I recently realized how great collected company can be. Originally I planned on just four colours Temur (Savage Knuckleblade) and Jeskai (
Mantis Rider
) but than I realized if i just added black I could get Anafenza, the Foremost and Siege Rhino. The last can't be found by CoCo but its an amazing creature and My curve still stops at 4 CMC.
The plan behind the deck should be obvious. Have the most efficient beaters possible at 3 CMC or less at a high enough concentration that for 4 Mana I always have a high chance of getting 2 of them with CoCo. Making the efficient beaters even more efficient.
The challenge is making the deck playable until CoCo can be found. How many creatures is too many? Can a 5 colour mana base really work? If I have 5 colours what are the best instant and sorceries to choose. I think I may have chosen them poorly, Charms and Ascendancies might have been the better choice?
The Engine:
Collected Company - In an ideal world my opening hand is a forest, 3 additional lands and collected company. If I go first that means I start with a 7 card hand. will get to draw 3 more cards before I play the engine. The worst case scenario is that every card besides the engine has been a creature meaning I have a library of fifty cards left. CoCo looks at the top 6 of my library and I need 2 to be creatures (33%). That means I need a worse case 17 creatures in the library plus a possible 6 creatures in my hand so a minimum of 23 creatures! to steer probability in my favour
The beauty of this cards is possibly getting 6 CMC of creatures for only 4 CMC. Additionally it skips over their mana costs and lets me search six cards for the best I have
Since its an instant I think it will always be best played on my opponents turn. Maybe I will get lucky and flash in some suprise blockers to kill his attackers or maybe I can just keep the Mana up so I can play instants if I need to respond to something. Always leave the options open.
The Creatures:
Nissa, Sage Animist
- She is CMC 3 and can find me another forest card. Maybe she will flip late game for added value, just a bonus.
Savage Knuckleblade - A 4/4 for 3 CMC just what this deck wants to find. Its abilities are a bonus if I have no other use for the Mana.
Mantis Rideer - A 3/3 with vigilance flying and haste. I would say the best 3 CMC creature in the deck
Anafenza, the Foremost - A 4/4 for 3. With some nice abilities. She will be able to pump other creatures and she exiles enemy cards. All great stuff. Held back by being legendary
Siege Rhino - Have I got greedy with this card? It can't be found by CoCo and so does not count to the 23 creatures I need to make CoCo work. Still What a card!
Shaman of Forgotten Ways
- When I dont have CoCo to get around the casting cost of the creatures this guy will help me out. CoCo can find him and as a 2/3 he is a not an abysmal attacker if needed.
Monastery Swiftspear - A great 1 drop. But is this card another error? The chance of opening with her and red mana in the opening hand is now slim? The deck is creature heavy so triggering prowess will be hard. Should I replace her?
The Lands:
Windswept Heath and Wooded Foothills -Activating these will help thin the deck of land making CoCo even more likely to find creatures.
Maybeboard:
Rattleclaw Mystic - Perhaps another great card to help me Manafix this 5 colour deck? Can even be played for 3 colourless mana and than flipped for 2 colourless to give me access to Red green and Blue Mana
Problems that need Fixing!:
This deck could probably benefit from some early game lifelink to help stabilize it in the early turns. I thought of
Seeker of the Way
but again I will have access to very few non-creature spells to trigger it.
