I was the one who asked about Ayli in the EDH Facebook group. After finally reading the primer, I think I'm gonna commit to the deck, as it seems sweet
I was the one who asked about Ayli in the EDH Facebook group. After finally reading the primer, I think I'm gonna commit to the deck, as it seems sweet
Well hey there! Thanks for stopping by and for deciding to take the dive! I post updates and add content on a weekly basis, so feel free to stop by and ask any questions or leave feedback on how the deck ends up working out for you. This is probably a better place to discuss than Facebook since everyone in the EDH Commander group is so eager to jump in and assert their opinions, heh.
I was the one who asked about Ayli in the EDH Facebook group. After finally reading the primer, I think I'm gonna commit to the deck, as it seems sweet
Well hey there! Thanks for stopping by and for deciding to take the dive! I post updates and add content on a weekly basis, so feel free to stop by and ask any questions or leave feedback on how the deck ends up working out for you. This is probably a better place to discuss than Facebook since everyone in the EDH Commander group is so eager to jump in and assert their opinions, heh.
I guess this thread will be best since people here are experienced with the deck and know about it. Whereas on Facebook, everyone will just give their thoughts
does Ayli draw much hate (yet)? or is she still an under the radar commander?
I was the one who asked about Ayli in the EDH Facebook group. After finally reading the primer, I think I'm gonna commit to the deck, as it seems sweet
Well hey there! Thanks for stopping by and for deciding to take the dive! I post updates and add content on a weekly basis, so feel free to stop by and ask any questions or leave feedback on how the deck ends up working out for you. This is probably a better place to discuss than Facebook since everyone in the EDH Commander group is so eager to jump in and assert their opinions, heh.
I guess this thread will be best since people here are experienced with the deck and know about it. Whereas on Facebook, everyone will just give their thoughts
does Ayli draw much hate (yet)? or is she still an under the radar commander?
At the stores I play at, she is very much under the radar. Early in the game she really serves as a deterrent from creature hate being a 2/3 with Deathtouch as no one is ready yet to throw their creatures away. She generally doesn't ever die unless a mass removal spell hits the table, and usually it's my own. As people catch on they tend to still leave her alone as she's not particularly as powerful of a sac outlet as other options in the deck like Ashnod's Altar. As far as general hate, as in "You're playing Ayli so you're dying first", I have a few people that are a bit scared of the deck but who won't target me because they know how resilient it is. It's very easy to wipe other player's boards out with the build I run in the main post, so most people don't want to swat the hornet's nest, so to speak, and prefer to start out as an ally rather than an enemy. The irony, of course, is that the later the game gets the more difficult it is to put Ayli down.
Hey Xenphire, awesome job on the primer, you're doing a great job carrying the torch now as blackjack's successor. I put together a list pretty close to yours and won a 4 player game the other night with a Liliana, Defiant Necromancer ultimate and wrathing a board full of fatties and relentless rats. Just wondering what your opinion on the flip lili is. I had a lot of success with the discard abilities on her and LotV, I can flip her at will, and op's graveyards fill up pretty quick with fatties for us to reanimate when everyone is discarding every turn. Anyway, keep up the good work, I'll try to post my list soon.
Sorry it's been quiet lately, everyone! I've been testing out some budget decks to bring with me for when new EDH players (or really anyone) don't have decks but would like to play at the store. Here later tonight I'll be working on a review of Conspiracy 2: Take the Crown for Ayli!
@Jonas Ukulore: I am incredibly excited about Kaya, Ghost Assassin. I really like her 4CC and abilities, and am definitely going to try to see if I can make room in the deck for her, somewhere. She does exactly what Ayli wants to do! She helps play out a long term game, incrementally making card advantage or causing opponents card disadvantage. I love her -2 so very much, and her -1 helps offset life loss from Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence. Her 0 is just icing on the cake, letting you protect a valuable creature if you don't have a sac outlet but need to board wipe (or when you need to board wipe and don't want an effect of an opponent's creature dying to trigger). I do think her and Sorin can be played at the same time as they both deliver card advantage in the same way and aren't competing for the same converted mana cost, so the average cost doesn't hurt by finding a spot for Kaya.
@thepatrickswayzeeexpress: Thanks for the kind words Regarding Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, I think she's a great Planeswalker herself. My main issue when I've looked at her is trying to make room for her over other cards in the deck. Her +2 is okay, but I've recently added Geier Reach Sanitarium to enable discarding cards when I need to, but other than that the deck doesn't particularly have a need for hand disruption. Typically when it comes to discard, I like to have it in a package with other cards like Waste Not, Megrim, Geth's Grimoire etc. that can really benefit from it. Her -X is pretty decent, but a lot of the better targets have a high converted mana cost, meaning she has to +2 two or even three times to hit the high value targets for reanimation if you want her to still be on the battlefield afterwards.
Her ultimate is pretty good - it's a Grave Betrayal on a Planeswalker. Ignoring her -X and going +2 all the way for the ultimate would be pretty powerful, but then it comes down to what to replace her with from the main list. It could be funny to use along with any board wipes, but also situational as if opponents stop playing many threats or creatures then it's kind of for naught. Currently I'm testing out Thalia's Lancers and Sidisi, Undead Vizier since they help move the game towards a winning. I think the emblem from Liliana is powerful and she's overall a good Planeswalker and wouldn't blame anyone for running her in their build. There are a few flex spots in the build such as Magister of Worth which is one of my personal cards, or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which is a newer addition and performs very well, but is ultimately utility just like this Liliana.
So TL;DR, my verdict is she's amazing and I say play her if she plays well for your build! My personal build would find it hard to make room for her and I think she's a bit too situational for it, but not bad by any means. I'll personally be choosing to make room for Kaya, Ghost Assasin because of her ability to draw us a card while making opponents discard at the same time, and her 0 effect (the bleeder ability is a nice bonus).
That's actually very correct, Xenphire, thanks. I shouldn't be looking at what card type something has (Planeswalker in this case), but rather what function something performs in the deck.
Two hard things I'll have to figure out soon: what to cut, and how to get my hands on the sweet alternate art foil Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
Hey guys, not to rush the budget section or anything, but I was curious what budget cards you would suggest? My playgroup limits to $100 decks for now, but building Ayli is too tempting to pass up! I was thinking of adding the Soul Sisters and Karlov for a bit of lifegain since spot removal is scarce. Any thoughts?
Hey guys, not to rush the budget section or anything, but I was curious what budget cards you would suggest? My playgroup limits to $100 decks for now, but building Ayli is too tempting to pass up! I was thinking of adding the Soul Sisters and Karlov for a bit of lifegain since spot removal is scarce. Any thoughts?
if you go the life gain rout the pain section is better for you
been thinking about cradle of vitality for a budget version since it causes snowballs pretty fast also karlov is all over the +1/+1 counters. Ajani's Pridemate life gain +1/+1 counter interaction
also Xenphire
any plans to run recruiter of the guard
and you forgot about deathrender in equipment section with ayli its cheat a dude into play for 3
Hey guys, not to rush the budget section or anything, but I was curious what budget cards you would suggest? My playgroup limits to $100 decks for now, but building Ayli is too tempting to pass up! I was thinking of adding the Soul Sisters and Karlov for a bit of lifegain since spot removal is scarce. Any thoughts?
Hi there! I'll try to get a post written up for you before the end of the day (it'll probably show up late this evening). When this was still largely a budget deck, it was still pretty effective. The Soul Sisters are great with Karlov but Karlov works best with a deck with more life gain. They're certainly not bad at all, but if you go with a Life Gain/Bleeder route, they'd definitely fit in but you'd want to take it up a notch and add some further support past just them so that they didn't feel out of place compared to the rest of the deck. I need to add Karlov under the Life Gain toolkit, still! Anyway, I'll do my best to get a budget list up tonight. I will say that Life Gain/Bleeder can definitely be a good budget, route.
Hey guys, not to rush the budget section or anything, but I was curious what budget cards you would suggest? My playgroup limits to $100 decks for now, but building Ayli is too tempting to pass up! I was thinking of adding the Soul Sisters and Karlov for a bit of lifegain since spot removal is scarce. Any thoughts?
if you go the life gain rout the pain section is better for you
been thinking about cradle of vitality for a budget version since it causes snowballs pretty fast also karlov is all over the +1/+1 counters. Ajani's Pridemate life gain +1/+1 counter interaction
also Xenphire
any plans to run recruiter of the guard
and you forgot about deathrender in equipment section with ayli its cheat a dude into play for 3
Deathrender is a neat card and certainly worth looking at in an Equipment package, so I'll update the list to include it when I update for a budget list later tonight
I'll be updating the Budget Section after some formatting, but until then, here is the promised budget list. This comes in at $98.43 on MTG Goldfish. I pasted the deck list into TCGPlayer's mass entry page and set it to only find Lightly Played and Moderately Played versions of all the cards on the list, then optimized the cart and it came to $94.86 (including basic lands). This means there's a few dollars wiggle room to pick and choose some upgrades for cards I've left out of the list, albeit not too much room.
How did I go about building this list? First, I built it on MTG Goldfish so I could keep track of individual card prices and the price of the deck as a whole while I attempted to search for cards that are similar in function, and also around the same relative mana cost. Below is the deck list, and then what cards were removed, their replacement and suggestions for how to prioritize any upgrades in the future.
Of note, is that I haven't tested this build, so I can't say how it performs. I did my best to find cards that could be functional and effective replacements for existing cards. Many of the higher end cards have unique effects that are hard to replicate. I can say that I'm confident this build would still be fun to play as it uses several cards I once played in the deck or have considered over time.
Mana Crypt ($79.99) = Darksteel Ingot. In truth, Mana Crypt is not necessary for the deck to play well. But, since we're losing optimal land base to make a budget build, a Darksteel Ingot will be pretty valuable for playing spells with 2-3 colors in their cost.
Sensei's Divining Top ($20.00) = Mind Stone. There's really no replacement effect for SDT, so I opted for a cheap mana rock to put in it's place. You could also put Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves here. Lightning Greaves is not recommended, though, as Shroud interferes with a lot of the deck's shenanigans.
Vampiric Tutor ($27.91) = Diabolic Tutor. I started at the most expensive cards and eliminated my way down, and Diabolic Tutor is easily one of the best budget options for tutors in Black.
Yawgmoth's Will ($27.14) = Twilight's Call. Later on I'll discuss that I had removed Sheoldred, Whispering One and was looking for an effect that could be as devastating. I wound up with Grave Betrayal and thought it'd be fun to bring everyone's creatures back using Twilight's Call with Grave Betrayal on the board, and then play a board wipe and gain control of all of them. You could also use some of the wiggle room to upgrade to Rise of the Dark Realms, instead.
Damnation ($63.27) = Rout. One could choose to go with Wrath of God here instead. I elected to go with Rout because I think it's underrated to have the option to pay more to play it at Instant speed. It also saves a few dollars, since *** is still close to $5 even after all the reprints.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ($23.12) = Black Sun's Zenith. Ugin is mainly used in the late game to get around Indestructible and Hexproof, but is great for hitting troublesome non-creature permanents. BSZ is a great board wipe tha gets around those two abilities.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed ($29.99) = Disciple of Bolas. Although Xiahou pulls from the graveyard, Disciple of Bolas will have a lot of juicy targets in the deck and is fun to abuse with recursion spells and loops. He also gains you life, which you may need being as the deck moves slower with higher cost tutors.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All ($19.23), Cavern of Souls ($58.07), Shizo, Death's Storehouse ($8.55), Strip Mine ($7.55), Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth ($9.47) = Swamps. There aren't too many Orzhov dual lands that are budget. Even so, I feel it's better to play basic lands where possible over lands that come onto the battlefield tapped. Some of the budget options also provide more support for finding basic lands.
Wurmcoil Engine ($16.00) = Sepulchral Primordial. While it's not the ultimate rattlesnake that Wurmcoil Engine is, it can help close out games and has potential to be a finisher for around the same mana.
Sheoldred, Whispering One ($13.86) = Grave Betrayal. Sheoldred is another card that is hard to replace. While she could be a beater, she's feared for her triggered abilities and forces players to answer her. Grave Betrayal is a fun card I've always liked for the same :symb cost. With all the board wipes and removal, it should be just as fun and has potential to cause opponents as many problems.
Enlightened Tutor ($10.52) = Increasing Ambition. This could have been Dark Petition, but the ability to find 3 cards was more relevant, and this tutor was cheaper, money wise. It's definitely not the convenience that Enlightened Tutor is, but it has the perks of finding 3 cards over the course of the game and being able to find any card.
Entomb ($14.57) = Buried Alive. This is truly the closest thing to Entomb that you can find. Be careful, however, of graveyard hate and make sure if you use this that you'll be able to maximize putting three creatures in your graveyard.
Demonic Tutor ($17.00) = Sidisi, Undead Vizier. She's a pretty amazing creature that can target herself for her Exploit trigger. She costs more, but is can be abused with recursion.
$5.00-$9.99
Weathered Wayfarer ($8.94) = Kor Cartographer. Since a good chunk of the money is in the land base of the full version of the deck, it doesn't hurt as bad to lose Weathered Wayfarer. Kor Cartographer can be easily abused with the recursion in the deck to ramp you into the mana you'll need to finish the game.
Yosei, the Morning Star ($4.99) = Emeria Shepherd. The Yosei lock is gone, unless you use some wiggle room to bring him back. In his place is Emeria Shephered to get your cards back, which works nicely with the Kor Cartographer, above.
Bitter Ordeal ($5.92) = Debt to the Deathless. Mostly cut as a result of budgeting, the addition of Debt to the Deathless still provides you with a finisher in place of Bitter Ordeal, still using the same infinite trigger loops you'd use to generate the mana.
Coalition Relic ($9.00) = Orzhov Keyrune. Most of the time, Coalition Relic is a glorified mana rock that costs more money than it should. Orzhov Keyrune has the same effect, and could be replaced by Commander's Sphere. Having that 1/4 to sacrifice to effects from the Keyrune can be beneficial, however.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis ($7.93) = Priest of Gix. With the deck becoming a bit slower, it hurts more to play Sorin here. He's also been cut for budget reasons. In his place comes Priest of Gix, which can make a lot of mana with the right set up. He has an infinite loop with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle, allowing you to create infinite mana.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter ($5.45) = Butcher of Malakir. Both are flying beaters, just one not as ridiculous as the other. The Grave Pact effect is a nice touch and addition, which I've previously run before. Losing Vish Kal means losing one of the ways to go infinite with Reveillark + Karmic Guide, but the Butcher helps keeps opponents under control since the deck will move a bit slower than normal.
$4.99 or Less
Mangara of Corondor ($3.80) = Grim Haruspex. The deck has more graveyard recycling in this budget build, meaning that creatures are being sacrificed more for gains than in the full build. Mangara is a great card, but was cut to make the budget. In it's place is Grim Haruspex, which has potential to draw a ton of cards.
Beacon of Unrest ($4.04) = Obzedat's Aid. The two are nearly identical in function, making it an obvious include for budgeting. The only difference is Obzedat's Aid will not get shuffled back into the library. You could also use Unburial Rites here, but Obzedat's Aid lets you hit valuable Artifacts like Ashnod's Altar or Nim Deathmantle.
Necromancy = Animate Dead. Necromancy was a few dollars, whereas the recently reprinted Animate Dead was only around $1.00. It costs one less but you lose the ability to reanimate at Instant speed.
Upgrades & Prioritization
In doing this budget build, many (most of the combos) remained, but a few went missing along with important cards. The biggest weakness of a budget build is the slower tutor effects and weaker utility land infrastructure. When looking to upgrade pieces of the deck or where you may want to look first, there are some considerations to make.
Updating the Land Base & Support
If your meta is Blue/Control heavy, then cards such as Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Cavern of Souls, Volrath's Stronghold, these cards in concert with Weathered Wayfarer are invaluable and what you need to get your spells through. It is also advised to search for a Homeward Path for your deck when playing in a heavy Blue meta because of the amount of permanent theft potential. Phyrexian Tower is especially helpful to help ramp if you can't keep your other mana generators on the board.
If you're playing in a meta with a lot of Aggro or fast Commander Damage, you'll want to aim for Maze of Ith, then Kor Haven.
As a two color deck, mana fixing or access to both colors is generally a non-issue. It is still slower, however, to draw lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Isolated Chapel is a small upgrade for a dual that can easily enter untapped. Godless Shrine is stable at around $10.00 and probably won't ever get cheaper until they reprint it again somewhere down the line. Fetid Heath is as cheap as it will ever be outside of a reprint somewhere, but seems unlikely given the awkward nature of that land cycle. Verdant Catacombs and Marsh Flats are great for deck thinning, but ultimately were the last purchases I made for the deck as their effectiveness for the cost is so little compared to other options.
Improving Efficiency
Upgrading to include Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb and Enlightened Tutor will make the deck run much smoother, as you're cutting the cost in half (or more) to find the cards you need. Diabolic Intent is actually an okay replacement for Vampiric Tutor and is a few dollars cheaper. Regardless of how you prioritize upgrading tutors, each one will have a dramatic impact on the consistency of the deck. I would recommend Enlightened Tutor first, as the others are limited in where they see play, so their prices will stay relatively stable, while Enlightened Tutor will climb due to seeing more play.
Some creatures that were removed nearly win the game by themselves at times, especially Sheoldred, Whispering One. She would be one of the first creatures I upgraded to in a budget Ayli deck because of how deadly efficient she is at swinging games. Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed would be one of my other more immediate priorities, although he is one of the more expensive cards in the full version. The ability to retrieve any Black card is super powerful and what the deck is all about - abusing the ability to bring back our spells and creatures. Wurmcoil Engine is a nice beater and hard to deal with, but still less important than either Sheoldred or Vish Kal.
In terms of card draw, Necropotence can be one of the most important cards in the deck due to the ability to find what you need very fast at the cost of life, which is a pittance in EDH. It is for this same reason that Yawgmoth's Will is one of the most important upgrades you can make in the deck, however. While Necropotence can help find solutions in a quick manner, it's usefulness is finite given your life total is, as well. Yawgmoth's Will can allow you to come back from ruin in a long game where you have access to a lot of mana, and as such is well worth the investment.
Un-Combo Breaking
As a result of budgeting, a few combo pieces were removed that are otherwise decent cards in themselves. One example is Kokusho, the Evening Star, which require some work but is a great political tool and easy ends games with Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Vizkopa Guildmage on the board, or Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar. Similarly, Yosei, the Morning Star is a relatively cheap card that runs at around $4-5, but is part of a combo that can lock the game down. Because of how effective Yosei with the tools included in a budget deck, he's a prime example of an early upgrade one should look to make when expanding. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter is also part of a combo in the deck, is relatively cheap, but is harder to abuse than Yosei or Kokusho. He's about the same price as Yosei, but less effective (though explosive when he works) and still cheaper than Kokusho but part of a combo.
Mass Removal and Mass Options
Much of the removal suite available to Orzhov colors have similar effects for slightly different costs. The exception is Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, which really helps deal with annoying non-creature permanents in the late game while leaving your mana rocks and important artifacts intact. He's much more important than say, Damnation, which is just a color shifted Wrath of God for $80 more. I personally play Damnation because I like the flavor, and there's no reason you can't settle for Wrath of God instead. Depending on how aggressive your meta is, you may even opt to keep playing Black Sun's Zenith instead of trying to upgrade to Ugin. Other options such as Toxic Deluge and Massacre Wurm are just as acceptable, here.
No problem, db! I'm also going to start working on videos and deck techs here pretty soon for the full and budget versions of the deck (this will probably take a week or two since I'm working on the format and what program I'm going to use).
In other news.... KALADESH PREVIEWS!
We're not even at the official preview week yet and cards are already jumping out at me.
Demon of Shadowy Schemes can either wipe out some pesky weenies, mana dorks (Elves!) and other tokens; or in Ayli, he can be recurred by himself a few times to stack up and give everything -6/-6 or more until end of turn. The best part, though, is that for any card that wants in the deck, including himself, is that we have ample ways to trigger his ability to generate whenever another creature dies. If you're running Phyrexian Alter in your build, you can cycle Reveillark + Karmic Guide with it and Demon of Shadowy Schemes on the battlefield to not only generate infinite {E}, but also to use the mana you're generating alongside all the triggers giving you to steal the creatures out of everyone's graveyard. With Phyrexian Altar you would get an and per sacrifice, meaning every three triggers you gett and and that's awesome. The same can work for your Skullclamp + Reassembling Skeleton combos, or Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + Priest of Gix combo. There's numerous ways to abuse this guy to either get {E}, wipe the board or steal creatures from your opponent's graveyard. This guy is a beast of an engine and has me really excited.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury on the other hand seems really neat, but I'm not convinced he's what the deck wants. Once again we have a creature with a very abuseable ETB trigger. The problem comes with the mana you would need to cast the cards exiled by him. We normally want our mana open to respond to plays that could mess up our plans. The plus side is that he messes with players playing a lot of the Tutor cycle (Vampiric Tutor, Mystic Tutor, Enlightend Tutor) and you could respond with Corpse Dance or Necromancy before they get to draw that card. It also helps bind players running Sensei's Divining Top by either messing up the top of the library, or responding to them putting their Top on their library by playing Gonti and either taking it for your own or moving it to the bottom of their library. You could, however, just simply leave those cards in Exile. He's definitely an interesting card, that much is for sure, but probably not the high impact card we want in invested reanimation shenanigans.
Aetherworks Marvel could easily be activated in the deck with how much we cycle permanents between the graveyard and the battlefield. It's probably not something that is particularly important to the deck since we really want to plan out our plays and cards like that draw a lot of attention. Anything that lets you play cards for free makes you public enemy #1. It's worth nothing, though, especially for people playing budget versions of Ayli who may be able to get one easy since a lot of Kaladesh will be opened. This still be easily abused even in the budget version where mana is slower but you still have many of the recursion combos available!
Filigree Familiar will be a really nice replacement for super budget players who don't want to buy Solemn Simulacrum. It's very similar, except that it gains your life instead of finding a land when it ETB. In the Life Gain/Bleeder Package, this guy could really do a lot of work in concert with Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Nim Deathmantle, Karlov of the Ghost Council, and the various Soul Sisters. He's a really great Uncommon!
Panharmonicon has the potential to be very powerful, and very interesting. There's a lot of Commander decks that I want to put this in, but it's uses in Ayli are almost none, unless the creature entering the battlefield can double it's own triggers. If the ruling turns out that it can, then this Artifact is absurd in Ayli. If it can't, then it's a pass because most of our triggers depend on things dying. Regardless, it was worth mentioning.
Lastly, we have Concealed Courtyard, which is one of the long awaited enemy Speed Lands (Razorverge Thicket). Even though it's less relevant in EDH as you can't run four of it and so you're less likely to get it early enough to come in untapped, it's still a nice dual land.
panharmonicon should trigger on the creature entering the battle field since the card is cast putting the creature into play and then the triggered ability goes on the stack.
Sweet deck. I like that all your cards are individually powerful before they assemble into synergies/combos. The only card I feel is questionable is Argivian Find. If you want to recur your artifact combo pieces, why not staple the effect to a Pearled Unicorn and run Treasure Hunter instead? Also, do you ever have a problem landing creatures on curve with only 36 mana-producing lands? The count feels low to me but you do have a good amount of ramp. Here are some other cards that might be good in the deck:
panharmonicon should trigger on the creature entering the battle field since the card is cast putting the creature into play and then the triggered ability goes on the stack.
That was my thinking, as well.
For the primary build in the OP, I think Panharmonicon is mostly a pass, as the majority of the effects in the deck happen upon creatures dying. Because of that, it's hard to justify taking anything out for it at this time. If one were doing a life gain/bleeder package listed later on, though, having double triggers off of the Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Suture Priest or Pious Evangel) alongside Cliffhaven Vampire and Sanguine Bond could prove to add up very fast.
Sweet deck. I like that all your cards are individually powerful before they assemble into synergies/combos. The only card I feel is questionable is Argivian Find. If you want to recur your artifact combo pieces, why not staple the effect to a Pearled Unicorn and run Treasure Hunter instead? Also, do you ever have a problem landing creatures on curve with only 36 mana-producing lands? The count feels low to me but you do have a good amount of ramp. Here are some other cards that might be good in the deck:
The reason for Argivian Find is that it's Instant speed. Most graveyard happens at a point where you need to readily be able to respond, and where this deck is concerned, you're not very likely to be able to bring in Treasure Hunter at Instant speed. You can also cast it easily with Yawgmoth's Bargain.
As for regarding recurring Artifact combo pieces, my answer regarding playing creature on curve somewhat goes hand in hand, and it relates to how the deck runs as written in the OP: This is a finesse deck. You aren't playing creatures on curve, or necessarily playing things before you're ready to abuse them. It's not an aggro deck. This version of Ayli is a deck that maneuvers through politics below the radar, maintaining control of other player's board states as they become threatening and holding your cards close to your chest in order to not draw attention; it plays the long game. If you were to play everything on curve, you would find yourself drawing a lot of hate and make it hard on yourself to set up combos. Until you're ready to combo or you need to respond to threats, you want spend my mana recurring Reassembling Skeleton and Skullclamping it, tutoring and setting up utility lands so that you can have a good defense in the mid-to-late game. There should be a lot of turns that you don't play spells, but use abilities or dig or draw for answers to be ready to answer with a Merciless Eviction or Fiend Hunter and some other combo pieces; or just sit in wait with a removal spell in your hand in anticipation of an opponent attempting to combo off, themselves. Almost all the creatures in the deck are part of some combo that will slowly find themselves exiled from the game if you try to play creatures on curve - that's not what the deck is meant to do
As for the card suggestions:
Knight of the White Orchid - I run him in the budget build. In the full build, there are not enough Plains to really warrant playing him. There's not really room to run both this guy and Weathered Wayfarer in a full build, and Wayfarer helps find the most important utility lands which are the most important pieces to get out, so he'll always be the better choice. There's plenty of dual lands for getting access to colored mana in the deck (and artifacts as well), so in the context of what the Land base looks like this guy is actually pretty narrow.
Athreos, God of Passage - He's a neat card but doesn't really do what this deck wants to do. This deck wants it's creatures to go into the graveyard so that it can abuse Corpse Dance, Nim Deathmantle and other cards. Generally speaking, returning them to your hand is going to cost more and take more time to put out than letting them go to your graveyard to be reanimated over and over for way cheaper than what it costs to cast them. When opponents figure out what you're doing, they'd gladly pay 3 life to stop you from comboing off and just return those creatures to your hand.
Night's Whisper - It's a nice staple for players who don't have the better card draw available to them, but between Skullclamp, Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Geier Reach Sanitarium and a plethora of tutors available, it's probably best left to a budget build that can't afford Necropotence (in which case I'd just play Dark Prophecy instead). It's really lacking in effect compared to other options available, so I would recommend always running the other options I mentioned here if they're available to someone building the deck.
Stonecloaker - For the same reason I don't care for Athreos, I don't really feel Stonecloaker belongs in the deck. If you have a creature being targeted by removal, you want to sacrifice it for some gains in response rather than bouncing it to your hand and making it harder to get back out. Most creatures in this deck come into play via reanimation, which is why having a lot of high cost creatures in the deck works just fine. His second ability is nice against other decks that work with the graveyard, but there are several effects in the main list in the OP that can target an opponent's graveyard. The opponent's graveyards are just as great of a resource as our own, so unless you have an issue with Storm combo decks that use Past in Flames, I can't really think of any other scenario where this will benefit the style of this deck.
Capashen Unicorn is too slow to worry about adding to the deck. Unless you're using a Necromancy on this instead of something better (I should hope not :p) or Corpse Dance, which I wouldn't, then it's pretty hard to justify running this guy. There are tons of ways to destroy or exile permanents in general so that anyone playing in Orzhov colors should never have to run a creature with a slow activated ability.
Pilgrim's Eye - Has the same issue that Knight of the White Orchid has. Getting the mana you need isn't really an issue with this deck. It's meant to play out long, grindy games and be extremely resilient. Because Pilgrim's Eye has the limitation of finding basic lands in a deck with so many non-basics, it's pretty hard to want to play it over other options. Despite having an ETB effect, you'd have to be in dire straights to want to use your reanimation effects on this. By the time you can afford to start using Nim Deathmantle or Corpse Dance to bring cards back and for from the graveyard to the battlefield, sacrificing them and repeating, you should be in a position to win the game rather than searching for basic lands.
The prerelease is mere days away, and I'm super excited about Kaladesh! Not many sets offer such a wide variety of cards of interest for the strategies that Ayli employs. With Kaladesh not only do we have some sweet new cards in Orzhov colors, but with it being an Artifact set we also have a load of new Artifacts which aren't prohibited by colors. We also have the new Energy resource, which often comes as a result of cards entering or leaving the battlefield, which is Ayli's specialization.
About this review: I won't be reviewing every card that could possibly go into Ayli - in other words, every single White, Black, Multicolor, Artifact or Land in the set will not get commentary. Many simply wouldn't make the cut because Ayli is already fairly tight and trim, as it is. What we'll be doing is looking at the cards with the best chance of being worth testing, and even some that could fit into alternate packages or even a budget build. We'll also look at some cards that I don't believe belong in Ayli or any of the various packages, but that I think some people may ask or post about - cards that I strongly feel have no place in the deck, but that others may give consideration for being new and shiny.
But without further adieu, here's my review for Kaladesh!
White
Aetherstorm Roc: 1/5
This Bird is not the word, but it made the list because of it's first triggered ability. With cards like Reassembling Skeleton and several infinite ETB/LTB triggers in the deck, Aetherstorm Roc is one way to generate a ton of Energy without too much effort. It's second ability really isn't all that relevant since swinging is something we don't do much. If you're really wanting to play with Energy and want an easy generator in Ayli, this is an option, though. He earns a 1/5
Angel of Invention: 4/5
If you're looking for another infinite ETB/LTB and mana trigger, look no further. In concert with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle, you're up on mana very quick. When this Angel enters the battlefield and you choose to Fabricate 2 for two servos, you have 3 creatures to sacrifice for a total of six :cmana:; or an infinite number of Servos by sacrificing the Angel and one Servo, leaving an extra Servo for whatever your needs may be. If you have Skullclamp in play, you could sacrifice all three creatures for 6 mana, then use to activate Nim Deathmantle bringing back the Angel and thus another two Servos. With floating, you can Skullclamp one of the Servos, sacrifice the other and the Angel for another 4 mana, giving you a total of 5. Every other round of the loop you can sacrifice a Servo, giving you infinite draw with the Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle combo, if you have Skullclamp out. Even if you lack the loop, the Angel is a 2/1 along with his two 1/1 Servos, making lots of Skullclamp fodder. In a Lifegain/Bleeder deck with the Soul Sister (Soul Warden, Suture Priest, etc.) the life gain from these would quickly add up. Angel of Invention gets a 4/5. He doesn't win the game by himself, but in a deck full of recursion strategies, he provides a massive amount of value by giving us exactly what we want, that being a ton of sacrificial fodder.
Authority of the Consuls: 1/5 Kismet and Blind Obedience this is not. There are a lot of effects out there that cause your opponent's stuff to enter the battlefield tapped. Most of them cost between 2-4 mana. Don't be deceived by the fact that this one costs only a - that is irrelevant unless we have this in our opening hand, which is a large gamble in itself. The amount life gain is dependent on opponents playing a lot of creatures, which could be a lot or none at all. It's really unnecessary to have multiple of this type of effect in a deck, and for EDH this is one of the weaker options. I would not recommend this for any package or version of Ayli, and thus give it a 1/5.
Captured by the Consulate: 2/5
Some players may see this and see a comparison to Faith's Fetters due to it being an Aura and a card that locks down an opponent's creature. While this card makes an opponent waste targeted removal, the importance of Faith's Fetters is that it can target any permanent and disable it's activated abilities. You can use it as an effect to stop a Commander damage-based deck from performing a KO on you, or you can use it to disable annoying and dangerous Planeswalkers. You can stop that Thespian's Stage from copying an opponent's Dark Depths. The utility of Faith's Fetters is massive. Captured by the Consulate isn't awful, though. The ability to make it hard for opponents to play targeted removal makes it a rather annoying card. It may be an effect worthy of a budget Stax build or any other budget build. While it's not worth replacing Faith's Fetters, it's still a decent card on it's own, but nothing Ayli goes WOW about. For that reason, I've given it a 2/5.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk: 2/5
Here we have Wizard's attempt at a balanced and fixed Titan cycle (eg. Sun Titan, Grave Titan, etc.) and the White one here is a Cataclysm on a stick every time it enters the battlefield. Many compare it to Tragic Arrogance due to it being in more recent memory, which was itself based upon Cataclysm (the Gearhulk's namesake). The big difference between the two is that Tragic Arrogance lets you pick what your opponents keep, and that's the up side to that spell. As I see it, the biggest problem with Cataclysmic Gearhulk is that your opponents get a choice, and giving your opponent's a choice is a bad idea, more often than not. I haven't ever considered running Tragic Arrogance because it's wholly unnecessary when running Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Merciless Eviction, so you can imagine that I haven't really been too impressed with Cataclysmic Gearhulk in respect to it's potential in Ayli. It's 4/5 body and Vigilance makes it a good beater, but we don't particularly care about that in this deck. Ultimately, in the context of Ayli, this Gearhulk will provide too situational and even has the potential to backfire and help your opponent set up favorable situations. I'm a fan of all-or-nothing mass removal, or having more control over the effect it has. For that reason, I've given Cataclysmic Gearhulk a 2/5 for Ayli. It most likely won't be a budget option due to how strong of a card it will probably be in Standard and potentially even Modern, so I cannot recommend it for a budget build, either.
Fumigate: 1/5
There are a lot of Wrath of God variants out there, and this one isn't particularly interesting. It'll probably be a $0.25 rare and that puts it in the realm of budget options, but even Wrath of God isn't expensive these days. One might think that Fumigate could be okay in the Lifegain/Bleeder package, but the truth is that the amount of life you gain from this will always be inconsistent. Not only are there a lot better removal options, but when you cast this spell, you'll also be losing creatures that benefit the most from the life you gain after they're dead - creatures like Karlov of the Ghost Council. Because of it being one of the weaker of many options and knowing how inconsistent the life gain amount will be, I'm giving Fumigate a 1/5.
Refurbish: 3/5
There are very few spells in Orzhov colors that can return an Artifact from your graveyard to your hand, let alone to play. We run Beacon of Unrest and Argivian Find to bring back important combo pieces from our graveyard, with Beacon of Unrest being the most potent with it's ability to come back to be played again later (and it's ability to target a Creature or Artifact). Refurbish is another option, albeit only targeting Artifacts at Sorcery speed. If you're playing on a budget or can't find a Beacon of Unrest, then this will be a really great budget option. Artifact graveyard recursion is an area that offers a very small amount of options, making this a welcome addition to our colors. While it won't be replacing anything in the Ayli build in the main post, it's still a great card for the deck if you see a lot of Artifact hate or don't have Argivian Find or Beacon of Unrest. Thus, I give this a 3/5.
Black
Demon of Dark Schemes: 5/5
This is a Demon that does exactly what Ayli wants to do. He doesn't kill Ayli herself if she's on board, but he can wipe out a lot of creatures. He benefits from things going into the graveyard, which means he will give you Energy if he's on the board when doing the majority of the combos in the deck. With Priest of Gix + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle and Demon of Dark Schemes on the battlefield, you can produce infinite Energy and infinite mana, so you can steal every creature from every opponent's graveyard. With the other infinite combos in the deck the combo only goes as far as your mana holds out, but that's still a lot of mileage in the late game when you hopefully have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the board. If you want to run the infinite mana and ETB/LTB combos but don't want a finisher that outright kills the table in one fell swoop, then Demon of Dark Schemes is also a nice set up that gives more casual players a chance to respond to your shenanigans. It's also worth noting that any card in Kaladesh worth playing that consumes Energy is magnificent in concert with Demon of Dark Schemes. Chances are that he's going to gain you a massive amount of Energy when he enters the battlefield. From there, it's gravy. A 6 mana 5/5 flier that we can reanimate or reliably play with our mana ramp capabilities which has synergy with the entire deck strategy is pretty amazing. The best thing about this card is how easily it opens us up to experimenting with other Energy cards because it makes it so easy to use their abilities.
Eliminate the Competition: 1/5
The flavor is so good in Kaladesh, but unfortunately it doesn't make all cards play well. This has a lot of downfalls over existing mass destruction. First, it requires you to have a reasonable amount of creatures. In EDH that could be 3 or 4, or 12, so you have to match that number of creatures to sacrifice. In a tokens build? Not as big of a problem, but even in a tokens build the number is limited by how often they're used for fodder for combos. The second issue is the fact that it's targeted, which doesn't get around Hexproof or Shroud. The third reason is that it merely destroys, which does not get around Indestructible. You must meet three conditions for this removal spell to be useful. There's a lot of way better spot removal that can Exile a permanent rather than a creature for 1-2 mana less that gets around 2 of the 3 conditions. For everything else, Merciless Eviction and Black Sun's Zenith are far better for the mana. Even as far as budget builds go, there are far better options. "Accidents happen", the flavor text says, and the multiple conditions that make this spell utterly disappointing make it seem like an accident, indeed.
Fortuitous Find: 3/5
If you're facing a lot of Artifact hate, this could be beneficial to you. Like Refurbish, this is at Sorcery speed, so it has the downside of not being able to be a response to graveyard hate. It does, however, provide you with a valuable way of getting back combo pieces to save for later, in addition to a creature if you so desire. The Return Dead attached doesn't provide too much value and isn't really what we're concerned with here. It's not as good as Argivian Find due to it costing less and being Instant speed. But, it's another option if your meta calls for it, and also another option for budget players who are really penny pinching and don't want to spend money on Beacon of Unrest.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury: 3/5
An interesting card and ability, but one of questionable mileage. You see, Gonti can be pretty funny - imagine using Corpse Dance with him in the graveyard in response to an opponent activating Sensei's Divining Top second ability and putting it onto the stack, attempting to put a card in their hand that they just put on top of their library. You just took whatever card they want and can play it (or just Exiled it, if that's all you want to do). The problem here is this: you have limited mana to cast any spells you want to play. You want to buyback Corpse Dance, making it cost altogether just to get Gonti back. You can effectively shave off of that cost if you have Ashnod's Altar out to sacrifice him so Corpse Dance doesn't exile Gonti at the EOT. Either way, you're going to struggle with paying the mana for a lot of high cost spells in EDH/Commander in addition to reanimating him for the trigger. On one hand, with instant reanimation, Gonti is a clever way of preventing a lot of cards searched for with various Tutors and divining tops to never make it to their owner's hands. On the other hand, Gonti doesn't do anything if he isn't entering the battlefield. He needs to be in your graveyard and coming back constantly, and his impact is actually very low and very slow, much like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver which plays very awkwardly in EDH/Commander. If anything, for Dimir players, at least Ashiok exiles three at a time. Gonti only takes one and puts the rest back in their library to find later. There is one bit of saving grace, though. If you don't want to play Bitter Ordeal, Gonti can fill that niche, but only with one particular combo. When you have the Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Outlet combo online, if Gonti is in your graveyard then you can bring Gonti back in addition to Karmic Guide every time Reveillark dies. As part of that infinite loop combo, you can exile your opponent's libraries one card at a time. I would, however, not recommend playing him over Bitter Ordeal. If you really want to test him out, though, this is one way in which he can help win the game.
Marionette Master: 4/5
Fabricate makes it easy to make a lot of mana with Ashnod's Altar, and here is another example. Marionette Master can combo with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle for infinite damage, as well as infinite mana. By choosing to create three 1/1 Servos, you can sacrifice each of those Servos to Ashnod's altar for and thus making an opponent lose 3 life. With the floating, you can then sacrifice her to Ashnod's Altar, giving you a total of and then paying to activate Nim Deathmantle's ability to bring her back and create three more 1/1 Servos. There isn't a lot of room in the high part of Ayli's curve for Marionette Master, but she's a wonderful option to play with that multiple packages could use. She's extremely useful in tokens, lifegain/bleeding, and will probably be a dollar bin rare. She can definitely be useful in the main deck, and you can make room for her (there are some personal fun spots baked into the deck, such as the one I use for Magister of Worth which happens to be the same converted mana cost!)
Midnight Oil: 1/5
There are many way better options for card draw than this. Phyrexian Arena is relatively cheap thanks to it's reprints - most recently in Conspiracy 2 - and it costs one less and doesn't reduce your hand size or cause you pain if you need to discard. Dark Prophecy is a controlled draw engine that works much better with the right setup. Hell, I'd even play Bloodgift Demon over this thing because we can smack some opponents if we want and it's a consistent extra draw without two downsides that come with Midnight Oil. We've fallen a long way from Phyrexian Arena. I'm sure someone somewhere will have fun casting Harmless Offering or other donate effects on this and removing the counters with Vampire Hexmage to make their opponent's hand size effectively zero. But, that cute interaction isn't something we can readily do. So... that's a 1/5 for this.
Morbid Curiosity: 4/5
We have a lot of high cost creatures that we bring onto the battlefield for cheap. We have cards that can be backbreaking when they die, such as Archon of Justice, Yosei, the Morning Star, Ashen Rider, and so on. Morbid Curiosity makes sacrificing those creatures to trigger their effects all the more satisfying by drawing you 5 - 8 cards for three many. The best part is that outside of counter magic, those creatures can't be removed in response to Morbid Curiosity being cast as their sacrifice is part of the cost. I previously ran Promise of Power in earlier builds and it hard to cast with the in it's mana cost, on top of being in total to cast, and almost never Entwined. However, it's far easier to set up to draw even more cards here to great effect. This is also a super amazing budget card for those players looking to get some great card draw effects for cheap. Easily a 4/5 for this deck for those who want to play it. Also retrievable with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed for a lot of draw potential.
Noxious Gearhulk: 3/5
Look, we have a lot of removal-on-a-stick with all the Archons, Angel of Serenity, Fiend Hunter, etc. Most of them get around Indestructible by exiling them, and we don't really need to play spot destruction. Frankly, our ETB removal kit is already pretty sweet. Noxious Gearhulk is pretty great, though. By now you should know this isn't a deck that tends to swing out, but it is a 5/4 with Menace, and you can gain a lot of life off of some fool trying to swing with a beefed up creature from Xenagos, God of Revels or whatnot (remember, we have instant reanimation). But the truth is, compared to our other options, he's just really not better. He's not bad - he's pretty great; he's just not better. I've mentioned the flex spots before, and you could play him in any of those by all means. However, there is seldom a time that destroying creatures will be flat out better than just exiling them. We have the option to reanimate opponent's creatures, but we're usually more concerned with reanimating ours, so while that could seem like a justification, it's really not. Another problem is how much he'll probably be for the money cost. Being a 5/4 Menace with destruction and life gain, he can easily turn games around in Standard, which means as a Mythic Rare he will probably find a place somewhere and end up decently expensive. With that said, he probably won't be any sort of option for budget players, and he doesn't really fit well into any style packages. I'm giving him a 3/5 because he could be played, and I wouldn't blame anyone for playing him. He's just not better than similar - but better - options that the main list already runs (most of which are budget friendly, themselves).
Multicolor
Kambal, Consul of Allocation: 1/5
This is a card that I'm actually kind of tired of seeing talk about because I genuinely feel it's pretty bad, and I'll explain why: it requires your opponents to be playing non-creature spells, and even 10 damage in EDH/Commander is negligible. He doesn't protect himself in any way, and can't stand up to much. Ayli for is a 1/3 with Deathtouch and relevant abilities that can actively save your creatures from being exiled and serve to offset life loss. He actively does nothing other than wait for your opponents, draws eyes towards you, and will get removed ASAP by anyone playing any amount of non-creature spells. But ultimately he really just doesn't do anything. He sits on the board, doesn't interact with other your other creatures or spells and hangs around like a bad odor that will inevitably be eliminated. I wouldn't play him as a Commander for the fact that he will only draw hate; I wouldn't play him as part of the 99 even in a lifegain/bleeder deck because he doesn't interact with the rest of of whatever deck he happens to be in and generally serves no more purpose than being a small nuisance. He may see some play in Standard where 2 life can quickly add up. But in a format where you need to drain 40 life from each opponent, and where he only mildly becomes a problem with help from 3 or 4 other cards, there's no way to really justify playing this guy.
Restoration Gearsmith: 3/5
I gave both Refurbish and Fortuitous Find a 3/5 because they serve as excellent options in metas where Artifact hate is rampant or when budget players need more options for getting combo pieces back. For that reason, I'm giving Restoration Gearsmith a 3/5 as well, even though it has an upside: being a creature, itself. Being a 3/3 puts it out of the range of being reanimated by Reveillark, but it's still sac fodder and can still be reanimated, making it easier to use repeatedly than Refurbish or Fortuitous Find. She's especially convenient on a Mimic Vat if you choose to play it, but it's one of the quickest ways to find people aiming for your head in the format. Regardless, she isn't terrible and can get back important Artifacts over and over where necessary.
In a lifegain/bleeder build, you could more easily reach the prerequisite 50 life in order to use Aetherflux Reservoir to kill one opponent, leaving three left. So, of course, you would want to gain far more than the required 50 life so that you weren't easily picked off after spending all that life. What's worse is that with 50 life being part of the cost to activate the ability, an opponent can respond to the ability being put on the stack by dealing damage to you in any numerous amount of ways, finishing you off courtesy of the hubris of your inner Johnny. Can you tell this is another card that has gotten on my nerves with the constant chatter? Indeed. You know by now that Ayli isn't a spellslinging deck that throws a lot of spells out. There are numerous ways to gain life in the main build, but most of those come into play during the mid to late game as a side effect of our other combos and interactions, and they mainly serve to offset life loss of our many card draw effects. In a lifegain/bleeder build, you may potentially gain enough life to hit the prerequisite 50, but would still be in danger for ever activating Aetherflux Reservoir's 50 damage ability. The only way to make this worthwhile is if you have an excess of life beyond the 50 required, then have Exquisite Blood in play and it doesn't get removed. Other colors or decks may try to animate the Aetherflux Reservoir and give it Lifelink or some other cutesy nonsense. Overall this card is one that requires too much effor to set up for the payoff.
Aetherworks Marvel: 3/5
This is a very... interesting card. It's first ability will trigger often with how Ayli works, granting us a lot of energy. Much like Demon of Dark Schemes, this is a card which will allow us a lot of energy generation for what few cards we may want to play that uses it. Unlike that shady Demon, however, this is significantly slower. Even though it will likely be removed in quick order, being able to play any number of cards for free in this deck is a potent ability given the power of our top end creatures. Getting an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for free is absurd, and if you're running Sensei's Divining Top or Volrath's Stronghold, you can easily manipulate the top cards of your library in your favor. Having this thing on the board while you Skullclamp your Reassembling Skeleton to draw card and passively generating energy in the process or any other number of interactions will lead you to playing a spell for free at least every other turn. It's neat and can easily be activated, but I've still given it a 3/5 because at best you'll be able to use it every other turn with your typical deck functions, and since it requires you to tap it to play your free card, it's not very easily abused.
Filigree Familiar: 3/5
If you think this is a lot like Solemn Simulacrum, you wouldn't be wrong. The difference is it costs instead of and you gain 2 life when it enters the battlefield as opposed to searching for a land. This has potential to be an all-star in a lifegain/bleeder build and is a great budget option for players who don't want to buy Solemn Simulacrum. It may not offer the mana ramp that Solemn offers, but it does still allow a lot of card draw potential. Because of it being it can also be targeted by Sun Titan, which is rather beneficial. I gets a 3/5 for being decent in it's own right and having two triggers we can easily abuse, while serving as a great budget option and even better sac fodder.
Ghirapur Orrery: 2/5
Not fearing being left empty-handed after spending a lot of removal to keep opponents under control is a nice perk. In all reality, though, there's enough draw in the deck that such concerns shouldn't be an issue. This is (I believe, I could be wrong) the only colorless permanent that allows everyone to play additional lands each turn. But therein lies the problem - it helps everyone. We know that Ayli isn't in a rush to win because that's suicide - the deck isn't built to be aggressive, so the ramp shouldn't be necessary. We gladly accept Rites of Flourishing help from other players but have little reason to initiate such things, ourselves. It's easily accessible being that it's colorless, though, and probably won't get removed since opponents will love it, too. In the end it's another one of the many neat toys an Artifact-centric set like Kaladesh offers, but not necessarily what we want or need.
Panharmonicon: 4/5
I'm already imagining how trite this artifact will become because of how many EDH decks will be trying to stuff it into their 99. It does have the potential to be very, very absurd, though. Artifacts and Creatures do indeed count for themselves when they enter the battlefield if Panharmonicon is on the battlefield, too. The main list has 9 potential triggers to double, which is a significant amount. Angel of Serenity hits 6 targets instead of 3; Ashen Rider exiles two permanents instead of one[/c]; Fiend Hunter exiles two creatures; Fleshbag Marauder makes everyone sacrifice two creatures[/c]; Karmic Guide reanimates two creatures; Puppeteer Clique reanimates 2 creatures; Rune-Scarred Demon lets you find two cards[/c]; Solemn Simulacrum finds two lands; Sun Titan reanimates two creatures[/c]. The lifegain/bleeder package probably gains the most from this Artifact, however. Panharmonicon will cause all the Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Suture Priest, Pious Evangel) to trigger twice each, as well as Tablet of the Guilds. It makes Karlov of the Ghost Council all the more absurd. As absurd as Panharmonicon is, though, in many cases it will be a "Win More" card. Does it potentially make you win faster? Sure. Is it political suicide because only very new or less-than-intelligent players will know that doubling ETB triggers is going to lead to absurd plays? That is also sure. Do you need it to win with this deck? No, no you don't. As with Aetherflux Reservoir, it is a really neat toy, if ultimately unnecessary.
While it's nice to have another dual land in Orzhov colors, in a 100-card singleton format, you have a very high chance that this will enter as yet another tap land by the time you draw it to play it. Because there's a small chance that it won't, it's worth it to play it over Forsaken Sanctuary, Orzhov Guildgate or Scoured Barrens. The main list still has a single tapland in it - that being Orzhov Guildgate - and this will most likely be put in it's place. However, of all the potential utility lands and mana fixers, this is probably the lowest on the list in terms of priority.
Conclusion
I have to admit that Kaladesh looks extremely fun, and I'm happy that there are so many potentials in the set. Most blocks offer 2 or 3 potentials at most, and usually because of how long the deck has been in tuning for and how tight the list is, they don't make the cut. I'm super excited for Demon of Dark Schemes and Morbid Curiosity, and even may try testing Master Marionette or Angel of Invention. I'm not actively testing optional packages at this point, but have found a lot of cards that could easily fit into that strategy.
The prerelease is tonight, and I hope this review is helpful for anyone playing Ayli or who looks to this thread for information, suggestions or strategies
Xenphire, thank you for the amazing guide. I hope you'll keep updating it. I've been able to incorporate a lot of the ideas here and love the deck. Here is my deck, as of right now:
Hey there, everyone! Before I get to replies, I'll be taking care of prerelease business!
I hope your prerelease weekend was fun and eventful. I played in my Midnight prerelease event then my Saturday Noon and 6 PM ones, as well. I probably would have played in the two Sunday events there at my fav LGS as well, if I could have I went 3-1 at my Midnight and 6 PM ones and 2-2 at my Noon event, mostly thanks to play mistakes from still being groggy thanks to only sleeping 3 hours. Eesh, I'm worn out.
Even though it's not specifically related to Ayli or her deck, I thought it'd be fun to do a quick recap of my prerelease experience
Event 2 I opened Aethersquall Ancient, 2x Lathnu Hellion (1 foil!), Cultivator of Blades, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Aetherflux Reservoir as my promo and finally a Blooming Masrh. Ended up going Simic and splashed Red to play Lathnu Hellions and Aethertorch Renegade, again. I didn't have as much Energy generation as I would have liked but the Lathnu Hellion was still really hard for opponents to deal with. I probably could have gone at least 3-1 again if I didn't make a lot of misplays due to needing food and being so groggy. By the 6 PM run I was full of fajitas and recharged
Even 3, I made everyone hate me. Opened Chandra, Torch of Defiance as my prerelease foil, then opened another Dovin Baan, along with Insidious Will, Kambal, Consule of Allocation, Multiform Wonder, Fleetwheel Cruiser and Metalwork Colossus. Had a massive amount of removal in White and Blue and ended up going that route with a splash of Black to play Kambal. After playing him in limited and getting a feel for him, I enjoy him in a format where opponents have 20 life and are forced to play around him or deal with him. He did work, for real. He won me a couple games because opponents were forced to play through him to keep going and keep up. But, as one can imagine, as soon as they had removal he was their #1 target. If they played hard removal, he died the turn after he came into play. In a format like EDH/Commander where opponents have 40 life and you have 3 people gunning for him, I still think he's going to be hard to keep on the board. I had a pretty hard stance on him when I did the review, but I'm beginning to soften up on it a little and think he may be worth testing in the Lifegain/Bleeder package if you're running protection to keep him on the board so he doesn't get immediately removed and end up more or less a dead card. Time will tell.
Energy as a really fun mechanic to play with, but I'm on the fence about Vehicles because of how easy it is to end up with an unexpected blowout. Using them means taking away blockers a lot of the time if you're in aggro mode, and having your vehicle destroyed after tapping down creatures to Crew it feels pretty bad. I pulled a lot of great stuff, but sadly I didn't open a Demon of Dark Schemes in any of my prize packs, so hopefully I can trade for one sometime this week. I did trade my extra Dovin Baan for a foil prerelease promo because the guy kept going back and forth and I didn't want to lose his interest. Go figure, offering him a Planeswalker made up his mind pretty quick. I'll be testing that Panharmonicon, as well as Morbid Curiosity and Demon of Dark Schemes this weekend, if I can trade for him. Right now I'm deciding what to do with the foil Chandra promo, because I kind of want some of those Masterpiece artifacts... hmmm
But, with all that out of the way, I'll be moving on to replies now
Good luck with the testing! I still need to get one, myself. I did manage to get someone to trade me a foil promor Panharmonicon for an extra Dovin Baan that I opened, so I may try testing it after all Leovold is definitely getting the brunt of hate at the shop as of late up here, so it's ride that train of sheep all the way to victory!
Xenphire, thank you for the amazing guide. I hope you'll keep updating it. I've been able to incorporate a lot of the ideas here and love the deck. Here is my deck, as of right now:
Thanks for posting your list, Gray24! I'll definitely continue to update the list as long as I'm able and continue to post set reviews and other information when I can!
As for your deck list, it looks like you have a lot of pretty solid choices there. How does Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx work out for you? I love that Land, but I've left it out because of the same reasons I don't run Cabal Coffers(needing to have at least 4 Swamps to be better than a Swamp; or Devotion of 4 or better to one color to be better than a Plains or Swamp in Nykthos's case). It's a pretty solid play alongside Divinity of Pride, for sure
If I may make a couple suggestions, is there any reason you don't play Sanguine Bond in the deck alongside Exquisite Blood? Both of those together are a win con in themselves. You could probably replace Death Grasp with it if you wanted to run it, since you have both Profane Command and Exsanguinate
My second suggestion is Cliffhaven Vampire. I recently discovered this guy while building an attrition deck for Queen Marchesa and have been meaning to add him to the Bleeder/Life Gain package in the second post. Your opponents will lose 1 life for each instance of life gain, so the amount he'll drain has enormous potential. He seems pretty harmless to opponents because people tend to underestimate the value of losing 1 life here and there. When you start getting them off of Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat triggers or the Nighthawks and others he starts to add up. I run him alongside Soul Warden, Suture Priest, Soul's Attendant and Pious Evangel and he quickly becomes pretty deadly
Anyway, your build looks pretty solid, regardless! I'm glad you love the deck. Is there anything in Kaladesh you're looking forward to? I saw you're using the Aerial Responder, which I overlooked in my review. Pretty great for the Lifegain/Bleeder build you're focusing in on!
Mikokoro/Geier Reach Sanitarium: One thing the list has lacked is ways to discard cards in your hand when there are often times you'd rather have them in your graveyard. Geier Reach Sanitarium is nearly functionally the same as Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, except that it loots instead of plainly draws a card. That is to say, you draw a card and then discard a card. The bonus is that while discarding benefits you, it also requires opponents who draw to discard a card as well. This means they could be discarding lands, or they could be discarding answers or valuable reanimation targets. This is a change I would recommend for any build, especially a Stax package that runs Waste Not for value.
Orzhov Guildgate/Concealed Courtyard: The Orzhov Guildgate fits thematically, but so does the Concealed Courtyard. More importantly, though, is that one is slightly better than the other. Concealed Courtyard has the potential to enter the battlefield untapped, even though the majority of the time it will enter tapped. This is opposed to the Orzhov Guildgate which will always enter tapped and lacks that potential. For the sake of inking out every bit of efficiency, I'll be replacing Orzhov Guildgate with Concealed Courtyard.
Bitter Ordeal/Panharmonicon: Making changes and updating the list is becoming increasingly difficult as new sets come out. One of the biggest things I look at is how often I have to wait to use a card or how useful it will be by itself while not being part of a combo. Bitter Ordeal made it into the deck because of Combo being huge in a shop I was playing at. It was a meta call. That meta has since shifted. It was also a win condition with any infinite recursion loop. Unlike Profane Command or Exanguinate which are finishers themselves yet useful otherwise, Bitter Ordeal has been very limited in what it can do and often sits in my hand. With that in mind, I've decided to try Panharmonicon in it's place. The deck operates off of ETB triggers, and doubling them should prove to be extremely powerful. Panharmonicon effects may well create such a red flag that it'll be automatically removed the moment you play it, which is why it'll be best to hold it until you can get some benefit from it. This is an experimental change and I'll be posting an updates as I test the effectiveness of this card.
Magister of Worth/Demon of Dark Schemes: As with finding a spot for Panharmonicon, this too was a very painful decision to make. I love my release promo Magister of Worth, but I have never found myself wanting to tutor for it, and it is one of those creatures that sits in my hand waiting for an excuse to play it. It is a personal flex slot in the deck that I'm now filling with Demon of Dark Schemes. The Demon has an immediate effect as soon as he enters the battlefield, wiping out mana dorks, tokens, most Elves and a lot of other stuff, too. He rewards you with Energy for doing so, which you can then use to pull your opponent's creatures from their graveyard to play with under your own control. He serves four purposes: A mini-boardwipe; a big flying beatstick; easy Energy generation; and reanimation. While Magister of Worth can create fun moments, she more often than not sits in your hand waiting to be worth being played. Demon of Dark Schemes provides immediate value and fun, and can even create infinite Energy generation when present after setting off an infinite recursion loop.
Both the Angel of Invention and Marionette Master can go infinite in the deck and provide a lot of triggers. The biggest consideration is that they don't do anything by themselves, which means they probably won't be granted a spot. Thalia's Lancers is a card that can search for several key utility cards including Creatures and Lands. The biggest issue with finding a spot is that without recursion, it simply sits on the battlefield. All three cards are excellent, but after the rest of the changes today, I do not feel there is anything to be cut from the deck. The only possible cuts are Sorin, Grim Nemesis and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but their impact upon hitting the battlefield is so strong that it is impossible to consider removing them for any of these three creatures.
Well hey there! Thanks for stopping by and for deciding to take the dive! I post updates and add content on a weekly basis, so feel free to stop by and ask any questions or leave feedback on how the deck ends up working out for you. This is probably a better place to discuss than Facebook since everyone in the EDH Commander group is so eager to jump in and assert their opinions, heh.
(Also known as Xenphire)
I guess this thread will be best since people here are experienced with the deck and know about it. Whereas on Facebook, everyone will just give their thoughts
does Ayli draw much hate (yet)? or is she still an under the radar commander?
At the stores I play at, she is very much under the radar. Early in the game she really serves as a deterrent from creature hate being a 2/3 with Deathtouch as no one is ready yet to throw their creatures away. She generally doesn't ever die unless a mass removal spell hits the table, and usually it's my own. As people catch on they tend to still leave her alone as she's not particularly as powerful of a sac outlet as other options in the deck like Ashnod's Altar. As far as general hate, as in "You're playing Ayli so you're dying first", I have a few people that are a bit scared of the deck but who won't target me because they know how resilient it is. It's very easy to wipe other player's boards out with the build I run in the main post, so most people don't want to swat the hornet's nest, so to speak, and prefer to start out as an ally rather than an enemy. The irony, of course, is that the later the game gets the more difficult it is to put Ayli down.
(Also known as Xenphire)
On a different note: I'm curious how you evaluate Kaya. I think I like Sorin, Grim nemesis better - but perhaps they needn't be mutually exclusive.
WB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
I can see myself trying to find a sport for Kaya when I finish the deck but I still dunno what I think of her
I guess when your group has a history of broken Orzhov commanders, then there will be a built up hatred for them naturally
@Jonas Ukulore: I am incredibly excited about Kaya, Ghost Assassin. I really like her 4CC and abilities, and am definitely going to try to see if I can make room in the deck for her, somewhere. She does exactly what Ayli wants to do! She helps play out a long term game, incrementally making card advantage or causing opponents card disadvantage. I love her -2 so very much, and her -1 helps offset life loss from Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence. Her 0 is just icing on the cake, letting you protect a valuable creature if you don't have a sac outlet but need to board wipe (or when you need to board wipe and don't want an effect of an opponent's creature dying to trigger). I do think her and Sorin can be played at the same time as they both deliver card advantage in the same way and aren't competing for the same converted mana cost, so the average cost doesn't hurt by finding a spot for Kaya.
@thepatrickswayzeeexpress: Thanks for the kind words Regarding Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, I think she's a great Planeswalker herself. My main issue when I've looked at her is trying to make room for her over other cards in the deck. Her +2 is okay, but I've recently added Geier Reach Sanitarium to enable discarding cards when I need to, but other than that the deck doesn't particularly have a need for hand disruption. Typically when it comes to discard, I like to have it in a package with other cards like Waste Not, Megrim, Geth's Grimoire etc. that can really benefit from it. Her -X is pretty decent, but a lot of the better targets have a high converted mana cost, meaning she has to +2 two or even three times to hit the high value targets for reanimation if you want her to still be on the battlefield afterwards.
Her ultimate is pretty good - it's a Grave Betrayal on a Planeswalker. Ignoring her -X and going +2 all the way for the ultimate would be pretty powerful, but then it comes down to what to replace her with from the main list. It could be funny to use along with any board wipes, but also situational as if opponents stop playing many threats or creatures then it's kind of for naught. Currently I'm testing out Thalia's Lancers and Sidisi, Undead Vizier since they help move the game towards a winning. I think the emblem from Liliana is powerful and she's overall a good Planeswalker and wouldn't blame anyone for running her in their build. There are a few flex spots in the build such as Magister of Worth which is one of my personal cards, or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which is a newer addition and performs very well, but is ultimately utility just like this Liliana.
So TL;DR, my verdict is she's amazing and I say play her if she plays well for your build! My personal build would find it hard to make room for her and I think she's a bit too situational for it, but not bad by any means. I'll personally be choosing to make room for Kaya, Ghost Assasin because of her ability to draw us a card while making opponents discard at the same time, and her 0 effect (the bleeder ability is a nice bonus).
(Also known as Xenphire)
Two hard things I'll have to figure out soon: what to cut, and how to get my hands on the sweet alternate art foil Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
On the perception/hate versus Ayli: Last night opponents focused Ayli with repeated Strip Mine (via Crucible of Worlds) and Double Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (and Sakashima the impostor also set on GAA4) and repeated Mindslaver (via Daretti, Scrap Savant)
Aylii faces alot of hate. :-(
WB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
if you go the life gain rout the pain section is better for you
been thinking about cradle of vitality for a budget version since it causes snowballs pretty fast also karlov is all over the +1/+1 counters.
Ajani's Pridemate life gain +1/+1 counter interaction
also Xenphire
any plans to run recruiter of the guard
and you forgot about deathrender in equipment section with ayli its cheat a dude into play for 3
any one know any deathrender loops?
Hi there! I'll try to get a post written up for you before the end of the day (it'll probably show up late this evening). When this was still largely a budget deck, it was still pretty effective. The Soul Sisters are great with Karlov but Karlov works best with a deck with more life gain. They're certainly not bad at all, but if you go with a Life Gain/Bleeder route, they'd definitely fit in but you'd want to take it up a notch and add some further support past just them so that they didn't feel out of place compared to the rest of the deck. I need to add Karlov under the Life Gain toolkit, still! Anyway, I'll do my best to get a budget list up tonight. I will say that Life Gain/Bleeder can definitely be a good budget, route.
Recruiter of the Guard can target 12 different targets in my list, including Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, False Prophet, Karmic Guide, Puppeteer Clique, Weathered Wayfarer, Vizkopa Guildmage and others. I'm very interested in it's potential in the deck and I'll be looking to test it out. It's getting tough to find spots in here because the last year has introduced a plethora of cards worth checking out after a really long drought of interests.
Deathrender is a neat card and certainly worth looking at in an Equipment package, so I'll update the list to include it when I update for a budget list later tonight
Thanks for the posts, guys!
(Also known as Xenphire)
How did I go about building this list? First, I built it on MTG Goldfish so I could keep track of individual card prices and the price of the deck as a whole while I attempted to search for cards that are similar in function, and also around the same relative mana cost. Below is the deck list, and then what cards were removed, their replacement and suggestions for how to prioritize any upgrades in the future.
Of note, is that I haven't tested this build, so I can't say how it performs. I did my best to find cards that could be functional and effective replacements for existing cards. Many of the higher end cards have unique effects that are hard to replicate. I can say that I'm confident this build would still be fun to play as it uses several cards I once played in the deck or have considered over time.
1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Creature (27)
1x Angel of Serenity
1x Archon of Justice
1x Ashen Rider
1x Butcher of Malakir
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Divinity of Pride
1x Emeria Shepherd
1x False Prophet
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Grim Haruspex
1x Karmic Guide
1x Kor Cartographer
1x Magister of Worth
1x Nezumi Graverobber
1x Priest of Gix
1x Puppeteer Clique
1x Reassembling Skeleton
1x Reveillark
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sun Titan
1x Tree of Perdition
1x Viscera Seer
1x Vizkopa Guildmage
1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Buried Alive
1x Debt to the Deathless
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Exsanguinate
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Obzedat's Aid
1x Profane Command
1x Rout
1x Twilight's Call
Artifact (13)
1x Ashnod's Altar
1x Blasting Station
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Expedition Map
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Mind Stone
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Orzhov Keyrune
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Spawning Pit
1x Wayfarer's Bauble
Instant (6)
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Argivian Find
1x Corpse Dance
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Unmake
1x Utter End
1x Angelic Renewal
1x Animate Dead
1x Grave Betrayal
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Underworld Connections
Land (37)
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Forsaken Sanctuary
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x High Market
1x Mistveil Plains
1x Orzhov Basilica
1x Orzhov Guildgate
10x Plains
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scoured Barrens
12x Swamp
1x Tainted Field
1x Temple of Silence
1x Temple of the False God
1x Terramorphic Expanse
Notes about Prices/Replacements
$18.00+
Mana Crypt ($79.99) = Darksteel Ingot. In truth, Mana Crypt is not necessary for the deck to play well. But, since we're losing optimal land base to make a budget build, a Darksteel Ingot will be pretty valuable for playing spells with 2-3 colors in their cost.
Sensei's Divining Top ($20.00) = Mind Stone. There's really no replacement effect for SDT, so I opted for a cheap mana rock to put in it's place. You could also put Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves here. Lightning Greaves is not recommended, though, as Shroud interferes with a lot of the deck's shenanigans.
Vampiric Tutor ($27.91) = Diabolic Tutor. I started at the most expensive cards and eliminated my way down, and Diabolic Tutor is easily one of the best budget options for tutors in Black.
Yawgmoth's Will ($27.14) = Twilight's Call. Later on I'll discuss that I had removed Sheoldred, Whispering One and was looking for an effect that could be as devastating. I wound up with Grave Betrayal and thought it'd be fun to bring everyone's creatures back using Twilight's Call with Grave Betrayal on the board, and then play a board wipe and gain control of all of them. You could also use some of the wiggle room to upgrade to Rise of the Dark Realms, instead.
Damnation ($63.27) = Rout. One could choose to go with Wrath of God here instead. I elected to go with Rout because I think it's underrated to have the option to pay more to play it at Instant speed. It also saves a few dollars, since *** is still close to $5 even after all the reprints.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ($23.12) = Black Sun's Zenith. Ugin is mainly used in the late game to get around Indestructible and Hexproof, but is great for hitting troublesome non-creature permanents. BSZ is a great board wipe tha gets around those two abilities.
Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed ($29.99) = Disciple of Bolas. Although Xiahou pulls from the graveyard, Disciple of Bolas will have a lot of juicy targets in the deck and is fun to abuse with recursion spells and loops. He also gains you life, which you may need being as the deck moves slower with higher cost tutors.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All ($19.23), Cavern of Souls ($58.07), Shizo, Death's Storehouse ($8.55), Strip Mine ($7.55), Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth ($9.47) = Swamps. There aren't too many Orzhov dual lands that are budget. Even so, I feel it's better to play basic lands where possible over lands that come onto the battlefield tapped. Some of the budget options also provide more support for finding basic lands.
Other Land Replacements:
Fetid Heath ($29.45) = Forsaken Sanctuary
Phyrexian Tower ($27.06) = Plains
Verdant Catacombs ($74.58) = Terramorphic Expanse
Volrath's Stronghold ($35.98) = Temple of the False God
Godless Shrine ($10.27) = Evolving Wilds
Maze of Ith ($12.35) = Scoured Barrens
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea ($12.75) = Geier Reach Sanitarium
Homeward Path ($7.22) = Plains
Kor Haven ($7.19) = Plains
Isolated Chapel ($3.33) = Scoured Barrens
$10.00-$17.99
Kokusho, the Evening Star ($15.03) = Divinity of Pride. Kokusho is one of those cards that is hard to replace, but he's a giant flying beater, which is a niche that Divinity of Pride fills nicely for the deck. Both happen to work rather well with Vizkopa Guildmage + Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim.
Wurmcoil Engine ($16.00) = Sepulchral Primordial. While it's not the ultimate rattlesnake that Wurmcoil Engine is, it can help close out games and has potential to be a finisher for around the same mana.
Sheoldred, Whispering One ($13.86) = Grave Betrayal. Sheoldred is another card that is hard to replace. While she could be a beater, she's feared for her triggered abilities and forces players to answer her. Grave Betrayal is a fun card I've always liked for the same :symb cost. With all the board wipes and removal, it should be just as fun and has potential to cause opponents as many problems.
Enlightened Tutor ($10.52) = Increasing Ambition. This could have been Dark Petition, but the ability to find 3 cards was more relevant, and this tutor was cheaper, money wise. It's definitely not the convenience that Enlightened Tutor is, but it has the perks of finding 3 cards over the course of the game and being able to find any card.
Entomb ($14.57) = Buried Alive. This is truly the closest thing to Entomb that you can find. Be careful, however, of graveyard hate and make sure if you use this that you'll be able to maximize putting three creatures in your graveyard.
Demonic Tutor ($17.00) = Sidisi, Undead Vizier. She's a pretty amazing creature that can target herself for her Exploit trigger. She costs more, but is can be abused with recursion.
$5.00-$9.99
Weathered Wayfarer ($8.94) = Kor Cartographer. Since a good chunk of the money is in the land base of the full version of the deck, it doesn't hurt as bad to lose Weathered Wayfarer. Kor Cartographer can be easily abused with the recursion in the deck to ramp you into the mana you'll need to finish the game.
Yosei, the Morning Star ($4.99) = Emeria Shepherd. The Yosei lock is gone, unless you use some wiggle room to bring him back. In his place is Emeria Shephered to get your cards back, which works nicely with the Kor Cartographer, above.
Bitter Ordeal ($5.92) = Debt to the Deathless. Mostly cut as a result of budgeting, the addition of Debt to the Deathless still provides you with a finisher in place of Bitter Ordeal, still using the same infinite trigger loops you'd use to generate the mana.
Coalition Relic ($9.00) = Orzhov Keyrune. Most of the time, Coalition Relic is a glorified mana rock that costs more money than it should. Orzhov Keyrune has the same effect, and could be replaced by Commander's Sphere. Having that 1/4 to sacrifice to effects from the Keyrune can be beneficial, however.
Necropotence ($7.89) = Underworld Connections. This is a hard draw engine to replace. I refused to cut Phyrexian Arena, even though Underworld Connections fills a similar niche. This could also be Dark Prophecy or Promise of Power. If you would decide to use Dark Prophecy, I would suggest going a tokens route and using Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat or some of the Soul Sisters to mitigate the life loss.
Vindicate ($7.78) = Unmake. Could also be Mortify or Return to Dust, but Unmake is rather close to Vindicate's functionality.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis ($7.93) = Priest of Gix. With the deck becoming a bit slower, it hurts more to play Sorin here. He's also been cut for budget reasons. In his place comes Priest of Gix, which can make a lot of mana with the right set up. He has an infinite loop with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle, allowing you to create infinite mana.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter ($5.45) = Butcher of Malakir. Both are flying beaters, just one not as ridiculous as the other. The Grave Pact effect is a nice touch and addition, which I've previously run before. Losing Vish Kal means losing one of the ways to go infinite with Reveillark + Karmic Guide, but the Butcher helps keeps opponents under control since the deck will move a bit slower than normal.
$4.99 or Less
Mangara of Corondor ($3.80) = Grim Haruspex. The deck has more graveyard recycling in this budget build, meaning that creatures are being sacrificed more for gains than in the full build. Mangara is a great card, but was cut to make the budget. In it's place is Grim Haruspex, which has potential to draw a ton of cards.
Beacon of Unrest ($4.04) = Obzedat's Aid. The two are nearly identical in function, making it an obvious include for budgeting. The only difference is Obzedat's Aid will not get shuffled back into the library. You could also use Unburial Rites here, but Obzedat's Aid lets you hit valuable Artifacts like Ashnod's Altar or Nim Deathmantle.
Necromancy = Animate Dead. Necromancy was a few dollars, whereas the recently reprinted Animate Dead was only around $1.00. It costs one less but you lose the ability to reanimate at Instant speed.
Upgrades & Prioritization
In doing this budget build, many (most of the combos) remained, but a few went missing along with important cards. The biggest weakness of a budget build is the slower tutor effects and weaker utility land infrastructure. When looking to upgrade pieces of the deck or where you may want to look first, there are some considerations to make.
Updating the Land Base & Support
If your meta is Blue/Control heavy, then cards such as Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Cavern of Souls, Volrath's Stronghold, these cards in concert with Weathered Wayfarer are invaluable and what you need to get your spells through. It is also advised to search for a Homeward Path for your deck when playing in a heavy Blue meta because of the amount of permanent theft potential. Phyrexian Tower is especially helpful to help ramp if you can't keep your other mana generators on the board.
If you're playing in a meta with a lot of Aggro or fast Commander Damage, you'll want to aim for Maze of Ith, then Kor Haven.
As a two color deck, mana fixing or access to both colors is generally a non-issue. It is still slower, however, to draw lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Isolated Chapel is a small upgrade for a dual that can easily enter untapped. Godless Shrine is stable at around $10.00 and probably won't ever get cheaper until they reprint it again somewhere down the line. Fetid Heath is as cheap as it will ever be outside of a reprint somewhere, but seems unlikely given the awkward nature of that land cycle. Verdant Catacombs and Marsh Flats are great for deck thinning, but ultimately were the last purchases I made for the deck as their effectiveness for the cost is so little compared to other options.
Improving Efficiency
Upgrading to include Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Entomb and Enlightened Tutor will make the deck run much smoother, as you're cutting the cost in half (or more) to find the cards you need. Diabolic Intent is actually an okay replacement for Vampiric Tutor and is a few dollars cheaper. Regardless of how you prioritize upgrading tutors, each one will have a dramatic impact on the consistency of the deck. I would recommend Enlightened Tutor first, as the others are limited in where they see play, so their prices will stay relatively stable, while Enlightened Tutor will climb due to seeing more play.
Some creatures that were removed nearly win the game by themselves at times, especially Sheoldred, Whispering One. She would be one of the first creatures I upgraded to in a budget Ayli deck because of how deadly efficient she is at swinging games. Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed would be one of my other more immediate priorities, although he is one of the more expensive cards in the full version. The ability to retrieve any Black card is super powerful and what the deck is all about - abusing the ability to bring back our spells and creatures. Wurmcoil Engine is a nice beater and hard to deal with, but still less important than either Sheoldred or Vish Kal.
In terms of card draw, Necropotence can be one of the most important cards in the deck due to the ability to find what you need very fast at the cost of life, which is a pittance in EDH. It is for this same reason that Yawgmoth's Will is one of the most important upgrades you can make in the deck, however. While Necropotence can help find solutions in a quick manner, it's usefulness is finite given your life total is, as well. Yawgmoth's Will can allow you to come back from ruin in a long game where you have access to a lot of mana, and as such is well worth the investment.
Un-Combo Breaking
As a result of budgeting, a few combo pieces were removed that are otherwise decent cards in themselves. One example is Kokusho, the Evening Star, which require some work but is a great political tool and easy ends games with Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Vizkopa Guildmage on the board, or Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar. Similarly, Yosei, the Morning Star is a relatively cheap card that runs at around $4-5, but is part of a combo that can lock the game down. Because of how effective Yosei with the tools included in a budget deck, he's a prime example of an early upgrade one should look to make when expanding. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter is also part of a combo in the deck, is relatively cheap, but is harder to abuse than Yosei or Kokusho. He's about the same price as Yosei, but less effective (though explosive when he works) and still cheaper than Kokusho but part of a combo.
Mass Removal and Mass Options
Much of the removal suite available to Orzhov colors have similar effects for slightly different costs. The exception is Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, which really helps deal with annoying non-creature permanents in the late game while leaving your mana rocks and important artifacts intact. He's much more important than say, Damnation, which is just a color shifted Wrath of God for $80 more. I personally play Damnation because I like the flavor, and there's no reason you can't settle for Wrath of God instead. Depending on how aggressive your meta is, you may even opt to keep playing Black Sun's Zenith instead of trying to upgrade to Ugin. Other options such as Toxic Deluge and Massacre Wurm are just as acceptable, here.
(Also known as Xenphire)
In other news.... KALADESH PREVIEWS!
We're not even at the official preview week yet and cards are already jumping out at me.
Demon of Shadowy Schemes can either wipe out some pesky weenies, mana dorks (Elves!) and other tokens; or in Ayli, he can be recurred by himself a few times to stack up and give everything -6/-6 or more until end of turn. The best part, though, is that for any card that wants in the deck, including himself, is that we have ample ways to trigger his ability to generate whenever another creature dies. If you're running Phyrexian Alter in your build, you can cycle Reveillark + Karmic Guide with it and Demon of Shadowy Schemes on the battlefield to not only generate infinite {E}, but also to use the mana you're generating alongside all the triggers giving you to steal the creatures out of everyone's graveyard. With Phyrexian Altar you would get an and per sacrifice, meaning every three triggers you gett and and that's awesome. The same can work for your Skullclamp + Reassembling Skeleton combos, or Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar + Priest of Gix combo. There's numerous ways to abuse this guy to either get {E}, wipe the board or steal creatures from your opponent's graveyard. This guy is a beast of an engine and has me really excited.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury on the other hand seems really neat, but I'm not convinced he's what the deck wants. Once again we have a creature with a very abuseable ETB trigger. The problem comes with the mana you would need to cast the cards exiled by him. We normally want our mana open to respond to plays that could mess up our plans. The plus side is that he messes with players playing a lot of the Tutor cycle (Vampiric Tutor, Mystic Tutor, Enlightend Tutor) and you could respond with Corpse Dance or Necromancy before they get to draw that card. It also helps bind players running Sensei's Divining Top by either messing up the top of the library, or responding to them putting their Top on their library by playing Gonti and either taking it for your own or moving it to the bottom of their library. You could, however, just simply leave those cards in Exile. He's definitely an interesting card, that much is for sure, but probably not the high impact card we want in invested reanimation shenanigans.
Aetherworks Marvel could easily be activated in the deck with how much we cycle permanents between the graveyard and the battlefield. It's probably not something that is particularly important to the deck since we really want to plan out our plays and cards like that draw a lot of attention. Anything that lets you play cards for free makes you public enemy #1. It's worth nothing, though, especially for people playing budget versions of Ayli who may be able to get one easy since a lot of Kaladesh will be opened. This still be easily abused even in the budget version where mana is slower but you still have many of the recursion combos available!
Filigree Familiar will be a really nice replacement for super budget players who don't want to buy Solemn Simulacrum. It's very similar, except that it gains your life instead of finding a land when it ETB. In the Life Gain/Bleeder Package, this guy could really do a lot of work in concert with Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Nim Deathmantle, Karlov of the Ghost Council, and the various Soul Sisters. He's a really great Uncommon!
Panharmonicon has the potential to be very powerful, and very interesting. There's a lot of Commander decks that I want to put this in, but it's uses in Ayli are almost none, unless the creature entering the battlefield can double it's own triggers. If the ruling turns out that it can, then this Artifact is absurd in Ayli. If it can't, then it's a pass because most of our triggers depend on things dying. Regardless, it was worth mentioning.
Lastly, we have Concealed Courtyard, which is one of the long awaited enemy Speed Lands (Razorverge Thicket). Even though it's less relevant in EDH as you can't run four of it and so you're less likely to get it early enough to come in untapped, it's still a nice dual land.
(Also known as Xenphire)
That was my thinking, as well.
For the primary build in the OP, I think Panharmonicon is mostly a pass, as the majority of the effects in the deck happen upon creatures dying. Because of that, it's hard to justify taking anything out for it at this time. If one were doing a life gain/bleeder package listed later on, though, having double triggers off of the Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Suture Priest or Pious Evangel) alongside Cliffhaven Vampire and Sanguine Bond could prove to add up very fast.
The reason for Argivian Find is that it's Instant speed. Most graveyard happens at a point where you need to readily be able to respond, and where this deck is concerned, you're not very likely to be able to bring in Treasure Hunter at Instant speed. You can also cast it easily with Yawgmoth's Bargain.
As for regarding recurring Artifact combo pieces, my answer regarding playing creature on curve somewhat goes hand in hand, and it relates to how the deck runs as written in the OP: This is a finesse deck. You aren't playing creatures on curve, or necessarily playing things before you're ready to abuse them. It's not an aggro deck. This version of Ayli is a deck that maneuvers through politics below the radar, maintaining control of other player's board states as they become threatening and holding your cards close to your chest in order to not draw attention; it plays the long game. If you were to play everything on curve, you would find yourself drawing a lot of hate and make it hard on yourself to set up combos. Until you're ready to combo or you need to respond to threats, you want spend my mana recurring Reassembling Skeleton and Skullclamping it, tutoring and setting up utility lands so that you can have a good defense in the mid-to-late game. There should be a lot of turns that you don't play spells, but use abilities or dig or draw for answers to be ready to answer with a Merciless Eviction or Fiend Hunter and some other combo pieces; or just sit in wait with a removal spell in your hand in anticipation of an opponent attempting to combo off, themselves. Almost all the creatures in the deck are part of some combo that will slowly find themselves exiled from the game if you try to play creatures on curve - that's not what the deck is meant to do
As for the card suggestions:
Knight of the White Orchid - I run him in the budget build. In the full build, there are not enough Plains to really warrant playing him. There's not really room to run both this guy and Weathered Wayfarer in a full build, and Wayfarer helps find the most important utility lands which are the most important pieces to get out, so he'll always be the better choice. There's plenty of dual lands for getting access to colored mana in the deck (and artifacts as well), so in the context of what the Land base looks like this guy is actually pretty narrow.
Athreos, God of Passage - He's a neat card but doesn't really do what this deck wants to do. This deck wants it's creatures to go into the graveyard so that it can abuse Corpse Dance, Nim Deathmantle and other cards. Generally speaking, returning them to your hand is going to cost more and take more time to put out than letting them go to your graveyard to be reanimated over and over for way cheaper than what it costs to cast them. When opponents figure out what you're doing, they'd gladly pay 3 life to stop you from comboing off and just return those creatures to your hand.
Night's Whisper - It's a nice staple for players who don't have the better card draw available to them, but between Skullclamp, Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Geier Reach Sanitarium and a plethora of tutors available, it's probably best left to a budget build that can't afford Necropotence (in which case I'd just play Dark Prophecy instead). It's really lacking in effect compared to other options available, so I would recommend always running the other options I mentioned here if they're available to someone building the deck.
Stonecloaker - For the same reason I don't care for Athreos, I don't really feel Stonecloaker belongs in the deck. If you have a creature being targeted by removal, you want to sacrifice it for some gains in response rather than bouncing it to your hand and making it harder to get back out. Most creatures in this deck come into play via reanimation, which is why having a lot of high cost creatures in the deck works just fine. His second ability is nice against other decks that work with the graveyard, but there are several effects in the main list in the OP that can target an opponent's graveyard. The opponent's graveyards are just as great of a resource as our own, so unless you have an issue with Storm combo decks that use Past in Flames, I can't really think of any other scenario where this will benefit the style of this deck.
Capashen Unicorn is too slow to worry about adding to the deck. Unless you're using a Necromancy on this instead of something better (I should hope not :p) or Corpse Dance, which I wouldn't, then it's pretty hard to justify running this guy. There are tons of ways to destroy or exile permanents in general so that anyone playing in Orzhov colors should never have to run a creature with a slow activated ability.
Pilgrim's Eye - Has the same issue that Knight of the White Orchid has. Getting the mana you need isn't really an issue with this deck. It's meant to play out long, grindy games and be extremely resilient. Because Pilgrim's Eye has the limitation of finding basic lands in a deck with so many non-basics, it's pretty hard to want to play it over other options. Despite having an ETB effect, you'd have to be in dire straights to want to use your reanimation effects on this. By the time you can afford to start using Nim Deathmantle or Corpse Dance to bring cards back and for from the graveyard to the battlefield, sacrificing them and repeating, you should be in a position to win the game rather than searching for basic lands.
(Also known as Xenphire)
The prerelease is mere days away, and I'm super excited about Kaladesh! Not many sets offer such a wide variety of cards of interest for the strategies that Ayli employs. With Kaladesh not only do we have some sweet new cards in Orzhov colors, but with it being an Artifact set we also have a load of new Artifacts which aren't prohibited by colors. We also have the new Energy resource, which often comes as a result of cards entering or leaving the battlefield, which is Ayli's specialization.
About this review: I won't be reviewing every card that could possibly go into Ayli - in other words, every single White, Black, Multicolor, Artifact or Land in the set will not get commentary. Many simply wouldn't make the cut because Ayli is already fairly tight and trim, as it is. What we'll be doing is looking at the cards with the best chance of being worth testing, and even some that could fit into alternate packages or even a budget build. We'll also look at some cards that I don't believe belong in Ayli or any of the various packages, but that I think some people may ask or post about - cards that I strongly feel have no place in the deck, but that others may give consideration for being new and shiny.
But without further adieu, here's my review for Kaladesh!
White
Aetherstorm Roc: 1/5
This Bird is not the word, but it made the list because of it's first triggered ability. With cards like Reassembling Skeleton and several infinite ETB/LTB triggers in the deck, Aetherstorm Roc is one way to generate a ton of Energy without too much effort. It's second ability really isn't all that relevant since swinging is something we don't do much. If you're really wanting to play with Energy and want an easy generator in Ayli, this is an option, though. He earns a 1/5
Angel of Invention: 4/5
If you're looking for another infinite ETB/LTB and mana trigger, look no further. In concert with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle, you're up on mana very quick. When this Angel enters the battlefield and you choose to Fabricate 2 for two servos, you have 3 creatures to sacrifice for a total of six :cmana:; or an infinite number of Servos by sacrificing the Angel and one Servo, leaving an extra Servo for whatever your needs may be. If you have Skullclamp in play, you could sacrifice all three creatures for 6 mana, then use to activate Nim Deathmantle bringing back the Angel and thus another two Servos. With floating, you can Skullclamp one of the Servos, sacrifice the other and the Angel for another 4 mana, giving you a total of 5. Every other round of the loop you can sacrifice a Servo, giving you infinite draw with the Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle combo, if you have Skullclamp out. Even if you lack the loop, the Angel is a 2/1 along with his two 1/1 Servos, making lots of Skullclamp fodder. In a Lifegain/Bleeder deck with the Soul Sister (Soul Warden, Suture Priest, etc.) the life gain from these would quickly add up. Angel of Invention gets a 4/5. He doesn't win the game by himself, but in a deck full of recursion strategies, he provides a massive amount of value by giving us exactly what we want, that being a ton of sacrificial fodder.
Authority of the Consuls: 1/5
Kismet and Blind Obedience this is not. There are a lot of effects out there that cause your opponent's stuff to enter the battlefield tapped. Most of them cost between 2-4 mana. Don't be deceived by the fact that this one costs only a - that is irrelevant unless we have this in our opening hand, which is a large gamble in itself. The amount life gain is dependent on opponents playing a lot of creatures, which could be a lot or none at all. It's really unnecessary to have multiple of this type of effect in a deck, and for EDH this is one of the weaker options. I would not recommend this for any package or version of Ayli, and thus give it a 1/5.
Captured by the Consulate: 2/5
Some players may see this and see a comparison to Faith's Fetters due to it being an Aura and a card that locks down an opponent's creature. While this card makes an opponent waste targeted removal, the importance of Faith's Fetters is that it can target any permanent and disable it's activated abilities. You can use it as an effect to stop a Commander damage-based deck from performing a KO on you, or you can use it to disable annoying and dangerous Planeswalkers. You can stop that Thespian's Stage from copying an opponent's Dark Depths. The utility of Faith's Fetters is massive. Captured by the Consulate isn't awful, though. The ability to make it hard for opponents to play targeted removal makes it a rather annoying card. It may be an effect worthy of a budget Stax build or any other budget build. While it's not worth replacing Faith's Fetters, it's still a decent card on it's own, but nothing Ayli goes WOW about. For that reason, I've given it a 2/5.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk: 2/5
Here we have Wizard's attempt at a balanced and fixed Titan cycle (eg. Sun Titan, Grave Titan, etc.) and the White one here is a Cataclysm on a stick every time it enters the battlefield. Many compare it to Tragic Arrogance due to it being in more recent memory, which was itself based upon Cataclysm (the Gearhulk's namesake). The big difference between the two is that Tragic Arrogance lets you pick what your opponents keep, and that's the up side to that spell. As I see it, the biggest problem with Cataclysmic Gearhulk is that your opponents get a choice, and giving your opponent's a choice is a bad idea, more often than not. I haven't ever considered running Tragic Arrogance because it's wholly unnecessary when running Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Merciless Eviction, so you can imagine that I haven't really been too impressed with Cataclysmic Gearhulk in respect to it's potential in Ayli. It's 4/5 body and Vigilance makes it a good beater, but we don't particularly care about that in this deck. Ultimately, in the context of Ayli, this Gearhulk will provide too situational and even has the potential to backfire and help your opponent set up favorable situations. I'm a fan of all-or-nothing mass removal, or having more control over the effect it has. For that reason, I've given Cataclysmic Gearhulk a 2/5 for Ayli. It most likely won't be a budget option due to how strong of a card it will probably be in Standard and potentially even Modern, so I cannot recommend it for a budget build, either.
Fumigate: 1/5
There are a lot of Wrath of God variants out there, and this one isn't particularly interesting. It'll probably be a $0.25 rare and that puts it in the realm of budget options, but even Wrath of God isn't expensive these days. One might think that Fumigate could be okay in the Lifegain/Bleeder package, but the truth is that the amount of life you gain from this will always be inconsistent. Not only are there a lot better removal options, but when you cast this spell, you'll also be losing creatures that benefit the most from the life you gain after they're dead - creatures like Karlov of the Ghost Council. Because of it being one of the weaker of many options and knowing how inconsistent the life gain amount will be, I'm giving Fumigate a 1/5.
Refurbish: 3/5
There are very few spells in Orzhov colors that can return an Artifact from your graveyard to your hand, let alone to play. We run Beacon of Unrest and Argivian Find to bring back important combo pieces from our graveyard, with Beacon of Unrest being the most potent with it's ability to come back to be played again later (and it's ability to target a Creature or Artifact). Refurbish is another option, albeit only targeting Artifacts at Sorcery speed. If you're playing on a budget or can't find a Beacon of Unrest, then this will be a really great budget option. Artifact graveyard recursion is an area that offers a very small amount of options, making this a welcome addition to our colors. While it won't be replacing anything in the Ayli build in the main post, it's still a great card for the deck if you see a lot of Artifact hate or don't have Argivian Find or Beacon of Unrest. Thus, I give this a 3/5.
Black
Demon of Dark Schemes: 5/5
This is a Demon that does exactly what Ayli wants to do. He doesn't kill Ayli herself if she's on board, but he can wipe out a lot of creatures. He benefits from things going into the graveyard, which means he will give you Energy if he's on the board when doing the majority of the combos in the deck. With Priest of Gix + Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle and Demon of Dark Schemes on the battlefield, you can produce infinite Energy and infinite mana, so you can steal every creature from every opponent's graveyard. With the other infinite combos in the deck the combo only goes as far as your mana holds out, but that's still a lot of mileage in the late game when you hopefully have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth on the board. If you want to run the infinite mana and ETB/LTB combos but don't want a finisher that outright kills the table in one fell swoop, then Demon of Dark Schemes is also a nice set up that gives more casual players a chance to respond to your shenanigans. It's also worth noting that any card in Kaladesh worth playing that consumes Energy is magnificent in concert with Demon of Dark Schemes. Chances are that he's going to gain you a massive amount of Energy when he enters the battlefield. From there, it's gravy. A 6 mana 5/5 flier that we can reanimate or reliably play with our mana ramp capabilities which has synergy with the entire deck strategy is pretty amazing. The best thing about this card is how easily it opens us up to experimenting with other Energy cards because it makes it so easy to use their abilities.
Eliminate the Competition: 1/5
The flavor is so good in Kaladesh, but unfortunately it doesn't make all cards play well. This has a lot of downfalls over existing mass destruction. First, it requires you to have a reasonable amount of creatures. In EDH that could be 3 or 4, or 12, so you have to match that number of creatures to sacrifice. In a tokens build? Not as big of a problem, but even in a tokens build the number is limited by how often they're used for fodder for combos. The second issue is the fact that it's targeted, which doesn't get around Hexproof or Shroud. The third reason is that it merely destroys, which does not get around Indestructible. You must meet three conditions for this removal spell to be useful. There's a lot of way better spot removal that can Exile a permanent rather than a creature for 1-2 mana less that gets around 2 of the 3 conditions. For everything else, Merciless Eviction and Black Sun's Zenith are far better for the mana. Even as far as budget builds go, there are far better options. "Accidents happen", the flavor text says, and the multiple conditions that make this spell utterly disappointing make it seem like an accident, indeed.
Fortuitous Find: 3/5
If you're facing a lot of Artifact hate, this could be beneficial to you. Like Refurbish, this is at Sorcery speed, so it has the downside of not being able to be a response to graveyard hate. It does, however, provide you with a valuable way of getting back combo pieces to save for later, in addition to a creature if you so desire. The Return Dead attached doesn't provide too much value and isn't really what we're concerned with here. It's not as good as Argivian Find due to it costing less and being Instant speed. But, it's another option if your meta calls for it, and also another option for budget players who are really penny pinching and don't want to spend money on Beacon of Unrest.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury: 3/5
An interesting card and ability, but one of questionable mileage. You see, Gonti can be pretty funny - imagine using Corpse Dance with him in the graveyard in response to an opponent activating Sensei's Divining Top second ability and putting it onto the stack, attempting to put a card in their hand that they just put on top of their library. You just took whatever card they want and can play it (or just Exiled it, if that's all you want to do). The problem here is this: you have limited mana to cast any spells you want to play. You want to buyback Corpse Dance, making it cost altogether just to get Gonti back. You can effectively shave off of that cost if you have Ashnod's Altar out to sacrifice him so Corpse Dance doesn't exile Gonti at the EOT. Either way, you're going to struggle with paying the mana for a lot of high cost spells in EDH/Commander in addition to reanimating him for the trigger. On one hand, with instant reanimation, Gonti is a clever way of preventing a lot of cards searched for with various Tutors and divining tops to never make it to their owner's hands. On the other hand, Gonti doesn't do anything if he isn't entering the battlefield. He needs to be in your graveyard and coming back constantly, and his impact is actually very low and very slow, much like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver which plays very awkwardly in EDH/Commander. If anything, for Dimir players, at least Ashiok exiles three at a time. Gonti only takes one and puts the rest back in their library to find later. There is one bit of saving grace, though. If you don't want to play Bitter Ordeal, Gonti can fill that niche, but only with one particular combo. When you have the Reveillark + Karmic Guide + Sac Outlet combo online, if Gonti is in your graveyard then you can bring Gonti back in addition to Karmic Guide every time Reveillark dies. As part of that infinite loop combo, you can exile your opponent's libraries one card at a time. I would, however, not recommend playing him over Bitter Ordeal. If you really want to test him out, though, this is one way in which he can help win the game.
Marionette Master: 4/5
Fabricate makes it easy to make a lot of mana with Ashnod's Altar, and here is another example. Marionette Master can combo with Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle for infinite damage, as well as infinite mana. By choosing to create three 1/1 Servos, you can sacrifice each of those Servos to Ashnod's altar for and thus making an opponent lose 3 life. With the floating, you can then sacrifice her to Ashnod's Altar, giving you a total of and then paying to activate Nim Deathmantle's ability to bring her back and create three more 1/1 Servos. There isn't a lot of room in the high part of Ayli's curve for Marionette Master, but she's a wonderful option to play with that multiple packages could use. She's extremely useful in tokens, lifegain/bleeding, and will probably be a dollar bin rare. She can definitely be useful in the main deck, and you can make room for her (there are some personal fun spots baked into the deck, such as the one I use for Magister of Worth which happens to be the same converted mana cost!)
Midnight Oil: 1/5
There are many way better options for card draw than this. Phyrexian Arena is relatively cheap thanks to it's reprints - most recently in Conspiracy 2 - and it costs one less and doesn't reduce your hand size or cause you pain if you need to discard. Dark Prophecy is a controlled draw engine that works much better with the right setup. Hell, I'd even play Bloodgift Demon over this thing because we can smack some opponents if we want and it's a consistent extra draw without two downsides that come with Midnight Oil. We've fallen a long way from Phyrexian Arena. I'm sure someone somewhere will have fun casting Harmless Offering or other donate effects on this and removing the counters with Vampire Hexmage to make their opponent's hand size effectively zero. But, that cute interaction isn't something we can readily do. So... that's a 1/5 for this.
Morbid Curiosity: 4/5
We have a lot of high cost creatures that we bring onto the battlefield for cheap. We have cards that can be backbreaking when they die, such as Archon of Justice, Yosei, the Morning Star, Ashen Rider, and so on. Morbid Curiosity makes sacrificing those creatures to trigger their effects all the more satisfying by drawing you 5 - 8 cards for three many. The best part is that outside of counter magic, those creatures can't be removed in response to Morbid Curiosity being cast as their sacrifice is part of the cost. I previously ran Promise of Power in earlier builds and it hard to cast with the in it's mana cost, on top of being in total to cast, and almost never Entwined. However, it's far easier to set up to draw even more cards here to great effect. This is also a super amazing budget card for those players looking to get some great card draw effects for cheap. Easily a 4/5 for this deck for those who want to play it. Also retrievable with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed for a lot of draw potential.
Noxious Gearhulk: 3/5
Look, we have a lot of removal-on-a-stick with all the Archons, Angel of Serenity, Fiend Hunter, etc. Most of them get around Indestructible by exiling them, and we don't really need to play spot destruction. Frankly, our ETB removal kit is already pretty sweet. Noxious Gearhulk is pretty great, though. By now you should know this isn't a deck that tends to swing out, but it is a 5/4 with Menace, and you can gain a lot of life off of some fool trying to swing with a beefed up creature from Xenagos, God of Revels or whatnot (remember, we have instant reanimation). But the truth is, compared to our other options, he's just really not better. He's not bad - he's pretty great; he's just not better. I've mentioned the flex spots before, and you could play him in any of those by all means. However, there is seldom a time that destroying creatures will be flat out better than just exiling them. We have the option to reanimate opponent's creatures, but we're usually more concerned with reanimating ours, so while that could seem like a justification, it's really not. Another problem is how much he'll probably be for the money cost. Being a 5/4 Menace with destruction and life gain, he can easily turn games around in Standard, which means as a Mythic Rare he will probably find a place somewhere and end up decently expensive. With that said, he probably won't be any sort of option for budget players, and he doesn't really fit well into any style packages. I'm giving him a 3/5 because he could be played, and I wouldn't blame anyone for playing him. He's just not better than similar - but better - options that the main list already runs (most of which are budget friendly, themselves).
Multicolor
Kambal, Consul of Allocation: 1/5
This is a card that I'm actually kind of tired of seeing talk about because I genuinely feel it's pretty bad, and I'll explain why: it requires your opponents to be playing non-creature spells, and even 10 damage in EDH/Commander is negligible. He doesn't protect himself in any way, and can't stand up to much. Ayli for is a 1/3 with Deathtouch and relevant abilities that can actively save your creatures from being exiled and serve to offset life loss. He actively does nothing other than wait for your opponents, draws eyes towards you, and will get removed ASAP by anyone playing any amount of non-creature spells. But ultimately he really just doesn't do anything. He sits on the board, doesn't interact with other your other creatures or spells and hangs around like a bad odor that will inevitably be eliminated. I wouldn't play him as a Commander for the fact that he will only draw hate; I wouldn't play him as part of the 99 even in a lifegain/bleeder deck because he doesn't interact with the rest of of whatever deck he happens to be in and generally serves no more purpose than being a small nuisance. He may see some play in Standard where 2 life can quickly add up. But in a format where you need to drain 40 life from each opponent, and where he only mildly becomes a problem with help from 3 or 4 other cards, there's no way to really justify playing this guy.
Restoration Gearsmith: 3/5
I gave both Refurbish and Fortuitous Find a 3/5 because they serve as excellent options in metas where Artifact hate is rampant or when budget players need more options for getting combo pieces back. For that reason, I'm giving Restoration Gearsmith a 3/5 as well, even though it has an upside: being a creature, itself. Being a 3/3 puts it out of the range of being reanimated by Reveillark, but it's still sac fodder and can still be reanimated, making it easier to use repeatedly than Refurbish or Fortuitous Find. She's especially convenient on a Mimic Vat if you choose to play it, but it's one of the quickest ways to find people aiming for your head in the format. Regardless, she isn't terrible and can get back important Artifacts over and over where necessary.
Colorless
Aetherflux Reservoir: 1/5
In a lifegain/bleeder build, you could more easily reach the prerequisite 50 life in order to use Aetherflux Reservoir to kill one opponent, leaving three left. So, of course, you would want to gain far more than the required 50 life so that you weren't easily picked off after spending all that life. What's worse is that with 50 life being part of the cost to activate the ability, an opponent can respond to the ability being put on the stack by dealing damage to you in any numerous amount of ways, finishing you off courtesy of the hubris of your inner Johnny. Can you tell this is another card that has gotten on my nerves with the constant chatter? Indeed. You know by now that Ayli isn't a spellslinging deck that throws a lot of spells out. There are numerous ways to gain life in the main build, but most of those come into play during the mid to late game as a side effect of our other combos and interactions, and they mainly serve to offset life loss of our many card draw effects. In a lifegain/bleeder build, you may potentially gain enough life to hit the prerequisite 50, but would still be in danger for ever activating Aetherflux Reservoir's 50 damage ability. The only way to make this worthwhile is if you have an excess of life beyond the 50 required, then have Exquisite Blood in play and it doesn't get removed. Other colors or decks may try to animate the Aetherflux Reservoir and give it Lifelink or some other cutesy nonsense. Overall this card is one that requires too much effor to set up for the payoff.
Aetherworks Marvel: 3/5
This is a very... interesting card. It's first ability will trigger often with how Ayli works, granting us a lot of energy. Much like Demon of Dark Schemes, this is a card which will allow us a lot of energy generation for what few cards we may want to play that uses it. Unlike that shady Demon, however, this is significantly slower. Even though it will likely be removed in quick order, being able to play any number of cards for free in this deck is a potent ability given the power of our top end creatures. Getting an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon for free is absurd, and if you're running Sensei's Divining Top or Volrath's Stronghold, you can easily manipulate the top cards of your library in your favor. Having this thing on the board while you Skullclamp your Reassembling Skeleton to draw card and passively generating energy in the process or any other number of interactions will lead you to playing a spell for free at least every other turn. It's neat and can easily be activated, but I've still given it a 3/5 because at best you'll be able to use it every other turn with your typical deck functions, and since it requires you to tap it to play your free card, it's not very easily abused.
Filigree Familiar: 3/5
If you think this is a lot like Solemn Simulacrum, you wouldn't be wrong. The difference is it costs instead of and you gain 2 life when it enters the battlefield as opposed to searching for a land. This has potential to be an all-star in a lifegain/bleeder build and is a great budget option for players who don't want to buy Solemn Simulacrum. It may not offer the mana ramp that Solemn offers, but it does still allow a lot of card draw potential. Because of it being it can also be targeted by Sun Titan, which is rather beneficial. I gets a 3/5 for being decent in it's own right and having two triggers we can easily abuse, while serving as a great budget option and even better sac fodder.
Ghirapur Orrery: 2/5
Not fearing being left empty-handed after spending a lot of removal to keep opponents under control is a nice perk. In all reality, though, there's enough draw in the deck that such concerns shouldn't be an issue. This is (I believe, I could be wrong) the only colorless permanent that allows everyone to play additional lands each turn. But therein lies the problem - it helps everyone. We know that Ayli isn't in a rush to win because that's suicide - the deck isn't built to be aggressive, so the ramp shouldn't be necessary. We gladly accept Rites of Flourishing help from other players but have little reason to initiate such things, ourselves. It's easily accessible being that it's colorless, though, and probably won't get removed since opponents will love it, too. In the end it's another one of the many neat toys an Artifact-centric set like Kaladesh offers, but not necessarily what we want or need.
Panharmonicon: 4/5
I'm already imagining how trite this artifact will become because of how many EDH decks will be trying to stuff it into their 99. It does have the potential to be very, very absurd, though. Artifacts and Creatures do indeed count for themselves when they enter the battlefield if Panharmonicon is on the battlefield, too. The main list has 9 potential triggers to double, which is a significant amount. Angel of Serenity hits 6 targets instead of 3; Ashen Rider exiles two permanents instead of one[/c]; Fiend Hunter exiles two creatures; Fleshbag Marauder makes everyone sacrifice two creatures[/c]; Karmic Guide reanimates two creatures; Puppeteer Clique reanimates 2 creatures; Rune-Scarred Demon lets you find two cards[/c]; Solemn Simulacrum finds two lands; Sun Titan reanimates two creatures[/c]. The lifegain/bleeder package probably gains the most from this Artifact, however. Panharmonicon will cause all the Soul Sisters (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Suture Priest, Pious Evangel) to trigger twice each, as well as Tablet of the Guilds. It makes Karlov of the Ghost Council all the more absurd. As absurd as Panharmonicon is, though, in many cases it will be a "Win More" card. Does it potentially make you win faster? Sure. Is it political suicide because only very new or less-than-intelligent players will know that doubling ETB triggers is going to lead to absurd plays? That is also sure. Do you need it to win with this deck? No, no you don't. As with Aetherflux Reservoir, it is a really neat toy, if ultimately unnecessary.
Concealed Courtyard: 2/5
While it's nice to have another dual land in Orzhov colors, in a 100-card singleton format, you have a very high chance that this will enter as yet another tap land by the time you draw it to play it. Because there's a small chance that it won't, it's worth it to play it over Forsaken Sanctuary, Orzhov Guildgate or Scoured Barrens. The main list still has a single tapland in it - that being Orzhov Guildgate - and this will most likely be put in it's place. However, of all the potential utility lands and mana fixers, this is probably the lowest on the list in terms of priority.
Conclusion
I have to admit that Kaladesh looks extremely fun, and I'm happy that there are so many potentials in the set. Most blocks offer 2 or 3 potentials at most, and usually because of how long the deck has been in tuning for and how tight the list is, they don't make the cut. I'm super excited for Demon of Dark Schemes and Morbid Curiosity, and even may try testing Master Marionette or Angel of Invention. I'm not actively testing optional packages at this point, but have found a lot of cards that could easily fit into that strategy.
The prerelease is tonight, and I hope this review is helpful for anyone playing Ayli or who looks to this thread for information, suggestions or strategies
(Also known as Xenphire)
Update on the Ayli Hate: it tempered somewhat now a few few people decided to run Leovold, Emissary of Trest
WB Ayli, Eternal Recursion WB - GUPir and Toothy GU - WBR Mathas, Fiend SeekerWBR
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ayli-commander-life-of-attrition/
I hope your prerelease weekend was fun and eventful. I played in my Midnight prerelease event then my Saturday Noon and 6 PM ones, as well. I probably would have played in the two Sunday events there at my fav LGS as well, if I could have I went 3-1 at my Midnight and 6 PM ones and 2-2 at my Noon event, mostly thanks to play mistakes from still being groggy thanks to only sleeping 3 hours. Eesh, I'm worn out.
Even though it's not specifically related to Ayli or her deck, I thought it'd be fun to do a quick recap of my prerelease experience
Event 1 I opened 2x Animation Module (one was my promo), Dynavolt Tower, Multiform Wonder, Fateful Showdown, Metallurgic Summoning and Dovin Baan. I ended up playing Gruul and won a lot of games off of Aethertorch Renegade. The synergy between the 4 artifacts I opened was crazy.
Event 2 I opened Aethersquall Ancient, 2x Lathnu Hellion (1 foil!), Cultivator of Blades, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, Aetherflux Reservoir as my promo and finally a Blooming Masrh. Ended up going Simic and splashed Red to play Lathnu Hellions and Aethertorch Renegade, again. I didn't have as much Energy generation as I would have liked but the Lathnu Hellion was still really hard for opponents to deal with. I probably could have gone at least 3-1 again if I didn't make a lot of misplays due to needing food and being so groggy. By the 6 PM run I was full of fajitas and recharged
Even 3, I made everyone hate me. Opened Chandra, Torch of Defiance as my prerelease foil, then opened another Dovin Baan, along with Insidious Will, Kambal, Consule of Allocation, Multiform Wonder, Fleetwheel Cruiser and Metalwork Colossus. Had a massive amount of removal in White and Blue and ended up going that route with a splash of Black to play Kambal. After playing him in limited and getting a feel for him, I enjoy him in a format where opponents have 20 life and are forced to play around him or deal with him. He did work, for real. He won me a couple games because opponents were forced to play through him to keep going and keep up. But, as one can imagine, as soon as they had removal he was their #1 target. If they played hard removal, he died the turn after he came into play. In a format like EDH/Commander where opponents have 40 life and you have 3 people gunning for him, I still think he's going to be hard to keep on the board. I had a pretty hard stance on him when I did the review, but I'm beginning to soften up on it a little and think he may be worth testing in the Lifegain/Bleeder package if you're running protection to keep him on the board so he doesn't get immediately removed and end up more or less a dead card. Time will tell.
Energy as a really fun mechanic to play with, but I'm on the fence about Vehicles because of how easy it is to end up with an unexpected blowout. Using them means taking away blockers a lot of the time if you're in aggro mode, and having your vehicle destroyed after tapping down creatures to Crew it feels pretty bad. I pulled a lot of great stuff, but sadly I didn't open a Demon of Dark Schemes in any of my prize packs, so hopefully I can trade for one sometime this week. I did trade my extra Dovin Baan for a foil prerelease promo because the guy kept going back and forth and I didn't want to lose his interest. Go figure, offering him a Planeswalker made up his mind pretty quick. I'll be testing that Panharmonicon, as well as Morbid Curiosity and Demon of Dark Schemes this weekend, if I can trade for him. Right now I'm deciding what to do with the foil Chandra promo, because I kind of want some of those Masterpiece artifacts... hmmm
But, with all that out of the way, I'll be moving on to replies now
Good luck with the testing! I still need to get one, myself. I did manage to get someone to trade me a foil promor Panharmonicon for an extra Dovin Baan that I opened, so I may try testing it after all Leovold is definitely getting the brunt of hate at the shop as of late up here, so it's ride that train of sheep all the way to victory!
Thanks, KingMinjo I'm really glad you're enjoying the deck and the updates. I can't wait to start testing Kaladesh next weekend!
Thanks for posting your list, Gray24! I'll definitely continue to update the list as long as I'm able and continue to post set reviews and other information when I can!
As for your deck list, it looks like you have a lot of pretty solid choices there. How does Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx work out for you? I love that Land, but I've left it out because of the same reasons I don't run Cabal Coffers (needing to have at least 4 Swamps to be better than a Swamp; or Devotion of 4 or better to one color to be better than a Plains or Swamp in Nykthos's case). It's a pretty solid play alongside Divinity of Pride, for sure
If I may make a couple suggestions, is there any reason you don't play Sanguine Bond in the deck alongside Exquisite Blood? Both of those together are a win con in themselves. You could probably replace Death Grasp with it if you wanted to run it, since you have both Profane Command and Exsanguinate
My second suggestion is Cliffhaven Vampire. I recently discovered this guy while building an attrition deck for Queen Marchesa and have been meaning to add him to the Bleeder/Life Gain package in the second post. Your opponents will lose 1 life for each instance of life gain, so the amount he'll drain has enormous potential. He seems pretty harmless to opponents because people tend to underestimate the value of losing 1 life here and there. When you start getting them off of Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat triggers or the Nighthawks and others he starts to add up. I run him alongside Soul Warden, Suture Priest, Soul's Attendant and Pious Evangel and he quickly becomes pretty deadly
Anyway, your build looks pretty solid, regardless! I'm glad you love the deck. Is there anything in Kaladesh you're looking forward to? I saw you're using the Aerial Responder, which I overlooked in my review. Pretty great for the Lifegain/Bleeder build you're focusing in on!
(Also known as Xenphire)
(Also known as Xenphire)