Card selection updated to include all the new MH cards that made the cut.

I've also started working on a new non-traditional engine combo deck to complement Freyalise: Yawgmoth Token Storm. I wouldn't expect the fit/polish/attention to individual card selection that you've come to know and love from this primer, but if you like decks like Freyalise, it might suit your fancy.

Freyalise will remain my main project though, so expect consistent set-by-set and card-by-card updates as new cards come out.

Leyline of Abundance is really good for us. May cut Expedition Map ; it’s been kind of eh recently, but its negative interaction with Ouphe makes me more on the verge of cutting it than before

Testing out Force of Vigor in the Expedition Map slot. The fact that you can use it to potentially buy a turn by popping two artifact/enchantments after fizzling is pretty great (as well as interacting with our opponents w/no mana up and just being decent for its "alternate cost" of 2GG as well).

Why isn't growing rites of itlymoc any more on the list, did it not make the final cut?

love the deck btw

Stergios Thanks! Growing Rites was one of those cards that I was really excited about when it came out, but ended up not making the cut. Growing Rites suffers from a couple general issues:

1. We don't get the Cradle until EOT. We don't have many ways of using the mana at instant speed, so this means we have to wait a full turn cycle, have the enchantment live until our EOT, then have the land live for the rest of the turn cycle.

2. The ETB trigger isn't that good/is often not worth a card (even with 37 creatures we will "full whiff" (miss completely) over 15% of the time, and we will "partial whiff" (i.e. hit a dork and nothing better) over 30% of the time).

3. It's bad early game, a bad topdeck, and bad when we're comboing off. Many of our cards fall in one or two categories, but very few fall in all three.

4. 3 mana is a lot. It doesn't sound like that much, but most of the time your mana constraints are very real before you go full combo. The difference between 2 mana and 3 in particular is quite large.

Unfortunately, the "look at the top N and take a creature card" effects are pretty bad in Freyalise, because even though we run a high creature count, most of the time there is a specific subset of creature cards that we want/need at a given time. It's why I recently also had to cut Vivien, even though I was very excited about her when she first came out.

I think if you wanted an effect like Growing Rites, we'd first want to play Expedition Map (which I recently cut). It has the same total cost as Growing Rites, but it gets you a Cradle right away with your land drop (or even an Eye when we're flooding, a Deserted Temple if your Cradle's already out, or even Nykthos if your Cradle's been dealt with). I cut Expedition Map because even though it was good at fetching Cradle/Temple/Nykthos/Eye, 3 mana was still a lot, and it had negative interactions with a new creature added as a toolbox target for tutoring, Collector Ouphe. I think you could definitely consider it over the Ouphe (or even in addition to if you're willing to accept the negative synergy a small portion of the time).

The cut I made for it was Force of Vigor, and if either it or Collector Ouphe (who are both still very much in the "testing phase") get cut, it's very possible Map could eventually find its way back in.

Any new cards that might be worth it from M20?

Stergios Atm, the most interesting one is Leyline of Abundance. Apart from the Elf Druid tokens, it interacts with ~10 mana dorks. Additionally, it turns any 1-drop dork + itself into a T3 Freyalise, so it serves as a "secondary source of ramp." And Dryad Arbor + 4 fetches also become +1 mana, so that's something to keep in mind.

The biggest problem is the card is absolutely awful if it's not in our opening hand, so that's probably why it's ultimately not likely to make the cut. I have similar feelings about Gemstone Caverns when I've tried it, so it's probably not going to make the cut either.

Shared Summons is a very powerful effect, but the instant-speed is largely wasted on us, and 5 mana is quite a lot unless you're mid-combo. Being able to unconditionally tutor for 2 creatures is quite strong though, so I think it's potentially higher than the green Leyline in terms of raw power level.

One card that you could certainly play depending on your meta is Veil of Summer. Autumn's Veil was already fringe-playable, and this is a strict upgrade if there's enough blue and black players in your meta.

Elvish Reclaimer is interesting, but summoning sickness + 3 total mana to Crop Rotate probably dooms it. Wakeroot Elemental goes infinite if you have a land that taps for net 6+, but is a vanilla 6-mana 5/5 if you don't.

Right now the weakest cards in the deck are Marwyn, Force of Vigor, and Ramunap Excavator, and I don't see any of these cards taking those slots. Force of Vigor is the one I'm the least sure of, but it's also the one I have the least testing with, so I'm probably going to test it a bit longer to makes sure to compile my thoughts. I could eventually foresee testing the new Leyline or Shared Summons over it, though.

This deck is sweet! Have you considered Burgeoning ? I think it would be a good addition to the deck.

EmrysTheWizard Thanks! I've tried Burgeoning out in the past; it's OK, but the problem is that it's kind of like a Leyline in that you need it in your opening hand (along with a land-heavy draw). One of the big advantages of Exploration and Azusa is that in addition to being good in the early game, they let you use extra land drops to cheat out Cradle, Temple, and Nykthos mid-combo turn (they tend to be more flexible with effects like Oracle and Ramunap as well).

The ceiling on Burgeoning is very high (as it + 5 lands in your opener is T2 Freyalise), but the combination of needing both it and a lot of lands in your opening hand (and doing nothing mid-combo turn) means that I eventually had to cut it from the deck. I think that one could definitely make the argument for its inclusion, but ultimately I couldn't justify it.

After more testing, I think I was too high on Collector Ouphe originally. The problem is that it's easy for our opponents to remove, and it actually hinders us more than I was expected during our combo turns. While we were briefly down to 4 artifacts, all 4 of them (the 3 artifact mana pieces and Skullclamp) were actually pretty important to draw into on our combo turn. It was more difficult for us to remove than I was expecting; while it can be removed with Temur and Natural Order, both of the effects are fairly expensive, and I found it comparatively even easier to remove Null Rod with a random Manglehorn or Reclamation Sage. Affecting creature count was nice, but the card was still overall underwhelming. In addition, to run it I had to cut down on powerful artifacts like Expedition Map and Sensei's Divining Top. In particular, cutting Map was problematic, as Cradle and Nykthos are still two of the best cards in the deck, and it removed an additional threat via backdoor Eye of Ugin.

So with that said, Ouphe is being cut for Map. Force of Vigor is still in its testing phase, but I've decided to remove it from the list until I get more testing under my belt. Sensei's Divining Top is an absurdly powerful card selection engine, and the addition of Prismatic Vista from MH1 makes it all the more consistent.

With that said, I think these effects are very good in specific metas, so I've decided to compile a list of specific hate cards that are good in a variety of metagames, so people can use it to adapt the list to whatever problems they're facing.

As always, suggestions and comments are more than welcome, so let me know what you think!

With our 74th upvote, I believe we are now (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) the #1 ranked Freyalise deck on all of TappedOut. Thank you everyone who's been part of this journey, from commenting to simply hitting that thumbs-up. Looking forward to perhaps some new toys coming from C19!

Love this deck. I’m a mono green wizard always on the prowl for new decks. What would you recommend running in place of cards like Kozilek, Azusa, Earthcraft, and Crossroads? Mainly for budget reasons.

use fewer forest fetches and more forests

TheCorelton Crossroads - Would probably cut completely, Azusa - Wayward Swordtooth (obviously less efficient, but does have some positive interactions with Bellower and Greater Good that Azusa doesn't), Kozilek - Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger, if also out of budget cut completely (primarily run for the shuffle trigger, not the body). Earthcraft is definitely the most irreplaceable of the 4, but you could try Cryptolith Rite? The problem is that Earthcraft both gets around summoning sickness and interacts positively with the land auras; it's definitely the toughest of the 4. W/o Kozilek I could see the argument for Loaming Shaman; Kozilek's purpose is to facilitate GY recycling in combination with discard outlets. Crossroads I'd probably cut for whatever 100th card you wanted to slot in; the card's pretty good, but not necessarily core either.

Llammaface The fetches each serve several roles in this deck. First of all, they turn Lotus Cobra into +2 mana. This means Cobra, any 2 lands + fetch is T3 Freyalise without requiring anything else of your opening hand. They provide very efficient card selection and filtering with Sensei's Divining Top and Oracle of Mul Daya. They're a consistent source of land drops for Ramunap Excavator. They get Avenger tokens into Greater Good (aka 3+ power) territory efficiently. Most importantly, other than Vista, they all fetch Dryad Arbor. This serves several purposes; like any other deck, this allows you to get a surprise blocker or protection from an edict effect. But most importantly, fetching Dryad Arbor eot the turn before you go off provides you an additional body, which is at least +1 card with Freya ult, and even +1 mana with Cradle. I probably wouldn't say the deck is "unplayable" without fetchlands, but 21 Forests is more than sufficient to not realistically run out of fetchable lands.

The only arguments against fetchlands are effects like Ashiok and Mindlock Orb, but this deck outs Ashiok pretty efficiently by virtue of its high creature count, and tends not to have problems against effects like Mindlock Orb thanks to Freya's -2. You could make an argument for Mindcensor, but you have >60% odds of hitting. Blood Moon's also not really an issue given your otherwise-high basic count. The benefits are just too powerful to not run them for corner cases.

Slivortal Awesome, thank you for the suggestions. Gives me a direction to go in! Can't wait to give it a shot.

Testing out a Force of Vigor and a 21st Forest over Eye and Ulamog; while I liked Eye+Ulamog for inevitability/tutor conversion, Eye's just too much of a brick to justify playing most of the time (and Ulamog's kind of a brick too).

If we ever get a good inevitability land that makes mana, I'll probably look into it again. Force of Vigor accomplishes Ulamog's cast trigger in a much more mana-efficient way, and the extra land that taps for mana is pretty good at making for a higher % of keepable hands.

Testing out Bane of Progress over Force of Vigor .

My problem with Force of Vigor hasn’t been that it’s been ineffective or not good enough; my problem with Force has been that it’s been inconsistent to draw. While this is inevitable for essentially any card that isn’t a creature or land, the problem is that we run a lot of creature tutors, and running cards that aren’t tutor targets essentially relies on us drawing them at the right time. Additionally, ever since cutting Ulamog, I feel like I’ve lacked a tutorable card that has a lot of impact on boardstates where we’re behind; while I think that Ulamog is essentially too expensive of an effect, and that the card was part of a package to make Eye worth it, I think that Bane solves enough of these problems on paper to warrant testing.

Any updates on the deck with eldraine cards?

Hi Man! What do you think about Arasta of the Endless Web and Nyxbloom Ancient ?

Slivortal I would also like to here your thoughts on Nyxbloom Ancient. He seems pretty op in this deck! A Rasta is a good token generator as well like cuckfamilo mentioned

Stergios None of the Eldraine cards were really that interesting, unfortunately.

cuckfamilo DivineKhaos Arasta and Nyxbloom Ancient both have a lot of potential, and I'm planning on testing both of them. Arasta is a pretty decent token generator and Nyxbloom is a tutorable Mana Reflection on steroids.

However, I think the most exciting card from TBD for Freya is actually Nylea's Intervention. I think the card at minimum is as good as Expedition Map (3 mana to tutor for a land), and scales wonderfully with extra land drops, letting you tutor for Nykthos + Cradle + Temple for only 3GG. The second mode is also incredibly relevant, as it gets rid of flyers that we often have trouble dealing with. Whether Intervention replaces or is run in addition to Map is yet to be seen, but I think space is tight enough for a 1-for-1 replacement.

Space however is getting extremely tight at this point. I think the most likely cuts at this point are some combination of Bane of Progress, Ramunap Excavator, and Beast Whisperer (each having their ups and downsides). You could also consider cutting Greater Good or Song of the Dryads, but the former is still quite necessary for a good number of combos while the latter is powerful removal. I think you could also consider cutting ESG, but I think fast mana is still quite important.

Finally, Oakhame Adversary could also be considered depending on meta, but my problem is that the only way it fits onto the T3 Freya curve is if you have a double dork opener (T1 dork, T2 dork + Adversary, T3 Freya). In all other situations you can't cast it on T2 and still hit T3 Freya.

Hello. Nice thread and decks/info. Ive been playing Freyalise since she came out. My deck has been tweaked, tested and super tuned over years.(I played Mono Green before her) Gaeas Cradle is my fav card of all time. I have 3, one foil. I have tried and built every style from casual fun to MTGOL Top Tier 1v1. I am a 3v1 target for life in our playplayroup group of 10+yrs. (8peeps, 4plyr pods) My current build incorporates Nyxbloom Ancient. Love that card!! That said.....

Heres some info to share. Great ways to stay super competitive and not be hated. (I dont know how nor have time to link)

Elderscale Wurm- keeps you alive, lets you win with options like Ifh-Biff Efreet/Hurricane/Squall Monger

Ulvenwald Hydra- No Brainer, great Search/Combo piece. Reach to protect Frey.

Pirs Whim- so good. No one is a friend, lol (but can be)

Panharmonicon- A personal choice, I Always play it, and also Cloudstone Curio. ETB is my main Focus- SO Much card/board advantage

Meteor Golem & Duplicant- both House Always

Thorn Mammoth- So Good w/ Frey Ability and deck theme. *Can u say Vigor

Apex Altisaur- so many self triggered fight shenannigans. *Can u say Vigor I run the Top5 Fight Creats Sometimes Acorn Catapult

Walking Ballista- who doesnt like to kill with a 150/150 machine gun T7??

Glissa Sunseeker- SO good with Spine of Ish Sah *

Karn the Great Creator- So good. Run self exiling Arti. We allow a 10 card wishboard in our group

Thats all for now, but I have more. My win rate is prob 70%+ My build is this....

Standard Elf Ramp Package Standard Arti Ramp Package Standard Draw Package ETB Support(4) Fight Package Destroy Package(2) Big Ramp (Cumulative) Karn TGC Vigor Soul of Zendikar Eldrazi Monument Tooth & Nail (Always)

Have fun and Mono Green Frey FTW 4Ever!!!

Oh.....also....

I use Survival of the Fittest (or elf one) over worldy tutor.

Ill post a deck list in the near future.

Keep up the good work! Mono Green Frey 4Life!

Krosancliffhanger I’d love to see your build! Let me know when you upload it.

After testing the new additions: Nyxbloom Ancient is absolutely ABSURD. It’s very difficult not to win if it lands unimpeded do to the frankly huge mana swing it generates. It also opens up some ridiculous combo chains. In particular it allows you to go off with just Earthcraft and creature tutors via Nyxbloom -> Hermit -> Temur. Easy include over Bane of Progress, and up there with the strongest creatures in the deck.

Nylea's Intervention on the other hand has massively underperformed, and I’ll likely be cutting it for Map again. The problem with Intervention is the X is overkill most of the time, as after cutting the Eye package you can only grab more mana; and frankly, grabbing a single copy of Cradle/Temple/Nykthos with map is more than sufficient in most cases. Additionally, Map’s ability to curve is very powerful, and there are times in the early game where GG can be difficult if you open multiple colorless lands, Crypt, and/or Ring. I could see perhaps adding it again if you were in a metagame ingested with small flyers (or, if you looked at adding the Eye/Ulamog package again), but for me right now it’s a pass.

As always, I’m always open to suggestions and feedback; sorry for not being active for a bit!