I floated the list and my recent musings by Ebline, who encouraged both the curve trimming and triome removal. I floated the list and my recent musings by pokken, who reminded me
Song of Freyalise exists. Onward!
The mana base swaps see me get rid of the triomes, and use the opened up slots for
{R/W} and
{R/G} duals plus three shocks matching the Bant core. At this point the only absent dual is
{B/R} as those are my least used colours. The decrease in tapped lands has made operations smoother, going along well with the curve trimming.
Catapult Master is the perfect storm of expensive to cast and activate along with unpleasant to play against. I used the ability all of once, in a game where I still got rolled over. It's only going to accomplish anything in winmore scenarios, and I can't see myself burning a Rukarumel on Soldier for this. Along similar grounds,
Nullmage Shepherd costs a bunch to get out and is likely to sit around unused. The ability is less prohibitive to activate, but would likely get miserable quickly if I chose to make proper use of it.
Relic of Legends is a piece of ramp that costs three and isn't quite as slam dunk as
Wand of the Worldsoul. There are about ten legends in the 99, but a lot of them are near the pricier side, so this is not likely to have a crazy impact in early sequencing. Meanwhile early sequencing is important and actively pursued, the board wants to populate quickly with meeple and something to do with them.
Scaretiller is super cute if the stars align for him, but he costs a lot and is quite slow. He's more at home in Keskit+Toggo, in no small part because of
Unwinding Clock shenanigans. I could never get excited by
Surgespanner, the deployment cost coupled with the need for extra mana for the bounce just didn't gel well in sequencing. I think I played him all of once and bounced my
Fallowsage to draw extra cards in a weird, flooded out game state without anything else going on.
Transcendent Message is a very efficient refuel, but a one-shot one that only comes online at a time when I'm all set up. Me cutting this card on those grounds may sound ridiculous given the game enders I run in Daxos, but there the game enders end the game. Here I just draw some number and hope for the best, and often don't even land what I'm after. It may come back, it is in line with the deck's convoke sub-theme and is pretty good when the stars align.
Changeling Outcast and
Universal Automaton are the forecast one-drop Changeling glue. It may not seem that exciting, but it works. Sometimes
Magda appears. Sometimes a more efficient draw sink appears once Rukarumel is committed and they allow squeaking in a couple extra cards. Even a fail case of a one-drop body is honestly pretty decent. The similarly forecast
Pili-Pala has predictably not reached the same heights as
Puresight Merrow, but still offers some degree of flexibility in the untap.
Pain Seer, henceforth known as
Terribob, got skipped from the list for inexplicable reasons at the time of construction. I guess I felt I have enough draw and didn't want to risk the Bob whammy? Given the fact I would actually appreciate more card advantage, particularly some that comes online early, this is a good fit and I've been happy to see it in games.
Paradise Mantle is unexciting but rather operational. Stick it on a random token that fell out of somewhere and won't get Rukarumel typed, congratulations on the extra mana dork. Move it around the entire tappable board to tap it for profit. Stick it on a self-untap guy for similar value/combo applications as
Cryptolith Rite would grant.
Song of Freyalise is a great catch on pokken's end, two turns of Cryptolith Rite may not be quite as awesome as full-time access but it's something! I tend to disregard sagas in deck construction, similar to planeswalkers. I think this is the first one that I'll actually have in paper? Oh yeah, the deck's odds of papering out are pretty good, it plays very fun and the group doesn't seem to mind it. Plus it's honestly nice to have a deck that doesn't crutch on the commander. Previously my most commander-independent deck was Saryth, and there the commander offers a plethora of various things that have synergies across the 99. Here Rukarumel pretty much just enables draw abilities, and this is handled better by a handful of cards in the 99 anyway.
Some more high-cost stuff is on the watchlist.
King Macar, the Gold-Cursed is powerful, but offers a similar mix of slow, expensive and unpleasant as what got a few other cards offed. Link him up with
Aura of Dominion and nobody else has creatures, which is a bit strong for this deck.
Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor offers a very nice degree of sifting, but somehow just doesn't feel that exciting. It's like a stop-gap before the actual draw hits, which may be me approaching this card wrong - after all, pure girth off of Transcendent Message wasn't enough to keep that in. I may need to try to use the ability more to get what I actually want before committing multiple meeple to a draw. Speaking of that actually,
The Archimandrite is the least exciting of the card abilities as it costs three meeple to draw and five mana to deploy. There is technically pump if things get going, which might help with pressuring the most pressure-worthy opponents. Again, maybe I need to actually try to make use of what the card offers rather than just taking what I am expecting. I'm ambivalent about
Torens, Fist of the Angels. I'm always happy to cast him and gunk up the board with extra chumps, but he does cost three for this benefit. I had
Inga and Esika on the list, as it feels like the worst of the Cryptolith Rite variants, but I then actually drew them in a game again after a while and they did serious work. The deck is quite creature heavy, so the limitation is not even that much of a limitation, and being able to get some extra cantrips in is good. The reduced curve is a double-edged sword - on one hand more meeple to produce mana, on the other fewer meeple that will cantrip once cast.
Arbiter of the Ideal is slow and expensive, but I freaking adore that card and sticking Aura of Dominion on it feels amazing. In terms of things I'm considering, there are cheap swarm options, which all have their drawbacks.
Bitterblossom is the worst permanent type for the deck,
Loyal Apprentice doesn't gel well with a five-drop commander that is not even guaranteed to come out on curve, and
Flamewright is a strange
Selesnya Evangel side-grade. I'm out of Changeling glue at one, but is
Unsettled Mariner worth a slot? Maybe I could add a little ETB utility, as it will leave behind meeple that can tap into things? Have them bring a little interaction to make up for the fact I just offed most of mine? The Recruiters would be really nice here on similar grounds.
As has become tradition, gameplay observations at the end. As has become tradition, more understanding of Magda's pure bustedness in the shell, this time I think all the way to the end. Namely there's an activated ability on there, which I kind of blanked on apparently
I had a goldfish where I
chorded her into an early
Prosperous Partnership and made my way to five treasures, which promptly became
Maskwood Nexus. Suddenly the world became my oyster, but a gentle fuel nudge for
Puresight Merrow found
Muddle the Mixture and I didn't get to explore the oyster too much. Turn that to Rite, and spin the merfolk forever to make an infinite treasure mountain. At that point the win became a similar formality to that
World Tree dump from earlier. I can totally see Rukarumel on Dwarf, especially if there's a tap vector to get some cheese going. I'm also starting to appreciate
Mistmeadow Vanisher, with the flicker being useful both defensively and for various value or shenanigans. For example, I've kept a
Song of Freyalise in Rite mode with this when I needed to. Cute!
