I think Ancient Stirrings is the best way to try and find an amulet. Even if it misses an amulet it can still grab a land or Spellskite

is Armada Wurm reasonable to think about in the sideboard at all? could do well against removal-heavy decks, but then why not use one of the shroud/hexproof angels.

Yeah, there's a few options against removal, you can put out multiple threats at once like that, shroud/hexproof, or have a heavy drawback when they try to kill it (Ruric Thar, the Unbowed). I prefer the threats that have evasion and generally stay there, but the choice is up to whomever is piloting the deck.

any thoughts on something like Smoldering Spires or Soaring Seacliff for evasion? might be good against something like tron where the opponent could also have out a fatty early on (like a wurmcoil engine, which would not be a good trade unless enough mana exists for double strike)

Yeah, I'd rather just wait for the doublestrike than clutter my manabase. Non-green utility lands have to do something very powerful for inclusion in this build. The number of non-green sources can really kill opening hands if it's any higher than it is now. I don't see either of those replacing any of my other non-green lands, so they just won't fit.

You should probably take Birthing Pod out of the "Possible Changes" section.

Ye, I guess it is no longer relevant if Gaddock Teeg stops Birthing Pod, thanks.

No, it's that fact that birthing pod just got banned...

Yes, which is why it is no longer relevant. I was never considering birthing pod, and it wasn't listed in that section other than as a card that Gaddock Teeg stops. I don't have the low CMC creatures to utilize Birthing Pod in here (not that it matters anymore). References to it have been removed nonetheless.

I've sped up the deck slightly, as the metagame seems to have really changed.

Put in more untapped mana sources, and put in another Abrupt Decay for when it's needed. The changes seem to be for the better so far.

but Acidic Slime was so good! it was the emergency Blood Moon killer for when you couldn't just wish it away.

Yeah, it was also powerful in the tron match, killing one of their pieces. It may go back in eventually, if I notice myself wanting it often. It seemed like a replaceable slower piece right now.

I find myself struggling against combo decks (in general) currently, and am trying to address that issue with faster interaction.

I'm having a trilemma about Fiery Justice, Firespout and Death Frenzy for the sideboard. any thoughts?

Fiery justice just doesn't seem to do enough when a Geist of Saint Traft is smacking me in the face.

I've gone with Firespout because it deals with most hexproof creatures and is cheap enough to be main boarded against aggro as a board wipe.

The choice is totally up to the pilot, depending on your meta and your other choices. I tend to try not to leave any massive holes in the type of cards we can deal with.

I'm torn between Scavenging Ooze and Abrupt Decay in the main. I don't want to cut either, and both feel like sideboard cards. Anyone see any other options? I'd like to keep 2 Abrupt Decay if at all possible, and come up with something else for the main that is good against "all decks."

Could Empyrial Archangel be an option to go to the main? Or should I cut it (or Elderscale Wurm) and put in something completely different?

Open to just about anything; I'm really liking the Swan Songs for combo matches, so I had to change up the boards and stuff a little bit to make the needed room.

I personally feel that you need an artifact mana sink, something else to get from Ancient Stirrings. Something where it doesn't need to tap and there are no extra costs associated with it. Chimeric Mass is IMO the best for doing this. One time, I was playtesting this exact deck and I ended up getting something like 12 mana but no Primeval Titan. This would have been the perfect time to throw Chimeric Mass out. The only way they could get rid of it is by Abrupt Decay, as that is the only mainboard artifact removal that people run. You could attack the next turn, making them use their removal on it rather that the Titan, or else face losing the game awfully quick.

You don't need an Ooze in your maindeck. Your Oozes will be a lot worse than the Oozees in Abzan, and will come down too late to really be impactful. Stick to two Abrupt Decay.

@Prima

I'd rather run Wurmcoil Engine or something like that if that's the case, paying more mana than the P/T isn't something I really want to do, especially with no upside. I see where you are coming from, maybe I'll test a couple artifacts out.

definitely lose the ooze. wurmcoil is something I've also considered. But, nothing seems to be under performing enough to get kicked out of the deck

I can't really outright cut Scavenging Ooze as he's my main source of grave hate. It also acts as 5 slots essentially due to Summoner's Pact if I really need to prevent something.

If there's another relatively cheap reusable source of hate, let me know, but I don't think I can really cut him right now with the recent unbanning of Golgari Grave-Troll. There's a lot of people trying to make dredge decks to capitalize on the lack of hate, and dredge 6 can be almost as bad as the two delve spells if built around and left unchecked.

I don't want to cut it if I don't have to, but it probably is one of the next slots to go if someone comes up with a better main board than Abrupt Decay.

Except no one's using their graveyard save for delve and Snapcaster Mage. You probably don't have the time nor the mana to actually stop delve by eating graveyards, and Snapcaster Mage isn't big enough an issue that Decay is worse than the Ooze.

There's living end, re animators, gifts, quite a few decks have functionality in their graveyards.

I just know the last time I felt "safe" to remove it, I ended up facing 3 grave-based decks.

They seem to go in a cycular manner, leaving the meta for the most part until people tend to forget about them. For example, Goryo's Vengeance and Living End are very difficult to deal with without some form of hate.

Fair enough. Those decks aren't particularly popular (at all), but I suppose it's nice to have access to it.

Well, those are the colorless cards I came up with (the maybeboard).

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Platinum Angel, and Steel Hellkite look like the most likely candidates to me. I'll give them all a few tests, and see if they warrant inclusion. Platinum Angel looks a little too close to Elderscale Wurm in its functionality, and for that slot, i'd prefer something that can be fetched with Summoner's Pact to something that can be found by Ancient Stirrings. I'll still test it nonetheless.

Honestly i like Ugin alot. 8 mana can be accomplished somewhat early if u get a titan out, and if the titan cant get there due to being removed, you have ramped to 8 mana and theyll have to deal with Ugin which alot of decks just cant beat. So let me know how that goes Barry.