This is a big mana green deck full of draw and bombs. It is a bit slow to ramp but once it gets going it is extremely powerful.
I currently have 105 cards in here and I am struggling to figure out what to cut.
The worst card on its own by far is Basking Rootwalla, but Basking Rootwalla makes Survival of the Fittest so much better. Basically once I get Survival I discard any creature to get Rootwalla and then discard Rootwalla, madnessing him into play for free, to get Temur Sabertoot. Now I can pay 3 mana to Demonic Tutor for any Creature in my deck at instant speed any time I want. I could do the same thing for 6 mana using Eternal Witness and it would not be at instant speed.
Note that I can get Yeva, Nature's Herald and Seedborn Muse to untap all my mana and Tutor for Creatures and cast them on all my opponent's turns as well. This contributes to a lot of wins. I don't want to lose this line of play even if Basking Rootwalla is bad on its own.
Survival of the Fittest is mandatory and is probably the best card in the deck. Fauna Shaman is also very good. It gets off to a much slower start but once Seedborn Muse is out I am back to tutoring up to 4 cards a turn so it is very good.
The land/mana count can't really change. I programmatically determined the correct amount of mana years ago with Paris Mulligan and it came back with 48/99. I count Lotus Cobra, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and the 45 Lands in this list. If I pull out any of those I have to add a new Mana source that costs 2 or less or I will end up with mana screw issues.
The 3 drops that find mana are also pretty mandatory. There is a huge risk of getting stuck at 3 mana. Augur of Autumn and Courser of Kruphix are likely to see lands on top of my library. Nissa, Vastwood Seer will always get me a Land to start with and Omnath, Locus of Mana is helpful, because if I am stuck at 3 lands at least I can save up a turn and then cast a 6 CC spell. He also comboes will with Seedborn Muse since they combine to basically quadruple my mana per turn. Also he is a fatty that is seen as a must counter by man players. He is never completely amazing, but he is good at all points of the game.
The mana doublers are all extremely good since this deck tends to get a lot of lands out.
The other creature tutors are Tooth and Nail and Defense of the Heart. These are game breaking and frequently result in winning so I like both of them a lot and consider them completely untouchable. Toth and Nail and get Patron of the Orochi or Vorinclex and Eternal Witness so I can keep recasting it each turn. Next turn get Temur Sabertooth and Vorinclex and you have quaduple mana and can cast Tooth and Nail multiple times a turn.
The cards that are completely broken in the late game are Genesis Wave and Primal Surge. I only have 3 non permanents in this deck so Primal Surge flips over half the deck on average for free. That is like 40 cards. Genesis Wave can be cast for your whole deck (or at least most of it) and you can just use it early for X=4 or something to find lands and then use Eternal Witness to recast it later. Those cards are what break games open.
Crucible of Worlds effects combo with Azusa and a Fetchland to make sure I hit all 3 land drops every turn so they are very good. I do wonder if Ancient Greenwarden and Perrenial Behemoth are worth it though. They are probably towards the bottom of overall power level. I am close to dropping both of them.
Nissa, Worldwaker is in here because she untaps 4 Forests. With even a single mana double out she actually generates mana the turn she comes out. Her ultimate is also insanely good if it ever happens, but that is rare. She is mostly in here to tap for an extra 8 mana a turn.
The Horn of Greed effects are obviously amazingly good in a deck that plays so many lands. Even though it is in theory symmetrical, Horn of Greed is an extremely good card. Still it is one I would consider cutting because it does help my opponent.
I don't run Reclamation Sage and I probably should. Just recurring with Survival engine is so good, but I just can't figure out what I would cut.
The defensive creatures I am running that I don't want to cut are Duplicant, Woodfall Primus, Acidic Slime and Terastodon. These are all very good cards defensively and I can replay them with Temur Sabertooth.
Nissa, Ascended Animist is another solid defensive spell. If you pay full price for it then you can instantly use its ultimate to make all your creatures huge with trample and win that turn so this card is amazing.
Oracle of Mul Daya is another amazing card. Along with being able to play an extra land a turn the ability to play lands off the top of the deck contributes to a lot of effective card draw. This makes Courser of Kruphix and Augur of Autumn good too. Those cards are all pretty mandatory.
The are several more draw spells. Garruk, Primal Hunter can draw 5-6 cards the turn he is played. He can also trickle out blockers and then his ultimate creates an army. He is mostly in here for the card draw, but his other abilities are solid too. Memory Jar is obviously completely busted. Drawing 7 cards on a turn when I did not pay for Jar lets me cast pretty much my whole hand. Recycle is a controversial card. It draws a ton of cards. Probably more card than just about any other card in this deck. Every time you play a land you draw. Every time you play a spell you draw. With a Crucible, a fetch and Azusa out, you are already drawing 3 card a turn. Still, if you are top decking with an empty hand then Recycle literally does nothing. Also if you have Recycle out and no Crucible effect and someone makes you discard your hand then you will never draw a card again since you skip your draw phase. The other time you can get screwed is if you get Armageddoned and you get stuck with two high cast spells in hand. Those games are frustrating because this deck is actually better suited than most to recover from Armageddon so you may be turning a win into a loss. So Recycle is sometimes amazing and carries you to victory and other times it is worthless because it is the only card in your hand and other times it loses you the game. I may cut Recycle despite how good it is a lot of the time. Then there is Mind's Eye. I can usually afford to pay 1 mana to draw, but because of mana doublers I frequently end up paying 2 essentially because the other mana is wasted. Note that I do not run Tireless Tracker and some other cards that let you pay 2 mana to draw a card so maybe Mind's Eye is not that good. Still, as a late game top deck it is amazing since I will draw at least 3 cards extra a turn.
Akroma's Memorial is in there so I can win the turn I cast a huge Primal Surge or Genesis Wave. Just giving your creatures flying and protection and indestructable makes your board state a lot safer as well. Akroma is good a lot of the time.
Now we are on to the win conditions. These cards create tokens or are huge themselves. Scute Swarm is one of the best. With Crucible + Fetch and 6 lands you multiply the number of Scutes you have by 64 each turn. If 64 1/1s is not enough to finish everyone then 4096 certainly is. He is really a wrecking ball. In the early game he creates little chump blockers that are solid too. I have Tooth and Nailed for Scute + Ramunap Excavator before just to make 64 tokens. Craterhoof Behemoth is the classic "Win Now" card. If you have a bunch of creatures out you get Craterhoof and everyone is huge and has trample and you win. Avenger of Zendikar is a one man army when you are getting multiple landfalls per turn. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is like Craterhoof, but he costs more while potentially making your creatures even larger. Hydra Broodmaster is about the most broken thing you can do with like 40 mana. Just make 20 20/20 creatures.
The next 4 guys are all weaker. Genesis Hydra is nice in that if you have like 20 mana he is huge himself and he likely gets you another bomb. Still, he seems worse than Apex Devastator on average and usually you are casting Genesis Hydra for X=6 and then then results are a bit more mixed. When you cast Hydra for like 10, keep in mind that his ability is triggered, so even if he is countered you still get the bomb. It is a good card, but one I would consider cutting. Apex Devastator is better than Genesis Hydra so I doubt I would cut him, but it is possible. He also has some dissynergy with the X spells like Genesis Hydra.
Finally we have the two "weakest" win conditions. Rampaging Baloths and Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer. They both instill panic in my opponents. Getting an extra 4/4 for every landfall or getting a 3/3 and +1/+1 counter are both pretty strong effects to be doing multiple times a turn, but something must go.
Finally there is Nissa, Resurgent Animist. The fact that she generates mana for landfall is nice acceleration. She is already a slightly worse Lotus Cobra. This deck can get stuck at 3 mana. She does not really fix that because if you already played her and then a land then you probably have 4 mana already. I would not drop Cobra for her. I would not even drop Courser of Kruphix because Courser finds that extra land. Stil the mana is nice. What is really nice is that if I get 2 landfall triggers in a turn then I flip over cards until I find an Elf or Elemental. The cards that are Elves or Elementals are:
Yeva, Nature's Herald
Fauna Shaman
Omnath Locus of Mana
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Oracle of Mul Daya
Avenger of Zendikar
Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer
So fetchlands can now get one of those creatures at random. If I get them all I can play two lands out of my graveyard or activate a fetchland I believe I get to stack my library however I want. I could put Apex Devestator on top of 4 bombs beneath him for insance. So I think she is a good spell and should stay.
If I had to drop 5 cards this moment they would be:
Genesis Hydra
Recycle
Perennial Behemoth
Mind's Eye
Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer
Extraplanar Lens is the weakest mana doubler, but he does get me from 3-4 mana. At the same time when it is removed it is a big problem.
A final issue I want to adddress is the Ashaya / Argothian Elder infinite mana engine which are not currently in here.
First of all the whole purpose of this deck is big mana so going infinite is not that helpful. I understand I could play Yisan and make a much stronger deck.
But this is more of a lands deck by flavor. Argothian Elder does have solid synergy with the mana doublers and Ashaya is certainly a lands card so the cards individually fit and the infinite mana combo can be assembled with Survival of the Fittest, Fauna Shaman Nissa, Resurgent Animist or Tooth and Nail so I could hit it fairly regularly.
What do other folks think?
Flip
