I've ordered the few cards I'm missing and settled on the update I'm going to make and, in theory, stick with for a while. The addition of the Breach combo gave me a lot to think about, and I didn't end up anywhere near where I started with my first list of potential changes, but I think this will work out well:
Myriad Landscape →
Fiery Islet - I've found landscape to be awkward every time I've had it in hand or played it, even though my basic count is high enough so it's not a brick. ETB tapped, only makes colorless, and it's too late to accelerate casting Kykar by the time I'm able to ramp with it. I'm happy to have acquired the canopy land and I think this is a strict upgrade.
Geier Reach Sanitarium →
Sunbaked Canyon - Sanitarium was ok for emergency draws and incrementally setting up a delve spell or
Past in Flames, but I'd rather have more duals than colorless group hug utility lands.
Mountain →
Celestial Colonnade - Red mana is the easiest for the deck to come by for obvious reasons, so another UW dual is welcome even though it enters tapped. The added benefit of a 4/4 flyer that can help secure a win in conjunction with
Jeskai Ascendancy and friends, or be a clutch blocker post board wipe, is also appealing.
3x Diamonds →
Fellwar Stone,
Thought Vessel, and
Chromatic Lantern - The diamonds did the job of ramping into Kykar and providing colored mana just fine, but they were terrible mid to late game draws that didn't help keep a chain of spells going due to entering tapped. Fellwar and Vessel don't enter tapped, and are really just placeholders until I own an
Arcane Signet and
Talisman of Progress. Lantern doesn't help ramp into Kykar, but I think it will prove indispensable on turns where I am going off and white and/or blue mana is often the limiting factor.
Nin, The Pain Artist →
Underworld Breach - I've already written a small novel about breach in the last week or two, so I won't belabor the point here. Nin didn't live in the list very long, but out she goes since Breach will now be the undisputed centerpiece of the deck's biggest source of card advantage. If I find that I still need more raw card draw instead of a bunch of cantrips, she'll probably come back in place of something. . .
Vandalblast maybe? I dunno. Cuts are very hard at this point.
Treasure Cruise →
Burning Inquiry - I'm sad to see an old friend go, but delve interferes with escaping anything beyond the breach/inquiry loop, which is just too explosive to pass up.
Dig Through Time →
Brain Freeze - More bittersweet sentiments here for a beloved Khans draw spell, but the rationale is essentially the same. Freeze is monster card advantage in conjunction with breach and can also just win the game outright.
Mystic Retrieval →
Sevinne's Reclamation - Yet another difficult cut. Mystic is great and enabled some powerful plays, but the reality is I have plenty of good spells to sling but am more tightly restricted on token engines and payoffs. I have no other recursion for permanents, and Sevinne's gets back Pyromancer, Mentor, Tremors, Bombardment, Ascendancy, Saheeli, Skullclamp, Sunforger, and any of my mana rocks, and it can do so up to 3x per game. I'm not fooling anyone though. . . the real reason it's being added is to get back
Underworld Breach.
Eldrazi Monument →
Valor in Akros - This is just a trial for the moment. It was going to be a trial for
Leyline of Anticipation, but I've been playing the deck long enough to see
Jeskai Ascendancy and
Cathars' Crusade do filthy things, so I'm liking the idea of adding a bit more redundancy of a team prowess effect. The breach/inquiry loop made up my mind for me.
Visions of Beyond →
Idyllic Tutor - Visions was great when it was just incidental value from my yard filling up naturally. However, now I have a whole new gameplan for the yard, and by the time it has 20+ cards in it I'm more than likely able to do something far more powerful than draw 3. We can just call Idyllic a placeholder for the
Enlightened Tutor I hope to own someday, but it's certainly not a "bad" placeholder. It's main job will of course be to tutor up
Underworld Breach, but it can also get Ascendancy, Valor, Visitation, Crusade, Procession, Tremors, or Bombardment. Not too shabby!
Time will tell with testing, but I think the list is really solid after this update. The current hole I don't like, which [mention]Nimbaway[/mention] mentioned earlier, is the lack of haste for an explosive game winning turn. I think pseudo haste from instant speed token production on an opponents end step + the
Jeskai Ascendancy effects on my turn, or
The Locust God + the breach/inquiry loop, will likely be enough. Even if they aren't,
Impact Tremors and
Goblin Bombardment help me cheat the system a bit. Failing all that, I still have
Brain Freeze. If I
still find myself falling short often enough, I can start looking at stuff like
Mass Hysteria or
Heroic Reinforcements.
I hope to get the card choice section of the OP updated accordingly in the next couple of weeks and then it might just be ready to apply for primer status. Any feedback is much appreciated! pssst. . . [mention]toctheyounger[/mention], I'm looking at you