This Deck is super fun to play! Ive had success playing it. It's not super competitive but it's fun and thats what I like. I'm going to break down the deck by card purpose and also show some of the cool interactions and synergies in the deck.
With 4 color getting your mana base right is important, There are some of the more expensive lands that would help but as it stands I have not had a mana problem yet.
Mana Ramp/Fixing
I added the following 3, seems sufficient may add a fourth lower cmc one for early game. All search for 2 basics with Explosive Vegetation letting you place both on the field instead of one to your hand.
Kodama's ReachExplosive VegetationCultivate
Mana Rocks
Astral Cornucopia - Great in this deck, allowing Atraxa to keep adding countersChromatic Lantern - Really Great fixing letting all lands tap for any color, plus tapping for one itself
Next 4 are standard straighforward and go in almost any deck
Sol RingDarksteel Ingot
Fellwar Stone
Commander's Sphere
Creature Mana
Gyre Sage - Letting you add green to your mana pool for each counter, with evolve and Attraxa she can get big fast netting you lots of extra green manaCrystalline Crawler - Usually comes out with 4 counters letting you remove one to add mana of any color, with its own tap to add counter, Attraxa and all the other +1/+1 synergies in the deck this is a great mana producer as well
Thats all for mana fixing/ramp could maybe use one more low cmc way to fetch a land but as it stands ive had no problem producing all 4 colors
Card Draw
Paying the Precon Breed Lethality straight out of the box i found myself running out of cards in my hand, while it is better I feel I could add at least one more for consistency
Phyrexian Arena - Extra card every turn for 1 life, a black commander stapleRhystic Study - Blue staple in commander, will net you a ton of cardsFathom Mage - Will generally get you at least one extra card per turn with Atraxa, usually more than that.Bred for the Hunt - Most turns will find you hitting at least one personPrime Speaker Zegana - Will come down get huge and draw a bunch of cards, first time I played her she came down with +12/+12 and I drew 13 cards.Inspiring Call - always have a few creatures with counters plus can play it before combat to give indestructible also, that's a nice bonus
Ancient Excavation
- Draws but makes you discard, may take out eventually but it can be cycled to find a basic land so it has dual purpose I suppose.Tezzeret's Gambit - simple draw with the bonus of proliferating.
Removal
Removal is important in all decks, I like the mass removal/wipes I included but need to change the single target spells with more exile to get around pesky indestructible cards
Board wipes
Merciless Eviction - Like having the choice of what gets removed and exile is nice way to get around indestructible.In Garruk's Wake - Leave your creatures destroy the rest is a nice finisher, with a few giants on the board it can be game over oftenDuneblast - Nice way to keep your commander or just best creature and still wipe the boardCyclonic Rift - Blue staple, clears everyone else board letting your big creatures beat faces
Single Target Removal
Swords to Plowshares - Too good, instant speed one drop exile. Mortify - its finePutrefy - again ok but will be replaced with something better
Counters
These are all the cards that deal with +1/+1 counters. Im going to break them down into 3 categories, Creatures that put counters on themselves, cards that give counters to other creatures/cards, and cards that do both putting counters on themselves and others.
Get Counters
Scute Mob
- Once you get those 5 lands he gets huge fastChampion of Lambholt - getting a few counters on this makes it very hard for people to block your beatsticksScavenging Ooze - Not been great in this deck really depends on opponents having creatures in graveyards, great against reanimator decks though.Chasm Skulker - Love this guy, gets big then makes little ones when he diesManagorger Hydra - Gets big fast and the trample lets him get damage throughCustodi Soulbinders - Can enter huge some gamesIshai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker - another gets big fast and the evasion with flying can get damage through
Witch-Maw Nephilim
- Yet another gets big fast, gets big enough add trample mostly in here for the colors, only other 4 color creature with Atraxa's colorsSunscorch Regent - Gets big, flies and gives a little life.Vulturous Zombie - Flying is nice, stuff is always going to graveyardsEndurins Scalelord - Another big flyer
Cards that give counters
Hardened Scales - Just adds an extra counter, nice one drop.
Durable Handicraft
- nice way to get that first counter on, the problem with Atraxa I found was getting that first counter on her.Vorel of the Hull Clade - doubles number of counters on any one creature, artifact or land. Useful in many ways.Drana, Liberator of Malakir - Has to deal damage and have other attacking creatures, but a good 3 drop.Corpsejack Menace - doubles the number of counters being placed on a creature, gets out of hand fast.Master Biomancer - Get a few counters on this guy and all your creatures enter as giant beat sticks.Elite Scaleguard - Bolster is ok but getting to tap down creatures to get damage through is awesome.Deepglow Skate - Doubles all counters when it enters is super powerful.Solidarity of Heroes - Instant speed double up some counters.Cathars' Crusade - Creature enters, counters for everyone.
thrumming bird
- Can put add a counter to anything when it deals damage not just creatures.
Cards that give and get counters
Mikaeus, the Lunarch - good repeatable counter generator for your whole teamReyhan, Last of the Abzan - love this card, have killed my own creature before just to make one huge and go in for the kill.Forgotten Ancient - Gets huge then lets you move those counters to another creature, used this to kill with commnader damage, moved about 20 counters to Atraxa and swung for lethal.Kalonian Hydra - Just needs to attack once and counters everywhere. doubles counters on every creature, including itself! PLus trample!Juniper Order Ranger - Great way of getting that first counter on every creature you castGhave, Guru of Spores - Can use counters to make tokens or sac them for more counters, just great utility and at instant speed, useful for throwing down blocker, or adding counters to a creature about to do damage
Other Spells
Abzan Falconer - Gives all your creature with counters some evasion in the form of flying, can put counters on himself
Tuskguard Captain
- Same as Abzan Falconer but with trample.Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - have some fatties but cant get them through for damage, with big enough creatures this guy can just instantly win a game.Reveillark - probably going to cut but when it dies there are lots of creatures this can target if they're in your graveyardAvenger of Zendikar - Comes in and makes a buch of tokens, the pumps them up.
Cauldron of Souls
- Great boardwipe protection something this deck is very vulnerable to.
