(Ahm-Nath-Stee) - (adj.) a self description one would would use when engaged in immoral or antisocial activities. ie: not cleaning up after your pet while on walk, shooting heroine with a $2 hooker, or trampling over an opponent with an army of elementals in a friendly competition.
OVERVIEW
Kind of a pseudo-ramp/landfall theme centered around generating a bunch of large critters and overgrowing the
Undergrowth Champion
.
So far the build lacks any real form of removal aside from outright forcing the opponent to block hordes of critters. The dragon does help a little bit toward the endgame (coming online as early as t5 reliably), and so does Evolutionary Leap
+
Omnath, Locus of Rage
+
Zendikar's Roil
.
SYNERGIES
Sword of the Animist
+
Undergrowth Champion
is a self-growing threat that requires an immediate answer. Dragonmaster Outcast usually eats crow before he starts generating dragons, but if a spot-removal gets used on my 1 cmc critter he's okay in my book, I probably sacced him in response and he gets replaced by EL. If I do get one to stick, and I play a Frontier Siege on dragons mode, each outcast becomes a repeatable removal every turn.
There is a 1 of of Den Protector because I only have 1. I do not intend to buy more of this (last I checked) $15 card. 1 should be (hopefully) sufficient with Evolutionary Leap in play to dig him up. Then he can dig up whatever brought him to me in the first place. If I can get him in hand or face-down on the table prior to See the Unwritten He gets his pick of the grave yard.
FETCHES ARE AWESOME. Any landfall tricks will trigger each and every land. Watch a 3/3
Undergrowth Champion
grow to 5/5 with a Wooded Foothills, or a 6/6 with Blighted Woodland. Omnath and/or roil in play? You start sweating elementals as they ooze out of the aether. Even better with Impact Tremors down. Sword of the Animist plays really well with all of this, you can drop as many as 5 lands in one turn if the stars are right.
FLOW OF PLAY
Early game plays will be the Dragonmaster Outcast, Jaddi Offshoot, and mana dorks. Naturally we want to play whatever land is in hand but if it at all possible, save the fetches for later. Do not worry about the outcast dieing early, he can be replaced pretty easily later when he counts. He is just early presence and 1st turn mana sink if you are loaded with mountains or don't have an offshoot to play. The Offshoot will slow the opponent down, both by blocking the opponent's early critters and by building up a life buffer while you slam lands. Other acceptable early plays are Impact Tremors, the aforementioned Evolutionary Leap, and if you don't have a choice, tossing the Sword of the Animist out.
Mid-game, you want to see your
Undergrowth Champion
come out, followed by a t4 sword and equip prior to combat, if you made your t4 land drop that make him a combat-ready 5/5 (6/6 if you saved your land fetch like I suggested). He only gets bigger or deader from there. If he didn't make it to the party other t3/t4 options are: Frontier Siege which sets the stage for a t4/t5 Dragonlord Atarka or Omnath, Locus of Rage (provided you've not missed a land drop), Outpost Siege (always khans mode unless specified below) which helps stabilize your draws, or Zendikar's Roil (it's like having a litter of baby Omnath-babies.) Alternately, if you did miss a land drop, 6 mana could buy you See the Unwritten which loads your gy with Den Protector targets and will hopefully cheat you in one of the big guys.
Late Game, if all went well, you should already have Omnath and/or Atarka out. It's pretty smooth from here on out. Attack with everything you have unless there is a really compelling reason to leave guys home. Post-combat main if you have Frontier Siege and a Sword of the Animist out, use that mana to juggle the sword back to a defender so that you have that little extra assurance that nothing is getting back through in case the guy you just beaned survived.
When to use the "other" siege modes.. If you already have all the mana and critters you need and you pull Outpost Siege late-game, in niche cases you want to choose dragons mode. If you are up against a tutes deck, some other mill theme or are setting up for an omnath alternate win. Dragons mode on Frontier Siege should be active if you already have 7+ mana sources in play and need to break through a stalemate. Got an atarka in-hand or outcasts in play? Let's start thinning the opponent's ranks then!
ALTERNATE WIN STRATEGY
If you can get Omnath to stick, and for whatever reason you just can't get through, Evolutionary Leap
+
Omnath, Locus of Rage
can provide the final points you need to close a game. Between 5/5 elementals, 2/2 elementals,
Undergrowth Champion
, and even the big guy himself, you only need 7 elementals and Gx7 to take a player down from full health. It shouldn't take that many to close a game.
SIDEBOARD
Display of Dominance
has been sb'd. It's an excellent spell that should be in any G sideboard. It kills the shit out of jace after x-formation, Liliana (likewise), Sorin, Obbs, Tutelage, and a number of other pesky black or blue standard non-critter staples. It also saves your guys from B/U spot removal.
I tossed
Boiling Earth
in the side experimentally to help slow down the token and weenie game. I don't think my ramp will win the race against a really good aggro build without it. This also doubles as a late-game threat builder turning those extra lands into additional 4/4 monsters.
Aerial Volley
in the side to deal with small flying threats like
Mantis Rider
or swarms of thopters/spirits/etc. Really for lack of better ideas, if you can think of a better card for this slot I'd love to see it.
Naturalize to deal with Virulent Plague, Sphinx's Tutelage, Silk Wrap and the like, as well as the odd artifact that shows up in a match.
Chandra's Ignition can be an excellent finisher when played with omnath in play. Sb'd as experimental.
