This feels playable, but I'm just not sure how to build around it

[Bluemagex2517]

Hello,

Before I begin taking about the deck I've been working on let me explain where I'm coming from. I'm serious legacy player who has had some moderate success. I've been playing around with vintage decks for a while now, but I'm no expert, and have very little actual vintage tournament background.

As the title alludes to what I've been trying to build around is Erayo, Soratami Ascendant. Now, I've never seen a deck built around the card in vintage (if there is one feel free to the point the way). I think that the card does have vintage potential. His effect, once flipped, is pretty potent from my understanding of vintage. He also is rather easy to flip in a format with fast mana and a lot of counters. He creates a hard lock with Ethersworn Canonist, which is already a vintage playable card. Multiples of the ledgendary Erayo can pitch to force. Erayo is especailly good against blue decks like Tezzeret, which rely on tutors to get powerful effects online, and whose own countermagic can help to flip Erayo.

My deck starts with Some number of  Erayo, Canonist, Rebuild and/or Hurkyl' s, fast mana, and 4 FOW. It certainly includes some restricted blue cards like recall, timewalk, thirst, tinker and maybe ponder, brainstorm, FOF, Gifts, merchant scroll. Beyond that I'm not certain where to go. Time Vault is certainly an option, but it is ran in so many Vintage decks now. Do I make the deck more of a fish deck with meddling mage ect.? Use mystic Remora?  I originally tried Mirrodin lands with thoughtcast and Master of Etherium. This was too much of a glass jaw to Null Rod. The version I am currently testing on MWS looks like this:

Lands
    1  Academy Ruins
    2  Flooded Strand
    2 [UG] Island
    2  Misty Rainforest
    1  Plains
    1  Scalding Tarn
    1  Snow-Covered Island
    1  Tolarian Academy
    2  Tundra
 Creatures
    4  Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
    4  Ethersworn Canonist
    1  Inkwell Leviathan
 Spells
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Brainstorm
    4  Force of Will
    1  Gifts Ungiven
    1  Lotus Petal
    1  Mana Crypt
    4  Mana Drain
    1  Mana Vault
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Sapphire
    4  Mystic Remora
    1  Ponder
    4  Rebuild
    1 [JGC] Sol Ring
    2  Spell Pierce
    1  Tezzeret the Seeker
    1  Thirst for Knowledge
    1  Time Vault
    1  Time Walk
    1  Tinker
    1  Voltaic Key

If you think Erayo is just not viable, I'd rather come to that conclusion on my own through testing. If you have ideas on how to build the deck please add input.

Thanks,
Matt

[theLastGnu]

Erayo was a pivotal component of SS a while back, perhaps glossing over the article for any internal synergies you missed might be worth a look: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/12105_Sullivan_Library_The_Sullivan_Solution_to_Vintage.html

That said, I've always thought Erayo should be more of a force in vintage. I think it's best use would be in more of a keeper shell, with mana denial to make the flipped erayo a hardlock as opposed to canonist. Chalice or Gorilla Shaman could be in there, Remand seems alright, Cutpurse might be too slow, but probably warrants testing, stifle and waste effects are strongly recommended.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Your decklist really wants Repeals.  They are great for flipping Erayo and reusing Mystic Remora, as well as answering opposing Fishy creatures which could pose a problem for this deck as it has little board control.  Perhaps replace some of the Rebuilds with Repeals because I don't think you need all 4.

You might also consider adding Dark Confidants as more draw and to improve the Aggro plan.  They also have great synergy with Mystic Remora.

Overall the deck looks like it would be fairly strong against Control and Combo strategies but somewhat soft against Fish, Stax, and Dredge.  It's difficult to evaluate the viability of the deck without a meta and sideboard.

Also note that Erayo+Canonist is not a "hard lock" because your opponent can play a Mox or something and then play another spell.  For a hard lock you would need Arcane Lab, but I'm not sure it's really necessary.  Getting a flipped Erayo in play should be enough to win anyway.

Furthermore, I think that you want Demonic+Vamp+Will.  The tutors are great for assembling Vault+Key, and Will is too good not to include when you have so many spells capable of bouncing your own Canonist to go crazy--then you can even replay Canonist afterward.

[Bluemagex2517]

Thanks, the realization that I don't need canonist opens the deck up a lot.

[vassago]

I wont bother repeating any thing I have said on the topic before, but here is a link of the last post some one started about this idea. Hopefully it will be insightful.

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=39161.msg543913#msg543913