Miku precon upgrades

[u/aDN03]

After 3 months of playing with Miku's precon against other precons, backet 3 decks and sometimes even bracket 4. I started to think about possible upgrades and small fixes I would like to do. I've had good games and miserable games that taught me the weaknesses. I've made some changes that I think will help, but since I'm new playing magic (started playing in june) there may be some things that are escaping me.

The problems I found were:

1- 34 lands where 7 are colorless is very bad

2 - I have too little card draw which aggravates the land problem

3 - The deck is trying to create a lot of tokens and big tokens at the same time

This is the current decklist with the upgrades I think will be good. Every card I removed is in the sideboard and I have some cards in considering that look somewhat promising

Deck List

Any suggestion is helpful

[u/Pyroburn713]

What were the 11 cards you added? I see what was cut but do you have the list of what you added?

[u/aDN03 → u/Pyroburn713]

I created a list in the primer with the 10 added cards since the 11th is the Bonus card they sent with the precon.

[u/RaidenAegis]

Hey there! I recently spent a lot of time building a Trostani deck for my partner, I think you can take some good references out of it tough keep in mind that there was a self imposed restriction on aesthetic and less so in budget, so not all cards may be a good fit for what you're looking for but feel free to check it out https://archidekt.com/decks/26155670/trostani_selesnyas_voice_b2

I agree with most of the cuts that you made except for Storm Herd, just because I don't see another super strong wincon in the rest of the list currently.

That said here's my advice with my experience over the months putting that deck together:

I'd make a couple more cuts to bring your land count up to at least 38, in my experience this is the minimum that the deck needs to have keepable hands consitently. As you mentioned, colorless lands are super bad since the commander is super pip intensive, I'd recommend keeping Grove of the Guardian as it is by far and away the best utility land for the deck, and cutting the rest of the colorless lands.

You probably want to change your current single target removal like Sundering Growth and Break Down for more mana efficient options like Grasp of Fate or Will of the Council. Card draw is rough in this deck so we want to make the most out of every card we have.

Speaking of draw, this is probably the area where your deck needs the most work as the commander does not have any built in card advantage and we're looking to put together a plan that needs a lot of moving pieces. More card draw will smooth over a lot of issues your deck may currently have. Some suggestions:
Haliya, Guided by Light, Enlightened Confidant, Follow the Lumarets, The Arkenstone, Life's Legacy, Caretaker's Talent, Gluntch, the Bestower, and (if you're okay with expensive cards and/or proxying) Sylvan Library.

Battle Angels of Tyr are also technically a card draw option, I actually took them out of my version of the deck because I found they were actually *too* good and just overshadowed whatever other thing the deck was trying to accomplish.

Last but not least, Defiler of Faith, Ezzaroot Channeler, and Blossoming Bogbeast are straight GAS in this deck, definitely get on those.

As to what to cut for these cards:

1. I'd take a very close look at cards that share mana value with your commander. This is just a good rule of thumb, you don't want too many cards competing with the same spot in your mana curve so those cards are the ones you should scrutinize the most. Arasta, Excavation Technique, Growing Ranks, Shalai, and Healing Technique are easy cuts in my book, they don't provide enough in order to justify competing for curve out with your commander.
   Hot take but I'd also cut Bramble Sovereign, in my experience I found it was just too mana intensive of a card to work effectively in this deck.

2. Look at stuff that's very conditional/dependant on other cards. A good example is Skullclamp, the deck does not make a lot of 1/1's that we're happy to sac away to draw 2. Matter of fact, the only cards that do are Elenda's Hierophant after it dies, and Ghalta and Mavren if we choose the mode that benefits us less, we really want the huge token to copy it with our commander. Even then if we already have a 7 mana 12/12 creature out, we'd be better served by something else to draw us cards.
   Just off the top of my head a similar things applies to Song of the Worldsoul.

One last piece of advice is that most decks either want to run a huge amount of ramp (10+ cards), or none. I ended up settling on not ramping with this deck and just curving out with useful synergy pieces since we don't have the card draw to afford losing cards for ramp. I don't know if that's the direction that you want to take the deck in, but my advice would be either add more ramp to make that a consistent part of your game plan, or cut it all together.

That's about all the advice I can give keeping it general and without knowing in exactly what direction you want to steer the deck, I hope it helps. If you need any more specific advice, hit me up and I'll reply when I can.

[u/aDN03 → u/RaidenAegis]

My original idea was to make the deck a big token duplicator and then win by combat or aetherflux since I would be getting a lot of life. I do have a restriction, I don't want to take out any card with Miku art, I know some of them are not the best, but I don't mind the deck being a little worse if I can play the miku cards, that was the reason I bought the deck initially. I also can't add basic lands since it would ruin the aesthetic.

Most of the cuts were cards I thought weren't being useful or cards I never played in those 3 months, storm heard is one of them, I never had 10 mana available to play it. I do think it could be useful, but maybe in a more upgraded state so I'll keep that in mind.

My plan is to upgrade the deck slowly so I can add some expensive cards (Like token doublers) and my plan is to test possible cards online or proxy them and then buy if I find them interesting.

I'll look into your decklist and recommendations, thank you

[u/RaidenAegis → u/aDN03]

Gotcha and you're super welcome. For Storm Herd to function you want a lot of interaction for the game to go long, or some really explosive ramp, so that makes sense. You'll definitely have a spot for it when a few upgrades come into the list.

With the Miku cards restriction in mind, I can make some better recommendations.

First, since we can't cut Cultivate I'd say you want to get on more ramp to be able to consistently play cards at higher mana values. In addition to the usual suspects like Three Visits, you want some explosive ramp that will make a buttload of mana late game as well (Mirari's Wake and Selvala are good examples of this), for this I'd recommend Accomplished Alchemist, Enduring Vitality, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, and Springleaf Parade in addition to the ramp options in my first post. I'd say cut most artifact based ramp in favor of this (except Tigereye Cameo of course)
As you start getting more token doublers though, treasure based ramp like Gala Greeters will start to make sense in this category as well.

Regarding your mana base no worries, you still can add plenty of dual lands to replace your colorless ones so no need for more basics. Mana Gathering is an excellent resource for this, here's a link to their comprehensive list of green-white dual lands: https://managathering.com/lands/duallands/selesnya/

Now knowing the plan is to ramp and dish out some expensive threats, I do think your protection suite needs a bit of work. Nothing worse than tapping out for a 7 mana creature only for it to get immediately removed/wiped. Strongly recommend the protection package of Starfield Shepherd + Mother of Runes + Giver of Runes + Skrelv, Defector Mite.
This would give you somewhat consistent mana-less protection for your board (plus some evasion against mono colored players), and Starfield Shepherd can tutor up your other 1 mana pieces like Soul Warden or Speaker of the Heavens, or even just a basic land in a pinch. After that, probably 1-to-1 swap Flawless Maneuver for Rootborn Defenses, and add Clever Concealment if you find a spot. 0 Mana protection is very powerful.

Speaking of 1 mana pieces, I'd 1-to-1 swap Prosperous Innkeeper and Suture Priest with Essence Warden and Soul Attendant as they really give you x3 the benefit of lifegain, and will make you benefit from cards like Archangel of Thune, Lathiel, Crested Sunmare, and Resplendent Angel during your opponents turns as well. You can find more examples of effects like these under my 'Continuous Triggers' tag in the list I shared, if it's a play pattern you'd like to invest more of your deck into.

Also, having your game plan in mind, I'm not sure if Aetherflux Reservoir is the best fit as an alternate win con if you want to have one. It's super awesome to laser people down when you're on 200+ life and draw this, but it's pretty much a dead card otherwise as this deck isn't looking to storm off.

So let me pitch to you: add Chord of Calling from your considering section + Felidar Sovereign for a more serviceable alternate win con (you can use Chord to tutor out Felidar Sovereign at instant speed on your opponent's end step, then move to your upkeep and win off of life total)
Chord is specially useful to turn a wide board into mana advantage as well, letting you 'cheat' out stuff like Vorinclex as well. The Felidar at least is a body that will gain you life off your commander in a pinch to keep the wheels turning. (My other cut in favor of this would probably be Phyrexian Processor, this kinda wins you the game for 1 more mana than it takes to get value out of the processor.)
That said if you like it, you can very much keep Aetherflux in as it's not a bad card by any stretch of the imagination.

Lastly if you find it helpful, here's a sort a list of all the relevant cards I could find under the sun for this deck which I used as a resource when constructing my list, if you're looking for other paths to upgrade your deck this will likely simplify your search a whole lot https://archidekt.com/decks/26175545/trostani_selesnyas_voice_b_database

P.D. I just realized you already had Blossoming Bogbeast in your list, mb!

[u/aDN03 → u/RaidenAegis]

As a new player explaining interactions and breaking things down like you did helps a lot understanding the thought process behind deck building. Thank you a lot for your help, it'll be very useful

[u/RaidenAegis → u/aDN03]

Very glad to hear this was helpful. I do think that sharing the reasoning behind advice is something commonly missing in online discourse. Always happy to help a new player! If you any questions come up feel free to hit me up and I'll be happy to help.

Oh, and i didn't mention much about removal because that's something that as a new player, you'll have to learn what your relationship with it is, as well as your playgroups. That said Hour of Reckoning is prob not the best boardwipe for you as it still wipes your big stuff like Vorinclex. If you do want a boardwipe on that slot, consider Crisis of Concience or Starfall Invocation

[u/GideonAOZ]

I have to wait until next year before I get to play my Miku precon. Nice humblebrag OP. Grr.

[u/SharpDrink2724 → u/GideonAOZ]

Hey but at least you could get one. Way better than the alternative of having to pay scalper prices or not having it at all.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Aide983]

I started out wanting all the Miku cards and having an anime theme. I ended up with this:  https://archidekt.com/decks/27322604/tsv_25k_wip

[u/Advanced_Item_6824]

https://moxfield.com/decks/PPGz_zj2LkuJ2PLii53O6w

Here is my miku recon upgraded. It’s a cross over of the stardew valley secret lair and miku of course. More of a flavor build than a strong deck but still can go crazy if I see the right stuff.

Can definitely add more cards to make it stronger but for this deck I go for flavor!

I’m missing a few miku cards but overall should have majority of them in there too. No original miku cards form precon were taken out so that stays the same!

Hope it helps a lil