Early game consists on ramp and control through
Birds of Paradise
,
Sakura-Tribe Elder
,
Abrupt Decay
and
Fatal Push
.
We want to ramp to get out in the BF ASAP a
Lich's Mastery
. The combo goes like this:
You must have a
Golgari Brownscale
in the graveyard, and a
Lotleth Troll
and a
Lich's Mastery
on the battlefield.
You get to draw a card at your draw step or by
Midnight Reaper
. Instead of drawing, you dredge the
Golgari Brownscale
, gaining 2 life, putting 2 cards in your GY and returning the brownscale to your hand. The life gain triggers the
Lich's Mastery
, making you draw 2 cards. But before resolving that trigger, you discard the
Golgari Brownscale
to your
Lotleth Troll
, and resolve the troll's ability before the lich's ability. That would create a loop where you gain a lot of life, put a lot of +1/+1 counters on the troll, and mill your library, until it is depleted. You won't lose to self milling due to the
Lich's Mastery
's effect.
That would leave you with a massive trampler that can regenerate, to one-shot the opponent. If that fails, you can always use the
Doom Whisperer
to kill in a couple of turns.
But how do you survive until you assemble your combo pieces?
You must rely on control and life-gain. The life gain will come from
Gnaw to the Bone
and some stalling with the brownscales.
But the main idea would be: ramp quickly, play a
Doom Whisperer
--> surveil to fill your GY with creatures --> gnaw to the bone ---> surveil again ---> flashback gnaw to the bone, to heal for even more.
If by chance you already have a
Lich's Mastery
in play, you will also draw ridiculous amounts of cards, that will act as a shield until you get all your pieces.
But what if you mill your
Lotleth Troll
or your
Doom Whisperer
? That's where
Necrotic Ooze
comes into play. You can activate their abilities with the ooze, growing it instead of them, and activating the combo through your GY.
One final perk that it occurred to me, but haven't tried still, is to put some
Inverter of Truth
in the deck. That way, one could mill their whole library, then get it right back with the inverter's ETB.
Landbase not yet built. All forests are placeholders.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
