You know that this mechanic is going to cause all sorts of confusion because of its intervening "if", making it so it will only trigger if it's true when the new creature comes into play, and only successfully putting on a counter if it's still true when the trigger resolves. There will especially be a lot of people trying to kill the new creature in response, but this is an ability that would use last known information, right? Can someone more rules-savvy than myself weigh in on that?
It seems that most people are considering the two choices, enchantress or equipment, as if they were played the same way. If you are playing enchantress like a voltron deck, it's not going to be as good as an equipment-based voltron deck. But the real question is whether that's what you want to play. Enchantress can be very good, but you have to commit to it. Sure, if you're playing voltron, you'll still want to throw in Shield of the Oversoul and probably Indrik Umbra, but "enchantress" is a very different deck.
Enchantress lends itself to stronger controlling elements that try to lock up your opponents, limiting their ability to deal with your board state. So if you want to play a deck where you just play dangerous creatures and turn them sideways, the equipment is definitely the way to go. But if you would rather engage in a more subtle conflict of control and dominance, I'd recommend enchantress. I'd also recommend going with a more enchantress-friendly general like Gaddock Teeg.
Why is that? I always found Chrome Mox to be worse because it took action out of my hand and could usually only tap for 1 color of mana. Not to mention the fact that you can get the land back, but not the Chrome Mox's imprinted card.
The Chrome Mox is better most of the time unless you have at least 4 lands in your opening hand in addition to the mox because otherwise the mox isn't going to be getting you into big plays any sooner. For some examples: in my Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck, a Mox Diamond will let me drop one or two cheap wizards faster, but eating a land drop means she is probably not coming out any faster; in Radha, Heir to Keld, the diamond helps her come down on one, but so often leaves you without a relevant 3rd turn land drop.
Like I said, both moxes are good and definitely worth playing in most 1v1 decks, but the fact that really explosive plays usually require some land drops in addition to the mox are why the chrome is usually better in the opening hand. You can usually choose a card that's going to be less useful against your opponent to imprint easier than you can lose one of your opening lands.
While the two red trigger can be useful for casting some cheap burn at quasi-sorcery speed (which is much more relevant in 1v1 than multiplayer), it's really not something you should be tuning your deck to take advantage of. Certainly play some red instants, but don't play more than you otherwise would just because Radha can sometimes let you cast one, but doing so is only relevant in games where you didn't have to red mana or tapped out everything but Radha to play other things AND swinging with Radha isn't going to just get her dead (she is, after all, only a 2/2).
What makes Radha such a good general is that she guarantees you a 2 drop mana dork, meaning you can hit things like mwonvuli acid-moss or explosive vegetation or oracle of mul daya on three (or on two if you can turn one Radha with a mox or gemstone caverns or if you hit a turn one mana dork).
Monday night, our LGS held a competitive EDH tournament for a commanders arsenal, and it had such a good turnout that there was also about $120 of store credit given out in addition to the arsenal. My buddy won with Radha and here are some of the plays he made in the tournament: turn one Radha 7 out of the 10 games, turn one Thrun, the Last Troll (against a Geist control deck), turn three Deus of Calamity, and turn three Pattern of Rebirth on a Sakura-Tribe Elder to go get Terastodon, destroying his opponent's three lands. Keep in mind this was using the 1v1 banned list, so no Sol Rings, Mana Vaults, or Mana Crypts were involved. These are the kinds of explosively fast plays you should be gunning for with Radha.
Having played it in three different competitive decks, I found it generally not as good as Chrome Mox, but still very good since coming out fast is a big determiner in competitive EDH. And yes, I would play it in a deck w/ 35 lands. That is enough to make it effective.
If you're looking to have broodmother in play with other token producers to devour their tokens, I think you're playing her wrong. Why put multiple of your good token producers out to die to a board wipe when she can build a solid board position by herself? I would recommend trying to just sit on her and not overextend if you don't have to. Here's how I'd play her: make the 1/1s devouring nothing until the upkeep of the player before you. On that player's upkeep, have the new baby eat its siblings (probably only 2, maybe 3) so that it will be able to attack on your turn while also giving as few opponents as possible the opportunity to deal with it with sorceries. I think you'll find that if you get at least one large baby this way, your opponents will be left with little choice but to board wipe to deal with your roost. If they do, so be it. Then you can play more threats. But why run more good stuff out into a board wipe when she single-handedly forces it?
Perilous Forays lets you shuffle for 1 and a creature. That's the cheapest "at will" thing I can think of for you if you want to be able to do it multiple times a turn. If you only need to once per turn, Land Tax, Citanul Flute, and Weathered Wayfarer come to mind.
I think we're all unclear as to why the Astral Slide when there are lots of things that do synergize with Ink-Treader but you'd have to dilute that with the cycling stuff. I don't think you'll be able to fit enough cycling stuff in while still playing cards that are great for your general.
Since you only get to play one Astral Slide in your 99, you'd have to play a whole enchantment tutor package (none of which do anything with your general), protection/recursion for your Astral Slide (none of which do anything with your general), and a ton of cycling cards (none of which do anything very exciting with your general that I can think of; at best you turn Rescind into Evacuation, but Ink-Treader does that and draws you cards with Repulse).
I say forget about the Astral Slide, and just abuse the Nephilim to radiate cantrips and other fun things.
I am working on a Trostani deck designed to use populate. I would recommend considering the possibilities of populate with Dual Nature, Echo Chamber, and Minion Reflector, all ways to make token copies of your (or opponent's) non-token creatures without having to go into blue.
Well, it is undeniable that sharpie-ing in black borders greatly affects the value of the card. Also, it is pretty hard to do in a way that actually looks good. Even touching up a border to hide wear from play is glaringly obvious a the right angle. My preferred solution is to just get black border versions. For the less than 1% of cards that that's not an option, well, they're just meant to be white border. You get used to them only being white border. As much as I prefer black borders, I don't think, for example, my devastation would look better with a sharpie border.
Unlike with Luminarch Ascension, these guys only get one counter per time around the board rather than one each opponent's turn that you didn't take damage. Add onto that the fact that opponents can remove the counters--even multiple counters in a single attack--and I think that makes these guys fall well outside the realm of "playable" in multiplayer.
I almost went with the Nivmagus, but never underestimate the power of the Sphere of Safety even as the only enchantment to prevent lots of damage coming at your face.
Cremate only targets one card, instead of an entire graveyard, but one card is usually all you need.
That right there is where I think most people disagree with you. Yes, eliminating a single card is usually enough to stop a single effect that's trying to interact with the graveyard, but how many EDH games have very few instances of gy interaction?
Any GWB player will tell you how much more it hurts to lose their entire gy than a single card that they try to get back.
Seriously though, he looks like one of those pig-man guards at Jabba the Hutt's in Jedi.
Enchantress lends itself to stronger controlling elements that try to lock up your opponents, limiting their ability to deal with your board state. So if you want to play a deck where you just play dangerous creatures and turn them sideways, the equipment is definitely the way to go. But if you would rather engage in a more subtle conflict of control and dominance, I'd recommend enchantress. I'd also recommend going with a more enchantress-friendly general like Gaddock Teeg.
The Chrome Mox is better most of the time unless you have at least 4 lands in your opening hand in addition to the mox because otherwise the mox isn't going to be getting you into big plays any sooner. For some examples: in my Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck, a Mox Diamond will let me drop one or two cheap wizards faster, but eating a land drop means she is probably not coming out any faster; in Radha, Heir to Keld, the diamond helps her come down on one, but so often leaves you without a relevant 3rd turn land drop.
Like I said, both moxes are good and definitely worth playing in most 1v1 decks, but the fact that really explosive plays usually require some land drops in addition to the mox are why the chrome is usually better in the opening hand. You can usually choose a card that's going to be less useful against your opponent to imprint easier than you can lose one of your opening lands.
What makes Radha such a good general is that she guarantees you a 2 drop mana dork, meaning you can hit things like mwonvuli acid-moss or explosive vegetation or oracle of mul daya on three (or on two if you can turn one Radha with a mox or gemstone caverns or if you hit a turn one mana dork).
Monday night, our LGS held a competitive EDH tournament for a commanders arsenal, and it had such a good turnout that there was also about $120 of store credit given out in addition to the arsenal. My buddy won with Radha and here are some of the plays he made in the tournament: turn one Radha 7 out of the 10 games, turn one Thrun, the Last Troll (against a Geist control deck), turn three Deus of Calamity, and turn three Pattern of Rebirth on a Sakura-Tribe Elder to go get Terastodon, destroying his opponent's three lands. Keep in mind this was using the 1v1 banned list, so no Sol Rings, Mana Vaults, or Mana Crypts were involved. These are the kinds of explosively fast plays you should be gunning for with Radha.
Since you only get to play one Astral Slide in your 99, you'd have to play a whole enchantment tutor package (none of which do anything with your general), protection/recursion for your Astral Slide (none of which do anything with your general), and a ton of cycling cards (none of which do anything very exciting with your general that I can think of; at best you turn Rescind into Evacuation, but Ink-Treader does that and draws you cards with Repulse).
I say forget about the Astral Slide, and just abuse the Nephilim to radiate cantrips and other fun things.
If you're willing to go into blue, obviously there are a plethora more ways of making token copies including Dance of Many, Cackling Counterpart, Rite of Replication, and Spitting Image.
That right there is where I think most people disagree with you. Yes, eliminating a single card is usually enough to stop a single effect that's trying to interact with the graveyard, but how many EDH games have very few instances of gy interaction?
Any GWB player will tell you how much more it hurts to lose their entire gy than a single card that they try to get back.