Yesterday I built a deck around one of my Underused Hall of Fame cards. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t do so again today. I have always liked Greater Good. As a card, I find it to be very intriguing.
I recently decided that I like building decks. I’ve been enjoying my recent daily series as well as a large proportion of normal articles that have multiple decks in them. I just really like building decks. Now, you may have noticed that I have a bit of a Johnny in me. This week’s decks have really highlighted that aspect of my Magic personality. Today’s deck is even more… Johnny. I hope that you like it.
The Greatest Good
4 Greater Good
4 Shifting Wall
4 Nature’s Resurgence
4 Cadaverous Bloom
2 Consume Spirit
1 Feldon’s Cane
4 Desecration Elemental
2 Eater of Days
2 Phyrexian Marauder
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
4 Mox Diamond
4 Bayou
4 Llanowar Wastes
9 Forest
9 Swamp
This is quite the complicated deck. You want to get a lot of cards in your hand, and then Consume Spirit a player to death. Consider this a fun version of ProsBloom.
This deck works around Greater Good. You’ll play Greater Good, drawing a bunch of cards, and discarding creatures. Then, you’ll have a bunch of cards in hand and in your graveyard. You can play another creature, repeating the game. Alternatively, you can play Nature’s Resurgence and draw a bunch more cards to keep going.
Using Cadaverous Bloom, you can make a lot of mana, which will then be used to keep digging. Greater Good is you draw card of choice, but don’t ignore Nature’s Resurgence, especially later when you have a nice, full graveyard.
You’ll begin the game looking for Sakura-Tribe Elder or Mox Diamond to accelerate your mana base. You’ll also be looking for your two combo pieces. I’ve included four tutors to enable you to find them in e early game.
Once you drop a Greater Good, you can drop a big creature, and go from there. Note that you’ll not want to play Eater of Days unless you are on the turn that you expect to win. There’s only a pair in the deck, so you should be fine until then.
Play, for example, Desecration Elemental, then sac to draw eight and discard three. If you don’t already have a Cad Bloom, you should have it or a way to get it by now. Play Cad Bloom, probably next turn, and then break the deck.
Wit both Cad Bloom or Greater Good in play, you can wreak a lot of havoc. Remove two cards from the game, and play Eater of Days. Sacrifice an Eater to draw nine cards, then discard three. Make sure you are stocking your graveyard with creatures. Do not remove a creature from the game with the Bloom unless you have to.
If you draw a Nature’s Resurgence, remove a pair of cards in order to play it and draw a bunch of cards. At this point, you should be able to draw a bunch of cards, allowing you to go off and kill a player.
At a multiplayer table, you can keep going and kill another player. There are a pair of Consume Spirits in the deck, after all. If you are going super-turbo, you can probably take out two more players after using Feldon’s Cane. Remember that once the Cane is used, the Resurgences will not be useful for a while, so feel free to discard or remove them to keep drawing.
Your deck does have some defense, although not too much. You can play Shifting Wall early to keep people away. Consume Spirit can be used to kill a crucial creature and gain you a few life. Sakura-Tribe Elders can be used as defense as well.
I am running the Elder over other land choices because they’ll help keep your creature count in the graveyard. Additionally, you never hesitate to block with them. They will accelerate your mana base. Lastly, I like them because you can, in a real pinch, sacrifice them to draw one and discard three, especially if you need that one card.
Shifting Wall and Phyrexian Marauder can be used to make a big or small sacrifice to Greater Good. Every card you remove from your hand to activate the Bloom will allow you to draw two from the Greater Good.
If an opponent stops you, or if you stall out (which is rare once you get going), then you can play Phyrexian Marauder and start beating. Make sure that you have enough mana to pay its attacking cost. There’s no sense making a 20/20 Marauder if you don’t have the mana to swing with it.
Alternatively, you could play Desecration Elemental after dropping some Walls and Marauders for one or maybe some Tribe Elders. Then start beating with the Elemental.
This deck certainly can win with creatures, if necessary. If you want to make that path easier, try running Force of Nature or other huge Green creatures that might be able to get in a few hits.
You can also try a different combo. You can add Words to your deck. Words of Waste and Wilding fit right into the deck, while you can easily make room for Words of War or Wind. All you have to do is add one basic land of the color that you are adding for an Elder to search, plus run Cities of Brass instead of Llanowar Wastes. You may find one of these Words to be a nice fit with the deck, and decide to run it.
Another option would be to run City of Solitude. You can keep countermagic off your back for good. It would be quite useful to run your combo without interference.
There is a host of other ways that you could alter this deck. From adding a color to changing the creature base, the deck design is up to you. I hope that you have enjoyed today’s deck, as well as this week’s slate of decks. Enjoy!
Until Later,
Abe Sargent