[Deck] Survival

[AngryTroll]

For the one extra mana, he is a real threat on the board, instead of just a 2/2. Both hit Bob, Hypnotic Specter, Phrexian Negator, Disciple of the Vault, and etc; but FtK also gets Arcbound Ravager, does a better job against Goyfs, Nantuko Shade, Negator, unthreshed Mystic Enforcers (rare, but it is a toolbox), Myr Enforcer, and some other creatures.

You can play Fire Imp in that spot with very little drawback and a lower casting cost, but every once in a while Kavu kills things Fire Imp can't. On the other hand, Kavu is better on the board. While both can kill a Goyf that chumped your Goyf, having a 4/2 on the board is twice as aggressive as a 2/2.

In a list with Quirion Rangers, which are great at protecting the duals in a four color version, Masticore is worth looking into. Masticore would pretty easily slip in to the Kavu slot. He is an artifact that can be Survivaled up to make Goyf bigger, and that has proved relevant on numerous occasions. He's also obviously better against some decks if you can get to the point where you untap with him in play. Hmm, another reason to run three or four Rofellos.


While I would call my above post the "Core of Survival", you can certainly play with cards in it. The cards in the removal suite are especially flexible. I feel like the fourth removal creature is extra, but Big Game Hunter is probably the weakest of those four creatures, and he is amazing with Survival. Especially if you have either (or both!) Swords or Wish, you can play with some of the slots in that list.

[Jak]

Ftk is still awesome and I play it when I just run three color. He still gets goyf (sometimes) and will also be more relevant than a 2/1 on the board. I also think masticore is awesome. I like to run a lot of removal in GBR.

[Phantom]

What are Survivals best and worst matchups these days? I'm wondering because I was tooling around with a more Blood Moon/Magus centric build and was curious as to what it would help or hinder. IIRC the build was something like this:

Creatures (26)
4x Magus
2x Moon
4x Birds
4x Goyf
4x Confidant
3x Witness
1x Shriekmaw
1x Anger
1x Squee
1x Genesis
1x FtK

Stuff (14)
4x Survival
4x Thoughtseize
3x Therapy
3x Terminate

Land (20)
I think I fit in 5 forests, 2 swamps, and 4 Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills.


...or something. I was actually liking it vs Thresh. I'm just curious if it's worth pursuing?

[Brushwagg]

You could look at the Destructive Flow builds that are floating around for some help.

Me personally I don't think you need 6 moon effects and 3 Witness.

[Tacosnape]

I don't think you need the two Blood Moons at all under any circumstances. Don't forget, you aren't just running four Moon effects with your quad of Magi of the Moon. You're also running four ways to search for them (Survivals), and six to eight discard spells (Seize, Therapy) to prevent any form of disruption from removing them or keeping them from hitting play. Those two slots could be additional discard, additional Terminates (Neat substitute for STP without going the Burning Wish route, by the way. I always forget that card exists), or it could be a card like Sensei's Divining Top, which would have fantastic synergy with both the Confidants and the Survivals (And which would also help you dig for the Maguses when necessary.)

[Phantom]

I appreciate the feedback, and you're both completely right about the saturation of Moons. -2 Blood Moons it is. It's possible that the Terminates should be Burning Wish's, which further brings up my dependence on the 2cc slot. Not sure if that's a problem with all the discard I run, but it's worrisome. I do need a Wickerbough Elder or some such in the mainboard.

I never got my main question answered though, which was "What are Survivals best and worst matchups these days?"

[Brushwagg]

"What are Survivals best and worst matchups these days?"

I'd have to say Ichorid and fast Storm Combo. Both the deck have the ability to kill you before you have a chance to either play a card, or set up your hate for them.

Goblins can be a bitch if you are having problems findind Plagues or keeping them on the board.

The only other problem card is Counterbalance. It can make it difficult to resolve things but shouldn't stop you just slow you down.

[Sea R Hill]

I never got my main question answered though, which was "What are Survivals best and worst matchups these days?"

Worst MU by far: every deck that runs Humilty.
Best MU: Thresh

[Joon]

After testing and playing a lot with my Gbw SurvivalRock I found out that Combodecks are the worst matchups by far. Ichorid is a bitch but I have at least a small fightning chance with (in my Build) Elders against Bridges/Deeds against Tokens/Swords against Ichorid (the card). Postboard I have access to Teeg for the Stormcombo-MU and Extirpate for the Dredge-MU.
Every matchup except Combo (Painter is easy to beat, at least with my build) is at least even but you don't have autowin MU's. You have at least 50/50 against everything except Combo, the better you play the better get your percentages as you have infinite options. My deck doesn't scoop to Humility either (Maindeck solution that isn't a creature is tech).
If anybody is interested I'll post my deck.

[diffy]

Since I (finally) realized that Landstill sucks after all, I didn't really know what to play on this month's Hassloch event so that I just went with Survival since I've been tinkering a lot with my list lately, splashing all kinds of random colours and trying out different things in the open slots (Pernicious Deed, Burning Wish, Sensei's Divining Top etc.) and have finally come to a list I really like and that I was rather confident in. This is what I sleeved up:

/// Maindeck (60 cards)

// Mana (26)
    4 Windswept Heath
    4 Wooded Foothills
    3 Bayou
    2 Taiga
    3 Savannah
    2 Tropical Island
    3 Forest

    4 Birds of Paradise
    1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

// Beaters (8)
    1 Nimble Mongoose
    1 Jotun Grunt
    4 Tarmogoyf
    1 Doran, the Siege Tower
    1 Mystic Enforcer

// Removal (6)
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Big Game Hunter
    1 Shriekmaw

// Card Advantage Stuff (15)
    4 Thoughtseize
    4 Brainstorm
    3 Dark Confidant
    4 Survival of the Fittest

// Survival Men (5)
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Harmonic Sliver
    1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
    1 Anger
    1 Genesis

/// Sideboard (15 cards)
    2 Gaddock Teeg
    1 Meddling Mage
    1 Faerie Macabre
    1 Kataki, War's Wage
    1 Darkheart Sliver
    1 Magus of the Moon
    1 Goblin Pyromancer
    1 Cabal Therapy
    2 Krosan Grip
    2 Rough/Tumble
    2 Pernicious Deed

You'll probably be like WTF at first, but the blue splash for Brainstorm is really worth it, the card is just that good. Like Sensei's Divining Top but strictly better, mainly because it's less mana intensive which is worth gold in a deck that wants to tap out every turn. It also drastically improves your game without Survival letting you almost function like a semi-decent midrange/aggro control pile of Goyf.
Also, the manabase so supports the splash: I did some extensive testing against Red Thrash and Aggro Loam the day before the event and didn't loose a single game against their manadenial going 9-1 against Aggro Loam (the list that eventually won the event, playing no Devastating Dreams in the main) and 5-0 against Thrash.
I decided against more ATS elements because they are rather clunky and horrible without Survival.

I'll probably post a more detailed report (with some explanations of choices) when I have some more time. As this will most likely not be before the middle of the week, for now, here's a quick run-down of my rounds:

Round 1 vs. Thrash/b:
I have a very good hand leading with Birds, second turn Thoughtseize forcing through my Survival + Swords to Plowshares for his Dark Confidant. He scoops soon after.
-1 Anger, -1 Nimble Mongoose, +2 Pernicious Deed
In game 2 he has loads of hate for Survival (Extirpate + Krosan Grip) so that I just beat him down with 3 Tarmogoyfs supported by Deeding away his Nimble Mongeese.

1-0-0 (2:0)

Round 2 vs. 4c Cunning Landstill:
I keep a decent hand with double Dark Confidant and a Survival. He has a Force for two of them and a Swords for the last one. I proceed to go beatdown mode, he drops a Humility which I ignore. I loose soon after him finding Cunning Wish for Pulse of the Fields and two manlands (which he can protect from my Swords).
-1 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Shriekmaw, -1 Big Game Hunter, 1 Jotun Grunt, -1 Nimble Mongoose, +2 Gaddok Teeg, +1 Meddling Mage, +1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Magus of the Moon
The second game was random: I have a first turn Thoughtseize followed by a Survival + Magus of the Moon for the win.
In the third game I keep a risky hand with Survival + Dark Confidant + Magus of the Moon but only one land (a Taiga) figuring that I have plenty of time against him to find some more lands meaning that the quality of the rest of my hand will just overwhelm him eventually. I do draw two lands in the first four turns, play the Survival to bait a counter, play Dark Confidant (which gets send to farm) and finally play Magus of the Moon which he... wait for it... Blue Elemental Blasts! After loosing to Magus of the Moon in the second game he boarded in one Blast to combat my one Magus... now that's random! Anyway, I get some Goyf beatdown going which is eventually stopped by an Engineered Explosives, play Anger which brings him down to 6. He blows his Pernicious Deed, I play a Dark Confidant which gets StPed, pass the turn. He attacks me with his manlands, I untap, play an angry Tarmogoyf and swing for the win.

2-0-0 (4:1)

Round 3 vs. RBu Affinity:
He has a pretty busted start with double Cranial Plating + Ravager + Disciple which I simply ignore by Swordsing the later two, a random blocker of his (via Witness getting back a StP) and by creating some Sliver advantage while beating him down with a threshed Mystic Enforcer.
-1 Genesis
-1 Jotun Grunt
-1 Shriekmaw
-1 Big Game Hunter
-1 Anger
+2 Pernicious Deed
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Kataki, War's Wage
T1 Thoughtseize taking his Plating, he topdecks another one. T2 Rofellos. T3 Pernicious Deed. T4 Fist his board. T5 Survival. He asks me what it does (since my Survivals are Portuguese/French), I tell him 'It gets Kataki'.

3-0-0 (6:1)

Round 4 vs. Stax /w:
T1 Birds of Paradise, T2 Doran, beat. He plays Ghostly Prison. /ignore. Keep some lands in hand to avoid getting owned/slowed by a Ravages or Geddon. Profit.
-1 Big Game Hunter
-2 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Jotun Grunt
-1 Brainstorm
-1 Nimble Mongoose
-1 Eternal Witness
Land a second turn Gaddock, watch him annihilating me with Tabernacle + two Ghostly Prisons + CoW/Waste. Stabilize. Watch him getting an Exalted Angel online, cry. Get enough mana to handle Angel on 10 life, profit. Play Kataki, play Rofellos, have some mana, profit. Slowly beat him down.

4-0-0 (8:1)

Round 5 vs. Aggro Loam:
ID

4-0-1 (6:1)

Round 6 vs. Aggro Loam:
Have a semi-decent start with T2 Dark Confidant. Have him handle it with Devastating Dreams. Watch him getting 2 Dark Confidants online. Ignore it. Swing with Goyfs and Mystic Enforcers. Have him make the board permanent-less the turn before he dies. Topdeck no second land for infinite turns with Anger in graveyard and Goyf on hand (with him being on 4 life).
-3 Brainstorm
-1 Nimble Mongoose
Keep the hand with 4 lands (incl. 2 fetchlands), Swords to Plowshares, Brainstorm and Anger. Cry due to his Chalice of the Void and Brainstorm revealing 3 more lands. Watch him go nuts with T2 Confidant, T3 Seismic Assault, T4 Loam following the Chalice. Whine. Repeat. Profit (not).

4-1-1 (6:3)

I come in 6th out of 48 and get a Tolarian Academy (meh!). At least I managed to sell loads of stuff on the site - I'm currently trying to get rid of most of my collection. That's another thing I learned recently: more money >>(ad infinitum)>> more cards in binder.

The top8 were:

1) Aggro Loam
2) Aggro Loam
3) NQG/w
4) Ichorid
5) Imperial Painter
6) 5c Survival
7) Survival Elves
8) Domain Zoo

The deck performed extremely well all day long, except for the last round where my opponent simply got too lucky (or me not lucky enough). I wouldn't change anything so far: the curve for Survival is brilliant, the game without Survival isn't bad at all and the sideboard is very flexible.

I'll be pleased to address your comments/questions/suggestions.

[Adan]

I also played Survival today (Di's list from the syracuse 1k tourney, but with 4 Seize and 2 Therapy and a different SB) and went 4-2-0.

I have to say the deck can be extremely broken, I lost the game sagainst Stax and Zoo due to very bad luck. Against Stax I lose against a irrational-played Armageddon and remain screwed on 2 manasources though I have Confidant and an active Survival for like 5 or 5 turns.

And against Domain Zoo I survivaled Masticore to rape his board. His boardposition was Tropical, Badlands, Plateau, 2 of them tapped, me on 11 life.

Of course he then does EOT Lightning Bolt and then plays his 4th land and barbecues me with double Tribal Flames.

And against the rest I won because the deck was explosive like hell.

[Illissius]

I like the list. I have one big question and quite a few smaller ones.

(1) Cabal Therapy. Do you not miss it? Is four protection spells enough? (I assume this is somewhat related to cutting Witnesses down to one, leaving fewer expendable creatures to sacrifice?)

(2) Do you often Survival for Rofellos? Is it really good (relative to the other cards in your deck) when you draw it in your opening seven? Only if the answer to the first question is yes and the second is no does one copy seem like the right number.

(3) 1 Nimble Mongoose? Why?

(4) Jotun Grunt is even less reliable than Loaming Shaman, which is in turn less reliable than Faerie Macabre. Basically, the question is: does it ever actually work as graveyard hate? It seems very easy for what I think are its two main targets, Loam decks and Academy/Intuition decks, to play around it (and it's obviously too slow to be of any use against Ichorid).

(5) Is One Doran better than More Dorans?

(6) I assume your reasoning for cutting Witnesses to only one was that one is sufficient to protect Survival, and that while it's a good card, other cards you can include are better?

(7) How come you're using Jotun Grunt over Loaming Shaman (better draw but worse bullet) but also using Harmonic Sliver over Trygon Predator (worse draw but better bullet)?

(8) You're running 21 lands with four Brainstorms, whereas I've often seen lists running 20 lands and no Brainstorms (or Tops). (Of course, I always thought that seemed like too few). Do you think this was/is the right amount?

[georgjorge]

So many questions for him to answer...

I like that list a lot, though I'd also opt for a bit more of Dorans, Grunts (as beaters, not as grave hate) and discard. And I'd still be afraid of 5c Survival (in a deck that, in my experience, tends to not like Wasteland much). I mean, fetching up a basic land besides forest is pretty important, I think.


Also, for everyone not running 5 colors, I think at least two Horizon Canopies (if you're playing white) can absolutely be supported, and help a bit with the lack of draw.


As to good/bad matchups...Thresh is a good one, I think. Goblins is not so easy, and Ichorid is definitely not good. Solidarity may be even worse than other combo because Gaddock does not hinder them as much here. But really, even though we're trying not to make the deck depend on Surival too much, in many matchups it just depends on if you draw it or not, especially against Control (like Rock), where a good Aggro draw without Survival is often just not enough, while just dropping Survival can win you the game.

[Sea R Hill]

Since I (finally) realized that Landstill sucks after al

Lol, Landstill is the best Legacy deck ever.

As for your build:
-Rofellos: I think it is useless
-Nimble Mongoss: ???
-Jotun Grunt: Good idea, although I prefer the quicker Faerie Macabre,
-Mystic Enforcer: I played it at first, but realized it is useless too many times (and very expensive)
-Big Game Hunter: if you don't run Burning Wish; but with BW I prefer a second Shriekmaw
-Anger: I never have the mana to fetch for it, so I don't run it and that's one more slot for the real cards

[Jak]

Sweet list Der. I have been loving Brainstorm in Survival too. 5 colors does seem nice. The best of all worlds. I am sure you won't be too screwed by Wastelands or moons, but I wonder how often you get screwed by just not having the black for Thoughtseize, or the blue for brainstorm, or the white for Swords, or the red for anger. It seems like you want so many colors and that you will be stuck with a Brainstorm in hand. I run 4 with Brianstorm, so I guess it shouldn't be that bad since I haven't had any troubles.

Why Jotun Grunt? I have always hated Grunt because he won't ever come down turn 2, he dies too soon, and he is ineffective GY hate.

You run so many color hungry cards. I think just running more Geese would be better.

I have been loving Trygon Predator as the artifact hate. Have you tried it over Harmonic?

Gilded Drake is some hotness. You might like it. There is also Tradewind Rider, but that is more of a fun choice.

Anyway, I think the list is interesting and looks pretty sweet. I hope other people try out blue for brainstorm because it does change the deck. It makes Rofellos better.

Lol, Landstill is the best Legacy deck ever.

As for your build:
-Rofellos: I think it is useless
-Nimble Mongoss: ???
-Jotun Grunt: Good idea, although I prefer the quicker Faerie Macabre,
-Mystic Enforcer: I played it at first, but realized it is useless too many times (and very expensive)
-Big Game Hunter: if you don't run Burning Wish; but with BW I prefer a second Shriekmaw
-Anger: I never have the mana to fetch for it, so I don't run it and that's one more slot for the real cards

Rofellos is so much better with Brainstorm. Brainstorm puts back useless Survivals or Swords or Thoughtseizes to get creatures in hand to abuse your Survival in play and therefore Rofellos.

Goose is good with DC and more cards that go to the GY.

Big Game Hunter is so crazy as a one of. An additional damage, Goyf/Stalker/Nought removal, and tutors for a creature.

Anger is crazy. I would never cut red because of this card.

[AngryTroll]

-Rofellos: I think it is useless
-Anger: I never have the mana to fetch for it, so I don't run it and that's one more slot for the real cards

Aha, I see the problem here...I've said it before, I would be tempted to go up to three Rofellos, because he is hands down the strongest turn two play. Even as a one of, though, once you have Survival, you should spend a turn setting up your engine. Rofellos and Anger are two of the cards you should find.

Without a Bird, a turn two Survival still gives you three mana to use on your third turn. That's finding Squee, then finding two of the following: Anger, Genesis, and Rofellos. It depends what you are playing against, but I typically find Squee, then Anger, then Rofellos. Against Landstill/ITF/etc, I will hold off on Rofellos to get Genesis into the yard. Then I might put Genesis and Anger into the yard, and hold onto Squee; this nets one fewer card in hand, but if Survival gets nailed, you still get Haste and recursion.

[Illissius]

Anger: I never have the mana to fetch for it, so I don't run it and that's one more slot for the real cards

After beating Survival multiple times -- after they resolved Survival -- with my Intuition control deck, I've concluded that it is in fact a good idea for Survival decks to include Anger. Turns out a resolved Survival doesn't actually equal a game win automatically. Who knew? [Cue: Di, others.]

[Di]

After beating Survival multiple times -- after they resolved Survival -- with my Intuition control deck, I've concluded that it is in fact a good idea for Survival decks to include Anger. Turns out a resolved Survival doesn't actually equal a game win automatically. Who knew? [Cue: Di, others.]

Not automatically, but if I'm going to argue to the death if people are doing that then they are playing the deck wrong, especially against control decks. The only decks that this can really happen without play mistakes is against combo, Ichorid, or a fast aggro deck like Goblins where despite you have the engine, you don't have enough resources to handle the rush [Cue: why Rofellos is in the damn deck]. Then again, from your statement it seems that you were playing against Anger-less versions of the deck. If that is the case, then I'm not surprised you won at all. Those versions are terrible at recovering from board sweepers and such.

@ Rofellos hate

It's still the strongest turn 2 play in the deck. I am thrilled if I open him in hand. Dear God, someone give me a Survival mirror match 6 rounds out of a tournament with an opponent not running Rofellos. It's like playing against a Goblin deck not running Goblin Lackey.

@ DER's list

I was shown this by Adan previously, and, no offense, wanted to just rip my head off. Although most of my sentiments were already brought up. Your list is way too color hungry and the manabase does not show any evidence of supporting it. 4 Brainstorm and 2 Tropical Island? You can use your opening fetchland for that, but then what about the StP and Thoughtseize in your hand? It just doesn't make sense. Same with a number of slots in the deck, but they were already covered. I imagine you'll just go through them individually later on because a handful of people are either curious or question them.


@ Big Game Hunter

This should be BGH, not an additional Shriekmaw. It's like that because Shriekmaw does nothing against Tombstalkers, Dreadnoughts, etc, and also happen to kill Goyfs and still find creatures to play. Even with StP in the deck, he's stellar.

[diffy]

(1) Cabal Therapy. Do you not miss it? Is four protection spells enough? (I assume this is somewhat related to cutting Witnesses down to one, leaving fewer expendable creatures to sacrifice?)

Cabal Therapy - I just don't like it. More often than not it is quite poor when you don't have anything to force through (i.e. when you are in midrange mode). Also, in comparison to Thoughtseize it is clearly weaker and I really don't feel the need for additional discard: the decent decks out there can mostly ignore discard due to cantrips getting them what they need again in no time or due to high threat density making subpar discard a bad topdeck and a generally rather weak play.

(2) Do you often Survival for Rofellos? Is it really good (relative to the other cards in your deck) when you draw it in your opening seven? Only if the answer to the first question is yes and the second is no does one copy seem like the right number.

When you in Survival mode, Rofellos is worth gold as he assures that you have all your engines going and some mana play threats the turn you untap with Survival on the board.
When you're in non-Survival mode, I don't really like Rofellos, at least in my build because of rather high colour requirements and a rather low curve: you just don't really need him, he's not a terrible draw either though.

(3) 1 Nimble Mongoose? Why?

I originally had more in there but soon found myself boarding them out a lot because I didn't reach Threshold fast enough for them to be worthwhile as an early drop. I still kept one in to make better use of Survival. As you can see, my 'fat guys' curve is spread gapless from 1 to 4 meaning that whatever the situation is, I can always use all my mana with Survival to build up pressure which is worth gold.

(4) Jotun Grunt is even less reliable than Loaming Shaman, which is in turn less reliable than Faerie Macabre. Basically, the question is: does it ever actually work as graveyard hate? It seems very easy for what I think are its two main targets, Loam decks and Academy/Intuition decks, to play around it (and it's obviously too slow to be of any use against Ichorid).

(7) How come you're using Jotun Grunt over Loaming Shaman (better draw but worse bullet) but also using Harmonic Sliver over Trygon Predator (worse draw but better bullet)?

Graveyard hate main is less important than Naturalize effects main as there are just more troublesome Artefacts/Enchantments than recursion engines out there. Therefore the Naturalize-bullet should better be reliable whereas the gravayard-hate-bullet is not that important and should therefore be a less narrow card.
I also strongly disagree that Jotun Grunt is bad graveyard hate: for sure he's somewhat slow but he's a total bomb against anything Loam based as he basically shuts them down single-handedly (they can't really afford to continue dredging as this will keep a 4/4 guy that shrinks all their guys alive longer and if they don't get Loam back they'll just do nothing for some turns and then have to start again from scratch). He is worse than Loaming Shaman against Ichorid, but not by a large margin as he comes down earlier and blocks better (kills Ichorids and Zombies and lives to tell the tale) which is more often than not enough to survive long enough for him to do his job. He is as bad as Loaming Shaman against Intuition-based decks but those aren't really popular enough to justify playing the extremely narrow Faerie Macabre main.
Also, Grunt with Survival on the table acts as pseudo-Genesis in case the later gets removed and/or if you're short on mana which is a neat interaction I actually use rather often.

(5) Is One Doran better than More Dorans?

I originally had two Dorans in there and then cut one to implement Jotun Grunt. There's nothing wrong with playing more than one Doran but I do think that there is something wrong with playing less than one: he's just that flexible breaking Goyf-stalls without you having to recur Shriekmaws, disabling Ichorids/Piledrivers/Cranial Platings and making your Birds swing in ftw. Oh, and he's a good beater optimizing your use of Survival too. The colour requirements are close to never an issue because he's in your very main colours.

(6) I assume your reasoning for cutting Witnesses to only one was that one is sufficient to protect Survival, and that while it's a good card, other cards you can include are better?

I actually cut Witness down to one quite some time ago because it didn't match my play style of the deck: I just found it too clunky/slow for what it did and too bad without Survival. I did keep one to protect Survival and/or as bullet when you have Survival + Rofellos on-line.

(8) You're running 21 lands with four Brainstorms, whereas I've often seen lists running 20 lands and no Brainstorms (or Tops). (Of course, I always thought that seemed like too few). Do you think this was/is the right amount?

Playing Brainstorm early is the wrong use of it: it's more something to keep you going in the (early) midgame than to fix your mana early, partially because fetching a Tropical early will not really work in the direction of fixing your colour requirements and partially because Brainstorm is just so much stronger at restocking your hand (getting rid of the chaff) than at being a lousy cantrip.
That being said, I do feel that 25 manasources (21 lands + 4 Birds) was the right choice as playing more lands makes reaching the colour requirements easier, supports the sideboard cards better (esp. Pernicious Deed) and makes for a smoother early game. In case you're flooded, you can always filter away excess lands with Brainstorm.

And I'd still be afraid of 5c Survival (in a deck that, in my experience, tends to not like Wasteland much). I mean, fetching up a basic land besides forest is pretty important, I think.

I think that this is one of the single biggest misconceptions about my list: Wasteland does nothing against you (or at least not more than against other 3-4c builds). You're only going to fetch that Savannah or Tropical to use it immediately. After that, you don't need it any more - you've played one of your 4 blue or 6 white spells, you're not going to draw another one for quite some time. Same logic can be applied to a lesser extent to Anger. If they pro-actively use their Wastelands on your off-colour duals (read: not Bayou), that's okay too: you don't really need the white/red/blue as your main focus is GB. Also, if you just resolve a single Birds of Paradise, all your colour problems vanish in a second.

Lol, Landstill is the best Legacy deck ever.

Refer to this post for further information on my change of opinions.

-Mystic Enforcer: I played it at first, but realized it is useless too many times (and very expensive)

Mystic Enforcer is awesome. At first I added it because it's an additional beater to spread the curve for Survival, but after some testing I came to like him more and more as he just wins games on his own: often he's just an indestructible beater and if not he breaks stalemates without you having to recur Shriekmaws. Also, with Brainstorms in the deck, you will have Threshold most of the time by turn 5-7 when you're most likely to cast the Enforcer.

-Big Game Hunter: if you don't run Burning Wish; but with BW I prefer a second Shriekmaw

Not only does Big Game Hunter handle things you'd otherwise just scoop to (Tombstalker comes into mind) but also he does so while being extremely mana-efficient which is especially important when you've not yet fully started your survival engine and don't really have the turn to waste to do so either because you're under pressure (two Goyfs beating you down by turn3 is a good example for this) - BGH helps tremendously here due to being 1 mana cheaper than Shriekmaw and getting you ahead Survival-wise.

-Anger: I never have the mana to fetch for it, so I don't run it and that's one more slot for the real cards

Anger is awesome - it just improves any matchup where you don't have to be the control deck tremendously and improves the other matchups quite a lot too by adding a combo finish to the deck.
Also, fourth turn hardcast Anger and a loud 'Chaaaarge!' is the most hilarious thing ever.

I have been loving Trygon Predator as the artifact hate. Have you tried it over Harmonic?
Gilded Drake is some hotness. You might like it. There is also Tradewind Rider, but that is more of a fun choice.

The key to being able to play as many as 5 colours is cutting down on the individual colour requirements: only by playing as few blue cards as possible the fifth splash is made possible.

I was shown this by Adan previously, and, no offense, wanted to just rip my head off. Although most of my sentiments were already brought up. Your list is way too color hungry and the manabase does not show any evidence of supporting it. 4 Brainstorm and 2 Tropical Island? You can use your opening fetchland for that, but then what about the StP and Thoughtseize in your hand? It just doesn't make sense. Same with a number of slots in the deck, but they were already covered. I imagine you'll just go through them individually later on because a handful of people are either curious or question them.

I hope that by now I have addressed most of your questions.
I'll just give a brief tl;dr.

Colour issues:

Step 1: Resolve Birds of Paradise
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.

If that plan fails, you still have a rock solid manabase with 10 blue sources, 11 black and white sources which is more solid than most Landstill manabases could ever dream of.
Also, you don't need to be able to resolve everything always. If you have a hand with a Fetchland, Survival, Thoughtseize and Brainstorm, fuck the Brainstorm, go for Bayou, resolve Survival and win from there on. If you don't have a Survival, you won't need the Thoughtseize either.
Also, you have to keep in mind by which turn you want to have cast which card. Thoughtseize and Dark Confidant are obvious early casts, but Brainstorm, Jotun Grunt, Doran and Swords to Plowshares can wait until the midgame giving you more time to find your colours.

Questionable Slots:

Nimble Mongoose (1): curve.
Doran, the Siege Tower (1): curve, random other applications.
Mystic Enforcer (1): curve, wins games on its own, breaking stalemates.
Jotun Grunt (1): flexibility, strength against Loam, pseudo-Genesis.
Cabal Therapy (0): bad without Survival.


I hope that this made my choices somewhat clearer. I'd be happy to discuss them further as only controversies lead to possible progress.

[Illissius]

Then again, from your statement it seems that you were playing against Anger-less versions of the deck. If that is the case, then I'm not surprised you won at all.

Yes, this was my entire point. It would have been a hell of a lot harder to win those games if my opponents had been using Anger. I had previously been sceptical of the value of the card. I no longer am.

It's still the strongest turn 2 play in the deck. I am thrilled if I open him in hand.

So I assume the number of Rofellos you are playing is not one, but more?