Take 2 on Coco Exploration, this time splashing black to run
Seekers' Squire
. Ironically, the mana base feels just as good or maybe even better with the splash. You could run the Bolas Citadel build, but this deck is built around using Explore cards in combination with
Militia Bugler
,
Charming Prince
and
Collected Company
to find your
Wildgrowth Walker
. The deck functions a lot like Coco Angels, where your goal is to simultaneously build a board of threats while gaining enough life to nullify faster game plans. The difference is that the life gain is limited to
Wildgrowth Walker
, your creatures don't fly, and in return you have a lot of card advantage/selection cards in the deck instead. Basically, your ideal draws/hits will result in you gaining a lot of life while building a big board of tough creatures to win games, and your long-game plan is to win through card selection and advantage, making key drops every turn, turn after turn.
The mana base is built to make space for 12 sources of each colour, with as many duals as possible. It's tricky trying to cast G/W T1, 1B T2, and then either 1GG/1WW turn 3 in a format without real fetches, and this isn't a deck for
Fabled Passage
. However, by running 4 of each shock and 2 of each check you can make your numbers to reliably cast
Seekers' Squire
and
Skyclave Apparition
.
Gilded Goose
is run over
Llanowar Elves
to make the colour fixing easier while still helping pump out T3 Cocos. A couple Pathways have replaced the Basics to smooth the mana out even further.
Explore Package
4x
Wildgrowth Walker
4x
Jadelight Ranger
4x
Merfolk Branchwalker
4x
Seekers' Squire
This package is core to the deck, representing our primary win-con
Wildgrowth Walker
. Explore cards are neat - 2/3 of the time they are efficient creatures, they offer some imporant card selection by selectively milling your top deck, and when they are inneficient creatures they represent a form of card advantage. The situation plays out in a few ways. If you need mana, and it is on top of your deck you get mana. If you are flooded and mana is on top of your deck at least you draw the mana early, getting 1 card closer to your threats. If you need mana and it isn't on top of your deck you can mill to get at least 1 card closer to mana, and you get an efficient creature out of the mix. If you're flooded and you have a threat on top of your deck you can keep it. And lastly, if you're digging for something specific, like Apparation, Coco, or Walkers, or don't want to see your 1 drops at that stage of the game, you can mill those cards away. All together this offers a subtle form of deck manipulation that improves consistency greatly while also putting decent bodies on the board. In combination with
Wildgrowth Walker
explore cards will rapidly gain you so much life that most decks will struggle to keep up - like Angels Walker is hard to remove with red removal a lot of the time, with the downside being you don't have multiples. I considered
Glasspool Mimic
to dupe Walker OR explore cards, removal,
Militia Bugler
, etc, but ultimately decided running
Seekers' Squire
was more important than splashing blue for Mimic.
1 Drops
4x
Gilded Goose
4x
Thraben Inspector
Not much to say here, Goose has proven itself a valuable dork in its own right, and I think being able to blink all the 1 drops with
Charming Prince
is enough upside for it to be worth running in a 3 colour deck that also appreciates the fixing it provides. I'm trying
Thraben Inspector
over
Llanowar Elves
because the ETB effect ultimately draws you a card, contributing to the deck's long term gameplan, but these cards are mostly run so that you aren't dead T1. Thraben Inspector is a house, being a good turn 1 play that doesn't die off in the late game is pretty good. 3 mana draw 1s are over-rate, but the ability to Investigate and pay this mana over time as you draw cards is really big. Goose helps fix mana, facilitates T3 Cocos and provides another life gain engine.
Card Advantage Engine
4x
Collected Company
4x
Militia Bugler
4x
Charming Prince
Collected Company
has proven itself to be a pillar of the Historic format, and it has a lot of good hits in the deck. The deck is also almost all creatures, contributing to the power of the card. Ultimately, it serves as a way to find your
Wildgrowth Walker
while also potentially simultaneously hitting
Skyclave Apparition
, Explore cards to immediately reap the benefits of Walker, or
Militia Bugler
to get even more card advantage and selection while also killing it on mana a reasonable % of the time.
Militia Bugler
finds
Jadelight Ranger
and other explorers, finds itself, finds Princes to blink itself, finds Wildgrowth Walker, find Apparitions, in a deck that are almost all hits for it it offers great card advatage and selection. It and the Prince package seem like an auto include in a Coco/Explore deck - Prince can fill in for an Explorer provided you have one on the table, it scrys for even more card selection, it even gains you life in an aggro matchup, not to mention to value of 2 mana blinks of Jadelight Ranger and Skyclave Apparition. Hitting Prince + Bugler off of Coco feels really good, and so does hitting a Jadelight Ranger and Bugler, letting you dig up to 7 cards deeper into your deck looking for your next threat. Also, even if Bugler Whiffs, that generally means the top 5 draws you would be making were lands, and that now you have a new top-deck that is less likely to be it land. While it can skip you past your Cocos, it is invaluable to the deck.
Charming Prince
is really big, since it adds to the main deck lifegain plan, and provides more card selection on its own - a very good card as a hedge against Aggro and faster Tempo decks that also creates a lot of mini ETB value effects. Don't get me wrong, it is run primarily for the blink, but being so versatile helps it fit in even better, and you should think hard about which effect you use and when to use the Prince.
Removal
4x
Skyclave Apparition
Removal that is good with Coco and
Charming Prince
, this package should be pretty obvious in the deck. It puts a slight strain on the mana, highly encouraging you to use lands that provide mana of dual colours to cast your spell, which weirdly in Historic makes it slightly more reliable in 3 colour decks like this one than in Selesnya decks (at least until we return to Mirroden)
Deck Hints
Collected Company works as a way to find
Wildgrowth Walker
, and Walker +
Jadelight Ranger
is one of the best hits off of Coco. Mana value and card utility also has to be considered - while
Militia Bugler
+
Skyclave Apparition
is always a good hit, you need Wildgrowth Walker to break the Explore package, so you should prioritize it when you hit it usually.
The deck is NOT linear, and requires you to make smart choices. There are few hard and fast rules - pay close attention to the board state and consider the utility of your game plan before you proceed. Treat Coco like a random Toolbox enabler when deciding what to hit. Walker and Apparition are your best hits, after that it's Militia Bugler and Jadelight Ranger. Consider
Thraben Inspector
off of Coco: while this is not usually ideal keeping cards in your hand to make plays is a big part of this deck (when you can get your 4 mana's worth off of it).
You only have 4
Skyclave Apparition
in the deck for removal. Consider taking them (even over Wildgrowth Walker) when you're in a creature matchup and have good hits. Walker is your best finisher, but you're very capable of just playing a creature game most matchups. Charming Prince can blink Apparition in order to give your opponent a token in exchange for permanently exiling another creature.
Mulligans are about lands and spells - Wildgrowth Walker is good to keep, but your real goal is to be able to cast Skyclave Apparition, Jadelight Ranger, and
Seekers' Squire
in the same game. You have only 20 lands in your deck, so look for 3 landers when possible. So long as you're dropping creatures and people aren't dropping Hushbringer you're in the green and have A gameplan - don't mana screw yourself looking for Coco or Walker.
Don't be afraid to mill good cards with Explore if you're digging for specific cards or mana. About the only thing I always keep is Coco, followed at a distance by Wildgrowth Walker, which you usually can't afford to dig away.
Charming Prince can scry, and whether it is better to blink a Thraben Inspector or Scry depends on the hand, but generally blink the blinkable thing unless you're digging for mana with Prince. Unless you're got a Walker and an Explorer on the field, gaining life is good in any aggressive matchup, so even though you're going to be blinking things.
The mana is a little harsh, but Explore, Scry, and Investigate all go a long way to smoothing it out. Don't be afraid to use your cards to fix your mana if need be - that's part of what they're there for.
3
Knight of Autumn
are for red-based decks as well as having 7 cards against Artifacts and Enchantments turn 2. They also work nicely with 2
Bolas's Citadel
for long games where you need a finisher. 3
Murderous Rider
are run for
Hushbringer
which hoses us pretty harshly and is sometimes in the main. It also allows you to go up to 7 removal in creature matchups, and still counts as a body for Coco, in addition to the advantages being an adventure give it. We need something that kills Hushbringer and Korvold, and such flexible spells always have a cost, in this case high mana. But being able to remove
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
and
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
as well as
Yasharn, Implacable Earth
in addition to Jund Sac's whole base and Hushbringer is a lot of upside for B, before you get to the adventure. 4x
Thoughtseize
are exclusively for Combo Matchups, too good not to run in the side. RIP is RIP, we're light on grave hate in a grave heavy meta, but RIP is good and will get us there sometimes.
Made for BO1 on Arena
