ChibiNature 1 wave of update question: What's going to happen to your Dreadhorde Arcanist ? With the removal of Phalanx Leader the Dreadhorde Arcanist loses +1/+1 counters to pull higher CMC spells from the graveyard.

VaalVanir Dreadhorde Arcanist can still get buffs from Sunforger , since it doesn't matter who equipts the hammer. And can also get buffed from Defiant Strike . Both of these cards (especially Sunforger ) show up on our field very regularly. So he can get buffed almost anytime he wants.

Also another reason I removed Phalanx Leader which I forgot to mention is the Eerie Interlude is one of our most common tools for protection our board, and every time we use it it resets all the +1/+1 counters that Phalanx Leader gives.

ChibiNature I've been play testing your deck, with some substitutes in Mana Rocks (I can't afford Mox Diamond , Mana Crypt , and Grim Monolith ). It's an awesome deck! But I've run into problems where opponents are removing Sunforger and I end up having to rely on 'Draw a Card'. Do you have a similar problem? What is your solution?

VaalVanir My best defense for protecting my Sunforger is by keeping my Sun Titan safe, the main reason he is in this deck is because he can hit Sunforger every turn. But you cant always expect to have him on the field. Also remember that we have a LOT of equipment tutoring available, so if you want you can hold them in your hand after Sunforger hits the field in order to search for it again when it dies. Because when Sunforger dies you can shuffle it back into the deck with Mistveil Plains (this card is a PLAINS card, which means it can be fetched, it's very helpful) Also Sunforger can protect itself as a last resort by fetching out Teferi's Protection

Some other options you can include into the deck are Second Sunrise or Faith's Reward . And some even stronger options would be Hanna's Custody or Indomitable Archangel . the only problem with the last two is that they give shroud, which means we can no longer target Sunforger with Magnetic Theft

All in all tho I'd say I've been doing just fine with people destroying Sunforger by saving all my equiptment fetch cards, and combining them with the fetchable Mistveil Plains

ChibiNature Thank you for you fast response.

I've also been running a small 'flicker' toolkit in this deck with the following cards: Cloudshift , Justiciar's Portal , Momentary Blink , Stonehorn Dignitary , Zealous Conscripts .

I don't really like Stonehorn Dignitary all that much, but I haven't thought of a replacement yet.

Zealous Conscripts is great in that it steals ANY permanent (Planeswalker, Enchantment, ... and especially opponent's special lands). I pair this with High Market that I fetch with Weathered Wayfarer . Miren, the Moaning Well might work but it takes 3 colorless to activate it... too expensive.

Turns out I like the instant resolve of flicker effects better than the ones that come back at End phase such as Otherworldly Journey .

VaalVanir I would still suggest running Otherworldly Journey if you are going a more flicker approach. Since it doubles as protection. If you flicker something in response to a boardwipe, it will still die. Also running Momentary Blink is an illegal card, since it has blue in its flashback cost.

My testing with the flicker cards has been met with varying success, but I have been enjoying the interactions with flickering and Dualcaster Mage . Still not sure if flickering will make it into the final build tho.

If you are having trouble coming up with a replacement card then I always suggest more stax cards. Things like Aven Mindcensor or Suppression Field can do wonders for you.

ChibiNature What and how have your interactions between flickering and Dualcaster Mage been? (Keep in mind I started playing Magic around 3 weeks ago after a 12 year hiatus).

I will switch out Momentary Blink with Otherworldly Journey even though I thought it can double as a dodge for board wipe.

VaalVanir You can use Dualcaster Mage in order to to copy any spell multiple times if you have an instant flicker effect such as Cloudshift . First just cast whatever card you want to copy, hold priority and then cast Cloudshift targeting Dualcaster Mage . Once the flicker effect resolves then Dualcaster Mage will hit the field, and his ability will trigger on the stack, target the spell you cast at the very start and it will copy that spell. Both that spell and Cloudshift will be sent back to your hand in order to do the same thing next turn. This works extremely well if you have a bunch of guys on the field and you target Zada, Hedron Grinder with a draw spell you want to coppy like Expedite , that way you will hit every single unit on your field with 2 draw triggers. Getting you 8-16 cards.

ChibiNature But Zada, Hedron Grinder requires you to "cast" the spell onto him. So the copied Expedite targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder will not result in copied again for each target-able creature.

VaalVanir oh yeah good catch lol. You can still combo it with a lot of stuff. Doubling your Wheel of Fortune effects when you have Smothering Tithe will basically win you the game right then and there. Or doubling your tutors like Gamble is extremely powerful. Dualcaster Mage being a recurable spell cloner has been very nice so far.

I put together a list for feather pretty quick when I saw her, kind of surprised you had some of the same ideas I did when building by the looks of it! Makes me feel like I might actually be on the right track

Besides the fact I didn't realise Flashback worked here at the time, your list seems a lot more refined than mine being a quick brew, and I have no idea how to be building R/W to be honest, it'd be nice to hear your thoughts https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/feather-hot-take-1/?cb=1556822390

Generally for this list, I guess I just wonder how cute playing stuff like Guttersnipe actually is, I haven't played it yet so I'm uncertain if it's actually helping to win or if Aetherflux Reservoir is just enough on it's own.

Other than that my main difference of take I think is I'm thinking of taking her more in the Staxx-y direction, mostly because I wonder if playing R/W we simply have to lean toward slowing the game down enough that we can actually compete with the better colours, but I might just be underestimating Feather and selling short the Storm ability. Which reminds me; Grapeshot seems like a perfect fit in the storm-y version, since you can target Feather with the first instance to get it back and do some dumb stuff probably.

Shitney Glad you've been playing Feather as well ( ^-^) ill check out your list in a second here.

And in regards to Guttersnipe and similar cards, I am actually leaning away from them as of late. They are cute cards, and they've been winning me games here and their. But I'm willing to bet I'd be better off without them, and opted for more Stax pieces. Or more card draw. I am currently running through some final tests with the deck, and trying out a few cards like Skullclamp and Faithless Looting . But I'm willing to say that it is a safe bet that the Guttersnipe type of cards will not make the next wave of changes.

And you are totally correct about needing to lean towards stax. We are not as fast as other top tier decks, that's the bottom line. Red gives a cEDH deck very little, so we are forced to pull some of the better stax pieces out of our white color pool to bring others down to our levels. You'll be surprised how many turns you can slow down the opponent with a little 2 mana thorn in their side.

Grapeshot I did not really like, it's a funny card but on average we are only casting 2-3 spells a turn until we are able to combo off all at once. And once we get that far than we dont need Grapeshot at all. That 2 mana for grapeshot can be a very precious resource when it can draw you two more cards with some of our cantrips.