Have you considered doing an old school Hermit Druid line? With something like Dread Return and Razaketh, the Foulblooded or perhaps the buff strategy with the Devoted Druid you got in there with Wax.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I hadn't thought of Hermit Druid, but I'm not sure he would do enough with the current mana base. I will keep it in mind for once there are less basics.

I had Dread Return in an early draft, but I like the reanimation enchantments and Necromancy would be the next reanimation spell if I add more reanimation.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded is a great suggestion, I will try to find a place to fit him in.

As far as the buff strategy on Devoted Druid goes, I would probably go with enchantments over a spell again. So Carapace, Street Savvy, and Web would probably get in before Wax. (I just found out about two of those cards while doing a search because I forgot what Carapace was called.)

How is sacrificing things for altar legal while paying for Tayam's cost? I thought it was ok since the altars have mana abilities, but I've been told by a judge it wasn't possible.

Activating mana abilities (such as those on the altars)can be done while casting a spell or activating an ability. So, if the judge simply said "you can't do that" to activating the mana ability they were mistaken. There is a specific time when you can activate them though. And it is before costs are paid. So you can not take a counter off of a creature and sacrifice the same creature for mana to pay for a single Tayam activation.

In the explanations of my engines the "requires X mana to start" is in addition to the casting cost of the pieces and should allow you to sacrifice for mana and sill have enough counters. If you need to use the counter from the creature you are returning you sacrifice and float the mana after the activation goes on the stack but before it resolves.

Right! With your explanation it makes perfect sense now. I somehow thought you don't need to float the mana from altars. Thank you for the response a lot! :)

Might want to throw in a Seal of Strength, Briar Shield or Blossoming Defense. Including just one of these won't take the deck from where it is to "insane cEDH capability" in terms of power potential, but it will give you a nice efficient back up for those games where you underestimate an opponent who's deck turns out to be stiffer competition than expected since you're already running the Devoted Druid as the other half of that combo. A nice little silver bullet just in case for those few games where you might want or need it.

The "isn't cEDH" in the other thread was more geared toward the fact that, as I understand it, cEDH Tayam is an Abzan Stax deck that runs JUST the devoted druid combo. I enjoy the caller/spiritkeeper/recursion combos as well.

What is the difference between the cards you suggested and Gift of Granite for the additional piece in the Devoted Druid combo? Is it just for redundancy? I'm not opposed to adding or changing cards to make the deck better, I'm just trying to understand why them and not Web, Carapace, Holy Armor, Street Savvy, Allosaurus Shepherd, or Hashep Oasis since those are the ones I see more often.

In most cases any 1 cmc spell that can buff up your dork and give it 4 toughness is good enough, the only reason each of those cards would be considered a minor upgrade is the versatility of their functions beyond just enabling the infinite mana/mill portion of the line of play. Gift is obviously a strong performer because it can be used at instant speed. Blossoming Defense is a slight improvement over that because it also makes sure the Druid can't be targeted by opponents again after it resolves, making it the slightly more resilient performing option since you'll eliminate most targeted removal from being able to easily disrupt the combo (of course opponents will just remove the Tayam if the Druid is hexxed up and vice versa, but it'll cost them another card and a second investment of mana) and this can net you some minor card advantage (if, for example, they do spend that second spell, you're no longer being 2 for 1'ed and the trade becomes a 2 for 2 on both sides). The enchantments are largely the better option over both of the spell options simply because they function as win conditions at the same time. Since Tayam can mill out the deck and put all the creatures into play you can make the whole team big and beefy with the enchantments when looped and all you need to do is worry about giving the boys haste to swing for the win. Again, none of these inclusions is going to radically alter anything, it's just a minor optimization you could make if you were so inclined and felt the need for a trump card at some point in the future.

Ok, ty for the insight on why your suggestions could perform better. I'm not sure that it will add enough in my normal group to be worth juggling the deck around to accommodate.

I actually came here to steal ideas only to find myself mentioned rofl!

Very well thought out deck. Great description. Seems like a beast to play against, lowkey a bit scared haha. +1 Good work

A couple of comments....

While not an entirely serious suggestion, have you thought of adding Sun Titan and Angelic Renewal? Both with a sac outlet = infinite gravestorm. You already have so many lines making this unnecessary and 6 cmc is high given bolas citadel, but it's worth mentioning.

What purpose does Gift of Granite serve?

Oblivion Ring - I feel there is better removal in your colors like vindicate, sorin's vengence (I think thats the one), utter end, etc.... Why oblivion ring?

Soul-Guide Lantern > Tomords Crypt IMO. While it does cost slightly more mana, it hits each opponent. Moreover, it can be a cantrip when not needed and an additional (albeit bad) source of draw with your commander.

Lotus Bloom - Unless you get this turn 1 -3, I don't see it providing much impact. Why not replace with jeweled lotus or another ramp, draw or interaction piece?

Pull from Eternity - Meta call given that your entire deck revolves around 2 sac outlets that constantly get exiled? Seems a bit niche

Hey, thanks for taking the time to comment. First I am going to address the questions and then move onto the suggestions.

Gift of Granite is there to combo with Tayam and Devoted Druid. Making her toughness 4 allows you to tap for mana and untap by placing a -1/-1 counter 3 times completely fueling infinite Tayam activations. There are other card that can enable this line, but I like the aura because I can find it off of Lost Auramancers and flash I feel is the most useful of the +0/+2 for a single mana enchantments.

Oblivion Ring is there as a removal that can be returned with Tayam. Returning Eternal Witness to return an Anguished Unmaking might be a slightly stronger play, but would require more mana and more cards to have been milled if we encounter mid-combo permanent based disruption.

Lotus Bloom is there to make 3 mana incase we are able to establish a "counters only" loop with Tayam. You can repeatedly do the loop returning the Lotus Bloom until you are able to find one of the altars, or one of the Druid lines. It enables more varied versions of the engines. I have not taken the time to list them with all the other ones because I feel the primer is long enough at this point, I should probably put it in the line where I mention counters only engines. I'm not sure of another similar card outside of LED (price prohibitive) that would fill a similar role.

Pull from Eternity is because I am paranoid about things getting exiled and the entire fragile machine falling apart. I have never had it happen. I have actually never had a single integral piece exiled. But it is a security blanket for me. I might be making the deck strictly less powerful by doing this, but power level is quite high enough for my meta.

Sun Titan and Angelic Renewal are both good cards, but I'm not sure what I would cut for them. There is just so much redundancy already and i'm not sure that they would make any of the lines more resilient or more compact.

Soul-Guide Lantern is a great suggestion! There are so many new and varied variations of activated graveyard exile effects that I haven't kept up with all of them. I pulled the Tormod's Crypt from a M21 booster when I was intending to order a Nihil Spellbomb for the deck and just slotted it in and left it. I will definitely have to order a Lantern.

You don't think Gift of Granite is a bit too niche to just use with devoted druid? Curious how it's played out for you, meaning, how often is it a dead card? I find it and pull from eternity the easiest cuts (should you need to make room for future cards or other potential swaps). I respect the security blanket, my friend did the same with his eldrazi deck.

Demonic Tutor > Grim Tutor/Eldrami's call or is $ an issue?

The "buff the Druid" line of play is a bit niche, isn't the main focus of this Tayam deck, and requires 2 specific cards; that is why there is only 1 card slot devoted to it. There are six other cards I have seen commonly used to buff the Druid and three more that jaymc1130 suggested. So that I don't draw into dead cards I don't run them, only Gift of Granite. It may be confirmation bias or that I don't feel that one piece of a combo is a dead card if there are 10 tutors that can find the other piece. I have only been disappointed to see Gift of Granite once. On the flip side, it is responsible for a good number of the wins that the deck gets. Again this may be because I will tutor for it when Devoted Druid is out. The other druid engines require two additional cards making this the easiest one to tutor.

About the tutor situation- Money is a little bit of an issue, I'm not the type that will ever say "money is no object" about a game. Having said that, Demonic Tutor is already in the deck. The tutors that I want for the deck that I have not purchased and am waiting on either a reprint or a bonus at work are Vampiric Tutor and Enlightened Tutor. Vampiric will be a straight slot-in over Profane Tutor, and I'm not sure about Enlightened. It may get me to cut Pull from Eternity.