(Maybeboard: Fell the Mighty, Pentarch Ward, Crib Swap, Manamorphose, Ratchet Bomb, Swords to Plowshares, Canopy Cover, Emerge Unscathed)
The game-plan for this deck is to ramp up and poop out large amounts of big creatures that persist in different ways. The ramp is very defensive, and gets re-used later on. The density of big threats in this deck, the previously mentioned persistence of those threats, and the card-draw and tutoring to get to the threats make it very hard for you opponent to race you, or slow you down with removal.
The Ramp:
Please note that I'm ramping up to 4-6 mana, which isn't a whole lot, and that allows my ramp to be less useless than most conventional ramps (which tend to ramp a bit higher). The ramp also gets eaten by Feed the Pack and Mind Stone eats itself when you reach the desired amount of mana.
The Big Guys:
2x Changeling Titan is a 7/7 for 5 mana. Champion him on
Treefolk Harbinger
, Wall of Blossoms or Wall of Omens and you'll often get your money back when he dies (or is sacrificed to Feed the Pack). I know championing is a bit of a risk, but the removal was going to be used anyway, might as well take the risk while casting a super fat 7/7 body that flickers "enter the battlefield" effect creatures when it dies, right?
4x Deadbridge Goliath is also way above curve with a 5/5 body for just 4 mana. When he dies (or is sacrificed to Feed the Pack), you can just bring back his power to the battlefield using "scavenge".
4x
Mycoid Shepherd
hits hard, and his lifegain is very welcome. Multiples of this card on the field give A LOT of life. Feed the Pack provides a sac outlet, and the lands Nissa animates provide triggers when they die. Dying was never this profitable.
1x Nissa, Vital Force is a renewable source of expendable 5/5's with haste, can give you one extra mana, and can even bring back any permanent (so Feed the Pack and rarely Mind Stone in addition to creatures) from the graveyard in times of need.
1x Surrak, the Hunt Caller is a legendary that gives haste. An extra 5 damage early on is painful when facing a large army of 5/5's.
So to summarize: A total of 12 cards of BIG creatures that also very often leave value when removed, +3 Commune with Nature, +2 Treefolk Harbinger = 17 guaranteed ways to get to them.Please note that besides this there are also a total of 12 card draw cards in this deck, and the 3 Feed the Pack also produce aggressive creatures.The actual attacking card total thus becomes something like (17 attackers + 3 feed the pack) + 4 from rounding down a 20/60 chance to drawn one of those 20 attacking cards with 12 card draw) = 24 in a deck of 60. This math is of course pretty janky, but it gives you an idea of one of the ways in which I tried to sharpen the threat-per-card ratio.
Turbo-chargers:
- 4x Feed the Pack is a huge threat in this deck. Going wide with 2/2 tokens happens very fast because of all the walls and big creatures. If your big creatures aren't pushing through, an army of wolves often will. Your opponent needs to remove this ASAP as it will win the game.
- 2x Ulvenwald Tracker is repeatable removal and just keeps on pinging till the opponent kills him. Your opponent however already desperately needs all his removal to take care of the big threats; Remove a Ulvenwald Tracker and a Changeling Titan lives on. I'm okay with that. Commune with Nature and the rest of the digging gives you a good chance of finding him.
- 2x
Provoke
draws you more cards, deals 5-7 damage.
Digging:
This deck is built on a budget and can be made Modern legal by swapping out the 2x Wall of Omens for Elvish Visionary/Manamorphose/
Carven Caryatid
/Sylvan Caryatid/Dryad Arbor/an extra land or whatever.
I'm still working on this deck, and all suggestions are very welcome.
**EDIT: -2 Ulvenwald Tracker, -1 Surrak, the Hunt Caller, + 2
Provoke
, +1 Mother of Runes
**EDIT 2: -1 Commune with Nature, +1 Fell the Mighty
**EDIT 3: -2 Forest, -2
Fortified Village
, -1
Provoke
, +1 Temple Garden, +2 Scattered Groves, +1 Fell the Mighty, +1 Sunpetal Grove
