Before I begin today’s deck, I want to mention that the idea for this deck came from my friend Aaron. Aaron witnessed me playing a Symbol Status for 12 creatures and declared it to be broken. Of course, I agree. I’ve always thought that Symbol Status was one of the best cards in Unhinged.
So, Aaron sought out to create a Symbol Status deck, but it was bound by his card pool. I have modified the deck to take advantage of several quality abilities of the Symbol Status.
Let’s take a look at my modified deck first, then we’ll go over how it runs.
Token Resistance
4 Symbol Status
4 Grizzly Fate
4 Call of the Herd
2 Verdant Force
1 Verdeloth, the Ancient
1 Nemata, Grove Guardian
1 Symbiotic Wurm
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Epic Struggle
2 Artifact Mutation
1 Mogg Infestation
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Regrowth
4 Natural Order
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Priest of Titania
2 Soul Foundry
4 Taiga
20 Forest
1 Gaea’s Cradle
In order to effectively utilize Symbol Status, you need to maximize your expansion symbols. The best way to do this is by having various lands from different sets. Make sure you remember to mine Arena, Unhinged and Portal sets for lands as well as alternate printings in sets like Beatdown. Also, many promo cards have their own expansion symbol.
You also want to expand your permanents as much as possible. For example, with two Llanowar Elves in the deck, you should run one each from 6th and 7th editions. Similarly, your Birds of Paradise should be from 6th, 7th and 8th.
Your deck includes several token creating cards, including Grizzly Fate and Call of the Herd. I wanted to have token options from the early game through the late game. The deck also includes several big creatures, like Symbiotic Wurm, Verdant Force, and Verdeloth, the Ancient. This gives your deck the late game punch it needs.
You’ll note that I included a quartet of Natural Orders in the deck. I wanted a way to reliably grab a Verdant Force, Kamahl, or other essential creature. It also gives your deck a little bit of reliability despite its random-looking decklist.
I decided to add Red to the deck for two major tricks. The first is Artifact Mutation, a spell that will give you critters in addition to popping a target that is likely to be from Mirrodin Block. At our table, at least, artifacts have recently become much more common and abusable then enchantments due to the influx of artifacts from Mirrodin block.
The other trick is Mogg Infestation. Mogg Infestation not only Wraths a single player, but it can be used to double your creature count. That will help you get to Epic Struggle numbers, if necessary. It also looks really cool to pound with 26 goblin tokens.
If your mileage varies, you can splash White for Aura Mutation and March of Souls. The last card I cut out of the deck is Goblin Bombardment, and I may still find room for it. Goblin Bombardment works very well with a bunch of tokens creatures. In multiplayer, nothing says “Stay away from my stuff” more than having lethal damage for on the board for the player who messes with you.
I am running Sylvan Scrying for the ability to grab a crucial Red mana or to get a Cradle. You could also run stuff like Yavimaya Hollow or Pendelhaven if you really want.
As I often do, I chose to toss in a copy of Epic Struggle. It simply is too good of a winning condition to pass up. However, this is not an Epic Struggle deck, so I am only running to one copy.
Although I am running a copy of Regrowth, feel free to use Revive if you need to. You just can’t reuse Artifact Mutation and Mogg Infestation if you want to.
I really like Soul Foundry for this deck. The ideal usage would be to Soul Foundry out a Verdant Force every turn. Remember that you want creatures for the Epic Struggle, so feel free to imprint an elf if you need to.
I pulled the Parallel Evolutions from Aaron’s version of the deck. I felt that they are usually superfluous, turning a winning state into more winning. They also often help an opponent. There’s usually someone at the table playing their Soldier-Mobilization deck, or Aether Mutation, or Decree of Justice, and whatnot. You do not want to help out opponents that much.
I might want to run something like Goblin Lyre, Phyrexian Vault, Claws of Gix, Saproling Symbiosis, or Altar of Dementia. Also, take a look at Collective Unconscious.
Enjoy Token Resistance. Viva la resistance!
Until Later,