Xenagos Mana Ramp Trample for 24
Intro
Ever since I pulled Xenagos, God of Revels in my first packs from a green Theros starter deck I have been developing a deck around him. The premise is simple. ramp, throw out Xenagos, God of Revels and smash face with the biggest and baddest creatures you can afford ($$ wise not mana wise) on turn 3 or play an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Swinging for 24 trample on turn 3/4 with Atarka, World Render is very satisfying. This deck can end up with 16 or 17 mana on turn 3 which is plenty to play or search and play something catastrophic for the enemy. More reliably it will have 12 mana on turn 4/5. The fun part about building this deck is you just get to browse for legendary creatures you want to play.
Win Conditions
- (5+7 mana) Play Xenagos, God of Revels and Atarka, World Render to swing for 24 flying trample. This can be played several ways, playing Xenagos first, then playing Atarka the next turn and swinging with the haste from Xenagos (Requiring 7 total mana which might be all you have if all your land untappers die). This combo costs 12 mana if both cards are in hand/retrieved on previous turns.This combo costs up to 16 if you have two Time of Need's.
- (12 mana) Play Finale of Devastation and summon Atarka, World Render to swing for 32 flying trample and win. This is the best but only work sif you draw a Finale of Devastation. Unlike the previous win condition this requires you to have a full 12 mana at once.
- (8 mana) Play Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Oath of Nissa helps search for the Ugins. Ugin is ugin.
- (10 or 12 mana) Summon Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger with time of need and play it to hopefully ensure victory. At best your opponent concedes at worst you run out of health before the enemy dies. Normally you summon Ullamog when the 2 exile is important.
- If your feeling sad and drew no big guys or fetch spells to use your 20 mana rest assured Lair of the Hydra is there to just be a big and useless block of stats which I suppose can win the game if your enemy has an empty board...
Help Needed!
This deck evolved based on what cards I pulled (Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Xenagos, God of Revels, Rhonas the Indomitable, Finale of Devastation) and I am trying to make it fast, consistent and resistant to the shenanigans of a varity of decks. I am not sure how this deck will perform against other decks 1v1 other than black green self mill or casual multiplayer. I am having trouble figuring out what the best creatures are to play. For example do I run 2 Xenagos, God of Revels or one and another Finale of Devastation or legendary creature option? Creatures that can go in seem to be Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Zilortha, Strength Incarnate, Rhonas the Indomitable, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, and Questing Beast. The question is which answers will I need most often. Nylea, Keen-Eyed for card draw. Zilortha, Strength Incarnate for a cheaper alternative to Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Klothys, God of Destiny to exile the mana-druids getting killed and reduce the enemy hp. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma in case I am low on mana and have a big guy in hand. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for just more mana instead. Carnage Tyrant is great to get, and there is lots to search for creatures, but isn't legendary. Questing Beast stops fogs and such effects and bypasses tokens as though it had trample.
Mana Base
The deck's foundation is the mana base. Essentially Arbor Elf, Voyaging Satyr and potentially Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner are used to untap a forest land (Forest or Cinder Glade) that has been enchanted with Overgrowth and/or Utopia Sprawl. The idea was spawned originally from Market Festival but I have replaced it to accelerate the ramp. If a forest has Overgrowth then Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner can be played for effectively no mana and if there are multiple enchantments it can even provide mana. The card draw is a nice addition and she survives different removal. Xenagos, God of Revels can also be used to give haste to Arbor Elf or Voyaging Satyr when they are played to untap an enchanted forest and play another spell.
Consistency
This deck requires you to find the few cards that can win you the game. The big threats and Xenagos, God of Revels are almost all legendary and thus can be found cheaply using Time of Need. The mana ramp also requires an enchantment and creature. Early on Arbor Elf and Voyaging Satyr can be found when missing using Oath of Nissa or maybe Adventure Awaits. Oath of Nissa also provides 1 green devotion allowing Xenagos, God of Revels to become a creature and attack/block.
Big Threats
To finish the game a big creature has to smash into the enemy barrelling through their entire board or hoard of tokens if need be. As I need trample so Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Carnage Tyrant work well. Atarka, World Render works best really since it flies and tramples so it gets big benefits from Xenagos and also the Finale. The latter is resistant to removal though not legendary unfortunately. Rhonas the Indomitable is able to provide trample if necessary to Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Rhonas the Indomitable is also a cheap way to lower the cost of Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Xenagos serves to give the fattie of choice haste and of course double their power and should leave the opponent with little time to react. Many of the threats are indestructible or come back after they are destroyed and so should prove fairly resilient. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon can also come at any time as a ticking time bomb with free removal and the ability to board wipe/clear tokens.
Since Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is cast normally the removal comes out as well and can clear defenders or cripple an enemies board.
Land
Fairly straightforward, red is only needed for Xenagos, God of Revels and can be provided by Utopia Sprawl so I stock 13 Forests with 9 red mana (5 Mountains and 4 Cinder Glades which are forests and can thus be enchanted by Utopia Sprawl and untapped by Arbor Elf. These make it less likely that I cannot ramp at all by having only mountains.
How to Play
Turn 1
There are 12 1 mana cards in this deck and so its very likely you will be doing something turn 1. Ideally Forest + Arbor Elf, a near second being a Utopia Sprawl instead.
Turn 2+
Play all the land untapper's and enchantments. Take care to maximize the mana. Ex. place the Utopia Sprawl on the untapped forest so it can be tapped for 2 to play a Voyaging Satyr or Time of Need for example. Order of operations matters a lot in terms of how to place the enchantments and when to untap lands. With any mana you should be searching for creatures to play. You want to get Xenagos, God of Revels and another creature out at once or Xenagos, God of Revels then another creature to take advantage of the haste. Early on Xenagos, God of Revels is also not a creature and is thus harder to get rid of. If you are tight on mana you might want to get Nylea, Keen-Eyed which can help get cards and become a blocker to buy time. Playing Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is great. Just be weary of using the -x/-x ability as it will kill the mana base and it is mostly for getting rid of tokens. If your big creatures are out however it can be great for clearing the board, leaving only the fatties behind.
Example Sequence
**Turn 1: **
- play Forest + Arbor Elf
Turn 2:
- play Forest tap for Utopia Sprawl on the untapped forest
- tap enchanted Forest for 2 mana and play Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl
- tap Arbor Elf for 3 mana (due to the 2 Utopia Sprawls) and play Overgrowth
Turn 3:
- Count and realize you have 16 mana
- Play Xenagos, God of Revels and then play Atarka, World Render and swing for 24 flying trample
Note: Keep in mind this deck largely needs 12-16 mana to be able to effectively win in a turn depending on what cards you have in hand. The simplest being to just cast Xenagos and Atarka, or cast Finale of Devastation for 12 to summon an Atarka for 32 flying damage with trample.
Previous versions of this deck:
Mana Ramp Trample for 40 The original version
Xenagos Ramp Into Insanity Recent update based on searching for creatures, allows one to chose the right creature for the situation
If you made it this far thanks for reading. Any suggestions are appreciated!
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