MTG Salvation

Current Updated Sis and I talked further and we realized that this deck is leaning more and more to artifact shenanigans by focusing on using Kuldotha Forgemaster with the smaller servo tokens from early game into a lategame power house combo of Darksteel Forge + Mycosynth Lattice + Nevinyrral's Disk. Now this will be hard on the budget but we figured that between Second Harvest and Parallel Lives should be met while still allowing maximum flexibility with the budget. My only concern is the response of the playgroup to such an off the wall gameplan. But I will probs be the one cowering in terror at what else she discovers with the Kuldotha Forgemaster combos with edhrec.com

My lil sis is a young teenager looking to bond with her big bro. Since she saw how much fun I was having with my friends playing commander,she wants in. She has a few conditions though which I have listed below for both my own sanity and to guide any potential help I may get on this as I essentially clueless on green and artifact interactions for the most part. Thanks for the help in advance!

Her Conditions

• I am giving her free access to my spare commander staples
• I am giving her a max of $100 worth of purchase/trade credit to build the deck with me/my pod
• The deck must be built from scratch; was very specific she wanted to go though the deck building process just like her big bro (aka no premade decks to start...)

Now that the rules are established lets look at what I already have worked out with her

• She wants here commander to be Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter (odd choice but she is adamant on the sweet old lady)
• She wants "big" mana like me (I run Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker w/ cabal coffers...)
• She wants "big" creatures so she can and I quote "Too beat your demons into jelly!"

So essentially I believe her deck will be focused on using her commander to make small tokens early then make evening bigger tokens to go toe to toe with my demons.

For more big mana, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is probably a good choice.

For more ramp, Wood Elves and Sword of the Animist.

Parallel Lives doubles her tokens and is a lot easier on the budget than Doubling Season. This works well with some other token generators, such as Snake Basket.

Cheap deathtouch creatures like Ambush Viper and Deadly Recluse help even the odds against larger creatures until she puts out big ones of her own. Fight effects like Prey Upon - and especially reusable ones like Ulvenwald Tracker - help her make the most of the cheap deathtouch guys.

Nature's Lore is pretty much better than Rampant Growth in mono-green, so is Sakura-Tribe Elder in a deck that cares about creatures. Parallel Livesfor token spam. Beast Within should be an auto-include in mono-green, same with Krosan Grip but depending on your meta it might not be worth it. I'd add some mana elves as well, seems to have good synergy with Oviya. Overwhelming Stampede and Overrun should both be good too. Cultivator of Blades for a budget Craterhoof. Terastodon should be good in mono-green ramp.

Primal Vigor and Sprouting Phytohydra would have great synergy with her.

While pricey on the budget, you're probably going to want a Seedborn Muse in that deck, to allow Oviya to push out more tokens. This would go along nicely with a Yeva, Nature's Herald and Vedalken Orrery, neither of which are all that pricey and should be easier on the budget.
Some money-wise cheap fatties include stuff like Terastodon, Pelakka Wurm, Steel Hellkite, Giant Adephage, Artisan of Kozilek, Avenger of Zendikar, Decimator of the Provinces, Bane of Bala Ged, Chancellor of the Tangle, Desolation Twin, Void Winnower, Garruk's Horde, Hornet Queen, Moldgraf Monstrosity, Patron of the Orochi and Myojin of Life's Web. Each of these are perfectly serviceable cards and can, should trades/budget allow for it later on, be upgraded with ease though some might prove to be worthy of their spot.
Gigantomancer is a cute way of turning Oviya's small servos into huge beatsticks.
Shamanic Revelation and it's strictly worse cousin Collective Unconscious help in the drawpower segment. Oviya's tokens also lend themselves very well to a Skullclamp.

Quote from JDviant »

Oviya is an interesting choice, kudos to your sis. There's not even a list up on this site for her yet! She is very unique, since largely G is anti-artifact.

Since you already have the journal, Tireless Tracker is a darn fine clue artifact maker. Ulvenwald Mysteries too, since clues get her bigger guys or draw her cards, always good!

Lifecrafter's Bestiary is also really good here.

Since you play demons, if you don't mind giving her a leg up on you, direct her towards Silklash Spider or Arbor Colossus, that sort of thing.

Loving the idea of going all in on clue generation, perhaps Kuldotha Forgemaster could put them to good use? Will have to think on Plummet cards but I can see Hurricane as perfectly fair as it has a damage all players attached. Oh and the Lifecrafter's Bestiary will do nicely as a draw engine in addition to the clues

Quote from JWK »

For more big mana, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is probably a good choice.

For more ramp, Wood Elves and Sword of the Animist.

Parallel Lives doubles her tokens and is a lot easier on the budget than Doubling Season. This works well with some other token generators, such as Snake Basket.

Cheap deathtouch creatures like Ambush Viper and Deadly Recluse help even the odds against larger creatures until she puts out big ones of her own. Fight effects like Prey Upon - and especially reusable ones like Ulvenwald Tracker - help her make the most of the cheap deathtouch guys.

I really like the idea on Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, as is able to fill the big mana land demand without breaking bank! As for the sword of the animist I only have one currently, but they should be simple enough to find so I can track down a second with no sweat hopefully.

Quote from 75chan »

Nature's Lore is pretty much better than Rampant Growth in mono-green, so is Sakura-Tribe Elder in a deck that cares about creatures. Parallel Livesfor token spam. Beast Within should be an auto-include in mono-green, same with Krosan Grip but depending on your meta it might not be worth it. I'd add some mana elves as well, seems to have good synergy with Oviya. Overwhelming Stampede and Overrun should both be good too. Cultivator of Blades for a budget Craterhoof. Terastodon should be good in mono-green ramp.

Poorman's craterhoof? Count me in!

Quote from Anara_of_the_Old_Ways »

Primal Vigor and Sprouting Phytohydra would have great synergy with her.

Primal Vigor is certainly upticking for a "cheaper" doubling season but I certainly think it is do-able! Thanks for the suggestion!

Quote from LouCypher »

While pricey on the budget, you're probably going to want a Seedborn Muse in that deck, to allow Oviya to push out more tokens. This would go along nicely with a Yeva, Nature's Herald and Vedalken Orrery, neither of which are all that pricey and should be easier on the budget.
Some money-wise cheap fatties include stuff like Terastodon, Pelakka Wurm, Steel Hellkite, Giant Adephage, Artisan of Kozilek, Avenger of Zendikar, Decimator of the Provinces, Bane of Bala Ged, Chancellor of the Tangle, Desolation Twin, Void Winnower, Garruk's Horde, Hornet Queen, Moldgraf Monstrosity, Patron of the Orochi and Myojin of Life's Web. Each of these are perfectly serviceable cards and can, should trades/budget allow for it later on, be upgraded with ease though some might prove to be worthy of their spot.
Gigantomancer is a cute way of turning Oviya's small servos into huge beatsticks.
Shamanic Revelation and it's strictly worse cousin Collective Unconscious help in the drawpower segment. Oviya's tokens also lend themselves very well to a Skullclamp.

I have a second skullclamp so that will be included for sure! Also steel hellkite would be an excellent Kuldotha Forgemaster target, also loving the flash utility so will look into the elf as I am certain there is a Vedalken Orrery lying around unused.

Thanks for all the feedback thus far! Will start looking to see what cards suggested I have and which ones I need to make a trip to the local game store for either trading or getting that elusive parallel lives.

Do some cards that untapp her. Life Elixir, is that one? There is also another artifact very similar to it.

No commander deck is complete without at least 10 mana generation/aceleration cards and 10 card draw cards. Personally I like 10 removal cards at least. Including artifact, enchantment and creatures. The last one might be diffikult on a budget in green. That leaves around 30 cards. So between 20 and 25 cards to support the theme, and 5 to 10 just good cards like eternal witnes or tutors. I usualy run around 38 lands.

So
38 lands
10 card draw (like lifecraft's beastiary)
10 mana aceleration (sol ring and codamans reach)
10 removal spells (acidic slime and duplicant, silklash spider etc)
5 to 10 good cards (eternal witness)
20 to 25 on theme cards (snake basket for making tokens, or just a big creature that can smash your demons)
1 commander
1 card of your choise
And that is 100 cards. A good balance of everything the doctor ordered for people who are a bit new to magic.

Hmm, if Primal Vigor spiked, there is always Parallel Lives which for just token needs is also very helpful.

Even Parallel Lives has gotten a tiny bit pricey, but compared to Primal Vigor or Doubling Season, it's a bargain. I'd say it's a must-have, along with Second Harvest, which was mentioned above.

Illusionist's Bracers is also worth checking out, as it doubles activated abilities. Thus, Oviya will make two tokens every time she's activated.

Saproling Symbiosis is a somewhat obscure card that does good work in token decks and has great synergy with the other token stuff discussed so far.

Hmm. There is Awakening Zone (about $2.67-3.75) and then you have its cheaper priced cousin From Beyond (About $0.30-2.31). Price ranges taken from TCGplayer.com at time of writing this, price may vary.

Chord of Calling to help tutor up utility creatures, or just a fatty like the Big Pig to help end the game.

Avenger of Zendikar to help with your token theme? Greenwarden of Murasa for a cheaper ($ wise) Eternal Witness. Also Skullwinder.

Hurricane (or Squall Line) so she can end the game in a big way as well as sweep all your demons.

I can't speak highly enough for Second Harvest, now mentioned a third time (the card is like a buck in-store, less online). I think that Paradox Engine might be a nice investment, potentially for untap tricks with the general.

Rings of Brighthearth works, but it may threaten that budget implemented.

Shamanic Revelation/Collective Unconscious (also mentioned earlier) are great budget options for draw.

Pathbreaker Ibex, Wild Beastmaster, and Cultivator of Blades all paired Beastmaster Ascension can be effective.

If you're running plenty of colorless token generators (since Mrs Pashiri produces colorless tokens), then All is Dust is a great boardwipe choice (it's not exactly cheap, but MM2 already helped in doing a number on its price), especially if you're also running From Beyond, which is an effective tutor for the boardwipe. Boardwipes are always a necessary part of deckbuilding even if the plan is to battlecruiser and it's always better to pick the one that favors your deck style.

Some other random (and should be budget) cards I can think of are Shamanic Revelation for card draw, Ezuri's Predation for a fight-orientated board-wipe (although that one needs additional help when dealing with larger creatures) and Strength of the Tajuru since it's flexible.

I forgot about Ezuri's Predation, seems like you're heading in a token based direction. That card is cheap too, may be a good idea to get a playset because it seems hard to reprint.

Some addition sources of tokens may be horncaller's chant or druid's deliverance for populate synergy. An artifact to tutor for may be phyrexian processor for large tokens. If she plays most of the ways to double creature tokens, nacatl war-pride can make some gigantic armies. Most of these are under $1.

I'll third including Hurricane and Squall Line - great cards, both for anti-player and anti-demon use. Silklash Spider, too.

Heroic Intervention and Triumph of the Hordes are a pair of green cards that token swarms love to see.

If she goes heavy basic land, then Early Harvest can allow for an explosive turn, or even political use in a pinch.

Cheers!

Oh how silly of me. I forgot the sister artifact for Thousand-Year Elixir, Magewright's Stone.

EDIT: Acorn Catapult. The squirrel army shall block out the sun!

Orochi Hatchery and Everflowing Chalice are both artifacts that play well with double counters, and both are less than a dollar from their recent printings in the CMDR decks.

Pathbreaker Ibex is a great way to force through damage with large X/X Constructs around.

Darksteel Forge is moderately pricey if you're on a budget (about $7), but it plays well with all the artifact creatures Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter makes, and can be fetched with Kuldotha Forgemaster. It also lets you do cool things with Nevinyrral's Disk, which a mono-green deck will probably need as mass creature removal is pretty sparse.

Good luck making the deck. I hope your sister enjoys it.

Quote from Impossible »

Orochi Hatchery and Everflowing Chalice are both artifacts that play well with double counters, and both are less than a dollar from their recent printings in the CMDR decks.

Pathbreaker Ibex is a great way to force through damage with large X/X Constructs around.

Darksteel Forge is moderately pricey if you're on a budget (about $7), but it plays well with all the artifact creatures Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter makes, and can be fetched with Kuldotha Forgemaster. It also lets you do cool things with Nevinyrral's Disk, which a mono-green deck will probably need as mass creature removal is pretty sparse.

Good luck making the deck. I hope your sister enjoys it.

First off epic suggestion with darksteel forge + Nevinyrral's Disk; now we looked up taking that combo to the limit with Mycosynth Lattice which if we remove primal vigor in favor for lattice we should be able to do this combo, and it can be ow down in green! Which will blow peoples minds! Thank you for the off the wall that might just work!

Quote from Serberus_08 »

I can't speak highly enough for Second Harvest, now mentioned a third time (the card is like a buck in-store, less online). I think that Paradox Engine might be a nice investment, potentially for untap tricks with the general.

Rings of Brighthearth works, but it may threaten that budget implemented.

Shamanic Revelation/Collective Unconscious (also mentioned earlier) are great budget options for draw.

Pathbreaker Ibex, Wild Beastmaster, and Cultivator of Blades all paired Beastmaster Ascension can be effective.

Loving the budget craterhoof behemoth suggestions and will be sure to look into them. Now what really stood out is the constant suggestion of Shamanic Revelation and Collective Unconscious and for all those who suggested I hear you and will be for sure added!

Quote from Schutzwald »

Chord of Calling to help tutor up utility creatures, or just a fatty like the Big Pig to help end the game.

Avenger of Zendikar to help with your token theme? Greenwarden of Murasa for a cheaper ($ wise) Eternal Witness. Also Skullwinder.

Hurricane (or Squall Line) so she can end the game in a big way as well as sweep all your demons.

Seeing as the deck will be going in the direction of Kuldotha Forgemaster combos we will defiantly look into more eternal witness options and the almighty creature creature tutor Chord of Calling with the potential Eldritch Evolution.

Once again thanks for the epic feedback folks!

So everybody is throwing around ideas, which is great but I think an important question at first is: How competitive is your playgroup? Do you have a lot of combo? Many control/counterspell players? Mass-land destruction? Depending on how cutthroat the group is you want to give her a deck that is at least able to follow the rate of play. Not that it's necessary to win, but when the game is over every time before you have the mana to cast Terastodon it might scare away new players (seen it before..).

With that out of the way, Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter is an awesome card! I have so many EDH projects that I will never get around to building a deck with her, but it's a great commander, especially because she only has a CMC of 1.

The suggestions here are already moving towards a token build supported by big finishers, which should be a good way to go for a starting player.
I would suggest to play Woodland Bellower + Fierce Empath as the Bellower can find the Elf which grabs you another large creature from your deck (and the other way around as well). There are some nice reprints for green decks in Eternal Masters, for instance Regal Force is now really cheap and great for a mono-green token build.

Hornet Nest is a nice early game roadblock that makes tokens. Hornet Queen, Mycoloth, Hangarback Walker, Avenger of Zendikar, Beacon of Creation, make a lot of bodies for their cost. Thelonite Hermit is fine and Deranged Hermit is one of my favorite cards in the game.

Evolutionary Leap is also great with tokens, if you have a copy of Chord of Calling I would include that as well as it let's you find a big creature early with the commander and a few of her tokens.

Cryptolith Rite for extra mana, you can also run the usual Cultivate etc. Garruk Wildspeaker is not very expensive and ramps / overruns in one go. Beastmaster Ascension does great work with tokens. Cultivator of Blades is tokens + overrun-like.

For removal you can run Beast Within, Krosan Grip is very good against artifact/enchantment based combo, if you go Kuldotha Forgemaster you can also run Spine of Ish Sah as repeatable catch-all removal. Myr Battlesphere gives you food for the Forgemaster as well as tokens to keep it in theme. If you go all-in on the artifact tokens, Steel Overseer is really good.

Spawning Pit feels like it deserves a slot, it allows you to quickly rebuild when the board gets wiped.

And finally, and most importantly, never leave home without the Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest combo to beat people with an infinite number of very cute 1/1 Squirrel tokens (The combo is so fluffy it is always allowed).