dknight27

Any chance the budget could stand having some collective brutality?

Nope, never seen one played. I can definitely see the synergy, but the loss in tempo as the build is just seems to be untenable to me. It's pretty much a solved issue at this point that being fast is the most important part of magic in pretty much every format. Standard is the slowest of the regular formats, but even keeping that in mind ALWAYS being a turn behind due to all your lands entering tapped and a top heavy mana curve means at best you will react to what opponent is doing rather than getting anything done yourself.

This build looks like it eats a few mulligans due to color problems, as 5 of your lands are colorless in a quad-color build (15 color lands) and the only tactical cards are the 4 sages. The curve is low and sleek, and I'm sure you can get by on 1 or 2 lands for quite a while, but the quad color just seems to eat into this deck's consistency to me. Have you run into this problem?

This deck is going to be beyond slow as is. You're top heavy on the curve, and every land you have comes in tapped, so you are playing a turn behind. As is, you won't be able to drop anything till turn 3 most of the time, and you'll be dropping only 1 card per turn after that for the next several turns. Even in the best case, when you hit a 1 drop and 2 drop in the opening hand, you won't play them till turn's 2 and 3, giving opponent all the time in the world to do whatever he wants. If you're playing against a control deck, you won't field anything cause he will have everything set up. If you're playing against an agro deck, he will have the board pounding away at you turn 1 or 2 so you will be down life with a running clock.

The only solution I see is to thin out the gates (keep the search) with SOME faster lands (splash enough in to give yourself a chance at a turn 1 or 2 play), then saturate this deck with as many 1 and 2 drops as you can so that you can survive the early loss of tempo then counter attack with the advantage from the gate-themed cards.

I'm surprised to see only 30 lands in here, even with the artifacts, as you want to hit your search fast and ramp to 4 for salvagers with enough open to protect everything.

Right now im seeing a pretty high concentration of critter-fodder (14), which is much higher than normal in a reanimator build as your goal is to ensure that 1 hits the board as fast as possible rather than to consistently hit more than 1. 14 cards is 25% of the deck, so you are likely to get 2 in the opening, and when you add in the entomb it cranks the chances to close to 1/3. I would personally run more disruption/tactical hand rearrangement.

Also, lotus petal will help augment the dark rituals even more and will up the chances of the turn 1 iona or Jin-Gitaxias you want so badly.

Just my thoughts

I would recommend going with some collective brutality. Give the deck either hand disruption, removal, or draino and is easy and cheap to escalate, as this deck can get by on minimal lands, and you can ditch lingering souls then flash it back. I would also consider maxing out bitterblossom, as it works best when dropped early. Perhaps also consider a copy of sorin, lord of inistrad over the double up of solemn visitor.

Just my thoughts

This build looks a tad too top heavy, I would consider cutting some 3 and 4 drops and upping the 1 and 2 drops

I think he means a "by the book" burn deck

I'm not a huge fan of running 12 critters in here. It cuts down on the accuracy of delver (12 critters + 20 lands is more than half the deck), and the lightning angles slow the deck down (4 drops are tough in a deck with 20 lands with 8 fetches). I would consider swapping them out for electrolyze, which does precisely what this deck wants to do, is affordable, and ups the instant count.

I'm also not a fan of psyonic blast, as you have access to red and can use any of its much better burn options. I would consider 3 copies of risk factor, which also helps with redundant lands/bad top decks.

Just my thoughts.

You're missing some staples of tribal builds and some red/black staples in general that might help boost the build.

Kindred dominance
Adaptive automaton
Coat of arms
Ever after
Decree of pain
Grave pact
Gratuitous violence
Nihil spellbomb
Skullclamp
Night's whisper
Bloodghast
Gilded lotus
Thran dynamo
Flameshadow conjuring

Are you looking to modernize this?

Nothing in particular, just general feedback. i have no delusion that this will compete with tier 1 decks, but when I look at the mechanics of cycling, and the huge augmentations that have hit in the last few sets, I see a potential answer to the central problem in magic, which is the equilibrium of fast development vs post development material

I'm not a huge fan of 4 niv's, as you dont' want it in the opening hand, or realistically until you have PLENTY of mana available, and you are running plenty of tactical draw (opt, the planeswalkers, treasure map). I think you can get away with 2-3 niv's and 2 drakes (has sort of the same problem (don't want it in the opening when it's weak)). Have you run into any of these problems?

collective brutality would be right at home in here

I'm not a fan of ghostly prison in here, especially with 16 lands. By the time you play it, opponent will have enough mana built up for it to not matter very much. Maxing out inquisition of kozilek makes more sense to me, as this deck desperately wants a turn 1 play, and you aren't going to get a much better one.

I see a couple areas of redundancy that can be smoothed out to help streamline this build. Your commander already boosts the kitty cats extremely well, so you don't really need any of the boosts from the equipments, which slow things down anyway.

You're also missing a few staples for this build and white/green EDH in general, like: white sun's zenith, collective blessing, dictate of heliod, true conviction, kismet, return to dust, brave the sands, cathar's crusade, and commander's sphere.

Just some ideas

It's all good, EDH is a very strange format. Completely backward from every other format in magic. Takes a while to get the hang of it

This deck is designed as a multi-player EDH, so spot removal in general is far less effective. In general I stay away from spot removal in EDH as it puts you at -1 against every player but the one you moved against, so in a 4 player game it puts you at -2, and in a 3 player game it puts you at -1. Far more effective in EDH are nukes, targeted mass removal, and activated abilities that take care of stuff. In here, Lyzolda has a shock effect that is super easy to activate, there are plenty of search cards, tremendous draw power, some good nukes, and the enchantments that make opponents sac critters when mine die (which is devastating), so I don't think this build needs any spot removal, even for super problematic critters.

Lighting bolt in particular doesn't work in EDH because the life totals are doubled, everyone ramps higher, and important critters usually don't die to 3 damage.

Claim // Fame is a very good card, but works much better in modern where what you want is sleek speed, and Claim gives you ETB boosts, as well as fetching back key matchups like dark confidant and death's shadow. This deck doesn't really care about mechanics like that, as it has extremely effective reanimator and token mechanics working to keep the field full of small critters to smack around.

Kolaghan's command is, in my humble opinion, a contender for best card made in the last few years, there's no doubt.

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/modern-bant-control-budget/

This is how I would structure the deck you're going for with the bones you've got at hand. I would go with garruk, primal hunter over kiora, but that might be outside the budget so no biggie.

The basic idea for the swap-ins is to fix the tempo problem with the lands, as censor is about the biggest cheap utility belt I've found in modern. Works like a regular counterspell in the opening and early middle game, and if you don't need it you cycle it off for U and say thank you as you thin your deck for minimal cost. In other words, you want it in the opening hand, and you are ok with top decking it. Find me another 25 cent card in modern that does that and I'll bake you a cake.

Torrential gearhulk goes for a little over 4 bucks these days, and does exactly what this deck wants. Beat stick flashes in, retains material, then goes to work on a 4-turn clock.

I'm a bigger fan of Jace, unraveler than Karn in here because of how hard it is to field and protect a 7-drop, and because Jace (hopefully) replaces himself with the first activation.

The rest of the bones are basically the same, with some tweaks on concentration.