Sheltering Ancient, I'm curious how it works for you. I have this deck almost foiled out so I don't really want to buy a normal one (I'm kind of an elitist like that) and the foils are pretty hard to find. That being said, Phyrexian Soulgorger has been insane for me so...
In 1 on 1 games it's poor because your opponent often has no creatures or he only has creatures that are beating on you. In multi, its drawback is smaller because you can just pick creatures nobody wants to attack with. I usually only pay its upkeep once to get the ball rolling with selvala. Or, I play the political game by helping another player for personal gain.
The card is nothing special but there are times where I need a big cheap creature and at 5/5, I usually draw a card off him so he replaces himself.
I wish I could tell you it's super awesome and a definite staple, but I can't. It's not bad, but not great either.
If you're finding yourself running out of gas at times I have to suggest Recycle - it's one of the best draw engines in G. Similarly, as you're running a lot of creatures, you could also consider Soul of the Harvest and Primordial Sage to help keep the deck running.
recycle is a card I never would have thought of. It's fairly old school too and I love old cards. Memory jar is another old school card I love, especially in decks that make a lot of mana.
So I finally gave in and added Omnath. It seems fairly synergistic and when you can untap sylvala with the Rangers I can see things getting out of hand in a good way.
-1 ravaging riftwurm
+1 Omnath, locus of mana
After doing some testing, it seems that in order to get the most out of Aetherworks Marvel, we need to be running a free sac outlet such as Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer or Krark-Clan Ironworks. That makes me hesitant to want to run it, even tho with Daretti's emblem, it makes it better. Thoughts?
Quicksmith Genius has been an all-star so far. A mini Daretti is nothing to scoff at.
Combustible Gearhulk has been pretty fun too. I've gotten both sides of him and haven't been disappointed yet.
Metalwork Colossus has been ok. Nothing great or crazy yet, but I did manage to cast for free.
I don't like aetherworks marvel. I suspect that would be a dead draw most of the time. And the only card I don't really like among the other 4 is madcap experiment. I'd expect to take damage to put a mana rock or something in most of the time. It'd be feasible if I had reliable ways of putting something good on top, like with a scroll rack which I don't run.
Pod seems like it either doesn't fit, or the chain needs to be worked a little. Can't really abuse it or copy it. What have your experiences been with it here?
I've really liked pod and it's been quite useful every time I drew it. My favorite is when I can pod away dryad arbor for a phyrexian dreadnought. One time I even beast within'd my own permanent so I'd have a zero cmc creature to do that with. Using it going from 6-8cmc creatures have been game-breaking. The deck is still fairly new though so I'll see how things go with it.
Have you considered Genesis Hydra? The fact that it scales means you can use it to fairly reliably increase Selvala's mana production at whatever point in the game you cast it and it also functions as an additional way to look for combo pieces like Staff of Domination.
I haven't seriously considered any of the hydras but that one is actually a pretty great suggestion. My one complaint about this deck is it stalls sometimes - it's frustrating being able to make tons of mana and having nothing to cast. So yeah I'll playtest that card and see if it makes the cut.
I already run beast within and mouth of ronom (and duplicant, of course). I don't generally think of mouth of ronom since I rarely see that card so maybe I'll look at it a different way and add crop rotation and sylvan scrying. Normally those cards read "search your library for gaea's cradle and..." but tutoring for mouth of ronom would definitely be worth it sometimes.
Alerting people to threats on the board and, more importantly, when combo players cast a tutor, are obvious but essential tactics for good politicking.
There are a few ways to appear impartial yet also persuade people to use their removal elsewhere. if someone casts, say, terastodon, and one of your permanents is one of the obvious choices, then you should be the one to suggest your permanent dies. It will die anyway so you may as well get credit for the decision. And sometimes, if I have half of one combo on the battlefield but I'm looking to win with a different combo, I might mention how dangerous the combo piece I have is since I don't care if it gets removed. Also, encouraging people to attack you early on with weak threats tends to send them swinging at others in subsequent rounds when those threats are more dangerous. All these things make you appear trustworthy, at which time people are more likely to be swayed by you when you suggest they use their removal on things you can't deal with.
Edit: incidentally, when people threaten others about having removal if they get attacked, I always attack them if I can. I don't want their ploy to work and I'm always happy to get people to use up their removal on one of my beaters. Better that than my general. Plus, the other players see me eating removal for the greater good so they're less inclined to keep hitting me, and I'm creating an opening in that player's defenses for others to take advantage of.
That's actually pretty interesting. I don't know why I never thought of that. The nice thing about it is that it can come at a surprise as it will be in your graveyard and your opponents may have already forgotten about it. I may have to reconsider it.
Yeah the colossus is not bad at all. And when you use it, it comes back to your hand so you have another card to pitch to daretti. The enormous amount of synergy that card has with all aspects of the deck is enough for me. I'm definitely going to try it out.
I'm a bit undecided on how good the quicksmith is. He's decent, but not great. I like the way he cycles through your library faster and he'll help me get to scrap mastery or the combo piece I need. Plus there are times where I wish I could use daretti twice in one turn - once to put the artifact in the graveyard and again to cheat it out, so quicksmith will help with that. My deck is lacking in blockers and everyone likes to attack daretti so having a 3/2 on the board will discourage some of that. I'd say he's worth playtesting too.
My build has too many combos in it so I think I'll take out a couple combo pieces and replace them with those two creatures.
For my multiplayer deck I'm having issues with creatures (eg. linvala, iona, combo generals, etc) and would love an easily fetchable creature that can kill other creatures. What do you guys think of ulvenwald tracker?
One notable feature about metalwork colossus is when it's in your graveyard and you cast scrap mastery, you can use its ability multiple times to recur all your artifacts back onto the battlefield. And then you can cast it for free. He's kinda like a slobad that you can pitch to the grave.
Edit: He would almost always be something you pitch to daretti's ability so you can do scrap mastery shenanigans, return spine of ish sah to your hand, protect your artifacts from getting stolen/exiled, putting something in the graveyard so you can cheat it out somehow, etc.
The card is nothing special but there are times where I need a big cheap creature and at 5/5, I usually draw a card off him so he replaces himself.
I wish I could tell you it's super awesome and a definite staple, but I can't. It's not bad, but not great either.
-1 void winnower
+1 nissa, worldwaker
So I finally gave in and added Omnath. It seems fairly synergistic and when you can untap sylvala with the Rangers I can see things getting out of hand in a good way.
-1 ravaging riftwurm
+1 Omnath, locus of mana
I haven't seriously considered any of the hydras but that one is actually a pretty great suggestion. My one complaint about this deck is it stalls sometimes - it's frustrating being able to make tons of mana and having nothing to cast. So yeah I'll playtest that card and see if it makes the cut.
There are a few ways to appear impartial yet also persuade people to use their removal elsewhere. if someone casts, say, terastodon, and one of your permanents is one of the obvious choices, then you should be the one to suggest your permanent dies. It will die anyway so you may as well get credit for the decision. And sometimes, if I have half of one combo on the battlefield but I'm looking to win with a different combo, I might mention how dangerous the combo piece I have is since I don't care if it gets removed. Also, encouraging people to attack you early on with weak threats tends to send them swinging at others in subsequent rounds when those threats are more dangerous. All these things make you appear trustworthy, at which time people are more likely to be swayed by you when you suggest they use their removal on things you can't deal with.
Edit: incidentally, when people threaten others about having removal if they get attacked, I always attack them if I can. I don't want their ploy to work and I'm always happy to get people to use up their removal on one of my beaters. Better that than my general. Plus, the other players see me eating removal for the greater good so they're less inclined to keep hitting me, and I'm creating an opening in that player's defenses for others to take advantage of.
I'm a bit undecided on how good the quicksmith is. He's decent, but not great. I like the way he cycles through your library faster and he'll help me get to scrap mastery or the combo piece I need. Plus there are times where I wish I could use daretti twice in one turn - once to put the artifact in the graveyard and again to cheat it out, so quicksmith will help with that. My deck is lacking in blockers and everyone likes to attack daretti so having a 3/2 on the board will discourage some of that. I'd say he's worth playtesting too.
My build has too many combos in it so I think I'll take out a couple combo pieces and replace them with those two creatures.
-1 duskwatch recruiter
+1 scryb ranger
Edit: He would almost always be something you pitch to daretti's ability so you can do scrap mastery shenanigans, return spine of ish sah to your hand, protect your artifacts from getting stolen/exiled, putting something in the graveyard so you can cheat it out somehow, etc.
Personally I'd use a commander that has black in it. It'd be fun to use old school flavourful cards like royal assassin and sorceress queen.
Some commander possibilities:
Kresh the bloodbraided
Adun oakenshield
Nekusar, the mindrazer
Sen triplets
Sydri, galvanic genius
Zur the enchanter