His deck is a combo deck... You use Curiosity/Ophidian Eye/Tandem Lookout/Mind Over Matter on Niv and then tap him to draw a card, the 1 point of damage triggers another draw and it chains until you choose to stop, usually after everyone is dead or you run out of cards and need to reshuffle.
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Altar of Dementia is a must. Graveyard hate is rather important too. The graveyard is a second hand for a LOT of decks in EDH and milling those players might as well be playing a Prosperity or Blue Sun's Zenith on them. Guiltfeeder is pretty hilarious after a big mind grind.
I would suggest Vedalken Orrery and Winding Canyons. They enable some EOT plays that can be crippling and also allow you to recast Omnath following removal, before your stores of mana empty.
Another option would be Scute Mob as a great vanilla fatty.
Yeah Scroll Rack is a bit much... I guess it helps to have some older cards. ;) If Wheel effects are an issue, I still think Praetor's Counsel would be better. Mana costs aren't really an issue in green. I know what Lorescale does, I still think he's too slow. You've already got a bunch of Maros to be big creatures and if you really just want a vanilla fatty, Multani would be far better. At ~$6 Desertion is going to be the "best" cheap 5 CMC counter. An even more budget solution would be Lost in the Mist as a decent two for one. Mystic Genesis has a lot of potential greatness but more often then not, you're getting a 1/1 or a 4/4 for 5 mana as you counter a wipe or removal rather than that epic 12/12 token. I almost always sac my general to Momentous Fall since she comes back easily for value. Usually in response to some spot removal or a block anyway. I just put it in my deck and it's already saved my ass multiple times in a single game lol. There's really no downside to running more basics. Too many CITP tapped lands on the other hand can be extremely harmful. If it works for you, great though. Dream Halls really is powerful but it works for everyone... I'm rather torn on keeping it in mine or not. Right now, it's backfired on me enough that I want to keep testing it. I haven't lost a game because of it but it has certainly created some crazy plays that wouldn't have otherwise happened. A little more abusable than DEN but since you're running him, I figured I'd suggest it. My deck has a stronger focus on the graveyard so it's quite a bit stronger in there.
Library of Leng is fairly underwhelming IMO. If you really need the no max hand size effect, go with something like Praetor's Counsel. Drum hunter isn't strong enough. If you want to draw more cards, just blink or recast your general. Drawing before your end step isn't that useful. Lorescale Coatl is rather slow and easily chump blocked. You'd be better served by something with more utility or a straight up fatty. Solemn doesn't really belong in green decks IMO. In simic colors, you have Coiling Oracle which is essentially the same effect for half the cost and the land comes in untapped. Nephalia Smuggler is too slow and costly. Conjurer's Closet gives you the repeatability for free after casting it or you can include ghostly flicker if you need the timing, not to mention you already have DEN in here. I would suggest Teferi over Yeva as he gives flash to all creatures not just green and also blocks your opponents from instant plays. You don't really have enough tokens/counters/walkers to make Doubling Season worthwhile. You should include Abundance. It combos with Sylvan Library to let you draw three every turn without having to pay 8 life and also allows you to draw your entire deck and not lose. I would say Brainstorm isn't strong enough in this. Top and library basically has the same effect every turn and card draw you already have in spades. Keep Watch seems odd... If someone attacks you with lethal, you get to draw a few cards and still die. I'd suggest Aetherize or Cyclonic Rift instead. Mystic Genesis didn't really work for me in testing. It's an uber expensive counter that gives a small token. I would say you have enough counters without it but if you want another, go for Forbid, you'll almost always have enough cards in hand to pay the buyback. I would suggest replacing Harmonize with Momentous Fall. Same CMC but with a huge general or other fatties, it gives a lot more card draw as well as a pretty good life gain. The cycle lands and mikokoro aren't really needed here. At any time you can sac/blink and recast your general to draw more cards. If you end up with too many lands in your hand, play Azusa, exploration, etc. Some of the more powerful effects in my deck that you might like: Scroll Rack. You can draw in such large clumps that setting aside the extra lands or unneeded cards and pulling in another set of cards can be brutal. Dream Halls. You just tapped out to cast your general and draw 15 cards... now you can discard a few to get an insane board condition out of nowhere and even chain with additional draw spells to "combo" off. It's extremely powerful but can also be used against you. Clones. Not only are they great removal for shrouded generals, you can clone your own general to draw a ton of extra cards and get her back to the command zone. Spike Weaver. Fog, fog, blink, fog, fog, blink... extremely hard to punch through that lock. Cultural Exchange. Just the kind of janky bomb that is perfect for EDH. Drop your Avenger of Zendikar or Empath/Witness/etc then swap your cheap used ETB trash or 0/1 tokens for their giant threats regardless of hexproof or shroud. It works hilariously with Nacatl War-Pride tokens since they exile after the swap. ;)
I already have Flash and Alchemist's Refuge for playing things with Flash but I would opt for Teferi over Yeva if I wanted additional flash effects. I have flashed in a Vigor in response to combat damage and a few other tricks for some crazy plays though. ;) My original list had DEN but he's just too obnoxious. I always felt like a dick when playing him... I don't happen to have the whelk/snake unfortunately and they're old enough that they're hard to find locally.
- Curse of the Cabal - Bane Alley Broker - Fade Away - Rewind - Cemetery Reaper - Dreamscape Artist + Head Games + Desertion + Rhystic Study + Evil Twin + Mindshriker + Consume the Meek
Seedborn Muse and Awakening are a must. Activating her on each players turn is insane. Get rid of the alara creatures that have activated abilities to give a benefit to another creature... it's too mana intensive and underwhelming. Just play more threatening creatures. (IE Vigor, Terrastodon, Akroma, etc) Homeward Path to get back stolen creatures is a must with as many big threats as Mayael plays. Keeper of Progenitus. You're welcome.
Meanwhile, three opponents tutor up counterspells/spot removal before you even get a chance to tutor... or the player to the left tutors up a Stranglehold locking the table out of drawing and tutoring. Or they just kill you since it takes til turn 5 and they get free tutors twice... Skirge Familiar + Exsanguinate is better than coffers/sphere since it's loss of life rather than damage that can be redirected or prevented. Might as well include Boseiju to prevent the counter defense as well. This won't even work once vs anyone with a brain though and will just piss people off as you let one player combo off faster while people waste precious answers on your predictable play... This deck is a kingmaker, not remotely viable.
Dredge does have some inherent risks but 75% of your deck is still playable or easily recurrable from your graveyard and the rest isn't really any different from not drawing it during a game. Throw in an Eternal Witness if you're afraid of milling a key non creature/land. I would say the benefits outweigh the risks and from your other deck comment, your meta isn't very strong at fighting yard abuse so you should capitalize on that.
It's more of a redundancy. Overrun IS worse than overwhelming stampede but it's still better than Tribal Forcemage which is what I suggested replacing. You're not running Eldrazi and I did point out the added use of exploiting it for your own shenanegans. Although forcing a shuffle vs a GY deck can be just as devastating as filling their yard sans recursion.
Urza's Incubator is great in a spirit deck since they are generally expensive. Angel of Flight Alabaster is some extra recursion and even works with things like Crib Swap (another must have "spirit" spell). Life from the Loam goes really well with GY decks to fill them up quickly as well as letting you reuse some fetch lands or CITP effects on lands.
Alpha Status and Echoing Courage seem very weak. Your rats are already going to be huge so making them even bigger WITHOUT evasion isn't really helping. You'd be better served including more ways of letting them get through for damage (trample/shadow/flying/etc.) Tribal Forcemage costs 5 just like Overrun but is only +2 and only to one creature type... As your only morph, it's not fooling anyone. Why not just use Overrun or Triumph of the Hordes for an alternate win condition with infect. You NEED a sac outlet (aside from just the tower). Noone is going to kill off Filth. Altar of Dementia would be excellent. You'd be able to mill everyone out following a big Thrumming Stone play or set up some shenanegans with Bloodbond March. Transguild Promenade is horrible. Perhaps switch it for Rogue's Passage so that your huge/huge rats or Vraska tokens can get through unblocked.
You have too many CITP tapped lands. It will slow you down significantly. However, if you are using Lifeline, you NEED to be running some man lands. Following a board wipe, you stack the triggers to let all your opponent's creature's triggers resolve first, then before your creatures trigger resolve, you animate one of your man lands so that there is a creature in play for all of your creatures to come back at the end of the turn. Switch out some of your tapped lands for some man lands and try to cut the total amount of tapped lands to 5-6 max if possible... You have a lot of nonbasics which leaves you very vulnerable to nonbasic hate. There's not really any major downside to using more basics as long as you have decent fixing. Constant Mists is one of the best fogs for EDH since it is repeatable. I'm not sure I understand the extra turn cards in this list... The deck is designed to slowly grind out advantage and you don't really have a means of of alpha strike or anything that a couple extra turns would really benefit. It would probably benefit you to try and find a better balance of colors in the deck. Right now it's very heavily white with hardly any green. The activation cost and casting cost of your general supports a better balance of colors so you more reliably have the mana available to activate him while still being able to cast your other spells.
No boring abuses or cheap tricks... just vanilla fatties (Thragtusk? He's terrible in EDH), ramp and extra turn cards. Hardly useful as a public service IMO. Yes, it's a bit lame but it has significant room for improvement. As is, this is hardly even competitive as cheesy Zegana decks go. I guess if you just want to say the extra turn cards are lame that works...
Thrumming Stone definitely needs to be in here. Hoarder's Greed isn't really good in here. You have a very low curve so you will very rarely win a clash so it becomes an overpriced Sign in Blood and the inability to stop the chain is dangerous in the event that you do happen to win a lot of clashes. You have a lot of mana doublers but not much use for bonus mana... You'd probably be better served with things that deal damage based on creature power since some of your rats will be huge. Dying Wish, Essence Harvest, etc. These would be a good way to kill after a big Thrumming Stone play since you don't have haste. Another option would be Altar of Dementia to mill all your opponents rather than waiting a turn to lose the rats to a potential board wipe or fog.
Honestly, anything that comes in tapped is fair game. It looks like you may have already tweaked the lands though. Manalith is terrible because all it does is tap for a mana of your general's color (it doesn't produce mana outside your colors). For the exact same price you could get Darksteel Ingot that is indestructible, Basalt Monolith taps for 3 and can infinite combo, Keyrunes can fill in as attackers/blockers when you have nothing else to do, Chromatic Lantern can give your lands the same ability, Coalition Relic can ramp you two mana of any color. Borderposts can help you hit a land drop, xxxx of ramos artifacts can ramp two mana, Vessel of Endless Rest can tuck a card, etc... That doesn't even touch on the artifact mana of different mana costs. For what it does, it is one of the worst possible choices.
Get your hands on a heartstone as it goes extremely well with her ability. One of the best cards to go along with her. Also consider a basilisk collar or other deathtouch equipment to turn her into cheap spot removal so that she can connect without the threat of blockers. Sol Ring is really important here IMO. Those turn 2 Olivia's can be brutal. Especially if you get a T1 sol ring -> lightning greaves. Rings of Brighthearth can go well with her second ability, a few of your vampires, the planeswalkers, etc...
You will not always have coffers/urborg out and if you do, it leaves a glaring weakness because killing Urborg becomes such an attractive option. Liliana without swamps is really underwhelming. You have three in the entire deck which means there's a huge chance her +1 won't net you any card advantage. Her other two abilities are useless without Urborg. Coffers is quite literally useless without urborg. Resilience and redundancy is good in a singleton format. You NEED more swamps as I doubt you want to waste a slot on Blanket of Night to get a second Urborg effect... Dual lands/shocks are obviously the best options.Reliquary Tower has 0 use in the deck as you have no standard draw. If you combo off and draw your whole deck, you go infinite and Mind Grind/Comet Storm to win immediately. If you can't do that for some reason, the combo you listed to draw your deck has no discard outlet and you lose at your next draw step entirely because of the Reliquary Tower. (You could put them back with Scroll Rack but you mentioned Elixir which has no interaction with your listed combo) If you can't win with the best 7 cards in your deck in hand, there's something wrong.Explorer's Scope is not super good. It's super situationally useful and more often super disappointing. Half your creatures are utility that won't attack, the other half won't survive combat or better serve as chump blockers so you might get to trigger it a couple times a game AFTER getting your top manipulation going. Druidic Satchel on the other hand has the same interaction with your top manipulation and still benefits you if you can't dig deep enough for a land or need a different effect (creatures to chump block or sac to blood funnel). It also works every opponent's turn if you get out the unwinding clock. I play the scope in a deck of my own but it doesn't belong here. You don't have enough creatures that want to attack or enough lands. You have a lot of cards that are only good in combination with certain other cards and are otherwise dead draws. Having cards that take so much set up to be marginally useful as an engine (required setup for a win is one thing) is poor design in a format based on 99 card singleton. It's extremely easy to shut down your tutors or screw up your top manipulation. It's extremely easy to use pinpoint removal to get rid of Urborg or Karn or any other key parts to shut you down. The deck has a lot of potential but in the current form it is extremely weak to disruption and very slow. Does the deck run perfectly or is is slow? If it's slow, it doesn't run perfectly. If it can be completely stopped by a strip mine, it doesn't run perfectly. You're welcome to ignore the problems I'm pointing out but that doesn't mean the deck wouldn't run better with a few cheap changes. I'm sure sometimes it runs great, doing exactly what you want it to and more often gets mana screwed and loses before you ever get a chance to "set up".
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