MTG Salvation

To be fair, I’m not sure if life and limbs makes lands in graveyards creatures. I can’t find a ruling. Either way, there’s now a lot of ways to get lands back without gouging yourself on a crucible. Living death isn’t entirely necessary, as I say. It could be any sweeper, which you’re likely to run anyway, plus it allows some huge mana plays for exsanguinate, slimefoot’s ability, what ever mana sink you might have handy for profit. The only real proviso with life and limb is that your forests will be affected by summoning sickness. So concordat crossroads or akroma’s memorial might be a good idea.

I know its been a while, but I have made a decision. I may still make a Tana, the Bloodsower deck since I really want to play that commander, but for this saproling tribal idea I'm going to play Slimefoot the Stowaway and have come up with a first draft of a list that I would like to show.



Notable exclusions due to not owning them or wanting to spend the money on them right now
Phyrexian Tower
Phyrexian Altar
Volrath's Stronghold

Looks good! I firmly believe this guy will get crazy pretty quickly. The only thing I'd look is maybe a little more draw. Harvester of Souls could pull weight here. Moreso than Verdant Force, who's thoroughly outclassed these days by Tendershoot Dryad. Deathreap Ritual could be good or Fecundity could too, although the latter is global draw. You'll definitely get more use out of it than anyone else though.

I'll be interested to see how this develops - especially in terms of token doubling. I wonder if they're winmore, or whether they're necessary. I think the deck would be best built as a lean, efficient machine, but whether there's any place for the doublers obviously remains to be seen.

I think your right on needing more draw power. I'm not sure about Saproling Burst and Night Soil so they might be replaced by Fecundity and either Harvester of Souls or Grim Haruspex. I'm not sure if the bigger body or the earlier casting is better between the two draw creatures. Also, I think your are right on Verdant Force being over-costed for what you are getting from it. I think it should be replace by either Toxic Deluge, for another board wipe, or by another creature though I'm not sure which. Maybe Ophiomancer or Grave Titan even if they don't produce saproling tokens.

On the topic of doublers, I think that one permanent token doubler, namely Parallel Lives, is good but playing multiple is unnecessary so for both cmc and cost to purchase I don't think that Doubling Season is worth playing as there are no cards where counters matter except for Saproling Burst where the counters aspect of Doubling Season is necessary.

With what I have put together I think play-testing will best answer this question, but do you think that what I have posted is to light on removal? I do have Attrition + Dictate of Erebos plus some other spot removal but I do know how important being able to kill a specific threat is.

Lastly, my mana base was just thrown together so I could post a complete deck list but besides adding in more dual color lands, what utility lands do you think I should be playing that I have missed. I do think that with added draw cards like Fecundity I should be playing Reliquary Tower.

Edit: I just realized that Sporemound + Life and Limb is infinite token production when either a saproling token or a forest enters the battlefield.

Edit: I just realized that Sporemound + Life and Limb is infinite token production when either a saproling token or a forest enters the battlefield.

NICE. I knew there was something good there. That's good synergy, and good spotting.

I think your right on needing more draw power. I'm not sure about Saproling Burst and Night Soil so they might be replaced by Fecundity and either Harvester of Souls or Grim Haruspex. I'm not sure if the bigger body or the earlier casting is better between the two draw creatures. Also, I think your are right on Verdant Force being over-costed for what you are getting from it. I think it should be replace by either Toxic Deluge, for another board wipe, or by another creature though I'm not sure which. Maybe Ophiomancer or Grave Titan even if they don't produce saproling tokens.

Of the two I'd go for Harvester because it triggers on death of opponents' creatures as well. I think as far as replacements for Verdant Force goes, I don't really see the point in adding in token producers that aren't relevant to your build. You could always just add some classic draw, like Phyrexian Arena or Necropotence - even Dark Prophecy would be solid. I don't think you'll need to worry about life, you've got a steady stream coming in. The other thing I'd think about is more ramp - Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Lotus Cobra could even be decent, especially if you can land Life and Limb.

With what I have put together I think play-testing will best answer this question, but do you think that what I have posted is to light on removal? I do have Attrition + Dictate of Erebos plus some other spot removal but I do know how important being able to kill a specific threat is.

It's hard to say without playtesting, but there's a couple staples you could add if you're unsure. Abrupt Decay is solid, then there's plenty of conditional black removal - Go for the Throat, Victim of Night, Murderous Cut, Ultimate Price, Eyeblight's Ending and so forth. If you want it on a creature there's Ravenous Chupacabra or [c]Noxious Gearhulk.

Lastly, my mana base was just thrown together so I could post a complete deck list but besides adding in more dual color lands, what utility lands do you think I should be playing that I have missed. I do think that with added draw cards like Fecundity I should be playing Reliquary Tower.

Initially I don't think you need to worry too much about manabase - the biggest thing you'll want to do is get things moving quickly, and have lots of lands out ASAP. Outside of the standard super expensive stuff like Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Gaea's Cradle you probably don't desperately need anything. I agree with Reliquary Tower, though, it's a decent addition.

Quote from toctheyounger77 »

Of the two I'd go for Harvester because it triggers on death of opponents' creatures as well. I think as far as replacements for Verdant Force goes, I don't really see the point in adding in token producers that aren't relevant to your build. You could always just add some classic draw, like Phyrexian Arena or Necropotence - even Dark Prophecy would be solid. I don't think you'll need to worry about life, you've got a steady stream coming in. The other thing I'd think about is more ramp - Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Lotus Cobra could even be decent, especially if you can land Life and Limb.

Adding in more draw to replace Verdant Force seems like a good idea. On the topic of ramp, I'm already playing Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, Arbor Elf, Elves of Deep Shadow, Golgari Signet, Fellwar Stone, Cryptolith Rite, Life and Limb, Crypt Ghast, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach. Do I need any more?

It's hard to say without playtesting, but there's a couple staples you could add if you're unsure. Abrupt Decay is solid, then there's plenty of conditional black removal - Go for the Throat, Victim of Night, Murderous Cut, Ultimate Price, Eyeblight's Ending and so forth. If you want it on a creature there's Ravenous Chupacabra or [c]Noxious Gearhulk.

Yeah, I think I should test before I change anything in thsi area but the two I like the most are Murderous Cut and Noxious Gearhulk


Edit: Maybe Sylvan Safekeeper is good as a way to protect our powerful creatures, especially Slimefoot, the Stowaway, Blood Artist, and Zulaport Cutthroat.

Quote from cowmark67 »

Edit: Maybe Sylvan Safekeeper is good as a way to protect our powerful creatures, especially Slimefoot, the Stowaway, Blood Artist, and Zulaport Cutthroat.

In my Slimefoot build I have opted for more graveyard recursion over protection. Done right it helps the deck be more consistent and also plays into the B/G graveyard/sacrifice shenanigans quite well.

Tortured Existence
Phyrexian Reclamation
Strands of Night
Journey to Eternity

Two cards that I think are noticeably absent from your list are Seedborn Muse and Sprout Swarm. Seedborn lets you go crazy with your general, and Sprout Swarm gets out of hand quite quickly, especially when you add it to Doubling Season and/or Parallel Lives. I would also suggest adding Grim Backwoods. It's not great but sometimes you just run out of gas.

That makes sense. I can't believe I forgot about Tortured Existence even though I play it in my Gisa and Geralf deck.


Also here is my update to the decklist I previously posted

In
Fecundity
Harvester of Souls
Tortured Existence
Necropotence


Out
Verdant Force
Saproling Burst
Harmonize
Night Soil

Quote from Impossible »

Two cards that I think are noticeably absent from your list are Seedborn Muse and Sprout Swarm. Seedborn lets you go crazy with your general, and Sprout Swarm gets out of hand quite quickly, especially when you add it to Doubling Season and/or Parallel Lives. I would also suggest adding Grim Backwoods. It's not great but sometimes you just run out of gas.

Completely never thought about Seedborn Muse, which is really odd. It should be on my list of cards I am currently not playing due to price but will eventually pick up. The reason Sprout Swarm is not on my list is due to me thinking it is too weak. I probably should be playing it at least to test if it is good enough or not.

I play Sprout Swarm in my Rith, the Awakener deck and it's always fun. Surprise blockers, constant sacrifice fodder, and occasionally a win condition, Sprout Swarm is always solid for me. It won't blow you away but it's a good role player, and it's totally on theme. I think it's worth a try at least. I have to assume it's better than Fungal Sprouting. That card just seems bad to me.

Quote from Impossible »

I play Sprout Swarm in my Rith, the Awakener deck and it's always fun. Surprise blockers, constant sacrifice fodder, and occasionally a win condition, Sprout Swarm is always solid for me. It won't blow you away but it's a good role player, and it's totally on theme. I think it's worth a try at least. I have to assume it's better than Fungal Sprouting. That card just seems bad to me.

Ok, that makes sense. I mainly wanted to play Fungal Sprouting because it could create a lot of tokens and I like the artwork but based on what you are saying that is what I probably should replace with Sprout Swarm.

Quote from toctheyounger77 »

Edit: I just realized that Sporemound + Life and Limb is infinite token production when either a saproling token or a forest enters the battlefield.

NICE. I knew there was something good there. That's good synergy, and good spotting.

This combo DOESN'T stop! if you don't have a removal spell or a sac outlet for one half of it the game is a Draw.

I know that. You just have to not cast either at the same time until you know you can go off. It's still a neat interaction that give the deck more oomph.

Here is another update to my decklist.

In
Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Sprout Swarm

Out
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
Fungal Sprouting

Bloodspore Thrinax can devour some tokens, then power up any future creatures that enter the battlefield for you.

Thunderfoot Baloth gives a +2/+2 buff and trample to other creatures if your commander is in play.

If you run support to give them all trample then Stonebrow, Krosan Hero will give them a +2/+2 buff.

Here is a post of my fully updated decklist. I will keep posting here until I pick up every card and get some playtests in with the deck. Once that happens, I plan to move to posting about this deck in the multiplayer decks section.

I still think ghave is a better pick. The access to white is just too good to not pass up.

Don't get me wrong. Slimefoot is great and all, I just feel ghave is better.

I've been watching this thread and your list, cowmark76 is quite a bit different from what I had brewed and playtested and bought within 8 hours of Slimefoot's leak

Been playtesting with this build - in person- since abt a week after the initial leaks. Here's the link if you'd like to playtest as well:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/slimefoot-the-stowaway-edh-1/?cb=1524684582

Your list looks interesting. Yours looks more like a straight up tokens deck where mine is more an attrition deck. Couple of questions. First, how have all the cards that create saprolings with spore counters been? Second, how has Fungal Sprouting been for you? Currently I'm testing Sprout Swarm in its place as it takes a large creature on board to get any value out of Fungal Sprouting, though I like its power in the late game and its artwork.

Quote from cowmark67 »

Your list looks interesting. Yours looks more like a straight up tokens deck where mine is more an attrition deck. Couple of questions. First, how have all the cards that create saprolings with spore counters been? Second, how has Fungal Sprouting been for you? Currently I'm testing Sprout Swarm in its place as it takes a large creature on board to get any value out of Fungal Sprouting, though I like its power in the late game and its artwork.

Yeah my take was to go the route of making lots of tokens. Where possible, I intentionally left out cards that gave me infinite interactions. I try to avoid infinites if possible, so with that in mind the deck could probably be improved for those who don't care about going infinite.

Spore Counter Creatures
The ones I chose to include out of the many creatures that have the spore counters were ones who had useful sacrifice abilities. It's important to consider how much more dangerous any one of these individual cards become as soon as Slimefoot is on the board with a significant # of saproling tokens. These whimpy spore counter creatures all of a sudden become an instant speed sac outlet AKA a weapon to threaten your opponents with should they threaten your boardstate.

Instant speed sac outlets don't have to be the traditional ones that people are accustomed to destroying immediately, so a seemingly harmless Elvish Farmer can end up sitting around a while, completely under everyone's radar - until it's too late.

My playgroup has learned that each one of these spore counter/sac outlet creatures are potential big threats. Last time I played this deck an opponent chose to use up his spot removal on my Elivsh Farmer instead of an enemy Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas that was on board. I laughed at that in the moment and asked what was so scary about an Elvish Farmer and he wouldn't say the reason out loud in front of the other opponents, but he had played my deck before and we both knew the reason. I suggest adding them, they interact pretty well being sac outlets, provide extra saprolings occasionally, seem harmless enough to stick around and be an occasional chump blocker, are great beneficiaries of the ability on Rishkar, Peema Renegade and are way more powerful as soon as a doubling effect lands.

Fungal Sprouting
It's a fine card when used a certain way. My deck isn't designed to spew tokens ASAP because that's not really something that's possible with Saprolings in particular. I like to set up a board state that can become more lethal with added cards, not necessarily added tokens. By this I mean that every person who has spent a minute playing EDH knows that certain counter/token decks can explode to the realm of infinity rather easily and there's certain things to expect and look out for when facing a deck like this. With this in mind I have to knowingly construct a boardstate that wards off others from blowing up my tokens if possible, because Saproling tokens aren't as easy as some of the other kinds of tokens to go infinite/very large with. So I usually populate my board with these small, seemingly harmless spore counter creatures and enchantments that make it so that when I decide to drop the hammer, by playing my primary weapon, Slimefoot, he is being played into a boardstate where I can wield his abilities with respect from the rest of the table. Playing Slimefoot early is not the goal really....dropping him into a boardstate that is nasty - and then dropping a few saprolings and doubling them, or adding a few more to the 5 or 6 you already have means that you can hold your opponent's threat of removal or a boardwipe over their heads because now it's going to hurt them too. Might hurt them at instant speed too. I've milled out a person to death on the stack via using Atzal, Cave of Eternity on the stack to target a Craterhoof Behemoth in my yard, gave +11/+11 to my board and snuffed him out with Altar of Dementia. Being lethal on the stack is one of the best ways to preserve my boardstate I've found. I use that to ward off people from screwing with me. Fungal Sprouting is just another way to get enough saprolings in a non-threatening enough way that my opponents won't care until its too late. I often win a game with only a dozen saproling tokens or so.

Cool. Thanks for all the information. Your description of the spore counter cards makes me think I may have to try them out, especially if I add in Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Now I just have to figure out what I take out for them.

One other question. As this deck is not based on having a lot of big creatures to sac to mill yourself and then your opppents like a traditional reanimator deck, beside what you said in your last post, how good has Altar of Dementia been for you over any other free sac outlet?

Here's another update.

In
Elvish Farmer
Deathspore Thallid
Thallid Germinator
Skyshroud Claim
Fungal Sprouting
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Zendikar Resurgent
Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Journey to Eternity

Out
Swamp
Elves of Deep Shadow
Heroic Intervention
Fellwar Stone
Golgari Germination
Lightning Greaves
Crypt Ghast
Smothering Abomination
Meren of Clan Nel Toth

It is really bothering me that you are not running both Doubling Season and Primal vigor (you just have 1/4 doublers (and since yo are not running whit you can only get at most 3/4)

maybe also run thallid Soothsayer Gets you card draw for your saprolings that may have blocked and will end up dying anyway.

Altar of Dementia is a personal must because, while those Thallids I mentioned with the spore counters are handy, their sacrifice abilities are often limited to only being able to sacrifice saprolings. So having alternate sac outlets without restrictions is going to be necessary especially when you have a good number of creature slots dedicated to these thallids.

Altar of Dementia plays a strong role in my deck because while I may not have too many individually large creatures, I often don't have many problems with being able to pump up my creature's stats to swing in at someone for lethal. After damage, while the creatures are still huge I like to sac some of them for extra mill against a different opponent. The altars also help avoid my things getting exiled, since there are reanimator themes here, being able to keep my toys out of exile is very helpful.