Spider deck without spider-tribal, instead Conspiracy naming spiders: your must-haves for a spider deck, Arachnogenesis as fog + spider tokens, with other token generators being Ant Queen, Slimefoot, the Stowaway, Hornet Queen, Mycoloth, Noosegraf Mob, Pharika, God of Affliction and Necrogenesis both of which exile creatures from graveyards for some good ol' graveyard hate, Parallel Lives which doubles the tokens, along with, of course Doubling Season and Primal Vigor which both double the tokens an help with +1/+1 tokens (with vigor helping everyone, so use with caution), Primeval Bounty, with Ishkanah, Grafwidow herself, and Westvale Abbey
. Conjuror's closet helps with the couple ETB triggers, either with token generation or with enchantment constellation with Eidolon of Blossoms + Doomwake Giant + Thoughtrender Lamia and Verduran Enchantress for added card draw. The idea is to have a consistent flow of threats that must be continually removed, and if not, draw or search to conspiracy and easy 7 mana damage to the face from Ishkanah, if not, multiples of 7 mana x 4 damage can get you there, slower.
Enchantment ETB:
Enchantment, this Ishkanah deck has an enchantment backbone/engine, run by 21 pure enchantments, with 8 enchantment creatures, this is for fun things like card draw with Eidolon of Blossoms and Verduran Enchantress for enchantment ETBs, alongside of Doomwake Giant and Thoughtrender Lamia to reduce opponent hand size and creature size. Pharika, God of Affliction can work with those as well, bringing in enchantment snakes on my side for added enchantment ETB triggers, or just to get a board state. I might pull out of a bit of this constellation, as it doesn't seem to effect the board state much as large as most board states get pumped or pump into a single creature - meaning, Doomwake Giant, I love him, but he's just not doing much relevant work.
+1/+1 counters:
For +1/+1 counter buffing, here's the gambit: Doubling Season this does double duty for token doubling and counter doubling, Feast on the Fallen adds a +1/+1 each turn if a creature died that turn, Hardened Scales adds an additional +1/+1 counter each time a counter would be placed on a creature, Primal Vigor this doubles +1/+1 counters and tokens for you, Primeval Bounty creates token creatures when you cast a creature, adds 3 x +1/+1 when you cast a non-creature spell, and life gain when lands are played. For creatures who help and generate their own +1/+1 counters, we have Corpsejack Menace doubles then number of +1/+1 counters, Forgotten Ancient does managorger hydra without the trample (no worries as Nylea, God of the Hunt is there somewhere to give all your creatures trample, Managorger Hydra grows big with every spell cast after ETB, Noosegraf Mob gets smaller with every spell cast and with that, creates at least one token zombie (awesome synergy!), Yahenni, Undying Partisan which is a sack outlet and +1/+1 monster who gets bigger on opponents' creatures dying, and Winding Constrictor which also adds an additional +1/+1 counter every time a counter would be placed on a creature you control.
Sacrifice package (something to do with all the tokens):
Now, the +1/+1 counters are if I just want to do swing to the face, don't care about finesse. There's also the necessary package of Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact to do something in case my creatures are smaller or they have something I can't quite get rid of any other way, then they just need sac outlets: Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, High Market, and Miren, the Moaning Well. Butcher of Malakir might be nice to add a third grave pact on a stick, but seems kind of greedy to me. Gyre Sage, because why not? Rarely will the sage get just 1x +1/+1 counter as a larger creature comes in, and often at least 3. Very satisfying having The Scarab God cdr forced to attack into a 5/6 mana dork and die, going to the graveyard.
Infinite mana loop, and close seconds:
Karametra's Acolyte + a bunch of green permanents + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx + Magus of the Candelabra + Staff of Domination + the oodles of tokens and sac outlets with the altars. Seedborn Muse in case you don't have all the pieces and have manastuffs you want to do during other player's turns, and Awakening for everyone to have manastuffs to do every turn. There's also Growing Rites of Itlimoc
for when the tokens get nicely numbered. Mana Reflection becomes immediately necessary for removal, especially doubled with Zendikar Resurgent and Seedborn Muse. Put a Waker of the Wilds and lands become lethal, and the least of opponent's problems. Helix Pinnacle, anyone?
Win/cons:
Ishkanah, Grafwidow's ability + conspiracy + token generation
token generation + +1/+1 counters to swing to the face
Theros block constellation: Eidolon of Blossoms or Verduran Enchantress + Doomwake Giant + Pharika, God of Affliction + enchantments and creatures in my graveyard = no creatures on their field, and removing all creatures from opponents' graveyards.
token generation + sac outlets + Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact to remove opponent creatures and board state
worst fear + token generation, take control of opponent's next turn, leave them open for an attack, and maybe take out another opponent, but shut down their win-con. Replaced In Garruk's Wake which just takes out creatures and which might not be that opponent's wincon.
Pharika's Mender + conjuror's closet or Disturbed Burial, mender for enchantment or creature recursion from the graveyard, burial for creature return. Dowsing Shaman seems like it could help for when a bunch of enchantments get sacrificed to a board wipe. Not sure though, because focusing on getting stuff back gives opponent's the initiative and free reign. I'd rather force them to deal with threats.
Helix Pinnacle +
Of note, I was inspired to do an Ishkanah not-spider-tribal deck from another I'd seen on the web, borrowing only Ishkanah, Grafwidow and Conspiracy from that deck. All else, constellation engine with its token and +1/+1 counters are my ideas, research, testing, getting beat in the face with.
Looks like I need to find space for Butcher of Malakir and Coat of Arms, and possibly Archetype of Endurance. I've just switched Conjurer's Closet with Scavenging Ooze, as graveyard hate is essential in my metagame.
Enjoy!!!
Thinking about taking out a bunch of the enchantment creatures for ramp and basic lands. Feels kinda durdly compared to at least one other deck I have, Omnath. Figure if I do some ramping, I'll get to do the mana things I want to do, and get there faster. I'll take a look at it after a bit. I'm going in for the 2 CMC then 3 CMC mana ramps, animist's sword, and mill protection via Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. I'm tired of my meta going for mill strategies.
Oh, and if you enjoy this idea, please give it a thumb's up. If you see any better synergy, feel free to make suggestions.
