I agree that 8 mana dorks may seem as too many, but the problem of this deck is that it basically relies on the combo and at least from my point of view, the best way to keep up with other, better decks is to be faster than they are. This number of mana elves basically secures that you have at least one in your opening hand and you are therefore able to combo as soon as T3. So that is the main reason behind the mana elves. Just to secure that there will always be at least one.

I am aware of Trinket Mage, if you take a look at the description, there is a part devoted to possible color splashes and in the section which is discussing the addition of blue I have the Mage listed there.

Anyway, I would love to add another color, but that would require a better land base and better land base requires bigger money investment. However, this deck tries to be as cheap as possible and therefore adding another color is in direct contradiction with its aim.

And, at last, yes, I am aware of the pauper deck, even been piloting it for a while, but the deck is structured more as a token deck with the possibility of having an infinite combo. This deck, however, has the combo as its only mean of winning and is therefore structured so that it can find and pull it of as soon as possible while having some means to protect it.

Hope I described my reasoning behind the decisions well enough. Thank you for you suggestions, though!

Love this deck have a very similar deck myself.

2 people at my local meta play this, It's pretty bullshit because I always have to lose the 1st game so I can sideboard in the right cards, and then it's a matter of who draws the required cards 1st.

Suture Priest?

Maybe add Naturalize to deal with annoyances such as Virulent Plague

I have Nature's Claim listed in the sideboard to deal with such cards as I believe that since this is an infinite combo, life does not matter all that much and therefore I value lower mana cost higher.

Hi there!

Altar of the brood has gone up in price. Any reasonable substitutions?

The only substitute off the top of my head is Altar of Dementia, but that is more expensive(both cost and cmc) and does a worse job. Also Hair-Strung Koto but thats waaaay worse. I would probably play a different payoff if ur concerned about budget. Just from a quick look here's what I found:

Ajani's Welcome - infinite life W

Anointer Priest/Impassioned Orator - infinite life 1W

Auriok Champion - infinite life WW

Ivy Lane Denizen - infinite power on any target creature 3G

Attended Socialite - infinite power 1G

Imo you can cut 1 of them with no significant impact to your deck, or even replace them all with Ajani's Welcome. At the end of the day, infinite creatures is infinite creatures. 95/100 times you execute the combo you wont need a finisher, and in the case that you do it isnt 100% certain you will have on. Ajani's Welcome is good enough where even if all the tokens are killed it is nearly impossible to lose the game, as the only way to kill someone with infinite life is to have infinite damage, and combo decks are rare in 60 card formats. Hope this helped :)