[EDH / Commander] When Mogis Wants Green - Help with Final Cuts?

[UrizenII]

When Mogis Wants Green

I'm a relatively new Magic player (only really started playing EDH with friends a few months ago), but I'm not entirely foreign to TCGs like Magic (I've played quite a bit of Hearthstone, which is basically MTG for Dummies).  My biggest problem with deck construction is that I try to make the deck do too much by incorporating too many different themes.  This deck started as a Mogis/Kaervek punisher deck, but then I ran across Ruric Thar and had to get Green into the mix.  I need to cut 34 cards (I know, it's a lot) to get it down to a legal EDH deck, but I'm having trouble figuring out what to cut.  Budget should be a consideration for me, as I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible if I were to actually buy components for the deck.  That being said, I really only play EDH casually with a small group of friends I've known for years a few times a month, so one or two proxies wouldn't be a big deal.

Cards I'm currently considering cutting:
Vicious Shadows
Chaos Warp
Vigor
Erebos, God of the Dead
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Sangromancer
Whip of Erebos
Forgotten Ancient
Managorger Hydra
Zo-Zu the Punisher
Heartwood Storyteller
Vengeful Pharaoh
Massacre Wurm
Reassembling Skeleton

Ignore the Maybeboard for the most part.  Those are essentially cards I looked at just to give me some ideas of what I could do that I cut in my first pass. Any advice, whether specific to this deck or generally, would be appreciated.

[Judaspriester]

Hmm.. some Suggestions:
Cut Paradise Plume and replace Obelisk of Jund with Thaumatic Compass (Search Lands early on, get mana of any color or a maze of ith later on).
Then im missing a important card for shattergang:  Rancor! just G to play, and it gets always back to your hand, so you can sacrifice it alot of times. I would also suggest not to cut the Reassembling Skeleton because of the same reason. An alternative would be Squee, the Immortal, because your enemies cant get rid of it.

About future Cuts: Chaos Warp, Vigor, Torment of Hailfire, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Sangromancer, Whip of Erebos, Zo-Zu the Punisher, Ankh of Mishra, Heartwood Storyteller, Seizan, Perverter of Truth, Vengeful Pharaoh, Managorger Hydra, Forgotten Ancient.

I would keep Erebos, God of the Dead because he fills 2 roles: Utility because he denies life gain to your enemies, and card draw.

This doesn't get you down to 100 cards, but I hope it at least helps.

[UrizenII]

I'd totally forgotten about Rancor and Squee. The latter is cheaper to play repeatedly than Reassembling Skeleton and is much harder to get rid of like you said, so I wouldn't have to have quite as much token generation either.

Most of the cuts you suggested are the same as the ones I was considering, so it's good to know I'm on the right track.  Certainly does help.  Thanks!

[Judaspriester]

err.. you got a little mistake about Reassembling Skeleton: the activated ability brings it back to the battlefield for 2 mana, not to the hand. so the skeleton is cheaper to play, but squee is harder to get rid off.

I've thought about your deck ant the Problems you run in. Then I reallized that you might have the same Problem that i've encountered severval times: Missing Focus.
Step back for a moment and think about what do you want to do with the deck. after you are sure about what do you want, think again about the cards you have added.

like you already wrote, you started with mogis/kaervek with a punishing deck. this usually uses alot of enchantments and a pillowfort. bunker yourself in and let them bleed dry.
Thats kinda different to Ruric Thar. with him you usually try to get alot of creatures, and try to punish every deck that isnt focussed on creatures as well.
Then Shattergang Brothers are different again. With them you usually play alot of shitty stuff, sacrifice it and get it back again while your opponents lose all their precious goodstuff. Then kill them with your truckloads of shitty stuff, or use some cards like Beacon of Unrest to use their goodstuff against them.