The combo deck beats the opponents by turn 5 or it gets the hose again.
Welcome to mono green budget land.
The idea is to "go infinite" very quickly. Melira, Sylvok Outcast prevents -1/-1 counters from being placed on creatures, which means the two Persist creatures in the deck (Safehold Elite and Rendclaw Trow) keep coming back over and over again. Blasting Station, which taps to sac a creature and deal 1 damage, untaps when a creature ETBs. So when Melira is in play, tap Blasting Station, sac your persist creature, bring it right back, untap Blasting Station, target your opponent's face for the damage, repeat. Or if a Platinum Angel is in play on the other side then you nuke that first THEN your opponent's face on the same turn. Remember to take the tournament shortcut (rule section 716, Shortcuts) and say you're dealing some ungodly number of damage, after making sure your opponent knows the combo can do this. Don't be the guy who plays it out.
Warning, warning! Salty travels ahead! This is a budget-friendly combo deck that can still hang with the big boys. It has a winning record against T1 and T2 decks. I spent about $80 before the recent Melira and Ancient Stirrings price hikes of Eldrazi Winter, now it's about $100. Winning with a deck this inexpensive may make you unpopular among people who spent a lot of money on their decks.
Nut draw: The following 7 card opening hand will propel you to victory on Turn 3.
- 3 Forest
- 1 Llanowar Elves
- 1 Blasting Station
- 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
- 1 Safehold Elite
T1 play Forest and Llanowar Elves.
T2 play Forest and Blasting Station.
T3 play Forest, Safehold Elite and Melira... and win.
If you do not get a third Forest in your opening hand AND somehow get no land draws on all 3 turns, you can still squeak out the win on turn 4 with 3 green mana sources. Likewise if you do not get a Melira, but do get a Time of Need, you can still fetch her and be ready to go for turn 4.
In reality, this sort of luck doesn't happen too often and you'll mull down to 5. Hopefully you get enough combo pieces to get it done by turn 5, which is when your T1 deck playing opponent will probably have all the pieces they need to slay you outright.
Did your opponent catch on and nuke Melira? Tutor up another one with Time of Need.
Are they trying to sap and impurify your precious permanents? Avoid Fate to the rescue... the closest thing to a green counterspell.
Blasting Station not coming up? Not enough land? Watch out for Ancient Stirrings, it'll fix that problem, or move you a lot closer to the solution.
Sideboarding? If you are playing someone who drops a ton of 1/1 fliers, bring in Hurricane. Got someone who inexplicably and rudely drops a big stompy guy on the early turns? Phyrexian Soulgorger is a great blocker. I don't even care what you do for the rest of your sideboard, you probably won't need it.
Are you trying to nuke this deck? Shame on you, it's just a simple mono green budget deck, why can't you pick on wallets your own size... Okay, here are some tips to keep you feeling good about your $2,000 investment in Jund or whatever when you feel like walking among the misguided plebs playing this $80 budget deck: It is extremely weak against hand disruption. Make the player discard cards and you win. Got artifact hate? Blasting Station is the hardest piece to lose because there's only 4 and it can take a while to get to another one. If you get rid of all 4 copies of Melira or Blasting Station, this deck folds - 1/1s and 2/2s aren't a threat to a good deck. It also has zero defense against flyers if you think you can get enough of them in time. Your primary creature removal spells should be of the exile variety, not destroy. Counterspells rain on the parade of sunshine and happiness too, obviously. Great, now you know the secret: it's a race against time and improper sideboard choices to counterplay this deck.
Have fun storming the castle with your merry band of D&D characters.
