MTG Combo: Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl

Balaam__ on

1 month ago

I think 15 lands is slightly low. The only practical Turn 1-2 ramp you currently have are Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic, 7 cards total. Without any supplemental ramp package (i.e. Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl ), that puts you in danger of stumbling out of the gate and falling behind early game, a place no Elves player wants to be in. It would be worth considering either upping the land count or recalibrating the creatures to include more ramp.

Balaam__ on Ramp Ramp Ramp

2 months ago

The idea of ramping into big creatures is perfectly valid, and a number of competitive decks fall under this umbrella. The issue I see here is there is actually very little ramping going on. Almost none. Traditionally, ramp decks run things like mana dorks (Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic etc) or established combos like Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl . With minimal effort you can generate loads of mana by Turn 3-4, enough to plop down a massive creature to essentially finish the game.

There’s nothing wrong with a fresh take on an old idea, but what you currently have here may be a bit unfocused. Splendid Reclamation needs a load of lands to be already in your graveyard to be viable, so it’s really a card you choose to build around rather than add to an existing list. Same with Conduit of Worlds. Without some mass-discard engine in place to force feed lands to your graveyard, they don’t do much here.

Life and Limb and Spelunking don’t really contribute much toward your goal of getting a gigantic monster in play as soon as possible, so those slots would probably be better utilized by other cards.

Amulet of Vigor and Summoner's Pact may be worth keeping, depending on how the rest of the deck shapes up.

Again, you can build whatever you want, and there’s little fun to be had in just copy&paste someone else’s established Tier 1 build, but I do think there’s room to improve here and streamline things toward your stated goal.

Balaam__ on Mana=Big Guy go stompy

1 year ago

Since you’re mono you may find more value with the Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl ramp package instead of Birds of Paradise.

Balaam__ on

2 years ago

Agree with the above. Depending on your budget, you may want to look into a traditional ramp shell (Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl is a good start) as a starting point to build into your wurm wincon.

kjKaioken on Gucci Dragons

2 years ago

Appreciate your comment IHATENAMES. After some playtesting, Irencrag Feat doesn't serve too much of a purpose due to how much mana is generated with Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl , or any of our other ramp strategies, same with Primeval Titan and to a lesser extent Reckless Charge. The Titan is too far into green and cannot be pulled by Purphoros, as well as being a redundant card late game. Haste is already provided by Purphoros and Ilharg, so charge becomes a dead draw like Irencrag if we were to draw it when we needed a creature for instance.

However, Primeval Titan is good for thinning the lands out in out deck and providing us nothing but creatures as well as being a good early threat once our elves start the ramp process. I will keep playing with the card and see how it goes, appreciate your suggestions once again!

heinrichdk on Temur midrange ramp

4 years ago

I like the idea it reminds but me of my EDH Temur deck in the sense that its mostly one offs you lose consistency.

I have tried ramp/burn deck (Naya) before in Modern and the problem i had with it that i would draw part ramp part burn and be left with two incomplete strategies. my advice would be lean more into the blue side with your instants get counter spell to stop the opponent from winning Mana Leak Remand if you can Cryptic Command you need to draw the game out and buy time for your ramp. As for the ramp cards in the deck its plainly bad the idea of ramp is to get to ahead of the curve any one can cast a 6 drop at turn 6 but you need to be able to cast it at turn 4 or even 3 modern have a bunch of really good ramp Elvish Mystic Llanowar Elves Birds of Paradise and my favorite Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl or if creature ramp is not what you are looking for playing more than one land a turn Sakura-Tribe Elder Sakura-Tribe Scout Farseek and then one that people miss because the only use the +1/+1 reach and 3 damage option Atarka's Command early game it can help you ramp late game it can give you the last bit of damage you need. Bounce lands are bad in modern if you are not using Amulet of Vigor or you can play more than one land a turn

Savage Knuckleblade is really underrated in my opinion you are playing the right colors and its a good way to keep you opponent at bay combine it with other 3/4 drops to use as blockers

As for the big finishers it is up to you how you want to end it but get something to fetch the finisher when its time like Chord of Calling its an instant so you can do it on your opponents end step if you need to tap down you creatures or you can use it to get a 4 drop

sassybill1540 on Simic Cycling (Escape Protocol Abuse)

4 years ago

I'm a veteran of the old standard season of Onslaught and Mirrodin block where Eternal Slide (Astral Slide + Eternal Witness ) was quite the deck, so I used it as a baseline. I hadn't considered a splash for red, but Wrenn and Six seems crazy good for that purpose.

After more thought I definitely think Coatl deserves a slot too. I'll definitely give the Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl a chance, but I like BoP being able to block fliers and stall, and I know Rampant Growth is kind of sub-par, but it negates a 2-1 with Ghost Quarter, etc. But that's what playtesting is for! When I get a chance I'll update results!

PrismMTG on Classic Green Stompy Revisited

5 years ago

Personally Rhonas the Indomitable or Steel Leaf Champion are my go-to 2 drops. Granted you need to hit a Llanowar Elves / Arbor Elf or a Utopia Sprawl but dropping a 5/4 on turn 2 is incredibly helpful, especially if 1. They cannot be blocked with creatures power 2 or less or 2. They aren't actually creatures when they first enter, which avoids summoning sickness and removal at the same time. These are threats the NEED to deal with and leaves the board open for bigger threats like Gigantosaurus , Primalcrux , or Ghalta, Primal Hunger . Im also kinda wary about your deck only having 18 lands. I know you mana curve is super fast, but without any kind of mana ramp, you are likely to run into some problems more often than not. You don't want to have to start each game Mulliganing down to 5. I would go up to 20 lands, and probably some mana ramp. Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl is probably the best ramp for this deck. Here is my brew if you want to compare them: Mono Green Stompy(+Sarkhan's Unsealing)