A great deal of play testing has led me to refine the deck to its current stage - I've gone online and ordered the cards at last! I hope to play at the local shop soon.
Now I'm looking for tweaks, sideboards, and an assessment of threats. The deck's goals are as follows:Get a scythe leopard out on turn 1; it's good value and a lot of quick damage. When it outlives its welcome, use evolutionary leap to get rid of it.Turn 2 is a good time to play either hardened scales or evolutionary leap.
On turn 3, my options really open up. Managorger hydra is my offensive option, while my defensive option is undergrowth champion. They can both be stacked a mile high within just a few turns, allowing me easy access to creatures anywhere from 4-15 power, potentially with trample, within just a few turns.
On turn 4, I like to play retreat to Kazandu and hit its landfall trigger, particularly if I've got an undergrowth champion in play. If I've got a hydra, my preferred turn 4 is a shaman of the great hunt - allowing him to stack up even faster, with trample, and giving me easy access to a great deal of draw power starting on turn 5.
Mina and Den is a card best played later in the game, when my deck's early momentum has started to peter off. It's awesome on turn six, when I can play it and immediately access its land recursion.
Nissa is fantastic anywhere from turn 3 and beyond; she's a great mana fixer, if I'm lacking or in need of a landfall trigger, and she provides a critically needed source of card advantage when she flips. Ashaya doesn't get much mileage, but she DOES synergize with Omnath's passive! If I have Omnath, and Evolutionary Leap, and a Nissa at +7, I can just burn all my lands to end the game or remove critical threats.
Omnath, I'm certain, needs no introduction. But perhaps his synergies should be highlighted: Undergrowth Champion and Ashaya count as elementals, as do land creatures created by Nissa and Elemental Uprising. Evolutionary Leap allows me to sacrifice them for only a single mana apiece, allowing easy access to a great deal of burn damage.
E. Leap is is worth mentioning by itself - when a creature is about to die, it allows me to tutor for another creature to replace it. This has probably saved me as many games as Nissa has, and also helps to create card advantage. That's besides its synergy with Omnath and its ability to get rid of a scythe leopard who has overstayed his welcome.
Jaddi offshoot is just there for heavy aggro decks, where I need an early blocker and some lifegain.
Finally, my win conditions: Chandra's Ignition and Rogue's Passage. Once managorger hydra or undergrowth champion reaches 10/10, not even Ulamog can stop Chandra's Ignition from dropping an opponent from 20 life. And rogue's passage? That seems self explanatory; undergrowth champion doesn't have any evasion of its own!
