MTG Salvation

I'm aware of the downside theories of wheel effects, but you articulated it very well. I once had a very good player tell me that he doesn't care about giving players cards because his cards are better. I was like "huh?" He explained that his cards are primarily tailored to accelerating and digging into a win. Of course, he was a combo player mostly just trying to entwine Tooth and Nail but I saw his point. While everyone else was mostly getting mana rocks, spot removal, utility creatures, and bombs they didn't have enough mana to cast yet out of the deal, he was getting the cards he needed to combo out. The reason I bring this up is because isn't that what we're sorta doing too, albeit to a lesser degree?
Despite completely agreeing with your assessment, my direct experience has been more along the lines of "I have 2 cards in hand. My opponents have between 4-6 each. I cast a wheel backed by mana drain and now I have a full arsenal of cards to win with whereas before I had no win cards. I cast berserk on my already Rancor'd Rafiq, I win the stack war with Vines and Swan Song, I knock the biggest threat out of the game." I mean, I've swung for more with Lord of Extinction, but that just came outta nowhere. Audacious alpha strikes are probably the most rewarding moments in the game imo. The other guy in the game then proceeded to grind me out, but I regret nothing.
Now, maybe you're right and it's not necessary at all. Maybe I could have conserved that Mana Drain, tutored Berserk, filtered for Swan Song, and achieved the same result without the risk of giving my opponents more cards to stop me with.
In testing the wheels have been great in stalled games, especially against decks that have way better CA engines than me (which is most unless I get Selkie going or have plenty of dorks to clamp). Otherwise, yeah Recurring Insight has mostly been better. The main difference is that with a wheel I can occasionally win same turn (minus Day's Undoing).
Aside from just being really conservative, taking beats, and letting my opponents overextend so I can hit 'em hard with a Eldrazi Conscription or a devastating Austere Command, the best way I have discovered to stay in the CA game against decks with good draw engines is to get Selkie going. Sometimes it means committing every spell in my hand to protect and buff it, but when I get it going it's pretty nuts. There is definitely a high risk - high reward element to it all, but honestly that's why I find piloting Rafiq so exciting. While it's not as dynamic as my old Roon deck, there are two distinct modes of play. Kill everyone before they know what happened, or sit back and wait for the magic moment to unleash the epic face smash. One time I Sovereign triggered into Conscription, cast Might of Oaks, then Berserk. The life total of my opponent on the computer screen read -72. My opponent chatted "I've been waiting my whole life for someone to hit me that hard. Do you happen to be Chuck Norris irl?"
I know there was a big discussion about stax partially in an attempt to offset our apparent CA issue by stretching the game out, but from what I gathered it's just too big of a commitment to be optimal. I don't care much for Derevi stax, but I do liken Rafiq's potential to function similar to Brago in that we tax and lock while laboring to punch to activate triggers. So what are your thoughts on Cataclysm and Armageddon effects? And what about Silence and Orim's Chant. They seem like Time Walks against the best player at the table, and sometimes 1 more turn is all we need to knock 'em out.

Lack of CA is kind of just a reality I've accepted but still am open to testing what might help subsidize this inherent shortcoming. I play a lot of low cmc. It's easy to go down to 2-3 cards in hand turn 4. Rather than spending an entire turn trying to draw a small amount of cards I've developed a play style that is more meticulous and calculated, opting for tutoring or filtering out the "right" card, or in the case of Noxious Revival reclaiming it.

To address MrCoupon's apparent disdain for Timetwister and ilk - I'm usually netting 5-6 new cards because either I alpha-stike'd or dumped my hand accelerating and playing control. My opponents are almost always netting less, and many times have their game plan disrupted. I learned that watching red players who aggro out, bolt everything in sight, run out of gas, and then bam! a hiss of boos when Wheel resolves.
To quote you, "But when we have 1-2 cards and they have 7, we aren't landing lethal attacks :/" Pretty great upsides imo, and apparently the opinion of many blue players because I encountered it frequently when running grindier decks and would usually utter "dammit" when it resolved. Maybe I don't encounter Time Spiral as often piloting Rafiq because I am either pressuring them too hard or am just about out of cards so it's too disadvantageous for them.
I'm going to run Recurring Insight in 3 man pods online for a bit and see how often it's successful.
I'm also going to add Diminishing Returns and Time Reversal along side Day's Undoing so I hit a wheel more often just to see how well they perform before I pay $8 for Timetwister or $16 for Time Spiral.

The Temporal Mastery off of Noxious Revival is also facilitated by Looter il-Kor, Intuition, Fact or Fiction, Jace Architect, and Jace Prodigy.
Throw in Karmic Guide, Snapcaster, and Dig Through Time and voila, a mini gy theme yet still all really great spells on their own.

Update: Played a grindy game with a stalled board. Cast Diminishing Returns, next turn cast Recurring Insight. Drew 19 cards over 3 turns. Obviously a best case scenerio on my first try, but still pretty snazzy.

@MrCoupon I do agree that running out of gas against grindy decks is a major concern. Timetwister effects are on my radar to test more after liking Days Undoing lately. I remember when Recurring Insight was a staple in the format it seems to have fallen out of favor but I recently witnessed it do some amazing work and thought about revisiting it. I see it in your maybe board. Spells like Harmonize and Deep Analysis just don't quite cut it. I'd rather dig or tutor for win conditions than play those. Sure Brainstorm and Preordain don't half refill your mitt, but they efficiently filter and sculpt your hand which I prefer in Rafiq. Unless I'm on the all-out attack, my midgame style is very draw-go.

I've never ran Finest Hour because I rarely play 4-5 player games, but even just assessing it a time walk seems much better. Speaking of time walks Noxious Revival sets of Temporal Mastery too. Revival has been a pretty decent spell I recommend trying it, if not to regrow instant pumps just getting back auras and defensive spells is decent. It gets much better with looting, a strategy I've considered to set up things like Saffi, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Snapcaster, Replenish, and Bruna.

@ctucker Oversoul has been better than Godhead overall. Both spells are weak against exile and bounce effects, but Oversoul has the advantage of being great against black and red removal, big fliers, white sweeps like wrath, DoJ, command, verdict, and blue's Pongify and Rapid Hybridization. In short, the indestructible has been suprisingly relevant in a format notorious for exile effects.

I strongly urge all players to invest $60 - $100 in an mtgo deck. I catch a couple quick games everyday, enjoy it a lot, and have become one hell of a magic player in the process developing an intimate knowledge of dozens of top decks at large in the format. If you keep the core of your deck after you've tired of it after a couple weeks or months the redemption value is decent. I went from Saffi to Roon for less than $30 then from Roon to Rafiq for about $20. I had reservations about investing in digital cards at first but I'm so glad I did. The community is great and I play Magic whenever I want, so much so that my cost is probably down to a penny and game.

Yeah the skullclamp scenerio isn't the best, but I guess that's what modal cards do - they do multiple things decent but nothing particularly stellar. The +3 flying has performed well enough with Rafiq/Agent/Selkie/Constable to keep her in, but I wouldn't regard her an essential inclusion.
I ran Angelic Destiny for a bit and it wasn't good enough. Losing auras to the gy sucks, but I've preferred playing to protect them or just forging ahead digging/tutoring for new buffs. Godhead, Oversoul, Armadillo are cheaper, still make Rafiq a two turn clock, and grant more abilities. I didn't find it much better than Rancor tbh.

I respectfully acknowledge your insights and commend you for a well articulated response, but I couldn't disagree more. "Grind" and "incremental advantage" is the antithesis of fast voltron. I played Roon extensively. Then I took that shell and built Rafiq. Little by little I found myself replacing value/goodstuff cards with swifter spells while becoming better at identifying the biggest threat to my game plan and killing them as fast as possible. The more I transformed the deck from wide to narrow the more success I had, keeping only the elite of the goodstuff spells (Glen Elendra, Austere Command, Witness, Library, Top..). Granted, the piloting and threat assessment became more critical the more I dedicated slots to lethal blows. Misplays can be catastrophic when playing in such narrow margins, but it's much more rewarding to win primarily by savvy piloting. Incremental decks are the easiest to defeat imo. You can anticipate their curve and tempo, and the more they commit to board position the better as it completely communicates to you what their deck is doing. I'm usually skilled enough to blank or play around the pillowfort/tax/stax/token horad/whatever and steal a win in one shot backed up with countermagic or better yet watching my opponent foolishly pass turn tapped out. It's like taking down a charging behemoth with a blow dart in the jugular - all I have to do is stay alive long enough while accelerating and digging out that lethal shot. If I'm overwhelmed and out-paced I acknowledge it and concede, much like a burn player does against soul sisters in modern - you puke your hand and try to get there, only in this format we get a reprieve because you're never "out of gas" with Rafiq lurking in the command zone. It's cards in hand and open mana that mostly concerns me, but I can vie against that too with well played countermagic and removal, waiting for the precise moment to stike and win. Aside from running the basics like Reclamation Sage, Swords to Plowshares, a bunch of counters, etc. I'm convinced the more slots I commit to worrying about long term advantage, answers and board position the more I dilute Rafiq's primary asset - which is killing people fast. I can see your point if I was playing against 4-5 people on the regular, but honestly I don't bust out volton in those environments. Not to say it can't be done, but I wouldn't do that, I would go back to Roon or Derevi.

Sigarda's Aid is interesting. So is Apostles Blessing.
As for green pump spells conflicting with sword, while I occasionally run into it it's never been a huge deal. Either I move it over to another creature or I just keep swinging with the sword winning anyways and save the pump. Feast and Famine is good and all, but not so great that I would forego an entire arsenal of green auras and instants just to 100% accomodate it.

I try to stay away from +6/+6 which is why I cut Revenge of the Hunted. Commander damage being 21 makes the magic number "7" with Rafiq. Enlarge was a consideration but sorcery speed is a pretty large drawback. I do like the delve mechanic on Become Immense though since I play so many low cmc instant spells, might be worth a try moreso with Selkie/Agent/Constable instead of Predator's Strike which has been suprisingly decent, effectively functioning like a doom blade when smaller creatures swing into our dorks. It was a pleasant surprise when I realized how defensive the card can be, especially since passing turn with 2 open mana has become a way of life provided I'm not bum rushing an opponent.

I actually haven't used Tezz. I use all 3 Signets, Ring and Crypt but not Coalition Relic, Mind/Fellwar Stone, or Thran Dynamo. The second ability seems fine for Clamp and Greaves but for swords you need 7 mana to cast and equip it's always seemed expensive to me. Also I'm hesitant to run artifact lands because they're vulnerable to naturalize effects and my own Austere Command but I'll give it a try. Just not sure if 5 rocks and 3 lands justifies his first ability or if Fabricate and Open the Armory are just better options if all we're doing is tutoring. Suppose he can sometimes tutor two consecutive turns though.
Speaking of clamp, it's the main reason Elspeth stays in the list. The +3 flying ability is great winning with Berserk but clamp fodder is superb.
Agent as sole infect has been fine. If he eats an exile then his role was as bait. Sometimes he just gets a clamp but I love widening the attack or applying immediate pressure with him.
Pridemage seems too good to cut with Pattern in your list though.
Sublime hasn't been super great but occasionally she gets there. There aren't many powerful creatures in the list that widen the attack but she does an ok job of buffing other stuff while being a threat by herself. Sometimes I'll have Rafiq out with her and equip a sword to her instead. It complicates an opponent's removal decision. She's a flex slot for me but has managed to stay on the roster.
I've been testing Day's Undoing because I am prone to running out of gas. It's been decent.
I actually cut Jitte. It was rarely exciting and always my least favorite equipment tutor target. Predator's Strike has been better allowing one shot wins with Blighted Agent + Rafiq. Great with Selkie and Constable too. Jitte was just too slow.

Updated list. The deck is pretty lean and plays to my style.
Aside from acquiring Noble Hierarch, Wasteland, more fetches, and maybe Arcane Denial and Spellskite the only real change that comes to mind for me is to swap Selesnya Charm, Canopy Cover, Armadillo Cloak, or Shield of the Oversoul for an Eladamri's Call when I get one. I think I'd like to get Saffi back in too kinda miss her.
I'm also going to test Orim's Chant and Silence.

Yeah Stoneforge isn't cuttable. I meant Stonehewer. He seems fine but a little expensive and slow. If I were looking for flexible slots it would be him, Eldritch, and Pattern.
Exo and Conscience not having evasion hasn't been much of an issue when I've ran them. Rancor, Shield of the Oversoul, Steel of the Godhead, Swords, and Elspeth give me plenty of evasion options. I was running Thassa but cut her. Just not enough impact. I actually switched out Godhead for Aqueous Form too and they've been about the effectively the same. In bigger games I would probably like the lifelink though. Although Armadillo Cloak seems better for pushing through damage with Selkie or Constable. Cloak can also be used on an opponent's creature in a pinch.
I had Pattern confused with Natural Order in my mind thinking you could only get a green creature. Getting Jin or Sovereign seems great. I'd have to try it to have a better opinion of it. I did run it in Saffi but I had lots of sac outlets.
Berserk has been fantastic. It wins very quickly with Agent or Constable too. Might of Oaks wins me games but I had to find a slot for Noxious Revival when I play bigger games otherwise it's not great. The reason I like Beserk so much more is because of how fast it is and allows counter magic to back it up so early in the game. Kill the good control player asap!
I haven't gotten my hands on a Hierarch but I did cut Revenge of the Hunted for Pilgrim.
I tried exo and wasn't overly impressed. I only run Conscience in bigger games where there are more juicy targets to steal.
I must happen to play against a ton of spot removal and theft because Canopy has been very good, especially against Mystifying Maze or Maze of Ith. Lightning Greaves tends to get targeted pretty fast. I like a backup that is an enchantment instead (so not Boots). That was back when I was running Heliod Pilgrim and Sterling Grove though so maybe Boots is better.
Selesnya Charm isn't fantastic, but it does ok. It hits a few commanders, gives trample to that lethal Rafiq/Exo/Conscience/Putrefax, and occasionally flashes in a token against edict/stax effects. I could see it cut someday, but it puts in some work.

Shaman of Forgotten Ways is interesting. Reminds me of Somberwald Sage.
I've thought about adding Sword of Light and Shadow because believe it or not I can have trouble against heavy white decks. They tend to be removal heavy and have big flyers.
I'm not sure how I would tune the deck for mostly 4-5 players. Finest Hour, Rhystic Study, Grand Arbiter, Metamorph and Gilded Drake seem like a good start.

Imo Corrupted Conscience > Grafted Exoskeleton.
I do see there are 6 ways to tutor Exoskeleton compared to only 3 ways to get Conscience though. Tbh I'd try to run both since Exoskeleton is sweet with Tezz.. I might cut Stonehewer for Idyllic Tutor making the artifact/aura tutor ratio 5:4. Stoneforge and Gift will almost always get Skullclamp or a Sword first whereas Idyllic and especially Sovereign are usually after wincons Conscription or alternatively Conscience.
The slots I see that don't entirely impress are Eldritch Evolution and Pattern of Rebirth. What is there game changing to get with Rebirth other than maybe Putrefax? I see Glen Elendra and Pridemage to enable Pattern but I only ever found it really shine in sac recursion decks that have more enablers (Saffi and Sakura-Tribe Elder) to slam Vorinclex or Regal Force or something. Evolution is cute and maybe does something relevant but give me a clamp-able Coiling Oracle instead any day. Or Berserk. It's getting a reprint so soon to be affordable outside of mtgo where I steal hella games with it.

This thread is an abomination to the archetype.
I'm off to build Oloro into infect voltron. Unsubscribe.

I'm excited to see what we can come up with. I don't think rafiq has reached his ceiling with the current meta and he hasn't truly been competitively explored in a year or two (from what I've seen- and I've seen almost every serious deck list on him). He will always be outclassed by derevi but that doesn't mean he can't be threatening in his own right and have unique cards to derevi that play to his stengths.

Especially since the tuck rule change I would have thought we'd see a resurgence in voltron.
Since I usually only play 2 or 3 player games I haven't experienced running out of gas as much but I do see it as an issue.
I accelerate with dorks, fetch socery and signets followed by casting one-shot pumps that do often leave my hand empty. Aside from hate and general power creep of other commanders, are we acknowledging card disadvantage as a primary flaw? It seems to me that plenty of filter spells and tutoring digs us what we need to finish, be it be a Mystical Tutor into Triumph of the Hoards or Open the Armory into Grafted Exoskeleton...
If aggro pukes their hand out then casts Wheel, should we be looking at Time Spiral and other options for gas before abandoning the archetype? When we start talking about Edric and Birthing Pod and Opposition, feels like we might as well change the title of this thread to Roon.

I think Mirror Entity could put in some good work with Blighted Agent, Constable, and Selkie. Maybe.
When you see a lockdown commander like Derevi, Grand Arbiter, Oloro.. they aren't better if everyone at the table knows to kill them first before they get their bull***** online. This is what Berserk, Might of Oaks, infect is for. Kill FAST, and communicate to everyone else exactly what your intentions are.
1.5/2 tier commanders are not worse than tier 1 commanders if everybody at the table always understands that you ALWAYS kill tier 1 commanders FIRST. How we are this many years into the distilling of this format and this isn't an absolute, understood, unspoken, automatic reality is baffling to me.
As for late game finish, it's relatively easy to one-shot right out of the command zone isn't it? Or same-turn infect kill? I do it all the time. True running out of gas is common for voltron. I've kept Deep Analysis in the deck and am considering putting back in Harmonize. Can't always rely on just Skullclamp and Selkie in bigger grindier games. I haven't played with Hunter's Insight. Seems so situational. If I have a high powered face smasher on board, I don't need to burn mana on cards that turn, I need instant finishers or protection up.

Curve looks high. I'd recommend trimming some larger cmc spells into 2 drops which you seem light on.
Render Silent < Delay
Farhaven Elf < Sakura-Tribe Elder
Kodama's Reach < Nature's Lore
Mana Reflection < Azorius Signet
Mirari's Wake < Simic Signet
Chromatic Lantern < Selesnya Signet
Return to Dust < Harmonic Sliver
Krosan Grip < Nature's Claim

Roon needs to protect his board. Wraths can be devastating. You have plenty of threats imo so I'd cut some and run more insurance and slim down the deck's average cmc while you're at it.
-Armada Wurm +Swan Song
-Lavinia +Negate
-Ixidron +Saffi Eriksdotter
-Ephara, God of the Polis +Skullclamp
-Kruphix, God of Horizons +Trinket Mage

Original post has a list of one-shots with Rafiq. Might of Oaks should be listed too. I Mystical Tutor for it all the time ftw. Revenge of the Hunted and Berserk are almost right there too but need a little help.
Seems like an active thread so I'll post my decklist. It's mostly tuned for 1 vs 1 OR 3 player games on MTGO and I've been absolutely crushing with it since I converted over from Roon. I was winning about 75% with Roon. Rafiq is more like 85%. There are some changes I'd make for 4-5 person multi-player but this is pretty close to what I consider ideal for my play style which is lots of acceleration, low cmc, and lean instants to interact with the stack.
There are some slots I consider "flex" (Thassa, Deep Analysis, Revenge of the Hunted, Austere Command..) Eventually I'll use those slots to test out stuff like Bear Umbra, Sigarda, Stonehewer.. Also I see Medomai in lots of lists and Blighted Agent in just a few. That's a real head scratcher for me. I always win with either commander damage, infect, eldrazi conscription on a dork, or resource denial with Constable. Also Bant Charm has pretty much sucked. I would consider Finest Hour for multiplayer, but I dunno any Time Walk spell seems better to me. Also I don't think 20-ish creatures is enough to really utilize Edric or Birthing Pod which I know are popular. Tutoring up Skullclamp or Cold-Eyed Selkie to draw seems better to me. I guess Pod is fine if you're running bant etb staples but that's too grindy imo. I'm looking to just punch out my opponents ASAP. Why spend 4 mana to pod Sage into Venser when I could be dropping swords and signets and passing turn with open mana?
I avoid prison/tax stuff like Stoic Angel and Silent Arbiter. I kill faster than anyone I'm matched against so I don't mind taking beats. I also don't like all the "exalted" bears I see in some lists. I have better stuff to do with my mana, like equip swords to Rafiq/Selkie/Agent/Constable and leave counter magic mana up.