I love the ideas in this thread. What do you guys think about putting Citadel in a Lantern Shell? I like the idea that the Lantern cards combo with Citadel. Something like this:
4 Whir of Invention
2 Reshape
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Ancient Stirrings
My gut feeling is that Bolas's Citadel does not work well in a Lantern Control shell; I only hit 6 mana there in the very late game (when I have the game locked up quite well), and the deck generally has too little life gain (Renewed Faith has saved my butt several times mid-combo before I can get out Aetherflux Reservoir). The Lotus Blooms are a noble effort, but their ability to resolve steeply drops past Turn 1 until you combo off, so you kinda need a full playset of them. Bolas's Citadel getting hosed by your own Grafdigger's Cage doesn't help.
is this the trash for treasure less build? what would you change? what worked and what didn't? if the deck can play through hate like ironworks, might have something! gds is a very good deck sadly. it has legacy draws.
Yes, all my tests were done with my no-Trash For Treasure build. I'd already put in some cards that didn't work so well in my first post.
For what's working well, the obvious Unmoored Ego names are Citadel and Aetherflux (all my Citadel kills need the life gain from Aetherflux to hit 20 nonland permanents in the first place), but the best Surgical Extraction target may actually be Conjurer's Bauble. Combo turns are quite a lot more likely to fizzle without its free ability to get the top card off my library.
Serum Visions has been great, even mid-combo. A mid-combo SV, although it draws a rather random card (cast all instants possible off the top of your deck in response to maximize the chance you draw a useless land), Scrys 2 after that, and the Scry is incredibly potent mid-combo.
It's quite possible that the only reason why I can even afford to keep Spellbombs in this deck is because mid-combo Lotus Bloom can pay for cracking them.
There's a possibility I may want some Children of Korlis in my build, possibly even booting out Aetherflux for them; as many times as I end my combo turn with only one Aetherflux, as much as Aetherflux in hand can lure targeted discard, and as much as early Children eats removal instead of doing its job (opponent kills it, then swings), Children is a lot easier to cast pre-combo than Aetherflux is.
In a preliminary test game against Mono-G Tron, they resolved Karn Liberated and ate something with him and I still comboed off. (Karn, the Great Creator is pretty much game over against us, though: he turns off all our artifact ramp just by being there, and then before we hit 6 mana the hard way, he locks up the game with Mycosynth Lattice.)
The preliminary games against Burn are not doing well, though: as predicted, Eidolon of the Great Revel rips us a new one, and they generally put pressure on our life total faster and more constantly than most other aggro decks. 10 games later, I don't think I've won a game yet. This is one of the decks where you get locked out of casting Aetherflux the fastest.
Good catch on Cage. You can swap that for Nihil Spellbomb or Tormod's Crypt. The Lotus Bloom plan might be too cute. Citadel in Lantern would just be a way to pivot and close the game. It would make the deck play a bit like Twin or Legacy Lands i.e. play a control game but pivot to a combo win on a moments notice (which is really effective because it forces the beatdown opponent to hold back resources to disrupt your combo). The plan is to do the normal Lantern thing with the mill rocks and then whir on the end of one of their turns into a win. I like the plan because those mill rocks will help you combo them out. Also, you only new 1 or 2 copies of Citadel for this plan. You basically never want to draw it. I'm curious how fast Lantern can get out enough artifacts to Whir into Citadel. Anyone with experience with the deck care to weigh in?
My thought process was if you are going to be playing 80% of the same cards as Lantern you may as well include Whir and be able to play a control game. The question is whether cantrips are better than discard. I assume yes because this combo is a little too slow to be all-in without any defensive/distruptive plan.
Of course you can try to build a RW version with Trash for Treasure, Reburbish, looting, etc. but again, I think that would be too fragile. All of this requires testing of course.
How are you guys testing Citadel right now by the way? I would love to jam some games.
I'm testing on Cockatrice...against myself. I've built a lot of decks on Cockatrice over the years, so I have plenty to test against.
Got some more games in against Burn. As long as I prioritize gaining life over cantripping more often (especially if I have mana ramp and Bolas's Citadel in my opening hand), the match-up is still unfavourable but is more salvageable. Of note: I won one game facing off against one Eidolon of the Great Revel, then I won another game against TWO Eidolons of the Great Revel. (Icky highlight of the latter game: I hardcast Pentad Prism from my hand using another Pentad Prism's mana just to gain enough life to get past the double Eidolon hurdle.)
Of note with my build vs. Eidolon of the Great Revel: both Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir dodge the Eidolon life tax, and so does cycling Renewed Faith.
I'm testing on Cockatrice...against myself. I've built a lot of decks on Cockatrice over the years, so I have plenty to test against.
Got some more games in against Burn. As long as I prioritize gaining life over cantripping more often (especially if I have mana ramp and Bolas's Citadel in my opening hand), the match-up is still unfavourable but is more salvageable. Of note: I won one game facing off against one Eidolon of the Great Revel, then I won another game against TWO Eidolons of the Great Revel. (Icky highlight of the latter game: I hardcast Pentad Prism from my hand using another Pentad Prism's mana just to gain enough life to get past the double Eidolon hurdle.)
Of note with my build vs. Eidolon of the Great Revel: both Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir dodge the Eidolon life tax, and so does cycling Renewed Faith.
How does this deck handle its humans and spirits matchups? Humans, in particular, sounds really rough.
i think some amount of silences are needed. humans is a tough match-up for every deck. your main priority is to kill thalia and meddling mage. the bridge is indeed quite important here. hell, gaddock teeg would shut you out completely. so spell bombs are a must (which brings us back to rw which has a lot of the answers). i don't think ub whir can quite do it. or maybe there's just some % o matchups you just have to give up. no deck can be 60/40 against 100% of the field.
How does this deck handle its humans and spirits matchups? Humans, in particular, sounds really rough.
Got to test against Humans and Spirits (and Jund) tonight so I can answer you!
Partway through the tests, I cracked and swapped out 1 Aetherflux Reservoir for 1 Children of Korlis. The Children generally provide a large enough shot of life mid-combo to kinda imitate Aetherflux, they're so much cheaper than Aetherflux, and they have a non-zero chance of Fogging the opponent once pre-combo.
The Humans match-up is awful pre-board. Thalia (both of them) is a veritable pain, although it's hilarious that I can put 3 charge counters on a Thalia-taxed Pentad Prism. As long as their Meddling Mage names money cards like Bolas's Citadel and Lotus Bloom, and they don't screw up and name Ad Nauseam or Angel's Grace (my build shares several cards with the Ad Nauseam deck), Humans has the game in the bag. Kitesail Freebooter isn't as bad but is still an annoyance, and Humans wins surprisingly often with only beats. Post-board, we can make up quite a bit of ground with creature removal and even board wipes. I did mamage to win a game where I bounced both Thalia and Meddling Mage by the end of the combo turn, though.
Spirits is definitely easier to handle. Their counterspells on legs don't line up that well with our threats: Mausoleum Wanderer often cannot counter anything, Spell Queller cannot counter Bolas's Citadel, and Spell Queller is often better off countering mana ramp, cantrips, Aetherflux, and/or life gain big enough to get me out of the danger zone.
Jund was also really rough. With upwards of 4 removal spells for Bolas's Citadel and 5-6 targeted discard spells, they generally have enough disruption to kill me before I kill them. I suppose the only saving grace is that they often have to keep holding up the artifact removal spell (that doesn't stop them from sneaking in Bob and Goyf, though).
How does this deck handle its humans and spirits matchups? Humans, in particular, sounds really rough.
Got to test against Humans and Spirits (and Jund) tonight so I can answer you!
Partway through the tests, I cracked and swapped out 1 Aetherflux Reservoir for 1 Children of Korlis. The Children generally provide a large enough shot of life mid-combo to kinda imitate Aetherflux, they're so much cheaper than Aetherflux, and they have a non-zero chance of Fogging the opponent once pre-combo.
The Humans match-up is awful pre-board. Thalia (both of them) is a veritable pain, although it's hilarious that I can put 3 charge counters on a Thalia-taxed Pentad Prism. As long as their Meddling Mage names money cards like Bolas's Citadel and Lotus Bloom, and they don't screw up and name Ad Nauseam or Angel's Grace (my build shares several cards with the Ad Nauseam deck), Humans has the game in the bag. Kitesail Freebooter isn't as bad but is still an annoyance, and Humans wins surprisingly often with only beats. Post-board, we can make up quite a bit of ground with creature removal and even board wipes. I did mamage to win a game where I bounced both Thalia and Meddling Mage by the end of the combo turn, though.
Spirits is definitely easier to handle. Their counterspells on legs don't line up that well with our threats: Mausoleum Wanderer often cannot counter anything, Spell Queller cannot counter Bolas's Citadel, and Spell Queller is often better off countering mana ramp, cantrips, Aetherflux, and/or life gain big enough to get me out of the danger zone.
Jund was also really rough. With upwards of 4 removal spells for Bolas's Citadel and 5-6 targeted discard spells, they generally have enough disruption to kill me before I kill them. I suppose the only saving grace is that they often have to keep holding up the artifact removal spell (that doesn't stop them from sneaking in Bob and Goyf, though).
This sounds about right. Which brings me back for the need for Silence against removal heavy decks like Jund. I suppose you could always consider leyline to protect yourself from targeted discard as well.
It's tough to figure out the best combination. The thing about modern is that the good decks are all super linear (which is why Jund is no longer anywhere near top contention) and are very good at doing their thing. Whereas this concept seems a tad too slow for modern if you're playing the trash for treasure less version of the deck.
Not going off within the first 3-4 turns makes this not a particularly viable deck. UNLESS, the deck switches gears a bit. I do very much like the new Teferi as it can come down early enough to allow you to set up the combo turn while seriously hampering the ability for your opponent to react. Chances are, they will need to dedicate a lot of resources to removing teferi. The only downside is that the deck can't play counterspells.
So maybe silence/trash for treasure is the way to go (plus those colors allow you to handle GY hate admirably).
My build is plenty capable of going off on Turn 4 as long as I resolve a mana rock (or get two Simian Spirit Guides and a painful mana base) by Turn 4 and I dig for Bolas's Citadel fast enough. I've had several Turn 4 combo wins in testing.
A Turn 3 win with my build is also possible as long as I get 3 lands, Pentad Prism, and Simian Spirit Guide by then (a 2-land version is possible, but it needs a second Pentad Prism or SSG).
I'm not convinced that maindeck Silence is ever the way to go. It doesn't cantrip, so it can't dig for Bolas's Citadel (or mana rocks). Unlike Children of Korlis or Aetherflux Reservoir, Silence doesn't have life gain (let alone the huge life gain both Children and Aetherflux can provide).
I'm warmer to but still uncertain about Teferi, Time Raveler in this deck. On the one hand, he either protects the combo or soaks up damage, and he can both delayed cantrip (the best type of cantrip for the combo turn) and bounce hate. The Flash-granting can also buff the consistency of combo turns by increasing the chance that cantrip instants draw lands and increasing the life gained from Aetherflux as long as you time spells right. EDIT: Well, he gives only sorceries Flash. That's not so hot for my build. Maybe every edge helps, though. On the other hand, he costs 3 mana or life, and in a low-land deck like this, that's rather steep.
Part of the reason I don't like the Trash For Treasure plan is because it essentially adds cards to the combo. You now need to find it, a way to get Bolas's Citadel into the graveyard, and another artifact instead of just Bolas's Citadel (admittedly, the "just Bolas's Citadel" part only matters late-game). Worse, if you don't have another artifact to sacrifice and an artifact in the graveyard, it can brick up your combo turn and need to be ripped off the top of your library.
I believe this deck has promise because it's essentially a 1-card combo instead of Ad Nauseam's 2-card combo, and it can completely dodge graveyard hate. Especially in this current metagame where UR Phoenix is maindecking graveyard hate and increasingly preparing and mutating for the mirror, dodging graveyard hate is a valuable thing to do despite the pronounced Stony Silence weakness and need for a comfortable life total.
It's been a few days that I have been testing the different version proposed here (I just really want to broke this card)
I first thought about playing it in a storm shell with ritual and manamorphose because making 3 mana for 2 life is pretty good but it's been too inconsistent to be able to cast Bolas's Citadel et too costly in life mid combo. That was just bad.
Then I tried the Trash for Treasure version but I find it too much similar to grishoalbrand and reanimator. And Trash for Treasure is a brick mid combo, that doesn't help. I would just play the version that can reanimate for 2 mana at instant speed. But maybe there's a thing I didn't understand
So I tested the eggs, Faith's Reward and I have pretty good result goldfishing with it. I tweeked the deck a bit :
The deck is super consistent and replacing Aetherflux Reservoir by Sunbeam Spellbomb is a big addition.
The main focus of the deck is to have Lotus Bloom by turn 4, by starting with it in starting hand or Reshape an egg into it. It's the most important thing. Mulligan every hand that can't get it by turn 4. Then, once you have bloom, it becomes easy to go off with reward or bolas citadel because the eggs help to not brick mid combo and casting a Faith's Reward with some eggs and Sunbeam Spellbomb is just game. The way to finish the opponent is by going infinite with Conjurer's Bauble returning Faith's Reward into an empty deck so you draw it then recast it (but before you activate Bolas's Citadel[/card, allLotus Bloom and Sunbeam Spellbomb), making infinite mana, infinite life and infinite damage without targeting the opponent (sorry Leyline of Sanctity and whirl deck).
There's a nice trick that, when you flip a Faith's Reward on the top with Bolas's Citadel, you can sacrifice all the eggs, lotus, fetch you have, stack the draws/tutor effect, play Faith's Reward on the stack, return everything then resolve one by one the draw/tutor effects (if there is not an another Faith's Reward).
The deck feel like a worst version of KCI because you lose life mid combo, you can go off Turn 3 but less often and the manabase needs to support reshape on turn 2 (not a lot of utilitary lands). But KCI was super broken even when it was the deck to beat and you still have the advantage to be super consistent, not playing any creature and morphing into a Sai, Master Thopterist (maybe even Monastery Mentor) deck post board.
It's been a few days that I have been testing the different version proposed here (I just really want to broke this card)
I first thought about playing it in a storm shell with ritual and manamorphose because making 3 mana for 2 life is pretty good but it's been too inconsistent to be able to cast Bolas's Citadel et too costly in life mid combo. That was just bad.
Then I tried the Trash for Treasure version but I find it too much similar to grishoalbrand and reanimator. And Trash for Treasure is a brick mid combo, that doesn't help. I would just play the version that can reanimate for 2 mana at instant speed. But maybe there's a thing I didn't understand
So I tested the eggs, Faith's Reward and I have pretty good result goldfishing with it. I tweeked the deck a bit :
The deck is super consistent and replacing Aetherflux Reservoir by Sunbeam Spellbomb is a big addition.
The main focus of the deck is to have Lotus Bloom by turn 4, by starting with it in starting hand or Reshape an egg into it. It's the most important thing. Mulligan every hand that can't get it by turn 4. Then, once you have bloom, it becomes easy to go off with reward or bolas citadel because the eggs help to not brick mid combo and casting a Faith's Reward with some eggs and Sunbeam Spellbomb is just game. The way to finish the opponent is by going infinite with Conjurer's Bauble returning Faith's Reward into an empty deck so you draw it then recast it (but before you activate Bolas's Citadel[/card, allLotus Bloom and Sunbeam Spellbomb), making infinite mana, infinite life and infinite damage without targeting the opponent (sorry Leyline of Sanctity and whirl deck).
There's a nice trick that, when you flip a Faith's Reward on the top with Bolas's Citadel, you can sacrifice all the eggs, lotus, fetch you have, stack the draws/tutor effect, play Faith's Reward on the stack, return everything then resolve one by one the draw/tutor effects (if there is not an another Faith's Reward).
The deck feel like a worst version of KCI because you lose life mid combo, you can go off Turn 3 but less often and the manabase needs to support reshape on turn 2 (not a lot of utilitary lands). But KCI was super broken even when it was the deck to beat and you still have the advantage to be super consistent, not playing any creature and morphing into a Sai, Master Thopterist (maybe even Monastery Mentor) deck post board.
I can see some real issues running into T2 Stony silence. How do you get around that without diluting the combo too much? There are 1 mana destroy target enchantments. But how many can you really play?
I do like the idea though, although this deck is much more vulnerable to graveyard hate. You can also play that 3 mana dude that returns artifacts that cost less as a cheaper faith's reward. Plus it doesn't require any colored investment.
It's the same problem as KCI. The ways to get around are Sai, Master Thopterist and all the white disenchant arsenal (maybe Wear // Tear).
The deck is kinda vulnerable to graveyard hate because of Faith's Reward, otherwise not much. In game 1, it can be very tough to play around a Relic of Progenitus if you need to start the combo with Faith's Reward. However, if you don't have to and you have directly Bolas's Citadel, you can play around by paying more life (aggresive deck generally don't run relic game 1). And you can play around surgical with 2 Conjurer's Bauble but you still need to have a resolved Bolas's Citadel, probably.
This deck can't play Scrap Trawler (if you tought about this 3-mana dude) because the main way to generate mana is by returning Lotus Bloom into play directly and you can't play it from your hand. If there are any other better way to return a bunch of artifacts from your graveyard into play directly, I want to hear them
It's the same problem as KCI. The ways to get around are Sai, Master Thopterist and all the white disenchant arsenal (maybe Wear // Tear).
The deck is kinda vulnerable to graveyard hate because of Faith's Reward, otherwise not much. In game 1, it can be very tough to play around a Relic of Progenitus if you need to start the combo with Faith's Reward. However, if you don't have to and you have directly Bolas's Citadel, you can play around by paying more life (aggresive deck generally don't run relic game 1). And you can play around surgical with 2 Conjurer's Bauble but you still need to have a resolved Bolas's Citadel, probably.
This deck can't play Scrap Trawler (if you tought about this 3-mana dude) because the main way to generate mana is by returning Lotus Bloom into play directly and you can't play it from your hand. If there are any other better way to return a bunch of artifacts from your graveyard into play directly, I want to hear them
There is, Open the Vaults. It's a bit on the expensive side though.
And ya, scrap trawler was what i was talking about. You're right, it doesn't quite work since it goes back to hand. What the deck would need for this is something like Helm of awakening, then you could have the things go back to your hand.
There is another way to dodge gravehate though. If we were looking at diving to the deep end, you could look at a card like Wheel of Sun And Moon.
But to be fair, i'm not 100% on how the interaction between two replacement effects works (Sun & Moon vs RIP). Maybe this is all about time stamps.
Edit. Found it:
616.1. If two or more replacement and/or prevention effects are attempting to modify the way an event affects an object or player, the affected object's controller (or its owner if it has no controller) or the affected player chooses one to apply, following the steps listed below. If two or more players have to make these choices at the same time, choices are made in APNAP order (see rule 101.4).
This means that neither RIP nor Leyline of the Void can hit your Yard.
Wheel of Sun and Moon maybe a criminally underplayed card!
Open the Vaults seems too expensive and it doesn't return fetch too. I won't even try to build with this.
Semblance Anvil could be the card we want to reduce artifact cost. You become more vulnerable to discard effet et mulliganing but you may gain a lot of velocity. I'm gonna test this out.
I don't think RIP/Leyline to be much of an annoyance. With a transformative plan, siding out Faith's Reward, you use the grave only with Conjurer's Bauble and Chromatic Star. You don't need to go infinite, you just need to activate 2 times Bolas's Citadel or kill the opponent with an army of thopters.
I really want to work on the manabase, I'm gonna test how far we can push it. If I can play without fetch, how many utility land I can play and still being consistent to cast reshape on turn 2/3
Open the Vaults seems too expensive and it doesn't return fetch too. I won't even try to build with this.
Semblance Anvil could be the card we want to reduce artifact cost. You become more vulnerable to discard effet et mulliganing but you may gain a lot of velocity. I'm gonna test this out.
I don't think RIP/Leyline to be much of an annoyance. With a transformative plan, siding out Faith's Reward, you use the grave only with Conjurer's Bauble and Chromatic Star. You don't need to go infinite, you just need to activate 2 times Bolas's Citadel or kill the opponent with an army of thopters.
I really want to work on the manabase, I'm gonna test how far we can push it. If I can play without fetch, how many utility land I can play and still being consistent to cast reshape on turn 2/3
4 Sunbeam spellbomb seems excessive. You're playing reshape anyways, so worse case, you just seek it out. Semblance anvil is a trap. You will get 2 for 1d over and over. it's not worth it. Although I can see the appeal.
It's been a few days that I have been testing the different version proposed here (I just really want to broke this card)
I first thought about playing it in a storm shell with ritual and manamorphose because making 3 mana for 2 life is pretty good but it's been too inconsistent to be able to cast Bolas's Citadel et too costly in life mid combo. That was just bad.
Then I tried the Trash for Treasure version but I find it too much similar to grishoalbrand and reanimator. And Trash for Treasure is a brick mid combo, that doesn't help. I would just play the version that can reanimate for 2 mana at instant speed. But maybe there's a thing I didn't understand
So I tested the eggs, Faith's Reward and I have pretty good result goldfishing with it. I tweeked the deck a bit :
The deck is super consistent and replacing Aetherflux Reservoir by Sunbeam Spellbomb is a big addition.
The main focus of the deck is to have Lotus Bloom by turn 4, by starting with it in starting hand or Reshape an egg into it. It's the most important thing. Mulligan every hand that can't get it by turn 4. Then, once you have bloom, it becomes easy to go off with reward or bolas citadel because the eggs help to not brick mid combo and casting a Faith's Reward with some eggs and Sunbeam Spellbomb is just game. The way to finish the opponent is by going infinite with Conjurer's Bauble returning Faith's Reward into an empty deck so you draw it then recast it (but before you activate Bolas's Citadel[/card, allLotus Bloom and Sunbeam Spellbomb), making infinite mana, infinite life and infinite damage without targeting the opponent (sorry Leyline of Sanctity and whirl deck).
There's a nice trick that, when you flip a Faith's Reward on the top with Bolas's Citadel, you can sacrifice all the eggs, lotus, fetch you have, stack the draws/tutor effect, play Faith's Reward on the stack, return everything then resolve one by one the draw/tutor effects (if there is not an another Faith's Reward).
The deck feel like a worst version of KCI because you lose life mid combo, you can go off Turn 3 but less often and the manabase needs to support reshape on turn 2 (not a lot of utilitary lands). But KCI was super broken even when it was the deck to beat and you still have the advantage to be super consistent, not playing any creature and morphing into a Sai, Master Thopterist (maybe even Monastery Mentor) deck post board.
I enjoyed this version quite a lot actually. I included Ghost Quarters, Implement of Improvements and increased the number of Elsewhere Flasks. I think this version is quite strong and indeed seems very consistent.
Some other options worth considering as well are Hierophant's Chalice (can help shortening the clock a bit and generates mana during the combo turn) and Navigator's Compass (helps with getting UU for reshape). Neither cantrips so they are kinda iffy.
Overall, really excited by the deck. Thanks for the list.
AronGomu, how are you generally losing only 5 to 8 life during the combo turn? Even against a goldfish, I regularly end up ripping out 10 or more of my life total before I can pop Sunbeam Spellbomb for life. I'm using basically your list for the Citadel Eggs tests, with a few adjustments to the lands and Whir of Invention instead of Fabricate. Being unable to Reshape for Sunbeam Spellbomb when it's cast from the Citadel hurts further.
Because I'm often losing 10 or more life to my own Citadel Eggs combo turn before I can gain life, I'm not confident taking Citadel Eggs out for a public spin despite its consistency. Against plentiful opponents like UR Phoenix, I end up at 10 or less life at the start of the combo turn, and I've comboed off with my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck on 6-10 starting life several times.
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In the meantime, I recently went -1 Revitalize, +1 Teferi, Time Raveler in my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck, partially because Revitalize still feels like the least impactful card in the deck (you gain only 1 net life during the combo turn, it doesn't dig that hard, I am tempted to ditch the last one for something like Opt). Teferi TR has been surprisingly solid. Pre-combo, he often gains life in practice by bouncing a creature. His static ability provides enough security during the combo turn that some opponents send in cards or creatures to kill him (thus, I often effectively gain more life). Shame his +1 does close to nothing in my deck. He's also pretty good at bouncing hate permanents against passive decks (shame he won't bounce Karn, the Great Creator). (He's fairly shabby at bouncing Thalia for long enough to matter.) And, of course, he can cantrip. Even better, he can cantrip and disrupt at the same time, unlike Spellbombs! Mid-combo, he's a 5th Conjurer's Bauble that costs 3 life instead of 1, which has actually bailed me out once so far. The nifty part is that your opponent cannot kill him mid-combo, so he WILL get the delayed cantrip off.
Your best Game 1 strategy against UW Control is still to slam the combo early and pray they drew the wrong half of their deck, but Teferi TR is close to a must-counter against them.
Well, I don't know. I generally fix the limit to not go under 13/14 life during the combo and it's often possible. I start generally at 19/18 life, fetching only basic island then I play 3-4, fetching/drawing away all other Citadel, card I cannot play, I crack my sunbeam only to do life and I lose 5/6 life until I can reward into get a new board. You can draw the reshape with a egg, to cast it for 1 and get life this way mid-combo. Obiously, sometimes you have to play you citadel from the top of your deck, or don't get sunbeam in the top 20 cards of the deck, so you lose a lot of life and you can't control it. You can take a look in my sheet, I make a resume of every game I goldfish to maybe reveal some patterns I didn't recognize.
I have tested a bit with Semblance Anvil and the result is, Semblance doesn't do anything the deck want except give a third way to cast the Citadel, by simply casting it for 1BBB. I think it's too much of a cost because you need to make the manabase work, to cast UU on turn 2, then 1BBB on turn 4 without losing to much life and then take 3 damage mid-combo for nothing is very bad too.
So I'm back to a more consistent version, with Serum Visions.
I try Ghost Quarter and it seems that they can fit. Each quarter makes 2 mana of Faith's Reward, it's just very good and it should help a lot against amulet/tron deck. Implement of Improvement is indeed a great card in the deck. It's better than Sunbeam Spellbomb when you are starting the combo and you don't have a lot of eggs to crack but sunbeam give you so much life that I did the 3/3 shame split. I still don't know which one is better.
I did cut all 2 mana artifact because they makes you lose so much life mid combo and they are often not better than 1 mana eggs (Mind Stone is very bad, don't play it).
It's a shame that Navigator's Compass isn't 0 CCM. I would play 2/3 copy if it was free just to enable the Mox. I don't think the card is playable but maybe in sideboard against burn ?
Right now, the only real problem that I have with the deck is finding Bolas's Citadel, because you just can't win the game if you don't draw it. I guess it's not that bad, KCI had the same problem and was one of the best deck, but still.
I will test if the manabase can fit 2 Buried Ruin and 1 Inventors' Fair to give resiliency for real match. I could maybe cut Fabricate for Inventors' Fair. I don't really know.
I should test with whir, seems great to have another playset of reshape in the deck. Probably cutting Fabricate and all serum visions.
Lectrys, your version graveyardless of the deck seems interesting, do you have any list to share ? What engine do you use, if you are not on Faith's Reward ?
I thought about a Whir of Invention version of the deck that would play 1 of bullet like Ensnaring Bridge to slow down the opponent until getting the combo online so you don't rely too hard on that poor Lotus bloom. I can't really test this version because it needs context, can't goldfish it.
It would be something like that.
No idea if it's better than regular prison deck and this version can only deal 20 damages with 2 activation of bolas (maybe 3, with Academy Ruins tricks). The Serum is just a flex slot, maybe a 2nd brige.
Bolas's Citadel is not colorless, you can't find it with Ancient Stirrings. And you need to find Lotus Bloom on turn 1, because otherwise it's too late and become too slow. You can't find Reshape or Whir of Invention either and getting eggs don't advance the goal of assembling Bloom + Citadel + 3 other mana. Serum Visions is probably the better cantrip in this deck.
Ok yeah bad idea, for some reason I thought stirrings was artifact. I was implying we wouldnt play blue, I don't think its that insane to suggest. But I concur the fact that stirrings cant find citidel makes it bad. My bad RTFC me.
Lectrys, your version graveyardless of the deck seems interesting, do you have any list to share ? What engine do you use, if you are not on Faith's Reward ?
Here's the latest version of my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck:
"Blast Zone" is that newly spoiled land that behaves rather like Engineered Explosives. I don't think it'll harm the mana base that much, and hot diggity do I want Humans's hate bears dead. Immediately blowing up Grafdigger's Cage is a bonus (as long as I have enough mana).
The life gain engine cards mid-combo are Aetherflux Reservoir, Children of Korlis, Renewed Faith, and occasionally Sunbeam Spellbomb. I've found that 4 life gain haymakers (Aetherflux + Children) are enough to get there with the combo, especially with Renewed Faith to tide me over.
Consistency-wise, this feels close to the Ad Nauseam deck. Just like with that deck, sometimes, your 6-mana combo just won't get into your hand. Quite a bit of the time, though, you can stall aggro long enough to get there.
A cool thing I found out during testing is that Teferi, Time Raveler can profitably bounce your own Simian Spirit Guide or Mox Opal with his -3 so you get extra mana. And no, your opponents cannot interrupt that by killing your target in response, either! (Well, unless they can activate an ability that boots his target, but then you wouldn't be targeting anything with that -3, would you?)
The newly spoiled Bond of Flourishing looks encouraging enough that I tried an Abzan build with 4 Bond of Flourishing and the flex slots taken up with Unbridled Growth, but that build feels less consistent than this Esper build. It doesn't help that the Abzan build can no longer disguise itself as an Ad Nauseam deck.
Regarding your build, things do feel quite a bit more secure life-wise with Implement of Improvement.
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4 Whir of Invention
2 Reshape
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Lotus Bloom
2 Bolas’s Citadel
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Graffdiggers Cage
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Academy Ruins
3 Botanical Sanctum
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Glimmervoid
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Island
1 River of Tears
4 Spire of Industry
Yes, all my tests were done with my no-Trash For Treasure build. I'd already put in some cards that didn't work so well in my first post.
For what's working well, the obvious Unmoored Ego names are Citadel and Aetherflux (all my Citadel kills need the life gain from Aetherflux to hit 20 nonland permanents in the first place), but the best Surgical Extraction target may actually be Conjurer's Bauble. Combo turns are quite a lot more likely to fizzle without its free ability to get the top card off my library.
Serum Visions has been great, even mid-combo. A mid-combo SV, although it draws a rather random card (cast all instants possible off the top of your deck in response to maximize the chance you draw a useless land), Scrys 2 after that, and the Scry is incredibly potent mid-combo.
It's quite possible that the only reason why I can even afford to keep Spellbombs in this deck is because mid-combo Lotus Bloom can pay for cracking them.
There's a possibility I may want some Children of Korlis in my build, possibly even booting out Aetherflux for them; as many times as I end my combo turn with only one Aetherflux, as much as Aetherflux in hand can lure targeted discard, and as much as early Children eats removal instead of doing its job (opponent kills it, then swings), Children is a lot easier to cast pre-combo than Aetherflux is.
In a preliminary test game against Mono-G Tron, they resolved Karn Liberated and ate something with him and I still comboed off. (Karn, the Great Creator is pretty much game over against us, though: he turns off all our artifact ramp just by being there, and then before we hit 6 mana the hard way, he locks up the game with Mycosynth Lattice.)
The preliminary games against Burn are not doing well, though: as predicted, Eidolon of the Great Revel rips us a new one, and they generally put pressure on our life total faster and more constantly than most other aggro decks. 10 games later, I don't think I've won a game yet. This is one of the decks where you get locked out of casting Aetherflux the fastest.
My thought process was if you are going to be playing 80% of the same cards as Lantern you may as well include Whir and be able to play a control game. The question is whether cantrips are better than discard. I assume yes because this combo is a little too slow to be all-in without any defensive/distruptive plan.
Of course you can try to build a RW version with Trash for Treasure, Reburbish, looting, etc. but again, I think that would be too fragile. All of this requires testing of course.
How are you guys testing Citadel right now by the way? I would love to jam some games.
Got some more games in against Burn. As long as I prioritize gaining life over cantripping more often (especially if I have mana ramp and Bolas's Citadel in my opening hand), the match-up is still unfavourable but is more salvageable. Of note: I won one game facing off against one Eidolon of the Great Revel, then I won another game against TWO Eidolons of the Great Revel. (Icky highlight of the latter game: I hardcast Pentad Prism from my hand using another Pentad Prism's mana just to gain enough life to get past the double Eidolon hurdle.)
Of note with my build vs. Eidolon of the Great Revel: both Bolas's Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir dodge the Eidolon life tax, and so does cycling Renewed Faith.
How does this deck handle its humans and spirits matchups? Humans, in particular, sounds really rough.
Got to test against Humans and Spirits (and Jund) tonight so I can answer you!
Partway through the tests, I cracked and swapped out 1 Aetherflux Reservoir for 1 Children of Korlis. The Children generally provide a large enough shot of life mid-combo to kinda imitate Aetherflux, they're so much cheaper than Aetherflux, and they have a non-zero chance of Fogging the opponent once pre-combo.
The Humans match-up is awful pre-board. Thalia (both of them) is a veritable pain, although it's hilarious that I can put 3 charge counters on a Thalia-taxed Pentad Prism. As long as their Meddling Mage names money cards like Bolas's Citadel and Lotus Bloom, and they don't screw up and name Ad Nauseam or Angel's Grace (my build shares several cards with the Ad Nauseam deck), Humans has the game in the bag. Kitesail Freebooter isn't as bad but is still an annoyance, and Humans wins surprisingly often with only beats. Post-board, we can make up quite a bit of ground with creature removal and even board wipes. I did mamage to win a game where I bounced both Thalia and Meddling Mage by the end of the combo turn, though.
Spirits is definitely easier to handle. Their counterspells on legs don't line up that well with our threats: Mausoleum Wanderer often cannot counter anything, Spell Queller cannot counter Bolas's Citadel, and Spell Queller is often better off countering mana ramp, cantrips, Aetherflux, and/or life gain big enough to get me out of the danger zone.
Jund was also really rough. With upwards of 4 removal spells for Bolas's Citadel and 5-6 targeted discard spells, they generally have enough disruption to kill me before I kill them. I suppose the only saving grace is that they often have to keep holding up the artifact removal spell (that doesn't stop them from sneaking in Bob and Goyf, though).
This sounds about right. Which brings me back for the need for Silence against removal heavy decks like Jund. I suppose you could always consider leyline to protect yourself from targeted discard as well.
It's tough to figure out the best combination. The thing about modern is that the good decks are all super linear (which is why Jund is no longer anywhere near top contention) and are very good at doing their thing. Whereas this concept seems a tad too slow for modern if you're playing the trash for treasure less version of the deck.
Not going off within the first 3-4 turns makes this not a particularly viable deck. UNLESS, the deck switches gears a bit. I do very much like the new Teferi as it can come down early enough to allow you to set up the combo turn while seriously hampering the ability for your opponent to react. Chances are, they will need to dedicate a lot of resources to removing teferi. The only downside is that the deck can't play counterspells.
So maybe silence/trash for treasure is the way to go (plus those colors allow you to handle GY hate admirably).
A Turn 3 win with my build is also possible as long as I get 3 lands, Pentad Prism, and Simian Spirit Guide by then (a 2-land version is possible, but it needs a second Pentad Prism or SSG).
I'm not convinced that maindeck Silence is ever the way to go. It doesn't cantrip, so it can't dig for Bolas's Citadel (or mana rocks). Unlike Children of Korlis or Aetherflux Reservoir, Silence doesn't have life gain (let alone the huge life gain both Children and Aetherflux can provide).
I'm warmer to but still uncertain about Teferi, Time Raveler in this deck. On the one hand, he either protects the combo or soaks up damage, and he can both delayed cantrip (the best type of cantrip for the combo turn) and bounce hate. The Flash-granting can also buff the consistency of combo turns by increasing the chance that cantrip instants draw lands and increasing the life gained from Aetherflux as long as you time spells right. EDIT: Well, he gives only sorceries Flash. That's not so hot for my build. Maybe every edge helps, though. On the other hand, he costs 3 mana or life, and in a low-land deck like this, that's rather steep.
Part of the reason I don't like the Trash For Treasure plan is because it essentially adds cards to the combo. You now need to find it, a way to get Bolas's Citadel into the graveyard, and another artifact instead of just Bolas's Citadel (admittedly, the "just Bolas's Citadel" part only matters late-game). Worse, if you don't have another artifact to sacrifice and an artifact in the graveyard, it can brick up your combo turn and need to be ripped off the top of your library.
I believe this deck has promise because it's essentially a 1-card combo instead of Ad Nauseam's 2-card combo, and it can completely dodge graveyard hate. Especially in this current metagame where UR Phoenix is maindecking graveyard hate and increasingly preparing and mutating for the mirror, dodging graveyard hate is a valuable thing to do despite the pronounced Stony Silence weakness and need for a comfortable life total.
I first thought about playing it in a storm shell with ritual and manamorphose because making 3 mana for 2 life is pretty good but it's been too inconsistent to be able to cast Bolas's Citadel et too costly in life mid combo. That was just bad.
Then I tried the Trash for Treasure version but I find it too much similar to grishoalbrand and reanimator. And Trash for Treasure is a brick mid combo, that doesn't help. I would just play the version that can reanimate for 2 mana at instant speed. But maybe there's a thing I didn't understand
So I tested the eggs, Faith's Reward and I have pretty good result goldfishing with it. I tweeked the deck a bit :
4 Mox Opal
4 Chromatic Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble
2 Mind Stone
4 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Elsewhere Flask
4 Bolas's Citadel
4 Faith's Reward
6 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Serum Visions
4 Reshape
1 Fabricate
The deck is super consistent and replacing Aetherflux Reservoir by Sunbeam Spellbomb is a big addition.
The main focus of the deck is to have Lotus Bloom by turn 4, by starting with it in starting hand or Reshape an egg into it. It's the most important thing. Mulligan every hand that can't get it by turn 4. Then, once you have bloom, it becomes easy to go off with reward or bolas citadel because the eggs help to not brick mid combo and casting a Faith's Reward with some eggs and Sunbeam Spellbomb is just game. The way to finish the opponent is by going infinite with Conjurer's Bauble returning Faith's Reward into an empty deck so you draw it then recast it (but before you activate Bolas's Citadel[/card, allLotus Bloom and Sunbeam Spellbomb), making infinite mana, infinite life and infinite damage without targeting the opponent (sorry Leyline of Sanctity and whirl deck).
There's a nice trick that, when you flip a Faith's Reward on the top with Bolas's Citadel, you can sacrifice all the eggs, lotus, fetch you have, stack the draws/tutor effect, play Faith's Reward on the stack, return everything then resolve one by one the draw/tutor effects (if there is not an another Faith's Reward).
In the process of comboing off, you generally lose 5 to 8 life, the time to play some egg, find Lotus Bloom/Mox Opal and Sunbeam Spellbomb.
You can play around Surgical Extraction a little with Conjurer's Bauble mid combo.
The deck feel like a worst version of KCI because you lose life mid combo, you can go off Turn 3 but less often and the manabase needs to support reshape on turn 2 (not a lot of utilitary lands). But KCI was super broken even when it was the deck to beat and you still have the advantage to be super consistent, not playing any creature and morphing into a Sai, Master Thopterist (maybe even Monastery Mentor) deck post board.
I think we got something
Here's all the data I got from my goldfishing on cockatrice : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18a0IC-uLgXEJQLwgSZgnuriFRQpxOhmihYxkr2AZbSk/edit?usp=sharing
I update it when I goldfish in my free time
What are your thought ?
I can see that this deck probably goes off a LOT, but what's the win con?
I do like the idea though, although this deck is much more vulnerable to graveyard hate. You can also play that 3 mana dude that returns artifacts that cost less as a cheaper faith's reward. Plus it doesn't require any colored investment.
The deck is kinda vulnerable to graveyard hate because of Faith's Reward, otherwise not much. In game 1, it can be very tough to play around a Relic of Progenitus if you need to start the combo with Faith's Reward. However, if you don't have to and you have directly Bolas's Citadel, you can play around by paying more life (aggresive deck generally don't run relic game 1). And you can play around surgical with 2 Conjurer's Bauble but you still need to have a resolved Bolas's Citadel, probably.
Postboard, Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void and Stony Silence are super rough to combo through, so the plan to side out Faith's Reward, maybe some Bolas's Citadel and become a Master Thopterist and Monastery Mentor deck with counterspell and Path to Exile backup can be real. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer also could play a role there.
This deck can't play Scrap Trawler (if you tought about this 3-mana dude) because the main way to generate mana is by returning Lotus Bloom into play directly and you can't play it from your hand. If there are any other better way to return a bunch of artifacts from your graveyard into play directly, I want to hear them
There is, Open the Vaults. It's a bit on the expensive side though.
And ya, scrap trawler was what i was talking about. You're right, it doesn't quite work since it goes back to hand. What the deck would need for this is something like Helm of awakening, then you could have the things go back to your hand.
There is another way to dodge gravehate though. If we were looking at diving to the deep end, you could look at a card like Wheel of Sun And Moon.
But to be fair, i'm not 100% on how the interaction between two replacement effects works (Sun & Moon vs RIP). Maybe this is all about time stamps.
Edit. Found it:
This means that neither RIP nor Leyline of the Void can hit your Yard.
Wheel of Sun and Moon maybe a criminally underplayed card!
Semblance Anvil could be the card we want to reduce artifact cost. You become more vulnerable to discard effet et mulliganing but you may gain a lot of velocity. I'm gonna test this out.
I don't think RIP/Leyline to be much of an annoyance. With a transformative plan, siding out Faith's Reward, you use the grave only with Conjurer's Bauble and Chromatic Star. You don't need to go infinite, you just need to activate 2 times Bolas's Citadel or kill the opponent with an army of thopters.
I really want to work on the manabase, I'm gonna test how far we can push it. If I can play without fetch, how many utility land I can play and still being consistent to cast reshape on turn 2/3
Maybe we can build a hybrid version with this list of KCI 2.0 of Piotr : https://twitter.com/kanister_mtg/status/1096387043104567296?fbclid=IwAR0s3LTEErfP7z7PyLFxQQGfMzcVPa3LZgMzMi-nJRWWQopyMCPMlAmUa9c
Needs to find the place to slot in 4 Lotus Bloom, 4 Sunbeam Spellbomb, 4 Reshape and adapt the manabase but this can be good too
4 Sunbeam spellbomb seems excessive. You're playing reshape anyways, so worse case, you just seek it out. Semblance anvil is a trap. You will get 2 for 1d over and over. it's not worth it. Although I can see the appeal.
Wish Goblin Welder was legal in Modern!
I enjoyed this version quite a lot actually. I included Ghost Quarters, Implement of Improvements and increased the number of Elsewhere Flasks. I think this version is quite strong and indeed seems very consistent.
Some other options worth considering as well are Hierophant's Chalice (can help shortening the clock a bit and generates mana during the combo turn) and Navigator's Compass (helps with getting UU for reshape). Neither cantrips so they are kinda iffy.
Overall, really excited by the deck. Thanks for the list.
UB Fae
TES
Pox
Because I'm often losing 10 or more life to my own Citadel Eggs combo turn before I can gain life, I'm not confident taking Citadel Eggs out for a public spin despite its consistency. Against plentiful opponents like UR Phoenix, I end up at 10 or less life at the start of the combo turn, and I've comboed off with my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck on 6-10 starting life several times.
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In the meantime, I recently went -1 Revitalize, +1 Teferi, Time Raveler in my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck, partially because Revitalize still feels like the least impactful card in the deck (you gain only 1 net life during the combo turn, it doesn't dig that hard, I am tempted to ditch the last one for something like Opt). Teferi TR has been surprisingly solid. Pre-combo, he often gains life in practice by bouncing a creature. His static ability provides enough security during the combo turn that some opponents send in cards or creatures to kill him (thus, I often effectively gain more life). Shame his +1 does close to nothing in my deck. He's also pretty good at bouncing hate permanents against passive decks (shame he won't bounce Karn, the Great Creator). (He's fairly shabby at bouncing Thalia for long enough to matter.) And, of course, he can cantrip. Even better, he can cantrip and disrupt at the same time, unlike Spellbombs! Mid-combo, he's a 5th Conjurer's Bauble that costs 3 life instead of 1, which has actually bailed me out once so far. The nifty part is that your opponent cannot kill him mid-combo, so he WILL get the delayed cantrip off.
Your best Game 1 strategy against UW Control is still to slam the combo early and pray they drew the wrong half of their deck, but Teferi TR is close to a must-counter against them.
I have tested a bit with Semblance Anvil and the result is, Semblance doesn't do anything the deck want except give a third way to cast the Citadel, by simply casting it for 1BBB. I think it's too much of a cost because you need to make the manabase work, to cast UU on turn 2, then 1BBB on turn 4 without losing to much life and then take 3 damage mid-combo for nothing is very bad too.
So I'm back to a more consistent version, with Serum Visions.
4 Mox Opal
4 Chromatic Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Sunbeam Spellbomb
3 Implement of Improvement
4 Bolas's Citadel
4 Faith's Reward
6 Island
2 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Serum Visions
4 Reshape
1 Fabricate
I try Ghost Quarter and it seems that they can fit. Each quarter makes 2 mana of Faith's Reward, it's just very good and it should help a lot against amulet/tron deck.
Implement of Improvement is indeed a great card in the deck. It's better than Sunbeam Spellbomb when you are starting the combo and you don't have a lot of eggs to crack but sunbeam give you so much life that I did the 3/3 shame split. I still don't know which one is better.
I did cut all 2 mana artifact because they makes you lose so much life mid combo and they are often not better than 1 mana eggs (Mind Stone is very bad, don't play it).
It's a shame that Navigator's Compass isn't 0 CCM. I would play 2/3 copy if it was free just to enable the Mox. I don't think the card is playable but maybe in sideboard against burn ?
Right now, the only real problem that I have with the deck is finding Bolas's Citadel, because you just can't win the game if you don't draw it. I guess it's not that bad, KCI had the same problem and was one of the best deck, but still.
I will test if the manabase can fit 2 Buried Ruin and 1 Inventors' Fair to give resiliency for real match. I could maybe cut Fabricate for Inventors' Fair. I don't really know.
I should test with whir, seems great to have another playset of reshape in the deck. Probably cutting Fabricate and all serum visions.
Lectrys, your version graveyardless of the deck seems interesting, do you have any list to share ? What engine do you use, if you are not on Faith's Reward ?
I thought about a Whir of Invention version of the deck that would play 1 of bullet like Ensnaring Bridge to slow down the opponent until getting the combo online so you don't rely too hard on that poor Lotus bloom. I can't really test this version because it needs context, can't goldfish it.
It would be something like that.
4 Mox Opal
4 Chromatic Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Sunbeam Spellbomb
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Welding Jar
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Lich's Mastery
4 Whir of Invention
2 Island
3 Glimmervoid
4 Spire of Industry
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Swamp
4 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Reshape
1 Serum Visions
No idea if it's better than regular prison deck and this version can only deal 20 damages with 2 activation of bolas (maybe 3, with Academy Ruins tricks). The Serum is just a flex slot, maybe a 2nd brige.
Serum Visions is probably the better cantrip in this deck.
Here's the latest version of my Citadel Dodge Yard Hate deck:
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blast Zone
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
Creatures
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Children of Korlis
4 Bolas's Citadel
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
1 Mox Opal
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Aether Spellbomb
4 Sunbeam Spellbomb
4 Renewed Faith
1 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Serum Visions
1 Opt
1 Fabricate
1 Defense Grid
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Cast Out
2 Echoing Truth
1 Silence
1 Swan Song
1 Path to Exile
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
2 Collective Brutality
1 Timely Reinforcements
"Blast Zone" is that newly spoiled land that behaves rather like Engineered Explosives. I don't think it'll harm the mana base that much, and hot diggity do I want Humans's hate bears dead. Immediately blowing up Grafdigger's Cage is a bonus (as long as I have enough mana).
The life gain engine cards mid-combo are Aetherflux Reservoir, Children of Korlis, Renewed Faith, and occasionally Sunbeam Spellbomb. I've found that 4 life gain haymakers (Aetherflux + Children) are enough to get there with the combo, especially with Renewed Faith to tide me over.
Consistency-wise, this feels close to the Ad Nauseam deck. Just like with that deck, sometimes, your 6-mana combo just won't get into your hand. Quite a bit of the time, though, you can stall aggro long enough to get there.
A cool thing I found out during testing is that Teferi, Time Raveler can profitably bounce your own Simian Spirit Guide or Mox Opal with his -3 so you get extra mana. And no, your opponents cannot interrupt that by killing your target in response, either! (Well, unless they can activate an ability that boots his target, but then you wouldn't be targeting anything with that -3, would you?)
The newly spoiled Bond of Flourishing looks encouraging enough that I tried an Abzan build with 4 Bond of Flourishing and the flex slots taken up with Unbridled Growth, but that build feels less consistent than this Esper build. It doesn't help that the Abzan build can no longer disguise itself as an Ad Nauseam deck.
Regarding your build, things do feel quite a bit more secure life-wise with Implement of Improvement.