I’ve since been able to listen to all the songs on Elite Beat Agents in their original incarnations, and I have to say: Ashlee Simpson can’t sing for crap, and Jamiroquai must have known how much of a bastard Canned Heat would be to play when he penned it. Part of his deliberate scheme to drive gamers nuts.
Oh, wait… this is a Magic site, right?
Why Do This?
Lathspel asked in the forums, exactly why I was doing this. After all, Chris Romeo was doing his own deck evolution. Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar had done all the precons over. I think he missed the point here; the thing is, I wasn’t looking to do a precon evolution. The plan at this point is to make an initial deck out of a limited cardpool, and then adjust it over time. Using a Precon Proper would be doing exactly the same thing Jay did, and I don’t know if I’d do it as well as he did. More importantly than that, though, I wanted to evolve a deck like my first few decks evolved — made up of scattered bits, before I got the solid, well-oiled machinist builds in mind I use these days.
More importantly, though, there’s a better reason to do this: Because people asked. I’ve written something like, five articles which boil down to Hey, you guys, you’re reading this, what do you want to hear?! While people are fantastic at being critical, those people who have wanted me to cover subjects have been few and far between. I’ve been asked two things: To do a deck evolution, and to cover Planar Chaos Green. Planar Chaos Green is a tricky situation, because you simply can’t write an article on the color pie without people who don’t read it saying it was badly done. So I passed on that (for now at least), and moved on to the alternative.
If there’s something you’d like to see me cover, be it a deck clinic, or maybe cheapifying tourney decks, or even just talking about amateur card design some more, I’d love to hear from you. Seriously, while I can take the criticism, telling me what you want me to do, rather than what you don’t want me to do is far more helpful for me as a writer. I write for you guys, after all — if I was just going to write for myself (an onanistic practice that Orson Scott Card dismisses as a affectation used by people who fear their writing isn’t good enough to be enjoyed by others), I’d be talking about the current state of the Australian Conservatives versus Australian Conservatives, or the hubristic attitude Empathy Defenders have towards others, or even the merits of D&D’s Typed Bonuses system, intent on keeping stacking bonuses from getting out of control.
For some reason, you people want to hear from me as a Magic writer. I want to know what you want to hear from me.
Time To Play
Okay, now it’s on to the homework. Five games with this deck, to see what I do and don’t like, what cards are really Doing It For Me, and what cards are making my stomach backflip. It’s pretty interesting a process. I’ve slowed my avowed prognostication regarding the Magical Cards coming in upcoming sets. When I started this, Guildpact prompted a wave of enthusiastic rambling about what was good and what wasn’t. Finding, however, that my opinion was suddenly being put up in public, on the record, and that people were able to look over what I said, sobered me. I realized that it mattered to me that what I said was at least well-grounded. I didn’t want to be right all the time; I just wanted to avoid saying something shortsighted and foolish, and simultaneously avoid saying nothing at all (the vice of set reviews).
I’ve taken the mentality now that the real proof of cards in a set is the play. I wasn’t excited about many of the cards in this deck when I started playing it — viewing them as trashy filler and being unimpressed about what they can do. Now that I’ve played with them, these unimpressive cards I malign in my mind, I’m finding them really fun to play, and want more of. Right now, my actual concern with the deck is that there are three or four directions I want to go with it, and there’s simply not enough room in a reasonably FNM-playable pile-o’-sixty for them all.
For reference, here is the deck as it was last week:
Creatures (20)
- 1 Spike Feeder
- 1 Twisted Abomination
- 1 Wall of Roots
- 4 Selesnya Guildmage
- 2 Greenseeker
- 1 Thallid Shell-Dweller
- 2 Essence Warden
- 1 Hedge Troll
- 1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
- 1 Kavu Predator
- 1 Mire Boa
- 1 Mycologist
- 1 Revered Dead
- 2 Teneb, the Harvester
Lands (22)
Spells (18)
Game 1
I get a solid start with Search for Tomorrow into River Boa. My opponent plays a Mesa Enchantress. I play a Selesnya Guildmage on turn 3, but I make a misplay with my mana – I should have kept laying Forests instead of my Swamp. That means I can’t have Regen mana up for Boa, and the mana open to represent Rebuff or Mana Tithe on my Selesnya Guildmage and play my Guildmage on the same turn. I play the Guildmage and figure that regeneration will matter less against Blue/White once combat’s over.
I’ve seen a lot of Angelfire, though, so I’m a little paranoid. My opponent attempts to Fetters my Guildmage, and I steal that away from him by Mana Tithing the Fetters… and after that point, it’s all academic. Even a Frozen Aether and a Shielding Plax’d Serra Angel can’t protect him from Teneb and my marching ground force. He did actually die rather than chump-block with Serra, but when your deck lacks the ability to swing the game around from that position with only one turn, it might be a reasonable thing to have done.
Game 2
I keep an Essence Warden, Guildmage, two Forest, Spike Feeder, Lens, Teneb hand. Instead of playing the Feeder on turn 3, I play the lens, then Evolution Charm for a Plains, then plonk down the Feeder with the mana to slip a counter onto my Guildmage as protection. Protection that wound up necessary – my opponent pointed a Shock at the Guildmage, only to have it mean nothing. All this, incidentally, was while an Undyingly Rageful Silhana Ledgewalker was attempting to impact my skull.
Unfortunately, my opponent’s offensive was stalled by Teneb, and being able to double-pump the titan Teneb meant that I wasn’t in any danger of losing quickly – Essence Warden and the Feeder’s lifegain had put me well out of the race distance, and Teneb was going to start recurring four-life-a-turn tricks on his own. My opponent conceded on turn 7.
These games are going far better than before, but I am noticing an odd habit of drawing Teneb a lot. That’s two wins.
Game 3
This one I remember as being odd. I lead with Greenseeker, then Selesnya Guildmage, then it’s a slow crawl up to the six mana to lay a Jedit. While I’m drawing and laying lands, I’m able to use Kor Dirge to axe an enemy creature, Sunlance to axe another one, and, in the end, after he Pacified my Jedit, I wind up using Evolution Charm to push a Twisted Abomination over blockers for the win. That’s the first time the Charm’s been used as something other than a Lay of the Land. I keep wishing it were a sorcery and cost one… Of course then, chances are it’d be too good, or some such nonsense.
(I have developed a jaded sense towards “too good” — a one-mana spell that stabilizes your manabase, maybe recovers a creature in the worst possible way, or perhaps flips you through combat, doesn’t strike me as an overpowered effect at one. But of course, because of Leap, and Lay of the Land, and Raise Dead, they can’t print Evolution Charm as a sorcery for 1. Bah. Just like Fangren Hunter.)
Game 4
Opponent concedes the first game before he ever mulligans, and then it’s game 2 with the same person. Quite odd. He then concedes on turn 3 for some reason. A bit of a surprise. I don’t get it, myself. Not counting this one, I go on to do Game 4 again.
I keep a good six-card hand, except it actually has seven, and one of those cards is Dread Return. The rest of the hand’s good, though – Essence Warden, Mire Boa, and a Jedit. My first draw is a Teneb. How good – now if they’d only show up when I needed them – late in the game. I draw a Kavu Predator next, and play it instead of Mire Boa – preferring to drop that fellow when I have Regeneration mana up. He plays a Mire Boa of his own.
He then slaps Blanchwood Armor on it, and the stall deepens. I don’t want to Greenseeker up a Swamp or turn on that killing machine. He follows up an attack with the Boa – into my Boa, who regenerates – with a Spectral Force. This could get annoying if I don’t use my cards right here.
I, at end of turn, discard Dread Return to the Greenseeker, then in my own turn, pitch the Jedit in my hand to her as well. I trade Kavu, Greenseeker and Essence Warden for Jedit, and my opponent responds with another Spectral Force. Oh dear. I think I have things stable – but alas, my opponent has a Strength of Numbers to make the Mire Boa trample. How annoying. Oh well. It happens. The main thing I felt here was an inability to deal with the Blanchwood Armor, and the keen pinching of my removal options. Even Pacifism would have helped.
I played that sequence about as well as my cards could let me. He just had better cards. 8/8 tramplers do not forgive.
Game 5
I blow a Terramorphic Expanse for a Forest (don’t like doing that), draw a Forest, and thanks to Lenses and Greenseeker, have my colors therefore nicely lined up. A Smallpox slows me down a little, but I at least can keep my Greenseeker. He’s suspended a Lotus Bloom, and dicarded a Mirari, so I’m unsure of what he is, though it smells like combo.
By the way, to that forum dude who mentioned the card… this opponent hits me with Extirpate on my Sunlance…
Which is still a singleton.
I lose my Kavu to Sudden Death, my opponent still on 14 life, and now holding a Lotus Bloom and with a triptych of Swamps. Then his Hypnotic Specter turns up, and I’m locked under it, as I fail to draw any board presence. Annoying, but I can’t quite help my situation any. His Specter hits the best card in my hand each time – a Griffin Guide, a Dread Return, and that’s with me holding a useless Kor Chant and Forest in hand. Bugger!
He then Extirpates the Dread Returns, not that it mattered a damn – really, I’m just sitting around waiting for him to finish up and actually kill me. That takes a while, but I draw nothing relevant and concede with the fate of waiting for one-ofs to turn up and save me versus a handful of Black removal.
Right now, the deck feels a bit dude-light – and I have no answer for a mere 2/2 flier aside from a singleton Sunlance. That’s a bit skewiff.
3-2. So I went Troll Ascetic. That’s not so bad.
Assessment of the Changes
The only change I made after last week was to rid the deck of some Black cards in favor of a simple playset of Selesnya Guildmage, who are one of my favorite Standard uncommons. They need a certain deck to work — I mean, I’m not a fan of using them when you can’t use either power multiple times in a turn — but they give you a lot of long-game options, and can hold off a lot of enemy offensives by just clogging up the ground.
Plus, the Selesnya Guildmage can be an impromptu (though weak) Overrun, coming out for six mana and making a carefully-planned combat step for my opponent into a bit of a mess. All that, and he can go Watchwolf if he has to. I’m really a fan of the guy. This deck is already inclined towards making a lot of mana — perhaps too much — so he fits in quite snugly.
I made that choice because I didn’t want to commit too strongly to a theme, though. The Selesnya Guildmage doesn’t ask much of you, or pull in a direction. He’s just a utility dork, and you don’t need four of him to do much. He can just be any old Grizzly Bear in some matchups, thrown into blocks and trades, or he can be an exhaustive control option, making your army too intimidating to attack into, while bolstering it with one or two extra bodies a turn, all while your game plan relies on a late-game Dragon to seal the day. His only weakness is that he can’t do much about Evasion — Fliers and Tramplers especially make him seem silly, and he doesn’t race that efficiently.
Now, the time has come to decide what I want out of this deck. I can see three or four clear paths the deck could go in, and I’m not JMS enough to have the means to pursue all four options, nor can I see an amazing eighth path leaping out at me from behind the bushes. So let’s go over what options I’ve found in the playing of this deck:
Legion of the Undying
Right now, the two creatures I’ve most enjoyed slapping down in this deck have been Hedge Troll and River Boa. Backed up by Selesnya Guildmage (for example), I’ve been unfailing impressed by these two and their inexorable refusal to die. There’s removal about, but people seem to be using Red for their removal for the most part — and these two fellows can shrug off that kind of abuse relatively easily. There could be more regenerators in Standard to fill out this deck — using big, defensive creatures like these two, the 0/5 Walls that abound, and waiting out to the long game, where my Dragon or Jedit could take over. Of the directions the deck could take, this is the closest to its current direction. Curiously, this deck might even be able to evolve into Glare of Subdual — cutting away the Black entirely.
The biggest problem I can see with this one is that a gang of indestructable creatures aren’t all that fabbo when your opponent can block them, Damn them, Wrath them, or -x/-x them. In that case, the deck might want some way to turn a stymied ground force into a flying Dragon. I already have a few ideas.
Jedit.dec
If I go this route, I’m going to want ways to capitalize on the swarm of creatures. White and Black take backseats, and I can trade out Teneb for Jedits and use my secondary color for backup, like removal. Probably White instead of Black, just because G/B is a bit done. That also opens up Hedge Troll / Mire Boa as my ground force. If I had a way to spit out lots and lots of Green mana, Verdeloth might be another good addition, though less so than Jedit. Jedit can thrive under multiple combat steps (are there many reasons to do that?), Yavimaya Dryads, and if I want to lose a color in exchange for another one, I could even take Mind Bend, and make a new version of Sleight Knight. I only have two cards in the deck that like a particular land word — Mire Boa, Jedit — but they could be the spine of a fun deck idea.
Tossed Thallids
Using Mycologist, Thallid Shell-Dweller, and the three colors I’m already in, I could turn into a Saproling bonanza. Verdeloth might be good here, too. Teneb would be thematically out of place, though that’s less of a concern right now. I’m happyish with the manabase… honestly, I suspect I just really wanna play with Verdeloth, making for huge, huge kickers, and giantly-complicated boards of Saprolings and Fungus. Of course. to kicker Verdeloth well, I’d want a really big mana booster, which means passing on crap like Evolution Charm, instead looking to play with Rampant Growths and the like. Gaea’s Anthem would also have a good place.
Reanimation
I don’t like a reanimation strategy that relies on permanents you can never cast. This would be a strategy that powers out Tenebs on turn 4, a la Solar Flare, but I’d need a way to get them in the yard. The easiest options for that seem to be Greenseeker, Fa’adiyah Seer, or Icatian Crier. Then I could use Dread Return, Zombify, Vigor Mortis, or Resurrection to bring the fellow back.
So, what direction do you guys prefer? I’m going to explore the other two avenues later, but in the meantime I’m going to pick one and stick with it. The trick is just which one of the three to stick with. I’m going to give the current decklist a good quick run-over, and see if what I think at the end of it all.
Performance Review
Just to clarify my opinions on the cards I’m using, I’m going to a quick rundown of the cards that I’ve actually played with, and seen at work.
Selesnya Guildmage
Happy with him. He’s shown up in more than a few games, and his ability to Go Long has always been something I loved. He can hold off a single non-trampler on his own quite adequately, and he can turn himself and one or two of the attackers in my deck into meaty threats. Hedge Troll, I’ve found, doesn’t like fighting him for White mana, but Hedgey doesn’t mind being a 4/4 or 5/5, so I suppose the pair will sort out their differences.
Spike Feeder
Not so keen on him. For a start, he’s double-Green, and I’ve never gained life off him. He’s just been a way to pop counters elsewhere, and turn sideways later. Not that he’s bad, but he hasn’t done anything that really impressed me. He’s shown up in only one or two games, and he requires me to keep the mana open to activate his ability. I wouldn’t, I expect, feel his absence very keenly.
Twisted Abomination
It feels wrong to complain about Twisted Abomination, or, as we knew him in the area, Der Haus. In this deck, his role seems to be that of big regenerator — duh, huh? If I move away from Black, as I’m inclined to do, his regeneration gets worse and worse. I like him as a Swampcycler, but I think I’d rather run him in a deck that could somehow recur him, or use his regeneration more readily. He’s a fatty who runs support — and potentially, a Diabolic Edict Every Turn.
Essence Warden
It’s hard, in a deck like this right now, to really be dismissive about one-drops. If I go Saproling Mad, I am totally going to want this girl in the deck. If I go the Jedit route, too, she seems good. The Reanimation and Regenerator decklist ideas, however, don’t really suit her well. So for now, she’s staying — I mean, I don’t mind the two or three life she typically brings, and the chump-block she can sometimes offer. Sometimes, with a Selesnya Guildmage going long, she can help turn an attacking force of three creatures into a non-sum effect.
Wall of Roots
Don’t know, haven’t drawn.
Dread Return
Even though I’ve rarely drawn them, the Dread Returns really tick me off. Neeging 2BB and 2GG for Dread Return and Harmonize is a pinch on my manabase, and the Dread Return is post hoc assist in this deck. I can’t reanimate proactively, because I can’t put anything in my graveyard proactively. Ultimately, Dread Return is an Evolution Charm that works at sorcery speed in this deck — and let’s talk about Evolution Charm, shall we?
Evolution Charm
Lay of the Land. I’ve used it to make an Abomination fly once (and won off it, mind), and to pick up a Mire Boa (then died to storm combo before I could ever play the Boa). The rest of the time, it’s just been used to shore up my manabase. Now, I’m not against that effect, but I don’t want to spend two mana on a search-to-hand effect. I have Greenseeker if I want that. This deck wants to ramp up to bigger spells like Jedit and Teneb — so I don’t want to waste my time farting around with something that costs extra for two abilities I don’t use and uses up my land drop.
Expect these to turn into something else. Rampant Growths, for example.
Greenseeker
See above. She doesn’t do much if my opening grip has good mana, though — she often just winds up chewing through a land in my hand, thinning in a painfully slow fashion.
Griffin Guide
Drawn it once, played it once, had it Moldered. Hey, I’m not about to complain about it drawing an opponent’s removal, I suppose. In this deck, the Guide seems to do Not Much, though — right now, I’m already feeling like I don’t have enough men in here, instead having the deck biased towards tricks and protection for those dudes.
Harmonize
Don’t remember drawing any. I’ve seen it in some solitaire games, and got giddy at the prospect, but I have no actual testing of how good or how bad this card is.
Hedge Troll
Don’t take this the wrong way, but this guy’s cool. I think he’s rubbish for serious Constructed decks, but he’s a great man in this deck, willing to follow up the turn 3 River Boa as the turn 4 Hedge Troll. It’s no Loxodon Hierarch, but it’s something. Furthermore, keeping up the W to regenerate him fits snugly with the W needed for Rebuff the Wicked or Mana Tithe.
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
I can’t remember a game where, when Jedit hit the table, I didn’t feel like I was going to win soon. The impact he has on the board is really impressive, and I’m honestly surprised. I didn’t think Jedit was all that impressive (and he sucks his fair share of Putrefies and the like right now). Forestwalk in this environment, the casual room, seems to really be Flying in Disguise, in that 70% of the time the creature goes unblocked. If I could have more ways to protect Jedit, I’d be even happier with him. Possibly some global pump like Gaea’s Anthem?
Kor Dirge
Unimpressed. The cards I usually use this to kill are fliers who are at least getting their ten cents in on my face anyway — why not just play something for 2B that actually just kills something? It’s not worth it as a damage prevention spell, nor worth it as a removal spell. Expect this on the block soon.
Mana Tithe
Feels like too little. I’ve only been able to catch a few greedy players with their pants down on this one, snagging turn 3 Lightning Angels or turn 5 Dragons. This card really feels bad when you only have one in your deck — you can’t really even threaten a second one.
Mire Boa
How in the world could you complain about Crazy Hat? He might leave some builds of the deck, but I’d be really surprised if he did. He’s awesome — sneaks in for 2-3 a turn (depending on support), attacks inexorably and fearlessly… and then leaps back onto the defensive when the tempo of the game shifts, and stands proud before any non-trampling fatty and staves him off indefinitely.
Mycologist
Another odd lure for the Thallid theme. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I find the idea of using Mycologist really appealing. Shame it doesn’t get pumped up by Thelon. It’s probably just resonating memories of Ravenous Baloths and other gain-large-bits-of-life effecters.
Saltcrusted Steppe, Search for Tomorrow
These guy do their jobs. I will want more of one or the other, but I’m not excited about either. Still, the Stashlands are more suitable to a “real” control strategy, one that can actually have giant spells worth the paying for…
Hey, like Verdeloth the Ancient!
Sunlance
Oddly, I find myself wishing I had more of this card. The cards my opponents have used that give me problems are things like Royal Assassin, or Hypnotic Specter. There’s also Silhana Ledgewalker, who’s very popular in the casual room, and River Boa, as mono-Green aggressive builds are popping up all over the place lately. I’ve seen a fair few Blanchwood Armors and Moldervine Cloaks on unimpressive spods, and Sunlance won’t help there until it’s too late. So while I like the Lance, and want more, I am thinking Condemn, or some similar removal spell, is the better option to protect myself with against aggressive decks. My damage comes in big, chunky slabs — I don’t mind if my opponent gains a little life, since it won’t make a turn’s difference much of the time. Sunlance is still appealing — and I was happy to have it when it showed up.
Teneb, the Harvester
He could really just be a 6/1 with no ability, for all that it’s mattered. Teneb’s the least inspiring part of the deck, though he at least has the dignity of restocking my side of the table when he swings, giving him a satisfying pseudo-vigilance that even lets me pinch the occasionally unfair effect from my opponent’s bin. All that, and he’s just fun. I mean, he’s huge.
Terramorphic Expanse
See Sunlance. This guy’s really good at assuring a stable manabase.
Thallid Shell-Dweller
Another Sunlance — I wish I had four of this guy in my deck, and he’s actually a powerful lure towards going into Tossed Thallids. He holds the ground in the early game, provides chump blocks later in the game (though intermittently), and does it all for cheap. He’s not exciting, but he didn’t pretend to be. He’s just there, and that’s all I asked of him. If I get Convoke or similar cards to work with him, like Chord of Calling and Scatter the Seeds, he becomes even more useful.
Kavu Predator, Prismatic Lens, Rebuff the Wicked, Revered Dead
These guys just feel like filler. They’re here because I needed cards to fill out the colors. Strangely, they’re going to get to stick around, for at least a little longer, at this point. We’ll see what we learn in the upcoming part — but right now, Kavu Predator really has nothing to offer the deck, Rebuff is just a fairly limited spell, and the Revered Dead feels like he’s doing his best to compare to Mire Boa. I will say, if Mire and River Boas get into Tenth Edition to replace the unspectacular Anaconda / River Bear pair, I’ll be a happy camper. The Lens is okay for Blue, White, and Black, but in Green there are better two-mana accelerants.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Looking at my four major options, I find the best angle is one through elimination. So let’s have a quick look:
Jedit.dec
This deck looks like it’d need the most changes. Stocking the deck full of Forestwalkers, cutting the White and the Black for Green and Blue cards, getting the rares required to really hum — I think it’d be a better thing to start from scratch. I’ll be coming back to this idea, later, perhaps, when I have some more cash to throw around on the subject.
Reanimation
I already have this deck. It’s called Dredge, and it’s a lot of fun to play.
Legion of the Undying
I’d like to play this one. I mean, I like Hedge Troll, now. He’s not bonkers — he’s basically an uncommon, worse version of Loxodon Hierarch, but he’s the special kid you all let hang around. You know, he’s a little older than you, but, you know, you let him hang around because no kids his age liked him. Once you step forward, you get Mire Boa, Hedge Troll… and then, Savage Thallid. Not an inspiring list. Further to that, not a single one of these guys can live through a Sudden Death, or a Last Gasp, which are the du jour removal spells of the casual room right now. Oh, how hard-done-by I am.
I’ll look into this deck more later. But for now, we have ourselves a leader.
Tossed Thallids
This one gives me an uncommon 4/4, a fairly decent assortment of men, a couple of instants, and doesn’t need for some amazing rares. At this point, there are a lot of Thallid cards I’m interested in playing with, and I’m already in the colors to support this one. So Thallids are leading the pack, and so, that’s the direction I’ll head in. With, of course, a Dragon for surprise value, and maybe, just maybe, I can find room for a Verdeloth. I love me an overrun effect.
With that in mind, the next round of changes gets easier.
Out: -3 Dread Return, -1 Twisted Abomination, -1Kor Dirge
In: +3 Deathspore Thallid, +2 Sporesower Thallid
Out: –2 Rebuff the Wicked,-1 Revered Dead
In: +3 Thallid Shell-Dweller
A big change. Trading 6 uncommons for 2 uncommons, and a bunch of commons — but this is the start. I might be going a bit overly Thallid-happy at this point, but the proof will be in the testing. Time to break out and smack into someone else in the casual room.
Game 1
I open with a mulligan (one-landers, even full of two-drops, are auto-ships). Then another mulligan, from a color-screwed hand. The third grip wasn’t so bad – Search for Tomorrow, Jedit, two lands, and a Harmonize. I get to Harmonize, while he makes a Ledgewalker and I suspect I’m in trouble. He gets out a Loxodon Warhammer, though, and I fear that it’s all over right there. I can’t really race with my four-power dude while he has a four-power dude who gains him life. He slaps a Moldervine Cloak on it, and whoops, it’s all over.
I’ve voiced sentiments about Silhana Ledgewalker in the past.
Game 2
Another mulligan, this time to four. Geeze! Essence Warden, Harmonize, and two lands – with a lone Sunlance making its presence felt. This time, my opponent gets out a nice, smooth grade into Underworld Dreams, Megrim, and two Lore Brokers, leaving me chasing to try and catch up. I get a pair of Essence Wardens fighting his curve and I’m not sure I can keep up. I do, however, get a Deathspore Thallid, who threatens to keep me in the game. He gets a pair of Copy Enchantments, though, and I’m toast.
Both opponents have commented “good game.” I’m a little annoyed by that – I mean, I mulligan myself out of the game in both games, and they get remarkably good draws that kinda autopiloted their way into wins. There’s really not much in that that was good to me.
Still, I’m learning something here: I’m dying to enchantments and artifacts.
Game 3.
ANOTHER Mulligan! Blastit!
At least the six has a decent set of cards in it. I get a Thallid Shell-Dweller, followed up by a Sporesower. My opponent’s assortment of bears – Veteran Armorer, Civic Wayfinder, Field Marshal – are outclassed by my 0/5 wall and my 6/6 flier, at least… for now. Evolution Charm pushes a Mire Boa into my opponent’s face. How simple.
So that wasn’t so bad; things did what they were supposed to.
Game 4
I keep my opening grip! Sheer joy and frabjous wonder! On the other hand, my hand is so damn slow it hardly matters – a Stingscourger returns my Sporesower to my hand, my grip is clotted with spare Evolution Charms, and Chris Romeo is pointing and laughing at me. Oh geeze.
After I BLATANTLY misplay around Stingscourger and Brute Force and Crypt Champion (honestly, there was no trick there that wasn’t obvious), my opponent whips up my side of the board, but I luck into winning anyway. Woo hoo! Go incompetence!
Game 5
My opponent gets two Hit/Runs, two Rakdos Guildmages, two Shadow Guildmages, and a Hypnotic Specter. I get Teneb. I wind up getting hammered down to 1 life – but a Griffin-Guided up Selesnya Guildmage lets me avoid a wholesale slaughter, winning the game from on one life. Teneb can’t pick much out of my yard – because I’m drawing lots of land, and I can’t kill my opponent’s creatures. I am seeing a problem with this fellow.
So at the end of that, I’m convinced of a few details: First, I haven’t got enough men in the deck. Mana Tithe and Sunlance feel utterly out of place, and Deathspore Thallid wants more support before he can really thrive as an enemy-killing monster. Teneb is good, just as a man who will kill my opponents, and the ability to recoup card disadvantage sometimes makes him worth playing anyway. Of course, he’s just a 6/6 flier otherwise, and that’s fine too.
So this week’s changes:
-4 Evolution Charm
+4 Scatter the Seeds
The first and biggest change. Evolution Charm has proven a winner in several games — or, three or four. It gives me a little bit evasion that I lack — but I primarily lack for evasion because my creatures are busy being outclassed by my opponents. Also, I can rarely do anything early that involves an impressive creature. Seeds will be able to act as a kind of Last Gasp with Deathspore Thallid. Also, the games where Evolution Charm has sat in my hand, uselessly doing nothing because I have my mana online, and don’t want to lose a card in hand just to thin another one out are common.
-1 Kavu Predator, -1 Wall of Roots,
+2 Sporesower Thallid
No real surprises. The Sporesower’s my biggest easily-castable dude, and this will keep with thinning out chaffy creatures. If I can get some Pallid Mycoderms in here, later, the pair will work well to keep my Saproling Squad fairly healthy — and really, if the early rush doesn’t do the trick, I can always rely on late-game Dragons, right?
-1 Mana Tithe, -1 Prismatic Lens
+2 Search For Tomorrow
I wish I had a better way to describe this than “two cards that don’t fit.” Why play Prismatic Lens when you’re in Green? Do you need that much mana fixing? Well, I’ve tested this deck, and I don’t — Search is there to be acceleration, not fixing.
Tune in next week when I take the changes for a spin, kay?
Hugs and Kisses
Talen Lee
talen at dodo dot com dot au