MTG Salvation

I need some help refining my squirrel deck. This is a casual deck and I'd like to keep it Legacy compliant. My goal is to just create squirrels as quickly as possible and attack for the win. Also, I'm aware of the Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest combo and don't want to include it. Here's what I've got so far:



As you can see, I'm using Lure to for my pseudo-win condition. I prefer this approach to Garruk Wildspeaker or Overrun.

Arbor Elf and any land auras get pretty ridiculous. My favorite play is a turn 3 Deranged Hermit + Oran-Rief activation. I felt including the mana acceleration was necessary because as you can see, things get congested at the 4cc slot pretty quickly.

I'm leaning towards Muraganda Petroglyphs over Squirrel Wrangler because I see a lot of cards like Marsh Casualties. This is also why I'm not running Nut Collector. All of this is still up in the air though.

Other cards I've considered (but not opposed to):
Alpha Status, Chrome Mox, Deserted Temple, Doubling Season, Druid's Call, Echoing Courage, Essence Warden, Gaea's Anthem, Harmony of Nature, Krosan Beast, Liege of the Hollows, Nantuko Shrine, Nature's Lore, Nut Collector, Raking Canopy, Slate of Ancestry, Spidersilk Armor, Squirrel Wrangler.

Any ideas on how I can speed this up or improve it's consistency? Thanks!

Well, my old squirrel deck would win about 90% of the time because of tribal unity. Boost at instant speed for all your squirrels.. thats what you are looking for. It was better than overrun because you could response to pyroclasm and the like... Also, with more mana, you can boost to a +5/+5 to all your little dude...

I would drop a few wild growth, drop both might of oaks, increase parralel evolution and add tribal unity.

You should ABSOLUTLY drop the harmonize and add 4 x fecundity . It is so ridiculous with squirrels...

Other than that, that deck is fun to play.

Nice thinking about the arbor elf and squirrel nest!! Me like!

You know..Tribal Unity is rather good tech indeed. I'm going to try replacing my Overruns. Thanks.

If Squirrel Nest is just too much for you, I suggest using Ant Queen w/Earthcraft and Garruk's first ability instead. Pretty silly withouth going into infinite territory. Yeah..not a squirrel card, but might be worth it.

Quote from Jacko »

You should ABSOLUTELY drop the harmonize and add 4 x fecundity . It is so ridiculous with squirrels...

Ever heard of Skullclamp?

Harmony of Nature can be flat out filthy w/Squirrels or any token deck, really. Tangle can set up some awesome Alpha Strikes. Spidersilk Armor can plug some holes too.

Thanks, and great idea with Fecundity! That would rock in a deck like this. Skullclamp would be absolutely broken too, but I'm trying to keep this Legacy.

The thing about Tribal Unity and Echoing Courage type cards is that I'm usually spending the bulk of my mana during my turn. I hate to have the keep mana open just in case they try to Pyroclasm, etc. That's why I've been leaning towards Muraganda Petroglyphs, as I can tap out and feel relatively safe (my meta's sweeper heavy).

Quote from Morphling

Ever heard of Skullclamp?

Yeah, well we banned Skullclamp in our casual games... It was just too much abusive.

Tribal unity is not only there to save you creatures (from pyroclasm for exemple), but to do an alpha strike and win the game at instant speed....

With enough mana, you can take out 2-3 opponents at once...

It's a little more expensive but I'd use nemesis mask over lure, just to keep it on the board if the guy you enchant/equip gets nailed by removal (or combat and your alpha strike doesn't get the win for some reason).

Crop Rotation Gaea's Cradle If you can get your hands on one. Doubling Season is almost a must
Tribal Unity is a fun play with Crop Rotation and Gaea's Cradle since it's all instant speed.
Echoing Courage is a good card since all your tokens have the same name.

Here my Squirrel Deck if your interested.


Hope I helped:D

EDIT: I know you dont want the Earthcraft - Squirrel Nest Combo in your deck but even if you dont draw the nest. Earth craft is still an amazing way to accel your game, tap your tokens that you just made to untap you lands to play more spells.

Rhys the Redeemed would be sick. Overgrowth with Arbor elf is sick too!

Thanks for the idea everyone! I really like Crop Rotation into Gaea's Cradle and then Tribal Unity for an instant speed alpha strike. That's awesome. Unfortunately I don't have any Cradles and at $25 a pop, probably won't anytime soon. But with all the recommendations for Tribal Unity, I'm going to swap the Petroglyphs out. Maybe the Arbor Elf/Wild Growth mana engine will be a good enough alternative.

Doubling Season's another card I've looked at several times and seen people recommending. It's always struck me as kinda slow though. For those running it, how's it worked out and what's the general strategy behind it? At 5cc, wouldn't it be better to be doubling your tokens instead? Or is it one of those nutz-o cards that you just have to try?

You might want to add one or two Deserted Temple for additional untaps of the Nests and Overgrown lands. It's also good with a Cradle if you ever get one.
Other than that: Lifeline is really fun with Deranged Hermit. Just don't pay for echo and get more Squirrels every turn.

[Edit] About the Doubling Season: It is nutz. Every Hermit that enters the battlefield after the Season hits the board will net you 8 Squirrels, each Oran-Rief will put two counters on your fresh creatures and Garruk, if you play him, will enter the battlefield with 6 loyalty counters, ready to overrun your opps. Try it. [/Edit]

Ardeyn

Yes, sometimes Doubling Season can be slow. I've found myself a few times wondering whether to play it or a spell (Acorn Harvest, Parallel Evolution, etc) But if you can get it off and live to go off with a creature spell, (Chatter, Acorn, Deranged, etc) It goes ungodly, and with Earthcraft, you can tap those tokens you just made to play more spells or flashback that Parallen Evolution you just played tripling your tokens again.

Although, I have found one main problem with my squirrel deck. Yes I can get a big Squirrel Mob but I can never give it trample and that has lost me a few games. So I took out Garruk and one Echoing Courage and put in a few Overruns. Will prolly take out something else to put a third one in.

But overall, it is a VERY fun deck.

Quote from NightxWalker

Although, I have found one main problem with my squirrel deck. Yes I can get a big Squirrel Mob but I can never give it trample and that has lost me a few games.

Have you considered putting in a single Sejiri Steppe? You already run Crop Rotation, so this could be another search target for instant speed protection on your Squirrel Mob.

Yeah, definitely a fun deck! I'll be trying out some of these new ideas today and posting my updated list later.

EDIT: Updated decklist...

I'll talk about some of my choices here.

// Creatures //
Arbor Elf - Combos with Squirrel Nest and Wild Growth for early acceleration. Also counts as a green dude for Gaea's Cradle. I always hope for this as my turn-1 play.

// Spells //
Harmonize - I still like the idea of Fecundity in a token swarming deck, but during testing, I was always wishing it was Harmonize to immediately give me some cards. I'm even thinking of increasing this to 4x.

Parallel Evolution - No doubt this card is a house, and I'm thinking better than Doubling Season in the "duplication" 5cc slot. I hear you guys saying Doubling Season is nutz, but it's delayed payoff seems too slow and unncessary. I'd rather max out the Evolutions first before including it; however, 3 Evolutions feels about right as is. That said, I should probably test Doubling Season anyway - lol.

Tribal Unity - I'm glad I finally listened to everyone and tested this card because man, it rocks. It's been so good I just dropped the whole Lure plan in exchange for this win-condition.

// Lands //
Gaea's Cradle - I've been playing with a proxy and WOW - this thing is amazing. I'm definitely snagging a real one. It's so good I reworked a good part of my deck around it and created a sort of tool-box land base.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - I dropped them all because during testing, there were just too many instances where it's CIPT nature slowed me down (a whole turn or more). Compound that with the fact that its ability replaces a mana source and I just felt it wasn't a good fit for a deck that it mana hungry and wants to be agressively fast.

Deserted Temple - Since I'm running 4x Crop Rotation, if I find myself with a spare, the Temple is a nice fetch target as it nearly doubles my Gaea's Cradle.

Miren, the Moaning Well - My fetchable life-gain solution when in a crunch.

Sejiri Steppe - A giant 18/18 Squirrel Mob with protection is good times.

Anyway, I think I'm getting close to a build I'm happy with. I like most of my card choices but not certain about the quantities - Wild Growth and Acorn Harvest in particular.

I'm curious what you guys think about all this. And thanks again for the help!

You should replace Arbor Elf with Voyaging Satyr. Voyaging Satyr with Gaea's Cradle would be a crazy combo.

Parallel Lives is better than doubling season here. I'm really not sure that its playable either though.