This Week: I take you on a tour of an EDH deck I built, where I took a mismatched color and strategy and put them together for great synergy and effect.
I alluded earlier to being afraid I ran out of ideas and forcing some kind of inspiration. That worked well, better than I thought. While brainstorming one deck and the themes in it I was struck with a second idea. Usually I try and finish one deck before I start on a second. I don't want to repeat too many cards or muddy one idea into another. Don't cross the streams is a good rule for stuff like this. However, I didn't want to let this one pass me by. I put down the bare bones so as to not loose the spirit then went on and finished the first deck.
So what was this big idea that I've been talking around? Burn. Burn in and of itself isn't new. Its less seen in EDH because of the higher life totals and multiple opponents. Red has gotten some good tech to push the archtype in the last few years. Torbran helps all red spells push more damage through, and doublers like Dictate Of The Twin Gods do even more for spells like Banefire and Commetstorm.
This isn't an ordinary burn deck. I'm getting weird. I'm doing it all in mono green.
I know half of you reading this are very surprised right now. The other half is saying “Green gets access to everything in this game, why not burn? No further questions.” This isn't a modern game design problem. Most of the power players here are old enough to vote at this point. The inspiration came from looking at so many green cards for my Abzan mill deck. I was using Green in a support fashion. That's a blind spot for me in a lot of ways. My desire to play beaters is low these days so green is easy for me to look past on a first draft. I wanted to make green the focus of a deck. I also have a friend called Squall. He posted the card of the same name years ago in our group chat and I've earmarked it in the back of my mind since then for a future use. Cards like that are where the burn comes from in the deck. These effects need to hit players. The “creatures with flying” is a bonus. I will be avoiding effects that just hit flying creatures and leave opponents unscathed. Small damage dealers like Claws of Wirewood, Howling Gale, and Canopy Surge all make an appearance. Creatures like Unyaro Bees and Cloudthresher hit my preferred targets once each. Storm Seeker will burn the greedy blue player who wants to draw his entire deck. Green has a history of hating on Blue, so that makes sense to me (print more color hosers Wizards).
Sentinel Tower burns out my opponents relative to the number of Instant and Sorcery spells cast on my turn. My ramp now does double duty dishing out damage one, two, three+ at a time. The same is true for my removal. Allstar Squall Monger lets our opponents get in on the action too turning excess mana into damage. Opponents can get in on all this too, but I get to pick where the damage lands. Or better yet I let the other player pick where it goes and let him take some of the heat. I was surprised at how greedy players can get with the effect. Some people play very fast and loose with their life total. Hurricane and Squall Line are my game enders. Cast them in the late game after you've ramped all game to make X back breaking. I'm not saying to hold the cards till the end to cast them. There are enough recursion spells to play these cards now and later. Just make sure to protect them once they're in the graveyard. More on that later.
Now is a good time to stop and talk about proxies. I am not a fan of proxies. I think you should play the game with the cards you have. No deck should be defined by one copy of one card. Certainly not in Commander. Restriction breeds creativity. This is not an endorsement of printing every card into oblivion where they are all the price of the cardboard they're printed on either. There are certainly artificial barriers to card prices out there keeping cards out of reach. One of the cards I would like to include in this deck is Borrowing The East Wind. I am not paying $50 or $200 or anything so nonsensical. I'll do without. Another card I would consider is Ifh-Biff Efreet. I think that it has flying and opens burn up to all players is an interesting effect I might like to try out. It probably wouldn't stay alive long, but once an opponent pays for the third ability I could see it turning into a free for all with whoever has green mana to put the effect on the stack. But as a reserve list card he commands a pretty high price and there are no printings in sight.
Anyone who ever played Earthquake knows that the card is great at knocking players out of the game. That means me too. I want to recklessly burn the table like a good red mage. Watching my own life total can become a drag. The easiest way to offset that concern? Life gain. That gain will let me throw caution to the wind and jack those X spells as high as they'll go. Druid Class turns my mana base into life gain and if I level it up I get there twice as fast. I'll probably never take it beyond 2 unless I know I can knock an opponent out that turn. Lifegift, Retreat To Kazandu, and Courser Of Kruphix each do their own version of this effect. Inscription Of Abundance is best when kicked with each mode feeding off the others. Respite and Blunt The Assault both gain me life and have a Fog effect to prevent combat damage. It will not stop the damage from the Hurricane effects, so watch out. Pest Infestation is fine removal that leaves behind life gaining chump blockers. The last thing worth noting is that Scale The Heights is a generic powerhouse that does everything a green deck wants.
I have two more artifacts to mention that play into both the life gain and burn portions of the strategy. Chalice of Life will top me off every turn. Once I get to 50 life it flips and Chalice of Death starts hitting for 5 every turn. Its life loss, but its close enough to burn for me today. The second card is a true heavy hitter, Aetherflux Resevior. Once I gain enough life I have a very convincing death ray I can point around the table. People get freaked out around this card. They start acting weird and target me aggressively sometimes. A well timed deal can keep it and me safe and allow that extra lifegain to build for a couple extra turns.
I needed to bolster the burn strategy so my commander might not make much sense at first. Silvos, Rogue Elemental. He doesn't burn. He does push damage through with trample though. Regeneration keeps him on the board so I don't have to recast him at a premium over and over. My true rational was commander damage. If I have an opponent gaining life and I don't have enough juice to win through burn I need another way to knock him out. Commander damage negates life gain strategies, which is the best argument for not getting rid of it from the format. The natural trample on Silvos further pushes damage through to opponents making it a hard to answer must answer attacker. There are a couple of cards that add to the danger of Silvos. Bow Of Nylea offers my attacking commander deathtouch, a great compliment to trample and I can use it to put +1/+1 counters on Silvos or gain some life. A kicked Inscription Of Abundance feeds this part of my strategy too.
As far as ramp there are some of my usual options in green. Far Wanderings is ok early but better later on so you never have to feel bad when playing it. Gaea's Touch is a hard to remove option made better because my land base is a majority Forests. If someone does try to Naturalize it I can sack it an make mana to punish that player. Or sack it to make my finishers that little bit more dangerous once my land count is high enough. I don't mind suspending Search For Tomorrow or hard casting it. An untapped land now or later is worth either price. Accomplished Alchemist and Gilanra, Caller Of Wirewood are the few creature based ramp options I went with. The alchemist can help me power through multiple mid cost spells in one turn. Gilanra lets me draw a card if I cast an expensive spell. That's appealing with my commander and X spells especially.
Green removal is limited compared to what I'm used to. Sure Reclamation Sage has a relevant ETB while Beast Within and Acidic Slime hit a variety of targets. I avoided fight effects. Except for my sweeper, Ezuri's Predation. I can be left with a lot of tokens if my opponents have small creatures sitting around. Pest Infestation is another type of removal that leaves me tokens that just so happen to gain me life when I chump block with them. My only other option for mass removal was All is Dust. It hammers me just as much as my opponents, but sometimes a full reset is necessary.
I'm not going to lie to you, my first draft was not up to snuff. It durdled around too much. But worst of all the burn package didn't come through. The density of burn cards wasn't high enough to guarantee I drew into them when I needed them. Most Green draw these days is based on having a big board of creatures. I didn't want to make this a go wide deck so I resisted reshaping the 99 to support Shamanic Revelation and the like. Silvos is eventually going to die. When he does I have Momentous Fall to profit from that death with cards and life. It also works well on a Giant Beanstalk Giant. I really need to make room for a Harmonize.
I had to sure up the burn suite next. I was really convinced I had exhausted my burn options after that first draft. I didn't let that deter me so I went back to the drawing board and dove deep into my collection. A mechanic I hadn't thought of in almost 5 years was the solution: Energy. Dynavolt Tower turns all my ramp spells into energy. At 3 mana it can come down early and accrue value throughout the game. The same can be said for Architect of the Untamed. But the tower lets me weaponize that energy. Consulate Turret also zaps stuff but gains energy at a much slower pace. I now have a reason to play Attune with Aether. Any card good enough to get banned from standard should be considered for its sheer power level....none of that is really true. Of course I put it in Aether Hub. I'll never need the fixing but the counter is king. Finally, Woodweaver's Puzzleknot made the cut for the life gain and energy potential. All these artifacts also inspired me to play Sculpting Steel. Copying Dynavolt Tower, Aetherflux Reservoir, or Sentinel Tower can be backbreaking if I get them out early but it also opens the door for me to copy something an opponent controls to fill the needs of the moment.
My recursion options really round out the deck and extend the life of all my threats. Timeless Witness leaves me a body each time after I get back my heavy hitter. I can be greedy with Healing Technique or better yet political with the demonstrate ability. I'm less worried about an opponent gaining life with Silvos, Rogue Elemental threatening the board. That's why he's here. Holistic Wisdom lets me trade ramp spells later on for those damage dealers or removal spells.
Make sure to keep a couple recursion options on hand in the mid and late game. The X based burn spells are very important and need to be protected from graveyard hate. Hopefully one day soon I'll get that reprint of Borrowing The East Wind and give myself more redundancy. I needed a little graveyard hate of my own since I can't count on another player to do it. A land based option was a great choice as being in a mono colored deck I can spare the slot and not worry about fixing. I'm embarrassed I overlooked Scavenger Grounds in the first place. The ability to play more colorless utility lands is one of the best things about playing mono colored decks. I'll see if I can't cook up some more mono colored options in the near future.
Squallmonger Animist's Awakening Slice in Twain
Hurricane Deep Reconnaissance All is Dust
Aetherflux Reservoir Rampant Growth Ezuri's Predation
Chalice of Life/Death Natural Connection Kenrith's Transformation
Howling Gale Once and Future Scour From Existence
Storm Seeker Beanstalk Giant Desert Twister
Canopy Surge Seek The Horizon Acidic Slime
Magnetic Mine Yavimaya Elder Unravel the Aether
Squall Line Terramorph Appetite for The Unnatural
Cloud Thresher Ranger's Path Alhammarret's Archive
Claws of Wirewood Cultivate Druid Class
Sentinel Tower Mwonvuli Acid-Moss Respite
Wing Storm Skyshroud Claim Honor Troll
Unbound Flourishing Elven Cache Staff of The Wild Magus
Consulate Turret Holistic Wisdom Wurm's Tooth
Attune With Aether Timeless Witness Environmental Sciences
Dynavolt Tower Sculpting Steel Natural End
Woodweaver's Puzzleknot Scrabbling Claws Healing Technique
Architect of The Untamed Monumentous Fall Stream of Life
Fog Viridian Revel Pest Infestation
Harrow Tireless Provisioner Scale The Heights
Aether Hub Rushwood Grove Desert of The Indomitable
Sapseep Forest Gingerbread Cabin Field of Ruin
Foundry of The Consuls Radiant Fountain Evolving Wilds
Forrestx26 Scavenger Grounds
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