You could say this deck started out years ago, when I had barely started playing commander with Animar at the helm (later I returned to Animar with a different angle and a lot more experience and cards). It soon morphed into a Rafiq deck, which then changed commander to Jenara. I then took it apart because it started to get somehow boring and also because it lacked a certain edge. After a brief adventure with Mimeoplasm which was strong alright but it just missed the certain something, I decided to try something I somehow always wanted but never found the courage because of the expensive manabase:
A WUBRG deck. The commander for such a project was always clear to me: Horde of Notions. What I love about this card is that it not only has amazing combat capabilities that, with some support, lets it do a lot of damage really quick. It also has an activated ability that doesn't require to tap, that allows you to do stuff at instant speed that you normally can't and that can produce card advantage.
What I also really like is that it somewhat commands a theme and for me a lot of the fun in building a good EDH-deck comes from the challenge to find the balance between cards that function well together and especially with my commander but are still as good as possible on their own.
Since I have played the deck for some time now, I can say it's probably the most fun of my decks. The different tooloxes and subthemes this deck has alongside the fact that you can play any card in 5c made me do some cardchoices I normally wouldn't. And even though the deck has a fair number of tutors every game plays out very different because of cascade and less redundancy than I normally have in my decks.
So what's the strategy? Hard to put into a term. I would maybe call it a voltron-synergy deck.
The first few turns I obviously like to ramp a bit. The deck can start to do stuff at about 5-7 mana and at 10+ it's engines can really start going.
What I noticed is that Horde of Notions is always a bit underestimated. Most people who read the card worry a bit about the activated ability but somehow they don't really care about the three keywords above that. It's only around turn 5 or 6 when I start whackin them for seven commander damage with a Sword without tapping that they go like "wait, you can do that?!"
So putting amazing equipments on my commander or other bodies and protecting them is my main wincon but what the deck is really about is synergy. I want my spells to support each other as well as possible. That means the I prioritize on cards that can be interact with certain other cards like R/W instants for Sunforger or Equipments for Stoneforge Mystic and Godo, creatures with vigilance to get into a second combat with Godo, creatures that can be brought back by Reveillark or just Elementals to interact with Horde.
Especially at 6+CMC I chose to add a few creatures that can generate big value over time because the deck is rather good at protecting its creatures and also because they are fun Captain Sisay enable a legendary subtheme. So there are lot of legendary permanents which add to the epic flavor of the deck.
Probably it's best to just go through the individual cards to give an idea how the deck works:
Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Everyone knows that he is just great ramp. If I don't need the extra land immediately I can also stick an equipment to him.
Phantasmal Image: Some people think this got a bit worse with the M14 rules change. I think it's still one of the strongest twodrops in the format.
Stoneforge Mystic gets me one of my 8 equipments, cheats them into play and provides a body to attach it to.
Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
Gaddock Teeg: I recently played a four player match, against three very strong opponents one of which was Gaddock Teeg and I realized that this deck runs very few cards that are neutered by him. I also won that game because my opponents couldn't deploy their mass removal and got overwhelemed really fast. If he eats spot removal it's also fine because that's one less spell to take care of Horde and if he should be in my way, I have plenty of sac outlets.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
Flickerwisp: Elemental, aggressively costed, good stats to carry Weapons, relevant and versatile ETB ability, nothing more to say.
Eternal Witness just belongs into every green deck that can run her and in this in particulary because somehow no one wants my SoFaF to stick...
Fierce Empath: I think this is just as much a green staple as Eternal Witness. He helps me to get the right bombs for the right situations and in case you didn't notice: He can also carry weapons
Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
Solemn Simulacrum: The value robot. It ramps without requiring colored mana, is a body for a Sword and if it gets killed I get to draw a card.
Phyrexian Metamorph: I like clones and this is probably the best of them all. For me this just belongs into and deck running U
Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She also helps fixing my landdrops by searching Phyrexian Tower or Shinka.
Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
Ephara, God of the Polis: I needed more resilience and I needed more cardadvantage. Ephara gives me both. She usually draws at least one extra card per turn cycle and it's surprisingly easy to get devotion online.
Karametra, God of the Harvest: There's the same reasoning behind this as for Ephara. The deck runs after all 13 Forests/Plains which is more than enough to make it worthi it.
Reveillark is powerful reanimation that gets run in tons of decks, the 4/3 body and flying are great for carrying swords and best of all; it's an elemental!
Mulldrifter is just such a great card. Evoke it for early carddraw, "hardcast" it for an extra flying body to attack or sac into Birthing Pod, bring it back with Reveillark or with Horde of Notions because it's an elemental.
Shriekmaw solid the removal on an elemental! Altough "nonblack, nonartifact" clause makes it a lot worse... Fear on the other hand means that he's an evasive body for any Sword.
Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
Prime Speaker Zegana: Since she came out she's been one of my most favourite creatures. She just draws sooo many cards and, also very notably at such a jigh CMC, can be brought back with Reveillark.
Godo, Bandit Warlord is a bit like the second Lieutnant of the deck. He gets an equipment, cheats it into play and lets my General (and also Sun Titan, Batterskull and Avacyn) attack twice.
Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
Sun Titan: Haha, at first I even doubted if he deserved a spot in this deck but he's just amazing. He can bring back so much important and powerful stuff and he has vigilance plus an attack trigger so he is also a great buddy of Godo.
Sheoldred, Whispering One was kind of a relic from when this deck had The Mimeoplasm as a general but she stuck around. If she isn't dealt with immediately she just creates enourmous amounts of value and this deck has ways of protectig it's creatures.
Maelstrom Wanderer is like the second Lieutnant of the deck. Why? Because his cascade is also triggerd when brought back with Horde of Notions!
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: I traded for this without really knowing where it in. It turned out that Avayn is a great fit for this deck. She has evasion, vigilance and protects herself and my whole board. The only downside is that once she hits the board everybody goes crazy, cloning her and targeting me.
Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five.
Equipments Lightening Greaves protect every creature and gives them haste for immediate value.
Sword of Feast and Famine is usually my Equipments of choice when I get to tutor. With a trampling, hasty commander it usually isn't a problem to get damage through and with all your lands untapping you get crazy acceleration. The discard is just gravy and the protections are very relevant.
Sword of Fire and Ice: The second best Sword. The card draw is great and the 2 damage can be relevant to snipe utility creatures and planeswalkers. Generally the +2/+2 can also be very relevant as it put Horde of Notions in a three hit range in terms of commander damage.
Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
Sunforger: Like the Swords this equipment is quite renown in this format. In 5c I have access to an insanely versatile suite of instants including counterspells. I go through the full package in the Instants/Sorceries section. th +4/+0 bonus is also quite nice because my general has trample.
Batterskull is solid source of lifegain, grants vigilance which is rather relevant in this deck, gives a significant buff, brings a body with it and the bounce ability is great in drawn out games where everyone is topdecking and you can make sure you don't lose your Batterskull.
Other Artifacts Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
Birthing Pod is, in my opinion, one of the strongest EDH cards. You rarely lose a game were you make this stick and don't win. It's a sac outlet, tutors for answers or threats and all for a rather low mana cost.
Enchantments Pernicious Deed: I think everyone who played with this little enchantment agrees that it's extraordinarily powerful. It can deal with three different permanent types at once and you can activate it at instant speed, putting you in control of the game as long you have this out and enough mana open. It's also a sweep that works very well with cascade and you can get it back with Sun Titan.
Maelstrom Nexus: There are could probably be some stronger options for this slot but this is just a lot of fun and there are very few decks that get to play this. Did I mention that I love to cascade
Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
Sunforger Package Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile: Deals with any non-hexproof/shroud creature at instant speed for W with only a minimal drawback. Hands down best spot removal!
Crib Swap: Already solid by itself, this turns my commander into a machinegun, exiling creatures left and right.
Bant Charm: Rarely is there a charm were all three options a very relevant and this is one of them. Artifacts are everywhere, tucking is probably the best form of creature removal in commander and there are more than enough strong and annoying instants for this to stop.
Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
Return to Dust: Deals with not one but two problematic artfifacts or enchantments once and for all. This has become even more valuable since the gods have been printed.
Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
Other Instants Entomb drags an elemental into my GY for my commander to get back.
Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
Cyclonic Rift bounce one nonland permanent for to stall for 1U, overload it and you have an awesome sweep.
Sorceries Farseek ramps and is awesome color fixing.
Austere Command: The ability to hit most permanent types and the fact that this is nearly onesided most of the times makes this card one of the very best boardwipes.
Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
Wargate is a spell I really like. I can see it going out of the deck for a Demonic Tutor but for nothing less. It can get me so much stuff and if I cast it for only GWU it is non basic ramp.
So this is it, I hope you enjoyed reading.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Of course I'm particularly interested what ideas you may have to make this deck better.
26.08.2013
-Regal Force is an awesome elemental but in this deck it just doesn't do enough.
-Venser, the Sojurner: I really like this PW but in the end all his abilities were a bit win-more.
-Fertild is a good enough way to ramp and an elemental but in any game with less than for players it's just too slow.
-Body Double is a great card but it lost it's slot to The Mimeoplasm
-Progenitor Mimic is one of those cards I like really much but it had to get cut for stuff that just suits the deck much more.
-Oracle of Mul Daya is just a tad too slow in a fast and aggressive deck like this. Also it isn't too great at carrying Swords.
-Disciple of Bolas while there are tons of fat creatures in this deck, most of the time I want them to stay with me, so this didn't really fit.
-Terramorphic Expanse is just slow and it's also annoying to search my library for a stupid basic land.
+Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She would also be able to get a Phyrexian Tower if I find one to include in the deck.
+Time of Need: See Captain Sisay
+Silverblade Paladin: I heard that double strike is strong with giant trampling elementals, as well as with Swords.
+Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
+The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
+Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
+Glen-Elendra Archmage got in because its great at carrying equipments, doesn't die too easily, gets recurred by Reveillark and just slows down so many strategies.
+Plains: I realized that I really want two of every basic land.
06.09.2013
-Seaside Citadel
-Wooded Bastion
I finally own a complete set of Shocklands for this deck, so those two "placeholders" had to go.
-Chord of Calling is one of my favourite creature tutors but it's much better in decks like Karador, where you have tons of small ETB answer creatures and are able to pull them out at instant speed. In this deck most creatures are either tutors themselves or threats and most of the answers are spellbased it's much clunkier. It's also a really bad cascade.
-Elbrus, the Binding Blade: I really like this card for it's awesome flavor but it's just to expensive. If Whitengar had some kind of built in protection I wouldn't cut this but this way it's just too unreliable.
+Temple Garden
+Hallowed Fountain
+Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: It has a low cmc, is legendary, is an Elemental, has haste, gets bigger and even remains big when it hits the GY ready to strike again with a little help from my commander. This just fits...
+Behemoth Sledge: This may only be temporary since I might want to try other equipments in this slot but for now a hammer seems solid.
29.09.2013
-Fauna Shaman this one was though but between summoning sickness and needing to discard he got the axe.
-Skullbriar, the Walking Grave was a thorough dissapointment. The main issues were that he lacks evasion and grows to slowly.
-Kodama's Reach and -Cultivate: My basic land count is starting to get really low so I cut these two.
-Swamp
-Mountain
+Weathered Wayfarer: Hitting landdrops is much more crucial than ramping ahead since my curve is rather low. This little guy helps with that immensly. That most of my ramp is artifact based helps that he is online most of the time, he can also get stuff like Bojuka Bog and High Market for utility and if nothing else helps he can grab a sword and go to work.
+Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
+Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five mana.
+Mirari's Wake is another mana doubler that helps me to let my opponents far behind. The creature buff is also nice.
+Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
+Phyrexian Tower
21.11.2013
-The Mimeoplasm: Can be really strong but often enough there weren't any (relevant) targets for it.
-Glen-Elendra Archmage: Just wasn't aggressive enough for this deck.
-Skullclamp: Is an extremely strong card but it never did much in this deck. This deck has enough ways to draw cards and there are very few creatures that have only 1 toughness.
-Mirari's Wake, -Mana Reflection: I decided to cut mana doublers. They were too slow and clunky for this deck that either wants it's mana to get aggressive, to control or protect.
-Tooth and Nail: Is just sooo boring. In 5c there are so may fun and interesting options, I just don't want to "waste" a slot for this.
-Island
+Knight of the White Orchid: The WW could be an issue, otherwise it's just very soild mana fixing and accelleration.
+Maelstrom Nexus: I'm not really sure how strong this will be but it sure is fun and there are not many decks where you can play it. Did I mention that I love to cascade
+Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
+Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
+Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
+Naya Charm: The regrowth effect is good and tapping out someone can be a real blowout. Still this might be cut for something like Bow of Nylea or Eight-an-a-Half-Tails
+Arid Mesa
27.04.2014
+Burnished Hart: Lately I noticed that much too often all that kept me from dominating the game was a shortage of mana. Burnished Hart doesn't have any specific mana requirements and fixes two colors. Really solid.
+Academy Rector: This enbales a small but very powerful toolbox. The obvious target is Omniscience but if I don't have any cards in hand Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Ephara and Karametra are also worthy targets.
+Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
+Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
+Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
+Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
+Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
+Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
+Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
+Island
17.07.2014
+Gaddock Teeg: I recently played a four player match, against three very strong opponents one of which was Gaddock Teeg and I realized that this deck runs very few cards that are neutered by him. I also won that game because my opponents couldn't deploy their mass removal and got overwhelemed really fast. If he eats spot removal it's also fine because that's one less spell to take care of Horde and if he should be in my way, I have plenty of sac outlets.
+Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
+Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
I also play Horde of Notions, although mine is a competitive voltron deck. Initially, without altering the focus of your specific deck, I have several suggestions for you.
The big problem I see is that you need more ramp not only to accelerate your game plan (as you stated that you need 7+ mana for your engines) but also to smooth out your mana base. Cards that come to mind immediately are Skyshroud claim and nature's lore. A also run a significant amount of 2cmc ramp as that is one of the most important plays for my deck. This includes, but is not limited to, Pentad Prism, Bloom Tender, and a talisman or 2. Out of personal preference I also play Mirari's wake over reflection because it gives your creatures a bonus and comes down a turn earlier.
The top end of your deck also seems questionable. I understand that your are going for voltron-synergy, but Avacyn, Sheoldred, Regal Forece, et. al. are underwhelming. They are difficult to cast and should be immediately winning you the game for their cost. I prefer creatures such as Gisela, blade of goldnight or Aurelia, the warleader.
Additionally there are many strict upgrades. Green Sun's zenith is much stronger than chord and doesn't cost 3G. Demonic Tutor is simply better than the elemental tutor, and cards such as Time of Need are very powerful in this type of deck. Furthermore, you should be running Animate dead over the more highly costed reanimate spells in your deck, should replace at least one counterspell in your deck for Boros Charm because it is stronger, has more utility with sunforger, and doesn't blank with wanderer, and should cut some of your low-impact creatures and equipments for more value creatures such as Trinket mage.
Alternate paths to take also include adding things such as Civic Saber, Knight of New alara, and Rafiq, of the many and/or extra combat or double strike outlets to accelerate the general dmg wincon.
Nature's Lore, Mirari's Wake, Demonic Tutor and Aurelia are all on my wants list for this deck (I will add it to the OP), Bloom Tender and Animate Dead/Necromancy are also great.
Even with my current ramp package the deck is rather fast and I'm almost never color screwed, altough I'd like the ramp to be more consistent. The problem is that I'd have to cut other more exciting cards to make room for the rather "boring" ramp... With all the 2cmc ramp do you run any 3cmc ramp in your list? I'd love to see it.
I know that Boros Charm is something I should make room for (along actually getting the card) but I don't want to cut a counterspell because they can do so much more than Boros Charm in terms of control.
What would you add to for a Trinket Mage toolbox?
Rafiq already crossed my times a couple of times I will consider him again when I know what else I'd like to cut.
Lastly I'd like to defend Chord of Calling. In contrary to GSZ it is an instant and can search any creature not just green ones and the higher casting cost is often mitigated by it's convoke ability
For the trinket mage package my notable targets are clamp, sol ring, and civic saber. I would like to get my hands on a Relic of Progenitus and have also contemplated adding a Tree of Tales.
For 3cc ramp I have Reach, Cultivate, Lantern, and Wood Elves.
The concept of the deck is pretty straightforward. Ramp/tutor/filter for the first few turns. Drop Horde on turn 3-5, then swing out vs a player the next turn with a buff spell or creature. The ramp early game coupled with a large amount of removal/tuck and late game threats is ideally used to finish off the remaining players.
Wow, that is a really straight forward list. I'm going for a more resilient build though but I got a few new ideas from your list. I particularly like Civic Saber, Silverblade Paladin and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked keep (I was looking for a good way to give first strike to Horde).
About the landbase: When I started to build the deck I set out to get each shockland and each checkland. Of those I currently only miss Hallowed Fountain, Temple Garden and Isolated Chapel and I'm still only very rarely a bit colorscrewed (meaning I don't have access to a secon mana of a certain color).
One card I really like is Krosan Verge. It's ramp on a land and can give you access to four colors at once! I also like Murmuring Bosk since it can produce three different colors and is found by any Forest tutor.
My only issue with verge and bosk is that they come into play tapped. For my list, missing an untapped land drop early can easily cost me the game so I tend to stay away from them if at all possible.
Sunhome is definitely something to consider, altough colorless lands can be very punishing in 5C...
I considered Time Warp and the like for this deck but found extra combat phases to be more in line with what the deck does and also more fun
Congregation at Dawn is indeed nice wih the Wanderer and would even be a good buddy of Sunforger but I have the issue with tutors that only manipulate the top of the library because they are carddisadvantage and cannibalise on my landdrops.
What would be good sac outlets for the deck? I currently only have High Market which is great because it untaps with SoFaF so it allows shenanigans with Hordes ability between two combat phases or between first strike and normal damage.
EDIT: I decided that Regal Force, crazy as it is in other decks, is just too clunky in this one, so I replaed it with the recommended Time of Need. To accomodate this change I switched Body Double to The Mimeoplasm.
well the all star sac outlet for my deck is Phyrexian Altar and if you dont want to restrict your self to elemental you have a lot more options, I personally alternate between Seething Pathblazer and Magmaw i like them because their retrievable off of Horde.
do you often attack with more then just horde, if its just horde Id say Rafiq of the many as he makes horde a 2 turn clock and as weird as it sounds his colors are easier to hit then WW at least in my deck. But if your deck can hit the ww and attacks with multiple creatures then Silverblade Paladin is better.
oh and if you want to try a fun creature try Rubblehulk
Hmm, I'm looking for something that is at least okay when I don't have something to sac to it. Maybe Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord?
You are right WW is a bit harder to hit than GWU but for now I still went with the Paladin. The reason is that he can be recurred by Sun Titan and Reveillark and you're much less restricted about your attacks.
If he turns out to be awesome I will try to also fit in Rafiq.
I really don't like to lose that kind of reanimation effect. I know that I have a lot of creatures at 5cmc but three of those have an evoke cost that is much lower.
Actually I don't have any spells that target horde. The only I could see myself running is Boros Charm but that has also other uses and is only hampered by Sword of Fire and Ice which I tutor for much more infrequent than for Sword of Fest and Famine (which is by far the strongest Equipment in the deck and probably in the format).
Altough you really have to be careful if you want to equip Lightening Greaves to your only creature
So here are all the changes I made from the original list so far. I also added them as changelog to the OP:
-Regal Force is an awesome elemental but in this deck it just doesn't do enough.
-Venser, the Sojurner: I really like this PW but in the end all his abilities were a bit win-more.
-Fertild is a good enough way to ramp and an elemental but in any game with less than for players it's just too slow.
-Body Double is a great card but it lost it's slot to The Mimeoplasm
-Progenitor Mimic is one of those cards I like really much but it had to get cut for stuff that just suits the deck much more.
-Oracle of Mul Daya is just a tad too slow in a fast and aggressive deck like this. Also it isn't too great at carrying Swords.
-Disciple of Bolas while there are tons of fat creatures in this deck, most of the time I want them to stay with me, so this didn't really fit.
-Terramorphic Expanse is just slow and it's also annoying to search my library for a stupid basic land.
+Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She would also be able to get a Phyrexian Tower if I find one to include in the deck.
+Time of Need: See Captain Sisay
+Silverblade Paladin: I heard that double strike is strong with giant trampling elementals, as well as with Swords.
+Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
+The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
+Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
+Glen-Elendra Archmage got in because its great at carrying equipments, doesn't die too easily, gets recurred by Reveillark and just slows down so many strategies.
+Plains: I realized that I really want two of every basic land.
Thanks for the input so far it definitely helped me to make a lot of those decisions. So let me know what you think of the deck so far.
I noticed that the deck has a weakness to strategies that get out a lot of creatures very quick that just overrun me.
So I'm contemplating two specific cards I could include: Stoic Angel: It could hinder a lot of other aggressive strategies and nearly doesn't hurt me because a lot of my stuff has vigilance and I usually only attack with one or two creatures. Flying and vigilance are both abilities which synergize with the deck very well. Theysa, Envoy of Ghosts. She has "super-evasion", vigilance (great with Godo) and deters from attacking me.
Another list of changes:
-Seaside Citadel
-Wooded Bastion
I finally own a complete set of Shocklands for this deck, so those two "placeholders" had to go.
-Chord of Calling is one of my favourite creature tutors but it's much better in decks like Karador, where you have tons of small ETB answer creatures and are able to pull them out at instant speed. In this deck most creatures are either tutors themselves or threats and most of the answers are spellbased it's much clunkier. It's also a really bad cascade.
-Elbrus, the Binding Blade: I really like this card for it's awesome flavor but it's just to expensive. If Whitengar had some kind of built in protection I wouldn't cut this but this way it's just too unreliable.
+Temple Garden
+Hallowed Fountain
+Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: It has a low cmc, is legendary, is an Elemental, has haste, gets bigger and even remains big when it hits the GY ready to strike again with a little help from my commander. This just fits...
+Behemoth Sledge: This may only be temporary since I might want to try other equipments in this slot but for now a hammer seems solid.
The cards on my wants list with highest priority now are Phyrexian Tower and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, not only because they provide awesome utility (especially the tower) but also because with those Captain Sisay would also be able to fix land drops.
Since this deck has kind of gotten a subtheme of "awesome legends bash your head in", two other cards I want to try to fit in here somewhere are Olivia Voldaren and Sharuum, the Hegemon. What are your thoughts on them?
Another card that recently came to my attention is Ashes of the Fallen which, of course would enable Horde of Notions in a spectacular fashion but on the other hand does absolutely nothing on it's own and only works with my commander but no other card in the deck...
Here is another batch of changes. Critique and comments are welcome!
-Fauna Shaman this one was though but between summoning sickness and needing to discard he got the axe.
-Skullbriar, the Walking Grave was a thorough dissapointment. The main issues were that he lacks evasion and grows to slowly.
-Kodama's Reach and -Cultivate: My basic land count is starting to get really low so I cut these two.
-Swamp
-Mountain
+Weathered Wayfarer: Hitting landdrops is much more crucial than ramping ahead since my curve is rather low. This little guy helps with that immensly. That most of my ramp is artifact based helps that he is online most of the time, he can also get stuff like Bojuka Bog and High Market for utility and if nothing else helps he can grab a sword and go to work.
+Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
+Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five mana.
+Mirari's Wake is another mana doubler that helps me to let my opponents far behind. The creature buff is also nice.
+Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
+Phyrexian Tower
This was the deck I played the most over the last few weeks. Here are the changes that had accumulated:
-The Mimeoplasm: Can be really strong but often enough there weren't any (relevant) targets for it.
-Glen-Elendra Archmage: Just wasn't aggressive enough for this deck.
-Skullclamp: Is an extremely strong card but it never did much in this deck. This deck has enough ways to draw cards and there are very few creatures that have only 1 toughness.
-Mirari's Wake, -Mana Reflection: I decided to cut mana doublers. They were too slow and clunky for this deck that either wants it's mana to get aggressive, to control or protect.
-Tooth and Nail: Is just sooo boring. In 5c there are so may fun and interesting options, I just don't want to "waste" a slot for this.
-Island
+Knight of the White Orchid: The WW could be an issue, otherwise it's just very soild mana fixing and accelleration.
+Maelstrom Nexus: I'm not really sure how strong this will be but it sure is fun and there are not many decks where you can play it. Did I mention that I love to cascade
+Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
+Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
+Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
+Naya Charm: The regrowth effect is good and tapping out someone can be a real blowout. Still this might be cut for something like Bow of Nylea or Eight-an-a-Half-Tails
+Arid Mesa
Finally got some time to make a fresh entry to the changelog.
Most notably I had to react to the banning of Sylvan Primordial which got replaced by Angel of Despair.
I also needed some more answers so I added Return to Dust which is just amazing and the all powerful Pernicious Deed which is a sweep that works very well with cascade. In order to find the space for these I cut the more random Esper Charm and Naya Charm.
Let me know what you think and of course I'm also happy to give other Horde-players advice on their list.
+Burnished Hart: Lately I noticed that much too often all that kept me from dominating the game was a shortage of mana. Burnished Hart doesn't have any specific mana requirements and fixes two colors. Really solid.
+Academy Rector: This enbales a small but very powerful toolbox. The obvious target is Omniscience but if I don't have any cards in hand Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Ephara and Karametra are also worthy targets.
+Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
+Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
+Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
+Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
+Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
+Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
+Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
+Island
Those are my latest changes. I cut some of the weaker elementals for some versatile control and added a few cards to emphasize the toolbox charakter of the deck even more. I also added a bit more ramp to be able to actually cast my spells.
I'm a bit sad that I had to cut The Mimeoplasm (because dinosaur arm!!!) so I'll be testing to find some other cuts.
+Gaddock Teeg: I recently played a four player match, against three very strong opponents one of which was Gaddock Teeg and I realized that this deck runs very few cards that are neutered by him. I also won that game because my opponents couldn't deploy their mass removal and got overwhelemed really fast. If he eats spot removal it's also fine because that's one less spell to take care of Horde and if he should be in my way, I have plenty of sac outlets.
+Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
+Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
A WUBRG deck. The commander for such a project was always clear to me: Horde of Notions. What I love about this card is that it not only has amazing combat capabilities that, with some support, lets it do a lot of damage really quick. It also has an activated ability that doesn't require to tap, that allows you to do stuff at instant speed that you normally can't and that can produce card advantage.
What I also really like is that it somewhat commands a theme and for me a lot of the fun in building a good EDH-deck comes from the challenge to find the balance between cards that function well together and especially with my commander but are still as good as possible on their own.
Since I have played the deck for some time now, I can say it's probably the most fun of my decks. The different tooloxes and subthemes this deck has alongside the fact that you can play any card in 5c made me do some cardchoices I normally wouldn't. And even though the deck has a fair number of tutors every game plays out very different because of cascade and less redundancy than I normally have in my decks.
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Sakura Tribe Elder
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
3 Flickerwisp
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fierce Empath
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Captain Sisay
4 Olivia Voldaren
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Academy Rector
4 Ephara, God of the Polis
5 Karametra, God of the Harvest
5 Reveillark
5 Mulldrifter
5 Shriekmaw
5 Prophet of Kruphix
6 Prime Speaker Zegana
6 Godo, Bandit Warlord
6 Sun Titan
6 Aurelia, the Warleader
7 Avenger of Zendikar
7 Rune Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Maelstrom Wanderer
8 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Sol Ring
2 Lightening Greaves
3 Chromatic Lantern
3 Coalition Relic
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Sunforger
3 Oblivion Stone
4 Birthing Pod
5 Batterskull
Enchantments
3 Pernicious Deed
10 Omniscience
Planeswalker
5 Tezzeret, the Seeker
Instants/Sorceries
1 Entomb
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Swan Song
2 Farseek
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Eladamri's Call
2 Boros Charm
3 Crib Swap
3 Bant Charm
3 Render Silent
3 Counterflux
4 Return to Dust
4 Vanish into Memory
6 Austere Command
Lands
0 Command Tower
0 Mumuring Bosk
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Arid Mesa
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
0 Mistveil Plains
0 Phyrexian Tower
0 High Market
0 Krosan Verge
0 Watery Grave
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Steam Vents
0 Godless Shrine
0 Breeding Pool
0 Sacred Foundry
0 Stomping Grounds
0 Blood Crypt
0 Temple Garden
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Sunpetal Grove
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Drowned Catacombs
0 Woodland Cemetary
0 Hinterland Harbor
0 Clifftop Retreat
0 Rootbound Crag
0 Sulfur Falls
2 Plains
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
So what's the strategy? Hard to put into a term. I would maybe call it a voltron-synergy deck.
The first few turns I obviously like to ramp a bit. The deck can start to do stuff at about 5-7 mana and at 10+ it's engines can really start going.
What I noticed is that Horde of Notions is always a bit underestimated. Most people who read the card worry a bit about the activated ability but somehow they don't really care about the three keywords above that. It's only around turn 5 or 6 when I start whackin them for seven commander damage with a Sword without tapping that they go like "wait, you can do that?!"
So putting amazing equipments on my commander or other bodies and protecting them is my main wincon but what the deck is really about is synergy. I want my spells to support each other as well as possible. That means the I prioritize on cards that can be interact with certain other cards like R/W instants for Sunforger or Equipments for Stoneforge Mystic and Godo, creatures with vigilance to get into a second combat with Godo, creatures that can be brought back by Reveillark or just Elementals to interact with Horde.
Especially at 6+CMC I chose to add a few creatures that can generate big value over time because the deck is rather good at protecting its creatures and also because they are fun
Captain Sisay enable a legendary subtheme. So there are lot of legendary permanents which add to the epic flavor of the deck.
Probably it's best to just go through the individual cards to give an idea how the deck works:
Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
Sakura-Tribe Elder: Everyone knows that he is just great ramp. If I don't need the extra land immediately I can also stick an equipment to him.
Phantasmal Image: Some people think this got a bit worse with the M14 rules change. I think it's still one of the strongest twodrops in the format.
Stoneforge Mystic gets me one of my 8 equipments, cheats them into play and provides a body to attach it to.
Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
Gaddock Teeg: I recently played a four player match, against three very strong opponents one of which was Gaddock Teeg and I realized that this deck runs very few cards that are neutered by him. I also won that game because my opponents couldn't deploy their mass removal and got overwhelemed really fast. If he eats spot removal it's also fine because that's one less spell to take care of Horde and if he should be in my way, I have plenty of sac outlets.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
Flickerwisp: Elemental, aggressively costed, good stats to carry Weapons, relevant and versatile ETB ability, nothing more to say.
Eternal Witness just belongs into every green deck that can run her and in this in particulary because somehow no one wants my SoFaF to stick...
Fierce Empath: I think this is just as much a green staple as Eternal Witness. He helps me to get the right bombs for the right situations and in case you didn't notice: He can also carry weapons
Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
Solemn Simulacrum: The value robot. It ramps without requiring colored mana, is a body for a Sword and if it gets killed I get to draw a card.
Phyrexian Metamorph: I like clones and this is probably the best of them all. For me this just belongs into and deck running U
Academy Rector: This enbales a small but very powerful toolbox. The obvious target is Omniscience but if I don't have any cards in hand Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Ephara and Karametra are also worthy targets.
Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She also helps fixing my landdrops by searching Phyrexian Tower or Shinka.
Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
Ephara, God of the Polis: I needed more resilience and I needed more cardadvantage. Ephara gives me both. She usually draws at least one extra card per turn cycle and it's surprisingly easy to get devotion online.
Karametra, God of the Harvest: There's the same reasoning behind this as for Ephara. The deck runs after all 13 Forests/Plains which is more than enough to make it worthi it.
Reveillark is powerful reanimation that gets run in tons of decks, the 4/3 body and flying are great for carrying swords and best of all; it's an elemental!
Mulldrifter is just such a great card. Evoke it for early carddraw, "hardcast" it for an extra flying body to attack or sac into Birthing Pod, bring it back with Reveillark or with Horde of Notions because it's an elemental.
Shriekmaw solid the removal on an elemental! Altough "nonblack, nonartifact" clause makes it a lot worse... Fear on the other hand means that he's an evasive body for any Sword.
Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
Prime Speaker Zegana: Since she came out she's been one of my most favourite creatures. She just draws sooo many cards and, also very notably at such a jigh CMC, can be brought back with Reveillark.
Godo, Bandit Warlord is a bit like the second Lieutnant of the deck. He gets an equipment, cheats it into play and lets my General (and also Sun Titan, Batterskull and Avacyn) attack twice.
Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
Sun Titan: Haha, at first I even doubted if he deserved a spot in this deck but he's just amazing. He can bring back so much important and powerful stuff and he has vigilance plus an attack trigger so he is also a great buddy of Godo.
Avenger of Zendikar, the instant army, is a very strong 7-drop that interacts with Skullclamp, Regal Force, Craterhoof Behemoth and, most importantly, Horde of Notions!
Sheoldred, Whispering One was kind of a relic from when this deck had The Mimeoplasm as a general but she stuck around. If she isn't dealt with immediately she just creates enourmous amounts of value and this deck has ways of protectig it's creatures.
Maelstrom Wanderer is like the second Lieutnant of the deck. Why? Because his cascade is also triggerd when brought back with Horde of Notions!
Avacyn, Angel of Hope: I traded for this without really knowing where it in. It turned out that Avayn is a great fit for this deck. She has evasion, vigilance and protects herself and my whole board. The only downside is that once she hits the board everybody goes crazy, cloning her and targeting me.
Mana Rocks
Sol Ring: Do you really have to ask?
Darksteel Ingot produces mana of any color and probably sticks around for the whole game.
Chromatic Lantern probably an autoinclude in a 5c deck.
Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five.
Equipments
Lightening Greaves protect every creature and gives them haste for immediate value.
Sword of Feast and Famine is usually my Equipments of choice when I get to tutor. With a trampling, hasty commander it usually isn't a problem to get damage through and with all your lands untapping you get crazy acceleration. The discard is just gravy and the protections are very relevant.
Sword of Fire and Ice: The second best Sword. The card draw is great and the 2 damage can be relevant to snipe utility creatures and planeswalkers. Generally the +2/+2 can also be very relevant as it put Horde of Notions in a three hit range in terms of commander damage.
Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
Sunforger: Like the Swords this equipment is quite renown in this format. In 5c I have access to an insanely versatile suite of instants including counterspells. I go through the full package in the Instants/Sorceries section. th +4/+0 bonus is also quite nice because my general has trample.
Batterskull is solid source of lifegain, grants vigilance which is rather relevant in this deck, gives a significant buff, brings a body with it and the bounce ability is great in drawn out games where everyone is topdecking and you can make sure you don't lose your Batterskull.
Other Artifacts
Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
Birthing Pod is, in my opinion, one of the strongest EDH cards. You rarely lose a game were you make this stick and don't win. It's a sac outlet, tutors for answers or threats and all for a rather low mana cost.
Enchantments
Pernicious Deed: I think everyone who played with this little enchantment agrees that it's extraordinarily powerful. It can deal with three different permanent types at once and you can activate it at instant speed, putting you in control of the game as long you have this out and enough mana open. It's also a sweep that works very well with cascade and you can get it back with Sun Titan.
Maelstrom Nexus: There are could probably be some stronger options for this slot but this is just a lot of fun and there are very few decks that get to play this. Did I mention that I love to cascade
Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
Planeswalker
Tezzeret, the Seeker is just the best artifact tutor for me. He besides equipment he also gets Birthing Pod and Phyrexian Metamorph and if he sticks around he can untap my mana rocks.
Sunforger Package
Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile: Deals with any non-hexproof/shroud creature at instant speed for W with only a minimal drawback. Hands down best spot removal!
Eladamri's Call: One of the best tutors.
Crib Swap: Already solid by itself, this turns my commander into a machinegun, exiling creatures left and right.
Bant Charm: Rarely is there a charm were all three options a very relevant and this is one of them. Artifacts are everywhere, tucking is probably the best form of creature removal in commander and there are more than enough strong and annoying instants for this to stop.
Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
Counterflux, Render Silent: Sunforger compatible counterspells with an extra.
Return to Dust: Deals with not one but two problematic artfifacts or enchantments once and for all. This has become even more valuable since the gods have been printed.
Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
Other Instants
Entomb drags an elemental into my GY for my commander to get back.
Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
Cyclonic Rift bounce one nonland permanent for to stall for 1U, overload it and you have an awesome sweep.
Sorceries
Farseek ramps and is awesome color fixing.
Austere Command: The ability to hit most permanent types and the fact that this is nearly onesided most of the times makes this card one of the very best boardwipes.
Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
Wargate is a spell I really like. I can see it going out of the deck for a Demonic Tutor but for nothing less. It can get me so much stuff and if I cast it for only GWU it is non basic ramp.
So this is it, I hope you enjoyed reading.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Of course I'm particularly interested what ideas you may have to make this deck better.
26.08.2013
-Regal Force is an awesome elemental but in this deck it just doesn't do enough.
-Venser, the Sojurner: I really like this PW but in the end all his abilities were a bit win-more.
-Fertild is a good enough way to ramp and an elemental but in any game with less than for players it's just too slow.
-Body Double is a great card but it lost it's slot to The Mimeoplasm
-Progenitor Mimic is one of those cards I like really much but it had to get cut for stuff that just suits the deck much more.
-Oracle of Mul Daya is just a tad too slow in a fast and aggressive deck like this. Also it isn't too great at carrying Swords.
-Disciple of Bolas while there are tons of fat creatures in this deck, most of the time I want them to stay with me, so this didn't really fit.
-Terramorphic Expanse is just slow and it's also annoying to search my library for a stupid basic land.
+Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She would also be able to get a Phyrexian Tower if I find one to include in the deck.
+Time of Need: See Captain Sisay
+Silverblade Paladin: I heard that double strike is strong with giant trampling elementals, as well as with Swords.
+Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
+The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
+Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
+Glen-Elendra Archmage got in because its great at carrying equipments, doesn't die too easily, gets recurred by Reveillark and just slows down so many strategies.
+Plains: I realized that I really want two of every basic land.
06.09.2013
-Seaside Citadel
-Wooded Bastion
I finally own a complete set of Shocklands for this deck, so those two "placeholders" had to go.
-Chord of Calling is one of my favourite creature tutors but it's much better in decks like Karador, where you have tons of small ETB answer creatures and are able to pull them out at instant speed. In this deck most creatures are either tutors themselves or threats and most of the answers are spellbased it's much clunkier. It's also a really bad cascade.
-Elbrus, the Binding Blade: I really like this card for it's awesome flavor but it's just to expensive. If Whitengar had some kind of built in protection I wouldn't cut this but this way it's just too unreliable.
+Temple Garden
+Hallowed Fountain
+Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: It has a low cmc, is legendary, is an Elemental, has haste, gets bigger and even remains big when it hits the GY ready to strike again with a little help from my commander. This just fits...
+Behemoth Sledge: This may only be temporary since I might want to try other equipments in this slot but for now a hammer seems solid.
29.09.2013
-Fauna Shaman this one was though but between summoning sickness and needing to discard he got the axe.
-Skullbriar, the Walking Grave was a thorough dissapointment. The main issues were that he lacks evasion and grows to slowly.
-Kodama's Reach and -Cultivate: My basic land count is starting to get really low so I cut these two.
-Swamp
-Mountain
+Weathered Wayfarer: Hitting landdrops is much more crucial than ramping ahead since my curve is rather low. This little guy helps with that immensly. That most of my ramp is artifact based helps that he is online most of the time, he can also get stuff like Bojuka Bog and High Market for utility and if nothing else helps he can grab a sword and go to work.
+Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
+Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five mana.
+Mirari's Wake is another mana doubler that helps me to let my opponents far behind. The creature buff is also nice.
+Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
+Phyrexian Tower
21.11.2013
-The Mimeoplasm: Can be really strong but often enough there weren't any (relevant) targets for it.
-Glen-Elendra Archmage: Just wasn't aggressive enough for this deck.
-Skullclamp: Is an extremely strong card but it never did much in this deck. This deck has enough ways to draw cards and there are very few creatures that have only 1 toughness.
-Mirari's Wake, -Mana Reflection: I decided to cut mana doublers. They were too slow and clunky for this deck that either wants it's mana to get aggressive, to control or protect.
-Tooth and Nail: Is just sooo boring. In 5c there are so may fun and interesting options, I just don't want to "waste" a slot for this.
-Island
+Knight of the White Orchid: The WW could be an issue, otherwise it's just very soild mana fixing and accelleration.
+Maelstrom Nexus: I'm not really sure how strong this will be but it sure is fun and there are not many decks where you can play it. Did I mention that I love to cascade
+Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
+Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
+Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
+Naya Charm: The regrowth effect is good and tapping out someone can be a real blowout. Still this might be cut for something like Bow of Nylea or Eight-an-a-Half-Tails
+Arid Mesa
22.03.2014
+The Mimeoplasm
+Pernicious Deed
+Angel of Despair
+Render Silent
+Return to Dust
-Sylvan Pimordial
-Naya Charm
-Esper Charm
-Behemoth Sledge
-Double Negative
19.04.2014
-Weathered Wayfarer
-Silverblade Paladin
-Gilded Locus
-Umezawa's Jitte
+Civic Saber
+Solemn Simulacrum
+Ephara, God of the Polis
+Karametra, God of the Harvest
27.04.2014
+Burnished Hart: Lately I noticed that much too often all that kept me from dominating the game was a shortage of mana. Burnished Hart doesn't have any specific mana requirements and fixes two colors. Really solid.
+Academy Rector: This enbales a small but very powerful toolbox. The obvious target is Omniscience but if I don't have any cards in hand Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Ephara and Karametra are also worthy targets.
+Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
+Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
+Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
+Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
+Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
+Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
+Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
+Island
-Ignot Chewer
-Flamekin Harbinger
-Time of Need
-Civic Saber
-Knight of the White Orchid
-Angel of Despair
-Slithermuse
-The Mimeoplasm
-Craterhoof Behemoth
-Dragonskull Summit
17.07.2014
+Gaddock Teeg: I recently played a four player match, against three very strong opponents one of which was Gaddock Teeg and I realized that this deck runs very few cards that are neutered by him. I also won that game because my opponents couldn't deploy their mass removal and got overwhelemed really fast. If he eats spot removal it's also fine because that's one less spell to take care of Horde and if he should be in my way, I have plenty of sac outlets.
+Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
+Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
-Burnished Hart
-Blasphemous Act
-Maelstrom Nexus
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Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
The big problem I see is that you need more ramp not only to accelerate your game plan (as you stated that you need 7+ mana for your engines) but also to smooth out your mana base. Cards that come to mind immediately are Skyshroud claim and nature's lore. A also run a significant amount of 2cmc ramp as that is one of the most important plays for my deck. This includes, but is not limited to, Pentad Prism, Bloom Tender, and a talisman or 2. Out of personal preference I also play Mirari's wake over reflection because it gives your creatures a bonus and comes down a turn earlier.
The top end of your deck also seems questionable. I understand that your are going for voltron-synergy, but Avacyn, Sheoldred, Regal Forece, et. al. are underwhelming. They are difficult to cast and should be immediately winning you the game for their cost. I prefer creatures such as Gisela, blade of goldnight or Aurelia, the warleader.
Additionally there are many strict upgrades. Green Sun's zenith is much stronger than chord and doesn't cost 3G. Demonic Tutor is simply better than the elemental tutor, and cards such as Time of Need are very powerful in this type of deck. Furthermore, you should be running Animate dead over the more highly costed reanimate spells in your deck, should replace at least one counterspell in your deck for Boros Charm because it is stronger, has more utility with sunforger, and doesn't blank with wanderer, and should cut some of your low-impact creatures and equipments for more value creatures such as Trinket mage.
Alternate paths to take also include adding things such as Civic Saber, Knight of New alara, and Rafiq, of the many and/or extra combat or double strike outlets to accelerate the general dmg wincon.
Nature's Lore, Mirari's Wake, Demonic Tutor and Aurelia are all on my wants list for this deck (I will add it to the OP), Bloom Tender and Animate Dead/Necromancy are also great.
Even with my current ramp package the deck is rather fast and I'm almost never color screwed, altough I'd like the ramp to be more consistent. The problem is that I'd have to cut other more exciting cards to make room for the rather "boring" ramp... With all the 2cmc ramp do you run any 3cmc ramp in your list? I'd love to see it.
I know that Boros Charm is something I should make room for (along actually getting the card) but I don't want to cut a counterspell because they can do so much more than Boros Charm in terms of control.
What would you add to for a Trinket Mage toolbox?
Rafiq already crossed my times a couple of times I will consider him again when I know what else I'd like to cut.
Lastly I'd like to defend Chord of Calling. In contrary to GSZ it is an instant and can search any creature not just green ones and the higher casting cost is often mitigated by it's convoke ability
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Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
For 3cc ramp I have Reach, Cultivate, Lantern, and Wood Elves.
The concept of the deck is pretty straightforward. Ramp/tutor/filter for the first few turns. Drop Horde on turn 3-5, then swing out vs a player the next turn with a buff spell or creature. The ramp early game coupled with a large amount of removal/tuck and late game threats is ideally used to finish off the remaining players.
1 Birds of paradise
2 Bloom Tender
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Fierce Empath
3 Eternal Witness
3 Trinket Mage
3 Silverblade Paladin
3 Wood Elves
4 Knight of New Alara
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Rafiq of the Many
5 Zealous Conscripts
5 Shriekmaw
5 Mulldrifter
5 Acidic Slime
6 Aurelia, the Warleader
6 Prime Speaker Zegana
7 Sylvan Primordial
7 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
8 Maelstrom Wanderer
Artifacts
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Civic Saber
2 Talisman of Impulse
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Selesnya Signet
2 Pentad Prism
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Chromatic Lantern
4 Birthing Pod
5 Gilded Lotus
1 Miri's Guile
2 Animate Dead
3 Aura Shards
3 Shield of the Oversoul
5 Mirari's Wake
Sorceries
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Time of Need
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Farseek
2 Nature's Lore
3 Cultivate
3 Kodama's Reach
4 Skyshroud Claim
4 Seize the Day
6 Armed // Dangerous
Instants
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Psychotic Fury
2 Boros Charm
2 Might of the Nephilim
2 Eladamri's Call
3 Oblation
3 Beast Within
3 Crib Swap
3 Bant Charm
5 Spin into Myth
Lands
0 Fire-Lit Thicket
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Windswept Heath
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Grasslands
0 Mountain Valley
0 Stomping Ground
0 Temple Garden
0 Steam Vents
0 Breeding Pool
0 Sacred Foundry
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Blood Crypt
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Tundra
0 Volcanic Island
0 Vivid Grove
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Battlefield Forge
0 Caves of Koilos
0 Yavimaya Coast
0 Karplusan Forest
0 City of Brass
0 Command Tower
0 Jungle Shrine
0 Tendo Ice Bridge
0 Exotic Orchard
0 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
0 Bojuka Bog
0 High Market
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Island
2 Plains
3 Forest
For the future I would like to add Greater Good, Sword of Fire and Ice, Wheel of Fortune, Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker, replace farseek with Three Visits and get better lands.
About the landbase: When I started to build the deck I set out to get each shockland and each checkland. Of those I currently only miss Hallowed Fountain, Temple Garden and Isolated Chapel and I'm still only very rarely a bit colorscrewed (meaning I don't have access to a secon mana of a certain color).
One card I really like is Krosan Verge. It's ramp on a land and can give you access to four colors at once! I also like Murmuring Bosk since it can produce three different colors and is found by any Forest tutor.
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Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
The Final thing I would suggest would be Congregation at Dawn it combos amazingly with Maelstrom Wanderer
Horde of Notions
Sunhome is definitely something to consider, altough colorless lands can be very punishing in 5C...
I considered Time Warp and the like for this deck but found extra combat phases to be more in line with what the deck does and also more fun
Congregation at Dawn is indeed nice wih the Wanderer and would even be a good buddy of Sunforger but I have the issue with tutors that only manipulate the top of the library because they are carddisadvantage and cannibalise on my landdrops.
What would be good sac outlets for the deck? I currently only have High Market which is great because it untaps with SoFaF so it allows shenanigans with Hordes ability between two combat phases or between first strike and normal damage.
EDIT: I decided that Regal Force, crazy as it is in other decks, is just too clunky in this one, so I replaed it with the recommended Time of Need. To accomodate this change I switched Body Double to The Mimeoplasm.
I'm also trying to decide between Silverblade Paladin and Rafiq of the Many since for now I can only make space for one. Opinions?
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UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
do you often attack with more then just horde, if its just horde Id say Rafiq of the many as he makes horde a 2 turn clock and as weird as it sounds his colors are easier to hit then WW at least in my deck. But if your deck can hit the ww and attacks with multiple creatures then Silverblade Paladin is better.
oh and if you want to try a fun creature try Rubblehulk
Horde of Notions
You are right WW is a bit harder to hit than GWU but for now I still went with the Paladin. The reason is that he can be recurred by Sun Titan and Reveillark and you're much less restricted about your attacks.
If he turns out to be awesome I will try to also fit in Rafiq.
Those are my changes so far:
-Regal Force
-Venser, the Sojurner
+Time of Need
+Silverblade Paladin
I'm also trying to get Aurelia, the Warleader as soon as possible to probably replace Progenitor Mimic.
Is Rubblehulk really any good? He definitely could be interesting...
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
I don't know how your curve works having not played the deck but I might drop body double for Aurelia
Just wondering do you ever have problems targeting horde with your spells because of the protections from the swords?
Horde of Notions
-Body Double
+The Mimeoplasm
I really don't like to lose that kind of reanimation effect. I know that I have a lot of creatures at 5cmc but three of those have an evoke cost that is much lower.
Actually I don't have any spells that target horde. The only I could see myself running is Boros Charm but that has also other uses and is only hampered by Sword of Fire and Ice which I tutor for much more infrequent than for Sword of Fest and Famine (which is by far the strongest Equipment in the deck and probably in the format).
Altough you really have to be careful if you want to equip Lightening Greaves to your only creature
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RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
-Regal Force is an awesome elemental but in this deck it just doesn't do enough.
-Venser, the Sojurner: I really like this PW but in the end all his abilities were a bit win-more.
-Fertild is a good enough way to ramp and an elemental but in any game with less than for players it's just too slow.
-Body Double is a great card but it lost it's slot to The Mimeoplasm
-Progenitor Mimic is one of those cards I like really much but it had to get cut for stuff that just suits the deck much more.
-Oracle of Mul Daya is just a tad too slow in a fast and aggressive deck like this. Also it isn't too great at carrying Swords.
-Disciple of Bolas while there are tons of fat creatures in this deck, most of the time I want them to stay with me, so this didn't really fit.
-Terramorphic Expanse is just slow and it's also annoying to search my library for a stupid basic land.
+Captain Sisay: This deck runs a lot of awesome legendary creatures that all play very different and very important roles so Sisay enables a powerful toolbox. She would also be able to get a Phyrexian Tower if I find one to include in the deck.
+Time of Need: See Captain Sisay
+Silverblade Paladin: I heard that double strike is strong with giant trampling elementals, as well as with Swords.
+Birds of Paradise is a controversial choice in EDH but it is very cheap, fixes every color and also carries a Sword like a champ.
+The Mimeoplasm got in over Body Double because it is legendary and, from a flavor perspective, just much more awesome!
+Aurelia, the Warleader has haste, evasion and lets all attack and combat damage trigger activate twice.
+Glen-Elendra Archmage got in because its great at carrying equipments, doesn't die too easily, gets recurred by Reveillark and just slows down so many strategies.
+Plains: I realized that I really want two of every basic land.
Thanks for the input so far it definitely helped me to make a lot of those decisions. So let me know what you think of the deck so far.
I noticed that the deck has a weakness to strategies that get out a lot of creatures very quick that just overrun me.
So I'm contemplating two specific cards I could include:
Stoic Angel: It could hinder a lot of other aggressive strategies and nearly doesn't hurt me because a lot of my stuff has vigilance and I usually only attack with one or two creatures. Flying and vigilance are both abilities which synergize with the deck very well.
Theysa, Envoy of Ghosts. She has "super-evasion", vigilance (great with Godo) and deters from attacking me.
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RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
-Seaside Citadel
-Wooded Bastion
I finally own a complete set of Shocklands for this deck, so those two "placeholders" had to go.
-Chord of Calling is one of my favourite creature tutors but it's much better in decks like Karador, where you have tons of small ETB answer creatures and are able to pull them out at instant speed. In this deck most creatures are either tutors themselves or threats and most of the answers are spellbased it's much clunkier. It's also a really bad cascade.
-Elbrus, the Binding Blade: I really like this card for it's awesome flavor but it's just to expensive. If Whitengar had some kind of built in protection I wouldn't cut this but this way it's just too unreliable.
+Temple Garden
+Hallowed Fountain
+Skullbriar, the Walking Grave: It has a low cmc, is legendary, is an Elemental, has haste, gets bigger and even remains big when it hits the GY ready to strike again with a little help from my commander. This just fits...
+Behemoth Sledge: This may only be temporary since I might want to try other equipments in this slot but for now a hammer seems solid.
The cards on my wants list with highest priority now are Phyrexian Tower and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, not only because they provide awesome utility (especially the tower) but also because with those Captain Sisay would also be able to fix land drops.
Since this deck has kind of gotten a subtheme of "awesome legends bash your head in", two other cards I want to try to fit in here somewhere are Olivia Voldaren and Sharuum, the Hegemon. What are your thoughts on them?
Another card that recently came to my attention is Ashes of the Fallen which, of course would enable Horde of Notions in a spectacular fashion but on the other hand does absolutely nothing on it's own and only works with my commander but no other card in the deck...
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RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
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Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
-Fauna Shaman this one was though but between summoning sickness and needing to discard he got the axe.
-Skullbriar, the Walking Grave was a thorough dissapointment. The main issues were that he lacks evasion and grows to slowly.
-Kodama's Reach and -Cultivate: My basic land count is starting to get really low so I cut these two.
-Swamp
-Mountain
+Weathered Wayfarer: Hitting landdrops is much more crucial than ramping ahead since my curve is rather low. This little guy helps with that immensly. That most of my ramp is artifact based helps that he is online most of the time, he can also get stuff like Bojuka Bog and High Market for utility and if nothing else helps he can grab a sword and go to work.
+Olivia Voldaren may look a bit weird in this deck and admittedly one of the reasons to include her is her awesoe flavor. But apart from that she is a reasonably sized, growing, flying beater that can shoot down or take control of my opponents threats. What's also important is that she is an instant speed mana sink, which is great considering my go-to equipment Sword of Feast and Famine and double strike or additional combat phases.
+Coalition Relic produces mana of any color and can accelerate from three to five mana.
+Mirari's Wake is another mana doubler that helps me to let my opponents far behind. The creature buff is also nice.
+Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
+Phyrexian Tower
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
-The Mimeoplasm: Can be really strong but often enough there weren't any (relevant) targets for it.
-Glen-Elendra Archmage: Just wasn't aggressive enough for this deck.
-Skullclamp: Is an extremely strong card but it never did much in this deck. This deck has enough ways to draw cards and there are very few creatures that have only 1 toughness.
-Mirari's Wake, -Mana Reflection: I decided to cut mana doublers. They were too slow and clunky for this deck that either wants it's mana to get aggressive, to control or protect.
-Tooth and Nail: Is just sooo boring. In 5c there are so may fun and interesting options, I just don't want to "waste" a slot for this.
-Island
+Knight of the White Orchid: The WW could be an issue, otherwise it's just very soild mana fixing and accelleration.
+Maelstrom Nexus: I'm not really sure how strong this will be but it sure is fun and there are not many decks where you can play it. Did I mention that I love to cascade
+Prophet of Kruphix: This is insane. If it is allowed to live a turn cycle it will probably win me the game. It's also larkable.
+Boros Charm: So much versatility! Double strike on a Horde with a Sword is just brutal. Making all my permanents indestructible can be a complete blowout and even the 4 damage to the dome are relevant for killing Planeswalkers!
+Blasphemous Act: I wanted more sweeps and this one isn't hit as a cascade by Maelstrom Wanderer and is often so cheap that I have enough mana left to repopulate the empty board.
+Naya Charm: The regrowth effect is good and tapping out someone can be a real blowout. Still this might be cut for something like Bow of Nylea or Eight-an-a-Half-Tails
+Arid Mesa
As always: Please let me know what you think!
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GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
Most notably I had to react to the banning of Sylvan Primordial which got replaced by Angel of Despair.
I also needed some more answers so I added Return to Dust which is just amazing and the all powerful Pernicious Deed which is a sweep that works very well with cascade. In order to find the space for these I cut the more random Esper Charm and Naya Charm.
Let me know what you think and of course I'm also happy to give other Horde-players advice on their list.
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
+Academy Rector: This enbales a small but very powerful toolbox. The obvious target is Omniscience but if I don't have any cards in hand Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse, Ephara and Karametra are also worthy targets.
+Rune Scarred Demon: I needed one more 7-drop and the tutorability of this can bring you back in the game or enable wins. The 6/6 flying body is also extremely relevant because many other big flyers have only 5 power.
+Sword of Light and Shadow: Finally I have all of the Swords I need for this deck. The protection from white is very relevant since some of the most potent and common spot removal is white. The returning a creature to my hand trigger can be powerful but is, of course, a bit more conditional than other sword triggers.
+Oblivion Stone: Lately I shifted the focus of this deck a bit more towards control and Oblivion Stone is another powerful tool for that. It's of course much blunter than Pernicious Deed but it still fits the deck in various ways: It's not bad to cascade into this, it's Tezzeret can get it and Sun Titan brings it back.
+Qasali Pridmage: This is one of my favourite cards. While it's out people will refrain from casting their artifacts/enchantments, slowing them down, it can easily be tutored up or be recurred to answer problematic permanents, it provides a body to strap a Sword on and in a deck that likes to win via commander damage the exalted can be very relevant.
+Vanish into Memory: I'm not completely sold on this yet but it seems to be a very versatile card that can deal with tokens in a phenomenal way, protect my creatures, dig for answers and it can also jump out of my Sunforger
+Swan Song: More control. As we all know from Beast Within, giving an opponent a token is a very small price to pay for getting rid of something problematic (at least in this format). What makes this unique is the extremely low casting cost. Nobody suspects a counter if you only have one blue mana open (which is also rather easy to keep open after you cast somthing you want to protect)and it catches everything from Path to Exile to Tooth and Nail.
+Omniscience: I obviously need to have cards in hand for this to be good but then very little will keep me from just winning the game.
+Island
-Ignot Chewer
-Flamekin Harbinger
-Time of Need
-Civic Saber
-Knight of the White Orchid
-Angel of Despair
-Slithermuse
-The Mimeoplasm
-Craterhoof Behemoth
-Dragonskull Summit
Those are my latest changes. I cut some of the weaker elementals for some versatile control and added a few cards to emphasize the toolbox charakter of the deck even more. I also added a bit more ramp to be able to actually cast my spells.
I'm a bit sad that I had to cut The Mimeoplasm (because dinosaur arm!!!) so I'll be testing to find some other cuts.
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer
+Grenzo, Dungeon Warden: First of all this is one of the greatest designs in recent magic history and I have no other deck where I can run him. So that's one reason to include him ;). Apart from that he is very efficiently costed for a scaleable creature, he is a great mana sink (and with 32 creatures the count is reasonably high) and he is greatly enabled by Mistveil Plains which is online most of the time.
+Knight of the Reliquary: Old KotR is one of my favourite creatures in all of magic and what's the point of playing 5C when I can't play ALL my favourite stuff :). I'm not too sure if he's really good enough in this deck but he can accelerate, search for important utility lands and grows very big.
-Burnished Hart
-Blasphemous Act
-Maelstrom Nexus
Here are my latest changs for the deck. Please let me know what you think!
GWKarametra - The MistveiledGW
GWR Marath - The Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig GWR
RBGrenzo - Restrained RakdosRB
UWRGBHorde of NotionsUWRGB
Retired: Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Rafiq of the Many | Animar, Soul of Elements | Maelstrom Wanderer