Oh god that mana circle is gorgeous. WHY ARE THE LINES SO PERFECTTT

This looks fun, well done.

Keep in mind (because I forgot this god knows how many times) that the Savageborn Hydra 's ability can only be used at sorcery speed.

This looks amazing. I can't wait to try it out.

thataddkid - Isn't it just!

Ohthenoises - Yeah, I completely overlooked that, but you can still get one use out of Prophet of Kruphix by flashing him, then doubling up on your go.

ldvatwa - Thanks, nor can I!

Yep, I saw that as well, just wanted to warn you because I missed it too.

This is actually pretty awesome +1! This might just change my mind about RUG.

I thought about recommending some 3/4 drops, but your ramp is probably fine and good enough to blow over those spots (and you can play other 2 drops).

The only thing I would recommend is a Worldspine Wurm , as it is the awesomest massive drop right now, and it seems like you could ramp there semi-readily. But whatever you do, don't ruin that perfect color wheel.

lol Prime Speaker Zegana with 3 blue lands

Looks great mate, I could never figure out how to use Zhur-Taa Ancient effectively. Maybe swap Borborygmos with the worldspine wurm or Giant Adephage , he just doesn't seem to help, throwing your precious land at the enemy.

flyguy - I noticed the gap, but half of my 1/2 drops have an X in the cost so are actually 3/4 minimum; if necessary you can drop a 2/2 mistcutter on turn 2 (assuming you played a mystic on turn 1), or an early savageborn that you can buff up whenever you have mana going spare. Thanks for the wurm suggestion; I've just swapped a 1/1 for one for a 15/15 for eleven... But the circle has not been broken!

zandl - The Sylvan Caryatid s can help with casting her early and the Zhur-Taa Ancient doubles the amount of mana any land produces so you only need one Simic gate to get her out usually. Plus Borborygmos can act as land fetch if desperate.

AussieBloke - Thanks! That's a good point, but he can help you gather more land and if you've got him out then cast Zegana for 7+ cards he lets you do something useful with the cards that you might otherwise just discard. I'll think about whether he's worth keeping.

You should drop some thars and hydra and play 4xUnsummon and run 3 or 4 Sylvan Caryatid so you have (U) or add more G/U land. This will make their casting irrelivant. maybe you could play Aqueous Form as well to get a big double strike hydra smacking the player first try. You can still have some thars and hydra but thar is legendary 4 is too many. I could use your idea and make a more efficiant version and send you a link if you want help. This deck is Johnny spiked.

drop gruul charm and clan def and 2 thar for unsummon and aqueous form then youll have 4x of both its all you will need.

You definitely need more Blue sources, perhaps some Izzet Guildgate to keep it budget. You also might consider Voyaging Satyr over Elvish Mystic since he does double-duty with the Ancient and can help with double-color costs like Zegana. Speaking of Zegana you might want even more since you'll want as much card advantage as possible with all your mana and there aren't any better ways to get it outside of expensive Planeswalkers. Four Ruric Thar is a lot so that could be one place to swap out. Finally, I like Ghor-Clan Rampager to help push damage across from your giant Hydras; it's especially mean with Savageborn.

Simic Charm ? There is a lot of spot removal in the current meta :(

ColdHeartedSith - I've got Gruul Charm in there for essentially the same purpose as Aqueous Form; the number of creatures I control should outweigh the number of flyers they have so most of my attackers should get through. Clan Defiance is really useful, either for early(ish) game removal (with enough ramp) and as a late game win-con; casting it with 20 mana on turn 8 is brutal. I already have a full set of Sylvan Caryatids in there; I wouldn't run Zegana without some other form of blue mana production. Unsummon could work well with Ruric if you're willing to pay 6 life to completely shut your opponent down and would be useful for slowing them down while you're trying to get a combo out... I'll consider it. I know Ruric's legendary, but he's fairly important to the deck; not having him can be dangerous. Also I expect him to be the first creature to be on the receiving end of a doom blade, so it would be preferable to be able to cast him again as quickly as possible. It's a bit of a "rather safe than sorry" situation.

ChrisHansonBiomancin - It does look that way, but in all of my playtests I've never not had the mana to cast Zegana. I may well follow your advise and add another Zegana though, in which case the blue mana count will definitely go up. Voyaging Satyr is a good shout, but Elvish Mystic is a one drop, which allows for five mana by turn three, so given the prevalence of five drops in this deck he can be really helpful. Ideally I'd be running Arbor Elf but he's not in standard; I'll keep VS in mind though. I was considering some bloodrushers, since as far as I'm aware they're not considered instant/ sorcery so they won't anger Ruric. I'm not not sure what I'd take out to accommodate them though.

Fizz - That's a good call, I'll have a think about it and see if I can fit it in. The only problem is that Ruric doesn't like instants!

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

If you're considering Unsummon , Cyclonic Rift seems like a definite upgrade with all the ramping, or Simic Charm as someone else suggested for more options.

ChrisHansonBiomancin - Indeed it is, and I've just realised that Unsummon isn't even in standard! Now I think about it, CR could actually be devastating... I'm gonna have to put some thought into this; thanks for the suggestion!

Garruk's Horde could be an asset here, you essentially get extra cards to cast, and who cares if your opponent knows what your getting next.

There really isn't any problem with having a second Zegana in hand with the first still on the board, unless you don't want to draw too many cards (or sac the current one on the field).

It's likely Zegana will be your biggest creature out, so casting a second will make her slightly bigger than the previous, and you'll (likely) draw an obscene amount of cards. Then just sac the previous Zegana to the legendary rule and keep the second bigger Prime Speaker.

Sound good?

cklise - Sounds great! I probably should've read up on the "legendary rule" sooner; I thought you had to sacrifice all incidents of the offending legendary and presumed that this would occur before triggering her draw ability but you're right, you can just keep on casting her. Thanks for pointing that out!

AussieBloke - I've been thinking about what Garruk's Horde could replace but I'm not sure if he trumps anything else. My first thought was Borborygmos, but he's actually starting to becoming noticeably powerful in conjunction with Zegana so I really don't know.

I would get some temples and shock lands if you can afford them

pingpongball120 - I've got a breeding pool and a stomping ground and you can pick up the temples for under 2 pounds now so I may well throw some in. I just swapped them for guildgates to see how much the deck would cost me without them and then figured I may as well leave them there until I decide what I'm doing. I think the scy will be really useful.

add breeding pool

You're playing with Zhur-Taa Ancient.

You automatically get props from me for that. That card is so underrated right now.

I tried playing with it pre-rotation, and I found that it would auto-lose to Jund - due to Kessig Wolf Run - but since Wolf Run's no longer a thing... the time is perfect to abuse it. Best of luck with the deck. :D

Caedere - My first attempt at this deck always backfired because after I can't the Ancient my opponent would use the last of their doubled mana to kill him off so that I was left with no benefit whatsoever, but it looks Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and Prophet of Kruphix may well have fixed that problem! Thanks for the feedback and +1!

2npii The absolute best feeling in the world is casting Ruric Thar on the upkeep of a control player and having him resolve. :D