Electrodominance- don't talk to me about this card. I swear, It's too spicy for it's own good and it's just going to make me start cutting board wipes. Flashing in a Mirari's Wake? Yes, please. I just...It only works late game when you have something in your hand that you just drew that you're trying to push under the radar that's not an elemental. Or, if it's a removal spell, it's overcosted. Like, board-wiping with this at instant speed would be insane. But I have enough ways to cast cards at instant speed. I have
Alchemist's Refuge. I have to believe it's enough.
Briarhorn- I like making control decks respect the combat step. I often have a bunch of 1/1s and 2/2s lying around, and with a bluff or two Briarhorn can be a kill spell. It also changes the Commander damage clock from 5 turns (5+5+5+5+5) to 3 turns (5+8+8), is fun with Eldrazi Displacer or Eternal Witness&Ghostly Flicker, and is one of the many ways we can instakill someone with Dualcaster Mage + Ghostly Flicker
. I really want to run this card, I'm just not sure what to take out.
Careful Consideration- The double blue cost kills it, sadly.
Vesperlark - I really really want to include this card, but also having a second worse Reveillark that doesn't get back 2-power creatures often just seems like, why am I not just running a different card? I run the combos because they're cool, not because I'm actively trying to combo off every single game. In fact, I'd rather the combat damage clock be very real. I've won most of my games with a lot of lands and Mirror Entity on the field.
Abundance- This is the "Anti-annoyance" card that I always want on the battlefield, but I never really want to put the 4 mana into casting. Once you have it out, though, you'll never get mana flooded or mana screwed ever again!
I used to run Sliver Overlord for a long time literally just to fetch Crib Swap because that card is so good. Well,okay, also card:Ameoboid Changeling. And also, like, why not run a 7/7? That was before I realized that Consuming Bonfire is good enough on it's own and that the word "Sorcery" is mere flavor text in this deck.
Offalsnout- jk I really should run this card. The responsible thing to do.
Lava Serpent almost seems playable as a creature that you can just cycle and forget about, then crash in for attacks on an empty board. It's not that it's a great card. It's just barely a card, so why not discard a 5/5 and get it back later?
Frost Lynx- "Freeze" single target removal is underrated in blink decks, but I'd need more blink effects to truly abuse it.
Aquamoeba- needs more toughness to be niche good.
Benthicore or Walker of the Grove- A Go-Wide strategy could be fun at some point. Doesn't work in this build as well.
Bloodpyre Elemental- I would play this card if it didn't say "sorcery speed"
Ceaseless Searblades and Wandering Fumarole- this build your own Infinity Elemental combo tickles me. Too bad it doesn't have trample. They might not block though...Good in a Creeperhulk+Torrent Elemental build where you just run all of the X/X elementals that would be good if they could get through.
Eon Frolicker+Seedborn Muse gives someone else infinite turns, lol.
Lightning Skelemental- I'd run it over Mournwhelk...probably even over Tar Fiend.
Chandra's Ignition- Seems like a good way to kill Bloodwater Entity and recur it, but it only does 5 damage to everything
Skullmulcher - best if you're specifically going wide.
Yarok, the Desecrated- Good card, but expensive and likely never getting a reprint, and tbh I'd rather just play another removal spell.
Chakram Retriever- So like, this nets infinite mana really easily and does not seem fun to play against. But if you're reading this, it combos with Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder I guess.
Raven Familiar or Yavimaya Granger are really good Reveillark targets. They generate a lot of value if you can recur them, and I would recommend them in a slightly different build.
Silverglade Pathfinder- Pretty good, but it eats up your mana every turn. If you get boardwiped, you sometimes need to wait 2 turns before using it again. That's why Bonded Fetch is my Reveillark target now.
Settle Beyond Reality- in a deck that uses Bloodwater Entity to recur boardwipes and Familiar's Ruse to get back Eternal Witness, I thought this card would be good enough with Eternal Witness as well. But at sorcery speed, removing one creature often seems like punching down to the decks we already should be able to beat through sheer card advantage. I wanted an extra Crib Swap, but this isn't quite that.
Bonded Fetch- I used to run Merfolk Looter, and then I used to run Magus of the Bazaar. But this isn't a dredge deck. Magus does eventually empty our hand, and as a deck that can sometimes run a controlling game, we don't like that. Further, filling our graveyard simply means scaring everyone with how much cool stuff we have in it. It sounds silly, but ideally we'd like to be able to do a lot with a little, having 2-4 creatures in our graveyard that are useful enough to force the Bojuka Bog or the Rest in Peaceout. After that's dealt with, we can extend ourselves a bit more.
Haste on Bonded Fetch (or Anje Falkenrath if your build has more Rakdos in it than blue) is really useful in a game where random boardwipes (un)related to your boardstate happen all the time, but it also means that we can use it to combo off if we have a lot of mana to repeatedly flicker it with Eldrazi Displacer, and it's also a Reveillark target, which is especially nice if we have Blazing Hellhound out, earning its place in a Buried Alive pile. Took it out because it doesn't let us see as much of our deck at once as Thirst for Meaning
Kederekt Leviathan + Necromancy aka the repeatable Cyclonic Rift. I love the idea of doing this, but I would need more tutors in the deck to make it work, and more ways to discard the Leviathan to make sure it doesn't rot in my hand. Maybe some day in a different build.
Peer Pressure- in a deck with many changelings, this card used to be fine, but I cut most of the changelings so I cut this. It's a pet card still.
Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero- fetches up Mirror Entity and Shapesharer. When I put Arcane Adaptation in to bend over backwards for the Rebel-Sliver-Elemental tribal, I realized I had gone too far.
Whisperwood Elemental Doesn't stop our creatures from dying, but it can be nice to Chord of Calling for in response to a board wipe. It's really good, but I don't think I would Buried Alive for it, so out it goes for Cavalier of Dawn, which can answer a planeswalker. But, like, can you imagine getting hit with a board wipe, and in response, you cast this, sacrifice it, cast it again, then sacrifice it again, manifesting an easy 10 cards off the top? Jeez.
Bane of Progress- IDK...$8 to destroy my Mirari's Wake? I Chord of Calling for Cavalier of Dawn and it's usually fine. How often are you going up against Sigarda, Host of Herons? Are there 8 enchantments on the field you're simultaneously about to lose to?
Nissa, Steward of Elements - Our 5/5 Vigilance pal is pretty good at guarding her and whoo, she can put 5-drops into play, like, not that late in the game. I feel like she could be hard to protect early though
Omnath, Locus of the Roil- Wow, am I actually saying this? On the surface it seems like this card does everything. But unless your build of Horde of Notions is a dedicated lands deck (I've also seen Omnath used as a "Draw, Go" control tool), as opposed to a deck that just has some ramp cards, I believe Omnath is a win-more card. Don't get me wrong, Tatyova, Benthic Druid has turned a game around for me with the life gain and card draw, but let's break it down. Is Omnath a removal spell? Kind of, if you consistently have elementals on the field. If you just play this on turn 4 with nothing else on the board, it deals 1 damage. Next: the +1/+1 counters. For these to matter you want a lot of landfall triggers happening, or else you've just made your Shriekmaw into a 6/5 by turn 8. Not that scary. Lastly, the card draw. Is this the reason you play Omnath? A 4-mana 3/3 that comes into play and deals 1 damage to something, then if you wait 4 turns and hit your land drops, it's really good? Sure, the power ceiling is high, but sometimes you'll draw this and say, meh. Best in the Command Zone. This brings me to...
Tatyova, Benthic Druid- Again, you really need a dedicated lands deck, otherwise you sometimes just have a 5-mana value engine stuck in your hand that does nothing the turn it comes into play.
