Been a while since I showed my face around these parts. I didn't play or think about the deck for a while, and once I picked it up again with fresher eyes the gameplay revealed itself to be somewhat more combo oriented than I realised. Not in the literal Kiki Conscripts style, but if I land one of my crown jewel beatsticks that just end the game when copied then it doesn't feel like much of what I did before mattered. Yeah yeah, I probably made some Rhinos, drew some cards to find the A-B setup, but then I pointed a
Cabaretti Confluence at
Angel of Destiny so who cares. That's not necessarily a bad thing, needing the Rhinos to do anything wasn't part of the original design pitch, and the prime beef being this efficient is very much desired. Just feels kind of funny to realise some parallels to a seemingly unrelated deck style after a while away.
A different style of game that happens is more akin to what yeti reported, where the prime beef doesn't come together (in yeti's case presumably because he doesn't run it
) and I just smother the table under a critical mass of various supporting pieces. Hook up
Aurelia with some token doubling, toss a
Saryth in there and the table falls over before I do the thing. I guess it doesn't help that I tend to play in a 3-man setting, and chewing up 80 life is easier than 120. I should be running
Neyali, Suns' Vanguard - the combination of extra oomph with card advantage at a sub-5 cost is very tempting, and would probably end up overpowering many a game via pure Rhino beats. I've already got supporting pieces that respond well to being copied, like
Dopehawk. Should I consciously take a step toward yeti land and pursue more of them? This would probably mean another look at my copier pieces, as a bunch of pressure would be taken off attack triggers. Maybe myriad stuff like
Blade of Selves could make its way in, over some of the one-shot or otherwise less flexible effects?
There's a good chance these musings are the product of my shift as a player. My post-Ghired decks tend to be dependent on critical masses of stuff coming together, and as such I'm probably tempted to mirror the approach here. It can feel borderline alien to pick up
Daxos after a bit of a break and look at
Grim Tutor in the opening hand. It's fine to have different decks that want to do different things, and it's important to distinguish between learning lessons from other decks and subconsciously pulling toward a homogenised design.
New releases! Cards! Universes Beyond stuff first!
Arboreal Alliance would be cute as a two-mana setup for repeatable populate, but the timing is kind of awkward
Cat Car style and the deck is not exactly brimming with Elves.
City of Death is a surprisingly serious consideration, as you end up with a three mana
Growing Ranks that also happens to incidentally ramp out Ghired. I wouldn't fault anybody for running this.
Romana II is worded so she can nab tokens your foes make, which explains her otherwise rather conservative design.
Wreck and Rebuild is a decent value card, with removal and ramp modes and even flashback, but damn that thing costs a bunch.
LCI's got some tempting stuff on offer.
Bronzebeak Foragers is a
Grasp of Fate on a body, and could get rather ugly if copied. To balance things out, the body is a humble 3/4 and would probably end up having some issues in combat.
Dino DNA is an interesting option here as being turned into a 6/6 with trample actually ends up being an upgrade for a number of the beefslabs, but it's got the standard recursion world problem of being conditional.
Get Lost is white goodstuff removal with decent spread at two mana and instant speed.
Glimpse the Core made me remember I run
Wood Elves, and having an extra
Rampant Growth would be nice for powering out Ghired early. Thing is, I do occasionally incidentally copy the Elf for value. And if I want to take the ramp down to two mana, maybe rather than going for something
Rionya-compatible I should for for
Fertile Ground so
Arbor Elf and Saryth see it? Also the land aura is technically better for tempo later, which doesn't hurt either. Still, there's an extra Rampant Growth in the mix now, so need to consider that.
Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation // Temple of Civilization is the inevitable token tripler. At six mana and legendary, it feels like a Rhino deck card. But what a Rhino deck card it is.
I've done some minor swaps pertaining musings from earlier posts, but am awaiting some more games in paper to see how they hold up. Dedicated card tests can only tell you so much.