that does sound like a good strategy but i would feel kind of bad breaking out that combo often. It seems cheap and I already get enough hate with people who see me Draw myself out in Azami and win with Maniac. I would rather not win that way in a second deck.
It really just depends on the build. Storm builds can draw their entire deck fairly easily so Laboratory Maniac is an auto-include even without Enter the Infinite, which isn't even very good in the deck anyway. You can either drop the maniac and Stroke of Genius, which is vulnerable and therefore not recommended unless necessary, or drop the maniac with an immediate wincon such as Gitaxian Probe, gush, Tezzeret's Gambit, or any number of cards if you have mana open. The latter is less vulnerable because it is less mana intensive so if your opponents' have a response you have the option of responding with instant speed card draw and still winning.
The only other win-con I'm currently running is Ignite Memories. It isn't great but it usually gets the job done and I would never feel bad about winning with such a janky card. Mind's Desire, Epic Experiment and Mizzix's Mastery also tend to win the game if they resolve.
Victory is either achieved or guaranteed through the various combos depending on which sac outlet you have available and certain other variables. For example, while infinitely recurring creatures with an altar will not kill all of your opponents in the same way that recurring them with blasting station will, it might instead guarantee the victory in other ways. So any Lark combo, which recurs 2 creatures per iteration, can blow up all of your opponent's lands with Acidic Slime. Or the infinite mana plus a mana outlet, such as skullclamp, etc., might lead to its own victory.
1. For me to want to consider Boonweaver Giant and Pattern of Rebirth I need to feel like those cards are worth it to include on their own merits. Pattern of Rebirth does feel strong, but the Giant exists for the sole purpose of going off with it. I'm not sure those two slots aren't better served by more versatile cards. Boonweaver Giant feels pretty darn bad if Pattern gets exiled. The only other Auras in the deck don't do any good on it. If I'm dedicating slots to just "going off" I might as well just slot Triskelion back in. That said, if pattern is good enough on it's own merits, I'd consider it.
That is fair but most, if not all, of Karador is bad if your yard gets exiled so that isn't exactly a reason not to run the combo in the deck. You may very well find that other cards are stronger in your meta, however. I agree that I would not consider Pattern in most decks, but cards like Academy Rector boost the card's strength and really shine in Karador. Boonweaver, on the other hand, is terrible without Pattern to fetch and is basically a dead card if drawn without a way to pitch him to reanimate. At the very least I would test combo, it is a lot more powerful than it seems.
I would highly recommend running Loyal Retainers, it is often one of the first cards I would consider tutoring for with survival of the fittest. Aside from comboing with saffi eriksdotter, retainers can easily power out an early game winning legend via survival. Untapping with Survival with 5 mana, for example, can lead to plays such the following: g: discard creature for Elesh norn, grand cenobite or Iona, shield of emeria; into g: discard that legend for loyal retainers; into 2w cast retainers: sac and reanimate. This is frequently a game winning or, at the very least, a positively game changing line of play.
On the contrary, Boonweaver Giant + a sac outlet is game over if uninterrupted and is very powerful if supported.
I don't follow. How are you making Boonweaver Giant good in Karador?
With ye olde Boonweaver Giant + Pattern of Rebirth + sac outlet combo. This also requires a fiend hunter, karmic guide, and reveillark in your deck, but you should be playing these in Karador anyway because they are effective combo and utility cards. Note that running this combo also makes Academy Rector very powerful and absolutely worth running. It also makes entomb and the reanimation strategy potentially stronger.
1: Play, reanimate, or pod into Boonweaver fetching Pattern. If you have another creature, you can also sac Academy rector to fetch Pattern and sac the creature you enchant it to in order to fetch Boonweaver.
2: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Karmic Guide. Guide returns Boonweaver and his trigger returns Pattern.
3: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Fiend Hunter. Fiend Hunter exiles Guide. Sac Fiend Hunter, triggering Guide to return to play. Guide returns Boonweaver which returns Pattern.
4: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Reveillark.
5: Sac Reveillark to return Fiend Hunter and Guide. Guide returns Boonweaver and Fiend Hunter exiles Guide, returning you to step 3. The only difference now is that now the classic Guide + Llark combo will continue with you fetching any creature from your deck with Boonweaver per iteration. This means that it doesn't matter what sac outlet you are using because, if you are not interrupted, you will dump all of your creatures onto the battlefield and you will win that way. Acidic Slime destroys all their lands, Blood Artist for the life loss victory, Dryad Arbor + various land triggering creatures such aslotus cobra for value, etc.
Hadn't really thought about Loyal Retainers, but there may actually be enough legendary creatures in the deck now to run it.
I would highly recommend running Loyal Retainers, it is often one of the first cards I would consider tutoring for with survival of the fittest. Aside from comboing with saffi eriksdotter, retainers can easily power out an early game winning legend via survival. Untapping with Survival with 5 mana, for example, can lead to plays such the following: g: discard creature for Elesh norn, grand cenobite or Iona, shield of emeria; into g: discard that legend for loyal retainers; into 2w cast retainers: sac and reanimate. This is frequently a game winning or, at the very least, a positively game changing line of play.
I would keep Vish Kal, personally. I've won games off him being able to act as removal and swing for damage. The perfect 7-drop with Pod is Angel of Despair. I run her and the 8-drop upgrade.
On the contrary, Boonweaver Giant + a sac outlet is game over if uninterrupted and is very powerful if supported.
I'll offer some quick advice that comes to mind after inspecting your list. My perspective of r/b decks comes primarily from playing Kaervek the Merciless, but I have a lot of experience with the format.
Immediately, I wonder why you don't run cabal coffers because it's the easiest way to generate big mana in base black decks. You do run a lot of utility lands that would decrease its value, but if that is why you don't run coffers then I would suggest cutting them for the replacement. Coffers is much stronger, and if you are aiming for a control rather than a stax strategy, the manlands are not necessary.
I would also consider adding beseech the queen as a powerful 3 mana tutor if you cut colorless lands, and also keldon firebombers as a possible addition to your resource denial package.
Even if reanimated, I have always found Sheoldred to be very underwhelming. Sepulchral Primordial wins many more games, and Runescarred Demon would have much better utility.
For a deck that runs both wildfires I would also expect to see you running more rocks, but you do not. In such decks I normally see cards such as gilded lotus and coalition relic. These might perform well in your deck.
I also wonder why you run so much redundant removal. Cards like Dreadbore have consistently underperformed from my experience and you are even running them in addition to hero's downfall and terminate. These cards fill very similar roles and I don't see a reason to run all them in addition to other removal in the form of lightning bolt and edicts. You also run pyrite spellbomb which does not seem very good in your deck.
You also run both rakdos' return and mind twist. Perhaps the former is there as an outlet for comboing with worldgorger, but you have staff for that and I find that having multiple functionally similar x-spells really slows down your opening draws.
By preference I also consider rack and ruin to be weak as far as artifact removal goes. For one more mana you could overload vandalblast at sorcery speed and for one less mana you could kill one artifact with added utility. Hypnotic Specter simply does not seem worth casting in the majority of multiplayer games. Scrabbling Claws seems like a weak addition to a deck that already plays stronger graveyard removal in relic and nihil spellbomb. Dark tutelage and goblin assault have also always underperformed for me. So has Sarkhan the mad. For 5 mana he doesn't do enough outside of cute dragon decks, and if you want something sticky for jokulhaups or wildfires I would look elsewhere.
In regards to replacing the druid, have you considered adding carpet of flowers? While it doesn't have synergy with all of your creature-oriented effects, it frequently ramps for quite a bit of colored mana in developed metas. This is almost purely a combo enabling card, however, as all it offers late game is several net green mana during your 2nd manin phase and no potential recharge.
As far as graveyard hate goes, I agree that it would strengthen your match-up vs graveyard strategies, which are both fast enough and consistent enough to pose a threat to your deck. Either relic of progenitus or ground seal could fill a dedicated graveyard hate slot well, though both function differently and both have advantages.
Relic has the minor advantage of exiling a single card per turn, though considering the rate at which this exiles fetch lands it isn't all too powerful. However it does cost 1 green mana less to cast which is significant, is virtually immune to eot removal blowouts into next turn reanimate/eternal witness or worse and offers the considerable advantage of actually exiling cards. This is perhaps my favorite aspect of the relic because once it is in play, opponents will alter their strategy to play around it at the cost of 1 colorless mana per turn. And even if you blow the exile effect prematurely in search of the additional card you still remove all current graveyards from the game, which can hinder many competitive strategies down the road (consider delve, reanimation, flashback, recursion, dredge, etc.).
Ground seal, on the other hand, costs one additional green mana (combo with Nykthos?) and immediately nets you a card. It only counters several of the aforementioned strategies, however, and isn't reactive. For this reason it can be played around much easier than relic, and can be removed with no lingering aftereffects on the game. This is a potential 'advantage' if you have another artifact or enchantment on the field that could have been removed instead, but this is hardly a real tradeoff. For this reason I would choose Relic out of the two, because I feel that Ground seal mostly just delays the inevitable.
There are also other 'options', such as tormod's crypt which is almost always a worse relic, or night soil which is green mana intensive, situational, and only counters creature graveyard based strategies. Though since it makes dudes I suppose it is worth mentioning.
I have seen Elvish Visionary played to some success is mono G decks but I don't know if I would consider it as being worthy of a deck slot. When you are behind in your oppener it basically functions as an additional card if you have nothing else to cast with a potential upside late game simply for being a creature, and one with 1 toughness. If this is your reason for including, however, I feel that you might as well just play an additional land or ramp card instead. Late game it offers the advantage of refilling the draw it replaced in addition to activating creature based synergy effects. I suppose this can be powerful, but it seems situational and most of the times it will be good will be when you are already winning and have all the mana but none of the cards.
Is there any particular reason you are only running 2 fetches, or are they they only green fetches that you own? If its the latter, more fetches could really help consistency. They are great landfall triggers for cobra and baloths, and their shuffle can be game changing with oracle or top in play. You could also consider Titania, protector of argoth if you ran more fetches, though I don't know how powerful she would be in your particular deck. Seems potentially powerful with doubling season, earthcraft, and greater good, but she would obviously be best with crucible + azusa shenanigans. For these reasons I might also consider crucible of worlds. At the very least it serves as backup for your cradle, which probably doesn't last more than one rotation in a developed meta.
I think a hate package could be powerful, but it really depends on your meta. So I would consider including both hall of gemstone and null rod if you want to pursue this route. Certain decks simply lose to either of these spells being resolved, and with Freyalise as your general you can naturalize your own rod if you feel that you can go off with clamp or if you need to emergency O-stone.
Sylvan scrying is strong if you are trying to become more comboey but it otherwise seems pretty weak. If you already have cradle its mostly dead, but I suppose you cant really complain if you already have cradle in play, and it can always still be dumped to greater good.
Also, have you tested Genesis Hydra? I like it in some decks because, even without dumping all of you mana into him, you always have hosers or combo pieces to look for. Digging into any variety of greater good, earthcraft, skullclamp, etc. can be very powerful. You do have a high concentration of non-permanent ramp spells, so there is a possibility that he could whiff, and he can really screw you over if you spend your whole turn casting him just to get garbage/nothing.
I have never had any personal success with Genesis. He is expensive and dead if you can't dump him early. And even then, I usually find myself more interested in casting actual spells than getting moderate advantage off recurring wood elves or something. Would not include.
Mana crypt if not for the obvious monetary restrictions
Cyclonic Rift: You have Nevermore, Voidstone Gargoyle and various taxing/stall effects (Thalia, guardian of Thraben, Winter Orb) but the deck is otherwise fairly vulnerable to it. You could consider running City of Solitude type effects but they tend to be counterproductive if you don't immediately combo off. If you are foolish enough to pass a turn with city in play when Teeg isn't completely protected, your opponent's can easily just remove him and then go off themselves.
Elesh norn, grand cenobite/Decree of Pain: Your best protection is your own Elesh Norn, but if you are only worried about Teeg you have fail-safes with Saffi eriksdotter and Adarkar Valkyrie. There is also the possibility of Mirari's Wake if you feel that the card is powerful enough to include despite its mana cost. Angel of Jubilation is also a strong hate and toughness boosting card, but I would not run it because it hates out your your own fetches, clamp, and sac outlets (read: primary wincons) and you have no way to get rid of it once it sticks. Compare to cards like hushwing Gryff that also hate out your strategies but can be removed via sac outlets or clamp if the need arises. Elesh norn, grand cenobite is simply the best toughness booster you have available, but I guess Wilt-leaf liege, Creeperhulk, or Thunderfoot Baloth could also work in aggressive lists.
Oblivion Stone and fringe activated abilities: Phyrexian revoker is very playable now due to the advent of walker commanders. It is easily tutored with many cards (Survival of the fittest, Eladamri's call, even Enlightened tutor and more) so it is surprisingly effective if your opponent can't crack the stone in response to the cast. You can also consider Stony silence effects, but they generally hose your own strategies just as hard as everyone else's. Voidstone Gargoyle is also worth a consideration.
Fact or Fiction is an incredibly good card, and if my deck plays blue I always consider it.
Having said that, I prefer Steam Augury, due to your control over the piles, and the synergy with Sunforger.
If I'm playing just RU, though, I always consider both.
You do know that Steam Augury is nowhere near as good as FoF right? Wanting control of the piles is meaningless because your opponent makes the important choice.
Build your deck right, and there isn't much the opponent can do about it.
The powerlevel of your deck has nothing to do with why steam augury is bad. At the point in the game when you cast steam augury, there are always going to be some cards that you want or need more than others. Since you cannot control which pile gets chosen, augury will always yield you the relatively worse pile. I don't know about you, but I'd sure prefer FOF and one or two powerful cards rather than twice as many bad ones.
It really just depends on the build. Storm builds can draw their entire deck fairly easily so Laboratory Maniac is an auto-include even without Enter the Infinite, which isn't even very good in the deck anyway. You can either drop the maniac and Stroke of Genius, which is vulnerable and therefore not recommended unless necessary, or drop the maniac with an immediate wincon such as Gitaxian Probe, gush, Tezzeret's Gambit, or any number of cards if you have mana open. The latter is less vulnerable because it is less mana intensive so if your opponents' have a response you have the option of responding with instant speed card draw and still winning.
The only other win-con I'm currently running is Ignite Memories. It isn't great but it usually gets the job done and I would never feel bad about winning with such a janky card. Mind's Desire, Epic Experiment and Mizzix's Mastery also tend to win the game if they resolve.
sac outlet + Sun Titan + Saffi Eriksdotter
sac outlet + Sun Titan + Fiend Hunter
sac outlet + Karmic Guide + Fiend Hunter
sac outlet + Karmic Guide + Saffi Eriksdotter
sac outlet + Karmic Guide + Reveillark
sac outlet + Reveillark + Saffi Eriksdotter
Common sac outlets include:
Phyrexian Altar
Blasting Station
Ashnod's Altar
Altar of Dementia
Victory is either achieved or guaranteed through the various combos depending on which sac outlet you have available and certain other variables. For example, while infinitely recurring creatures with an altar will not kill all of your opponents in the same way that recurring them with blasting station will, it might instead guarantee the victory in other ways. So any Lark combo, which recurs 2 creatures per iteration, can blow up all of your opponent's lands with Acidic Slime. Or the infinite mana plus a mana outlet, such as skullclamp, etc., might lead to its own victory.
In order to fight through a competently timed Cyclonic Rift, however, you would need backup protection along the lines of Grand Abolisher or Dragonlord Dromoka. There is also City of Solitude and Dosan the falling leaf but be warned that both guarantee your opponents' combos just as easily as they guarantee your own.
That is fair but most, if not all, of Karador is bad if your yard gets exiled so that isn't exactly a reason not to run the combo in the deck. You may very well find that other cards are stronger in your meta, however. I agree that I would not consider Pattern in most decks, but cards like Academy Rector boost the card's strength and really shine in Karador. Boonweaver, on the other hand, is terrible without Pattern to fetch and is basically a dead card if drawn without a way to pitch him to reanimate. At the very least I would test combo, it is a lot more powerful than it seems.
3 and below:
your typical value creatures
4:
Acidic Slime
Hornet Queen
Oracle of Mul Daya
Scavenging Ooze
Kiki-Jiki, mirror breaker
siege-gang commander
6:
Courser of Kruphix
Duplicant
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Zealous Conscripts
Flametongue Kavu
8:
Urabrask the hidden
Indrik Stomphowler
9:
Deadwood Treefolk
10:
Molten Primordial
Regal Force
Bogardan Hellkite
Ant Queen
11:
Hellkite Tyrant
Purphoros, God of the Forge
With ye olde Boonweaver Giant + Pattern of Rebirth + sac outlet combo. This also requires a fiend hunter, karmic guide, and reveillark in your deck, but you should be playing these in Karador anyway because they are effective combo and utility cards. Note that running this combo also makes Academy Rector very powerful and absolutely worth running. It also makes entomb and the reanimation strategy potentially stronger.
1: Play, reanimate, or pod into Boonweaver fetching Pattern. If you have another creature, you can also sac Academy rector to fetch Pattern and sac the creature you enchant it to in order to fetch Boonweaver.
2: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Karmic Guide. Guide returns Boonweaver and his trigger returns Pattern.
3: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Fiend Hunter. Fiend Hunter exiles Guide. Sac Fiend Hunter, triggering Guide to return to play. Guide returns Boonweaver which returns Pattern.
4: Sac Boonweaver triggering Pattern to fetch Reveillark.
5: Sac Reveillark to return Fiend Hunter and Guide. Guide returns Boonweaver and Fiend Hunter exiles Guide, returning you to step 3. The only difference now is that now the classic Guide + Llark combo will continue with you fetching any creature from your deck with Boonweaver per iteration. This means that it doesn't matter what sac outlet you are using because, if you are not interrupted, you will dump all of your creatures onto the battlefield and you will win that way. Acidic Slime destroys all their lands, Blood Artist for the life loss victory, Dryad Arbor + various land triggering creatures such aslotus cobra for value, etc.
I would highly recommend running Loyal Retainers, it is often one of the first cards I would consider tutoring for with survival of the fittest. Aside from comboing with saffi eriksdotter, retainers can easily power out an early game winning legend via survival. Untapping with Survival with 5 mana, for example, can lead to plays such the following: g: discard creature for Elesh norn, grand cenobite or Iona, shield of emeria; into g: discard that legend for loyal retainers; into 2w cast retainers: sac and reanimate. This is frequently a game winning or, at the very least, a positively game changing line of play.
On the contrary, Boonweaver Giant + a sac outlet is game over if uninterrupted and is very powerful if supported.
Immediately, I wonder why you don't run cabal coffers because it's the easiest way to generate big mana in base black decks. You do run a lot of utility lands that would decrease its value, but if that is why you don't run coffers then I would suggest cutting them for the replacement. Coffers is much stronger, and if you are aiming for a control rather than a stax strategy, the manlands are not necessary.
I would also consider adding beseech the queen as a powerful 3 mana tutor if you cut colorless lands, and also keldon firebombers as a possible addition to your resource denial package.
Even if reanimated, I have always found Sheoldred to be very underwhelming. Sepulchral Primordial wins many more games, and Runescarred Demon would have much better utility.
For a deck that runs both wildfires I would also expect to see you running more rocks, but you do not. In such decks I normally see cards such as gilded lotus and coalition relic. These might perform well in your deck.
I also wonder why you run so much redundant removal. Cards like Dreadbore have consistently underperformed from my experience and you are even running them in addition to hero's downfall and terminate. These cards fill very similar roles and I don't see a reason to run all them in addition to other removal in the form of lightning bolt and edicts. You also run pyrite spellbomb which does not seem very good in your deck.
You also run both rakdos' return and mind twist. Perhaps the former is there as an outlet for comboing with worldgorger, but you have staff for that and I find that having multiple functionally similar x-spells really slows down your opening draws.
By preference I also consider rack and ruin to be weak as far as artifact removal goes. For one more mana you could overload vandalblast at sorcery speed and for one less mana you could kill one artifact with added utility.
Hypnotic Specter simply does not seem worth casting in the majority of multiplayer games.
Scrabbling Claws seems like a weak addition to a deck that already plays stronger graveyard removal in relic and nihil spellbomb.
Dark tutelage and goblin assault have also always underperformed for me. So has Sarkhan the mad. For 5 mana he doesn't do enough outside of cute dragon decks, and if you want something sticky for jokulhaups or wildfires I would look elsewhere.
As far as graveyard hate goes, I agree that it would strengthen your match-up vs graveyard strategies, which are both fast enough and consistent enough to pose a threat to your deck. Either relic of progenitus or ground seal could fill a dedicated graveyard hate slot well, though both function differently and both have advantages.
Relic has the minor advantage of exiling a single card per turn, though considering the rate at which this exiles fetch lands it isn't all too powerful. However it does cost 1 green mana less to cast which is significant, is virtually immune to eot removal blowouts into next turn reanimate/eternal witness or worse and offers the considerable advantage of actually exiling cards. This is perhaps my favorite aspect of the relic because once it is in play, opponents will alter their strategy to play around it at the cost of 1 colorless mana per turn. And even if you blow the exile effect prematurely in search of the additional card you still remove all current graveyards from the game, which can hinder many competitive strategies down the road (consider delve, reanimation, flashback, recursion, dredge, etc.).
Ground seal, on the other hand, costs one additional green mana (combo with Nykthos?) and immediately nets you a card. It only counters several of the aforementioned strategies, however, and isn't reactive. For this reason it can be played around much easier than relic, and can be removed with no lingering aftereffects on the game. This is a potential 'advantage' if you have another artifact or enchantment on the field that could have been removed instead, but this is hardly a real tradeoff. For this reason I would choose Relic out of the two, because I feel that Ground seal mostly just delays the inevitable.
There are also other 'options', such as tormod's crypt which is almost always a worse relic, or night soil which is green mana intensive, situational, and only counters creature graveyard based strategies. Though since it makes dudes I suppose it is worth mentioning.
I have seen Elvish Visionary played to some success is mono G decks but I don't know if I would consider it as being worthy of a deck slot. When you are behind in your oppener it basically functions as an additional card if you have nothing else to cast with a potential upside late game simply for being a creature, and one with 1 toughness. If this is your reason for including, however, I feel that you might as well just play an additional land or ramp card instead. Late game it offers the advantage of refilling the draw it replaced in addition to activating creature based synergy effects. I suppose this can be powerful, but it seems situational and most of the times it will be good will be when you are already winning and have all the mana but none of the cards.
I think a hate package could be powerful, but it really depends on your meta. So I would consider including both hall of gemstone and null rod if you want to pursue this route. Certain decks simply lose to either of these spells being resolved, and with Freyalise as your general you can naturalize your own rod if you feel that you can go off with clamp or if you need to emergency O-stone.
Sylvan scrying is strong if you are trying to become more comboey but it otherwise seems pretty weak. If you already have cradle its mostly dead, but I suppose you cant really complain if you already have cradle in play, and it can always still be dumped to greater good.
Also, have you tested Genesis Hydra? I like it in some decks because, even without dumping all of you mana into him, you always have hosers or combo pieces to look for. Digging into any variety of greater good, earthcraft, skullclamp, etc. can be very powerful. You do have a high concentration of non-permanent ramp spells, so there is a possibility that he could whiff, and he can really screw you over if you spend your whole turn casting him just to get garbage/nothing.
I have never had any personal success with Genesis. He is expensive and dead if you can't dump him early. And even then, I usually find myself more interested in casting actual spells than getting moderate advantage off recurring wood elves or something. Would not include.
Mana crypt if not for the obvious monetary restrictions
Toxic Deluge: Pretty much no hard answer aside from nevermore or gargoyle. Reveillark is a strong deterrent though, and potentially Saffi and Adarkar valkyrie.
Elesh norn, grand cenobite/Decree of Pain: Your best protection is your own Elesh Norn, but if you are only worried about Teeg you have fail-safes with Saffi eriksdotter and Adarkar Valkyrie. There is also the possibility of Mirari's Wake if you feel that the card is powerful enough to include despite its mana cost. Angel of Jubilation is also a strong hate and toughness boosting card, but I would not run it because it hates out your your own fetches, clamp, and sac outlets (read: primary wincons) and you have no way to get rid of it once it sticks. Compare to cards like hushwing Gryff that also hate out your strategies but can be removed via sac outlets or clamp if the need arises. Elesh norn, grand cenobite is simply the best toughness booster you have available, but I guess Wilt-leaf liege, Creeperhulk, or Thunderfoot Baloth could also work in aggressive lists.
Massacre Wurm and other etbs: Hushwing Gryff/Torpor Orb.
Oblivion Stone and fringe activated abilities: Phyrexian revoker is very playable now due to the advent of walker commanders. It is easily tutored with many cards (Survival of the fittest, Eladamri's call, even Enlightened tutor and more) so it is surprisingly effective if your opponent can't crack the stone in response to the cast. You can also consider Stony silence effects, but they generally hose your own strategies just as hard as everyone else's. Voidstone Gargoyle is also worth a consideration.
For unmentioned cards that can protect Teeg from various targeted effects, you have swiftfoot boots and lightning greaves as well as swords which are tutorable at instant speed with Stonehewer giant and sorcery speed with stoneforge mystic and steelshaper's gift, sylvan safekeeper which is also cute with Titania, Saffi and Valkyire for immediate recursion, possibly Dauntless escort vs damage, and then you have plain recursion with Sun titan Karmic Guide and Lark. You have a lot of room to build and defend Teeg.
The powerlevel of your deck has nothing to do with why steam augury is bad. At the point in the game when you cast steam augury, there are always going to be some cards that you want or need more than others. Since you cannot control which pile gets chosen, augury will always yield you the relatively worse pile. I don't know about you, but I'd sure prefer FOF and one or two powerful cards rather than twice as many bad ones.