Yet another Radha's Explosive Vegetables knockoff ft. Ruby.
Credit to Salubrious Snail for the concept.
.
Mana:
4cmc ramp spells fit the tempo of the deck.
Turn 1: Land (1 mana)
Turn 2: Land, Ruby (3 mana)
Turn 4: Land, Ramp (6 mana)
Turn 5: Land (7 mana) and start playing 6-7cmc threats.
.
Draw:
High average cmc and heavy land tutoring means fewer dead drops lategame, but draw is always important.
Hugs can be cascaded into, which is unfortunate.
.
.
Threats:
These need to be removed or they will snowball if left alone.
Removal engines included here because they're effective at picking things off the field if they can stick around, but they're not as effective at removing problems that are already established on the board.
.
Answers:
How to remove other players' threats.
Currently weak interaction, especially against artifacts and enchantments. Could use some adjustment.
.
Synergy:
Miscellaneous good stuff and creatures with one-time effects.
Cascade: Small cascades tend to grab land fetches or small utility creatures. Large cascades can grab bombs.
Wondrous Crucible: The only form of protection and recursion in the deck, other than Aurora Phoenix and Bloodbraid Challenger's self-recursion.
Additional Land Drops: Good to have but too inconsistent to consider true ramp.
.
Lands:
40 lands is a safe number.
Deck is reliant on mulligans and a strong opening hand. High land count helps smooth that out.
Few utility lands. Getting those pips on turns 1 and 2 are paramount.
.
Thoughts on specific cards:
+Apex Devastator/Call Forth the Tempest: Expensive (money) but the cascade on them is too perfect not to include.
+Gimli's Reckless Might: Haste is always useful, and fighting on attack is a great way to muscle other creatures off of the board.
-Molten Primordial: Can grab a bomb from my opponents if they're ahead or I'm behind, but this hasn't been relevant yet.
+Omnath Locus of Rage: Omnath tokens can trigger Where Ancients Tread and Omnath himself can deter some board wipes if elementals dying would cause mutually assured destruction. Mana cost isn't hard to pay by the time I have 7 mana available.
-Radagast the Brown: Ability is kind of a pain in the ass to resolve and there's enough creature type overlap that it's not uncommon for him to not grab anything, which just feels bad. Might be easier to just use another "draw when you cast a creature spell" type effect.
-Rampaging War Mammoth: Not sure if cycling to destroy artifacts is worth it. Not a bad creature without it, just not a fantastic one.
-Sweet-Gum Recluse: Outside of cascade, underperforms unless I have enough mana to just throw it out alongside other creatures in the lategame. On average he's some mix of unreliable counters pump, a weak creature, and overcosted ramp.
+Verdant Sun's Avatar: Lifegain is nice but that's all it does. Having said that, life total hitting zero is the most common way to lose the game, so it's a nice buffer.
.
Maybeboard:
!! Susan Foreman/The Tenth Doctor: Functions similarly to Ruby, but puts me in Temur and gives me a second commander to act as a mana sink. Would let me play Maelstrom Wanderer which would also be sick. I don't watch Doctor Who though (not that Legally Distinct Riding Hood is much better).
+Bane of Progress: Nice removal attached to a creature, but expensive (money).
+Beast Whisperer: Good card, just expensive (money).
-Boarding Party: Nice cmc for cascade synergy, but otherwise unremarkable. Nice cmc and power for Screamer-Killer and Where Ancients Tread.
-Cosmium Confluence: Cute but awkward cmc holds it back. Running a caves package just to support this card is more trouble than it's worth.
+Dragon Mage: Interesting draw option, but it's symmetrical and my stuff is high cmc so I'm not likely to empty my hand quickly enough to warrant it.
-Garruk's Uprising/Up the Beanstalk: Nice effects despite being under 4cmc. Playing cards under 4cmc feels wrong in a deck like this though.
-Noise Marine: Weak bordering on useless. Cascade makes it a 5cmc 3/2 that puts tutors two basics onto the battlefield and maybe kills a llanowar elves, but even that feels only-okay since it doesn't fit into the curve of the deck properly.
+Rampaging Baloths/Avenger of Zendikar: It's possible to drop 5+ lands in a single turn so these guys can go crazy, but it's not consistent, especially since the deck's been thinned of topdeck land drops late in the game.
-Rage Reflection: Not sure if this would be an amazing effect, or just a win-more one.
-Sol Ring: It's a good card, imagine my shock. Can jump immediately into playing explosive vegetation cards on turn 2. Bitchmade card though and if you play this deck then you can't be a bitch.
