So after almost a years' time, I decided to revisit the Guts Universe and design more cards! I erased a couple of posts in this thread prior because I want to showcase the newer versions of the cards and hopefully get more feed back on them. But first, some tasty new cards have been added to the set... Namely, the God Hand!!!
Ubik, of the God Hand(B/G)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. 1BBT: Target opponent sacrifices a permanent under their control and gain one treasure token artifact. GXT: Ubik of the God Hand gains +X/+X until end of turn.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Ubik of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
1/1
Slan, of the God Hand(B/R)(B/R)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Flying, Prowess
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
You may sacrifice any number of creatures under your control. If you do, Slan of the God Hand deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number creatures sacrificed this way and gains +1/+1 for each creature destroyed this way until end of turn.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Slan of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
2/2
Femto, of the God Hand
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Vigilance, First Strike
1WB: Exile target permanent from the battlefield until end of turn. BBX: Return target creature or planeswalker from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control, where X equals the converted mana cost of that card.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Femto of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
3/3
Conrad, of the God Hand1BBB
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Deathtouch, Swampwalk
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. B: Create a 1/1 Rat creature token with deathtouch. For each rat creature created this way, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature an opponent controls. Conrad of the God Hand gets +1/+1 for each rat creature under your control.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Conrad of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
4/4
Void, of the God Hand 3(U/B)(U/B)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Protection from creatures.
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. UBXT: You gain control of target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls, where X equals the converted mana cost of that card. Put a Brand counter on that card.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Void of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
5/5
A running theme throughout the Guts Manga/Anime is Causality: 1)the relationship between cause and effect. 2)the principle that everything has a cause. The God Hand is able to manipulate causality to such a degree that it borders on omniscience. And I thought, what better way to depict this on a card than Scry, which happens to be one of my most favorite mechanics in Magic ever! Initially, I had each member of the God Hand being able to scry according to their mana cost. For instance, Slan would be to scry 2 because she costs two mana to cast. But I quickly saw how broken a mechanic that would be. So instead, I've come up with a card (which I'll post at a later date) that can increase the God Hands' ability to scry.
In my mind, I felt like there is a hierarchy to the God Hand as far as which Apostle of the God Hand is strongest. It is known that Void is the most powerful, the leader, and the oldest of the God Hand being over at least a 1000 years-old. Griffith may one day exceed him, but in the depictions of the God Hand in the cards I've thus far created (during the Eclipse), Void is in charge. Apostles in general are many times stronger than most humans, so I tried to think of way to depict that on the cards without making the cards too OP. Mechanically, each God Hand member (with the exception of Void and Femto) has a way of increasing their P/T and can potentially exceed every creature card on the battlefield in this respect. Void has protection from creatures which pretty much makes him a powerhouse and creature strategies somewhat useless against him.
Lastly, we have the exile clause on each God Hand card. This represents the God Hands inability to completely exist in the Corporeal Plane at this point in the story/set, and reside mostly in the Astral Plane. It also makes them even more unassailable flavor-wise and mechanically, because you or your opponent has to waste/hold up mana during your/their turn getting rid of the God Hand cards.
Design-wise the God Hand cards are meant to be played together but are powerful and versatile enough to be played on their own. I don't want to spoil what some of those synergies are but I'm sure you guys can figure them out! All in all, I'm very happy with where the cards are now, and hope to develop them a bit farther in the coming days.
EDIT: Gave all God Hand cards Haste. Also changed my mind on Femto's keyword abilities and gave him Vigilance and First Strike as per his Griffith side. Will change the text on Femto as per his keyword abilities on his card image during my next edit.
Re-uploaded just a few of my designs. You should be able to see them on mobile as well. My focus with Batman is more on his gadgets. My design notes read as follows:
Batarangs: So essentially this card acts as a 5 mana Arc Lightning (4, if you control Batman, Silent Vigilante) that can be used at instant speed. The current artwork was chosen because it depicts Batman throwing mutiple batarangs at a single, or possibly multiple targets.
Batman, Silent Vigilante: Batman, Silent Vigilante was the third character I created and was the most interesting to design for. From the onset, I wanted to concentrate on the various equipment cards I'm creating for him. I also wanted to focus on his martial arts skills as well. I made him a 2/3 with the idea flavor-wise being that regular humans would be 1/1's that would be no match for him in a fight. 2/1 or 2/2 humans would be skilled martial artists that could hold their own in a fight, but would ultimately fall to Batman's superior fighting skills. Hence Batman being unblock-able against them and having a 3 toughness so that they aren't capable of killing him on their own without some kind of equipment or pump spell.
Now for the name... Silent Vigilante isn't set in stone. Right now, it's the name I like the most. I've always liked the more stealthier aspects of Batman, owing mostly to his ninja training. Historically, real life ninja's were able to conceal numerous weapons on their person without them being seen. Flavor-wise, I think I've accomplished this. Also, I made Batman a ninja instead of a rogue because, although Batman operates outside of the law, he doesn't engage in any illicit activities. Calling him the "Caped Crusader" or the "Dark Knight" would have been flavor fails in my opinion as well because they don't embody what the card is designed to do.
I think it's fairly obvious why I went WUB with him: Mechanically, he's W for his ability to tutor and equip equipment for cheap, U for his unblock-ability, and B for intimidate (c'mon he's Batman, when is he ever not intimidating someone?). Ideologically, he also has a strong sense of justice W, is a brilliant planner and tactician U, and is not above hurting and maiming people to get what he wants B
Bladed Gauntlets: This card is Bladed Bracers for the same mana cost, but without the angel creature type clause.
Explosive Batarangs: This card is Pyroclasm for 4 (3, if you control Batman, Silent Vigilante) that can be used at instant speed.
Wow, I'm so glad I checked in on this thread. Haven't visited the Card Creation forum in about a year or more. I actually created (and nearly finished) a DC Comics vs Yu Yu Hakusho crossover set. Even started writing the story for it and everything. Kind of lost interest in it because I wasn't getting enough feed back on the designs and no one seemed particularly interested: . There are many, many other cards in the set aside from those listed in the link I've provided. I like that you've focused on Ally as a sub-theme, but I'm not sure some of the flavor matches. For instance, I understand why the Batmobile would give Allies indestructible (because flavorwise, they're technically crewing the vehicle). But I don't understand why discarding a Superman card would give Allies flying and indestructible. Or why Mr. Freeze dying would destroy all creatures you don't control. Destroy creature board wipe effects are strictly limited to B and W. U has very few destroy effects, and is typically limited to one creature, with a replacement effect generally following that. It would work better both flavor and mechanically if read something like:
When Mr. Freeze dies, tap all creatures your opponents control. They do not untap during their controller's next untap step.
Flavorwise this works because tapping creatures is a big part of U's color chart identity, and is usually depicted in magic cards as freezing creatures in place.
Illusions, Michael! Illusions (Arrested Development reference)! Full WAR spoiler is out, which means it's brew time! I'm loving the fact that both mono and multi colored decks have been dominant in Standard the past few months. With WAR I think that tradition will continue and I have been anticipating building a mono color deck like the one below:
Pretty straight-forward build. The idea is to win thru attrition, until you can ult either Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Jace, Cunning Castaway. With Castaway, the ult becomes a CA engine that is hard to stop once it gets going and fuels Wielder's ult in turn. Another win con, albeit much slower, is beating our opponents down the traditional way, with Castaway's illusion tokens, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor's wizard tokens, and God-Eternal Kefnet (if we can stick him and protect him for multiple turns). Kasmina and Narset, Parter of Veils act as "fun police," reducing the number of ways opponents can remove our permanents, or gain card advantage of their own. The deck's greatest strength IS card advantage. There's so much card draw built into it, it's insane! The biggest issue I can think of (as of right now) is instant vs sorcery speed card draw. Instant card draw tends to net fewer cards, but are faster. However, with the amount of planeswalkers we're playing, and for what we're using the card draw for, I'm not sure being a little slower is a bad thing. Contentious Plan is great for boosting planswalker loyalty, and Jace's Triumph works well because of the many Jace's we have in the deck. The side board is designed to deal more with aggro and control matchups.
All that said, I've considered going UB for one card in particular: The Elderspell. The applications/implications this card will have on Standard is contentious, to say the least. I personally think it's a really good card. It's great as a planeswalker removal spell, and can fuel Wielder's ult faster, especially if we have ult'ed our Castaway. Not to mention Dimir has some pretty decent hand disruption/card draw on it's own. But I wanna try mono U first to see if it works.
I think Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge is a powerful magic card. Like Tezzeret cards of the past, he is a "build around" card, but that has finally (I believe) been mitigated because of all of the great artifacts we are getting from WAR:
Gonna play with the numbers a bit concerning lands, but the deck has an "all in" strategy. The idea is to forgo any kind of protection/removal and play ever increasing threats that opponents will have no choice but to try and answer. The early game is all about set-up:
By Turn 4, the real fun begins! We can play most of planeswalkers if not all of them (provided we drew another land between Turns 1-3). The only card who's inclusion in the deck I'm questioning right now is Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner. While she does pair well with Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, I don't think I'm running nearly enough 4 power creatures (or creatures that can reach 4 power somehow) to make her static ability beneficial... That is, until you have her and Parhelion II on the field at the same time. Then her static ability reads "draw three cards each turn." I don't, know may be too cute. In her place, I'd consider running Dovin, Grand Arbiter.
Reading this thread got me brewing. I like Evolution Sage because he is both a "land matters" and "counters matter" card. With this in mind, I built a deck around him:
With this build the idea is to thin the deck of lands as quickly as possible (Scapeshift, Nissa's Triumph to reach our threats, while simultaneously playing multiple lands per turn (Wayward Swordtooth, Arboreal Grazer) for ramp. Bond of Flourishing gives the deck reach via lifegain AND can find lands and threats. Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter is a bit player that acts as pseudo ramp that makes our lands and creatures bigger, as well as Treasure Map that provides scry and later ramp and card draw when it flips to Treasure Cove. The win cons come in the form of Nissa, Who Shakes the World's ult, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar (who is an ever growing beat stick), and Living Twister, which can eliminate creature threats both early and late game via it's discard ability. Crucible of Worlds insures we never have to worry about cards being sent to the graveyard.
thats a whole lot of ramp for not a lot of payoff..
I agree. GuildCaster's deck looks to play like Bant midrange/control deck that wins of the back of both Teferi's and Hydroid Krasis. However, I do think the deck is going in too many directions. I don't really see the need for all the ramp, especially if all GuildCaster is doing is trying to do is cast a big Krasis. And the deck is running too few basic lands for Circuitous Route to be worth including. I'd say the deck either needs to be Bant control (splashing G for Krasis and Evolution Sage, and gutting all the ramp) or Simic Nexus (a VERY popular archetype in Standard right now). Just needs to be a bit more focused, but the power is there.
Whelp, about 50% of the people interested in the lore are gonna be disappointed. Most people have already theorized that Bolas is gonna be trapped in the Meditation Realm by Ugin. Me personally, I'm not upset. Bolas isn't as "mustache twirling" a villain some fans try to make him out to be. For me, he represents an evil that will never truly die. He is the embodiment of evil in the multi-verse, and killing him would be anti-climatic. As for the cards, they're pretty dope! I like the artwork Tyrant's Scorn. There's something about seeing Magic's "Superman" getting smacked down and around by evil again (Amonkhet anyone?). Prison Realm is a little "meh" but the scry 1 could come in handy.
She'll work well in an Izzet Drakes or Wizards tribal build alongside Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and Ral, Storm Conduit. Her static ability doesn't seem all that great until you factor in all the card draw available in Standard. May be more a sideboard hate card instead of the maindeck.
Well, The Elderspell is about what I expected, although I though it's cmc would be 2B. No way would they have made it instant speed. As long as you don't commit too many planeswalkers to the board at once, you should be able to rebuild in a superfriends style deck. Deliver Unto Evil is great and i'm liking that the art style is different from the "modern" look Wizards has been going for for quite some time.
So I've been waiting for a cheap red burn spell that can deal with Teferi, Time Raveler in one hit, and it seems like Heartfire may be it. I like it.
The one problem with that is, once he comes down, you can only use Heartfire when you could cast a sorcery. If he uses his -3, you won't need 4 damage to deal with it. If he uses his +1, he'll have 5 loyalty before you can act, so you'll still need a little more.
No one in their right mind should be casting Teferi, Time Raveler Turn 3. At least, that's my assessment of the card. I thought much about why wizards made him a 3 mana card with a starting loyalty of 4. If he was only 2 mana, he'd come down too fast not giving the opposing player a chance to react. He could have just as easily been a 2 mana walker with a starting loyalty of 3, but then players wouldn't get any real use out of him because of his -3. At 4 mana, 4 starting loyalty, he'd have been too slow, with aggro running right over him and control easily countering him. I think wizards realized this when play-testing him, which is why they made the card this way.
As he is, even IF you're on the play, you're tapping out to cast him. Your opponent can just follow up with Heartfire and that's all she wrote for Teferi. He's much better as a Turn 4-Turn 5 play when 1-2 mana cards like Spell Pierce and Negate will have open mana up to protect him.
I think this coming standard is gonna be rewarding for both mono and multi colored decks. I can just imagine Evolution Sage working well in an G, GU, GW or even WGU because they are the primary (and for WAR, only) proliferate colors. I'm thinking a Selesnya deck that runs eight or so planeswalkers, elves that produce mana and proliferate, and their wolf companions. If Mono G (ahem), then *with my best southern accent*: Mono Green shall rrrriiiisssseee again!
I've been thinking about some kinda jank deck that utilizes Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Nahiri, Storm of Stone together along with Gideon Blackblade and Blackblade Reforged. Both Sorin's and Nahiri's passive abilities pump up Gideon in his creature form and allow him to hit like a first striking, lifelinking tank. Attach a cheaply equipped (thanks to Nahiri) Blackblade to Gideon and attack for even more damage.
Turn 1: Land + ?
Turn 2: Land + Blackblade (although ideally this could be played at a much later time as well)
Turn 3: Land + Gideon
Turn 4: Equip Blackblade to Gideon. Swing for 7 OR play Sorin or Nahiri if we hit our fourth land drop.
The only weakness of this set-up thus far is having having to pay 2 or 3 mana each turn just to equip Gideon. I added the Blackblade for flavor purposes, but if we're able to play other legendary creatures in the deck, then this won't be much of an issue. The removal suite between both Gideon and Nahiri's - abilities is very powerful, and Sorin can bring back ANY creature from the graveyard provided he has enough loyalty. Vampire Tribal may actually become a thing. Yeah, I think there's a deck here...
This card could slot into Mono Red Aggro, but I think a certain 'Whirly' boi still occupies Mizzium Tank's spot for dominance. Maybe we could go the other route and go Big Red or Gruul midrange instead. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion and Dreadhorde Arcanist both work extremely well with Tank. Ditch a couple instants/sorceries via Neheb, then recur them with Arcanist which then Crews Tank. Throw in Goblin Chainwhirler and Rekindling Phoenix and we got ourselves a party!
Ubik, of the God Hand (B/G)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
1BBT: Target opponent sacrifices a permanent under their control and gain one treasure token artifact.
GXT: Ubik of the God Hand gains +X/+X until end of turn.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Ubik of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
1/1
Slan, of the God Hand (B/R)(B/R)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Flying, Prowess
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
You may sacrifice any number of creatures under your control. If you do, Slan of the God Hand deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number creatures sacrificed this way and gains +1/+1 for each creature destroyed this way until end of turn.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Slan of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
2/2
Femto, of the God Hand
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Vigilance, First Strike
1WB: Exile target permanent from the battlefield until end of turn.
BBX: Return target creature or planeswalker from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control, where X equals the converted mana cost of that card.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Femto of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
3/3
Conrad, of the God Hand 1BBB
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Deathtouch, Swampwalk
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
B: Create a 1/1 Rat creature token with deathtouch. For each rat creature created this way, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature an opponent controls. Conrad of the God Hand gets +1/+1 for each rat creature under your control.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Conrad of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
4/4
Void, of the God Hand 3(U/B)(U/B)
Legendary Creature-Demon Apostle God Mythic
Haste, Protection from creatures.
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
UBXT: You gain control of target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls, where X equals the converted mana cost of that card. Put a Brand counter on that card.
At the beginning of your end step, exile Void of the God Hand until the beginning of your next upkeep.
5/5
A running theme throughout the Guts Manga/Anime is Causality: 1)the relationship between cause and effect. 2)the principle that everything has a cause. The God Hand is able to manipulate causality to such a degree that it borders on omniscience. And I thought, what better way to depict this on a card than Scry, which happens to be one of my most favorite mechanics in Magic ever! Initially, I had each member of the God Hand being able to scry according to their mana cost. For instance, Slan would be to scry 2 because she costs two mana to cast. But I quickly saw how broken a mechanic that would be. So instead, I've come up with a card (which I'll post at a later date) that can increase the God Hands' ability to scry.
In my mind, I felt like there is a hierarchy to the God Hand as far as which Apostle of the God Hand is strongest. It is known that Void is the most powerful, the leader, and the oldest of the God Hand being over at least a 1000 years-old. Griffith may one day exceed him, but in the depictions of the God Hand in the cards I've thus far created (during the Eclipse), Void is in charge. Apostles in general are many times stronger than most humans, so I tried to think of way to depict that on the cards without making the cards too OP. Mechanically, each God Hand member (with the exception of Void and Femto) has a way of increasing their P/T and can potentially exceed every creature card on the battlefield in this respect. Void has protection from creatures which pretty much makes him a powerhouse and creature strategies somewhat useless against him.
Lastly, we have the exile clause on each God Hand card. This represents the God Hands inability to completely exist in the Corporeal Plane at this point in the story/set, and reside mostly in the Astral Plane. It also makes them even more unassailable flavor-wise and mechanically, because you or your opponent has to waste/hold up mana during your/their turn getting rid of the God Hand cards.
Design-wise the God Hand cards are meant to be played together but are powerful and versatile enough to be played on their own. I don't want to spoil what some of those synergies are but I'm sure you guys can figure them out! All in all, I'm very happy with where the cards are now, and hope to develop them a bit farther in the coming days.
EDIT: Gave all God Hand cards Haste. Also changed my mind on Femto's keyword abilities and gave him Vigilance and First Strike as per his Griffith side. Will change the text on Femto as per his keyword abilities on his card image during my next edit.
Batarangs: So essentially this card acts as a 5 mana Arc Lightning (4, if you control Batman, Silent Vigilante) that can be used at instant speed. The current artwork was chosen because it depicts Batman throwing mutiple batarangs at a single, or possibly multiple targets.
Batman, Silent Vigilante: Batman, Silent Vigilante was the third character I created and was the most interesting to design for. From the onset, I wanted to concentrate on the various equipment cards I'm creating for him. I also wanted to focus on his martial arts skills as well. I made him a 2/3 with the idea flavor-wise being that regular humans would be 1/1's that would be no match for him in a fight. 2/1 or 2/2 humans would be skilled martial artists that could hold their own in a fight, but would ultimately fall to Batman's superior fighting skills. Hence Batman being unblock-able against them and having a 3 toughness so that they aren't capable of killing him on their own without some kind of equipment or pump spell.
Now for the name... Silent Vigilante isn't set in stone. Right now, it's the name I like the most. I've always liked the more stealthier aspects of Batman, owing mostly to his ninja training. Historically, real life ninja's were able to conceal numerous weapons on their person without them being seen. Flavor-wise, I think I've accomplished this. Also, I made Batman a ninja instead of a rogue because, although Batman operates outside of the law, he doesn't engage in any illicit activities. Calling him the "Caped Crusader" or the "Dark Knight" would have been flavor fails in my opinion as well because they don't embody what the card is designed to do.
I think it's fairly obvious why I went WUB with him: Mechanically, he's W for his ability to tutor and equip equipment for cheap, U for his unblock-ability, and B for intimidate (c'mon he's Batman, when is he ever not intimidating someone?). Ideologically, he also has a strong sense of justice W, is a brilliant planner and tactician U, and is not above hurting and maiming people to get what he wants B
Bladed Gauntlets: This card is Bladed Bracers for the same mana cost, but without the angel creature type clause.
Explosive Batarangs: This card is Pyroclasm for 4 (3, if you control Batman, Silent Vigilante) that can be used at instant speed.
Grappling Hook: This card is Flight for 2.
When Mr. Freeze dies, tap all creatures your opponents control. They do not untap during their controller's next untap step.
Flavorwise this works because tapping creatures is a big part of U's color chart identity, and is usually depicted in magic cards as freezing creatures in place.
2 Reliquary Tower
2 Blast Zone
2 Karn's Bastion
18 Island
CREATURES 4
2 Spark Double
2 God-Eternal Kefnet
PLANESWALKERS 12
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Jace, Cunning Castaway
4 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
2 Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
2 Dive Down
4 Contentious Plan
4 Blink of an Eye
2 Narset's Reversal
2 Jace's Triumph
2 Sinister Sabotage
2 Bond of Insight
2 Chemister's Insight
2 Spell Pierce
3 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Narset's Reversal
4 Murmuring Mystic
2 Commence the Endgame
Pretty straight-forward build. The idea is to win thru attrition, until you can ult either Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Jace, Cunning Castaway. With Castaway, the ult becomes a CA engine that is hard to stop once it gets going and fuels Wielder's ult in turn. Another win con, albeit much slower, is beating our opponents down the traditional way, with Castaway's illusion tokens, Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor's wizard tokens, and God-Eternal Kefnet (if we can stick him and protect him for multiple turns). Kasmina and Narset, Parter of Veils act as "fun police," reducing the number of ways opponents can remove our permanents, or gain card advantage of their own. The deck's greatest strength IS card advantage. There's so much card draw built into it, it's insane! The biggest issue I can think of (as of right now) is instant vs sorcery speed card draw. Instant card draw tends to net fewer cards, but are faster. However, with the amount of planeswalkers we're playing, and for what we're using the card draw for, I'm not sure being a little slower is a bad thing. Contentious Plan is great for boosting planswalker loyalty, and Jace's Triumph works well because of the many Jace's we have in the deck. The side board is designed to deal more with aggro and control matchups.
All that said, I've considered going UB for one card in particular: The Elderspell. The applications/implications this card will have on Standard is contentious, to say the least. I personally think it's a really good card. It's great as a planeswalker removal spell, and can fuel Wielder's ult faster, especially if we have ult'ed our Castaway. Not to mention Dimir has some pretty decent hand disruption/card draw on it's own. But I wanna try mono U first to see if it works.
2 Blast Zone
1 Karn's Bastion
1 Reliquary Tower
2 Interplanar Beacon
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
1 Clifftop Retreat
4 Mountain
2 Island
4 Mizzium Tank
2 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
2 Parhelion II
PLANESWALKERS 12
2 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
2 Karn, the Great Creator
2 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
2 Ugin, the Ineffable
2 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
3 Mox Amber
4 Fountain of Renewal
4 Treasure Map
4 Chromatic Lantern
Gonna play with the numbers a bit concerning lands, but the deck has an "all in" strategy. The idea is to forgo any kind of protection/removal and play ever increasing threats that opponents will have no choice but to try and answer. The early game is all about set-up:
Obvious "Christmasland" opening hand lands: 3 Lands, preferably Steam Vents, Sulfur Falls, and Dragonskull Summit
Turn 1: land, Mox Amber and Fountain of Renewal
Turn 2: land, Treasure Map
Turn 3: land, Chromatic Lantern, Mizzium Tank, OR Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
By Turn 4, the real fun begins! We can play most of planeswalkers if not all of them (provided we drew another land between Turns 1-3). The only card who's inclusion in the deck I'm questioning right now is Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner. While she does pair well with Traxos, Scourge of Kroog, I don't think I'm running nearly enough 4 power creatures (or creatures that can reach 4 power somehow) to make her static ability beneficial... That is, until you have her and Parhelion II on the field at the same time. Then her static ability reads "draw three cards each turn." I don't, know may be too cute. In her place, I'd consider running Dovin, Grand Arbiter.
4 Stomping Ground
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Gruul Guildgate
10 Forest
1 Blast Zone
1 Karn's Bastion
4 Arboreal Grazer
2 Wayward Swordtooth
4 Evolution Sage
4 Living Twister
2 Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar
PLANESWALKERS 4
2 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
4 Bond of Flourishing
4 Nissa's Triumph
2 Scapeshift
ARTIFACTS 6
4 Treasure Map
2 Crucible of Worlds
With this build the idea is to thin the deck of lands as quickly as possible (Scapeshift, Nissa's Triumph to reach our threats, while simultaneously playing multiple lands per turn (Wayward Swordtooth, Arboreal Grazer) for ramp. Bond of Flourishing gives the deck reach via lifegain AND can find lands and threats. Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter is a bit player that acts as pseudo ramp that makes our lands and creatures bigger, as well as Treasure Map that provides scry and later ramp and card draw when it flips to Treasure Cove. The win cons come in the form of Nissa, Who Shakes the World's ult, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar (who is an ever growing beat stick), and Living Twister, which can eliminate creature threats both early and late game via it's discard ability. Crucible of Worlds insures we never have to worry about cards being sent to the graveyard.
I agree. GuildCaster's deck looks to play like Bant midrange/control deck that wins of the back of both Teferi's and Hydroid Krasis. However, I do think the deck is going in too many directions. I don't really see the need for all the ramp, especially if all GuildCaster is doing is trying to do is cast a big Krasis. And the deck is running too few basic lands for Circuitous Route to be worth including. I'd say the deck either needs to be Bant control (splashing G for Krasis and Evolution Sage, and gutting all the ramp) or Simic Nexus (a VERY popular archetype in Standard right now). Just needs to be a bit more focused, but the power is there.
EDIT: I meant to say "agree," not "disagree"
No one in their right mind should be casting Teferi, Time Raveler Turn 3. At least, that's my assessment of the card. I thought much about why wizards made him a 3 mana card with a starting loyalty of 4. If he was only 2 mana, he'd come down too fast not giving the opposing player a chance to react. He could have just as easily been a 2 mana walker with a starting loyalty of 3, but then players wouldn't get any real use out of him because of his -3. At 4 mana, 4 starting loyalty, he'd have been too slow, with aggro running right over him and control easily countering him. I think wizards realized this when play-testing him, which is why they made the card this way.
As he is, even IF you're on the play, you're tapping out to cast him. Your opponent can just follow up with Heartfire and that's all she wrote for Teferi. He's much better as a Turn 4-Turn 5 play when 1-2 mana cards like Spell Pierce and Negate will have open mana up to protect him.
Turn 1: Land + ?
Turn 2: Land + Blackblade (although ideally this could be played at a much later time as well)
Turn 3: Land + Gideon
Turn 4: Equip Blackblade to Gideon. Swing for 7 OR play Sorin or Nahiri if we hit our fourth land drop.
The only weakness of this set-up thus far is having having to pay 2 or 3 mana each turn just to equip Gideon. I added the Blackblade for flavor purposes, but if we're able to play other legendary creatures in the deck, then this won't be much of an issue. The removal suite between both Gideon and Nahiri's - abilities is very powerful, and Sorin can bring back ANY creature from the graveyard provided he has enough loyalty. Vampire Tribal may actually become a thing. Yeah, I think there's a deck here...