I posted a RUG list earlier that didn't run Stone Rains at all, basic strategy was to stall with Firespout/Mana Leak/Remand early game, drop a Wildfire and win via Primeval Titan. Here's the link. While I found it a bit too slow, maybe you all can take some ideas from it.
So clearly the deck sort of revolves around BBE into LD, and gets to reuse it thanks to Serrow. There are cheaper ways to bounce your own creatures, but Serrow also makes for a decent win con too. I splash white because when you combine LD with not being able to tutor for land (easily) you get some unhappy opponents.
I did not run Boom//Bust because I just have not found that Flagstones shenanegans are that realiable in my matches, and Arbiter makes it much worse.
Firstly, been really busy lately so haven't had much time actually sit down and reply here, but it's nice to see that there have been some discussion going on while I was away! Keep at it, guys!
Just updated the first post with some minor changes. Now, for replies!
Typical keepable hand is 2-3 land 5-4 cards so if your opponent doesn't show land on a first turn blackmail you only cannot choose 1-2 cards. Altho I agree this is giving choise its still a bad situation for them becuase people just dont play bad cards you always get to pick something good. Maybe your right tho, and it could be better to just play 4 Inquisition of Kozilek and get rid of low mana plays first and then destroy lands
The thing is that modern is a fast format, even on the play a Goyf or Delver can come online before your land distruction or on the draw your counters. To me it seems that 1 mana discard solves that situation before it arises.
Another thing that bothers me about U/R is that it has a twofold game plan. It wants to be reactive with counters and proactive with land destruction. These two plans do not work well together, a turn 3 Stone rain means you cannot counter his turn 3 play. Id rather be full on proactive and not have to worry about needing mana open on my opponents turn the first part of the game.
Altho i cannot prove that this is a better game plan my gut feeling tells me to avoid this situation.
Yeah, I get that we won't be able to deal with some early plays like Tarmogoyf or Delver of Secrets or whatever, but that's what the spot/mass removals are for. It doesn't hurt us too badly to take some damage early before we draw an answer (hopefully). The cantrips do help too.
About being reactive and proactive, yeah that's the thing about tempo decks (this is kinda tempo-control-ish thing, I guess?). Opponent has a dual land or Urza land in play on my third turn and I have a Stone Rain and Remand in my hand? I'd definitely take out the dual. If not, I'll keep the turn to Remand his next play and continue accordingly. It's all the situations like that and the decision making which makes the deck fun for me.
I just don't see a BR version of this working as well as the UR. Your discard cards will hurt you more than help over the long run i.e. Thoughtseize and in late game, they might not be as useful as counters when the opponent's hand is more thinned out. (and that's the idea here, to stall and do some land destruction). At least, that's what my gut tells me. But hey, this is why I made this thread. Wanted more opinions and people to help me test out the possibilities and discuss it all. So yeah, do test it out and keep me updated on the BR version, man! I'm very interested to see how it plays out.
I like Frost Titan as the finisher here, the extra 2 required to remove him really does add up when mana is already at a premium.
Yeah, that's why I picked him instead of the many other creatures available. He's harder to remove and he denies them their lands too. And with all the 'dead' removals they have been drawing since I barely run creatures, they'll all be waiting in hand, just to drop it on my finisher.
Were I to play LD, I'd play Naya so I could run Knight of the Reliquary and Bloodbraid Elf. Nothing beats cascading into Boom/Bust and casting Bust for free.
Then you have Acidic Slime, which you can flicker with Restoration Angel. And if you're playing Angel, you can have Kiki in the sideboard for a surprise win.
Naya is appealing but if I were to play Naya, it wouldn't be for Restoration Angel. The angel only has synergy with Bloodbraid Elf. There's no other reason to run the angel except BBE. Not worth the slots. Knight of the Reliquary would also only be worth it if you managed to cast Bust. It only gets pumped by your lands, not the opponent's. Shouldn't even be considering it. These two creatures are very strong but they just have no place in the deck. And I'd try not to push too hard on the mana base to avoid playing too many shocklands.
Besides, Ajani Vengeant, Lightning Helix, Ghostly Prison and Leonin Arbiter are pretty much the only good reasons to run white. And the Arbiter screws up our mana fixing for playing 3 colours too so it's not THAT good of an inclusion. Unless anyone has anything else to add?
I also tend to agree that the Naya version must be the most competitive considering the power of the cards the colours offer.
Apart from that i like the U/R version more since it is more "rogue-ish", but splashing the white for Ajani, Vengeant and cheap removal in the early game (Lightning Helix) seems as a must to me, taking the current metagame in consideration.
Hasn't anyone thought about Tamiyo in this deck?
Not sure about Naya being the most competitive but yeah, testing as much as I can. I like the idea of splashing white too, but Helix just doesn't seem worth it. The lifegain could be useful but... I'm not so sure HOW useful.
As for Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, damn, I totally forgot about her! She might be a perfect fit at 5cmc. Have always been missing a card at 5CMC. Will definitely test her.
I'd replace the Wrath of Gods with Pyroclasm or Volcanic Fallout. Also the mana base might hurt you too much though. Wrath is too slow and has WW. Might be a big problem trying to hit that by turn 4. Try a few basics. If your opponent resolves a Blood Moon, you're done (you have no counters too). As for your creatures, Delver and Figure are great, but I don't think this is the right place for them. You'd be better with some counters in their spot.
----
For the record, I really do believe that going the BURN approach is the way to do it. Only play creatures that are harder to remove and/or instant board presence the moment played (Frost Titan). That'll leave all/most of their removals as dead cards as you carry on with your gameplan and give you the option of going for a transformational sideboard too.
Also, I wouldn't base the deck on Bloodbraid Elf. Too much luck involved and the typical list for it would be something like what DrWorm posted and it's really clunky. You won't always be getting that LD from the Cascade. I want to be able to 'consistently' attack their mana base my way and not hope for it to happen with every Cascade activation.
Whew, took me awhile to type all that. Will be following the thread closely now. And for those who didn't read everything on the first post, please do.
I really don't think double white is hard by turn 4, especially since 18/23 lands can get white. Wrath seems good, but maybe too slow. This is something I have considered, but I figure the Bolts and Helixs can take care of early game threats, where Wrath can reset the board regardless of how big a Goyf or anything else is. Etched Champion is another big reason why I would use Wrath over burn based sweepers.
Delver and Figure went in as I was pondering what other finishers besides Frost Titan I could run. Nothing else really jumped at me, but I am open to other suggestions. Steppe Lynx could be fun if I dropped a second Flagstones. I run enough fetches to make them worth while too, but at that point I might as well just run a typical URW Delver build.
I could go with basics, and usually try to fit a few in for those Paths that seem to show in every deck with white. Blood Moon isn't a huge threat, as there is only 1 established deck that I know of that runs it (RUG Delver).
Thanks for the input
FYI: Bloodbraid does nothing with Restoration Angel. You have to cast BBE to trigger the cascade, and that doesn't happen as an EtB effect.
Also, I wouldn't base the deck on Bloodbraid Elf. Too much luck involved and the typical list for it would be something like what DrWorm posted and it's really clunky. You won't always be getting that LD from the Cascade. I want to be able to 'consistently' attack their mana base my way and not hope for it to happen with every Cascade activation.
While my deck is not perfect, or even well tuned (I don't spend too much time testing it), I think your assessment of BBE is incorrect. A well tuned and well built deck running BBE will have card quality that is high enough that no matter what you flip you are harming your opponent's board position. Look at Jund- there are some ideal flips, but all others are still good. It is CA and tempo all in one package.
I really don't think double white is hard by turn 4, especially since 18/23 lands can get white. Wrath seems good, but maybe too slow. This is something I have considered, but I figure the Bolts and Helixs can take care of early game threats, where Wrath can reset the board regardless of how big a Goyf or anything else is. Etched Champion is another big reason why I would use Wrath over burn based sweepers.
Delver and Figure went in as I was pondering what other finishers besides Frost Titan I could run. Nothing else really jumped at me, but I am open to other suggestions. Steppe Lynx could be fun if I dropped a second Flagstones. I run enough fetches to make them worth while too, but at that point I might as well just run a typical URW Delver build.
I could go with basics, and usually try to fit a few in for those Paths that seem to show in every deck with white. Blood Moon isn't a huge threat, as there is only 1 established deck that I know of that runs it (RUG Delver).
Thanks for the input
FYI: Bloodbraid does nothing with Restoration Angel. You have to cast BBE to trigger the cascade, and that doesn't happen as an EtB effect.
When I mentioned about hitting WW, I was assuming we'd be changing the mana base to have lesser shocklands, but if it remains that way, then yeah I guess hitting WW and RR early isn't a problem. But is it really worth taking all that damage just for the Wrath? The format is aggressively fast and all that damage might hurt you too much.
For the Affinity matchup, I believe by the time you could wrath the Etched Champion away anyway, you'd probably be in burn range already. Wrath really might be too slow for it. But there isn't much choice for sweepers like that. Maybe Porphyry Nodes would be better. As for finishers, I agree we need more but that many creatures as 'finishers' might be too much.
And I was led to believe that Cascade works after reading the suggestion of Restoration Angel. Yep, doesn't work. The angel totally has no place here then.
While my deck is not perfect, or even well tuned (I don't spend too much time testing it), I think your assessment of BBE is incorrect. A well tuned and well built deck running BBE will have card quality that is high enough that no matter what you flip you are harming your opponent's board position. Look at Jund- there are some ideal flips, but all others are still good. It is CA and tempo all in one package.
Okay man, here's the thing. I'm not personally attacking your deck or anything. But look at a typical Jund list. BBE fits right there perfectly. Everything that could be Cascaded in has pretty much an instant effect on the game. But now look at the typical R/G LD lists. You want ramp, birds, spirit guide blah blah blah. Those cards are horrible topdecks for Cascade.
Cascading into a Spirit Guide, Birds, Leonin Arbiter, Fulminator Mage isn't gonna do much for us. Yeah, I know your deck isn't well-tuned or whatever but I'm assessing BBE's role and its usefulness in a typical R/G LD deck. Not the card on its own. It's a great card and Jund is a different deck altogether. BBE belongs there. But with all the ramp creatures (possibly spells) being run here, I just don't think it belongs here. But I don't deny that it's good and warrants testing.
Okay man, here's the thing. I'm not personally attacking your deck or anything. But look at a typical Jund list. BBE fits right there perfectly. Everything that could be Cascaded in has pretty much an instant effect on the game. But now look at the typical R/G LD lists. You want ramp, birds, spirit guide blah blah blah. Those cards are horrible topdecks for Cascade.
Cascading into a Spirit Guide, Birds, Leonin Arbiter, Fulminator Mage isn't gonna do much for us. Yeah, I know your deck isn't well-tuned or whatever but I'm assessing BBE's role and its usefulness in a typical R/G LD deck. Not the card on its own. It's a great card and Jund is a different deck altogether. BBE belongs there. But with all the ramp creatures (possibly spells) being run here, I just don't think it belongs here. But I don't deny that it's good and warrants testing.
I did not think you were attacking my deck, and I said as much about my deck not being tuned in my post. I believe that there is a LD list that can make very good use of it- though it will need more people interested in developing it. The deck itself will not be as full of LD as your lists, but I feel (hope) that the consistency gained by the card advantage will make the deck better at hurting mana bases.
@ Freakonature: I don't see why I would be in burn range by the time I could wrath with that build. Between a playset of Bolts and Helixes, I should have enough removal to buy myself time to get to turn 4.
It's also not necessary to pay life for shock lands. Many people tend to pop their fetches at EoT and put the land into play tapped. Especially on turn 3, I would likely only need 2 mana up for Seas, Helix, Boom (which I can use targeting my fetch land, and then pop the fetch in response), or playing Delver/Figure and keeping a mana open for Bolt. My point is that I can play around it if I need to.
Additionally, there are a fair number of decks in the format that win outright. Twin, Tron, or any combo deck really is gonna win regardless of what my life total is when they go off.
It's also not necessary to pay life for shock lands. Many people tend to pop their fetches at EoT and put the land into play tapped.
That is a very good point. I would say that I pay for Shocks half of the time at most (in all of my decks), perhaps less often. With fetch lands you can choose what to grab and when, and only the most land hungry decks have to be shocked with all plays.
I built up a Naya list that is primarily RW and splashes green for Edge of Autumn and Knight of the Reliquary. Boom/Bust with Flagstones of Trokair is a house. I will post a full list tonight (posting from my phone, also apologies for no card tags) but the deck is very consistent. Cycling Edge of Autumn on a Flagstones is like a fetchland without the life loss, so it gives you a second way to nuke them aside from just Boom or Ghost Quarter.
Luminarch Ascension is a solid win condition because it forces them to change their game plan if dropped early and is usually a lock if it resolves late game when their lands are depleted.
EDIT
Okay, home from work, so I can now post my in-progress deck list.
This is what I've been testing on MtGO lately. I'm pretty confident on the list, it runs fairly tight. My biggest concern is super-fast aggro, like Affinity/Robots, and probably control, which I have not gotten a chance to test against yet.
Crucible of Worlds really scares the crap out of people, and I know it's been mentioned before but Crucible + Ghost Quarter is basically going to be miserable for an opponent to play through. Eventually, it just becomes a Strip Mine every turn. Against a deck like Jund, who runs few basics (At least that I remember), it is pretty quick to go into Strip Mine mode.
I would like to run Path to Exile but it is very counter-productive for the plan of the deck, so I'm forced to run slightly-less-than-optimal remove with Helix and O-Ring, as well as the RSZ and single Devil's Play.
Edge of Autumn is great at pulling double-duty. Like I mentioned above, it can easily just turn your Flagstones into a free fetchland, or on semi-weak hands you can use it as a ramp spell. It's a good situational card, and you can always pitch a Ghost Quarter or Arid Mesa to it if you need to cycle it without hurting your mana or lowering your life.
Gideon can easily swing a game, as he often does. I rarely turn him into a creature, nor do I recommend it unless you've managed to either Bust or ultimate with Ajani, if you put an opponent on any sort of spot removal. Gideon and an Ascension will very quickly get active and turn into a savage beatstick of doom.
Figure of Destiny is actually the one card I'm not 100% on. Dropping him will often prompt an early removal from an opponent. Sometimes I will actually toss him out there if I see an opponent on white just to draw out a Path to Exile, which is a nice ramp for us. I look at this as a chess match, and it is a pawn I am comfortable with sacrificing if it means my knight (Figuratively or literally) gets to make an earlier appearance.
Nihil Spellbomb will be switched with Tormod's Crypt, and the Lightning Bolts are just filler more or less until I can get some more testing in and figure out what I need to shore up against.
I have added 4x Delver of Secrets to the general idea of a UR LD-Deck on the first page.
It is a big hit or miss and I might remove them again.
What I like much more are the 4x Nivmagus Elemental as I have quite a few times been sitting on LD-cards with no targets but also not yet a threat on the table, so now I can just target my own lands and then exile the spell if my hand is full of unwanted LD.
never thought about running R/U
Thanks to the [Æther] shop for the sig!
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Simian Spirit Guides
4 Stampeding Serrow
4 Leonin Arbiter
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Fulminator Mage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
Land:
8 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Ghost Quarter in
4 Pithing Needle
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
3 Ghostly Prison
2 Path to Exile
So clearly the deck sort of revolves around BBE into LD, and gets to reuse it thanks to Serrow. There are cheaper ways to bounce your own creatures, but Serrow also makes for a decent win con too. I splash white because when you combine LD with not being able to tutor for land (easily) you get some unhappy opponents.
I did not run Boom//Bust because I just have not found that Flagstones shenanegans are that realiable in my matches, and Arbiter makes it much worse.
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But Bloodbraid Elf's cascade into Boom//Bust is the best!
Not really sure what else to put in here. Any ideas?
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4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix
4x Boom // Bust
4x Stone Rain
3x Wrath of God
4x Spreading Seas
3x Ajani Vengeant
Critters: 11
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Delver of Secrets
3x Frost Titan
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Sacred Foundry
3x Hallowed Fountain
3x Steam Vents
3x Flagstones of Trokair
2x Darksteel Citadel
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Just updated the first post with some minor changes. Now, for replies!
Yeah, I get that we won't be able to deal with some early plays like Tarmogoyf or Delver of Secrets or whatever, but that's what the spot/mass removals are for. It doesn't hurt us too badly to take some damage early before we draw an answer (hopefully). The cantrips do help too.
About being reactive and proactive, yeah that's the thing about tempo decks (this is kinda tempo-control-ish thing, I guess?). Opponent has a dual land or Urza land in play on my third turn and I have a Stone Rain and Remand in my hand? I'd definitely take out the dual. If not, I'll keep the turn to Remand his next play and continue accordingly. It's all the situations like that and the decision making which makes the deck fun for me.
I just don't see a BR version of this working as well as the UR. Your discard cards will hurt you more than help over the long run i.e. Thoughtseize and in late game, they might not be as useful as counters when the opponent's hand is more thinned out. (and that's the idea here, to stall and do some land destruction). At least, that's what my gut tells me. But hey, this is why I made this thread. Wanted more opinions and people to help me test out the possibilities and discuss it all. So yeah, do test it out and keep me updated on the BR version, man! I'm very interested to see how it plays out.
Yeah, that's why I picked him instead of the many other creatures available. He's harder to remove and he denies them their lands too. And with all the 'dead' removals they have been drawing since I barely run creatures, they'll all be waiting in hand, just to drop it on my finisher.
Naya is appealing but if I were to play Naya, it wouldn't be for Restoration Angel. The angel only has synergy with Bloodbraid Elf. There's no other reason to run the angel except BBE. Not worth the slots. Knight of the Reliquary would also only be worth it if you managed to cast Bust. It only gets pumped by your lands, not the opponent's. Shouldn't even be considering it. These two creatures are very strong but they just have no place in the deck. And I'd try not to push too hard on the mana base to avoid playing too many shocklands.
Besides, Ajani Vengeant, Lightning Helix, Ghostly Prison and Leonin Arbiter are pretty much the only good reasons to run white. And the Arbiter screws up our mana fixing for playing 3 colours too so it's not THAT good of an inclusion. Unless anyone has anything else to add?
Not sure about Naya being the most competitive but yeah, testing as much as I can. I like the idea of splashing white too, but Helix just doesn't seem worth it. The lifegain could be useful but... I'm not so sure HOW useful.
As for Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, damn, I totally forgot about her! She might be a perfect fit at 5cmc. Have always been missing a card at 5CMC. Will definitely test her.
I'd replace the Wrath of Gods with Pyroclasm or Volcanic Fallout. Also the mana base might hurt you too much though. Wrath is too slow and has WW. Might be a big problem trying to hit that by turn 4. Try a few basics. If your opponent resolves a Blood Moon, you're done (you have no counters too). As for your creatures, Delver and Figure are great, but I don't think this is the right place for them. You'd be better with some counters in their spot.
For the record, I really do believe that going the BURN approach is the way to do it. Only play creatures that are harder to remove and/or instant board presence the moment played (Frost Titan). That'll leave all/most of their removals as dead cards as you carry on with your gameplan and give you the option of going for a transformational sideboard too.
Also, I wouldn't base the deck on Bloodbraid Elf. Too much luck involved and the typical list for it would be something like what DrWorm posted and it's really clunky. You won't always be getting that LD from the Cascade. I want to be able to 'consistently' attack their mana base my way and not hope for it to happen with every Cascade activation.
Whew, took me awhile to type all that. Will be following the thread closely now. And for those who didn't read everything on the first post, please do.
Delver and Figure went in as I was pondering what other finishers besides Frost Titan I could run. Nothing else really jumped at me, but I am open to other suggestions. Steppe Lynx could be fun if I dropped a second Flagstones. I run enough fetches to make them worth while too, but at that point I might as well just run a typical URW Delver build.
I could go with basics, and usually try to fit a few in for those Paths that seem to show in every deck with white. Blood Moon isn't a huge threat, as there is only 1 established deck that I know of that runs it (RUG Delver).
Thanks for the input
FYI: Bloodbraid does nothing with Restoration Angel. You have to cast BBE to trigger the cascade, and that doesn't happen as an EtB effect.
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When I mentioned about hitting WW, I was assuming we'd be changing the mana base to have lesser shocklands, but if it remains that way, then yeah I guess hitting WW and RR early isn't a problem. But is it really worth taking all that damage just for the Wrath? The format is aggressively fast and all that damage might hurt you too much.
For the Affinity matchup, I believe by the time you could wrath the Etched Champion away anyway, you'd probably be in burn range already. Wrath really might be too slow for it. But there isn't much choice for sweepers like that. Maybe Porphyry Nodes would be better. As for finishers, I agree we need more but that many creatures as 'finishers' might be too much.
And I was led to believe that Cascade works after reading the suggestion of Restoration Angel. Yep, doesn't work. The angel totally has no place here then.
Okay man, here's the thing. I'm not personally attacking your deck or anything. But look at a typical Jund list. BBE fits right there perfectly. Everything that could be Cascaded in has pretty much an instant effect on the game. But now look at the typical R/G LD lists. You want ramp, birds, spirit guide blah blah blah. Those cards are horrible topdecks for Cascade.
Cascading into a Spirit Guide, Birds, Leonin Arbiter, Fulminator Mage isn't gonna do much for us. Yeah, I know your deck isn't well-tuned or whatever but I'm assessing BBE's role and its usefulness in a typical R/G LD deck. Not the card on its own. It's a great card and Jund is a different deck altogether. BBE belongs there. But with all the ramp creatures (possibly spells) being run here, I just don't think it belongs here. But I don't deny that it's good and warrants testing.
I did not think you were attacking my deck, and I said as much about my deck not being tuned in my post. I believe that there is a LD list that can make very good use of it- though it will need more people interested in developing it. The deck itself will not be as full of LD as your lists, but I feel (hope) that the consistency gained by the card advantage will make the deck better at hurting mana bases.
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It's also not necessary to pay life for shock lands. Many people tend to pop their fetches at EoT and put the land into play tapped. Especially on turn 3, I would likely only need 2 mana up for Seas, Helix, Boom (which I can use targeting my fetch land, and then pop the fetch in response), or playing Delver/Figure and keeping a mana open for Bolt. My point is that I can play around it if I need to.
Additionally, there are a fair number of decks in the format that win outright. Twin, Tron, or any combo deck really is gonna win regardless of what my life total is when they go off.
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Luminarch Ascension is a solid win condition because it forces them to change their game plan if dropped early and is usually a lock if it resolves late game when their lands are depleted.
EDIT
Okay, home from work, so I can now post my in-progress deck list.
2x Crucible of Worlds
Enchantments
2x Luminarch Ascension
3x Oblivion Ring
Sorceries
2x Day of Judgement
4x Molten Rain
4x Boom//Bust
2x Red Sun's Zenith
1x Devil's Play
2x Edge of Autumn
4x Lightning Helix
Creatures
3x Figure of Destiny
1x Knight of the Reliquary
Planeswalkers
3x Ajani Vengeant
2x Gideon Jura
Lands
4x Arid Mesa
4x Flagstones of Trokair
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Temple Garden
1x Treetop Village
3x Plains
2x Mountain
This is what I've been testing on MtGO lately. I'm pretty confident on the list, it runs fairly tight. My biggest concern is super-fast aggro, like Affinity/Robots, and probably control, which I have not gotten a chance to test against yet.
Crucible of Worlds really scares the crap out of people, and I know it's been mentioned before but Crucible + Ghost Quarter is basically going to be miserable for an opponent to play through. Eventually, it just becomes a Strip Mine every turn. Against a deck like Jund, who runs few basics (At least that I remember), it is pretty quick to go into Strip Mine mode.
I would like to run Path to Exile but it is very counter-productive for the plan of the deck, so I'm forced to run slightly-less-than-optimal remove with Helix and O-Ring, as well as the RSZ and single Devil's Play.
Edge of Autumn is great at pulling double-duty. Like I mentioned above, it can easily just turn your Flagstones into a free fetchland, or on semi-weak hands you can use it as a ramp spell. It's a good situational card, and you can always pitch a Ghost Quarter or Arid Mesa to it if you need to cycle it without hurting your mana or lowering your life.
Gideon can easily swing a game, as he often does. I rarely turn him into a creature, nor do I recommend it unless you've managed to either Bust or ultimate with Ajani, if you put an opponent on any sort of spot removal. Gideon and an Ascension will very quickly get active and turn into a savage beatstick of doom.
Figure of Destiny is actually the one card I'm not 100% on. Dropping him will often prompt an early removal from an opponent. Sometimes I will actually toss him out there if I see an opponent on white just to draw out a Path to Exile, which is a nice ramp for us. I look at this as a chess match, and it is a pawn I am comfortable with sacrificing if it means my knight (Figuratively or literally) gets to make an earlier appearance.
Sideboard current looks like the following:
3x Ancient Grudge
3x Qasali Pridemage
3x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Celestial Purge
2x Lightning Bolt
Nihil Spellbomb will be switched with Tormod's Crypt, and the Lightning Bolts are just filler more or less until I can get some more testing in and figure out what I need to shore up against.
Sorry for the long rant, hope you like the list.
Currently building or playing:
Standard
Mono-Black Devotion
Modern
American Land Destruction
Four-color Blink Riders
It is a big hit or miss and I might remove them again.
What I like much more are the 4x Nivmagus Elemental as I have quite a few times been sitting on LD-cards with no targets but also not yet a threat on the table, so now I can just target my own lands and then exile the spell if my hand is full of unwanted LD.
4 frost titan
4 avalanche rider
4 mana leak
4 rune snag
4 cryptic command
3 electrolyze
4 pyroclasm
1 volcanic fallout
1 icy manipulator
3 izzet signet
1 izzet keyrune
1 jace's ingenuity
1 glimmervoid
1 faerie conclave
1 ghost quarter
3 izzet boilerworks
5 mountain
7 island
4 spell pierce
2 slagstorm
2 volcanic fallout
3 flashfires
2 icy manipulator
2 ghost quarter
So does a Fetch or a Flagstones. I had a casual legacy list that revolved around that kind of setup a few years ago.
The deck played like a weird hybrid of D&T with red for land D and some effects like Blood Moon. Vials are always fun to play with =D