When not binge drinking, Xenagos, God of Revels works as an owner of a large zoo. An animal-lover at heart, Xenagos gently cares for all of his creatures. Not fully domesticated, these creatures have a nasty habit of biting opponents. Feedback welcome!
Note: Excluding Malignus and Hydra Omnivore on purpose. I want all my big beaters to have trample and/or flying. Plus, Malignus always seemed like a cheap win to me.
Ramp
Xenagos' animal friends are hungry for mana! Fortunately Green provides lots of fresh plants for them to nibble on before eating opponents. The deck has the usual suspects of green ramp sorceries and mana rocks. There are a few other ways that Xenagos can cheat critters into play:
Elvish Piper: Brings our gentle giants out for 1 mana and the sound of her flute.
Selvala's Stampede: Value town! For 6 mana you're cheating out 4 creatures in a 4 player game.
Mosswort Bridge and Spinerock Knoll: The "hideaway" lands are incredibly easy to trigger in this deck. Who doesn't want a Worldspine Wurm for 1 mana?
Green Sun's Zenith: Step 1 - Yank Atarka, World Render or Stonehoof Chieftain straight out of the deck and on to the battlefield. Step 2 - Turn creature sideways and laugh.
Card Draw
Creature-based decks often suffer from running out of gas when creatures get destroyed. Fortunately green has multiple card draw spells based on a creature's power or combat damage dealt:
Rishkar's Expertise: Draw a lot of cards based on a creature's power and then the Expertise gives a free spell on top!
Lifecrafter's Bestiary: Scry every turn and then draw a card for any time a fatty is played for a small fee.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: Not only provides crazy ramp, but will passively net you cards. Let's be clear...most of the time we'll be dropping the creatures with the biggest power.
Harmonize: Just a well costed green draw staple
Greater Good: Instant speed sacrifice outlet that can draw a ton of cards off a creature.
Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess: rewards us for smashing face.
Soul of the Harvest: Giant beater that gives card advantage over time
Mind Stone and Commander's Sphere: Mana rocks that can be cylced away for a card when no longer needed.
Xenagos loves his massive critter friends:
Atarka, World Render: A flying, trampling, double striking dragon...enough said.
Balefire Dragon: Destroys an opponents army when it deals combat damage.
Deus of Calamity: 6/6 trampler for only 5 mana that comes with built-in land destruction.
Dragonlord Atarka
: An absolutely massive dragon that kills potential chump blockers as it enters the battlefield
Giant Adephage: Replicates itself every time it deals damage.
Hellkite Tyrant: Incredibly mean card that can steal all of your opponents mana rocks, equipment, etc.
Kalonian Hydra: A large trampler that keeps getting bigger every time it attacks!
Managorger Hydra: Starts off tiny but gets big real quick. The deck needed a lower costing threat and this fills the spot nicely.
Moldgraf Monstrosity
: A massive trampler that gives your opponents an unpleasant choice: let me keep my 8/8 trampler or kill it and let me bring back 2 other beasts.
Pathbreaker Ibex + Rampaging Baloths: Pumps Xenagos' creatures full of testosterone supplements for extra power.
Savage Ventmaw: One of the smaller beasts listed here (still an 8/8 flyer with Xenagos is really good). It's ability to give you 6 extra mana is nuts.
Scourge of the Throne: A large dragon with dethrone that gives you an extra combat stage if you attack the player with the most life (and why wouldn't you be attacking that player most of the time anyway?)
Siege Behemoth: The hexproof ability is very helpful. It's main selling point is its ability to circumvent chump blockers. You WILL be getting 14 damage (with Xenagos) through.
Soul of the Harvest: Efficiently costed beater that comes with card draw.
Stonehoof Chieftain: A massive indestructible beater. Opponents scramble from getting trampled underneath his hooves.
Utvara Hellkite + Dragon Broodmother: One of Xenagos' weaknesses is that he leaves himself vulnerable to retaliation. These dragons give him blockers to stay protected.
Verdurous Gearhulk: Well-costed beater than can either buff himself up or give support to his friends. (eg. Stonehoof Chieftain to put counters on something indestructible or Atarka, World Render to get more double strike damage through.
Worldspine Wurm: Biggest beast of the bunch. Does his own Wurmcoil Engine impression and leaves 3 5/5 beaters behind.
Even when swinging when big creatures it can take a while to destroy all of your opponents without a little help. The deck has multiple cards that deal extra damage.
Blood Mist and Berserkers' Onslaught: Double Strike on any of our large beasties can often prove fatal. I've opted to focus on permanents that provide double strike as opposed to instants since the ability can be repeated again in future turns.
Gratuitous Violence: A damage doubler. Since it doesn't grant double strike, it's ability can stack with either Blood Mist or Berserkers' Onslaught.
Strionic Resonator: Doubles Xenagos' ability each combat, quadrupling a creature's power.
Berserk: The only instant-speed buff in the deck. It makes the cut because it only costs one mana and can be used as a removal spell on an opponent's attacking creature in a pinch.
Kessig Wolf Run: Great late game mana sink for extra damage.
World at War, Seize the Day, Savage Beating, and Scourge of the Throne: Extra combat steps work great with Xenagos. His ability will trigger again on the second combat step, doubling and already doubled creature.
