MTG Salvation

Here's a quick take on the new Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, which is potentially the most explosive ramp general printed to date. The idea is to play her as a Channel combo deck in the early turns and a poor Nissa Eldrazi imitation in the lategame. The deck can usually hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or the other two Eldrazi finishers by turn 4 if uninterrupted, and sometimes even turn 2 and turn 3 if you have Worldly Tutor or Dreadnought in hand.

The main combo is to get out Selvala by turn 2, and the following turn get out Phyrexian Dreadnought, and use Selvala's mana ability while Dreadnought's triggered ability is on the stack to add twelve green. You can cast Tooth and Nail entwined for Surrak, Caller of the Hunt + Emrakul to win on the spot, or Primal Surge most of the deck. Usually if you have one dork and 3 Forests by turn 3 you only make 14 mana which is not enough to hardcast Emrakul, but if you have Wirewood Lodge/Quirion Ranger/Wirewood Symbiote you can make enough mana to cast Woodland Bellower into Fierce Empath for Emrakul.

Umbral Mantle and Staff of Domination are other single card combos with Selvala. Umbral Mantle at bare minimum requires Selvala and six mana, since the Mantle's untap ability increase's Selvala's P/T which in turn increases the mana you generate each time, and you will get infinite. Staff is a bit more restrictive since it needs you to control a creature with at least 6 power on board to net infinite mana, or Priest of Titania/Rofellos tapping for five, but it wins by itself once you have the infinite mana. It's good with a pump spell version of the deck or a stompy build with more power 6 creatures, but not in this build since most of our midrange fatties like Oblivion Sower and Regal Behemoth have power 5.

Cool interactions - to be added
-Survival of the Fittest can get out Scryb Ranger while Dreadnought's sacrifice trigger goes on stack. So basically when you resolve Dreadnought, you resolve the draw trigger first and hope to draw a creature to pitch to Survival. Then you tap Selvala for twelve green, use Survival for Scryb Ranger, flash it in and bounce a Forest to untap Selvala and tap again for roughly 20 green mana floating. This is very useful if you don't have Quirion or Symbiote on the battlefield.
-The combo for Weird Harvest is usually at least for x=3, getting Dreadnought/Soulgorger, Emrakul/Ulamog, Quirion, and maybe Eternal Witness or Wirewood Symbiote depending on the math.
-Eldritch Evolution, unlike Pod, can tutor out creatures with less CMC than the sacrificed creature. For example you can Eldritch an Elvish Mystic to get our favourite card, Dreadnought.
-Eye of Ugin can get ANY colourless creature like you...guessed it, Dreadnought. For example if you have exactly 7 mana and land in hand you can EOT Eye for Ulamog and play him the next turn. But if you Eye for Nought at EOT you can Eye again for Ulamog on your turn with 2 extra green mana to spare after casting Ulamog.

Currently tested cards:
Reality Smasher
Phyrexian Soulgorger (normally Thragtusk or Wild Wanderer)

Cards to consider or metagame:
Somberwald Stag - Curves well from t2 Selvala and usually draws.
Duplicant - Does not curve as well but tutorable from Eye and kills anything. Also does not trigger Selvala draw.
Wild Wanderer - Good in a slower control meta. Generally better than Farhaven and Solemn because she triggers draw from Selvala, accelerates mana with Selvala and goes pretty crazy with Wirewood Symbiote with several draw triggers a turn.
Boon Satyr - a 5 mana perma-Invigorate or an instant speed accelerator. Good in a control meta with lots of planeswalkers. I am playing Reality Smasher instead at the moment, because the 4 turn clock with the hasty body is super relevant in 20 life to change gears to a beatdown plan against control.
Thragtusk - good in an aggro meta. I prefer Jitte because it is also good in elf mirrors.

Quote from spastika »

The deck can usually hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn by turn 4 if uninterrupted

I can't imagine this is true. There's an awful lot of Plan B type stuff in there for a deck that goldfishes consistently on turn 4.

For what it's worth, I love the Surrak combo though (spent some time on Gatherer when I first saw Selvala spoiled looking for essentially that exact type of ability but somehow missed it).

And Phyrexian Dreadnought is a card too!

But MTG has a rule that you don't get to choose the 7 cards you start with :-(

I usually prefer Genesis Wave over Primal Surge
Yes, there is a small chance of backfire, but it is there, you can waste a whole turn if you hit an instant/sorcery too soon, less win on the spot, but more consistent, anyway I really want to test her and see if I can get her working also xD, did you test it against some DC decks?

Quote from Kamenitza »

Well, test it around a bit, I've found it scarily consistent. Much more than I thought it would be at first.

I have, and unfortunately found it to be lacking. But maybe I'm not a good player, or maybe you/spastika just got lucky, or maybe you're not writing down your turn-4-goldfish rate and you're overestimating it. In any case, I'm a big fan of winning with a 15/15 so I hope it succeeds.

Quote from spastika »

Here's a quick take on the new Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, which is potentially the most explosive ramp general printed to date. The idea is to play her as a Channel combo deck in the early turns and a poor Nissa Eldrazi imitation in the lategame. The deck can usually hardcast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn by turn 4 if uninterrupted, and sometimes even turn 2 and turn 3.

I get that it's also a point of "Well, this is a crapload of mana" but Emrakul is banned in EDH...
http://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/formats/commander

So while I get your point, maybe use a different example?

Quote from rigeld2 »

I get that it's also a point of "Well, this is a crapload of mana" but Emrakul is banned in EDH...

This is the duel commander subforum. It uses a different banlist
http://www.duelcommander.com/banlist/

My bad - wrong forum. Sorry.

Quote from Jibux »

Isn't invigorate basically a better black lotus in this deck?

Excellent idea! I will test Invigorate over Sakura Tribe Scout
And Might of Old Krosa over Yeva.

Quote from Jibux »

Isn't invigorate basically a better black lotus in this deck?

Mutagenic Growth is Dark Ritual if you pay 2 life instead of mana.

Yep still early days so deck isn't that focussed yet. I thought i wanted more 4-5 drops to curve in between Selvala and our 6 mana+ bombs but they're obviously anti-synergistic, especially once I realised that the deck was better of as a Channel combo deck than green stompy/deck with Dreadnought for value. I totally forgot about Yisan and will definitely include him mostly for the Nought, but also as another card advantage engine and a b-plan if Selvala doesn't stick.
I'll try Greaves for sure, that was in consideration too along with Concordant Crossroads which I cut. Sylvan Tutor I don't like because there's no way for us to draw on our own turn. I liked it much more in GW Selvala because of parley but even then I didn't play it there. Primal Command curves nicely after t2 Selvala and isn't CDA, and is also a tempo play as a mini Plow Under. I loved it in GW Selvala and it looks to be MUCH better here because the creature tutoring component is a much bigger part of our game plan than it was in old Selvala. But who knows, we might have to pay all the tutors since the deck seems to best be focussed around the Dreadnought plan.

Also tried Mwonvuli when I first built the deck for Nought, and I cut it for the same reason I didn't play Sylvan. I prefer it over Sylvan since it doesn't nonbo with Primal Surge. But like I said earlier, I'll probably have to refocus the deck and cut the useless 4-5 drops to go all in on the Nougt plan.

My bad, I meant to write 6 power instead of 5 for Staff. And yea once you have infi mana Staff literally does everything by itself.

Are there any 1 mana dorks I'm missing? I'm not running Chrome Mox and and might cut Diamond because the CDA is too great. Would Jeweled Amulet be worth? It's not CDA but won't let you get to 5 mana on turn 3, which is probably not at issue since we don't play many 4 or 5 drops.

Also considering straight-out cutting Primal Surge for Emrakul the Promised End, because that usually costs 10 mana and has a cast trigger that pretty much wins the game too. This will also let me play more instants and sorceries like Sylvan Tutor, Primal Command, and ramp spells etc.

Temur Sabretooth is another brilliant suggestion I missed. It is definitely a new key card and an obvious include in hindsight. It hits the sweet spot of being both a 4 drop and a combo card with Selvala + Nought + random dork + Wirewood. I definitely need to run Scryb Ranger now because of Temur + Quirion infinite combo. I am getting strong Yisan flashbacks from this.

Strange possibility in a deck like this for cards like Vitalize, Aim High, Burst of Strength, Emerald Charm, Savage Surge, Vines of the Recluse and much more

Interesting, I may have to look into this for multiplayer.

Instill Energy worth it? Or not for the 2for1

Phyrexian Devourer as backup slow dreadnought? Suicide Green anyone?

The sacrifice is a state-based ability so you won't be able to respond with Selvalas mana ability I'm pretty sure. I also don't like the other pump spells.

Quote from spastika »

The sacrifice is a state-based ability so you won't be able to respond with Selvalas mana ability I'm pretty sure. I also don't like the other pump spells.

Phyrexian Devourer's sacrifice clause is a trigger, not state-based. It goes on the stack and can be responded to. Jarad decks use this exact mechanic as part of their combo.

Quote from spastika »

Umbral Mantle at bare minimum requires Selvala and six Forests

Unless I'm reading things wrong, one forest should be enough.
If you have selvala, heart of the wilds equipped with umbral mantle, you tap her for 2 and tap your forest to untap her with the mantle. Now she's a 4/5 creature, so you tap her for 4 and use 3 of that to untap her, etc. Infinitely large selvala and infinite mana.
Am I missing something?

Quote from Kamenitza »

You have to cast Umbral Mantle, and pay for the first untap.

Okay, so if we assume selvala is on the board but mantle isn't, then don't we only need 4 mana?

You are also missing the one green needed to tap her after the untap

If I did the math right

Having both in play

1 Forest: Tap Selvala for 2
1 Forest: Activate Mantle
1 Forest: Activate Selvala Go Infinite

3 Forest needed with both in play.

Quote from Taleran »

You are also missing the one green needed to tap her after the untap

Oh you're right. I didn't even notice she cost 1 green to activate. I figured I must have been missing something.
But anyway, this deck looks awesome. I'm thinking about making a multiplayer version.

Yeah weird harvest is excellent. T3 Harvest X=3 for Nought, Quirion and Emmy seems busted...
But at the same time vs a creature deck opponent might get 3 Mesmeric Fiends lol.

@asimov: it is actually 38 creatures but I mistyped 37, so list on OP actually has 99 cards.

Haven't had time to test the new cards including Temur and pumps spells since I am overseas but I'll be back in two days and will post results.

Hmm no Dreadnought asimov? Even if it requires Selvala + fatty in hand to be playable, it's still a quadruple-Black Lotus and IMO easily the best card in this deck, with or without Selvala on board.

since we won't always have the dreadnought in hand, what do you guys think of myr superion (and perhaps lupine prototype) to help get the ball rolling for selvala.