Raffine - Aggro Filter

[Vertierer]

If you're going to dump Sol Ring, you could dive into using Null Rod and Stony Silence?

[ISBPathfinder]

If you're going to dump Sol Ring, you could dive into using Null Rod and Stony Silence?

I think its valid to consider. It comes down to metas to some degree on how these sort of effects perform. There will be games where they are huge and others where they are things you just discard. I think its fine to have some situational cards like this since you can discard them but the important thing is figuring out how big of an impact they have on average to see what you should run. I think there are some other situational cards that could just as easily be run such as cheap spot removal, pithing needle, or even something that transforms a commander as disruption. I think there is a lot of room to run something situational but I think its also important to keep in mind that a lot of this doesn't fit the core concept of being a cheap creature to curve the commander into. I don't think its wrong to make room for this stuff but its also ultimately going to be a little bit more limited in nature.

Circling back to this deck and playtesting. I played something like 4-5 games with this deck over the last two days against a few different players. I think.... I won all of them and on average I would start killing players somewhere around turn 6/7. There were a few games where I came from behind with some interaction or extra turns to pull out a win where it looked like I was going to lose but ultimately I am fairly happy with where things are right now. I have found that I generally end up going for voltron with this deck where as I wasn't sure if I wasn't going to pump more other creatures which there were a few times where it made a lot of sense to pump something else early like Esper Sentinel.

Some of the very broad strokes to where I want some of my change is that a lot of my 3+ cmc effects that weren't removal felt a little so so. Shadowgrange Archfiend, Archfiend of Ifnir, and Austere Command were absolutely amazing and every time I saw them they did some serious work sometimes winning me the game on the spot. The extra turns are absolutely backbreaking but due to how bad it feels to have someone multi chain extra turns I am going to refuse to go up beyond having two. Most of the madness cards were really good in the odd card advantage of discarding them but still getting their effect but I did have some issues with Big Game Hunter due to pumping my own creatures and constantly not having opposing targets to use it on.

I did encounter opposing Dauthi Voidwalker and Smothering Tithe and both cards created a very challenging dynamic for this deck to play through. I ended up having to counter a counter and then eat the Dauthi using one of our discarded counters to break through as I threatened to Archfiend of Ifnir his board but forcing him to do that allowed me to discard several incarnations and create a much better board even at the cost of the Archfiend. Smothering Tithe is a tough cookie for a low answer tempo deck like this but it is what it is.

I don't have things figured out yet but I will identify some cards that felt a bit odd to me as well as some things I am thinking about.

Concerned About:

• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Some of my concern is that a lot of my stuff is cheap and I saw some taxing on my own plays. I also think its sort of important as to when you get her as off curve she probably only really affects decks that spam hard. I had a mixed bag on its effect even on curve and she was slowing me down a lot in some situations.
• Baleful Strix - Thinking about it more, its more of a defensive card and while the cantrip is nice, I don't know that it really fits what I need in my two drops. My concern is more so that I am not really willing to leave it back on defense most of the time as this deck tends to attack a lot with everything so on attack strix is.... ehh.
• Big Game Hunter - Not willing to cut it yet but I had a hard time finding targets for it. It's ETB is a must so I had to throw it away rather than pay the madness card several times.
• Prized Amalgam - I think I could use a little more recursion if I am going to keep him. Not convinced to go either way yet as I think its a sweet card and I want it to work but I am still not sold on it where the list is now.
• Glen Elendra Archmage - Its just a bit slow. I don't really want to pay four mana for most things and you have to keep mana up when playing it so its really more of a 5-6 drop and I think its too slow even with the fun that adding counters to it later could be to negate the persist.
• Hero of Bladehold - Its too slow. I was really not impressed.
• Abiding Grace - It felt slow to me. Three mana is a lot to pay for things and it needs a bit of a setup.
• Aura of Silence - Three drops turn into four drops with my commander and it just hasn't been what I want.
• Rhystic Study - Similarly my issue with three drops. Its a good card I just have a hard time casting it.
• Visions of Beyond - I saw it a few times and just wasn't impressed. I think I likely will cut it for now and reassess later if I think it might fit later.
• Teferi's Protection - Keeping the mana up just doesn't look like it is going to be possible with how proactive this deck wants to play.

In Consideration:

• Containment Construct - This sounds really promising. I think its a very good source of card advantage and it fits the idea of cheap creatures so all in all it hits a lot of boxes for me.
• Kitchen Imp - The madness cost is low which is my aim and it still has evasion. I am not over the moon about it but the madness cards so far have been showing good results.
• Frantic Purification - Its cheap interaction and it plays well with my commander.
• Strict Proctor - I have had so many opponents playing landfall.deck lately that I have been kind of keen on hating on that more. It fits the type of creatures mana cost and evasion I want so I likely pull the trigger here and see how it goes.
• Null Rod - Its strong but its also a noncreature.
• Stony Silence - strong but noncreature and 3cmc so... a little more questionable.
• Reconnaissance - I felt like I could use just a tad more evasion. I really like the incantations but if someone runs grave hate I might be stuck with no evasion so I thought rather than adding more grave tutoring something else might be useful.
• Thousand-Faced Shadow - It can be played on turn 1 but its ninjutsu is also kind of appealing if drawn later.
• Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia - I like the upfront bodies for the mana.
• Tithe Taker - its a little bit of stickyness and a little bit of post sweeper board presence.
• Hanweir Militia Captain - The backside of this card seems good but the front is a little lacking. I am not really sure.
• Precinct Captain - I like the token gen but it gens them at kind of the wrong time and the WW casting cost is rough.
• Imperial Seal - I own one and a few key pieces of interaction have really stood out for me. I can first main tutor and then push into drawing it quickly which is appealing.
• Swords to Plowshares - Just solid cheap interaction.
• Pithing Needle - When its good it can be huge.
• Aphemia, the Cacophony - I like its trigger to make tokens but am concerned about how narrow and few enchantments I am probably going to be running.
• Lazotep Chancellor - The fact that amass keeps piling onto the same body is... a bit so so but I think being a two drop that can make another body is still not bad.
• Lunarch Veteran - Its a one drop with a reasonable disturb for later. I think it makes it appealing both on turn 1 as well as later as I can discard and disturb it.
• Damping Sphere - I like that the tax escalates as well as hitting creatures for decks that spam stuff. It probably would punish me a little as doing two things in a turn is fairly common but I don't often have 3+ things to do in a turn so its a good hate effect its just not on a creature.
• Rabble Rousing - Its really expensive to cast but its effect is so strong. I guess my concern is that it plays into sweepers while not really providing immediate attackers to buff and attack in with. Still the hideaway function and the token gen are both very appealing.

I will work on figuring out some swaps later and organize deck changes. I just felt like for now I would get a post outlining some things I am looking at and thinking about.

[Artemis132]

I really like the direction your deck is going. I'm brewing with Raffine myself and try to keep my curve low, but I feel more and more tempted to include a reanimation Package with board-controlling targets like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Toxrill, the Corrosive and reanimation cards like the new Priest of Fell Rites as well as Dread Return. Small Creatures I also really liked in testing were Judge's Familiar and the new Hopeful Initiate, with the latter growing quick through connive and giving you additional use for your counters.

[ISBPathfinder]

I really like the direction your deck is going. I'm brewing with Raffine myself and try to keep my curve low, but I feel more and more tempted to include a reanimation Package with board-controlling targets like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Toxrill, the Corrosive and reanimation cards like the new Priest of Fell Rites as well as Dread Return. Small Creatures I also really liked in testing were Judge's Familiar and the new Hopeful Initiate, with the latter growing quick through connive and giving you additional use for your counters.

I think my biggest concern about a reanimator version comes from a wrong half kind of issue. The point in doing most of these big reanimation things is to cheat them in well ahead of the curve but you will need enough density of big spooky creatures and rez targets to be able to do it early. But you also probably want to be attacking with multiple creatures still too so you have two very different concepts (attacking with lots of creatures and big creatures to rez / rez effects) and you need to get them in reasonable quantities at the right time. I am not saying it won't work but it might have what some call "the wrong half" kind of an issue where you will get opening hands without little creatures to help set up or you don't get something to rez and the rez effect soon enough to make that part impressive. I think the rez version seems to me (I haven't built a list) like it would have more moving parts and with that I think less consistency.

I would be interested to hear more about it though if you or anyone else is building that direction and gets play time with it. I get the appeal for sure I just think that getting the right thing to rez and setting up and executing it soon enough to be more impressive than just being a ramp deck seems hard.

Hopeful Initiate - Hummm I overlooked that one. Three mana still feels like a lot for the activation though. Maybe I will pick one up and see how it goes.

---

DECK CHANGES:

• Baleful Strix → Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia I think this should change me to something a little more aggressive in nature. I like how Jadar makes his token the turn he comes in which sets me up to have two attackers the next turn (assuming someone is open or I have evasion). Baleful Strix is more defensive in nature and while it does draw me a card on ETB I don't value it much as an attacker beyond just being a flying deathtoucher.
• Hushbringer → Strict Proctor I wanted to put more pressure on some landfall decks that happen to be popular in my meta. Proctor's hate effect is probably a little weaker as a whole but it does hit on landfall triggers which have been absolutely all over the place for me lately. I did not see Hushbringer in any of my testing so I don't really have any additional comments on it but landfall has been a problem.
• Glen Elendra Archmage → Thousand-Faced Shadow Glen Elendra is just a bit too slow for what I want to be doing. I can't really play it before I have 5 mana up and in several cases the point of it would be to defend from things that cheaper cards already in my list might be able to help against. I like how the ninja can be played on one mana just as a flying evasive which will be the plan if I opening hand it but if I see it later I can also have the option to do some cloning stuff. The downside of the ninja is I can't ninjutsu until after blocks are declared which is after my commander's trigger resolves so I don't increase my attackers for my commander's ability but I think the versatility is still good.
• Hero of Bladehold → Hopeful Initiate Hero is just too slow. It costs a lot and doesn't do anything until the turn after which just doesn't feel fast enough for me. Hopeful Initiate is kind of expensive to activate but I like having more interaction options and it fits the low curve nature well. The training on Hopeful is also probably not irrelevant with this commander's ability.
• Aura of Silence → Frantic Purification Just swapping out some interaction. I was having a hard time with the fact that you really should play aura on curve with the fact that my commander is my priority play. I just found myself prioritizing cheaper and proactive plays over playing Aura outside of needing right then removal. I am hoping that the cheap one mana removal madness option of Frantic aleviates some of my issue while keeping some interaction in.
• Rhystic Study → Containment Construct Swapping some noncreature card advantage that hits poorly on curve into some creature based card advantage that fits the curve better.
• Visions of Beyond → Reconnaissance Visions is cool when you draw three but my card advantage seems ok so far without it. I ended up just discarding it a few times because it does take a while before the draw three is active. I also need a tad more evasion it felt like and I like how Recon is cheap and not graveyard reliant.
• Teferi's Protection → Imperial Seal Tef's Protection is just too expensive to keep the mana up for a deck like this. I need my responses to be cheap or free if they need to be held up like this. I am going to try adding another tutor and I like how it functions with my commander to quickly get something into my hands which can be useful for a madness tutor or some sort of entomb like effect if I need it but I can also load Austere Command for post combat main. We will see how it goes.
• Sol Ring → Mox Amber I did some simulated hands with sol ring and it just didn't feel like it made my start better. I am not necessarily sold on Mox Amber but I like that it gives me more colored mana at no mana cost to set it up.
• Dowsing Dagger → Mana Crypt I think Crypt has some of the same issues as Sol Ring but it does offer to play some T2 plays on T1 and with that I think its good enough to give one a shot. Lots of these early mana artifacts can still be looted away when drawn later if I don't need them but having them in the deck offers for some faster opening hands.
• Mana Drain → Stubborn Denial I didn't like the UU cost for Mana Drain and the colorless mana it provides can be hard to use. It felt better to lower the curve on my counter and I think Stubborn quickly becomes one mana Negate with how the commander pumps.
• Raffine's Tower → Vault of Champions Trying to remove some of the ETB tapped / colorless lands of the deck as they can throw a wrench into my start with an aggressive deck like this I need my lands to enter untapped and provide the correct colors.
• Drownyard Temple → Morphic Pool Trying to remove some of the ETB tapped / colorless lands of the deck as they can throw a wrench into my start with an aggressive deck like this I need my lands to enter untapped and provide the correct colors.
• Crypt of Agadeem → Sea of Clouds Trying to remove some of the ETB tapped / colorless lands of the deck as they can throw a wrench into my start with an aggressive deck like this I need my lands to enter untapped and provide the correct colors.

It is likely that I won't be able to get much more testing in until the set releases. Next weekend will be pre release rather than commander. I might put in an order for the cards I am missing from the above changes and separately my pre order for the card to get the changes to come sooner rather than later.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok, I didn't get to play this list anymore this last week since last time but I got some more cards in the mail and wanted to really sit down and look at things a bit more while I had some time. I think there is room to clean up a little bit of my graveyard hate and trim a few of my three cmc plays for things I think play better after my commander.

DECK CHANGES:

• Walking Ballista → Ruthless Sniper I wanted to move off of more of the creatures that seemed kind of weak without pushing them with a bunch of counters with my commander. I didn't see ballista but I don't think I was going to be happy with it either. It has to be played as a two drop at least, it can't be rezed to play, and it needs a bunch of counters to make it... ok. I like moving to another one drop and I think the Sniper's removal option is reasonable
• Thousand-Faced Shadow → Esior, Wardwing Familiar I was thinking a bit more on the shadow and while its ok as a one drop I wasn't really excited about it as either the one drop mode or the four drop mode. The Ninjutsu is after my commander's trigger goes off and I can't increase the number of my attackers in time and most of my creatures aren't so amazing that paying four mana for a 1/1 for 1 flyer and copying another creature being good enough. Esior seems like it adds to the ward of my commander well and just sort of solidifies my board while adding another two drop flyer to the board.
• Dauthi Voidwalker → Dogged Detective let me start by saying I thought the voidwalker was fine and its grave hate effect plus evasive body really were good. That all said, I had a very large issue with opponents having played one that I didn't really anticipate being as bad as it was. I am a big advocate of not running cards that hose you over when they get copied or stolen so I am going to cut it. Dogged Detective seems sort of like Squee, Goblin Nabob in black which seems cool. I want to run it and just see if I can discard it every turn and turn him into card advantage with no mana spent. Bringing the detective in also increases the potential Entomb / Buried Alive targets which is cool.
• Remorseful Cleric → Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive I am moving fast enough I don't think I really need to lean back into having the grave hate that I have. Graveyard abuse tends to be more of an issue as games go longer. I haven't seen many games with this deck yet but a lot of them seem to be everyone racing as fast as they can on me which is more of an issue with my meta than anything but I think for an aggro deck its fine to not worry too much about graveyards.
• Chasm Skulker → Stormscape Familiar Skulker seems.... ok but I wanted to lower my curve more. I don't think that Skulker is the anti wrath tool I really want to lean. The Familiar giving cost reduction and a two drop flyer seems like something to test.
• Lurrus of the Dream-Den → Call of the Death-Dweller I didn't actually see Lurrus in my games but he is a bit of a more expensive play. Moving this to call gives me a similar result for the turn but at a slightly cheaper mana cost. It doesn't offer the over time plays but I want to see how these sorceries work. Worst case I can revert later but I was valuing a slightly cheaper play here.
• Abiding Grace → Patch Up Abiding Grace felt REALLY expensive for getting a one drop per turn back. I felt like moving to getting more value upfront back rather than value over time would make me happier.

I wanted to watch out with pushing my graveyard reliance too high as several of the new adds play with my graveyard. I made sure to cut a few of my own graveyard cards to offset this.

---

I ended up going through EVERY one and two mana creature in the colors which took, a long while. I created a list and trimmed it back to things I was thinking about or thought could fit in here and figured I would share that for anyone building a list for this commander. I figured I would include it in a spoiler as it didn't seem like it was super important but it took me a while to do this today (like.... 4-5 hours) and just wanted to maintain the list for anyone else interested in seeing some things I was looking at but decided against including now.

One and Two CMC creatures

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Not looking for only pure evasion. By this I mean more that I don't value Tormented Soul much.
Not looking for tap activated abilities (unless they have vigilance). Tapping for abilities like Mother of Runes require me to not attack with them.
Not looking for pure size / stats. I generally want some sort of utility or value beyond just being big.
Deathtouch loses a lot of value when attacking rather than defending.

- - - One CMC Creatures - - -

• Alseid of Life's Bounty Costing mana to provide the protection has been a big reason I haven't been too keen on running it. There are some two mana creatures with sac protections I might resort to first just so I don't have to keep mana up turn after turn.
• Cursecatcher - Judge's Familiar is probably superior unless you have an on tribe reason to run fish.
• Dauntless Bodyguard - Its unfortunate that he needs to enter after the thing you want to protect but he is still alright.
• Deftblade Elite - This is cool as potential interaction / removal but keep in mind that some of the evasion isn't optional so if you gain swampwalk / flying it will make it harder to use this. Beyond that you also have to devote some counters to him for him to kill something in combat most of the time and you can still be multi blocked.
• Judge's Familiar - It has evasion and its disruption against disruption. It depends a little on how many sweepers / spot removal get run in your meta because in my mind this seems ok at stalling wraths to be an extra turn out but I don't love this effect as a whole. It does work alright with the ward mechanic of the commander but if someone really wants to spot remove the commander I would rather have protection or indestructible generally.
• Kytheon, Hero of Akros - I think the flip side is interesting but flipping him would drop the attacker count or force to animate him which is some of my challenge. I think the untap + indestructible mode of his walker side is decent though for keeping board presence through a sweeper and you can also shift to animating post sweeper. I go back and forth.
• Lunarch Veteran - it can be played one one or if drawn later thrown away and played for disturb. The problem is I don't really care about what it does otherwise.
• Ollenbock Escort More protection options on one drops might be worth investing in. Personally I prefer protection over indestructible just based on what I see in my meta but there are a lot of really good sweepers that ignore indestructible.
• Ruthless Sniper Interesting removal option. I think I like that even though its expensive on the mana as its very flexible and it fits the curve well.
• Signal Pest - If you have a swarm of creatures to make an anthem good you were probably winning with or without this.
• Topplegeist - I like the potential blocking tempo he offers in removing attackers / blockers. Setting up Delirium seems very doable in this list.
• Vigilant Martyr - Regen is kind of weak these days as a preventative means.
• Viscera Seer - Its a good cheap sac outlet. It isn't what I am currently doing with my list but reasonable.

- - - Two CMC Creatures - - -

• Aven Courier - Its just kind of slow and more intended to pass around counters that aren't just +1/+1.
• Baleful Strix - I ran it for a bit but wasn't impressed with a cantrip flyer. Its a lot better on defense than attacking.
• Bounty Agent - It can attack and also threaten to disrupt an opposing commander. He does seem to have some tempo.
• Cliffside Rescuer - I like that it can remove auras that turn creatures into non-creatures like Imprison in the Moon after they resolve.
• Dennick, Pious Apprentice - the front side protection for graveyards could be fine and the backside could also provide some card advantage. My issue is mostly that both sides seem sort of conditional and slow for this list.
• Dimir Infiltrator - an unblockable on curve or a tutor later. My issue is mostly that outside of tutoring Cyclonic Rift I didn't feel like there were a ton of two drops I would be tutoring for. I feel like a lot of what I want to tutor for is more expensive answers or things I plan to discard (but still more expensive than two mana).
• Disciple of Deceit - Ok, this might be a tad slow since you would play it, wait a turn, attack, wait a turn, untap and do the tutor. That said, it does kind of seem like it plays to what this deck wants to do being a two drop creature in a deck with added evasion.
• Dogged Detective - Is it just me or does this card resemble Squee, Goblin Nabob? I feel like I could just throw it out every turn as some weird card advantage engine that doesn't really cost me much. Its even a two drop if I need one on curve. I feel like there aren't a ton of turns where I don't expect one of my opponents to draw some cards after things get going.
• Drannith Magistrate - It fits the curve and could be good as a tempo disruption but I am also a big advocate of not running cards in your deck you can't deal with yourself. Someone stealing or cloning this could be a big problem even if I curve play it.
• Esior, Wardwing Familiar - The extra tax for commander targeting with this seems really strong. In some ways its sort of like having a protection card I don't have to spend. It also being a two drop flyer is really nice for what this deck does.
• Felidar Cub - There are like four versions of this but I am just not that excited to run them.
• Ghostly Pilferer - I think its an ok effect I just am not really excited to spend my mana casting it. It likely will draw some cards from opponents playing commanders but that is assuming you draw it early.
• Grand Abolisher - I think he is better at protecting combo personally. He is ok but something that does sac protection is probably better unless you see a LOT of counter magic.
• Hero of Precinct One - It curves well with the commander but probably falls off if found later.
• Hushbringer - I just feel like this deck runs a little fast for me to be too worried about ETB / Leaves play value.
• Kataki, War's Wage - Its a good hatebear effect it just depends on how many mana stones / artificer decks you play against. It does help counter treasure / clue concepts fairly well though.
• Lazotep Chancellor - The way amass works just doesn't play well towards this deck's goals. I wouldn't really want to power up some huge zombie in most cases but I guess if you have evasion on someone and need to push for pure damage it could have some interesting turns of pushing out 10+ power onto the zombie pile.
• Lion Sash - This deck feels a little fast for me to be too worried about graveyard concepts as it stands. I am more concerned with control, ramp, and combo.
• Nether Shadow - I like the idea of this card just think its slow. Its probably turns 5/6 at the earliest before you can achieve this. Where I think this card shines is if you plan to get blown the hell up a bunch of times and need to go long. I don't feel like I play against enough control for me to really make a move on this card but I do think it plays well towards a longer run game vs control.
• Nether Traitor - I don't like its trigger objective of something dying. The fact that it also costs mana on the death while having a vanilla combat body isn't great.
• Phantasmal Image - This is a great card, that said I think this isn't the type of deck you want to play it in. You generally want to be cloning big value creatures and not playing this on curve. I think this deck is a terrible fit for this but wanted to say as much because this is a good card.
• Phyrexian Revoker - It gives the pithing needle effect but also fits a creature in on the curve. I think its fine and it probably gets a small nod staying with a creature but I think it also depends a little on how many activated ability commanders you play against. It can still be looted away if its not relevant so I think its a good card to consider I just feel like I am going a bit fast for me to be too worried about activated abilities of commanders in this deck.
• Precinct Captain - A little token gen. I think WW on curve can be tough though and its somewhat slow to make tokens given how its trigger works.
• Reassembling Skeleton - I don't like the body or the mana cost to recur on this at all but looting it away then bringing it back is alright.
• Sage of Hours - Personally, I find this mostly annoying rather than good and how the commander works you need to be attacking with it with several other creatures to put the counters on it to take the turns. I think its bad and slow and you will have to protect the hell out of it. I don't plan to play it even if I thought it was good but I kind of think its just bad.
• Scheming Fence - I guess its another take on Phyrexian Revoker but colored. I think its fine but most of my thoughts on revoker transfer to this as well.
• Selfless Samurai - The sacrifice for indestructible is fine. It doesn't blow me away but its fine.
• Spellskite - It seems like alright protection. It sucks at attacking though.
• Spiketail Hatchling - More tempo disruption. I like that it flies and it can be used against any type of spell which is nice but this sort of thing is only good for buying a little time which I am not usually thrilled to run a lot of.
• Standard Bearer - Its funny forcing opponents to target it especially if they are running buff / flicker sort of stuff and are forced to throw that stuff to it instead of their own creatures. It does run the downside of not being optional so if opponent A wants to kill opponent B's card this card might force them to interact with your card rather than the other player.
• Stormscape Familiar - Hummm flying cost reduction that fits the curve. That seems good.
• Sungold Sentinel - Its a little weak as far as grave hate but it does run on auto pilot and functions while attacking.
• Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive - I cut it originally to push harder on some of the graveyard evasion stuff but then I needed a bit more evasion and forgot about this lol. I probably should bring it back in for some testing.
• Timestream Navigator - The extra turn function of it does seem good but I don't really want to push more turns on opponents. Its also kind of weak as a two drop until you cash in that extra turn. It might be something to run for those on a budget that want some turns though.
• War Priest of Thune - ehhh its ok probably not something I need right now.
• Warkite Marauder - I like that it can blank a block on attacking while also having evasion itself. Its probably weaker than just having some sort of mass evasion though.

[Tevesh]

While not as good as Teferi's Protection as a catch all, Reverent Mantra can save your board without costing anything. I can also confirm that Swan Song is a trap for your styled deck; my low-to-the-ground Marchesa frequently stuttered by giving an opponent a versatile blocker. I replaced it with a free Counter of some kind. In your case, you might be able to abuse Subtlety especially with the amount of recursion you have to get it back into your hand. There's also its' cousin Solitude for free, repeated removal.

[ISBPathfinder]

While not as good as Teferi's Protection as a catch all, Reverent Mantra can save your board without costing anything. I can also confirm that Swan Song is a trap for your styled deck; my low-to-the-ground Marchesa frequently stuttered by giving an opponent a versatile blocker. I replaced it with a free Counter of some kind. In your case, you might be able to abuse Subtlety especially with the amount of recursion you have to get it back into your hand. There's also its' cousin Solitude for free, repeated removal.

Mass protection is kind of weird as generally the reason you need mass protection is to blank blockers and push damage. It can also protect from some sweepers but they are mostly sweepers that are less frequently played in this format (being primarily red and a few niche other ones). I think that while protection, hexproof, and indestructible all have times that they can and will work, I think that they are still overcome by a lot of the good sweepers in the format. In my own meta at least I would break down the most common sweepers to generally be:

1) Cyclonic Rift
2) Toxic Deluge
3) Austere Command

I am not saying that this translates to nationally but the first two have almost zero responses (Phasing works) that will function to stop them from scraping you off the board. If you want to stop a sweeper from taking you out, the most reliable way to do that is start with counterspells because there are a lot of ways in which sweepers can hit you and a lot of them these days might not be able to be stopped with a lot of these effects. If you look at some recent new cards we just saw we also have Farewell and By Invitation Only which also blow most every preventative measure out of the water.

My point here is primarily that if you want to not get blown out by a sweeper, its generally in my opinion better to rely on counter magic first and foremost because its a lot more flexible and less situational. After that, I think its also possible to look at faster recovery rather than stopping it from happening in the first place. I have a lot of strange protection in my creatures because my attacker count matters so much that I pushed a lot of my protection means to my creature base rather than relying on instant reactions. My hope with this was mostly to make it harder to disrupt me while I get to proactively push forward. It means I get to spend most of my mana each turn, progress my gameplan, and make it harder to disrupt my proactive play. My own meta isn't heavy with control decks so in my meta you generally have to race proactive decks more with a sprinkle of spot interaction to them. Decks that draw heavy and ramp heavy with some spot removal to them are more common with what I play against. I built my own list to combat that primarily so my wrath response is a bit lower but if I expected a higher wrath gameplan in my meta I would include more recovery plan to my deck.

Swan Song - I haven't seen it much yet but I also have a lot of evasion outside of just creatures with flying. Its possible I could also run An Offer You Can't Refuse, Flusterstorm, Pact of Negation, Miscast, or Spell Pierce. In general I am trying to have a little bit of cheap counter magic for things that are going to put me way behind like a sweeper or for something someone is using to try to push for a win.

[Arebennian]

If you don't plan on casting Dogged Detective too often, then you might want look at Master of Death.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok, small updates I haven't gotten to play this deck lately unfortunately but I did manage to finally get all the cards in the mail that I had been waiting for. I ordered a bunch of the maybe things we have been looking at too because I was tired of needing to wait 1-2 weeks on crap in the mail (holy hell its been slow for me lately). I have been impressed with the card advantage of this deck so far to the point I am going to look at and consider cutting some of the things that are just draw and see how the deck runs. These changes will increase the number of auto recurring to hand cards to two and I also have two entomb effects in deck so I think I want to see how they play. It does put some awkwardness on if someone keeps some sort of recurring grave hate or something that continues to exile everything I throw away like a Rest in Peace effect but I think I would rather shift and have a small bit more interaction to disable that sort of stuff if possible.

DECK CHANGE:

• Teferi's Ageless Insight → Master of Death Its a small change but it takes me from needing to pay 4 mana for something that enables to just something that can be discarded for value. Its not as much value but not taking the mana to do this is kind of a big change. I think it also plays well to

Some things I am watching with some concerns:

• Haazda Marshal - it lacks evasion and my main concern is that if I find it off curve its probably going to be a fairly underwhelming one drop but the upside of this deck I can probably just filter it out if I draw it later. I really need to see it in action and just see how things go.
• Speaker of the Heavens - My concern is that I don't really want to put counters on him and my lifegain for this deck isn't very high. I think its quite likely that I consider cutting or do cut him moving forward. I do think my one drop count is important but the work it takes to make him work is kind of bad.
• Dark Confidant - I thought I would need more card draw in this deck. I have found my sustain to be fairly good but my curve also works really well with him and he also fits being a low cost creature that fits the curve before my commander. I probably will keep him in until I can at least see him.
• Obsessive Search - Its just a small synergy card advantage play. Its sort of like getting to play a half cost Chart a Course but I don't know that is really what I need. I want to see the deck played a bit more but in general I think I would rather have Call to the Netherworld in that the search costs me a mana but I think its still fairly close.
• Deep Analysis - I just need some more testing with this deck to see how it does on maintaining cards. If I end up with really good card advantage then I might need less of my small incremental advantage flashback / madness stuff I just need to test more.

I think the speed of the deck is really good if anything I probably want to see if I can't find some more on theme control effects moving forward but I also need to do more testing of the deck to figure out how everything is standing especially with all of the changes I have been through since my last test games. So far I haven't encountered a ton of control but I have seen a few cards that make it hard to function that some interaction would be nice against.