Basic idea is clear, it's an Eldritch Evolution deck with 4 extra copies of Evolution. But Neoform being 2cmc inspires me to try to make the deck run as fast as possible. So you want a same-turn kill from Griselbrand-->Shoals-->second Rider+Neoform/Evolution into Borborygmos and dump your lands.
Zacama is carefully chosen based on Griselbrand math. +9 life from starting is two more activations. By the time higher cmcs offer more value, you've drawn your whole deck anyway (minus 3 cards). This is extremely convenient, because it also means Zacama can be Evolutioned from Rider, and either Neoformed or Evolutioned from Griselbrand/Borborygmos.
Summoner's Pact is Riders 5-8 so that we have full redundancy of both combo pieces; and fetches Zacama for Shoal.
Summoning Trap provides protection at one of two vulnerable points in the combo: casting Rider, and casting Neoform. Removal cannot stop the combo since we get to hold priority once Rider is out, and then sacrifice it as part of the cost of the spell. Removal on Griselbrand or Borborygmos can be troublesome, but we can finish their parts in the combo at instant speed in response. If Neoform is countered, you're in trouble but if Rider is countered you at least have the chance to back it up by cheating a free fatty into play.
I don't like the land setup; fetches and shocks affect Griselbrand math and it's difficult to balance the numbers between Borborygmos and so many pitch cards. Simian Spirit Guide feels iffy. He only works with Evolution or Manamorphose, but a fast mana effect is needed to go off Turn 1 or 2, or else it isn't possible to play the second Neoform. I may possibly go to 3 SSG. Another option is adding some number of Fire-lit Thickets to provide a filter.
I was trying to force Green Tide to be Solidarity and then my friend suggested that I steal ideas from the Teachings/Wilderness deck.
Play draw-go until you can drop Dictate into multiple Reality Spasms into a lethal USZ. If you aren't going to be able to finish the combo, you can use Nexus to untap and draw a card and start over; or Cryptic to bounce Dictate so that your opponent can't use it.
Spasm is pretty valuable over Early Harvest and Rude Awakening because it can tap down your opponent's lands, untap your nonbasics, and stall attackers. It nets more mana than Awakening, and only nets 1 mana less than Harvest.
Being entirely instant speed means that Teachings is Demonic Tutor, and the combo can go off at any point.
I dont usually post in the thread because I divert from the common decklists where everything is about the combo and something like Chalice just means you lose unless you have that singleton Bounce some ppl here play. It doesn't make sense to me specially when a single removal spell can destroy our whole plan, and removal is not something uncommon so yes, maybe its better not to focus as much on the combo and make it so the deck can function nonetheless.
Thats why cards like Golem-Skin Gauntlets, Valduk and Teshar seem so interesting to me, because they all provide different ways of winning the game that don't depend on comboing off or that give you more resilience.
Another card that goes in line with that is Sigil of Distinction, since it lets you go into beatdown mode without requiring a ton of other cards.
Perhaps those are the card we should be focusing on.
I haven't tested anything yet since Standard seems more interesting to me right now than playing the same deck over and over again, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
Most lists aren't (or shouldn't be) only running a single bounce spell. The absolute minimum should be one Hurkyl's maindeck and 2 Echoing Truth in the sideboard, and that's really low.
Sideboard answers and alternate wincons will typically accomplish the same thing (allowing the deck to function through hate), and answers will usually, but not always, be better at it because of the broader applications and ability to more precisely respond to specific decks.
The main problem with alternate wincons in Cheeri0s specifically is that there are very, very few that function well within the shell and also attack along a separate axis that avoids the same hate. For example, the plans that you mentioned are all weak to every piece of hate that stops Paladin/Sram; removal, Chalice, EE, and like sideboard answers your plan becomes very dependent on drawing them.
Alt wincons aren't a bad idea, as witnessed by the rising popularity of Grid. But the strongest point of the deck is the degree to which the fastest, most linear combo in modern is streamlined, so we have to be careful when watering it down.
The 12-3 result speak for itself, so I'm all aboard basically all of his choices. Some notable ones from the list:
1. 3 SV in the main. Some lists were foregoing cantrips. Hopefully this recent result shows us that no cantrips is the wrong way to go. Play 3-4.
2. Paradoxical Outcome as Retract #5. This is an interesting addition to refill in longer games in grindier matchups.
3. 2 Revivals in the main. I always liked 1 Revival, but going up to 2 is an interesting call. It certainly adds resiliency.
4. 2 Repeals in the main. A mini-Retract effect in tight spots, interaction against problematic cards, and even saves engines in a pinch.
5. 2 Plains instead of just 1. I like the double Plains here as a hedge against the uptick in Field of Ruin (plus GQ/Path).
Going forward, I would go -1 Revival and go +1 SV in the main. Repeal seems very good against stuff like Humans, but there are a lot of top-tier decks that won't kill cards so the Revival seems less valuable. Going the full cantrip playset seems optimal; basically every deck with cantrips in Modern is running as many as possible of their chosen card.
Reilly has been running a maindeck Outcome for a long time, and I'm a big fan of it. I personally still use Hurkyl's, but Outcome is solid.
I always think 2 Noxious Revivals is correct. I would play all 4 if the deck had room, but the slots are so much tighter than the Legacy lists. Same with Plains, I've always played 2 because Path and GQ are such blowouts. It's niche, but it also means being able to cast Paladin through Blood Moon.
Still not a fan of things like Ghirapur Aether Grid. Seems way too cute, slow, and do-nothing.
I've often thought about Repeal but never actually tried it. I think it definitely does enough things to be good here. Turn 1 EOT Repeal Chalice into a Turn 2 kill has to feel pretty good.
Because this is a toolbox-combo deck similar to Pod. Having multiple, interlocking combo pieces along with strong tutors allows flexibility, adaptability, and high reliability since many different combinations of pieces are useful. It also gives better resilience since you still have outs if specific pieces get hated out.
I'd suggest focusing on one good combo (that wins the game) and making sure that you can consistently pull it off rather than spreading around different combo pieces that don't do anything without the right counterpart.
The deck does this as far as having a "single focal combo" in Fauna Shaman/Civilized Scholar. Shaman on it's own or Scholar with Ooze is one giant combo-factory that utilizes the toolbox pieces.
But if you mean, for instance, to only use Ballista, then no. This would throw away the above advantages and gain no reliability in exchange. Some combo pieces are optional; Scrib Nibblers for example is a personal choice. But removing the means to give Haste or Hexproof seems terrible, Removing Pack Rat or Soul means no infinite creatures, so the maindeck is just dead to Leyline or similar hate. Soul also provides a powerful out to Thoughtseized or removed Oozes and gives incredible value to Shaman activations and sideboard cards in grindy non-combo games.
Also, there is no need for this 5C rainbow manabase as you are basically a GB deck with some cards that only go into the GY anyway.
A "normal" manabase would work much better and be smoother.
This is incorrect. Many of these cards are useful to the combo on the board (Scholar, Soul, Devoted Druid) or powerful in their own right (Butcher, Monstrosity, Pack Rat). While I've made many decks intentionally incapable of casting its cards from hand, this deck would be much worse if it couldn't use all of its cards. A traditional manabase also wouldn't have a lot of advantage; the instabilities of Cavern and Ziggurat would weigh roughly the same as attempting to fetch 4 or 5 colors reliably.
Some good dig/tutor cards for this type of deck can be Grisly Salvage and Traverse the Ulvenwald (needs some deck tweaking to support delirium though).
Grisly Salvage has been considered, but is somewhat tricky for being a non-creature and not being quite reliable enough. It has roughly a 37% chance to find Ooze if cast on turn 2. It is definitely strong dig, and if room ever pops up for it it's a definite inclusion. Traverse is a little more iffy.
Some quick points, the sideboard is obviously under construction amd the maindeck could probably utilize a Golgari Brownscale, especially in Burn and Aggro-heavy metas.
The combo(s):
1) Ooze+Scholar loots your deck, which finds the other combos. Can potentially fizzle unless you use a Dredger, for which the aforementioned Brownscale is probably optimal.
2) Ooze+Shaman immediately assembles all other combos. Assuming you have nothing in your yard but Shaman, you pay G to tutor up Druid. Play Druid and kill him with his own ability. Now you can Untap Ooze; pay G and tap him to tutor up Morselhoarder. Untap him one more time, and pay G to tutor up [anything], discarding Morselhoarder. Now you have infinite mana, untapping, and tutoring.
3) Ooze+Pack Rat+Soul of Innistrad+Infinite mana=Infinite Oozes
4) Ooze+Scrib Nibblers+Infinite Untap=Infinite exile mill
5) Ooze+Monstrosity+Thornling+Infinite Mana=Infinite draw. Target your opponent after you Nibble them. Note that this combo is also possible with Monstrosity in play and Grim Poppet in the yard, at which point it doesn't require Thornling.
6) Ooze+Ballista+Infinite mana=infinite damage and removal. Simple enough.
7) Ooze+Poppet+Druid=infinite removal
Performing the combo with Haste: With Fauna Shaman in play, tutor for Demon Boi, then next turn discard him to tutor Ooze. Now, assuming enough mana, you can play Ooze, sac Shaman to give him haste, and perform the combo.
Performing the Combo Without Haste: This is less of a setup and more of just understanding your options. Neither Druid's counter ability nor Morselhoarder's abilities require tapping. So with those two in the yard, you get infinite mana of every color even though you can't tap Ooze. This allows victory via Ballista, Pack Rat+Soul, and Monstrosity+Grim Poppet. It's not optimal, but there are plenty of lines if you ever find yourself having to win immediately with a summoning sick Ooze.
Performing the combo with stack and priority abuse: Because Druid's ability adds the counter as part of a cost, and Morselhoarder's ability is a mana ability, you can gain infinite mana without passing priority. Grim Poppet's ability can also be used infinitely without passing priority, but for mana production this gets awkward. What this means is that with certain combinations of the fundamental pieces, you can combo out almost entirely without passing priority, and for the few abilities that do need to resolve, you can start over in response if your opponent does anything. For instance, if your Ooze has Shaman, Morselhoarder, Druid, and Soul, nothing short of Split Second, or an actual infinite response, can prevent you from winning (repeatedly make infinite mana, activate tutor, and return Shaman fodder back to your hand).
Replacing Leylines is typically about what you expect to see. If you expect a lot of traditional BG/x and/or UW/x decks, you want 4 Paradoxical Outcome. If you expect a lot of DS Jund, pack the 3 remaining Grapeshots in the sideboard. This also works somewhat for tokens, manadorks, and sometimes Burn (to kill Eidolons or buy time by taking out threats), so you can also consider it if you think those strategies will be around. If you think there will be a lot of Ad Nauseam, Tron, CoCo, Infect, Affinity, etc etc then just slide in 4 generic useful cards (like Outcomes, or Silence if you don't already have it) and kill them without worrying about sideboards because they're way too slow for you.
I don't actually have 4 Grapeshot currently. Our meta expectation was a little more tilted towards traditional BG/x, and so I (correctly) had 4 Outcomes in the side. But even then I had a lot of cases of wanting to rip a Grapeshot and just kill with Retract and no engine.
We went 2-4 today: the biggest factor was a huge meta call that didn't pay off. We expected Tron and Bant Eldrazi on the sides, so we had Abzan in the middle. We were so very wrong.
The only other things that really went wrong were our Burn player dropping a game vs Death's Shadow, and me getting paired with two traditiinal Jund decks and a UR control deck. My deck absolutely refused to win a my game 1 vs Elves, but that ended up not mattering because we lost the round as I was making a thousand Monks in game 2. A very confused Ad Nauseam player watched the deck have only 1 equipment in the top 15 cards. His teammates were much less familiar with the deck than him and remarked on consistency. "No, by all rights he has me dead and the gods literally just smote him." But we got there games 2 and 3 and he was super happy for someone who had just been Grapeshotted.
I don't actually run Mentor in my deck. I'm considering sideboarding it for SA, but I've only used it once.
Other people don't run Mentor as well. Probably for similar reasons as me; they just don't prefer it, or it doesn't fit as well with their specific build, or their meta is different.
I don't think you're trolling because you have a different opinion on Mentor. I think you're trolling because you made a blatantly false claim about results from lists that use Mentor. I think you're trolling because you're actively attacking a tested and proven card choice for no apparent reason while defending your card choice as if we were all trying to set every physical copy of it on fire. You're saying things like
Maybe you're a little to attached to the way you build your deck.
when all I'm doing is pointing out objectively true things about one card that I don't even personally use.
I'm as defensive and argumentative as the next guy (actually probably moreso, but like, the guy after that is about even with me), but you're like way out in left field. You're arguing against things nobody has even said, and sometimes you border on incoherency. We appreciate your ideas. Demon Guy is a very interesting brainstorm very much like Barricade Breaker and Salvage Titan (which I played for ages when I first made the deck). But if you're going to discuss your ideas, you have to recognize that part of that discussion is that no idea is perfect, and we are going to have to weigh your card against other cards that could take the same slot. Compared to Mentor as a potential failsafe, Demon Guy dodges a larger variety of removal and has unique utilities, but is difficult to cast and a very slow clock. Mentor can win in one turn without even comboing off. Demon Guy takes 4 turns. Mentor has been proven with results; two States Top 8s (one before Sram was printed) and a sideboard card in Taufik's undefeated Day 1 run.
I will also point out that they have to have double removal to prevent you from having at least one Monk token. One Monk isn't a great clock, because it only gets in for the massive prowess swing once (or several smaller swings if you play equipments slowly, but the damage is the same), but it is still a threat and a topdecked Retract or Recall is potentially lethal.
Both of Datka's States performances involved maindeck Mentor. We should definitely consider that until the DS hype settles down. Slamming more threats and going wide are both super solid against them. Also beats non-revolt Push =P
4 Neoform
4 Eldritch Evolution
4 Summoner's Pact
2 Griselbrand
4 Borborygmos Enraged
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Manamorphose
4 Summoning Trap
4 Nourishing Shoal
2 Zacama, Primal Calamity
2 Breeding Pool
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Forest
Basic idea is clear, it's an Eldritch Evolution deck with 4 extra copies of Evolution. But Neoform being 2cmc inspires me to try to make the deck run as fast as possible. So you want a same-turn kill from Griselbrand-->Shoals-->second Rider+Neoform/Evolution into Borborygmos and dump your lands.
Zacama is carefully chosen based on Griselbrand math. +9 life from starting is two more activations. By the time higher cmcs offer more value, you've drawn your whole deck anyway (minus 3 cards). This is extremely convenient, because it also means Zacama can be Evolutioned from Rider, and either Neoformed or Evolutioned from Griselbrand/Borborygmos.
Summoner's Pact is Riders 5-8 so that we have full redundancy of both combo pieces; and fetches Zacama for Shoal.
Summoning Trap provides protection at one of two vulnerable points in the combo: casting Rider, and casting Neoform. Removal cannot stop the combo since we get to hold priority once Rider is out, and then sacrifice it as part of the cost of the spell. Removal on Griselbrand or Borborygmos can be troublesome, but we can finish their parts in the combo at instant speed in response. If Neoform is countered, you're in trouble but if Rider is countered you at least have the chance to back it up by cheating a free fatty into play.
I don't like the land setup; fetches and shocks affect Griselbrand math and it's difficult to balance the numbers between Borborygmos and so many pitch cards. Simian Spirit Guide feels iffy. He only works with Evolution or Manamorphose, but a fast mana effect is needed to go off Turn 1 or 2, or else it isn't possible to play the second Neoform. I may possibly go to 3 SSG. Another option is adding some number of Fire-lit Thickets to provide a filter.
3 Opt
4 Mystical Teachings
4 Growth Spiral
1 Natural Connection
2 Dictate of Karametra
4 Reality Spasm
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Nexus of Fate
4 Cryptic Command
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Fatal Push
1 Spell Snare
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Watery Grave
3 Breeding Pool
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Island
3 Forest
2 Swamp
I was trying to force Green Tide to be Solidarity and then my friend suggested that I steal ideas from the Teachings/Wilderness deck.
Play draw-go until you can drop Dictate into multiple Reality Spasms into a lethal USZ. If you aren't going to be able to finish the combo, you can use Nexus to untap and draw a card and start over; or Cryptic to bounce Dictate so that your opponent can't use it.
Spasm is pretty valuable over Early Harvest and Rude Awakening because it can tap down your opponent's lands, untap your nonbasics, and stall attackers. It nets more mana than Awakening, and only nets 1 mana less than Harvest.
Being entirely instant speed means that Teachings is Demonic Tutor, and the combo can go off at any point.
Most lists aren't (or shouldn't be) only running a single bounce spell. The absolute minimum should be one Hurkyl's maindeck and 2 Echoing Truth in the sideboard, and that's really low.
Sideboard answers and alternate wincons will typically accomplish the same thing (allowing the deck to function through hate), and answers will usually, but not always, be better at it because of the broader applications and ability to more precisely respond to specific decks.
The main problem with alternate wincons in Cheeri0s specifically is that there are very, very few that function well within the shell and also attack along a separate axis that avoids the same hate. For example, the plans that you mentioned are all weak to every piece of hate that stops Paladin/Sram; removal, Chalice, EE, and like sideboard answers your plan becomes very dependent on drawing them.
Alt wincons aren't a bad idea, as witnessed by the rising popularity of Grid. But the strongest point of the deck is the degree to which the fastest, most linear combo in modern is streamlined, so we have to be careful when watering it down.
Reilly has been running a maindeck Outcome for a long time, and I'm a big fan of it. I personally still use Hurkyl's, but Outcome is solid.
I always think 2 Noxious Revivals is correct. I would play all 4 if the deck had room, but the slots are so much tighter than the Legacy lists. Same with Plains, I've always played 2 because Path and GQ are such blowouts. It's niche, but it also means being able to cast Paladin through Blood Moon.
Still not a fan of things like Ghirapur Aether Grid. Seems way too cute, slow, and do-nothing.
I've often thought about Repeal but never actually tried it. I think it definitely does enough things to be good here. Turn 1 EOT Repeal Chalice into a Turn 2 kill has to feel pretty good.
Because this is a toolbox-combo deck similar to Pod. Having multiple, interlocking combo pieces along with strong tutors allows flexibility, adaptability, and high reliability since many different combinations of pieces are useful. It also gives better resilience since you still have outs if specific pieces get hated out.
The deck does this as far as having a "single focal combo" in Fauna Shaman/Civilized Scholar. Shaman on it's own or Scholar with Ooze is one giant combo-factory that utilizes the toolbox pieces.
But if you mean, for instance, to only use Ballista, then no. This would throw away the above advantages and gain no reliability in exchange. Some combo pieces are optional; Scrib Nibblers for example is a personal choice. But removing the means to give Haste or Hexproof seems terrible, Removing Pack Rat or Soul means no infinite creatures, so the maindeck is just dead to Leyline or similar hate. Soul also provides a powerful out to Thoughtseized or removed Oozes and gives incredible value to Shaman activations and sideboard cards in grindy non-combo games.
This is incorrect. Many of these cards are useful to the combo on the board (Scholar, Soul, Devoted Druid) or powerful in their own right (Butcher, Monstrosity, Pack Rat). While I've made many decks intentionally incapable of casting its cards from hand, this deck would be much worse if it couldn't use all of its cards. A traditional manabase also wouldn't have a lot of advantage; the instabilities of Cavern and Ziggurat would weigh roughly the same as attempting to fetch 4 or 5 colors reliably.
Grisly Salvage has been considered, but is somewhat tricky for being a non-creature and not being quite reliable enough. It has roughly a 37% chance to find Ooze if cast on turn 2. It is definitely strong dig, and if room ever pops up for it it's a definite inclusion. Traverse is a little more iffy.
Thank you.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Heirarch
3 Devoted Druid
4 Civilized Scholar
1 Morselhoarder
1 Etched Monstrosity
1 Grim Poppet
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Scrib Nibblers
1 Butcher of the Horde
1 Pack Rat
1 Walking Ballista
1 Soul of Innistrad
1 Thornling
4 Jarad's Orders
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Mana Confluence
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Spike Feeder
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Spellskite
1 Shriekmaw
Some quick points, the sideboard is obviously under construction amd the maindeck could probably utilize a Golgari Brownscale, especially in Burn and Aggro-heavy metas.
The combo(s):
1) Ooze+Scholar loots your deck, which finds the other combos. Can potentially fizzle unless you use a Dredger, for which the aforementioned Brownscale is probably optimal.
2) Ooze+Shaman immediately assembles all other combos. Assuming you have nothing in your yard but Shaman, you pay G to tutor up Druid. Play Druid and kill him with his own ability. Now you can Untap Ooze; pay G and tap him to tutor up Morselhoarder. Untap him one more time, and pay G to tutor up [anything], discarding Morselhoarder. Now you have infinite mana, untapping, and tutoring.
3) Ooze+Pack Rat+Soul of Innistrad+Infinite mana=Infinite Oozes
4) Ooze+Scrib Nibblers+Infinite Untap=Infinite exile mill
5) Ooze+Monstrosity+Thornling+Infinite Mana=Infinite draw. Target your opponent after you Nibble them. Note that this combo is also possible with Monstrosity in play and Grim Poppet in the yard, at which point it doesn't require Thornling.
6) Ooze+Ballista+Infinite mana=infinite damage and removal. Simple enough.
7) Ooze+Poppet+Druid=infinite removal
Performing the combo with Haste: With Fauna Shaman in play, tutor for Demon Boi, then next turn discard him to tutor Ooze. Now, assuming enough mana, you can play Ooze, sac Shaman to give him haste, and perform the combo.
Performing the Combo Without Haste: This is less of a setup and more of just understanding your options. Neither Druid's counter ability nor Morselhoarder's abilities require tapping. So with those two in the yard, you get infinite mana of every color even though you can't tap Ooze. This allows victory via Ballista, Pack Rat+Soul, and Monstrosity+Grim Poppet. It's not optimal, but there are plenty of lines if you ever find yourself having to win immediately with a summoning sick Ooze.
Performing the combo with stack and priority abuse: Because Druid's ability adds the counter as part of a cost, and Morselhoarder's ability is a mana ability, you can gain infinite mana without passing priority. Grim Poppet's ability can also be used infinitely without passing priority, but for mana production this gets awkward. What this means is that with certain combinations of the fundamental pieces, you can combo out almost entirely without passing priority, and for the few abilities that do need to resolve, you can start over in response if your opponent does anything. For instance, if your Ooze has Shaman, Morselhoarder, Druid, and Soul, nothing short of Split Second, or an actual infinite response, can prevent you from winning (repeatedly make infinite mana, activate tutor, and return Shaman fodder back to your hand).
Guys, I cannot, CANNOT stress this enough: DO NOT PLAY A BASIC ISLAND IN YOUR DECK. EVER.
We went 2-4 today: the biggest factor was a huge meta call that didn't pay off. We expected Tron and Bant Eldrazi on the sides, so we had Abzan in the middle. We were so very wrong.
The only other things that really went wrong were our Burn player dropping a game vs Death's Shadow, and me getting paired with two traditiinal Jund decks and a UR control deck. My deck absolutely refused to win a my game 1 vs Elves, but that ended up not mattering because we lost the round as I was making a thousand Monks in game 2. A very confused Ad Nauseam player watched the deck have only 1 equipment in the top 15 cards. His teammates were much less familiar with the deck than him and remarked on consistency. "No, by all rights he has me dead and the gods literally just smote him." But we got there games 2 and 3 and he was super happy for someone who had just been Grapeshotted.
Plan vs DS is still 4 Grapeshot.
Other people don't run Mentor as well. Probably for similar reasons as me; they just don't prefer it, or it doesn't fit as well with their specific build, or their meta is different.
I don't think you're trolling because you have a different opinion on Mentor. I think you're trolling because you made a blatantly false claim about results from lists that use Mentor. I think you're trolling because you're actively attacking a tested and proven card choice for no apparent reason while defending your card choice as if we were all trying to set every physical copy of it on fire. You're saying things like when all I'm doing is pointing out objectively true things about one card that I don't even personally use.
I'm as defensive and argumentative as the next guy (actually probably moreso, but like, the guy after that is about even with me), but you're like way out in left field. You're arguing against things nobody has even said, and sometimes you border on incoherency. We appreciate your ideas. Demon Guy is a very interesting brainstorm very much like Barricade Breaker and Salvage Titan (which I played for ages when I first made the deck). But if you're going to discuss your ideas, you have to recognize that part of that discussion is that no idea is perfect, and we are going to have to weigh your card against other cards that could take the same slot. Compared to Mentor as a potential failsafe, Demon Guy dodges a larger variety of removal and has unique utilities, but is difficult to cast and a very slow clock. Mentor can win in one turn without even comboing off. Demon Guy takes 4 turns. Mentor has been proven with results; two States Top 8s (one before Sram was printed) and a sideboard card in Taufik's undefeated Day 1 run.
Wat
The first ever top 8 had md Mentor
1 of the 2 1st places in States this year had md Mentor
Dannewitz ran sb Mentors
Taufik ran sb Mentors
I'm being completely honest when I say that I'm no longer sure if this isn't a weak attempt at trolling.