So far, Deadwood Treefolk hasn't impressed me much (even though it can return itself, it feels fragile), but I think the Caldera hellion will take his place.
Fauna Shaman was actually underwhelming in my games, but I feel it's still necessary to dig key answers, anger, and would get better with the aforementioned protection.
Slithermuse was actually a bit sub par as well, but I think will increase in value with further testing. I only drew him in one of the 3 player games, where neither opponent had acy amount of draw power at all. A potential replacement (at 80 odd cents) is Gilt-Leaf Archdruid as well, which manages draw, and threat, very very well. (too well?) There are currently 13 Druids in the deck. With Riku doubling them, I only need 3 other druids to cast (and double) to use his ability, and have limited sets of tutoring to find them (or him).
I didn't draw the Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal in my testing, which were added to help increase copies, and give further reach in the event of a lack of draw, or threat, yet I never had an issue where I had nothing to play in my games. They may actually be expendable... ?
Sylvan Safekeeper - concerned over loss of land though. Riku starves for mana.
In my experience with this card in multiplayer people don't want to turn their spot removal into a bad Stone Rain. She plays out more like a 1 mana Asceticism except unlike Asceticism she also protects herself.
EDIT: Also please play Adventurers' Guildhouse in the Mirror Gallery version...you know you want to. Riku banding with Riku, Stangg banding with Stangg. So terrible and yet so epic.
In my experience with this card in multiplayer people don't want to turn their spot removal into a bad Stone Rain. She plays out more like a 1 mana Asceticism except unlike Asceticism she also protects herself.
I'm also concerned about indirect sources though, like a Jitte hitting the field, or a Kiku, etc. My brother would be more than happy to pop off jitte counters to kill my stuff or sink lands.
All he has to do is drop it on a doublestriker, and its pretty much pure pain for Riku, though that's more how stupidly broken Jitte is than anything else.
I see what you mean for most removals though, when a Riku player has 9 mana, you don't want that STP to just tickle. It's why I think I want to try him out in the protection package. He worked insanely well in Edric, and I think the same would apply to this deck, especially as he is tutorable, which puts him ahead of both equipment for me.
Yeah the indirect sources are a pain but you really don't see too much of them. Jitte, Sofi...not much else I can think of though I'm sure I'm missing a few.
So, I'm sure it's been done before, and I'm sure it's been said before, but podding an Anger into a Kessig Cagebreakers is pretty beastly.
So, from tonight: Awesome night, a few irregulars showed up, so we had 8 players at any given time, as a few early leavers were exchanged for late arrivals, which allowed us to have 2 4 player games going, which was nice as I died early some games and got to trade places with an early death from the other game. Was nice to change up players frequently.
Game 1: 3 player (Zur, Konda). I manage to pull out a Parallel lives for some early mana elf tripling, but nothing too crazy, as the other two decks have gone insane. Someone wipes, but I replay Riku, pod, and start opening up with double acidic slime and stuff to clear new threats that have hit the board. Riku gets removed, but I replay him the next turn, with an anger (no copy), which I pod into Cagebreakers. Attack for 16 wolves and a near dead opponent. I take a hit from a Vish Kal, and one from a massively beefed up Windborn muse, lose my Cagebreaker token, but next turn I Crystal Shard my Cagebreakers, drop them (and copy), and pod off some 3 cost elf for a Hellrider and copy. While the new wolves don't trigger the double Hellriders, the 13 left over from the last attack will, and an 8 counter Garruk Wildspeaker (no, I have no idea how that actually was allowed to happen) Overruns for the gratuitous seriously overkill.
Game 2: I got hated on early for some odd reason. A Budoka Gardner (house ruled) and a Szadeck deck joined the fray for a 5 player game, and zur switched over to a Niv deck. Budoka got off to a crazy start, Niv dropped an early puzzlebox to mess stuff up, Konda had massive equipment beats, so Szadeck and I take some early pain. I got lucky with another early parallel lives, but had nothing to do until around turn 4/5, so I played catchup with a triple Ondu Giant, Wood Elves, and Quirion Elves. Niv wipes (kedreck Leviathan) leaves me mostly defenseless, I follow with re-playing Riku, Parallel lives, and a 2/2 elf of some sort while the Puzzlebox is off the field. A 21 damage terravore then took me out while I had Riku and some other 2 toughness creature (I may have annoyed Budoka, as after he hit me with a 14/14 elemental in the air, I tiple copied a Fornicating Monkeys to kill his Akroma's Memorial, Lightning Greaves, and Sword of Light and Shadow). Lucky for them, as the Puzzlebox on the field was going to give me an elvish Archdruid, Farhaven Elf and Viridian Emissary, which I could have cast all of, and doubled 2 of them (not the emissary). Since I'd opted to keep my parallel lives the turn previous over the pod, that would have been some serious mana, and beefy elves.
I played a few games of Edric, then played another game of Riku.
Game ???: 3 player, Skullbriar, Gwendylon. I don't remember too much about this one, except that a Bloodchief Ascension went unanswered early, so Skullbriar and I were low life, and Gwendylon was at something absurd (actually, it was only in the 50's). Somehow, Garruk was ignored again, and victory came off of mainly Primordial Sage as Gwendylon kept me in top deck mode, but a In the web of war turned copying Wirewood Channelers into a ridiculous mana source (8+ mana, per, and rising), and the pod opens me into a pair of Hellrider so an overrun from Garruk takes out Gwendylon in a hit, while riku saunters over to the 1 life Skullbriar for a gratuitous Hellrider poke.
Then I played a game with Vaevictis, where I made crazy misplays, spread the love instead of one-shotting people, and then forgetting Skytherix gives himself haste, dying horrendously to poison. Oops. Was funny though. Also, had a Mana Reflection online from turn 6, which was a) my first non-land permanent, and b) still out when I died. Also, we allowed a player a Snow Mercy, who I then poked with Vaevictis and didn't kill, so that was amusing for a while. I should have just let Vaevictis die to his upkeep, so I could recast him, but I wasn't thinking much this game.
So, fun night, and the All-star of the night goes... once again... to Hellrider. Guy. is. a. beast.
===
And my freakin Calderra Hellions have STILL not arrived yet, so the treefolk is still in the deck. He's really not impressing me currently. This deck wants to be more aggressive I feel.
Also, I had a situation where I had pod out, and only 6 drops on the field (and a very expensive Riku). I was sad at the un-used pod. I have this theory that if a pod isn't tapped, you're doing it wrong.
So, I think changes are incoming (My hellions have arrived).
Other non-impressive cards so far have been Slithermuse, I think I have a high opinion of, because I like having a full hand, thus everytime it's used against me, good things happen. It also does not copy so well... oops.
The bounce portals and recusion spells have been a bit of a wash for me, the tempo loss hurting a bit. I'm hesitant to remove them, but I'm starting to think that just putting more stuff out on the field is the better overall answer, I'm looking into it more and more.
Incoming, post AVR (I think):
My Hellions (yay!)
Possibly Gilt Leaf Archdruid.
Tamply death AVR overrun hasty guy.
Druid's Repository. Sylvan Safekeeper
Boots and Whispersilk may make it in for shroud/hexproof.
New&Better primordial sage.
Maybe the new guy that makes all my guys unblockable. I mean, what?
Still waiting on tramply overrun guy and the new primordial sage guy.
Changes are tentative. I'm a bit iffy on removing so much draw, but oddly I haven't had an issue in previous games, and never played any of those ones. I'll have to go for it by feel.
Also, I haven't looked much into what this will do to my pod curve, so I'll see on that too.
Wild Pair was fun, and there was one game where it singlehandedly saved me and won me the game, but outside of that one game, it's always been a win-more. It may come back in because it's fun (for me), but also may not due to how much searching it requires.
Soul of the elements is in my deck, I believe I may have straight swapped him with the Primordial sage, but I'm not sure. OP decklist reflects that currently.
I also just realized that Druids' Repository is in my paper deck, and I don't remember what I cut. It's a .50 card though, so it's not a huge issue for now, but I'll need to compare my decklist now. This is what I get for not updating the OP immediately.
And of course, Progenitor Mimic. But I mean, $6 is a lot to drop in a $50 budget. Just some things to consider.
Ral Zarek went in mine immediately. Especially since it's a J-foil. But I suppose that's pretty much out of the question.
Thankfully, the mimic has gone down some now, especially since it's taken me 7 months to respond to you. I initially burned a lot of my budget on lords, which would obviously be shifted around today, I've found the lords to be rather lackluster. While the deck doesn't infinite it does essentially still win by combo.
By the way, doing approx 3 x 10^25 damage non-infinite... Yeah, magic has gotten crazy.
Sorry for the multitude of comments, but Momir Vig, Simic Visionary also seems like he could be a serious house. Especially with all your draw.
Vig is a house. If I were to retry this experiment from scratch, he'd probably be another fore-runner. While I'd stay away from infinites, I'd probably also lean a bit more towards 'combo.'
Sylvan Safekeeper - concerned over loss of land though. Riku starves for mana.
Mask of Avacyn
Lightning Greaves - IN PRECON
But I don't know what to remove...
So far, Deadwood Treefolk hasn't impressed me much (even though it can return itself, it feels fragile), but I think the Caldera hellion will take his place.
Fauna Shaman was actually underwhelming in my games, but I feel it's still necessary to dig key answers, anger, and would get better with the aforementioned protection.
Slithermuse was actually a bit sub par as well, but I think will increase in value with further testing. I only drew him in one of the 3 player games, where neither opponent had acy amount of draw power at all. A potential replacement (at 80 odd cents) is Gilt-Leaf Archdruid as well, which manages draw, and threat, very very well. (too well?) There are currently 13 Druids in the deck. With Riku doubling them, I only need 3 other druids to cast (and double) to use his ability, and have limited sets of tutoring to find them (or him).
I didn't draw the Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal in my testing, which were added to help increase copies, and give further reach in the event of a lack of draw, or threat, yet I never had an issue where I had nothing to play in my games. They may actually be expendable... ?
Primordial Sage as well seems a bit expensive.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
In my experience with this card in multiplayer people don't want to turn their spot removal into a bad Stone Rain. She plays out more like a 1 mana Asceticism except unlike Asceticism she also protects herself.
EDIT: Also please play Adventurers' Guildhouse in the Mirror Gallery version...you know you want to. Riku banding with Riku, Stangg banding with Stangg. So terrible and yet so epic.
I'm also concerned about indirect sources though, like a Jitte hitting the field, or a Kiku, etc. My brother would be more than happy to pop off jitte counters to kill my stuff or sink lands.
All he has to do is drop it on a doublestriker, and its pretty much pure pain for Riku, though that's more how stupidly broken Jitte is than anything else.
I see what you mean for most removals though, when a Riku player has 9 mana, you don't want that STP to just tickle. It's why I think I want to try him out in the protection package. He worked insanely well in Edric, and I think the same would apply to this deck, especially as he is tutorable, which puts him ahead of both equipment for me.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
So, from tonight: Awesome night, a few irregulars showed up, so we had 8 players at any given time, as a few early leavers were exchanged for late arrivals, which allowed us to have 2 4 player games going, which was nice as I died early some games and got to trade places with an early death from the other game. Was nice to change up players frequently.
Game 1: 3 player (Zur, Konda). I manage to pull out a Parallel lives for some early mana elf tripling, but nothing too crazy, as the other two decks have gone insane. Someone wipes, but I replay Riku, pod, and start opening up with double acidic slime and stuff to clear new threats that have hit the board. Riku gets removed, but I replay him the next turn, with an anger (no copy), which I pod into Cagebreakers. Attack for 16 wolves and a near dead opponent. I take a hit from a Vish Kal, and one from a massively beefed up Windborn muse, lose my Cagebreaker token, but next turn I Crystal Shard my Cagebreakers, drop them (and copy), and pod off some 3 cost elf for a Hellrider and copy. While the new wolves don't trigger the double Hellriders, the 13 left over from the last attack will, and an 8 counter Garruk Wildspeaker (no, I have no idea how that actually was allowed to happen) Overruns for the gratuitous seriously overkill.
Game 2: I got hated on early for some odd reason. A Budoka Gardner (house ruled) and a Szadeck deck joined the fray for a 5 player game, and zur switched over to a Niv deck. Budoka got off to a crazy start, Niv dropped an early puzzlebox to mess stuff up, Konda had massive equipment beats, so Szadeck and I take some early pain. I got lucky with another early parallel lives, but had nothing to do until around turn 4/5, so I played catchup with a triple Ondu Giant, Wood Elves, and Quirion Elves. Niv wipes (kedreck Leviathan) leaves me mostly defenseless, I follow with re-playing Riku, Parallel lives, and a 2/2 elf of some sort while the Puzzlebox is off the field. A 21 damage terravore then took me out while I had Riku and some other 2 toughness creature (I may have annoyed Budoka, as after he hit me with a 14/14 elemental in the air, I tiple copied a Fornicating Monkeys to kill his Akroma's Memorial, Lightning Greaves, and Sword of Light and Shadow). Lucky for them, as the Puzzlebox on the field was going to give me an elvish Archdruid, Farhaven Elf and Viridian Emissary, which I could have cast all of, and doubled 2 of them (not the emissary). Since I'd opted to keep my parallel lives the turn previous over the pod, that would have been some serious mana, and beefy elves.
I played a few games of Edric, then played another game of Riku.
Game ???: 3 player, Skullbriar, Gwendylon. I don't remember too much about this one, except that a Bloodchief Ascension went unanswered early, so Skullbriar and I were low life, and Gwendylon was at something absurd (actually, it was only in the 50's). Somehow, Garruk was ignored again, and victory came off of mainly Primordial Sage as Gwendylon kept me in top deck mode, but a In the web of war turned copying Wirewood Channelers into a ridiculous mana source (8+ mana, per, and rising), and the pod opens me into a pair of Hellrider so an overrun from Garruk takes out Gwendylon in a hit, while riku saunters over to the 1 life Skullbriar for a gratuitous Hellrider poke.
Then I played a game with Vaevictis, where I made crazy misplays, spread the love instead of one-shotting people, and then forgetting Skytherix gives himself haste, dying horrendously to poison. Oops. Was funny though. Also, had a Mana Reflection online from turn 6, which was a) my first non-land permanent, and b) still out when I died. Also, we allowed a player a Snow Mercy, who I then poked with Vaevictis and didn't kill, so that was amusing for a while. I should have just let Vaevictis die to his upkeep, so I could recast him, but I wasn't thinking much this game.
So, fun night, and the All-star of the night goes... once again... to Hellrider. Guy. is. a. beast.
===
And my freakin Calderra Hellions have STILL not arrived yet, so the treefolk is still in the deck. He's really not impressing me currently. This deck wants to be more aggressive I feel.
Also, I had a situation where I had pod out, and only 6 drops on the field (and a very expensive Riku). I was sad at the un-used pod. I have this theory that if a pod isn't tapped, you're doing it wrong.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
Other non-impressive cards so far have been Slithermuse, I think I have a high opinion of, because I like having a full hand, thus everytime it's used against me, good things happen. It also does not copy so well... oops.
The bounce portals and recusion spells have been a bit of a wash for me, the tempo loss hurting a bit. I'm hesitant to remove them, but I'm starting to think that just putting more stuff out on the field is the better overall answer, I'm looking into it more and more.
Deadwood Treefolk. Just. Has been a lot of nothing overall.
Incoming, post AVR (I think):
My Hellions (yay!)
Possibly Gilt Leaf Archdruid.
Tamply death AVR overrun hasty guy.
Druid's Repository.
Sylvan Safekeeper
Boots and Whispersilk may make it in for shroud/hexproof.
New&Better primordial sage.
Maybe the new guy that makes all my guys unblockable. I mean, what?
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
-Slithermuse
-Recurring Insight
-Elven Cache
-Shared Animosity
-Comet Storm
-Heartwood Storyteller
-Deadwood Treefolk
-Harabaz Druid
+Caldera Hellion
+Viridian Corrupter
+Somberwald Sage
+Ulvenwald Tracker
+Clone
+Whispersilk Cloak
+Lightning Greaves
+Sylvan Safekeeper
Still waiting on tramply overrun guy and the new primordial sage guy.
Changes are tentative. I'm a bit iffy on removing so much draw, but oddly I haven't had an issue in previous games, and never played any of those ones. I'll have to go for it by feel.
Also, I haven't looked much into what this will do to my pod curve, so I'll see on that too.
Wild Pair was fun, and there was one game where it singlehandedly saved me and won me the game, but outside of that one game, it's always been a win-more. It may come back in because it's fun (for me), but also may not due to how much searching it requires.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
I also just realized that Druids' Repository is in my paper deck, and I don't remember what I cut. It's a .50 card though, so it's not a huge issue for now, but I'll need to compare my decklist now. This is what I get for not updating the OP immediately.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
Ral Zarek went in mine immediately. Especially since it's a J-foil. But I suppose that's pretty much out of the question.
I don't run enough spells to make him worthwhile. In a spell-slinger, he is far and away amazing, but sadly, this isn't the deck for him.
Thankfully, the mimic has gone down some now, especially since it's taken me 7 months to respond to you. I initially burned a lot of my budget on lords, which would obviously be shifted around today, I've found the lords to be rather lackluster. While the deck doesn't infinite it does essentially still win by combo.
By the way, doing approx 3 x 10^25 damage non-infinite... Yeah, magic has gotten crazy.
Vig is a house. If I were to retry this experiment from scratch, he'd probably be another fore-runner. While I'd stay away from infinites, I'd probably also lean a bit more towards 'combo.'
Shame that Master of Waves is so expensive. Riku loves him.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek