Additions
In: Serra Ascendant, Luminarch Ascension, Fellwar Stone, Solemn Simulacrum, Canyon Slough
Serra Ascendant: Serra Ascendant's reprinting in Iconic Masters has made the card obtainable for under 10 dollars. It's a Commander staple in white, and it's easy to see why. It's an efficient threat in my primary color. If it's in my opening seven, it allows me to gain possibly 6, 12 or even more life. Additionally, it feeds keyword soup on the Odric plan.
Luminarch Ascension: Luminarch Ascension is a win condition that needs to come down in the early game. It's a mana dump when I have little else to do and can quickly get out of hand. It combos with Anointed Procession. It counts towards Sphere of Protection. This card is going to be just plain bad against fast, direct damage based decks like Purphoros and pretty dicey against decks that keep constant damage pressure up like Nekusar. This may have to get swapped randomly as a meta call. We'll try it out and see how it runs.
Fellwar Stone: Another rock for ramp. This also color fixes. This is replacing terminate and should be easier to cast and help with smoothing and fixing.
Solemn Simulacrum: Generally an EDH Allstar, Solemn is easy to cast, ramps, and draws a card. It also makes a profitable block early-mid game. Should help with smoothing and fixing.
Canyon Slough: Strictly better than Akoum Refuge. The 1 life is almost never relevant, while the ability to pitch for a better card later is. I need to be targetting the two remaining guild gates in this deck for replacement as well.
Cuts
Out: Swiftfoot Boots, Concerted Effort, Terminate, Falkenrath Noble, Akoum Refuge
Swiftfoot Boots: I'm not planning on winning with commander damage, so Swiftfoot Boots is objectively bad. Lightning Greaves is strictly better in this strategy as Shroud vs Hexproof does not matter. Marchesa's main thing is to come down and give me monarch. Protecting her from targeted removal isn't worth the card and if I miss out on an assassin token, it's not that big of a deal.
Concerted Effort: Concerted Effort is harder to part with, as it adds a much needed separate source of keyword duplication outside of Odric. It's also an enchantment that ticks up Sphere of Safety to critical mass. Even better, it confers Protection from Teysa to everything else, something Odric can't do. The problem is, it's a 4 mana do-nothing enchantment. Removing it for a 1 or 2 mana spell that are much likelier to make a big impact on the game is probably much better. Concerted Effort has sat dead in my hand and on the board significantly more times than it has won me the game.
Terminate: A quality removal spell. I currently have better cards to deal with problem creatures at instant speed. They also are more flexible hitting permanents or enchantments. About 60% of the time Terminate would be targeting a problem commander, for which Darksteel Mutation is a better card. For 2 mana, I'd rather have the next best rock available to me for ramp and fixing.
Falkenrath Noble: A quality body with flying and a good effect in a token deck. Ultimately, however, we're not running Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist (or even Butcher of Malakir), so the effect density just isnt there. I have a mild Aristocrats subtheme in Prossh already. For four mana, Solemn Simulacrum is just plain better.
Akoum Refuge: See above. These lands are as bad as Guild Gates, even in a deck that cares about paying life. Canyon Slough is superior.
We're at the point where none of the cards we're cutting are necessarily bad. I could see either card returning in the next few months if some of my other experiments don't work out.
Watchlist
Potential cuts later: Doomed Traveler, Darksteel Mutation, and Kaya, Ghost Assassin
Doomed Traveler: I like this card, but it's just not powerful enough for the slot. My initial thought was it would help chump and get incidental buffs from my token package. 1 drop creatures just aren't going to be powerful enough in this format.
Darksteel Mutation: This is a meta hate card that destroys Commander based strategies and does very little to robust combo strategies. It has stone walled Ruhan and Purphoros quite nicely, and also blanked against Ghave and Nekusar.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin: Planeswalkers cause far too much hate. My meta has a habit of hating out powerful permanents and doing nothing about combo pieces. Kaya is very much targeted for that reason. The card draw and life drain are both fine options. As is the targeted "removal" on the 0 line. This card just doesn't do as much for my strategy as a token/life gain centric Sorin or Elspeth would. I like the card draw, but if all she does is come down, draw me a card and force opponents to pitch their worst card and then die on my opponents' next 3 turns, I don't think she's worth the 4 mana.
My deck continues to evolve away from the Monarch mechanic and towards card draw, tokens, and enchantment density. Some additional ideas I've had is to add some anthem effects to buff out the token strategy. Elesh Norn would be a prime example.
Side note
Solemnity's slot is going to be much more flexible. I've established that the 99th card in my deck is always going to be meta hate, and I will routinely need to change these out depending on match ups. Solemnity's inclusion was for countering Ghave and Infect.
Additional cards to target for this slot:
Graveyard Hate: Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus, Tormod's Crypt
Artifact/Enchantment Hate: Stony Silence, Aura of Silence, Tempest of Light
Storm, Spellslinging Hate: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
More to come.
