Edit: Also I forgot to ask you what do you think of monastery siege? . It seems like some standard card drawal/filtering engine or otherwise some tax for burn, or maelstrom pulse/artifact hate.
I love Monastery Siege for exactly that reason: it's Turbo when you need Turbo (which the deck would run anyway), but it's resilience when you need that instead. Since it sacrifices almost nothing, I'd definitely give it a try.
Funny, I feel the same way about Living Lore, especially with all the big, playable spells running around. Free Dig Through Time or Treasure Cruise turn after turn, attached to an 8/8 body?
Possibly less exciting in Modern, where it only gets a 7/7 (from Cruel Ultimatum), but even that matches up with a 'Goyf pretty well on Turn 4. Plus the whole Ultimatum every turn thing, I guess. Or if you just want to go big, Enter the Infinite.
In Modern, Time Stretch 'goes infinite' with the two, assuming Alesha survives combat; if not you've got two turns to get her back or find a new one. Doesn't work in Standard simply because our only extra turn spell exiles itself. Bummer.
Ever since it was spoiled, I've been dreaming of TurboFog variation featuring Séance. I think what enamored me was the idea of playing Fogs; using Snapcaster to replay Fogs; then using Séance to replay the Snapcaster to replay more Fogs (and if that Fog is Druid's Deliverance, getting another Snapcaster for something else). It would also work with Kami of False Hope, Stonehorn Dignitary (added benefit of working when Séance'd on your turn) and Haze Frog (added benefit of being a frog, yo). I remember dreaming of using Sphinx of Uthuun too (with Séance and Snapcaster, neither pile is really a loss).
Obviously weak to graveyard hate, which is everywhere; but Séance'd creatures can't be countered either, meaning that it's a little more resilient once the engine is up. Maybe. Who knows.
I guess just Séance is not so much "Turbo", but trying to get more out of the resources we have. And in a deck that keeps its hand as full as this one, getting the right stuff into the graveyard shouldn't be a huge obstacle, though I suspect it's keeping it there that would be the issue.
EDIT: And if all of your creatures are effectively Fogs, Evolutionary Leap could pick up some extra value in a creature-heavy build. But now I don't know how far I'm diverging from the concept...
When I first started reading online about Commander, the first decks I imagined piecing together were janky combo decks that relied on my ever-present Commander to do goofy things. Before I even finished looking into it, I learned that "tuck" was a common solution to commanders who did 'problematic' things, and my little Johnny dreams instantly evaporated. I never even built a Commander deck, and have only retained a vague, wistful interest in the format since. To me, even the idea of "tuck" violated the intentions of a format called "Commander" - I should be able to play and rely on my general, that's what he's there for. This was a rules change I'd been waiting around for, to feel comfortable even getting into the format. Now I'll probably give it a shot.
The way I see it, if this change were about the exile zone, people would make every single argument for Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile that they've made for Chaos Warp and Oblation. You can imagine that players who were used to exiling commanders would be frustrated by having to find new ways to deal with them, but I don't think anyone now believes the exile rule makes the game worse. I think the change just brings the format more in line with its original intentions; or at the very least, closer to the format I envisioned when I first heard it described.
I guess it would still work, but you would have to discard in pairs. If your goal is to ditch creatures, that's fine. If you wanted to try to mill with Stern Mentor it wouldn't be as effective since you only get 1 untap per 2 creatures instead of 1 untap for each creature you discard.
Yeah, the big issue is keeping the deck creature-heavy enough to maintain it; you'll always be drawing before you discard so it's not like it's unsustainable, but you'll eventually wind up with a hand full of lands. The deck just needs to guarantee you've got something worth playing before that happens. And you're right, using the Mentor to mill anyone but yourself probably wouldn't be effective.
Ghoultree looks like the most solid option to me, at first blush; turn-two Bracers into turn-three Scholar lets you equip the Bracers on turn four, with one mana open with which to cast the 'tree - I don't think a mono-creatures deck would have too much trouble getting 7 guys in the bin and finding a Ghoultree at that point, but I may be overly optimistic. You'd need to keep the land count pretty low, so you probably wouldn't want to curve out much higher than the Scholar; luckily most of the things you'd likely want in GU (Deathrite Shaman, Ulvenwald Tracker, possibly Wingcrafter for your Ghoultrees) don't curve out too high to begin with. It also might be worth mentioning that, splashing Red, this falls in the same colours as the Nightshade Peddler + Izzet Staticaster combo - both of which are creatures, and one of which already likes the Bracers itself. The splash would also allow Lightning Prowess (or something better than it from Gatecrash, with any luck), which synergises with both the Peddler and the Scholar combo.
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Apart from the Scholar, the Bracers might look nice on a Tree of Redemption - I've never really liked how slow it was switching back-and-forth, and this would simply turn it into a huge blocker with a lifegain engine attached (with some help, of course). I think I recall hearing the Tree showed up in Constructed a bit before, but I'm not sure what exactly it was doing. Whatever it was, the Bracers would probably make it better at it; if that's something worthwhile, I'd consider looking into it too...
No, he's right. You'd put 2 copies of the activated ability "Untap this and transform this" on the stack after you discard 1 creature. The first resolves, and Civilized Scholar untaps and becomes Homicidal Brute. Then the second resolves and Homicidal Brute untaps and transforms into Civilized Scholar. Voila.
I may be wrong, but wouldn't you need to discard a creature to each copy of the activated ability? Since you don't actually discard a card until the ability is resolving, the copy wouldn't be able to 'see' what the original discarded, because it hasn't happened yet. If the discard were on the cost side of the ability it would only happen once; unfortunately this time the 'better' type of looting is less conducive to our goals.
If you can attach an equipement or enchantment that has a tap ability, you can use it in between the transform abilities resolving because he untaps twice.
The only useful cards I see toward that end are Lightning Prowess, Wolfhunter's Quiver, or Stern Mentor - nothing I feel particularly excited about. The Mentor is a creature though, at least, and synergises with self-mill strategies. On that note, Laboratory Maniac is a creature as well... But perhaps that's getting a little too 'cute'...
This turns Civilized Scholar into an engine, no? He should transform twice and untap, assuming you can actually discard two creatures to him - with a sufficiently creature-heavy deck, you could manage quite a bit of digging (and graveyard filling). Is there anything around that makes doing so worthwhile?
Unstable Footing is an awful solution for Kor Firewalker. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
- Results you in getting 2-for-1ed, if not 3-for-1ed or even 4-for-1ed (i.e., if your attacking Goblin Guide revealed a land).
- A poor standalone card.
- Relies on the opponent having to block with Firewalker to kill it.
Now compare it to a card like Ghostfire that could see print in RoE:
- No card disadvantage whatsoever.
- Being a true burn spell, it's never a dead card.
- Does not rely on having to get the opponent to block with their Firewalker if you're using Unstable Footing to kill him through combat.
Considering that Ghostfire's flavor text explicitly references the Eye of Ugin, a reprint is not only probable, but will likely be accompanied by similar hoser-dodgers. Give it a couple months, and RDW will be back on its fiery feet.
Also: Picking up a few Eye of Ugin before the next set comes out might not be a bad idea...
Possibly less exciting in Modern, where it only gets a 7/7 (from Cruel Ultimatum), but even that matches up with a 'Goyf pretty well on Turn 4. Plus the whole Ultimatum every turn thing, I guess. Or if you just want to go big, Enter the Infinite.
In Modern, Time Stretch 'goes infinite' with the two, assuming Alesha survives combat; if not you've got two turns to get her back or find a new one. Doesn't work in Standard simply because our only extra turn spell exiles itself. Bummer.
Obviously weak to graveyard hate, which is everywhere; but Séance'd creatures can't be countered either, meaning that it's a little more resilient once the engine is up. Maybe. Who knows.
I guess just Séance is not so much "Turbo", but trying to get more out of the resources we have. And in a deck that keeps its hand as full as this one, getting the right stuff into the graveyard shouldn't be a huge obstacle, though I suspect it's keeping it there that would be the issue.
EDIT: And if all of your creatures are effectively Fogs, Evolutionary Leap could pick up some extra value in a creature-heavy build. But now I don't know how far I'm diverging from the concept...
The way I see it, if this change were about the exile zone, people would make every single argument for Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile that they've made for Chaos Warp and Oblation. You can imagine that players who were used to exiling commanders would be frustrated by having to find new ways to deal with them, but I don't think anyone now believes the exile rule makes the game worse. I think the change just brings the format more in line with its original intentions; or at the very least, closer to the format I envisioned when I first heard it described.
Ghoultree looks like the most solid option to me, at first blush; turn-two Bracers into turn-three Scholar lets you equip the Bracers on turn four, with one mana open with which to cast the 'tree - I don't think a mono-creatures deck would have too much trouble getting 7 guys in the bin and finding a Ghoultree at that point, but I may be overly optimistic. You'd need to keep the land count pretty low, so you probably wouldn't want to curve out much higher than the Scholar; luckily most of the things you'd likely want in GU (Deathrite Shaman, Ulvenwald Tracker, possibly Wingcrafter for your Ghoultrees) don't curve out too high to begin with. It also might be worth mentioning that, splashing Red, this falls in the same colours as the Nightshade Peddler + Izzet Staticaster combo - both of which are creatures, and one of which already likes the Bracers itself. The splash would also allow Lightning Prowess (or something better than it from Gatecrash, with any luck), which synergises with both the Peddler and the Scholar combo.
----
Apart from the Scholar, the Bracers might look nice on a Tree of Redemption - I've never really liked how slow it was switching back-and-forth, and this would simply turn it into a huge blocker with a lifegain engine attached (with some help, of course). I think I recall hearing the Tree showed up in Constructed a bit before, but I'm not sure what exactly it was doing. Whatever it was, the Bracers would probably make it better at it; if that's something worthwhile, I'd consider looking into it too...
Considering that Ghostfire's flavor text explicitly references the Eye of Ugin, a reprint is not only probable, but will likely be accompanied by similar hoser-dodgers. Give it a couple months, and RDW will be back on its fiery feet.
Also: Picking up a few Eye of Ugin before the next set comes out might not be a bad idea...