Oozes are cool, they recycle wastes, care for the planet and use green renewable energies.
I’ve been working on making a Necrotic Ooze for a few months now. It’s a pet project of mine, and I figured I might as well share where I’m at with the various ways to play the most powerful ooze in magic.
Happy little bOOZEr is a GBtoolbox deck. The main core is 22 cards and 20 lands, the rest is up to you to customize to get what you want in consistency, resiliency, speed, midrange etc...
The technology we’ll talk about in this thread is fairly complex, hard to understand, hard to build, hard to pilot, hard to play against, but very rewarding once you learn.
The deck strongly commits to put necrotic ooze onto the battlefield and discard various creatures with activated abilities to transform the ooze into a super creature with many lines of plays and many ways to create value.
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To do this the shell of the deck revolves around a midrange package of early game interaction and cheap creatures that will either create value by staying on board, or create value by dying to removal spells and still be useful later when ooze hits the board.
These early game trades are going to have several effects on the game : you’ll grind your opponent out of some of their removal spells, your opponent won’t understand what’s going on because you play some cards that are rarely used in other decks (even if devoted druid is now well known unfortunately). Until necrotic ooze hits the board your opponent should have no idea what’s going on and might let his guard down and over extend.
Once Necrotic ooze is in play, you ideally have a way to instantly discard with either fauna shaman, prognostic sphinx or lotleth troll. The really strong effect of discard effects is that discarding the card is part of the cost, therefore the moment you discard some creature, it’s in the graveyard and necrotic ooze has its activated abilities.
you have necrotic ooze on the battlefield and lotleth troll in the graveyard with a couple of forest untapped, your opponent resolves a collected company, puts eternal witness on the battlefield and targets collected company with the witness trigger, in response you can discard scavenging ooze, pay G and eat the collected company and there is nothing he can do about it (except like trickbind in response but let’s be real). This kind of trick associated with the infinite combo makes this deck a headache to play against. Once you have a way to discard cards and ooze in play, anything can happen.
Speaking of infinite combo, the main way to win regardless of your opponent life total is to have grim poppet and devoted druid in the graveyard (devoted druid conveniently puts itself in the grave), untap ooze using devoted druid, remove the -1 counter and put it on another creature, hold priority before this resolves, tap ooze for mana, untap ooze and repeat infinitely. This combo has the added advantage to kill all the creatures you can and want to target at instant speed regardless of their power and toughness, this is particularly useful when your ooze has summoning sickness and you're under a lot of pressure. With the infinite mana you can cast or discard walking ballista and kill your opponent.
Why to play this deck :
Very satisfying combo to play, lots of different ways to win and to set up (infinite damage, instant speed one sided board wipe, attrition & grindy trades into combo...).
Can kill turn 4.
Lot of little synergies that work well together, very janky deck with a high ceiling.
Toolbox deck which implies lots of ways to customize the list with silver bullets of your choice.
Consistent game plan thanks to all the fetch tutor and dredge (if you feel like playing stinkweed imp).
Consistent mana base because you're playing 2 colors which makes you less susceptible to non basic hate and pain from shocklands.
Resilient to singletons of hate and linear answers as the deck can attack from multiple angles.
The deck can win without the combo as you're playing ok midrange creatures that can win on their own (Thornling, Lotleth Troll, scavenging ooze..) This will usually happen against midrangy decks that had answers to your graveyard.
Unknown deck which is a strategic advantage as a lot of opponents don't know what to do against it or how to disrupt it besides obvious grave hate.
Very strong against decks that don't interact much as you're probably going to be more consistent, and you can disrupt them.
Why not to play this deck :
You don’t want to fight against graveyard hate, especially rest in peacesurgical extraction and scavenging ooze basically your opponent already has answers for your main game plan in their sideboard.
Unknown complex deck playing rarely seen cards which will guarantee reading, judge calling, and sets that go to time every single tournament.
The deck has a lot of weaknesses against a lot of the most popular matchups and requires tight play and fine tuning to get ahead. No free wins here.
Hard deck to play optimally, very easy to make a sequence mistake, or to see a play to late, requires a lot of experience to pilot.
Hard to find an opponent which understands everything that is going on and what the deck is capable of doing. Games won to your opponents' misplays are not as tasty.
match details
this list was much more focused on resolving grisly salvage and setting up the graveyard that way. The meta was also very different back then, with infect being so strong and keeping fair decks in check.
Card Choices necrotic ooze : the reason we’re playing this pile of card. 3 because we don’t want to draw too many but 4 might work. Note that when your graveyard is exiled, necrotic ooze is still a 4/3 which is a decent size even if not ideal. The deck is designed to take advantage of necrotic ooze once it hits the battlefield. When you untap with necrotic ooze you should be poised to win at instant speed (so whenever you feel like it, for example in response to your opponent tapping out) and if you're not act like you are.
devoted druid : it can tap for 1G, but mostly it can infinitely put a -1 counter and untap itself anytime you can do something, therefore it can kill itself and put itself in the graveyard, which is very convenient since this creature is the fuel of all the infinite combos this deck has, when they try to path to exile devoted druid you can choose to put it in the graveyard instead, same thing for necrotic ooze if devoted druid is in the graveyard. Therefore it must be fetched asap (at least in the graveyard) by any means necessary. What is really good about it is that putting -1-1 counter on it is part of the cost but it's also the resource we're gonna use to do everything (put the -1 counter on other creature, eat the -1 counter to get +3+3 or transform the -1 counter into mana). One sweet trick is to sacrifice the devoted druid in response to lightning helix so he doesn't get 3 life. Same thing with twisted image and he doesn't draw a card. It's almost always correct to sacrifice devoted druid in response to path to exile. The only moment you should just take a land are if you have another devoted druid in hand, are scared of a surgical extraction, there is a rest in peace on the battlefield. This card must be in the graveyard at some point if you want to combo. One play I often do is cast devoted druid and untap it twice right away to put it in the graveyard and give necrotic ooze its' abilities which results in something unfair. In fair moments of the game, devoted druid turn 2 and a land drop turn 3 let's you have 5 mana. With 5 mana you can spend 4 mana to play two 2drop, or spend 5 to play one 2drop and one 3drop, or just cast Thornling and watch ponza scoop.
With the addition of vizier of remedies devoted druid can produce infinite mana without using the graveyard, then cast either duskwatch recruiter, eldritch evolution or walking ballista to win, it's a great alternative combo against graveyard hate which you should face at some point. The fact that this exist and is now fairly well known means devoted druid is going to attract a lot more removals than it used to before amonkhet.
fauna shaman is a must deal with creature that you can play turn 2. Most players are going to kill it right away if they can, which is fine. Against white decks, fauna shaman is like a rampant growth since it will often get path to exiled. It is also broken in this deck since it's activation cost : discard a card is what we need to get the ability necrotic ooze needs in the graveyard, therefore fauna shaman is as much as home in the graveyard than on the battlefield. The fetch ability goes in the stack you keep priority and go on using the ability of the discarded creature creating a gigantic stack of effects.
fauna shaman typically needs two activation to be broken, one to tutor a combo piece, the other to put that piece in the graveyard.
- first one discard a creature fetch grim poppet at the end of opponent turn.
- during your turn discard grim poppet fetch necrotic ooze.
- play necrotic ooze.
- untap devoted druid until it dies.
- untap necrotic ooze using devoted druid to put -1 counter on necrotic ooze.
- use that -1 counter to put a -1 counter on another creature with grim poppet ability.
- do this a billion time to kill everything you can target and have a billion untaps.
- if ooze can tap for mana make infinite mana (haste from thornling or a turn later) and kill at instant speed with ballista but that's just icing on the cake.
It's the combination of both devoted druid and fauna shaman that let the deck function the way it does. That is the reason you play 4 of each. When both are in the graveyard, your necrotic ooze acts as a survival of the fittest, a card so broken it's banned in legacy!
Squee, Goblin Nabob is a value card you can discard every turn and get back into your hand at the upkeep provided you don't forget the trigger. It's good for several reasons, one of which is that it guarantee a creature in your hand when you untap with fauna shaman, you can also discard it for a +1 counter with lotleth troll every turn, use another mode for free with collective brutality, and discard it to Liliana of the Veil or Kolaghan's Command. It's also a pretty good card to fetch with fauna shaman in case of a grindy matchup where you don’t expect to win just yet. It's also funny he usually is the first target of surgical extraction when people don't understand what you're playing.
some decks can't deal with Thornling . always play it with 1G up when possible. necrotic ooze + thornling is pretty hard to deal with too. Side it out against super aggressive matchups or path to exile. One nice other thing with thornling is that it gives ooze a nice toolbox: haste (hasty ooze is strong), indestructible (only way to deal with damnation and a good uncounterable response to most removals too), trample (infinite/infinite attacker is no use without evasion), -1+1 (deals with bolt with 1 activation, deals with dismember with 3 activations), and +1-1 (7 damage on thornling, and 3 damage on ooze). All modes come up. In case you have 4 mana you can put thornling in the graveyard from play by activating +1-1 4 times which is always correct to do in response to path to exile. On its own, thornling is a 4/4 for 5 mana, so it can't die to fatal push and lightning bolt, for 3 mana you can pump it to 7/1, and for 2 more mana make it indestructible and give it trample. You'll be surprised at how effective a 7/1 indestructible trampler can be to close out game. The fact that you can give it -1/+1 protects it from dismember to if you have 2 mana, you can use the same method to go under ensnaring bridge. It's going to be up to you to feel what your opponent can have and how hey could deal with the big guy.
lotleth troll is a pretty good chump blocker and can put combo pieces in the graveyard at instant speed while bypassing the stack. The get a +1+1 counter goes on the stack but not the discard effect which is part of the cost, it's overpowered with necrotic ooze because you can give it another ability anytime you have priority and they can't do anything about it until you give back priority! Suddenly you can transcend time and space and respond to anything they do with potential infinity.
that happens more often than you'd think is having necrotic ooze in play, lotleth troll in the graveyard and walking ballista in hand among other cards. Discard the ballista to put a +1 counter on ooze, deal 1 damage to a random creature like dark confidant, discard scavenging ooze pay 1G and exile bob, get a +1 from troll and a +1 from scooze, deal 2 to Huntmaster of the Fells. All of this at instant speed and for a low cost.
Some opponents will either have some form of evasion or will feel the urge to kill it with everything they got which is less to deal with later. During some games, the regeneration and trample are going to be relevant. The addition of fatal push in some deck instead of terminate makes the troll even better now.
with lotleth troll is to sacrifice it to eldritch evolution and tutor necrotic ooze with B up as protection. Your ooze can now discard additional abilities you have in your hand and protect itself against spells that aren't terminatedamnation or path to exile. It's one of the strongest and easiest sequence of the deck, and in the chess world could be compared to a "check". This play will demand a response from your opponent, either from graveyard hate, removal or activated abilities hate.
noose constrictor and lotleth troll have the added bonuses of pumping your ooze, letting you get more untaps using devoted druid, and against some red decks get out of range of lightning bolt and more importantly sudden shock which prevents us from putting any -1 counters on a 4/3 ooze unless it becomes indestructible (against decks that play sudden shock always combo keeping priority until all the +3 quillspike effects are in the pile). But their best utility is, once again, part of the cost of their ability. When you discard a card, it's done, it's in the graveyard and your opponent can't respond to it. With this deck you can definitely discard a creature card with a useful ability, keep priority, and use the ability you just discarded with the ooze without giving back priority once to your opponent. When you're in this situation, a wise opponent will always have to consider that any card you have in hand might add an ability to your ooze which makes you very threatening. What if you have a grim poppet discard it and kill all my creatures? or a thornling and give your ooze indestructible? what if you have a big game hunter and madness it killing my Emrakul, the Aeons Torn?? Also it includes a risk factor for the opponent which some players hate. They like everything to be certain so having to take the risk of blind casting a removal spell just in case and in response you discard thornling and make ooze indestructible can make them tilt.
Walking Ballista is what replaced molten-tail masticore as the instant speed kill, as you can play it earlier and kill a bird or a bob. You can put infinite +1+1 counters on ooze if it is in the graveyard and you produced infinite mana with either grim poppet or morselhoarder. Walking ballista can put itself in the graveyard for no cost and that makes it as good as devoted druid in that regard. For the moment I'm not entirely sure it's better or worse than masticore, it really depends on the matchup. Pros are it's cheaper to play, but you can also cast it for 6 and have a triskelion which is really good against 1 toughness creatures like flickerwisp or lingering souls. The reload ability is pretty good when you don't have anything better to do with your mana. It doesn't cost mana to do damage with it and provided you have enough counter you can do a lot of damage on x/1 and x/2 creatures. You can also deal infinite damage with this compared to masticore <100 damage so it is stronger against strategies like abzan coco or krak clan thopter sword. Other than that, discarding creatures with lotleth troll in the graveyard reloads your +1+1 counters, and eating creatures with scavenging ooze in the graveyard does the same, so if they surgicaled devoted druid you still have some game. This is the main reason I really like ballista as even when you’re tapped out you can still interact as long as you have a troll in the graveyard and a necrotic ooze in play. The pros of masticore is that it's a 4/4 that can regenerate which makes it really hard to kill by anything that isn't terminatedamnation or path to exile, discard relevant abilities for ooze, counter surgical by exiling creature cards and dealing 4 to any target. When you have infinite mana it's not relevant which one you play and it's much more about the matchup, so you should choose either depending on "what if I have to play this card?" and that's up to you. (and if you can play both go for it).
Prognostic sphinx has two main functions but needs to be in the graveyard to be useful.
With ooze in play you can protect ooze, discarding any card to give it hexproof
and mostly you can discard cards (so you setup and protect ooze at the same time).
Using fauna shaman, you can tutor prognostic sphinx eot, then on your turn discard it + tutor necrotic ooze when you can't win that turn but want to ambush your opponent with an ability and/or protect your ooze from targeted spells and abilities. Ideally do this with grim poppet in hand and devoted druid in graveyard or in play. Note that you can discard a creature as part of the cost keep priority and respond to the tap + give hexproof effect by doing other stuff with your ooze, like making mana or fetching creatures. Like most of the abilities in this deck, we're almost more interested in the cost than the effect, even if hexproof is pretty good against most removals. You should always fetch the sphinx if you know your opponent is playing a lot of removals as there is a very low chance you'll actually get to do anything fancy without it unless you can just flat out win. The idea is to have your ooze survive, trading one card in your hand for each of their removals.
In some rare cases you'll want to sacrifice quillspike or big game hunter to eldritch evolution to put the sphinx into play. The scry 3 is pretty good and a 3/5 flyer hexproof is hard to deal with.
abrupt decay removal of choice as it almost always has a target. Very strong for its versatility.
dismember good removal that deals with most threats that lotleth troll can't block profitably. Chosen because of it's ability to be cast of off devoted druid or under a blood moon as we're sometimes starving for black mana sources. 1 because 4hp is a steep price to pay.
collective brutality very good at killing early birds and making them discard a removal or their follow up play. Here brutality has the additional effect of setting up our graveyard if we wish
either by discarding a discarder :
inquisition of kozilek removes their best action and graveyard hate and gives us what we need : time. After playing with inquisition for quite a while in this list I've noted that most games where I cast t1 inquisition have a much higher % winrate, so I added a 4rth one and removed the second collective brutality which was often a bad duress. My meta doesn't have many targets for the -2/-2 and a random drain 2 just to put prognostic sphinx in the graveyard often proved to be bad. Inquisition being able to remove their graveyard hate (baring leyline of the void which enters the battlefield turn 0 anyways) is often good enough post side to get away with it.
Also scryb ranger plays really well with it. Dryad arbor can be an infinite blocker with scryb ranger on board (block with dryad, bounce dryad arbor back to hand, untap whatever) at the cost of one land drop. Scryb ranger also allows you to untap fauna shaman and put dryad arbor into hand to discard it to the shaman which is cute.
eldritch evolution has several uses, it's probably the second best card in the deck after ooze and is mostly ooze #5-8.
The most direct use this card has is sacrificing a 2 drop creature, fetching a necrotic ooze and go from there.
You can also use the plant token from khalni garden to the same effect. the good thing with the plant token is that you don't lose a land when playing the evolution.
The main attractive aspect for deckbuilding is you that can fetch any toolbox silverbullet regardless of color requirements as long as it's a 4 drop or less. This gives the deck a lot of flexibility and the ability to play one offs you can get consistently, for example gaddock teeg which could really surprise an opponent holding supreme verdict.
You can play a creature and play eldritch evolution right after sacrificing that creature, your opponent never gets priority to interact with that creature.
The main limitation of the card is actually having a creature on the battlefield, against removal.dec and counterspells you're going to have a tough time using the card and I suggest removing one post side.
Now your opponent can also interact with you, fortunately eldritch evolution can provide a few answers to the ways your opponent is preventing you from comboing out.
if your opponent has maindeck graveyard hate like leyline of the void you can still play t2 devoted druid and sacrifice it to eldritch evolution, fetching a butcher of the horde which can win the game on it's own as a 5/4 flier
Another solution is to simply use it to find a reclamation sage and destroy the leyline, this play happens often game 2 vs living end
devoted druid is actually the perfect card to sacrifice to eldritch evolution as it provides on it's own GG of the cost plus the body to sacrifice.
Other cards you're looking to sacrifice are discard outlets like lotleth troll and noose constrictor.
Grim Poppet is a fairly bad card on it's own. But it really shines when devoted druid is in a graveyard and necrotic ooze in play as you can instantly put infinite -1 counters on all creatures you chose to target. 2 because it's nice to draw 1 naturally to discard it when you need. Hardcasting a grim poppet may come up, it's still a creature that will deal with 1-2-3 creatures, isn't affected by opposing protection (except protection from artifacts) and then attacks for 4. I honestly hope a cheaper version of this effect is printed one day.
Quillspike is the first card that comboed with devoted druid. tap druid for G and untap it, use that mana to remove the -1 counter and give Quillspike +3, repeat infinitely.
Quillspike will be most useful in a few cases :
when you can't target your opponent because of Leyline of Sanctity and need to swing for lethal.
when your opponent played an Ensnaring Bridge and has 1 remaining card in hand you can swing with quillspike and pump it to infinite after declaring attackers.
when you have a Kitchen Finks in play as a way to remove the -1 counter from finks for G, and pump quillspike to 4/4.
With a way to discard and stinkweed imp in the graveyard or in your hand, you get a free grisly salvage every draw step. It shouldn't be long before you get all you need to go off immediately or fetch what you need and go off the same turn. The two most basic abilities to have in your graveyard are fauna shaman to fetch the combo pieces and devoted druid to get the untap, -1 counters, and ability to tap for G. Stinkweed imp is also a pretty good blocker and this comes in handy more often than not. Stinkweed imp can be sacrificed to eldritch evolution to find a thornling, prognostic sphinx, or of course Necrotic Ooze. Don't hesitate to discard stinkweed imp to fauna shaman or lotleth troll during your upkeep to dredge right away. nihil spellbomb is your only way to trigger stinkweed imp outside of your regular draw step, street wraith or mindless automaton would be another.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded is amazing when used with ooze, you'll often have creatures hanging there like satyr wayfinder, fetchlands being potential dryad arbor, and other random dudes to sacrifice using the demon ability. This instant speed tutor will usually assemble the combo outright. Ideally you'll want the demon in the graveyard with another discard outlet like lotleth troll, noose constrictor, or prognostic sphinx to immediately combo out.
was attacking with ooze 4/3 with a fetch uncracked and only lotleth troll in the graveyard and devoted druid and razaketh in hand. opponent doesn't block being at 20, before damage I fetch dryad arbor, discard razaketh, sacrifice the dryad, find quillspike, discard quillspike and devoted druid, and make a 1000 damage ooze for the win.
required me to win that turn or die, I find a ooze with fauna shaman and play it with the help of devoted druid, I am full tapped and discard razaketh with the lotleth troll in my graveyard, I sacrifice fauna shaman to find a forest, play the forest, sacrifice devoted druid to find thornling, discard thornling, give ooze haste using thornling, and combo out using fauna shaman with ooze.
Grisly salvage is the best way to set up your graveyard at instant speed. I used to play 4, but the inconsistency and randomness lead me to try something else for the moment. It’s great when you mill a couple of abilities for Necrotic Ooze and find that land or creature you need, it’s horrid when you just mill a bunch of abrupt decays, eldritch evolutions and lands.
Scavenging ooze this card is good here for many reasons. By itself it’s a good way to annoy graveyard based strategies, you can also use it to protect your graveyard from surgical extraction effects, finally you can use this with necrotic ooze to put counters on necrotic ooze. Who knows, the counters might be used by a walking ballista pitched later. The lifegain is relevant in some matchups like burn too.
Also if they exiled walking ballista and quillspike, your best bet to win after combo is to make infinite mana, kill all his creatures, if he has nothing loop fauna shaman a bunch of times until the number of creatures in all graveyards > your opponent life total + toughness of potential blocking creatures like manlands and hexproofs, use thornling to give ooze trample if necessary and eat all the creatures with scavenging ooze, then attack for lethal.
It's pretty good to play ooze if any protection creatures are in the graveyard ( lotleth trollprognostic sphinxthornling), even if you don't kill that turn. Feast on the despair your opponent feels, facing a creature he can't deal easily with and that will kill him next turn. 1 main 1 in side is fine.
Reclamation Sage is your best bet when you're expecting leylines and rest in peace and any troubling artifact or enchantment as you can fetch it. The fact that you can cast eldritch evolution to value it after it did its job is a welcome bonus. Necrotic Ooze can also use Wickerbough Elder to infinitely destroy artifacts and enchantments when devoted druid is in the graveyard if you feel like it.
maelstrom pulse good catch all, main answer to planewalkers and leylines, sometimes you'll get a 2 for 1 or more and feel pretty good. The 3 mana ccm makes it hard to justify in the main deck as it's going to slow down your game plan.
pithing needle good targeted hate against activated abilities, don’t hesitate to use it on their fetch for the lolz. 1-2
nihil spellbomb good hate, nice when you play stinkweed imp to get an additional dredge. Exile your own grave when you feel desperate about a surgical. 2-3
golgari charm regeneration is good at the moment, destroying rest in peace too, or a random phyrexian unlife, and killing goblins or affinity with this feels really good. Consider 1-2
vengeful pharaoh you have many ways of putting that card in the graveyard at instant speed, any deck not playing recursive threats and graveyard hate game 2 should have a hard time against this. When it triggers you're guaranteed to draw a creature next turn, which plays well with fauna shaman and lotleth troll. You can also play grisly salvage during your upkeep to skip drawing it. Finally, a 5/4 deathtouch for 5 isn't so bad, doesn't get hit by fatal push and swings hard. 1 is good.
kitchen finks are pretty good sacrifice targets for eldritch evolution, you can then fetch quillspike and eat the -1 counter away for a 4/4 and a 3/2 persist. With kitchen finks in play, butcher of the hordequillspike and devoted druid in the graveyard and necrotic ooze in play you can get infinite life. Even without devoted druid you still get a lot of life for each mana. Kitchen finks is also pretty good against grindy matchups and burn as usual.
makeshift mannequin is a pretty good surprise attack, you can still go off if you target necrotic ooze, but it can be good on fauna shaman end of turn after they tapped out. The main goal here is to bring back a good creature when your opponent shields are down
I was attacked by a huge 5/6tarmogoyf, I discarded griselbrand to lotleth troll, and put it back into play with makeshift mannequin, blocking the goyf, gaining 7 life and drawing enough cards to take over the game.
scryb ranger is a card that seems on the verge of awesome. This faeries adds a lot of plays to the deck, its first use is to untap fauna shaman or necrotic ooze and replay a forest untapped to give a big tempo boost to your turn. You can also untap a devoted druid or a dryad arbor and generate 2 mana, one of which could be black if you return an overgrown tomb to hand which is handy when you need mana to regenerate lotleth troll, madness in big game hunter, or need a second black mana source to hard cast necrotic ooze. You can untap fauna shaman and return dryad arbor to your hand when you're out of creatures to discard. If your forest is targeted by spreading seas or beast within you can also save it that way. Flash and protection from blue might come in handy against Spell Queller, Prized Amalgam, Delver of Secrets, Snapcaster Mage, Vendilion Clique, Celestial Colonnade and of course merfolks. Be careful though because spellskite can redirect the target of untap ability, so either have a good way to deal with skite or side out the faerie. Also if you play Borborygmos Enraged, scryb ranger can fuel you hand with lands to throw at your opponent.
you can keep on activating tasigur, the golden fang even when you don't have cards in your library until you get all the cards from your graveyard to your hand (provided you have enough mana). Then (again provided you have enough mana) you can cast one card over and over (collective brutality for example) EDIT: after testing it a long time, it's a win more. I removed tasigur and morselhoarder to gain some space for more consistency. (removed from the deck at the moment)
mindless automaton is mostly there to value the +1+1 counter you get with scavenging ooze, lotleth troll and use its ability to draw cards with necrotic ooze. It's nice that it puts itself in the graveyard and replaces itself. It has a cute synergy with Squee, Goblin Nabob and stinkweed imp but you better hope to not find yourself in a situation where this is good. Either tutor it to block etched champion or activate it with ooze to draw/dredge cards. Basically you can use the +1+1 counters with ooze to either ping with walking ballista draw cards with mindless automaton or gain life with spike feeder depending on your needs. This slot could be replaced with another walking ballista for more pinging consistency and resiliency or spike feeder for more survivability. There is probably the potential for a deck involving winding constrictor, harsh scales, hangarback walker, and arcbound ravager in addition to these. I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader.
spike feeder is another great card in combination with necrotic ooze and lotleth troll, my preferred version playing spike feeder involves griselbrand, borborygmos enraged, drawing cards with ooze, discarding all creature cards using troll, gaining some life using the +1 counters, drawing more cards, and launching lands at your opponent until dead. It's also way faster to execute on MTGO.
Reaper of the Wilds has an ok body, the scry might help, but the most interesting about it are its abilities. Deathtouch is very good on ooze in combination with walking ballista, or trample with thornling, and hexproof for mana is very good too. The fact that the creature is on color (and not off color like prognostic sphinx) might convince you it's the better card. I personally prefer discarding cards than paying 2 mana to protect ooze but I can definitely understand why this creature would seem good as it's a much better topdeck to draw on an empty board and easier to tutor with eldritch evolution.
noose constrictor is very good too as you can also discard dead cards to it (like late game inquisition of kozilek) as well as blocking flying creatures which is a big weakness for this deck. Both snake and lotleth troll are equally good and necessary to put cards we need in the graveyard. They hold the fort fairly well and can force the opponent to use his removals which is what we're aiming for. Splitting between noose constrictor and lotleth troll allows us to play around surgical extraction effects, and mana restriction as noose constrictor is much easier to cast. Lastly, being able to discard any card to give ooze +1/+1 makes ooze much more resilient to lightning bolt when you're tapped out than lotleth troll which requires you to have a creature in hand. (removed for a 4rth lotleth troll and troll consistency). Play this guy if you're expecting lingering souls and affinity and fliers.
molten-tail masticore is a 4/4 that can regenerate and hold of the ground well. Doesn't die to doom blade, you'll mainly want to fetch it with fauna shaman to kill your opponent instantly by activating it with necrotic ooze a bunch to blast your opponent for 4 times the number of creatures in your deck minus 1. You only need to exile 5 creatures to deal 20 damage. Say they find a way to deal with your ooze or kill you in response to you going off, that's how you respond since you won't get to attack this turn. Of course there are many more options of creatures that you can activate at instant speed with infinite mana and win on the spot. For example Orzhov Guildmage or Scholar of Athreos but the masticore is actually useful once on the board. If masticore is on the board, you'll want to have stinkweed imp in hand or in the graveyard and dredge it each turn, turn all the creature cards dredged into instant 4 damage to target creature or player for 4 and win the game from here, ideally have 6 or more mana to blast and regenerate, 4 lands bare minimum to do this. Watch out for fatal push or Kolaghan's Command effects with 2 mana up as much as possible and you'll be fine. if you already have in hand a way of getting back a creature from the graveyard you might even combo at some point. Don't do this if they have relic of progenitus (except if you want to bait an early sac) or rest in peace. If they played blood moon, you should handle it with the masticore, your basic land count is high enough to function through blood moon in general though. (ballista is better at the moment but it really depends on your meta). Masticore is also pretty good at blocking etched champion. Masticore on the board is usually a 3-4 turn clock depending on your opponent life total and amount of creatures in play. Attack with the 4/4, regenerate if needed, otherwise blast 4 at the end of their turn. Over two turns this can amount to 16 damage which is huge against any deck playing fetchlands.
With fauna shaman, tutor eot/discard butcher of the horde to win that turn. Fetch necrotic ooze with the discarded butcher of the horde, play necrotic ooze and sacrifice devoted druid and/or fauna shaman with butcher of the horde abilities to give necrotic ooze haste and do everything from there. This requires 6 mana and another creature in hand at the beginning of the turn though. It can be done as early as turn 4 and is the most consistent sequence to kill against an uninteractive opponent. I suggest to practice a bit before doing this in a real game as you will look silly if you're one mana or one creature short. Sometimes it's ok to eldritch evolution a two drop into the butcher as a 5/4 flier turn 3 can win on its own against graveyard hate and low removal count. (removed because it's a bad topdeck when empty board, and you don’t often get to sacrifice when your opponent is killing all your creatures. The lifelink and haste are very interesting abilities though, especially in combination with ballista).
Griselbrand it’s another deck, but griselbrand ability is an activated ability, so you can pay 7 life and draw 7 cards with ooze if griselbrand is in your graveyard.
borborygmos enraged is probably going to be played in the same deck as Griselbrand. Pretty good when you’re flooding too to have a bolting ooze.
traverse the ulvenwald makes a 1 lander keepable. Late game you can just get what you need with it as it's very likely you'll have a combination of lands instants creatures and either artifacts or sorceries in your graveyard. In an artifact/creature heavy version you could see yourself playing 2. If you can enable delirium easily definitely play this.
chalice of the void is a 1 mana strategy hoser that gives you time to do what you got to do (since your deck plays no 1 mana spells except for inquisition). You should ideally play this on turn 2 after a discard but you will mostly draw it turn 6 and discard it to noose constrictor, such is life. That one time I had it on turn 2 it was really good though. Needs to play between 2 and 4 for consistency.
minister of pain is a tutorable mini wrath for infect/affinity/lingering souls/goblins/faeries/young pyromancer/bob and what not it's ok to sacrifice it to itself if you don't have the conditions to put a combo piece in the graveyard, the goal of this card is to buy you time.
harsh scrutiny we get to see opponent's hand and the top of your library, sometimes you get to discard a Primeval Titan or a scavenging ooze, information is power. The more I play the more I like it, especially paired with collective brutality. Unfortunately it doesn’t remove their answers and that’s what we’re looking for with the discard spells : disarm and overwhelm.
thoughtseize same than inquisition of kozilek, but more range, also makes your opponent guess you're playing some kind of jund or abzan and then he makes mistakes. removed, I don't want to lose life. (potential 3 inquisition + 1 thoughtseize if you're feeling frisky).
cavern of souls is good to guarantee playing ooze against counterspells, you can also name shaman as a lot of your creatures are shaman, elf is another option to be able to play both fauna shaman and devoted druid. The problem with this land is when it only produces colorless mana for what you have in hand.
Chameleon colossus has protection from most removals in jund and grixis, you can fetch it with eldritch evolution on any 2 drop. Castable through cavern of souls naming anything. With 5 mana and devoted druid in the grave, necrotic ooze goes infinite. tap 4 mana, get ooze to 8/7, tap last mana plus tap ooze 3 times (2 untaps = -2/-2 = ooze 6/5) and activate colossus ability to get ooze 12/11, untap/tap x4 = ooze 8/7 +4mana, activate colossus ability = ooze 16/15 etc... The face your opponent does after he exiled both quillspike and grim poppet and you still infinite him : priceless. Ooze dies at the start of his next turn though so kill him the turn you do this, or have grim poppet in the graveyard and a creature buffer somewhere to dump all the counters on, and just regular infinite machine gun ooze.
Thrun, the Last Troll is basically your answer to counterspells and removals heavy matchups as you won't often combo against these. careful they can deal with it with blessed alliance so don’t forget to attack with khalni garden token
vampire hexmage is a way to deal with planewalkers and sometimes with a buffed up inkmoth nexus. Ooze can then repeat the effect which is alright against some tron draws.
fulminator mage ideal in a deck playing birds of paradise to play it turn 2, and then ooze turn 3, but it's another strategy altogether. I used to play it against decks that dealt easily with ooze as a way to drag them with me in hell.
Pharika, God of Affliction protects creatures in our graveyard from surgical effects and creates annoying chump blockers.
tree of redemption seems very powerful against strategies like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, or burn. With an infinite/infinite ooze and this in the graveyard you can gain infinite life which is often enough to earn a concession.
Khalni Garden has several uses, first it’s one of your turn 1 plays as you only have an inquisition 40% of the time.
The token it creates is going to be useful to chump block an enormous death shadow.
you can sacrifice the token to eldritch evolution and fetch your choice of 2 drop creature.
you can empty attack with the token to tilt your opponent into doing something stupid (like ambushing with snapcaster).
you can use the token as a creature to target with ooze when you’re going for infinite (sometimes you opponent doesn't play creatures).
you can use the token as a creature to sacrifice when you’re using butcher of the horde.
My only regret is that khalni garden isn’t a forest, and sometimes coming into play tapped is going to be bad.
Cinderhaze Wretch is devoted druid #5-8, useful when they extirpatedevoted druid and just for the sake of consistency. It's obviously much worse since instead of making infinite mana you make infinite discard and mostly because you can't play this for 2 mana. This card is therefore mostly going to be discarded for value with fauna shaman, collective brutality or lotleth troll. You still however get the -1 counters and the untap effect which should be enough to combo. Provided you can dump Dryad Arbor into the graveyard you have access to all devoted druid abilities. It's clunky as **** but when you're going infinite clunky is fine.
Morselhoarder very good way to get infinite mana of all colors when it's in the graveyard in company of devoted druid and necrotic ooze is in play, but you got to have a way to do something with that mana. My favorite way to kill used to be infinite activations of Tasigur, the Golden Fang to mill all my library and put all non land cards into my hand, then cast collective brutality until my opponent is at -1hp. It was good enough to beat angel's grace when everything went well, but it didn't do anything without a way to use the mana, so I'd rather have grim poppet and at least kill all the creatures. Morselhoarder is also a pretty bad creature to hardcast but it still easier to do than grim poppet, once it's on the board you can use the two -1 counters to pay for abrupt decay, any 2 mana creature, or grisly salvage, and then you get a 6/4 body which should trade against a lot of the big boys of modern. Also it doesn't die to fatal push.
Satyr Wayfinder was added as a creature you can fetch with fauna shaman for the same effect than grisly salvage and then you can sacrifice it to eldritch evolution to fetch necrotic ooze. It was removed because sometimes you need to put a creature in hand, not a land. Grisly salvage is also an instant which is relevant against some counterspells. If you're expecting grixis death shadow it's probably better to play the satyr to not give them targets for stubborn denial, but pray they don't surgical whatever creature you mill.
grapple with the past pretty good instant way to mill yourself for 3, get back any creature from your graveyard (instead of top 5 like with grisly salvage) or any land which would play nicely with the deck like ghost quarter, vampire hexmage, fulminator mage and of course necrotic ooze. It's also a solution against surgical extraction, lantern control, and basically a way to get back useful stuff late game after a long and grindy match while setting up. You don't want to play more than 2.
duskwatch recruiter was added as a creature that you can play easily, in this deck it's way more convenient than tasigur, and you can use infinite mana to draw all your creatures which should set you up to win. During a fair game, one successful activation makes it worth as you'll either find an element of combo or a way to get there. In comparison tasigur would activate for 1 more mana and remove an element of combo from the graveyard. You'll find you often have exceeding mana in drawn out game with devoted druids hanging there so it's nice to put that mana to good use. The flipped version will of course help you play most of your creatures cheaper but it's just a nice bonus (and sometimes you just need that 1 mana to play a grim poppet and destroy a pesky spell queller or worse mirran crusader.
ground seal really good to protect your graveyard against targeted removal like scavenging ooze or surgical extraction, also disable snapcaster mage, eternal witness, ruins of the academy, goryo revenge, kolagan command among other cards that want to target graveyards.
Vizier of Remedies enable infinite mana with devoted druid. Ever since the printing of that card, people are playing devoted druid in their decks to try and make infinite mana. This is both good and bad news for ooze. Good news because you can set up your own necrotic ooze by destroying their devoted druid, bad news because you're now a devoted druid hipster, and also people might now pack devoted druid hate (pithing needle, sudden shock, Linvala, Keeper of Silence...) which might lower your overall chances ; more seriously, grim poppet now can't wipe a board when vizier is in play. Play only one as you'll never play it without an active devoted druid. When you get infinite mana your game plan is to put an infinite walking ballista in play and win. Sometimes it's a bit more convoluted and you'll have to fetch a duskwatch recruiter with either fauna shaman or eldritch evolution, draw your entire creatures and sort your deck. Attacking with vizier is going to feel pretty bad, would not recommend, but a man do what he gotta do.
Kataki, War's Wage lantern and affinity mainly. If you ever play against balance you can annoy him but you'll probably lose 1
Burrenton Forge-Tender looks pretty good to protect you from very aggressive decks, the fact that you can sacrifice necrotic ooze using its ability is cute too.
Orzhov Pontiff this card is very good in deck using chord of calling as you can tutor it at instant speed and kill affinity man lands, not so good at sorcery speed though. Note that haunting devoted druid makes an easy way to trigger it again and this time at instant speed.
Ethersworn Canonist slows decks that want to play alone. Slows down ad nauseam significantly, cheerios is going to have to pass on playing reshape and grapeshot the same turn, griselbrand is going to have to find removals in all the card he's drawing if he wants to kill that turn, living will need to find a beast within before cascading, and of course storm can't go off at all without a bolt. Any creature can be sacrificed to eldritch evolution including dryad arbor to find the canonist.
cathartic reunion good way to setup as well as digging for whatever you need.
grim lavamancer pretty good to throw your fetchlands at creatures and face, might be good to use with necrotic ooze as a 4/3 lavamancer even if it's probably overkill.
spellskite I don't like it at the moment because of the omnipresence of kolaghan's command but it's pretty good to protect your fragile combo pieces otherwise. Also note that you can use its ability with necrotic ooze to redirect stuff, and then give ooze hexproof or indestructible. For example valakut triggers with ooze in play, morselhoarderspellskitethornling and devoted druid in the graveyard can let you make infinite blue mana and redirect all triggers to ooze, then make green to give ooze invincible.
hedron crab for the self mill and quickest graveyard setup possible with fetchlands, probably best played with morselhoarder combo and Unburial Rites in a dredge shell (but then why not just play dredge?)
thought scour really nice cantrip on this deck as it set us up, if you dredge stinkweed imp you dig 7 cards deep for 1 mana at instant speed which is really good. Of course you could go crazy and snapcaster flashback it too, and why not play some tasigur while we're at it!
Combos all combos assume ooze is in play, the cards listed will be in the graveyard
Devoted Druid + quillspike : ooze is infinite/infinite, then you can tap and untap ooze to make as many green mana as you want. (if both quillspike and devoted druid are in play, quillspike is infinite/infinite.)
goto 1:quillspike mana loop. until you get enough mana that amount being less than necrotic ooze toughness before you started quillspike mana loop
quillspike loop + quillspike mana loop + thornling : ooze is infinite/infinite haste trample indestructible.
devoted druid + grim poppet : infinite counters distributed at instant speed on any number of creatures, infinite taps for any ability, and infinite untaps. You can respond to one grim poppet activation with another and put 8000000 billions counters on a 1/1, allowing you to untap each time and create 1Gmana. getting you infinite green mana. To do this the sequence is :
do this either 20 times if they can make you draw or a billion time if they can't. Provided they can't make you draw you can do whatever you want whenever you want forever until they die. One line of play is to collective brutality them a million time, but you can be creative. If they can make you draw see following combo.
infinite mana + molten-tail masticore + fauna shaman and a creature card in hand: activate fauna shaman a bunch of times and put creatures in your grave until 4 times the number of creatures you want to exile in your grave can kill your opponent, activate masticore exiling that many creatures and kill your opponent at instant speed. Added flashy bonus if you do this in response to any amount of removals on ooze.
discard big game hunter using lotleth troll, and madness it tapping overgrown tomb for B, when it comes into play destroy Death's Shadow, ooze gets a +1/+1 counter and is 5/4.
on your turn you can either eat big game hunter, activate tasigur, the golden fang or draw something good, you can still regenerate and discard with troll and ping with walking ballista.
discard everything, ooze is 8/7.
using scavenging ooze eat lotleth troll, tapping a forest, ooze is 9/8
using scavenging ooze eat big game hunter, tapping a forest, ooze is 10/9
using scavenging ooze eat devoted druid, tapping overgrown tomb, hold priority
using scavenging ooze eat scavenging ooze, tapping necrotic ooze for G using devoted druid ooze is 11/10
resolve eating devoted druid, ooze is 12/11
ping your opponent for 8 using walking ballista and win
Matchups
For the moment I've had good results against mill, ad nauseam, kiki jiki, abzan coco, eldrazi, knightfall, blue moon, junk, emeria, GR tron, rakdos control, dredge and elves.
Mill is of course a good matchup as they actually help setting you up, care about Ravenous Trap, surgical extraction and whatnot but if they can't exile your graveyard before you play ooze you're very likely to win. side gaddock teeg and ground seal
abzan coco creature based decks really hate grim poppet machine gun and the deck is well equipped to have that combo turn 4 with a bit of disruption before, abzan coco is a funny one since they can gain 1million life and you can strike back with 1billion. Care about Tidehollow Sculler and path to exile post side but really you should be fine. Quillspike + devoted druid is a pretty good wall against them. side in pithing needle and gaddock teeg. Since vizier of remedies this deck can be surprisingly fast to go off, name devoted druid with needle, and don't forget you can use devoted druid in their own graveyard with ooze. You need to get rid of all vizier before killing their other creatures as it give them protection from grim poppet.
ad nauseam : you want to be able to disrupt their hand game 1 so they side in leylines. They don't run any annoying removal, their only one being slaughter pact which doesn't even hit ooze, post side you're in an even better shape since your combo is more consistent and they can't disrupt it. Games are usually won one turn before you lose and you're the only one mildly interacting. side in gaddock teeg
kiki chord is tricky, but you got tricks of your own, don't forget you can use abilities of wall of roots, birds of paradise, scavenging ooze and of course Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Scavenging Ooze is their best answer to your game plan so keep your removals for that mob and try to play around their availability. They probably have some sort of silver bullet of their own as it's a fellow toolbox deck so be careful. Post side they'll usually play vizier of remedies if they still have it, since it can prevent you from destroying their board with -1 counters, it's ok though since you can just decay the vizier and combo anyways. I would advise against attacking with random trolls and whatnot. side in ground seal, pray for no linvala
bant eldrazi used to be really tough and they have some hands that are hard to beat. But usually wiping their board happens faster than you dying to Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. Side in reclamation sage and big game hunter. Keep a hand with a plan.
knightfall is about the same as kiki jikki matchup except they have more ways to hose you, also you can use Knight of the Reliquary ability to fetch whatever (includign Bojuka Bog, why not. There again a grim poppet machine gun is usually enough and scavenging ooze is their protection against it, so either you discard devoted druid and grim poppet with ooze on board while keeping priority or you wait for a removal or two considering they play spellskite. Bring aspirin. They play spell quellers now so it becomes a really hard matchup. side in ground seal vengeful pharaoh and nihil spellbomb. Have a plan against aven mindcensor, spellskite and scavenging ooze. BeE very wary of knight of the reliquary capable of fetching bojuka bog at instant speed.
blue moon is not really threatening as we play 6 basic lands, you can play around their counters and have cavern anyways. Just drop a thornling if they played Relic of Progenitus correctly and ride it to victory.
junk is fair, and fair is not good enough. While they're tapping 3 mana for 1/1 spirits and 4 mana for 4/5 rhinos you're killing them and their board out of nowhere. Care about path to exile, hope to hit their grave hate with inquisition but they shouldn't be playing rest in peace so you'll be fine. Note that junk control playing 12 removals and scavenging ooze is going to **** you up really bad though. This matchup is highly dependent on his decklist, but generally lotleth troll is an allstar.
emeria is maybe your only free win as they can't do much against your game plan except for their path to exile, let them draw 1 with wall of omens and what not and ignore them until you win asap
GR tron is actually hard but somehow I won quite a lot against it. Karn is annoying but you got needles post side to deal with it, deals with ugin too which can't exile devoted druid by the way (untap it twice and kill it in response). Your fauna shaman are going to be in rough shape though but you'll probably get to activate a t2 fauna shaman once which should set you up nicely enough if you understand the deck well. Ulamog is annoying, especially if he attacks and exiles 20 cards but they shouldn't get there, also Grim Poppet machine gun kills it. Careful about the relics of progenitus main and the ninja Bojuka Bogs some lists are playing. Blue tron is much harder, and I somehow never played against eldrazi tron which seems hardcore. GW tron is harder because of path to exile and rest in peace, GB tron is about the same, maybe a bit tougher.
Rakdos control is not designed to beat ooze, but mostly aggro decks like abzan coco, knightfall etc, masticore and thornling are usually enough to go through any answer they have and trample/blast them to death in case ooze can't combo after a surgical. Careful about terminate as it's a great way to kill lotleth troll. side in ground seal and careful about rakdos charm
dredge creatures are small now, they can't get past regenerating trolls without spending resources. It should be a manageable matchup, the big problem here is conflagrate. side in faerie macabre nihil spellbomb and scavenging ooze#2, if you're feeling spicy go for gaddock teeg to shut down conflagrate.
elves are tasty, yum yum it's one of your best matchup. side in explosives and golgari charm, rush the combo.
50/50 (maybe 45-55) results against : infect, goryo griselbrand, sun and moon, UW control without spell queller, esper control, grixis delver, affinity, bushwhacker goblins, hatebears, valakut, the rack, boggles, merfolks
merfolks are annoying because spreading seas can prevent you from getting double black or double green and suddenly you can't block. If you ever land ooze and grim poppet their board you win though. Careful, some merfolks play relic of progenitus main. side in explosives and golgari charm
boggles is hard to interact with, but you do have abrupt decay to destroy some enchantments and discard spells so you're not completely naked. Most important spells to discard are of course his creatures and Spirit Mantle, then try to mitigate the amount of damage you'll receive as much as you can and combo as fast as possible. side in explosives, golgari charm and reclamation sage, care for their rest in peace
8 rack is pretty hard because they destroy lands and keep you low on ressources. Even if they "help" you discarding combo pieces in the graveyard there is a low chance you'll actually cast a ooze.And even if you do it will die soon to sacrifice effects. Practice that matchup and get squee. It's not undoable but you gotta have a plan. side in explosives and reclamation sage
infect is still strong, sometimes they just kill you and that's it. The side plays a lot less hate against that deck now so it's really hard.
goryo matchup is about as random as they get. Sometimes they kill you turn 2 after you inquisitionned their goryo, sometimes you draw 7 with ooze using their griselbrand and out combo them. I love and hate that matchup at the same time because I really don't feel in control of my fate, if they have it they have it, if they don't they'll lose to anyone anyways. Still, it's still pretty fun to draw 7 with ooze when they have griselbrand in the graveyard. Side in faerie macabre and ground seal
sun and moon is a package of condensed hate, their chalice at 1 is fine and usually they don't play path to exile. You're gonna be annoyed with nahiri for sure so careful when going sideways and careful about ajani. If they drop leyline + bridge + rest in peace you have to hope to draw something good. Side in vampire hexmage and reclamation sage.
UW control is hard because counterspells prevent you from playing out your hand as fast as you want. It becomes a game of discipline and building a window of opportunity. Supreme verdict is kinda fine, abrupt decay sucks in this matchup, but you gotta have it for the rest in peace. Try to play grisly salvage end of their turn and bait some kind of response. You're not going to be under a lot of pressure so take your time and try to get to a point where you can do several things in a turn. It's actually a good game plan to trade creatures for counterspells and grind him out that way until the coast is clear for necrotic ooze. side in ground seal and thrun
esper control, see above except it's a bit harder because they play surgical for sure. surgical snap surgical hurts you more than anything. side in ground seal and thrun
grixis delver is okay, thornling is good here, play around leak. It's a skill based matchup. Don't forget you can use their tasigur with ooze. side in ground seal and chameleon colossus or thrun
affinity is hard or easy depending on how much disruption you draw and how fast is their hand. be very careful about the poison, side in needles golgari charm explosives and kataki
8 whack is tough game 1 and you'll probably lose unless you got an amazing hand and they stumble, post side you got the same tools as against affinity
valakut games are mostly non interactive, you can disrupt them a little bit but have nothing to prevent them from playing titan, they can bolt your dudes and anger of the gods the rest. It's a speed race. Side in brutality and gaddock.
living end can swing dramatically either way. Your main target with discard is going to be their faerie macabre, since you can actually profit a lot from living end if you have a discard outlet in play. Leyline is gonna sting game 2 but you got reclamation sage that you can fetch and disruption for their early cascade.
lantern control is really hard if they get the lock early, but you do have some plays against the deck. Try to delay cracking your fetching as much as possible, slowroll decays, explosives and reclamation sages to target mainly pithing needle or bridge, but they do have Welding Jar and academy ruinsagainst that plan. Same for your discard spells. Surgical is going to be painful, and Pyxis of Pandemonium can hose you because it exile. Don't forget quillspike can attack under bridge if they have 1 card in hand. Your best bet after they pithing needle necrotic ooze and walking ballista is to cast thornling, pump it to 0/8, attack under bridge, and then pump it back to as high as you can between 1 and 7.
bad results against : burn, death shadow, faeries, jeksai control, any deck with spell queller, mardu control, grixis control, ponza, hatebears, eternal command, jund
storm is mostly going to destroy you through any kind of disruption, hope for many kozileks, and side in gaddock teeg and golgari charm as well as graveyard hate.
eternal command is tough, you get locked out of the game fairly fast and the goyfs put a lot of pressure on you while being protected by remands and snaps etc... Played only once against this but I didn't feel I could do anything except topdeck cavern of souls and have a miracle setup with grisly salvage.
burn is really hard, if you can deal with their board they can still roast you, I want to try play Tree of Redemption in the side just for that matchup because kitchen finks and spellskite feels lackluster. Discard is king. Lotleth troll is a very good blocker. Collective brutality is of course an allstar in this matchup, side in the second one.
hatebears are going to make you feel like you're an adult and have to pay taxes, and taxes on top of taxes, and remove your resources and tax for everything you search. Leonin Arbiter is very annoying, so are Flickerwisp, tidehollow sculler, and a little bit less thalia. If they draw right you're in a world of troubles. Post side you're gonna eat some rest in peace but really this matchup is going to depend a lot on what you can do to disrupt them vs what they can do to disrupt you, and they're much better at this than you are. side in hope and golgari charm.
death shadow variants its too fast and too strong. If you're arm wrestling with this guy he's gonna break your elbow. Side in grave hate and big game hunters, vengeful pharaoh is good too. Lotleth troll is an allstar. Death shadow jund is a bit easier than death shadow grixis because of decay (which doesn't hit tasigur or angler), never played against esper death shadow but I expect it to be horrendous. Tight play mandatory. Scooze is very good here, so is discard.
spell queller decks : can't do anything against it except a lucky abrupt decay or dismember which they'll probably flash in another spell queller for. Good luck. Hardcast grim poppet for the lulz. Any way, collected company into spell queller is probably enough to end the game if you don't have a very controlling hand. Pharaoh is good here
mardu control : it's a deck playing discard, path to exile, nahiri, anger of the gods, rest in peace, bolt, surgical extraction, bojuka bog. Your graveyard doesn't stand a chance and all your creatures can be dealt with. Probably the most humbling matchup. When you shuffle his deck game 2, try to give him no lands.
grixis control : contrary to grixis delver, this guy packs a lot of instant speed answers to everything you do. A skilled player will lock you out nice and easy and pat you on the head for an original brew. 2/10 would not recommend.
ponza : you need 4 mana to cast ooze, or at least 3 mana and a creature, you won't get either and certainly not black mana. Get up and go watch other games or sit there and watch some dude masturbate to inferno titan triggers, your call. side in explosives golgari charm and don't forget to fetch basics.
jund is tough as ****, your main gameplan doesn't work at all against them. Their mixups of discard, removals and more discard teaming with cheap beefy dudes and scavenging ooze put a lot of pressure on you. Either you get the right draws or you don't. Note that here again thornling is an allstar. Liliana of the veil sometimes destroys you, sometimes helps you set up. Scavenging ooze will most likely destroy you unless jund player is bad. Side in big game hunters and hope they don't eat squee with scooze. This is probably your worst matchup.
these results are based on a few hundred games since october with an ever evolving list and against a lot of opponent who have no idea what's going on, so your mileage might vary.
30/10/2016 : 3-2 at a GPtrial with this list losing to ad nauseam and grixis control and winning to GR tron, dredge and emeria. It's a pretty fun deck, it can kill turn 4, but is surprisingly consistent at doing what it does. EDIT : 55% win againt the competitive format, fast decks are hard to beat especially burn and death shadow (other fast decks are much more manageable).
17/12/2016 : 3-1 today with this updated list. I knew the deck better added more tricks and ways to setup the graveyard to accelerate the moment it's ok to drop ooze (ideally turn 4). Result is I beat abzan 2-0 after beating him with an infinite/infinite hexproof -1 counters machine gun Necrotic Ooze on turn 5 two games in a row, then a rakdos control with Blood Moon through a Cranial Extraction naming Fauna Shaman that I beat 2-1 losing to Demigod of Revenge on the second game. My next opponent was a death shadow player, so I died turn 3 first game after droping a Devoted Druid and it was pretty close. This deck in its' current form is pretty bad against very aggressive decks with reach, like burn or death shadow that's why you got Fog in the sideboard as it gives you 1 more turn and sometimes more. second game he mulligans to 5 and bolts 2 Fauna Shaman back to back, so I have nothing to combo with or to start filling my graveyard, I hold the fort with Noose Constrictor and Stinkweed Imp to buy time and then I don't draw anything and die after getting flooded 5 turns later. Magic. Not a good matchup. Last game I face a griselbrand player which had beaten me the last time and kill him turn 4 and turn 5 through an Anger of the Gods with my bread and butter t1 Inquisition of Kozilek, t2 Fauna Shaman into Devoted Druid, t3 fetch Butcher of the Horde eot, t4 fetch Necrotic Ooze play it and win.
06/02/2017 : went to a few tournaments, 0-4 a couple of times after trying to play a jund version with Faithless Looting, it didn't work out lost to mardu, faeries, infect, jeksai control with spell queller, then lost to faeries, burn, bant eldrazi and valakut.
Then played B/G again and got a 2-1-1 results tying against UWcontrol with surgical extraction, winning against ad nauseam, losing against esper control, and winning against mill. Players in my area are starting to understand how the deck function, they side in Surgical Extraction targeting Devoted Druid and Necrotic Ooze in priority and don't spam Rest in Peace turn 2 so I have to be careful about what I discard now. Games are becoming increasingly challenging to win, but also much more rewarding when ooze prevails in the end.
05/02/2017 : 3/2 finishing 10th out of 32 at a gptrial, losing 1rst round to mardu control 0-2, which is probably this decks' worst matchup because it exiles everything all the time with Path to Exile, Anger of the Gods, Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, Nahiri, the Harbinger -2. Winning round 2 against ad nauseam 2-0 and I'm getting more and more confident about that matchup (he had an unlucky Spoils of the Vault exiling 2 Simian Spirit Guide though). Winning round 3 against bant eldrazi 2-0 and it was closer than it looked, I basically had to topdeck ooze or eldritch evolution at 1hp first game to have a winning chance, did it, wiped his entire board and won, game 2 I had a very resilient hand with double fauna shaman and double devoted druid, inquisitionned away his rest in peace turn 1 and destroyed him and his board turn 4 after his turn 2 thought knot seer. Round 4 was basically the game to win to get to top 8, I'm facing a griselbrand player so I know it's a coin flip. I win the die roll after mulligan to 6 and t1 fetch for 3 into IOK making him discard Goryo's Vengeance seeing Faithless Looting and Griselbrand, he loots t1 and discards random stuff, I t2 Lotleth Troll and pass, he loots again t2 and discards griselbrand so I know he probably has another goryo and I'm feeling under pressure. t3 I play Eldritch Evolution sacrificing Lotleth Troll to fetch Necrotic Ooze and pay 7 life to draw 7 cards using his Griselbrand, going down to 10hp, none of the drawn cards allow me to win on the spot and I'm scared of going to 3 and dying to bolt so I don't draw 7 more, pass my turn and discard a bunch of protection for the ooze. On his turn 3 he goryo griselbrand and win. I side in everything I can to prevent him from going off too fast, mulligan to 4, he opens with t0 Leyline of Sanctity, I open with Khalni Garden, his t1 is a looting discarding griselbrand, my t2 is a Grisly Salvage, not finding Faerie Macabre so I pick a land, his t2 is nothing, my t3 is Eldritch Evolution sacrificing the khalni garden token and fetching Fauna Shaman hoping he doesn't kill me next turn, he kill me next turn. Game 5 was against a sun and moon deck, I beat him handily 2-0 after he made a few mistakes like trying to kill a ooze with Thornling and Prognostic Sphinx in the graveyard and losing 2 cards because of this. Game 2 he had a turn 2 Rest in Peace and I had a turn 2 Golgari Charm. We traded blows for a few turns and I dropped ooze with protection, Devoted Druid and discard outlets in the grave, and Grim Poppet in hand, killed his emrakul with ooze after Nahiri, the Harbinger ulted and finished him the turn after. I got this result because he didn't know my deck, if he did there are many ways he could have destroyed me. Sun and moon is probably a very bad matchup against a skilled opponent.
09/02/2017: 3-1, winning 2-1 against grixis delver, losing 0-2 to bant eldrazi, and winning twice 2-1 against scapeshift valakut.
11/02/2017 : 1-3, losing 0-2 to eternal command, winning 2-0 against burn!, losing 0-2 to junk, and 0-2 to grixis delver. Lacked a second breath against midrange during the entire tournament and piloted the deck poorly.
25/02/2017 :
3-2, losing to jeksai nahiri 0-2 ancestral visions and mostly counterspells + Snapcaster Mage
losing to grixis control 0-2 to a fast tasigur clock and resolved ancestral vision game 1, game 2 I managed a turn 3 Chameleon Colossus thanks to Eldritch Evolution which got bounced by cryptic a few turns later after bringing him to 5life, then nothing stuck on the board and devoted druid got surgicaled away. That's when I figured out Thrun, the Last Troll would be good against blue.
Won 2-0 against mono white hatebears with Grim Poppet machine gun after an engineered explosives on 2 wiped away a couple of Rest in Peace Leonin Arbiter and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben,
won 2-0 against lantern control sliding under the Ensnaring Bridge with Quillspike before pumping it to 10000 game 1 and 5 Molten-Tail Masticore activations game 2 after Necrotic Ooze and Fauna Shaman got locked away by Pithing Needle
won 2-1 against sun and moon after a hard fought midrange battle, managing to remove Nahiri, the Harbinger, Gideon Jura and Chandra, Torch of Defiance, as well as destroying as many enchantements as I could, topdecking Vampire Hexmage was pretty good here to kill Nahiri, the Harbinger just before ult, and then sacrificing Necrotic Ooze in response to Wrath of God to kill Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
I feel the deck is pretty bad at the moment, I'm going to keep playing it but it seems much more inconsistent than before, and much more often disrupted than before. I removed Chalice of the Void from the side as the matchups where I want to cast it at 1 have artifact destruction in Kolaghan's Command and Abrupt Decay. Extirpate is back on the menu to fight control and sometimes valakut or tron alongside Fulminator Mage. Shriekmaw is almost exclusively to deal with Scavenging Ooze and aggressive matchups.
02/03/2017 : 1-1-2 in a local modern event
won 2-0 against hatebears with really strong draws, setting up a grim poppet machine gun turn 3 game 1 with sphinx protection, and making him discard his graveyard hate game 2 before stabilizing at 7hp with yet another grim poppet machine gun and killing him shortly after.
tie 1-1 against bant eldrazi with a strong showing game 1 managing to set up grim poppet machine gun through a couple of TKS and a path to exile targetting ooze. Game 2 he got turn 3 TKS, turn 4 TKS and managed to path or displace my creatures. In the end he locked me out with multiple displaced TKS at my draw step and killed me swiftly shortly after. Game 3 I made my first of many mistakes this tournament and didn't risk an early masticore when it was the only move that could end the game before time after he exiled a ooze with TKS. Instead I chose to play a bunch of removals to take care of his board and we drew with him at 4 hp. Bummer
lost 0-2 against grixis delver, game 1 he destroyed and countered my *****, game 2 he surgicaled my ooze and I tried to kill him with thurn but he could block with tasigur and I hesitated to play chameleon colossus because I was scared of a counter but he had none (and I could see 3 mana leaks in exile...) He ended up killing me with delver and I felt pretty bad about my plays because it's usually an ok matchup for me.
lost 1-2 against bushwacker Kuldotha Rebirth, nothing eventful except game 3 where I inquisition away a bushwacker instead of Tormod's Crypt for some reason and get my graveyard full of combos exiled.. Pretty tired at the end of this.
14/04/2017 : update after a while, the deck went through a rough time as the metagame is very favorable for midrange and midrange owns us through discard, removals, counters and exile effects as well as a 2-3 turns clocks. I tried to play the list with a higher focus on combo but I got wrecked by unanswered Scavenging Ooze, Surgical Extraction, counterspells, aggressive strategies like burn, zoo, or unfair planewalkers like karn into ugin and went 0-4 for a few tournaments... So it was time to make a change. I decided to focus more on the control aspect of the deck as well as being able to quickly put a useful but not necessarily lethal ooze into play. I rebuilt the deck from the ground up, removing Dryad Arbor which has not really been performing to have 22 real lands, 21 of which can come into play untapped. Khalni Garden is actually a card you can cut for a 22th untapped land if you wish, but I like the chump blocking ability it has and most of all casting Eldritch Evolution sacrificing the token to fetch Lotleth Troll, Scavenging Ooze, or Fauna Shaman (and in some rare cases, Satyr Wayfinder, Noose Constrictor, or Walking Ballista which goes immediately in the graveyard ready to be used by Necrotic Ooze), since you have 3 copies of Eldritch Evolution now it's much more consistent to do this play. I put additional copies of Prognostic Sphinx and Grim Poppet as they are the most important cards to have in the graveyard and you need to draw them at some point. Satyr Wayfinder is basically replacing Grisly Salvage except there is only one and you can sacrifice it to Eldritch Evolution to get a ooze. Tasigur + Morselhoarder is very strong as ooze doesn't need haste to go off and you kill instantly by drawing / discarding your entire deck with infinite mana and ping for infinite with ballista. Morselhoarder and Tasigur have nice bodies too, and Tasigur can delve your fetch/removals/discard to come earlier into play (even though it would be even faster with grisly salvage but you gotta make choices and grisly salvage doesn't work in a deck with spells that you don't want in your graveyard). Ballista by the way is great, the +1+1 counter you get from lotleth troll and scavenging ooze can be used with ballista and the fact that you don't need to exile cards from your grave like you used to with masticore is a plus. You'll usually cast ballista for X=1 or X=2 and pump it a bit
That being said I had a solid 2-2 performance yesterday after :
losing to dredge 2-0 because I didn't have Nihil Spellbomb in my side (wanted to try fatal push which was a fatal mistake) and I thought Scavenging Ooze main would be enough (it wasn't).
Then I lost 2-0 to G/W tron with Relic of Progenitus main and t3 karn into t4 ugin, not much I could do but I noted that I had a quick ooze on all 4 games with no way to withstand the assault for long enough against dredge, and no way to deal with tron quickly enough before he exiles all my stuff.
Then I won against G/W hatebears handily, drawing my library with infinite mana and tasigur both games on turn 4.
For the last set I played against another G/W tron and managed to stall him with Ghost Quarter long enough to combo off game 1, G2 he came prepared and inquisition revealed 2 Rest in Peace and no threats, I took one and hope to draw a pulse or a decay for the other (because I didn't have Reclamation Sage in my side for some reason...). Luckily the only threat he drew in a couple of turns was a Wurmcoil Engine so I could chump for a turn with the khalni garden token and then with Walking Ballista before drawing a Maelstrom Pulse targeting Rest in Peace with everything I needed in hand to combo the turn after. On his turn he cast karn and I have an active Fauna Shaman in play + a Devoted Druid and 2 tapped lands + 1 green source untapped. If he targets devoted druid with karn I don't think I can go off the turn after and am probably dead, he feels threatened by fauna shaman and exiles it, in response I discard the sphinx and fetch the last piece of the combo and go off the turn after for the win. Facing players that don't know the deck is still pretty strong.
20/04/2017 : 2-2
round 1 : abzan coco, game 1 he comboes to infinite life and we stare at each other for a few turns while I'm holding the ground with 3 lotleth trolls and enough to regenerate and he just has some creatures with no impact. If I draw either ooze or eldritch evolution I win on the spot, if he draws scavenging ooze I lose basically. After a few turns he draws Tireless Tracker and draws into scavenging ooze for the win. game 2 I grim poppet combo turn 3 and after he played a turn 2 scavenging ooze and win the turn after. Game 3 is tricky because we have the same scenario than game 1 except he already has scavenging ooze in play. I have fauna shaman active for a few turns, discarding random creatures I don't need to get all my combo pieces in hand (devoted druid, morselhoarder, walking ballista) for a few turns while holding the ground with lotleth troll. I then play eldritch evolution sacrificing fauna shaman, in response he eats fauna shaman, I fetch necrotic ooze, hold priority and discard the 3 combo pieces, hold priority and make infinite mana, hold priority and put infinite +1+1 counters on the pile and give him back priority, he scoops understanding I can just do this whenever I want forever. 2-1
round 2 : I play against jund, game 1 he destroys my hand, and eats everything with scavenging ooze and I lose. Game 2 same story and I really felt there was nothing I could do when he just ate prognostic sphinx and thornling making me unable to dodge removals targeted at my ooze. The list probably needs to forget about the combo against jund, I don't know. 0-2
round 3 : I play against 5 colors tribal flames aggro, he plays nacatl turn 1, I play khalni garden, he attacks for 3 and I bloc turn 2 while he burns my face for 4 with boros charm. turn 2 I play devoted druid and pass. on his turn 3 he has all 5 basic land types and attacks me for 13 with his nacatl empowered by two Might of Alara and I fall to 7, turn 3 I play satyr wayfinder, mill grim poppet and 3 lands, pick up a land and cast eldritch evolution sacrificing devoted druid, on his turn he attacks me again, i don't declare blockers and he snapcaster a Might of Alara, in response I kill the nacatl with ooze. On my turn I combo kill him after a lucky walking ballista draw. Game 2 he destroys me with 2 very big knights of the reliquary and a tarmogoyf and I don't have time to assemble the combo. Game 3 I manage to hold the ground with lotleth troll so he burns my face while I activate fauna shaman a couple of time before winning. He probably should have burnt the fauna shaman but he had never played against the deck before and didn't know what it was capable of. 2-1
round 4 : I play against kikki chord which can be a terrible terrible matchup, especially post board where they have access to Linvala, Keeper of Silence which totally destroys us unless we play maelstrom pulse of shriekmaw. These concerns were premature however as I mulliganed to 4 game 1 and never found a green source to get going before he killed me. Game 2 I tried to dig as fast as I could but he had the combo faster than I did with scavenging ooze protection and I lost. 0-2
The deck seems very vulnerable from a lot of angles at the moment, mostly counterspells, graveyard hate, removals, and activated abilities hate. I cannot seem to settle on a solid 60.
27/04/2017 : 2-2
round 1 : affinity, he destroys me turn 3 and 4 and I don't get a chance to do anything relevant. 0-2
round 2 : tooth and nail, I destroy him turn 4 and 3 and he doesn't get a chance to do anything relevant. Game 2 was my best nut draw in a while with t1 inquisition, t2 lotleth troll, t3 discard stinkweed imp and dredge fauna shaman + grim poppet + devoted druid + thornling, then cast eldritch evolution sacrificing the troll to put necrotic ooze into play with prognostic sphinx in hand. Best dredge ever. 2-0
round 3 : boggles, I try to race him destroying his daybreak coronet with abrupt decay but he has a better clock and I don't draw lilliana of the veil, game 2 pretty much the same except he had pithing needle naming ooze just in case. 0-2
round 4 : jund, I win the dice roll, and lead with inquisition of kozilek making him discard scavenging ooze, he answers right back with an inquisition of his own seeing 2 grisly salvages and a maelstrom pulse, he chooses one of the grisly salvages, during his second turn he cast bob and pass, I cast grisly salvage and find everything I need with devoted druid fauna shaman and grim poppet, some days you just hit the right cards, I pick fauna shaman and cast it on my turn 3. He fatal pushes it on his own turn and inquisition me again making me discard pulse and seeing the necrotic ooze I just drew and no 4rth land. He cast tarmogoy and passes. On my 4rth turn I find a land, cast ooze and kill dark confident, he draws and concedes.
2nd game I sided in 2 ground seal and 1 prognostic sphinx. He leads with land go, I inquisition him turn 1 and see 1 surgical extraction, 1 anger of the gods, 1 liliana of the veil, and 1 fatal and lands. I pick the fatal push and pass. On his 2nd turn he plays a land and pass, on my 2nd turn I hesitate playing fauna shaman for some reason, then I realize he can just liliana edict my fauna and surgical the other I have in hand next turn which sound like it sucks. I just play ground seal instead and draw Duskwatch Recruiter. On his 3rd turn he plays liliana and makes us discard, he discards surgical and I discard grim poppet. On my 3rd turn I play a land and collective brutality making him discard anger of the gods and it looks like he is flooded. On his 4rth turn he plays a raging ravine, make us discard so I discard stinkweed imp and he discard a land. On my 4rth turn I play a fauna shaman and don't play a land. On his 5th turn he edicts the shaman (lili to 3) and attacks me with raging ravine. On my turn I play duskwatch recruiter and a land and pass. On his turn he edicts it and attack me with raging ravine to 11 and edicts the recruiter (lili to 1). On my turn I play a lotleth troll and a land and pass empty handed. On his turn he makes us discard and pass, wanting to protect liliana with ravine. On my turn I dredge stinkweed imp and hit 5 lands that I'm glad I didn't draw before casting it and pass. On his turn he edict me killing liliana and I sacrifice the imp. he passes. On my turn I topdeck a necrotic ooze, play it and pass with 1 mana up, on his turn he plays dark confident and pass. On my turn I dredge the imp, hit devoted druid, use fauna shaman to find masticore and kill him. 2-0
02/05/2017 : 2-1
round 1 : death and taxes, I combo him turn 3 game 1. Game 2 he drop a turn 2 and turn 3 leonin arbiter and I never find a non fetchland and die. Game 3 I combo turn 4 and win through not much resistance. 2-1
round 2 : kikki chord : game 1 I combo him turn 5 after making him discard twice with inquisition and he never plays a threat. Game 2 was a grueling fight which lasted for ages, At some point he knew I was about to go off next turn, tapped out eot to chord for Restoration Angel blinking Wall of Omens finding another chord for the kill on his own turn. Game 3 I had the nuts and he didn't have anything. I got scared after he resolved a chord for 4 thinking he was going to drop linvala and fetched a Shriekmaw in response but he didn't play that kind of angel. 2-1
round 3 : bant knightfall, Spell Queller + Scavenging Ooze off of Collected Company seal the game 1, game 2 I'm dead on board and I manage to top deck a 4rth land to play ooze and wipe his side of the table, winning next turn. Game 3 he destroys me when I'm about to go off by using Knight of the Reliquary in response to ooze cast and fetch Bojuka Bog. 1-2, very hard matchup with this list.
13/05/2017 : 4-1 at gptrial, made a few changes in the deck starting by adding the vizier tech since we can use infinite mana and have many ways of setting it up. The white splash gives us access to some sweet sideboard tech. I also removed a necrotic ooze as 2 is a good enough number for what we're trying to do. Also removed an eldritch evolution since we really need a higher creature count and more interaction with what our opponent is doing ; 3 proved to be enough anyways. With all that space I added more removals and ways to deal with what my opponent is doing and disrupt their gameplan. We can still win t3 on 10% of games but the goal is to not concede to very aggressive or controlling synergies as well. The fact that people are now playing devoted druid can be very beneficial for us if we can kill it (since Necrotic Ooze can use abilities of creatures in all graveyards). I also removed the jank of spike feeder and griselbrand as I was siding it out all the time anyways. I really hope the next edition brings a cheap creature that can put -1 counters on itself and use these counters for an effect, we'll see.
round 1 : B/W death and taxes, I know the player well, he knows my deck, he mulligans to 5 and I have a hand full of disruption. I destroy the few things he plays while setting up and combo turn 5. Game 2 he doesn't find enough removals to deal with my 2nd fauna shaman, he tricks me with Tidehollow Sculler + Eldrazi Displacer and removes decay permanently while exiling eldritch evolution, I kill the tidehollow with a ballista sending it to the grave, get back eldritch, he plays rest in peace so I lose ballista. I use fauna shaman to find devoted druid, while he attacks me with just the displacer down to 8, the turn after I find vizier, make infinite mana and eldritch for duskwatch recruiter and he concedes (I couldn't kill him but could overwhelm him in card advantage). That player late won the tournament. 2-0
round 2 : jund, game one I win turn 3 with kozilek into devoted druid into vizier into eldritch evolution, figuring out he's jund so i side in ground seal for his ooze. Game 2 I'm about to go off, have an invincible ooze (thornling and sphinx in the grave) but he overwhelms me with creatures and can attack for lethal over 2 turns. I just have to draw one creature to win, I don't and lose. Game 3 I get destroyed by mass removals and lili and pithing needle on ooze and there is not much I can do. I trade a few of my resources with a few of his but that's more his gameplan than mine and he grinds me out. 1-2
round 3 : R/W death and taxes burn, game one I get destroyed by Mirran Crusader and Elspeth, Knight-Errant attacking me for 10 unblockable. I manage to kill crusader with a hard cast grim poppet which gets pathed, kill his Leonin Arbiter boosted by elpseth with a madnessed big game hunter, but he drops another crusader and I lose. game 2 he drops Harsh Mentor turn 1 off of Simian Spirit Guide so on my second turn I lose 5life to a fetch + shock to decay it. He bolts my following fauna shaman, then drops Gideon of the Trials and active his emblem. I find nothing but discard and destroy his hand for a few turns while he attacks me for 4 with gideon and drops me to 4. I find a collective brutality, deal with his fresh leonin arbiter and gain 2 life knowing he has nothing I can make him discard in hand and surviving yet another turn and droping to 2 on his following attack. at that point I have 4 lands while he has 7, I have scavenging ooze in hand and he has runed halo. I draw a necrotic ooze and play it, hoping to chump block or scare him, but I have nothing good in the grave and no way to give ooze indestructible. He attacks me and I chump. Next turn I find a forest, play it and play scavenging ooze immediately gaining 3 life and growing scooze to a 5/5. On his draw step he sighs and +1 gideon to prevent damage from scooze. I keep on drawing gas and he respond to all his threats while growing my ooze and gaining life. At some point I find masticore play it along lotleth troll which he can't contain, having already played 3 path to exile and I win. 3rd game I kill him turn 3 while he tried to burn me down with harsh mentor and boros charm. 2-1
round 4 : ad nauseam, game one I combo him turn 3, after a t1 inquisition seeing no immediate threat. Game 2 I side in gaddock teeg, play it turn 3 after fetching it with fauna shaman, in response he casts Spoils of the Vault naming Abandon Hope and dies. He later tells me He didn't have any answer to gaddock teeg.
round 5 : grixis delver, all I remember is that I needed to win to have a chance to top 4 (25 players tournament so only top 4) games were very grindy and I had to play around many annoying cards like surgical extraction and mana leak. Game 1 lasted forever and I won after managing to stick a necrotic ooze with prognostic sphinx protection and combo the turn after. Game 2 he wins after I eldritch evolution for thrun instead of ooze thinking there was nothing he could do about it but tasigur is 4/5... Game 3 I destroy him after he thought scour milling his tasigur, I use tasigur with ooze getting 2 combo pieces and win. 2-1
in the end 4-1, tied with 2nd, 3rd, and 4rth, but pairings put me 5th and I'm out.
27/05/2017 3-3-2 at grand prix Copenhagen, played bad all day and couldn't close out games because the deck was too inconsistent. At least I learn that I need 4 eldritch and 3 necrotic ooze main and can't cut on these. The actual list is the updated version that did 3-0-1 the following day on a side event.
gp round 1 : mill, he sets me up nicely and I have an eldritch evolution in hand, I get ooze into play and win easily. 2-0
gp round 2 : affinity, he destroys me game one as I see no removal and no combo, game 2 I start with Pithing Needle t1 naming... Mox Opal yeah that doesn't do anything... lost 0-2
gp round 3 : death shadow grixis, I combo out game 1, kill a board of 2 death shadow and an angler and ping him to death next turn, game 2 we go back and forth for a while but he grinds me out and finally draws his Temur Battle Rage to trample for lethal over Lotleth Troll, game 3 I destroy his board, he destroys mine, we don't draw threats fast enough and draw... 1-1
gp round 4 : U/W control, I attack him with lotleth troll and he blessed alliance it, I play nothing for a few turns and swing with khalni garden token and dryad arbor to incite a response (and to make him tilt), at some point he taps out to block with celestial colonnade and I combo him out during that window post combat, game 2 I kill him with thornling and thrun beats. 2-0
gp round 5 : 4 colors summoning trap, his list was all over the place and I didn't know what to expect when my t1 inquisition revealed siege rhino summoning trap and ancestral vision, I combo off early and win g1 handily. G2 he brings in the hate with linvala, pithing needle and scooze and I can't deal with all of them the game is grindy and I don't find the combo fast enough to get him, g3 I lead with a nice disruption plan taking away all his hate, decaying pithing needle and shriekmaw on linvala but can't find a way to kill him, he stalls with ojutai dragon and siege rhino, I big game hunter one and maelstrom pulse the other but still don't find a ooze or eldritch evolution and try to kill him with lotleth troll until we go to turns and he drops thragtusk and I can't kill him... draw 1-1
gp round 6 : U/W control, of course with 2 draws I'm obviously going to plays decks that stall games and have a hard time finishing fast so it's no surprise I face another control, game 1 he destroys me and I don't find anything good to play (no eldritch no ooze, played 3 eldritch and 2 ooze at the gp, never again less than 4 and 3), game 2 I combo him and he finally understand what I've been trying to setup, game 3 I disrupt him as much as I can and trade creatures for counters. He plays gideon and I get clocked by gideon of the trials beats. On a critical turn I play an inquisition, he taps out to counter, I then play thornling and give it haste to kill gideon, I kill him over 3 turns with thornling beats while he floods on lands. 2-1
gp round 7 : dredge, First game I get destroyed as I didn't see a scavenging ooze or eldritch for scavenging ooze, 2nd game I play turn 1 inquisition make him discard a cathartic reunion, t2 nihil spellbomb, he plays a cathartic reunion and I panic crack the nihil spellbomb in response instead of letting it resolve, then I get outvalued and draw nothing good. 0-2 and dream is dead but I decide to play one last round for fun
gp round 8 : another U/W control, he destroys me both games and has answers for all my threats and more card advantage, I don't draw a single necrotic ooze again.. 0-2 and drop because of a hard tilt, need time to recollect myself.
side events were much better, I beat a G/W good stuff company handily, an elfball deck easily, and have my most interesting game against a lantern control where I had Wickerbough Elder in the sideboard and random griselbrand borborygmos enraged package because I wanted to have fun. First game 1 combo him out before he locks ooze out. 2nd game goes on for a while but I don't have enough fetches to prevent him from destroying my library and removing my answers and he gets back needle after I manage to decay it. 3rd game goes to time but he had the lock so I give him the win after the 5th turn. Last game was against a bant coco and I destroyed him game 1, game 2 I can't find an answer to scooze somehow and die to spell queller beats, game 3 I get ooze with fauna shaman and devoted druid but no grim poppet, he has scooze and spellskite which is annoying, but he is mana dead at 3 lands and only 1 green source and pass with mana untapped, I try to activate fauna shaman and in response he flash in aven mindcensor so I can only look at top 4 cards, don't find grim poppet, untap ooze and do it again, don't find grim poppet, untap ooze and do it again, don't find grim poppet but find scryb ranger which I discard to untap ooze and try again, no grim poppet on the top 4 cards and time is called. I pass turn and he plays another green source and exiles devoted druid, I have a ton of cards in my hand and try to decide how I kill him because I'm pretty sure I can, in my graveyard there is scryb ranger lotleth troll fauna shaman, in my hand there is ballista, squee, duskwatch recruiter, scavenging ooze, and dryad arbor. In the hand I go with discard my entire hand to have 5 +1 counters(-2 already on ooze), and kill his spellskite by eating another creature from my grave and have 4 counters, then I try to kill aven mindcensor and in response he exiles my fauna shaman and I have no answer. Then he kills me on the 5th turn... The deck is hard to play, but don't discard your hand for 5 damage.
11/06/2017 semi finalist at a 40 players mkm event (4-1 in rounds). Before that tournament I tested a lot different cards and went to a few small tournaments without some key cards to see the impact they have. I tried playing without Grisly Salvage, the deck can't function consistently without it even if the card isn't ideal (I wish you could put non land non creature cards at the bottom or something). I tried without maelstrom pulse, and another time without decays, same thing as I need a way to answer everything that could be thrown my way and can't hope making good results without these catch all. After some thinking I decided to cut most of the cute stuff including scryb ranger (sadly) and get back to the most amount of 3 and 4 of possible for consistency. The one untested cute stuff I had for the tournament was liliana the last hope which I didn't ever draw that day, and the white splash for gaddock teeg which wasn't a relevant sideboard card against my matchups. I know gaddock teeg is very good against a lot of strategies and I plan on keeping him for the moment, liliana must be drawn to be tested accordingly in a real game, but gut feeling is that it's going to be a great card with lots of flexibility (can deal with 1 toughness creatures, ease aggression, present a must deal with threat that your opponent spends resources for while being protected by regenerating trolls, gets back key creatures from your graveyard to your hand, sets you up if you're lucky and zombies once in a while). I also reduced the number of Eldritch Evolution to 3 as I don't play enough creatures to value it consistently enough when I draw 2 close together. This also lead to removing Khalni Garden which is cute but screws me up too often coming into play tapped. Finally Quillspike made a comeback as a straightforward way to kill by attacking with an infinite/infinite that I can cast and bypass graveyard hate which I was expecting. It's also much better than a 2nd Grim Poppet which often used to rot in my hand while I waited for a way to discard it, for a devoted druid, or for a necrotic ooze to use it with devoted druid. One is enough to set up but let's not get carried away with unplayable situational cards. On to the games.
round 1 : Grixis death shadow. Game 1 he starts and inquisition my eldritch evolution away, then push my shaman terminate my troll and I draw lands for the rest of the game until I die. game 2 I IOK turn 1 and see a hand full of cantrips nihil spellbomb and surgical extraction, I take away nihil spellbomb, he topdecks a thoughtseize and make me discard necrotic ooze, and then surgical it. A few turns later I die. 0-2
round 2 : (0-1), Burn. Game 1 I get enough disruption to stop his dudes and make him discard some spells, I attacks with 2 big lotleth trolls (5/4 and 4/3 I believe) while I'm at 1 hp for 2 turns and he doesn't draw a burn spell. game 2 I get even more discard and eldritch evolution for a scavenging ooze to gain some life on the creatures I killed and made him discard. 2-0
round 3 : (1-1) Delver moon. Game 1 I do just like burn before and disrupt her enough to mitigate the early game damage. Game 2 I disrupt her even on the back of vengeful pharaoh more and actually manage to combo for the first time of the day. 2-0
round 3 : (2-1) Jund shadow. Game 1 I get disrupted into oblivion and the second death shadow he plays goes all the way. Game 2 I manage to discard enough spells to slow him down and ride a scavenging ooze all the way to victory, eating his graveyard and making sure he doesn't have delirium. Game 3 I open the nuts (2 necrotic ooze, devoted druid, 2 lands, lotleth troll, grim poppet). Devoted druid dies quickly, so does lotleth troll, He swarms me with creatures and I manage to find a 4rth land and play ooze, wiping his team for good, he tries to fatal push ooze after the dust settle and I regenerate it, he concedes seeing the writing on the wall.
round 4 : (3-1) lantern control. Game 1 I manage to combo nice and easy. Game 2 he locks me out early but I figure I might as well try and find a solution, the only one I come up with is walking ballista, which he mills and then I concede. Game 3 he locks me out very fast while I name prixis of pandemonium with needle, he plays needle on necrotic ooze, I'm stuck at 6 lands and manage to find a ballista with fauna shaman dredging stinkweed imp in the process and start to ping him for 1 a turn until I realize I can just find Thornling and make it 0/8, then pump it back after attackers are declared. Time is called and he nicely concedes the game to me as he can't deal with both ballista and thornling. 2-1.
I get into top 8 as 1rst seed, lantern is in top 8 as 8th seed so we face each other again (oh god)
quarterfinals : lantern control. Game 1 I combo him very quickly and he didn't have any kind of defense, game 2 I quickly search for thornling after he names necrotic ooze with the first needle and start beating him for 3 a turn before he finds another needle. I then manage to double fetch + draw off of nihil spellbomb and find engineered explosives which I cast for x= 3 thanks to Godless Shrine and pop his bridges, I manage to get 2 attacks in before he rebuild the wall with academy ruins but the damage is done and ballista finishes him off. 2-0
semifinals : jund. Game 1 I inquisition him and find 2 lands, 2 bolt, liliana, scooze and bob. I take scooze away and look awkwardly at my hand of fauna shaman and devoted druid as they are pretty much toast here. On his second turn he finds another scavenging ooze and play it. I slow roll my creatures for a few turns not wanting to feed scavenging ooze and hoping to draw some trolls but he just beats me down and bolts me to death while I play nothing relevant. Game 2 I side out most of the combo as there is no way I resolve it against jund. I mulligan to 5 and find a decent hand with 2 trolls an inquisition and 2 lands. I manage to hold the fort for a while but he has double bob and double scooze on the table and his hand is full of cards. At some point he bolts my troll, I regenerate it, he bolts it again, I regenerate it, he uses chandra -3 4 damage, I regenerate it, and then push the troll while I'm full tapped. On my turn I manage to madness a big game hunter killing his scooze but the other is still lurking and big game hunter trades with a bob. The other troll eats a terminate in the face. I hope to draw a big game hunter but find only lands and die. 0-2
In the end pretty good event, some misplays but the list felt solid. I'm trying to find a solution against jund as I'm too free for that deck at the moment. I think my best bet is something like Hangarback Walker or good old Thrun, testing required.
channeler initiate is nice, but beware that you need to give ooze haste or to wait one turn to use its ability, while it is immediate with morselhoarder. I agree that initiate is much better in a vacuum.
Trying out 4 chalice in the side as a surprise tech nobody will see coming (just remove 4 inquisitions and put 4 chalices)
Round 1 vs U/R delver :
Game 1 : he gets stuck on 1 land and dies soon after bolting a couple of my creatures
-4 inquisitions, +4 chalice, let's do this.
Game 2 : he goes serum vision turn 1, play a tormod crypt and pass, I play a land tapped, he plays a delver turn 2 and keeps a mountain up for bolt. I play chalice at 1. He says he probably lost. The turn after I play a fauna shaman and fail to find a 3rd land. He plays a young pyromancer and pass. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and a land and pass, he bolts my fauna shaman end of turn to make a 1/1 token. On his turn he flips delver and attack in the air. I take 3 in the air,discard a prognostic sphinx to fauna shaman to find squee goblin nabob, discard squee to lotleth troll to give it +1/+1. On my upkeep, squee triggers and he cracks tormod crypt. I tap out to cast chalice for 2 and he mana leaks it. On his turn he attacks me for 3 with delver and pass. On my turn I find a devoted druid that I play and pass. On his turn he attacks me to 9 with delver and pass, at the end of his turn I tutor grim poppet with fauna shaman, discarding stinkweed imp. On my turn I dredge stinkweed imp, find ballista, discard grim poppet to fauna shaman and find necrotic ooze. Play necrotic ooze, it resolves, kill his team and attack. On his turn he does nothing and I infinite damage him on my turn.
2-0
1-0, Round 2 vs Elves:
Game 1 he wins the die roll and I am under pressure quickly with a turn 2 elvish archdruid. I decide to abrupt decay it immediately instead of playing a fauna shaman. On his turn he plays a mana dork, heritage druid, makes 3 mana and play another elvish archdruid. On my turn I play fauna shaman, inquisition him and find 2 chords. I make him discard one and pass. On his turn he chords for 4, find ezuri and play it. On my turn I play lotleth troll and pass. On his turn he pumps his team with ezuri once and wastes some mana declaring an attack step, I discard a big game hunter and madness it with fauna shaman, killing ezuri and finding grim poppet he attacks me for 15 and I'm down to 2 hp. On my turn I find an eldritch evolution, use it on lotleth troll to find necrotic ooze, tap fauna shaman to find devoted druid discarding grim poppet, discard the druid and kill his team.
Game 2 -1 squee, -1 sphinx, +2 engineered explosives.
He leads with llanowar, I play a turn 1 explosives for 1. He plays an elvish archdruid and I play a devoted druid, he drops a bunch of creatures on the board and I play a quillspike + destroy his 1 drops. He attacks for 2 and I let it go. On my turn I attack with quillspike, pump it for infinite and kill him
2-0
2-0, round 3 vs counter company:
Game 1, I win the die roll, lead with inquisition and see some stuff and eternal witness so I make him discard witness. On his turn he plays a noble hierarch that he drew. On my turn I play a fauna shaman and pass. On his turn he plays a scavenging ooze that he drew... On my turn I play a liliana the last hope and kill his noble hierarch. On his turn he plays a land and pass. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and +1 liliana on scavenging ooze, at the end of my turn he eats hierarch. On his turn he plays a land and pass, probably signaling company, end of his turn I use fauna shaman, discarding lotleth troll and finding grim poppet. On my turn I top deck an eldritch evolution, use fauna shaman discarding a dryad arbor to find a devoted druid, sacrifice fauna shaman to eldritch evolution to find necrotic ooze, in response he taps out to collected company into mirran crusader and eternal witness, necrotic ooze comes into play and I discard devoted druid and grim poppet to kill his team (except mirran crusader). I -2 liliana and get back a lotleth troll after milling some lands. On his turn he plays nothing I remember, on my turn I find ballista with shaman and kill him.
-1 big game hunter, -1 grisly salvage, +2 pithing needle
Game 2, he plays a land and pass, I play an inquisition and see surgical extraction, collected company, devoted druid, maelstrom pulse and 1 land. I pick devoted druid hoping he doesn't find a land even though I promised myself to always pick surgical. on his turn he plays his land and pass. On my turn I play a fauna shaman and pray. On his turn he finds a land, play maelstrom pulse and surgical the shaman. On my turn I find a lotleth troll and play it. On his turn he plays a noble hierarch. On my turn I attack with troll, eldritch it to find necrotic ooze and pass. On his turn he plays kitchen finks, on my upkeep I discard stinkweed imp, dredge it and find only lands, play grisly salvage, find devoted druid and lands, and attack. He blocks. On his turn he eldritch his finks to find mirran crusader as a good way to stall me, plays a land and pass. On my upkeep I dredge with stinkweed imp and find nothing. On his turn he plays nothing and pass. On my turn I dredge with stinkweed imp and find nothing yet again. He collected company and finds devoted druid. On his turn he casts vizier, makes infinite mana and casts duskwatch recruiter, finding among others scavenging ooze and eating my graveyard forever so I scoop.
Game 3 I inquisition away a surgical, turn 1 he noble hierarch, turn 2 I fauna shaman, turn 2 he scavenging ooze, turn 3 I draw a necrotic ooze, play devoted druid and pass, on his turn he plays nothing and keeps mana up, at the end of his turn I discard dryad arbor and find lotleth troll. On my turn I play lotleth troll and pass, on his turn he plays a land and pass, I discard a scavenging ooze and find grim poppet. On my turn I play necrotic ooze, discard prognostic sphinx with fauna shaman to find thornling, discard it to give ooze haste, discard grim poppet and untap devoted druid, make infinite mana, and cast ballista for a billion. He felt helpless with his scavenging ooze all along.
2-1
3-0, round 4 vs bushwhacker zoo. I win the die roll, lead with tapped land, he goes t1 goblin guide, I'm at 18. T2 I play fauna shaman and pass at 17 after fetch, on his 2nd turn he plays hidden herbalists, into Burning-Tree Emissary, into kird ape + wild nacatl. I take 2 again from goblin guide and fall to 15. On my 3rd turn I play a devoted druid and pass, hoping to kill him next turn if I survive. On his 3rd turn he plays another goblin guide, attacks with everything and I don't block. he casts atarka command and I die.
I decide not to side chalice and go for -1 prognostic sphinx -1 squee, +2 engineered explosives.
Turn 1 I play a tapped land and pass, he plays a 2/2 nacatl, I play collective brutality discard a fauna shaman and a land for 3 mode, finding a path to exile and a hand full of creatures. I'm scared. He plays 2 1 drop and attacks me with goblin guide. I don't find a land, play nothing and pass, he attacks and I decay a creature after flipping something like thornling with guide. He empty his hand and has 8 power on the board. I play a lotleth troll and pass. He casts bushwhacker, attacks with everything and I die.
List is much more focused on staying alive and grinding out against the matchups that require it.
Round 1 vs G/R Ponza:
Game 1 I open with a fetch, he lands arbor elf and I fetch a basic land. On my turn I play a woodland cemetery and a fauna shaman. He play an utopia sprawl, makes 4 mana and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss my basic land. On my turn I play a land, play a devoted druid and attack with fauna shaman. On his turn he stone rains a land and passes. I discard stinkweed imp during my upkeep to fauna shaman, find ooze, dredge quillspike, play a land and pass. On his turn he plays Thragtusk. On my turn I draw a land, play ooze and pass. He casts Inferno Titan and tries to kill ooze, I untap devoted druid in response to kill it, untap ooze once and remove the -1 counter with the mana left open to make ooze 7/6. He passes without attacking. On my turn I kill him.
Game 2 He mulligans to 6, scry to bottom and opens with land and utopia sprawl, I open with inquisition hoping to see what to target with pithing needle and see stone rain and 3 lands, I take the stone rain. On his turn he plays a land and a bird of paradise. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and pass. On his turn he plays a relic of progenitus, On my turn I needle the relic, play a fauna shaman and pass. On his turn he play an obstinate baloth. I draw a squee and pass my turn. He plays a land and pass, at the end of his turn I discard squee to fauna shaman, and find a devoted druid, in response he bolts the fauna shaman. On my turn I get squee back, play a land and attack with troll, he doesn't block and takes 3 from the discarded squee. I play devoted druid and pass with 3 mana up. On his turn he finds a thragtusk. On my turn I find a thornling play it attack with 4/3 troll and pass with 2 mana open. On his turn he miracles bonefire and deals 7 to my team and me, I'm able to regenerate troll, and make thornling indestructible, he declines to attack. On my turn I find a land, lotleth troll is now 5/4 and I attack with my team, he tries to chump block thornling with baloth and takes 5 from troll, I make thornling indestructible. On his turn he find an inferno titan, deals 3 to me and pass. On my turn I attack with a trampling 7/1 thornling and a 6/5 troll, he dies.
2-0
1-0, Round 2 vs jund :
First game I get thoughtseized and I discard eldritch evolution. I find an inquisition and see a hand full of removals, I take his liliana away, he plays a bob and I topdeck collective brutality to deal with it and make him discard a terminate discarding a dryad arbor, on his turn he find a liliana, makes me discard, I discard squee, but don't find another creature or decay. On his turn he finds scavenging ooze. On my turn I play a troll, he finds a terminate soon enough, kill the troll and I have no answer for the scooze and lose a few turns later.
-1 prognostic sphinx, -1 quillspike, -1 grim poppet, -1 grisly salvage, -1 collective brutality. +2 pithing needle, +1 kitchen finks, +1 hangarback walker, +1 Thrun the last troll (the combo never happens against jund, so you got to try and grind him out)
Second game I lead with inquisition and see a hand with inquisition, terminate, abrupt decay, and 4 lands. I pick the inquisition and pass. He plays a land and pass. I play a fauna shaman and he decays it, I play a lotleth troll and he terminates it, I play another lotleth troll and he liliana edicts it, I struggle to find a 4rth lands and he finds a scavenging ooze and starts eating my graveyard while liliana makes me discard stuff. I find a needle for scooze and he has the kolagan command to deal with it. I die.
0-2
1-1, Round 3 vs esper control :
First game I manage to get an early troll and scooze on the board and chip away at his life total before he finds a path, electing me to discard another troll in response (which raised his eyebrows), leaving him at 8. I find a cavern for ooze, play it with protection from sphinx in my hand and troll in the graveyard, discard sphinx + fauna shaman in response to snap + path, and kill him the turn after.
-1 stinkweed imp +1 thrun
Second game I manage to get an early ooze on the board with protection and my inquisitions see no rest in peace. He finds a runed halo and names necrotic ooze. I make infinite mana and drop a 1000000/1000000 ballista, earning the win.
2-0
2-1, Round 4 vs ad nauseam :
First game I have a pretty slow seven and no discard but I keep, he kills me turn 5 with double lotus bloom after mystical teaching for his missing pieces.
no changes.
2nd game he opens with leyline of sanctity and I mulligan to 6. I open with fauna shaman into devoted druid into kill turn 4 while he cantrips for a while.
I kill turn 4 with eldritch evolution on fauna shaman which discarded a thornling to find a quillspike just before. untapo devoted druid to kill it, ooze uses thornling to get haste, uses devoted druid and fauna shaman to discard quillspike and find ballista, ooze becomes 100000/100000 with trample and indestructible and attacks for the win
no changes.
3rd game he opens with scry land and lotus bloom, I inquisition away an angel's grace seeing no ad nauseam, he cantrips, I play fauna shaman, he plays rest in peace, I find devoted druid exiling stinkweed imp and play it, he cantrips, I find quillspike exiling lotleth troll and play it. He plays phyrexian unlife, I attack for 1000000, he cantrips and pass, I attack for 100000 again and win.
round 1 vs jund : I win the dice roll, lead with overgrown tomb tapped and pass, he plays a land and pass, I play a fauna shaman and he pushes it, he plays a land and pass, I play a 3rd land and a lotleth troll, he terminates it, he plays a raging ravine and pass, I play 2 devoted druid, he decays one, plays a kalitas and pass, I play a thornling with green mana up and defend for a few turns, find dryad in response to liliana edict and kill liliana with trampling thornling, he attacks back with raging ravine and kalitas and terminates another lotleth troll while I have to attack again to deal with a chandra. He wins
-1 collective brutality, -4 inquisition of kozilek, +1 kitchen finks, +1 hangarback walker +2 pithing needle, +1 thrun the last troll
game 2 I manage to stall again for a while, deal with his scavenging ooze and let him die to double dark confident before I finish him with a necrotic ooze with thornling in the graveyard.
game 3 we go to turn immediatly and draw
1-1
0-0-1, round 2 vs storm.
game 1 I win the dice roll, manage to get lotleth troll turn 2, turn 2 he plays baral, turn 3 I play eldritch evolution sacrificing lotleth troll and fetching necrotic ooze with stinkweed imp in hand, hoping to kill him next turn, he kills me turn 3 with a perfect hand.
-1 squee, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 big game hunter, -2 grisly salvage, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 faerie macabre, +1 scavenging ooze, +1 collective brutality
game 2 I open with inquisition and see 1 land, 2 cost reducers, and a bunch of cantrips, I take a cost reducer and pass, he cantrips and pass, I play a fauna shaman and pass, he plays a goblin electromancer and pass, I play a devoted druid and pass, he storms for 14 goblins, I find grim poppet end of turn and discard it to find necrotic ooze and kill his team on mine. He scoops.
game 3 he opens with a cantrip, I cast inquisition and see about the same as last game, take a cost reducer, he casts baral and pass, I cast a fauna shaman and pass, he cantrips a bunch of times and pass, I play a decay on baral and pass, he plays a goblin electromancer and cast path to exile on my fauna shaman, in response I discard a dryad arbor and find another fauna shaman, during my turn I cast fauna shaman, collective brutality the goblin and making him discard a gifts ungiven, on his turn he does nothing, on my turn I cast a lotleth troll and go to work on his life total with fauna shaman (he's already down to 11 with 3 fetchlands), I get him to 4hp the next turn while he does nothing and he pulls the trigger and makes 6 goblins with empty the warrens. I win soon after.
2-1
1-0-1 round 3 vs burn.
I lose the dice roll, he opens with tapped land, I do the same, he then plays an eidolon of the great reveal. I fetchland and play a lotleth troll, he searing blaze it and attacks, I play a fetch and a devoted druid, he bolts it again and attack, end of turn I fetch dryad arbor, on my turn I play eldritch evolution finding scavenging ooze while I'm at 7life+ play a land. He bolts me + boros charm, in response I eat the dryad arbor, he bolts me again and I die.
-1 prognostic sphinx, -1 big game hunter, -1 squee, +1 kitchen finks, +1 collective brutality +1 scavenging ooze.
game 2 I open with inquisition see swiftspear, goblin guide, 2 bolts, 2 lands, and a lightning helix. I take the swiftspear and pass. He plays a goblin guide and trigger reveals a kitchen finks. I play a lotleth troll and pass. He bolts the troll and attacks with 2 goblin guides, reveal a land and a thornling. I play kitchen finks and pass, he attacks and I block, he then plays atarka command deal 3 can't gain life, kitchen finks persists and I take 2 from the other goblin, revealing a necrotic ooze. I don't have a 4rth land yet, and am at 7 from fetches, I play a lotleth troll and pass. He boros charm end of turn + lightning helix and I lose.
0-2
1-1-1 round 4 vs grixis death shadow.
game 1 he opens with serum visions, I play a tapped land. He quickly finds a tasigur and I play a lotleth troll and discard a big game hunter to deal with it. He follows up with a terminate for the troll and a snapcaster + push to deal with my newly cast fauna shaman + attacking bgh. We are both topdecking and he finds a gurmag angler and I don't find an answer before he ends me.
game 2 he makes me discard a lot, kills a lot of my creatures, find a couple of death shadow and attack me for 14. I topdeck a necrotic ooze and win with all combo pieces already in my graveyard and lotleth troll protection by killing his tasigur, making infinite mana, activating tasigur and milling myself until I find a fauna shaman or a ballista. After a few activations I find a fauna shaman and fetch ballista for the win.
game 3 goes about the same, I have a nihil spellbomb in play, a lotleth troll too, and in my hand a fauna shaman, a devoted druid and a scavenging ooze. In my graveyard fauna shaman, lotleth troll and devoted druid. He tries to surgical my druid and I crack nihil spellbomb in response to exile my own graveyard and draw a card while the troll holds the fort. I get the read that he has a snapcaster in hand for yet another surgical so I innocently play a necrotic ooze. He attacks me with 2 8/8 death shadow, I discard a freshly drawn big game hunter and kill one death shadow while he blocks the other. On my turn I combo him out of nowhere, discarding a fauna shaman, using it discarding a devoted druid, which he tries to surgical in response, I answer the surgical by untaping ooze and activating fauna shaman again discarding scavenging ooze and finding grim poppet, untapping yet again necrotic ooze and using fauna shaman again to find a walking balista, make infinite mana and win.
Round 1 vs Tezzerator : He wins the dice roll, and leads with serum visions and welding jar
I play a land tapped and pass
He plays a pentad prism
I play a fauna shaman
He plays a land and a thopter foundry
I discard a stinkweed imp at my upkeep and find a devoted druid, dredge during my draw step and find grim poppet and fauna shaman, play the devoted druid and pass
At the end of my turn he plays Whir of invention x=2 using both counters on pentad prism and finding sword of the meek
On his turn he plays Krark-Clan Ironworks and makes 1000000000 thopters and 1000000000 life and pass
On my upkeep I discard stinkweed imp to find necrotic ooze, dredge and find thornling, play necrotic ooze and a land, give it haste with my last remaining mana, untap devoted druid so that it dies, kill all his thopters and make infinite mana and infinite untaps, get walking ballista in my graveyard, get googleplex +1 counters on ooze and ping him for his life total, in response he sacrifice sword which triggers, in response I ping him for his life total, and so on until he has no artifacts lefts to sacrifice to foundry. Don't try this on mtgo.
-1 dryad arbor, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 squee goblin nabob, -3 grisly salvage, -1 kitchen finks -1 big game hunter, -1 collective brutality
+2 engineered explosives, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 scavenging ooze, +1 reclamation sage, +1 faerie macabre, +2 pithing needle
(you could make an argument for golgari charm but that was already 9 cards..)
Game 2 He opens with grafdigger cage, and the eldritch evolution in my hand isn't looking so hot
I inquisition and make him discard whir of invention
He serum visions and play a land tapped
I play a fauna shaman
He plays a pithing needle naming fauna shaman and pass
I play a lotleth troll with B up and attack with shaman
He plays a land and pass
I attack for 4, play a fauna shaman, and play an explosive for 1, in response he plays whir of invention for 1 finding pithing needle naming explosives
He plays a tezzeret +1 it finds a mox opal play it and pass
I attack tezzeret for 6 just in case he has a fatal push, tezzeret dies, I don't play anything
He plays another tezzeret, finds a thopter foundry, doesn't play a 5th land and pass
I attack tezzeret for 4 and him for 2 and pass without playing anything
He plays yet another tezzeret, +1 it and finds sword of the meek, plays a land and pass
I play a scavenging ooze, attack for 4 tezzeret, and him for 2 and pass with 2 mana up
He play thopter foundry and sword of the meek, float 1 mana with mox opal and plays another mox opal, makes a thopter and in response I try to eat the sword, in response he makes another thopter and I eat the sword for good. This leaves him with 2 thopters and 9 hp.
On my turn I swing with everything with 4 cards in hand and he scoops it up.
2-0
1-0, round 2 vs U/W control : He wins the dice roll and leads with serum visions
I inquisition and see a hand full of counters, I pick spreading seas because I'm low on lands
He draw go for a while, countering everything I play and I lose to the grind, can't remember much as these matchups make me tilt and tilt makes me drink.
I lose every match after that to other U/W/R control variants including spell quellers bolts and counters and end the night at 1-3 without much I could do against it.
For this build I wanted to try Razaketh, the Foulblooded as it seems like a good way to setup at instant speed provided you have another creature in play and a discard outlet in the graveyard.
Round 1 vs Living end
This matchup typically revolves around resolving lotleth troll and keeping a hand full of creatures while making sure to make them discard faerie macabre and then cascade spells as top priority
Post side it's also about dealing with leyline which is usually done with golgari charm or reclamation sage and sticking to the same plan + having more graveyard hate. The matchup is favorable for these reasons.
I win the dice roll and lead with inquisition making him discard his only cascade spell, seeing a living end, 2 cyclers, fulminator mage, and 2lands
He plays a land untapped and pass
I play a lotleth troll and pass
He cycles a 6/4 at the end of my turn, takes his turn plays a land exiles a simian spirit guide and destroy my non basic with fulminator mage
On my turn I play a land and attack with troll.
On his turn he plays a land and pass
On my turn I attack with lotleth troll, with a hand of 2 land, 2 necrotic ooze and fauna shaman
He cycles a bunch of stuff, and on his turn resolves a demonic dread cascading into living end. In response I discard necrotic ooze and pass priority, he doesn't have faerie macabre and ooze comes into play facing a lethal board of 6/4s and whatnot
On my turn I draw anoher fauna shaman, discard one to loleth troll, use it discarding the other to find devoted druid, discard the devoted druid with troll, untap ooze with devoted druid, discard necrotic ooze and use fauna shaman again to find grim poppet, untap ooze, discard grim poppet and use fauna shaman to find walking ballista, discard walking ballista, kill his entire team and make infinite mana using grim poppet + devoted druid, and kill him with ballista
Game 2 he starts with leyline of the void, plays a land and pass
I play nihil spellbomb
He cycles and pass with 2 mana up (and no red)
I play devoted druid and pass
He cycles a 2 mana cycler, plays a land tapped and pass
I play eldritch evolution on devoted druid, find reclamation sage, and kill leyline of the void, I fail to find a land, inquisition him again and make him discard faerie macabre
He cycles a bit, plays a fulminator mage and blows up my only non basic
I find a land attack with sage and pass
He beasts within the spellbomb I exile his graveyard, draw a card and he pass
I attack with sage and pass with mana up for grisly salvage
He cycles stuff and pass
I grisly salvage at the end of his turn, find a land and put a bunch of creatures in my graveyard including stinkweed imp that I dredge during my draw step, puting yet more creatures in my graveyard including lotleth troll, necrotic ooze, fauna shaman and Razaketh, the Foulblooded.
I play the land, play a lotleth troll and attack with reclamation sage
He plays a horror of the broken lands and pass
I attack with both creatures and he blocks the reclamation sage. He draws a card and concedes
2-0
1-0 round 2 vs Eldrazi tron. As much as I play modern, I had yet to play against that deck so it was my first time experiencing the matchup.
He wins the dice roll and leads with relic of progenitus turn 1
I play a tapped land
He plays a mind stone
I play a devoted druid
He plays a reality smasher and smash me
I play a thornling
He plays another smasher and smash me
I play a land and loleth troll
He smash again, I block 1 with thornling, give it +1-1 and indestructible, while lotleth troll blocks the other and I discard a couple of creatures before I regenerate him. 1 smasher dies and I take 4
I play a land and pass with a hand full of lands
He plays another smasher and dismembers my troll before ending my suffering
-2 abrupt decay, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 collective brutality, +2 big game hunter, +2 pithing needle
I lead with inquisition and see a hand full of TKS and smashers but not many lands, anyways I take surgical extraction.
He does nothing for a few turns and I kill him without resistance.
Game 3 he leads with relic yet again
inquisition takes away a mind stone, he dismembers a devoted druid, I play a fauna shaman
He fails to find a 4rth land while I set up carefully, playing a devoted druid.
He feels under pressure and cracks relic to find a 4rth land, which he doesn't. He plays a ballista for 1 preventing devoted druid from untapping. At the end of his turn I use fauna shaman discarding lotleth troll to find thornling
On my turn I use fauna shaman discarding thornling to find Razaketh, the Foulblooded, play eldritch evolution sacrificing fauna shaman to find necrotic ooze, attempt to give ooze haste, he lets it resolve, discard Razaketh, the Foulblooded with fauna shaman and find big game hunter as a creature to target for infinite mana, use Razaketh, the Foulblooded sacrificing devoted druid, in response he surgical devoted druid, in response I untap ooze and discard biggame hunter with madness using fauna shaman to find grim poppet, untap ooze and use fauna shaman again to find ballista, make infinite mana on the big game and ballista for the win
2-0
2-0 round 3 vs RG tron. long time no see
He wins the dice roll and leads with t1 relic of progenitus t3 pyroclasm my fauna shaman, t4 karn, t5 ulamog and I die
2-1 round 4 vs amulet titan. Never played the matchup but it seemed favored
Game 1 I combo turn 4 with the nuts, killing his azusa and sakura along the way while he started with a slow 2 colorless lands and a late amulet
-2 abrupt decay -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 kitchen finks, +2 big game hunter, +1 collective brutality, +1 reclamation sage
game 2 I keep a slow hand and attack with troll. At some point he tries to kozilek return my team and I discard a bunch of creatures to make a big troll, he bojuka ogs my graveyard and stabilizes with a land that gains 2 life and bouncing it over and over again before dropping a titan and I end up losing to perma bojuka bog + multiple titans + ballista for big
game 3 he does the same and I realize the matchup isn't so good because of his ability to make consistent big ballistas and to find easily bojuka bog to replay repeatedly at instant speed.
26/07 2-2, facing 4 times U/W control, flooding all day long
26/02 2-2, losing against jace goryo to greedy 1 land keep, winning against bye, losing against mono w death and taxes to greedy 1 land keep and winning against living end
greed is bad, opening hand either had too many lands or no enough for no apparent reason. Bad week for the ooze
round 1 : G/W eldrazi, he mulligans to 5 and I still get destroyed by IOK into tidehollow into TKS, game 2 double smasher with first turn relic is good enough 0-1
round 2 : jund, this matchup is unwinnable, he destroys my hand and creatures and kill me with chandra
0-2
round 3 : storm, I destroy him game 1, he combos game 2, and I stop him mid combo with a discarded scavenging ooze using it with necrotic ooze and eating gifts + past in flames g3
1-2
round 4 : rakdos control, he destroys me game 1, game 2 and three are carried by masticore and lotleth troll. NB hour of devastation doesn't kill regenerating creatures
2-2
round 5 : ad nauseam, game 1 i kill him turn 4, game 2 he kills me turn 4, game 3 i inquisition lightning storm t1 and know i won when he starts hardcasting apes.
3-2
round 6 : infect, I die turn 3 and 4 to this and my big game hunters are countered by hexproof effect into lethal
3-3
round 7 : living end, I play a lotleth troll t2 and he can't do anything good when he casts living end and i discard devoted druid + necrotic ooze and win the following turn, game 2 same, the only faerie macabre discarded is mine and nihil spellbomb carries me.
4-3
round 8 : G/W hatebears, t1 bird into t2 leonin + ghost quarter got me good and I didn't get to play magic, game 2 I combo and win quickly, game 3 he leonin locks me again and the dream is dead.
4-4
round 9 : taking turns, game 1 I combo turn 4 and kill him, game 2 he combos me for a long time while I read bank brochures I had in my bag and eat some cereal bars thinking about the beer I'm about to drink soon when I'm released from this hell. game 3 I declare attack phase with ooze and a fetch in play, he taps my ooze, i discard devoted druid and untap ooze and attack, discard razaketh, fetch dryad arbor, sacrifice dryad arbor to razaketh, find quillspike, and make a 420 ooze for the win.
5-4
side events were played with another deck so no reason to mention.
I'm looking to build this deck and wonder if I can replace Morselhoarder (Grim Poppet) with a more castable option.
So far Channeler Initiate seems like the best option, are there other options in the 2-5 mana range ?
Why not make this into a less combo deck and make it an actual aggro deck with the oops I win combination?
Or a ramp deck with the druid vizer combo that has the ooze combo in it to win it ER games?
Anybody have any thoughts about Sultai Ooze now that we have the new ooze tribal, activated ability, god-send of Prime Speaker Vannifar? Will this be able to tip the balance in the direction of sultai with Lazav, the Multifarious as well? Plus we also get unmoored ego to take out hate cards
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Overview of the deck
Oozes are cool, they recycle wastes, care for the planet and use green renewable energies.
I’ve been working on making a Necrotic Ooze for a few months now. It’s a pet project of mine, and I figured I might as well share where I’m at with the various ways to play the most powerful ooze in magic.
Happy little bOOZEr is a GBtoolbox deck. The main core is 22 cards and 20 lands, the rest is up to you to customize to get what you want in consistency, resiliency, speed, midrange etc...
The technology we’ll talk about in this thread is fairly complex, hard to understand, hard to build, hard to pilot, hard to play against, but very rewarding once you learn.
The deck strongly commits to put necrotic ooze onto the battlefield and discard various creatures with activated abilities to transform the ooze into a super creature with many lines of plays and many ways to create value.
These early game trades are going to have several effects on the game : you’ll grind your opponent out of some of their removal spells, your opponent won’t understand what’s going on because you play some cards that are rarely used in other decks (even if devoted druid is now well known unfortunately). Until necrotic ooze hits the board your opponent should have no idea what’s going on and might let his guard down and over extend.
Once Necrotic ooze is in play, you ideally have a way to instantly discard with either fauna shaman, prognostic sphinx or lotleth troll. The really strong effect of discard effects is that discarding the card is part of the cost, therefore the moment you discard some creature, it’s in the graveyard and necrotic ooze has its activated abilities.
Why to play this deck :
Decklist
1x Big Game Hunter
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
Instants (6)
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
1x Dismember
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Big Game Hunter
1x Collective Brutality
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Golgari Charm
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
3x Eldritch Evolution
1x Walking Ballista
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Khalni Garden
2x Overgrown Tomb
3x Swamp
1x Twilight Mire
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
Creature (22)
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Butcher of the Horde
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
1x Lotleth Troll
1x Molten-Tail Masticore
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Noose Constrictor
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Spellskite
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Thornling
2x Collective Brutality
2x Eldritch Evolution
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Instant (8)
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Grapple with the Past
4x Grisly Salvage
1x Cinderhaze Wretch
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Extirpate
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Fulminator Mage
1x Golgari Charm
1x Ground Seal
1x Minister of Pain
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Shriekmaw
1x Vampire Hexmage
match details
this list was much more focused on resolving grisly salvage and setting up the graveyard that way. The meta was also very different back then, with infect being so strong and keeping fair decks in check.
necrotic ooze : the reason we’re playing this pile of card. 3 because we don’t want to draw too many but 4 might work. Note that when your graveyard is exiled, necrotic ooze is still a 4/3 which is a decent size even if not ideal. The deck is designed to take advantage of necrotic ooze once it hits the battlefield. When you untap with necrotic ooze you should be poised to win at instant speed (so whenever you feel like it, for example in response to your opponent tapping out) and if you're not act like you are.
devoted druid : it can tap for 1G, but mostly it can infinitely put a -1 counter and untap itself anytime you can do something, therefore it can kill itself and put itself in the graveyard, which is very convenient since this creature is the fuel of all the infinite combos this deck has, when they try to path to exile devoted druid you can choose to put it in the graveyard instead, same thing for necrotic ooze if devoted druid is in the graveyard. Therefore it must be fetched asap (at least in the graveyard) by any means necessary. What is really good about it is that putting -1-1 counter on it is part of the cost but it's also the resource we're gonna use to do everything (put the -1 counter on other creature, eat the -1 counter to get +3+3 or transform the -1 counter into mana). One sweet trick is to sacrifice the devoted druid in response to lightning helix so he doesn't get 3 life. Same thing with twisted image and he doesn't draw a card. It's almost always correct to sacrifice devoted druid in response to path to exile. The only moment you should just take a land are if you have another devoted druid in hand, are scared of a surgical extraction, there is a rest in peace on the battlefield. This card must be in the graveyard at some point if you want to combo. One play I often do is cast devoted druid and untap it twice right away to put it in the graveyard and give necrotic ooze its' abilities which results in something unfair. In fair moments of the game, devoted druid turn 2 and a land drop turn 3 let's you have 5 mana. With 5 mana you can spend 4 mana to play two 2drop, or spend 5 to play one 2drop and one 3drop, or just cast Thornling and watch ponza scoop.
- fauna shaman in play, necrotic ooze in play, devoted druid and scavenging ooze in hand, grim poppet in the graveyard
- opponent casts through the breach putting Primeval Titan in play, lands come into play and trigger Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle targeting you for lethal
- in response activate fauna shaman discarding devoted druid
- opponent respond by using Lightning Bolt on necrotic ooze
- put a -1 counter on necrotic ooze : use devoted druid ability to untap
- using grim poppet ability with necrotic ooze, move the counter targeting fauna shaman, do previous step and this one until fauna shaman dies
- 1
- tap necrotic ooze using devoted druid to produce G
- put a -1 counter on the necrotic ooze using the ability of devoted druid from the graveyard to untap necrotic ooze, giving back priority.
- if you untap, continue, else if they respond with anything put -1 counter on primeval titan with the necrotic ooze using the ability of grim poppet from the graveyard, hold priority and untap ooze
- Remove all -1 counters from ooze using grim poppet, targeting prime titan or any legal target you want, and hold priority.
goto 1, we grim looped to add 1G
- grim loop can give you infinite -1 counters on infinite targets, and provided ooze doesn’t have summoning sickness : infinite mana, tap for any ability, and untaps
- you have infinite mana, infinite tap and untaps, and infinite -1 counters on infinite targets
- your opponent has a primeval titan with as many trigger of grim poppet abilities as you desire on it.
- you have a necrotic ooze in play, devoted druid, grim poppet, fauna shaman in the graveyard, and scavenging ooze in hand.
- discard scavenging ooze with necrotic ooze using fauna shaman's ability from the graveyard and fetch walking ballista
- grim loop to do 1G and use fauna shaman ability to discard walking ballista and fetch anything, dump your mana into the ballista putting infinite +1 counters on ooze and use ballista to kill your opponent.
- first one discard a creature fetch grim poppet at the end of opponent turn.
- during your turn discard grim poppet fetch necrotic ooze.
- play necrotic ooze.
- untap devoted druid until it dies.
- untap necrotic ooze using devoted druid to put -1 counter on necrotic ooze.
- use that -1 counter to put a -1 counter on another creature with grim poppet ability.
- do this a billion time to kill everything you can target and have a billion untaps.
- if ooze can tap for mana make infinite mana (haste from thornling or a turn later) and kill at instant speed with ballista but that's just icing on the cake.
Squee, Goblin Nabob is a value card you can discard every turn and get back into your hand at the upkeep provided you don't forget the trigger. It's good for several reasons, one of which is that it guarantee a creature in your hand when you untap with fauna shaman, you can also discard it for a +1 counter with lotleth troll every turn, use another mode for free with collective brutality, and discard it to Liliana of the Veil or Kolaghan's Command. It's also a pretty good card to fetch with fauna shaman in case of a grindy matchup where you don’t expect to win just yet. It's also funny he usually is the first target of surgical extraction when people don't understand what you're playing.
some decks can't deal with Thornling . always play it with 1G up when possible. necrotic ooze + thornling is pretty hard to deal with too. Side it out against super aggressive matchups or path to exile. One nice other thing with thornling is that it gives ooze a nice toolbox: haste (hasty ooze is strong), indestructible (only way to deal with damnation and a good uncounterable response to most removals too), trample (infinite/infinite attacker is no use without evasion), -1+1 (deals with bolt with 1 activation, deals with dismember with 3 activations), and +1-1 (7 damage on thornling, and 3 damage on ooze). All modes come up. In case you have 4 mana you can put thornling in the graveyard from play by activating +1-1 4 times which is always correct to do in response to path to exile. On its own, thornling is a 4/4 for 5 mana, so it can't die to fatal push and lightning bolt, for 3 mana you can pump it to 7/1, and for 2 more mana make it indestructible and give it trample. You'll be surprised at how effective a 7/1 indestructible trampler can be to close out game. The fact that you can give it -1/+1 protects it from dismember to if you have 2 mana, you can use the same method to go under ensnaring bridge. It's going to be up to you to feel what your opponent can have and how hey could deal with the big guy.
big game hunter:rate2:to:rate4: deals with a lot of threats, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, thought knot seer, gurmag angler, primeval titan, Anafenza, the Foremost, tarmogoyf a hungry scavenging ooze or even a Death's Shadow that became immense. It's a pretty good card to discard and madness can always give it some value with collective brutality, lotleth troll, prognostic sphinx or fauna shaman. It's also a trash mob you can sacrifice to give ooze haste with butcher of the horde or to fetch necrotic ooze or thornling with eldritch evolution. When there are no creatures on the battlefield except ooze, but you can combo off with grim poppet and devoted druid, you can madness that guy in, and -in response to the bgh trigger- target it a million time to get infinite mana. Finally you can madness it in response to Liliana edict.
lotleth troll is a pretty good chump blocker and can put combo pieces in the graveyard at instant speed while bypassing the stack. The get a +1+1 counter goes on the stack but not the discard effect which is part of the cost, it's overpowered with necrotic ooze because you can give it another ability anytime you have priority and they can't do anything about it until you give back priority! Suddenly you can transcend time and space and respond to anything they do with potential infinity.
Walking Ballista is what replaced molten-tail masticore as the instant speed kill, as you can play it earlier and kill a bird or a bob. You can put infinite +1+1 counters on ooze if it is in the graveyard and you produced infinite mana with either grim poppet or morselhoarder. Walking ballista can put itself in the graveyard for no cost and that makes it as good as devoted druid in that regard. For the moment I'm not entirely sure it's better or worse than masticore, it really depends on the matchup. Pros are it's cheaper to play, but you can also cast it for 6 and have a triskelion which is really good against 1 toughness creatures like flickerwisp or lingering souls. The reload ability is pretty good when you don't have anything better to do with your mana. It doesn't cost mana to do damage with it and provided you have enough counter you can do a lot of damage on x/1 and x/2 creatures. You can also deal infinite damage with this compared to masticore <100 damage so it is stronger against strategies like abzan coco or krak clan thopter sword. Other than that, discarding creatures with lotleth troll in the graveyard reloads your +1+1 counters, and eating creatures with scavenging ooze in the graveyard does the same, so if they surgicaled devoted druid you still have some game. This is the main reason I really like ballista as even when you’re tapped out you can still interact as long as you have a troll in the graveyard and a necrotic ooze in play. The pros of masticore is that it's a 4/4 that can regenerate which makes it really hard to kill by anything that isn't terminate damnation or path to exile, discard relevant abilities for ooze, counter surgical by exiling creature cards and dealing 4 to any target. When you have infinite mana it's not relevant which one you play and it's much more about the matchup, so you should choose either depending on "what if I have to play this card?" and that's up to you. (and if you can play both go for it).
Prognostic sphinx has two main functions but needs to be in the graveyard to be useful.
In some rare cases you'll want to sacrifice quillspike or big game hunter to eldritch evolution to put the sphinx into play. The scry 3 is pretty good and a 3/5 flyer hexproof is hard to deal with.
abrupt decay removal of choice as it almost always has a target. Very strong for its versatility.
dismember good removal that deals with most threats that lotleth troll can't block profitably. Chosen because of it's ability to be cast of off devoted druid or under a blood moon as we're sometimes starving for black mana sources. 1 because 4hp is a steep price to pay.
collective brutality very good at killing early birds and making them discard a removal or their follow up play. Here brutality has the additional effect of setting up our graveyard if we wish
either by discarding a discarder :
dryad arbor
eldritch evolution has several uses, it's probably the second best card in the deck after ooze and is mostly ooze #5-8.
Now your opponent can also interact with you, fortunately eldritch evolution can provide a few answers to the ways your opponent is preventing you from comboing out.
Another solution is to simply use it to find a reclamation sage and destroy the leyline, this play happens often game 2 vs living end
Other cards you're looking to sacrifice are discard outlets like lotleth troll and noose constrictor.
Quillspike is the first card that comboed with devoted druid. tap druid for G and untap it, use that mana to remove the -1 counter and give Quillspike +3, repeat infinitely.
Quillspike will be most useful in a few cases :
Razaketh, the Foulblooded is amazing when used with ooze, you'll often have creatures hanging there like satyr wayfinder, fetchlands being potential dryad arbor, and other random dudes to sacrifice using the demon ability. This instant speed tutor will usually assemble the combo outright. Ideally you'll want the demon in the graveyard with another discard outlet like lotleth troll, noose constrictor, or prognostic sphinx to immediately combo out.
Grisly salvage is the best way to set up your graveyard at instant speed. I used to play 4, but the inconsistency and randomness lead me to try something else for the moment. It’s great when you mill a couple of abilities for Necrotic Ooze and find that land or creature you need, it’s horrid when you just mill a bunch of abrupt decays, eldritch evolutions and lands.
Scavenging ooze this card is good here for many reasons. By itself it’s a good way to annoy graveyard based strategies, you can also use it to protect your graveyard from surgical extraction effects, finally you can use this with necrotic ooze to put counters on necrotic ooze. Who knows, the counters might be used by a walking ballista pitched later. The lifegain is relevant in some matchups like burn too.
Also if they exiled walking ballista and quillspike, your best bet to win after combo is to make infinite mana, kill all his creatures, if he has nothing loop fauna shaman a bunch of times until the number of creatures in all graveyards > your opponent life total + toughness of potential blocking creatures like manlands and hexproofs, use thornling to give ooze trample if necessary and eat all the creatures with scavenging ooze, then attack for lethal.
It's pretty good to play ooze if any protection creatures are in the graveyard ( lotleth troll prognostic sphinx thornling), even if you don't kill that turn. Feast on the despair your opponent feels, facing a creature he can't deal easily with and that will kill him next turn. 1 main 1 in side is fine.
Faerie Macabre really good card against any kind of graveyard based strategy, with the added bonus to be able to fetch it with fauna shaman or find it with Grisly Salvage and discard it for free in response to any shenanigan like surgical extraction, snapcaster mage, Goryo's Vengeance, Living End and most dredge triggers. Play 1-2
Reclamation Sage is your best bet when you're expecting leylines and rest in peace and any troubling artifact or enchantment as you can fetch it. The fact that you can cast eldritch evolution to value it after it did its job is a welcome bonus. Necrotic Ooze can also use Wickerbough Elder to infinitely destroy artifacts and enchantments when devoted druid is in the graveyard if you feel like it.
gaddock teeg sideboard tech against high ccm cards like ad nauseam, Gifts Ungiven, past in flames, empty the warrens, supreme verdict, cryptic command, Karn Liberated, all is dust, Krark-Clan Ironworks, collected company or through the breach…. Some decks also play cards with X like Chord of Calling some versions of eggs also play banefire so gaddock stops that. you also stop Engineered Explosives with it and random planewalkers that aren't lili, anyways don't side in gaddock teeg against midrange control. This guy is the reason for the w splash. 1-2
maelstrom pulse good catch all, main answer to planewalkers and leylines, sometimes you'll get a 2 for 1 or more and feel pretty good. The 3 mana ccm makes it hard to justify in the main deck as it's going to slow down your game plan.
engineered explosives it's a good card to put at 0 1 2 3 in modern. 1-2
pithing needle good targeted hate against activated abilities, don’t hesitate to use it on their fetch for the lolz. 1-2
nihil spellbomb good hate, nice when you play stinkweed imp to get an additional dredge. Exile your own grave when you feel desperate about a surgical. 2-3
golgari charm regeneration is good at the moment, destroying rest in peace too, or a random phyrexian unlife, and killing goblins or affinity with this feels really good. Consider 1-2
vengeful pharaoh you have many ways of putting that card in the graveyard at instant speed, any deck not playing recursive threats and graveyard hate game 2 should have a hard time against this. When it triggers you're guaranteed to draw a creature next turn, which plays well with fauna shaman and lotleth troll. You can also play grisly salvage during your upkeep to skip drawing it. Finally, a 5/4 deathtouch for 5 isn't so bad, doesn't get hit by fatal push and swings hard. 1 is good.
Other cards to consider
kitchen finks are pretty good sacrifice targets for eldritch evolution, you can then fetch quillspike and eat the -1 counter away for a 4/4 and a 3/2 persist. With kitchen finks in play, butcher of the horde quillspike and devoted druid in the graveyard and necrotic ooze in play you can get infinite life. Even without devoted druid you still get a lot of life for each mana. Kitchen finks is also pretty good against grindy matchups and burn as usual.
makeshift mannequin is a pretty good surprise attack, you can still go off if you target necrotic ooze, but it can be good on fauna shaman end of turn after they tapped out. The main goal here is to bring back a good creature when your opponent shields are down
you can keep on activating tasigur, the golden fang even when you don't have cards in your library until you get all the cards from your graveyard to your hand (provided you have enough mana). Then (again provided you have enough mana) you can cast one card over and over (collective brutality for example) EDIT: after testing it a long time, it's a win more. I removed tasigur and morselhoarder to gain some space for more consistency. (removed from the deck at the moment)
mindless automaton is mostly there to value the +1+1 counter you get with scavenging ooze, lotleth troll and use its ability to draw cards with necrotic ooze. It's nice that it puts itself in the graveyard and replaces itself. It has a cute synergy with Squee, Goblin Nabob and stinkweed imp but you better hope to not find yourself in a situation where this is good. Either tutor it to block etched champion or activate it with ooze to draw/dredge cards. Basically you can use the +1+1 counters with ooze to either ping with walking ballista draw cards with mindless automaton or gain life with spike feeder depending on your needs. This slot could be replaced with another walking ballista for more pinging consistency and resiliency or spike feeder for more survivability. There is probably the potential for a deck involving winding constrictor, harsh scales, hangarback walker, and arcbound ravager in addition to these. I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader.
spike feeder is another great card in combination with necrotic ooze and lotleth troll, my preferred version playing spike feeder involves griselbrand, borborygmos enraged, drawing cards with ooze, discarding all creature cards using troll, gaining some life using the +1 counters, drawing more cards, and launching lands at your opponent until dead. It's also way faster to execute on MTGO.
Reaper of the Wilds has an ok body, the scry might help, but the most interesting about it are its abilities. Deathtouch is very good on ooze in combination with walking ballista, or trample with thornling, and hexproof for mana is very good too. The fact that the creature is on color (and not off color like prognostic sphinx) might convince you it's the better card. I personally prefer discarding cards than paying 2 mana to protect ooze but I can definitely understand why this creature would seem good as it's a much better topdeck to draw on an empty board and easier to tutor with eldritch evolution.
noose constrictor is very good too as you can also discard dead cards to it (like late game inquisition of kozilek) as well as blocking flying creatures which is a big weakness for this deck. Both snake and lotleth troll are equally good and necessary to put cards we need in the graveyard. They hold the fort fairly well and can force the opponent to use his removals which is what we're aiming for. Splitting between noose constrictor and lotleth troll allows us to play around surgical extraction effects, and mana restriction as noose constrictor is much easier to cast. Lastly, being able to discard any card to give ooze +1/+1 makes ooze much more resilient to lightning bolt when you're tapped out than lotleth troll which requires you to have a creature in hand. (removed for a 4rth lotleth troll and troll consistency). Play this guy if you're expecting lingering souls and affinity and fliers.
molten-tail masticore is a 4/4 that can regenerate and hold of the ground well. Doesn't die to doom blade, you'll mainly want to fetch it with fauna shaman to kill your opponent instantly by activating it with necrotic ooze a bunch to blast your opponent for 4 times the number of creatures in your deck minus 1. You only need to exile 5 creatures to deal 20 damage. Say they find a way to deal with your ooze or kill you in response to you going off, that's how you respond since you won't get to attack this turn. Of course there are many more options of creatures that you can activate at instant speed with infinite mana and win on the spot. For example Orzhov Guildmage or Scholar of Athreos but the masticore is actually useful once on the board. If masticore is on the board, you'll want to have stinkweed imp in hand or in the graveyard and dredge it each turn, turn all the creature cards dredged into instant 4 damage to target creature or player for 4 and win the game from here, ideally have 6 or more mana to blast and regenerate, 4 lands bare minimum to do this. Watch out for fatal push or Kolaghan's Command effects with 2 mana up as much as possible and you'll be fine. if you already have in hand a way of getting back a creature from the graveyard you might even combo at some point. Don't do this if they have relic of progenitus (except if you want to bait an early sac) or rest in peace. If they played blood moon, you should handle it with the masticore, your basic land count is high enough to function through blood moon in general though. (ballista is better at the moment but it really depends on your meta). Masticore is also pretty good at blocking etched champion. Masticore on the board is usually a 3-4 turn clock depending on your opponent life total and amount of creatures in play. Attack with the 4/4, regenerate if needed, otherwise blast 4 at the end of their turn. Over two turns this can amount to 16 damage which is huge against any deck playing fetchlands.
With fauna shaman, tutor eot/discard butcher of the horde to win that turn. Fetch necrotic ooze with the discarded butcher of the horde, play necrotic ooze and sacrifice devoted druid and/or fauna shaman with butcher of the horde abilities to give necrotic ooze haste and do everything from there. This requires 6 mana and another creature in hand at the beginning of the turn though. It can be done as early as turn 4 and is the most consistent sequence to kill against an uninteractive opponent. I suggest to practice a bit before doing this in a real game as you will look silly if you're one mana or one creature short. Sometimes it's ok to eldritch evolution a two drop into the butcher as a 5/4 flier turn 3 can win on its own against graveyard hate and low removal count. (removed because it's a bad topdeck when empty board, and you don’t often get to sacrifice when your opponent is killing all your creatures. The lifelink and haste are very interesting abilities though, especially in combination with ballista).
Griselbrand it’s another deck, but griselbrand ability is an activated ability, so you can pay 7 life and draw 7 cards with ooze if griselbrand is in your graveyard.
borborygmos enraged is probably going to be played in the same deck as Griselbrand. Pretty good when you’re flooding too to have a bolting ooze.
traverse the ulvenwald makes a 1 lander keepable. Late game you can just get what you need with it as it's very likely you'll have a combination of lands instants creatures and either artifacts or sorceries in your graveyard. In an artifact/creature heavy version you could see yourself playing 2. If you can enable delirium easily definitely play this.
chalice of the void is a 1 mana strategy hoser that gives you time to do what you got to do (since your deck plays no 1 mana spells except for inquisition). You should ideally play this on turn 2 after a discard but you will mostly draw it turn 6 and discard it to noose constrictor, such is life. That one time I had it on turn 2 it was really good though. Needs to play between 2 and 4 for consistency.
minister of pain is a tutorable mini wrath for infect/affinity/lingering souls/goblins/faeries/young pyromancer/bob and what not it's ok to sacrifice it to itself if you don't have the conditions to put a combo piece in the graveyard, the goal of this card is to buy you time.
harsh scrutiny we get to see opponent's hand and the top of your library, sometimes you get to discard a Primeval Titan or a scavenging ooze, information is power. The more I play the more I like it, especially paired with collective brutality. Unfortunately it doesn’t remove their answers and that’s what we’re looking for with the discard spells : disarm and overwhelm.
thoughtseize same than inquisition of kozilek, but more range, also makes your opponent guess you're playing some kind of jund or abzan and then he makes mistakes. removed, I don't want to lose life. (potential 3 inquisition + 1 thoughtseize if you're feeling frisky).
duress this would actually be your best discard spell if scavenging ooze didn't exist, if collective brutality is bad in your meta feel free to play this instead.
cavern of souls is good to guarantee playing ooze against counterspells, you can also name shaman as a lot of your creatures are shaman, elf is another option to be able to play both fauna shaman and devoted druid. The problem with this land is when it only produces colorless mana for what you have in hand.
Chameleon colossus has protection from most removals in jund and grixis, you can fetch it with eldritch evolution on any 2 drop. Castable through cavern of souls naming anything. With 5 mana and devoted druid in the grave, necrotic ooze goes infinite. tap 4 mana, get ooze to 8/7, tap last mana plus tap ooze 3 times (2 untaps = -2/-2 = ooze 6/5) and activate colossus ability to get ooze 12/11, untap/tap x4 = ooze 8/7 +4mana, activate colossus ability = ooze 16/15 etc... The face your opponent does after he exiled both quillspike and grim poppet and you still infinite him : priceless. Ooze dies at the start of his next turn though so kill him the turn you do this, or have grim poppet in the graveyard and a creature buffer somewhere to dump all the counters on, and just regular infinite machine gun ooze.
Thrun, the Last Troll is basically your answer to counterspells and removals heavy matchups as you won't often combo against these. careful they can deal with it with blessed alliance so don’t forget to attack with khalni garden token
vampire hexmage is a way to deal with planewalkers and sometimes with a buffed up inkmoth nexus. Ooze can then repeat the effect which is alright against some tron draws.
fulminator mage ideal in a deck playing birds of paradise to play it turn 2, and then ooze turn 3, but it's another strategy altogether. I used to play it against decks that dealt easily with ooze as a way to drag them with me in hell.
Pharika, God of Affliction protects creatures in our graveyard from surgical effects and creates annoying chump blockers.
tree of redemption seems very powerful against strategies like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, or burn. With an infinite/infinite ooze and this in the graveyard you can gain infinite life which is often enough to earn a concession.
Khalni Garden has several uses, first it’s one of your turn 1 plays as you only have an inquisition 40% of the time.
Cinderhaze Wretch is devoted druid #5-8, useful when they extirpate devoted druid and just for the sake of consistency. It's obviously much worse since instead of making infinite mana you make infinite discard and mostly because you can't play this for 2 mana. This card is therefore mostly going to be discarded for value with fauna shaman, collective brutality or lotleth troll. You still however get the -1 counters and the untap effect which should be enough to combo. Provided you can dump Dryad Arbor into the graveyard you have access to all devoted druid abilities. It's clunky as **** but when you're going infinite clunky is fine.
Morselhoarder very good way to get infinite mana of all colors when it's in the graveyard in company of devoted druid and necrotic ooze is in play, but you got to have a way to do something with that mana. My favorite way to kill used to be infinite activations of Tasigur, the Golden Fang to mill all my library and put all non land cards into my hand, then cast collective brutality until my opponent is at -1hp. It was good enough to beat angel's grace when everything went well, but it didn't do anything without a way to use the mana, so I'd rather have grim poppet and at least kill all the creatures. Morselhoarder is also a pretty bad creature to hardcast but it still easier to do than grim poppet, once it's on the board you can use the two -1 counters to pay for abrupt decay, any 2 mana creature, or grisly salvage, and then you get a 6/4 body which should trade against a lot of the big boys of modern. Also it doesn't die to fatal push.
Riftsweeper is mainly there to prevent surgical/exile effects on your combo pieces from completely hosing you, occasionally you'll snag a rift bolt ancestral vision or lotus bloom and feel pretty good. On the play against t1 lotus bloom, playing t2 fauna shaman, you can t3 fetch riftsweeper play it and feast on ad nauseam salt.
Satyr Wayfinder was added as a creature you can fetch with fauna shaman for the same effect than grisly salvage and then you can sacrifice it to eldritch evolution to fetch necrotic ooze. It was removed because sometimes you need to put a creature in hand, not a land. Grisly salvage is also an instant which is relevant against some counterspells. If you're expecting grixis death shadow it's probably better to play the satyr to not give them targets for stubborn denial, but pray they don't surgical whatever creature you mill.
grapple with the past pretty good instant way to mill yourself for 3, get back any creature from your graveyard (instead of top 5 like with grisly salvage) or any land which would play nicely with the deck like ghost quarter, vampire hexmage, fulminator mage and of course necrotic ooze. It's also a solution against surgical extraction, lantern control, and basically a way to get back useful stuff late game after a long and grindy match while setting up. You don't want to play more than 2.
duskwatch recruiter was added as a creature that you can play easily, in this deck it's way more convenient than tasigur, and you can use infinite mana to draw all your creatures which should set you up to win. During a fair game, one successful activation makes it worth as you'll either find an element of combo or a way to get there. In comparison tasigur would activate for 1 more mana and remove an element of combo from the graveyard. You'll find you often have exceeding mana in drawn out game with devoted druids hanging there so it's nice to put that mana to good use. The flipped version will of course help you play most of your creatures cheaper but it's just a nice bonus (and sometimes you just need that 1 mana to play a grim poppet and destroy a pesky spell queller or worse mirran crusader.
ground seal really good to protect your graveyard against targeted removal like scavenging ooze or surgical extraction, also disable snapcaster mage, eternal witness, ruins of the academy, goryo revenge, kolagan command among other cards that want to target graveyards.
Vizier of Remedies enable infinite mana with devoted druid. Ever since the printing of that card, people are playing devoted druid in their decks to try and make infinite mana. This is both good and bad news for ooze. Good news because you can set up your own necrotic ooze by destroying their devoted druid, bad news because you're now a devoted druid hipster, and also people might now pack devoted druid hate (pithing needle, sudden shock, Linvala, Keeper of Silence...) which might lower your overall chances ; more seriously, grim poppet now can't wipe a board when vizier is in play. Play only one as you'll never play it without an active devoted druid. When you get infinite mana your game plan is to put an infinite walking ballista in play and win. Sometimes it's a bit more convoluted and you'll have to fetch a duskwatch recruiter with either fauna shaman or eldritch evolution, draw your entire creatures and sort your deck. Attacking with vizier is going to feel pretty bad, would not recommend, but a man do what he gotta do.
Kataki, War's Wage lantern and affinity mainly. If you ever play against balance you can annoy him but you'll probably lose 1
Burrenton Forge-Tender looks pretty good to protect you from very aggressive decks, the fact that you can sacrifice necrotic ooze using its ability is cute too.
Orzhov Pontiff this card is very good in deck using chord of calling as you can tutor it at instant speed and kill affinity man lands, not so good at sorcery speed though. Note that haunting devoted druid makes an easy way to trigger it again and this time at instant speed.
Ethersworn Canonist slows decks that want to play alone. Slows down ad nauseam significantly, cheerios is going to have to pass on playing reshape and grapeshot the same turn, griselbrand is going to have to find removals in all the card he's drawing if he wants to kill that turn, living will need to find a beast within before cascading, and of course storm can't go off at all without a bolt. Any creature can be sacrificed to eldritch evolution including dryad arbor to find the canonist.
Eidolon of Rhetoric same utility than ethersworn canonist except you can't eldritch evolution using dryad arbor, but it doesn't die to lightning bolt or fatal push without revolt
anafenza, the foremost good creature that hoses graveyard based strategies as long as it lives while putting them on a clock.
blessed alliance nice against aggressive decks, random Slippery Bogle, technology against Death's Shadow, and you can even use the untap effect on fauna shaman or ooze or a random lotleth troll to block.
faithless looting good card to put combo pieces in the graveyard, or even squee, goblin nabob, the card disadvantage can be bad, flashback plays well with grisly salvage and stinkweed imp. It's also a turn 1 play which the deck lacks.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can produce infinite necrotic ooze when it's in the graveyard along with devoted druid. Some tricks with many other cards as well but lacking in this deck.
Mogg Fanatic infinite ooze = infinite damage
cathartic reunion good way to setup as well as digging for whatever you need.
grim lavamancer pretty good to throw your fetchlands at creatures and face, might be good to use with necrotic ooze as a 4/3 lavamancer even if it's probably overkill.
snapcaster mage unefficient in this deck, but can flashback a grisly salvage or an eldritch evolution and sacrifice itself to it to find a necrotic ooze or anything else, which is a play I find interesting.
gifts ungiven seems ideal to setup your graveyard and hand with combo pieces, find a mix of devoted druid lotleth troll fauna shaman and necrotic ooze or snapcaster mage eldritch evolution grisly salvage and necrotic ooze. It's yours to try.
spellskite I don't like it at the moment because of the omnipresence of kolaghan's command but it's pretty good to protect your fragile combo pieces otherwise. Also note that you can use its ability with necrotic ooze to redirect stuff, and then give ooze hexproof or indestructible. For example valakut triggers with ooze in play, morselhoarder spellskite thornling and devoted druid in the graveyard can let you make infinite blue mana and redirect all triggers to ooze, then make green to give ooze invincible.
hedron crab for the self mill and quickest graveyard setup possible with fetchlands, probably best played with morselhoarder combo and Unburial Rites in a dredge shell (but then why not just play dredge?)
thought scour really nice cantrip on this deck as it set us up, if you dredge stinkweed imp you dig 7 cards deep for 1 mana at instant speed which is really good. Of course you could go crazy and snapcaster flashback it too, and why not play some tasigur while we're at it!
Combos
all combos assume ooze is in play, the cards listed will be in the graveyard
Devoted Druid + quillspike : ooze is infinite/infinite, then you can tap and untap ooze to make as many green mana as you want. (if both quillspike and devoted druid are in play, quillspike is infinite/infinite.)
once necrotic ooze is big enough, you can
quillspike loop + quillspike mana loop + thornling : ooze is infinite/infinite haste trample indestructible.
devoted druid + grim poppet : infinite counters distributed at instant speed on any number of creatures, infinite taps for any ability, and infinite untaps. You can respond to one grim poppet activation with another and put 8000000 billions counters on a 1/1, allowing you to untap each time and create 1Gmana. getting you infinite green mana. To do this the sequence is :
devoted druid + vizier of remedies: infinite G
devoted druid + morselhoarder: infinite mana of any color.
to do this :
infinite mana + tasigur, the golden fang :
infinite mana + molten-tail masticore + fauna shaman and a creature card in hand: activate fauna shaman a bunch of times and put creatures in your grave until 4 times the number of creatures you want to exile in your grave can kill your opponent, activate masticore exiling that many creatures and kill your opponent at instant speed. Added flashy bonus if you do this in response to any amount of removals on ooze.
infinite mana + walking ballista:cast ballista and kill.
practice goldfishing on http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/happy-little-boozer/playtest/
Puzzles
on your side of the table you have necrotic ooze in play, in your hand big game hunter, scavenging ooze, walking ballista and devoted druid. You have 1 hp life total.
Your opponent is tapped out, has no card in hand and swings with everything:
1 tasigur, the golden fang.
1 death's shadow 4/4.
2 gurmag angler.
1 snapcaster mage
How do you survive the attack?
Matchups
For the moment I've had good results against mill, ad nauseam, kiki jiki, abzan coco, eldrazi, knightfall, blue moon, junk, emeria, GR tron, rakdos control, dredge and elves.
Mill is of course a good matchup as they actually help setting you up, care about Ravenous Trap, surgical extraction and whatnot but if they can't exile your graveyard before you play ooze you're very likely to win. side gaddock teeg and ground seal
abzan coco creature based decks really hate grim poppet machine gun and the deck is well equipped to have that combo turn 4 with a bit of disruption before, abzan coco is a funny one since they can gain 1million life and you can strike back with 1billion. Care about Tidehollow Sculler and path to exile post side but really you should be fine. Quillspike + devoted druid is a pretty good wall against them. side in pithing needle and gaddock teeg. Since vizier of remedies this deck can be surprisingly fast to go off, name devoted druid with needle, and don't forget you can use devoted druid in their own graveyard with ooze. You need to get rid of all vizier before killing their other creatures as it give them protection from grim poppet.
ad nauseam : you want to be able to disrupt their hand game 1 so they side in leylines. They don't run any annoying removal, their only one being slaughter pact which doesn't even hit ooze, post side you're in an even better shape since your combo is more consistent and they can't disrupt it. Games are usually won one turn before you lose and you're the only one mildly interacting. side in gaddock teeg
kiki chord is tricky, but you got tricks of your own, don't forget you can use abilities of wall of roots, birds of paradise, scavenging ooze and of course Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Scavenging Ooze is their best answer to your game plan so keep your removals for that mob and try to play around their availability. They probably have some sort of silver bullet of their own as it's a fellow toolbox deck so be careful. Post side they'll usually play vizier of remedies if they still have it, since it can prevent you from destroying their board with -1 counters, it's ok though since you can just decay the vizier and combo anyways. I would advise against attacking with random trolls and whatnot. side in ground seal, pray for no linvala
bant eldrazi used to be really tough and they have some hands that are hard to beat. But usually wiping their board happens faster than you dying to Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher. Side in reclamation sage and big game hunter. Keep a hand with a plan.
knightfall is about the same as kiki jikki matchup except they have more ways to hose you, also you can use Knight of the Reliquary ability to fetch whatever (includign Bojuka Bog, why not. There again a grim poppet machine gun is usually enough and scavenging ooze is their protection against it, so either you discard devoted druid and grim poppet with ooze on board while keeping priority or you wait for a removal or two considering they play spellskite. Bring aspirin. They play spell quellers now so it becomes a really hard matchup. side in ground seal vengeful pharaoh and nihil spellbomb. Have a plan against aven mindcensor, spellskite and scavenging ooze. BeE very wary of knight of the reliquary capable of fetching bojuka bog at instant speed.
blue moon is not really threatening as we play 6 basic lands, you can play around their counters and have cavern anyways. Just drop a thornling if they played Relic of Progenitus correctly and ride it to victory.
junk is fair, and fair is not good enough. While they're tapping 3 mana for 1/1 spirits and 4 mana for 4/5 rhinos you're killing them and their board out of nowhere. Care about path to exile, hope to hit their grave hate with inquisition but they shouldn't be playing rest in peace so you'll be fine. Note that junk control playing 12 removals and scavenging ooze is going to **** you up really bad though. This matchup is highly dependent on his decklist, but generally lotleth troll is an allstar.
emeria is maybe your only free win as they can't do much against your game plan except for their path to exile, let them draw 1 with wall of omens and what not and ignore them until you win asap
GR tron is actually hard but somehow I won quite a lot against it. Karn is annoying but you got needles post side to deal with it, deals with ugin too which can't exile devoted druid by the way (untap it twice and kill it in response). Your fauna shaman are going to be in rough shape though but you'll probably get to activate a t2 fauna shaman once which should set you up nicely enough if you understand the deck well. Ulamog is annoying, especially if he attacks and exiles 20 cards but they shouldn't get there, also Grim Poppet machine gun kills it. Careful about the relics of progenitus main and the ninja Bojuka Bogs some lists are playing. Blue tron is much harder, and I somehow never played against eldrazi tron which seems hardcore. GW tron is harder because of path to exile and rest in peace, GB tron is about the same, maybe a bit tougher.
Rakdos control is not designed to beat ooze, but mostly aggro decks like abzan coco, knightfall etc, masticore and thornling are usually enough to go through any answer they have and trample/blast them to death in case ooze can't combo after a surgical. Careful about terminate as it's a great way to kill lotleth troll. side in ground seal and careful about rakdos charm
dredge creatures are small now, they can't get past regenerating trolls without spending resources. It should be a manageable matchup, the big problem here is conflagrate. side in faerie macabre nihil spellbomb and scavenging ooze#2, if you're feeling spicy go for gaddock teeg to shut down conflagrate.
elves are tasty, yum yum it's one of your best matchup. side in explosives and golgari charm, rush the combo.
50/50 (maybe 45-55) results against : infect, goryo griselbrand, sun and moon, UW control without spell queller, esper control, grixis delver, affinity, bushwhacker goblins, hatebears, valakut, the rack, boggles, merfolks
merfolks are annoying because spreading seas can prevent you from getting double black or double green and suddenly you can't block. If you ever land ooze and grim poppet their board you win though. Careful, some merfolks play relic of progenitus main. side in explosives and golgari charm
boggles is hard to interact with, but you do have abrupt decay to destroy some enchantments and discard spells so you're not completely naked. Most important spells to discard are of course his creatures and Spirit Mantle, then try to mitigate the amount of damage you'll receive as much as you can and combo as fast as possible. side in explosives, golgari charm and reclamation sage, care for their rest in peace
8 rack is pretty hard because they destroy lands and keep you low on ressources. Even if they "help" you discarding combo pieces in the graveyard there is a low chance you'll actually cast a ooze.And even if you do it will die soon to sacrifice effects. Practice that matchup and get squee. It's not undoable but you gotta have a plan. side in explosives and reclamation sage
infect is still strong, sometimes they just kill you and that's it. The side plays a lot less hate against that deck now so it's really hard.
goryo matchup is about as random as they get. Sometimes they kill you turn 2 after you inquisitionned their goryo, sometimes you draw 7 with ooze using their griselbrand and out combo them. I love and hate that matchup at the same time because I really don't feel in control of my fate, if they have it they have it, if they don't they'll lose to anyone anyways. Still, it's still pretty fun to draw 7 with ooze when they have griselbrand in the graveyard. Side in faerie macabre and ground seal
sun and moon is a package of condensed hate, their chalice at 1 is fine and usually they don't play path to exile. You're gonna be annoyed with nahiri for sure so careful when going sideways and careful about ajani. If they drop leyline + bridge + rest in peace you have to hope to draw something good. Side in vampire hexmage and reclamation sage.
UW control is hard because counterspells prevent you from playing out your hand as fast as you want. It becomes a game of discipline and building a window of opportunity. Supreme verdict is kinda fine, abrupt decay sucks in this matchup, but you gotta have it for the rest in peace. Try to play grisly salvage end of their turn and bait some kind of response. You're not going to be under a lot of pressure so take your time and try to get to a point where you can do several things in a turn. It's actually a good game plan to trade creatures for counterspells and grind him out that way until the coast is clear for necrotic ooze. side in ground seal and thrun
esper control, see above except it's a bit harder because they play surgical for sure. surgical snap surgical hurts you more than anything. side in ground seal and thrun
grixis delver is okay, thornling is good here, play around leak. It's a skill based matchup. Don't forget you can use their tasigur with ooze. side in ground seal and chameleon colossus or thrun
affinity is hard or easy depending on how much disruption you draw and how fast is their hand. be very careful about the poison, side in needles golgari charm explosives and kataki
8 whack is tough game 1 and you'll probably lose unless you got an amazing hand and they stumble, post side you got the same tools as against affinity
valakut games are mostly non interactive, you can disrupt them a little bit but have nothing to prevent them from playing titan, they can bolt your dudes and anger of the gods the rest. It's a speed race. Side in brutality and gaddock.
living end can swing dramatically either way. Your main target with discard is going to be their faerie macabre, since you can actually profit a lot from living end if you have a discard outlet in play. Leyline is gonna sting game 2 but you got reclamation sage that you can fetch and disruption for their early cascade.
lantern control is really hard if they get the lock early, but you do have some plays against the deck. Try to delay cracking your fetching as much as possible, slowroll decays, explosives and reclamation sages to target mainly pithing needle or bridge, but they do have Welding Jar and academy ruinsagainst that plan. Same for your discard spells. Surgical is going to be painful, and Pyxis of Pandemonium can hose you because it exile. Don't forget quillspike can attack under bridge if they have 1 card in hand. Your best bet after they pithing needle necrotic ooze and walking ballista is to cast thornling, pump it to 0/8, attack under bridge, and then pump it back to as high as you can between 1 and 7.
bad results against : burn, death shadow, faeries, jeksai control, any deck with spell queller, mardu control, grixis control, ponza, hatebears, eternal command, jund
storm is mostly going to destroy you through any kind of disruption, hope for many kozileks, and side in gaddock teeg and golgari charm as well as graveyard hate.
eternal command is tough, you get locked out of the game fairly fast and the goyfs put a lot of pressure on you while being protected by remands and snaps etc... Played only once against this but I didn't feel I could do anything except topdeck cavern of souls and have a miracle setup with grisly salvage.
burn is really hard, if you can deal with their board they can still roast you, I want to try play Tree of Redemption in the side just for that matchup because kitchen finks and spellskite feels lackluster. Discard is king. Lotleth troll is a very good blocker. Collective brutality is of course an allstar in this matchup, side in the second one.
hatebears are going to make you feel like you're an adult and have to pay taxes, and taxes on top of taxes, and remove your resources and tax for everything you search. Leonin Arbiter is very annoying, so are Flickerwisp, tidehollow sculler, and a little bit less thalia. If they draw right you're in a world of troubles. Post side you're gonna eat some rest in peace but really this matchup is going to depend a lot on what you can do to disrupt them vs what they can do to disrupt you, and they're much better at this than you are. side in hope and golgari charm.
death shadow variants its too fast and too strong. If you're arm wrestling with this guy he's gonna break your elbow. Side in grave hate and big game hunters, vengeful pharaoh is good too. Lotleth troll is an allstar. Death shadow jund is a bit easier than death shadow grixis because of decay (which doesn't hit tasigur or angler), never played against esper death shadow but I expect it to be horrendous. Tight play mandatory. Scooze is very good here, so is discard.
spell queller decks : can't do anything against it except a lucky abrupt decay or dismember which they'll probably flash in another spell queller for. Good luck. Hardcast grim poppet for the lulz. Any way, collected company into spell queller is probably enough to end the game if you don't have a very controlling hand. Pharaoh is good here
mardu control : it's a deck playing discard, path to exile, nahiri, anger of the gods, rest in peace, bolt, surgical extraction, bojuka bog. Your graveyard doesn't stand a chance and all your creatures can be dealt with. Probably the most humbling matchup. When you shuffle his deck game 2, try to give him no lands.
grixis control : contrary to grixis delver, this guy packs a lot of instant speed answers to everything you do. A skilled player will lock you out nice and easy and pat you on the head for an original brew. 2/10 would not recommend.
ponza : you need 4 mana to cast ooze, or at least 3 mana and a creature, you won't get either and certainly not black mana. Get up and go watch other games or sit there and watch some dude masturbate to inferno titan triggers, your call. side in explosives golgari charm and don't forget to fetch basics.
jund is tough as ****, your main gameplan doesn't work at all against them. Their mixups of discard, removals and more discard teaming with cheap beefy dudes and scavenging ooze put a lot of pressure on you. Either you get the right draws or you don't. Note that here again thornling is an allstar. Liliana of the veil sometimes destroys you, sometimes helps you set up. Scavenging ooze will most likely destroy you unless jund player is bad. Side in big game hunters and hope they don't eat squee with scooze. This is probably your worst matchup.
these results are based on a few hundred games since october with an ever evolving list and against a lot of opponent who have no idea what's going on, so your mileage might vary.
Alternative build
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
1x Blood Crypt
1x Copperline Gorge
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Stomping Ground
1x Swamp
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Borborygmos Enraged
4x Griselbrand
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
2x Noose Constrictor
4x Satyr Wayfinder
1x Scavenging Ooze
4x Spike Feeder
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
2x Walking Ballista
4x Eldritch Evolution
4x Faithless Looting
playtest it here
Initial thread
happy little boozer
30/10/2016 : 3-2 at a GPtrial with this list losing to ad nauseam and grixis control and winning to GR tron, dredge and emeria. It's a pretty fun deck, it can kill turn 4, but is surprisingly consistent at doing what it does. EDIT : 55% win againt the competitive format, fast decks are hard to beat especially burn and death shadow (other fast decks are much more manageable).
18/12/2016 : 3-1
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/5ix4sb/follow_up_golgari_ooze_combo_31_at_a_modern_event
17/12/2016 : 3-1 today with this updated list. I knew the deck better added more tricks and ways to setup the graveyard to accelerate the moment it's ok to drop ooze (ideally turn 4). Result is I beat abzan 2-0 after beating him with an infinite/infinite hexproof -1 counters machine gun Necrotic Ooze on turn 5 two games in a row, then a rakdos control with Blood Moon through a Cranial Extraction naming Fauna Shaman that I beat 2-1 losing to Demigod of Revenge on the second game. My next opponent was a death shadow player, so I died turn 3 first game after droping a Devoted Druid and it was pretty close. This deck in its' current form is pretty bad against very aggressive decks with reach, like burn or death shadow that's why you got Fog in the sideboard as it gives you 1 more turn and sometimes more. second game he mulligans to 5 and bolts 2 Fauna Shaman back to back, so I have nothing to combo with or to start filling my graveyard, I hold the fort with Noose Constrictor and Stinkweed Imp to buy time and then I don't draw anything and die after getting flooded 5 turns later. Magic. Not a good matchup. Last game I face a griselbrand player which had beaten me the last time and kill him turn 4 and turn 5 through an Anger of the Gods with my bread and butter t1 Inquisition of Kozilek, t2 Fauna Shaman into Devoted Druid, t3 fetch Butcher of the Horde eot, t4 fetch Necrotic Ooze play it and win.
19/01/2017 : 4-0 at a local modern event, beating ad nauseam 2-1, UW control 2-1, blue moon 2-0 and bant eldrazi 2-0 : https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/5p3ijr/report_40_at_local_modern_event_with_necrotic_ooze/
06/02/2017 : went to a few tournaments, 0-4 a couple of times after trying to play a jund version with Faithless Looting, it didn't work out lost to mardu, faeries, infect, jeksai control with spell queller, then lost to faeries, burn, bant eldrazi and valakut.
Then played B/G again and got a 2-1-1 results tying against UWcontrol with surgical extraction, winning against ad nauseam, losing against esper control, and winning against mill. Players in my area are starting to understand how the deck function, they side in Surgical Extraction targeting Devoted Druid and Necrotic Ooze in priority and don't spam Rest in Peace turn 2 so I have to be careful about what I discard now. Games are becoming increasingly challenging to win, but also much more rewarding when ooze prevails in the end.
05/02/2017 : 3/2 finishing 10th out of 32 at a gptrial, losing 1rst round to mardu control 0-2, which is probably this decks' worst matchup because it exiles everything all the time with Path to Exile, Anger of the Gods, Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, Nahiri, the Harbinger -2. Winning round 2 against ad nauseam 2-0 and I'm getting more and more confident about that matchup (he had an unlucky Spoils of the Vault exiling 2 Simian Spirit Guide though). Winning round 3 against bant eldrazi 2-0 and it was closer than it looked, I basically had to topdeck ooze or eldritch evolution at 1hp first game to have a winning chance, did it, wiped his entire board and won, game 2 I had a very resilient hand with double fauna shaman and double devoted druid, inquisitionned away his rest in peace turn 1 and destroyed him and his board turn 4 after his turn 2 thought knot seer. Round 4 was basically the game to win to get to top 8, I'm facing a griselbrand player so I know it's a coin flip. I win the die roll after mulligan to 6 and t1 fetch for 3 into IOK making him discard Goryo's Vengeance seeing Faithless Looting and Griselbrand, he loots t1 and discards random stuff, I t2 Lotleth Troll and pass, he loots again t2 and discards griselbrand so I know he probably has another goryo and I'm feeling under pressure. t3 I play Eldritch Evolution sacrificing Lotleth Troll to fetch Necrotic Ooze and pay 7 life to draw 7 cards using his Griselbrand, going down to 10hp, none of the drawn cards allow me to win on the spot and I'm scared of going to 3 and dying to bolt so I don't draw 7 more, pass my turn and discard a bunch of protection for the ooze. On his turn 3 he goryo griselbrand and win. I side in everything I can to prevent him from going off too fast, mulligan to 4, he opens with t0 Leyline of Sanctity, I open with Khalni Garden, his t1 is a looting discarding griselbrand, my t2 is a Grisly Salvage, not finding Faerie Macabre so I pick a land, his t2 is nothing, my t3 is Eldritch Evolution sacrificing the khalni garden token and fetching Fauna Shaman hoping he doesn't kill me next turn, he kill me next turn. Game 5 was against a sun and moon deck, I beat him handily 2-0 after he made a few mistakes like trying to kill a ooze with Thornling and Prognostic Sphinx in the graveyard and losing 2 cards because of this. Game 2 he had a turn 2 Rest in Peace and I had a turn 2 Golgari Charm. We traded blows for a few turns and I dropped ooze with protection, Devoted Druid and discard outlets in the grave, and Grim Poppet in hand, killed his emrakul with ooze after Nahiri, the Harbinger ulted and finished him the turn after. I got this result because he didn't know my deck, if he did there are many ways he could have destroyed me. Sun and moon is probably a very bad matchup against a skilled opponent.
09/02/2017: 3-1, winning 2-1 against grixis delver, losing 0-2 to bant eldrazi, and winning twice 2-1 against scapeshift valakut.
11/02/2017 : 1-3, losing 0-2 to eternal command, winning 2-0 against burn!, losing 0-2 to junk, and 0-2 to grixis delver. Lacked a second breath against midrange during the entire tournament and piloted the deck poorly.
25/02/2017 :
3-2, losing to jeksai nahiri 0-2 ancestral visions and mostly counterspells + Snapcaster Mage
losing to grixis control 0-2 to a fast tasigur clock and resolved ancestral vision game 1, game 2 I managed a turn 3 Chameleon Colossus thanks to Eldritch Evolution which got bounced by cryptic a few turns later after bringing him to 5life, then nothing stuck on the board and devoted druid got surgicaled away. That's when I figured out Thrun, the Last Troll would be good against blue.
Won 2-0 against mono white hatebears with Grim Poppet machine gun after an engineered explosives on 2 wiped away a couple of Rest in Peace Leonin Arbiter and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben,
won 2-0 against lantern control sliding under the Ensnaring Bridge with Quillspike before pumping it to 10000 game 1 and 5 Molten-Tail Masticore activations game 2 after Necrotic Ooze and Fauna Shaman got locked away by Pithing Needle
won 2-1 against sun and moon after a hard fought midrange battle, managing to remove Nahiri, the Harbinger, Gideon Jura and Chandra, Torch of Defiance, as well as destroying as many enchantements as I could, topdecking Vampire Hexmage was pretty good here to kill Nahiri, the Harbinger just before ult, and then sacrificing Necrotic Ooze in response to Wrath of God to kill Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
I feel the deck is pretty bad at the moment, I'm going to keep playing it but it seems much more inconsistent than before, and much more often disrupted than before. I removed Chalice of the Void from the side as the matchups where I want to cast it at 1 have artifact destruction in Kolaghan's Command and Abrupt Decay. Extirpate is back on the menu to fight control and sometimes valakut or tron alongside Fulminator Mage. Shriekmaw is almost exclusively to deal with Scavenging Ooze and aggressive matchups.
02/03/2017 : 1-1-2 in a local modern event
won 2-0 against hatebears with really strong draws, setting up a grim poppet machine gun turn 3 game 1 with sphinx protection, and making him discard his graveyard hate game 2 before stabilizing at 7hp with yet another grim poppet machine gun and killing him shortly after.
tie 1-1 against bant eldrazi with a strong showing game 1 managing to set up grim poppet machine gun through a couple of TKS and a path to exile targetting ooze. Game 2 he got turn 3 TKS, turn 4 TKS and managed to path or displace my creatures. In the end he locked me out with multiple displaced TKS at my draw step and killed me swiftly shortly after. Game 3 I made my first of many mistakes this tournament and didn't risk an early masticore when it was the only move that could end the game before time after he exiled a ooze with TKS. Instead I chose to play a bunch of removals to take care of his board and we drew with him at 4 hp. Bummer
lost 0-2 against grixis delver, game 1 he destroyed and countered my *****, game 2 he surgicaled my ooze and I tried to kill him with thurn but he could block with tasigur and I hesitated to play chameleon colossus because I was scared of a counter but he had none (and I could see 3 mana leaks in exile...) He ended up killing me with delver and I felt pretty bad about my plays because it's usually an ok matchup for me.
lost 1-2 against bushwacker Kuldotha Rebirth, nothing eventful except game 3 where I inquisition away a bushwacker instead of Tormod's Crypt for some reason and get my graveyard full of combos exiled.. Pretty tired at the end of this.
14/04/2017 : update after a while, the deck went through a rough time as the metagame is very favorable for midrange and midrange owns us through discard, removals, counters and exile effects as well as a 2-3 turns clocks. I tried to play the list with a higher focus on combo but I got wrecked by unanswered Scavenging Ooze, Surgical Extraction, counterspells, aggressive strategies like burn, zoo, or unfair planewalkers like karn into ugin and went 0-4 for a few tournaments... So it was time to make a change. I decided to focus more on the control aspect of the deck as well as being able to quickly put a useful but not necessarily lethal ooze into play. I rebuilt the deck from the ground up, removing Dryad Arbor which has not really been performing to have 22 real lands, 21 of which can come into play untapped. Khalni Garden is actually a card you can cut for a 22th untapped land if you wish, but I like the chump blocking ability it has and most of all casting Eldritch Evolution sacrificing the token to fetch Lotleth Troll, Scavenging Ooze, or Fauna Shaman (and in some rare cases, Satyr Wayfinder, Noose Constrictor, or Walking Ballista which goes immediately in the graveyard ready to be used by Necrotic Ooze), since you have 3 copies of Eldritch Evolution now it's much more consistent to do this play. I put additional copies of Prognostic Sphinx and Grim Poppet as they are the most important cards to have in the graveyard and you need to draw them at some point. Satyr Wayfinder is basically replacing Grisly Salvage except there is only one and you can sacrifice it to Eldritch Evolution to get a ooze. Tasigur + Morselhoarder is very strong as ooze doesn't need haste to go off and you kill instantly by drawing / discarding your entire deck with infinite mana and ping for infinite with ballista. Morselhoarder and Tasigur have nice bodies too, and Tasigur can delve your fetch/removals/discard to come earlier into play (even though it would be even faster with grisly salvage but you gotta make choices and grisly salvage doesn't work in a deck with spells that you don't want in your graveyard). Ballista by the way is great, the +1+1 counter you get from lotleth troll and scavenging ooze can be used with ballista and the fact that you don't need to exile cards from your grave like you used to with masticore is a plus. You'll usually cast ballista for X=1 or X=2 and pump it a bit
That being said I had a solid 2-2 performance yesterday after :
losing to dredge 2-0 because I didn't have Nihil Spellbomb in my side (wanted to try fatal push which was a fatal mistake) and I thought Scavenging Ooze main would be enough (it wasn't).
Then I lost 2-0 to G/W tron with Relic of Progenitus main and t3 karn into t4 ugin, not much I could do but I noted that I had a quick ooze on all 4 games with no way to withstand the assault for long enough against dredge, and no way to deal with tron quickly enough before he exiles all my stuff.
Then I won against G/W hatebears handily, drawing my library with infinite mana and tasigur both games on turn 4.
For the last set I played against another G/W tron and managed to stall him with Ghost Quarter long enough to combo off game 1, G2 he came prepared and inquisition revealed 2 Rest in Peace and no threats, I took one and hope to draw a pulse or a decay for the other (because I didn't have Reclamation Sage in my side for some reason...). Luckily the only threat he drew in a couple of turns was a Wurmcoil Engine so I could chump for a turn with the khalni garden token and then with Walking Ballista before drawing a Maelstrom Pulse targeting Rest in Peace with everything I needed in hand to combo the turn after. On his turn he cast karn and I have an active Fauna Shaman in play + a Devoted Druid and 2 tapped lands + 1 green source untapped. If he targets devoted druid with karn I don't think I can go off the turn after and am probably dead, he feels threatened by fauna shaman and exiles it, in response I discard the sphinx and fetch the last piece of the combo and go off the turn after for the win. Facing players that don't know the deck is still pretty strong.
20/04/2017 : 2-2
round 1 : abzan coco, game 1 he comboes to infinite life and we stare at each other for a few turns while I'm holding the ground with 3 lotleth trolls and enough to regenerate and he just has some creatures with no impact. If I draw either ooze or eldritch evolution I win on the spot, if he draws scavenging ooze I lose basically. After a few turns he draws Tireless Tracker and draws into scavenging ooze for the win. game 2 I grim poppet combo turn 3 and after he played a turn 2 scavenging ooze and win the turn after. Game 3 is tricky because we have the same scenario than game 1 except he already has scavenging ooze in play. I have fauna shaman active for a few turns, discarding random creatures I don't need to get all my combo pieces in hand (devoted druid, morselhoarder, walking ballista) for a few turns while holding the ground with lotleth troll. I then play eldritch evolution sacrificing fauna shaman, in response he eats fauna shaman, I fetch necrotic ooze, hold priority and discard the 3 combo pieces, hold priority and make infinite mana, hold priority and put infinite +1+1 counters on the pile and give him back priority, he scoops understanding I can just do this whenever I want forever. 2-1
round 2 : I play against jund, game 1 he destroys my hand, and eats everything with scavenging ooze and I lose. Game 2 same story and I really felt there was nothing I could do when he just ate prognostic sphinx and thornling making me unable to dodge removals targeted at my ooze. The list probably needs to forget about the combo against jund, I don't know. 0-2
round 3 : I play against 5 colors tribal flames aggro, he plays nacatl turn 1, I play khalni garden, he attacks for 3 and I bloc turn 2 while he burns my face for 4 with boros charm. turn 2 I play devoted druid and pass. on his turn 3 he has all 5 basic land types and attacks me for 13 with his nacatl empowered by two Might of Alara and I fall to 7, turn 3 I play satyr wayfinder, mill grim poppet and 3 lands, pick up a land and cast eldritch evolution sacrificing devoted druid, on his turn he attacks me again, i don't declare blockers and he snapcaster a Might of Alara, in response I kill the nacatl with ooze. On my turn I combo kill him after a lucky walking ballista draw. Game 2 he destroys me with 2 very big knights of the reliquary and a tarmogoyf and I don't have time to assemble the combo. Game 3 I manage to hold the ground with lotleth troll so he burns my face while I activate fauna shaman a couple of time before winning. He probably should have burnt the fauna shaman but he had never played against the deck before and didn't know what it was capable of. 2-1
round 4 : I play against kikki chord which can be a terrible terrible matchup, especially post board where they have access to Linvala, Keeper of Silence which totally destroys us unless we play maelstrom pulse of shriekmaw. These concerns were premature however as I mulliganed to 4 game 1 and never found a green source to get going before he killed me. Game 2 I tried to dig as fast as I could but he had the combo faster than I did with scavenging ooze protection and I lost. 0-2
The deck seems very vulnerable from a lot of angles at the moment, mostly counterspells, graveyard hate, removals, and activated abilities hate. I cannot seem to settle on a solid 60.
27/04/2017 : 2-2
round 1 : affinity, he destroys me turn 3 and 4 and I don't get a chance to do anything relevant. 0-2
round 2 : tooth and nail, I destroy him turn 4 and 3 and he doesn't get a chance to do anything relevant. Game 2 was my best nut draw in a while with t1 inquisition, t2 lotleth troll, t3 discard stinkweed imp and dredge fauna shaman + grim poppet + devoted druid + thornling, then cast eldritch evolution sacrificing the troll to put necrotic ooze into play with prognostic sphinx in hand. Best dredge ever. 2-0
round 3 : boggles, I try to race him destroying his daybreak coronet with abrupt decay but he has a better clock and I don't draw lilliana of the veil, game 2 pretty much the same except he had pithing needle naming ooze just in case. 0-2
round 4 : jund, I win the dice roll, and lead with inquisition of kozilek making him discard scavenging ooze, he answers right back with an inquisition of his own seeing 2 grisly salvages and a maelstrom pulse, he chooses one of the grisly salvages, during his second turn he cast bob and pass, I cast grisly salvage and find everything I need with devoted druid fauna shaman and grim poppet, some days you just hit the right cards, I pick fauna shaman and cast it on my turn 3. He fatal pushes it on his own turn and inquisition me again making me discard pulse and seeing the necrotic ooze I just drew and no 4rth land. He cast tarmogoy and passes. On my 4rth turn I find a land, cast ooze and kill dark confident, he draws and concedes.
2nd game I sided in 2 ground seal and 1 prognostic sphinx. He leads with land go, I inquisition him turn 1 and see 1 surgical extraction, 1 anger of the gods, 1 liliana of the veil, and 1 fatal and lands. I pick the fatal push and pass. On his 2nd turn he plays a land and pass, on my 2nd turn I hesitate playing fauna shaman for some reason, then I realize he can just liliana edict my fauna and surgical the other I have in hand next turn which sound like it sucks. I just play ground seal instead and draw Duskwatch Recruiter. On his 3rd turn he plays liliana and makes us discard, he discards surgical and I discard grim poppet. On my 3rd turn I play a land and collective brutality making him discard anger of the gods and it looks like he is flooded. On his 4rth turn he plays a raging ravine, make us discard so I discard stinkweed imp and he discard a land. On my 4rth turn I play a fauna shaman and don't play a land. On his 5th turn he edicts the shaman (lili to 3) and attacks me with raging ravine. On my turn I play duskwatch recruiter and a land and pass. On his turn he edicts it and attack me with raging ravine to 11 and edicts the recruiter (lili to 1). On my turn I play a lotleth troll and a land and pass empty handed. On his turn he makes us discard and pass, wanting to protect liliana with ravine. On my turn I dredge stinkweed imp and hit 5 lands that I'm glad I didn't draw before casting it and pass. On his turn he edict me killing liliana and I sacrifice the imp. he passes. On my turn I topdeck a necrotic ooze, play it and pass with 1 mana up, on his turn he plays dark confident and pass. On my turn I dredge the imp, hit devoted druid, use fauna shaman to find masticore and kill him. 2-0
02/05/2017 : 2-1
round 1 : death and taxes, I combo him turn 3 game 1. Game 2 he drop a turn 2 and turn 3 leonin arbiter and I never find a non fetchland and die. Game 3 I combo turn 4 and win through not much resistance. 2-1
round 2 : kikki chord : game 1 I combo him turn 5 after making him discard twice with inquisition and he never plays a threat. Game 2 was a grueling fight which lasted for ages, At some point he knew I was about to go off next turn, tapped out eot to chord for Restoration Angel blinking Wall of Omens finding another chord for the kill on his own turn. Game 3 I had the nuts and he didn't have anything. I got scared after he resolved a chord for 4 thinking he was going to drop linvala and fetched a Shriekmaw in response but he didn't play that kind of angel. 2-1
round 3 : bant knightfall, Spell Queller + Scavenging Ooze off of Collected Company seal the game 1, game 2 I'm dead on board and I manage to top deck a 4rth land to play ooze and wipe his side of the table, winning next turn. Game 3 he destroys me when I'm about to go off by using Knight of the Reliquary in response to ooze cast and fetch Bojuka Bog. 1-2, very hard matchup with this list.
13/05/2017 : 4-1 at gptrial, made a few changes in the deck starting by adding the vizier tech since we can use infinite mana and have many ways of setting it up. The white splash gives us access to some sweet sideboard tech. I also removed a necrotic ooze as 2 is a good enough number for what we're trying to do. Also removed an eldritch evolution since we really need a higher creature count and more interaction with what our opponent is doing ; 3 proved to be enough anyways. With all that space I added more removals and ways to deal with what my opponent is doing and disrupt their gameplan. We can still win t3 on 10% of games but the goal is to not concede to very aggressive or controlling synergies as well. The fact that people are now playing devoted druid can be very beneficial for us if we can kill it (since Necrotic Ooze can use abilities of creatures in all graveyards). I also removed the jank of spike feeder and griselbrand as I was siding it out all the time anyways. I really hope the next edition brings a cheap creature that can put -1 counters on itself and use these counters for an effect, we'll see.
round 1 : B/W death and taxes, I know the player well, he knows my deck, he mulligans to 5 and I have a hand full of disruption. I destroy the few things he plays while setting up and combo turn 5. Game 2 he doesn't find enough removals to deal with my 2nd fauna shaman, he tricks me with Tidehollow Sculler + Eldrazi Displacer and removes decay permanently while exiling eldritch evolution, I kill the tidehollow with a ballista sending it to the grave, get back eldritch, he plays rest in peace so I lose ballista. I use fauna shaman to find devoted druid, while he attacks me with just the displacer down to 8, the turn after I find vizier, make infinite mana and eldritch for duskwatch recruiter and he concedes (I couldn't kill him but could overwhelm him in card advantage). That player late won the tournament. 2-0
round 2 : jund, game one I win turn 3 with kozilek into devoted druid into vizier into eldritch evolution, figuring out he's jund so i side in ground seal for his ooze. Game 2 I'm about to go off, have an invincible ooze (thornling and sphinx in the grave) but he overwhelms me with creatures and can attack for lethal over 2 turns. I just have to draw one creature to win, I don't and lose. Game 3 I get destroyed by mass removals and lili and pithing needle on ooze and there is not much I can do. I trade a few of my resources with a few of his but that's more his gameplan than mine and he grinds me out. 1-2
round 3 : R/W death and taxes burn, game one I get destroyed by Mirran Crusader and Elspeth, Knight-Errant attacking me for 10 unblockable. I manage to kill crusader with a hard cast grim poppet which gets pathed, kill his Leonin Arbiter boosted by elpseth with a madnessed big game hunter, but he drops another crusader and I lose. game 2 he drops Harsh Mentor turn 1 off of Simian Spirit Guide so on my second turn I lose 5life to a fetch + shock to decay it. He bolts my following fauna shaman, then drops Gideon of the Trials and active his emblem. I find nothing but discard and destroy his hand for a few turns while he attacks me for 4 with gideon and drops me to 4. I find a collective brutality, deal with his fresh leonin arbiter and gain 2 life knowing he has nothing I can make him discard in hand and surviving yet another turn and droping to 2 on his following attack. at that point I have 4 lands while he has 7, I have scavenging ooze in hand and he has runed halo. I draw a necrotic ooze and play it, hoping to chump block or scare him, but I have nothing good in the grave and no way to give ooze indestructible. He attacks me and I chump. Next turn I find a forest, play it and play scavenging ooze immediately gaining 3 life and growing scooze to a 5/5. On his draw step he sighs and +1 gideon to prevent damage from scooze. I keep on drawing gas and he respond to all his threats while growing my ooze and gaining life. At some point I find masticore play it along lotleth troll which he can't contain, having already played 3 path to exile and I win. 3rd game I kill him turn 3 while he tried to burn me down with harsh mentor and boros charm. 2-1
round 4 : ad nauseam, game one I combo him turn 3, after a t1 inquisition seeing no immediate threat. Game 2 I side in gaddock teeg, play it turn 3 after fetching it with fauna shaman, in response he casts Spoils of the Vault naming Abandon Hope and dies. He later tells me He didn't have any answer to gaddock teeg.
round 5 : grixis delver, all I remember is that I needed to win to have a chance to top 4 (25 players tournament so only top 4) games were very grindy and I had to play around many annoying cards like surgical extraction and mana leak. Game 1 lasted forever and I won after managing to stick a necrotic ooze with prognostic sphinx protection and combo the turn after. Game 2 he wins after I eldritch evolution for thrun instead of ooze thinking there was nothing he could do about it but tasigur is 4/5... Game 3 I destroy him after he thought scour milling his tasigur, I use tasigur with ooze getting 2 combo pieces and win. 2-1
in the end 4-1, tied with 2nd, 3rd, and 4rth, but pairings put me 5th and I'm out.
27/05/2017 3-3-2 at grand prix Copenhagen, played bad all day and couldn't close out games because the deck was too inconsistent. At least I learn that I need 4 eldritch and 3 necrotic ooze main and can't cut on these. The actual list is the updated version that did 3-0-1 the following day on a side event.
gp round 1 : mill, he sets me up nicely and I have an eldritch evolution in hand, I get ooze into play and win easily. 2-0
gp round 2 : affinity, he destroys me game one as I see no removal and no combo, game 2 I start with Pithing Needle t1 naming... Mox Opal yeah that doesn't do anything... lost 0-2
gp round 3 : death shadow grixis, I combo out game 1, kill a board of 2 death shadow and an angler and ping him to death next turn, game 2 we go back and forth for a while but he grinds me out and finally draws his Temur Battle Rage to trample for lethal over Lotleth Troll, game 3 I destroy his board, he destroys mine, we don't draw threats fast enough and draw... 1-1
gp round 4 : U/W control, I attack him with lotleth troll and he blessed alliance it, I play nothing for a few turns and swing with khalni garden token and dryad arbor to incite a response (and to make him tilt), at some point he taps out to block with celestial colonnade and I combo him out during that window post combat, game 2 I kill him with thornling and thrun beats. 2-0
gp round 5 : 4 colors summoning trap, his list was all over the place and I didn't know what to expect when my t1 inquisition revealed siege rhino summoning trap and ancestral vision, I combo off early and win g1 handily. G2 he brings in the hate with linvala, pithing needle and scooze and I can't deal with all of them the game is grindy and I don't find the combo fast enough to get him, g3 I lead with a nice disruption plan taking away all his hate, decaying pithing needle and shriekmaw on linvala but can't find a way to kill him, he stalls with ojutai dragon and siege rhino, I big game hunter one and maelstrom pulse the other but still don't find a ooze or eldritch evolution and try to kill him with lotleth troll until we go to turns and he drops thragtusk and I can't kill him... draw 1-1
gp round 6 : U/W control, of course with 2 draws I'm obviously going to plays decks that stall games and have a hard time finishing fast so it's no surprise I face another control, game 1 he destroys me and I don't find anything good to play (no eldritch no ooze, played 3 eldritch and 2 ooze at the gp, never again less than 4 and 3), game 2 I combo him and he finally understand what I've been trying to setup, game 3 I disrupt him as much as I can and trade creatures for counters. He plays gideon and I get clocked by gideon of the trials beats. On a critical turn I play an inquisition, he taps out to counter, I then play thornling and give it haste to kill gideon, I kill him over 3 turns with thornling beats while he floods on lands. 2-1
gp round 7 : dredge, First game I get destroyed as I didn't see a scavenging ooze or eldritch for scavenging ooze, 2nd game I play turn 1 inquisition make him discard a cathartic reunion, t2 nihil spellbomb, he plays a cathartic reunion and I panic crack the nihil spellbomb in response instead of letting it resolve, then I get outvalued and draw nothing good. 0-2 and dream is dead but I decide to play one last round for fun
gp round 8 : another U/W control, he destroys me both games and has answers for all my threats and more card advantage, I don't draw a single necrotic ooze again.. 0-2 and drop because of a hard tilt, need time to recollect myself.
side events were much better, I beat a G/W good stuff company handily, an elfball deck easily, and have my most interesting game against a lantern control where I had Wickerbough Elder in the sideboard and random griselbrand borborygmos enraged package because I wanted to have fun. First game 1 combo him out before he locks ooze out. 2nd game goes on for a while but I don't have enough fetches to prevent him from destroying my library and removing my answers and he gets back needle after I manage to decay it. 3rd game goes to time but he had the lock so I give him the win after the 5th turn. Last game was against a bant coco and I destroyed him game 1, game 2 I can't find an answer to scooze somehow and die to spell queller beats, game 3 I get ooze with fauna shaman and devoted druid but no grim poppet, he has scooze and spellskite which is annoying, but he is mana dead at 3 lands and only 1 green source and pass with mana untapped, I try to activate fauna shaman and in response he flash in aven mindcensor so I can only look at top 4 cards, don't find grim poppet, untap ooze and do it again, don't find grim poppet, untap ooze and do it again, don't find grim poppet but find scryb ranger which I discard to untap ooze and try again, no grim poppet on the top 4 cards and time is called. I pass turn and he plays another green source and exiles devoted druid, I have a ton of cards in my hand and try to decide how I kill him because I'm pretty sure I can, in my graveyard there is scryb ranger lotleth troll fauna shaman, in my hand there is ballista, squee, duskwatch recruiter, scavenging ooze, and dryad arbor. In the hand I go with discard my entire hand to have 5 +1 counters(-2 already on ooze), and kill his spellskite by eating another creature from my grave and have 4 counters, then I try to kill aven mindcensor and in response he exiles my fauna shaman and I have no answer. Then he kills me on the 5th turn... The deck is hard to play, but don't discard your hand for 5 damage.
11/06/2017 semi finalist at a 40 players mkm event (4-1 in rounds). Before that tournament I tested a lot different cards and went to a few small tournaments without some key cards to see the impact they have. I tried playing without Grisly Salvage, the deck can't function consistently without it even if the card isn't ideal (I wish you could put non land non creature cards at the bottom or something). I tried without maelstrom pulse, and another time without decays, same thing as I need a way to answer everything that could be thrown my way and can't hope making good results without these catch all. After some thinking I decided to cut most of the cute stuff including scryb ranger (sadly) and get back to the most amount of 3 and 4 of possible for consistency. The one untested cute stuff I had for the tournament was liliana the last hope which I didn't ever draw that day, and the white splash for gaddock teeg which wasn't a relevant sideboard card against my matchups. I know gaddock teeg is very good against a lot of strategies and I plan on keeping him for the moment, liliana must be drawn to be tested accordingly in a real game, but gut feeling is that it's going to be a great card with lots of flexibility (can deal with 1 toughness creatures, ease aggression, present a must deal with threat that your opponent spends resources for while being protected by regenerating trolls, gets back key creatures from your graveyard to your hand, sets you up if you're lucky and zombies once in a while). I also reduced the number of Eldritch Evolution to 3 as I don't play enough creatures to value it consistently enough when I draw 2 close together. This also lead to removing Khalni Garden which is cute but screws me up too often coming into play tapped. Finally Quillspike made a comeback as a straightforward way to kill by attacking with an infinite/infinite that I can cast and bypass graveyard hate which I was expecting. It's also much better than a 2nd Grim Poppet which often used to rot in my hand while I waited for a way to discard it, for a devoted druid, or for a necrotic ooze to use it with devoted druid. One is enough to set up but let's not get carried away with unplayable situational cards. On to the games.
round 1 : Grixis death shadow. Game 1 he starts and inquisition my eldritch evolution away, then push my shaman terminate my troll and I draw lands for the rest of the game until I die. game 2 I IOK turn 1 and see a hand full of cantrips nihil spellbomb and surgical extraction, I take away nihil spellbomb, he topdecks a thoughtseize and make me discard necrotic ooze, and then surgical it. A few turns later I die. 0-2
round 2 : (0-1), Burn. Game 1 I get enough disruption to stop his dudes and make him discard some spells, I attacks with 2 big lotleth trolls (5/4 and 4/3 I believe) while I'm at 1 hp for 2 turns and he doesn't draw a burn spell. game 2 I get even more discard and eldritch evolution for a scavenging ooze to gain some life on the creatures I killed and made him discard. 2-0
round 3 : (1-1) Delver moon. Game 1 I do just like burn before and disrupt her enough to mitigate the early game damage. Game 2 I disrupt her even on the back of vengeful pharaoh more and actually manage to combo for the first time of the day. 2-0
round 3 : (2-1) Jund shadow. Game 1 I get disrupted into oblivion and the second death shadow he plays goes all the way. Game 2 I manage to discard enough spells to slow him down and ride a scavenging ooze all the way to victory, eating his graveyard and making sure he doesn't have delirium. Game 3 I open the nuts (2 necrotic ooze, devoted druid, 2 lands, lotleth troll, grim poppet). Devoted druid dies quickly, so does lotleth troll, He swarms me with creatures and I manage to find a 4rth land and play ooze, wiping his team for good, he tries to fatal push ooze after the dust settle and I regenerate it, he concedes seeing the writing on the wall.
round 4 : (3-1) lantern control. Game 1 I manage to combo nice and easy. Game 2 he locks me out early but I figure I might as well try and find a solution, the only one I come up with is walking ballista, which he mills and then I concede. Game 3 he locks me out very fast while I name prixis of pandemonium with needle, he plays needle on necrotic ooze, I'm stuck at 6 lands and manage to find a ballista with fauna shaman dredging stinkweed imp in the process and start to ping him for 1 a turn until I realize I can just find Thornling and make it 0/8, then pump it back after attackers are declared. Time is called and he nicely concedes the game to me as he can't deal with both ballista and thornling. 2-1.
I get into top 8 as 1rst seed, lantern is in top 8 as 8th seed so we face each other again (oh god)
quarterfinals : lantern control. Game 1 I combo him very quickly and he didn't have any kind of defense, game 2 I quickly search for thornling after he names necrotic ooze with the first needle and start beating him for 3 a turn before he finds another needle. I then manage to double fetch + draw off of nihil spellbomb and find engineered explosives which I cast for x= 3 thanks to Godless Shrine and pop his bridges, I manage to get 2 attacks in before he rebuild the wall with academy ruins but the damage is done and ballista finishes him off. 2-0
semifinals : jund. Game 1 I inquisition him and find 2 lands, 2 bolt, liliana, scooze and bob. I take scooze away and look awkwardly at my hand of fauna shaman and devoted druid as they are pretty much toast here. On his second turn he finds another scavenging ooze and play it. I slow roll my creatures for a few turns not wanting to feed scavenging ooze and hoping to draw some trolls but he just beats me down and bolts me to death while I play nothing relevant. Game 2 I side out most of the combo as there is no way I resolve it against jund. I mulligan to 5 and find a decent hand with 2 trolls an inquisition and 2 lands. I manage to hold the fort for a while but he has double bob and double scooze on the table and his hand is full of cards. At some point he bolts my troll, I regenerate it, he bolts it again, I regenerate it, he uses chandra -3 4 damage, I regenerate it, and then push the troll while I'm full tapped. On my turn I manage to madness a big game hunter killing his scooze but the other is still lurking and big game hunter trades with a bob. The other troll eats a terminate in the face. I hope to draw a big game hunter but find only lands and die. 0-2
In the end pretty good event, some misplays but the list felt solid. I'm trying to find a solution against jund as I'm too free for that deck at the moment. I think my best bet is something like Hangarback Walker or good old Thrun, testing required.
1x Big Game Hunter
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
Instants (5)
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
Sorcery (8)
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
4x Chalice of the Void
1x Collective Brutality
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Chameleon Colossus
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
Trying out 4 chalice in the side as a surprise tech nobody will see coming (just remove 4 inquisitions and put 4 chalices)
Round 1 vs U/R delver :
Game 1 : he gets stuck on 1 land and dies soon after bolting a couple of my creatures
-4 inquisitions, +4 chalice, let's do this.
Game 2 : he goes serum vision turn 1, play a tormod crypt and pass, I play a land tapped, he plays a delver turn 2 and keeps a mountain up for bolt. I play chalice at 1. He says he probably lost. The turn after I play a fauna shaman and fail to find a 3rd land. He plays a young pyromancer and pass. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and a land and pass, he bolts my fauna shaman end of turn to make a 1/1 token. On his turn he flips delver and attack in the air. I take 3 in the air,discard a prognostic sphinx to fauna shaman to find squee goblin nabob, discard squee to lotleth troll to give it +1/+1. On my upkeep, squee triggers and he cracks tormod crypt. I tap out to cast chalice for 2 and he mana leaks it. On his turn he attacks me for 3 with delver and pass. On my turn I find a devoted druid that I play and pass. On his turn he attacks me to 9 with delver and pass, at the end of his turn I tutor grim poppet with fauna shaman, discarding stinkweed imp. On my turn I dredge stinkweed imp, find ballista, discard grim poppet to fauna shaman and find necrotic ooze. Play necrotic ooze, it resolves, kill his team and attack. On his turn he does nothing and I infinite damage him on my turn.
2-0
1-0, Round 2 vs Elves:
Game 1 he wins the die roll and I am under pressure quickly with a turn 2 elvish archdruid. I decide to abrupt decay it immediately instead of playing a fauna shaman. On his turn he plays a mana dork, heritage druid, makes 3 mana and play another elvish archdruid. On my turn I play fauna shaman, inquisition him and find 2 chords. I make him discard one and pass. On his turn he chords for 4, find ezuri and play it. On my turn I play lotleth troll and pass. On his turn he pumps his team with ezuri once and wastes some mana declaring an attack step, I discard a big game hunter and madness it with fauna shaman, killing ezuri and finding grim poppet he attacks me for 15 and I'm down to 2 hp. On my turn I find an eldritch evolution, use it on lotleth troll to find necrotic ooze, tap fauna shaman to find devoted druid discarding grim poppet, discard the druid and kill his team.
Game 2 -1 squee, -1 sphinx, +2 engineered explosives.
He leads with llanowar, I play a turn 1 explosives for 1. He plays an elvish archdruid and I play a devoted druid, he drops a bunch of creatures on the board and I play a quillspike + destroy his 1 drops. He attacks for 2 and I let it go. On my turn I attack with quillspike, pump it for infinite and kill him
2-0
2-0, round 3 vs counter company:
Game 1, I win the die roll, lead with inquisition and see some stuff and eternal witness so I make him discard witness. On his turn he plays a noble hierarch that he drew. On my turn I play a fauna shaman and pass. On his turn he plays a scavenging ooze that he drew... On my turn I play a liliana the last hope and kill his noble hierarch. On his turn he plays a land and pass. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and +1 liliana on scavenging ooze, at the end of my turn he eats hierarch. On his turn he plays a land and pass, probably signaling company, end of his turn I use fauna shaman, discarding lotleth troll and finding grim poppet. On my turn I top deck an eldritch evolution, use fauna shaman discarding a dryad arbor to find a devoted druid, sacrifice fauna shaman to eldritch evolution to find necrotic ooze, in response he taps out to collected company into mirran crusader and eternal witness, necrotic ooze comes into play and I discard devoted druid and grim poppet to kill his team (except mirran crusader). I -2 liliana and get back a lotleth troll after milling some lands. On his turn he plays nothing I remember, on my turn I find ballista with shaman and kill him.
-1 big game hunter, -1 grisly salvage, +2 pithing needle
Game 2, he plays a land and pass, I play an inquisition and see surgical extraction, collected company, devoted druid, maelstrom pulse and 1 land. I pick devoted druid hoping he doesn't find a land even though I promised myself to always pick surgical. on his turn he plays his land and pass. On my turn I play a fauna shaman and pray. On his turn he finds a land, play maelstrom pulse and surgical the shaman. On my turn I find a lotleth troll and play it. On his turn he plays a noble hierarch. On my turn I attack with troll, eldritch it to find necrotic ooze and pass. On his turn he plays kitchen finks, on my upkeep I discard stinkweed imp, dredge it and find only lands, play grisly salvage, find devoted druid and lands, and attack. He blocks. On his turn he eldritch his finks to find mirran crusader as a good way to stall me, plays a land and pass. On my upkeep I dredge with stinkweed imp and find nothing. On his turn he plays nothing and pass. On my turn I dredge with stinkweed imp and find nothing yet again. He collected company and finds devoted druid. On his turn he casts vizier, makes infinite mana and casts duskwatch recruiter, finding among others scavenging ooze and eating my graveyard forever so I scoop.
Game 3 I inquisition away a surgical, turn 1 he noble hierarch, turn 2 I fauna shaman, turn 2 he scavenging ooze, turn 3 I draw a necrotic ooze, play devoted druid and pass, on his turn he plays nothing and keeps mana up, at the end of his turn I discard dryad arbor and find lotleth troll. On my turn I play lotleth troll and pass, on his turn he plays a land and pass, I discard a scavenging ooze and find grim poppet. On my turn I play necrotic ooze, discard prognostic sphinx with fauna shaman to find thornling, discard it to give ooze haste, discard grim poppet and untap devoted druid, make infinite mana, and cast ballista for a billion. He felt helpless with his scavenging ooze all along.
2-1
3-0, round 4 vs bushwhacker zoo. I win the die roll, lead with tapped land, he goes t1 goblin guide, I'm at 18. T2 I play fauna shaman and pass at 17 after fetch, on his 2nd turn he plays hidden herbalists, into Burning-Tree Emissary, into kird ape + wild nacatl. I take 2 again from goblin guide and fall to 15. On my 3rd turn I play a devoted druid and pass, hoping to kill him next turn if I survive. On his 3rd turn he plays another goblin guide, attacks with everything and I don't block. he casts atarka command and I die.
I decide not to side chalice and go for -1 prognostic sphinx -1 squee, +2 engineered explosives.
Turn 1 I play a tapped land and pass, he plays a 2/2 nacatl, I play collective brutality discard a fauna shaman and a land for 3 mode, finding a path to exile and a hand full of creatures. I'm scared. He plays 2 1 drop and attacks me with goblin guide. I don't find a land, play nothing and pass, he attacks and I decay a creature after flipping something like thornling with guide. He empty his hand and has 8 power on the board. I play a lotleth troll and pass. He casts bushwhacker, attacks with everything and I die.
0-2
3-1 final score.
1x Big Game Hunter
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
Sorcery (8)
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
1x Golgari Charm
1x Hangarback Walker
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
1x Collective Brutality
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
List is much more focused on staying alive and grinding out against the matchups that require it.
Round 1 vs G/R Ponza:
Game 1 I open with a fetch, he lands arbor elf and I fetch a basic land. On my turn I play a woodland cemetery and a fauna shaman. He play an utopia sprawl, makes 4 mana and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss my basic land. On my turn I play a land, play a devoted druid and attack with fauna shaman. On his turn he stone rains a land and passes. I discard stinkweed imp during my upkeep to fauna shaman, find ooze, dredge quillspike, play a land and pass. On his turn he plays Thragtusk. On my turn I draw a land, play ooze and pass. He casts Inferno Titan and tries to kill ooze, I untap devoted druid in response to kill it, untap ooze once and remove the -1 counter with the mana left open to make ooze 7/6. He passes without attacking. On my turn I kill him.
-1 prognostic sphinx, -2 abrupt decay, -1 stinkweed imp. +2 pithing needle, +1 reclamation sage, +1 collective brutality.
Game 2 He mulligans to 6, scry to bottom and opens with land and utopia sprawl, I open with inquisition hoping to see what to target with pithing needle and see stone rain and 3 lands, I take the stone rain. On his turn he plays a land and a bird of paradise. On my turn I play a lotleth troll and pass. On his turn he plays a relic of progenitus, On my turn I needle the relic, play a fauna shaman and pass. On his turn he play an obstinate baloth. I draw a squee and pass my turn. He plays a land and pass, at the end of his turn I discard squee to fauna shaman, and find a devoted druid, in response he bolts the fauna shaman. On my turn I get squee back, play a land and attack with troll, he doesn't block and takes 3 from the discarded squee. I play devoted druid and pass with 3 mana up. On his turn he finds a thragtusk. On my turn I find a thornling play it attack with 4/3 troll and pass with 2 mana open. On his turn he miracles bonefire and deals 7 to my team and me, I'm able to regenerate troll, and make thornling indestructible, he declines to attack. On my turn I find a land, lotleth troll is now 5/4 and I attack with my team, he tries to chump block thornling with baloth and takes 5 from troll, I make thornling indestructible. On his turn he find an inferno titan, deals 3 to me and pass. On my turn I attack with a trampling 7/1 thornling and a 6/5 troll, he dies.
2-0
1-0, Round 2 vs jund :
First game I get thoughtseized and I discard eldritch evolution. I find an inquisition and see a hand full of removals, I take his liliana away, he plays a bob and I topdeck collective brutality to deal with it and make him discard a terminate discarding a dryad arbor, on his turn he find a liliana, makes me discard, I discard squee, but don't find another creature or decay. On his turn he finds scavenging ooze. On my turn I play a troll, he finds a terminate soon enough, kill the troll and I have no answer for the scooze and lose a few turns later.
-1 prognostic sphinx, -1 quillspike, -1 grim poppet, -1 grisly salvage, -1 collective brutality. +2 pithing needle, +1 kitchen finks, +1 hangarback walker, +1 Thrun the last troll (the combo never happens against jund, so you got to try and grind him out)
Second game I lead with inquisition and see a hand with inquisition, terminate, abrupt decay, and 4 lands. I pick the inquisition and pass. He plays a land and pass. I play a fauna shaman and he decays it, I play a lotleth troll and he terminates it, I play another lotleth troll and he liliana edicts it, I struggle to find a 4rth lands and he finds a scavenging ooze and starts eating my graveyard while liliana makes me discard stuff. I find a needle for scooze and he has the kolagan command to deal with it. I die.
0-2
1-1, Round 3 vs esper control :
First game I manage to get an early troll and scooze on the board and chip away at his life total before he finds a path, electing me to discard another troll in response (which raised his eyebrows), leaving him at 8. I find a cavern for ooze, play it with protection from sphinx in my hand and troll in the graveyard, discard sphinx + fauna shaman in response to snap + path, and kill him the turn after.
-1 stinkweed imp +1 thrun
Second game I manage to get an early ooze on the board with protection and my inquisitions see no rest in peace. He finds a runed halo and names necrotic ooze. I make infinite mana and drop a 1000000/1000000 ballista, earning the win.
2-0
2-1, Round 4 vs ad nauseam :
First game I have a pretty slow seven and no discard but I keep, he kills me turn 5 with double lotus bloom after mystical teaching for his missing pieces.
no changes.
2nd game he opens with leyline of sanctity and I mulligan to 6. I open with fauna shaman into devoted druid into kill turn 4 while he cantrips for a while.
I kill turn 4 with eldritch evolution on fauna shaman which discarded a thornling to find a quillspike just before. untapo devoted druid to kill it, ooze uses thornling to get haste, uses devoted druid and fauna shaman to discard quillspike and find ballista, ooze becomes 100000/100000 with trample and indestructible and attacks for the win
no changes.
3rd game he opens with scry land and lotus bloom, I inquisition away an angel's grace seeing no ad nauseam, he cantrips, I play fauna shaman, he plays rest in peace, I find devoted druid exiling stinkweed imp and play it, he cantrips, I find quillspike exiling lotleth troll and play it. He plays phyrexian unlife, I attack for 1000000, he cantrips and pass, I attack for 100000 again and win.
final score 3-1.
1x Big Game Hunter
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
Sorcery (8)
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
1x Golgari Charm
1x Hangarback Walker
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
1x Collective Brutality
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
round 1 vs jund : I win the dice roll, lead with overgrown tomb tapped and pass, he plays a land and pass, I play a fauna shaman and he pushes it, he plays a land and pass, I play a 3rd land and a lotleth troll, he terminates it, he plays a raging ravine and pass, I play 2 devoted druid, he decays one, plays a kalitas and pass, I play a thornling with green mana up and defend for a few turns, find dryad in response to liliana edict and kill liliana with trampling thornling, he attacks back with raging ravine and kalitas and terminates another lotleth troll while I have to attack again to deal with a chandra. He wins
-1 collective brutality, -4 inquisition of kozilek, +1 kitchen finks, +1 hangarback walker +2 pithing needle, +1 thrun the last troll
game 2 I manage to stall again for a while, deal with his scavenging ooze and let him die to double dark confident before I finish him with a necrotic ooze with thornling in the graveyard.
game 3 we go to turn immediatly and draw
1-1
0-0-1, round 2 vs storm.
game 1 I win the dice roll, manage to get lotleth troll turn 2, turn 2 he plays baral, turn 3 I play eldritch evolution sacrificing lotleth troll and fetching necrotic ooze with stinkweed imp in hand, hoping to kill him next turn, he kills me turn 3 with a perfect hand.
-1 squee, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 big game hunter, -2 grisly salvage, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 faerie macabre, +1 scavenging ooze, +1 collective brutality
game 2 I open with inquisition and see 1 land, 2 cost reducers, and a bunch of cantrips, I take a cost reducer and pass, he cantrips and pass, I play a fauna shaman and pass, he plays a goblin electromancer and pass, I play a devoted druid and pass, he storms for 14 goblins, I find grim poppet end of turn and discard it to find necrotic ooze and kill his team on mine. He scoops.
game 3 he opens with a cantrip, I cast inquisition and see about the same as last game, take a cost reducer, he casts baral and pass, I cast a fauna shaman and pass, he cantrips a bunch of times and pass, I play a decay on baral and pass, he plays a goblin electromancer and cast path to exile on my fauna shaman, in response I discard a dryad arbor and find another fauna shaman, during my turn I cast fauna shaman, collective brutality the goblin and making him discard a gifts ungiven, on his turn he does nothing, on my turn I cast a lotleth troll and go to work on his life total with fauna shaman (he's already down to 11 with 3 fetchlands), I get him to 4hp the next turn while he does nothing and he pulls the trigger and makes 6 goblins with empty the warrens. I win soon after.
2-1
1-0-1 round 3 vs burn.
I lose the dice roll, he opens with tapped land, I do the same, he then plays an eidolon of the great reveal. I fetchland and play a lotleth troll, he searing blaze it and attacks, I play a fetch and a devoted druid, he bolts it again and attack, end of turn I fetch dryad arbor, on my turn I play eldritch evolution finding scavenging ooze while I'm at 7life+ play a land. He bolts me + boros charm, in response I eat the dryad arbor, he bolts me again and I die.
-1 prognostic sphinx, -1 big game hunter, -1 squee, +1 kitchen finks, +1 collective brutality +1 scavenging ooze.
game 2 I open with inquisition see swiftspear, goblin guide, 2 bolts, 2 lands, and a lightning helix. I take the swiftspear and pass. He plays a goblin guide and trigger reveals a kitchen finks. I play a lotleth troll and pass. He bolts the troll and attacks with 2 goblin guides, reveal a land and a thornling. I play kitchen finks and pass, he attacks and I block, he then plays atarka command deal 3 can't gain life, kitchen finks persists and I take 2 from the other goblin, revealing a necrotic ooze. I don't have a 4rth land yet, and am at 7 from fetches, I play a lotleth troll and pass. He boros charm end of turn + lightning helix and I lose.
0-2
1-1-1 round 4 vs grixis death shadow.
game 1 he opens with serum visions, I play a tapped land. He quickly finds a tasigur and I play a lotleth troll and discard a big game hunter to deal with it. He follows up with a terminate for the troll and a snapcaster + push to deal with my newly cast fauna shaman + attacking bgh. We are both topdecking and he finds a gurmag angler and I don't find an answer before he ends me.
-1 collective brutality, -1 squee, -1 prognonstic sphinx, -1 kitchen finks, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 hangarback walker, +1 vengeful pharaoh
game 2 he makes me discard a lot, kills a lot of my creatures, find a couple of death shadow and attack me for 14. I topdeck a necrotic ooze and win with all combo pieces already in my graveyard and lotleth troll protection by killing his tasigur, making infinite mana, activating tasigur and milling myself until I find a fauna shaman or a ballista. After a few activations I find a fauna shaman and fetch ballista for the win.
game 3 goes about the same, I have a nihil spellbomb in play, a lotleth troll too, and in my hand a fauna shaman, a devoted druid and a scavenging ooze. In my graveyard fauna shaman, lotleth troll and devoted druid. He tries to surgical my druid and I crack nihil spellbomb in response to exile my own graveyard and draw a card while the troll holds the fort. I get the read that he has a snapcaster in hand for yet another surgical so I innocently play a necrotic ooze. He attacks me with 2 8/8 death shadow, I discard a freshly drawn big game hunter and kill one death shadow while he blocks the other. On my turn I combo him out of nowhere, discarding a fauna shaman, using it discarding a devoted druid, which he tries to surgical in response, I answer the surgical by untaping ooze and activating fauna shaman again discarding scavenging ooze and finding grim poppet, untapping yet again necrotic ooze and using fauna shaman again to find a walking balista, make infinite mana and win.
2-1
final score 2-1-1
1x Big Game Hunter
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
Sorcery (8)
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
1x Golgari Charm
1x Hangarback Walker
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Collective Brutality
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
Round 1 vs Tezzerator : He wins the dice roll, and leads with serum visions and welding jar
I play a land tapped and pass
He plays a pentad prism
I play a fauna shaman
He plays a land and a thopter foundry
I discard a stinkweed imp at my upkeep and find a devoted druid, dredge during my draw step and find grim poppet and fauna shaman, play the devoted druid and pass
At the end of my turn he plays Whir of invention x=2 using both counters on pentad prism and finding sword of the meek
On his turn he plays Krark-Clan Ironworks and makes 1000000000 thopters and 1000000000 life and pass
On my upkeep I discard stinkweed imp to find necrotic ooze, dredge and find thornling, play necrotic ooze and a land, give it haste with my last remaining mana, untap devoted druid so that it dies, kill all his thopters and make infinite mana and infinite untaps, get walking ballista in my graveyard, get googleplex +1 counters on ooze and ping him for his life total, in response he sacrifice sword which triggers, in response I ping him for his life total, and so on until he has no artifacts lefts to sacrifice to foundry. Don't try this on mtgo.
-1 dryad arbor, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 squee goblin nabob, -3 grisly salvage, -1 kitchen finks -1 big game hunter, -1 collective brutality
+2 engineered explosives, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 scavenging ooze, +1 reclamation sage, +1 faerie macabre, +2 pithing needle
(you could make an argument for golgari charm but that was already 9 cards..)
Game 2 He opens with grafdigger cage, and the eldritch evolution in my hand isn't looking so hot
I inquisition and make him discard whir of invention
He serum visions and play a land tapped
I play a fauna shaman
He plays a pithing needle naming fauna shaman and pass
I play a lotleth troll with B up and attack with shaman
He plays a land and pass
I attack for 4, play a fauna shaman, and play an explosive for 1, in response he plays whir of invention for 1 finding pithing needle naming explosives
He plays a tezzeret +1 it finds a mox opal play it and pass
I attack tezzeret for 6 just in case he has a fatal push, tezzeret dies, I don't play anything
He plays another tezzeret, finds a thopter foundry, doesn't play a 5th land and pass
I attack tezzeret for 4 and him for 2 and pass without playing anything
He plays yet another tezzeret, +1 it and finds sword of the meek, plays a land and pass
I play a scavenging ooze, attack for 4 tezzeret, and him for 2 and pass with 2 mana up
He play thopter foundry and sword of the meek, float 1 mana with mox opal and plays another mox opal, makes a thopter and in response I try to eat the sword, in response he makes another thopter and I eat the sword for good. This leaves him with 2 thopters and 9 hp.
On my turn I swing with everything with 4 cards in hand and he scoops it up.
2-0
1-0, round 2 vs U/W control : He wins the dice roll and leads with serum visions
I inquisition and see a hand full of counters, I pick spreading seas because I'm low on lands
He draw go for a while, countering everything I play and I lose to the grind, can't remember much as these matchups make me tilt and tilt makes me drink.
I lose every match after that to other U/W/R control variants including spell quellers bolts and counters and end the night at 1-3 without much I could do against it.
final score 1-3
1x Hangarback Walker
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Grim Poppet
1x Kitchen Finks
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Necrotic Ooze
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Quillspike
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Stinkweed Imp
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Thornling
1x Walking Ballista
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
Sorcery (8)
1x Collective Brutality
3x Eldritch Evolution
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
Lands (22)
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Forest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Swamp
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Twilight Mire
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Woodland Cemetery
1x Golgari Charm
1x Kitchen Finks
2x Big Game Hunter
1x Collective Brutality
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Faerie Macabre
2x Pithing Needle
1x Scavenging Ooze
For this build I wanted to try Razaketh, the Foulblooded as it seems like a good way to setup at instant speed provided you have another creature in play and a discard outlet in the graveyard.
Round 1 vs Living end
This matchup typically revolves around resolving lotleth troll and keeping a hand full of creatures while making sure to make them discard faerie macabre and then cascade spells as top priority
Post side it's also about dealing with leyline which is usually done with golgari charm or reclamation sage and sticking to the same plan + having more graveyard hate. The matchup is favorable for these reasons.
I win the dice roll and lead with inquisition making him discard his only cascade spell, seeing a living end, 2 cyclers, fulminator mage, and 2lands
He plays a land untapped and pass
I play a lotleth troll and pass
He cycles a 6/4 at the end of my turn, takes his turn plays a land exiles a simian spirit guide and destroy my non basic with fulminator mage
On my turn I play a land and attack with troll.
On his turn he plays a land and pass
On my turn I attack with lotleth troll, with a hand of 2 land, 2 necrotic ooze and fauna shaman
He cycles a bunch of stuff, and on his turn resolves a demonic dread cascading into living end. In response I discard necrotic ooze and pass priority, he doesn't have faerie macabre and ooze comes into play facing a lethal board of 6/4s and whatnot
On my turn I draw anoher fauna shaman, discard one to loleth troll, use it discarding the other to find devoted druid, discard the devoted druid with troll, untap ooze with devoted druid, discard necrotic ooze and use fauna shaman again to find grim poppet, untap ooze, discard grim poppet and use fauna shaman to find walking ballista, discard walking ballista, kill his entire team and make infinite mana using grim poppet + devoted druid, and kill him with ballista
-1 quillspike, -1 kitchen finks, -1 prognostic sphinx, -2 abrupt decay, +1 golgari charm, +1 reclamation sage, +2 nihil spellbomb, +1 scavenging ooze
Game 2 he starts with leyline of the void, plays a land and pass
I play nihil spellbomb
He cycles and pass with 2 mana up (and no red)
I play devoted druid and pass
He cycles a 2 mana cycler, plays a land tapped and pass
I play eldritch evolution on devoted druid, find reclamation sage, and kill leyline of the void, I fail to find a land, inquisition him again and make him discard faerie macabre
He cycles a bit, plays a fulminator mage and blows up my only non basic
I find a land attack with sage and pass
He beasts within the spellbomb I exile his graveyard, draw a card and he pass
I attack with sage and pass with mana up for grisly salvage
He cycles stuff and pass
I grisly salvage at the end of his turn, find a land and put a bunch of creatures in my graveyard including stinkweed imp that I dredge during my draw step, puting yet more creatures in my graveyard including lotleth troll, necrotic ooze, fauna shaman and Razaketh, the Foulblooded.
I play the land, play a lotleth troll and attack with reclamation sage
He plays a horror of the broken lands and pass
I attack with both creatures and he blocks the reclamation sage. He draws a card and concedes
2-0
1-0 round 2 vs Eldrazi tron. As much as I play modern, I had yet to play against that deck so it was my first time experiencing the matchup.
He wins the dice roll and leads with relic of progenitus turn 1
I play a tapped land
He plays a mind stone
I play a devoted druid
He plays a reality smasher and smash me
I play a thornling
He plays another smasher and smash me
I play a land and loleth troll
He smash again, I block 1 with thornling, give it +1-1 and indestructible, while lotleth troll blocks the other and I discard a couple of creatures before I regenerate him. 1 smasher dies and I take 4
I play a land and pass with a hand full of lands
He plays another smasher and dismembers my troll before ending my suffering
-2 abrupt decay, -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 collective brutality, +2 big game hunter, +2 pithing needle
I lead with inquisition and see a hand full of TKS and smashers but not many lands, anyways I take surgical extraction.
He does nothing for a few turns and I kill him without resistance.
Game 3 he leads with relic yet again
inquisition takes away a mind stone, he dismembers a devoted druid, I play a fauna shaman
He fails to find a 4rth land while I set up carefully, playing a devoted druid.
He feels under pressure and cracks relic to find a 4rth land, which he doesn't. He plays a ballista for 1 preventing devoted druid from untapping. At the end of his turn I use fauna shaman discarding lotleth troll to find thornling
On my turn I use fauna shaman discarding thornling to find Razaketh, the Foulblooded, play eldritch evolution sacrificing fauna shaman to find necrotic ooze, attempt to give ooze haste, he lets it resolve, discard Razaketh, the Foulblooded with fauna shaman and find big game hunter as a creature to target for infinite mana, use Razaketh, the Foulblooded sacrificing devoted druid, in response he surgical devoted druid, in response I untap ooze and discard biggame hunter with madness using fauna shaman to find grim poppet, untap ooze and use fauna shaman again to find ballista, make infinite mana on the big game and ballista for the win
2-0
2-0 round 3 vs RG tron. long time no see
He wins the dice roll and leads with t1 relic of progenitus t3 pyroclasm my fauna shaman, t4 karn, t5 ulamog and I die
-1 prognostic sphinx, -2 abrupt decay, +2 pithing needle, +1 reclamation sage
t3 karn t4 ugin gg
0-2
2-1 round 4 vs amulet titan. Never played the matchup but it seemed favored
Game 1 I combo turn 4 with the nuts, killing his azusa and sakura along the way while he started with a slow 2 colorless lands and a late amulet
-2 abrupt decay -1 prognostic sphinx, -1 kitchen finks, +2 big game hunter, +1 collective brutality, +1 reclamation sage
game 2 I keep a slow hand and attack with troll. At some point he tries to kozilek return my team and I discard a bunch of creatures to make a big troll, he bojuka ogs my graveyard and stabilizes with a land that gains 2 life and bouncing it over and over again before dropping a titan and I end up losing to perma bojuka bog + multiple titans + ballista for big
game 3 he does the same and I realize the matchup isn't so good because of his ability to make consistent big ballistas and to find easily bojuka bog to replay repeatedly at instant speed.
1-2
final score 2-2
26/07 2-2, facing 4 times U/W control, flooding all day long
26/02 2-2, losing against jace goryo to greedy 1 land keep, winning against bye, losing against mono w death and taxes to greedy 1 land keep and winning against living end
greed is bad, opening hand either had too many lands or no enough for no apparent reason. Bad week for the ooze
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Ghost Quarters
2 Temple of Malady
3 Overgrown Tomb
3 Windswept Heath
1 Woodland Cemetery
3 Forest
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
Creature 26
4 Devoted Druid
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Necrotic Ooze
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Grim Poppet
1 Noose constrictor
1 Prognostic Sphinx
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Thornling
1 Molten-tail masticore
2 Satyr wayfinder
1 Quillspike
1 Big game hunter
1 Liliana, last hope
Instant 4
2 Grisly Salvage
2 Abrupt Decay
Sorcery 8
3 Eldritch Evolution
1 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Collective Brutality
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Entomber exarch
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fulminator mage
1 Golgari charm
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Vengeful pharaoh
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
round 1 : G/W eldrazi, he mulligans to 5 and I still get destroyed by IOK into tidehollow into TKS, game 2 double smasher with first turn relic is good enough 0-1
round 2 : jund, this matchup is unwinnable, he destroys my hand and creatures and kill me with chandra
0-2
round 3 : storm, I destroy him game 1, he combos game 2, and I stop him mid combo with a discarded scavenging ooze using it with necrotic ooze and eating gifts + past in flames g3
1-2
round 4 : rakdos control, he destroys me game 1, game 2 and three are carried by masticore and lotleth troll. NB hour of devastation doesn't kill regenerating creatures
2-2
round 5 : ad nauseam, game 1 i kill him turn 4, game 2 he kills me turn 4, game 3 i inquisition lightning storm t1 and know i won when he starts hardcasting apes.
3-2
round 6 : infect, I die turn 3 and 4 to this and my big game hunters are countered by hexproof effect into lethal
3-3
round 7 : living end, I play a lotleth troll t2 and he can't do anything good when he casts living end and i discard devoted druid + necrotic ooze and win the following turn, game 2 same, the only faerie macabre discarded is mine and nihil spellbomb carries me.
4-3
round 8 : G/W hatebears, t1 bird into t2 leonin + ghost quarter got me good and I didn't get to play magic, game 2 I combo and win quickly, game 3 he leonin locks me again and the dream is dead.
4-4
round 9 : taking turns, game 1 I combo turn 4 and kill him, game 2 he combos me for a long time while I read bank brochures I had in my bag and eat some cereal bars thinking about the beer I'm about to drink soon when I'm released from this hell. game 3 I declare attack phase with ooze and a fetch in play, he taps my ooze, i discard devoted druid and untap ooze and attack, discard razaketh, fetch dryad arbor, sacrifice dryad arbor to razaketh, find quillspike, and make a 420 ooze for the win.
5-4
side events were played with another deck so no reason to mention.
So far Channeler Initiate seems like the best option, are there other options in the 2-5 mana range ?
Here is my initial idea:
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Devoted Druid
4x Fauna Shaman
3x Channeler Initiate
2x Eternal Witness
4x Necrotic Ooze
1x Bloodrite Invoker
3x Walking Ballista
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Grisly Salvage
Sorcery (4)
3x Traverse the Ulvenwald
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Enchantment (4)
4x Vessel of Nascency
Land (21)
4x Blooming Marsh
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
2x Overgrown Tomb
4x Forest
3x Swamp
Vessel of Nascency is here as copies 5-8x of Grisly Salvage to fill the GY to get the combo pieces there while digging for Ooze.
Another option is Gather the Pack but Vessel seems better at supporting delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald and providig another turn 1 play for the deck.
Bloodrite Invoker is here as another finisher in case Walking Ballista gets extracted.
Or a ramp deck with the druid vizer combo that has the ooze combo in it to win it ER games?
4 Devoted Druid
4 Vizer of Remedies
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Walking Ballista
1 Bloodrite Involker
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Lothel Troll
1 Molten-tail Masticore
2 Fauna Shaman
1 Thornling
1 Quillspike
1 Morselhoarder
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Eldritch Evolution
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
21 lands