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[Primer] Mina & Denn's Rampaging Roil | V-DSK

Commander / EDH Landfall Lands Primer Ramp RG (Gruul) Scapeshift Value Engine

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Lands (43)

Protection (7)

DOT (4)

Overrun (3)

Interaction (19)

Landfall (15)

Tutors (10)

Tokens (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Mina and Denn, Wildborn

Draw/Filter (16)

More Lands (13)

Recursion (6)

More Land Drops (3)

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Lands (15)

Tokens (3)

Other (2)

Interaction (10)

Recursion (4)

More Lands (3)

Tutors (1)

Protection (7)

Landfall (5)

Draw/Filter (3)

DOT (2)

An optimized primer for an underrated lands matter commander

"The rampaging Roil creates life out of the most volatile elements."

Wicked moving land engine that keeps on rolling

Hello there, and welcome to my Mina and Denn, Wildborn list

This is currently the #1 Mina and Denn list on tappedout! A big thanks to all who have up-voted this deck since its inception or have challenged me to consider new cards. I really appreciate it!

Upvote & Support This Primer!

Origin

The extended format used to be my favorite format. And in those days, Aggro-Loam was one of my favorite decks. So when starting with commander I was slowly gathering land-related cards for the inevitable land-centered commander deck: a deck where lands are not just a resource, but also the main weapon. And this is the result: my take at a land-recycle kind of commander deck, inspired by the best times I had during Extended.

Deck Overview

The vision for the deck was to constantly be moving lands around from your hand, the board, and the grave, from and to all those 3 destinations, and gaining something from that displacement in the process via a trigger or activated ability. The dream is to chain many triggers to create some sort of wicked moving landmass engine that keeps on rolling until it all suddenly explodes in the faces of our opponents!

Mina and Denn, Wildborn fit very well with this mission, because they enable one of the loops on their own: getting more lands in play and getting them back into your hand. The latter is a nice mana-dump ability as well that will help the deck to always do stuff with all the lands it amasses (pun intended). We also get easy access to trample which is a nice bonus.

Of course there are other cool ways to use the commander, like re-using Mosswort Bridge a bunch of times, keeping around Glacial Chasm longer than you should while still being able to attack, bouncing a BFZ MDFC land to play the spell side, creating some tokens with Khalni Garden, or enabling several activations of Gaea's Cradle per turn. So just on their own Mina and Denn can make our lands a lot more hostile.

Grow Suppermassive

Grow Supermassive

The strategy of the deck is all about growing out of proportion out of nowhere: unpredictability and big tempo-swing plays. I want to make people think it’s quiet, and then suddenly turn their worlds upside down. To keep the deck unpredictable and to end up with a deck that keeps surprising to play, I included many different possible paths to victory:

  • There are some cards that deal Damage Over Time (DOT) that can deal massive damage with all the lands moving around, like Omnath, Locus of Rage, Valakut Exploration and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.
  • Several land-related cards generate tokens, like Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer, Scute Swarm or Avenger of Zendikar. These tokens bring fuel for the Cradle and contribute to the DOT category through cards like Terror of the Peaks and Purphoros, God of the Forge. But they can also take out a player by surprise through an Overrun-like spell.
  • Gaea's Cradle is just absurd with Mina and Denn's second ability, especially when you can combine it with the landfall token makers, enabling explosive turns. Mosswort Bridge combined with Amulet of Vigor is also very potent.
  • Scapeshift and Reshape the Earth can completely turn the tide or even win you the game with the proper supporting cards. Of course there are the Valakut lines, where you search for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and a lot of mountains. Then each mountain ETB'ing will trigger Valakut's ability, even if your mountain count before Scapeshift wasn't 5 or more. Even better, if you already had Valakut in play, you can get Vesuva instead and get double the damage (Valakut is not legendary). You can also throw Field of the Dead into the mix for more shennenigans. Casting Scapeshift at 10+ lands means you can get Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, 6+ mountains, Gaea's Cradle, Field of the Dead and Glacial Chasm. A one-sided board wipe, 10 2/2 zombies, a strong defense and massive ramp? Not bad for 4 mana.
  • Genesis Wave is a similar game-ender here that can cause an even bigger tidal wave of triggers. It’s pretty easy with the Cradle to get a wave where X is 30+. Then, because all cards enter at the same time, lands entering are also going to trigger newly entered landfall cards. And if we hit any DOT effects cards like Terror of the Peaks and Purphoros, God of the Forge, they will see each creature entering the battlefield with the wave.
  • Hate spells on a land like Strip Mine and Blast Zone with land recursion, as well as M&D + one or more Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle provide the deck with reusable board control options.
  • That board control can be enhanced with the deck’s defenses. The incidental life gain and protective lands like Glacial Chasm and Spires of Orazca   enable the deck to suddenly turn very defensive as well.
  • Ancient Greenwarden allows for many crazy combinations with landfall cards and extra land drops, switching our engines into a higher gear. This guy opens up a lot of new play patterns and winning combinations.
  • Currently also testing Kodama of the East Tree, which can turn the engines into overdrive by creating infinite landfall triggers with a landfall token maker and Gruul Turf.
  • Then, we also run the Thespian's Stage + Dark Depths combo. Activating Thespian stage on Dark Depths will spawn Marit Lage, who could really use trample ;) (you will lose both lands though).

The amount of different possible ways to become threatening make the deck a lot of fun to pilot. It's great to discover the potential of the more unlikely combinations (Amulet of Vigor + Scapeshift shenanigans into Splendid Reclamation into Genesis Wave all in one turn O_o'). I just love being surprised by what your deck can do.

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The tutor suite helps with getting that additional "volatile element" in play right away and making these plays a little more consistently. To be given certain pieces and figuring out what additional card will make the situation escalate most is exciting and different each game.

Cycling Through

This deck is very hungry for cards as we try to put a lot of lands into play fast in order to play increasingly more spells as the game goes on. So like in loam-based decks, I wanted to have a solid suite of cards that would enable me to cycle through the deck at a rapid and consistent pace and just draw a bunch of cards (also, I just hate it to have a ramped out deck with nothing left in hand to use all that mana for).

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Big part of finding the right cards was balancing the ratio between draw spells and land fetch spells to sort of mimic the the loam draw engine (LFTM + 3 cycling lands) and get the right consistency. The many land-related two-for-ones, like Cultivate and Thaumatic Compass   are great for this purpose, as well as landfall cards that draw, like Horn of Greed and Valakut Exploration. Together, these are great for mimicking the loam engine and for making this deck run smoothly.

Card Explanation

This section covers all the cards that are in the deck, why they are included, and why certain cards are not (or no longer) in the deck.

These considerations have been guiding in my card selection. They help determine priority when deciding between different cards:

Immediate Effect & Unpredictability

I wanted this deck to be unpredictable. This translated to selecting cards that have immediate effect over cards that telegraph your intentions to the table.

An example of a much played card that telegraphs in this way is Beastmaster Ascension. It's a strong card, but unless you are attacking with 7 the same turn you cast it, it also makes very clear what's coming. This can be an incentive for the table to view you as a threat, giving them more chances to mitigate your attack. I'd rather pay one more mana and run Triumph of the Hordes - or in this list Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth - for my overrun cards as those come out of nowhere all of the time. Your attack is not telegraphed in the way that ascension often does.

Another example would be Nissa, Vital Force. It does not do much right away (her +1 is not relevant in edh imo unless you have Cradle out), and the strength of her ultimate could be an incentive for the table to pick you as the prime target. I dislike these type of cards in edh multiplayer, as they often make you threatening to others before you receive any value from them.

Other examples in this category include Scute Mob, Dragonmaster Outcast and Elvish Reclaimer.

By refraining from running these type of cards, we retain more control over when we become threatening; when we're ready to make our move.

Balancing Aggression and Resilience

I wanted this deck not just to be aggressive only. I wanted it to have considerable defensive capabilities as well. With life landfall, and the defensive utility lands, the land dance of the deck can also lead to an explosive defense.

Landfall VS Land Recursion

When starting out with this deck, I wanted lands to flow from all zones and providing value with each transition. However, Mina and Denn, Wildborn work best with lands entering and leaving the battlefield. They want us to have a lot of lands in hand, and do not synergize with lands the graveyard. This made me increase the landfall and reduce the emphasis on the graveyard over time.

Ramp & Consistency

The land genre of decks provide a lot of big and expensive ramp spells like Boundless Realms, Traverse the Outlands, Animist's Awakening and Genesis Wave. However, these cards do not ramp into your commander, and do not increase the consistency of the deck. For this reason I have stopped counting "ramp" cards that are more expensive than the commander as actual ramp. We will always need a certain number ramp cards that help us get into the game and make the deck run smoothly. Cards like Cultivate and Nature's Lore might be a bit boring in comparison to Boundless Realms, but are vital components for this deck to work consistently.

Basic Lands & Basic Land Ramp

Another consideration for big ramp spells is the balance between the amount of basic lands you run, and the amount of cards that ramp for basics. There are so many amazing non-basic lands that shine in a deck like this that I want to run, that I had little room for basics. If that is the path you choose as well, you can't run too many ramp cards that fetch basics as you are going to run out of them rather fast. This is another reason for me to be modest with the big basic land ramp spells (which is why Boundless Realms is not in the list).

Valakut & Mountain Count

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is a great asset to this deck, and a big reason to keep this deck 2-colored. Although not eliminating opponents as often as in Modern, it weaponizes our lands to control the board, especially with our commander, and turns Scapeshift into a one-sided board wipe. This ability is enhanced when you can pair it with Vesuva or Thespian's Stage. To make Valakut work though, we need a certain number of Mountains. I settled on 9 as a minimum. This constraint, as well as the one from the last chapter, make this mana base very tight. Non-basic lands have to be well worth their spot to run as much as any non-land would.

Green Meanies Matter

In this deck I wanted to run some powerful green creatures matter cards: Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith and Regal Force. For these cards to be worthwhile, I tried not to run many red creatures and also to run green token makers primarily.

  • Lands: The stars of the deck
  • Draw/Filter: Cards that draw us more cards or provide card selection
  • More Lands & More Land Drops: Cards that fetch us lands from the library or up the amount of lands we can play each turn
  • Landfall: Cards that care about lands entering our board
  • Damage Over Time (DOT): Cards that deal damage over time as lands or creatures enter the battlefield
  • Recursion: Cards that recur things from our graveyard, mainly lands
  • Tutors: Cards that fetch any creature or land from the library
  • Interaction: Cards that interact with our opponent's plan
  • Overrun: Cards that pump our token army FTW
  • Protection: Cards that protect our board

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These are the stars of the deck. This must be the mana base that costed the most time, effort and headaches, as there are just so many lands I would want to run in a deck like this. I settled on the following:

Lands with a basic land type

Fetch Lands

Lands to return to your hand

Mina and Denn, Wildborn's second ability may not appear as great as the first, but certain lands may change that appearance:

  • Gaea's Cradle: This is one of the go-to lands when you have a tutor. Great on its own and better yet with Mina and Denn: Tap for X, add a red, bounce, play, tap for X, add a red, bounce, play, add X a third time. Yes, the cradle is pretty good with Mina and Denn.
  • Glacial Chasm: An old favorite of mine and a big reason for me to run Mina and Denn over other land-matter commanders. Glacial Chasm has many downsides, but Mina and Denn can negate them almost completely: during your turn, you can return the chasm to your hand, allowing you to swing. In your second main, you can play it again and reset the cumulative upkeep counter. Combine that with land recursion and/or a lifegain landfall card and you have a great turtle shell that is hard to interact with. In that situation there are many decks that just cannot win anymore. Bring chasm out after you have made an explosive play that made you the archenemy of the game, and it will help you to secure the victory. Bring it out when you are behind and it will buy you time to catch up. One of the all star lands in this deck and second of the go-to lands if you have a tutor. Baffling to me that only 10% of EDHrec M&D decks run this.
  • Khalni Garden: Innocent in comparison to the last 2 cards, but having a land that creates (green) tokens without losing a card is a great way to make use of any excess mana and/or land drops you might have. That might turn into additional cards (via Regal Force) or mana (via Gaea's Cradle) later, or can be the sac fodder Natural Order needs.
  • Mosswort Bridge: The potential value of this card in this deck is insane: a land that lets you look at the top 4 and draw the best one would already be an auto-include, but playing the card for free? Amazing (the "play" wording allows us to dig for lands as well which is relevant). This card shines in combination with Amulet of Vigor and Mina and Denn, allowing you to dig deep and cheat out card after card, getting us the explosiveness we want with this deck. The third all star land to get with your tutor and another card that should be in way more M&D lists.
  • Gruul Turf: This card can be the best thing to find with your land tutor if you need landfall triggers but you have no way to get more lands in your hand. This guarantees you the triggers per turn, while also returning another of the lands from this section to your hand for value. It can also enable infinite landfall triggers with Kodama of the East Tree and a landfall token maker.
  • Bala Ged Sanctuary  , Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass   & Valakut Stoneforge  : these DFC lands are great in that you can play them early game and return them to your hand later if you need the spell side of the card. What’s even better is that you are allowed to play these cards from your graveyard using Crucible of Worlds and from your deck with Oracle of Mul Daya. These lands provide a lot of flexibility, especially with M&D’s ability. Also true for Boseiju, Who Endures.

Copy Lands

  • Vesuva: On its own this is a nice versatile card. With Mina and Denn at the helm of our deck though, we can be less picky with our copy targets and just play it early game to return it later, similar to the ZNR DFC lands. Vesuva also can be a vital piece when using Scapeshift: in the scenario where Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is already in play when casting Scapeshift, fetching Vesuva to copy Valakut will actually double the damage output from your mountains that ETB with Scapeshift. Similar shenanigans are possible with Field of the Dead.
  • Thespian's Stage: This card can also serve the role of a second (or third) Valakut or Field of the Dead, but it also plays a lead role in the legacy combo with Dark Depths.

Land Weapons

  • Dark Depths: The land that is killing in Legacy. Activate Thespian's Stage on it, and you will have a copy of Dark Depths without any counters on it (note that this does not work with Vesuva, as Vesuva will also copy the ability that adds the ice counters, where Thespian Stage does not). A shortcut to a 20/20 Flying, indestructible. Mina and Denn can make this beater even deadlier with their trample-granting ability.
  • Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: The land that is killing in Modern. However, instead of killing players like in Modern, I usually use Valakut for board control in EDH. One way to abuse it in this deck is to try and make more copies of it with the copy lands, and then bouncing mountains to deal 6-9 damage per land drop. The other way is via Scapeshift. A 4th prime target to find with your tutors if the situaton calls for it.
  • Field of the Dead: This quickly became the 5th all star land for the deck. In a deck like this, where you are pushing the maximum amount of non-basics that you can, Field of the Dead is basically a free Zendikar's Roil at 7 lands. Except this Zendikar's Roil can be copied with our copy lands, leading to another set of explosive plays. Having such easy access to tokens on a land makes also the deck more resilient to board wipes. Field of the Dead and Cradle have now become my most common targets for tutors.
  • Scavenger Grounds: Every EDH deck should have graveyard hate, and scavenger grounds was the non-black Bojuka Bog this deck was waiting for. Its downside of exiling our own graveyard is one we can afford because the deck is not relying on it to win.
  • Strip Mine and Wasteland: Strip mine is an auto-include in any EDH deck imo, but it's more powerful here with our land recursion.
  • Blast Zone: A semi-board wipe on a land. It can deal with our opponents' plan without being countered.
  • Shatterskull Smashing   & Boseiju, Who Endures: these cards are great removal options in their own right, but are extra valuable here since we can play them early for the mana and then bounce them later when we need an answer.

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Other Utility Lands

  • Ancient Tomb: One of the more powerful standalone lands in the format. Gets our gameplan started faster.
  • Dryad Arbor: Given this is a creature with a cmc of 0, including it allows you to use Green Sun's Zenith as ramp card for and it turns Finale of Devastation into a Rampant Growth in the early game. It also synergizes with Regal Force and Gaea's Cradle.
  • Cryptic Caves: I'm currently testing this as they will eventually print the gruul variant of Horizon Canopy. So far, I like the options such a land provides the deck. With M&D and Crucible or Excavator out we can draw 2 cards per turn with a land like that, which has proven very useful. However, chances are this spot will be a flexible one in testing new lands.
  • Bonders' Enclave: a land that can draw us a few cards in a pinch if mana is not a concern. Testing this at the moment.
  • Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth: a great fixer and another card besides Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to get mana from our lands that don't have a mana ability, such as Dark Depths. Also allows you to “save” the extra landfall trigger a fetchland provides for the right moment, similar to Blighted Woodland.
The tutors are looking for creatures or lands in this deck. I selected only those tutors that would put the thing I want into play right away.

Land Tutors

  • Crop Rotation: Has so many applications for a deck like this it's an easy include. The sacrifice a land cost is actually benefit in many cases, so we are getting a lot of value for 1 mana. The fact that this is an instant makes it especially valuable, enabling us to pull of combat tricks and life-saving plays (for example, by getting Glacial Chasm).
  • Scapeshift: This is like Crop Rotation's big brother, but at sorcery speed. This card enables some of the most explosive turns for the deck, especially if you can combine it with something Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra. Doubles as a hate card with Valakut in the deck.
  • Reshape the Earth: You could view this as a second, more expensive copy of Scapeshift. It has similar applications and can be just as game-winning. Amazing if you can cheat it out with Mosswort Bridge.
  • Hour of Promise: The non-basic version of Explosive Vegetation has found its way back in this list. It’s great because it is a tutor, ramp ánd cardadvantage. It also has a good play pattern with M&D. It can get you the Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage combo or can be quite good with Gaea's Cradle + Field of the Dead. Making that play at 5 lands is also getting us the 2 2/2 black zombie tokens without any deserts ;).
  • Ulvenwald Hydra: The closest thing to getting a Primeval Titan in commander. The hydra also gets us any land we want. However, the fact that it is a creature is very relevant, as that turns all our creature tutors into land tutors as well, making those tutors more flexible. He's also a big beater that could really use trample, so a great fit for the deck.
  • Nylea's Intervention: Searching for a large amount of non-basic lands is obviously amazing in this deck. It also doubles as a flying board wipe! Love this card for its versatility.

Creature Tutors

  • Natural Order: This is such a powerful card in this deck. Most of the really good landfall cards are green, so it made sense running tutors like Natural Order over less impressive landfall creatures like Oran-Rief Hydra. And we don't really care about the color restriction in this deck, as we want creatures that are green most of the time. Natural order can be a lot for 4 mana, with Omnath, Locus of Rage and Craterhoof Behemoth being good examples.
  • Green Sun's Zenith: A classic creature tutor in a land deck because of its synergy with Dryad Arbor, but it also fits the bill of putting the thing into play right away.
  • Finale of Devastation: A card similar to the Zenith, except can get a creature of any color (looking at you Purphoros, God of the Forge!). It can also be another buff spell to win with our tokens.

Mina and Denn want us to have access to lot of lands in your hands, because that enables us to benefit from their first ability. One way of getting that is just by drawing cards! Because we can get rid of our lands from our hand twice as fast as a normal deck, we will have a lot of room in our hand quite fast. Another way to have access to more lands is to recur them from the graveyard.

Carddraw

Apart from the before mentioned cycling lands and Mosswort Bridge, the deck is running the following cards that draw us cards:

  • Rishkar's Expertise: This is such a favorite explosive card it has found a place in most of my green decks. It provides a Soul's Majesty effect without losing any tempo. It works well with commanders that are cheaper than 6 mana that have decent power. Mina and Denn's power is right at the threshold for the expertise to be worthwhile imo, so we should get 4 cards off of this quite consistently. Later in the game we are likely to have creatures with a power that's higher. A great draw card that does a lot of what we want.
  • Return of the Wildspeaker: Not as crazy as Rishkar's Expertise but both more flexible than Soul's Majesty. The second mode can sometimes allow you to close out a game when you otherwise couldn't.
  • Tireless Tracker: An excellent landfall card that can come down early. Paying 2 mana to draw a card in the early game can be steep, but usually these tokens stay around until when mana is no longer a concern.
  • Horn of Greed: Yes, this card also helps our opponents but it gives us such a strong draw engine that (contrary to Nissa, Vital Force) is not likely to draw any hate. It is also unlikely that our opponents will draw more than one card per turn from it, because it triggers only when you play a card (not when fetching or ramping for example). Mina and Denn allow us to get maximum benefit from this card, while opponents tend to leave you alone for a while.
  • Regal Force: I also wanted massive draw via my creature tutors, and Regal Force fits that job best so far. With the token subtheme, Regal Force can get us a lot of cards.
  • Wheel of Fortune: A late addition to the deck, but you can never go wrong with the wheel. Gives us a full grip after we dumped most of our hand on the board.
  • Shamanic Revelation: I added this card at the same time I added Field of the Dead. With that land in the list, I feel I can take advantage of Shamanic Revelation more reliably than before. This deck is always hungry for cards, so I am glad to now be able to run another explosive draw spell.

Currently removed, but still awesome:

  • Valakut Exploration: A Tunneling Geopede that also draws us cards. What’s nice is that with M&D we can use it to get our second land drop. You will sometimes ditch a card you would have loved to play, but that is something you just have to accept when running this. I really like it.

Card Selection

  • Sensei's Divining Top & Sylvan Library: These cards are great on their own, but are in the deck because they can generate card-advantage in combination with Oracle of Mul Daya or Courser of Kruphix.
  • Valakut Awakening  : this card is a bit like a scalable Forgotten Cave. We can either play the lands tapped for red mana, or "cycle" the card away for another one. Except Valakut Awakening can cycle away any additional cards we don't really want, and it can be bounced from play with M&D when we really need to dig a bit deeper.

Recursion

After trying out different recursion cards, I have found these to be the best ones:

  • Crucible of Worlds and Ramunap Excavator: Both of these are key in any lands deck imo. With Mina and Denn we can abuse our extra land drops well with saccable lands like fetch lands for cardadvantage, or control our opponents’ ramp with Strip Mine.
  • Ancient Greenwarden: this guy has taken the place of Life from the Loam. Doubling up our land triggers is just amazing. Imagine this with Lotus Cobra and a fetchland, or with Warstorm Surge and a few copies of Field of the Dead. This can be the nail in the coffin for your opponents in many situations, and the fact that it is so easily tutored up in this deck will make it especially strong.
  • Titania, Protector of Argothfoil: One of the other land-related generals in our colors. Usually ramps us a land at minimum and fits great with our token subtheme. Very strong with Scapeshift or Crucible of Worlds.
  • Bala Ged Recovery  : A regrowth on a land! Of course I will run this here, as we can return the land part to our hand late game to rebuy an explosive spell. Very strong.

More Lands

More Land Drops

Mina and Denn make playing lands more powerful. Adding cards that make us play even more lands per turn enhance that effect. I found these to be the best:

  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking: This might be best saved for the late game, when Mina and Denn is in play and we can return a powerful land and replay it over and over again.
  • Dryad of the Ilysian Grove: An exploration on a nice defense body with a Prismatic Omen attached to it. Great with Valakut.
  • Oracle of Mul Daya: The deck's lieutenant and a better 4-drop play than Mina and Denn in the early game. Such a strong stand-alone card, and great if you can combine it with Top or Sylvan Library.
These cards make our lands drop with great impact:

Tokens

Apart from Field of the Dead, I am running the following landfall token makers:

  • Avenger of Zendikar: The Avenger weaponizes the amount of lands we have by generating a plant for each one, and making those plants grow whenever we drop another land. However, just on its own this card usually draws out a board wipe. But together with Purphoros, God of the Forge, the Avenger can end games without any attack phase.
  • Omnath, Locus of Rage: This elemental bad-ass is the more popular alternative for a Gruul lands matters deck, but finds a great home here as well. One of the best landfall token producers we can get, and a great way to control the board.
  • Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer: A great upgrade from Zendikar's Roil. Moving from 2/2s to 3/3s and getting another big body that can really use trample is enough upside compared the resilience of the enchantment. I prefer both over Nesting Dragon because I want most of the tokens to be green in order to make Regal Force worthwhile. Also, Nesting Dragon's tokens can't always attack when you want them to.
  • Scute Swarm: This is one of those cards that lets you turn the world of your opponents upside down in an instant. This is exponential token creation through landfall. It does not take that many land drops to kill all your opponents with this creature in combination with Purphoros, God of the Forge or Warstorm Surge. I think this is now thé best landfall token maker around. What a hero.

Utility

  • Courser of Kruphix: Also turning Top and Sylvan Library in cardadvantage. The incremental life gain is a great bonus.
  • Ancient Greenwarden: This doubles all our landfall triggers and lands with a trigger. Yes, we also have to accept doubling the price of Glacial Chasm and Gruul Turf but we can easily play around that. This card is just crazy good...
  • Amulet of Vigor: This is one of the spicier ingredients in this deck. The Amulet makes the already explosive cards from this deck even more ridiculous: Scapeshift and Reshape the Earth enable the most interesting of plays with the Amulet. It can also generate some big mana in this deck with Gruul Turf, Amulet Bloom style, or cheat out several cards a turn with Mosswort Bridge. Save it for the right moment.
  • Lotus Cobra: This little snake allows for amazing amounts of mana very early in the game. Ramp cards, fetches and more land drops together can sometimes even double your mana and stretch your turns considerably.
  • Tireless Provisioner: Weird seeing this printed as an uncommon, as it might be better than Lotus Cobra. Only downside is that it does not ramp into our commander because of its cmc.
  • Nissa, Resurgent Animist: Another Lotus Cobra that also sometimes draws us a card. Great value piece.

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DOT

Apart from Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and Valakut Exploration, these cards really add teeth to our landmass engine:

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Overrun

These cards pump our team to win through combat

  • Craterhoof Behemoth: This beast needs no explanation. Craterhoof is the best buff creature in the format by far. His green color makes it ideal with our creature tutors.
  • Finale of Devastation: mimics craterhoof in it's X=10 mode.
  • Return of the Wildspeaker: although not granting our team trample, this card can be enough to knock a player out or finish the game when choosing its second mode.

Board Wipes

Next to Blast Zone and Scapeshift(-> Valakut) I am running these board wipes:

  • Blasphemous Act: This wipe will take out most problematic creatures
  • Nylea's Intervention: Will be used for its other mode most of the time, but can easily deal with opposing flyers as we hardly run any.

Spot Removal

  • Abrade: A decent instant removal option that I'm testing at the moment. Can deal with creatures that block our strategy, such as Aven Mindcensor.
  • Endurance: A very strong graveyard hate option that's easily tutored while also presenting combat tricks and defensive stats. And it can defend you against mill decks. Awesome!
  • Collector Ouphe: A great hoser that does not influence us that much. And easily found with our tutors as well.
  • Force of Vigor: Two Naturalizes in one card that you can also play for free. Feels right at home here with all the card draw spells that allow us to refill our hand.
  • Shatterskull Smashing  : a land that can also kill creatures. Very versatile with M&D.
  • Boseiju, Who Endures: an easy upgrade for Nature's Claim.

Protection

  • Heroic Intervention: A cheap card that protects our board from most wipes. Combines well with some of our own board wipes as well.
  • Saryth, the Viper's Fang: A card that protects the board in the early and mid game when we are nog making moves or tapping creatures. It can help us become aggressive later by tapping cradle yet another time, or my granting our attacking creatures deathtouch (which combines well with M&D's trample-granting ability).
  • Deflecting Swat: I used to run Reverberate in this spot as a way to protect against counters. However, this new red variant does the same job, but at a cheaper price and without having to leave mana open as long as M&D are on the board. It can also protect one of our threats from spot removal, or redirect powerful abilities. Looking forward to see this in action.

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These are some of the cards that I have tested or that I've been asked about in the past. Here are the reasons why I'm not running them, at least at the moment :). Also check the build considerations if you are interested what has guided my decision making.

Because they are too slow / put a target on your head before you receive value from them:

  • Dragonmaster Outcast & Scute Mob: Just too slow and a bit too greedy. Doesn't give you anything when you play it, except a higher threat level.
  • Elvish Reclaimer: Takes 3 turns before you can use the land you want. That is too slow for what I want with this deck.
  • Nissa, Vital Force: This is a real a gamble of a card. What's certain is that your threat level will increase greatly. What is not sure is if you will draw any cards from it. That gamble doesn't fit my play style for this deck. Also fits in the next category.

Because they are not reliable in what they do:

  • Realms Uncharted: Only gets you the land you want guaranteed with land recursion.
  • Tempt with Discovery: Sometimes you might get lucky and get 4 lands, but most of the time I would get only one, ór my opponents do what they shóuld do and search for a strip mine and destroy the one land I actually wanted to get. The point is that there is no way to tell what you will get and I prefer reliability in my tutors.

Because I value the lands that I am running over these ones, and there is no more room :)

  • Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse: ETB tapped < ETB untapped
  • Hanweir Battlements  : A haste enabler on a land can be quite strong. However, I did not use it as much in the end.
  • Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage: I prefer regular fetches in this build.
  • Kessig Wolf Run: A loved card that might get back in the list someday, but I'm using the spot to play something else atm.
  • Lotus Field: I run this land in a lot of decks, but here it's not as great as I want to have a high lands count and don't run as much recursion.
  • Tranquil Thicket and Forgotten Cave: valuable in any land deck, but I wanted to try out the ZNR DFC lands in their stead. These also give you access to another card, and have better synergy with M&D.
  • Yavimaya Hollow: Yes, a great contender to have in this deck as well. However, I did not think it was necessary in this list.

Because it's not as good or synergistic as the cards included that compete for the spot:

  • Animist's Awakening: Just way worse than Genesis Wave
  • Augur of Autumn: A great card, but I still prefer Courser of Kruphix over this and Radha, Heart of Keld in this deck. I value the life gain Courser can provide over the coven clause. I’m not running thát many creature cards (to either unlock the coven ability or to make use of it). Also, there will be more times where casting the creature that’s on top of the library is not the right play compared to playing a land that’s on top (so even if we hit the requirements and we find a creature on top, I expect I won’t always make use of it). On the other hand, not having to reveal the top card to other players has value as well, but that's not a big concern for me currently.
  • Akoum Hellkite & Tunneling Geopede: Got cut. They did not have a high enough impact. Purphoros is way better.
  • Beast Within: I am testing Nature's Claim in its stead atm.
  • Borborygmos Enraged & Seismic Assault: I like these effects, but the deck evolved away from them. I figured if I want those effects, I should just build a Borborygmos deck instead.
  • Boundless Realms: Doesn't gel well with the low basics count, and I prefer Genesis Wave and Traverse the Outlands as similar cards.
  • Chord of Calling: Finale of Devastation is better at finding Dryad Arbor in the early game and is more versatile overall.
  • Decimate: I prefer Force of Vigor.
  • Eternal Witness: Great in decks where you can get its effect twice, but this is not that deck. Bala Ged Recovery   is the better alternative here imo.
  • Explore: Often only drew me a card, because M&D would have emptied my hand already, or I did not have enough lands in my opening hand.
  • Exploration: Doesn't do a lot for the deck spot, as we already get our commander to do it. It's very useful, but not required. I prefer exploration-effect-cards that have another effect stapled onto it, like Oracle of Mul Daya and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
  • Garruk, Primal Hunter: A card that matches our themes quite well and was in the deck for a long time. After watching an episode of the EDHreccast I realized that I was overpaying for this card, as I hardly ever used anything but the draw ability. Return of the Wildspeaker is less taxing in terms of mana cost, has a more relevant 2nd mode and is an instant.
  • Krosan Tusker: a card I used to run for a long time. I like it, but Valakut Exploration has taken its place.
  • Life from the Loam: a hard cut, as this card was so iconic in the extended deck that inspired this list. I cut it to make room for Ancient Greenwarden, as in M&D we do not get to experience great benefits from self-mill.
  • Maze of Ith: I like Thaumatic Compass   just a little bit better in this list.
  • Moraug, Fury of Akoum: When this came out, I read a lot of reactions that are common when new cards come out, like "This goes into every lands matter deck". I think people are overreacting most of the time when that is said, and I think that also applies here. The important question with Moraug is: how good are multiple attack phases if you don't have any good attacks? Moraug is really cool, don't get me wrong, but I think you need to run it in an aggro deck. This deck is more of a synergy or system deck. We don't run that many beefy creatures, so getting the right setup for Moraug to be good, requires a relatively large amount of effort. And we're probably already winning in that situation anyway. I've put it in my Samut deck instead.
  • Nesting Dragon: An amazing landfall card that generates tokens that are very resilient to board wipes. However, since they aren't green tokens, they don't synergize with my green creatures subtheme.
  • Nissa's Pilgrimage: I prefer Cultivate and Kodama's Reach as they also fix.
  • Nissa, Vastwood Seer  : Was in the deck for a long time, but got the axe when we got Tireless Provisioner.
  • Oran-Rief Hydra & Undergrowth Champion: Just big beatsticks, which is not good in EDH imo. I chose tutoring for a better landfall creature instead.
  • Pir's Whim: Got cut for Hour of Promise as that has a better play pattern with M&D and Field of the Dead.
  • Primeval Bounty: I long thought this was one of the better green landfall cards around. ZNR has pushed him out of that league though.
  • Realm Seekers: It's not bad, but it's a bit too slow for my taste.
  • Retreat to Kazandu: I think this is a solid landfall card, but it has gotten outclassed.
  • Rubblehulk: A pretty cool combat trick that is really surprising, but I decided to go for higher synergy over one-off effects.
  • Scavenging Ooze: I replaced this with Endurance.
  • Seer's Sundial: too costly imo. There are better draw options in Gruul.
  • Skyshroud Claim or other 4cmc ramp: they don't match with the cmc of M&D.
  • Splendid Reclamation: A hard cut when making room for new goodies.
  • Sol Ring: In this deck it's synergy over everything. Even Sol ring ;). It's a mana source that is not a land!
  • Sylvan Scrying: The other land tutors are better imo, and I have no more spots.
  • Terastodon: great with a card like Natural Order but a bit clunky without. Still a solid option if you're looking for flexible spot removal, albeit a bit expensive mana-wise.
  • Traverse the Outlands: I love this card. It's a Soul's Majesty for lands, for 5 mana, curving out greatly with M&D. This means we are probably getting 4 lands (twice as many lands than Explosive Vegetation, for 1 more mana) at minimum. However, it was pushd out of the list to test Reshape the Earth, as that is basically a second scapeshift.
  • World Breaker: Becomes valuable if your games go long, but I hardly find myself playing the long game with this deck.
  • Vandalblast: Great option, but I went with Collector Ouphe for now.
  • Yavimaya Elder: Got cut for Nylea's Intervention. I like the elder, but you often just end up paying 5 mana to draw 3, which is not superb. Intervention can get us any lands, but can still have a similar effect at 3 mana if we really need more lands by searching for Gruul Turf and is a lot better afterwards.

Because it's only really good with another card, but mediocre when you don't have that card:

  • Abundance: Great with Sylvan Library, over-costed without.
  • Prismatic Omen: Amazing with Scapeshift/Valakut, unnecessary without.
  • Wrenn and Six: Only really good with an early fetch in this list, and they don't scale with more land drops as the crucible and the excavator do.

Because I just don't really like the card in my playgroup:

Because my meta doesn't warrant their inclusion:

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Additional Information

This section provides some more background information about the commander, the inteded power level and my meta.

With the wealth of possible lands matter commanders, including The Gitrog Monster, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Borborygmos Enraged, Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Titania, Protector of Argothfoil, why choose Mina and Denn?

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What I like most about Mina and Denn is that they emphasize the lands themselves. If you look at Omnath, Locus of Rage or Tatyova, Benthic Druid for example, your lands make them do something cool, while both the abilities of Mina and Denn, Wildborn make your lands do something cool instead. Mina and Denn allow you to build a deck that is all about the lands themselves, showcasing all the amazing non-basics of your choosing.

Other advantages of M&D include:

  • Their abilities are great with landfall.
  • They are ramp in the command zone, which is great for any lands matter deck.
  • They are often underestimated and are not likely to draw out removal.
  • They come out early.
  • Because of their cost and stats they have good lines of play with lands matter staples such as Sakura-Tribe Elder and Hour of Promise.
  • Their two abilities together basically say: ": untap your Gaea's Cradle".
  • They lend themselves well to run Valakut Combo, because they can add 2 triggers per turn on their own.
  • Having easy access to trample is a nice perk to have.

With this deck I hope I have taken Mina and Denn, a commander that is usually reserved for fun casual builds, and explored the ways how to push this duo to a higher power. I had no constraints for myself in this process except that I did not want to include many infinite combos with this build. It has turned out to be a very synergistic, consistent and unpredictable deck.

Category (Jank - Low - Mid - High - Competitive)

Mid/High

I play commander with a set playgroup in a kitchentable setting. We have added one house rule: no infinite card combo's of 2 or less cards (like Tooth and Nail based combo's). We also try to keep a check on excessive stax or denial strategies. This usually enables that everyone has a chance to try out their creations and have some fun.

What's interesting about my meta though is that blue is quite underplayed. This is why I still haven't added cards like Boseiju, Who Shelters All to the deck. There are quite some graveyard-based decks and thus quite a lot of graveyard hate. This makes it so I did not want to depend on the graveyard for my strategy.

Since this is still my favorite deck to play, this has also become the one deck that I want to fully bling out. Currently all cards are either foil or altered. These were my aims in this process:

  • Art over treatment: For this deck I prioritize art over the treatment. Either because the art is more on theme with Gruul Zendikar (like Crucible of Worldsfoil and Crop Rotation > Crop Rotation) or just because I like the art better (like Lotus Cobra > Lotus Cobrafoil or my choices of fetch lands).
  • Non-lands in normal borders: I want the lands to be the cards that pop, so for the non-lands I'm not running extended art or full art versions. It's also a good rule to stop pimping somewhere, because there's always going to be the next crazier variant... So normal (modern) borders for non-lands is the guideline. I also like the result of that choice that most cards in this deck have the same look.
  • DCI, FNM and pre-release promo's: I really like these categories of foils, so for many cards I went for these versions.

I use the updates section to share most updates. Please check there for card changes and considerations.

Currently testing:

Cards I’m considering to replace:

This has become my favorite deck to play. Please do not hesitate to leave a comment and letting me know your thoughts. Also, feel free to upvote the deck if you liked it and thanks for checking it out!

Upvote & Support This Primer!

GL & HF

Beebles

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Suggestions

Updates Add

Fully Foil — Aug. 15, 2023
Edit

With the printing of Deflecting Swat in Foil, after many years of collecting, every card in this deck is now either Foil or Altered :).

Small Dominaria United Updates — Aug. 28, 2022
Edit
Midnight Hunt Update — Sept. 11, 2021
Edit
MH2 Update — June 2, 2021
Edit
Commander Legends — Nov. 3, 2020
Edit
Supermassive Zendikar Update! — Sept. 9, 2020
Edit
Halfway Zendikar Rising Spoilers — Sept. 5, 2020
Edit
M21 & Jump Start Contenders — July 1, 2020
Edit
THB Update + IKO — Jan. 4, 2020
Edit
Gifts from M20 — June 18, 2019
Edit
Modern Horizons — June 5, 2019
Edit
Kill your darlings — May 17, 2019
Edit
Some cards that “sparked” my interest — April 17, 2019
Edit
Primer — Aug. 17, 2018
Edit
CMD 2018 Changes — Aug. 1, 2018
Edit
Core 19 — June 25, 2018
Edit
The icing on the cake — May 23, 2018
Edit
Rivals of Ixalan — Jan. 19, 2018
Edit
Scapeshift + Splendid reclamation — Nov. 22, 2017
Edit
Commander 2017 — Aug. 13, 2017
Edit
Another Land Weapon — July 30, 2017
Edit
Ramunap Alterations — June 18, 2017
Edit
Nice results — April 20, 2017
Edit
Feb. 11, 2017
Edit
First experiences... — Dec. 17, 2016
Edit
Is it a black hole or... — Nov. 14, 2016
Edit
Getting closer to a V1 list — Nov. 11, 2016
Edit
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Revision 192 See all

(2 months ago)

+1 Primeval Titan maybe
Top Ranked
Date added 8 years
Last updated 1 day
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

26 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

10 - 0 Uncommons

5 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.36
Tokens Badger 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Clue, Copy Clone, Elemental 5/3 G, Food, Insect 1/1 G, Marit Lage, Plant 0/1 G, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Inspired, sigarda, Cool Deck Ideas - EDH, EDH, OK, Interesting Commander Decks, mina and denn...reeeboooootttt, Cool EDH, EDH Decks - Other People's, Heel erg leuk
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