Right I see. But a board wipe should kill him in the process too, and he won't be able to use his tap effects since he's already hit the gy. Are you giving him indestructible? Check out this for reference (sorry I didn't look up the official ruling) http://imtgapp.com/forum/index.php?topic=25884.0

rockleemyhero,
Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, this only works if I have a sac' engine out. Just sac' everybody in response to the boardwipe, making sure that the Sharpshooter dies last.

Ahh lol my bad on the mis communication, I hope I didn't come off too harsh! That makes more sense. That works well with Fecundity but you have a meta filled with other token decks right? If that's still the case then I wouldn't include it unless you feel you can get more out of it. If you stack your +1/+1 counters right then Elemental Bond might be pretty sweet!

Elemental Bond wouldn't trigger if a creature became power 3 or greater after entering the battlefield. It would need to enter the battlefield with the counters (eg. Bloodspore Thrinax. Also, I wouldn't recommend Elemental Bond, even though it is only a 3 drop. It forces you to draw a card, which CAN backfire harshly. I'd recommend Garruk's Packleader over Elemental Bond any day. It may cost 2 more mana, but it doesn't force you to draw. Now, I personally wouldn't think about adding it to this deck as it pumps 1/1 creature, normally. I wouldn't add in a single card that doesn't do anything for the deck on its own.

rockleemyhero,
I do have some other token decks in the group, but even if I didn't, I'm not a fan of Fecundity due to the group hug aspects.

rockleemyhero and Zerienga,
While I'm sure Elemental Bond and Garruk's Packleader are good in a bunch of decks, they would be a dead cards far too often in this deck. I'll stick with Mentor of the Meek and stack my ETB triggers the other way (putting the draw on the stack so it resolves before the +1/+1 counters).

Incidentally, that's exactly why I like counters better that the "get +1/+1" effects of things like Eldrazi Monument, which I can't stack as I see fit.

I figured they would be dead cards in the deck. I mentioned Garruk's Packleader as it is the better (imo) of the two cards. That's why I mentioned that I wouldn't recommend them for this deck. This deck doesn't create large creatures (except for the dragons) usually. You might get to draw a few cards off of them, but minimal card draw that's too conditional for a specific deck does not warrant a spot. I personally run Elemental Bond in my Zendikar's Awakening, Omnath, Locus of Rage deck since it pumps out creature consistently for the card draw, and I hadn't known about Garruk's Packleader at the time and have yet to grab one.

Zerienga,
Yeah I totally agree. I added you in the second part of my comment because of the continued discussion on ETB triggers and because I don't like the card for different reasons (I'm not as concerned about the lack of "may" effect). But sorry if it made it look like you were in favor of the cards! :-)

The saproling tokens would never be able to activate Elemental Bond. This is because when they enter the battlefield they are 1/1s and then cathars crusade makes them stronger. On the other hand, if you had Collective Blessing in play they would enter the battlefield as 4/4s so it would activate in that circumstance.

If you question my judgment, just remember this is pretty much word for word what Epochalyptik has said.

You also don't need to change the stack with Mentor of the Meek. His ability only checks how strong the creature is when it enters the battlefield. It doesn't care if that power changes at some point.

Lanzo493,
I wouldn't question you on that at all ... the Gatherer text on Elemental Bond makes it pretty clear: Static abilities that raise (or lower) a creatures power are taken into account. However, you can't have a creature with power 2 or less enter the battlefield and try to raise its power with a spell, an activated ability, or a triggered ability.

I was thinking about cards with "intervening if clauses," like Sigil Captain. That's what I get for trying to comment on cards with which I'm not that familiar! :-)

Hadn't seen Drumhunter, Quest for Renewal, or Berserkers' Onslaught before. Not sure they fit my Rith deck, but I think I might have other spots for them. (I've had Mayael and Sisay decks rolling around in the back of my head for a while...)

Salad_Thunder,
Yeah, I've been super-pleased with Drumhunter and the Onslaught. Quest for Renewal is a new add ... it was great in playtesting, but I've yet to play it in a real game. But I'm loving the idea of a Seedborn Muse-like card at a fraction of the cost and (hopefully) a fraction of the hate!

Tiddilywinkus and rockleemyhero,
So I've been goldfishing a bunch of different ramp options, adding anywhere from 1-6 fetches/artifacts and pulling from 1-6 dorks:

• Fetches/Artifacts: Cultivate; Kodama's Reach; Yavimaya Elder; Tempt with Discovery; Sylvan Scrying; Ashnod's Altar.
• Dorks: Avacyn's Pilgrim; Citanul Hierophants; Druid of the Anima; Gyre Sage; Joiner Adept; Sylvan Caryatid

I seem to be getting the best results from ...

• IN: Cultivate and Kodama's Reach; plus Terramorphic Expanse (raising my land total to 37)
• OUT: Avacyn's Pilgrim; Druid of the Anima; Joiner Adept

But I'm still surprised by how slow it is and how often I misfire compared to the current build. When I swap all the dorks out for example, I lose almost a whole turn on average :-P ... and even with my "optimal" mix it's slower. Of course I gain smoother draws late game and a (much) more durable board, but I'm really on the fence about making the change.

I wanted to ask if you think I'm missing something. Some key card maybe? Or now I'm mulliganing wrong? Or something?

I appreciate any thoughts/suggestions you may have!

Read through some of the previous comments, and especially on Goblin Sharpshooter i might suggest Blasting Station instead.it doesnt give some of the same "rattlesnake" effect as you might want but you can get some pretty crazy interactions from it

Well now its a matter of playstyle, at least thats what it sounds like. Do you feel like you are missing a turn because you dont have a dork to play? Or are you just not ramping past enough. My play style often doesnt focus on the first couple turns, often times i may play one or two ramp effects or nothing at all. In commander my focus is usually on turns 5 onward, I want a steller late fan and to have all the mana i need for it then, if i dont play a single permanent until turn 5 except lands or ramp, im fine with that.

If yiu are truely missing a turn, as in no land drops and no ramp effects then yes something might have to change, but if you hit your land and have to pass the turn, that is completely fine if you are getting a much smoother late game in my own opinion. This is also completely dependent on youe meta (fast vs slow, or moderate) and how you as an individual want your deck to run. I like mine to be unassuming in the beginning and then turn on the steam and never run out of it late game.

Tiddilywinkus,
Yeah, I wasn't clear there. I don't mind durdling for a few turns either, but I really need to have 6 mana with enough fixing to cast Rith on turn 6. "Losing a turn" = going from average of enough to cast Rith by turn 5.5 to turn 6.5 :-(

My thoughts are this: In multiplayer EDH, I rather have a safer, "battlecruiser" type deck than an explosive deck that is a turn faster, and leads to more people ganging up on me. IMO, that's the biggest problem with going heavy dork-ramp instead of spells or artifacts. I understand the draw of getting extra colors for rith's ability but in my experience, it doesn't matter much as all it takes is one activation (maybe 2) and some buffs to win out of nowhere.

However, it's also meta-dependant. Many groups are heavy on the board wipes, which make dorks very hard to use effectively. Again, I much rather play a "battlecruiser", a little slower but much more resiliance and effectiveness mid-late game than an explosive deck that runs out of steam quicker, has more holes in it, and draws more hate from the table. Consider as well that games are more than one match....you don't want to give people a reason to gang up on you next match, and it's even worse when you want to switch decks to something else haha.

Tiddilywinkus and rockleemyhero,
As always, thanks TONS for your comments!

As I go back and forth on the different ramp strategies, I'm glad to hear the "slowness" is more about tradeoffs and playstyle than me doing something obviously wrong!

Short story is I'm going to leave the deck as-is for now.

Partly because I splurged on the deck after the holidays so the next round of upgrades have to be at trade-speed rather than buy-speed. Partly because of full OGW spoiler later today, which will open up a bunch of new opportunities and threats. And partly because I'm going to be doing bunch of traveling over the next couple months, which will mean a MUCH broader meta for me and the deck (due to more LGS pick-up games and less local playgroup games).

But mostly because whenever I'm on the fence about a deck decision I go with what the Commander would want. And I'm confident Rith would chose the "smashface soonest" option! :-D

Again though, thanks tons!

Tiddilywinkus,
Circling back on Blasting Station: I'd dismissed it early on because I like Goblin Bombardment much better. But I had never thought about it as a replacement for Goblin Sharpshooter. I'll give that a look.

how about Parallel Lives for more tokens and counters

lizardwarrior,
Great idea, but I've already got it :-)
(It's under Utilities ... the custom categories are cool, but cards are not always where you might expect them)

Also, Parallel Lives is tokens only. You may be thinking of Doubling Season (out of budget for me) or Primal Vigor (in my meta, way too much of a group hug card for my tastes).

I've gotta say, this deck seems to have everything. I might consider using Lightning Greaves over the Swiftfoot Boots. Of course if hexproof is preferable, the 1 mana is well worth it. But an even more comprehensive protection card I'll suggest is Whispersilk Cloak instead of Trailblazer's Boots. Unblockable outright plus shroud is going to benefit you more often than just nonbasic landwalk in my opinion.

CosmicTurban,
Thanks much for the kudos and your thoughts! I ran Lightning Greaves in the deck for a long time, but really grew to hate Shroud (which is why I'm avoiding the Cloak as well). I just have too many spells and abilities where I want to target Rith myself ... Forgotten Ancient counters, Strionic Resonator activations, Fanatical Devotion regenerations, etc.

Strionic Resonator doesn't care if the source of the triggered ability has shroud. It only targets the ability, not the source of the ability. Also, when copying Rith's triggered ability, you need to choose to pay 2G again in order for the copy to do anything.