I just ran into a thought while pondering Primordial Mist, and that's Mastery of the Unseen.
It's a good card on its own - the ability does cost 3W, relatively expensive, but keep in mind that there's both the manifested card that we can turn up (only if it's a creature), and the card that we draw from the Ephara trigger, so that can still be 2 mana for each card.
I also remembered the extent to which we can save our manifested cards:
Cloudstone Curio means we can produce tokens / cast Whitemane Lion and both return the card to our hand and gain an Ephara trigger.
I'm once again thinking of cards like Devastation Tide which bounce our board to our hand when drawn, but this is probably overthinking.
Also, the lifegain could be huge, since it counts all creatures you control. It's definitely a selling point, as I often find my life total drops the fastest in my meta.
Last but not least, it's also fetchable with Muddle.
I'd say running one without the other would be silly since they could have some amazing synergy. You could choose to turn up face-down creatures for lifegain, or exile and recast for protection and for additional card draw.
What do you think?
EDIT: For the record, Ixidor, Reality Sculptor is probably not good enough, but after looking at the rulings, it appears that creatures Ixidron flips face down can't turn back face up (unless they have morph or megamorph). Since Primordial Mist provides us a way to get around this, both cards when used together could be used to break parity - making the opponents' board meaningless while we get to draw a ton of cards and bounce Ixidron as a giant vanilla. But again, probably not strong enough.
I made a t1 play once, while on the draw, which consisted of a Double Stroke'd DR (BBBBBB), into Braids and Bloodghast. My opponent would be forced to sac their only land, then in my turn I would sac the Bloodghast and have a land drop (recurring the Bloodghast), and make a play, rinse and repeat.
It was one of the greatest plays in the history of the cube, but apparently about the only memorable play with DR, so it was eventually cut.
If you like Liliana of the Veil, why not Liliana, Heretical Healer? She can come back with Meren, you can flip her pretty much as soon as you want, she increases in loyalty faster, and is a recursion engine on her own.
I know it's a rather underwhelming card, but it is a very cheap way for red to interact with enchantments, something it completely lacks.
Even if it's good enough it'll probably only go in large 720 card cubes, but I think this is a discussion worth having.
Worst case: you play it versus an opponent's Animate Dead enchanting a Griselbrand. Opponent takes 2 damage, you lose the game.
Best case: you play it versus an opponent's Control Magic on your Glorybringer, and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
If it gets rid of even 1 important enchantment (that you get to choose), then it pretty much acted as a red Disenchant, which is why I think that is the important comparison we can make.
I think it might be better than the worse end of burn-only red cards, perhaps like Shrine of Burning Rage. It would make a much more interesting pick in a draft setting than said burn cards in my opinion...
It is definitely on my radar too. I'm not sure. It is possible it's stronger than sacred mesa.
I think your reasoning is sound and it's worth a try. I'll probably get one and ponder it.
I don't think we have room for a ton of this kind of card (expensive enchantment engine) but I do like the corner case that it gets us out from under ixidron lol.
I'd probably try swapping it in for sacred mesa and testing it. It's a bit less powerful in a vacuum but it is a lot less Mana intensive which I like.
Stock probably goes up the more flash dudes and flash enablers you have. And it's the nuts with displacer obviously but so is everything.
I think we could run Ixidron ourselves if we have this card. It solves a lot of our problems with big scary evasive creatures, and we could bounce/blink it all day to protect ourselves if we are in trouble. However, it does suck against token swarms.
Personally I would not slot out Sacred Mesa for it. I'm not even sure it has a place in your deck - not enough instants and flash stuff. But I'll try it out for sure.
After giving it some proper thought, Primordial Mist started to intrigue me.
Firstly, it replaces itself in your hand the turn it comes into play.
Secondly, it's hard to remove as an enchantment.
Thirdly, we get to make stuff in our deck into 2/2s, then cast that stuff.
It's pretty much extending our hand and the number of cards that we can play, and and the casting restrictions can be much lighter than one might think - if we exile a face-down creature we can cast that card for the entire turn. You declare attackers with a bunch of 2/2s, an opponent blocks, then we exile them and get to cast Whitemane Lion, Counterspell, and Swords to Plowshares for that opponent's entire turn. It can put a real damper on their plans.
However, the restrictions still exist. If we manifest Elspeth, Sun's Champion, we have to wait an entire round to exile the manifested creature then play it for 4WW, then the enchantment might manifest another card that's sorcery speed, and that feels bad. What's more is that the creatures don't even come out that fast - one per round isn't a lot.
However, I think it should be considered very heavily. Manifesting whitemane then exiling-into-playing it on an opponent's turn is some real card advantage. It gives Elesh norn more of what to buff. With Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, card advantage can become ridiculous.
I'm incredibly worried about Myth Unbound.
Not only does it provide one-sided advantage to green, and allow it to be more reliant on your Commander than other colors can, but another already problematic card in green will claim it into its Titanic Jaws - Food Chain. If food chain wasn't already incredibly strong with green commanders and allowed ridiculous combos to happen, this card will break even more commanders with it.
I know there will always be combo players and decks, and I like combo - it's just that both Food Chain and Myth Unbound enable very boring two-card combos of "have this card in play, cast your Commander a thousand times and win". Also, since your Commander doesn't die and goes to the command zone, it's one less way for opponents to interact with it with stuff like Blood Artist.
I suspect (or hope) that this printing will cause either Food Chain or Myth Unbound to be looked at as bannable - either way this is a conversation we should be having.
How would artifact ephara look like, apart from the servo factory (which is pretty weak on its own)?
I think lifegain ephara still needs a closer look, but either of these builds will be very suboptimal.
I, for one, am looking forward to some good new azorius cards from the new Ravnica sets. The previous iteration had Sphinx's Revelation, which defined the format. Now a new Gideon is asking to be printed, as well as a new card for Isperia and Lavinia. Perhaps one of them will be a good hatebear.
Why does Scouting Trek net you advantage with Manabond? The lands don't end up in your hand.
You didn't comment on the rest of the cards I'd offered though, and I think there are some really interesting suggestions.
Of course Meloku is great for you, and also Overburden, Mana Vortex, and Kefnet the Mindful seem to be very useful.
Kefnet is one that I know people think is bad, but with all your draw triggers seven cards shouldn't be a big issue for you, and his ability is very relevant since you like bouncing your lands.
I also think that either Devastation Tide or Cyclonic Rift should be in your deck. I know they're everywhere, but that's because they're so effective at what they do.
EDIT: Also, the classic Sylvan Safekeeper can help protect your commander. That's important since your deck is so reliant on it.
I feel like Overburden is a card that this deck could like. Bouncing lands gives you more triggers for your commander - and I don't think you actually ever lack them. Your opponents, though, could suffer greatly from the effect, especially decks like Animar or Karador, or aggressive creature decks. If you want to go further down this route you could try Mana Vortex, but you did mention that your deck is already "unfun".
Saccing lands in blue is actually something that's rarely truly been explored, so I think you have a lot of room for new secret tech cards. Stuff like Excavation, Psychic Vortex, Rushing River, etc. Obviously these are pretty bad, but they might be a good start.
Of course bouncing lands is much more common, and I'm still disappointed to see no Meloku the Clouded Mirror as a classic, no Kefnet the Mindful as a new power card, and no Uyo, Silent Prophet to copy stuff like Explosive Vegetation for ridiculous combos. I am also surprised to see that your Floodbringer isn't Oboro Breezecaller to combo with stuff like Maze of Ith. I also think Soratami Savant is worth a try - 3 mana is a lot to keep up all the time.
Finally, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is a card.
Expanding on that, green has recently received more tools for mass land recursion, like The Mending of Dominaria and World Shaper. They include some self mill which would go well with your LFTL and Crucible package.
Another thing that you should heavily consider is that your board control is quite lacking. Sure, it's green's weakness, but blue has more than enough to cover for it with mass bounce. Nonland bounce is especially common, and especially effective since most of what you care about are your commander and lands - so mass bouncing shouldn't be a problem. Devastation Tide, Cyclonic Rift, Turbulent Dreams, Distorting Wake... They take care of a LOT of problems.
Just noticed your list. Very interesting take on a usually monochrome commander.
I like your Inspiring Statuary / Trail of Evidence synergy, it's something I've always wanted to do. An obvious shoe-in to this strategy is Storm the Vault - it's not amazing, but it's not dead, since Kess being a filer can often net you a Lotus Petal. However flipping it can be absolutely backbreaking for your opponents, especially if you run cards like Torment of Hailfire which you'd mentioned.
I'll also second earlier recommendations about Primal Amulet. Doubling spells can be very strong, especially if you can double a second time when you cast it from your graveyard.
It's a good card on its own - the ability does cost 3W, relatively expensive, but keep in mind that there's both the manifested card that we can turn up (only if it's a creature), and the card that we draw from the Ephara trigger, so that can still be 2 mana for each card.
I also remembered the extent to which we can save our manifested cards:
Also, the lifegain could be huge, since it counts all creatures you control. It's definitely a selling point, as I often find my life total drops the fastest in my meta.
Last but not least, it's also fetchable with Muddle.
I'd say running one without the other would be silly since they could have some amazing synergy. You could choose to turn up face-down creatures for lifegain, or exile and recast for protection and for additional card draw.
What do you think?
EDIT: For the record, Ixidor, Reality Sculptor is probably not good enough, but after looking at the rulings, it appears that creatures Ixidron flips face down can't turn back face up (unless they have morph or megamorph). Since Primordial Mist provides us a way to get around this, both cards when used together could be used to break parity - making the opponents' board meaningless while we get to draw a ton of cards and bounce Ixidron as a giant vanilla. But again, probably not strong enough.
It was one of the greatest plays in the history of the cube, but apparently about the only memorable play with DR, so it was eventually cut.
I know it's a rather underwhelming card, but it is a very cheap way for red to interact with enchantments, something it completely lacks.
Even if it's good enough it'll probably only go in large 720 card cubes, but I think this is a discussion worth having.
Worst case: you play it versus an opponent's Animate Dead enchanting a Griselbrand. Opponent takes 2 damage, you lose the game.
Best case: you play it versus an opponent's Control Magic on your Glorybringer, and they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
More uses: versus Moat, Oblivion Ring, Sylvan Library, Phyrexian Arena, Purphoros, God of the Forge, etc.
If it gets rid of even 1 important enchantment (that you get to choose), then it pretty much acted as a red Disenchant, which is why I think that is the important comparison we can make.
I think it might be better than the worse end of burn-only red cards, perhaps like Shrine of Burning Rage. It would make a much more interesting pick in a draft setting than said burn cards in my opinion...
What do you guys think?
I think we could run Ixidron ourselves if we have this card. It solves a lot of our problems with big scary evasive creatures, and we could bounce/blink it all day to protect ourselves if we are in trouble. However, it does suck against token swarms.
Personally I would not slot out Sacred Mesa for it. I'm not even sure it has a place in your deck - not enough instants and flash stuff. But I'll try it out for sure.
Firstly, it replaces itself in your hand the turn it comes into play.
Secondly, it's hard to remove as an enchantment.
Thirdly, we get to make stuff in our deck into 2/2s, then cast that stuff.
It's pretty much extending our hand and the number of cards that we can play, and and the casting restrictions can be much lighter than one might think - if we exile a face-down creature we can cast that card for the entire turn. You declare attackers with a bunch of 2/2s, an opponent blocks, then we exile them and get to cast Whitemane Lion, Counterspell, and Swords to Plowshares for that opponent's entire turn. It can put a real damper on their plans.
However, the restrictions still exist. If we manifest Elspeth, Sun's Champion, we have to wait an entire round to exile the manifested creature then play it for 4WW, then the enchantment might manifest another card that's sorcery speed, and that feels bad. What's more is that the creatures don't even come out that fast - one per round isn't a lot.
However, I think it should be considered very heavily. Manifesting whitemane then exiling-into-playing it on an opponent's turn is some real card advantage. It gives Elesh norn more of what to buff. With Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, card advantage can become ridiculous.
What do you think?
Not only does it provide one-sided advantage to green, and allow it to be more reliant on your Commander than other colors can, but another already problematic card in green will claim it into its Titanic Jaws - Food Chain. If food chain wasn't already incredibly strong with green commanders and allowed ridiculous combos to happen, this card will break even more commanders with it.
I know there will always be combo players and decks, and I like combo - it's just that both Food Chain and Myth Unbound enable very boring two-card combos of "have this card in play, cast your Commander a thousand times and win". Also, since your Commander doesn't die and goes to the command zone, it's one less way for opponents to interact with it with stuff like Blood Artist.
I suspect (or hope) that this printing will cause either Food Chain or Myth Unbound to be looked at as bannable - either way this is a conversation we should be having.
I think lifegain ephara still needs a closer look, but either of these builds will be very suboptimal.
I, for one, am looking forward to some good new azorius cards from the new Ravnica sets. The previous iteration had Sphinx's Revelation, which defined the format. Now a new Gideon is asking to be printed, as well as a new card for Isperia and Lavinia. Perhaps one of them will be a good hatebear.
You didn't comment on the rest of the cards I'd offered though, and I think there are some really interesting suggestions.
Of course Meloku is great for you, and also Overburden, Mana Vortex, and Kefnet the Mindful seem to be very useful.
Kefnet is one that I know people think is bad, but with all your draw triggers seven cards shouldn't be a big issue for you, and his ability is very relevant since you like bouncing your lands.
I also think that either Devastation Tide or Cyclonic Rift should be in your deck. I know they're everywhere, but that's because they're so effective at what they do.
EDIT: Also, the classic Sylvan Safekeeper can help protect your commander. That's important since your deck is so reliant on it.
I feel like Overburden is a card that this deck could like. Bouncing lands gives you more triggers for your commander - and I don't think you actually ever lack them. Your opponents, though, could suffer greatly from the effect, especially decks like Animar or Karador, or aggressive creature decks. If you want to go further down this route you could try Mana Vortex, but you did mention that your deck is already "unfun".
Saccing lands in blue is actually something that's rarely truly been explored, so I think you have a lot of room for new secret tech cards. Stuff like Excavation, Psychic Vortex, Rushing River, etc. Obviously these are pretty bad, but they might be a good start.
Of course bouncing lands is much more common, and I'm still disappointed to see no Meloku the Clouded Mirror as a classic, no Kefnet the Mindful as a new power card, and no Uyo, Silent Prophet to copy stuff like Explosive Vegetation for ridiculous combos. I am also surprised to see that your Floodbringer isn't Oboro Breezecaller to combo with stuff like Maze of Ith. I also think Soratami Savant is worth a try - 3 mana is a lot to keep up all the time.
Finally, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is a card.
Expanding on that, green has recently received more tools for mass land recursion, like The Mending of Dominaria and World Shaper. They include some self mill which would go well with your LFTL and Crucible package.
Another thing that you should heavily consider is that your board control is quite lacking. Sure, it's green's weakness, but blue has more than enough to cover for it with mass bounce. Nonland bounce is especially common, and especially effective since most of what you care about are your commander and lands - so mass bouncing shouldn't be a problem. Devastation Tide, Cyclonic Rift, Turbulent Dreams, Distorting Wake... They take care of a LOT of problems.
I'd remove cards like Scouting Trek and Summer Bloom, but I'm not sure on what else to cut.
I like your Inspiring Statuary / Trail of Evidence synergy, it's something I've always wanted to do. An obvious shoe-in to this strategy is Storm the Vault - it's not amazing, but it's not dead, since Kess being a filer can often net you a Lotus Petal. However flipping it can be absolutely backbreaking for your opponents, especially if you run cards like Torment of Hailfire which you'd mentioned.
I'll also second earlier recommendations about Primal Amulet. Doubling spells can be very strong, especially if you can double a second time when you cast it from your graveyard.
I will mention that I think looting is very good with this commander. There are very good cards in your colors that enable it, like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Jaya Ballard, Faithless Looting, Chandra, Flamecaller, Fact or Fiction as mentioned, and others.
There are also some very good cards that go well with your strategy and help you become more consistent, like River Kelpie, Secrets of the Dead, Burning Vengeance.
Those are my two cents, curious to see where else this will go.
Resplendent Angel has just been spoiled. I think this type of deck is actually starting to get dangerous!
I'd add Darien, King of Kjeldor as another token engine with more cards such as Suture Priest and Shattered Angel. Archangel of Thune is becoming a must have for this type of deck.