Thanks for sharing your deck, seems awesome!

I love God-Eternal Oketra . I played her for a time, but sadly I dissasembled her deck due to need of staples for other projects. It was very similar to yours, a "bounce tribal" deck with small creatures that had good ETBs. I like your combos ideas, I didn't occurred to me, but they seem very fitting. Maybe in the future I recover Oketra!

RA_HORAKHTE

Thanks for checking it out! Oketra is definitely a blast. I really enjoy all the utility in the 1 drop creatures. I didn’t run a lot of staple ones like Mother of Runes or the like, because they tap, and so they need haste for immediate use. i wanted to be able to use those abilities at any time.

I used to run more flash stuff like Vedalken Orrery or Winding Canyons but it didn’t seem as necessary as just knowing when to hold up mana, or which lil guy with a sac ability to leave on the battlefield, ya know?

DevoMelvminster

Yes, I can understand you. I remember that I played in Oketra Giver of Runes but is true that she wasn't so relevant at all.

About the flash, my problem is that I didn't have those stapples then hahaha, but well you already have some flash creatures and instants to make surprise plays.

I remember I also played Dust Elemental as some kind of flash mass bouncing / rescue aircraft haha. He could also bounce himself in the ETB process. It was a pet card for me. What do think about it?

RA_HORAKHTE I actually love Dust Elemental but ended up cutting it because I don’t often want to bounce more than one creature. Most of the time I end up bouncing the creature with a bounce ability ( Whitemane Lion or something similar) to reuse it, or Oketra to save her from removal.

Most other things are expendable, or recurrable. If worse comes to worse, I still have Stormfront Riders if i need to bounce more than one creature to my hand. It has the added benefit of going infinite with Cloudstone Curio Phyrexian Altar and a couple 1 cmc creatures, since you can sac the token created when you bounce your 1 drop and just keep playing spells. Infinite life for Aetherflux Reservoir , infinite etb triggers for Altar of the Brood , or if you’re lucky enough to still have oketra around, infinite zombies.

DevoMelvminster

Yes, that's reasonable.

Sometimes I had to bounce an Oketra's token, for example, due to Dust elemental demanding effect. Somtimes become somewhat counterproductive. (Anyway I played mainly because I loved it's art and flavor)

Dawn of Hope seems like a necessary evil here. I might cut Return to Dust for it--Return costs a lot and playing at sorcery speed is never fun.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista are an infinite combo if you're into that sort of thing, but even just by himself The Sun God is a good'n.

Coalition Relic is very powerful but slow. You do need a lot of colored mana in this deck though... would Fellwar Stone suffice?

Omniscience_is_life these are great suggestions, thank you.

I have a Dawn of Hope , and often contemplate putting it in, but always decide against it. It’s no worse a return than sacing a clue token, but it does require me to have some sort of life gain online before I can draw. I also dislike that it’s a trigger, where as clue tokens (using these as an example because of comparable cost and function) sit around until I need cards, and help get Inventors' Fair online so i can tutor out a win con if needed. As for Return to Dust ; you’re right, and I have cut it several times, but I keep adding it back in. It’s solid, and can be used instant speed if needed. The added option of using it sorcery speed is maaaaaybe worth it being expensive? Still unsure on it.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned is an amazing suggestion. I honestly never thought about putting him in, but will strongly contemplate it. He can make stuff bigger to swing in (often at instant speed, with bounce creatures!) or makes one massive zombie to Altar of Dementia someone out of the game. I am SERIOUSLY considering this card. Maybe I’ll ditch ol’ dusty return for this?

You’re also right in that I need mana rocks that tap for colored mana, that’s why I don’t run Mind Stone or, as you suggested, Fellwar Stone , and am even running crap like Marble Diamond . Also, i am the only one who plays white in my group, so running fellwar is basically a worse mind stone. Coalition Relic is a little bit slow, but I honestly really like it. It can get me an extra 2 mana the turn after it comes out, for a bursty little push, and then isn’t just laying there if I don’t need to tap it for a turn. It often helps get Oketra online earlier, even if I miss a 4th land drop. I love it.

Thanks again for the suggestions! I love looking at new ways to improve this deck.

Glad I could at least make you think, sounds like you're pretty on top of things though ;)

Cool interaction I saw recently, if you have skyclave apparition etb. on the stack, then bounce/flicker you leave the opponent without the token it produces afterwards. Seems like that exile removal could work nicely in this build.

Skyclave Apparition + bounce sounds like a cool repeatable removal. It’s cheaper, but a little clunkier than Cavalier of Dawn . I may try it out!

Better yet; with Cloudstone Curio out, the zombie token God-Eternal Oketra makes upon casting, say, Whitemane Lion will bounce Skyclave Apparition , and then the lion can bounce itself. Leaving you ready to do it all again for 5 mana... 3 with any of the cost reducers.

I like it more and more.

Lots of changes in this revision:

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is out for Heliod, Sun-Crowned . Heliod will make things bigger and bigger as we gain life, which may help us with a combat win, which is all Elesh norn really did, but also can stack a ton of counters on one creature to sac to Altar of Dementia . Yay mill wins!

Cavalier of Dawn is out for Skyclave Apparition . Apparition was a great suggestion by muddbones and is more abusable than Cavalier. Lowers the cmc curve, and I am not going to miss the possible enchantment recurral. We got that covered.

Odric, Lunarch Marshal is out for Mardu Woe-Reaper . Odric helps with combat wins, but Akroma's Will does it better, and doubles as protection. I hardly ever swing for the win anyways, and the reaper is another cheap creature, and it’s ability will be triggered by ever zombie God-Eternal Oketra makes. Should keep graveyards nice and empty and help against decks that rely on them being filled. Did I mention it gains us LIFE too? Sweet card.

Return to Dust was dropped for Suture Priest . I keep going back and forth with Return... I’ll probably find another spot for it, since I’m a but light on non-creature removal anyways, but for now I wanted more Soul Warden effects. The bonus damage to opponents is nice too.

Austere Command and a Plains were dropped for Ancient Den and Flagstones of Trokair . Den is mostly for turning on Inventors' Fair to tutor out a win, and flagstones synergizes really well with Lotus Field .

Still thinking about adding Test of Endurance or Felidar Sovereign but not sure where. Let me know what y’all think of the changes.

P.s. I also got the secret lair print of Teferi's Protection because, quite frankly, it is touching as hell and sometimes I’m a softy. What a wholesome freaking card, ya know?

Swapped a couple more cards around:

Wrath of God is out for Ajani, Strength of the Pride . Ajani costs the same, usually comes in able to ultimate, and exile opponents creatures AND artifacts, and if not, he’ll gain us a heap of life so we can next turn. Basically another Elspeth Tirel .

Palace Jailer is out for Recruiter of the Guard . Basically, it was this or buy an Auriok Champion to ensure I get a life gain engine online as soon as possible. Auriok costs so much right now, and recruiter can be bounced and played repeatedly to find any number of wonderful creatures from our library.

Heliod, Sun-Crowned is out for Archangel of Thune . Archangel is just better, and I forgot it existed. Heliod’s job was to make things big enough to swing for a kill (sounds boring) or make stuff big enough to make pulling off wins with Altar of Dementia easier. Again, archangel just does it better.

That’s it for now.

playtesting was a nightmare; you need to add more than 33 lands. The mana rocks you have haven't been enough to free me up from consistently drawing 1-2 lands per goldfish

Thanks for your input Harbinger69. My experiences have been VERY different. The average cmc of the deck is very low. Maybe you are not mulliganing as aggressively, or strategically, as I do, but i assure you that 33 lands is plenty.

The ONLY thing that suffers from having so few lands is the occasional game where Oketra isn’t out asap.... but, quite frankly, the deck has evolved past needing her to win. That was one of my goals, so if anything i feel successful in making the build versatile enough to not be dependent on the commander.

Anyhow, i really appreciate you checking it out, and for your input. Thanks a bunch.

Hey! I'm back with some more food for thought:

I still would rather see some lower CMC (please don't @ me, I know it's MV now) ramp in place of the Relic or Sphere . Might I suggest Coldsteel Heart or Star Compass ?

I also feel like some more lifegain payoffs could be nice. You only need a few (payoffs suck without their respective enablers, ofc), but Well of Lost Dreams , Cradle of Vitality , or Serene Steward could be fun.

I love the direction the deck is going, keep it up ;)

I could definitely try running both of those in place of the 3 cmc ones. It would probably help smooth out the early game.

I do go back and forth with whether or not to run Well of Lost Dreams or Dawn of Hope , and Mangara, the Diplomat for that matter. The card draw is needed, buy I’m just so unsure what to cut for it.

As for the +1 counter payoffs, I’d probably find a slot to add Heliod, Sun-Crowned back in if I find i want more of it.

Any suggestions? I will preemptively warn you that Azor's Gateway  ^Flip is a pet card that I won’t remove. The feeling of flipping it and tapping it for 100 mana or something is irreplaceable.

As always, thanks for the input!

I’ll do some thinking and see if anything looks cutworthy. The list is pretty good so we’ll see what I can do!

DevoMelvminster That's good to hear. I goldfished 5ish hands and rarely got more than 2 lands (shufflerisfine), but if it's working for you, it's probably the goldfisher being bad. Playtested more and it's a really neat deck

I'd probably start with replacing Oreskos Explorer with Archaeomancer's Map , and cut Oketra's Monument for something of your choosing. I'd also cut a couple basics for some fetchlands if you can afford them, Windswept Heath , Flooded Strand , and Prismatic Vista are all relatively cheap and have synergy with Mistveil Plains , Scroll Rack , Emeria Shepherd , and Altar of the Brood .

Oketra's Monument , aside from being a cost reducer whichbis vital to certain combos, is a pretty important combo piece itself. It’s one of a few ways i have to generate additional creatures to sav to phyrexian arena for infinite tokens/ETB triggers.

I’m also not sure if i agree with Archaeomancer's Map . If you look closely you’ll see that no single card in the deck puts extra lands out. I’m always trying to sac for quick bursts, tap a land for a bunch of mana, or sac tokens and treasures for mana. One of the worst things that can happen when i have a great draw engine like Land Tax + Scroll Rack is having it go offline because i have too many lands. It used to happen so often that I dropped all cards that put extra lands out, and built the deck to work on fewer. Interestingly enough, it makes stuff like Field of Ruin , Path to Exile or Winds of Abandon keep me an ideal position to tutor out just the land i need with Weathered Wayfarer or rip all tue basics out in a matter of a few turns with Land Tax

Is this the BEST way to build it? I really can’t say, but it feels better to me since i went that way.

The fetch lands i should for sure do. Having Scroll Rack without Land Tax to shuffle is honestly terrible.

Those are all fair points, and I agree with most of them--but Archaeomancer's Map still guaranteed draws you two lands, whereas the Explorer is less certain. Sure, you can bounce the explorer, but you would certainly hope to have a better target. The Map simply gives the you the option to put the lands into play--if you need that extra burst of mana and you don't have a Land Tax engine up and running, well... it's just great. But if that's not the situation, it still just drew you two lands and also helped get Inventors' Fair up and running.

I overlooked it being an artifact... that is better for sure. It doesn’t feel totally dead, and i CAN only drop extra lands when it keeps me under everyone else. I’m convinced. I’ll try it out in place of explorer.

That being said, I am quickly getting to the point where i’ve cut too many creatures. Last couple games i played, the speed i won at was limited only by the scarcity of creatures i was drawing.

That's interesting... maybe I've been too keen on dismissing the waning creature count... maybe cut Angelic Chorus for a Mangara or something??