I chose Field of Ruins because it replaces itself which I liked as we need all the mana we can get. I usually pop it later into the game where ramping others is probably not as dangerous. Also, according to theory my opponents shouldn't have a hand to take advantage of it.. which of course happens far less often than one would like.
The thing with Thoughtrender Lamia is that it's not your average discard option, it's a brutal game-ending hand mower that will close things out in short time if unanswered. This doesn't come down on curve and incidentally mildly disrupt people, this comes down when your mana pool is pretty fat and you immediately make most (if not all) of the table hellbent, possibly following up with draw step locks. My group hates it, and it eats removal even more reliably than Skybind upon resolving.
I have been using it wrong then, I always play it relatively early to chip in, get an experience and just do something. I will try leaving it up for later. Problem is, even in the lategame I rarely have a fat enough mana pool to do what you describe.
Regarding new cards, I was looking at WAR the other day and Single Combat caught my eye. It's a board wipe (for planeswalkers as well!) that should give you some breathing room to deploy new enchantments or just vomit some spirits onto the board. It should suitably annoy the elfball player in my group.
To my sorrow, I have just been thinking about cutting the discard as well. Daxos is pretty clunky as is and I rarely find the discard to be impactful enough against the decks in my group. As you said, the decks that get choked by the discard tend to be weaker anyway while better decks tend to lean heavily into recursion and drawing huge amounts of cards against which the one card a turn doesn't really matter. So you could say it's win-more?
I'm not sure I agree with cutting dear old Sun Titan but then I don't have Replenish. Thoughtrender Lamia is more suspect to me for the above reasons.
On the topic of recursion, I have been trying Restoration Specialist. I wanted some enchantment recursion in addition to Titan and Emeria Shepherd. It was pretty much a toss-up between Specialist and Auramancer but I chose the Specialist as I like the added card advantage and she works better with Titan, Shepherd or Phyrexian Reclamation. While Auramancer likes our favorite Skybind much more, I feel you are already in a great position if you can blink stuff. On the other hand, if you only have one of the above recursion pieces you are much farther away from taking control of the game and in that case Miss Resto should get you back in the game easier.
Despite all this rambling however, I haven't drawn her a single game.
Here's my list for the record, suggestions are welcome.
I'm not sure where I'd include this, but I always find myself lacking mana especially without access to Serra's Sanctum. This card seems crazy to me, even if Rule of Law and friends lower its effectiveness a bit.
Since you have so many ways to shuffle, what's your opinion of Sensei's Divining Top? I feel like it's the card you wanted Azor's Gateway to be (minus the unlikely big mana of course). It's light-weight and should help with consistency immensely. I often find myself flooded with large cmc cards or not enough mana and the top should help with that.
Also, I'm very interested in how your latest changes worked out. I have been following your list for the most part but I have grown attached to Emeria Shepherd, she has been really awesome for me. I'm running Open the Vaults instead of Replenish due to budget concerns and I wonder if Open would be a better cut instead of the angel to trim the fat. Especially since artifacts and enchantments seem to be prevalent in my meta.
What do you think about Night's Whisper? Not exciting for sure, but it has low cmc and helps you smooth your early draws, similar to blue cantrips. Cathar's Crusade is fun for sure, but as you mentioned the curve increase is worrying and it also gets Daxos into the range of your boardwipes.
I think the best argument for the new Phyrexian Scriptures is the abuse you can do with Cloudstone Curio. Play Scriptures, compleat Daxos, then after next turn's board wipe return it to your hand with a spirit. You can then replay it and wipe again next turn.
I wonder whether it's worth the slot or it's too cute.
Endless Sands - ultimately I need to cycle Kozilek every now and then so protecting him by keeping up mana and then sacrificing a land does not sound appealing to me. Its better to keep land counts and recast him generally.
You can think of Endless Sands as another sac outlet for Kozilek, since the first ability should send him to the command zone anyway. It can also be sacced to Scavenger Grounds when you need it.
Do you think Lotus Bloom is playable as the next best thing in place of the $$$ ramp?
First, thanks for the awesome primer. Although my group seems way more casual than yours (like, discard effects is anything but flying under the radar) this was still a very informative for me.
What do you think about Liliana, Death's Majesty as another recursion and boardwipe piece? She is a bit slow with expensive abilities but the versatility may be worth a look. Daxos is a zombie so the ult does not destroy him.
I chose Field of Ruins because it replaces itself which I liked as we need all the mana we can get. I usually pop it later into the game where ramping others is probably not as dangerous. Also, according to theory my opponents shouldn't have a hand to take advantage of it.. which of course happens far less often than one would like.
I have been using it wrong then, I always play it relatively early to chip in, get an experience and just do something. I will try leaving it up for later. Problem is, even in the lategame I rarely have a fat enough mana pool to do what you describe.
Regarding new cards, I was looking at WAR the other day and Single Combat caught my eye. It's a board wipe (for planeswalkers as well!) that should give you some breathing room to deploy new enchantments or just vomit some spirits onto the board. It should suitably annoy the elfball player in my group.
I'm not sure I agree with cutting dear old Sun Titan but then I don't have Replenish.
On the topic of recursion, I have been trying Restoration Specialist. I wanted some enchantment recursion in addition to Titan and Emeria Shepherd. It was pretty much a toss-up between Specialist and Auramancer but I chose the Specialist as I like the added card advantage and she works better with Titan, Shepherd or Phyrexian Reclamation. While Auramancer likes our favorite Skybind much more, I feel you are already in a great position if you can blink stuff. On the other hand, if you only have one of the above recursion pieces you are much farther away from taking control of the game and in that case Miss Resto should get you back in the game easier.
Despite all this rambling however, I haven't drawn her a single game.
Here's my list for the record, suggestions are welcome.
I'm not sure where I'd include this, but I always find myself lacking mana especially without access to Serra's Sanctum. This card seems crazy to me, even if Rule of Law and friends lower its effectiveness a bit.
Also, I'm very interested in how your latest changes worked out. I have been following your list for the most part but I have grown attached to Emeria Shepherd, she has been really awesome for me. I'm running Open the Vaults instead of Replenish due to budget concerns and I wonder if Open would be a better cut instead of the angel to trim the fat. Especially since artifacts and enchantments seem to be prevalent in my meta.
I wonder whether it's worth the slot or it's too cute.
You can think of Endless Sands as another sac outlet for Kozilek, since the first ability should send him to the command zone anyway. It can also be sacced to Scavenger Grounds when you need it.
Do you think Lotus Bloom is playable as the next best thing in place of the $$$ ramp?
What do you think about Liliana, Death's Majesty as another recursion and boardwipe piece? She is a bit slow with expensive abilities but the versatility may be worth a look. Daxos is a zombie so the ult does not destroy him.