as early as turn two. Outside of the combo, all the components are useful - dualcaster's a fork, which can be kiki'd/vatted for good measure, and the sorcery dupers work neat with all the body-based token generation. Oh yeah, there's also the cycle lands based on their huge success in Tromo, and Commune With Lava for explosive all-or-nothing digging yourself out of stall pits.
So now, the deck should be more centred on making lots of bodies, with the side-cuteness helping you get more bang for your buck with your token spells. There's still a tinge of removal, but some stuff's just too good to pass up and every deck needs some degree of answers. Oh yeah, and there's some draw to help with running out of gas. I may sneak in more draw, I'm tempted to get Staff of Nin out of the tech box. We'll see how it goes.