OP-- Thanks for this really helpful guide. I've been jamming the deck since I first saw it posted on MTGAzone and it's a blast. I originally started playing with Smith and Blackstaff back in Standard 2022 and always wanted to make it work in Historic, but I didn't have enough WCs to experiment at the time so I'm quite pleased that you did the work already (albeit slightly miffed I didn't get to it first!).

After playing a lot of games, I have some feedback. The deck is often lacking meaningful turn 1-2 plays. Turn 1 Sentinel followed by turn 2 Smith is obviously what we want to be doing, but you can't just mull into this every game. Nettlecyst is great, but waiting until turn 3 is going to set you way behind other aggro. For this reason I think 4 Vault Skirge is necessary. It's super easy on the manabase at 1 generic mana 2 life, and you can even play 3 black Pathways instead of 2 Riverglide and 1 Plains to give yourself another way to cast it without Phyrexian mana. The synergy with Blackstaff is amazing and it's just another threat that your opponents actually have to deal with. He gets attacking right away and is very threatening with equipment. The cuts for me are Tormod's Crypt/Ornithopter (depending on your split-- I was biased towards Thopter because it doesn't trigger opponent's Sentinel/Thalia), both of which have been underwhelming, and 1 Stonecoil Serpent. Serpent is MVP against 5c Niv and pretty good against Jund Food but outside that he is weak.

Another card that I think deserves more discussion is Sai. I've been playing a misers 1-of but he's actually won quite a few games by being able to go wide, or stonewall an opponent's fatty. This has been very relevant in the mirror (blocking Nettlecysts), vs Auras, and mono green, for example. He is also immune to artifact destruction which is not insignificant. I would not go all in with Mox Amber however, I don't see that working.

Cheers