Congratulations on the top 8! Your list is super similar to mine. I played it today at a Store IQ with 51 players for 6 rounds.
Round 1 vs. Hardened Scales. I keep a hand with 2 lands, Devoted Druid, Vizier of Remedies, and 2 Commune with Nature. I only find another Druid and a dork from the Commune, so I remain a combo piece short of comboing. I keep the Vizier in hand to not give more away. I lost to an Inkmoth Nexus doing 5 infect, then 5 more. Not a good way to start a tournament! In the next game, I mulligan to 5. She gets a Walking Ballista for 2 on turn 2, killing my Devoted Druid. I do Postmortem Lunge, play Vizier, and play Walking Ballista. It's nice to have it all. She realizes what's going on now. In the final game, her hand is a bit slow. She does Metallic Mimic into a 0/0 Hangarback Walker, so I use Path to Exile on it to make the Walker come into play as a 0/0. She goes for 7 infect, but makes a mistake sacrificing Darksteel Citadel. On her final turn, she played Spellskite, which would have prevented my 2nd Path to Exile that I had in my hand, but she didn't have the extra 1 mana to activate Inkmoth Nexus. I play a 2nd Druid, Evolution it for Vizier, and then Chord for Duskwatch Recruiter to find Ballista for game. Whew! 2-1.
Round 2 vs. GB Midrange. There was some pairing mistakes, as they had me losing the first round. We looked at the slip and it clearly said I won. So I am playing a different guy, who Thoughtseizes me, then kills a Devoted Druid. I wait a turn to draw another combo piece and then use Postmortem Lunge to get Druid, Evolution a Dryad Arbor, and then go infinite with Duskwatch Recruiter, all right after Liliana the Last Hope killed a Birds of Paradise. In the next game, we stall out, but 2 Treetop Villages eventually kill my Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. But I draw multiple Duskwatch Recruiters, who get value before they die. I had held 3 lands in hand and found Tireless Tracker. Got a million clues over the next few turns while he drew ... nothing. This seems like a rough matchup, but I drew GAS. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Humans. In game 1, he shut down Vizier of Remedies with Meddling Mage and I drew another one. Lucky for me I had dork into Druid into Evolution for Vizier of Remedies and played Walking Ballista to end it. In the next game, he puts some pressure, but after 2 Path to Exile, my deck just won't quit and I get another chance at comboing when he has 1 card in hand. Could it be another Path to Exile. I doubt it. For what it's worth, he was playing a modified version of Humans that runs Path, Stony Silence, and RIP in the SB. He doesn't play Ancient Ziggurat. Really strong player who won the last 2 PPTQs he's played in. First time playing him myself. Got lucky. He made the top 8 today too. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Burn. There's not much to say, outside of my deck slightly failed me while his didn't. I comboed him on turn 3 with a 5 card mulligan in game 1 after he tapped out for Eidolon of the Great Revel. In the next 2 games, I did get some Knight of Autumn and Shalai, but his pressure was too much. No Worship to be seen. This guy made the finals. 1-2.
Round 5 vs. Burn. In the first game, he got stuck on 1 mana and tapped out for a 3rd 1 drop. I combo off safely. In the next game, he barely gets there when I draw 6 mana dorks against his deck. I kept with 2 in hand, but still... The final game can be watched here at 4:50 - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/363521599 . I felt like I literally needed to draw a single land to win, but it didn't happen until my final turn when I was at 3 life, facing 2 Monastery Swiftspears and a Grim Lavamancer. 1-2.
Round 6 vs. Mono Red Prison. He did Pyretic Ritual into Blood Moon on turn 2, but I did mana dude into Eldritch Evolution, using mana from a Devoted Druid to get Vizier of Remedies and played Duskwatch Recruiter. Must be nice, Obama. In the next game, he mulled to 4. I drew a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and with some mana dudes, it was enough. I started drawing gas late, but I just left what was on board since he didn't seem to have many outs. 2-0.
I finish 4-2 for 11th place. It was tough losing to Burn twice in heartbreaking game 3s, including needing to draw a single land to win in Round 5. Magic.
Thanks for sharing the detailed match report. I only kept my W/L and Mulligans otherwise I'd of written a better report. I think you did everything you could in the Burn Matchup(s) It's always unfortunate to lose inches from a win, but that's magic sometimes. Our board is already pretty good at fighting them with 2 Burrenton and 2 Knight. I even think Shalai proves to be very solid vs them. Your summary of the GB matchup is basically why I believe we'll end up playing 2 ofs and 8 communes. We want consistency and the ability to identify and utilize sideboard cards as necessary. It appears most of the time you used Eldritch to find piece # 2 which further proves my suggestion that we're not interested in using our tutor effects for sideboard pieces. You also mulligan appropriately it sounds like, we're a deck designed to win out game one with the combo and need to mulligan to support it. I actually had an opponent suggest my deck mulligans like Tron, we're looking for 3 pieces or cards that find those pieces and trying to put them on the table. It's definitely not wrong, but absolutely not right. Moving on though, was there anything you'd change about the list moving forward? Personally I think Gideon isn't what we want for the deck, and doesn't actually beat BGX as you'd think. WE'd want Elspeth Sun's Champion to do that, but that card is too expensive for our build.
Been playing both versions for months with a recent full switch to the Evolution build on Steven's recommendations. As a Vancouver Local it was pretty gas to watch him crush his way to top 8. Moving forward I'm voting to play the Commune with 1 Eternal Witness Build and I'll continue to tech that deck specifically. All we really want is more 1 mana interaction, specfically a more flexible Burrenton Forge-Tender. I think it's one of the best cards for our deck and any less than two is incorrect. In future with blue being the go to splash I'll test with Dispel/Spell Pierce and feel them out. I also think that we need to stop playing bullets, and focus on consistency as our forte. We're already very good at presenting the combo and win condition so we don't want to spend our cards finding non combo tutor targets ESPECIALLY when most of the time the card you're tutoring is 2-3 mana. At that CMC you need to Eldritch Evolution it for it to arrive on time IE: Eidolon of Rhetoric vs MOST combo decks. Chord has been ultimately one of my worst cards, and typically only does it's job if my opponent is spinning their wheels or have allowed me a ton of resources. Chord also happens to be the only line that doesn't put a druid into play on turn 2, and with our lack of Collected Company we're much less likely to be able to stick creatures to chord for 2. My theory for the future is that the Devoted build will cut Chord and end up playing 8 Commune effects to maximize our ability to play a druid on turn 2. This means you'll keep hands with Druid, Evolution + Bird, and Bird + Communes; Giving you a wide variety of hands to keep and multiple options to sculpt your plan with the Communes. This also lends itself better to a sideboard built to play 2 ofs. Rhetoric, Deputy, Autumn, Burrenton, and Tracker would be my first 10 cards I'd submit. 3 Path and 2 meta dependent cards to follow. I'll be playing at the Face to Face Vancouver open on January 26th. I managed to get 2nd place last year (on Knightfall) and I'm hoping to have similar success this time around too. Considering the set release is the day before I'll be doing serious testing with this build and the blue splash in general. I'll also look into the Company build with Domri over Chord but I'm much more likely to play this linear style at a large event. Anyways I'll keep this thread posted if anything in particular comes up in testing. Attached is my recent list, I placed 5-8th at a 1k open today with my only match loss being to a B/R Burn Opponent.
Thanks for sharing the detailed match report. I only kept my W/L and Mulligans otherwise I'd of written a better report. I think you did everything you could in the Burn Matchup(s) It's always unfortunate to lose inches from a win, but that's magic sometimes. Our board is already pretty good at fighting them with 2 Burrenton and 2 Knight. I even think Shalai proves to be very solid vs them. Your summary of the GB matchup is basically why I believe we'll end up playing 2 ofs and 8 communes. We want consistency and the ability to identify and utilize sideboard cards as necessary. It appears most of the time you used Eldritch to find piece # 2 which further proves my suggestion that we're not interested in using our tutor effects for sideboard pieces. You also mulligan appropriately it sounds like, we're a deck designed to win out game one with the combo and need to mulligan to support it. I actually had an opponent suggest my deck mulligans like Tron, we're looking for 3 pieces or cards that find those pieces and trying to put them on the table. It's definitely not wrong, but absolutely not right. Moving on though, was there anything you'd change about the list moving forward? Personally I think Gideon isn't what we want for the deck, and doesn't actually beat BGX as you'd think. WE'd want Elspeth Sun's Champion to do that, but that card is too expensive for our build.