Though it lacks the "all flyers" ability of Pride of the Clouds it has some potential as a combo win condition if you can put together a way to crank out a bunch of UW mana. It is a solid threat when targeted by Mirrorweave when you have a handful of token flyers to attack with.
I've been playing a Talrand deck for a couple weeks and I find he works more consistently for me with lots of tap and bounce spells, with a selection of the best counters as a complement to those more interactive nuisance spells. I encounter decks that rely on abilities that put permanents onto the field by bypassing the spell stack, so going heavy with counters would just put me in a position to sit and wait to be steamrolled.
I haven't thought about playing a group hug kind of deck, so I dont have insight how you would do it, but Talrand is a good exploiter of extra card draw situations. If you play a few global card draw spells, your opponents will not mind so much, especially if they can't get their own out. Talrand requires you to cast lots of inexpensive instants and sorceries, and because the spells in his library all vary a bit in their specificity you need to draw lots of them to get max value. Plus all the extra card draw will get you reliably into one of your kill combos.
Primal Amulet/Primal Wellspring is a great card. Tapping the Wellspring to cast Rite of Replication can be a game ender, especially if you can play a Twincast on top of it.
Fatestitcher is a very versatile creature and you might find him handy. I use him defensively to tap a big threat as its owner declares combat phase, to tap a threatening land following untap step or also I use him to untap Proteus Staff to get a second creature out of my library per turn. He is a rockstar at holding off Eldrazi titans. His tap/untap ability might get you some bargaining power in a political multi-player game.
I used to play Fact or Fiction because lots of players say it's a great card, but I find it underwhelming, especially in my Talrand deck. I swapped it out for Magus of the Future instead and I will see how that goes.
I haven't thought about playing a group hug kind of deck, so I dont have insight how you would do it, but Talrand is a good exploiter of extra card draw situations. If you play a few global card draw spells, your opponents will not mind so much, especially if they can't get their own out. Talrand requires you to cast lots of inexpensive instants and sorceries, and because the spells in his library all vary a bit in their specificity you need to draw lots of them to get max value. Plus all the extra card draw will get you reliably into one of your kill combos.
Primal Amulet/Primal Wellspring is a great card. Tapping the Wellspring to cast Rite of Replication can be a game ender, especially if you can play a Twincast on top of it.
Fatestitcher is a very versatile creature and you might find him handy. I use him defensively to tap a big threat as its owner declares combat phase, to tap a threatening land following untap step or also I use him to untap Proteus Staff to get a second creature out of my library per turn. He is a rockstar at holding off Eldrazi titans. His tap/untap ability might get you some bargaining power in a political multi-player game.
I used to play Fact or Fiction because lots of players say it's a great card, but I find it underwhelming, especially in my Talrand deck. I swapped it out for Magus of the Future instead and I will see how that goes.