2 casting cost, can be countered. I'm not sure. I like the hell out of it and may even play it, but not as a replacement for Rending Volley in the Twin matchup.
Edit: though it is 2 *colorless*.....hmmmmm. I'm starting to think it has MD potential.
Heck, it also opens up T3 Ugin/OStone activation in very limited circumstances.
I'm actively running this experiment. Karplusan Forests instead of Groves but all the other money cards are present (4 karns, 4 ostones, 1 ugin, 2 ulamog, 3 wurmcoils, 2 spellskites, etc)
In FNM matches I'm 4 games won and 4 games loss. 0 losses were affected by Karplusan Forest. Need more data.
You all have convinced me, a player out of the game since before Modern even existed, to pick this up and run with it. Getting to play with cards like Karn Liberated and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is just too compelling to pass up. (in actuality, I've been playing Standard and Commander for a few months so I'm not completely restarting from scratch).
I've bought pretty much the list Runnin posted above -1 Ugin, +1 pyroclasm, except going with Karplusan Forests instead of Grove of the Burnwillows as a purely financial decision, but I'm looking forward to dropping turn 3 Karns and so on and reporting back. I'm going to try to keep track of how many times karplusan burns me when grove would have not to see how much an extra ~$250 would have gone for me.
I ran this in child of alara, because I am a bad person. More efficient, less reliable version of corpse dance. Which is a better version of genesis and volrath's stronghold. So I dedicated the deck to searching up one or the other, along with a sac outlet, around turn 4-5 every game. Did I mention I was a bad person?
LOL, this was the first EDH deck I made. Am I bad too?
And it has destroyed every other commander deck(s) I've encountered. Nothing short of non-stop counter-magic can stop you and even then it's not guaranteed as you've baked in some answers. In a 3-man last night I destroyed the other two players and then really destroyed them when they both came after me the next game with Slivers and Animar. I think graveyard hate is what it takes to beat me because the recursion is off the charts. Thanks for the decklist and ideas; wasting every nonland permanent at will is just unfair.
Edit 11/19: Remaining undefeated; adding Azami with nonsense like Zur's Weirding, and all the new 2015 Commander decks as my victims. I'm going to add Dark Depths/Thespian Stage and then leave it as is. My Sliver opponent even went so far as to switch his commander to Sliver Hivelord when facing me but it makes no difference. This is truly an evil deck.
Casting for free is good...flashing in slivers during combat or in response to something else is another level. I think that's where Æther Vial really shines. Assuming you don't have a Quick Sliver online already.
I'm just not certain about cutting the scry lands. Maybe they just mull more aggressively now due to the rule change but the scrylands let you dig deeper into your T1-3.
Trying to go double red for Rolling Thunder probably isn't a good idea; I've completely overlooked good blue sideboard cards. Encase in Ice and Disperse can easily replace my Naturalizes since I can't conceive of any artifacts or enchantments that are truly scary. If I can keep red creatures from getting me too low I can stabilize with big dudes and win. I do want to get 2 Greenwarden of Murasa main though to have some recursion in those long games against tons of removal.
Ok, so just got back form my first FNM running my deck above minus one island +1 void winnower. Finished 1-3. Starting to think mana dorks isn't the way to go but I'm not giving up on this yet. When it works it's fun.
Match one vs. Cuthroat Tokens and stuff
Game One I get an Oblivion Sower and it hits 3 lands including Rogue's Passage! That one play alone made my whole night. Unblockable Sagu Mauler LOL.
Game Two I successfully casted Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger early and won. That was the last time I resolved that card all night.
(2-0, 1-0)
Match two vs. red play cheap creatures and enchant them
Game One played basically like a Boggles game. He played a cheap creature, put 2 enchants on it and killed me before I could get going.
Game Two T3 Kiora, T5 Void Winnower and he shows me a hand full of 2 cmc spells and concedes.
Game Three was a repeat of game 1.
(1-2, 1-1)
Match three vs. atarka landfall stuff
He just beasted me, burning out all my dorks and swinging for damage. By the time I'm getting big dudes online I'm too far behind on life to matter. Avaricious Dragon finished me off with not much I could do about it.
Sided in Retreat to Kazandu but never saw them.
(0-2, 1-2)
Match four vs. dragons control
Game one went very long. *****tons of removal for my mana dorks, Jace recurring said removal and dig through times. Once I finally resolved a Sagu Mauler he had a Silumgar, the Drifting Death and the board stayed like that for like 8 turns because he killed everything else I played. I managed to get two maulers up and then he Crux of Fateed me, then played Dragonlord Kolaghan. Sitting on 8 lands with a Void Winnower I can't cast staring at me in my hand.
Game Two was much quicker
He had an early Thunderbreak Regent to which I have zero answers. I did get an EoT Surrak Dragonclaw and he did swing for 6, but I didn't have anything else to cast in my hand and then he died. I still liked him in that matchup though.
(0-2, 1-3)
-------------------------------------------------
What I've learned
-Sagu Mauler performed as well as I expected. When he's face up he's nigh unkillable.
-Jaddi Offshoot was a MVP. I probably would have died much quicker in the games I lost against red cards without him.
-Woodland Wanderer was not extremely relevant; he ate removal spell after removal spell.
-Kiora, Master of the Depths was very powerful when I got to play her. I'm tempted to drop the mana dorks but when I got to untap them with her this deck did nice things. Her -2 was also very relevant. I really want to keep playing a deck that has both her and Sagu Mauler in it.
-Naturalize had no targets worth siding in for.
-Flying creatures just win against me. These last two points makes me want to consider dumping the Naturalize and turning them into Skysnare Spiders or Windstorm.
I'm thinking of dropping the wanderers and going with See the Unwritten or something. I'm not giving up on this deck just yet. I had too much fun even when losing.
Edit: though it is 2 *colorless*.....hmmmmm. I'm starting to think it has MD potential.
Heck, it also opens up T3 Ugin/OStone activation in very limited circumstances.
In FNM matches I'm 4 games won and 4 games loss. 0 losses were affected by Karplusan Forest. Need more data.
Matchups:
Junk: 1
UR Twin: 3
That was not an exciting FNM.
I like having a creature that can't be Path to Exile'd. I also love how players just scoop to Emrakul. They keep fighting vs. Ulamog usually.
I've bought pretty much the list Runnin posted above -1 Ugin, +1 pyroclasm, except going with Karplusan Forests instead of Grove of the Burnwillows as a purely financial decision, but I'm looking forward to dropping turn 3 Karns and so on and reporting back. I'm going to try to keep track of how many times karplusan burns me when grove would have not to see how much an extra ~$250 would have gone for me.
LOL, this was the first EDH deck I made. Am I bad too?
And it has destroyed every other commander deck(s) I've encountered. Nothing short of non-stop counter-magic can stop you and even then it's not guaranteed as you've baked in some answers. In a 3-man last night I destroyed the other two players and then really destroyed them when they both came after me the next game with Slivers and Animar. I think graveyard hate is what it takes to beat me because the recursion is off the charts. Thanks for the decklist and ideas; wasting every nonland permanent at will is just unfair.
Edit 11/19: Remaining undefeated; adding Azami with nonsense like Zur's Weirding, and all the new 2015 Commander decks as my victims. I'm going to add Dark Depths/Thespian Stage and then leave it as is. My Sliver opponent even went so far as to switch his commander to Sliver Hivelord when facing me but it makes no difference. This is truly an evil deck.
Me, blow up the world with my recursive Child of Alara nonsense.
Opponent, Slivercycle with Homing Sliver go get Hibernation Sliver, Æther Vial him in, bounce Sliver Queen. Replay Sliver Queen, play Heart Sliver, swing for the win.
Only he didn't have Æther Vial so I just blew up his world.
If I wasn't playing mana dorks I'd play Radiant Flames
Match one vs. Cuthroat Tokens and stuff
Game One I get an Oblivion Sower and it hits 3 lands including Rogue's Passage! That one play alone made my whole night. Unblockable Sagu Mauler LOL.
Game Two I successfully casted Ulamog, The Ceaseless Hunger early and won. That was the last time I resolved that card all night.
(2-0, 1-0)
Match two vs. red play cheap creatures and enchant them
Game One played basically like a Boggles game. He played a cheap creature, put 2 enchants on it and killed me before I could get going.
Game Two T3 Kiora, T5 Void Winnower and he shows me a hand full of 2 cmc spells and concedes.
Game Three was a repeat of game 1.
(1-2, 1-1)
Match three vs. atarka landfall stuff
He just beasted me, burning out all my dorks and swinging for damage. By the time I'm getting big dudes online I'm too far behind on life to matter. Avaricious Dragon finished me off with not much I could do about it.
Sided in Retreat to Kazandu but never saw them.
(0-2, 1-2)
Match four vs. dragons control
Game one went very long. *****tons of removal for my mana dorks, Jace recurring said removal and dig through times. Once I finally resolved a Sagu Mauler he had a Silumgar, the Drifting Death and the board stayed like that for like 8 turns because he killed everything else I played. I managed to get two maulers up and then he Crux of Fateed me, then played Dragonlord Kolaghan. Sitting on 8 lands with a Void Winnower I can't cast staring at me in my hand.
Game Two was much quicker
He had an early Thunderbreak Regent to which I have zero answers. I did get an EoT Surrak Dragonclaw and he did swing for 6, but I didn't have anything else to cast in my hand and then he died. I still liked him in that matchup though.
(0-2, 1-3)
-------------------------------------------------
What I've learned
-Sagu Mauler performed as well as I expected. When he's face up he's nigh unkillable.
-Jaddi Offshoot was a MVP. I probably would have died much quicker in the games I lost against red cards without him.
-Woodland Wanderer was not extremely relevant; he ate removal spell after removal spell.
-Kiora, Master of the Depths was very powerful when I got to play her. I'm tempted to drop the mana dorks but when I got to untap them with her this deck did nice things. Her -2 was also very relevant. I really want to keep playing a deck that has both her and Sagu Mauler in it.
-Naturalize had no targets worth siding in for.
-Flying creatures just win against me. These last two points makes me want to consider dumping the Naturalize and turning them into Skysnare Spiders or Windstorm.
I'm thinking of dropping the wanderers and going with See the Unwritten or something. I'm not giving up on this deck just yet. I had too much fun even when losing.