based on darrenhabib's excellent primer: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/803528-prime-speaker-vannifar-the-birthing-pod-commander
This is a version of Vannifar that only has 2 main combo lines, but with stax pieces to slow everyone down and protect the combo turn. One advantage of Vannifar is that she doesn't much care about casting spells during her combo turn, and can win through effects like arcane lab, null rod, and zur's weirding. We're taking advantage of that by playing those cards ourselves.
It's definitely possible that the all-in version of the deck is way more powerful, but I wanted to explore a more controlling build.
Line 1: Wins through arcane lab, any tax effect, stopped by null rod
need: Vannifar, 2-drop, 2 colorless mana, 2 blue mana, 3 lands (or island + cradle)
-pod 2-drop->trophy mage, finding thousand-year elixir
-cast thousand-year-elixer (your one spell for the turn), activate to untap V
-pod trophy mage->fatestitcher (now with haste), untap V
-pod fatestitcher->peregrine drake, untap lands
-unearth fatestitcher, untap V
-pod peregrine drake->deadeye navigator, bond with V, flicker V
-pod fatestitcher->body double, copying peregrine drake, float mana, untap lands
-flicker deadeye navigator, bond with body-double/peregrine drake, flicker drake for infinite mana and infinite
Vannifar untaps
there are a few options from here, but here's one
-flicker bodydouble, copying 2drop in the graveyard
-pod body double->trinket mage, finding walking ballista
-pod trinket mage->Venser, shaper savant, bond with deadeye navigator, flicker it to bounce all opponent's
permanents back to hand, then bounce our arcane lab, if it's in play
-walking ballista for 6 million
Line 2, which wins through null rod
need: Vannifar, 2 drop, 4 lands that make GGGU
-pod 2drop->spellseeker for crop rotation
-crop rotation forest->minamo, school at water's edge, untap V
-pod spellseeker->archaeomancer, returning crop rotation
-crop rotation forest->wirewood lodge, untap V
-pod archaeomancer->peregrine drake, untap all lands
-activate minamo, untap V
-pod peregrine drake->woodland bellower tutor bounding krasis
-pod bounding krasis->Sakashima the Imposter copying woodland bellower, getting any 3drop.
-activate wirewood lodge, untap V
-pod Sakashima->Palinchron, untap lands
-activate minamo, untap V
-pod 3drop->Venser
-activate lodge, untap V
-pod Venser->body double copying peregrine drake, untap lands
-activate lodge, untap V
-pod body double->deadeye naviagtor, infinite mana
*then there are a lot of ways to win. You have a woodland bellower you can flicker, getting coiling oracle to
draw your deck, or getting eternal witness to get Venser to bounce all lands, or getting 2-drop->trinket mage->walking ballista
This line is probably too complex, and could be trimmed. There are a few times where I'm just getting random creatures just because I need to get up the chain for Deadeye Navigator. Sakashima could be replaced by Breaching Hippocamp, but that would leave us with a board of just Deadeye, Palinchron, and Vannifar. So I would also need a 7-8 drop which would continue to get us action. So Sakashima saves us a deck slot, as well as being an extra 4-drop that can essentially untap Vannifar if we happen to have a haste effect. But if there are ways of building a non-artifact line that casts less than 3 spells, which uses fewer deck slots, I'd love to hear!
Both these lines are weak to torpor orb, root maze, rest in peace, aven mindscensor, and cursed totem effects, so those are the scary hate pieces to counter/remove before attempting a win.
I'm not running the Protean Hulk package because it requires running 7-8 extra combo cards (Hulk, Flash, Ezuri, Sage of Hours, 3 more 0-cost artifact creatures, probably Summoner's Pact), which would dilute the answers and stax packages.
I'm not running any manlands because I'm not running Vitalize, and coming into play tapped isn't worth the upside of being an extra 0-drop to start a chain with. That's what Dryad Arbor is for.
Issues:
-I'd love to find a way to tutor for Zur's Weirding as aggressively as possible, but I don't know of one in Simic. If I could get it out consistently, it would negate the need to put a card-draw package in the deck, and is our most powerful stax piece
-Otherwise, I should probably get some card draw
-I'm debating whether Survival of the Fittest/Ulamog is good enough to get cards out of the hand/graveyard and into the library where Vannifar can find them. Because we only have 2 lines, having cards stranded in hand is more costly than in the pure-combo version of the deck.
-These two lines require more initial mana than the Vitalize/Flash-Hulk lines, so I probably need more lands/more land-based acceleration. Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl might be better than some of our artifact mana, especially because we're running Null Rod. It also means we really want to start the V chain with a 2-drop, as Quirion/Scryb Rangers are more costly, especially for the Crop Rotation line.
-I'm unclear if I even need Intruder Alarm at all.
