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Have you thought about using something like Endling with Cabal Coffers and just pumping a bunch of mana into the -1/+1 for a big mill?

Tzefick: The problem is that Defense of the Heart is a mid-game card. So the idea of having a creature that without ramp can't do its thing until turn 8 seems very slow, as opposed to DotH which can potentially deploy some devistating creatures on turn 5.

While I can see your comparision to Spawnwrithe here, it's not in the same boat. the problem that Spawnwrithe suffers from is that it nees to keep turning sideways to do its thing. You might connect once with it being unblocked but that's all you'll get away with. This card however only needs to connect once to do its thing, which is a fundamental difference.

I think at the end of the day though, MindAblaze hits the nail on the head. Having a creature version of the card based around YOU attacking has already failed the design brief.

The suggested card they proposed feels much more along the lines of the current design. You could create something like:

Magus of the Heart -

Creature - Human Wizard

, , Sacrifice Magus of the Heart: Search your library for up to two creatures and put them into play, then shuffle your library. Activate this ability only if a player controls three or more creatures and only in your upkeep.

2/3

Something like that might be more the go.

Tzefick: That was the point. Having a 2/2 with trample means that you can't just throw a 1/1 at it to chump block, however by itself it's not super easy to connect with. 5 mana is in the realms of turn 3 play, hoever the creature isn't huge by itself. But funnily enough green is excellent at making creatures bigger. I mean theoretically you could make it a 3/3 but the point of my fix was deliberate in making it a smaller creature.

DemonDragonJ: Yes it does, very much so. Not to mention, all of those creatures have a persisent effect. The card you designed requires you to sacrifice the creature to get a one off (abelit very powerful) effect.

I kind of want to say 5 mana for a 2/2 with trample sounds like the right balance here. It's basically a tooth and nail if you can connect it, so making it small but cheap to cast would be the go.

But the problem is that you've changed the fundamental parameters. The whole point of Defense of the Heart was that you could play around it by not playing creatures. But this one here is designed so that to play around it, you have to play creatures of your own to hold up as blockers. Yes, I'm aware that reomval is a thing but it's the same for the OG card too, so I'm moving past that fact.

Personally I would say thath you should either try to stick to the card more closely or not try to make a creature version. But what you have here is more akin to Tooth and Nail than it is DotH.

adamleedy: I update the list from time to time when I can remember. Not playing it at the moment though. I had thought about Underworld Breach however with only Wheel of Fortune to fuel it I decided to not include it. Though I'll add it to the maybebaord for now while the idea stews in my brain.

Good pickups on the primer - I will update those. I always forget that kiki can't copy legendary creatures.

My issue with that statement though is that "build(ing) a fun to play deck" is entirely subjective. As a primarily combo player, I enjoy playing combo as much as I enjoy building it. So my fun comes from tuning my combo deck.

I have seen many of these forum posts over many years and I think there seems to be a general theme here: people have a problem with well established combos, not combo specifically. If I'm playing a deck which is just designed to resolve Flash + Protean Hulk or Tooth and Nail, well, most people have played against these decks before. I do think in casual settings there is a bit of an onus on the combo player to try something new instead of just going back to the efficient combos. This however does not hold true for competitively geared decks.

I also think that there is a pretty crappy attitude when it comes to running removal in a lot of casual decks. Most people don't want to dedicated card slots to removal because "why would I run lots of removal when I could just run more big stompy creatures", however time and time again I see these decks fold to either higher synergy decks or to combo decks or just any deck that plays on more than just the board. I don't think you need to jam your deck full of removal, but I have seen far too many decks with far too little removal.

I also don't think the attitude of "that Johnny player just pulled the rug out from under us, especially after we spent all this time setting up" is an overly healthy one eiterh, because again I have seen people get tilted becuase they spent all this time setting up and a well timed Wrath of God completely undid all of their work.

Why not run Wild Cantor over Blood Pet?

totterygrain: You generrally want to prioritise U/G mana to increase your chances to it early game. So you want more lands that can produce both of those. And with a reduced requirement for white mana you don't need Arid Mesa, as its two targets are generally going to be Savannah/Tundra to get your U/G. So in its place you're just better off with another source like Yavimaya Coast.

I'm guessing General Tazri is your commander. As smackjack pointed out, just play Deadeye Navigator + Palinchron / Peregrine Drake / Great Whale then bounce your commander, fetching and playing Kalastria Healer. Then bounce your commander some more.

Tooth and Nail is super good here too, lets you win on the spot.

I would make it WUBRG so you have access to Composite Golem + Nim Deathmantle. While not techincally a golem, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim seems like a good commander.

Nillstan: Wasn't implying that, thought I would just throw it out there :P

These days, I have found Silence to be as good, sometimes better than Grand Abolisher. Don't get me wrong, I've done some sneaky Abolisher deploys before, but I find that Silence is super flexible. And unless your playgroup is showing lots of fish hulk lists, I would probably still take Silence over Angel's Grace in this build since it does more for your game plan.

Silence and Angel's Grace do different things. While you can lock a player out mid combo with Silence, one of its prime functions is to protect your combo. Angel's Grace (especailly in a list sans Ad Nauseam) is that it's a reactive piece to stop other people from winning (or from taking a crapload of damage).

With regards to sac outlets, I actually made the decision a while ago to cut the number of outlets down in my list, in place of more card advantage and honestly I can say that I have found it to be better. There are 4 main sac outlets that I focus on, Blasting Station, Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar. I also sport Starved Rusalka and Greater Good (which is insane btw with the release of Renegade Rallier), however that's really all the repeatable outlets I run.

The reasoning I found was that while you can run a bunch of sac outlets, ultimately you can create lots of combinations that don't do anything. For example, Saffi Eriksdotter + Karmic Guide + Fanatical Devotion, while being an infinite combo, doesn't actually achieve anything for the deck. And while you can add Soul of the Harvest for card draw, you now need 4 cards to generate value and even still can potentially not have the mana required to do anything as a follow up.

I appreciate that adding the Boonweaver Giant combo into the deck kind of skews the number of sacrifice outlets you want to run in the deck. That being said, generally if you're going to run the boonweaver combo then that should be the central focus of the deck, with the rest of the list leaning into supporting the combo. So cards like Idyllic Tutor are going to make the deck a lost stronger as you want more options to get a sac outlet and then get either boonwevaer or pattern down and then go from there. For me personally, I elected not to try and integrate this as a combo since I felt that it was strongest with the addition of black for the creature based support that is offered there. But again, I still think the general premise of "less situational sac outlets, more tutors/draw" will ultiamtely be beneficial for the deck.

As for the swaps you've suggested, I think that they seem decent, I personally would have gone for more draw over Caregiver but at the end of the day you need to build a list that's comfortable for your playstyle.

So a few other thoughts on the list (I saw your forum post):

You're running a few stax pieces (Aven Mindcensor, Gaddock Teeg) however these cards a generally less good that just progressing your win condidition if you're only running a few of them. I have seen Saffi stax builds before (Weenie Hut Jr is a good example and we have discussed many aspects of Saffi decks), however you need to devote more cards to it. Otherwise you won't get the value you want from it and you're just better off focusing on your win condition.

I also don't think that the Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies combo adds enough here. It's not like you're pairing it with Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip + Walking Ballista or something (and no, I don't recommend just adding this to the deck). The problem is that there's no real line with the combo. It's not like you can even assemble it plus Claws of Gix + Soul of the Harvest + Saffi to draw your deck, since you still can't spam Saffi from the command zone as you can't produce white mana. So the best case scenario is it enables a five card combo, as most of your other sac outlets are free and can at least form a 4 card combo with Altar of the Brood. In that same vein, I don't think that Claws of Gix adds much value either. I get that it's a sac outlet, however having these on creatures is generally better as you will have an easier time tutoring creatures and any artifact/enchantment tutoring is worth so much in Saffi since it can find stuff like Blasting Station.

On the other hand, I'm surprised you're not running Eldritch Evolution here. The card is awesome at setting up all kinds of combos as well as doing sneaky Grand Abolisher deployment (by sacing a medium cost creature, since you can get "X or less").

Overall the list looks good. A few improvements I would recommend however:

• Starved Rusalka is better than Caregiver. You run both Gaea's Cradle as well as the infinite mana line off Devoted Druid, which both produce green mana. Rusalka can use that mana where Caregiver can't.

• Skullclamp is so so so good. Hell, I run Stoneforge Mystic in my list with only two equipment, primarily as a clamp tutor. I'm really surprised it's not in the list.

• Beast Within/Generous Gift are excellent removal. Would rate them over Oblation. Unexpectedly Absent is also good, though not as good as the other two.

• I would also recommend Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. This guy does some serious work, especially if the game starts getting a bit drawn out.

Steelspike: With a turn 3 win, you don't just all shuffle up and start again?

Straight up, Megrim does next to nothing here. Unless you're runnign lots of wheel effects, dicard trigger stuff generally isn't good.

What is your goal for hte deck? Are you wanting to play lots of graveyard recursion or are you going for life gain/loss?

This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)

LordBlackblade: I am entirely there with you on using dice rolls. Players should make a decision and stand by it, or not make that decision. Too many people do this and it just promote bad decision making and poeple avoiding responsibility for their actions.

I think my main ones are:

• Remember your version of fun may not be the same as other's so be gracious when people play decks you don't like.

• Unless you're brand new, no take-backs. Instead, learn from your mistakes.

• Communication an social skills are important and having a lack of them puts the onus on you to learn.

• A quick game is a good game.

• Ultimately the most important one (and applicable not just in MtG): Don't be a dick.