Hey man! I was following your post on cedh, i'm Clips4lyfe over there. Really digging your list! I used to run vig back in 2012ish, but my meta was more casual back then and i ripped the deck apart after comboing out several times in a row with little interaction lol. I'm currently gaming rafiq in cedh, but im tempted to try vig again.

Just curious but how are the following working out for you? These are all cards I've tried in rafiq and got cut or never tested them because i thought they'd be too slow/hard to use. Traverse the Ulvenwald, Cryptic Command, Voidslime(although i remember reading somewhere that you mostly use it because you have the beautiful full art foil, shame about Disallow being printed as strictly better! =/), and Nissa, Vital Force.

On a different note, i know you said that you don't like mana dorks because of their lack of synergy with Palinchron, but i'd highly recommend them, at least a couple (along with Dryad Arbor for that GSZ for 0). Although you can get hit hard by Toxic Deluge, imo its still worth it because you are a whole turn faster. Leaving counter magic up helps, i assume you already do that when you throw down vig? I personally run Swan Song and Delay to help counter deluge. Ive even considered Spell Pierce at a point. But if you are playing against tutor heavy combo decks like ad naus storm, know that you are slowing them down if they have to waste a tutor and a turn to sweep your 1-2 mana dorks.

Sorry for the long post, and way to rock a "tier 2" commander on cedh, it's always encouraging seeing that as a fellow T2 general guy! Keep it up man!

rockleemyhero

Idk man, Might Guy is my favorite bushy-browed ninja.

Anyway, it's high time I responded to your questions!

Cryptic and Voidslime have both been useful enough to justify in the deck. I understand they're slower counters, but they have been useful often enough to counter important triggered abilities (saved myself from a Sheoldred trigger making me lose my Con Sphinx last week!) to bouncing value permanents while countering spells. I wouldn't recommend them for every deck (nor would I play Cryptic in any deck with more than 2 colors) but they work here just fine. And the color restriction on Voidslime is rarely ever important enough to actually make a difference between it and Disallow, which is why I won't be upgrading. ...Also full art foil.

Traverse has been sometimes fantastic, other times not so. Getting it early on means I basically have to either not use it, or treat it as a basic land. But late game, if my GY has been filled enough, I can get my important lands (Cradle/Nykthos/Refuge) or valuable creatures very easily. I haven't drawn it enough to make full use of it, so it will require some more testing. But at the same time, I'm a little hesitant at cutting CMC 1 things for higher CMC things, so I will likely look for a viable replacement at CMC 1 or 2 first before cutting Traverse (if I get to that point).

Nissa, Vital Force has been an extremely valuable card for me. The beauty of playing one of the only two dedicated combo decks in the meta is that EDH games are never a race to "see who combos and wins first." So obviously while winning sooner is better, when I acquire 5 mana I don't have to immediately go for my Seedborn/Momir Vig cast. If the situation calls for it, I can cast Nissa and relatively easily ult her the next turn. Having an emblem with "Landfall: Draw a card" is insanely stupidly nuts. Quickly runs away with the game, especially when I have Crucible/Oracle/Azami on the field. Running the full suite of fetches doesn't hurt either. Even apart from her ult, her Nature's Spiral effect (-3 ability) is also very good at getting back key pieces I need in crucial times. So overall I would say that she's a very good walker. In slower metas, I'd highly recommend her. In faster ones, she might be a little too bulky, but for me she works just great.

As I explained in a post above, I don't run GSZ, as I'm not a fan of the sorcery and green only restrictions. Same reasoning for Natural Order. I personally am not a fan of Dryad Arbor because 1. I hate being set back a land drop when a wrath or some other creature destruction effect occurs and 2. I dislike my lands ETBing "tapped" which Arbor effectively does. I explain my reasoning in a post above.

Yeah so for my local meta, this is definitely considered a "T1 deck." There are no ad naus decks, no storm decks, no direct combo. As I think I mentioned on Reddit, the only two dedicated combo decks in my meta that I can think of are this one and an Alesha BW Reanimator deck. Everything else is pretty low-key. The lack of such fierce competition gives me more flexibility in some ways to run bulkier, useful cards (Nissa for example).

Let me know if you have any other questions!