So this is a deck that's composed primarily of my favorite cards and mechanics, it's a very fun deck for me to pilot and I love it. The idea is to abuse 'enter the battlefield' effects w/ Mulldrifter, Acidic Slime, Mistbind Clique, Spellstutter Sprite and Crystal Shard to bounce them in and out. It's super fun to tap Crystal Shard for U and bounce Mistbind back to my hand, return Spellstutter from exile to counter a spell then flash Mistbind back in to counter tap lands and re-champion Spellstutter. Or cast Mulldrifter for it's evoke cost, then pay U to bounce it back to my hand before it's sac'd upon entry. Mistbind and Slime both allow me to nullify Bitterblossom once it's done it's job. The win-con is essentially board (bored?) control and late-game beatdown with my flyers. Some other, lesser synergies include: Scryb Ranger returning a tapped Forest to my hand in order untap-and-retap a dryad (plus it's another flash-faerie); Mistbind Clique taps all lands, and Crystal Shard is then free to return a target opponents creature to my opponents hand; Cultivate lets me shuffle if I hated my Ponder; Acidic Slime may be bounced back repeatedly as well; GSZ works great with Acidic Slime as a Sorcery speed enchantment/artifact/land hate.
Some sample ideal plays for me go like:
T1: Breeding Pool, GSZ, Dryad
T2: Land, Cultivate
T3: Mulldrifter OR Acidic Slime OR Bitterblossom + Crystal Shard
Some problems I have with the deck are (ordered from biggest concern to least):
- there is a conflict of interest between Scryb Ranger and Cultivate; Cultivate wants basic lands, and Scryb wants Forest. This deck requires a lot of mana to execute it's plays with all the bouncing and flash casting, and it's three colors so it's hard to pack in basics (and, again, Scryb only wants Forests, not Swamps or Islands), so I'm really at odds here. Currently there are only two swamps in the deck, which sucks. I wanted at least 8 basics since I'm running 4 cultivate, but with three colors I'm not sure Cultivate jives well (which is unfortunate as it's a favorite card of mine). I was hoping to find a card exactly like cultivate but with 'basic land' replaced with 'Forest', but understandably such a card doesn't exist. But overall cultivate is critical to ramping up quickly and I think cutting it would be disastrous, I basically need a somewhat reliable way to get to 5 mana on T3
- there is no lifegain, few early blockers and a lot of self inflicted damage. Often the deck doesn't establish itself until my life total is >10, so I'm forced to play super defensively even once established
- the win-con is pretty weak, but I'm ok with that overall
I'd like to keep the deck relatively fair, so I'm not really looking for an insane combo or super OP card, and I'm not really interested in fundementally changing the deck as it is just a casual 'favorite cards' kinda deck, but I am open to all options and opinions. I hope to at least fix the Scryb Ranger vs Cultivate dilemma up from this post, it's been driving me crazy.
When your deck is bigger than 60 cards and includes cantrips (such as Ponder), you are usually better of reducing the deck size by cutting those cantrips. The power of cantrips lies heavily with virtually decreasing your deck size below 60.
How many Dryad Arbors are you usually searching for in a game? If the answer is 2 or less, then that is the amount you need of that card. It enters summoning sick, so may slow you down. Replace the others with more needed multilands. Likewise, do you really need 4 Acidic Slimes? Wouldn't 3 or even 2 suffice?
As for the Ranger vs. Cultivate issue, you could simply go for the direct hack and use Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Prismatic Omen to turn those non-Forests into Forests. Helps with colorfixing, too, by making those Forests able to produce other colors as well. Together with a more conventional land portion of about 40% in the deck, the Dryad should still get you to 5 mana on turn 3 quite reliably even without Cultivate. Though you may want to play it alongside the sorcery. And it gives you some better early defense, too, and helps with getting those lands back on the battlefield. So yeah, that Dryad seems quite fitting for your deck.
edit:
Another idea I just had is Pentad Prism. If you can play it with 2 colors on turn 2, you'll easily get to 5 mana on turn 3. It's mostly a Ritual kind of card, though, but maybe you can find a card to use the artifact in the later game.
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you like the deck. If it's bigger than 60 it's a formatting mistake (the right hand side was intended to be sideboard).
I'm generally searching for all the Dryad's I can get, but maybe that's just because I'm bad :^) It keeps my ramp going strong, which becomes important late game as I this deck requires some big mana plays like bouncing a Mulldrifter and flashing in a Mistbind Clique on the same turn. They are great re-tappable mana sources when Scryb is on the field, and with Shard on the field they are great suprise blockers (I can just return them to my hand at instant speed).
I could probably cut Acidic Slime down to 2, in my play-testing I've been agreeing more and more with that idea. He's a fat 5-drop that I'm usually annoyed to draw or see in my hand (but I still love the card). Then I could fit something like Eternal Witness or some other green creature that's tutorable w/ GSZ, or a utility spell like Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, or Preordain.
Dryad of the Ilsan Grove / Prismatic Omen solve the issue of lands on the field being forest, but I still have a problem with Cultivate and needing three colors. I do really like that Dryad of the Ilsan Grove card though, that would synergize great with Scryb Ranger and GSZ, so I've added to the maybeboard. I cut Cultivate for now, as this lets me run some manlands and really stabilizes my mana. This also freed up 4 cards for something like Thoughtseize, Eternal Witness, Brainstorm/Preordain, etc, and it lets me do something on T2 w/o conflicting w/ Cultivate (like Bitterblossom). So overall it seems like a good deal to drop it..
With Thoughtseize being a placeholder essentially. I've testing Preordain/Brainstorm, Fetch lands/spells, Dryad of the Ilsan Grove, Eternal Witness, and a few other cards (aether vial sounds like a fun combo when paired with Mistbin Clique and Crystal Shard, for example).
What you probably want to add is some kind of hard removal, preferably in the form of a bouncable creature, like Shriekmaw, Nekrataal, Ravenous Chupacabra, Big Game Hunter, etc. Problem is, those are usually black and require double black. Shriekmaw may be among the better candidates. Hypnotic Siren is a blue, though somwhat costly alternative.
Shriekmaw looks awesome! Too bad it only hits black creatures though, but I'll try the card for sure. What do you think about adjusting the deck into an Aether Vial + Crystal Shard combo, I could run more 4 drops like Faerie Harbringer to ensure I get Mistbind Clique into play, along with Fabricate to get my artifacts. Mistbind Clique + Aether Vial + Shard sounds brutual, but possibly too janky.
Can't say much about Aether Vial. I've never played the card myself, and can't even remember when I last played against it.
Since you also mentioned, that your win con was rather weak, you could try to put many of the things you want to do with the deck onto the back of larger creatures. Like Temur Sabertooth for bouncing, or Deadeye Navigator for actual blinking.
For the low life issue, one of the best cards in green to combat that is Kitchen Finks. It gives you some life, and is a creature, that you won't mind blocking with (trade it with an attacker, gain some more life, then bounce/blink it to get rid of the counter, then do it all over again).
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Acidic Slime
4 Mulldrifter
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Dryad Arbor
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Mutavault
4 Forest
4 Breeding Pool
4 Ponder
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cultivate
4 Bitterblossom
1 Eternal Witness
1 Maraleaf Pixie
1 Scion of Oona
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Nature's Chosen
1 Favorable Winds
1 Twiddle
1 Scavenging Ooze
So this is a deck that's composed primarily of my favorite cards and mechanics, it's a very fun deck for me to pilot and I love it. The idea is to abuse 'enter the battlefield' effects w/ Mulldrifter, Acidic Slime, Mistbind Clique, Spellstutter Sprite and Crystal Shard to bounce them in and out. It's super fun to tap Crystal Shard for U and bounce Mistbind back to my hand, return Spellstutter from exile to counter a spell then flash Mistbind back in to counter tap lands and re-champion Spellstutter. Or cast Mulldrifter for it's evoke cost, then pay U to bounce it back to my hand before it's sac'd upon entry. Mistbind and Slime both allow me to nullify Bitterblossom once it's done it's job. The win-con is essentially board (bored?) control and late-game beatdown with my flyers. Some other, lesser synergies include: Scryb Ranger returning a tapped Forest to my hand in order untap-and-retap a dryad (plus it's another flash-faerie); Mistbind Clique taps all lands, and Crystal Shard is then free to return a target opponents creature to my opponents hand; Cultivate lets me shuffle if I hated my Ponder; Acidic Slime may be bounced back repeatedly as well; GSZ works great with Acidic Slime as a Sorcery speed enchantment/artifact/land hate.
Some sample ideal plays for me go like:
T1: Breeding Pool, GSZ, Dryad
T2: Land, Cultivate
T3: Mulldrifter OR Acidic Slime OR Bitterblossom + Crystal Shard
T1: Breeding Pool, GSZ, Dryad
T2: Swamp, Bitterblossom, Ponder
T3: Forest, GSZ, Dryad, Crystal Shard,
T4: Spellstutter Sprite, Mistbind Clique (championing Spellstutter)
Some problems I have with the deck are (ordered from biggest concern to least):
- there is a conflict of interest between Scryb Ranger and Cultivate; Cultivate wants basic lands, and Scryb wants Forest. This deck requires a lot of mana to execute it's plays with all the bouncing and flash casting, and it's three colors so it's hard to pack in basics (and, again, Scryb only wants Forests, not Swamps or Islands), so I'm really at odds here. Currently there are only two swamps in the deck, which sucks. I wanted at least 8 basics since I'm running 4 cultivate, but with three colors I'm not sure Cultivate jives well (which is unfortunate as it's a favorite card of mine). I was hoping to find a card exactly like cultivate but with 'basic land' replaced with 'Forest', but understandably such a card doesn't exist. But overall cultivate is critical to ramping up quickly and I think cutting it would be disastrous, I basically need a somewhat reliable way to get to 5 mana on T3
- there is no lifegain, few early blockers and a lot of self inflicted damage. Often the deck doesn't establish itself until my life total is >10, so I'm forced to play super defensively even once established
- the win-con is pretty weak, but I'm ok with that overall
I'd like to keep the deck relatively fair, so I'm not really looking for an insane combo or super OP card, and I'm not really interested in fundementally changing the deck as it is just a casual 'favorite cards' kinda deck, but I am open to all options and opinions. I hope to at least fix the Scryb Ranger vs Cultivate dilemma up from this post, it's been driving me crazy.
Thanks!
How many Dryad Arbors are you usually searching for in a game? If the answer is 2 or less, then that is the amount you need of that card. It enters summoning sick, so may slow you down. Replace the others with more needed multilands. Likewise, do you really need 4 Acidic Slimes? Wouldn't 3 or even 2 suffice?
As for the Ranger vs. Cultivate issue, you could simply go for the direct hack and use Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Prismatic Omen to turn those non-Forests into Forests. Helps with colorfixing, too, by making those Forests able to produce other colors as well. Together with a more conventional land portion of about 40% in the deck, the Dryad should still get you to 5 mana on turn 3 quite reliably even without Cultivate. Though you may want to play it alongside the sorcery. And it gives you some better early defense, too, and helps with getting those lands back on the battlefield. So yeah, that Dryad seems quite fitting for your deck.
edit:
Another idea I just had is Pentad Prism. If you can play it with 2 colors on turn 2, you'll easily get to 5 mana on turn 3. It's mostly a Ritual kind of card, though, but maybe you can find a card to use the artifact in the later game.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
I'm generally searching for all the Dryad's I can get, but maybe that's just because I'm bad :^) It keeps my ramp going strong, which becomes important late game as I this deck requires some big mana plays like bouncing a Mulldrifter and flashing in a Mistbind Clique on the same turn. They are great re-tappable mana sources when Scryb is on the field, and with Shard on the field they are great suprise blockers (I can just return them to my hand at instant speed).
I could probably cut Acidic Slime down to 2, in my play-testing I've been agreeing more and more with that idea. He's a fat 5-drop that I'm usually annoyed to draw or see in my hand (but I still love the card). Then I could fit something like Eternal Witness or some other green creature that's tutorable w/ GSZ, or a utility spell like Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, or Preordain.
Dryad of the Ilsan Grove / Prismatic Omen solve the issue of lands on the field being forest, but I still have a problem with Cultivate and needing three colors. I do really like that Dryad of the Ilsan Grove card though, that would synergize great with Scryb Ranger and GSZ, so I've added to the maybeboard. I cut Cultivate for now, as this lets me run some manlands and really stabilizes my mana. This also freed up 4 cards for something like Thoughtseize, Eternal Witness, Brainstorm/Preordain, etc, and it lets me do something on T2 w/o conflicting w/ Cultivate (like Bitterblossom). So overall it seems like a good deal to drop it..
So the deck is now looking like:
// 4 Artifact
4 Crystal Shard
// 24 Creature
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Acidic Slime
4 Mulldrifter
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Dryad Arbor
4 Mutavault
4 Breeding Pool
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Creeping Tar Pit
// 12 Sorcery
4 Ponder
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Thoughtseize
4 Bitterblossom
With Thoughtseize being a placeholder essentially. I've testing Preordain/Brainstorm, Fetch lands/spells, Dryad of the Ilsan Grove, Eternal Witness, and a few other cards (aether vial sounds like a fun combo when paired with Mistbin Clique and Crystal Shard, for example).
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Since you also mentioned, that your win con was rather weak, you could try to put many of the things you want to do with the deck onto the back of larger creatures. Like Temur Sabertooth for bouncing, or Deadeye Navigator for actual blinking.
For the low life issue, one of the best cards in green to combat that is Kitchen Finks. It gives you some life, and is a creature, that you won't mind blocking with (trade it with an attacker, gain some more life, then bounce/blink it to get rid of the counter, then do it all over again).
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)