I've played with both the black and blue splash and they both have merit. I'm back to black for the simple reason that Pontiff has been more effective for me than Staticaster.
Sower seems too fragile for the investment unless there is already an GE Archmage/skite on the field. Most of the things I would want Sower for can also be targeted by Reflector Mage for 1 CMC cheaper.
Against the mill deck you can mulligan pretty aggresively as it can buy you a little extra time by having a larger number of cards in your deck. The matchup is usually a race that Scavenging Ooze is the key to, so aim for that or an evo in your opener. You can eat your own creatures to get a very large ooze and protect from a crypt incursion blowout. Also as of the sideboarding rules change for M14, you don't have to sideboard 1-for-1 anymore...so you can actually board in your full 15 which usually works out to an extra 2 turns average worth of mill(not saying this is correct but is an option).
How often are you all finding that you are boarding in the 4th Path to Exile if you are running it in the sideboard? I feel like the 2x lightning helix and shriekmaw covers the bases for removal, but that may not be correct as the path is 1 mana removal.
Trying a split of Wall of Omens and Wall of Roots, as sometimes I've found the mana ramp to be more useful than the extra card depending on the situation.
Against the blue decks, I've been baiting the counterspells out before attempting to resolve Evo...or timing it against a play where they tap too low. EoT chord into counterspell to tap them out before you Evo or at least try to run it out when you have a Voice on the field. Glen Elendra Archmage has been helping me in those matchups as well. I'm very wary running it into open counter mana.
I would agree that the traditional Kiki-chord lists wanted to stall the game and overwhelm with CA, but Evo allows for much more explosive starts and consistency than the traditional lists allowed. I don't think everyone is looking at finks or questioning what the best options are for the 3CMC slot to only build around Evo, but that doesn't mean the way choices interact with it is not taken into consideration. Just trying to come up with a solid list that performs.
The discussion about which options are best and what other drawbacks are is healthy and will ultimately lead to a better deck which I'm all for.
Been playing with finks for the past few weeks and have never thought I was going to be able to Evo it twice, once reliably is all I'm looking for. Outside of exile effects, it usually takes two cards to deal with a finks...so its likely to be around next turn to evo into my 4-5 drops. To me the other options are Courser, which I would be very reluctant to Evo away before getting value out of the card, or more walls (I guess they act as psuedo life gain in some aggro matchups, blocking for a turn before they are Evo'd away). I'm already running two witnesses.
My local meta has been pretty aggro-oriented so having a card that fills the role of early lifegain, recurring blocker, value evo sac, non-defender clock has been working out great so far.
Here's the version I ran on Tuesday, really liking the consistency Evo has been providing, especially in the earlier turns of the game. 4-0-1'd TNM with the draw going to Nahiri Jeskai Control, beating Infect, Zoo, Burn, and a G/B Rock brew. I'm not sold that Wall of Omens is better than Wall of Roots in Evo lists as we do still cast chord and the mana ramp is useful. A few slots in my SB should be fulminator/a riders but there is a complete lack of tron in my meta. Tried new Thalia out in the board and in the few games I sided her in, I was impressed with the amount of disruption to my opponent's lines of play (turns Nahiri's ultimate off)
One line I was happy to be able to tempo a game out with was reflector mage, resto > mage, evo mage into kiki.
Better...but a bit too dark for the lighting of the scene. Drop that shadow layer down to about 35% opacity (play with the exact %) and throw just a slight bit of gaussian blur on it.
Cloudstone Curio:
Hangarback Walker:
Sower seems too fragile for the investment unless there is already an GE Archmage/skite on the field. Most of the things I would want Sower for can also be targeted by Reflector Mage for 1 CMC cheaper.
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Omens
1 Wall of Roots
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Spellskite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Eternal Witness
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Siege Rhino
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Eldritch Evolution
3 Path to Exile
2 Chord of Calling
Land (22)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Temple Garden
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Fire-Let Thicket
1 Raging Ravine
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Sin Collector
2 Lightning Helix
1 Thragtusk
1 Shriekmaw
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Archangel of Tithes
How often are you all finding that you are boarding in the 4th Path to Exile if you are running it in the sideboard? I feel like the 2x lightning helix and shriekmaw covers the bases for removal, but that may not be correct as the path is 1 mana removal.
Trying a split of Wall of Omens and Wall of Roots, as sometimes I've found the mana ramp to be more useful than the extra card depending on the situation.
The discussion about which options are best and what other drawbacks are is healthy and will ultimately lead to a better deck which I'm all for.
My local meta has been pretty aggro-oriented so having a card that fills the role of early lifegain, recurring blocker, value evo sac, non-defender clock has been working out great so far.
One line I was happy to be able to tempo a game out with was reflector mage, resto > mage, evo mage into kiki.
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Eternal Witness
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reflector Mage
2 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
3 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wall of Roots
1 Wall of Omens
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Breeding Pool
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Instant (6)
4x Chord of Calling
2x Path to Exile
Sorcery (4)
4x Eldritch Evolution
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Unified Will
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Spellskite
1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Path to Exile
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (no mysterious emo lighting)
Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Sorin, Grim Nemesis (no fx)
Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon SA
Nahiri, the Harbinger SA (no mood lighting)
Better...but a bit too dark for the lighting of the scene. Drop that shadow layer down to about 35% opacity (play with the exact %) and throw just a slight bit of gaussian blur on it.