Introduction
Did you ever wish you could populate an Armada Wurm? No! Not the token from the Armada Wurm! The Armada Wurm itself!
What about populating a Thragtusk? An Angel of Serenity? A Craterhoof Behemoth?
I'm sure the thought crossed your mind. You looked at your options. Cackling Counterpart? Séance? Not the most competitive cards out there.
Sure, the deck would be sweet with the perfect hand and perfect draws, but otherwise, there's no way you could stand a chance against the more traditional decks.
So, how can you blend your dreams of populating the most powerful creatures out there and your desires to win? Well, I believe the answer is Natural Séance!
What is Natural Séance?
It's pretty simple. It's essentially a Naya midrange deck focusing on strong ETB effects and, most importantly, Séance.
You play a lot (26) creatures, most of which with ETB effects, and most of which can easily be played without the need for Séance/Faithless Looting. They can greatly slow down the game by their presence and life gain.
When you're ready, you cast Séance and give a second life to all of your creatures! Faithless Looting lets you search your deck for Séance when you don't have it, and sends powerful but hard to cast creatures into your graveyard otherwise! With cards like Trostani and Rootborn Defenses, you can then populate and win out of sheer power.
If you are able to populate an Armada Wurm, Angel of Serenity, Craterhoof Behemoth or even Thragtusk, it's not hard to imagine winning the game.
How to Play
The deck is not easy to play due to the large amount of possibilities it offers you. Even I need to play it more to master all of its subtleties. But here are the basics:
During the first three turns, you play your small guys to protect your life points (with Centaur Healer,) dig for Séance (with Elvish Visionary) and fix your mana (with Borderland Ranger) If you have Séance in hand, I encourage you letting your early guys die, you can bring them back as blockers with Séance and get extra value out of them. You can play Faithless Looting early, but you should prioritize your board presence.
When you have 4 mana, you should play Séance immediately. Otherwise, keep stalling/increasing your board presence with cards like Huntmaster of the Fells, Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Sometimes, those guys and a Rootborn Defenses in hand can be enough to win you the game.
When you have Séance in play and powerful creatures like Armada Wurm, Angel of Serenity and Craterhoof Behemoth in the graveyard, things get crazy. You should always try to get lots of value out of them, and not just a 5/5 Wurm, bouncing three dudes, pushing 10 damage. If you can populate with Trostani or Rootborn Defenses, go for it! With Armada Wurm, build a true armada, with Angel of Serenity, wipe your opponent's board each turn, with Craterhoof Behemoth, win the game.
Conclusion
This deck is lots of fun! And unlike what you'd expect from a Séance deck, it can work even without Séance!
The deck is definitely on the expensive side, though, and lacking 2/3 of the shocklands can be rough.
But, on the bright side, there will be two guilds for this deck in Gatecrash, and therefore, many more goodies to get!
I hope people try this deck and share their experiences/results/thoughts/recommendations.
Why are you digging for Seance with Elvish Visionary? Is that really digging? You only have 2 copies. Is it more correct to say you are digging with Faithless looting? Why not drop the red and use blue for dig or anything else?
I don't doubt the deck has potential, but it seems like your running a lot of cards at small numbers. You could easily drop the Acidic Slime and 1 or 2 Restoration Angel.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not playing much these days... hope all is well in the MtG community
EDH:
Zur, The Enchanter
Modern:
Burn
Legacy:
Cheeri0s
Burn
I was using mulch instead of faithless looting in my deck. That kept me to 2 colors and made the mana base more flexible. My deck didn't run rootborn defenses, instead it ran mostly creatures that produced tokens. If you seance a Geist-Honored Monk you get 2 tokens that persist... but if you have a parallel lives out then you get 8 tokens persisting.
I can see looking at your list that I have too many Armada Wurms, and I should definitely run some elvish visionaries. Acidic slimes are also interesting.
How has playtesting worked with only 23 lands? I can picture you getting stuck on a hand with 2 lands and not having enough to cast your borderlands ranger. With 2 lands you probably wouldn't be able to cast faithless looting either.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Introduction
Did you ever wish you could populate an Armada Wurm? No! Not the token from the Armada Wurm! The Armada Wurm itself!
What about populating a Thragtusk? An Angel of Serenity? A Craterhoof Behemoth?
I'm sure the thought crossed your mind. You looked at your options. Cackling Counterpart? Séance? Not the most competitive cards out there.
Sure, the deck would be sweet with the perfect hand and perfect draws, but otherwise, there's no way you could stand a chance against the more traditional decks.
So, how can you blend your dreams of populating the most powerful creatures out there and your desires to win? Well, I believe the answer is Natural Séance!
What is Natural Séance?
It's pretty simple. It's essentially a Naya midrange deck focusing on strong ETB effects and, most importantly, Séance.
You play a lot (26) creatures, most of which with ETB effects, and most of which can easily be played without the need for Séance/Faithless Looting. They can greatly slow down the game by their presence and life gain.
When you're ready, you cast Séance and give a second life to all of your creatures! Faithless Looting lets you search your deck for Séance when you don't have it, and sends powerful but hard to cast creatures into your graveyard otherwise! With cards like Trostani and Rootborn Defenses, you can then populate and win out of sheer power.
If you are able to populate an Armada Wurm, Angel of Serenity, Craterhoof Behemoth or even Thragtusk, it's not hard to imagine winning the game.
The Deck
2 Elvish Visionary
3 Borderland Ranger
4 Centaur Healer
3 Restoration Angel
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
2 Armada Wurm
2 Angel of Serenity
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Faithless Looting
3 Rootborn Defenses
4 Séance
Lands (23)
4 Plains
3 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
3 Clifftop Retreat
2 Rootbound Crag
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Slayers' Stronghold
How to Play
The deck is not easy to play due to the large amount of possibilities it offers you. Even I need to play it more to master all of its subtleties. But here are the basics:
During the first three turns, you play your small guys to protect your life points (with Centaur Healer,) dig for Séance (with Elvish Visionary) and fix your mana (with Borderland Ranger) If you have Séance in hand, I encourage you letting your early guys die, you can bring them back as blockers with Séance and get extra value out of them. You can play Faithless Looting early, but you should prioritize your board presence.
When you have 4 mana, you should play Séance immediately. Otherwise, keep stalling/increasing your board presence with cards like Huntmaster of the Fells, Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Sometimes, those guys and a Rootborn Defenses in hand can be enough to win you the game.
When you have Séance in play and powerful creatures like Armada Wurm, Angel of Serenity and Craterhoof Behemoth in the graveyard, things get crazy. You should always try to get lots of value out of them, and not just a 5/5 Wurm, bouncing three dudes, pushing 10 damage. If you can populate with Trostani or Rootborn Defenses, go for it! With Armada Wurm, build a true armada, with Angel of Serenity, wipe your opponent's board each turn, with Craterhoof Behemoth, win the game.
Conclusion
This deck is lots of fun! And unlike what you'd expect from a Séance deck, it can work even without Séance!
The deck is definitely on the expensive side, though, and lacking 2/3 of the shocklands can be rough.
But, on the bright side, there will be two guilds for this deck in Gatecrash, and therefore, many more goodies to get!
I hope people try this deck and share their experiences/results/thoughts/recommendations.
Happy Magic!
I don't doubt the deck has potential, but it seems like your running a lot of cards at small numbers. You could easily drop the Acidic Slime and 1 or 2 Restoration Angel.
EDH:
Zur, The Enchanter
Modern:
Burn
Legacy:
Cheeri0s
Burn
Can be seance'd, and the token can populate itself to stick around, and populate some more.
Yo dawg, I heard you like MTG so we put a game into your game so you can play MTG while you play MTG
I was using mulch instead of faithless looting in my deck. That kept me to 2 colors and made the mana base more flexible. My deck didn't run rootborn defenses, instead it ran mostly creatures that produced tokens. If you seance a Geist-Honored Monk you get 2 tokens that persist... but if you have a parallel lives out then you get 8 tokens persisting.
I can see looking at your list that I have too many Armada Wurms, and I should definitely run some elvish visionaries. Acidic slimes are also interesting.
How has playtesting worked with only 23 lands? I can picture you getting stuck on a hand with 2 lands and not having enough to cast your borderlands ranger. With 2 lands you probably wouldn't be able to cast faithless looting either.