One thing I rarely see discussed with Locust God is the potential that extra attack phases and extra turns have. You have Bident of ThassaandCoastal Piracy, but no ways of taking advantage of the locusts you get after the first swarm hits. I think Aggravated Assault and especially Breath of Fury are good, or even Savage Beating, though it's a little pricey. Extra attack phases also play really well with cards like Shared Animosity and if you play with sorceries you can recur them with Snapcaster Mage or Archaeomancer and their ilk
You have a lot of card draw, which is fine, but also at a certain point you should have a strategy that isn't just (1) stick commander; (2) draw cards; (3) draw more cards; (4) hope locusts win. That's very susceptible to any kind of commander removal, and I always pack things like Imprisoned in the Moon or Darksteel Mutation to deal with decks that rely heavily on their commander to win. Either you should have alternate ways to leverage your card draw (e.g.Psychosis Crawler) or something like Laboratory Maniac to make drawing its own endgame. I'd throw in more threats, more ways to take advantage of cards (Venser's Journal), and take out the less efficient ways to draw
With Mana Echoes and Ashnod's Altar you also have the means to crank out a lot of mana, but not a lot of ways to take advantage of the mana. Some mana sinks that aren't your commander or Purphoros would be useful, and because you're mostly producing colorless you're restricted by your colored mana anyways (outside of Phyrexian Altar, yet you have no Trophy Mage to Google up your altars). Spawnsire of Ulamog looks like it could be an interesting choice, or even just nuke someone with a fat Fireball-type effect or Blue Sun's Zenith. If you want to get sillier, too, you can go with Altar of Dementia (which is actually pretty solid when you combine it with Shared Animosity et al.) or Altar of the Brood if you want your wheels to do a bit more milling (bonus points that it can be fetched with Trinket Mage). And speaking of Trinket Mage, you have no artifact lands, which can be a useful target early on if you're mana screwed.
I'd replace Coat of Arms with Eldrazi Monument, if only because the former can be turned around on you really easily. Hellrider is also a decent choice because it means your locusts don't care if they get blocked, and even if Ogre Battledriver's haste effects don't do much for you the +2 is good when you draw multiple cards. Stalking Vengeance can do work with your buff effects, while Vicious Shadows makes your locusts very dangerous, and even Warstorm Surge can put the pressure on
As boring as they are, things like Lightning Greaves or Whispersilk Cloak to protect your commander are really important for decks like this that rely on the commander to work well. The reanimation clause on the Locust God is great, but I always pack ways to handle commanders without killing or exiling them and your opponents should too. You might also consider something like Krenko, Mob Boss to be a sort of sub-commander that interacts well with the same cards that synergize with the Locust God
Teysa, Orzhov Scion may not be a cleric, but she's a great engine for any BW deck. Especially with how much recursion you have, she can act as almost a sub-commander and also keeps your board fueled if you're sacrificing black critters to your commander.
You have Skullclamp right? You'll want a Skullclamp.
Edit: Also, I've found Debt to the Deathless to be a trap. It's slow and even though incremental advantage sounds great, it puts a bigger target on your back than it's worth. And it works best when you're reviving huge things with good ETB triggers like Ashen Rider, not small things that don't have much individual impact.
Tasigur is my vote. The colors are the three strongest in EDH, the commander is insanely resilient, and potentially playing things multiple times in a game is a lot of power. I've played against and piloted Tasigur many times, and it's always one of the most threatening decks at the table because of how easily it can leverage multiple players.
Nobody wants to see an Avenger of Zendikar hit across the table from them. Nobody wants to have no board and see other players load up. Nobody wants to have a planeswalker use its ultimate. Counterspells, wraths, and removal are all easy to get back from the grave when you ask the other player who has just as much interest in you using those cards as you do.
If you want good stuff, not just good.stuff, I'd go with Tasigur.
Mostly because the strongest cards that were being played were uncommons and commons. Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Careful Study, etc. made UG Madness a powerhouse. Psychatog was also nutty, I remember, and Grim Lavamancer saw a lot of play. I think I did more Extended than Standard then, though, and I don't really remember Invasion making a huge impact outside of the fact that it wasn't Masques-block, and actually had playable cards...
It's elegant. Like some above have said, it isn't necessarily a super powerful mechanic on its own, but the design space and flavor it opens up are great. If you look at all of the elements individually it has a lot of implications: you (1) cast a spell/get a creature that has an effect which then (2) gives you an artifact token that (3) allows you to pay 2--whenever--to draw a card and (4) sticks around for cards that might interact with you having a Clue on the board.
There are a lot of implications there, and a lot of space to design new cards. You backload a cantrip kicker, you get an artifact token, and it means that every card that allows for investigate eventually replaces itself no matter what it ends up doing for you. For control decks this means you can hoard Clues to refill your hand at the end of your opponent's turn or dig for responses. For aggro decks you can spend all that extra mana if your deck needs more juice (assuming we get aggressive enough investigators).
So good. I really hope they take advantage of this mechanic and make Clues-matter cards, like the journal (even if it is a little slow).
Interesting concept. Not usually a big fan of cooperative variants, but it's a decent foundation that I think could lead to some fun games. Biggest problem is that 5 or more players means a really long EDH game, and the most interesting stuff starts happening once you hit 5 or more.
Have you played a game with it? Could you report at all on the results?
Draw ten, put three on the bottom. If you can't do anything with the ten you put the previous hand on the bottom and draw ten more. Quick and easy and consistent
My playgroup doesn't make deals. We make arguments and hope the player makes the correct play (from our point of view, or objectively). I won't make a deal with you to counter a big nasty target, I'll just try to convince you that Avenger of Zendikar is going to do more damage in the long run if it gets to stick. It's up to the player though, and I (and others in my group) don't get upset if it doesn't go our way.
Basically, we tend to treat politics as the attempt to convince one another that a certain course of action is the right choice. There are a lot of examples of this: maybe we know that a certain deck is reaching critical mass, and killing off a player is one less person between you and the deck that's about to go off. In that case it might be better to hold off on taking down a wounded player, or it might not because you have plenty of answers in your hand or think the board will shape up your way. Maybe saving a counterspell to deal with a strong combo that could happen within the next turn (Mike+Trike, etc.) is more important than keeping my commander off the field right this minute.
In OP's case, we wouldn't blink an eye if someone did BA and got attacked by the resulting hornets. It was their decision to make that play, they know the potential consequences, and it's up to them to try and set things up so that killing the others first is the better play. If not, maybe BA shouldn't be played, or maybe the board is just in an untenable position for the player with the BA. It's ok to lose, and I don't think it's fair to be upset with someone for beating you fair and square.
A return to Kamigawa, with ninjas as a primary theme for UB instead of mill. Ignore mill entirely. UB faerie/ninja aggro, with a cheap primary commander that can ninjutsu out of the command zone. A UB thief commander that gives you experience when you hit, lets you cherry pick something from the player's deck that costs X or less.
I'd like to see a Selesnya deck that ignores tokens, give the colors something out of the ordinary or a commander that supports a different play style than filling the board.
Mostly I want to see commanders that do things outside of what Wizards usually pushes a color combination for. UB beatdown, GW control, RB tokens, whatever. Give me some stuff that plays differently than what's been printed so far.
Monored is good at getting a lot of mana if you push artifacts. My Slobad deck slings mana like no tomorrow with the usual mana rock suite and some stuff that generates mana off of artifacts (Blinkmoth Urn). With Feldon you can reuse things like Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart to ramp a little. Blightsteel is a good addition, since RAW the RC still has Poison loss at 10 (my group plays with 15, but it depends). If you throw it out with a Sneak Attack it can end someone early, and it's a solid creature.
The Titans are strong and tend to draw a lot of hate because of Annihilator and the general feels-bad-man that comes after they successfully are cast and smack you. There's also a lot of general community fear of them for different reasons, even though they're usually quickly solved in a 4-player game. I wouldn't run more than 3-4 8CC+ creatures unless your deck is really good at ramping up, and I'd focus on the ones that are the highest impact like Kozilek, Ulamog, Newlamog, and Blightsteel. If you're spending that much mana they need to do WORK, preferably with haste or after some MLD to seal the deal.
On the topic of Newlamog, 20 cards ain't nothing, and it's on top of an already fairly solid creature if you can make room for it. A lot of decks rely on two-card combos or assembling a wincon on the backs of 2-3 crucial cards. Hitting a Miakaeus, for instance, can hurt a deck's chances of winning, and most (good) decks won't include jank; every card lost is a card that was included for a reason! The effect on its own wouldn't be much to consider as a one-off, but on an indestructible critter that hits hard and exiles two permanents when it lands, it's a good way to cripple a player. Particularly in mono red, which arguably has the weakest counterplay against things like Doubling Season, Nekusar wheels, Tasigur recursion, Narset infini-turn-Walker-party-bomb, etc.
I'd say go for it; the Titans are all a good investment, since I don't think their popularity will wane in the future, and they're strong finishers to have for any deck that can ramp into them. They're also at this point an important part of Magic history. Keep your meta in mind, but don't be afraid to be the one that makes a splash and pushes people to up their game for deckbuilding and efficient play.
One thing I rarely see discussed with Locust God is the potential that extra attack phases and extra turns have. You have Bident of Thassa and Coastal Piracy, but no ways of taking advantage of the locusts you get after the first swarm hits. I think Aggravated Assault and especially Breath of Fury are good, or even Savage Beating, though it's a little pricey. Extra attack phases also play really well with cards like Shared Animosity and if you play with sorceries you can recur them with Snapcaster Mage or Archaeomancer and their ilk
You have a lot of card draw, which is fine, but also at a certain point you should have a strategy that isn't just (1) stick commander; (2) draw cards; (3) draw more cards; (4) hope locusts win. That's very susceptible to any kind of commander removal, and I always pack things like Imprisoned in the Moon or Darksteel Mutation to deal with decks that rely heavily on their commander to win. Either you should have alternate ways to leverage your card draw (e.g. Psychosis Crawler) or something like Laboratory Maniac to make drawing its own endgame. I'd throw in more threats, more ways to take advantage of cards (Venser's Journal), and take out the less efficient ways to draw
With Mana Echoes and Ashnod's Altar you also have the means to crank out a lot of mana, but not a lot of ways to take advantage of the mana. Some mana sinks that aren't your commander or Purphoros would be useful, and because you're mostly producing colorless you're restricted by your colored mana anyways (outside of Phyrexian Altar, yet you have no Trophy Mage to Google up your altars). Spawnsire of Ulamog looks like it could be an interesting choice, or even just nuke someone with a fat Fireball-type effect or Blue Sun's Zenith. If you want to get sillier, too, you can go with Altar of Dementia (which is actually pretty solid when you combine it with Shared Animosity et al.) or Altar of the Brood if you want your wheels to do a bit more milling (bonus points that it can be fetched with Trinket Mage). And speaking of Trinket Mage, you have no artifact lands, which can be a useful target early on if you're mana screwed.
I'd replace Coat of Arms with Eldrazi Monument, if only because the former can be turned around on you really easily. Hellrider is also a decent choice because it means your locusts don't care if they get blocked, and even if Ogre Battledriver's haste effects don't do much for you the +2 is good when you draw multiple cards. Stalking Vengeance can do work with your buff effects, while Vicious Shadows makes your locusts very dangerous, and even Warstorm Surge can put the pressure on
As boring as they are, things like Lightning Greaves or Whispersilk Cloak to protect your commander are really important for decks like this that rely on the commander to work well. The reanimation clause on the Locust God is great, but I always pack ways to handle commanders without killing or exiling them and your opponents should too. You might also consider something like Krenko, Mob Boss to be a sort of sub-commander that interacts well with the same cards that synergize with the Locust God
You have Skullclamp right? You'll want a Skullclamp.
Edit: Also, I've found Debt to the Deathless to be a trap. It's slow and even though incremental advantage sounds great, it puts a bigger target on your back than it's worth. And it works best when you're reviving huge things with good ETB triggers like Ashen Rider, not small things that don't have much individual impact.
Nobody wants to see an Avenger of Zendikar hit across the table from them. Nobody wants to have no board and see other players load up. Nobody wants to have a planeswalker use its ultimate. Counterspells, wraths, and removal are all easy to get back from the grave when you ask the other player who has just as much interest in you using those cards as you do.
If you want good stuff, not just good.stuff, I'd go with Tasigur.
There are a lot of implications there, and a lot of space to design new cards. You backload a cantrip kicker, you get an artifact token, and it means that every card that allows for investigate eventually replaces itself no matter what it ends up doing for you. For control decks this means you can hoard Clues to refill your hand at the end of your opponent's turn or dig for responses. For aggro decks you can spend all that extra mana if your deck needs more juice (assuming we get aggressive enough investigators).
So good. I really hope they take advantage of this mechanic and make Clues-matter cards, like the journal (even if it is a little slow).
Have you played a game with it? Could you report at all on the results?
Basically, we tend to treat politics as the attempt to convince one another that a certain course of action is the right choice. There are a lot of examples of this: maybe we know that a certain deck is reaching critical mass, and killing off a player is one less person between you and the deck that's about to go off. In that case it might be better to hold off on taking down a wounded player, or it might not because you have plenty of answers in your hand or think the board will shape up your way. Maybe saving a counterspell to deal with a strong combo that could happen within the next turn (Mike+Trike, etc.) is more important than keeping my commander off the field right this minute.
In OP's case, we wouldn't blink an eye if someone did BA and got attacked by the resulting hornets. It was their decision to make that play, they know the potential consequences, and it's up to them to try and set things up so that killing the others first is the better play. If not, maybe BA shouldn't be played, or maybe the board is just in an untenable position for the player with the BA. It's ok to lose, and I don't think it's fair to be upset with someone for beating you fair and square.
I'd like to see a Selesnya deck that ignores tokens, give the colors something out of the ordinary or a commander that supports a different play style than filling the board.
Mostly I want to see commanders that do things outside of what Wizards usually pushes a color combination for. UB beatdown, GW control, RB tokens, whatever. Give me some stuff that plays differently than what's been printed so far.
The Titans are strong and tend to draw a lot of hate because of Annihilator and the general feels-bad-man that comes after they successfully are cast and smack you. There's also a lot of general community fear of them for different reasons, even though they're usually quickly solved in a 4-player game. I wouldn't run more than 3-4 8CC+ creatures unless your deck is really good at ramping up, and I'd focus on the ones that are the highest impact like Kozilek, Ulamog, Newlamog, and Blightsteel. If you're spending that much mana they need to do WORK, preferably with haste or after some MLD to seal the deal.
On the topic of Newlamog, 20 cards ain't nothing, and it's on top of an already fairly solid creature if you can make room for it. A lot of decks rely on two-card combos or assembling a wincon on the backs of 2-3 crucial cards. Hitting a Miakaeus, for instance, can hurt a deck's chances of winning, and most (good) decks won't include jank; every card lost is a card that was included for a reason! The effect on its own wouldn't be much to consider as a one-off, but on an indestructible critter that hits hard and exiles two permanents when it lands, it's a good way to cripple a player. Particularly in mono red, which arguably has the weakest counterplay against things like Doubling Season, Nekusar wheels, Tasigur recursion, Narset infini-turn-Walker-party-bomb, etc.
I'd say go for it; the Titans are all a good investment, since I don't think their popularity will wane in the future, and they're strong finishers to have for any deck that can ramp into them. They're also at this point an important part of Magic history. Keep your meta in mind, but don't be afraid to be the one that makes a splash and pushes people to up their game for deckbuilding and efficient play.