It's been quiet here! I've been having a bunch of fun and learning a LOT playing my 4 color version lately. One thing I've discovered is that, despite only being a 4 color version, this deck is HUNGREY for colored mana. My mana base is definitely not perfect but it's pretty darn close to as good as it's ever going to get (I only own the Bant ABU duals and I'm a little OCD when it comes to playing off-color fetches). I've found myself reconsidering some of my card choices because of the amount of pips in their mana cost though. Cards like
Anguished Unmaking may become
Beast Within/
Generous Gift again, I'm even wondering if
Knight of Autumn should become
Reclamation Sage. I think
Assassin's Trophy is sufficiently worth it over
Path to Exile despite the mana requirement. I had swapped out
Ice-Fang Coatl for
Baleful Strix but now am considering reversing the switch because I find myself prioritizing having green mana over black early game and have ended up unable to play Strix on turn 2 when I could have played Coatl.
Some thoughts on new additions to my deck:
The World Tree has been great. Even coming into play tapped, it has the ability to fix your mana immediately, definitely something I didn't fully appreciate before testing.
Whoever said
Spellseeker+
Ephemerate was gas, wasn't kidding. Ephemerate has been amazing for me. I had been running
Neoform as a value Spellseeker target to set up
Archaeomancer loop/reanimation shenanigans, but cut it after I found myself going for Ephemerate over Neoform every time (doesn't hurt that it's also easier on mana). It's been especially nice with another new Kaldheim card I wasn't sure about at first:
Glorious Protector. That card is amazing! I somehow missed the Foretell text way down at the bottom.
Risen Reef is a card I was skeptical of at first; I thought of it as just an over-costed
Coiling Oracle. It's really proven itself over my last few games though. Cloning it/playing other elementals has been a factor enough times that it's become a fairly reliable engine in my mind. An interesting edge-case scenario I've found with Reef is if you miss a land drop and find a land off Reef, you don't have to put it into play tapped via the Reef's ability. You can let it go to hand and then play it untapped as your land for turn. Maybe that's obvious to anyone who's played with it, but I hadn't considered that interaction before.
Since I'm only running 4 colors and I prioritize including a fair amount of basic lands, I've opted to leave
Field of the Dead out of the list, leaving more room for other utility lands like
Phyrexian Tower and
Volrath's Stronghold both of which have been incredibly valuable targets for Golos. The ability to search up a sac outlet is great interaction with cards like
Glorious Protector and
Reveillark. Stronghold is just great inevitability, but occasionally can set up an amazing Golos activation.
Okay, rant over. I did have one question for the Golos players out there. Those of you who run
Mirari's Wake, how has it been for you? Alright, maybe two questions: In your experience how is
Villainous Wealth? I've thought about running
Torment of Hailfire in its place as a big finisher that is also tutorable with
Spellseeker.