description is a WIP as I've recently added some more cards for counterspells and protection
How to play the deck:
The Cards:
Mana Generation
Roughly 30% of the deck is mana (including Fetch Lands), which might seem pretty high for an infinite mana combo deck powered by creatures. The good news is that there is a ton of card draw in this deck and the land included is well balanced for the deck. Given that the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies combo generates infinite green mana the land choices lean slightly towards white.
- 2x Forest
Given the infinite green mana generation combo, the Savannahs, the Groves, and Gaea's Cradle, there isn't a whole lot of need for additional green mana generation. That said, you have to start somewhere, so two forests are included.
- 1x Gaea's Cradle
This may seem like an odd addition to the deck because of the amount of green mana already generated. The problem is that the Cradle is flat out too good to not include; generating more than one mana with a single card has a huge impact on the game and it is an obvious addition to any green deck. It can power a lot of the mechanics in the deck if you don't have the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies combo out on the playing field.
- 2x Plains
Like the forests there is not a lot of need of additional mana generation beyond the dual lands, Groves, and Cradle. I have more plains in the deck because the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies generates green mana.
- 4x Savannah
Dual lands are obviously the cream of the crop in multi-color decks, and there's nothing better than the "true dual" classics. The prices on these have skyrocketed, so if cost is an issue (lets be real, it is always an issue) you can sub these out for Canopy Vista or Temple Garden because both are fetchable. One note, if you're able to get your hands on true dual lands I actually prefer using Revised or Unlimited versions because the white borders make them a lot easier to search for when rifling through your deck after using fetch lands.
- 4x Sunpetal Grove
This is another great "dual land," so long as you've already played a Forest, Plains, or Savannah. While it isn't fetchable, it does the job just as well and provides flexibility when needing either green or white mana.
Tutors & Fetch
Being able to search your library for what you want is amazing. These cards do that. Enough said.
- 3x Eladamri's Call
Like the other Tutors in the deck, Eladamri's Call exists so you can draw Devoted Druid or Vizier of Remedies more quickly. While it doesn't have the benefits of dropping either of them onto the battlefield like Green Sun's Zenith and costs one more (white) mana than Worldly Tutor it does put the creature directly into your hand. What's more, it can search for either of cards, while the Zenith only lets you search for the Druid.
- 1x Green Sun's Zenith
While one of the best creature fetches in the game because it puts the creature directly into the field of battle at the cost of one additional green mana, there's only one of these in the deck. First, it reshuffles back into the deck once you've played it, so you can get multiple uses out of the single instance of the card. Second, it can only search for green creatures, while the other Tutor cards let you search for either a Devoted Druid or a Vizier of Remedies. There only eight "green" creatures in the deck. Devoted Druid is obviously your primary target, but you can also fetch Oracle of Nectars and Sproutback Trudge if they make more sense.
- 4x Windswept Heath
Fetch lands speed this deck up considerably and ensure that you'll be able to generate either white or green mana whenever needed. The Savannahs are the obvious choice, but if they're already in play you'll probably want to search for a basic Plains.
- 2x Worldly Tutor
Worldly Tutor is a classic and an obvious choice for this deck. The traditional way to play this card is at the end of your opponent's turn or right at the beginning of yours, ensuring that you can put the card you want onto the top of your library right before drawing it. However, there is enough card draw in this deck (especially if you use Dawn of Hope or Well of Lost Dreams in conjunction with Words of Worship) that you can use it and draw the card on the same turn.
The rationale for having more Worldly Tutors than Green Sun's Zenith is because you can target either half of the infinite mana combo generator.
Infinite Mana Combo
You won't need infinite mana to win, but the ability to generate as much mana as you'd like on command is nothing to be trifled with. The only downside of this combo is that it generates green mana, so you'll need to ration out your white-mana-producing lands more carefully.
- 4x Devoted Druid + 4x Vizier of Remedies
So the way this works may seem pretty obvious, with both of these in play you can generate infinite green mana by tapping and untapping the Druid. That is true, but there is a little nuance why this combo works and others don't.
Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Solemnity may seem like good additions to the deck because they would increase the likelihood of drawing a card that can combo with the Druid. The problem is, they won't work. "Put a -1/-1 counter" is the required action in order to untap the Druid, meaning you need to be able to do the action. These cards prevent you from placing counters onto creatures, which prevents you from preforming the action which is required to untap the druid. If the action on the druid were worded in reverse and said "Untap Devoted Druid: Put a -1/-1 counter on Devoted Druid" these cards would work, but because they prevent the trigger from happening, the Druid won't be able to be untapped.
The reason that the Vizier does work is because it doesn't block the action from occurring, it merely changes how many tokens are put on the target creature. You can still place counters, you just place one fewer. This means you can still "Put a -1/-1 counter on the Druid" which lets you untap it, but when you actually go to put the counter on the Druid you put one fewer counter because of the rules on the Vizier.
"Infinite" Card Draw
This combo here is actually pretty cool. Basically, you can turn card draw into life, and then life into more card draw, which you can then turn into more life, and on, and on, and on. All of these cards are nifty on their own, but put together, they make for one heck of a combo. How does it work? Continue reading!
- 1x Dawn of Hope
On its own, this card is pretty decent. For the cost of 2 colorless mana, you can draw a card anytime you gain life. Guess what you can do often? If you guessed "Gain Life" you were right! Because you can gain life multiple times a turn, you can also draw multiple cards per turn. Pretty fun right? While this card "isn't as efficient" as the Well of Lost Dreams it also costs less to get into play, meaning you can potentially get it into play much sooner.
The secondary mechanic - generating a 1/1 Soldier Token with lifelink, is just that: secondary. Use this at the end of an opponent's turn before your untap phase if you still have untapped Plains, but this is not why the card is included in the deck.
- 2x Well of Lost Dreams
The biggest benefit of the Well is that it lets you draw up to as many cards as the amount of life you gained. Sure it costs twice as much as Dawn of Hope to put into play, but it is also twice as efficient in the card draw.
- 2x Words of Worship
While Dawn of Hope and Well of Lost Dreams let you draw cards when you gain life, Words of Worship is sort of the reverse, and that's why this combo is so fun. At the cost of only one mana, you gain FIVE life instead of drawing a card.
It's pretty easy to see how this combo can become really fun. You'll need the Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies
combo engine to really support it - but once the combo starts you can choose to draw as many cards as you'd like. Below we'll walk through the "most common" example of how this combo works.
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During your DRAW step, and your Devoted Druid to generate as much mana as you'd like. Since Mana Burn no longer exists, and as long as you're not playing against a person who has Yurlok of Scorch Thrash, I'd recommend generating infinite mana because it will be one less thing to think about during the remaining phases of the combo. If you are playing against a Yurlock deck, you'll just need to manage how much mana you generate for the draw combo a little more closely (but since you can use this combo to generate infinite life too, that might not be such an issue).
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Instead of drawing a card as normal during your draw step, pay to activate the ability on Words of Worship. You will then gain 5 life (yay!).
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Then use "some" mana to activate Well of Lost Dreams' ability.
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Now this is where things get really interesting. If you decide to only pay to activate Well of Lost Dreams you can then choose to pay another to create an infinite life-gaining loop with Words of Worship. Cool, but you can already do this by dumping mana infinite mana into Oracle of Nectars.
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This gets really fun though if you choose to spend more than one mana to activate Well of Lost Dreams. Spending anywhere between and mana to on the well means that you will draw anywhere between two and five cards. You can then go back and reactivate Words of Worship by spending to mana. As long as you reactivate Words of Worship using one fewer mana than your card draw from Well of Lost Dreams (or Dawn of Hope) you can ping-pong back and forth between these two using the mana generated earlier in your draw step from the Devoted Druid.
Important to note that this combo isn't limited to your draw step. The explanation that I gave above is kicked off when you draw a card, but you can just as easily kick off this combo when you gain life (which happens a ton of different ways).
Now, there are a few more cards in the deck that make this combo even more insane (and might make your head hurt). Boon Reflection doubles the life you gain, so Words of Worship nets you 10 life rather than 5 increasing the number of cards you can draw right off the bat. Even more potent is Alhammarret's Archive which doubles both sides of this engine.
Life Generators
things
Card Draw
stuff
Additional Cards
stuff
Win Conditions
stuff
Cards to consider:
Serra's Sanctum is a good candidate to replace either Gaea's Cradle or a basic Forest in order to generate more white mana because the deck already can generate so much green mana.
