Gix seems like a pretty good vanguard. Some people may hate his -2 cards thing, but his ability will grant card advantage to make up for it. Returning cards from your graveyard to your hand is generally a lot better than drawing cards, because you can return the best creature in your graveyard, as opposed to drawing another redundant land. Also, +18 life is a LOT, easily making up for the drawback by itself.