I've watched this thread for a while now, and have been playing the deck since it first started appearing. I have play-tested this deck so much over the last month, and I believe I've found the most optimal variant.
I'll explain my reasoning for some of the card choices and sideboard choices:
Sylvan Advocate - This card is amazing in the current metagame. The 3 toughness really puts it ahead of Soulfire Grandmaster, since it's immune to Fiery Impulse without Spell Mastery. It blocks really well against nearly every early game creature and can win games in later turns by itself. Turning our Shambling Vent into a 4/5 or even a 6/7 is mental, and has turned the corner on a ton of games for me. It also provides much needed early pressure in the Ramp matchup.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - Running three of these Mainboard might seem excessive, but the card is absolutely bonkers with our removal package. Game one against Rally, this guy puts in a huge amount of work, especially paired with Radiant Flames. The ability to exile targets like Matter Reshaper and World Breaker with our removal is sweet too.
Read the Bones - I know a lot of you have questioned RTB over Painful Truths, but after playing excessively with both cards, RTB wins out. The ability to scry before drawing outclasses the extra card in my opinion, and having the option to bounce it back with Goblin Dark-Dwellers is fantastic. It's been said that people would rather use GDD for removal, but there have been a ton of situations where the card draw off GDD has been amazing, especially in control matchups or the mirror. Additionally, since I'm not running Abzan Charm, this outright wins over Truths.
Ruinous Path - This card is needed, it's as simple as that. In the Ramp matchup, the mirror, the control matchup and even Rally. A spell that kills a walker and can be recycled with GDD is just a need in our deck. In addition, the ability to awaken a Shambling Vent lategame can be backbreaking when you and your opponent are topdecking. A second Path in the side is there to strengthen our walker removal. I did some testing with Utter End, however I found it to perform worse than Path.
Pulse of Murasa - If you aren't running these, do it. This card is so spastically ridiculous with GDD, it's actually disgusting. Your opponent can deal with one Siege Rhino. They might even be able to deal with two, or three. What they can't deal with, is you continually recurring them with Pulse and GDD. Trust me. The advantage this card generates in conjunction with GDD is amazing, even if you're not recurring Rhinos.
Infinite Obliteration - After testing a massive number of games versus various Ramp decks, I am sideboarding three of these. Our Ramp matchup is terrible, and the only real reason is World Breaker. Once that card hits the table and we start having lands exiled, we have an incredibly hard time playing catchup, while they cruise the game into Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Chandra, Flamecaller and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. If we're able to fire off Obliteration before they play World Breaker, the matchup suddenly becomes very even. Adding in Duress and Anafenza, the Foremost as well swings the game more in our favor.
Outpost Siege - This card comes in against the mirror and in control matchups. It just generates too much card advantage for your opponent to keep up with, and in a lot of cases locks down the game.
That's it for now. Let me know what you think. Playing this list, I've 4-0'd my local Standard event night twice in a row, which has a diverse meta including Rally, Ramp, CoCo, Atarka Red, U/R Prowess, Jeskai Black Control and the mirror, along with a few random homebrew decks each week.
Dropping to 25 lands has been a massive improvement. I haven't ever been flooded since, whereas before chronic flooding was an issue. There have been a couple of games where I've missed my 6th land drop, but so far it has yet to impact me at all.
I do not miss Abzan Charm in the slightest. Three maindeck Kalitas give us our creature exile, RTB is a better draw spell, and there was rarely ever a time I wanted to put counters on things.
My land setup has been brilliant. I've not had a single issue with color co-ordination, however sometimes it's necessary to sequence your lands a turn behind to ensure you play certain cards on curve, such as Rhino.
3 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Shambling Vent
2 Nomad Outpost
2 Cinder Glade
2 Smoldering Marsh
1 Canopy Vista
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Siege Rhino
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Sorceries: (8)
3 Read the Bones
1 Ruinous Path
2 Radiant Flames
2 Transgress the Mind
Instants: (11)
4 Crackling Doom
3 Fiery Impulse
2 Murderous Cut
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Infinite Obliteration
2 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Radiant Flames
2 Duress
1 Outpost Siege
2 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Roast
1 Ruinous Path
I'll explain my reasoning for some of the card choices and sideboard choices:
Sylvan Advocate - This card is amazing in the current metagame. The 3 toughness really puts it ahead of Soulfire Grandmaster, since it's immune to Fiery Impulse without Spell Mastery. It blocks really well against nearly every early game creature and can win games in later turns by itself. Turning our Shambling Vent into a 4/5 or even a 6/7 is mental, and has turned the corner on a ton of games for me. It also provides much needed early pressure in the Ramp matchup.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - Running three of these Mainboard might seem excessive, but the card is absolutely bonkers with our removal package. Game one against Rally, this guy puts in a huge amount of work, especially paired with Radiant Flames. The ability to exile targets like Matter Reshaper and World Breaker with our removal is sweet too.
Read the Bones - I know a lot of you have questioned RTB over Painful Truths, but after playing excessively with both cards, RTB wins out. The ability to scry before drawing outclasses the extra card in my opinion, and having the option to bounce it back with Goblin Dark-Dwellers is fantastic. It's been said that people would rather use GDD for removal, but there have been a ton of situations where the card draw off GDD has been amazing, especially in control matchups or the mirror. Additionally, since I'm not running Abzan Charm, this outright wins over Truths.
Ruinous Path - This card is needed, it's as simple as that. In the Ramp matchup, the mirror, the control matchup and even Rally. A spell that kills a walker and can be recycled with GDD is just a need in our deck. In addition, the ability to awaken a Shambling Vent lategame can be backbreaking when you and your opponent are topdecking. A second Path in the side is there to strengthen our walker removal. I did some testing with Utter End, however I found it to perform worse than Path.
Pulse of Murasa - If you aren't running these, do it. This card is so spastically ridiculous with GDD, it's actually disgusting. Your opponent can deal with one Siege Rhino. They might even be able to deal with two, or three. What they can't deal with, is you continually recurring them with Pulse and GDD. Trust me. The advantage this card generates in conjunction with GDD is amazing, even if you're not recurring Rhinos.
Infinite Obliteration - After testing a massive number of games versus various Ramp decks, I am sideboarding three of these. Our Ramp matchup is terrible, and the only real reason is World Breaker. Once that card hits the table and we start having lands exiled, we have an incredibly hard time playing catchup, while they cruise the game into Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Chandra, Flamecaller and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. If we're able to fire off Obliteration before they play World Breaker, the matchup suddenly becomes very even. Adding in Duress and Anafenza, the Foremost as well swings the game more in our favor.
Outpost Siege - This card comes in against the mirror and in control matchups. It just generates too much card advantage for your opponent to keep up with, and in a lot of cases locks down the game.
That's it for now. Let me know what you think. Playing this list, I've 4-0'd my local Standard event night twice in a row, which has a diverse meta including Rally, Ramp, CoCo, Atarka Red, U/R Prowess, Jeskai Black Control and the mirror, along with a few random homebrew decks each week.
Dropping to 25 lands has been a massive improvement. I haven't ever been flooded since, whereas before chronic flooding was an issue. There have been a couple of games where I've missed my 6th land drop, but so far it has yet to impact me at all.
I do not miss Abzan Charm in the slightest. Three maindeck Kalitas give us our creature exile, RTB is a better draw spell, and there was rarely ever a time I wanted to put counters on things.
My land setup has been brilliant. I've not had a single issue with color co-ordination, however sometimes it's necessary to sequence your lands a turn behind to ensure you play certain cards on curve, such as Rhino.