Is 30 lands working out for you?

Quite well. Though there are only 30 true lands, the deck runs a whopping 44 direct mana sources, and many more 1-2 drop cards that can tutor or quickly draw into additional sources. It's fairly rare to have to mulligan for shortage-- I would say at most 20% of the time.

Hey there! I am longing to see the updated version of all the card choices and updates in general. In the meantime, I do have some specific questions:

1. How do I use Sisay most optimaly?

2. Do I just use Survival/Fauna Shaman (and to an extent, Yisan and Eldrich Evolution) to tutor the right stuff for the situation or are there some crazy strategies? Same question for Birthing Pot.

3. What is Jace's Archivist for?

4. How important are the costly cards? Namely Linvala, Noble Hierarch, Gaea's Craddle (!), 3 Fetchies, Mana Crypt

5. Why not play Rising Waters maindeck? Isn't that land denial plan one of the strongest and most streamline things you can do with Derevi?

6. What is the general plan for Tezzeret?

7. Independent from what my opponent is playing, what are things you look for when you play Worldly/Enlightened Tutor? If I had to take a wild guess, I'd be Hokori/Winter Orb, but I might be very off here.

8. Why no Opposition to tap out the opponents completely in their upkeep together with an "Untap attacker"?

Thank for providing your list and spreading your knowledge. :-)

1. Generally she's grabbing either Gaea's Cradle/Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or toolboxing for a legendary hatebear like Gaddock Teeg or Hokori, Dust Drinker.

2. Shaman/Survival are in to cheat either Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur into play cheaply using Loyal Retainers. The other tutor chains are more toolboxy, though Yisan can quickly chain through the Verses to put Norn into play in under 3 turns. Pod is a bit slower since it can't tap at instant speed, but it too can quickly chain through creatures, or simply repeatedly sac Derevi to put numerous 4-drops into play.

3. Card draw. Post-mulligan Derevi found itself in a bad place with card advantage. We lost the ability to sculpt the perfect opener of 2 lands, 1 dork, and several stax pieces. Archivist was selected as one of the optimal choices to patch the issue.

4. Very. Some of the most expensive cards are also the most invaluable.

5. We already have Winter Orb and Hokori, Dust Drinker. I didn't often find myself hurting for a third such a effect often.

6. Tezzeret is a toolbox of utility, much like other tutors in the deck. He can grab anything from Bident of Thassa to Tangle Wire, depending on the situation. Alternatively, he provides an out to our Stasis locks if no other additional untap effect is in play other than Derevi.

7. Derevi Prison is such a reactive deck that it's almost impossible not to take opponents into consideration when deciding what to tutor for. Orb effects are indeed a common pick, as is Stasis, Edric, Spymaster of Trest effects, and even other tutors like Yisan. In a vacuum, I might even go for Survival of the Fittest and windmill slam Retainers combo as fast as possible.

8. Derevi is an Opposition in the command zone and so much more. No matter how many times she dies, she'll still cost the same as Opposition as well. Running a second lesser version of her would be a wasted card slot.

Hope I answered your questions satisfactorily.

I think you should run Eldrazi Displacer over Glowrider I just think you run enough stax that the displacer could bring a nice tempo element to the deck. I love to run her with Containment Priest, and she also can remove opponents creatures from blocking so you can get through with lethal, Usually when he comes out I can just abuse him to victory.

Thanks for the deck!

Hey again. Did you test out Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir? I just tried it and it's quite powerfull to use the untap effect of Derevi (and, if possible, Copperhorn Scout) to generate lots of Mana with the likes of Gaeas Cradle or Bloom Tender, which one usually can't completely use in the combat step. Maybe he's to slow/winmore though.

Teferi has a high cost, not to mention a color intensive one. For the amount of resources he requires to cast, he doesn't do enough for our game plan. He's similar in some ways to Prophet of Kruphix, which was playable in the deck prior to her banning, but he's essentially 50% of her effect for a slightly harder casting cost.

Thanks for your answer! Another question: Are planeswalker a problem, seeing as we don't have much of an answer to them if they are on the board? Or do we simply lock them out before played? Because Atraxa has gained a lot of popularity and I'd love to know how to deal with a superfriends list or a more planeswalker focused one.Also, I'm very excited for the "more extensive primer" that "is in the works". Any update on that? Thanks again for your help :-)

What are your thought on Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker i used her a while but ended up stepping away from it as it only is usefull in like matchups where they ping you damage or oloro where he drains you ... but she seems like a somewhat sideboardy viable...

also wanted to ask what you think of Imprisoned in the Moon as it has safed me from those pesky things a few times

and what are your targets for yisan mostly ? because i tend to grab

@Wutkeks: No, Planeswalkers aren't usually a problem. The deck is designed to hate heavily on noncreature spells, which includes Planeswalkers. They get hit by all the Taxers, and all but a handful of relevant ones get hit by Gaddock Teeg. Furthermore, Derevi is a fairly combat-oriented commander. It's not difficult to divert a few damage points and Derevi triggers to kill off a Planeswalker that does pose a threat, assuming they don't win the turn they come in (Teferi, Tezzeret).

@Kiyomeii: Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is a pillow fort spell at its heart. All it does is discourage players from attacking you specifically. Derevi is one of the most creature-heavy decks in the format, so she has no reason to fear being attacked. Plus it doesn't actually prevent combat, so things like Zur and Narset triggers still go through. If you want an effect like that, Propaganda is a better option, but still unplayable in most metas.

Imprisoned in the Moon is almost always worse than both Beast Within and Song of the Dryads, neither of which the deck is running. If more removal were needed, I would use both of those before Moon.

Yisan is an incredibly reactive card. Tutor chains almost always depend on the board state and what you expect your opponents to play next. However, the default chain when you have a large boardstate looks like this: Quirion Ranger -> Bloom Tender -> Shaman of Forgotten Ways. This wins the game on with 11 mana available and a decent creature boardstate. Often you're doing something like Ranger -> relevant hatebear -> relevant hatebear -> relevant hatebear -> Willbreaker though. It all depends.

1; Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker Thing is i have cut the michiko quiete a while ago , i was just wondering since i've sat versus a niv mizzet tunnel visioning on me and dropping all hate on top of me and my dorks while the others where just countering my stuff and doing nothing else really and agreed to lose basicaly by just doing so... while there also are a few oloro's in the meta with ping damage and the likes and other decks that do the same , that i feel like she could have impacted that game while also only being a 2/2 and probably not surviving all to long either so yea i get the point of the propaganda being better of, but still wouldn't like to run that vs creatureless decks that ping you regardless... so i guess the problem is me not going of fast enough or the lack of Linvala, Keeper of Silence in my deck i guess ;) because other things can be easily dealt with by a stony silence or the likes of that ...

2; Imprisoned in the Moon still while you can dodge block and stop the likes of a kaalia for example, for days and years with derevi easily without a doubt , getting a linvala against you or a nasty planeswalker can easily be dealt with by imprisoned as wel as Beast Within or Song of the Dryads which indeed seems more versatile if they got in somehow early in the game without you having a say in it fast enough which happens regardless to any derevi player...

3; and thanks for the yisan tips, those three are indeed one of the standard go to cards depending what is needed, but it forgot to add that i got stuck most of the time on my bigger verses as in,

at 4 you get more hatebear or sissay ? as i feel like playing it safer would be hatebear obviously,then at 5 it is a big no brainer too but i don't have a 6th yet and pretend you already drew into your sphinx or lost it do you keep adding to it or just leave it and get sissay at 4 and tutor other things if needed that way without having to dump more mana into it ? i have this big split thought on that 4 currently and it might just be a heavily board dependant catch that has no true correct answer here ... but having two tutors with sissay and yisan also sounds noice right? i don't know for sure what the best outcome is...

So NarejED, would you say this list is basically up to date until cards from Aether Revolt release?

Do you have your eye on any particular cards from the spoilers so far?

Where did you get your proxies? I really like the shocks and the GSZ

The internet is a large and wondrous place. I found most of them just browsing Google. "Captain Sisay Alter" or "Captain Sisay Proxy" turns up a whole plethora of results. The same is true for many other widely-known cards. A few I made myself using stock images, MTGCardsmith, and GIMP. Mystic Remora and Weathered Wayfarer are both examples.

Hey NarejED, what do you think of running bant Tamiyo over Bident? Seems like it could add some extra utility to that spot at some light expense (Not being tutorable, 2 card cap per turn)

Do you think Ahn-Crop Champion could slot into the deck as a second copperhorn? As a 4 drop it's a lot tougher to get down but it's also a 4/4 so it can attack into someone with blockers.

how is the jin-retainer combo treating you so far.

King_Oriax it could be valuable in certain situations- untapping all our mana dorks and utility creatures is certainly powerful- however ultimately I believe the downsides outweigh the positives. It's a 4-drop creature with no immediate impact that needs to wait a full turn before it wins. For the same amount of mana, I would almost always rather drop a hate piece like Linvala.

have you tried Vizier of the Menagerie? It's doing wonders for me

@hell , Vizier of the Menagerie doesn't really add anything this deck really needs or wants to do ...

Its first ability does give you 6/10 times a creature on top because of the way this deck plays but for 4 mana it is not really worth it to have posibily "a card extra on hand" (top deck-rnjeezus).

it's ability that allows you to use mana as you like for creatures is pretty much useless if you have a land base like this and doesn't add anything to the deck.

It does not just give you a creature you can get multiple creatures. If you factor in the fetch lands and other shuffle effects you can accelerate your board very quickly.

also lets not forget the fact that you could tap cradle to cast any creature

@ helll Not worth it to run a redundancy like that... it's too casual and a 4 drop that hinders a spot for a proper hatebear or stax piece... I wouldn't consider running it ever because of its rng factor. putting a linvala or sissay into play for the same amount is way more efficient...

are you considering either Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist or Galecaster Colossus they seem pretty synergistic