1) Rancor just doesn't fit in the deck.
---It makes you very weak to the things the deck is normally very strong to. (Vapor Snag, Gut Shot, etc)
---It isn't a 1-drop, so it doesn't help my curve.
---I'm not nearly that beatdown.
---Just using a sword or something would be better.
---I don't have the deck slots.
2) Viridian Emissary just doesn't want to be a creature.
---The deck is incredibly mana-volume hungry, and Viridian Emissary just doesn't get me the mana I need RIGHT NOW.
---The card just wants to be Rampant Growth.
---Attacking for 2, or blinking this guy, just isn't the "value" I was looking for. It's pretty good against Geist/Snapcaster, but does nothing vs the air guys that would normally be killing me.
3) Elvish Visionary really wants me to draw a land every time, and draw it into play tapped.
---So, This guy wants to be Rampant Growth too (Farseek).
---The 1/1 body doesn't really hold anything off.
---Actually accelerating me is very powerful (see 4)
4) Playing one land a turn sucks.
---So, play 6-8 2cc Ramp spells, and get up to "working mana".
---4 mana is wonderful for Huntmaster, or any of my 3-drops + Cloudshift, or Resto-Block for no value. (other than a dead creature)
---I really need to get mana out for Anything + Cloudshift (to protect from removal/bounce), or activating Township, or playing around Mana Leak before I'm dead.
5) I cast Venser, the Sojurner 0 times.
---It would be good against some decks (non-white control)
---I did notice that even with just Borderland Ranger for fixing, my splash was very consistant. With 6-8x Rampant Growths, and 2-4 Borderland Rangers, the splash is locked-in. So splashing in general is very free.
---He is designed to break a board stall, which my deck is designed to set up. Elesh Norn does that similarly, so if we need more of this, we can just add another Norn.
---Huntmaster is a possible 4-of, and combos well with the new ramp strategy in multiple ways. It also means I can leave mana up, for Restoration Angel, Cloudshift, instant speed removal, Gavony Township, etc.
6) Let's try Huntmaster of the Fells.
---4 mana on turn 3 is common.
---It's a human, for Cavern of Souls (with Blade Splicer, Borderland Ranger), for even more red-fixing.
---It's a removal spell, sortof.
---It's another two-for-one that works well vs Vapor Snag, Gut Shot, etc.
---It gives you "protected" life gain vs removal, with GWR2 up.
---We have something like 12 sources of red by turn 4 (Rampant, Farseek, Borderland, Cavern)
7) My deck is INCREDIBLY slow.
---The ramp spells should help a bit.
---The O-Rings need to be something else in general, and that something else needs to do stuff in turns 1-3, without taking up my whole turn.
---One O-Ring is fine, the other 3-4 slots for removal need to deal with Delver, Elves, etc.
---Gut shot is a prime candidate, as a 2-of. (Works on T1-3, doesn't slow me down, kills what I need it to kill)
---I want 1x Ancient Grudge to kill equipment, Birthing Pods, etc. (Instant speed, resilient vs counters)
---Having Gut Shot to flashback with a Metamorph on Snapcaster (killing the Snapcaster) seems pretty awesome. Currently I have virtual zero spells to flashback.
8) Being proactive with Cloudshift/Angel is very dangerous vs Ux Delver.
---Vapor Snag ruins your plans
---You always want to use it to react to their stuff, it's too powerful of a turnaround for you, at such low cost, just hold on to it.
---"Don't cast Cloudshift unless there is another spell targetting your guy on the stack"
9) Acidic Slime is terrible.
---By the time I'd cast it, I'd be leaked, and it's double green, and it costs 5, and it costs alot, and it doesn't block flying. (And it costs alot)
---All I want to do with this is kill artifacts. Now that we're red, Ancient Grudge does this job way better than Slime could. (And I have Ray of Revelation side in case of Vengance, O-Ring, Tokens, etc) I can save my Blinks for Thrag, Huntmaster, Splicer, which is where they want to be used anyway.
10) Getting my 4's and 5's countered can be game over.
---We are rock solid on mana colors right now, with only 1xElesh Norn and 3-4xHuntmaster of the Fells having more than one colored mana symbol in their casting costs. (sometimes leaving up W for Cloudshift is hard, but it only happened one turn in 16 games, because I didn't consider my hand when I searched for a land)
---Cavern on Human, Angel or Beast is almost manditory.
---I activated Gavony Township one turn in 16 games. I did threaten to activate it in two other turns which forced bad blocks to prevent dying.
---We need some caverns in here for sure. It will come at the cost of Gavony, and some basics.
---One game I won would have been lost to leak (on my tusk). Nick estimates that I probably would have won half the games I lost had my critical spell been Leak-Proof. (overall record 8-8, ROFL)
So what we're looking at now is something like:
Spells:4x Cloudshift (was game-saving always, always wanted at least one in my hand)
1-3x Gut Shot (Need interaction early)
1x Ancient Grudge (Equipment, Pod, instant)
1x Oblivion Ring (Catch-all answer)
4x Rampant Growth
2-3x Farseek (I have only one Mountain, and max four Plains to find...) (I need enough of these to draw one "for sure", and not draw too many late - I lost a lot of games with no T2 Rampant Growth)
Creatures:
4x Blade Splicer
2-3x Borderland Ranger (Would only play this over Splicer if I didn't have it, or feared Gut Shot (leave up cloudshift on T4 Splicer)
3-4x Huntmaster of the Fells (Want 4, need to cut something to not make the deck all 4's and 5's)
4x Restoration Angel
1-3x Phyrexian Metamorph (Killed Geist of St. Traft every time I cast it, which is about as bad as it can be in this deck, and that's pretty great)
4x Thragtusk
1x Elesh Norn (Won me the one game I cast it in, which is it's job - could be side?)
Lands:
2-4x Cavern of Souls
2-3x Gavony Township
3-4x Plains (Need enough of these to not run out of basics for Farseek, etc)
1x Mountain
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Sunpetal Grove
Forests to 24 total land (4-8)
Any opinions on those ranges? I really like the spells, so it's hard to make the last few cuts.
