[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

[Arianrhod]

Here's the categories I'm thinking of specifically as I'm looking at rebuilding Rector:

GSZ Wincon: Sigarda
Nightmare Wincon: Yosei -- pretty sure he's actually better than Kokusho =(
Nightmare Recursion: ???
(Ideally) Nightmare Tutoring: ??? [Brutalizer]
GSZ Tutoring: See above
GSZ Ramp: Sakura-Tribe Elder
GSZ Removal: ???
GSZ Lifegain: TUSK.
Rector Removal: Faith's Fetters
Rector Sweep: Moat/Deed
Rector Wincon: Phyrexian Arena/Nightmare

Nightmare recursion is currently filled by Sun Titan....bringing back any permanent 3 or less is awfully broken. I don't often loop Titan with Nightmare, but it has come up a few times. I could play more Witnesses, but then I'm very dependent on Witness, and if that gets Surgicaled, my noncreature recursion is completely gone. I'm not sure that anything else exists for this slot beyond Witness and Sun Titan.

The GSZ/Nightmare tutoring slot is currently Fierce Empath, although obviously that doesn't get looped with Nightmare very often. Rune-Scarred Demon is far and away the most powerful effect with Nightmare, but that's also ludicrously expensive to set up, which makes it not the best choice. From what I've seen, GSZ has Empath, Beast-Tracker, and Exarch as options...which are all somewhat less than stellar.

GSZ Removal is basically nonexistent as well. There's Master of the Wild Hunt, Ulvenwald Tracker, and .... nothing else. With as much as they've been pushing Prey Upon, I'm hoping they'll make a green creature that Preys Upon when it comes into play...that would be perfect for this slot. For now I think it just gets left open and I run a traditional removal spell in its place.

So yeah ... that's where I'm at in my thought process right now. Very little is certain, I'm afraid, lol.

[Greenpoe]

For GSZ-enabled removal, Glissa, the Traitor could be your answer. First strike+deathtouch means she'll kill off any ground-based attackers without dying herself, or swing through whatever creatures your opponents have out and still live (unless they have Mirran Crusader or something). 3 power is pretty solid, too.

[Claymore]

Surely you haven't forgotten about Gargantuan Gorilla!

Glissa is too defensive for a removal slot. She would have to get paired with Ulvenwald Tracker, which would get benefit of having Garruk Relentless in play, but overall the package would be slow and vulnerable to removal.

Vhati il-Dal can function as pseudo removal and can be defensive, but only for combat related business...although sometimes that's all you need. Plays well with Darkblast and Master of the Wild Hunt.

Sisters of Stone Death, while massively expensive, does neat things.

By the way, has Teneb, the Harvester ever come up in here? Seems like a solid creature, although he has no immediate impact.

[Megadeus]

I understand that having GSZ do everything is ideal, but I think you should just forget a green sun removal target and just hope your STP and such get there. Also therapy naming their huge threats is not bad especially when both of you are ramping. Games where master gets online early he is absolutely amazing, but he is just underwhelming a lot of the time and very slow

[Arianrhod]

Yeah, I'm not suggesting Master at all. I've tried him in the past, and he's been varyingly good and bad depending on the meta. Pretty sure the meta is just bad for him at the moment.

Gargantuan Gorilla might be one of the funniest, worst cards I have ever seen. I had no idea that even existed.

I've got something different in mind for Glissa ;-)

Teneb has come up a long time ago....he suffers from two problems. One, as you mentioned, is that he doesn't do anything on coming in or leaving play. The other is that he's legendary. Karakas is SO unbelievably popular that playing a legendary creature that doesn't either protect itself (Sigarda/Thrun) or does something when you loop it through a sac outlet (Yosei/Kokusho) is a horrible idea. His ability is nifty, but it isn't so amazing as to try to make him work through his problems.

I'm about 95% sure that a good GSZ removal option just doesn't exist at the moment. It's something I can see them printing in the future, but for now, I think it's just an impossibility.

The tutoring slot is of far more interest to me, anyway. It might be that I'll just have to suck it up and not have a tutor option, but I'm at least going to try Exarch once or twice at local events to see how bad he actually is before dismissing him completely.

[bruizar]

Here is my intuition list. I decided not to make a picture of my deck, since my Scavenging Ooze is not at my place and I can't put myself to shame with a proxy when there's a Japanese Ooze that should be in the deck. Maybe I'll do it later :D

Exploration Rites.dec


4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Eternal Witness
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Intuition
3 Diabolic Intent
1 Gigapede
1 Unburial Rites
1 Palinchron
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Griselbrand
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Unearth

1 Dryad Arbor
23 Land / 11 fetch / 6 or 7 basics (1 plains) / rest duals (1 white dual).

//Sideboard:
//Unburial Rites Package
1 Elesh-Norn, Grand Cenobyte
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Angel of Despair / Terastodon / Woodfall Primus / Empyrial Archangel / Realm Razer / whatever other non-legendary bomb you might want to run in your particular meta.
//GSZ Package
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Riftsweeper / 1 Xantid Swarm / Trygon Predator / Scryb Ranger / whatever other metaslots you may want to use
//Rest
Depends on your meta
[/CARDS]

game plan:
turn 1 Probe/Therapy
turn 2 Veteran Explorer/Therapy/EoT Intuition
turn 3 Reanimate Griselbrand, draw insane stuff and proceed to assemble palinchron loop.

Favorite Intuition piles:
1x Unburial Rites, 1x Gigapede, 1x Griselbrand
1x Unburial Rites, 1x Gigapede, 1x Palinchron
3x Cabal Therapy
2x Eternal Witness, 1x Recurring Nightmare
2x Cabal Therapy, 1x Eternal Witness
3x Eternal Witness, cast everything, then pick intuition for 3 other cards.
2x Eternal Witness, 1x Unearth

Favorite Diabolic Intent targets:
Intuition -> Best card in the deck

Pernicious Deed -> Sometimes we need to push the panic button

Hymn to Tourach -> Sack Explorer, get Hymn to Tourach and crush his hand so he can't do much with his new lands. Makes Diabolic Intent serve as Cabal Therapy 5, 6 and 7 with one of 8-GSZ/explorer out.

Favorite GSZ targets pre-board:
Scavenging Ooze -> GSZ for X = 2 to give the impression that you are dodging Spell Snare and just want an explorer. Then, pick Ooze and start eating away Snapcaster targets.
Gigapede -> This card is so good against Jace, and it enables broken intuition plays. I highly recommend gigapede to anyone playing this deck. Jace -1 and +2 don't effect Gigapede at all, and 6 damage is more loyalty than Jace can ramp. It dodges Engineered Exposives and Swords to Plowshares as well. You should watch out for Gigapede though.

Single Card Explanation
Griselbrand
Griselbrand generally gives you enough fuel to win on the spot or the turn after. Griselbrand is the vanilla rites target to go, since drawing 7 is always good, whereas Elesh-Norn or Iona are sometimes dead.
Gigapede
Gigapede is a very resilient beater, GSZ and Intuition target. He enables intuition for unburial rites, leaving you with a Gigapede in hand and a Griselbrand in play, or both a Palinchron and a Gigapede in play, which can be swapped for infinite mana with recurring nightmare.
Eternal Witness
A lot has been said about this card, so I will not cover the basics. However, in this build, Eternal Witness performs an extra task. When you go infinite with Palinchron and Recurring Nightmare, this also means you have infinite comes into play triggers for witness. This means you can recast every spell a zillion times, including your intuition which can tutor up your entire deck, deed the board, and allow you to recast every threat you have.
Diabolic Intent
When the best card in your deck is a single-card win condition, you want access to more of those. Demonic Tutor is a pretty good card, and in this deck, you can get some extra value out of it by sacrificing veteran explorers. This card also doubles as cabal therapy 5, 6 and 7.
Cabal Therapy
I have a great record with Meddling Mage and Cabal Therapy. Therapy is the absolute king of discard if you know your meta well enough. Next to intuition, Cabal Therapy is the best card in the deck.
Gitaxian Probe
Gitaxian Probe is a really nice card. Some people might like to run Brainstorm instead, but I am currently settling for my probes.
Palinchron
Wins the game

What I currently miss
Kitchen Finks
Sometimes, I wish I had 1 extra Kitchen Finks to fuel Cabal Therapy and Diabolic Intent a little easier. The life-gain and solid body would also help buy me a lot of time. I think Finks is still better than Thragtusk, and miles better than Spike Feeder.

Selkie Hedge-mage
Selkie Hedge-mage is a wonderful card because she bounces back flipped delvers and gains life. It's an enormous tempo swing when Selkie Hedgemage resolves.

[Claymore]

Very interesting. The only thing I see is that, past Griselbrand just drawing 7-14 cards a turn, I don't see what you do with infinite Palinchron mana, and if you've been taking damage then even Griselbrand can only do so much. Have you considered throwing in a 'I win now' condition like Kokusho to cycle with Nightmare?

Yes, you should win quickly against fair decks thanks to nigh-infinite Deeds (Witness + Nightmare), but I'm concerned about those times when the unfair deck will still combo out regardless of your 2 fatties in play.

Edit: D'oh, guess I missed the part about Witness tutoring your entire deck with Intuition...which would account for everything between the Deeds and recurring discard.

[Qweerios]

That's a very interesting take on Nic Fit. It looks like a combo deck to me with a fairly weak Gigapede/Deed backup plan. How do you battle GY hate and counterspells?

Also, wow at Selkie Hedge-Mage! I didn't know that card existed and it is definitely replacing my SB Finks in my Gifts Fit deck.

[bruizar]

Graveyard hate is very easy to play through. With all those deeds and tutors you should be able to clear the. Way. Also, a tapped out player can just get intuition-> rites out of nowhere.

the deck really needs its cabal therapies against counter heavy decks and, unfair combo decks that are faster simply beat this deck from what I can tell. I haven't bothered to play against show and tell yet.

I have been thinking about including life from the loam so I can get access to lands from the sideboard (bosejiu, Karakas, ghostqaurter, volraths stronghold are the main candidates). Stronghold and quarter is especially interesting since loam will dredge into rites and a fatty eventually, so I can grind out control players with loam perhaps.

Kokusho was tried and cutted since it doesn't win on the spot. Griselbrand at least draws 7 to 14 cards and post board Griselbrand becomes elesh Norn in most of the matches.

We also tested Karn liberated, which actually wasn't that bad, but I want to keep the decks curve as normal as possible. I would consider cards like figure of destiny, level up or kicker cards but I haven't looked at those yet.

[HoneyT]

@Arianrhod

Turntimber Basilisk is GSZ-able. Pseudo-removal that works pretty well with fetches and Explorers. Problem is you have to untap with it. It's something anyway =/

@bruizar

Have you considered a transformative sideboard to make your deck less reliant on the graveyard? Boarding out the combo pieces in favor of Grave Titan, Jace and the like could be pretty good. Makes the opponents who board in yard hate have a ton of dead cards. It attacks from a different angle. Just food for thought!

[bruizar]

I haven't really considered going transformational yet. Right now, I'm more focused on thinking of a way to beat show and tell. Meddling Mage is actually very potent at combatting Show and Tell, but what I dislike is the fact that I can't really zenith for it, so I would need to dedicate multiple slots to it. That said, Meddling Mage gets progressively better in multiples (First SNT, then Burning Wish). Naming SnT and then following up with a Zenith for Teeg shuts of both Sneak attack and Show and Tell. This would give me 8 life topdecks after the first Meddling Mage (3 mage, 4 zenith, 1 teeg). They would have to board in Red Elemental Blasts / Pyroblasts in the third game to deal with Meddling Mage though, so unless you already win game 1, Meddling Mage isn't going to save you in a tournament.

[dakkon]

I played this list to a 32nd place finish at Gencon going 6-3:

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Sylvan Library
1 Regrowth
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eternal Witness
2 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Elsepth, Knight-Errant
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sigarda
1 Sun Titan
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Scrubland
2 Savannah
4 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Dryad Arbor

SB
2 ETutor
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Wheel of Sun/Moon
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Thalia
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Revoker
1 Needle
1 Krosan Grip

Wins:
Infect (2-1)
MUD (2-0)
Elves (2-1)
Quinn (2-1)
Dredge (2-0)
Esperblade (2-1)

Losses:
RUG Delver (1-2)
Hypergenesis (1-2)
Past in Flames (0-2)

I'll probably write a more detailed report next week. The 75 was solid and my SB did a lot of work. My loss to RUG was heartbreaking as I had g2 locked up and got him down to 1 hp but then got land flooded while he drew Submerge, Delver, Delver. This puts me in the Hypergenesis bracket (and other niche combo decks) against which I stand no chance.

[PollePotDK]

Went to a local tournament yesterday, with about 17 players. It’s an event that fires every second week and is actually the main reason why there’s a Legacy scene in Aarhus, Denmark. There’s also a group of people, whom also come to these events, that organize larger events (30-50 participant) now and then, which attracts participants from Germany also, which is nice. There could be more of them, but the main reason for this is the time (they’re students) and the possibility to get rooms to the events, but the price for these, would increase the entry fee to much and would keep people away. This also influence the size of the prizes, which are smaller than those most of you can win. For me it’s ok, because I attend the events to play and have fun, because I enjoy playing Magic – not to win large prizes.

First of all the list, which is pretty much similar to Arianrhod’s list, with small modifications to match my meta. Against the fair decks I don’t see a problem with the main deck, since it covers it pretty much, but then there are the occasional Dredge deck and different Combo decks (Hive Mind, Sneak and Show, Dream Halls, Hypergenesis, ANT, T.E.S, Elves, …), which I dedicate the sideboard to. Please feel free to comment on the list compared to the meta I have described.

Main board:
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Eternal Witness
3 Academy Rector
1 Fierce Empath
1 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Baneslayer Angel
1 Sun Titan
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star

3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Green Sun's Zenith

3 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Faith's Fetters
1 Moat

1 Vindicate
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
3 Bayou
2 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
2 Phyrexian Tower

Sideboard:
3 Carpet of Flowers
3 Extirpate
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Humility
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Nether Void
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Memoricide
1 Aven Mindcensor

Round 1 – T.E.S (Simon):
Crap – hate facing Storm decks. Generally hate Combo decks, except my own Hulk-Rebirth deck, which sadly enough isn't very playable in today’s meta, since it’s swamped with RUG Delver deck (also featured 3 of them yesterday), but that’s what we have Nic Fit for

Game 1:
He’s on the play and he vomits 14 Goblin tokens out on the table on turn 2. I got Top and 2 lands on board and a Therapy in graveyard by the end of my turn 2. I chump-block one of the tokens and gets two lands and start to dig for one of the seven outs I got (Deed, Rector or Moat), but even though I got a fetch land to shuffle I don’t get there.

Game 2:
I land Chains on turn 2 with the help of Enlightened Tutor and shuts of his cantrip. Two turns later I naturally draw into Nether Void and that’s all she wrote.

Game 3:
Pretty much similar to game 2, but he cabal therapy mu Chains and Nether Void, but Eternal Witness joins the party and returns the Nether Void and he scoops them up with a board state saying Him: 6 goblin tokens, Me: Eternal Witness and Nether Void with plenty of lands and a semi-full grip.

2-1
1-0

Round 2 – Combo Elves with Mirror Entity and Emy (Lasse):
Pretty good match-up, even though it’s Combo of some sort.

Game 1:
I Deed and Plows key Elves the first couple of turns – makes two mistakes, where I go for his Mirror Entity rather than his Wirewood, which probably costs me game 1. He combos and Emy comes in for 15 and rapes my board.

Games 2+3:
Humility + Curse of Death’s Hold spells GG – loving it

4-2
2-0

Round 3 – Merfolk (Martin):

Game 1:
Mulligans to 6 and keeps a very slow hand – probably should have mulliganed to 5. 3 Lands, Thragtusk, Rector and Deed. He’s on the play and by turn 4 he’s beating for 13. I scoop when he counters my Rector for Moat.

Game 2:
I Deed him out two times and land Baneslayer, which gets Gilded Draked. I top a Plow for that and Fierce Empath, Gilded Drake and Rector beats until Sigarda joins the party and he scoops.

Game 2 went long and had about 13 minuts left on the clock for game 3

Game 3:
Pretty good opener with 3 or 4 lands, 2 Deeds and something else. I control the board and he’s floated with Gilded Drakes and Phantasmal Images with an empty board. Unfortunately time is called when I land Baneslayer Angel and we shake hands for the draw.

5-3-1
2-0-1

Round 4 – MUD (Felix):
Felix use to play Lands.dec and actually finished in 16th place out of 1350 or so participants at GP Ghent this year, so I knew I was up for a fight. I knew he played MUD, since he had asked for some cards before the tournament started, but either way I thought I was favored against both decks.

Game 1:
He’s on the play and starts with Ancient Tomb into Grim Monolith. I had forest into Top – not impressive. Then the following happens. He thinks for a while before play a land into Wurmcoil Engine and then says “that wasn’t probably not the correct play”. I draw a Veteran Explorer I think. Plays it sac it to Phyrexian Tower, finds two plains and tops in hope of find one of my two Plows. I see both (lucky me ) and it’s goodbye Wurmcoil. I then Therapy him naming Kudoltha Forgemaster and hits two in his hand and he’s pretty much crippled from that point on I think to myself. He draws into enough lands that he can land Sundering Titan and destroys my lands. I top into more Explorers and with Phyrexian Tower I eventual gets there after numerous mistakes, because I lose sight of the board state with two Chalice (@1 and @3) and my big ass graveyeard.

Game 2:
This was a pretty epic game for me. I keep 3 lands, Top, Veteran Explorer, Cabal Therapy and some other card I can’t remember. Needless to say, if he go turn 1 Chalice @1 I’m screwed. He mulled to 6 and go Cavern go – dodges that bullet. I go Therapy naming Chalice and miss. He goes Revoker naming Top. My turn draw another Cabal Therapy. Play Veteran Explorer. Flashback Therapy for lands naming Greaves hitting two and follow up with the other therapy naming Kudoltha Forgemaster leaving him with a Spellskite in hand. He plays that next turn and I Deed my turn + Rector -> he scoops.

7-3-1
3-0-1

There should have been 5 rounds, but player 17 came in later and was registered after the Tournament Organizer had posted pairings and didn’t repair – so 4 rounds. I took the 2nd place and won 3 M13 boosters (yes – 3 boosters, read the top part again ) and got a Thragtusk in one of them, so that was pretty nice.

I love this version – I know it can be slow if you do not hit a Veteran or GSZ in the tart, but the versatility it provides is godlike. Yes, GODLIKE I think.

Thanks for all the hard work most of you have put into this deck and posted in this Thread. It’s really helping my playing – I’m reading with great interest. Sadly, I can’t contribute with very much, since I do not have the time to playtest that much because of work and a kid at home, but will shared with you what I got, when I got it

Hope the reading is good.

/PollePotDK

[Arianrhod]

@PollePot -- What's your opinion on the Kokusho vs Yosei debate?

Sad Sac seems pretty terrible. If you kick it, you just win, obviously....but that's not going to happen most of the time vs the decks you would board it in against. Only being able to take 3 copies of something just kills it for me. Sure, taking 3 of Sneak's Emrakuls is neat and all, but there's still one left. I'd rather just run Cranial and know that the deed is done.

How was the Mindcensor? In my experience he's been only "okay."

@Dakkon -- how was Sorin? I've thought about trying him a few times, but I've never pulled the trigger.

@Bruizar -- that is definitely a different take. It feels a little glassy-cannony to me, but I can definitely see how explosive it would be. I forgot that Palinchron makes infinite mana with Nightmare. Definitely something to keep in mind. I also feel that you probably could benefit from something that wins the game on the spot...maybe a Time Warp, for infinite turns? Obviously having infinite mana forever is going to tend to win games, but I think if I were to play a full-combo version like that, I wouldn't want to give my opponent time to figure a way out of the hole he's in. Things have a tendency of going wrong the longer the game goes.

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried an Accumulated Knowledge engine with the Intuition shell? Obviously that would be with more of a control ethic than a combo one, but it seems like it would be worth investigating.

@Qweerios -- I'm not sure you want the Hedge-mage. Your version really only splashes blue slightly....how often are you going to have the two Islands to use its bounce effect? If you can take advantage of that then I agree that it's better than Finks, but if not, I like Finks better still. Resolving that with both halves active does sound entertaining to do to RUG, though.

------

In other news, Caleb Durward played GB at Gencon. His list, from his latest article on CFB:

Main Deck
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Bayou
5 Forest
4 Swamp
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Phyrexian Tower
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Grave Titan
1 Hornet Queen
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Nature's Lore
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Hymn to Tourach
Sideboard
2 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Plague
1 Darkblast
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Smallpox
2 Hornet Queen
1 Nature's Ruin
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Hymn to Tourach


Apparently he's on the Hornet Queen train too, now. I still say it's bad. The extra copies are sb vs Sneak/Show, apparently. He's testing Smallpox vs RUG, which is amusing in its effectiveness. He's also coming to the same conclusion that I am -- the archetype needs a backup ramp source in the deck. He's opting for Nature's Lore, which makes sense since he isn't running Nightmare. I'd rather have the extra bodies for Nightmare, but if I was opting out of that engine, I can definitely see Nature's Lore. Or Three Visits for pimp points.

His full report is up on CFB, located here: http://www.channelfireball.com/artic...legacy-champs/

I'll be at GP Boston this weekend, hunting pimp and grinding side events. I'll also have all three of my Nic Fit decks with me, so if you see someone running Nic Fit on a Havengul Lich mat with two Jupiter Top8 pins in the upper right hand corner, that's me....feel free to introduce yourself and chat a bit =)

[Claymore]

3 Hornet Queens? Do Show and Tell players not side out Show and Tell that often? The most of the ones at my shop don't, and in testing keeping Show and Tell in makes the deck much easier to beat. Otherwise, depending solely on Sneak Attack makes the deck much more lethal against us, which becomes complicated by Leyline of Sanctity...

[dakkon]

@Arianrhod: Sorin has been good. There's been some discussion about him a while back. Elspeth is arguably the better card but WW can be prohibitory and so I run Sorin over a second Elspeth. The pump emblem is relevant although I don't use it very often. I just tick him up and control the board. With so much removal, it's pretty easy to ultimate him. In non-combo matches, I only worry about Jace and Sorin is a pretty good out vs active mind sculptor.

[Star|Scream]

@qweerios I'm assuming Shardless Agent has been tested and discussed before?

Was there any consensus in a BUG list?

EDIT:

Thinking more about it, Agent into GSZ is pretty much a nonbo unless you put arbor back in.

Agent into Ooze is decent, Therapy or Explorer seem fine, top works as well, but innocent blood could be hit or miss.

[Arianrhod]

We haven't tried or discussed Shardless, but I'm pretty sure he's automatically dimissed because of the lack of amazing things to cascade into. Bloodbraid is better than Shardless is (cmc 4 -> Deed, Pulse, Witness, Empath, etc), and nobody touches that card. Nonbo with GSZ is an absolute killer, and hitting an Explorer isn't exactly wonderful, since at the point at which you're casting Agent, an explorer has probably already gone off.

That said, Shardless -> Hymn is a beating. A ferocious, ferocious beating.

[Claymore]

Shardless Agent...interesting. You're more hopeful to try and get Coiling Oracle or Hymn, but like you say the problem you run into is that the deck will generally have 3-4 GSZ in it and otherwise has quite a few cards that you don't want to cascade into. It has interesting synergy with Sensei's Top, but since you can't GSZ it (has to be cast) and the card itself has low power, I don't know if I like it.

However, the deck could be adjusted to accommodate and abuse several of these guys though...Meddling Mage, Diabolic Intent (does that work to avoid the creature sac?), Eldamari's Call...overall load up on 2cc accel/tempo/setup cards while bypassing your fatties since you can't cast those guys anyway.

[Arianrhod]

No....Diabolic Intent sacrifices a creature as an additional part of the cost, which means you would still have to pay it when you cascade into it.