Originally Posted by
Tao
Thx for the feedback. Here are my thoughts to your ideas.
Ather Vial: First of all Vial because the card sounds logical and good. But I don't like Aether Vial in this deck: While it gets the creatures around Countermagic, it does not get the Survival around Countermagic so you run out of creatures very fast if they can counter. If you don't have Survival your creatures are cheap enough to just be casted. And with Survival it is worse and takes more slots than the Iona Combo. Goblins, Merfolk and D&T work different and Vial is much better in these decks.
Iona/Retainers Combo: This Combo is WAY too good to not be played. It is cheap, doesn't take many slots and is not disrupted by Removal. The combination of it's strength and simplicity easily crushes the theory of "don't play too Combo-ish because if you have Survival you are in a good shape anyways". All other Survival Combos are either clumsy or easily disruptable or take way too many slots or need more cards than just Survival + creature to go online. The Combo will easily win you far more games that you would have lost otherwise than it loses you because you drew a Combo piece instead of a spell. It is not even close.
Sylvan Library: I like this idea a lot and have replaced E Tutors with it. The deck needs a 5th and 6th spell with impact beneath Survival, and Library might be better than E Tutor. However, I somehow also miss the flexibility of E. Tutors, getting your yard and combo hate right on turn 2 was always good. Really not sure between the two cards but I think Library is the right choice.
Finks Count: I first started with a 3/3 split between Finks and KotR, then removed one Fink to get a 3rd Pridemage and finally decided to go split 4/1. The logic behind that was to follow your own instead of trying to prepare for every single deck, be it Zoo or Dredge or Countertop. It would just take up so many slots, a Faerie Macabre here, Wickerbough Elder there, another Fink here, also Genesis and soon you have to cut a whole playset of something.
That said I might be wrong about Finks because they are not only good in the Zoo matchup, they are also good against both Tribal decks and somehow solid in ever other matchup.
No CB-Solution MD: The only thing WB Elder does what Pridemage does not is to destroy CB. Unlike a few month ago Countertop isn't the defining deck of the format anymore. Zoo, ANT and Merfolk are at least the same in popularity and furthermore there are always like 50 decks around in Legacy so Countertop won't be more than 15-20% of the field.
Also WB Elder is not likely going to destroy Counterbalance because it requires so much to happen. It requires you to have an active Survival while they have Countertop active, then you have to have 5 Mana (better 6 Mana so they can't Daze/Sword it) on the table and them having no Force of Will. And if all that really happened then they are not allowed to just go Brainstorm - Ponder - next Counterbalance. All this combined is so unlikely that it makes it much better to play a better card MD (like another Finks) and just rely on Pridemages for Disenchants and let Grips take care of CBs.
The Countertop matchup is not bad. You pressure them a lot and if they can't find their Combo right away they get too far behind on the board, especially if they couldn't take care of Mother of Runes.
Mangara: Danger of cool things alert ;)
It might be possible to abuse him in a D&T Survival but in this deck it is not good. Survivaling him up and then waiting a whole turn doesn't make the cut, if you can target the problem you already have Pridemages to tutor or 4 Swords to draw (or Witness to regain Swords). Your list would be better with the 4th Mother of Runes instead of him.
Sylvan Safekeeper: I think Mother of Runes is superior in every way. Mother can also block and give evasion but most importantly doesn't force you choose between 2 bad things (losing a land and sacrificing a creature).
Maze/Kor Haven: I think Kor Haven needs too much Mana to be worth. Usually you want to be the aggressive player or at least be in the race but if you spend one Knight activation and from then on tap 3 Mana each turn to fog one creature you pretty much quit the race.