I've been working on creating a Tana, the Bloodsower and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa token deck. While working on this deck I noticed how good and fun it would be playing with a sub-theme of saproling tokens. This led me to playing cards like Tendershoot Dryad and Verdeloth the Ancient. The deck does not only play cards that create saproling tokens but since Tana, the Bloodsower creates them and other good token producers do too, the sub-theme came to be.
Since Dominaria has been leaked, and now spoiled a bunch, there comes a card called Slimefoot, the Stowaway. He seems really strong since he can create saprolings with an activated ability and drains the table for 1 every time a saproling dies. This sounds great but the problem is that he is black but the commanders I'm currently playing are only Naya colors. I like the idea of playing black since you get to play the previously mentioned card plus good tutors, kill cards, board wipes, and Ghave, Guru of Spores. The problem is that I decrease consistency by increasing the colors of the deck.
My question is first, should I switch to 4c, using Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver, and second, if I do switch, what cards are good for my saproling sub-theme and token decks in general in black?
I would just go Slimefoot. While white does give you lots of creature buffs, targeted removal, board wipes, and recursion cards, Ghave paints a bad picture on your deck. Basically, everyone is going to expect combos of some sort, not that you can't do that with Slimefoot but he doesn't have the stigma yet. The partners really aren't good enough I think.
Slimefoot allows you to build tokens and win with aggro despite it being tokens. People aren't going to want to wipe the board of 15+ saplings with Slimefoot out.
Go with Slimefoot, the Stowaway - as mentioned, it doesn't have the stigma Ghave does (yet), and it's a strong commander. Zulaport Cutthroat on a legend is no joke, and saproling tribal has never looked more feasible.
All you're losing with white is some of the recursion and combo shenanigans that Ghave is known for, and honestly, I think you'll do just fine without it. There's plenty of ways to build resiliency into the deck, and I think he'll end up being a strong commander - potentially could be capable of some disgusting combos in his(?) own right.
Go with Slimefoot, the Stowaway - as mentioned, it doesn't have the stigma Ghave does (yet), and it's a strong commander. Zulaport Cutthroat on a legend is no joke, and saproling tribal has never looked more feasible.
All you're losing with white is some of the recursion and combo shenanigans that Ghave is known for, and honestly, I think you'll do just fine without it. There's plenty of ways to build resiliency into the deck, and I think he'll end up being a strong commander - potentially could be capable of some disgusting combos in his(?) own right.
I would just go Slimefoot. While white does give you lots of creature buffs, targeted removal, board wipes, and recursion cards, Ghave paints a bad picture on your deck. Basically, everyone is going to expect combos of some sort, not that you can't do that with Slimefoot but he doesn't have the stigma yet. The partners really aren't good enough I think.
Slimefoot allows you to build tokens and win with aggro despite it being tokens. People aren't going to want to wipe the board of 15+ saplings with Slimefoot out.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I do think that Slimefoot, the Stowaway is better than Ghave, Guru of Spores, but originally I wasn't suggesting playing either as my commander. I was just saying that those are both good black cards worth playing if I switched my Naya tokens/saproling tribal deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa to a 4 color deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver. So to that end, is it worth it switch my Naya deck to 4 color and if so, what black cards are worth playing? Also, based on what you guys are saying, should I just go with Slimefoot, the Stowaway? I like him but I already have a golgari deck and I also really want to play Tana, the Bloodsower.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I do think that Slimefoot, the Stowaway is better than Ghave, Guru of Spores, but originally I wasn't suggesting playing either as my commander. I was just saying that those are both good black cards worth playing if I switched my Naya tokens/saproling tribal deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa to a 4 color deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver. So to that end, is it worth it switch my Naya deck to 4 color and if so, what black cards are worth playing? Also, based on what you guys are saying, should I just go with Slimefoot, the Stowaway? I like him but I already have a golgari deck and I also really want to play Tana, the Bloodsower.
Oh, ok. Um... I guess if you already have a Golgari colored commander deck, then it comes down to whether you can support a second or are willing to scrap the first. Saproling cards in black that aren't Ghave and Slimefoot... umm... These: Necrogenesis is pretty amazing. Morbid Bloom and Death Mutation exist, but are really high cmc for what they do. Deathspore Thallid can sac a Saproling to -1/-1 a creature. It's ok. Korozda Guildmage can make a small saproling army and buff Tana. Golgari Germination can be part off an infinite combo, but otherwise pretty useless.
The only other way I can see you playing Tana, the Bloodsower is in the 99 of Rith, the Awakener or something else janky. That's my opinion. I want to like her too, I just think she's in the wrong colours for a saproling tribal.
As far as going for Slimefoot, it's up to you. I have three Dimir decks - one zombie tribal, one control, one Vorthos. They all take up different creative space, and that's how I justify them. Otherwise, if it's a deal breaker having two decks the same colour, stick with Tana. Maybe some sort of weird Voltron build?
Thanks for helping answer my questions. What you have just mentioned are the same black cards that stood out when I was looking at it on Gatherer. I may test out the deck as a four color deck but it looks like its probably best to stick to Naya or switch to Jund, though Anointed Procession, Cathars' Crusade, and Aura Mutation are awesome, unless there are some generally good cards for token decks in black that I have missed.
That makes sense. Maybe I should just make another Golgari deck since my other deck is The Gitrog Monster lands. Originally I really liked the idea of playing Tana, the Bloodsower as a commander because she's a token producer in the command zone that creates tokens every time she does damage and she goes infinite with Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa or your opponents not being able to block, a haste enabler, and Breath of Fury. This line of play of course is not playable if I switch out to four colors since Sidar Kondo helps Tana connect with my opponents so that I can go infinite easier.
My other big question about playing any version of this saproling deck with black is what cards in black that create tokens or work well with tokens are worth playing?
There's a vast amount of excellent token cards in black, it's just that black plays with tokens very differently. You don't really attack with them, you sacrifice them to trigger Blood Artist, Grave Pact, Black Market, Smothering Abomination and the like. Incidentally, I think that's a much stronger strategy in commander because you can use your tokens right away and get mileage out of them even if the enemy wipes the board.
That's true. Makes good sense. It looks like black might be the way to go. This still leaves me with the trouble of deciding if Golgari, Jund, or 4 color is the way to go. Any more suggestions would be helpful but I think this is something I just need to decide for myself as your guys have already given me such great card suggestions already.
I would go ghave. You get access to a commander who makes the tokens and give buffs and you have access to all the token doubles. (Doubling season, anointed procession, primal vigor, parallel lives) along which access to corpsejacl menace.
Yes it paints a target, but it is also fairly decent and if you want, doeesn't take much to make combo. (Plus with green and black available, lots of saproling production options.
You are also gonna want ashnods altar as it is a great way to abuse those tokens and with corpsejacl menace and a double or just doubling season or primal vigor alone, infinite buffs option. Attack with an army. Wait for blockers to be declared, then pump the unblocked ones.
I personally would consider running Ravos, Soultender as your other partner, since he doubles the size of your Saprolings, increases the number of Saprolings Tana gives you, recurs your Fungi, and gives you access to all of the Fungus colors (Tymna is great too, but I personally like Ravos' synergy more here).
Don't worry too much about being 4 colors, since Red will probably be more of a splash than anything if you're leaning hard on the Saproling theme (only 7 producers in red, not too much offered by Red that can't be handled by the other 3 colors). White gives you access to anthem effects and a handful of Saproling producers (I personally like Pallid Mycoderm, and I'd even consider Pollenbright Wings). Black gives you solid sac outlets, death triggers, and removal. Finish the deck with some equipment to make Tana easier (and more deadly) to connect with, some Cryptolith Rite effects, and some mana fixing and you should have a pile of cards that should be fun for casual play.
Of course you'll want to run Slimefoot and Ghave in the 98, but they shouldn't get you as much pre-emptive hate there as they otherwise would from people afraid of combo.
I was just putting together a Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest deck that morphed into tokens. My main goal for the deck is to power out an enormous Torment of Hailfire using the tokens as fuel and Ashnod's Altar, Gaea's Cradle or the like. Attacking with the potentially massive token army is effective but plan B as far as fun goes. So there is a lot of potential with this direction with Grave Pact and Blood Artist effects using black.
I guess the main question is how closely do you want to keep with the pure saproling theme as opposed to tokens in general and do you want to be full aggro or more value/combo. White offers the token support you mentioned. Red adds some token sac outlets/wincons and other token cards(mostly goblin), black lets you take the wincons in a non combat direction.
I have a pet janky deck with Nemata, Grove Guardian also. It's a lot lower on the power scale but really fun when it ever gets rolling. The sacrifice/pump ability as very relevant.
Do you run fungus cards to make saprolings? If so Thelon of Havenwood is another decent card in green.
I hadn't thought of making the deck an almost fungus tribal deck but that might be very good. I was going to play Utopia Mycon and Psychotrope Thallid anyway but playing others, like the new one, Thallid Soothsayer, and Pallid Mycoderm would probalby be good as well. What other fungus creatures do you think are good to play?
I personally would consider running Ravos, Soultender as your other partner, since he doubles the size of your Saprolings, increases the number of Saprolings Tana gives you, recurs your Fungi, and gives you access to all of the Fungus colors (Tymna is great too, but I personally like Ravos' synergy more here).
Don't worry too much about being 4 colors, since Red will probably be more of a splash than anything if you're leaning hard on the Saproling theme (only 7 producers in red, not too much offered by Red that can't be handled by the other 3 colors). White gives you access to anthem effects and a handful of Saproling producers (I personally like Pallid Mycoderm, and I'd even consider Pollenbright Wings). Black gives you solid sac outlets, death triggers, and removal. Finish the deck with some equipment to make Tana easier (and more deadly) to connect with, some Cryptolith Rite effects, and some mana fixing and you should have a pile of cards that should be fun for casual play.
Of course you'll want to run Slimefoot and Ghave in the 98, but they shouldn't get you as much pre-emptive hate there as they otherwise would from people afraid of combo.
Thanks for the suggestions. As you mention, Ravos, Soultender is probably better than Tymna the Weaver. My reason for wanting to play her is that she does draw you cards and I own a Tymna but don't own a Ravos, though he is probably not that hard to pick up. The rest of what you said makes complete sense and I just have to make the card choices myself.
I think, end of the day, your direction really needs to be decided first. You have the option of saproling tribal, of course. Obviously, this won't be the most competitive option, but if its what you want to do you have that choice. You also have the option of making the deck a solid, reasonably competitive build, too. This could be combo, attrition, stax, swarm, however you want it to look.
You could go with either Ghave or Slimefoot for any of these options, and honestly, I think you get the best of both worlds with either - both are saproling flavour laden, both are strong and as competitive as you want them to be. Ghave is hard to build WITHOUT combo, and Slimefoot has the potential to have the same versatility.
I'm happy to chime in with recommendations, but it's a little hard to do so until I know the direction you want to take, what your goals are, and how competitively you want to build.
I feel like a couple swords would be a good addition to the deck. Especially Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Feast and Famine. It feels like you want to be attacking with Tana and followup with a Craterhoof/Mirror Entity the next turn. Or even better have drop Purphoros then attack in for a big hit. Either way it feels like the power boost would be beneficial along with the protections.
Sigil of Valor could be fun. I'm a bit split. Tana wants to go tall and wide at the same time.
That makes a lot of sense. There are good red cards to play but really the only reason I want to play red is for Tana, the Bloodsower and Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors. Without playing red, my biggest question becomes is white worth playing? I would rather play Slimefoot as my commander but white seems really good for token decks that I may have to go with Ghave to have access to white. To let you know what I'm looking for in the deck is that I like the saproling tribal sub-theme but first and foremost I want the deck to competative. Any suggestions that you can work with off of that would be nice. I will make a final decision soon and post my full idea detailing cards I know I want to play and the style I want to play, be it combo, attrition, stax, etc..., as well.
White definitely has its place. Cathars' Crusade, Selfless Spirit, Annointed Procession are all good token cards.
If you go with Slimefoot you could use Mazirek in the 99 to act like a wierd Cathars' crusade. Slimefoot has synergy with saccing your saprolings. You could Heartstone/token doubler/Illusionist's Bracers on Slimefoot and with Ashnod's Altar drain the table. It definitely pulls you in a different direction with black added. Throw in Nemata, Grove guardian for a backup saproling generator/sac engine/wincon. Jade Mage/Ant Queen for other mana dump token generators.
Wow. These are great suggestions. Certainly makes the idea of a Slimefoot EDH look so much better. I think I'm going to post a list, not a full decklist, or cards to play in the deck to get your thoughts.
That makes a lot of sense. There are good red cards to play but really the only reason I want to play red is for Tana, the Bloodsower and Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors. Without playing red, my biggest question becomes is white worth playing? I would rather play Slimefoot as my commander but white seems really good for token decks that I may have to go with Ghave to have access to white. To let you know what I'm looking for in the deck is that I like the saproling tribal sub-theme but first and foremost I want the deck to competative. Any suggestions that you can work with off of that would be nice. I will make a final decision soon and post my full idea detailing cards I know I want to play and the style I want to play, be it combo, attrition, stax, etc..., as well.
I personally don't think you're losing much not playing white. My Ghave is more of a reanimator build, which is where some of the white comes in, plus you get some soft lock and token doubling, but you can build fine without it.
Obviously it's hard to tell how competitive Slimefoot will be prior to release, or without proxying, but I think he'll do pretty well personally. You've got lots of options to make him strong.
A quick gatherer search gave me these. I'd use a variation of them to fill out your token generation. Life and Limb could be really, really strong as a win con. It gives you crazy mana, crazy death triggers, and if you want to get into land recursion you could add Titania, Protector of Argoth and a sacoutlet for an instant army. Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation or Crucible of Worlds will mitigate your land loss, but a lot of the time your opponents will really suffer from you saccing lands anyway. In the right conditions that's game. Living Death could make a seriously brutal win con too with L&L.
There's not a lot of super efficient saproling production, so your curve will need to be pretty tight with good ramp, good draw, and token production at early, mid and late game. You'll probably also want ways to keep Slimefoot in play like Greaves and Swiftfoot - the usual stuff. But given you have Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist, you've got redundancy.
If you REALLY want token doublers, you could add Doubling Season, but I really don't think it'll be absolutely necessary to a strong deck if you don't have the money for it.
This is what I'd do, anyway - damn, I might build this myself, it could be savage. Hope this all helps!
There may be cards I have missed or cards I'm thinking of playing that I shouldn't but this is what I have so far. The one thing I definitely think I may be missing is more free sac outlets. Are there any good ones I have not listed? Also why do you think that Living Death works really well with Life and Limb? They're both great cards but I don't see how they work together.
Living Death makes every player sac every creature in play the t return everything that was already in the graveyard to the battlefield. With life and limb that’s all of your lands and all of your creatures. It’s a massive bleeder effect for all of your opponents with slimefoot in play. Plus it gives you a battlefield presence if they’re still standing afterwards - although strictly speaking it could be any sweeper. Decree of Pain, Damnation, whatever. I just like the reanimation LD offers.
I'll be honest, it's really not that difficult to make a 4-color mana base work, even on a budget. If you want to play WBRG but you're worried about the mana, just go for it.
I think Viscera Seer would be a better sac outlet than altar of dementia. The mill doesn't really fit the theme and all the scry could be great. Unless you just want the extra sac outlet. Free sacs are always good. Also Phyrexian Altar if you have one...otherwise it seems it would be out of your budget range. I saw Utopia Mycon awesome card for this list...basically an imitation Phyrexian altar.
Lightning Greaves may not really be necessary other than for an additional protection source. You don't really need the haste effect since most of your key creatures are there for the triggered or non-tap activated abilities. But again it is good cheap protection. I am not as sold on living death since most of your creatures are support in nature, but maybe it plays better in testing.
I think you probably can free up a slot with either torment of exsanguninate. Unless you just want redundancy. This has a lot of crossover with the deck I was putting together. Although Mazirek has a slightly different focus in that its goal is to just sac all your things and everyone elses things for mega +1 counters.
Living Death makes every player sac every creature in play the t return everything that was already in the graveyard to the battlefield. With life and limb that’s all of your lands and all of your creatures. It’s a massive bleeder effect for all of your opponents with slimefoot in play. Plus it gives you a battlefield presence if they’re still standing afterwards - although strictly speaking it could be any sweeper. Decree of Pain, Damnation, whatever. I just like the reanimation LD offers.
That Makes sense. I just wasn't sure if Life and Limb made lands in the graveyard creatures but since it does I'm definitely playing Living Death.
I'll be honest, it's really not that difficult to make a 4-color mana base work, even on a budget. If you want to play WBRG but you're worried about the mana, just go for it.
My issue was not with the cost of a consistant WBRG mana base but of the consistency of playing the deck as a whole when the same play style and theme could be achieved with less colors.
I think Viscera Seer would be a better sac outlet than altar of dementia. The mill doesn't really fit the theme and all the scry could be great. Unless you just want the extra sac outlet. Free sacs are always good. Also Phyrexian Altar if you have one...otherwise it seems it would be out of your budget range. I saw Utopia Mycon awesome card for this list...basically an imitation Phyrexian altar.
Lightning Greaves may not really be necessary other than for an additional protection source. You don't really need the haste effect since most of your key creatures are there for the triggered or non-tap activated abilities. But again it is good cheap protection. I am not as sold on living death since most of your creatures are support in nature, but maybe it plays better in testing.
I think you probably can free up a slot with either torment of exsanguninate. Unless you just want redundancy. This has a lot of crossover with the deck I was putting together. Although Mazirek has a slightly different focus in that its goal is to just sac all your things and everyone elses things for mega +1 counters.
Since Dominaria has been leaked, and now spoiled a bunch, there comes a card called Slimefoot, the Stowaway. He seems really strong since he can create saprolings with an activated ability and drains the table for 1 every time a saproling dies. This sounds great but the problem is that he is black but the commanders I'm currently playing are only Naya colors. I like the idea of playing black since you get to play the previously mentioned card plus good tutors, kill cards, board wipes, and Ghave, Guru of Spores. The problem is that I decrease consistency by increasing the colors of the deck.
My question is first, should I switch to 4c, using Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver, and second, if I do switch, what cards are good for my saproling sub-theme and token decks in general in black?
Slimefoot allows you to build tokens and win with aggro despite it being tokens. People aren't going to want to wipe the board of 15+ saplings with Slimefoot out.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
All you're losing with white is some of the recursion and combo shenanigans that Ghave is known for, and honestly, I think you'll do just fine without it. There's plenty of ways to build resiliency into the deck, and I think he'll end up being a strong commander - potentially could be capable of some disgusting combos in his(?) own right.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I do think that Slimefoot, the Stowaway is better than Ghave, Guru of Spores, but originally I wasn't suggesting playing either as my commander. I was just saying that those are both good black cards worth playing if I switched my Naya tokens/saproling tribal deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa to a 4 color deck helmed by Tana, the Bloodsower and Tymna the Weaver. So to that end, is it worth it switch my Naya deck to 4 color and if so, what black cards are worth playing? Also, based on what you guys are saying, should I just go with Slimefoot, the Stowaway? I like him but I already have a golgari deck and I also really want to play Tana, the Bloodsower.
Oh, ok. Um... I guess if you already have a Golgari colored commander deck, then it comes down to whether you can support a second or are willing to scrap the first. Saproling cards in black that aren't Ghave and Slimefoot... umm... These:
Necrogenesis is pretty amazing.
Morbid Bloom and Death Mutation exist, but are really high cmc for what they do.
Deathspore Thallid can sac a Saproling to -1/-1 a creature. It's ok.
Korozda Guildmage can make a small saproling army and buff Tana.
Golgari Germination can be part off an infinite combo, but otherwise pretty useless.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
As far as going for Slimefoot, it's up to you. I have three Dimir decks - one zombie tribal, one control, one Vorthos. They all take up different creative space, and that's how I justify them. Otherwise, if it's a deal breaker having two decks the same colour, stick with Tana. Maybe some sort of weird Voltron build?
My other big question about playing any version of this saproling deck with black is what cards in black that create tokens or work well with tokens are worth playing?
Yes it paints a target, but it is also fairly decent and if you want, doeesn't take much to make combo. (Plus with green and black available, lots of saproling production options.
You are also gonna want ashnods altar as it is a great way to abuse those tokens and with corpsejacl menace and a double or just doubling season or primal vigor alone, infinite buffs option. Attack with an army. Wait for blockers to be declared, then pump the unblocked ones.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
Don't worry too much about being 4 colors, since Red will probably be more of a splash than anything if you're leaning hard on the Saproling theme (only 7 producers in red, not too much offered by Red that can't be handled by the other 3 colors). White gives you access to anthem effects and a handful of Saproling producers (I personally like Pallid Mycoderm, and I'd even consider Pollenbright Wings). Black gives you solid sac outlets, death triggers, and removal. Finish the deck with some equipment to make Tana easier (and more deadly) to connect with, some Cryptolith Rite effects, and some mana fixing and you should have a pile of cards that should be fun for casual play.
Of course you'll want to run Slimefoot and Ghave in the 98, but they shouldn't get you as much pre-emptive hate there as they otherwise would from people afraid of combo.
I guess the main question is how closely do you want to keep with the pure saproling theme as opposed to tokens in general and do you want to be full aggro or more value/combo. White offers the token support you mentioned. Red adds some token sac outlets/wincons and other token cards(mostly goblin), black lets you take the wincons in a non combat direction.
I have a pet janky deck with Nemata, Grove Guardian also. It's a lot lower on the power scale but really fun when it ever gets rolling. The sacrifice/pump ability as very relevant.
1 Tana, the Bloodsower
1 Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa
Creatures
1 Mother of Runes
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Spawnwrithe
1 Tendershoot Dryad
1 Acidic Slime
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Mirror Entity
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Anger
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Eternal Witness
1 Arbor Elf
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Krosan Grip
1 Path to Exile
1 Aura Mutation
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Second Harvest
1 Beast Within
1 Boros Charm
1 Naya Charm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Secure the Wastes
Sorceries
1 Farseek
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Harmonize
Enchantments
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Sylvan Library
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Path of Discovery
1 Anointed Procession
1 Parallel Lives
1 Breath of Fury
1 Sunbird's Invocation
1 Cryptolith Rite
1 Intangible Virtue
1 Bower Passage
1 Impact Tremors
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sol Ring
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Gruul Signet
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Skullclamp
Planeswalkers
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
Cards I'm looking to pick up if I keep playing red
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Rith, the Awakener
Cards to take out if I play 4 colors/stop playing Sidar Kondo
Breath of Fury
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
Bower Passage
Spawnwrithe
Fires of Yavimaya
Cards to play if I play black
Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Ghave, Guru of Spores
Blood Artist
Zulaport Cutthroat
Necrogenesis
Smothering Abomination
Thelon of Havenwood (if I play fungus creatures)
Viscera Seer
Ashnod's Altar
I hadn't thought of making the deck an almost fungus tribal deck but that might be very good. I was going to play Utopia Mycon and Psychotrope Thallid anyway but playing others, like the new one, Thallid Soothsayer, and Pallid Mycoderm would probalby be good as well. What other fungus creatures do you think are good to play?
Thanks for the suggestions. As you mention, Ravos, Soultender is probably better than Tymna the Weaver. My reason for wanting to play her is that she does draw you cards and I own a Tymna but don't own a Ravos, though he is probably not that hard to pick up. The rest of what you said makes complete sense and I just have to make the card choices myself.
You could go with either Ghave or Slimefoot for any of these options, and honestly, I think you get the best of both worlds with either - both are saproling flavour laden, both are strong and as competitive as you want them to be. Ghave is hard to build WITHOUT combo, and Slimefoot has the potential to have the same versatility.
I'm happy to chime in with recommendations, but it's a little hard to do so until I know the direction you want to take, what your goals are, and how competitively you want to build.
Sigil of Valor could be fun. I'm a bit split. Tana wants to go tall and wide at the same time.
If you go with Slimefoot you could use Mazirek in the 99 to act like a wierd Cathars' crusade. Slimefoot has synergy with saccing your saprolings. You could Heartstone/token doubler/Illusionist's Bracers on Slimefoot and with Ashnod's Altar drain the table. It definitely pulls you in a different direction with black added. Throw in Nemata, Grove guardian for a backup saproling generator/sac engine/wincon. Jade Mage/Ant Queen for other mana dump token generators.
Wrap in Vigor or Golgari Charm can fill the roll of selfless spirit in protecting your board. Green has plenty of token doublers already so you don't really need white for that. Parallel Lives, Parallel Evolution,Saproling Symbiosis, Primal Vigor, Doubling Season
I personally don't think you're losing much not playing white. My Ghave is more of a reanimator build, which is where some of the white comes in, plus you get some soft lock and token doubling, but you can build fine without it.
Obviously it's hard to tell how competitive Slimefoot will be prior to release, or without proxying, but I think he'll do pretty well personally. You've got lots of options to make him strong.
5 Tendershoot Dryad
2 Korozda Guildmage
1 Utopia Mycon
5 Verdant Embrace
7 Verdant Force
4 Fungal Sprouting
3 Golgari Germination
1 Tukatongue Thallid
4 Life and Limb
8 Death Mutation
4 Saproling Symbiosis
4 Spontaneous Generation
2 Sprout Swarm
A quick gatherer search gave me these. I'd use a variation of them to fill out your token generation. Life and Limb could be really, really strong as a win con. It gives you crazy mana, crazy death triggers, and if you want to get into land recursion you could add Titania, Protector of Argoth and a sac outlet for an instant army. Ramunap Excavator, Splendid Reclamation or Crucible of Worlds will mitigate your land loss, but a lot of the time your opponents will really suffer from you saccing lands anyway. In the right conditions that's game. Living Death could make a seriously brutal win con too with L&L.
I'd also look at lots of death related stuff -
5 Dictate of Erebos
1 Vampiric Rites
4 Greater Good
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
2 Zulaport Cutthroat
2 Blood Artist
6 Harvester of Souls
3 Dark Prophecy
6 Massacre Wurm
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
5 Living Death
There's not a lot of super efficient saproling production, so your curve will need to be pretty tight with good ramp, good draw, and token production at early, mid and late game. You'll probably also want ways to keep Slimefoot in play like Greaves and Swiftfoot - the usual stuff. But given you have Zulaport Cutthroat and Blood Artist, you've got redundancy.
If you REALLY want token doublers, you could add Doubling Season, but I really don't think it'll be absolutely necessary to a strong deck if you don't have the money for it.
This is what I'd do, anyway - damn, I might build this myself, it could be savage. Hope this all helps!
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Creatures
1 Tendershoot Dryad
1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
1 Nemata, Grove Guardian
1 Blood Artist
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Utopia Mycon
1 Psychotrope Thallid
1 Smothering Abomination
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Arbor Elf
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Mycoloth
1 Jade Mage
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Sol Ring
1 Golgari Signet
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Skullclamp
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Heartstone
Enchantments
1 Necrogenesis
1 Life and Limb
1 Cryptolith Rite
1 Sylvan Library
1 Parallel Lives
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Attrition
1 Golgari Germination
1 Saproling Burst
1 Dark Prophecy
1 Second Harvest
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Putrefy
1 Golgari Charm
1 Heroic Intervention
Sorceries
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Fungal Sprouting
1 Saproling Symbiosis
1 Spontaneous Generation
1 Harmonize
1 Living Death
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Exsanguinate
Cards I'm not playing due to their price
Phyrexian Altar
Phyrexian Tower
Doubling Season
There may be cards I have missed or cards I'm thinking of playing that I shouldn't but this is what I have so far. The one thing I definitely think I may be missing is more free sac outlets. Are there any good ones I have not listed? Also why do you think that Living Death works really well with Life and Limb? They're both great cards but I don't see how they work together.
Lightning Greaves may not really be necessary other than for an additional protection source. You don't really need the haste effect since most of your key creatures are there for the triggered or non-tap activated abilities. But again it is good cheap protection. I am not as sold on living death since most of your creatures are support in nature, but maybe it plays better in testing.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc could be busted here. Also assuming you don't have a legit Gaea's Cradle. Path of Discovery is a quasi draw engine/buff machine. Yes, it triggers on tokens. May not be quite as good here but I am playing it due to stupid interactions with Puppeteer Clique and Woodfall Primus.
More draw effects from Skullmulcher would be a good way to get dies triggers and draw a ton of cards. Or at least a few in a pinch. Rishkar's Expertise...maybe? I thought Driven // Despair could be fun but might not do enough. You aren't really combat focused. You can also add Night's Whisper, Altar's Reap, Costly Plunder, or Sign in Blood.
I think you probably can free up a slot with either torment of exsanguninate. Unless you just want redundancy. This has a lot of crossover with the deck I was putting together. Although Mazirek has a slightly different focus in that its goal is to just sac all your things and everyone elses things for mega +1 counters.
That Makes sense. I just wasn't sure if Life and Limb made lands in the graveyard creatures but since it does I'm definitely playing Living Death.
My issue was not with the cost of a consistant WBRG mana base but of the consistency of playing the deck as a whole when the same play style and theme could be achieved with less colors.
This information is great. Path of discovery should be in my list, I just forgot to write it down. I completely forgot about Growing Rites of Itlimoc (which is playable since I can't afford a Gaea's Cradle) and Skullmulcher. Also, I can't believe I forgot Viscera Seer and your right, I probably shouldn't be playing Altar of Dementia since I'm not playing a big creature deck like other sac decks such as Chainer, Dementia Master and Karador, Ghost Chieftain.