Hi Skulduggery Kain, could you post the updated decklist ?
I'm also mounting the deck and after reading all the post, I'm interested in seeing what list you play today.
Thanks,
Thanks for your interest! I no long play this deck - I converted it to a spicy Jugan, the Rising Star deck that I might post here one day. The last iteration that I played is updated on the original post. If you have any questions about updates to include the newer sets, I'd be more than happy to discuss changes/updates!
There are two Sabertooth loops that are worth mentioning. The first is the one that you're thinking of - using Concordant Crossroads with Priest/Archdruid to create infinite mana which in turn creates infinite creature bounces. With the sheer explosiveness of the deck and the amount of cards that are drawn, the rarely is a problem that there's only 1 card that gives haste. There have been times when I've had to thing out of the box to draw more cards, but I've never not drawn into crossroads when i'm going off, even if i have to draw my entire deck.
The other loop doesn't require haste, but it does require Priest/Archdruid to be out of summoning sickness. You'll need them to tap for at least 5 (as long as you have a 1 drop elf, if you don't, you'll need 3+(cmc of whatever other elf you have on the field)+ 1. Tap the Priest, use Wirewood Symbiote to untap the Priest, then bounce the Symbiote with Sabertooth. Replay the Symbiote and the other elf you have, tap the Priest for mana, then bounce the elf you just played to uptap the Priest with Symbiote. Rinse and Repeat.
Once the loop is established, you can win through bouncing Craterhoof a bunch of times and swinging in, getting infinite tokens and swinging in, bouncing World Breaker a bunch of times, bouncing Eternal Witness and recurring a token card or Hornet Sting/ Desert Twister a bunch of times, or pretty much whatever you want. You could even put Aetherflux Reservoir if you wanted to.
I always finish the game once I draw huge amounts of cards. I revamped the first page a bit - there are a fair amount of ways the deck can win. I don't have a hand unlimiter mainly because even if I don't win that turn, no 8 cards are that important that I can't just pitch something to the yard. Also, between Seasons Past, and E Wit, I can recur a a lot.
Hi Skulduggery Kain, first of all congratualtions on the deck!
I recently got myself the commander anthology which should arrive at my home tomorrow, and since Freyalise is one of the commander decks I decided to give her a try. Which is what got me looking at mtgs for some ideas and brought me to your deck. I was very please to find that you were still around and that the decklist is still being updated/optimized.
I'm quite new to commander and often don't fully grasp how a combo goes off. Would you mind commenting a little more in-depth as to how the turns play out? What should I be tutoring for etc.
Also, if it's not to big of a hassle could you post your recent optimized list?
I really like your flavor reasons for cutting some cards and staying true to what happened. I have been trying to learn more about the lore myself and just finished reading up freyalise's story. However, should you have a harcore optmized list which ignores the flavour cuts, could you post that as well?
Edit: I realize I just dumped a load of requests in a teeny-weeny post, but it would be a great help to this noob here if you could! Thank you.
Haha, that is awesome man, I hope I can help!
So with the deck, this easiest way to play the first couple of turns is to gun for a turn 3 (or earlier!) Freyalise. This can be done through a ton of combinations of mana dorks, rocks, and land based ramp. After Freyalise is on the field, generally you want to +2 her. if someone played something that really needs to go, like a Rule of Law, blow it up, but generally you want to fetch a creature to do this. Now ulting Freya is a little more in depth. If you can draw +8 cards from creatures that turn, then usually it's worth it, but if not, it's usually best to make another token and try again next turn. The turns between casting Freya and ulting her your tutor targets should be hard mana ramp (as in Priest) and token producers (prioritizing the cheaper ones first unless you have enough lands to make Avenger worth it - around 5 or more. During ult turn your focus is first of maximizing mana production and drawing more cards. Tutoring during this phase is depends on what you need. Usually it's going to be token makers or uptap effects to synergies with Gaea's cradle/nykthos and the mana dorks. If you run out of gas you get Regal Force, or Sabertooth to bounce him if he's already been played. Win phase is Beats, either with infinite tokens or Craterhoof, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Bouncing World Breaker, and Bouncing E. Wit with Primal Command to name the most common. If you can when or dig more, cast The Great Aurora to try again, but watch out - token numbers count even though they disappear, so be careful not to draw yourself to death.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you want to go into anything else more in depth.
This is what I'm currently playing flavor wise. I'm going to take a good look at it in the next week or so and post a optimized list for you. The OP has some lines of play, but I'll update it as soon as I can to be more in depth!
Yes there is! Lifecrafter's Bestiary made it into the deck, but I've been playing awhile without cards like Garruk do to flavor reasons (Freyalise never met that bro). An argument can also be made for Paradox Engine Currently I was looking at a re-optimized list that I'll post in the next couple of days. I'm also strongly looking into adding Red and White and running Samut, Voice of Dissent instead. Thanks for the interest!
Absolutely, I'm working on a B/W storm list right now that this card is going to put a lot of work in.
My initial thoughts are it's weaker than MoM - With MoM, any card in your hand is black lotus, and with this deck's draw potential, that's insane. MoM also has the ability to untap lands which is very strong as well.
With Paradox Engine, you have to physically cast something to get value, although, you get more value with less cards depending on board state. This difference becomes more apparent when you're tapped out or when your spells cost too much/ are the wrong color. Where as with MoM you can restart chains on call as long as you have pitch fodder, if you stall out with just a paradox engine, you're done.
I think they're both strong cards, and PE can shine in places MoM cannot, but if comparing the two in a vacuum, MoM is better.
As stated above, cutting Gilded Lotus would be counter intuitive, and we wouldn't want to cut MoM. The 5 drop slot is amazingly tight, with every card lending itself to a win (Gush with Doomsday, Future-Top combo, Ad Naus - either by itself or with Aetherflux, and Dark Petition/FoW just plain bonkers). I can see Dack Fayden, potentially since stealing with Sol Ring or Untapping all your mana rocks are in the same vain, but then you lose out on the Tempo plays with Dack
Haha, I know right?! Pretty excited about that card. Between that and Aetherflux Reservoir, it's like wizards is trying to bring storm into the 21st century, haha.
Ah, okay. Thanks for elaborating! While obviously neither is optimal for this deck, I feel they both can add value in a more casual setting/budget reasons. As you stated above, Vig can tutor for your win conditions. Barrng other circumstances (i.e. House Rules) the ability tutor is the more synergistic of the two. What really hurts Rashmi is, like you stated, the fact her ability doesn't actually draw the card, so she loses synergy with Kadele. That being said, this fact that she has the potential to +1 you a card during every turn potentially give you a weaker version of Thrasios in an emergancy.
TLDR: Value can be gained from both these cards in a more casual setting (that this deck was designed for per my understanding). And barring house rules that frown in tutoring, Vig would be the more synergistic of the two.
Rashmi seems bad, Momir seems win more, and Vorinclex > High Tide and its a creature, so its easily tutored in G green. Even if I did not have Vorinclex I think I would play Regal Behemoth over High Tide.
So why does Rashmi seem bad? It's card advantage that takes advantage of what the deck is already trying to do: play cards/abilities during everyone's turn. Granted, at the 4 cmc slot is might be a bit slow, but this is suppose to be a more casual deck anyway. Even if you look at it without the casual lense, it's still at a decent power level as an engine. Every turn your first spell cantrips with the potential to cast the card for free. It's like a buffed Jori En, Ruin Diver. Plus the cast trigger is a may, so even if you flip a suboptimal card like a counter, you can just put it in you hand.
Really curious about why you question the power level of Rashmi. With such a low creature count, Vig seems very weak as part of the 99 - Birthing Pod is just better for the role he'd be trying to fill. I've got no qualms with that critique, but the Rashmi out look as got me scratching my head. Really curious to see what I'm missing.
If you aim to build a stax deck, you deck slots must reflect this ideology, and more importantly, function to exert just as much pressure on the opponent. Trinket Mage may be there as a tutor, but if isn't the leanest, most efficient tutor for something that is going to put the game away, it doesn't belong in the deck. I would actually advise against using planeswalkers: they make for great win cons but terrible board control permanents. With that in mind, the majority of the spells in your deck should aim to control the board, while your win conditions should be as sleek and efficient as possible, synergistic with the board control strategy, and be as compact as possible.
This is the exact mindset you need to have with this deck if you truly want it to be a $T4KS deck. Think Alex, like full blown Alex. I like what you've cobbled together, I'm impressed, but you'll need to huddle with experienced Staks players to take the deck to the next level. I was just going to make a post about your mana base (you have an excess amount of red and white sources for what you're running), but Jostin123's post hit the nail home in a way that wasn't coming to me since I'm not that involved with Stax decks.
I would take a look at darrenhabib's list, and use that as the foundation of your stax package - as stated above, your point is to break the symmetry on these cards to control the game state into a board your opponents can't come back from.
In general, yes: planeswalkers are terrible board control cards. However, a couple in the Grixis shard break that ideaology. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (mentioned earlier) probably controls the board the best outside of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but both these bros cost 8 mana. I don't know if that's good for a Stax deck - can any of the Stax players out there comment on this? There's also Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. This guy helps break symmetry by not only making dudes, but also by breaking your opponent's creatures and Sol Rings - er mana rocks, so you maintain control of the board.
Hanna, Ships Navigator seems too slow for what you're trying to do with this build. You have recursion in the deck already that's faster and/or more efficient. If you want another piece I'd look at Trash for Treasure instead. Hurkyl's Recall seems out of place in this deck. Why is it in?
I would not be so nit picky about certain aspects if I wasn't building a similar deck to this IRL, but there are quite a few things in this list that don't really make sense and I would appreciate if they were addressed.
- Flickerform - What does this card do for the deck other than dodge a black sun's zenith and some random "naturalize-style" effects? Sigarda's biggest concern is board wipes and this pretty much dodges a total of one of them that is commonly seen in EDH. As for enchantment destruction effects, flickerform will never dodge a krosan grip and will dodge an opposing aura shards once in most cases. This just comes off as mediocre in the face of (most likely) 3 other opponents. The card honestly feels way too niche and the slot seems better used by something like shielded by faith or any aura granting a "totem armor" effect.
- Mirari's Wake - In a deck in which the highest CMC is 6, this card just feels like you are asking to be blown out through overextending. I admit this card is great in conjunction with cards like ulamog, the infinite gyre or palinchron, but nothing like that is present in this deck. In this instance Mirari's Wake just comes off as a "win more card." With the addition of the rule that your commander can no longer be tucked, the likelihood of angels from sigil of the empty throne carrying the game is much lower. The main goal of the deck appears to be suiting up Sigarda (usually with shield of the oversoul followed by some other auras), get value off of some enchantress effects, and swing until you've dealt enough commander damage to win. In this context, Mirari's Wake is out of place.
As a point of note, this deck just feels like it wants more ways to stop opponents from interacting with Sigarda. Whether it be in the form of winter orb; hokori, dust drinker; rule of law; or any other lockdown effect, this deck's consistency would most likely go up if the game was slowed down after suiting up Sigarda. I get that privileged position is an enchantment and has synergy with the deck, but would it not be more efficient to just stop your opponents in their tracks instead of hoping you get the nuts with sterling grove? I'm not sure whether the originator of the deck does not enjoy this type of playstyle or hasn't gotten around to testing cards such as these, but I think they are at least worth a discussion.
Flickerform brings the creature back at the end of the turn, so it actually dodges literally every board wipe commonly seen in EDH. The only way to beat if is to stack another wipe on top of the effect at instant speed and even then if the Fickerform user has 4 mana open, they can just respond again. Yes, the form dies to Krosan Grip, but that's like saying Jace, the Mindsculpter is bad because he dies to Hero's Downfall.
Not really defending Mirari's Wake in this deck, but I do see value in it. The major value I see is that it allow you to keep casting you general reliably. Why is the likelihood of Sigil of the Empty Throne carrying the game much lower? Because your general can't get tucked anymore? Then with that logic you'll need mana to keep powering her out, but you just bashed the main two cards that let her keep a presence on the field outside of Shield of the Oversoul.
Once Sigarda gets established, I can see a rule of law coming down, or something like that (Eidolon of Rhetoric), but some of these cards are meta based.
Oath has the prior synergies I've mentioned with the deck that just another land does not. I'm not saying the card is definitive in the deck, I'm just saying it's better than another land. I cut a land for the card and over a multitude of games, it's proven it's salt. But, as I've said before, if something better comes along, it will get cut.
Mana Crypt and Craterhoof Behemoth should both be in the deck, and I'll put them in eventually has I start looking for flavor cuts here soon. Unfortunately I wouldn't know what advice/tips to give you because I don't know how you play, haha. But thanks and good luck out there!
I have looked into other token producers and I like Deranged Hermit and Hornet Queen the most. The problem with Ant Queen is that she's mechanically slow for what the deck wants to do. She only combos with Earthcraft and some sort of mana doubler, and you can't tutor for those (an argument you've brought up with other cards) outside of Regal Behemoth. Now, I am looking at cutting Wolfbriar Elemental for flavor reasons, and I would want Deranged Hermit in it's place. If I do make the swap soon, I'd be using Hornet Queen (she's effectively the same thing just 2 mana more) until I get a copy for the Hermit.
I had Mana Reflection in for the longest time. Not only does it work with Cradle, but Nykthos and dorks as well. It actually gives you a reason to fully level Joraga Treespeaker. I recently cut it because it felt win more most of the time. At the time of me typing this I'm also looking at cutting Vernal Bloom for the same reasons. More often than not, I just didn't need to cast those cards because I produced enough mana anyway.
Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl also have been in and out of the deck (I'm going to need to keep recorded of old iterations). I recently cut them to test Heritage Druid and something else. I see them coming back in the near future, especially since I need a flavor swap for Oath of Nissa now that I'm thinking about it...
Thanks for getting me excited about this deck again! I was focusing on a U/G enchantress deck when you first posted (still am actually), but I'm glad it seems you're getting value out of this thread! Let me know what you get out of your games and good luck again!
The way you post makes it seem like I go out of my way to cast the Aurora - I don't. If I draw it and it would extend my combo/ get rid of problem cards so I actually can go off, great! If not, I just take another line. The way the deck is set up, I use Aurora similar to the mass draw spells - a Shamanic Revelation that draw 40 is good. Yes it resets your board, but it also gives you the means to keep going to Storm out. It's like a Shamanic Revelation, Hurkyl's Recall, and Rude Awakening all rolled into 1. Again though, if I see a more optimal line, I just take that one. I've won plenty of games either without seeing the card or skipping over it. Also, I don't remember ever passing the turn after I resolved an Aurora. The way the deck is set up, it's really, really hard to not win on that turn. Now by no way, shape, or form is the Aurora "nessecary" for the deck. If the card's not for you, it's not for you. If you feel that strongly about it, you don't need to try and convince yourself to play it, haha.
Nissa is good. I don't play her turn 3/4 much, only if I have nothing else to do, or I have a Cradle/Nykthos and I can extend that turn. Usually she just ends up getting played during the combo turn to untap a Cradle/Nykthos.
Mosswort bridge is good in a deck that has 4 ways to untap it during combo turn (Rude Awakening, Nissa, Garruk, and Deserted Temple). It digs through your deck and allows for nice plays for a 2 mana investment. That being said, it is more than likely getting cut for Mouth of R and Snow Forests.
What does Oath of Nissa give me that a 35th land doesn't? The fact that it's not a land. With out 1 of the 3 cards in the deck that allows for extra land drops, I'd rather have a 1 drop that I can play and advance my hand/field, than a land I can't even play. It also gives added value by allowing you to cast Freyalise off of Colorless mana (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Grim Monolith, colorless lands). It's been putting up results in my build, which looks more bursty than yours.
I have 11 ways to make 3 mana on turn 2 with 1 card, and even more ways through 2 card combos. The Cultivate effects put work in - not only ramping, but also allow the deck to run less lands by giving me land drops in hand. The synergy with Aurora is just icing.
I haven't had a problem with Vernal Bloom, my deck is usually the most explosive even amoung green decks. I usually don't play it until combo turn, unless I'm the only green deck/no one has duals out.
Thanks for your interest! I no long play this deck - I converted it to a spicy Jugan, the Rising Star deck that I might post here one day. The last iteration that I played is updated on the original post. If you have any questions about updates to include the newer sets, I'd be more than happy to discuss changes/updates!
The other loop doesn't require haste, but it does require Priest/Archdruid to be out of summoning sickness. You'll need them to tap for at least 5 (as long as you have a 1 drop elf, if you don't, you'll need 3+(cmc of whatever other elf you have on the field)+ 1. Tap the Priest, use Wirewood Symbiote to untap the Priest, then bounce the Symbiote with Sabertooth. Replay the Symbiote and the other elf you have, tap the Priest for mana, then bounce the elf you just played to uptap the Priest with Symbiote. Rinse and Repeat.
Once the loop is established, you can win through bouncing Craterhoof a bunch of times and swinging in, getting infinite tokens and swinging in, bouncing World Breaker a bunch of times, bouncing Eternal Witness and recurring a token card or Hornet Sting/ Desert Twister a bunch of times, or pretty much whatever you want. You could even put Aetherflux Reservoir if you wanted to.
I always finish the game once I draw huge amounts of cards. I revamped the first page a bit - there are a fair amount of ways the deck can win. I don't have a hand unlimiter mainly because even if I don't win that turn, no 8 cards are that important that I can't just pitch something to the yard. Also, between Seasons Past, and E Wit, I can recur a a lot.
Haha, that is awesome man, I hope I can help!
So with the deck, this easiest way to play the first couple of turns is to gun for a turn 3 (or earlier!) Freyalise. This can be done through a ton of combinations of mana dorks, rocks, and land based ramp. After Freyalise is on the field, generally you want to +2 her. if someone played something that really needs to go, like a Rule of Law, blow it up, but generally you want to fetch a creature to do this. Now ulting Freya is a little more in depth. If you can draw +8 cards from creatures that turn, then usually it's worth it, but if not, it's usually best to make another token and try again next turn. The turns between casting Freya and ulting her your tutor targets should be hard mana ramp (as in Priest) and token producers (prioritizing the cheaper ones first unless you have enough lands to make Avenger worth it - around 5 or more. During ult turn your focus is first of maximizing mana production and drawing more cards. Tutoring during this phase is depends on what you need. Usually it's going to be token makers or uptap effects to synergies with Gaea's cradle/nykthos and the mana dorks. If you run out of gas you get Regal Force, or Sabertooth to bounce him if he's already been played. Win phase is Beats, either with infinite tokens or Craterhoof, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Bouncing World Breaker, and Bouncing E. Wit with Primal Command to name the most common. If you can when or dig more, cast The Great Aurora to try again, but watch out - token numbers count even though they disappear, so be careful not to draw yourself to death.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you want to go into anything else more in depth.
1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Creature (27)
1x Arbor Elf
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Elvish Archdruid
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Fierce Empath
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Heritage Druid
1x Joraga Treespeaker
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Priest of Titania
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Regal Behemoth
1x Regal Force
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
1x Sylvan Ranger
1x Temur Sabertooth
1x Terastodon
1x Wirewood Channeler
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Woodland Bellower
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Concordant Crossroads
1x Doubling Season
1x Exploration
1x Gaea's Touch
1x Mana Reflection
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sylvan Library
1x Vernal Bloom
Instant (5)
1x Chord of Calling
1x Crop Rotation
1x Early Harvest
1x Hunting Pack
1x Nature's Claim
Sorcery (18)
1x Collective Unconscious
1x Cultivate
1x Edge of Autumn
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Harmonize
1x Harvest Season
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Natural Order
1x Rishkar's Expertise
1x Rude Awakening
1x Saproling Symbiosis
1x Seasons Past
1x Shamanic Revelation
1x Spontaneous Generation
1x Sylvan Scrying
1x The Great Aurora
1x Tooth and Nail
1x Chrome Mox
1x Emerald Medallion
1x Expedition Map
1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
1x Mana Vault
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
Land (33)
1x Crystal Vein
1x Deserted Temple
1x Dryad Arbor
23x Forest
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Strip Mine
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
This is what I'm currently playing flavor wise. I'm going to take a good look at it in the next week or so and post a optimized list for you. The OP has some lines of play, but I'll update it as soon as I can to be more in depth!
My initial thoughts are it's weaker than MoM - With MoM, any card in your hand is black lotus, and with this deck's draw potential, that's insane. MoM also has the ability to untap lands which is very strong as well.
With Paradox Engine, you have to physically cast something to get value, although, you get more value with less cards depending on board state. This difference becomes more apparent when you're tapped out or when your spells cost too much/ are the wrong color. Where as with MoM you can restart chains on call as long as you have pitch fodder, if you stall out with just a paradox engine, you're done.
I think they're both strong cards, and PE can shine in places MoM cannot, but if comparing the two in a vacuum, MoM is better.
As stated above, cutting Gilded Lotus would be counter intuitive, and we wouldn't want to cut MoM. The 5 drop slot is amazingly tight, with every card lending itself to a win (Gush with Doomsday, Future-Top combo, Ad Naus - either by itself or with Aetherflux, and Dark Petition/FoW just plain bonkers). I can see Dack Fayden, potentially since stealing with Sol Ring or Untapping all your mana rocks are in the same vain, but then you lose out on the Tempo plays with Dack
TLDR: Value can be gained from both these cards in a more casual setting (that this deck was designed for per my understanding). And barring house rules that frown in tutoring, Vig would be the more synergistic of the two.
So why does Rashmi seem bad? It's card advantage that takes advantage of what the deck is already trying to do: play cards/abilities during everyone's turn. Granted, at the 4 cmc slot is might be a bit slow, but this is suppose to be a more casual deck anyway. Even if you look at it without the casual lense, it's still at a decent power level as an engine. Every turn your first spell cantrips with the potential to cast the card for free. It's like a buffed Jori En, Ruin Diver. Plus the cast trigger is a may, so even if you flip a suboptimal card like a counter, you can just put it in you hand.
Really curious about why you question the power level of Rashmi. With such a low creature count, Vig seems very weak as part of the 99 - Birthing Pod is just better for the role he'd be trying to fill. I've got no qualms with that critique, but the Rashmi out look as got me scratching my head. Really curious to see what I'm missing.
Thanks!
This is the exact mindset you need to have with this deck if you truly want it to be a $T4KS deck. Think Alex, like full blown Alex. I like what you've cobbled together, I'm impressed, but you'll need to huddle with experienced Staks players to take the deck to the next level. I was just going to make a post about your mana base (you have an excess amount of red and white sources for what you're running), but Jostin123's post hit the nail home in a way that wasn't coming to me since I'm not that involved with Stax decks.
I would take a look at darrenhabib's list, and use that as the foundation of your stax package - as stated above, your point is to break the symmetry on these cards to control the game state into a board your opponents can't come back from.
In general, yes: planeswalkers are terrible board control cards. However, a couple in the Grixis shard break that ideaology. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (mentioned earlier) probably controls the board the best outside of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but both these bros cost 8 mana. I don't know if that's good for a Stax deck - can any of the Stax players out there comment on this? There's also Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. This guy helps break symmetry by not only making dudes, but also by breaking your opponent's creatures and Sol Rings - er mana rocks, so you maintain control of the board.
Flickerform brings the creature back at the end of the turn, so it actually dodges literally every board wipe commonly seen in EDH. The only way to beat if is to stack another wipe on top of the effect at instant speed and even then if the Fickerform user has 4 mana open, they can just respond again. Yes, the form dies to Krosan Grip, but that's like saying Jace, the Mindsculpter is bad because he dies to Hero's Downfall.
Not really defending Mirari's Wake in this deck, but I do see value in it. The major value I see is that it allow you to keep casting you general reliably. Why is the likelihood of Sigil of the Empty Throne carrying the game much lower? Because your general can't get tucked anymore? Then with that logic you'll need mana to keep powering her out, but you just bashed the main two cards that let her keep a presence on the field outside of Shield of the Oversoul.
Once Sigarda gets established, I can see a rule of law coming down, or something like that (Eidolon of Rhetoric), but some of these cards are meta based.
Side note: Greater Auramancy works with Sterling Grove and Privileged Position as well.
Mana Crypt and Craterhoof Behemoth should both be in the deck, and I'll put them in eventually has I start looking for flavor cuts here soon. Unfortunately I wouldn't know what advice/tips to give you because I don't know how you play, haha. But thanks and good luck out there!
I have looked into other token producers and I like Deranged Hermit and Hornet Queen the most. The problem with Ant Queen is that she's mechanically slow for what the deck wants to do. She only combos with Earthcraft and some sort of mana doubler, and you can't tutor for those (an argument you've brought up with other cards) outside of Regal Behemoth. Now, I am looking at cutting Wolfbriar Elemental for flavor reasons, and I would want Deranged Hermit in it's place. If I do make the swap soon, I'd be using Hornet Queen (she's effectively the same thing just 2 mana more) until I get a copy for the Hermit.
I had Mana Reflection in for the longest time. Not only does it work with Cradle, but Nykthos and dorks as well. It actually gives you a reason to fully level Joraga Treespeaker. I recently cut it because it felt win more most of the time. At the time of me typing this I'm also looking at cutting Vernal Bloom for the same reasons. More often than not, I just didn't need to cast those cards because I produced enough mana anyway.
Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl also have been in and out of the deck (I'm going to need to keep recorded of old iterations). I recently cut them to test Heritage Druid and something else. I see them coming back in the near future, especially since I need a flavor swap for Oath of Nissa now that I'm thinking about it...
Thanks for getting me excited about this deck again! I was focusing on a U/G enchantress deck when you first posted (still am actually), but I'm glad it seems you're getting value out of this thread! Let me know what you get out of your games and good luck again!
Nissa is good. I don't play her turn 3/4 much, only if I have nothing else to do, or I have a Cradle/Nykthos and I can extend that turn. Usually she just ends up getting played during the combo turn to untap a Cradle/Nykthos.
Mosswort bridge is good in a deck that has 4 ways to untap it during combo turn (Rude Awakening, Nissa, Garruk, and Deserted Temple). It digs through your deck and allows for nice plays for a 2 mana investment. That being said, it is more than likely getting cut for Mouth of R and Snow Forests.
What does Oath of Nissa give me that a 35th land doesn't? The fact that it's not a land. With out 1 of the 3 cards in the deck that allows for extra land drops, I'd rather have a 1 drop that I can play and advance my hand/field, than a land I can't even play. It also gives added value by allowing you to cast Freyalise off of Colorless mana (Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Grim Monolith, colorless lands). It's been putting up results in my build, which looks more bursty than yours.
I have 11 ways to make 3 mana on turn 2 with 1 card, and even more ways through 2 card combos. The Cultivate effects put work in - not only ramping, but also allow the deck to run less lands by giving me land drops in hand. The synergy with Aurora is just icing.
I haven't had a problem with Vernal Bloom, my deck is usually the most explosive even amoung green decks. I usually don't play it until combo turn, unless I'm the only green deck/no one has duals out.