My first stab at the new generals from the Commander product is Riku of Two Reflections, for a lot of different reasons, but it really all boils down to one reason, one card.
After getting into the game many years ago, I took a hiatus, basically from Mirrodin through to Lorwyn. When I came back, I slowly started looking through all the sets I'd missed, seeing what kind of neat things they had. When I got to Ravnica, I discovered this little gem, and it reached out and mashed my Johnny button harder than any card before or since. I resolved myself that some day I'd get to use that card. After a couple years of mainly doing limited and standard-type things, I fell into EDH and never looked back. Now, every time I build a deck that includes Green, I take a long hard look at that card, and ask myself, "Is today finally the day?" Much to my disappointment, the answer invariably has been "No." Fast forward a couple more years, and out come the Commander decks, and with them, Riku. An awesome color combination, a mind-blowing pair of effects, and yes, synergy with that card!
"Today is finally that day."
The deck is not a complex one, your basic RUG Good Stuff™ shell, with the focus of said stuff being things that are good alone and even better copied. The gameplan is about as straight-forward as it gets: Draw good cards, cast good cards, repeat. Stick Riku, repeat above, make copies. Stick Doubling Season, repeat above, laugh manically.
Many of my card choices are predicated on my desire to play something ridiculous more so than something 'good'. My little Ally sub-theme, for example. Sure, Harabaz Druid might just end up being an over-costed Birds, but if I can stick him with my general (and Doubling Season), he gets considerably better. Same with the other twoAllies (either in place of the Druid above or literally with him), or my twolevelers.
Someone said they were excited to play Bribery with Riku, and while I agree 100%, I'm taking it a step further. I'm excited for that one-in-a-million shot of casting Bribery for 3UUUUUUUUURGGGG with Riku, a fully-leveled Echo Mage, and that card in play, and fall out of my chair cackling like a madman while putting 3 copies of the 4 best creatures in my opponents decks onto the battlefield in one shot. Who needs Eldrazi? I'd blow 17 on that any day.
I've yet to do any testing with this build, as I just finalized my list today, but I am excited to start. Fun colors, splashy/swingy spells and creatures, and nuts token/counter math all make me a very happy player, and this deck has all that in spades.
I'm posting this mainly just to have a semi-permanent record of the deck, as well as a potential sounding board for when new sets come out and I look to upgrade, not because I'm specifically wanting to make any changes at the moment. That said, critiques and suggestions are always appreciated. Thanks for checking it out.
With this deck, you read my mind. You straight up read my mind, good sir. I love this, I really do, and I'm too tired and too impressed with this to really say anything useful. But this is awesome.
With this deck, you read my mind. You straight up read my mind, good sir. I love this, I really do, and I'm too tired and too impressed with this to really say anything useful. But this is awesome.
I aim to please. If you work with a build similar to this, I'd love to hear your take on it.
I've actually been designing two builds, one sort of similar to this, based off of doubling season, allys, and xenograft. and another creatureless control build. both are still in the *what the hell am I trying to do here* stages of production, but they're coming along. But it's funny what you said about Doubling Season, because that's exactly how I've been. I actually made my first ever EDH deck just so I could make use of Doubling Season, using Borborygmos as my general. That's actually why the first deck I build out of the new commanders was Ghave, because he just abuses the everloving hell out of season.
I have a Riku deck (previously Intent due to lack of wedge generals, obviously) that operates in a vaguely similar fashion. Mine is more aggro/steal, though, and Riku functions as a more effective support than Intet did. One thing that I did that you might find useful is that I used a lot of red dragons that could double as removal so I was able to save on deckslots (i.e. Flameblast Dragon, Ancient Hellkite, Scourge of Kher Ridges, etc). Obviously this would not be terribly viable since you're kinda red light, but just a thought.
I can see that you're not terribly interested in feedback, but I did have some thoughts:
Capsize instead of Crystal Shard. It's more versatile. Evolution Vat could be very bonkers with Doubling Season and seems good in general. Rampaging Baloths just seems like an auto-include. Wickerbough Elder is a disenchant with a body, and with doubling season he gets "two" shots instead of one. Wild Pair is always nuts in creature heavy decks. Gilder Bairn also seems like a good card in theme with your deck's intentions. Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Sorry, I had to suggest him.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to steal some ideas from you.
Awesome. I'll try out this route someday eventually. Here's my take on some of your choices, keeping in mind that doubling season is going to be around.
First thing's first: You want doubling season in play? Gamble is a tutor for doubling season. If you can afford it, Intuition combined with your tutor target, Eternal Witness and Body Double/Regrowth will also tutor it up. All of these cards are great on their own so you don't have to worry about including crap cards just to find your doubling season. Note that recursion is doubly-helpful for when your doubling season is inevitably nuked by your opponents.
I saw a couple folks bring up Wort. If you really want to play the stupidest, most busted over-the-top plays, well, I'd find room for free twincasts
Karn? You sure you want to be restarting the game? Eh, I think there's cooler things you can do than that. Try Rings of Brighthearth for doubling all your activated abilities (and your PW abilities... sarkhan + rings + doubling season = 20 dragons!). Funny rules note- I wonder what happens when you copy Karn's Ultimate... restart the game with a "restart the game" trigger on the stack? Rings also works on any fetchlands (even the budget ones) to double your ramp. I believe there is a Conspire interaction here with Wort too but I'm not sure.
Don't get the ally cards here. There are better, non-ally versions of those cards for your deck. Habraz Druid-->Bloom Tender. Seagate Loremaster-->Consecrated Sphinx.
I hope to hear about your exploits in the "sick plays" thread in the Commander forum. Good luck!
Thanks for the notes, all. As a quick comment, it's not that I'm not interested in feedback so much as that I haven't had a chance to test this deck at all, so any changes I make would be in a vacuum. Obviously, if every single person is recommending I cut something or add something, I should probably listen, but just one poster pushing their favorite card is probably not going to inspire a sudden shift in the deck concept, though I do maintain a list of cards to try, so most suggestions will end up there.
Now, individually:
@d3pthcharge12 Capsize - I have Æthersnipe in this slot, though I'm the first to admit that it's a shallow (sorcery speed) substitute. Shard is more to bounce my EtB creatures, especially those I have put down before Riku drops. I was trying to keep as many creatures as possible, so certain spell effects went by the wayside. Rest assured I'm aware of the power of capsize, though. Evolution Vat - This was originally on my list, when I was focusing more on +1/+1 counters, but as I moved that more towards a sub-theme, cards like this got cut. Rampaging Baloths - To be perfectly honest, I totally forgot these guys, which is a shame. They'll be at the top of the list for post-testing changes. Wickerbough Elder - This seems like a decent choice if I find myself needing more of this flavor of removal, or possibly in place of Hull Breach for a body (or three), or Decimate if I can't come up with enough targets regularly. Wild Pair - This card always seems like a lot of fun, but also very 'build-around'. I haven't looked to see which of my creatures I could get with this, though I very probably should. Edit: So, I've got some options in the 5/5 and 6/6 range, as well as the 1/3 or 2/2 as well. Might be worth a spot eventually, after all. Gilder Bairn - Not including this card stung a little, but without some effective way to tap him that doesn't involve throwing his 1/3 body into combat, and the fact that +1/+1 counters have, again, been relegated to a sub-theme means he just doesn't make the cut. Jace, the Mind Sculptor - I'm in blue, I probably should be running him, and it's not like my copies are useful for standard, right? Heh. That said, all of what he does isn't phenomenally impressive in this particular build. I guess I can scry into lands for the Oracle, and unsummon things to cast again, in addition to the regular offensive uses. We'll see if testing opens up a slot for him.
Dragons et al - I do have Bogey, who's on my list of dream plays with Doubling Season and Rite of Replication, but none of the others impressed me so terribly that I wanted to cut something more entertaining for them.
Steal away, and please let me know how said ideas work out for you.
@asw122
I will admit the Artisan has the least synergy with my general of any creature I'm running, but he's still a ridiculously fat body with Annihilator, and casting the one will get me back something I've lost. Plus, he's hilariously mean in multiples. Still, he's a weak point in the list, thematically. Maybe I hear him turning into Rampaging Baloths? As for Predators, it could be a lot of fun, so that will go on my list of swaps pending my initial testing. Lastly, Warp World. I actually don't find this card that fun, and as I typically play in 4-6 player games, most other people don't either, as it can slow things to a crawl and really make a mess. Plus, there are other, truer token decks in my playgroup, so they'd get as much if not more benefit out of it than I would. As for Wort, one of the aforementioned decks is a Wortspire deck, and while I don't have any issue Legend Ruling someone's general, I don't want such a blatant knock on their build, so I'll pass. Plus, I can't copy her with Riku, which is the same reason Jhoira didn't make the cut.
@SuperSonik
Thanks for popping in. Your deck served as a major inspiration and starting point when I opened up Mirror Mastery and started making swaps. Now, onward. Gamble - Really don't like this card. While Doubling Season is important to my desired ideal with this deck, it's not essential to the actual strategy, so going after it that hard isn't exactly necessary. As for Intuition, I'm in the same boat you were not too long ago: as soon as I get an affordable one, I'll put it in. Until then, I'll do without. Karn Liberated - I'm not so much after his ultimate as I am the ability to exile any problem permanent, or punish players who over-extend and leave just one or two answers in their hand. That said, having the ultimate (pun intended) panic button available could also come in handy. Plus, Karn is my favorite character in Magic, so I have a soft spot for him. Rings - Another card I'm really unhappy about not including, but the fact is there just aren't enough activated abilities in the deck to really abuse them and justify their slot. One of the first things I do when I get down to my last couple slots in a deck is count Rings interactions. There were sub 20 in here, so I can't justify the space. If I end up swapping in JTMS and some other things with activated abilities though, believe me, they're coming in to party as well.
Allies et al - Silly and fun. Consecrated Sphinx is already on my list, and I had totally forgotten about Bloom Tender (who may come in at some point), and I really just wanted to run and copy my allies. Plus, my ideal setup of Riku+Doubling Season means that a Kazuul Warlord turns into 3 17/17s, which is pretty sweet.
Again, thanks to all for the notes. Keep any and all ideas and suggestions coming.
Just a quick bump as I've finally had the opportunity to do some testing and tweaking for this deck, and I've made some significant changes (12 cards).
To go over the changes:
I broke down and took out thealliespackage. It was cute, but I always found myself holding onto one of them waiting until I could cast Riku or spare the extra two mana or find doubling season or... The point is I didn't cast them nearly often enough. In came Bloom Tender, Coiling Oracle, and Phyrexian Metamorph for general utility and to give me more early plays. Simic Sky Swallower was just dumb flying fat, so I replaced it with Stormtide Leviathan. He 'fixes', as most of my costs in this deck (especially for activating Riku) are or involve blue, beats unblockably, and Moats to boot. Artisan of Kozilek came out, because he was guilty as charged of not really synergizing with my commander, which allowed me to bring in Genesis. Fierce Empath became my last creature cut, and I used the slot for an extra artifact, specifically Manalith. I replaced the needing-to-survive-to-upkeep Defense of the Heart with the instantly-usable Survival of the Fittest. Green Sun's Zenith became Chord of Calling to hit more creatures, Praetor's Counsel became Intuition because...it's just better, Sarkhan Vol became Capsize for much the same reason and because I'm not using Rings, and I swapped two Forests for a Vesuva and a Rupture Spire to give me potentially 4 lands that produced all 3 colors of mana I need.
Whew. I'm hoping to have an opportunity between pre-release events this weekend to shuffle up this build, and see what comes of it.
On the subject of M12, I'm keeping a close eye on Sphinx of Uthuun and Phantasmal Image. I'm a big fan of Clone effects in general, and the Metamorph in particular, so I'm curious to see how much I want a second version of that effect before I go after the illusion. On the other hand, Fact or Fiction has never been high on my list of cards I enjoy, despite it's obvious power level, but putting it on a body and digging 10 cards deep could be huge, so it deserves some consideration. If I can pick one up this weekend, it might move into an underperforming slot. I'm also thinking about swapping Swiftfoot Boots for my Lightning Greaves, as Hexproof would be useful for me to protect my Chronologist or Sphinx while still being able to Spit or Rite them, but as mana-hungry as this deck is, that 1 activation cost could make a huge difference, so we'll see.
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Creatures:
2 Acidic Slime
3 Æthersnipe
4 Avenger of Zendikar
5 Bloom Tender
6 Body Double
7 Bogardan Hellkite
8 Coiling Oracle
9 Consecrated Sphinx
10 Deadwood Treefolk
11 Echo Mage
12 Eternal Witness
13 Fertilid
14 Genesis
15 Hydra Omnivore
16 Inferno Titan
17 Lighthouse Chronologist
18 Magmatic Force
19 Oracle of Mul Daya
20 Phyrexian Ingester
21 Phyrexian Metamorph
22 Primeval Titan
23 Rampaging Baloths
24 Solemn Simulacrum
25 Spike Weaver
26 Stormtide Leviathan
27 Terastodon
28 Vigor
Artifacts/Enchantments:
29 Coalition Relic
30 Crystal Shard
31 Darksteel Ingot
32 Darksteel Plate
33 Expedition Map
34 Lightning Greaves
35 Manalith
36 Mimic Vat
37 Sensei's Divining Top
38 Sol Ring
39 Survival of the Fittest
40 Doubling Season
41 Mana Reflection
42 Capsize
43 Chaos Warp
44 Intuition
45 Reap
46 Spin into Myth
47 Worldly Tutor
48 Bribery
49 Cultivate
50 Decimate
51 Genesis Wave
52 Chord of Calling
53 Hull Breach
54 Kodama's Reach
55 Regrowth
56 Rite of Replication
57 Skyshroud Claim
58 Spitting Image
59 Time Warp
60 Tooth and Nail
61 Garruk Wildspeaker
62 Karn Liberated
Lands:
63 Breeding Pool
64 Command Tower
65 Homeward Path
66 Izzet Boilerworks
67 Misty Rainforest
68 Reflecting Pool
69 Rootbound Crag
70 Rupture Spire
71 Scalding Tarn
72 Simic Growth Chamber
73 Steam Vents
74 Stomping Ground
75 Strip Mine
76 Taiga
77 Tropical Island
78 Vesuva
79 Volcanic Island
80 Wooded Foothills
81 Forest
82 Forest
83 Forest
84 Forest
85 Forest
86 Forest
87 Forest
88 Forest
89 Forest
90 Forest
91 Island
92 Island
93 Island
94 Island
95 Island
96 Mountain
97 Mountain
98 Mountain
99 Mountain
100 Mountain
My first stab at the new generals from the Commander product is Riku of Two Reflections, for a lot of different reasons, but it really all boils down to one reason, one card.
Doubling Season.
After getting into the game many years ago, I took a hiatus, basically from Mirrodin through to Lorwyn. When I came back, I slowly started looking through all the sets I'd missed, seeing what kind of neat things they had. When I got to Ravnica, I discovered this little gem, and it reached out and mashed my Johnny button harder than any card before or since. I resolved myself that some day I'd get to use that card. After a couple years of mainly doing limited and standard-type things, I fell into EDH and never looked back. Now, every time I build a deck that includes Green, I take a long hard look at that card, and ask myself, "Is today finally the day?" Much to my disappointment, the answer invariably has been "No." Fast forward a couple more years, and out come the Commander decks, and with them, Riku. An awesome color combination, a mind-blowing pair of effects, and yes, synergy with that card!
"Today is finally that day."
The deck is not a complex one, your basic RUG Good Stuff™ shell, with the focus of said stuff being things that are good alone and even better copied. The gameplan is about as straight-forward as it gets: Draw good cards, cast good cards, repeat. Stick Riku, repeat above, make copies. Stick Doubling Season, repeat above, laugh manically.
Many of my card choices are predicated on my desire to play something ridiculous more so than something 'good'. My little Ally sub-theme, for example. Sure, Harabaz Druid might just end up being an over-costed Birds, but if I can stick him with my general (and Doubling Season), he gets considerably better. Same with the other two Allies (either in place of the Druid above or literally with him), or my two levelers.
Someone said they were excited to play Bribery with Riku, and while I agree 100%, I'm taking it a step further. I'm excited for that one-in-a-million shot of casting Bribery for 3UUUUUUUUURGGGG with Riku, a fully-leveled Echo Mage, and that card in play, and fall out of my chair cackling like a madman while putting 3 copies of the 4 best creatures in my opponents decks onto the battlefield in one shot. Who needs Eldrazi? I'd blow 17 on that any day.
I've yet to do any testing with this build, as I just finalized my list today, but I am excited to start. Fun colors, splashy/swingy spells and creatures, and nuts token/counter math all make me a very happy player, and this deck has all that in spades.
I'm posting this mainly just to have a semi-permanent record of the deck, as well as a potential sounding board for when new sets come out and I look to upgrade, not because I'm specifically wanting to make any changes at the moment. That said, critiques and suggestions are always appreciated. Thanks for checking it out.
6/24/11: -1 Call to Mind | +1 Regrowth
7/7/11: -1 Harabaz Druid, -1 Kazuul Warlord, -1 Sea Gate Loremaster, -1 Fierce Empath, -1 Simic Sky Swallower, -1 Artisan of Kozilek, -1 Green Sun's Zenith, -1 Praetor's Counsel, -1 Sarkhan Vol, -1 Defense of the Heart, -2 Forest | +1 Bloom Tender, +1 Stormtide Leviathan, +1 Coiling Oracle, +1 Phyrexian Metamorph, +1 Genesis, +1 Capsize, +1 Intuition, +1 Chord of Calling, +1 Manalith, +1 Survival of the Fittest, +1 Vesuva, +1 Rupture Spire
I aim to please. If you work with a build similar to this, I'd love to hear your take on it.
I can see that you're not terribly interested in feedback, but I did have some thoughts:
Capsize instead of Crystal Shard. It's more versatile.
Evolution Vat could be very bonkers with Doubling Season and seems good in general.
Rampaging Baloths just seems like an auto-include.
Wickerbough Elder is a disenchant with a body, and with doubling season he gets "two" shots instead of one.
Wild Pair is always nuts in creature heavy decks.
Gilder Bairn also seems like a good card in theme with your deck's intentions.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Sorry, I had to suggest him.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to steal some ideas from you.
*IDEA STOLED* MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAhaahahaaahaaaahaaa...cough.
First thing's first: You want doubling season in play? Gamble is a tutor for doubling season. If you can afford it, Intuition combined with your tutor target, Eternal Witness and Body Double/Regrowth will also tutor it up. All of these cards are great on their own so you don't have to worry about including crap cards just to find your doubling season. Note that recursion is doubly-helpful for when your doubling season is inevitably nuked by your opponents.
I saw a couple folks bring up Wort. If you really want to play the stupidest, most busted over-the-top plays, well, I'd find room for free twincasts
Karn? You sure you want to be restarting the game? Eh, I think there's cooler things you can do than that. Try Rings of Brighthearth for doubling all your activated abilities (and your PW abilities... sarkhan + rings + doubling season = 20 dragons!). Funny rules note- I wonder what happens when you copy Karn's Ultimate... restart the game with a "restart the game" trigger on the stack? Rings also works on any fetchlands (even the budget ones) to double your ramp. I believe there is a Conspire interaction here with Wort too but I'm not sure.
Don't get the ally cards here. There are better, non-ally versions of those cards for your deck. Habraz Druid-->Bloom Tender. Seagate Loremaster-->Consecrated Sphinx.
I hope to hear about your exploits in the "sick plays" thread in the Commander forum. Good luck!
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
Now, individually:
@d3pthcharge12
Capsize - I have Æthersnipe in this slot, though I'm the first to admit that it's a shallow (sorcery speed) substitute. Shard is more to bounce my EtB creatures, especially those I have put down before Riku drops. I was trying to keep as many creatures as possible, so certain spell effects went by the wayside. Rest assured I'm aware of the power of capsize, though.
Evolution Vat - This was originally on my list, when I was focusing more on +1/+1 counters, but as I moved that more towards a sub-theme, cards like this got cut.
Rampaging Baloths - To be perfectly honest, I totally forgot these guys, which is a shame. They'll be at the top of the list for post-testing changes.
Wickerbough Elder - This seems like a decent choice if I find myself needing more of this flavor of removal, or possibly in place of Hull Breach for a body (or three), or Decimate if I can't come up with enough targets regularly.
Wild Pair - This card always seems like a lot of fun, but also very 'build-around'. I haven't looked to see which of my creatures I could get with this, though I very probably should. Edit: So, I've got some options in the 5/5 and 6/6 range, as well as the 1/3 or 2/2 as well. Might be worth a spot eventually, after all.
Gilder Bairn - Not including this card stung a little, but without some effective way to tap him that doesn't involve throwing his 1/3 body into combat, and the fact that +1/+1 counters have, again, been relegated to a sub-theme means he just doesn't make the cut.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - I'm in blue, I probably should be running him, and it's not like my copies are useful for standard, right? Heh. That said, all of what he does isn't phenomenally impressive in this particular build. I guess I can scry into lands for the Oracle, and unsummon things to cast again, in addition to the regular offensive uses. We'll see if testing opens up a slot for him.
Dragons et al - I do have Bogey, who's on my list of dream plays with Doubling Season and Rite of Replication, but none of the others impressed me so terribly that I wanted to cut something more entertaining for them.
Steal away, and please let me know how said ideas work out for you.
@asw122
I will admit the Artisan has the least synergy with my general of any creature I'm running, but he's still a ridiculously fat body with Annihilator, and casting the one will get me back something I've lost. Plus, he's hilariously mean in multiples. Still, he's a weak point in the list, thematically. Maybe I hear him turning into Rampaging Baloths? As for Predators, it could be a lot of fun, so that will go on my list of swaps pending my initial testing. Lastly, Warp World. I actually don't find this card that fun, and as I typically play in 4-6 player games, most other people don't either, as it can slow things to a crawl and really make a mess. Plus, there are other, truer token decks in my playgroup, so they'd get as much if not more benefit out of it than I would. As for Wort, one of the aforementioned decks is a Wortspire deck, and while I don't have any issue Legend Ruling someone's general, I don't want such a blatant knock on their build, so I'll pass. Plus, I can't copy her with Riku, which is the same reason Jhoira didn't make the cut.
@SuperSonik
Thanks for popping in. Your deck served as a major inspiration and starting point when I opened up Mirror Mastery and started making swaps. Now, onward.
Gamble - Really don't like this card. While Doubling Season is important to my desired ideal with this deck, it's not essential to the actual strategy, so going after it that hard isn't exactly necessary. As for Intuition, I'm in the same boat you were not too long ago: as soon as I get an affordable one, I'll put it in. Until then, I'll do without.
Karn Liberated - I'm not so much after his ultimate as I am the ability to exile any problem permanent, or punish players who over-extend and leave just one or two answers in their hand. That said, having the ultimate (pun intended) panic button available could also come in handy. Plus, Karn is my favorite character in Magic, so I have a soft spot for him.
Rings - Another card I'm really unhappy about not including, but the fact is there just aren't enough activated abilities in the deck to really abuse them and justify their slot. One of the first things I do when I get down to my last couple slots in a deck is count Rings interactions. There were sub 20 in here, so I can't justify the space. If I end up swapping in JTMS and some other things with activated abilities though, believe me, they're coming in to party as well.
Allies et al - Silly and fun. Consecrated Sphinx is already on my list, and I had totally forgotten about Bloom Tender (who may come in at some point), and I really just wanted to run and copy my allies. Plus, my ideal setup of Riku+Doubling Season means that a Kazuul Warlord turns into 3 17/17s, which is pretty sweet.
Again, thanks to all for the notes. Keep any and all ideas and suggestions coming.
Edit: Just realized I wasn't thinking about the (lack of) interaction between Apocalypse Hydra and Riku, so it has become Rampaging Baloths.
To go over the changes:
I broke down and took out the allies package. It was cute, but I always found myself holding onto one of them waiting until I could cast Riku or spare the extra two mana or find doubling season or... The point is I didn't cast them nearly often enough. In came Bloom Tender, Coiling Oracle, and Phyrexian Metamorph for general utility and to give me more early plays. Simic Sky Swallower was just dumb flying fat, so I replaced it with Stormtide Leviathan. He 'fixes', as most of my costs in this deck (especially for activating Riku) are or involve blue, beats unblockably, and Moats to boot. Artisan of Kozilek came out, because he was guilty as charged of not really synergizing with my commander, which allowed me to bring in Genesis. Fierce Empath became my last creature cut, and I used the slot for an extra artifact, specifically Manalith. I replaced the needing-to-survive-to-upkeep Defense of the Heart with the instantly-usable Survival of the Fittest. Green Sun's Zenith became Chord of Calling to hit more creatures, Praetor's Counsel became Intuition because...it's just better, Sarkhan Vol became Capsize for much the same reason and because I'm not using Rings, and I swapped two Forests for a Vesuva and a Rupture Spire to give me potentially 4 lands that produced all 3 colors of mana I need.
Whew. I'm hoping to have an opportunity between pre-release events this weekend to shuffle up this build, and see what comes of it.
On the subject of M12, I'm keeping a close eye on Sphinx of Uthuun and Phantasmal Image. I'm a big fan of Clone effects in general, and the Metamorph in particular, so I'm curious to see how much I want a second version of that effect before I go after the illusion. On the other hand, Fact or Fiction has never been high on my list of cards I enjoy, despite it's obvious power level, but putting it on a body and digging 10 cards deep could be huge, so it deserves some consideration. If I can pick one up this weekend, it might move into an underperforming slot. I'm also thinking about swapping Swiftfoot Boots for my Lightning Greaves, as Hexproof would be useful for me to protect my Chronologist or Sphinx while still being able to Spit or Rite them, but as mana-hungry as this deck is, that 1 activation cost could make a huge difference, so we'll see.