I like this deck a lot, but I have been considering a more control oriented and consistent one centered more strongly around Delve, something I had not originally considered. It's called: "What? Tasigur is evolving!"
The Deck Started as a Helvault Flavor-Centric build which revolved around using Eldritch Evolution on a cheated in Allosaurus Rider, that pulled either Griselbrand or Avacyn, Angel of Hope, depending on the situation.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the Helvault feel of the deck, a turn 3 Nuke is pretty awesome and has some serious destructive potential, and I thought that perhaps the build could benefit from some tuning. I can foresee that such a deck could have a good bit of variety and so have affectionately given the general idea the umbrella classification of "Dino-Darwin"
I am no competitive player, but here are my thoughts and my concerns which break down into two points:
First,the point of this deck is to use Eldritch Evolution, a 1GG costed sorcery which allows you to sacrifice a creature and replace it with one with a CMC of up to its own plus 2. So Wurmcoil Engine could be sac-ed for say, Scornful Egotist, if you like, or Emrakul for Draco. Good stuff. This is a pretty sweet sort of boosted Birthing Pod on a Sorcery, but it makes its transition from toolbox silver bullet-fetcher to silver nuclear-warhead fetcher thanks to a certain card: Allosaurus Rider, which can be cheated into play via a double-green-card-force-of-will-esque-free-cast-for-exiling effect.
The essential point of the deck is to take advantage of the High CMC and Early Availability of our Dino-Riding Elf and use Eldritch Evolution to pull a game winning bomb (AKA Nuke) from our deck.
The problem is...I have no clue what will win me the game.
Taking a look at what Legacy Reanimator wants to bring into play at mach-Exhume, I figured Iona and Griselbrand seem like wonderful perfectly modern legal choices.
However, this could be totally misguided. There is a good amount of removal in modern (I think) and those cards could possibly be a little shaky when it comes to sealing the opponents fate, as they do have an all-or-nothing quality to them. At first glance, it seems to me that of any creature in the game, the best to pull is probably Iona, but once again, I know nothing.
One of the nice things about the deck is that only a one-of is required of each Nuke, so they don't take up much space, however, I figured it would be good to have some green (for the possibility to exile for A-saur, but I don't actually know how good it would be to have a couple occasionally exile-able one-ofs anyway.)
Unfortunately, there are only two big bads with shroud /hexproof to keep them alive that I found, and both get chump-blocked all day. (Those being Kalonian Behemoth and Plated Slagwurm). (There are two destructive forces with both, one is not green, Inkwell Leviathan, and the other is of slightly weaker power than the rest, Simic Sky Swallower, which under greater scrutiny has only minutely less power than the Leviathan and has its own additional form of evasion in flying along with trample.)
There is also Terastadon, who, despite being a 9 Power 9, 9 Toughness, Elephant Monster the size of mountains, does not have Trample. He does, however, provide a wonderful setback service in destroying opponent's permanents. This is a whole other category of necessary toolbox bombs which include Sundering Titan and I suppose Woodfall Primus. (Not nearly as good as the others but any Lorwyn/Shadowmoor card that seems even remotely applicable to me manages to sneak its way into any deck I build.
In the end, there are the more compromise your opponent/utility bombs such as Terastodon and Sundering Titan, the Face Smashers (Behemoths and Leviathans), and the true Nukes which may just about seal the deal right there, amongst them Griselbrand is kind of his own thing, there is the one card lock that is Iona, and also locks like Blazing Archon and my inclusion of Void Winnower for its perfect errata (I mean the opponent can't even)
So Those are the Finishers, I have a rough idea of what could be best in the current build, but I am not experienced at Magic nor at playing this deck, particularly because Eldritch Evolution isn't really even a card yet, hence its sensual replacement.
Your Feedback is greatly appreciated.
On to problem two, the more substantial issue:What do I build this deck around?
The more pragmatic side of me thinks that perhaps because it does revolve around the potentially duel finishing interplay of two cards it may be best to simply Hail Mary it down to the win with Utopia Sprawl/Arbor Elf Ramp and Oath of Nissa Draw etc.
The part of me which enjoys more interesting and interactive games of magic has a sort of disdain for the sort of split personality combo decks which are one part setting up a combo and another part combo pieces with no synergy in between. (This may also just be something I have to let go, but I find Green Ramp to be an overwhelming stampede of boredom.)This part of me wants to build a control/survival aspect of the deck which could even benefit from some of the combo pieces, this would involve cards like Kitchen Finks (a personal favorite, man do I love Ouphes...) and maybe even Thragtusk (a personal anti-favorite) as the two do happen to have some nice Eldritch Evolution Synergy (Evolve Finks, Fetch Thrag, Get Finks Back, Gain Seven Life -- Not too shabby? There is also the possibility of control cards such as Abrupt Decay, and Path to Exile etc., though I don't know how effective it is for a deck like this to run such things.
(No matter how the deck is built it will probably end up requiring some form of ramp, as modern is a bit of fast format... too bad.)
Maybe I just want to play Kitchen Finks, but I do hope for the possible greater efficacy of a more survival/control oriented approach to the deck rather than one which simply waits for the Utopia Sprawl Nut Draw to Eldritch Evolve your Seven CMC Dinosaur Rider and Snag A Turn 2 Griselbrand.
That being said having just written that sentence I realize how undeniably awesome that sounds...
Take a look at the build I currently have and please ruthlessly critique.
Thanks For Any Feedback.