Nissa, Steward of Elements?

I tried Nissa and she was super slow, there's little time to ramp her and play the spells that I need to play and survive against the higher tiered decks in Standard. She is a fun card in the deck of you are playing a less competitive opponent, but in the competitive scene every card has to impact the win condition. Here, the win condition is unblockable damage.

After thinking about it, I can see how she might be a little slow with your higher cmc cards. I usually play her t3/t4 for 1(X) +2, then use her 0 to fill the board(most of my creatures are 1 or 2 drops)

Yeah, my creature slots at 3 and 4 are already pretty numerous and makes her a less desirable option in the overall win condition. She is a win more option later in the game if I'm up. If I was running River Sneak and supplemental buffs she would be pretty effective. I have tried her out, ultimately I went with Jace because in the mid game he becomes a pretty good draw card engine.

Lifecrafter's Gift is the card I'm currently slotting in. Might just push this over the top. Also found that Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip has been a solid addition with Shapers of Nature

So how has this deck tested so far at FNM?

Since you're running Deeproot Waters, wouldn't Ridgescale Tusker be better than Gearhulk in a lot of situations?

Good looking out, yeah it probably would be better.

Handicraft seems inferior to Mimic and redundant when you have both the Vineshapers/Boons and the Gearhulks/Tuskers as well. It's also very expensive when you start generating tokens. I would like to know why you didn't choose Mimic aside from its ridiculous price.

1.) Metallic mimic is subject to more common removal. At 2 defense and 2 cost, almost every burn spell and removal spell in magic takes him out. He is also aggressively targeted because of this, which is in the description of you would have read it.

2.) Durable Handicraft has a 6 mana ability that adds a +1/+1 counter to all of your creatures, which is extremely handy and actually the exact opposite of what you stated about it being overpriced when tokens are being generated. See, once you have 5 or 6 tokens out and Herald you sac the durable and then you have 6 creatures with counters for 6 mana, 6 are unblockable, the tokens are hexproof. Mimic doesn't offer that ability, especially when he doesn't stick around long enough to benefit any of the other creatures.

If you can manage to keep a Mimic out for even a single turn with Deeproot Waters then you're at a quicker advantage than with Handicraft, which requires you to pay mana for the ETB counters and is far slower at putting those counters on creatures than Tusker or any of the other counter giving spells. Mimic also stacks for free and triggers itself. If you're worried about removal that much then I understand, otherwise there's no reason to not choose Mimic, at least in theory.

I haven't been able to keep Mimic out even one turn though, my average opponent in Standard is running a play set of Fatal Push, Lightning Strike, Spell Pierce, or the energy burn spell. Only one of those really disrupts the enchantment early game.

I can see why you wouldn't then. Most of my opponents only have one type or another of removal and I'm more than willing to sub in protection and play off-curve in order for better combo efficiency but everyone plays differently. Hopefully you'll get the results you seek.

any reason not to slot in Spell Pierce if you're running into that much hate on the mimic? genuinely curious here

and silly me it's already in there. Sorry

Haha it's all good.