Originally Posted by
georgjorge
I kind of see what you mean - after some testing, the "sacrifice creatures" plan is not good enough, so Culling / Shield Sphere / Intent need to be cut (or at least reduced to one or two copies). Burning-Tree Emissary is also not really needed.
In: the full 4 Elvish Spirit Guides plus a Foul Emissary. Foul Emissary is not reliable at all in finding a Spy, but there are situations where we don't have a spy, but too much mana and a Summoning Pact in hand, and Emissary at least gives us a shot at winning those games. And I'm still convinced that this deck needs LED, and have as of yet never been sad to see it in my hand.
The question is what the final six or seven cards in the deck should be, because nothing stands out to me as really good right now. I would probably put in another copy of a card to get the Swamp out of the deck (Lay of the Land or something), maybe a Dark Petition, maybe a Pact of Negation for non-LED hands. But after that...? I even thought of putting in three copies of Entomb and four copies of Exhume to increase the chance of going off.
Entomb would
- get a Spy on the table with Exhume
- put a Narcomoeba on the table as a sac outlet (though not so needed with less Cullings and Intents)
- make Traverse a better Spy tutor
Exhume would
- get a Spy on the table with Entomb
- add an extra mana with LED out and a Spy in hand (since it doesn't target)
- make a cheap Spy when it has been countered already
...but it's likely more cute than effective.