So, not to try and hijack your thread, but I think I arrived at the same conclusion as you did regarding Fathom Mage. She was an absolute beast when everything worked perfectly, but too often she was a 4cmc 1 drop that just got removed before she amounted to anything. I decided to take her out.
Unfortunately, this left me without any card draw, and I'm a sucker for card draw, so I put back in two Tezzeret's Gambit. I'm not in love with the card, but I do like the combination of card draw and Proliferate. After going down to just the four Thrummingbirds for Proliferates, I felt I was coming up short when I didn't hit them/they got removed. I'm open to suggestions.
I thought I'd share my decklist. It's remarkably similar to yours, which tells me that I'm on the right track.
I had the same experiences with Gyre Sage. It ended up being harder than I anticipated even getting one Evolve so I could start proliferating. I felt like I held it back in my hand, waiting to get a Graft dude out first, just to get the ball rolling. I think any time I feel like I should hold back casting a nominally ramp card, the card probably isn't really worth playing. Gyre Sage ended up coming out.
I ended up replacing the Gyre Sages with Fathom Mages. I've found that the 1/1 means I have an easier time getting an Evolve out of it to get the Proliferate engine operational, and if it hits the board after one or even two Master Biomancers are already in play (which, granted, can be pretty late into the game), then I fill my hand up with enough cards to guarantee me the win.
I have completely fallen in love with your Mirrorweave/Simic Manipulator concept, and I am totally stealing the idea for my deck.
I am interested in your thoughts on Prime Speaker Zegana. I have tried and tried, but I have not been able to find a home for her in my deck. I feel like she arrives too late to have the impact that she really ought to have. The only times she's ever entered the game with a significant amount of counters on her is if I've already landed a couple of Master Biomancers, and if that's the case, I'm usually just swinging for the win with them. She felt like a whole lot of winmore in most of my builds.
I agree with you on Thrummingbird. I used to run Tezzeret's Gambit, but after I put Fathom Mages in, I found the extra card draw was kind of irrelevant, and then the card ended up being a 4 mana Proliferate.
I have a set of Noble Hierarchs in my Bant Exalted deck, and I never thought to add them to this deck. Do you find you need the extra ramp? I haven't had too many issues with mana in this deck even after taking out the Gyre Sages, and I just run a set of Birds.
Sounds like you would be upset by pretty much anything you crack. The way it works is that something is printed in each set for every group of Magic players: casual, limited, standard, modern, spikes, johnnys, vorthos, timmys....
Not EVERY card is going to meet with your approval. Stop acting like Wizards owes it to you to stuff a Tarmogoyf in every pack.
If they print emblem hate, they better come up with a rarity lower than Common, because I'd be pissed if I cracked a pack and even a Common slot was taken up by an emblem hate card.
Has anyone noticed Dragon Shield sleeves being wildly different lengths between boxes? Within the box, they're all cut the same length with almost no outliers, but I just picked up a box of whites to do my weenie deck and they are seriously a good 5-7mm longer than the black Dragon Shields I have my zombies in. It may just be my OCD talking but it really annoys me that they're that different.
110.5g A token that has left the battlefield can’t move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield. If such a token would change zones, it remains in its current zone instead. It ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked; see rule 704.
My understanding is that the token ceases to exist before Undying can be applied to it.
I am having a very specific problem with my Zombie deck, and I'm hoping someone can help me out. Two of the people in my casual playgroup have been favoring mono red burn decks lately, and my Zombie deck has absolutely no defense against them at present. I have no countering, and I have no lifegain, so I don't have any ability to stop them from burning me to zero before my deck can really get going. The deck isn't too slow, per se, just specifically against burn decks. If I get an ideal draw I can usually beat them, but mostly they just ignore whatever Zombies I have out and just come right over the top to hit me directly.
The goal of the deck has always been to put the heavy hitters into the grave and bring them back with the Victimizes to simultaneously fuel Grave Pact. I'd like to stay close to the theme I've developed here, but I obviously need to do something with this deck, so nothing in this deck is sacrosanct.
Unfortunately, this left me without any card draw, and I'm a sucker for card draw, so I put back in two Tezzeret's Gambit. I'm not in love with the card, but I do like the combination of card draw and Proliferate. After going down to just the four Thrummingbirds for Proliferates, I felt I was coming up short when I didn't hit them/they got removed. I'm open to suggestions.
I thought I'd share my decklist. It's remarkably similar to yours, which tells me that I'm on the right track.
8x Island
4x Breeding Pool
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Llanowar Reborn
4x Mirrorweave
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Primordial Hydra
4x Thrummingbird
4x Plaxcaster Frogling
4x Simic Manipulator
4x Spike Feeder
4x Master Biomancer
2x Experiment Kraj
I ended up replacing the Gyre Sages with Fathom Mages. I've found that the 1/1 means I have an easier time getting an Evolve out of it to get the Proliferate engine operational, and if it hits the board after one or even two Master Biomancers are already in play (which, granted, can be pretty late into the game), then I fill my hand up with enough cards to guarantee me the win.
I have completely fallen in love with your Mirrorweave/Simic Manipulator concept, and I am totally stealing the idea for my deck.
I am interested in your thoughts on Prime Speaker Zegana. I have tried and tried, but I have not been able to find a home for her in my deck. I feel like she arrives too late to have the impact that she really ought to have. The only times she's ever entered the game with a significant amount of counters on her is if I've already landed a couple of Master Biomancers, and if that's the case, I'm usually just swinging for the win with them. She felt like a whole lot of winmore in most of my builds.
I agree with you on Thrummingbird. I used to run Tezzeret's Gambit, but after I put Fathom Mages in, I found the extra card draw was kind of irrelevant, and then the card ended up being a 4 mana Proliferate.
I have a set of Noble Hierarchs in my Bant Exalted deck, and I never thought to add them to this deck. Do you find you need the extra ramp? I haven't had too many issues with mana in this deck even after taking out the Gyre Sages, and I just run a set of Birds.
Finally, I also run Experiment Kraj, because why not?
DKA had 12 Mythics in a 158 card set, so 12 Mythics in a 156 card DGM wouldn't be completely unheard of.
What group would emblem hate be printed for?
What?
My understanding is that the token ceases to exist before Undying can be applied to it.
Here's my deck:
15x Swamp
4x Cabal Coffers
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Enchantment (2)
2x Grave Pact
Sorcery (12)
2x Ghoulcaller's Chant
2x Demonic Tutor
4x Victimize
4x Buried Alive
4x Gravecrawler
4x Putrid Imp
2x Lord of the Undead
2x Zombie Master
2x Death Baron
2x Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4x Undead Warchief
2x Soulless One
1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
2x Gempalm Polluter
1x Thraximundar
The goal of the deck has always been to put the heavy hitters into the grave and bring them back with the Victimizes to simultaneously fuel Grave Pact. I'd like to stay close to the theme I've developed here, but I obviously need to do something with this deck, so nothing in this deck is sacrosanct.
What should I be doing here? Is it as simple as sticking in a few Basilisk Collars? Should I splash white to get Necromancer's Covenant?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
edit: Incidentally, I've been dying to work in the Deathbringer Thoctar + Death Baron combo, so if that can be part of the solution, all the better.