Hey guys! Started playing this deck earlier this week after playing Jeskai Saheeli the last few months. I have most of the list now and I'm ready to take it to my LGS but have a few questions. After watching Gerry's video it seems the dorks are pretty important. I have 4 birds, but what would be the best budget Noble hierarch replacement? My thoughts go to llanowar elves, avacyn pilgrims, or arbor elf. Does anyone have any suggestions?
@Mcpatches yeah I definitely understand there's no equal replacement. I just can spend the $150 right now. I agree pilgrim is best. Especially for early voices. Arbor elf may be too conditional. Need to finalize my lands and maybe decide from there. I wonder how many forests/dual land forest are needed to make arbor elf more reasonable.
I feel bad saying this but I don't believe you haven't had mana problems with that list. 10 basics is incredibly greedy when youre on 4 colors. You have 1 source of red mana that isn't a birds of paradise, and you've got a Kiki-Jiki. Have you never played against a Ghost Quarter deck? Do people never bolt your birds? You have Saheelis, Nahiris, Blood Moons and a Kiki. A well timed bolt (i.e. any time) or a ghostquarter on your red source turns off 8 cards in your deck and completely prevents you from comboing. You also don't have ralliers or eternal witnesses to mitigate the risk of losing a land. I don't understand how you've been avoiding what looks like a glaring issue in your list, and is a huge problem for me in what I feel is a list that is less susceptible to it.
I suppose you have 4 extra sources for your planeswalkers, but needing two birds or a blood moon in play to cast a Kiki-jiki seems really really ambitious.
You are a little bit right. I haven't posted my most recent list in a while (will do that after the weekend, I'm now on my phone traveling to GP Copenhagen), but I made some changes to the list a played with a month ago. Main difference: I swapped a forest for a second stomping grounds, and dropped Kiki. Kiki was indeed sometimes a dead card in my hand (but because I'm playing a lot of blood moon, that's far less often the case because of mana constraints than you might think. Most of the time it's a dead card because it's a 5 drop that is fragile and doesn't do much in certain board states). I mainly dropped Kiki because it's not a very quick way to combo out. When you're at a later stage in the game I found myself wanting to evolve into sigarda more often than Kiki, because sigarda is often a sure way to win the game in 2 turns or so, where kiki gets bolted/pathed/etc too often.
Other than that, 9 basics is not a problem and doesn't really screw you over, because yes we are 4c, but the only blue is for 3 saheelis (that you can cast with oath and birds as well) and the other is a few blood moons that get often boarded out, so in the rare case you miss a color you're still a very potent grinding machine.
Has anyone been playing with any number of Lotus Cobra? With fetches and Renegade Rallier it opens up a lot of mana. Don't know if it's been said here, but it also opens up a T2 kill.
T1: land and Mana dork
T2: cobra then play fetchland. Fetch an untapped source, Play Renegade Rallier, bring back fetchland. Fetch, play Saheeli, copy Rallier fetch, Eldritch evolution for guardian.
So you need 1x bird, 1x cobra, 1x evolution 1x renegade Rallier (or 2x evolution), 1x saheeli, 1x land and 1x fetchland by T2. So not extremely likely but still possible.
I played 4C Saheeli at SCG Baltimore, was 4-1 at one point before playing a few bad matchups in a row. Will post my decklist and tournament summary a little later.
@nal2: Would love to know your over/under performers. Also, did you play any Eldrazi Tron? I played that a few times and Walking Ballista/Pithing Needle is very annoying.
Congratulations on the result! How has Courser been for you? What is your reasoning for the inclusion?
Also, not necessarily for you, but has anyone thought about trying traverse in this deck? Not very easy to hit delerium in this deck, but it is doable. Could require a slight rework in the deck but it's an idea.
@delfam: I played 2 Ghost Quarter in my deck just for the Tron matchup. I faced one Eldrazi Tron which I beat by going Turn 1 Bird, Turn 3 Ghost Quarter, Renegade Rallier -> GQ again, T4 Felidar Guardian the Rallier to GQ a third time and T5 sac Felidar to Evolution to get Sun Titan and GQ a forth time. Yes, I won that game
@itselmosworld: I noticed in testing that Courser with Saheeli in play made for some serious card selection / drawing and since Burn felt like a tough and common matchup (especially early in the tournament) I figured I'd play 1 Turned out to be great always, perhaps I should've played 2.
Regarding Traverse - no, I don't think it's right for this deck. Hard to hit delirium and we want to maximize cards to hit off Oath of Nissa.
Here are the matchups I faced during the 15 round GP:
Day 1:
1-0 Esper Death's Shadow
2-0 Grixis Death's Shadow
2-1 Ad Nauseum (hard matchup, he forgot Pact trigger g1, then won vs Eidolon of Rhetoric in play both post-SB games)
3-1 Merfolk (tough matchup, but Evoloutioned into Manglehorn turn 2 to kill his Vial in g2 and Cataclysmic Gearhulk g3)
4-1 Revolt Zoo (Kitchen Finks/Thragtusk + Felidar Guardians)
5-1 Grixis Control
6-1 Grixis Death's Shadow
6-2 5C Death's Shadow (Magnus Lantto, Swedish pro)
6-3 Burn
Day 2:
7-3 Bogles (comboed "out of nowhere" g1, Fracturing Gust mid-combat g2 :D)
8-3 UB Mill
9-3 Dredge (won on 5th extra round. Nihil Spellbomb + Rallier, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk helped)
10-3 Eldrazi Tron (2 GQ main deck paid off)
11-3 Abzan Midrange (infinite Titans!)
11-4 Burn
MVPs:
- Sun Titan <3
- 4 maindeck Voice of Resurgence and 2 Kitchen Finks. Great vs all the Death Shadow decks.
- The 2 Gaddock Teeg in the Sideboard - great vs so many decks - CoCo/Chord, Control, Dredge, Tron etc.
Not that great:
- 1 maindeck Engineered Explosives. No way to find it and not sure I actually activated a single time during my 15 matches.
- Me vs Swedes - all my losses were to Swedes
Nihil Spellbomb: Liked it b/c it can potentially draw me a card with BoP in play (vs Crypt). Relic requires me to keep mana open, can't come back with Rallier/Titan and also wipes my own stuff.
Reveillark - lost to UW Control in a trial and felt I needed something more vs Control in the Sideboard. The fact that it can bring back both Voice and Gaddock Teeg post-sb felt great.
Auriok Champion - owned one IRL but not online (they cost A LOT), so figured I'd try one. Brought it in in all DS matches and vs Burn, but only got to cast it once actually, vs Dredge, where it gained me lots of life and blocked a couple of 3/3s. I also brought it in vs decks that couldn't win vs infinite life (2 Felidar Guardians as you probably know already)
Eternal Witness and Reflector Mage were two of my best cards at SCG Baltimore, so I'm surprised you didn't run either.
Witness gets back Path to Exile which is huge against Eldrazi Tron, Death Shadow, and any midrange matchup. Reflector Mage also won me games against Death Shadow and normal Jund by just blinking it over and over again.
R1: 2-1 vs Jund
Voice and Reflector Mage were all-stars. Blinking Mage won me games by itself
R2: 2-1 vs Burn
G1 I combo out on T3 with Lotus Cobra. Game 2 he had a few Paths. Game 3 I kept blinking E-Witness buying back Negate to win.
R3: 0-2 vs Dredge
Drew bad in G1, Game 2 I landed Blood Moon but he Conflagrated by Mana Dorks and I kinda got locked worse than him
R4: 2-0 vs Faeries
Mainboard Mana Leaks were great, Gaddock Teeg was MVP shutting down Damnation and Cryptic Command
R5: 2-0 vs Death Shadow Jund
Reflector Mage again was amazing, and Restoration Angel led to some blowouts blinking Mage
R6: 0-2 vs 4c Death Shadow
Mull to 5 and lost G1. Game 2 he has 3 discard spells in the first 2 turns and lands a big threat and I don't draw anything
R7: 1-1-1 Draw vs Eldrazi Tron
Pithing Needle and Walking Ballista are annoying to deal with, I might want a 2nd Rec Sage in the side instead of Kataki just for this reason. Reflector Mage again was amazing here, as well as E-Witness buying back Path. Gaddock Teeg was amazing to shut down All is Dust
R8: 1-2 vs Eldrazi Tron
Game's 1 and 3 he natural trons me turn 3 so I kinda just lose. Again, Ballista and Pithing Needle are hard to beat.
I didn't love Blood Moon with Path to Exile, a little awkward. I might put a Magus of the Moon in the SB instead. The mana leaks were nice, but I don't think necessary in Game 1, but then again I didn't really play any combo decks where they are good against. Chameleon Colossus was good in neither vs DSJ, but Goyf was still a problem there.
The Gaddock Teeg in the mainboard was great, stopped some important cards like Conflagrate and helped open up a SB slot. Lotus Cobra was a removal magnet so not sure how good it is, but the fact that it died a guess saved my other creatures.
I'd probably cut the Tireless Tracker for a third Mage, get rid of the Blood Moons, then change my manabase a little(less fetches since no moons) and add 1-2 Ghost Quarter. A 4th Path or another answer in the SB for Walking Ballista would also help. Would love to play Rallier but I can't see cutting Witness as getting back Path is huge.
Was thinking of a Fire-lit Thicket in the main so I could side a Kiki-Jiki. Gives me an alternate win con against Walking Ballista and Pithing Needle. Already have Resto in the mainboard so gives me more options to play around hate.
@delfam: Nice list! (Just for the record, I did run 1 Witness, although no Mages. I originally had 1 Reflector Mage and a 3rd Wall of Omens, but switched those for a 2nd Finks and 1 Courser of Kruphix to improve my Burn/Aggro matchup (decks I saw everywhere during the GP Trials on Friday))
I don't really like the list though as he doesn't run Evolution and Meddling Mage seems worse and harder to cast than Gaddock Teeg. Spreading Sea's seems a little weird and the manabase seems weird as well.
Nice finishes, Team Infinity Cat! (This deck is so much fun.)
I'm part of the subteam that triumphs Glittering Wish — running "7" Saheeli is quite nice. I'd been trying to make a Glittering Wish deck of mine work for years... but the problem was always Wishing for "the win" in some matchups. Thankfully, Saheeli finally made it happen.
My deck is a 5 Color Saheeli deck, so while my initial versions had Ghost Quarters and more Renegade Ralliers for land destruction shenanigans, the colorless lands were too taxing on my mana base. Still, you need Land Destruction! My latest version has 1 Fulminator Mage in the main, with 3 wishable Mages in the side. Black obviously opens up a lot of possibilities (including Siege Rhino). Other fun wish targets:
@nal2: It's a shame the Eidolon of Rhetorics didn't prove to be clutch vs. Ad Nauseam. I also play that deck, so while the matchup is quite the solitaire race, I prefer having the options of either grabbing a Slaughter Games or Gaddock Teeg. Looking at the sideboard of Tomoya Tsubouchi's recent Top 8 list from Kobe... I mean, they could potentially side in a ton of cards, but the more they side in, the worse their maindeck becomes. It's much easier for me to side in 2-5 pieces of artifact/enchantment/land hate than it is for them to side in Leylines (vs. Slaughter Games/discard) + creature hate. It's an interesting matchup, definitely, and I like the threat of turning my Glittering Wishes into an almost guaranteed win vs. the powerful fringe decks of Modern.
Oh, and the Burn matchups! I also play Burn, and both appreciate and respect the matchup. So far 1 Thragtusk + 1 Kitchen Finks + 1 Siege Rhino + "3" Lightning Helix (1 wishable), as well as a few Gemstone Mines have really helped. Felidar Guardians maximize the value out of your lifegain creatures.
If you copy Obzedat, Ghost Council with Saheeli Rai, can you Exile the Obzedat to it's own ability before Saheeli exiles the token? Which would then let you keep the copy when it comes back from exile next turn?
Some other cards to consider when thinking about a black splash:
I don't really like the list though as he doesn't run Evolution and Meddling Mage seems worse and harder to cast than Gaddock Teeg. Spreading Sea's seems a little weird and the manabase seems weird as well.
I'm a friend of Cory's, spreading seas was a meta call because he expected alot more tron. I said the same thing about Teeg but he said he things that Mage is better because it is never dead, it can cut off bolt and push. He changed his mana alot recently and moved the seas to the board. I intend to start grinding Leagues with his new list and will report back if it is any good.
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Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
I'm not sure what the consensus is, but I could never see playing more than 6.
http://modernnexus.com/video-4-color-saheeli-evolution/
You are a little bit right. I haven't posted my most recent list in a while (will do that after the weekend, I'm now on my phone traveling to GP Copenhagen), but I made some changes to the list a played with a month ago. Main difference: I swapped a forest for a second stomping grounds, and dropped Kiki. Kiki was indeed sometimes a dead card in my hand (but because I'm playing a lot of blood moon, that's far less often the case because of mana constraints than you might think. Most of the time it's a dead card because it's a 5 drop that is fragile and doesn't do much in certain board states). I mainly dropped Kiki because it's not a very quick way to combo out. When you're at a later stage in the game I found myself wanting to evolve into sigarda more often than Kiki, because sigarda is often a sure way to win the game in 2 turns or so, where kiki gets bolted/pathed/etc too often.
Other than that, 9 basics is not a problem and doesn't really screw you over, because yes we are 4c, but the only blue is for 3 saheelis (that you can cast with oath and birds as well) and the other is a few blood moons that get often boarded out, so in the rare case you miss a color you're still a very potent grinding machine.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
T1: land and Mana dork
T2: cobra then play fetchland. Fetch an untapped source, Play Renegade Rallier, bring back fetchland. Fetch, play Saheeli, copy Rallier fetch, Eldritch evolution for guardian.
So you need 1x bird, 1x cobra, 1x evolution 1x renegade Rallier (or 2x evolution), 1x saheeli, 1x land and 1x fetchland by T2. So not extremely likely but still possible.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
My 11-4 deck was featured here http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpcop17/top-stories-of-grand-prix-copenhagen-2017-05-28 Second one among the spicy ones
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
I played 4C Saheeli at SCG Baltimore, was 4-1 at one point before playing a few bad matchups in a row. Will post my decklist and tournament summary a little later.
@nal2: Would love to know your over/under performers. Also, did you play any Eldrazi Tron? I played that a few times and Walking Ballista/Pithing Needle is very annoying.
Congratulations on the result! How has Courser been for you? What is your reasoning for the inclusion?
Also, not necessarily for you, but has anyone thought about trying traverse in this deck? Not very easy to hit delerium in this deck, but it is doable. Could require a slight rework in the deck but it's an idea.
@itselmosworld: I noticed in testing that Courser with Saheeli in play made for some serious card selection / drawing and since Burn felt like a tough and common matchup (especially early in the tournament) I figured I'd play 1 Turned out to be great always, perhaps I should've played 2.
Regarding Traverse - no, I don't think it's right for this deck. Hard to hit delirium and we want to maximize cards to hit off Oath of Nissa.
Embedding my decklist here as well:
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Omens
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Renegade Rallier
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Thragtusk
1 Sun Titan
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Oath of Nissa
4 Path to Exile
3 Eldritch Evolution
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Gavony Township
1 Auriok Champion
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Manglehorn
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Reveillark
Day 1:
1-0 Esper Death's Shadow
2-0 Grixis Death's Shadow
2-1 Ad Nauseum (hard matchup, he forgot Pact trigger g1, then won vs Eidolon of Rhetoric in play both post-SB games)
3-1 Merfolk (tough matchup, but Evoloutioned into Manglehorn turn 2 to kill his Vial in g2 and Cataclysmic Gearhulk g3)
4-1 Revolt Zoo (Kitchen Finks/Thragtusk + Felidar Guardians)
5-1 Grixis Control
6-1 Grixis Death's Shadow
6-2 5C Death's Shadow (Magnus Lantto, Swedish pro)
6-3 Burn
Day 2:
7-3 Bogles (comboed "out of nowhere" g1, Fracturing Gust mid-combat g2 :D)
8-3 UB Mill
9-3 Dredge (won on 5th extra round. Nihil Spellbomb + Rallier, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk helped)
10-3 Eldrazi Tron (2 GQ main deck paid off)
11-3 Abzan Midrange (infinite Titans!)
11-4 Burn
MVPs:
- Sun Titan <3
- 4 maindeck Voice of Resurgence and 2 Kitchen Finks. Great vs all the Death Shadow decks.
- The 2 Gaddock Teeg in the Sideboard - great vs so many decks - CoCo/Chord, Control, Dredge, Tron etc.
Not that great:
- 1 maindeck Engineered Explosives. No way to find it and not sure I actually activated a single time during my 15 matches.
- Me vs Swedes - all my losses were to Swedes
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
Nihil Spellbomb: Liked it b/c it can potentially draw me a card with BoP in play (vs Crypt). Relic requires me to keep mana open, can't come back with Rallier/Titan and also wipes my own stuff.
Reveillark - lost to UW Control in a trial and felt I needed something more vs Control in the Sideboard. The fact that it can bring back both Voice and Gaddock Teeg post-sb felt great.
Auriok Champion - owned one IRL but not online (they cost A LOT), so figured I'd try one. Brought it in in all DS matches and vs Burn, but only got to cast it once actually, vs Dredge, where it gained me lots of life and blocked a couple of 3/3s. I also brought it in vs decks that couldn't win vs infinite life (2 Felidar Guardians as you probably know already)
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
Witness gets back Path to Exile which is huge against Eldrazi Tron, Death Shadow, and any midrange matchup. Reflector Mage also won me games against Death Shadow and normal Jund by just blinking it over and over again.
R1: 2-1 vs Jund
Voice and Reflector Mage were all-stars. Blinking Mage won me games by itself
R2: 2-1 vs Burn
G1 I combo out on T3 with Lotus Cobra. Game 2 he had a few Paths. Game 3 I kept blinking E-Witness buying back Negate to win.
R3: 0-2 vs Dredge
Drew bad in G1, Game 2 I landed Blood Moon but he Conflagrated by Mana Dorks and I kinda got locked worse than him
R4: 2-0 vs Faeries
Mainboard Mana Leaks were great, Gaddock Teeg was MVP shutting down Damnation and Cryptic Command
R5: 2-0 vs Death Shadow Jund
Reflector Mage again was amazing, and Restoration Angel led to some blowouts blinking Mage
R6: 0-2 vs 4c Death Shadow
Mull to 5 and lost G1. Game 2 he has 3 discard spells in the first 2 turns and lands a big threat and I don't draw anything
R7: 1-1-1 Draw vs Eldrazi Tron
Pithing Needle and Walking Ballista are annoying to deal with, I might want a 2nd Rec Sage in the side instead of Kataki just for this reason. Reflector Mage again was amazing here, as well as E-Witness buying back Path. Gaddock Teeg was amazing to shut down All is Dust
R8: 1-2 vs Eldrazi Tron
Game's 1 and 3 he natural trons me turn 3 so I kinda just lose. Again, Ballista and Pithing Needle are hard to beat.
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Gavony Township
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Grounds
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Lotus Cobra
3 Wall of Omens
3 Voice of Resurgence
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Eternal Witness
2 Reflector Mage
4 Felidar Guardian
1 Restoration Angel
4 Saheeli Rai
4 Oath of Nissa
3 Path to Exile
2 Mana Leak
3 Eldritch Evolution.
2 Stony Silence
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Negate
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Chameleon Colossus
I didn't love Blood Moon with Path to Exile, a little awkward. I might put a Magus of the Moon in the SB instead. The mana leaks were nice, but I don't think necessary in Game 1, but then again I didn't really play any combo decks where they are good against. Chameleon Colossus was good in neither vs DSJ, but Goyf was still a problem there.
The Gaddock Teeg in the mainboard was great, stopped some important cards like Conflagrate and helped open up a SB slot. Lotus Cobra was a removal magnet so not sure how good it is, but the fact that it died a guess saved my other creatures.
I'd probably cut the Tireless Tracker for a third Mage, get rid of the Blood Moons, then change my manabase a little(less fetches since no moons) and add 1-2 Ghost Quarter. A 4th Path or another answer in the SB for Walking Ballista would also help. Would love to play Rallier but I can't see cutting Witness as getting back Path is huge.
Was thinking of a Fire-lit Thicket in the main so I could side a Kiki-Jiki. Gives me an alternate win con against Walking Ballista and Pithing Needle. Already have Resto in the mainboard so gives me more options to play around hate.
@maniospas: Seems pretty sweet, try it out!
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=113925
He also played the open and went 2-3 drop.
I don't really like the list though as he doesn't run Evolution and Meddling Mage seems worse and harder to cast than Gaddock Teeg. Spreading Sea's seems a little weird and the manabase seems weird as well.
How did you sac a 3 mana card to Evo, and get a 6 mana card?
Sry, meant sac Felidar *fixed*
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
I'm part of the subteam that triumphs Glittering Wish — running "7" Saheeli is quite nice. I'd been trying to make a Glittering Wish deck of mine work for years... but the problem was always Wishing for "the win" in some matchups. Thankfully, Saheeli finally made it happen.
My deck is a 5 Color Saheeli deck, so while my initial versions had Ghost Quarters and more Renegade Ralliers for land destruction shenanigans, the colorless lands were too taxing on my mana base. Still, you need Land Destruction! My latest version has 1 Fulminator Mage in the main, with 3 wishable Mages in the side. Black obviously opens up a lot of possibilities (including Siege Rhino). Other fun wish targets:
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Slaughter Games
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Wear // Tear
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Olivia Voldaren
@nal2: It's a shame the Eidolon of Rhetorics didn't prove to be clutch vs. Ad Nauseam. I also play that deck, so while the matchup is quite the solitaire race, I prefer having the options of either grabbing a Slaughter Games or Gaddock Teeg. Looking at the sideboard of Tomoya Tsubouchi's recent Top 8 list from Kobe... I mean, they could potentially side in a ton of cards, but the more they side in, the worse their maindeck becomes. It's much easier for me to side in 2-5 pieces of artifact/enchantment/land hate than it is for them to side in Leylines (vs. Slaughter Games/discard) + creature hate. It's an interesting matchup, definitely, and I like the threat of turning my Glittering Wishes into an almost guaranteed win vs. the powerful fringe decks of Modern.
Oh, and the Burn matchups! I also play Burn, and both appreciate and respect the matchup. So far 1 Thragtusk + 1 Kitchen Finks + 1 Siege Rhino + "3" Lightning Helix (1 wishable), as well as a few Gemstone Mines have really helped. Felidar Guardians maximize the value out of your lifegain creatures.
Some other cards to consider when thinking about a black splash:
Sin Collector
Anafenza, the Foremost
Orzhov Pontiff
Pharika, God of Affliction
Nekrataal
Shriekmaw
Blood Baron of Vizkopa
Regarding black splash: Tidehollow Sculler is also a possibility.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
I'm a friend of Cory's, spreading seas was a meta call because he expected alot more tron. I said the same thing about Teeg but he said he things that Mage is better because it is never dead, it can cut off bolt and push. He changed his mana alot recently and moved the seas to the board. I intend to start grinding Leagues with his new list and will report back if it is any good.