First off, Mox Diamond is restricted. For acceleration, I'd play Aether Vials. They act like moxes, dropping threats while you equip Jittes, etc.

Secondly, I would consider a number Samurai of the Pale Curtain. It is great against Dragon, and decent against everything else, including fish, as it is sizable by fish standards (not WTF, of course.)

I would also cut Plate for 2 more Jittes. Each hit with Jitte effectively puts them on a 1-turn faster clock. I could see Plate underperforming in the mid/late game, if your opponent hangs on for long enough.

And yes, I'd definitely play Balance.

This classic Dojo article pretty much talks about your problem.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/3689.html

It seems that with so few accelerants, glowrider would be way too slow. I recall reading just a few days ago in Vegeta2711's article on Saviors of Kamigawa that the one mana difference brought it from interesting to unplayable.

Duress, Vamp, and Demonic are very powerful cards, and I would be happy to run black in Oath. Your justifications for running a third color are suboptimal.

Vampiric, Mystical, and Enlightened Tutors, and Imperial Seal, do not belong in here. They are card disadvantage in a control deck. It is silly to try to combo out with Oath, when it is really quite easy to hose the deck with cards that are as cheap as Oath itself. If you aggressively tutor for Oath with "put on top" tutors, you could easily deny yourself of Forbidden Orchard, and trying to get out an Oath on turn two without an Orchard is probably a heads up to your opponent not to drop that Goblin Welder too quickly.

Colossus is bad also, and I would rather play with an Akroma, SotN, and Ancient Hydra/similar creature any day. Your cantrips make this deck look like a Gro deck with an Oath kill instead of Quirion Dryad, but Gro decks, when popular, have had tons of other win conditions depending on the time they were popular, including Werebear, Psychatog, and Phyrexian Dreadnaught. You just have a two-card combo.

A good reason to run black is for a couple of Duresses, Demonic, and Skeletal Scrying. Try JACO's list, it is really solid. If I were you, I'd take Bulls on Parade's advice for proxies.

Also, Imperial Seal is a sorcery, and is nowhere on par with Vampiric.

DSC wins faster, but Morphling wins better. Granted, It is not was it was a few years ago, but it can still turn a game around. Also, playing a single Morphling seems rediculus. Morphling is rarely dead (past the early game, of course,) Where DSC is only good when you pitch it to TFK, and THEN draw a Tinker. It seems too janky for a deck that is supposed to win through total constancy...which brings me to my next point:

Impulse is better here than TFK. In the early game it will get you whatever card you need at the moment. In a deck that runs 12+ counterspells, and a smattering of utilitarian permanents, it smooths over draws. Need a land? Done. Need a counterspell? Done. Having all of your draw at three is bad, and TFK gets worse when you take into consideration that you will probably be playing moxes early to afford the TFK, along with counter mana.

I'd play U/W Fish as well, maybe going a bit further by playing extra StPs and Silver Knights in the SB (very good with Aether Vial.)

@Lymph:
Impulse is better in the early game than TFK. While it doesn't yield any real card advantage, it still helps you get off your feet, by giving you whatever you need before an ophidian is on-line. While TFK gives you cards, there's a good chance that you'd have to discard some good ones that early. TFK is better as the game goes on, but by then you have Ophidians...

Tinker/Colossus is bad, you don't have nearly enough tutor power to make it reliable. As it stands, there is a 50/50 chance of drawing the Colossus over the Tinker. You don't even have Brainstorm.

@Duck:
I agree with your first paragraph. I'll agree with your point on Negator, but Mongrel, Boa, and other creatures that only put pressure on life totals just aren't going to cut it against many decks, especially if your meta includes a lot of Workshop. The problem with Fiend is that it's just a bit expensive for something that Therapy does more effectively, for less. The one point per turn isn't that relevant, although it is good with Rancor.

I don't have much experience with Jitte, but if you say so...

@ReAnimator: The Cuombajj Witches do seem pretty good.

If you're worried about Lab that much, how about bringing in that Colossus? It would be pretty safe behind a Defense Grid. Even if you don't bring it in, you still have Chain of Vapor, which you would play EOT, untap, and win.

First off, you are so off base about Duress...It is the only thing that would probably keep you from just dying to combo. Like I said, combo decks can deal with Null Rod, CotV, and Extraction. The Jitte isn't really good, but Therapy seems really strong.

Don't forget, this isn't Macey Rock. Call, Mongrel, and Fiend are crap. I would much rather play 4 Boa, 4 Negator, and 4 Wretch.

Genju and Plague seem janky, I'd avoid a two-card combo that can be stopped.

Have you answered the question of why this is better than R/G?

You're dead on. In addition:

Hippie is bad as well, it is way too slow. I'd still replace some of your threats, as they don't seem to do much other than attack (except for wretch, which I definitely like.) R/G has such threats as lavamancer and gorilla shaman, both more game-swinging than Flesh Reaver or Call.

The problem with your disruption is that any compotent player of any of the decks listed can play around these. You have no way to deal with a huge creature, so if the oath stays in play for one turn you lose. Oath tends to have plenty of counters, and many play with Cunning Wish for more answers. Same goes for Dragon; even with a Root Maze, they could just animate a V. Force. COW/Waste isn't as effective as it used to be, and Null Rod is even less effective. Most of the cards in your deck can defeat Belcher, that deck just wins too fast to have an impact.

I wonder why you did not include Duress/Therapy. The most useful thing that Flesh Reaver ever did in this format was get sacrificed to a therapy.

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-Matt

It looks like you're playing the wrong game with this deck. Like I've said in the Affinity thread, Skullclamp was great in formats where players did a lot of blocking and mass removal, as you'd equip an x/2, getting you a huge threat and card advantage when he answers it. Here, equipping bigger creatures seems silly, as a lot of decks will just play Platinum, Akroma, or a big Tendrils and ignore your threat. Because of this, I'd cut the Serendibs and Kird Apes, and replace with more utilitarian creatures, like Shaman, that can be clamped if useless.

This is all without testing, so I could be totally off, of course.

@Defector: The single Trinisphere is really good. With Smokestack or Welder/Tangle Wire it is a hard lock (unless he has ESGs, but your odds are still damn good.) I Ttinker for the Trinisphere a lot, even in the late game.

I could also see playing Glimmervoid if you hate Mine that much, as its a bit better than the other alternatives, but it's still not as good as Gemstone.

Right now, I'm 1/1 on Mystical and Scroll. I'm slowly leaning towards the Mystical side, though.

I'm going to continue to wage my war against AK in Grow. You want to be aggressive with card drawing or else 2/3 of your creatures are useless, so you don't want to play a battle of wits with Tog, Slaver, Oath, n' friends. AK is also pricey, and the first two tend to suck.

Do you find that you are activating LoA? While the deck is drawing like a madman, it never actually has a big hand. Also, I'd replace the Heaths for Deltas, for obvious reasons.

One last thing: you shun Teferi's Response for being expensive (and other reasons) yet you play counterspell. I cannot imagine that you don't mind the cost; leaving mana open is just so horrible. I'd play Stifles in those spots.

I wouldn't. Thoughtcast is better than clamp. Like Matt said, there aren't many things to clamp. In T2, the best move would be to clamp an x/2, so they'd have a bigger threat to deal with, and be forced to block/wrath, giving you two cards. Here, you won't be doing much blocking (and forget Wrath of God).

Annul is too narrow and reactive for this deck, but Cabal Therapy seems great.

It may be worth testing Tangle Wire, as with all the equipment, it won't effect you much. Probably too slow, though.

Dismantling Blow...blows (sorry, I  just couldn't resist.) Keeper used it because it had mana drains to power it, and didn't want to play 15 cantrips in a single turn. Decks like grow are more focused on time, and will almost never get to six mana. If you do, a single disenchant isn't going to save you.

I agree with the Stifle comment, however. With Tog and Fish coming back, we'll see if the value (play, not monotary) of Misdirection goes up. Teferi's Response seems a bit limited, and pricey. 2 is a lot to keep open.

Intuition and AK is terrible in this deck. It's one thing in a deck like GAT, where that is 8 more damage on one attack (not counting the 4th AK). In this deck it is only 2 damage. With three intuitions, you would have to cut a LOT of good cards, including some amount of cantrips. While 3, and subsequently 4 cards is great for this deck, it is too much mana at too big a cost of other good, and better cards. Intuition is also pretty much dead after the first AK, and in a draw-heavy deck, that is not a good thing.

By the way, refering to the post's title, what is the question?

EDIT: added an 'o' to the end of one of the toos.

After playing about ten or fifteen games with the deck, I've come to a few preliminary conclusions. Keep in mind that I'm not convinced on these, but just what I've noticed:

-First of all, I hate the wishes. They just seemed expensive, and I just wasn't playing them much. The Cunnings I was pitching, and Living Wish just sat there.

-Lotus is very good.

-I want more cantrips. Sleights are DEFINATELY better than visionst it's better than AK at the very least) but I think that some amount of visions are needed.

-I liked Merchant Scroll a lot. I'm not sure it's better than Mystical as it doesn't get lots of important things, but I liked having an extra Gush or Ancestral. I also hated the card disadvantage in a deck like this. I found that time advantage is better than card advantage, and as such, I liked Merchant a lot.

I'll be doing some real testing, as I love Gro, and get back to 'yall.

-Seal is better than disenchant, but it can't be fetched by Mystical. Your call.

Well, in your example, you didn't have another land anyway, and as your other source was a workshop, you weren't playing the welder (not like you needed it in that situation anyway.) The point is, Gemstone Mine is still the best option, and Crucible makes it better before it's worse.

I'd like to point out that in Wollbad's example, gemstone mine can be replayed by the crucible in his hand.

I also like Ancient Tomb a lot. It is a safer card, in terms of consistancy in the deck as a whole, than MWS.

This deck isn't designed to abuse card advantage: it's built to win fast. That is what Plating does. I would also replace the windfall with another draw seven, as you usually empty your hand pretty quickly. Timetwister would be best here, as it doesn't mess up your opponent's graveyard, and you don't really care about yours.

I agree with Matt, however. This deck really has no disruption at all, and goldfishes slower than combo, or the speed at which slaver gets out a Plat.

Exactly why you need a "win now" card, like laquatus.

Sorry, I meant a mana vault.

Also, my understanding is that you need a second animate spell for the eternal witness thing to work. This is hard to get without bazaar. Y

You should play an ambassador laqatus (sp?) so you can win without Bazaar, in tight situations.

I'd definately play a mana crypt, to help you cast Buried Alive.

Yawg's Will, Necro, and friends aren't particularly good in this deck.

I've found that another BA is better than Entomb, as it fetches dragon and your win condition.

He is not playing dedicated red lands, but rather 5-color lands. He is not playing colors solely for Welder. I do agree with your first point, though.

Edit: Also, goblin welder is often not used immediately. As stated earlier, you could play a Chalice for 1, establish more control with other things, sac the Chalice to Smokestack and play your Welder (and other 1cc things.).

I agree on the Crop Rotation issue: if it is countered, you loose way too much tempo to win (easily).

On intuition: it's not really that insane unless you have a welder in play already. Seeing as how this isn't really a Welder-based deck, it seems not too much better than fabricate (it's actually a lot better than fabricate, but you know what I meant.) Also, the plan to intuition for your lone trinisphere and weld it in isn't as powerful as it seems, as 3sphere looses a lot of its punch after the 2nd turn.

I would personally like to have an enlightened tutor, and if the metagame deems it necesary, a MD Seal of Cleansing to accompany it. It also helps you find SB stuff like Chains, Choke, or whatever you could find useful.

You're quite a guy, Kowal. You guys close this, of course.

Touche. You guys can close this, of course.

This is all very confusing. Hey Kowal, why the sarcasic pepperoni comment?