1) Easy to cast creatures, very easy to cast spells. (single-off-color costs)
2) Removal (we don't have much now outside combat)
3) Solid sideboard options. (trumps to strategies)
4) Early/cheap interactive spells (instants)
5) Card drawing. (we have some danger of flooding with ~32 mana sources)
6) Upgrades to what we already have. (Less important, unless it's a big upgrade)
Removal/Cheap Interaction:
Let's talk about this first, since it is the direct competition:
Blue:
Blue isn't exactly known for it's removal, but we actually have some solid options here.
Detention Sphere "handles anything", as long as it's not a land. It also does a nice job at containing the most explosive starts from aggro decks, by removing duplicate early-drops. I see people play one of these, and I'm honestly surprised that it is not more of a 3-4-of. It is not the best against Abrupt Decay, especially with haste creatures, but that is more of a footnote to me than an actual problem.
This does a pretty good job of being superior to Acidic Slime.
Negate is probably the best example of a "removal" spell you'd want from blue, but counterspells are more of a sideboard card than main-deck now.
Tamiyo is amazing, but hard to "splash". Garruk is more pro-active, so I'm not sure this is an upgrade, outside the legend rule problem with just running more Garruks.
Cyclonic Rift is a fine early "removal spell" plus finisher. It should win the game when it resolves against a board stall, it resets planeswalkers, as well as any township counters. It's also an instant, and super easy to cast. I like this more than Az. Charm, because it wins the game late, and stalls acceptably early. With Az. Charm, you're hoping to draw better than your opponent, and there's only so much of that you can do in a 30+ mana source deck. Creatures today have haste, comes into or leaves play effects, or bloodrush, so there's no guarantee that Az. Charm will do much for you in the long run. Az charm is also quite a bit harder to cast on turn 2, and that's when you need it. It really sucks that you can't use Charm in response to auras like Rancor, that is also not a problem with Rift.
What about Simic Charm? (Unsummon/Giant Growth/Hexproof). Cloudshift is better for your own guys, Rift is better for their guys, and both are easier to cast, or have far higher upsides. It might be worth having one, but it just seems like it is always the worst option between Cloudshift, Sel-Charm, or even something like Rootborn Defenses (Indestructable-Populate) in White.
Blue Summary:
Detention sphere, and a one-of Rift are the real selling points here for me. D-Sphere is super versatile, relatively cheap, and works okay against aggro and (planeswalker) control. Rift is a solid early and late instant, which is just what I want out of a one-of.
Black:
If you're looking for removal, Black is a strong contender for the best color in magic to get that sort of thing.
At the two or less casting cost, instant level we have these, and many more options to choose from. (Tragic Slip, Victim of Night, Ultimate Price, Devour Flesh), but first let's talk about Sever the Bloodline.
Sever gives great value. It prevents Reanimation, it contains aggro starts, it gets things like Predator Ooze, Geralf's Messenger, and Falkenrath Aristocrat that are normally pretty resilient to removal. It is easy to cast, though not "fast" in any sense (sorcery, costs 4). It also delivers some value late, through flashback.
I'd max out at one of these, because it doesn't help much against planeswalkers, and can be awkward in the mirror, but given that, it's still a fine one-of.
The other slots are quite a bit harder to evaluate, just because of the sheer options available.
Golgari Charm is removal for weenies, mana creatures, tokens, but it gets shut off on some weenies if they grow out of range. It's removal for enchantments, which can be tricky permanents to answer, but it is absurdly good as an answer to wrath effects, which is something this deck is not strong against. This is probably the worst of the three as a removal spell, but the least dead against control.
Orzhov Charm says "kill target creature" on it, which is pretty rare to find these days. I listed quite a few options above, but none of them kill target creature. The third mode is likely unusable in this deck, but self-unsummon does some work against point and area removal. The life payments might add up, but between Tusk and Healer (and maybe Vault), it shouldn't be too high of a price to pay to remove a problem creature.
Abrupt Decay does a good job of "hitting" in the early turns, and keeping you alive, which is what we want out of this slot. It kills anything from Reckoner on down, but once threats start rising to the Aristocrat/Dragon/Beast level, there are
Vraska could be a cool one-of. Destroying non-land permanents is fun, but her other abilities aren't amazing. Acidic Slime is probably comparable or superior, since it answers the land problems that can cause trouble on a stalled board.
Curse of Death's Hold rounds out the top end. It's exceptional in some matchups, and useless in others, so we're likely looking at that out of the sideboard. Golgari Charm approximates this, and is probably main-deck worthy as a one-of?
Black Summary:
Black is very good at destroy target creature, we even get the option to branch out to other permanent types when we combine with Green and White. Orzhov Charm is the front-runner, but the other "charms" and charm-like spells are all contenders for inclusion.
Sever the Bloodline seems like a strong one-of.
Red:
Pillar has it's uses, but we will only have 8 (at most) sources of untapped Red on turn 1.
Clan Defiance is really cool, but since we plan on having a board presence, Mizzium Mortars seems like it would do a passable Cyclonic Rift impersonation in terms of killing our opponent off, while answering their early Volcanic Strengths, or Smiters. Getting all of them is likely superior to getting two (maybe) of them as well as them (for more mana most of the time)
Huntmaster of the Fells is another solid blink target with Restoration Angel, and we are looking to have a fair number of instants (from the non-red colors, unfortunately), so we might be able to pass and flip more. I'm not really wild about Huntmaster, because the life gain is so small, as are the roadblocks, but once he "gets going" he can be hard for an aggro or control deck to beat. It's pretty unreliable as a removal spell, but there you go.
Red Summary
Huntmaster and Mizzium Mortars are the reasons to be Red now. Mortars is a Sorcery, and doesn't do anything to control, but it's easy to cast, not too bad to overload, and devastating when it happens.
Overall Removal/Interaction Summary:
Red seems like the worst removal color right now. It has the biggest blowout (Mortars), but D-Sphere and O-Charm, along with the other black instants are hard competition for what we're trying to do.
Blue seems like it has the best general-purpose removal spell (D-Sphere), and a good one-of (Rift), but Black has more, cheaper, somewhat versitile, faster, removal, so since we have a board presence, it seems like the Black removal is going to serve us the best (we're not as afraid of planeswalkers since we have creatures. We're more afraid of wraths, so cards like Golgari Charm do double-duty)
Cards:
There are fewer candidates here, let's boil it down to the best of each color:
I actually don't think this is a Sphinx's Revelation deck, even though we have so much mana. I think Sphinx's Revelation is a terrible (counterable, hard to cast) Craterhoof Behemoth. Behemoth ends the game. Revelation hopes to do enough to prolong the game, and hopes to draw a Behemoth.
Amass seems like the better card drawer in GWx, because it is easier to cast, cheaper, and putting a card (land) back is rarely relevant. It's critical with Amass that you have cheap interaction, so you can play it after Amassing. It's unfortunate that blue is the worst color at giving us cheap (hard) interaction.
Faithless looting is Amass for Red. You draw one more card, but merely have to discard three more for the same effect. You get it in a more modular package, and for less mana (leaving more up for interaction), and late-game, it can easily be draw "three spells".
Disciple, I'm not wild about, but it is card drawing. One thing to remember is that you GAIN the life, which helps make up for the board position you are losing. The body on this guy isn't terribly impressive either, and the sacrifice is NOT a MAY, so post-combatting this guy is likely the way to go. I need to think about this guy before I can say he's strictly worse than Garruk, Primal Hunter, but it sure feels like that, now that I've posted the card image in, and thought about it some.
Card Draw Summary:
Blue. May your gasping begin. Red really isn't that far behind though.
Upgrades(?)/Misc:
It's just a really hard card to deal with, which is why they printed a million hosers. Good thing noone's playing any of those!
People are actually starting to play more cards that Souls are explicitly good against, like Liliana and Devour Flesh.
The only problem with this card is that the Smiter/Healer slot is already pretty good. As chumpers, Smiter/Healer probably survive, and they work better with Angel as surprise blockers, or brick walls.
Even with that though, we'd have utility lands, potentially Caverns that wouldn't help cast him. In non-red, we'd have up to 8 duals on top of these that wouldn't help cast him at all, which probably makes him a 5-drop, which we already have plenty of.
He's very good. Very very good. but how much better than Smiter? He's certainly harder to cast...
Can't go too overboard on this guy, because 5 isn't really a "fair" price for a Smiter or Angel with nothing to blink, and there is a fair amount of sideboard hate against graveyards (Rest in Peace), and the main point of this deck is to get the beatdowns on turn 3-5, not set up.
The big benefit would be if we went with a tokens sub-theme with Lingering Souls.
This is murder on opposing planeswalkers, and just delivers the damage. It's easy to cast, and not too expensive, but we have to have our beatdowns on for this gal to work out.
This gives you something to do with any single creature off the top, and it is one of the premiere threats in creature slogs.
This card alone is probably the best reason to play Red, it just represents so much reach in a deck with creatures.
Whether it is better than Gavony + Lingering Souls + Vault, or Cavern of Souls, is another question...
So many good lands...
The deathtouch combines best with another card on this list, Lingering Souls. Nice creatures....
It's pretty hard to race a vault, but since it doesn't stack with itself, maxing out on one (+ Townships) is probably the way to go.
Unfortunately, there's this Boros Reckoner guy, and Devour Flesh is seeing a lot more play, so the time may not be right, but it is by no mistake that Geist is one of the most powerful creatures in standard.
Upgrades(?)/Misc Summary:
Kessig Wolf Run and Lingering Souls lead the charge in this category. Both are very powerful, but both have real costs. We already have reasonable lands, and three drops. It would take playing with them or the matchup to know which is preferrable.
This is a complicated problem! Are there any Blue, Red, or Black cards I'm missing? What aggregate of options would you consider to be the best?
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