Omniscience_is_life maybe. Angelic Chorus gets insane though. 1 creature cast ends up making 10+ life with oketra and the soul sisters. Running out of spots of things that feel like they can be dropped. Maybe a board wipe? I have 5, but each lends it’s own benefit outside of wiping the board.

Winds of Abandon is one sided

Fumigate gains me tons of life

Dusk recurs my most needed creatures afterwards

Ajani, Strength of the Pride and Elspeth Tirel both gain tons of life and are atleast partially one sided.

Not sure which is weakest....

Fumigate costs a lot, isn't modal, and isn't one-sided. I'd cut it.

You could also cut a rock or a Monologue Tax (a card I don't like very much, but I know it's pretty good) if you lower your average cmc enough, but that sort of thing can be a little risky.

I haven’t had a chance to run Monologue Tax yet. I assume it’s gonna pull it’s weight though. If it does really well then maybe i can cut a 2 cmc rock, but after switching out Commander's Sphere and Coalition Relic for Coldsteel Heart and Star Compass i think my average cmc is still ~2.7. Not low enough to be comfortable with less ramp, I don’t think.

Fumigate is the one i was leaning towards as well. Cutting it for Mangara, the Diplomat seems wise, yeah? Another effect that tempts people to play slower or risk drawing me into a winning hand? Seems good.

I have most of the cards on hand, and the couple I don’t should arrive in a couple days. I made all the changes to the list, and we are sitting right at 2.72 average cmc, and 30 creatures, which seems to be the lower limit of comfort for the deck.

This deck is looking suitably terrifying now. Always fun to have good dialogue about magic, too ;)

Indeed it is! Thanks for popping in and giving me some inspiration.

Gotta find a spot for Esper Sentinel .... also maybe bring back the flash sub theme? Gears are turning again.

How's Monologue Tax working for you? Is ramp more important than draw here?

I struggle to find weak links, it may be at the point where you need to cut good cards to add great cards...

Also--I can't help but notice that you have 4 boardwipes, and that Elspeth Tirel is the last one that's even semi-symmetrical. Ofc, she does a whole lot of other things, but I wonder how you'd feel about replacing her with Solitude : it works well with your instant-speed bounce creatures, it triggers your Commander , Archangel of Thune , and many others, and it gives you more targeted removal options. Just a thought :)

Ahhh, hello again Omniscience_is_life. I feel like you’ve seen me through most of the big changes in this deck and I am always happy to hear your input.

Monologue Tax has honestly done it’s job really well. It ramps me or keeps other players pace slower and I can benefit a lot from both. I think it’s gonna stick around for now.

My initial thought on cutting Elspeth Tirel is “BLASPHEMY!!” and I wanted to counter with cutting Skyclave Apparition instead, But when I think about it more, you make a valid point. Skyclave is more versatile removal, and i’ve cut so much artifact/enchantment removal in recent iterations, I really do need it. Between Elspeth and Ajani, Strength of the Pride she is definitely the weaker of the two. I will try cutting her. I think 3 board wipes is still sufficient.

Now the question is, am I cutting her for Esper Sentinel , or Solitude ? Solitude is for sure going in, so i’ll have to drop something else to fit it in.

As for flash/instant speed bounce, i might just drop a plains and slot Winding Canyons back in. Canyons, Emergence Zone , and the redundancy of fetching them with Weathered Wayfarer or Expedition Map should be plenty. Although I do still have a Vedalken Orrery laying around from Oketra’s early days.

I did a quick mock-up of what all the cards in your deck appear to be doing (mainly for my own uses, so I could see what should maybe be cut, if you care the deck link is Devo's Oketra deck, but with CATEGORIES)--and it seems like Mardu Woe-Reaper could be cut for Esper Sentinel . Low impact, replaceable effect, bleh. If you need more GY hate then Scavenger Grounds could be slotted in, replacing War Room or something.

Dude. That is awesome. Thanks for doing that. Oddly enough i was thinking of making that exact switch today!

Can’t wait for release so i can test out these new cards. I love giving Oketra new toys.

Alright, it’s official:

Elspeth Tirel out for Solitude

Mardu Woe-Reaper out for Esper Sentinel

Still debating sliding Winding Canyons and/or Vedalken Orrery back in. I think i’m using both of mine, so i’d need to drop some cash on another... not that having another reserved list card laying around is a terrible thing.

I do love the idea of bringing back more instant speed plays - the deck can already win instant speed with the right set up - but boy is it getting hard to find cuts.

Thoughts on these? Cloud Key , Ancestral Statue , Enduring Renewal , Blasting Station , Palace Jailer , Bonders' Enclave , Arch of Orazca , Throne of the High City , Cathars' Crusade , Goldnight Commander , Mantle of Leadership , Skyscanner , Blinking Spirit , Search for Glory (finds monuments), Thalia's Lancers , Crovax, Ascendant Hero

Hey, thanks for the suggestions. Many of these were in the deck at some point or another. I feel like the vast majority simply didn’t make the cut because they weren’t as efficient mana wise as the alternatives and the extra redundancy wasn’t needed. That, or they were more combat related and I, surprisingly, almost never win via combat. The specific ones that do not fall into those two categories i’ll address below:

Blasting Station - i actually kick around the idea of adding this as another wincon pretty often. If i were to slot another one in, it’d be this, or Altar of Dementia , or maaaaybe Test of Endurance / Felidar Sovereign

Arch of Orazca / Bonders' Enclave - these just ended up being more expensive to use, or less consistent than War Room , keeping in mind that God-Eternal Oketra doesn’t activate enclave and that actually does end up being relevant pretty often. Anyways, with Expedition Map and Weathered Wayfarer , 1 draw land seems to be sufficient as emergency fuel.

Cathars' Crusade - It gets wild in this deck for sure, and when i was leaning less into life gain, and was winning with Altar of Dementia more, it took the place of Angelic Chorus . But nowadays, I just don’t swing that often and i’m not running altar right now so it’s out.

Enduring Renewal - this is an interesting one... I’d honestly have to sit down for a bit and figure out how it interacts with everything to give a good answer here. I’ll look at it more.

Search for Glory - This is a great one. I’d like to run it, but I don’t have many good targets outside of Mangara, the Diplomat and the monuments, which i have a couple tutors for already. The biggest problem, silly as it may sound, is that i’d want to run snow lands, and for thematic purposes i’m running the full art amonkhet plains, so i can’t do that. Solid suggestion though.

Palace Jailer - this ended up getting replaced with Skyclave Apparition for cheaper and more versatile removal. I do miss it sometimes though. I love being the monarch. Which remind me... Throne of the High City could be fun, but my colored lands are already stretched pretty thing for a deck that so desperately needs white mana. Really can’t drop any more.

Love getting suggestions and talking through options for the deck. Thanks again. I really enjoy your decks as well!

Opened a set box of MH2 with my son, and was lucky enough to pull both Solitude and Esper Sentinel . Very excited to play test these. Will report back with thoughts on them.

We’re also swapping Star Compass for Ornithopter of Paradise because; I pulled an old frame version and it’s pretty, and also because it seems like it is an upgrade just for being a creature, let alone the fact it doesn’t require me to have a basic land out to be effective. The deck runs quite a few non-basics so i think it’s an all around better choice.

Edit: at this point, maybe i should swap Gold Myr for Coldsteel Heart too?

It’s that time again, Omniscience_is_life… i’m looking to add Auriok Champion and, possibly, Ashnod's Altar . I’m less inclined to add ashnod’s because it really only allows me to combo off more reliably with the various artifact creatures being added ( Gold Myr is probably going in), outside of that, it is conditional ramp, at best.

Any ideas for cuts? I imagine your first cut suggestion would be Monologue Tax ? Hahahah. I know you hate the card. I haven’t had enough time with it yet, to decide if it’s a keeper or not. Let me know if you have an suggestions!

On second thought, I would almost certainly cut Angelic Chorus for Auriok Champion . It’s so obvious. Way lower cmc, creature, same purpose. How did I not see this before even asking?! Hahaha

DevoMelvminster happy to have a reputation at least ;3

Good call with the Champion, silly of me to miss that since I've wanted Angelic Chorus gone for so long!

I would say go for the Gold Myr swap. It feels like it's hardly ever going to be a bad idea to add creatures in stead of their noncreature counterparts for this deck.

Also--how do you feel about swapping Darksteel Mutation for Kabira Takedown  ^Flip? Can act as a land in a pinch, and with the higher saturation of creatures in the deck as of late it should function as a Doom Blade most of the time. Playing at instant speed seems to be a good target, as well.

I hadn’t thought of Kabira Takedown  ^Flip before. I don’t think losing Darksteel Mutation is a big deal if we gain an emergency land in it’s place. I am really skirting the line of running too few.

Glad you agree with the other swaps. They made sense to me, but sometimes the outside perspective is needed to point out flaws in my reasoning. At this point you’re certainly the only one as familiar with the decks workings as I am.

I always appreciate the input!

Thinking that I don’t like Solitude as much as i’d hoped. It always feels lackluster in hand, either too expensive to hard caster, or I don’t have a white card in my hand that i want to exile.

Cavalier of Dawn feels more meaningful as creature based removal, and that still costs more than is comfortable. It was replaced by Skyclave Apparition . But truth be told, i kind of want it back. I don’t like where the deck is at currently with removal.

Similarly, and part of the reason Solitude always feels unplayable, is I still feel like the deck needs more draw power. Sure, there are a few great engines, or some repeatable effects attached to creatures, but I don’t feel like it’s accessible when i need it.

Long story short; Solitude and, as much as I hate to say it and NEVER thought I would… i think Azor's Gateway  ^Flip are on the chopping block. I love azor but, like solitude, and as the deck gets more tuned, exiling a card is a very steep cost.

Omniscience_is_life any suggestions on additions in the (preferably creature based) removal, or draw/card advantage department?

I've been wondering about Solitude myself--seems like it isn't doing enough work anywhere. Darn.

You know I love me some good Ixalan cards, but the Gateway definitely seems like it should be removed if you can push through the sadness of that whole ordeal.

As to suggestions: removal could be Giant Killer (repeatable with bounce effects), or potentially Bounty Agent if you can spare the turn it has summoning sickness. Fiend Hunter and Mangara of Corondor can be inordinately good with instant-speed bounce effects, due to some trickiness with their abilities that I'll only explain if you haven't heard of them before ;). Cavalier of Dawn might be feasible with your updated ramp package, you may need to play around with that.

Draw could be Alms Collector ? Or Palace Jailer , for draw and removal, albeit a slightly weak imitation of both?

I do love the versatility that Giant Killer brings; the deck loves 1 cmc creatures, it’s instant speed removal, and in the cases when i don’t have Whitemane Lion or the like, it can still tap down problematic creatures. I always avoid creatures with tap effects, because I want Oketra to have reactive options (especially as i slot Winding Canyons back in, but it has a lot more going on for it. Anyways, I used to run it, and i think i’ll swap it for Solitude .

Palace Jailer i used to run and it never worked out well.

Alms Collector is a good option.

I was also thinking Cartographer's Hawk would be decent card advantage simply as repeatable ramp and it returning itself to my hand if i’m top decking or something. The big downside is that it has to wait to attack. Best case you get an extra land on T3 and still have a creature in hand for oketra? Seems pretty decent.