If you're willing to run "bad" cards, you can always try Overmaster and Insist. They're narrow, but they do help stop counters, and can always be cycled away in need be.
You're probably best off with Shusher and the typical Bosejiu/Cavern of Souls package though to help out against countermagic without getting too many non-permanents. Dosan seems like he might draw a lot of hate from everyone, since Instants are in every color/deck, and players like their instants. Shusher, as you said, can be a lot more political. Some people might even like him onboard.
On Pack Rat, they planted that in the set specifically to be overpowered so that less skilled players will be able to beat more skilled players some small percentage of the time. It's there for a reason and breaks limited on purpose.
While that sounds highly plausible, exactly the line of thinking WotC R&D would employ...I don't think they've completely lost it quite yet. I mean, Pack Rat is one of those cards that takes a certain card evaluation (or general Limited knowledge) threshold to recognize as completely busted. Timmy Firstdraft probably won't pick up on the power of the rat. But Journeyman Johnny, while only a mildly skilled drafter, knows exactly how good the rat is. Thing is, Johnny already could beat Petey Proplayer in Limited enough with variance that is already "built into" the format (bombs, apocalyptic beatdown from the God Hand[s], land screw/flood).
Seems pretty pointless, and ruins games for a lot of people. Not a great value proposition.
Is Tibalt a super-powered planeswalker? No. He never saw, and will probably never see, serious constructed play. Neither did Venser (his +1 does nothing ... unless you use etb effects. Kinda like Tibalt's +1 does nothing ... unless you play with cards that abuse it). You can still make a somewhat fun to play set of decks including him,
The difference between Tibalt and Venser is huge. Venser's +2 ability is practically always going to be of at least marginal use. Even if you play him on an empty board, you can tick him up two notches to "untap" a land. And his ability is far more useful in more archetypes. It's not just ETB creatures that might want him, but Persist/Undying/Fading dudes. Or blink a permanent that got a bad Aura attached to them. Or give an attacking creature pseudo-vigilance. The point is, Venser's plus ability is much more easily made useful, and its uses have a lot more impact than our devilishly bad friend's ability.
And Venser can actually fire off a second ability upon being played, one that can have a lot of impact. And he can do it without dying. Or telegraphing it two (or more) turns in advance. Venser is just a better card. He fits in decks and is often the optimal choice.
And that's something Tibalt can never boast, as in practically any strategy, he is beyond sub-optimal. I have a Burning Vengeance deck and a B/R Madness deck (both casual). Tibalt would awful in both of them, even though those are probably the strategies where he can best shine.
He's a bad card in a very bad spot; a Planeswalker, the big, marquee card type of contemporary Magical Cards. A 'walker in the color that has been most shafted in the planeswalking department. And a 'walker set to highlight a product. Bad situation....worse card.
I play Stranglehold and love hitting a Time Stretch with Wild Ricochet or Shunt, so they're mostly okay by me. What I don't like is that the "better" analogues of Time Warp (Capture of Jingzhou and Temporal Manipulation) are way more expensive and give a much higher level of power (and lower level of interactivity) to those with deeper pockets.
Also an open question to those who want other walkers in this like Liliana and Tamiyo. Do you want them because it would make a better product, or do you want them so you can buy 3-4 for a pet deck?
Both. Tibalt, in addition to being a terrible card, is a poor choice to helm a duel deck. As already said, he's Mono-Red...which we've seen four times already, and plenty of other duel decks have had a bit of Red in them. That means there aren't many exciting Red cards to put in his deck. Any strategy that could be interesting with him is likely (key word) constrained by the design principles of duel decks as well. Past in Flames (with a Burning Vengeance shell) would fit in his deck alright, but sadly, isn't happening because it is a Mythic. And mono-red has no access to serious reanimation. I don't think Squee and phoenixes would be all that exciting, nor plausible since they all skew rare, of which there is a cap on. And there just aren't enough Madness cards in Red to make that a serious theme.
Both Tamiyo and Liliana could have made much better decks. Tamiyo, for instance, could play a lockdown deck with plenty of tap/untap effects (maybe even some of the neutered Stasis-likes), and Liliana could have made a mean Madness/Flashback/Retrace deck (because her ability actually enables Madness when you want it, not just at random). And both would interact with a B/W Sorin deck in a lot more interesting ways because, lets face it, Red is WotC's whipping boy...it doesn't have enough solid mechanics and is incredibly simplistic.
I hate how Wizards has handled bringing these older cards to MTGO. The letter at the end. While we all knew it was coming one day or another to the program, how they are going to get these in players hands? They don't want them to be "common place"? I want to play a vintage style format that doesn't cost a zillion dollars to be competitive. Sounds to me that these are going to be given away as prizes or going to be in an ultra limited FTV style set.
Pretty much every single thing Wizards does related to card availability makes complete sense if you assume they don't want Eternal formats to be too accessible, because then it takes away from Standard/Limited....the main cash cows.
Let's face it, if Modern/Legacy/Vintage were all relatively accessible, what happens when a Standard season is bad (Caw-Blade) or a Limited format blows (Return to Ravnica)? Demand for current sets would tank as people migrate en masse to Eternal formats. Tons of product sits on the shelves, store owners get hurt, and in turn, so does WotC. They want to make sure the primary competitive formats are Standard/Limited. It keeps pack sales up.
Shared Fate is the type of card you want. Drop this in a big multiplayer game and watch as everyone just starts grabbing stuff from each other's decks. Very fun build around card.
This. And throw in Scott M. Fischer, Daren Bader, and old-school D. Alexander Gregory (like Unfulfilled Desires, Femeref Enchantress, etc.) for good measure.
There's a lot of pimp basics, and these aren't really the "big" ones like Guru, Unhinged, Unglued, Beta, Euro/APAC or even foil Zendikar. If you want them, pick 'em up. But I wouldn't expect them to make huge leaps because the majority of Magic players don't do basic pimping, pimp with other stuff, or don't even know they exist.
Honestly, I'd personally go Green/White/Black and hope Grisly Salvage plus Pack Rat would be enough to steal a few games that the Populate, removal, and Scavenged beaters couldn't.
The Bant list is probably the right way to go (while I've never played with or against Righteous Authority or Revelation, they are probably excellent cards), but Rat is too tempting for a risk-taking (read: bad) player like myself.
5 Color Cromat with tons of tutoring that doesn't reveal the card. Play a few classic playing cards, a couple Uno Draw 4s (Ancestral Recall eat your heart out), some basic Pokemon for defense, a Get Out of Jail Free card, and have assembling all five pieces of Exodia be your win condition. People will flip because EXODIA!? IMPOSSIBLE! NOBODY'S EVER BEEN ABLE TO SUMMON HIM!
I'd like to see a block without rare duals for once in a long time, or at least one without "good" ones (nothing better than Salt Marsh or Darkwater Catacombs cycles). It would be nice to have a Standard where CC mana costs on turn 2 would actually be a real issue again, and three color decks become very rare.
The problem with Tibalt's deck is that there aren't a lot of great Red cards that haven't been eaten up by all of the other Red duel decks...and there aren't exactly a huge glut of awesome Red cards. Sorin has a lot of awesome Black/White stuff to choose from, but I can't think of anything but Gamble (possible), or Wheel of Fortune (impossible, because of reserved list) that play well with Tibalt's style and be a "seller".
I doubt Enter the Infinite will stay legal in EDH for long. For a lot of decks it reads 8UUUU: Win the game now unless another blue deck doesn't want you to.
My biggest issue with power creep in creatures is that Wizards has done far too much of the Enters The Battlefield effects on highly efficient creatures. When you have a critter with an ETB ability, it's good because you tend to get value from it even if it's removed. These critters used to be costed on a basis of "what you'd pay for the body" + "what you'd pay for the ability". Think Nekrataal (Terror for 1B 2/1 First Strike for 1B), Crypt Angel, Phyrexian Delver, Man O' War, and Mystic Snake. Sure, some pushed the envelope a bit, like Flametongue Kavu (although decks without many critters existed back then, meaning he could backfire). But now, the cost formula for ETB creatures is basically "pay the cost of the body...maybe a little for the effect". Look at Restoration Angel. A 3/4 Flying, Flash for 3W is already pretty good. Giving it a blink effect on top of that is pretty silly. I don't think anything needs to be said about Thragtusk. Basically Wizards made creatures "better" by making them into spells that leave behind a body. Interestingly this kind of creature power creep has inflated the value of countermagic and the power of blue, a color that needs no extra love.
My other issue with critter power creep is how bombs in Limited are becoming far more prevalent and making games more swingy. Because Wizards likes pushing fatties or efficient creatures and loves to stuff sets with them, they have a lot more impact on Limited formats. Sunblast Angel, Hoard Smelter Dragon, Hellkite Charger, Desecration Demon, and that goddamn rat all have/had little chance at being constructed staples. But boy, did they wreck a lot of Limited games, making huge swings on nothing but a topdeck.
Finally, I don't like that the "fundamental turn" of casual aggro decks has been pushed lower and lower. It pretty much forces anyone who wants to run a Johnny deck with goofy, bad cards/combos to be slinging a Legacy/Vintage manabase/disruption shell in order to survive against the "casual aggro deck du jour" whether it be allies, infect, zombies, vampires, etc. All of whom pack explosive aggressiveness that rivals (or clearly surpasses) Type 2 competitive aggressive decks from back in the day. Or you could just go play EDH like everybody else and wonder why 60 card casual is dying....
Both Leyline of Lifeforce and Spellbreaker Behemoth are a bit narrow, but pretty decent at what they do.
You're probably best off with Shusher and the typical Bosejiu/Cavern of Souls package though to help out against countermagic without getting too many non-permanents. Dosan seems like he might draw a lot of hate from everyone, since Instants are in every color/deck, and players like their instants. Shusher, as you said, can be a lot more political. Some people might even like him onboard.
While that sounds highly plausible, exactly the line of thinking WotC R&D would employ...I don't think they've completely lost it quite yet. I mean, Pack Rat is one of those cards that takes a certain card evaluation (or general Limited knowledge) threshold to recognize as completely busted. Timmy Firstdraft probably won't pick up on the power of the rat. But Journeyman Johnny, while only a mildly skilled drafter, knows exactly how good the rat is. Thing is, Johnny already could beat Petey Proplayer in Limited enough with variance that is already "built into" the format (bombs, apocalyptic beatdown from the God Hand[s], land screw/flood).
Seems pretty pointless, and ruins games for a lot of people. Not a great value proposition.
The difference between Tibalt and Venser is huge. Venser's +2 ability is practically always going to be of at least marginal use. Even if you play him on an empty board, you can tick him up two notches to "untap" a land. And his ability is far more useful in more archetypes. It's not just ETB creatures that might want him, but Persist/Undying/Fading dudes. Or blink a permanent that got a bad Aura attached to them. Or give an attacking creature pseudo-vigilance. The point is, Venser's plus ability is much more easily made useful, and its uses have a lot more impact than our devilishly bad friend's ability.
And Venser can actually fire off a second ability upon being played, one that can have a lot of impact. And he can do it without dying. Or telegraphing it two (or more) turns in advance. Venser is just a better card. He fits in decks and is often the optimal choice.
And that's something Tibalt can never boast, as in practically any strategy, he is beyond sub-optimal. I have a Burning Vengeance deck and a B/R Madness deck (both casual). Tibalt would awful in both of them, even though those are probably the strategies where he can best shine.
He's a bad card in a very bad spot; a Planeswalker, the big, marquee card type of contemporary Magical Cards. A 'walker in the color that has been most shafted in the planeswalking department. And a 'walker set to highlight a product. Bad situation....worse card.
Both. Tibalt, in addition to being a terrible card, is a poor choice to helm a duel deck. As already said, he's Mono-Red...which we've seen four times already, and plenty of other duel decks have had a bit of Red in them. That means there aren't many exciting Red cards to put in his deck. Any strategy that could be interesting with him is likely (key word) constrained by the design principles of duel decks as well. Past in Flames (with a Burning Vengeance shell) would fit in his deck alright, but sadly, isn't happening because it is a Mythic. And mono-red has no access to serious reanimation. I don't think Squee and phoenixes would be all that exciting, nor plausible since they all skew rare, of which there is a cap on. And there just aren't enough Madness cards in Red to make that a serious theme.
Both Tamiyo and Liliana could have made much better decks. Tamiyo, for instance, could play a lockdown deck with plenty of tap/untap effects (maybe even some of the neutered Stasis-likes), and Liliana could have made a mean Madness/Flashback/Retrace deck (because her ability actually enables Madness when you want it, not just at random). And both would interact with a B/W Sorin deck in a lot more interesting ways because, lets face it, Red is WotC's whipping boy...it doesn't have enough solid mechanics and is incredibly simplistic.
Pretty much every single thing Wizards does related to card availability makes complete sense if you assume they don't want Eternal formats to be too accessible, because then it takes away from Standard/Limited....the main cash cows.
Let's face it, if Modern/Legacy/Vintage were all relatively accessible, what happens when a Standard season is bad (Caw-Blade) or a Limited format blows (Return to Ravnica)? Demand for current sets would tank as people migrate en masse to Eternal formats. Tons of product sits on the shelves, store owners get hurt, and in turn, so does WotC. They want to make sure the primary competitive formats are Standard/Limited. It keeps pack sales up.
This. And throw in Scott M. Fischer, Daren Bader, and old-school D. Alexander Gregory (like Unfulfilled Desires, Femeref Enchantress, etc.) for good measure.
The Bant list is probably the right way to go (while I've never played with or against Righteous Authority or Revelation, they are probably excellent cards), but Rat is too tempting for a risk-taking (read: bad) player like myself.
Sure, we're probably getting Reckless Wurm, Fiery Temper, and Violent Eruption along with Red discard enablers...but those aren't too exiting.
My other issue with critter power creep is how bombs in Limited are becoming far more prevalent and making games more swingy. Because Wizards likes pushing fatties or efficient creatures and loves to stuff sets with them, they have a lot more impact on Limited formats. Sunblast Angel, Hoard Smelter Dragon, Hellkite Charger, Desecration Demon, and that goddamn rat all have/had little chance at being constructed staples. But boy, did they wreck a lot of Limited games, making huge swings on nothing but a topdeck.
Finally, I don't like that the "fundamental turn" of casual aggro decks has been pushed lower and lower. It pretty much forces anyone who wants to run a Johnny deck with goofy, bad cards/combos to be slinging a Legacy/Vintage manabase/disruption shell in order to survive against the "casual aggro deck du jour" whether it be allies, infect, zombies, vampires, etc. All of whom pack explosive aggressiveness that rivals (or clearly surpasses) Type 2 competitive aggressive decks from back in the day. Or you could just go play EDH like everybody else and wonder why 60 card casual is dying....