Messages

Ok, sry I forgot to mention Grave Titan, he is obviously great and I play him + Mulldrifter as you mentioned. I dont have deck with me, so i forgot several cards.

On Wall of Omens: Omens comes down on turn 2, draws a card. On the other hand finks comes down whole turn later and you need double white(whitch can be huge in 3c deck). Omens has greater butt and save more lifes in progres than finkse. On turn 3 I want to make diferent stuff than to throw twigs on oponent. Omens is better in protecting PWs and is not semidead draw like finkse against control. Finkse will not kill anyone and if you want to wrath as soon as possible, you would wrath your creature as well. And concerning defense I prefere twodrop.

I am not trying to convince that finkse is bad card and that omens is better. But if you are pure kontrol = you are not going to atack for first 10 turns, finkse does not bring too much value. It shines in agrokontrol decks and even agro decks that can support it's manacost would propably use it.

On Sphinx: if you are behind, casting Sfinx will not save you. Sfinx shines when comes to an empty board as deciding "beater". Opponent will not always have removal for it ;-) and if they kill it - ok it is life...

On Bloodgift Demon: It depends on matchup of course, but I would rather cast Demon than BSA. It gives you what Phyrexian arena can't - clock. The fact, that you draw extra card + swings for 5 is huge. If your deck is full of interactive spells like discard, counter or disrupt, you can grind the oponent realy quickly.

In our group Maqi's proposition is highly accepted and widely used. It is even beeing used in local legacy tournaments. To be a fast player is certainly advantage. But I have greater problem with players that are VERY VERY slow at playing the game. No matter what you say to to them, their playing speed is not gonna rise. If someone is used to shufling and searching throught the deck, game can flow almost without any delay. Intentional or unintentional slow play can be hardly punished in our playgroup, since we do not have oficial judge to penalize slow player.

Hi,
I also play esper control and it is certainly creature light version. My list of heroes is Wall of Omens, Baleful Strix, Stroneforge Mystic, Snapcaster, Glena Aleandra, Baneslayer Angel, Bloodgift Demon, Batterskul, Wurmcoil engine, Consacrated Sphinx + Topter combo. My rule of thumb is that I do not run any creature, that does is not able to win on its own or provides CA. This is not the case of Kitchen Finkse, nor Vendelion Clique, nor Timely Reinforcements. Funny fact abou Stoneforge is, that it tutors Sword of the Meek alonside Batterskul.

Ball

Hi,
I would like to share some new ideas in this sweet deck. Some ideas are adopted from Tabris's list.

HighTide deck gained few goodies over the time. Most important were: Yawmoth's Will, Snapcaster Mage, Noxious Revival, Devastation Tide, Blue Sun's Zenith, Gitaxian's Probe, Preordian, Shrine of Piercing Vision. Even with all these spells I think, other decks gained more in comparison. It is not easy to combo out with this deck. It is quite chalenging, but most importantly it is blast to play.

Decklist follows:

// Lands
    1 [ON] Polluted Delta
    1 [ON] Flooded Strand
    1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
    1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
    1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
    1 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
    1 [RAV] Watery Grave
    1 [A] Underground Sea
    24 [ZEN] Island (3)

//Engine
    1 [FE] High Tide (1)
    1 [TSP] Gauntlet of Power
    1 [SC] Mind's Desire
    1 [US] Time Spiral
    1 [US] Yawgmoth's Will
    1 [SC] Brain Freeze
    1 [ON] Future Sight

//Untap
    1 [EX] Mind Over Matter
    1 [UD] Treachery
    1 [US] Turnabout
    1 [US] Peregrine Drake
    1 [UL] Palinchron
    1 [US] Great Whale
    1 [UL] Frantic Search

//Tutor
    1 [PT] Personal Tutor
    1 [8E] Merchant Scroll
    1 [A] Demonic Tutor
    1 [TSP] Mystical Teachings
    1 [TE] Intuition
    1 [RAV] Dizzy Spell

//Draw
    1 [DDH] Deep Analysis
    1 [M11] Foresee
    1 [SOK] Ideas Unbound
    1 [MR] Thirst for Knowledge
    1 [RAV] Compulsive Research
    1 [8E] Concentrate
    1 [TSP] Careful Consideration
    1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
    1 [A] Braingeyser
    1 [TE] Meditate
    1 [MBS] Blue Sun's Zenith

//Protection
    1 [LG] Force Spike
    1 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
    1 [DIS] Spell Snare
    1 [M11] Negate
    1 [5E] Memory Lapse
    1 [FD] Condescend
    1 [FUT] Delay
    1 [SH] Mana Leak
    1 [RAV] Muddle the Mixture      //also tutor
    1 [MM] Counterspell
    1 [LG] Mana Drain
    1 [RAV] Remand
    1 [LRW] Cryptic Command
    1 [AL] Force of Will

    1 [GP] Repeal
    1 [UL] Snap
    1 [PY] Withdraw
    1 [IN] Repulse
    1 [VI] Man-o'-War
    1 [AVR] Devastation Tide

    1 [SHM] Plumeveil
    1 [TE] Propaganda

//Cantrip
    1 [FNM] Brainstorm
    1 [M10] Ponder
    1 [M11] Preordain
    1 [ARE] Serum Visions
    1 [P2] Sleight of Hand
    1 [NPH] Gitaxian Probe
    1 [VI] Impulse
    1 [CHK] Peer Through Depths
    1 [NPH] Shrine of Piercing Vision
    1 [M13] Augur of Bolas

//Other
    1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
    1 [FD] Wayfarer's Bauble
    1 [TE] Sapphire Medallion
    1 [VI] Helm of Awakening
    1 [US] Back to Basics

//Regrowth's
    1 [ISD] Snapcaster Mage
    1 [NPH] Noxious Revival
    1 [M11] Call to Mind


Cards that I am missing Time Twister + Candelabra of Tawnos. Both these cards are extremely expensive. They would improve the deck, but are not essential.

What changed deck is tiny little black splash, that provides more than this deck could hope for. Y. Will is absolutely amazing and provide realy interesting Intuitions piles. Demonic Tutor is most powerfull tututor ever printed, so it is natural inclusion. What deck lacks little bit is few more good untappers - Whale is sort of subtitution for Candelabra. Mind over Matter can be seen even in legacy high tide deck and serves as ultimate untapper. Mostly there is not problem to have bunch of card in hand, but once all mana gets eaten by playing draw spells to get some untap, Mind Over Matter rules.

What is special about this list is Gauntlet of Power that serves as backup plan if high tide get removed. It still provides almost Mirrary's Wake effect, whitch is always great. As ultimate card drawing engine serves Futuresight, whitch is my pet spell. I like Futuresight+Top combo which nicely supports needed storm count for Mind Desire or Brainfreeze. Spellweaver Volute is also possible, but I have never been fan of this card.

I have cut T4 protection like Vencer and Rewind. I have also cut Solemn Simulacrum, because it does not speed's up combo. It just force to tap out and leave the oponent do whatever he want's during his turn. Since there is no Candelabra of Tawnos I have cut Trinket mage as he was just second Top. These slots were invested to more protection and cantrips.

How quickly can this deck deliver kill? Turn 4 kills are possible. It realy depends on how quickly can we get to High Tide itself + some way to kick off the combo. Anyway turn 4 kills are extremely hard to assemble. Comboing with 5 lands has greater chance not to fizzle and is more safe.

This deck has also almost zero chance to kill outsice the combo. This can be seen as weekness, but this also mean's, that deck is very linear and has fewer dead draws during comboing.

Happy comboing, Ball

Mir: I would not call your presented situation as some special combo. It is just some sort of synergy. But I realy doubt, that deck, that is trying to reanimate early some big tread is concerned much about lategame and will be able to abuse excesive mana. Probably you will do better with reanimated Iona or Gin Gitaxias or Griselbrand or anything else ;-)

Banning titan seems realy silly to me.

Hi,
I also feel, that something went wrong with german HL. Our local comunity still holds up, since the core of the community meet every week. The core form about one third of the whole comunity, which is rather big portion. The rest of comunity comes from time to time to every month tournament we organise to ourselves. Tournament attendance is quite stable, but declining over the few past years. There is no support from any local playground or magic retailer. Irregularly there is a pure HL article on biggest website devoted to Magic in Czech Republic (once per two months). So it is quite hard to gain new players and attract them to play HL and not EDH.

I feel EDH lurks from every corner of todays biggest magic websites. Forums, new cards discusions, articles are very much EDH oriented. Even cube is getting more spotlight today then HL. There is almost not a single word about german HL. The format is almost invisible to biggest sites including wizards. But they adopted EDH, so it is no wonder. Without articles, discusions, informational stream towards the players base, there is no chance for german HL to keep up. Even our www.magicplayer.org forum is almost dead. There is no new content to read or discuss every day. Since the forum is not attractive for the current comunity, it can hardly be attractive to new players.

The social aspects metitoned above are 100% true. Average age of our comunity is probably slightly under 30. Also the format entry cost is quite large. Same holds for legacy, but legacy is obviously more attractive format since there is ton of content online and many tournaments every week.

The worst investment in the world of magic is into format which one cannot play often or not at all. I see good example with real life allcommon legacy format. Once there were regular tournaments and the comunity was fine. But after the tournament organiser got bankrupted format disappeared, since his tournaments and his playground were like a glue, that holded the comunity together. Once the glue got lost the decks gathers just dust.

I hope our format - german HL - will never become "a bad time investment". ^^^

Ball.Lightning

P.S: One idea: our comunity uses FB to discuss common stuff and organise itself. Maybee this medium could do some good here. I propose this even if I am not fan of FB. It just works for us..

What can I see from our metagame this statement is 100% true for all deck around.

>>Are you playing mountains and not playing any islands? Wheel is sort of autoinclude.<<

And again some combo deck have different requirements for draw 7 spells. Some prefere pure blue aproach (high tide + hearthbeat, where is double red uncastable), but other combos like dream halls and TPS(deck where red rituals takes place) can abuse it even when payed full mana for it.

I am not dream halls player or newly introduced TPS storm decks player, but some people will try and I would not wonder if they find use for this card.

I would not be too much critic about Reforege the Soul. It is still draw 7 card and it does not exile itself. So it is open to Snapcaster or Yawmoths will shenigans. Its reduced cost should not be underestimated, it is still just two mana. Playing it for full manacost is not that unreasonable too. There are some combos, that will not pay mana at all - like Dream halls.

Still I find this card sort of fitting into burn deck and even in fast agro deck playing red.

Birthing Pod is great loss for this deck. Secondly unbanned loam propably means, that people will be more concerned about opponents graveyards.

There are several quick thoughts that came across my mind. Why not abuse all the recently unbanned stuff and make it broken. I mean stick together Hulk engine, Hermit Druid, Burried allive, Dread Return?, Victimize, Necromancy, Animate Dead, Loam engine with Ravens Crime and maybee it would do well. I have not decklist yet, but I feel some real potential here.

Hi,
I did not tested mikaeus 2.0 yet, but synergistic aspect is so obvious, that there is no need to point out that more :-) The question is does it helps to the deck goal? Is it needed(ie not overkill like Terrastrodon)? Can we get him consistently do the game to gain advantage of him? I think if someone plays Grave titan, he can easily switch to Mikaeus. These are but just my impressions. I may be wrong.

Thrun can realy help against blue based decks since he can't be countered. Still I feel him like blank. This deck is either under severe pressure (then thrun is very medicorish) or we have enough tools to combo out. I realy dislike the moment, when I have to switch to beatdown plan, because hulk usually do not generate so much pressure and we have blanks for agro plan. So playing more creatures, that are good just for this plan and are completely useless for combo is something I try to avoid.

I have negative experience with planeswalkers here. Since there is not that many cards, that can protect PW effetively. And I surely do not want to chump just to save PW. Primal Hunter is sort of interesting because of the draw clause (pity, we dont have many beaters in deck, so it will draw like 2 at most without creating token first). In this matter it is quite slow. I think, Mikaeus would deserve slot more than Garruk. I want to try hermit first, since he offers defense/offense at the same time + comboes out with nightmare and reveillark very well.

Hi,
I would also post my accual decklist. I changed several cards, adapted some ideas from tabris. And I would like also comment Tiggupiru's decklist.

First I would like to point out, that in our comunity, there is no spoil mulligen. We still use old rule mulligen(nearly all player decline to accept new rule). So that is why my decklist has more lands then it is ussual here(35 instead of 33). You can feel free to cut two and recieve deck for new mulligen rule. This two lands stretch deck size little bit, but there is no harm done :-)

The plan of the play stayed the same, like i described in my last post. I still want more sick synergy then nice beatdown backup plan. Current decklist realy lack high cost spells, that go over 5 mana. Threre is just Hulk, Conscription and Sun titan (which is only one, that is supposed to get paid mana for). Significant difference is that deck lacks second green bomb (Terastrodon or Primeval). Terastrodon was kind of unwanted baby. One could catch control player with pants down T3/T4 smashing all theirs lands, but the same could do control to us with resolved Bribery. I lost too much games because of Bribery for Terastrodon, or it was just blank for me, that I can hardcast when it is too late plus Terrastrodon is saddly very medicore against agro. Casting terrastrodon T5-> has usually not great, since opponent can still operate with remaining lands.

Primeval titan is different story. Cheating him into play usually gets us more mana for next turn, but do we need that? Recent decklist realy lack utility lands(like bojuka, Karakas even Wasteland). So let't think, what can Primeval titan brings us? More mana? We could just tutor Hulk instead, and kill the guy. When we cut more uncastables, we can get more consistent draws and not sit with hands full of six mana spells when opponent is threating us with Winter orb or Armagedon.
Sun vs Grave Titan depends on other deck choices. Sun titan is more than solid if your deck supports it. I covered Yosei in my last post, I still dont like him. Last word on uncastables - with new Liliana we have the option to dump unwanted combopiece to graveyard and then reanimate it. In this matter I think, that playing Animate Dead is not optional. Less uncastables means less ramp spell or land search and thus some place for new good stuff.

I didn't tested bounce lands from Ravnica yet, but they are quite tricky. In the last turnament, I got tripple wasted and once vindicated, to stay on two lands ( + I faced fully loaded Opposition in one game). With the wasted land beeing karoo, I think I would lost the game at that moment. I still like utility lands, that are in the deck, are very solid and makes Knight of the Reliquary such a valuable creature to have. The best land in deck is no doubt Gaea's Cradle, with the flood of creatures this deck has, it makes commboing off so much easier.

I am testing now two new cards - Night's Whisper (which I abaronded very long time ago) and Harmonize. They performed extremely well and even after getting all my creatures killed, I was not doomed just for topdecking and could refill my hands with those draw spells. Night whisper compared to Phyrexian arena is something, like we get the cards NOW instead two turns from now. Arena is better in long run, but can be destroyed. So if you are happy casting Arena T2/T3, you should be happy casting Night's Whisper as well.

My current decklist:

// Lands
    1 [SH] Volrath's Stronghold
    1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
    1 [WWK] Khalni Garden
    1 [TE] Wasteland
    1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
    1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
    1 [LG] Karakas
    1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

    1 [A] Bayou
    1 [A] Scrubland
    1 [A] Savannah
    1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
    1 [GP] Godless Shrine
    1 [RAV] Temple Garden

    1 [ON] Windswept Heath
    1 [ON] Flooded Strand
    1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
    1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
    1 [ON] Polluted Delta
    1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
    1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
    1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
    1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs

    1 [EVE] Twilight Mire
    1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
    1 [TE] Reflecting Pool
    1 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
    1 [AN] City of Brass

    3 [IA] Snow-Covered Forest
    2 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
    1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains

// Acceleration
    1 [ISD] Avacyn's Pilgrim
    1 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
    1 [A] Llanowar Elves
    1 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
    1 [RAV] Elves of Deep Shadow
    1 [WWK] Arbor Elf
    1 [RAV] Birds of Paradise
    1 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
    1 [M11] Sylvan Ranger
    1 [MI] Wall of Roots

//Combo
    1 [DIS] Protean Hulk
    1 [UD] Academy Rector
    1 [MOR] Reveillark
    1 [TSP] Saffi Eriksdotter
    1 [UL] Karmic Guide
    1 [ROE] Eldrazi Conscription 

//Sac. outlets
    1 [M11] Viscera Seer
    1 [SC] Carrion Feeder
    1 [M11] Bloodthrone Vampire
    1 [US] Phyrexian Ghoul
    1 [RAV] Dimir House Guard

//Discard
    1 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
    1 [M10] Duress
    1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
    1 [AT] Hymn to Tourach
    1 [FNM] Tidehollow Sculler
    1 [NPH] Entomber Exarch

//Defense
    1 [SH] Wall of Blossoms
    1 [ROE] Wall of Omens
    1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
    1 [M11] Obstinate Baloth

//Removal
    1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
    1 [UL] Bone Shredder
    1 [SHM] Murderous Redcap
    1 [SOM] Skinrender
    1 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
    1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver
    1 [AT] Swords to Plowshares
    1 [AP] Vindicate
    1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
    1 [HOP] Oblivion Ring
    1 [ISD] Liliana of the Veil
    1 [PLC] Damnation
    1 [MBS] Go for the Throat

//Tutor
    1 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
    1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
    1 [UL] Crop Rotation
    1 [MI] Worldly Tutor
    1 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
    1 [PS] Diabolic Intent
    1 [R] Demonic Tutor
    1 [PS] Eladamri's Call
    1 [UD] Pattern of Rebirth
    1 [RAV] Chord of Calling
    1 [PT] Natural Order
    1 [LRW] Primal Command
    1 [NPH] Birthing Pod

//Graveyard shenanigan
    1 [FD] Eternal Witness
    1 [M11] Sun Titan
    1 [EX] Recurring Nightmare
    1 [A] Animate Dead
    1 [R] Regrowth

//Misc.
    1 [NPH] Phyrexian Metamorph
    1 [CMD] Scavenging Ooze

// Card advantage
    1 [AP] Phyrexian Arena
    1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
    1 [PLC] Harmonize
    1 [FD] Night's Whisper



Last words are salutes to Phyrexian Metamorph. When this was printed, almost everyone was crazy about this card and it apeared in all sorts of deck. I was very reserved to this, but in this deck, it just pure awesomeness. It solves so much issues this deck might have.
   * Bribery to Hulk? - thanks I copy that.
   * Saffy removed? It copies Karmic Guide as it comes, and comboes with Reveillark.
   * We run so many ETB effect creatures, that having another copy of almost any creature is nice option.
   * It greately improves comboing when we can't go infinite for some reason.
   
   
Tiggupiru: I like very much your idea with Deranged Hermit. Pure sickness :-)

I wish to everyone good games, especially with Hulk combo.

I vote also for UNBANNING LftL. I would propably vote for banning intuition from preventive reasons, even though I think, even with intuition it would be too slow to affect format, we have nowadays. Control on control yes, it would be quite good to assemble this, but there are some more unfair spells around, that should one be afraid of. For exaple compare impact of intuition for loam and some godness and Wheel of Fortune. I think, we have here double meter of grading what is too strong.

With LftL on format people might start be interested on what is in oponents graveyard. Now we have so many options to get rid of oposing GY cards, that are useful aside beeing just GY hate(or at least dont loose card to it). Nihil spellbomb, Loaming Shaman, Ground seal, Phyrexian Furnace, Relic of Progenitus, Shred Memory,...

It is not true, that loam is hard to deal even though graveyard is wiped (bc. of cyclelands). Just imagine, loosing whole grave and then starting playing loam for nothing and starting dredging while not knowing, what to mill (maybee one fetch?). Overal loosing grave with loam on hand turns it almost into blank. Yes, it can be great in some scenarios. But to be honest - would someone play pure bad (useless) cards, that aren't great in some scenarios?

LD is not even close to call it strategy (aside Armagedon style effects in agro or stax decks). People playing lots of standard LD will propably not loose due to Loam, but more likely to all sort of spells oponent can play. Loam can't hinder it more ;-)

On the other hand Loam could create or enable some sort of disruptive decks.

Fun is relative factor. While agroplayer would not jump on tree getting wrathed, control player would be propably not pleased to see oponent casting Winter Orb...

Hi,
I would like to do little consideration on how good might mana denial be in RG deck. Most of LD spells are usually realy bad topdecks lategame. Majority of tier one deck has realy low curve, that 2-3 lands are usually sufficient. LD spell destroys land that can be overabundant to oponent and not improve board possiton at the same time. I think, that deck that can possibly take advantage of LD spells are realy fast agros=many agresive 1cc and 2cc spells. Playing dudes first few turns and then start disrupting lands and deny oponent his own plan seems like a good idea. The problem here is stability of the deck in my eyes. One cannot afford to play something like 10 or more LD spells, because there is not so much good of them. Playing less of them means, that maybee you smash one maybee two for the game. This does not necessarily need to be enough. Fast dudes can be killed and even though you slow down your opponent, he will get enough time to recover and get to lategame where LD strategy would suck. The problem here is in deck stability and power level of LD cards, that is generally underwhelming (unles Armageddon, Ravages, Winter orb, B2B, Ruination).

LD as main strategy suffers even with more flaws. LD controls are vulnerable to few fast creatures that get under LD lock down, and many more. Usually deck has low power leves, lacks utility character,...

RG offers several creatures/spells, that are worse or better each in different way: Fulminator mage, A.Riders, Acidic Slime, Ravenous Baboons, Goblin Ruinblaster, Molten Rain, Pillage, ?Plow under. The main problem of these cards is that they come down late, that destroying one land to opponent does not need to mean end of game. There certainly will be games, where it will work, but I fear that there is too few of good LD, that this plan is completely unrealiable. Playing one or two might be good idea as tutor target for some pesky lands like maze.

I would better avoid those spells and would play cards, that are difficult for opponent o deal with or that brings advantage in the long run.

[Game plan]

Some time has passed since I posted my current version of hulk combo. I have spent several evenings improving the deck and hours testing it. Many nice thought were posted here in this forum. I would like to present my thoughts about this deck.

Game plan
All versions of deck that were posted here has hulk combo as a main win con. Some packed also Eldrazi Conscription to maximalise use of Academy Rector. Should there be alternative game plan or is combo alone enough?

I think, there should be backup plan, what the deck is trying to acomplish. This deck has lots of creatures, so it comes into mind, that beat down should be the next possibility. The problem is that the creature quality of creatures this deck want to play is not in P/T, but in what the creatures do - ETB effents, utility abilities. I can't imagine, that I would be able to race dedicated agro or midrange agro deck or various agro controls with the creatures that are in this deck. Problem is, that this deck needs lots of slots to make the combo even possible and most of these creatures are not supposed to clash swords in combat phase. Adding several creatures, that improve this agro plan would take essential slots for creatures, that enable the combo and mainly few creatures like Stoneforge, Thrun, Grave titan would not save us, when oponent can play those creatures too, and take more advantage of them. That is why I think, that however Stoneforge is phenomenal, it is not what this deck needs or even wants.    

This deck has(or at least can have) lot of creature control cards, some versions had more or less disruptive cards, but is not enought to call this plan. The deck cann't usually play rock style - trading one for one so long as the opponent is out of juice. We again run into comboparts, that are some sort of blanks for this plan.

So what should best suit this deck? I think, that it is recursion and card advantage made by most of creatures. This should exhaust opponent or cripple him enought to make comboing off possible. It is essential to make combo essential cards usable even without rest of combo.

In this perpective I would present my current decklist. It lacks some "autoincludes" that almost all deckbuilders included. I would discuss the card choices under the decklist.

// Lands
   1 [SH] Volrath's Stronghold
   1 [US] Phyrexian Tower
   1 [WWK] Khalni Garden
   1 [TE] Wasteland
   1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
   1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
   1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
   1 [LG] Karakas
   1 [US] Gaea's Cradle

   1 [A] Bayou
   1 [A] Scrubland
   1 [A] Savannah
   1 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
   1 [GP] Godless Shrine
   1 [RAV] Temple Garden
   1 [ON] Windswept Heath
   1 [ON] Flooded Strand
   1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
   1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
   1 [ON] Polluted Delta
   1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
   1 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
   1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
   1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs

   1 [EVE] Twilight Mire
   1 [EVE] Fetid Heath
   1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
   1 [TE] Reflecting Pool
   1 [FUT] Horizon Canopy

   3 [IA] Snow-Covered Forest
   2 [IA] Snow-Covered Swamp
   1 [IA] Snow-Covered Plains

// Mana - 12
   1 [ISD] Avacyn's Pilgrim
   1 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
   1 [A] Llanowar Elves
   1 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
   1 [RAV] Elves of Deep Shadow
   1 [WWK] Arbor Elf
   1 [RAV] Birds of Paradise
   1 [CHK] Sakura-Tribe Elder
   1 [M11] Sylvan Ranger
   1 [MI] Wall of Roots
   1 [ROE] Overgrown Battlement
   1 [TSP] Yavimaya Dryad


//Combo
   1 [DIS] Protean Hulk
   1 [UD] Academy Rector
   1 [MOR] Reveillark
   1 [TSP] Saffi Eriksdotter
   1 [UL] Karmic Guide
   1 [ROE] Eldrazi Conscription
   1 [WWK] Terastodon

//Sacc outlets - 5
   1 [M11] Viscera Seer
   1 [SC] Carrion Feeder
   1 [M11] Bloodthrone Vampire
   1 [US] Phyrexian Ghoul
   1 [RAV] Dimir House Guard

//Discard -7
   1 [FNM] Tidehollow Sculler
   1 [NPH] Entomber Exarch

   1 [ROE] Inquisition of Kozilek
   1 [M10] Duress
   1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
   1 [AT] Hymn to Tourach
   1 [AP] Gerrard's Verdict

//Defense
   1 [SH] Wall of Blossoms
   1 [ROE] Wall of Omens
   1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
   1 [M11] Obstinate Baloth

//Removal
   1 [LRW] Shriekmaw
   1 [UL] Bone Shredder
   1 [SHM] Murderous Redcap   
   1 [SOM] Skinrender

   1 [AT] Swords to Plowshares
   1 [NPH] Dismember
   1 [AP] Vindicate
   1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
   1 [HOP] Oblivion Ring
   1 [7E] Wrath of God   / Damnation is color-wiser

   1 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
   1 [TSP] Harmonic Sliver

// Tutors
   1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
   1 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary

   1 [UL] Crop Rotation
   1 [MI] Worldly Tutor
   1 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
   1 [PS] Diabolic Intent
   1 [R] Demonic Tutor
   1 [PS] Eladamri's Call
   1 [MOR] Idyllic Tutor
   1 [UD] Pattern of Rebirth
   1 [RAV] Chord of Calling
   1 [PT] Natural Order
   1 [LRW] Primal Command
   1 [NPH] Birthing Pod


//Graveyard shenigans 5+1(entomber)
   1 [EX] Recurring Nightmare
   1 [A] Animate Dead
   1 [FD] Eternal Witness
   1 [R] Regrowth
   1 [M11] Sun Titan

   1 [AP] Phyrexian Arena
   1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top


Deck has 103 cards. I still feel, there is room for one more anticontrol creature card. I would go with Graveborn Muse(deck has even some zombies in it)  / Acidic Slime (utilize Reveillark, Recuring Nightmare and Birthing Pod.

Cards i lack:
Yosei, the Morning Star - nice six drop, comboes only with Recuring nightmare, but one must pay 6 mana for it and then something can happen. Not synegistic enough.

Yavimaya Elder - Zenithable creature, that brings CA. Casting Elder means, that next turn nothing happens. It realy does not speed's up the deck. Yavimania dryad speeds up, leaves body for Natural order od Diabolic Intent.

Lotus Cobra - too fragile and one must have enough lands to make this not death card. I dont expect this ever to attack.

Fleshwrither - Too slow again. Can tutor only Rector. And "tutor" for rector that can be stopped by any removal is generally not that great.

Yawgmoth's Bargain - again, sort of uncastable until it might be too late. We should be enough sattisfied with Recuring Nightmare. Still I can imagine to run this enchantment instead of Conscription, but still i find Conscription better.

Tainted Pact - unreliable and one must fetch first combopart in the way.

Mesmeric Fiend - Sculler should be just enough.

Grim discovery - sort of mana intensive to get full advantage of it. It does not do much early game and later on we should do better than this.

Living Death - This deck is not reanimation. We can hardly get some uncastable creatures to grave to revive them this way. Its wrath factor for opponent is not that usable too. Not to die agains agro we must kill their dudes to slow them down, and I realy do not want to kill half their army just to see the second half come to life.

Ravenous Baloth : OK, it eats hulk and then? It sucks as lifegainer, sucks with recuring nightmare.

Garruk Wildspeaker: even when most of the deck are creatures, we do not usually want do chump with any of them to save him. He can be quite riddiculous against Winter Orb or with Cradle + makes our uncasteables little more castable, But it is 4cc that would not help most of the deck.


The main requirement for creatures to be put in deck is that they have some cool ETB effect + they work great with Recuring nightmare, Reveillark or Sun Titan. repeatable card advantage through creatures should break the neck to opponent.

Take a while and look at other decklist and inspect how many creatures are in these decklists, that realy matter for recursion? Also the Birthing Pod chain is not that great there. Not always one can go for Rector or Reveillark (that would do not much either).  

Honorable creatures mentions: I include just those, that are NOT commonly played
Harmonic Sliver, Bone shredder, Yavimania Dryad, Ravenous Redcap, Entomber exarch, (?Acidic Slime), Sun Titan, Animate Dead. Avoiding some not that great cards and with adding there one can get realy crazy interactions.

Birthing Pod can go wild with this package, so can Recuring nightmare or Reveillark...

Thank you for reading my comment. I hope you liked it. I am looking forward responses.

UNBAN SDT
Top gives litle chance of deck manipulation and card quality to nonblue decks. It can help with unlucky or bad draws after mulligen, when player needs to find land or fix colors. Definetelly not broken or overpowered.

UNBAN Gifts. Strong tutor, but nothing to go wild. I dissagree with the argument - easy to splash = autoinclude. Even if current lands provide almost perfect manabase for 3c, 4c or even 5c decks, splashing another color for two or such number of cards is not worth possible mana issues.