Garruk can definitely stick around after a board wipe to make beasts, but I find the fact that he's a 4-mana overrun to be much more relevant. Openings that involve vomiting a bunch of elves onto the board on turns 1 and 2, then on turn 3 playing Garruk, untapping two lands and playing more elves, are easy turn 4 wins.
Somehow I completely missed the card Lifecrafter's Bestiary. It has truly been a standout in my testing so far (I replaced Lead the Stampede with it), and it goes bonkers with infinite mana.
The whole "Elfball" strategy is very sensitive to the number of elves in your deck. A hand with two or sometimes even just one vizier can fail to hit critical mass, as they don't work with archdruid, heritage druid, dwynen's elite, ezuri, etc. So, IMO if you want to run the full playsets of viziers, you should probably just dedicate yourself to winning via the combo, and more or less give up on the elfball plan.
Uncage for 2 seems worse than Lead and more expensive. Uncage for 3 seems better than Lead but even more expensive. In the end I'm not convinced it's worth it.
How is it going for you? Staff of Domination seems too cute. For 3 mana, I'd rather just play Archdruid, Ezuri or Shaman, widens the board and keeps you close to lethal.
EDIT: Just realized you have 4 Spellskites and 4 Spirits. Aren't you better off having Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel in those spots?
The main problems I've been having with the other versions of the deck are:
1) Getting the infinite mana combo off, but not having anything to do with it
2) Sweepers and other strategic removal stopping the elf ball
Between these two scenarios, the deck has just been too inconsistent for me in the other forms. I've found the Staff to be good because it adds another infinite mana combo while also being an infinite mana win condition for druid/vizier, so it sorta kills two birds with one stone. Really, the deck doesn't need heritage druid or nettle sentinel to win, it just needs to untap with either a Devoted Druid or an Archdruid. But, that's hard to do without selfless / spellskite. Just my $0.02.
The amount you pay for cards is not the same thing as what they are worth. Just because you paid $50 each for two cards (or two of anything, for that matter) doesn't mean they have equal intrinsic value. It just means someone convinced you, right or wrong, to spend that amount. Value is not wholly encapsulated and forever locked by putting a one-time price tag on something.
This "$50 dollars of digital cards = $50 dollars of physical cards" semantics game is red herring. It's an attempt to score cheap points with a rhetorical trick, rather than make a real argument.
People need to drop the flavor argument. It doesn't work. This is a card game, and so there will always be room to complain about flavor.
and Visara the Dreadful killing another Visara the Dreadful
and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa blocking Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
and Kamahl, Pit Fighter committing suicidal 2 times
and Olivia Voldaren menacing another Olivia Voldaren
and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born killing another Grimgrin, Corpse-Born on attack
and 2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn kissing
and 2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre trying to self destroy
and 2 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
and 2 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
and 2 Progenitus
A lot of these were ALREADY possible with the former rules. Visara can kill herself just by being played. Kamahl can commit suicide twice with no problems, you just have to play him twice. Grimgrin can kill himself by being played. So can Ulamog. Etc. Also, Olivia still can't still steal herself, but she can still kill herself under both rules.
Moreover, legendary creatures exploding when a clone made a copy of them never made flavor sense. It is much more flavorful to have an actual copy created that sticks around, and let them duke it out to see which is the 'real' one.
If you're going to argue against this change, argue against the mechanics. Things like the Thespian's stage combo and the relative strengthening of cards like Geist are valid concerns.
This...may actually be a good ramp finisher. It turns all your rampy elves and other spells into sweet, sweet death, while gaining you 3-6 life a turn. I suspect it's better than people are giving it credit for.
As much as people don't want to admit it, mechanics have nothing to do with 'feeling' mythic. People judge mythics almost entirely on flavor.
If a card's flavor is such that it feels generic (Vengevine, Vorapede, Nirkana Revenant, Legion's Initiative, etc.), people will complain it doesn't feel mythic. If I told you that any one of those was the name of a common card, you probably wouldn't be surprised. What's so special about a "Misthollow Griffin" or a "Rampaging Baloths" anyways? Magic is stuffed full of cards like those.
However, if a card's flavor is such that it feels unique and special ("Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord", "Sorin, Lord of Innistrad", "Elbrus, the Binding Blade", etc.), then people will accept it 'feels' mythic, no matter how lame the card winds up being. You would be shocked to hear that "Godsire" or "Hellkite Overlord" were the names of common cards, for example.
WotC just needs to improve their naming, and they won't have this "doesn't feel mythic" problem nearly as much.
Legion's Initiatiave -> Tajic's Master Plan
Giant Adephage -> Adephage Worldeater
Vengevine -> Will of the Forest
Nirkana Revenant -> Nirkana Ghastlord
And so on. Every mechanic in Magic has been done to death already; what makes the cards feel unique tends to be their flavor, not their mechanics. These feel generic because they're named after generic things. For example, it would be hard to make anything called "Regular Soldier" feel mythic, no matter what you did to it. But make him, "Alistair, Destined for the Throne" and he would probably feel mythic no matter how lame he turned out.
Looks promising, although I suppose the effect isn't really that different from Shaman of the Pack.
The main problems I've been having with the other versions of the deck are:
1) Getting the infinite mana combo off, but not having anything to do with it
2) Sweepers and other strategic removal stopping the elf ball
Between these two scenarios, the deck has just been too inconsistent for me in the other forms. I've found the Staff to be good because it adds another infinite mana combo while also being an infinite mana win condition for druid/vizier, so it sorta kills two birds with one stone. Really, the deck doesn't need heritage druid or nettle sentinel to win, it just needs to untap with either a Devoted Druid or an Archdruid. But, that's hard to do without selfless / spellskite. Just my $0.02.
3x Staff of Domination
Creatures
4x Elvish Mystic
2x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Devoted Druid
2x Vizier of Remedies
4x Selfless Spirit
4x Spellskite
3x Elvish Archdruid
3x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1x Walking Ballista
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Lands
8x Forest
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Horizon Canopy
2x Razorverge Thicket
Pretty different from most of these lists.
This "$50 dollars of digital cards = $50 dollars of physical cards" semantics game is red herring. It's an attempt to score cheap points with a rhetorical trick, rather than make a real argument.
A lot of these were ALREADY possible with the former rules. Visara can kill herself just by being played. Kamahl can commit suicide twice with no problems, you just have to play him twice. Grimgrin can kill himself by being played. So can Ulamog. Etc. Also, Olivia still can't still steal herself, but she can still kill herself under both rules.
Moreover, legendary creatures exploding when a clone made a copy of them never made flavor sense. It is much more flavorful to have an actual copy created that sticks around, and let them duke it out to see which is the 'real' one.
If you're going to argue against this change, argue against the mechanics. Things like the Thespian's stage combo and the relative strengthening of cards like Geist are valid concerns.
If a card's flavor is such that it feels generic (Vengevine, Vorapede, Nirkana Revenant, Legion's Initiative, etc.), people will complain it doesn't feel mythic. If I told you that any one of those was the name of a common card, you probably wouldn't be surprised. What's so special about a "Misthollow Griffin" or a "Rampaging Baloths" anyways? Magic is stuffed full of cards like those.
However, if a card's flavor is such that it feels unique and special ("Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord", "Sorin, Lord of Innistrad", "Elbrus, the Binding Blade", etc.), then people will accept it 'feels' mythic, no matter how lame the card winds up being. You would be shocked to hear that "Godsire" or "Hellkite Overlord" were the names of common cards, for example.
Legion's Initiatiave -> Tajic's Master Plan
Giant Adephage -> Adephage Worldeater
Vengevine -> Will of the Forest
Nirkana Revenant -> Nirkana Ghastlord
And so on. Every mechanic in Magic has been done to death already; what makes the cards feel unique tends to be their flavor, not their mechanics. These feel generic because they're named after generic things. For example, it would be hard to make anything called "Regular Soldier" feel mythic, no matter what you did to it. But make him, "Alistair, Destined for the Throne" and he would probably feel mythic no matter how lame he turned out.