Collected Company and Friends

[screallix]

I've been thinking about brewing a Collected Company.
I first started with a GWB Maverick Build featuring CC but I'm more into brewing a JUNK styled deck.
CC seems wierd with Thalia.

I think running CC alongside with Green Sun's Zenith is huge!
Zenith finds you the missing pieces and CC is a great value or lategame finisher.

First Idea:
Core:
4 Collected Company
4 Green Sun's Zenith
x Birthing Pod
[...]

Combo:
4 Viscera Seer
4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Cabal Therapy
[...]

Pro:
+ Fast mana with Veterean Explorer
+ Good handcontrol with Cabal Therapy
+ Great value creatures
+ Combo finish

Contra:
- "only" infinte Life
- 3 card combo
- no Murderous Redcap (IMO too expensive for Legacy, can't be Zenith'ed and CC'ed but Birthing Pod'ed)

Second Idea:
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Devoted Druid
4 Quillspike
x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
(?) Fauna Shaman

Pro:
+ 2 card combo
+ infinite damage
+ Ezuri's Regenerate
+ Ezuri's Overrun + 2 Devoted Druid = Infinite Mana (Tap both for mana, Overrun, rinse and repeat)
+ Ezuri's Overrun does not need a combo finish

Contra:
- Quillspike can be blocked
- No good value shell
- Unsure about third color

Cards to consider:

Removal:
x Abrupt Decay
x Swords to Plowshares
[...]

Value:
x Eternal Witness
x Dark Confidant
x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
[...]

Lands:
x Gaea's Cradle
x Bayou
x Savannah
x Scrubland
x Basics


"Why not play elves?"
- I think this archetype is more of a midrange deck with a combo finish than a aggro combo deck like elves.

I've been thinking about adding some sort of Natural Order -> Hoof/Progenitus, but I nonbos with CC, which is the idea of the thread, isn't it?

Let me know what you guys think.

P.S.:
I think Congregation at Dawn is super bad.

~ screallix

[Vicar in a tutu]

What do you have against combo? Just 4 Cabal Therapies?

[Fatal]

I found that much better combo is probably Bell - Kiki:
Village Bell-Ringer - Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker as 1-of + 4 x Imperial Recruiter + Toolbox - both do something even with any other creature then just beater.

I played this list:
1 Eternal Witness
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Imperial Recruiter
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Taiga
2 Savannah
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Mother of Runes
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Plateau
1 Karakas
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Windswept Heath
1 Village Bell-Ringer
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Bayou
1 Plains
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Intrepid Hero
4 Collected Company
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
SB: 2 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Sylvan Safekeeper
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 3 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 2 Meekstone
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege

It has good MU vs heavy removal decks via big CA, any single bullets vs most decks:
MVP - Imperial Recruiter, Fauna Shaman - with Bell untap all your mana dorks, can easy assamble combo next turn, Magus of the Moon, Orzhov Pontiff, Pridemages, Gaddock Teeg, Knight of the Reliquary -> Cradle/Cavern of Souls is huge - most of creatures are humans, Mentor - very good sleeper with 29 creatures it's basically Glimpse on stick.

[Mystical_Jackass]

What do you think about Eternal Witness?

Like you mentioned, what situations makes CC better than just NO-->Proj?

[Fatal]

You can get more value from CC then from almost any NO target vs Miracles specially with Eternal Witness. I would even bump E.Witness to 2-3 still didnt decide what to cut - every time I cut something from:
- Goblin Sharpshooter - I met Elves
- Phyrexian Revoker - I met situation like turn 1 Grim Lavamancer with Imperial Recruiter in hand
- Intrepid Hero - I met Reanimator/Sneak Attack
- 1 Qasali Pridemage - I met Deathblade and my only Qasali get a FoW with Shaman on table
- Orzhov Pontiff - I met deck with TNN

Like in Murphy Laws.

[Mystical_Jackass]

I'm not sure, I see you have Birds, Noble Heirarch, MOM and a singleton DRS... maybe cut back on some of that and maybe Mentor of the Meek, and just fit in some Abrupt Decays and more Witness? It seems that Teeg and Sharpshooter could just be SB, maybe keep Quasali 'cause it's a great Recruiter target but maybe just going more Witness/Decay is a more "constant reliable" route.

[Fatal]

Note that this deck doesn't have removal at all - no StP, no Decay's everything to gets value from CC as much as it can (creature count is best here).

Why Birds/Hierarch/Shaman split - each of them have little difference role - Birds of Paradise gives mana and it's great blocker with active mom - it can also fly over with exalted triggers with jitte/sword, Shaman on the other hand have gy-hate implication, and also its cheap answer vs opponent shaman.

I would probably try to shave little Mom/Mentor but I'm not sure about it.

I would also add some useful creature - vs Tempo delver decks - Skylasher. Creature base answer vs Delver.