But What If, Karn?

"I couldn't remove a 2/1 with deathtouch, and that is a problem," I said to Jason.

He's got Oloro as his commander and a Serra Avatar on the table in the photo; I've got enough mana to cast Shimmer Myr and recur it via Myr Reservoir to block the Avatar forever...except.

My freakin' Eldrazi is being held off by a 2/1 with deathtouch. I can't go on the offensive, because my mana at the time is being tied up in blocking a Very Large Avatar. I couldn't get anything else on board and soon after, Jason cast Sanguine Bond, sacrificed the Avatar (at 50 something power) to Disciple of Griselbrand and that was that.

And people say Aetherflux Reservoir isn't going to go off!

Finding a bunch of ways that Karn doesn't work is good data, but alternative input has been lacking.

The next match, Jason played Marath as his commander and I was able to establish a solid board presence...until he cast From the Ashes. While this wiped out all of my lands, I was able to keep playing thanks to a couple mana rocks-and an already dominant board presence-that he just couldn't keep up.I had a similar experience in game 2, being able to cast my haymakers while he used an untuned Marath deck to try and keep up.

At least I know that this deck can work! Maybe it would work better in multiplayer? It hasn't (yet) but...

Reading LSV's artifact review of Kaladesh gave me an idea. Vehicles could be a real boon to this deck, both adding a set of artifacts for Karn to animate, or allowing smaller animated artifacts to crew larger vehicles. Hell, animating vehicles should get around the need to crew them!

This offers an extra dimension to the deck that was previously unavailable and that strikes me as quite exciting!

Until then, I'm going to remove:
Hovermyr
Rocket Launcher
Myr Incubator
Alpha Myr
Sculpting Steel
Blinkmoth Nexus
Sheltered Valley
An-havva Township
Koskun Keep
Castle Sengir

Adding in:
2 Wastes
Sea Gate Wreckage
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Phyrexia's Core
Platinum Emperion
Argentum Armor
Spine of Ish Sah (can't believe this wasn't already here)
Solemn Simulacrum
Candles of Leng
Gruesome Slaughter

With two Wastes, Solemn Simulacrum has viable targets and I can't be completely shattered by cards like From the Wastes. Argentum Armor could give more removal (which is something I seem to be sorely lacking), Candles of Leng more card draw (ditto), and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is another Temple of the False God that helps ramp mana.

So far, I like where I'm going with this.