I've really been enjoying type 4. It's the fun turns of commander and uses the kind of cards that got me interested in that format so many years ago. I have a 500 card stack that might increase to 550 soon.
Our rules are pretty simple:
We play from a communal library which makes scrying much more interesting. Starting and maximum hand size are both 7 as normal. No mulligans at all and starting life total of 20.
1 spell per turn, but spells played for an alternate cost don't count. Surge, morph, etc. For delve you have to delve at least one card away and you have to convoke at least one creature. Anything that puts stuff on the bottom of the communal library or shuffles it in just exiles.
Any tutors (of which there might only be Maralen of the Mournsong) let you look at the top 10, pick your card, and exile the rest.
In the case of a standoff, the defensive ability wins. Infinite toughness survives infinite damage essentially.
My stack is set up for fast and furious multiplayer games. It seems to be a bit higher powered than most as it was born out of the frustration with EDH games that either went super long and ended anticlimacticly or somebody dominated early and either win or knocked one person out an hour+ before the game actually ended. We can get probably 3 times the type 4 games in and everybody is on the same power level.
I don't run Temple of the false god in 3 color very often. It depends how color intensive your deck is. Rupture spire is terrible and you shouldn't run it at all.
Krosan verge is amazing and one you left out. It grabs bfz tango lands which are out of budget but something you might splurge on as Wood Elves and Skyshroud Claim can find forest types as well. Bfz tango lands can also be found with the mirage fetches.
Tainted Peak and the other tainted lands are great if you can reliably get swamps down early. Budget friendly as well. I don't run them in Zurgo because my build is really light on black but I do in Marchesa and all 2 color black decks.
Some temples might be outside your budget but they're definitely quite a bit better than khans gainlands or guildgates. Painlands are actually pretty good too because they don't come in tapped like most of the budget lands.
It also helps your mana base in 3 color decks if you focus on 2 colors and then splash the 3rd. My Zurgo deck is a Boris deck that splashes black for card draw like Ancient Craving. Most of the black cards only require 1 black mana and anything that requires more is something I can afford to wait to cast until later in the game.
A guy in my playgroup has this deck in full old card frame black border. We all have a deck or two like this and it's hilarious good fun. I'll take a look through it as soon as I can to find stuff that isn't just a knight. Noble Steeds comes to mind. It takes a lot of going though cards online or digging through a big collection to build a deck like this but it's so much fun to play, especially against other decks of similar power level. Remember to shout out your mighty general's flavor text whenever the opportunity arises.
It that Betrays is another big one for me. I can't stand it. I don't mind phallic stuff in card art. I love Ekundu Cyclops. I can't get over the giant, dangling eldrazi sausage on It. Love the eldrazi face (I think it's one of the coolest), hate the bottom half.
Fleshbag Marauder for sure. Both versions are terrible. I also can't stand Ron Soencer's art and generally avoid anything by him. I prefer the old card frame and the variety of styles in the older artwork. I like the goofy stuff like Foglio art and legends Moss Monster. Modern magic artwork is all a bit too similar for my tastes and a lot of the pieces don't have enough contrast to work at card size.
I'll run cards with art I don't like if it's the only version available, but will seek out different arts or the older card frame if possible. I won't run a commander with art I don't like. The only exception was Garza Zol, Plague Queen who I painted up an alternate card at oversized commander card size to run instead.
As I said in your other thread, Fellwar Stone is really weak here. Sol Ring is a million times better. I wouldn't run artifact ramp here with the possible exception of sol ring. In my Hazezon Tamar deck I don't run any mana rocks, although I have considered sol ring, and have been very happy with green ramp. Priest of Titania can make big mana easily with your general. Wood Elves is a Nature's Lore with a body. Creatures are nice because you can tutor for them easier with something like Chord of Calling (which you should consider) and recur with Sun Titan or Emeria Shepherd.
Martyr's Cause is hilarious. It straight up shuts down some decks with enough tokens. It depends on your meta and what you are up against often, but it's very good for me.
With a slow token production deck like this your big concerns are wraths and just being consistently shut down by control decks. It's all about speed, ability to survive wraths, and how fast you can rebuild your board position after one. A million token producers don't do anything if you can't build up a big enough board position to win.
Take a hard look at your planeswalkers and decide if they're pulling weight. They're cool but very vulnerable in this format. Doubling Season makes them more enticing, but they need to be able to make an impact the turn they come down without it. They don't typically last long.
Why not Sol Ring? It's the only mana rock I'd run in your deck. I wouldn't consider running any of the rocks you've mentioned in a Selesnya deck. You're probably going to be a lot better off with a Priest of Titania. It taps for at least 1, 2 if you have your general out, and potentially a lot more. A Wood Elves would fetch a dual for you. Even a Birds of Paradise would probably be better since it taps for both colors, can block in the air, or swing in the air if you have a global pump.
Green has way better mana ramp than rocks unless you play in some weird meta where mass land destruction is more common than artifact destruction. I'll comment on your full list later.
As far as your actual question, I'd probably go chalice first, then signet or talisman if you need the colored mana, then probably Star Compass.
That's my friend's Ob-Nixilis deck. Monoblack with a super effective artifact mana suite. There's 37 land, but it needs landfall and several of them don't generate mana at all. Really good artifact hate can put a serious damper on his plan. Note the Guardian Beast as keeper of the rocks.
The most important thing is whether or not your land base works for you. My monoblack Erebos deck runs 39 or 40 land and almost all are basics with just a few rocks and doublers. Draw and filtering can help you make all your land drops which is really important too. Most of my decks are probably half or close to it dedicated to mana production/ramp, some are more.
I got a few games in with this deck over the weekend. One I was doing well and close to exploding when the Omnath, Locus of Rage player dropped Avenger of Zendikar and top decked Boundless Realms the following turn to kill us all. The second game I hit boundless realms myself to go to 20 land and dropped Hazezon the following turn. Forced a haste enabler through and swung big at one opponent, then Skullclamped most of them away and Hazezon the following turn. I made even more sand warriors and beat another couple of counterspells to get another haste enabler and Beastmaster Ascension down to close out the game.
I've decided I need more wrath effects. This deck has done better when using politics to get others to wipe the board for me and struggled when nobody does. It actually wants to play kind of midrange combo where the early game does more control of fast aground decks before vomitting a bunch of sand warriors out. I think Rout is going in for versatility and the ability to use it as an instant right before my turn when sand warriors come out to remove blockers too. I'm not sure on what else, but probably another 1-2 wrath effects and another spot removal spell (STP) are going in. I'm considering something like Final Judgment, Terminus, or Hallowed Burial as I don't play out of the graveyard much and I have enough sac outlets. I'm looking for input on what would work well as well as what should come out.
I'm also considering putting Skullmulcher back in. I took it out early on because it sat in my hand early, but now that the deck is working more smoothly I could see it coming back in.
Edit: Reckless Bushwhacker was a nice addition. The 2 spell thing is easy to hit when I need it.
We play old school decks occasionally. All cards have to be old card frame and black bordered. Bonus points for silly tribes and/or generals from legends. There's not a lot of overlap with regular decks so it doesn't cannibalize other decks. Plus you have to hunt down specific printings of cards. We don't take it too seriously so nobody's dropped big bucks on beta stuff you can't run otherwise. Aesthetically, it creates the best looking board states in my opinion. It also lets you play magic like when you fist started and sucked due to the relative lack of efficient removal, draw, creatures, and ramp.
The problem with running all of several cycles is that decks are rarely equally divided between colors. Build your deck first and figure out the ratios of the different colors. Focus on getting nonbasics that tap for at least one of your main colors. tappedout is great for figuring out how well your mana source line up with the color requirements of your deck. You don't need duals and shocks and fetches. I'd argue a few basics are important as well, as you can run cards like Cultivate to ramp and ensure you hit your colors, although those are obviously better in green-heavy decks.
Shocks are the bes bang for your buck in terms of duals. They can come in untapped if you need them to and have the basic land types. You can fetch them with stuff like Krosan Verge, Farseek, and Skyshroud Claim. You can also find them with fetches or the slower mirage fetches.
There are several cheap cycles of nonbasics that could work well for you:
Pain lands (Llanowar Wastes): $1-$2 each I think, come in untapped, and get 2 colors. There are both enemy and allied lands.
BFZ tango lands (Cinder Glade): cheaper than shocks but less likely to enter untapped in 5 color. The basic types are great for the same reasons as the shocks. If you don't get shocks it might be worth running the forest and plains tango lands just for Krosan Verge as you can get 4 colors off that 1 land. Unfortunately there are only allied colors.
Vivid lands (Vivid Grove): come in tapped but get mana of any color twice which is usually enough to get you going.
Check lands (Rootbound Crag): can come in untapped if you have a basic type land. Really strong if you can consistently get them in untapped. Allied colors are cheap, enemy colors are less cheap. If you're heavier in certain colors and have enough of that basic type, it might be worth picking up a few in the colors you think you can reliably have untapped.
3 color tapped lands from alara and khans: cheap for most of them and get you 3 colors, but always come in tapped.
Tainted lands (Tainted Isle): are cheap and great if you're heavy in black and can reliably turn them on. Most sliver decks aren't deep into black though.
Too many lands coming in tapped puts you behind everyone else by a turn basically. Too many complete cycles weakens the deck by unbalancing your manabase although it feel nice and neat when looking at a decklist.
So after almost 2 months with the points in my account on pucatrade, I have a Sneak Attack on the way! The next step is to get my manabase to the point where I can abuse it with enough red. My land base is currently really budget but has been working. I don't have duals, fetches, shocks, or filter lands. I'm heaviest in black, then blue, then red so I think I'm only running 2 basic mountains vs probably 7 swamps and 5-6 islands. Should I just start swapping out swamps for Graven Cairns and islands for Steam Vents so my overall amount of blue and black don't decrease but I get more red sources? Just focus on the red Nonbasics? I am on a budget as I don't get to play magic that often and I have other decks I keep up as well.
Why not run Valakut, the Molten Pinacle since you're mono-red? There are enough mountains in here to turn it on easily, especially if you add Thawing Glaciers too. Glaciers is super slow but helped in my Daretti deck to consistently hit land drops in a color that struggles with draw and ramp.
Why not run Squee, Goblin Nabob as another matron target? He works really well with red looting. Goblin Replica is mana-intensive but is a goblin for matron and an artifact as well.
Shattering Spree was great for me to help keep opposing artifacts at bay and slow down mana rocks.
Our rules are pretty simple:
We play from a communal library which makes scrying much more interesting. Starting and maximum hand size are both 7 as normal. No mulligans at all and starting life total of 20.
1 spell per turn, but spells played for an alternate cost don't count. Surge, morph, etc. For delve you have to delve at least one card away and you have to convoke at least one creature. Anything that puts stuff on the bottom of the communal library or shuffles it in just exiles.
Any tutors (of which there might only be Maralen of the Mournsong) let you look at the top 10, pick your card, and exile the rest.
In the case of a standoff, the defensive ability wins. Infinite toughness survives infinite damage essentially.
My stack is set up for fast and furious multiplayer games. It seems to be a bit higher powered than most as it was born out of the frustration with EDH games that either went super long and ended anticlimacticly or somebody dominated early and either win or knocked one person out an hour+ before the game actually ended. We can get probably 3 times the type 4 games in and everybody is on the same power level.
Krosan verge is amazing and one you left out. It grabs bfz tango lands which are out of budget but something you might splurge on as Wood Elves and Skyshroud Claim can find forest types as well. Bfz tango lands can also be found with the mirage fetches.
Tainted Peak and the other tainted lands are great if you can reliably get swamps down early. Budget friendly as well. I don't run them in Zurgo because my build is really light on black but I do in Marchesa and all 2 color black decks.
Some temples might be outside your budget but they're definitely quite a bit better than khans gainlands or guildgates. Painlands are actually pretty good too because they don't come in tapped like most of the budget lands.
It also helps your mana base in 3 color decks if you focus on 2 colors and then splash the 3rd. My Zurgo deck is a Boris deck that splashes black for card draw like Ancient Craving. Most of the black cards only require 1 black mana and anything that requires more is something I can afford to wait to cast until later in the game.
I'll run cards with art I don't like if it's the only version available, but will seek out different arts or the older card frame if possible. I won't run a commander with art I don't like. The only exception was Garza Zol, Plague Queen who I painted up an alternate card at oversized commander card size to run instead.
Avenger of Zendikar is powerful. Especially compared to Honden of Life's Web, which seems weaker than Avenger. Or Rampaging Baloths. Or Emeria Angel.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is also really good. I see her pulling more weight in here than Ajani Steadfast.
Twilight Drover is pretty solid. Requiem Angel also does a similar job but is better against wraths.
Martyr's Cause is hilarious. It straight up shuts down some decks with enough tokens. It depends on your meta and what you are up against often, but it's very good for me.
With a slow token production deck like this your big concerns are wraths and just being consistently shut down by control decks. It's all about speed, ability to survive wraths, and how fast you can rebuild your board position after one. A million token producers don't do anything if you can't build up a big enough board position to win.
Take a hard look at your planeswalkers and decide if they're pulling weight. They're cool but very vulnerable in this format. Doubling Season makes them more enticing, but they need to be able to make an impact the turn they come down without it. They don't typically last long.
Green has way better mana ramp than rocks unless you play in some weird meta where mass land destruction is more common than artifact destruction. I'll comment on your full list later.
As far as your actual question, I'd probably go chalice first, then signet or talisman if you need the colored mana, then probably Star Compass.
That's my friend's Ob-Nixilis deck. Monoblack with a super effective artifact mana suite. There's 37 land, but it needs landfall and several of them don't generate mana at all. Really good artifact hate can put a serious damper on his plan. Note the Guardian Beast as keeper of the rocks.
The most important thing is whether or not your land base works for you. My monoblack Erebos deck runs 39 or 40 land and almost all are basics with just a few rocks and doublers. Draw and filtering can help you make all your land drops which is really important too. Most of my decks are probably half or close to it dedicated to mana production/ramp, some are more.
I've decided I need more wrath effects. This deck has done better when using politics to get others to wipe the board for me and struggled when nobody does. It actually wants to play kind of midrange combo where the early game does more control of fast aground decks before vomitting a bunch of sand warriors out. I think Rout is going in for versatility and the ability to use it as an instant right before my turn when sand warriors come out to remove blockers too. I'm not sure on what else, but probably another 1-2 wrath effects and another spot removal spell (STP) are going in. I'm considering something like Final Judgment, Terminus, or Hallowed Burial as I don't play out of the graveyard much and I have enough sac outlets. I'm looking for input on what would work well as well as what should come out.
Thawing Glaciers is coming out. It's too slow without something like Rings of Brighthearth or Deserted Temple to abuse it. Iv acquired both bfz tango lands, allied check lands, and a Temple Garden. Still waiting on the other shocks. It doesn't take long to search out all the basics so glaciers isn't that helpful. That slot will become Stomping Ground. Farhaven Elf has become Wood Elves.
I'm also considering putting Skullmulcher back in. I took it out early on because it sat in my hand early, but now that the deck is working more smoothly I could see it coming back in.
Edit: Reckless Bushwhacker was a nice addition. The 2 spell thing is easy to hit when I need it.
Lands you should probably run:
Shocks are the bes bang for your buck in terms of duals. They can come in untapped if you need them to and have the basic land types. You can fetch them with stuff like Krosan Verge, Farseek, and Skyshroud Claim. You can also find them with fetches or the slower mirage fetches.
There are several cheap cycles of nonbasics that could work well for you:
Pain lands (Llanowar Wastes): $1-$2 each I think, come in untapped, and get 2 colors. There are both enemy and allied lands.
BFZ tango lands (Cinder Glade): cheaper than shocks but less likely to enter untapped in 5 color. The basic types are great for the same reasons as the shocks. If you don't get shocks it might be worth running the forest and plains tango lands just for Krosan Verge as you can get 4 colors off that 1 land. Unfortunately there are only allied colors.
Vivid lands (Vivid Grove): come in tapped but get mana of any color twice which is usually enough to get you going.
Check lands (Rootbound Crag): can come in untapped if you have a basic type land. Really strong if you can consistently get them in untapped. Allied colors are cheap, enemy colors are less cheap. If you're heavier in certain colors and have enough of that basic type, it might be worth picking up a few in the colors you think you can reliably have untapped.
3 color tapped lands from alara and khans: cheap for most of them and get you 3 colors, but always come in tapped.
Tainted lands (Tainted Isle): are cheap and great if you're heavy in black and can reliably turn them on. Most sliver decks aren't deep into black though.
Too many lands coming in tapped puts you behind everyone else by a turn basically. Too many complete cycles weakens the deck by unbalancing your manabase although it feel nice and neat when looking at a decklist.
Why not run Squee, Goblin Nabob as another matron target? He works really well with red looting. Goblin Replica is mana-intensive but is a goblin for matron and an artifact as well.
Shattering Spree was great for me to help keep opposing artifacts at bay and slow down mana rocks.