OK, take 2....
I figured
Quicksilver Amulet
would work good here cause I have the possibility of dropping one 3rd turn, 4th turn start on the big nasties like
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
. I thought that would trump more generic ramp. This also explains the lack of three drops in the deck. More often than not, this is the way the deck comes out of the gate:
Turn1:
Krosan Verge
((tapped)
Turn 2: Drop another land, a
Noble Hierarch
or
Birds of Paradise
, then do the Verge thing for two more tapped lands
Turn 3: I have 4 mana.
Path to Exile
is something saved for later in the game, so I can start on my 4 drops now, like Quicksilver.
I'm not sure I agree with everyone's hate for
Knight of New Alara
either. +3/+3 to
Rafiq of the Many
? How is this bad? Esp. if I'm also gaining that same life through
Battlegrace Angel
. That much bonus to Rafiq, and after a
Wrath of God
, with
Finest Hour
in, it usually meant taking out two players at a time and gaining enough life that I didn't need to worry about what anyone could do to me. The exiling of Rafiq was this decks worst problem, something I save
Cryptic Command
for. I'll experiment with trimming the Knight down or out, but I'm not optimistic, becuse after I added it in the first place, the efficiency of this deck went way up. Probably not a 3-of card though.
Fauna Shaman
. I like this. The addition would probably introduse a
Reya Dawnbringer
though. It would allow me to trim out some of the biggies, and show less of my hand as I went along too. That might be the secret to losing the Quicksilvers as well, since I wouldn't be casting any of those big creatures till later in the game. Definately gonna experiment with this one.
Now,
Consecrated Sphinx
. How did I miss this card? He's news to me. Good news. I like it MUCH better than
Arcanis the Omnipotent
. Direct swap there. Probably will dictate the inclusion of a
Feldon's Cane
though, because that Sphinx has "lose to decking myself" written ALL over him.
I never thought about
Dauntless Escort
. It would definately make an early WoG an easier pill to swallow. I was running 2
Elspeth, Knight Errant
s, but cut them for the Avacyns. Nobody leaves Elspeth around for long, had issues getting her bomb to go off, and figured Avacyn had a bit better staying power in this deck.
Knotvine Paladin
was in this deck from the beginning. The problem I ran into, and the reason it was cut, was that more often than not, I was blowing right by him with mana curve and cards coming out. By the time I moved from defense/set-up mode to attack mode, Rafiq was in place and he's the one that got the attacking duties. The Paladin really felt like just filler, and never really contributed much to the momentum of the deck. So he got cut.
Finally, we come to
Murkfiend Liege
and
Stoic Angel
. This has been part of the deck since the beginning. I think the Liege IS very synergistic with the deck. Stoic keeps everyone in semi-
Stasis
, and I get to untap my mana ramp. The Stoics were also an excellent attacking choice before bringing Rafiq into the mix. It also makes the tap-down choice on Cryptic Comm VERY powerful in multi-player. The downfall is that it also puts a huge bulls-eye on my forehead. I'm torn. I feel like it's a part of this decks flavor and backbone, yet maybe the deck is evolving away from it? We'll see. I could also mean the difference in being able to take out two players at a time or just one with Rafiq and Finest Hour after a WoG.
All-in-all, some excellent suggestions Sleeping, thanks much. It's exactly what I'm looking for. Still can't believe I've never taken note of that Sphinx, I'm almost embarrassed. Back to tweaking, and maybe I'll put up a new list later tonight.