Resource/Citation: "Ultra Budget Brews - Polukranos, World Eater", by Andrew Cummings, published on July 19th, 2018. Available at (https://edhrec.com/) (https://articles.edhrec.com/ultra-budget-brews-polukranos-world-eater/)
With the success of my previous mono green build, my friends and local playgroup challenged me to see if I could come up with a more budget-friendly deck (less than $100) and this is my experiment, using mostly cards I already own and a few I had to trade for. At the time of writing, all 100 cards costs about $64.65, which is not bad for what I'd call a slightly more pricey but still budget deck. Credit goes to Mr. Cummings, whose article for Polukranos not only inspired my first Tappedout post, but has also served as a template for this one as well. As much as I love Polukranos, in my testing, Nissa has proved far more versatile, giving consistency in land drops, card advantage with her +1 ability, and some decently sized bodies with her -2 and -7 abilities. The strategy for this deck is simple: Ramp early, drop creatures, and disrupt the board state until you can swing for lethal with your own. I'll go over my own picks for this deck that I felt really added some punch:
Primal Command: A flexible tutor, removal, or lifegain spell that gives some extra tech against graveyard strategies. Don't like that big scary Planeswalker that's about to ultimate or the Muldrotha/Meren player that keeps playing stuff from their graveyard? Simply target the noncreature permanent first, then their graveyard second and you have a green Chaos Warp now.
Bow of Nylea: As much as the ping a flyer for 2 damage irks me (I really wish it was 3!), I cannot deny the strength of this card overall. Strengthen a creature, gain some life, tuck important spells in the graveyard to counter Bojuka Bog, and snipe the occasional Kaalia of the Vast to send a message of who`s really in charge.
Lifeblood Hydra: My inner Timmy is drooling over this card. By far the 2nd most expensive card in the deck and one I absolutely had to justify. Sphinx`s Revelation with legs is something I wholeheartedly give a green thumbs-up to. Sure it sucks if it gets bounced or exiled, but anything short of that, your various Wrath of God and Murder spells slung your way will happily grant you a boon of X cards and X life.
Genesis Hydra: An albeit weaker Genesis Wave, but still an excellent card. Instead of dumping all the permanents on the board and noncreature spells in the graveyard, you get 1 free nonland permanent for the X put into this pretty plant. The best parts of this card is that everything else revealed gets shuffled back in so you don`t lose a single spell, and if the hydra gets countered you'll still get the ability!
Greenwarden of Murasa: A beefy Restock that brings the beats to the battlefield is always welcome in the 99. Still baffling to me how this card is less than $2 for Commander players, while Skullwinder and Eternal Witness are easily $2+.
Return of the Wildspeaker: Everyone's favorite advocate for the beasts now grants an instant-speed card draw or a +3/+3 combat boost! Super stoked about having added this card, the flexibility is what really seals the deal on this one.
Mosswort Bridge: An oldie but a goodie. Closest effect I've found to be a green Impulse. Never sad to draw this one and what makes it even better is that you can play lands off the hideaway ability and the Bridge sticks around after you've used it.
Ohran Viper: Green Ophidian effects are almost always a good thing. I have never had somebody willingly block the Viper, but it still works great on defense or with our fight effects.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer: Traded a good deal for her several years back when I wanted to dip my toes into a color that did not involve Daretti, Scarp Savant or Breya, Etherium Shaper. Saw the +1 ability and I was hooked on a mono green Coiling Oracle. The vanilla 4/4 token is not terrible, but not ideal. Still a solid body on the ground for the power-matters card draw and removal spells. Her -7 is such a Timmy way to win. You can effectively ramp by 6 mana, untap those lands and now have 36 power worth of man-lands ready to crash into somebody`s face. Yes this is risky but sometimes you have to risk a slight Armageddon in order to seal your victory.
The best combo in the deck currently is Bow of Nylea + Polukranos, World Eater
. When you pump X into Polukranos you can assign 1 point of damage to any number of creatures and they'll die to that single ping. A pseudo Plague Wind! I hope everyone enjoyed my post and once again, I give credit to Mr. Cummings for his article and thanks to him for a unique take on Mono Green that's inspired me to build upon that! It's been a very fun experiment and I feel that`s what makes EDH such a great format.
