hipponox

Unfortunately very true! I fear MH2 isn't really going to bring the prices down for fetches too much either (i hope im wrong though)

Yup I've done it before! I also played standard and limited a lot during those blocks

yeah man sounds fun! im an eldrazi fan as well.

Cool! I've been thinking about maybe jamming a scapeshift in here to see if it works as another random win con- but its not the vibe I was going for as a whole- im more going for the "engine" type of play style dryad creates with courser and excavator. Thanks for the comment!

Yeah im interested to see what ends up working for you- especially if you end up jamming riverwinder in and what cuts you make for it. I hear wizards is going to maybe open up playing in person events again soon maybe (hopefully haha)

the issue i was stating is that the cards that get milled could be riverwinder which you may not want to happen (though you may not care I guess as long as you get something out so i see your point). So i see it working- but its going to dilute some part of the control plan down i guess. He still needs exhume for it to work and its a tight list. I guess the cuts would be forbidden alchemy and soul manipulation and agony warp? But thats still a few cards short to get the playsets in- but maybe theres an argument that you dont need to go all in on the exhume plan and just view it as a replacement for soul manipulation or something? Idk lots of ways to view it i guess

@swarm on pharikas libation- i think theres still an argument for it and against it. Its also an instant which is nice to hold up your counterspells, but with the mana curve being an issue still- feed the swarm still might have an edge- you're already running chainer's edict that'll deal with bogles and feed the swarm can still take out whatever they're best aura is. Up to you though! depends on how they test out for you.

And yeah I might just be a bojuka bog devotee but I also hate devoting sideboard space to it- I'd quicker grab nihil spellbomb or fairie macabre (faire macabre might actually be cool here also as an extra threat- might be more flexible than stormbound geist). Interested to see what you end up on!

Also ur reasoning for keeping scour to me means probably means there might not be a point going the rivewinder route- I was thinking of it as a "one or the other" plan as they dont really work well together in my brain (i could be wrong though). My reasoning is- If you're running exhume- your probably not going to want to be delving away your yard? and vica versa- if you're running winder probably not gonna want it delved away either. It might still work out though- it just feels like it could potentially run into itself occasionally. I dont actually know. If your worried about milling stuff away maybe go up on soul manipulation in the main though? Or heck corpse churn maybe if you need it lower to the ground (might work well with faerie macabre as well)?

Why not just run a bojuka bog in main? It'll free up space in the side board. Also its a great alongside aqueducts if you need it- as you can keep reusing it, and it's a good hedge in case you do end up going with the riverwinder plan. I'd cut thoughtscour and the angler i think for that? Thoughtscour gets a little worse without angler i think. Either that or kill the ghastly demise or move em to the board. Or maybe cut a forbidden alchemy since you're trying to go lower to the ground. Not sure you need to go that plan though unless your angler is dying all the time in your meta or something.

Also did you consider feed the swarm over pharika's libation? i know you lose life- but being able to target might be relevant?

Ive lost to a version of this deck a few times in my local meta (Angler version) if that counts for anything also lol. +1

ooooo beast tracker is something to consider i hadnt thought of. I was just thinking It'd maybe be nice to have another way to find rhonas also. I'm moving thalia to mainboard now actually too I've decided because i needed more interaction and 2 drops- I'll be doing some playtesting to figure out what to cut/if i gotta cut. thanks for the tip

and yeah I'm a blanchwood armor devotee for casual stuff but I tend to shy away from auras here for a few reasons- coco like you said- and also modern is heavy on removal and auras make it easy to get 2 for oned. thanks for the tracker tip though. Definitely worth the consideration

It's not a bad thought!- though I'm not sure i want the land over the extra body yet. i feel like nest invader is slightly less clunky as it comes out earlier and late game id probably also rather draw nest invader for the extra body. I also can get repeats with grapple with the past- so its better if i keep as many slots creatures as possible. If Growth spasm said "any" land though I'd probably go for it quicker (grabbing khalni garden sounds like gas)- thanks for the comment!

glad to hear its working! I wouldn't get idyllic grange unless u swap out the caves for basics- but if you do that that might be better and faster than caves- and itll give you a color mana- so maybe that is the swap to do.

gotcha! Its definitely one of those things you have to play with first. And hope the replacements are working better!

Neat idea. I find cards like charmed stray to generally be a waste though as they rarely do "the thing" before they die off etc. Unless you really need the lifelink (which i could see being useful still here but if thats the case- there's probably better lifelink cards). Maybe some draw or disruption like duress might be a more powerful thing to replace it with? or maybe unearth to get more martyr triggers? If you need a one drop though carrion feeder might be an idea also- as it can kill off ur martyr for the trigger and it'll basically get double the counters.

o yeah, I forgot the split card cmc ruling- sadddddd. Yeah a change of dragons might be the move then. curious to see what you end up with!

izzet charm seems pretty great also hmmm. it kinda does do all the things... I'm wondering whats better. seems like a lot of ways to "approach" (im sorry lol) this now.

yeah that might be true. He'd need a payoff. Maybe like the resurgence half of Response // Resurgence or something- then he gets an additional combat step- and then can try and do it again and chain em- and he could use the response half if he draws it for some board control. not sure how good of an idea that it is- but its a thought if hes commited to velomachus

ooo- that might be a move. Or maybe even lightning strike/abrade. Abrade might be better because it can rid of soul-guide lantern and the like also. There's probably an argument to run shatterskull smashing as part of the mana base also to try and jam in more removal. I was wondering myself if this is a deck that wants like "faithless looting" effects. You think dangerous wager is preferable over something like cathartic reunion if they end up going that route?

and hey! thanks for the shoutout just noticed haha

Silent Gravestone is the only one I can think of. Though there might be a few others- I guess the other option is to run some counter spells/artifact removal for relic-esque (soul-guide latern etc) cards- i guess that would take it in the transformational camp like you said. Or maybe things like ashiok, dream render might be cool as well- though I'm not sure what decks are in the meta for pioneer right now that this hates out totally haha. But it seems to have the ability to be a hoser against some decks- plus it can also mill yourself if you want to keep the approach plan. It's definitely a fun idea. Scavenging ooze and reliccy cards I feel are the big threats to the deck though

did you consider wand of vertebrae? It's another 1 drop if you need it that can give you free approaches in the yard- plus it'll help you shuffle a dragon back in if you drew both somehow unluckily. It might be janky because i know the deck needs a certain number of approaches though.

Was just thinking this deck kind of wants to do like a similar thing to like nahiri boom in modern- and its handy to have a way to recycle the "emrakul" card if you somehow draw into it (both of them in this case- so i know its less likely- but I imagine it'll still happen occasionally). maybe theres a more elegant solution for it.

Maybe some graveyard protection to get the sideboard going like silent gravestone?

Clean list though +1