Daedalus19876: How do you feel about Windgrace's Judgment?

Have any trouble with mana? Only 32 lands seems extremely low, especially when getting out your commander T2 is crucial to the deck. Also, Harbinger of Night seems counterintuitive as it will end up killing Hapatra. Maybe Skinrender could go somewhere in the deck?

Odysseus_97: It’s definitely not a BAD card and I’ve considered adding it here. But I generally... don’t want my removal at 5 mana? I play in a meta where my removal has to defuse early combo, whereas Windgrace's Judgment is more of a tempo/value piece.

Pabs4444: Honestly I don’t generally have TOO much trouble with mana here (my curve is low), though I’ve been considering going up to 33 land. I also generally don’t have a huge problem with Harbinger of Night: by the time it kills my commander it’s generally done it’s job. Still, it’s one of the weaker things in here, and I’d definitely cut it if there weren’t so few global -1 placement effects :/

(And Skinrender, at best, kills one thing and gives me one snake. Not overly a fan.)

Hapatra's cmc is so low that her dying once or twice especially when you have Command Beacon is fine especially with all of the value Harbinger of Night produces in terms of snakes and insects. One creature dying while you get 20 is fine. Also I've been running 34 lands and I've been just fine. Honestly when you're playing green you can run less lands because of mana ramp.

How has Ulvenwald Tracker performed? To me it seems to be drawing hate quite fast, and dies quite often to other effects, and i rarely have the spare mana to use the ability. What do you think?

Also, if you had to choose a top 3 of cutable cards, which ones would you consider? :)

Odysseus_97: Hmmm. Well, if he survives a turn cycle he's ridiculous. And while he does tend to eat removal, that removal would otherwise often be aimed at my commander, so I don't OVERLY mind trading cards 1-for-1 when I only have to pay one mana.

Three most cutable cards: Uh, maybe Deathrite Shaman (can be inconsistent), Quillspike (he's proved to be very conditional and fragile), Riding the Dilu Horse (opens me up for 2-for-1s, even if I love the card when it works right)?

Daedalus19876: Thanks alot for the response :) You are definitely right, maybe my meta just removes it too fast so i never really get to use it, and my meta is quite high level so removing one thing a turn is usually not enough :) Might swap it for Windgrace's Judgment in my build :)

Agree with Deathrite Shaman, have cut him to use in my other decks. I completely agree with Quillspike i always seem to miss one more combo piece to go off with him, and he won't survive the turn rotation. Riding the Dilu Horse True, but then again every deck needs a pet card and it is very good :)

You gonna try to get an Ancient Tomb come the Ultimate Masters reprint since it's gonna be reprinted at rare?

I’m considering adding Squirrel Nest, Heroic Intervention, Diabolic Intent, and some other form of protection in here soon. Stay tuned!

I'd be interested to see what you replace for Diabolic Intent since it'd give me a reason to buy the Invocation since I'm the one and only person who likes those :v

OptimalGreen: I like them too, sometimes! Depends on the art ;) I run two Invocations in my Locust God deck, and I'm planning to get the Invocation in this deck too.

Probably not getting the new Ancient Tomb, though we'll see. Not really a fan of the new art... I'd rather just buy another FTV copy.

Daedalus19876 I've just got three old copies of ancient tomb in my other commander decks and if I wanted another I'd probably get a 4th tempest one. Not really sure if Hapatra needs one though given that she's 2cmc. It's like how my Ruric Thar doesn't have strip mine because the deck already has so much land destruction it's kinda pointless. Also I really like the idea of Diabolic Intent over Worldly Tutor in this deck.

This deck only has 5 card draw effects. Combined with having only 33 lands in the deck. I dont understand how you manage to deploy your resources. Forgive my ignorance, but can you tell me how you are getting away with this? I understand you have some solid mana rocks but I still... do you just spend your tutors to go get Skullclamp and Generous Patron every game?

cleandeceit The whole "You need 36-38 lands in you Commander deck" is a big meme that needs to die honestly. If 1/3 of your deck is lands that's perfectly fine. The only time I've ever had problems with a very similar build of this deck was somehow being unable to draw a source of black for ten turns and nothing but forests and colorless rocks. Also a lot of finely tuned green decks get away with 30-33 because of dorks.

cleandeceit I asked me the same question, I built this deck and had mana issues every game, had to increase the number. Maybe I'm just playing wrong or searching for the wrong cards.

cleandeceit, OptimalGreen, and Patolea:

Well, let's start with the honest truth - ever since the last set of changes, I DO want to add 1-2 more land, and probably one more source of draw. I just haven't had time to play the new version of the deck enough to figure out the best cuts (due to computer issues and grad school applications).

But, with that said:

1) The deck runs nine strong tutors, so I rarely have significant trouble finding what I need. Most of our combos are either cheated out (cough Defense of the Heart and friends cough), or are relatively low-CMC (Devoted Druid + Ivy Lane Denizen, for example). Devoted Druid shows up nearly every game as well: it's important as a mana source here even when not part of a combo.

2) The deck mostly prioritized tutors over draw, but it's worth mentioning that most of the sources of draw are repeatable. I never really liked 1-shot draw effects in this deck (like Read the Bones for example), they didn't fit well when I tested them. I do tutor for Generous Patron very frequently, to be fair. She's BONKERS here ;)

3) Like many Golgari decks, the deck also focuses a bit more on reusing pieces that go to GY than digging deeper into the deck. Once I tutor for something, if it dies, I can Reanimate it, etc. We don't care as much about having card advantage if we can retrieve the combo pieces (or aggro power boosters) we need. Not to mention that Meren of Clan Nel Toth (another frequent target of tutors) is card advantage in and of herself.

(Also, the functional curve is lower than it looks, since I really don't intend to hardcast the high-CMC creatures in most games.)

Does that answer your questions? :)

Daedalus19876 Of course! Thank you for paying attention.

I would like to take the opportunity to say that Lane Denizen and Generous Patron are AEWSOME!!!!! I really need to update my version with these.

I totally agree with you in the 1-shot draw effects.

I will pass to search for these cards you suggested for more card advantage.

Thank you!

Patolea: To be clear, I can definitely imagine a version of this deck that plays more draw effects - as it is, this deck is very very explosive in early turns, but struggles to rebuild after a board wipe or two. More draw effects would decrease this issue, but make the deck slower in early turns. I’m trying to find a healthy balance with card-positive draw, tutors, and fast threats ;)

I can see adding 1-2 more lands since you cut carpets I just wanted to make the case that a lot of highly turned two-color green decks run around 30-33 lands due to rocks, dorks, and enchantments like carpet of flowers and earthcraft. Also what else is there to add except re-add Phyrexian Arena for draw?

OptimalGreen Slate of Ancestry and Regal Force have been nice for me. Plus, slate triggers the archfiend. Grabbing survival is important to start tutoring up you’re utility creatures and this is an important tutor target. I also play Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Yeah I think Phyrexian Arena would be the best choice. It's 3cmc so it gets in early possibly on turn 2 with Chrome Mox or even turn 1 with Mana Crypt and is never dead on the field unlike Slate of Ancestry. It's just faster and more reliable although it only gets you a single extra card per turn. Also it has artwork by Pete Venters on top of being great black card draw.

Also oops I'm an idiot I forgot it was 1BB ignore the crypt part since I can't edit the comment

Testing another change!

Adding Necropotence (I think my landbase can finally support it well enough) and Phyrexian Reclamation (recursion is basically protection right?). Removing Protean Hulk (less good now that only one of my infinite combos is fetchable with it) and Vona's Hunger (a pet card of mine, and easy to get City’s Blessing but... always a bit of a disappointment to draw).

Also, I discovered that Generous Patron + Archfiend of Ifnir is a total board wipe against all opponents’ creatures while also drawing a bunch of cards: it’s like Decree of Pain on steroids. And even better, this combo doesn’t require Hapatra on field!

Daedalus19876 - necropotence is a non-bo with Survival of the Fittest and the Archfiend of Ifnir since you’ll be exiling cards you discard, but it could be explosive. I chose not to run it since I’m running alot of discard effects to trigger archfiend. Maybe it can work for you though

smashadams83: Due to the updated wording on Necropotence (notably not printed on my copy), you still discard the cards and they get exiled from your GY. This means that discarding extra cards with Necro DOES trigger Archfiend of Ifnir, though you won’t be able to reanimate those cards at sorcery speed (so no Victimize or Reanimate, but you CAN get them back with Atzal, Cave of Eternity).