Setessan Tactics doesn't get around summoning sickness. It gives the creature a tap ability so playing a fatty then fighting on their turn doesn't work. Thought I should point that out. It's easier to fight the nest against their creatures and then block with the resulting tokens.

Ohthenoises, thanks for pointing that out! I adjusted my description of the deck to reflect what you commented. The only part of my description I am still not 100% confident about from a rules perspective is this...if a creature has trample, like one of Nissa, Worldwaker 's elemental creatures, and you use Setessan Tactics to swing at your own Hornet Nest , you as the attacking creature's controller still assign damage, and thus can assign all of the damage to the nest so that you don't trample yourself, right?

Trample only applies to combat damage, as in declared attackers and blockers. Fight mechanics like Prey Upon aren't "attacking" merely dealing damage to each other.

Great! So then it is confirmed, when you use Setessan Tactics on one or more of Nissa, Worldwaker 's 4/4 trampling elemental creatures, they become 5/5 creatures that assign all of their damage to the Hornet Nest which is awesome!

I get the feeling that we're going to find lots of ways to abuse Hornet Nest as no one is going to use a damage removal spell against it. It makes an opponent's Anger of the Gods , Lightning Strike , Polukranos, World Eater , Magma Jet , Shock , and any other ground-based attacking creature worthless as a way to remove it.

There are some spells that don't cause damage, but do remove 2-powered creatures such as Doomwake Giant , Drown in Sorrow , Bile Blight , Devour Flesh , Stab Wound , Chained to the Rocks , Banishing Light , Banisher Priest , and Celestial Flare . There are a couple of instances there where you can use Setessan Tactics to give it one more toughness and get it out of death range, but most of these are bad news for the Hornet Nest . The worst of them will be rotating out with RTR though!

1 creature for this deck I recommend trying out: Voyaging Satyr . This guy makes for some ridiculous Nykthos turns.

awphutt, great idea! In your opinion, what would you sacrifice? The only reason I don't have it in yet is because it messes with the curve a little. It would have Voyaging Satyr , Sylvan Caryatid , and Hornet Nest at the two-cmc spot. I suppose that Caryatid would be most likely to be replaced in this scenario.

I would think you could afford to get rid of a Setessan Tactics or two. The same with Hornet Nest , but Sylvan Caryatid is certainly less required in this style of deck.

I hope you don't mind me taking your concept and home brewing the crap out of it! I wanted to do something with Hornet Nest but i didn't quite know how. Now I do.

No problem jpeachesd ... let me know how it goes for you! I'm hoping this will be a viable deck.

Sorry Nittany, you can't have tactics aim everybody at the nest. Well you can, but damage is done one at a time. The first fatty to connect will kill the nest, and the rest will fizzle because there is nothing to fight. Unless you make the nest indestructible or huge but that's 3 cards.

Thanks for pointing that out jubale ... I don't doubt that you know more than me regarding this, but can you explain the rule a little bit?

When I typed it, I was thinking that because it's a single instant card affecting multiple creatures, the damage all resolves at the same time. They're fighting, so they're just dealing damage equal to their power to each other and it doesn't appear to be in any particular order. For example, Setessan Tactics to give a monstrous 8/8 Polukranos, World Eater , 7/7 power Genesis Hydra , and 4/4 elemental creature created by Nissa, Worldwaker +1/+1 and fight Hornet Nest . To me this means that all at the same exact time, Hornet Nest does 0 damage to Polukranos, World Eater , 0 damage to Genesis Hydra , and 0 damage to the elemental creature while the three of them apply 9+8+5 = 22 damage to the nest...then it finally resolves. There's no first strike involved, so all the damage should happen at the same time unless you can point to a specific rule that says otherwise. I fully admit I could be wrong on this, but that was my logic.

Setessan Tactics resolves on all your creatures instant speed. The "Tap: Fight target creature" ability all your creatures get cannot be activated simultaneously, they are activated on a stack. Damage only happens at the same time if it it is combat damage, which is only during the Combat Damage Phase. You would fight with one creature, damage goes through, fight with another creature, damage goes through ect. One after the other. That is called a Stack, where abilities and spells at instant speed resolve in a specific order relative to when they were activated or cast. To counter a spell for instance, you must cast an instant speed counter "On the Stack" of the spell so your counter goes through and counters the spell before it resolves. In your case you can get around this with Mortal's Resolve as it gives your Hornet Nest indestructible, so it wont die between fights

Thanks jpeachesd, that makes total sense now. I was thinking about it all under one umbrella, but I see that the instant resolves first and then the tapping happens. Regardless, it will still be a powerful effect to use Setessan Tactics to swing the Polukranos, World Eater at the Hornet Nest for 5+ bees while using the other fatties to fight their weaker creatures.

I'll adjust my description accordingly.

Never forget your Hornets Nest can fight their card. For example fight Stormbreath Dragon before declaring blockers, then block with a Hornet.

Definitely jubale! I am thinking there are quite a few fantastic ways to combine Hornet Nest + Setessan Tactics .

One correction to your description: you can't declare Sylvan Caryatid as a blocker, then tap it for Chord of Calling , and then declare the resulting Hornet Nest as a blocker as well. You can only declare blockers once.

Thanks Goody, good catch! Adjusted.

This deck is pretty amazing. I love seeing cards that are not immediately amazing like Hornet Nest used in ways like this. too bad about old Garruk cycling out cuz it would fit nice here.

Yeah, STIKY55, Charley Murdock placed in the top 10 of the Baltimore StarCity open running mono-green Garruk & Nissa list. I've set this up for rotation so it doesn't include any, but I tested it with Garruk proxies and it's amazing. Unfortunately, I do not have any and I can't bring myself to acquire any this late, but for those of you who already have Garruk, you can take 2 Nissa, Worldwaker cards out for 2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts . Even with two less Nissa, it rarely interrupts your strategy.

Why doesn't trample go through Hornet Nest?

Because in context, he's talking about Setessan Tactics , not combat.

v1p3rau, typically trample damage from an opponent's creature would go through a Hornet Nest , but this is in context of Setessan Tactics , which causes creatures to fight, trample only applies to combat damage.

Additionally, if you control the trample creature, you assign the damage--so you could potentially choose to assign all of the damage to a creature and not hit the player anyways. That doesn't apply here and I can't think of a context where you would do that, but I am sure that interaction exists somewhere in Magic.

This is a great take on it. +1. I will try this on friday, i do feel dirty not putting in Sylvan Caryatid though....

Can you create a copy of this deck that splashes black for removals + the new Garruk, Apex Predator

JimmyJamR, thanks! I'm going to try it competitively this week too as I have only been able to test it to this point. My first build had Sylvan Caryatid and I must say that Burning-Tree Emissary is working much better. In testing, when the Sylvan Caryatid build won, it was turn 6.57 on average. When the Burning-Tree Emissary + Voyaging Satyr build wins, it's on turn 5.48 on average. Things just happen one turn faster because when you drop the Burning-Tree Emissary , the Voyaging Satyr comes out for free. The Burning-Tree Emissary is also a nice way to stall the board against an aggressive strategy as your opponent may hold back, not wanting to lose a creature early by attacking.

The downfall of this build is that sometimes it's still just a tad too slow. If the opponent blows up your ramp, you can get stuck very easily. When the deck wins, it explodes on turn 4, 5, or 6 and you drop your whole hand on the table. If they Searing Blood your Elvish Mystic or Voyaging Satyr though, it can be turn 7 and you are stuck with just a Courser of Kruphix on the table waiting for more mana. There's a lot of ramp and not a lot of lands in this build, so that hurts Nissa, Worldwaker a little bit. You'll probably find that it is still clunky at times. For this reason, I am looking to refine this build to be a little less reliant on expensive mana cards.

As I test it more, I am discovering which expensive mana cards I love, and which ones I hate. When I draw them, the high-cost cards I love more often than not are: Nissa, Worldwaker , Genesis Hydra , and occasionally Arbor Colossus . The cards I hate drawing more often than not are Hornet Queen , Hydra Broodmaster , and Chord of Calling . I love them in theory but the reason I hate them in reality is that I'm finding by the time I can play them, the game is over--either I've won with the lower-cost cards or I've lost so I never get to play them. They just take up space.

I don't always hate Chord of Calling , as it has been useful for tutoring up the Hornet Nest or Nylea, God of the Hunt , but there might be too many in this build. I've found Genesis Hydra to be way more profitable as it often hits the table as a 12/12+ creature and 12 cards is plenty to find what I am looking for. Additionally, Chord of Calling is restricted to creatures while Genesis Hydra lets you tutor up Nissa, Worldwaker when you want her most.

There are a few ways I may toy around with the build a bit more to make it quicker and take more advantage of Nissa, Worldwaker . I will probably end up taking out everything that has a cmc of 6 or more, which includes Hornet Queen and Hydra Broodmaster . I may also drop the build to 1 or 2 Chord of Calling for 4 Genesis Hydra . I may add a Forest or two for Nissa, Worldwaker and to give myself a way to come back from a Supreme Verdict . Mistcutter Hydra may need a spot in the main deck because it scales well, has haste, and is protected from blue, which is huge. I am also thinking about adding another Reverent Hunter because I am almost always happy to see it.

Let me know how your FNM goes!