Introduction
So why Kresh for a Tribal Elemental deck? The answer is the same I give for all the themes I set for my other decks. Synergy. I believe that synergy is the most important aspect of deckbuilding. It is what makes the cards better than they are individually, pushing the combined whole to greater heights. Elementals are crazy synergistic with Kresh. They usually have big fronts, like to die (sometimes they even do it themselves), and have nifty ETB effects that lend themselves well to a toolbox approach to problem solving. This version takes an aggro/voltron approach to getting wins, using various elementals to remove obstacles and retaining resiliency in the late game with mass recursion.
The Meat of the Matter
We have a few categories to sort our creatures into.
The rest if the creatures fall under the toolbox. These are the cards you need to keep in mind whenever you have a search engine online and need to look for answers to a problem on the board. Things to keep in mind include the converted mana cost and the combined power and toughness.
Mana Accel: Smokebraider, Generator Servant, Grinning Ignus, Brighthearth Banneret.
Servant Generator is pretty good accel and a free pump to Kresh, Grinning Ignus is repeatable and gets out of hand with Wild Pair allowing you to pull every single combined P/T 4 and 6 costs from your deck at one R per pop. Brighthearth Banneret reduces the cost of both elementals and Kresh himself, since he is a warrior.
Card Draw Soul of the Harvest, Regal Force, Whisperwood Elemental
Not sure how happy I am with Regal Force at the moment. Currently he serves as a wild pair to Humbler of Mortals. Whisperwood Elemental seems like it would generate insane amounts of card advantage in this deck, especially when pulling off a recursion combo. I'll be testing it out to see how good it actually ends up being.
Tutor Flamekin Harbinger
This little guy is excellent. Playing him on turn one usually gets you a solid start by fetching up either Brighthearth Banneret or Smokebraider for that early accel. Cracking him mid-game usually fetches us a threat like Malignus or Lord of Extinction. When we hit a snag, he usually fetches us a toolbox solution instead.
Trample Enablers Soulbright Flamekin, Humbler of Mortals
Kresh get's chump blocked all day and night if he dosent have trample. We have 2 trample enabling lands and 2 creatures as well as 1 enchantment to ensure that he never gets treated like a chump.
Haste Enablers and Pumps Incandescent Soulstoke, Inner-Flame Acolyte, Briarhorn, Anger, Vigor
Incandescent Soulstoke is mini-Sneak Attack and can result in wins out of nowhere or help feed that Liege of the Tangle to Kresh. Inner-Flame Acolyte gives that Kresh you just recasted a 4 power boost and haste for the low cost of R. Brairhorn is a similar champ, giving Kresh 6 +1/+1 counters for the price of 1G. Anger provides mass haste to make your opponents die before they blink.
Vigor...ah vigor, this fella can stall the board with any random 1/1 by his side. If you're feeling angsty, commit a Blasphemous Act to give your other creatures 13 +1/+1 counters.
Removals Ingot Chewer, Shriekmaw, Bane of Progress, Deepfire Elemental, Spitebellows, Tyrant of Discord, Tornado Elemental
These cards are pretty self-explanatory. Cards like Shriekmaw and Spitebellow are usually evoked to kill the opponent's biggest creature, double feeding Kresh. Tornado Elemental is a boardwipe for those pesky flying critters who think they can go over our head. Deepfire Elemental takes care of tokens primarily, unless your willing to splurge to get other targets.
Sac Engine Dimir House Guard
This fella is usually used to fetch out Birthing Pod/Sneak Attack/Greater Good or some other silly card. He is also useful in the GY for the times when you hit a mass recursion spell and have to send that Anger back home where he belongs, or what to pump Kresh up for that final battle.
The Cornerstones
Using the search engines effectively in the deck takes quite abit of knowledge and experience to pull off. I'll save it for the next post so that I can devote more space to break it down instead of confusing newer players with information overload.
Instants and Sorceries Wheel of Fortune: Wheel of Fortune is there to both refill an entire full hand for the price of 1 card, but also to help fill the GY for our other shenanigans. (Lord of Extinction, Patriarch's Bidding,Living Death. Wheel of Fortune also makes our Multani, Maro-Sorcerer disgustingly huge in a multiplayer game. Diabolic Intent: Tutor, usually used to fetch one of the cornerstones or a win-con like berserk or living death, if not a clutch removal. Chaos Warp: Chaos Warp hits every permanent type, and gets rid of indestructible creatures as well as pesky commanders. Beast Within: Best removal in it's color. Giving an opponent a 3/3 creature simply fuels Kresh even more. Living Death: Board Wipe + Mass Recursion in one. This will pull Anger out of the GY, so try to put Dimir House Guard there beforehand to send in back in. Patriarch's Bidding: Mass Recursion that is skewed towards tribes. This has the plus point of not recurring that Anger so your creatures have the hastey goodness. Blasphemous Act: Classy Boardwipe that Kresh sometimes survives through. Used to pump or guys up when Vigor is in play. Berserk: Instant Kill with Malignus, and usually the same with Kresh. Fatal Frenzy: Instant Kill with Malignus, and usually the same with Kresh.
Lands
The deck runs 34 lands and 10 mana producers. This brings the effective land count up to 39. I feel like the deck probably could use an additional land down the line to bring the effective count to 40. The deck also runs 2 Sneak Attack effects to cheat creatures out, among other methods like Birthing Pod, Hibernation's End and Wild Pair and the Mass Recursion options.
The decks runs the standard suite of dual lands. Lavaclaw Reaches and Raging Ravine are elemental man-lands that are capable of pushing pretty decent damage post-wraths. Primal Beyond is a simple tri-land that's on theme with elementals. Flamekin Village is another elemental themed land that gives our creatures haste, being very relevant in Kresh. Mossworth Bridge and Spinerock Knoll are easily activated in Kresh for easy free spells and can bounced by the Karoo lands like Rakdos Carnarium. Bojuka Bog is standard grave hate and Yavimaya Hollow is protection. Lastly, Skarrg, the Rage Pits and Kessig Wolf Run are trample enablers. Gameplan
Wins usually happen in one of 3 ways.
First, the Voltron Win: Accel out to Kresh. Pump him up with Cards like Phyrexian Dreadnought/Phyrexian Devourer or the suicide/pump elementals and swing for the win. Alternatively use Berserk/Fatal Frenzy for the finish.
Second, the Aggro Win: Play Elementals like Spawnwrithe to either win or force board wipes. Toss the aggro elementals with Sneak Attack or Incandescent Soulstoke for easy damage. Malignus + Berserk/Fatal Frenzy is a win out of nowhere.
Third, the Combo Win: Use Survival of the Fittest or Greater Good to toss an entire chunk of your deck into the GY. Draw or Tutor into Living Death/Patriarch of the Bidding to recur all the creatures in the GY. (Dimir House Guard/Greater Good sacs anything you don't want on the field like Anger), swing for win with hasted creatures/huge Kresh.
What's Next?
This is it for the moment. Feel free to discuss, critique, recommend or flame as usual. Take a look at my other deck builds found in my signature.
3 of the 4 CMC 8 Creatures are token producers, which allow you to restart the Birthing Pod chain. You can also branch off at 3CMC if you take Spawnwrithe.
Lightning Serpent can fetch any other creature in the deck, as long as you pay the correct amount of mana. Ivy Elemental is similar, but can only fetch the even numbers. However, you can also play Ivy Elemental for 0, to fetch a creature from the special box. Inner-Flame Acolyte can jump from the CPT4 to the CPT6 Box. Bane of Progress is random, depending on the number of artifacts and enchantments it hits, but will always be even. Briarhorn can jump from the CPT6 to the CPT12 box. Incandescent Soulstoke gives all your subsequent creatures +2 P/T, which will make them all jump by 2. For Example, you can then play Shriekmaw/Dimir House Guard to fetch Spitebellow, or play Walker of the Grove/Tyrant of Discord to fetch Liege of the Tangle.
Special Mention needs to be made for Grinning Ignus. Once you get him on the field with Wild Pair, you can bounce him and replay him for one R mana. This will enable you to keep fetching creatures from the CPT4 Box. After you fetch Incandescent Soulstoke with him, you can then use Grinning Ignus to fetch from the CPT 6 Box instead.
Updated the deck and added explanations for the land choices that were missing earlier. I've been thinking about adding an additional land to the deck since the count is slightly off atm. Apart from that, the C14 removal Song of the Dryads is certainly a powerful card that I might want to make a spot for. Getting additional Mass recursion spells like Living End could possibly make the deck slightly more consistent in terms on the "combo win". I might be missing a couple of mass recursion spells from the deck since i haven't searched gatherer too extensively. At this point i'm having serious trouble with cutting cards, so I could probably use some advice in that regard.
So i had a game the other day where I wasn't sure if i was playing legally or not. I'm here to check if it was.
My opponent had a goblin bombardment and a squee. I had a birthing pod.
Turn 4: I played Arc Runner. I told my opponent that I was retaining priority and I activated Birthing Pod, saccing the arc runner before he could ping it. Now my opponent was upset that he couldnt ping the creature after i played it and this is the first time i'm actually using priority after like 15+ years of magic. I read out the rules of priorities to him then pointed to the fact that birthing pod's activation sacs the creature as a cost.
Anyway he let me play it my way, but i figured i should check with the rules gurus over here.
The rest of the game ended pretty simply. Arc Runner fetched Anger. The next turn i sacced Anger for Malignus and swung. My opponent blocked with squee and sacced it after declaring blockers, pinging me for one. I casted Berserk and the game was over.
Also, Lord of Extinction and Malignus seem a little underwhelming; they are mostly just bodies on the ground, while you could perhaps include cards in their spots that do something in addition to being large.
I seem to have gotten ahead of myself on the title. I wouldn't mind if a mod edits the title if it's confusing in some way.
I have played with Dread and found the card too reactive to fit with the rest of the deck. It always sat on the board for a turn or 2 without doing anything and/or died to wrath that would have happened either way. The rest of the deck is pretty aggro focused in pushing out more threats than the opponents' can handle and Dread detracts from that notion.
Lord of Extinction, Malignus and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer are all extremely important pieces of the deck. A lions-share of games have been won on their backs. They provide many interactions in the deck on the basis of their huge bodies.
Examples:
Casting Ivy Elemental with Wild Pair on the field gives you any of the fatties for G.
Greater Good into Malignus at the start of the game not only draws 20 and fills the hand with excellent cards like Living Death but also fills the graveyard with a bunch of creatures ready to take over the game.
If Kresh was on the field, Malignus would put Kresh into the 1-shot kill range.
A Malignus can also get a kill if unblocked with a simple Fatal Frenzy or Berserk.
All of those examples applies to the other 2 fatties as well since they come in at above 20/20 usually.
A single Wheel of Fortune usually puts both of those cards at around 28/28.
We have multiple ways to cheat these guys out with Incandescent Soulstoke and Sneak Attack or Living Death and Patriach's Bidding or Hibernation's End and Birthing Pod among others.
We have multiple ways to give them trample with Soulbright Flamekin, Humbler of Mortals, Rancor, Beserk, Fatal Frenzy, Skarrg, the Pits Rage, Kessig Wolf Run.
In short, the cards may be underestimated, but nowhere close to underwhelming.
If Kresh was on the field, Malignus would put Kresh into the 1-shot kill range.
A Malignus can also get a kill if unblocked with a simple Fatal Frenzy or Berserk.
Have you considered Faultgrinder for on theme land destruction?
As someone who played Elemental tribal in Lorwyn standard this deck interests me and I shall be following your work, sir.
Thanks for the clarification! Next time I can also use the thread as further evidence to convince other players.
Cavern of Souls is a huge oversight on my part. It definitely belongs in the deck. I was trying to add a swamp in to fix my land count so i'll just add cavern of souls in it's place when i figure out what to cut. Thanks for the catch. Faultgrinder. I'm not a huge fan of land destruction cards in general. The 5 evoke cost for a 4 body also isn't quite tempting in this case. Personally i don't intend to use it, but if your meta has players recurring Glacial Chasms each turn or some other disgusting plays, i would recommend putting it in to round out the toolbox.
I was suggesting Faultgrinder mostly if your group has lands that interfere with your game plan. Mystifying Maze wrecks Kresh's day. I am also not the biggest fan of land destruction, but having a couple cards for spot removal for problem lands is always useful, and Faultgrinder is cute and on theme.
Have you considered Ball Lightning? Sacrifices itself and gives you a second seven power/toughness guy for Wild Pair.
I was suggesting Faultgrinder mostly if your group has lands that interfere with your game plan. Mystifying Maze wrecks Kresh's day. I am also not the biggest fan of land destruction, but having a couple cards for spot removal for problem lands is always useful, and Faultgrinder is cute and on theme.
Have you considered Ball Lightning? Sacrifices itself and gives you a second seven power/toughness guy for Wild Pair.
Yeah that's a fair point on Faultgrinder. Ball Lightning was in the original version on the deck alongside Groundbreaker. The reason they were both removed was because getting triple red or green during the early turns of a game was fairly difficult to achieve. While on that note, I'm not too happy with Spark Elemental and Hellspark Elemental at the moment. Playing them on the curve at turn 1-2 usually dosen't feel impactful enough at 3 points of damage, and sometimes even feels like a waste without having Kresh out. On the other hand, they work pretty nicely with cards like Birthing Pod, Greater Good and Diabolic Intent, alongside Kresh himself. Considering that i need to make a few cuts currently, these 2 seem the most likely to go soon.
So i've been mulling around a tad abit concerning Kresh and Wild Pair in particular.
Usually when Wild Pair gets played, i end up getting a Grinning Ignus fairly easily since the most common combined p/t box is 4. Ignus inturn gives me access to haste/inner-flame acolyte for haste( +pump), Bane of Progress for artifact/enchantment destruction, and Incandescent Soulstoke which cheats out bigger creatures as well as jump Grinning Ignus into the p/t 6 box which gives me access to a pump and artifact removal.
The issue is that i feel myself wanting to
A)Jump just one box instead of 2 to gain access to creature removal/sacengine (or jump to another box for say trample or something else)
B)Bounce one of the creatures i've fetched to replay it a 2nd time for its effect or to fetch something from another box.
If anyone has any ideas regarding to how i might achieve that, please do let me know.
For the moment i'm planning to add Yisan in as another CMC engine. For the bounce solution, i may look towards Temur Sabertooth. It fills out the p/t 7 box to pair with Spitebellow and provides a repeatable bounce engine to abuse wild pair and other etb creatures alongside bouncing manifested cards from Whisperwood if needed. It also synergises with Sneak Attack to make it repeatable.
EDIT: For jumping boxes by 1, Inner-Flame Igniter seems to be a possible choice. The card is not all that great on its own merits though.
Btw I believe i understand how this works, but i better ask just incase. If i have Wild Pair on the board and i cast Igniter from hand, i can respond to the Wild Pair trigger with Igniter's ability to jump boxes right away yes?
With Igniter, it should then be possible to fetch creatures from the p/t 5 and 7 boxes which would give access to a sac engine, creature spot removal, and creature bounce as well as yisan. Since Yisan can fetch a cmc 1 creature, it would then be possible to get any creature in the deck into play via flamekin harbinger + draw (from another creature, p/t 10 or 12) + soulkin's ability to put into play or lightning serpent + bounce and recasting as appropriate.
At this point i figure it should be relevant to start thinking of all the effects available from the toolbox.
elemental tutor to top of deck
additional mana for elemental spells and abilities
colorless mana generation
R mana generation or color fixing
reduce cost of elementals by 1
spot trample
spot haste
one time sneak attack effect
unconditional sac engine
mass haste
champion elemental
spot artifact removal
mass artifact and enchantment board wipe
spot creature removal
yisan engine
creature bounce
pump effects
mass trample
card draw
damage prevention
6 dmg to all flying creatures
tyrant of discord random sac effect
token production
What about Demonic Tutor and Grave Sifter? I also do agree on switching out Hellspark and Spark Elemental. I think that Craterhoof and Song of the Dryads are much better. Also I find Regal Force much better with Craterhoof and Wild Pair. Maybe switching Tornado Elemental for Grave Sifter would be a even switch. Hows Tornado Elemental working out for you?
Tutors can be fit into the deck as desired. Personally i prefer to limit the use of unconditional tutors myself to prevent decks from stagnation (playing the same way each game), but to each his own. What is your reasoning behind Grave Sifter? The deck usually prefers for creatures to go to the yard for a big Living Death or Patriach's Bidding. I could see the card being good in conjuction with Sneak Attack, but it seems too limited to be justified for that alone. Craterhoof is a creature i'm still considering as its one more non-elemental to go for. As for Tornado Elemental, it's the only creature-based boardwipe we have access to in Kresh, though being limited to flyers. It works well against decks with lots of birds,dragons,angels etc but falls short against others. There isn't a better replacement for its function at the moment though.
I misread Grave Sifter thought it was into play. Whisperwood seemed kind odd to have in the deck when do you play him?. The last game I played I had Birthing Pod on the table which was destroyed. I got Whisperwood early by putting anger in the grave with birthing pod. I know I should of gotten Malignis but I didn't want to be really competitive at the time and just try to kill a player flat out. I feel like I had the cards to win but I just wasn't playing the deck right. I had Ingot Chewer and Shriekmaw in the grave and a Volraths Stronghold out that later got strip mined I felt like I needed to hold Birthing Pod because if I had Kresh in play I could of gone off. I really like the deck so far I just need more practice, I had the cards to throw it together so I thought I would give it a shot. It's just a hard deck to pilot. Any advice? The Igniter seems like a good card to add. The P/T of the creature is only checked when Wild Pair's ability resolves. So you first cast your creature spell and let it resolve. This triggers the Wild Pair's ability. In response to that ability, you activate the Igniters ability (which is now already on the battlefield). Then the Wild Pair's ability resolves and sees that the creature has total power and toughness of 5, so that's what you search for.
I might try to add.
Song of the Dryads
Craterhoof Behemoth
Yisan, the Wandering Bard
Temur Sabertooth
Inner-Flame Igniter
And Remove
Tornado Elemental (My meta doesn't run much flying)
Spark Elemental,
Hellspark Elemental
Arc Runner
1 other card.
Whisperwood has only come out a few times since i've put it in the deck. So far i am happy with the impact it provides. I've been using the card mainly as protection against wraths when i'm sure the boardstate is heading that way soon(because if it dosent Kresh usually wins). It allows us to rebuild our boardstate faster than most other players are able to when it happens. It can also be used to accelerate your plays. For example, it can help boost Kresh up with a sac engine by generating additional 2/2s. If that engine happens to be Greater Good, you get to sac your creature, draw and discard creature cards, manifest, sac the manifested cards which coud also be creatures, fill up your graveyard nicely and living death, hopefully with mass haste for the win.
The deck is a toolbox, which on it's own requires the player to be very familiar with the cards within it. Not only do you need to remember all the creatures and their functions, but also their cmc and combined p/t to effectively use Birthing Pod and Wild Pair without annoying other players at the table by taking 20 minutes a turn. The only thing i can suggest is practice as much as you can read the cards once in awhile to memorize whats in the deck. During the game, when you have a search engine out, you should already know what the best option you have available in the deck for any given situation is going to be before you search for it.
You can print out the Birthing Pod/Wild Pair Chain post above if it helps. My friend uses it as a 'cheat sheet' to glance at during games so that he knows what options he has for any given engine.
Other random tips.
Don't just play Kresh just because you can. If you play him you usually want to have some form of haste and/or protection so that he has impact the turn he comes into play.
Sac Engines are really strong, so keep them if they end up in your opening hand.
Fatal Frenzy, Berserk, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Phyrexian Devourer and some other cards can lead to some really cheesy kills with Kresh. Most of the time all you need is a source of trample.
Make sure your removals are used to get the most impact you can in a game. It usually isn't worthwhile to use Shriekmaw on a random 2/2 just to pump Kresh up by 5 unless you can secure the win with that play.
Overall, get used to the cards so that you always know what options you have to each problem your opponents put forward, then capitalize on the situation when you are able to. Hope that helps.
I sure hope you post your Lazav and Borborygmos decks one of these days. Most of the decks I see on reddit are just cookie cutter but your decks are truly inspiring to say the least. They always have a unique goal in mind that is obtuse and fun to see in a format that can get really bogged down with the same deck lists. I sure hope you keep brewing new and exciting EDH decks
Thanks for the kind words! I've been meaning to post up the Borborygmous build. It's one of my most straightforward decks, yet that can incredibly satisfying in a way as well. Lazav on the other hand while is rather strong atm, is also rather dull. I'm considering dismantling the deck and switching to another commander. Mill just hasn't been able to keep my interest. Before any of that though, i have to get around to updating all of the decks now that BFZ is basically out, and that's gonna be a huge timesink on it's own.
Decided to cutdown on a few unessential cipt lands to help speed up the deck a little.
Chaos Warp simply hasn't performed up to expectations ever the tuck rule change. I mainly used it to take care of problem commanders. Song of the Dryads seems like it could take over the role perfectly.
Yisan as mentioned is an additional engine that i wished to add into the deck as Birthing Pod no 2.
Temur Sabertooth is in temporarily as a method to bounce my own creatures. I see this being a way to reuse etb creature effects. There is synergy with Sneak Attack as well. Lastly, it finally acts as a Wild Pair counterpart to Spitebellows, which was missing earlier.
Flameshadow Conjuring seems like it fits the deck well. I'll test it before giving any thoughts.
Lastly, Omnath and AoZ are good elementals allroud that deserve to be tried out.
1 Kresh the Bloodbraided
Elemental Creatures - 35
1 Ivy Elemental
1 Lightning Serpent
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Brighthearth Banneret
1 Soulbright Flamekin
1 Smokebraider
1 Generator Servant
1 Force of Savagery
1 Incandescent Soulstoke
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Spawnwrithe
1 Inner-Flame Acolyte
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Briarhorn
1 Nova Chaser
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Malignus
1 Shriekmaw
1 Whisperwood Elemental
1 Humbler of Mortals
1 Bane of Progress
1 Deepfire Elemental
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Vigor
1 Spitebellows
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Tyrant of Discord
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Regal Force
1 Liege of the Tangle
1 Walker of the Grove
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Anger
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
1 Temur Sabertooth
Mana Rocks - 5
1 Sol Ring
1 Gruul Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Golgari Signet
1 Chromatic Lantern
The Gear - 4
1 Rancor
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Song of the Dryads
The Cornerstones - 7
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Birthing Pod
1 Hibernation's End
1 Wild Pair
1 Sneak Attack
1 Greater Good
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
Instants and Sorceries - 8
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Beast Within
1 Living Death
1 Patriarch's Bidding
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Berserk
1 Fatal Frenzy
The Conquered Lands - 34
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Gruul Turf
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Command Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Primal Beyond
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Flamekin Village
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Ancient Tomb
2 Swamp
4 Mountain
3 Forest
Introduction
So why Kresh for a Tribal Elemental deck? The answer is the same I give for all the themes I set for my other decks. Synergy. I believe that synergy is the most important aspect of deckbuilding. It is what makes the cards better than they are individually, pushing the combined whole to greater heights. Elementals are crazy synergistic with Kresh. They usually have big fronts, like to die (sometimes they even do it themselves), and have nifty ETB effects that lend themselves well to a toolbox approach to problem solving. This version takes an aggro/voltron approach to getting wins, using various elementals to remove obstacles and retaining resiliency in the late game with mass recursion.
The Meat of the Matter
We have a few categories to sort our creatures into.
Suicide Aggro:
Lightning Serpent, Spark Elemental, Hellspark Elemental, Force of Savagery, Arc Runner, Nova Chaser and Walker of the Grove are the foot soldiers of the deck. Their express purpose to is to march into battle and die for the their Warlord. Super secret tech in this category include: Phyrexian Dreadnought, Phyrexian Devourer
Pitch them to Greater Good, Dimir House Guard or Diabolic Intent once they have outlived their usefulness.
Aggro:
Ivy Elemental, Spawnwrithe, Taurean Mauler, Forgotten Ancient, Lord of Extinction, Malignus, Multani, Maro-Sorcerer, Living Hive and Liege of the Tangle make up the main force. Each of them (apart from Ivy) can pretty much take over a game on their own if left unchecked. These are the cards that will consistently eat removal and give you leeway to get your commander into the fold for a quick win.
The rest if the creatures fall under the toolbox. These are the cards you need to keep in mind whenever you have a search engine online and need to look for answers to a problem on the board. Things to keep in mind include the converted mana cost and the combined power and toughness.
Mana Accel:
Smokebraider, Generator Servant, Grinning Ignus, Brighthearth Banneret.
Servant Generator is pretty good accel and a free pump to Kresh, Grinning Ignus is repeatable and gets out of hand with Wild Pair allowing you to pull every single combined P/T 4 and 6 costs from your deck at one R per pop. Brighthearth Banneret reduces the cost of both elementals and Kresh himself, since he is a warrior.
Card Draw
Soul of the Harvest, Regal Force, Whisperwood Elemental
Not sure how happy I am with Regal Force at the moment. Currently he serves as a wild pair to Humbler of Mortals. Whisperwood Elemental seems like it would generate insane amounts of card advantage in this deck, especially when pulling off a recursion combo. I'll be testing it out to see how good it actually ends up being.
Tutor
Flamekin Harbinger
This little guy is excellent. Playing him on turn one usually gets you a solid start by fetching up either Brighthearth Banneret or Smokebraider for that early accel. Cracking him mid-game usually fetches us a threat like Malignus or Lord of Extinction. When we hit a snag, he usually fetches us a toolbox solution instead.
Trample Enablers
Soulbright Flamekin, Humbler of Mortals
Kresh get's chump blocked all day and night if he dosent have trample. We have 2 trample enabling lands and 2 creatures as well as 1 enchantment to ensure that he never gets treated like a chump.
Haste Enablers and Pumps
Incandescent Soulstoke, Inner-Flame Acolyte, Briarhorn, Anger, Vigor
Incandescent Soulstoke is mini-Sneak Attack and can result in wins out of nowhere or help feed that Liege of the Tangle to Kresh. Inner-Flame Acolyte gives that Kresh you just recasted a 4 power boost and haste for the low cost of R. Brairhorn is a similar champ, giving Kresh 6 +1/+1 counters for the price of 1G. Anger provides mass haste to make your opponents die before they blink.
Vigor...ah vigor, this fella can stall the board with any random 1/1 by his side. If you're feeling angsty, commit a Blasphemous Act to give your other creatures 13 +1/+1 counters.
Removals
Ingot Chewer, Shriekmaw, Bane of Progress, Deepfire Elemental, Spitebellows, Tyrant of Discord, Tornado Elemental
These cards are pretty self-explanatory. Cards like Shriekmaw and Spitebellow are usually evoked to kill the opponent's biggest creature, double feeding Kresh. Tornado Elemental is a boardwipe for those pesky flying critters who think they can go over our head. Deepfire Elemental takes care of tokens primarily, unless your willing to splurge to get other targets.
Sac Engine
Dimir House Guard
This fella is usually used to fetch out Birthing Pod/Sneak Attack/Greater Good or some other silly card. He is also useful in the GY for the times when you hit a mass recursion spell and have to send that Anger back home where he belongs, or what to pump Kresh up for that final battle.
The Cornerstones
Using the search engines effectively in the deck takes quite abit of knowledge and experience to pull off. I'll save it for the next post so that I can devote more space to break it down instead of confusing newer players with information overload.
Instants and Sorceries
Wheel of Fortune: Wheel of Fortune is there to both refill an entire full hand for the price of 1 card, but also to help fill the GY for our other shenanigans. (Lord of Extinction, Patriarch's Bidding,Living Death. Wheel of Fortune also makes our Multani, Maro-Sorcerer disgustingly huge in a multiplayer game.
Diabolic Intent: Tutor, usually used to fetch one of the cornerstones or a win-con like berserk or living death, if not a clutch removal.
Chaos Warp: Chaos Warp hits every permanent type, and gets rid of indestructible creatures as well as pesky commanders.
Beast Within: Best removal in it's color. Giving an opponent a 3/3 creature simply fuels Kresh even more.
Living Death: Board Wipe + Mass Recursion in one. This will pull Anger out of the GY, so try to put Dimir House Guard there beforehand to send in back in.
Patriarch's Bidding: Mass Recursion that is skewed towards tribes. This has the plus point of not recurring that Anger so your creatures have the hastey goodness.
Blasphemous Act: Classy Boardwipe that Kresh sometimes survives through. Used to pump or guys up when Vigor is in play.
Berserk: Instant Kill with Malignus, and usually the same with Kresh.
Fatal Frenzy: Instant Kill with Malignus, and usually the same with Kresh.
Lands
The deck runs 34 lands and 10 mana producers. This brings the effective land count up to 39. I feel like the deck probably could use an additional land down the line to bring the effective count to 40. The deck also runs 2 Sneak Attack effects to cheat creatures out, among other methods like Birthing Pod, Hibernation's End and Wild Pair and the Mass Recursion options.
The decks runs the standard suite of dual lands.
Lavaclaw Reaches and Raging Ravine are elemental man-lands that are capable of pushing pretty decent damage post-wraths. Primal Beyond is a simple tri-land that's on theme with elementals. Flamekin Village is another elemental themed land that gives our creatures haste, being very relevant in Kresh. Mossworth Bridge and Spinerock Knoll are easily activated in Kresh for easy free spells and can bounced by the Karoo lands like Rakdos Carnarium. Bojuka Bog is standard grave hate and Yavimaya Hollow is protection. Lastly, Skarrg, the Rage Pits and Kessig Wolf Run are trample enablers.
Gameplan
Wins usually happen in one of 3 ways.
First, the Voltron Win: Accel out to Kresh. Pump him up with Cards like Phyrexian Dreadnought/Phyrexian Devourer or the suicide/pump elementals and swing for the win. Alternatively use Berserk/Fatal Frenzy for the finish.
Second, the Aggro Win: Play Elementals like Spawnwrithe to either win or force board wipes. Toss the aggro elementals with Sneak Attack or Incandescent Soulstoke for easy damage. Malignus + Berserk/Fatal Frenzy is a win out of nowhere.
Third, the Combo Win: Use Survival of the Fittest or Greater Good to toss an entire chunk of your deck into the GY. Draw or Tutor into Living Death/Patriarch of the Bidding to recur all the creatures in the GY. (Dimir House Guard/Greater Good sacs anything you don't want on the field like Anger), swing for win with hasted creatures/huge Kresh.
What's Next?
This is it for the moment. Feel free to discuss, critique, recommend or flame as usual. Take a look at my other deck builds found in my signature.
Craterhoof Behemoth
- Magmatic Force + Whisperwood Elemental
- Mountain + Cavern of Souls
Changelog:
- Raging Ravine + Mountain
- Lavaclaw Reaches + Mountain
- Chaos Warp + Song of the Dryads
- Spark Elemental + Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
- Hellspark Elemental + Temur Sabertooth
- Arc Runner + Omnath, Locus of Rage
- Splinterfright + Flameshadow Conjuring
- Living Hive + Avenger of Zendikar
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Ivy Elemental
Lightning Serpent
Flamekin Harbinger
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Brighthearth Banneret
Soulbright Flamekin
Smokebraider
Generator Servant
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Force of Savagery
Incandescent Soulstoke
Grinning Ignus
Spawnwrithe
Inner-Flame Acolyte
Taurean Mauler
Temur Sabertooth
Forgotten Ancient
Briarhorn
Nova Chaser
Anger
Dimir House Guard
Ingot Chewer
Lord of Extinction
Malignus
Shriekmaw
Whisperwood Elemental
Humbler of Mortals
Bane of Progress
Deepfire Elemental
Soul of the Harvest
Vigor
Spitebellows
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Phyrexian Devourer
Avenger of Zendikar
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Tyrant of Discord
Tornado Elemental
Regal Force
Living Hive
Liege of the Tangle
Walker of the Grove
3 of the 4 CMC 8 Creatures are token producers, which allow you to restart the Birthing Pod chain. You can also branch off at 3CMC if you take Spawnwrithe.
Wild Pair Chains
Flamekin Harbinger
Brighthearth Banneret
Smokebraider
Phyrexian Devourer
Lightning Serpent (+X)
Soulbright Flamekin
Forgotten Ancient
Generator Servant
Grinning Ignus
Spawnwrithe
Taurean Mauler
Anger
Inner-Flame Acolyte (+2)
Bane of Progress (+X)
Incandescent Soulstoke (Gives others +2)
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Shriekmaw
Dimir House Guard
Arc Runner
Ingot Chewer
Briarhorn (+6)
Temur Sabertooth
Spitebellows
Force of Savagery
Whisperwood Elemental
Deepfire Elemental
Humbler of Mortals
Regal Force
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Avenger of Zendikar
Nova Chaser
Soul of the Harvest
Vigor
Tornado Elemental
Tyrant of Discord
Walker of the Grove
Liege of the Tangle
Ivy Elemental
Malignus
Lord of Extinction
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Lightning Serpent can fetch any other creature in the deck, as long as you pay the correct amount of mana. Ivy Elemental is similar, but can only fetch the even numbers. However, you can also play Ivy Elemental for 0, to fetch a creature from the special box. Inner-Flame Acolyte can jump from the CPT4 to the CPT6 Box. Bane of Progress is random, depending on the number of artifacts and enchantments it hits, but will always be even. Briarhorn can jump from the CPT6 to the CPT12 box. Incandescent Soulstoke gives all your subsequent creatures +2 P/T, which will make them all jump by 2. For Example, you can then play Shriekmaw/Dimir House Guard to fetch Spitebellow, or play Walker of the Grove/Tyrant of Discord to fetch Liege of the Tangle.
Special Mention needs to be made for Grinning Ignus. Once you get him on the field with Wild Pair, you can bounce him and replay him for one R mana. This will enable you to keep fetching creatures from the CPT4 Box. After you fetch Incandescent Soulstoke with him, you can then use Grinning Ignus to fetch from the CPT 6 Box instead.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
My opponent had a goblin bombardment and a squee. I had a birthing pod.
Turn 4: I played Arc Runner. I told my opponent that I was retaining priority and I activated Birthing Pod, saccing the arc runner before he could ping it. Now my opponent was upset that he couldnt ping the creature after i played it and this is the first time i'm actually using priority after like 15+ years of magic. I read out the rules of priorities to him then pointed to the fact that birthing pod's activation sacs the creature as a cost.
Anyway he let me play it my way, but i figured i should check with the rules gurus over here.
The rest of the game ended pretty simply. Arc Runner fetched Anger. The next turn i sacced Anger for Malignus and swung. My opponent blocked with squee and sacced it after declaring blockers, pinging me for one. I casted Berserk and the game was over.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
I do like this LTB Elementals Kresh theme, though. This is a cool decklist.
Have you considered Dread in addition to Vigor?
Also, Lord of Extinction and Malignus seem a little underwhelming; they are mostly just bodies on the ground, while you could perhaps include cards in their spots that do something in addition to being large.
No Cavern of Souls in your tribal deck?
Have you considered Faultgrinder for on theme land destruction?
As someone who played Elemental tribal in Lorwyn standard this deck interests me and I shall be following your work, sir.
I have played with Dread and found the card too reactive to fit with the rest of the deck. It always sat on the board for a turn or 2 without doing anything and/or died to wrath that would have happened either way. The rest of the deck is pretty aggro focused in pushing out more threats than the opponents' can handle and Dread detracts from that notion.
Lord of Extinction, Malignus and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer are all extremely important pieces of the deck. A lions-share of games have been won on their backs. They provide many interactions in the deck on the basis of their huge bodies.
Examples:
Casting Ivy Elemental with Wild Pair on the field gives you any of the fatties for G.
Greater Good into Malignus at the start of the game not only draws 20 and fills the hand with excellent cards like Living Death but also fills the graveyard with a bunch of creatures ready to take over the game.
If Kresh was on the field, Malignus would put Kresh into the 1-shot kill range.
A Malignus can also get a kill if unblocked with a simple Fatal Frenzy or Berserk.
All of those examples applies to the other 2 fatties as well since they come in at above 20/20 usually.
A single Wheel of Fortune usually puts both of those cards at around 28/28.
We have multiple ways to cheat these guys out with Incandescent Soulstoke and Sneak Attack or Living Death and Patriach's Bidding or Hibernation's End and Birthing Pod among others.
We have multiple ways to give them trample with Soulbright Flamekin, Humbler of Mortals, Rancor, Beserk, Fatal Frenzy, Skarrg, the Pits Rage, Kessig Wolf Run.
In short, the cards may be underestimated, but nowhere close to underwhelming.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Potential confusion solved.
Those are both quite reasonable.
Thanks for the clarification! Next time I can also use the thread as further evidence to convince other players.
Cavern of Souls is a huge oversight on my part. It definitely belongs in the deck. I was trying to add a swamp in to fix my land count so i'll just add cavern of souls in it's place when i figure out what to cut. Thanks for the catch.
Faultgrinder. I'm not a huge fan of land destruction cards in general. The 5 evoke cost for a 4 body also isn't quite tempting in this case. Personally i don't intend to use it, but if your meta has players recurring Glacial Chasms each turn or some other disgusting plays, i would recommend putting it in to round out the toolbox.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Have you considered Ball Lightning? Sacrifices itself and gives you a second seven power/toughness guy for Wild Pair.
Yeah that's a fair point on Faultgrinder. Ball Lightning was in the original version on the deck alongside Groundbreaker. The reason they were both removed was because getting triple red or green during the early turns of a game was fairly difficult to achieve. While on that note, I'm not too happy with Spark Elemental and Hellspark Elemental at the moment. Playing them on the curve at turn 1-2 usually dosen't feel impactful enough at 3 points of damage, and sometimes even feels like a waste without having Kresh out. On the other hand, they work pretty nicely with cards like Birthing Pod, Greater Good and Diabolic Intent, alongside Kresh himself. Considering that i need to make a few cuts currently, these 2 seem the most likely to go soon.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Usually when Wild Pair gets played, i end up getting a Grinning Ignus fairly easily since the most common combined p/t box is 4. Ignus inturn gives me access to haste/inner-flame acolyte for haste( +pump), Bane of Progress for artifact/enchantment destruction, and Incandescent Soulstoke which cheats out bigger creatures as well as jump Grinning Ignus into the p/t 6 box which gives me access to a pump and artifact removal.
The issue is that i feel myself wanting to
A)Jump just one box instead of 2 to gain access to creature removal/sacengine (or jump to another box for say trample or something else)
B)Bounce one of the creatures i've fetched to replay it a 2nd time for its effect or to fetch something from another box.
If anyone has any ideas regarding to how i might achieve that, please do let me know.
For the moment i'm planning to add Yisan in as another CMC engine. For the bounce solution, i may look towards Temur Sabertooth. It fills out the p/t 7 box to pair with Spitebellow and provides a repeatable bounce engine to abuse wild pair and other etb creatures alongside bouncing manifested cards from Whisperwood if needed. It also synergises with Sneak Attack to make it repeatable.
EDIT: For jumping boxes by 1, Inner-Flame Igniter seems to be a possible choice. The card is not all that great on its own merits though.
Btw I believe i understand how this works, but i better ask just incase. If i have Wild Pair on the board and i cast Igniter from hand, i can respond to the Wild Pair trigger with Igniter's ability to jump boxes right away yes?
With Igniter, it should then be possible to fetch creatures from the p/t 5 and 7 boxes which would give access to a sac engine, creature spot removal, and creature bounce as well as yisan. Since Yisan can fetch a cmc 1 creature, it would then be possible to get any creature in the deck into play via flamekin harbinger + draw (from another creature, p/t 10 or 12) + soulkin's ability to put into play or lightning serpent + bounce and recasting as appropriate.
At this point i figure it should be relevant to start thinking of all the effects available from the toolbox.
elemental tutor to top of deck
additional mana for elemental spells and abilities
colorless mana generation
R mana generation or color fixing
reduce cost of elementals by 1
spot trample
spot haste
one time sneak attack effect
unconditional sac engine
mass haste
champion elemental
spot artifact removal
mass artifact and enchantment board wipe
spot creature removal
yisan engine
creature bounce
pump effects
mass trample
card draw
damage prevention
6 dmg to all flying creatures
tyrant of discord random sac effect
token production
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
I might try to add.
Song of the Dryads
Craterhoof Behemoth
Yisan, the Wandering Bard
Temur Sabertooth
Inner-Flame Igniter
And Remove
Tornado Elemental (My meta doesn't run much flying)
Spark Elemental,
Hellspark Elemental
Arc Runner
1 other card.
The deck is a toolbox, which on it's own requires the player to be very familiar with the cards within it. Not only do you need to remember all the creatures and their functions, but also their cmc and combined p/t to effectively use Birthing Pod and Wild Pair without annoying other players at the table by taking 20 minutes a turn. The only thing i can suggest is practice as much as you can read the cards once in awhile to memorize whats in the deck. During the game, when you have a search engine out, you should already know what the best option you have available in the deck for any given situation is going to be before you search for it.
You can print out the Birthing Pod/Wild Pair Chain post above if it helps. My friend uses it as a 'cheat sheet' to glance at during games so that he knows what options he has for any given engine.
Other random tips.
Don't just play Kresh just because you can. If you play him you usually want to have some form of haste and/or protection so that he has impact the turn he comes into play.
Sac Engines are really strong, so keep them if they end up in your opening hand.
Fatal Frenzy, Berserk, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Phyrexian Devourer and some other cards can lead to some really cheesy kills with Kresh. Most of the time all you need is a source of trample.
Make sure your removals are used to get the most impact you can in a game. It usually isn't worthwhile to use Shriekmaw on a random 2/2 just to pump Kresh up by 5 unless you can secure the win with that play.
Overall, get used to the cards so that you always know what options you have to each problem your opponents put forward, then capitalize on the situation when you are able to. Hope that helps.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W
Changelog:
- Raging Ravine + Mountain
- Lavaclaw Reaches + Mountain
- Chaos Warp + Song of the Dryads
- Spark Elemental + Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
- Hellspark Elemental + Temur Sabertooth
- Arc Runner + Omnath, Locus of Rage
- Splinterfright + Flameshadow Conjuring
- Living Hive + Avenger of Zendikar
Decided to cutdown on a few unessential cipt lands to help speed up the deck a little.
Chaos Warp simply hasn't performed up to expectations ever the tuck rule change. I mainly used it to take care of problem commanders. Song of the Dryads seems like it could take over the role perfectly.
Yisan as mentioned is an additional engine that i wished to add into the deck as Birthing Pod no 2.
Temur Sabertooth is in temporarily as a method to bounce my own creatures. I see this being a way to reuse etb creature effects. There is synergy with Sneak Attack as well. Lastly, it finally acts as a Wild Pair counterpart to Spitebellows, which was missing earlier.
Flameshadow Conjuring seems like it fits the deck well. I'll test it before giving any thoughts.
Lastly, Omnath and AoZ are good elementals allroud that deserve to be tried out.
Norin the Wary (BRB) R
Blind Seer (Hose Everything) U
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy (Double Dipping) UBR
Borborygmos Enraged (Crush Mountains, Eat Forests) GR
Kresh the Bloodbraided (Get Wild) GRB
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (Test Your Math) WUR
Toshiro Umezawa (Instant Reanimation) B
Dralnu, Lich Lord (Mill then Will) UB
Rakdos the Defiler (Death at any Cost) BR
Iwamori of the Open Fist (Wheel and Deal) G
Crovax, Ascendant Hero (Balancing Eggs) W