Gain Life, Draw Cards

Hi everybody!

So yeah, I ran my new and/or improved Chromantichant deck at Mox Mania's Win-a-Box event last night. I updated it to look something like this:

Land (24):
4 Forest
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Plenty
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple of Malady
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple of Silence

Creatures ():
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Underworld Coinsmith
1 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Chromanticore
1 Doomwake Giant

Enchantments ():
1 Mana Bloom
2 Pacifism
3 Nylea's Presence
3 Verdant Haven
1 Bow of Nylea
3 Banishing Light
1 Detention Sphere
3 Sphere of Safety

Sideboard (15):
3 Brain Maggot
2 Oppressive Rays
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Sphere of Safety
2 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Doom Blade
1 Ultimate Price
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 ? (something else, I forget)

Yeah, I went with the heavier black splash, which I'm pretty sure is correct. I kept the light blue splash for the singleton D-Sphere, because why not.

Well, let's see how it went!

That'll get through the Sphere.

Round 1: vs. Naya Midrange.
Pretty epic match here. Three very long, grindy games. Well, mostly it was about him trying to find a way around my Spheres of Safety. He eventually found one: Purphoros. With Assemble the Legion. Owch.
Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.

No scry for you! You come back when you have 8 mana!

Round 2: vs. Izzet Control.
She was playing a brew that she and/or her boyfriend concocted, which was also out of her comfort zone. Game one I landed a Sphere of Safety and she didn't have any kind of answer for it except to try to burn me out. I kept my life total right around 10 with incidental lifegain, and eventually Bow of Nylea helped me pull away well into safe range before I drew into Chromanticore. Game two, I stuck a Heliod, a Bow, and used Elspeth to kill her Stormbreath Dragon to clear the way for my handful of incidental doodz to finish her off in additional turns.
Win, 2-0. Record: 1-1.

10/10 for 4? Seems good.

Round 3: vs. Jund Dredge.
Similar to the G/B Dredge deck, but with a light red splash for Underworld Cerberus and Flesh // Blood and maybe a couple other cards. Maybe Mizzium Mortars? Anyway, this matchup seems to be about disrupting him long enough to keep him from making a giant dork that can attack through a Sphere. I failed.
Loss, 1-2. Record: 1-2.

Sacrifice this creature, discard a card named Altar's Reap: draw two cards.

Round 4: vs. Rakdos Minotaurs.
Another homebrew. He admitted that his brew was pretty janky, with some awkward synergies. Most of the time, the 1-drop minotaur just acted as fodder for Altar's Reap. But yeah, this matchup is a cakewalk. I have plenty of early game, and he has no answer for my Sphere.
Win, 2-0. Record: 2-2.

So, getting better. But still not more better enough. Here are some post-mortem thoughts:

• I like the Underworld Coinsmith quite a bit, but I'm wondering if it might be too cute. I like getting more value out of Constellation triggers, but I'm wondering how much lifegain I really need maindeck. I think in the current meta, I'd rather be more prepared for aggro than not. And event against Midrange, if they don't shut it off right away, it can add up fast, making it difficult to close the game quickly. I think it stays in for now. I kinda want to go up to 4, but that's probably too cute.
• Athreos was cute, but not terribly useful. I didn't really get to turn him into a creature much, and my opponents were almost always happy to pay the three life to keep my creatures dead--I almost never have enough of a clock on them for the three life to matter. I'm thinking I might put Karametra back in this slot. Or maybe Heliod maindeck.
• I'm pretty sure my new favorite opening right now is: 1. Land, 2. Land, Caryatid, 3. Courser, reveal Land, play Land, gain a life. But I'm usually happy running out Coinsmith on turn two as well. The lifegain does help ameliorate shockland damage.
• I probably need more Banishing Light/D-Sphere. Maybe one more B-Light maindeck, and another D-Sphere in the board. I need to be able to interact more beyond just preventing them from attacking.
• I'm not sure about the Doomwake Giant. Granted, I only saw him once or twice all night, but most of the time, he wasn't going to do much for me. At 5 mana, I wanna hide behind a Sphere, not kill a bunch of weenies that should have already killed me by now. Seems like a case of win-more.
• I'm wondering if I should add a third Chromanticore. If for no other reason, I need to have a way to finish games quickly once I lock them down with Sphere. With only two in the deck, if I don't have my Eidolon draw engine going, it can take quite a few turns before I find one.
• I still don't really know how this deck does against Control. Probably not wonderfully. I need to get a Primeval Bounty in there. Maybe two.
• Brain Maggots are pretty sweet. That's another card that can come in post-board against Control.
• Against the Dredge decks, I should play that Constellation guy that empties graveyards. Agent of Erebos. That'll go a long way toward slowing them down.

All in all, I'm still having a lot of fun playing the deck. And other players have fun watching it in action. It creates rather ridiculous spammy board states, which of course I love. And there's nothing quite like winning with Chromanticore. I have a few tweaks in mind, which I think will take care of a few corner-case weaknesses.

Thanks for reading!