Hey all, I just wanted to devote a little bit of time clearing up a misconception about this deck. Druid was, at one point, the posterboy of "too good," yeah? Then we all got good and realized that a combo that loses to any removal, counterspell, stifle, gravehate, etc. is not the place to be if you want to win. The deck then got a reputation of being a glass cannon, and then post mulligan change everybody agreed that it wasn't really great anymore.
I would like to put forward the argument that it is in fact a tier one deck, and also clear up the appropriate way to actually win with the deck. Since the current standard on the deck is a very out of date, very linear, very fragile, and not even terribly fast build, there are a ton of misconceptions on how its built as well.
Before I begin explaining it, I'm going to start off that I very recently dusted it back off, and in my few games of testing I have decided to slot in wheel of fortune, possibly time spiral, harbinger of the hunt (unless I find a dragon that's better at wiping the board), and potentially add an overgrown tomb and breeding pool in place of dual lands that I rarely need.
All right. Let's start by looking at the combo. So, you may notice the typical Angel of Glories Rise, Azami, Labman, etc combo is missing. Guess why? It's because the combo is awful, and the reason the deck has a negative stereotype. The druid win here is instead the very streamlined Morselhearder plus Devoted Druid with a Necrotic Ooze in play. This is important because, once the ooze hits the battlefield, you generate infinite mana at mana speed, which is obviously good because its far more difficult to interact with. Once you have this infinite mana, you just use Niv- Mizzet's ability on Necrotic Ooze to infinitely ping every opponent. Other reasons that this combo is the one to use; it works if part of the combo is in your hand (just use Lotleth Troll's ability to discard, and since it's part of the cost you never pass priority), and it doesn't lose to one counterspell. You get to play Memories Journey to get back a draw spell and two reanimates, which leaves you in a great spot.
The REAL reason it is better, however, is that this works with Buried Alive, Intuition, Survival of the Fittest, etc. Your win-con isn't to activate druid, it's to have Necrotic Ooze in play with Morselhoarder and Devoted Druid in your graveyard. If you find yourself in this situation, you can make infinite mana, cast Scion of the Ur-Dragon, then use Scion's ability to entomb Niv-Mizzet, giving you infinite damage and a ton of card draw. If they try to counter Scion, you can just keep casting him again until he resolves, at which point you've more or less won the game. What it all means is that you aren't playing a Hermit Druid deck, you are playing a Necrotic Ooze combo deck that has multitudes of winning lines. This is why we play Scion over the other options, and why I think that this deck is a real contender. Mystical Tutor and Enlighted Tutor can now tutor win-conditions that are both non-awkward and powerful, you can drop a lot of the real awkward tutors you play for consistency, you can devote more slots to card advantage, removal, counterspells, and you can build an actual interactive Commander deck, rather than one that simply folds to your opponent playing Rest in Peace.
I could say tons more, but it should start to be obvious why that is the win I go for in this deck, so I'll talk about the backup plans. First of all, Worldgorger Dragon. Yeah, I play 3 enchantment reanimates, because my commander tutors the whole package. It's basically another 1-card win-condition, since I can make infinite mana then entomb Niv-Mizzet, draw my deck/deal infinite damage, etc, and since I'm already playing the reanimates for the Buried Alive win, playing Worldgorger only eats up one slot. Dedicating one slot to a game-winning combo? Really good, reminiscent of the Jarad decks that can play Necrotic Ooze, Triskellion, and Devourer( Trike combos with Mike and Devourer combos with Jarad). Beyond that, I can always activate Scion twice, turning him first into Moltensteel (where I play 12 life to give him +6) then into Skithiryx, where I give him haste and nuke a player. Following that, it turns out that dragon beats + control is a very real way to win games that have gone way too long, aka I play against more stax/hatebear decks than I would like to.
That, folks, is how 5 Color Druid wins games. It is not the awkward Azami plan, it is not the fragile "Lemme give it haste with Thornling, then start tapping it...," it is one of a handful of powerful, streamlined ways to assemble a Necrotic Ooze combo that wins with Scion of the Ur-Dragon.
All right. That is that. Any questions or suggestions regarding the deck are welcome. As for everybody else, I hope you learned something about the Druid archetype, since there really isn't a resource people can go to. This deck was not really hurt by the mulligan rule outside of its worst matchups (Yisan and Anafenza) become huge, and it is a glass cannon, but not in the way most people think it is. If somebody wants a powerful, redundant, and stupendously expensive deck to play competitive EDH with, this is probably the only tier 1 deck that shows off how dedicated you are to the "stupendously expensive" part in its entirety.
Cheers, all.
