I spent close to a week trying to build a monoGreen deck with absolutely no progress. Green ramp and stompy just isn't fun for me. So, I started looking at Green/x legends for ideas, but was completely stumped as I've built basically all of them. After a while, I stumbled into Phosphorus's Underhanded Diplomacy with Pharika thread and decided to build a political control deck with Pharika at the helm. I also looked at The Gitrog Monster but past it over due to how easy the deck would be to build.
This section goes to cards that either: I didn't really want in but put in because they're just really good; I didn't have a better option on hand and needed something with that effect; or just so happen to make the cut either as a throw in or simply because it made another throw in more tollerable. I'm going to give a decent discription on why the card is in the deck and why it's a possible cut.
***ON RAMP***
I have a really low curve and I kept it that way specifically so that I wouldn't need tons of ramp. Ramp is helpful. Ramp is good. It's always good to have extra mana, but I'm not going to be pumping out bunches of tokens with my extra mana, nor am I ramping into a bunch of big threats. Cutting ramp cards isn't a popular thing in green, but I feel that without them I can put more substance and extra tech that wouldn't make the cut otherwise.
1. Viscera Seer - I needed more sac outlets and another 1cmc for Birthing pod. Never found him every useful in other decks, but he's better than the plethora of other things that just give themselves +1/+1.
2. Fauna Shaman - She's good. She's not a card I get to use a lot, because she dies a lot, but when I do get to use her she's really good. She typically just eats a removal spell pretty reliably, but less often than Survival of the Fittest.
3. Bloodghast - It's in the deck entirely because of Skullclamp. Basically a throw in.
5. Azusa, Lost but Seeking - She's good ramp if you have a reliable draw engine up, but like Fauna Shaman she eats removal like a champ. Been playing the card for years and the only reason I get a half decent amount of ramp off her is because she's recurrable.
6. Brawn - Provides Trample. Kind of a throw in, but still an effect that I need.
7. Creakwood Liege - Makes my creatures ever so slightly bigger. It's a throw in.
9. Faceless Butcher - Exiled-type removal is always better, though it needs a sac outlet to make full use. One of the reasons that I wanted more sac outlets, including Viscera Seer.
10. Gray Merchant of Asphodel - I need life gain and a solid win condition. I typically build decks with the assumption that 90% of my stuff won't stay on the board, so I've always held it in less regard than most other people. Too good to pass up considering how quickly Phyrexian Reclamation kills me.
11. Doomwake Giant - Kills off the tokens I'm giving away. I need something to do it if I need it done, but it's not really capable of killing anything else. Half tempted to just replace it with an actual board wipe.
12. Vigor - Keeps my snake tokens alive while allowing them to kill other things and making all my things bigger. My only problem with Vigor is that I always run lots of fight mechanic or things like Blasphemous act with him, and I don't have either of those in the deck this time.
13. Exploration - Really good early game, but really dreadful late game. Kind of like Sol Ring.
14.Green Sun's Zenith - Good tutor for a bunch of cards, but It can only pull green things. I really hate that it can only tutor about half of my creatures, and I'm tempted to cut it just for that. If I had an extra Demonic Tutor, then It wouldn't have made the cut in the first place.
15. Entomb - It's good. I have dredge things. Though, to be honest, there really isn't much that likes being in the graveyard and the ones that do are possible cuts. If they go, then odds are that it's gone as well.
16. Necrogenesis - REALLY good grave hate... with Ashnod's altar, which I'm not running. It also clashes with Pharika, but it only gives me tokens. My foil was too pretty not to include in combination with how good it is.
17. Birthing Pod - It's really good. Too good to pass up when I'm making tokens and always have somewhere to start the chain. Reasons I don't like it: It's sorcery speed; I always pay the 2 life to save mana, eating through my life; I don't have many one drops to even start the chain; and it tends to just eat a removal spell without being that useful. Still too good to pass up.
18. Grave Pact - It's a good effect in a deck where I don't care if my own creatures stay around for long, but I am giving away tokens. I'd much rather people sacrifice things that I didn't give them, but Grave pact a really good repeatable sacrifice effect vs putting in a spot removal spell or significantly weaker options like Doomwake Giant.
19. Perilous Forays - It's literally only in the deck because Bloodghast somehow made the cut and I wanted an actual use for it. Easily cuttable without bloodghast. Ashnod's altar is a pretty easy choice of replacement.
This section is mostly for cards that just didn't make the cut during deckbuilding. Some cards I really wanted in but couldn't justify it or cards that I cut because I needed more of a specific effect.
1. Spore Frog - Love this card. I still want more 1cmc creatures for Birthing Pod, but I just didn't see recurrable fog as being an important enough effect.
2. Indrik Stomphowler - 5cmc is too much for this effect, but even now I don't think I have enough answers for Artifacts and Enchantments.
3. Loaming Shaman - Selectively shuffling people's stuff back in could be really useful against the right decks, but ultimately niche. That, and Bow of Nylea does a few extra things that could be helpful.
4. Crypt Ghast - Extort and extra black mana is really nice, but it only gives black mana. I'd rather have the extra green, but I still want the extort. Either way, it didn't make the cut.
6. Woodfall Primus - Normally an auto-include, but with me trying to cut down on ramp and it being 8cmc. I cut it for the sake of my mana curve, and the fact that Brutalizer Exarch has an effect that does the job just as well, if not better at times, and all for 6cmc.
7. Avenger of Zendikar - Normally an Auto-include, but high cmc and I'm trying not to ramp. Not really the place for it regardless of how tempting it is.
8. Extractor Demon - MORE FUEL FOR PHARIKA! Combos really well with Necrogenesis and Ashnod's Altar, but without Ashnod's Altar it didn't stand a chance of making the cut with 6cmc.
9. Reaper from the Abyss - Card that I've had for quite a while and put to suprisingly effective use lately. Shadowborn Demon is just too good at a lower cmc, so Reaper just didn't make the cut.
10. Soul of the Harvest - More 6+cmc. As much as I kind of need more draw in the deck, the more 6+cmc things I have to fit in, the more ramp I have to have.
11. Snuff Out - Free Spot removal. There are two reasons it didn't make the cut: Creature's that kill creatures are easier to recur, and all the noncreature removal spells I had could target more things than it could.
12. Golgari Charm - Does 3 different things, but none of them where needed enough to warrant its inclusion.
13. Deglamer - This was a very difficult cut. I simply didn't have room for it and that's it. Really, really good removal spell, but exiling or split second is better.
14. Mulch - Can get me a card and fill my grave, but I want more than just lands. Grisly salvage and Harmonize were just too good for Mulch to make the cut.
15. Sudden Reclamation - The real issue was the 4cmc. It fixes most of the issues that I had with mulch but at double to cost, but it still didn't match Grisly Salvage or Harmonize.
16. Strength of the Fallen - A card that I really wanted to try out, but I didn't know how effective it would be and I didn't really have the room.
17. Unearth - Phyrexian Reclamation took its typical place. Unearth is normally an auto-include for me, especially on low cmc builds like this, but I wanted to try out Phyrexian Reclamation and it's amazing.
18. Burgeoning - It's a good ramp card, which is both the reason it was considered and the reason it was cut.
19. Realms Uncharted - It's really good, but the only copy I have is Chinese and I can never remember what it does. I really need to pick up an english version.
21. Gaze of Granite - I have a Pernicous Deed. I was tempted to cut Decree of Pain instead because of the extra things Gaze of Granite would hit, but Decree's added draw was needed.
22. Black Sun's Zenith - Normally close to an auto-include to deal with indestructible creatures, but I don't want to kill my indestructible creature.
23. Shamanic Revelation - I really wanted to include this. I wanted the draw. I wanted the life gain. I would have easily cut Harmonize instead, and still might, but I can't guarantee that I'll draw cards off of it and I don't have enough 4 power creatures to consider the life gain a reliable effect.
24. Garruk Wildspeaker - It's ramp. As much as I want its -4, Eternal Witness is the only way to recur it and Planeswalkers are really hard to keep alive most times.
25. Whip of Erebos - Corpse Dance is a card that I heavily considered for the deck, as I can sac the creature for reuse and it's instant speed. Whip of Erebos does neither of those things. The ONLY reason it was/is considered is because of the lifegain. I have a lot of cards that drain my life both in the deck and being considered. The lifegain would be really helpful.
Spent about four days building this and I'm lacking a finisher or combo. Thinking of trying to fit at least one combo.
4. The last is have you thought about ways to give trample and pumps to your snakes? I see you are running Creeperhulk but with more trample and deathtouch you get some nice damage through as you only need 1 damage to kill the creature and the rest goes through. stuff like Rancor, Baru, Fist of Krosa, Garruk Wildspeaker or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa should help a lot with that.
4. The last is have you thought about ways to give trample and pumps to your snakes? I see you are running Creeperhulk but with more trample and deathtouch you get some nice damage through as you only need 1 damage to kill the creature and the rest goes through. stuff like Rancor, Baru, Fist of Krosa, Garruk Wildspeaker or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa should help a lot with that.
Thanks for the heads up on the broken links.
I've always been against Tortured Existence. It doesn't really gain anything and Phyrexian Reclamation is miles better. I think the 1-for-1 trade Tortured Existence gives just isn't good enough.
I will say that I need more draw. While deckbuilding I ended up with far more tutors than draw cards. I just have no clue what to drop for more draw. I've been thinking the whole time that I'm a bit low on creatures. I'm having a very hard time fitting all the things I want to fit in the deck, while also not having enough good cards to fit in. I also have nothing newer than Theros and even then not much of it either. Been on hiatus for quite a while and just haven't picked anything up, not that i've got the budget to go buy much anymore.
I actually don't have Creeperhulk. I am running Brawn for trample and Vigor for buffs, but not much else. Baru's effect is really weak, but Kamahl is really expensive if you need to drop him and overrun in the same turn. Garruk is ok but he got cut during deckbuilding mostly because I didn't want to have too many cards focusing on ramp and there's only one way to recur planeswalkers in the deck. I do need some sort of Overrun mechanic, but I don't really have anything reliable.
Since you can give people creatures without their consent, Portcullis and Ward of Bones could be amusing here. Pygmy Kavu looks good, too.
Don't have a Portcullis or a Pygmy Kavu. Pygmy Kavu's draw seems pretty good, so I might want to pick one up. Ward of Bones is pretty funny considering the Tokens I give away are also enchantments.
Seems like I have a bit more testing to do. I'm also trying to compensate for matches against creatureless or close to creatureless decks, if anyone has ideas on that.
Creatures
1 Veteran Explorer
1 Viscera Seer
2 Riftsweeper
2 Vampire Hexmage
2 Bloodghast
2 Fauna Shaman
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Golgari Thug
2 Nether Traitor
3 Eternal Witness
3 Big Game Hunter
3 Wood Elves
3 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
3 Reclamation Sage
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Brawn
4 Creakwood Liege
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Faceless Butcher
5 Shriekmaw
5 Shadowborn Demon
5 Acidic Slime
5 Ogre Slumlord
5 Doomwake Giant
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
6 Brutalizer Exarch
6 Deadwood Treefolk
6 Massacre Wurm
6 Vigor
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Skullclamp
4 Birthing Pod
Enchantments:
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Exploration
2 Sylvan Library
2 Survival of the Fittest
2 Oath of Druids
2 Oath of Ghouls
2 Necrogenesis
3 Bow of Nylea
3 Attrition
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Grave Pact
5 Perilous Forays
Sorceries:
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Life From the Loam
3 Fade Into Antiquity
3 Ashes to Ashes
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Harmonize
5 Worm Harvest
8 Decree of Pain
Instants:
1 Entomb
2 Reap
2 Grisly Salvage
3 Krosan Grip
3 Beast Within
3 Putrefy
0 Command Tower
0 Mana Confluence
0 Forbidden Orchard
0 Cavern of Souls
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Overgrown Tomb
0 Twilight Mire
0 Woodland Cemetery
0 Golgari Rot Farm
0 Golgari Guildgate
0 Jungle Hollow
0 Tainted Wood
0 Llanowar Wastes
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Dakmor Salvage
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Gaea's Cradle
0 Volrath's Stronghold
0 Phyrexian Tower
0 High Market
0 Ghost Quarter
0 Tectonic Edge
7x Swamp
9x Forest
This section goes to cards that either: I didn't really want in but put in because they're just really good; I didn't have a better option on hand and needed something with that effect; or just so happen to make the cut either as a throw in or simply because it made another throw in more tollerable. I'm going to give a decent discription on why the card is in the deck and why it's a possible cut.
***ON RAMP***
I have a really low curve and I kept it that way specifically so that I wouldn't need tons of ramp. Ramp is helpful. Ramp is good. It's always good to have extra mana, but I'm not going to be pumping out bunches of tokens with my extra mana, nor am I ramping into a bunch of big threats. Cutting ramp cards isn't a popular thing in green, but I feel that without them I can put more substance and extra tech that wouldn't make the cut otherwise.
1. Viscera Seer - I needed more sac outlets and another 1cmc for Birthing pod. Never found him every useful in other decks, but he's better than the plethora of other things that just give themselves +1/+1.
2. Fauna Shaman - She's good. She's not a card I get to use a lot, because she dies a lot, but when I do get to use her she's really good. She typically just eats a removal spell pretty reliably, but less often than Survival of the Fittest.
3. Bloodghast - It's in the deck entirely because of Skullclamp. Basically a throw in.
4. Nether Traitor - See Bloodghast.
5. Azusa, Lost but Seeking - She's good ramp if you have a reliable draw engine up, but like Fauna Shaman she eats removal like a champ. Been playing the card for years and the only reason I get a half decent amount of ramp off her is because she's recurrable.
6. Brawn - Provides Trample. Kind of a throw in, but still an effect that I need.
7. Creakwood Liege - Makes my creatures ever so slightly bigger. It's a throw in.
8. Oracle of Mul Daya - See Azusa, Lost but seeking, but add in the fact that people love reanimating and cloning her. Unfortunately, too good to pass up.
9. Faceless Butcher - Exiled-type removal is always better, though it needs a sac outlet to make full use. One of the reasons that I wanted more sac outlets, including Viscera Seer.
10. Gray Merchant of Asphodel - I need life gain and a solid win condition. I typically build decks with the assumption that 90% of my stuff won't stay on the board, so I've always held it in less regard than most other people. Too good to pass up considering how quickly Phyrexian Reclamation kills me.
11. Doomwake Giant - Kills off the tokens I'm giving away. I need something to do it if I need it done, but it's not really capable of killing anything else. Half tempted to just replace it with an actual board wipe.
12. Vigor - Keeps my snake tokens alive while allowing them to kill other things and making all my things bigger. My only problem with Vigor is that I always run lots of fight mechanic or things like Blasphemous act with him, and I don't have either of those in the deck this time.
13. Exploration - Really good early game, but really dreadful late game. Kind of like Sol Ring.
14.Green Sun's Zenith - Good tutor for a bunch of cards, but It can only pull green things. I really hate that it can only tutor about half of my creatures, and I'm tempted to cut it just for that. If I had an extra Demonic Tutor, then It wouldn't have made the cut in the first place.
15. Entomb - It's good. I have dredge things. Though, to be honest, there really isn't much that likes being in the graveyard and the ones that do are possible cuts. If they go, then odds are that it's gone as well.
16. Necrogenesis - REALLY good grave hate... with Ashnod's altar, which I'm not running. It also clashes with Pharika, but it only gives me tokens. My foil was too pretty not to include in combination with how good it is.
17. Birthing Pod - It's really good. Too good to pass up when I'm making tokens and always have somewhere to start the chain. Reasons I don't like it: It's sorcery speed; I always pay the 2 life to save mana, eating through my life; I don't have many one drops to even start the chain; and it tends to just eat a removal spell without being that useful. Still too good to pass up.
18. Grave Pact - It's a good effect in a deck where I don't care if my own creatures stay around for long, but I am giving away tokens. I'd much rather people sacrifice things that I didn't give them, but Grave pact a really good repeatable sacrifice effect vs putting in a spot removal spell or significantly weaker options like Doomwake Giant.
19. Perilous Forays - It's literally only in the deck because Bloodghast somehow made the cut and I wanted an actual use for it. Easily cuttable without bloodghast. Ashnod's altar is a pretty easy choice of replacement.
This section is mostly for cards that just didn't make the cut during deckbuilding. Some cards I really wanted in but couldn't justify it or cards that I cut because I needed more of a specific effect.
1. Spore Frog - Love this card. I still want more 1cmc creatures for Birthing Pod, but I just didn't see recurrable fog as being an important enough effect.
2. Indrik Stomphowler - 5cmc is too much for this effect, but even now I don't think I have enough answers for Artifacts and Enchantments.
3. Loaming Shaman - Selectively shuffling people's stuff back in could be really useful against the right decks, but ultimately niche. That, and Bow of Nylea does a few extra things that could be helpful.
4. Crypt Ghast - Extort and extra black mana is really nice, but it only gives black mana. I'd rather have the extra green, but I still want the extort. Either way, it didn't make the cut.
5. Reaper of the Wilds - Horray for Scry? That's basically all I see it being good for and Viscera Seer is 1cmc.
6. Woodfall Primus - Normally an auto-include, but with me trying to cut down on ramp and it being 8cmc. I cut it for the sake of my mana curve, and the fact that Brutalizer Exarch has an effect that does the job just as well, if not better at times, and all for 6cmc.
7. Avenger of Zendikar - Normally an Auto-include, but high cmc and I'm trying not to ramp. Not really the place for it regardless of how tempting it is.
8. Extractor Demon - MORE FUEL FOR PHARIKA! Combos really well with Necrogenesis and Ashnod's Altar, but without Ashnod's Altar it didn't stand a chance of making the cut with 6cmc.
9. Reaper from the Abyss - Card that I've had for quite a while and put to suprisingly effective use lately. Shadowborn Demon is just too good at a lower cmc, so Reaper just didn't make the cut.
10. Soul of the Harvest - More 6+cmc. As much as I kind of need more draw in the deck, the more 6+cmc things I have to fit in, the more ramp I have to have.
11. Snuff Out - Free Spot removal. There are two reasons it didn't make the cut: Creature's that kill creatures are easier to recur, and all the noncreature removal spells I had could target more things than it could.
12. Golgari Charm - Does 3 different things, but none of them where needed enough to warrant its inclusion.
13. Deglamer - This was a very difficult cut. I simply didn't have room for it and that's it. Really, really good removal spell, but exiling or split second is better.
14. Mulch - Can get me a card and fill my grave, but I want more than just lands. Grisly salvage and Harmonize were just too good for Mulch to make the cut.
15. Sudden Reclamation - The real issue was the 4cmc. It fixes most of the issues that I had with mulch but at double to cost, but it still didn't match Grisly Salvage or Harmonize.
16. Strength of the Fallen - A card that I really wanted to try out, but I didn't know how effective it would be and I didn't really have the room.
17. Unearth - Phyrexian Reclamation took its typical place. Unearth is normally an auto-include for me, especially on low cmc builds like this, but I wanted to try out Phyrexian Reclamation and it's amazing.
18. Burgeoning - It's a good ramp card, which is both the reason it was considered and the reason it was cut.
19. Realms Uncharted - It's really good, but the only copy I have is Chinese and I can never remember what it does. I really need to pick up an english version.
20. Deadbridge Chant - See Realms Uncharted, except my chant is in Russian. Another card I need to get an english copy of.
21. Gaze of Granite - I have a Pernicous Deed. I was tempted to cut Decree of Pain instead because of the extra things Gaze of Granite would hit, but Decree's added draw was needed.
22. Black Sun's Zenith - Normally close to an auto-include to deal with indestructible creatures, but I don't want to kill my indestructible creature.
23. Shamanic Revelation - I really wanted to include this. I wanted the draw. I wanted the life gain. I would have easily cut Harmonize instead, and still might, but I can't guarantee that I'll draw cards off of it and I don't have enough 4 power creatures to consider the life gain a reliable effect.
24. Garruk Wildspeaker - It's ramp. As much as I want its -4, Eternal Witness is the only way to recur it and Planeswalkers are really hard to keep alive most times.
25. Whip of Erebos - Corpse Dance is a card that I heavily considered for the deck, as I can sac the creature for reuse and it's instant speed. Whip of Erebos does neither of those things. The ONLY reason it was/is considered is because of the lifegain. I have a lot of cards that drain my life both in the deck and being considered. The lifegain would be really helpful.
Spent about four days building this and I'm lacking a finisher or combo. Thinking of trying to fit at least one combo.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
1. There are broken links with: Reclamation Sage, Edolon of Blossoms, Brutilizer Exarch as they are just spelled wrong.
2. I really like the deck. It combines a nice amount of control and aggression to make a nice balanced deck.
3. Have you thought about using more cheap grave enablers such as:
4. The last is have you thought about ways to give trample and pumps to your snakes? I see you are running Creeperhulk but with more trample and deathtouch you get some nice damage through as you only need 1 damage to kill the creature and the rest goes through. stuff like Rancor, Baru, Fist of Krosa, Garruk Wildspeaker or Kamahl, Fist of Krosa should help a lot with that.
Thanks for the heads up on the broken links.
I've always been against Tortured Existence. It doesn't really gain anything and Phyrexian Reclamation is miles better. I think the 1-for-1 trade Tortured Existence gives just isn't good enough.
I will say that I need more draw. While deckbuilding I ended up with far more tutors than draw cards. I just have no clue what to drop for more draw. I've been thinking the whole time that I'm a bit low on creatures. I'm having a very hard time fitting all the things I want to fit in the deck, while also not having enough good cards to fit in. I also have nothing newer than Theros and even then not much of it either. Been on hiatus for quite a while and just haven't picked anything up, not that i've got the budget to go buy much anymore.
I actually don't have Creeperhulk. I am running Brawn for trample and Vigor for buffs, but not much else. Baru's effect is really weak, but Kamahl is really expensive if you need to drop him and overrun in the same turn. Garruk is ok but he got cut during deckbuilding mostly because I didn't want to have too many cards focusing on ramp and there's only one way to recur planeswalkers in the deck. I do need some sort of Overrun mechanic, but I don't really have anything reliable.
Don't have a Portcullis or a Pygmy Kavu. Pygmy Kavu's draw seems pretty good, so I might want to pick one up. Ward of Bones is pretty funny considering the Tokens I give away are also enchantments.
Seems like I have a bit more testing to do. I'm also trying to compensate for matches against creatureless or close to creatureless decks, if anyone has ideas on that.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade