Why Selvala?
Green and white are two of the strongest colors to have access to in a mana denial strategy. Selvala further benefits the strategy by providing us with mana to use to continue to cast spells, and providing a steady flow of cards. The "disadvantage" of giving our opponents cards as well is largely irrelevant, as they shouldn't have lands available anyway.
Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves, Devoted Druid, Heart Warden, Sylvan Caryatid: Mana dorks are useful in any EDH deck, but especially handy here where we can't rely on using lands for mana.
Aven Mindcensor, Leonin Arbiter: Anything that prevents search effects makes it that much harder for opponents to find answers.
Ethersworn Canonist: Straight prevents Storm from going off until they can deal with it, and slows down many other decks.
Felidar Sovereign: Main win condition. Establish a lock, drop FS, use Selvala to get back up to 40.
Gaddock Teeg: We have to be careful and choose the right moment to cast him to prevent him from stranding cards in our hand, but he does a great job of hurting other players. Bonus points for stopping Ad Nauseam combo.
Glowrider, Thalia: Hurts storm bad, slows down most decks at least a little.
Grand Abolisher: Ensures you can drop lock pieces uninterrupted.
Knight of the Reliquary: Occasionally handy as a beater, but mostly used to turn basics and fetches into tutors for Gaea's Cradle.
Hokori: Second winter orb. (Remember that playing this and Orb at the same time lets everyone untap 2 lands per turn. This can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending.)
Linvala: Prevents opponents from abusing the same creature mana loopholes in Winter Orb as you are.
Phyrexian Revoker: Derevi exists.
Seedborn Muse: Who cares if you only untap one land on your turn if everything untaps every other turn?
Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Mana Crypt, Mind Stone, Mox Diamond, Prismatic Lens, Sol Ring: More mana means faster locks.
Lion's Eye Diamond: Normally using LED to drop your commander quickly isn't a great strategy, but ours allows us to refill our hand over time.
Damping Matrix: Only stops about 4 effects of yours, liable to stop more than that of your opponents'. (Selvala is in fact a mana ability.) Defense Grid: Makes you harder to interact with.
Ensnaring Bridge: Can be difficult to keep up with Selavala's ability, but still a great way to protect yourself.
Expedition Map: For Gaea's Cradle, mostly.
Grafdigger's Cage: We have very few effects this shut down, while it functions as a cheap answer to many decks. (*cough*Hermit Druid Combo*cough*)
Imi Statue: Winter Orb for mana rocks.
Lightning Greaves: Not the best card, but protects our commander and can enable some strong starts.
Null Rod: Shutting down our own mana rocks hurts a little, shutting down opposing mana rocks hurts a lot. It's a tradeoff that I'm ok with.
Orb of Dreams: An orb that combos with WOrb. and SOrb. etc.
Pithing Needle: See Phyrexian Revoker. These both also work to shut down opposing planeswalkers and things. Handy effects to have.
Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst: Taxing effects hurt with Orb effects. They hurt players who aren't prepared for them more than you, though.
Static Orb: If you can only untap 2 permanents, Selvala and Gaea's Cradle seem like ok choices.
Ward of Bones: Mostly slows down opposing swarm decks. Also hurts any enchantress decks that happen to be around.
Winter Orb: Slows down everyone at the table, try to cast it when everyone is tapped out already.
Armageddon, Ravages of War: Relying on many alternate mana sources anyway, these cards are very handy to have.
Autumn's Veil, Ranger's Guile, Savage Summoning, Silence: 4 cards, 4 ways to protect Selvala or other important pieces.
Catastrophe: Like Arma and Ravages, but can also be a nuke button for creatures if it comes down to it.
Chord of Calling, Eladamri's Call, Enlightened Tutor, Worldy Tutor: Strong tutors with multiple good targets in your deck. (3 of them are also helpful if your group house-ruled away the tuck change.)
Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares: The downsides do exist, but sometimes a creature just has to go.
Regrowth: Recursion is always useful, and Regrowth is the king of Recursion.
Aura of Silence: Another tax effect, with a potential free destroy effect tacked on.
Blind Obedience: Slows opponents down, and makes Imi Statue harder to play around. Extort is occasionally relevant as well.
City of Solitude: Same as Grand Arbiter and Defense Grid.
Crackdown: Keeps most major threats tapped, nice and safe. Doesn't prevent Selvala from running.
Damping Field: A second Imi Statue.
Leyline of Sanctity: Nice protection, and potentially free.
Root Maze: Makes WOrb and Imi Statue harder to play around.
Rule of Law: Stops storm, slows down other decks if you don't hit an Orb effect.
Sterling Grove: Mostly for the tutor, but the shroud is occasionally relevant.
Stony Silence: *points at Sol Ring and laughs*
Survival of the Fittest: One of the best enchantments in the game, at least in our colors. My default target for Sterling Grove.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Untaps lands while under an Orb, and the ult is occasionally relevant to close out a game.
Not listed: Basics, fetches, and anything purely there for fixing
Ancient Tomb: Ramp + some lifeloss that is easy to get around.
Blinkmoth Well: Shuts down several of your Orb effects, using them to still lock down your opponents while avoiding them yourself.
Buried Ruin: Recursion for artifacts, which many of your key pieces are.
Cavern of Souls: Either protect Selvala or protect Felidar Sovereign
Flagstones of Trokair, Riftstone Portal: You plan to wipe lands anyway, these make that hurt a little less.
Gaea's Cradle: One of the best lands in the game, no contest.
Horizon Canopy: Draw a card in response to Arma. Handy.
Thespian's Stage: The ability to copy other lands is handy. You don't have any amazing targets, but other players often will.
Wooded Bastion: This gets a special note for allowing you to cast WW cards under WOrb using it and Selvala.
This is the first draft of this deck, so it's definitely not perfect, but it's a start.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is a great way to take out everybody's lands, especially when you're making a ton of mana. And they both remain relevant for you on their own since you play a bunch of little creatures.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is a great way to take out everybody's lands, especially when you're making a ton of mana. And they both remain relevant for you on their own since you play a bunch of little creatures.
I'm not sure how often I'd be in a position where I have both Norn and Kamahl out on the field at the same time and aren't already just winning, and I'm not sure how often one of them alone would get me the win out of a loss.
I need to find room for Regrowth and Crackdown.
Regrowth is the best version of that effect, and we definitely want at least version of that effect I think.
Crackdown shuts down a lot of opposing creatures without hindering any of ours. Maybe we should run the artifact that does the same thing minus the non-white part. . .
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rest in RIP My Signature, I guess. 2015-2016, we hardly knew ye.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Uba Mask seems to fit your deck and will negate your "disadvantage" of giving our opponents cards with a use it or loose it type effect. + if you have Grand Abolisher or Silence and you parley they will loose the card all together. of course this means that you would also have to play the card or loose it to, but with all the mana in your deck should not be a problem.
Uba Mask seems to fit your deck and will negate your "disadvantage" of giving our opponents cards with a use it or loose it type effect. + if you have Grand Abolisher or Silence and you parley they will loose the card all together. of course this means that you would also have to play the card or loose it to, but with all the mana in your deck should not be a problem.
I had forgotten about Uba Mask. I'll have to find a slot to test it in, that could definitely do good things here.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rest in RIP My Signature, I guess. 2015-2016, we hardly knew ye.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Ranger's Guile generally wasn't needed, and Defense Grid was unneeded redundancy.
Regrowth gives us some much needed Recursion, and Crackdown helps further prevent opposing decks from beating us down.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rest in RIP My Signature, I guess. 2015-2016, we hardly knew ye.
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Total side note but I like how people are discussing running this over itself.
Well, it has to be said that Kolaghan is clearly better than Kolaghan. Considering what BR decks usually want and how stiff the competition in this guild is, there is no way that I would run Kolaghan over Kolaghan! Kolaghan might make it in as the sixth guild card or so. Kolaghan on the other hand ranks several places below that.
It was so funny to me when they described this as a downgrade to the original Zurgo during the Pax East panel. I was thinking if this is a downgrade, they should really "downgrade" all legendary creatures. Haha.
My deck designing is quite concise at this point:
1. Come up with deck idea
2. Realize this idea is somehow fundamentally similar to another deck I have or that is commonly played in my group
3. Decide I don't want to disassemble one of my existing decks
4. Give up and do nothing
I don't see the point of this new shroud mechanic. It's strictly worse than Hexproof. Threshold is pretty bad too, Delirium is a much better mechanic and probably easier to activate.
Otherwise this card is a pretty neat guy. Dodges removal and grows into a Primal Huntbeast. 3/5
Green and white are two of the strongest colors to have access to in a mana denial strategy. Selvala further benefits the strategy by providing us with mana to use to continue to cast spells, and providing a steady flow of cards. The "disadvantage" of giving our opponents cards as well is largely irrelevant, as they shouldn't have lands available anyway.
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Devoted Druid
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Heart Warden
1 Leonin Arbiter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Glowrider
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Felidar Sovereign
Artifacts:23
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Diamond
1 Expedition Map
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Null Rod
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Winter Orb
1 Damping Matrix
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Imi Statue
1 Orb of Dreams
1 Static Orb
1 Ward of Bones
1 Regrowth
1 Armageddon
1 Ravages of War
1 Catastrophe
Instants:10
1 Autumn's Veil
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Path to Exile
1 Savage Summoning
1 Silence
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Chord of Calling
Enchantments:10
1 Root Maze
1 Blind Obedience
1 Sterling Grove
1 Stony Silence
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Aura of Silence
1 City of Solitude
1 Crackdown
1 Damping Field
1 Rule of Law
1 Leyline of Sanctity
Planeswalkers:1
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Lands:30
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Savannah
5 Snow-Covered Forest
5 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Temple Garden
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Wooded Foothills
Card Choices
Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves, Devoted Druid, Heart Warden, Sylvan Caryatid: Mana dorks are useful in any EDH deck, but especially handy here where we can't rely on using lands for mana.
Aven Mindcensor, Leonin Arbiter: Anything that prevents search effects makes it that much harder for opponents to find answers.
Ethersworn Canonist: Straight prevents Storm from going off until they can deal with it, and slows down many other decks.
Felidar Sovereign: Main win condition. Establish a lock, drop FS, use Selvala to get back up to 40.
Gaddock Teeg: We have to be careful and choose the right moment to cast him to prevent him from stranding cards in our hand, but he does a great job of hurting other players. Bonus points for stopping Ad Nauseam combo.
Glowrider, Thalia: Hurts storm bad, slows down most decks at least a little.
Grand Abolisher: Ensures you can drop lock pieces uninterrupted.
Knight of the Reliquary: Occasionally handy as a beater, but mostly used to turn basics and fetches into tutors for Gaea's Cradle.
Hokori: Second winter orb. (Remember that playing this and Orb at the same time lets everyone untap 2 lands per turn. This can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending.)
Linvala: Prevents opponents from abusing the same creature mana loopholes in Winter Orb as you are.
Phyrexian Revoker: Derevi exists.
Seedborn Muse: Who cares if you only untap one land on your turn if everything untaps every other turn?
Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Mana Crypt, Mind Stone, Mox Diamond, Prismatic Lens, Sol Ring: More mana means faster locks.
Lion's Eye Diamond: Normally using LED to drop your commander quickly isn't a great strategy, but ours allows us to refill our hand over time.
Damping Matrix: Only stops about 4 effects of yours, liable to stop more than that of your opponents'. (Selvala is in fact a mana ability.)
Defense Grid: Makes you harder to interact with.Ensnaring Bridge: Can be difficult to keep up with Selavala's ability, but still a great way to protect yourself.
Expedition Map: For Gaea's Cradle, mostly.
Grafdigger's Cage: We have very few effects this shut down, while it functions as a cheap answer to many decks. (*cough*Hermit Druid Combo*cough*)
Imi Statue: Winter Orb for mana rocks.
Lightning Greaves: Not the best card, but protects our commander and can enable some strong starts.
Null Rod: Shutting down our own mana rocks hurts a little, shutting down opposing mana rocks hurts a lot. It's a tradeoff that I'm ok with.
Orb of Dreams: An orb that combos with WOrb. and SOrb. etc.
Pithing Needle: See Phyrexian Revoker. These both also work to shut down opposing planeswalkers and things. Handy effects to have.
Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst: Taxing effects hurt with Orb effects. They hurt players who aren't prepared for them more than you, though.
Static Orb: If you can only untap 2 permanents, Selvala and Gaea's Cradle seem like ok choices.
Ward of Bones: Mostly slows down opposing swarm decks. Also hurts any enchantress decks that happen to be around.
Winter Orb: Slows down everyone at the table, try to cast it when everyone is tapped out already.
Armageddon, Ravages of War: Relying on many alternate mana sources anyway, these cards are very handy to have.
Autumn's Veil,
Ranger's Guile, Savage Summoning, Silence: 4 cards, 4 ways to protect Selvala or other important pieces.Catastrophe: Like Arma and Ravages, but can also be a nuke button for creatures if it comes down to it.
Chord of Calling, Eladamri's Call, Enlightened Tutor, Worldy Tutor: Strong tutors with multiple good targets in your deck. (3 of them are also helpful if your group house-ruled away the tuck change.)
Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares: The downsides do exist, but sometimes a creature just has to go.
Regrowth: Recursion is always useful, and Regrowth is the king of Recursion.
Aura of Silence: Another tax effect, with a potential free destroy effect tacked on.
Blind Obedience: Slows opponents down, and makes Imi Statue harder to play around. Extort is occasionally relevant as well.
City of Solitude: Same as Grand Arbiter and Defense Grid.
Crackdown: Keeps most major threats tapped, nice and safe. Doesn't prevent Selvala from running.
Damping Field: A second Imi Statue.
Leyline of Sanctity: Nice protection, and potentially free.
Root Maze: Makes WOrb and Imi Statue harder to play around.
Rule of Law: Stops storm, slows down other decks if you don't hit an Orb effect.
Sterling Grove: Mostly for the tutor, but the shroud is occasionally relevant.
Stony Silence: *points at Sol Ring and laughs*
Survival of the Fittest: One of the best enchantments in the game, at least in our colors. My default target for Sterling Grove.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Untaps lands while under an Orb, and the ult is occasionally relevant to close out a game.
Not listed: Basics, fetches, and anything purely there for fixing
Ancient Tomb: Ramp + some lifeloss that is easy to get around.
Blinkmoth Well: Shuts down several of your Orb effects, using them to still lock down your opponents while avoiding them yourself.
Buried Ruin: Recursion for artifacts, which many of your key pieces are.
Cavern of Souls: Either protect Selvala or protect Felidar Sovereign
Flagstones of Trokair, Riftstone Portal: You plan to wipe lands anyway, these make that hurt a little less.
Gaea's Cradle: One of the best lands in the game, no contest.
Horizon Canopy: Draw a card in response to Arma. Handy.
Thespian's Stage: The ability to copy other lands is handy. You don't have any amazing targets, but other players often will.
Wooded Bastion: This gets a special note for allowing you to cast WW cards under WOrb using it and Selvala.
This is the first draft of this deck, so it's definitely not perfect, but it's a start.
2015-05-25
Out:
Ranger's Guile
Defense Grid
In:
Regrowth
Crackdown
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Current Commanders: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (coming soon) | [Primer] Sedris, the Traitor King | Maelstrom Wanderer | Najeela, the Blade Blossom | Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
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Retired Commanders: [Primer] Jenara, Asura of War | [Primer] Ghave, Guru of Spores | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury | Saskia the Unyielding | Sydri, Galvanic Genius
I'm not sure how often I'd be in a position where I have both Norn and Kamahl out on the field at the same time and aren't already just winning, and I'm not sure how often one of them alone would get me the win out of a loss.
I need to find room for Regrowth and Crackdown.
Regrowth is the best version of that effect, and we definitely want at least version of that effect I think.
Crackdown shuts down a lot of opposing creatures without hindering any of ours. Maybe we should run the artifact that does the same thing minus the non-white part. . .
I had forgotten about Uba Mask. I'll have to find a slot to test it in, that could definitely do good things here.
2015-05-25
Out:
Ranger's Guile
Defense Grid
In:
Regrowth
Crackdown
Ranger's Guile generally wasn't needed, and Defense Grid was unneeded redundancy.
Regrowth gives us some much needed Recursion, and Crackdown helps further prevent opposing decks from beating us down.