This is my take on Wort. It's a fairly simple concept. Go big mana, disrupt opponents, go fireball variant to the face. It's changed quite a bit since I originally posted this list, but the core concept has stayed the same. Cards in the deck come and go as the local meta shifts, but I believe this list is strong enough to tune for most metas. It is fast, and does powerful things. Sometimes it just shuts people out of the game by turns 5-7. It can also go lethal very fast.
Why should you play Wort?
You love to ramp
You want to burn people out in EDH
You want to blow up lands
You love copying spells, and Riku is too mainstream
Here I explain the roles that I put the cards under, and some of my individual choices. It's a little long.
The Ramp
The ramp is the backbone of the deck, it's what makes the deck fast, and it's what makes the deck work. Getting all the land out of your deck as fast as possible so you draw all business is pretty much what we aim to do, and with Wort online we can do it twice as fast.
Mana Doublers
These cards have turned the game into a 3v1 on me the second they hit the field fairly often. They're extremely powerful cards, but you can't play the low key game with these out and pretend you're "just ramping"(Which I believe is a ridiculous idea, ramping is quite possibly the most powerful thing you can do besides win). But anyway, you want to play these on a turn in which you can do something powerful the second they hit the board. Establish presence, or eliminate everyone elses the second these drop, or you aren't lasting long. Rude Awakening and Vernal Bloom are awkward in that generally you want to drop them the turn you're going off, but are powerful cards.
Draw
We can afford any sort of draw, Mind's Eye is especially an all-star here. Draw helps our consistency even further, as with draw plus ramp going we have all business all the time. This section includes cards that increase our card quality, and I would recommend all of them.
[CARD]
Mind's Eye
Reforge the Soul
Abundance
Harmonize
Regal Force
Wheel of Fortune
Sylvan Library
Garruk, Primal Hunter[/CARD]
Mass Removal
Since you don't establish much board presence, sweepers are not only a requirement, they're pretty much always all upside in this deck. And when they aren't, you're probably already winning enough that is doesn't matter. Potentially we could be running Ruination, as it is extremely powerful with the 30 basics we run, but my meta doesn't call for it. If your meta has a healthy supply of nonbasics however, sleeve it up happily, knowing when you resolve it you probably win. This section includes mass removal of all types, not just creatures.
Spot Removal
People are going to hate you. A lot. And they're going to do powerful things too. We can keep this under control without giving up CA very easily, particularly with Wort online. We have some of the best non-creature-removal in the game in our colors, it would be a shame not to take advantage. With cards like Melting or Slice, you get straight CA for doing things you would of done anyway. Master getting online means your opponents have a tough time playing utility creatures/small generals.
Win Condition
It's kind of obvious what these do. We play these, we expect to win the game, and soon. Burn is obviously also multipurpose, Titan's Revenge has the potential for recursive spot removal, Devil's Play can be spot removal early and win con late, Comet Storm can boardwipe as easily as it can win you the game. Clan Defiance is frequently just a very good 2 for 1. Avenger stalls well. But they all can win the game by themselves.
Recursion
In this deck, Recursion can save us by grabbing our most powerful business spells. But it is also straight up CA in a lot of situations, depending on what we grab and whether or not Wort is online. Even 1-1s like Recollect become entirely too ridiculous with the Rampmother up and running.
Copying
We like copying. We like it a lot. We like it so much we like copying our copies. Grabbing a reverberate with 3 opponents and a comet storm in hand means we only need 18 mana in play and Wort up to initiate a kill. While it may sound like a lot, this deck gets there fast. Knocking out 1 or more players in the first ten turns is almost never out of the question, and copy spells help us get there even faster. Wild Ricochet has always been an allstar in red, Reiterate is extremely versatile, and Increasing Vengeance closes games harder than any card in the deck. Heat Shimmer is a bit different, but doubling up your Sylvan Primordial, grabbing your opponents Rune-Scarred Demon, or killing a legendary, the card does lots of useful things.
Creature Tutors
People don't like Wort. Wort gets tucked. You get her back. Proceed to win game. And then there's the fact that with Wort online Green Sun becomes a pseudo Tooth and Nail. I would definitely run more if I had the option. Some of the more powerful cards in the deck.
Land
While land in general is important, having a bunch of shiny, powerful land for this deck isn't really necessary. You can stick to the basics, with maybe a bit of fixing in there and do just fine. A lot of what you want from your land is preference. This was the first EDH deck I built, so I like to keep it simple. It's powerful, but easy to understand, so I hand it to newbies to Commander quite often. Oops, went off on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, land is really mostly preference for this deck. I prefer the high basics route, but you can change your ramp package to suit your mana base.
EDIT 2/13/13: I've updated the deck to its current form, it's packing a bit more power than it originally did, although I have had to cut a few very powerful cards. It now feels slightly more like R/G control. The planeswalkers have been very good for me, as my playgroup tends to avoid combat unless they're swinging for huge #'s, or they're piloting Kaalia. Tell me what you think of the deck, criticize it, tell me what I'm missing. It plays out very much like a R/G combo-control deck now, and I like where it's at, but am wondering if I could further improve upon it. I've been considering adding a bit more of the good, big mana artifacts in order to recover from Geddon's well, but ideally I geddon before they do, or burst down the table. I also sadly need to get a hold of a Vandalblast, but for the life of me I cannot find one.
Going to reformat the OP soon, and include a few updates, but can't do so well from my phone. In the meantime, I would appreciate some input on the current list. Please, I haven't gotten a legitimate second opinion on the list in months.
Updated the list for the first time in ~8 months. Tell me what you think, replacements I should make, cards I'm missing, balancing of artifact ramp vs. lands, other ways to battle Geddons, if I'm missing any glaring weaknesses, or if you like the list, tell me about it. I'd love to get compliments for once.
It just doesn't seem like you have enough combo to fireball someone to death with this build.
Maybe I am missing something?
..
Yeah, when I first posted here one list gave me the idea of what my first list should look like, and it's kind of off. I just updated my lists today, I'm planning to reformat them the next time I have a bit of free time to do so.
Wake of Destruction is a great card, but it does not do the same thing Wildfire or Destructive Force do. With those two cards I have wrecked everyone's early board position numerous times. Wake is also bad in a meta that is plagued with non-basic rife mana bases and tri-color ramp decks. I have one weird Ghave deck in the group that runs like 6 non-basics and relies on casting multiple ramp spells to mana fix. The partial paris mulligan makes it easier.
Ruination does seem kind of strong. Of your suggested cuts, I would be fine with cutting the duals, which were added sort of willy nilly. Although Grove is mostly in there for the sweet FTV: Realms art TBH. Dryad Arbor synergizes with Wort, allowing me to conspire two green spells in a turn with no other investment, or I can do the Green Sun's for it T1 if my hand warrants it.
I don't get what you think is lacking? Sure I have to draw into the right pieces at the right times, but that's a classic problem of true ramp decks, and I can thin my deck of basics fairly quickly. The mana doublers and copy spells allow for easy kills, and comet storm makes killing a table much less mana intensive. Generally explosive mana into a draw spell is enough to get the job done. Most of my removal cantrips or gives me CA in other ways, and there aren't a ton of threats I can't deal with assuming I have the cards in my hand.
Defininately more competitive than mine (you can check it out through the link in my sig if you want).
Here are some thougts:
For spot removal, red and green have enough trouble. Aftershock and Cinder Cloud have both proven themselves to be amazing, especially when conspired.
Early Harvest has turned out to be a bomb in my deck. Even if I don't get the infinite mana with Reiterate, a conspired Early Harvest is going to do significant damage.
Why should you play Wort?
You love to ramp
You want to burn people out in EDH
You want to blow up lands
You love copying spells, and Riku is too mainstream
The List
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Explore
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Frenzied Tilling
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Nature's Lore
1 Reap and Sow
1 Recross the Paths
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Wood Elves
1 Harrow
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Sol Ring
Mana Doublers
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Vernal Bloom
1 Boundless Realms
1 Rude Awakening
1 Mana Reflection
Card Draw
1 Mind's Eye
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Abundance
1 Harmonize
1 Regal Force
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Sylvan Library
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Mogg Infestation
1 Destructive Force
1 Wildfire
1 Rite of Ruin
1 Blasphemous Act
Spot Removal
1 Beast Within
1 Chaos Warp
1 Smash
1 Decimate
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Plow Under
1 Acidic Slime
1 Mystic Melting
1 Slice in Twain
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Karn Liberated
Win Conditions
1 Titan's Revenge
1 Comet Storm
1 Devil's Play
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Banefire
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Clan Defiance
Recursion
1 Regrowth
1 Praetor's Counsel
1 Past in Flames
1 Eternal Witness
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Restock
1 Heat Shimmer
1 Reiterate
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Increasing Vengeance
Creature Tutors
1 Signal the Clans
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Chord of Calling
Lands
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Command Tower
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Temple of the False God
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
15x Forest
9x Mountain
Here I explain the roles that I put the cards under, and some of my individual choices. It's a little long.
The Ramp
The ramp is the backbone of the deck, it's what makes the deck fast, and it's what makes the deck work. Getting all the land out of your deck as fast as possible so you draw all business is pretty much what we aim to do, and with Wort online we can do it twice as fast.
Mana Doublers
These cards have turned the game into a 3v1 on me the second they hit the field fairly often. They're extremely powerful cards, but you can't play the low key game with these out and pretend you're "just ramping"(Which I believe is a ridiculous idea, ramping is quite possibly the most powerful thing you can do besides win). But anyway, you want to play these on a turn in which you can do something powerful the second they hit the board. Establish presence, or eliminate everyone elses the second these drop, or you aren't lasting long. Rude Awakening and Vernal Bloom are awkward in that generally you want to drop them the turn you're going off, but are powerful cards.
Draw
We can afford any sort of draw, Mind's Eye is especially an all-star here. Draw helps our consistency even further, as with draw plus ramp going we have all business all the time. This section includes cards that increase our card quality, and I would recommend all of them.
Mind's Eye
Reforge the Soul
Abundance
Harmonize
Regal Force
Wheel of Fortune
Sylvan Library
Garruk, Primal Hunter[/CARD]
Mass Removal
Since you don't establish much board presence, sweepers are not only a requirement, they're pretty much always all upside in this deck. And when they aren't, you're probably already winning enough that is doesn't matter. Potentially we could be running Ruination, as it is extremely powerful with the 30 basics we run, but my meta doesn't call for it. If your meta has a healthy supply of nonbasics however, sleeve it up happily, knowing when you resolve it you probably win. This section includes mass removal of all types, not just creatures.
Spot Removal
People are going to hate you. A lot. And they're going to do powerful things too. We can keep this under control without giving up CA very easily, particularly with Wort online. We have some of the best non-creature-removal in the game in our colors, it would be a shame not to take advantage. With cards like Melting or Slice, you get straight CA for doing things you would of done anyway. Master getting online means your opponents have a tough time playing utility creatures/small generals.
Win Condition
It's kind of obvious what these do. We play these, we expect to win the game, and soon. Burn is obviously also multipurpose, Titan's Revenge has the potential for recursive spot removal, Devil's Play can be spot removal early and win con late, Comet Storm can boardwipe as easily as it can win you the game. Clan Defiance is frequently just a very good 2 for 1. Avenger stalls well. But they all can win the game by themselves.
Recursion
In this deck, Recursion can save us by grabbing our most powerful business spells. But it is also straight up CA in a lot of situations, depending on what we grab and whether or not Wort is online. Even 1-1s like Recollect become entirely too ridiculous with the Rampmother up and running.
Copying
We like copying. We like it a lot. We like it so much we like copying our copies. Grabbing a reverberate with 3 opponents and a comet storm in hand means we only need 18 mana in play and Wort up to initiate a kill. While it may sound like a lot, this deck gets there fast. Knocking out 1 or more players in the first ten turns is almost never out of the question, and copy spells help us get there even faster. Wild Ricochet has always been an allstar in red, Reiterate is extremely versatile, and Increasing Vengeance closes games harder than any card in the deck. Heat Shimmer is a bit different, but doubling up your Sylvan Primordial, grabbing your opponents Rune-Scarred Demon, or killing a legendary, the card does lots of useful things.
Creature Tutors
People don't like Wort. Wort gets tucked. You get her back. Proceed to win game. And then there's the fact that with Wort online Green Sun becomes a pseudo Tooth and Nail. I would definitely run more if I had the option. Some of the more powerful cards in the deck.
Land
While land in general is important, having a bunch of shiny, powerful land for this deck isn't really necessary. You can stick to the basics, with maybe a bit of fixing in there and do just fine. A lot of what you want from your land is preference. This was the first EDH deck I built, so I like to keep it simple. It's powerful, but easy to understand, so I hand it to newbies to Commander quite often. Oops, went off on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, land is really mostly preference for this deck. I prefer the high basics route, but you can change your ramp package to suit your mana base.
EDIT 2/13/13: I've updated the deck to its current form, it's packing a bit more power than it originally did, although I have had to cut a few very powerful cards. It now feels slightly more like R/G control. The planeswalkers have been very good for me, as my playgroup tends to avoid combat unless they're swinging for huge #'s, or they're piloting Kaalia. Tell me what you think of the deck, criticize it, tell me what I'm missing. It plays out very much like a R/G combo-control deck now, and I like where it's at, but am wondering if I could further improve upon it. I've been considering adding a bit more of the good, big mana artifacts in order to recover from Geddon's well, but ideally I geddon before they do, or burst down the table. I also sadly need to get a hold of a Vandalblast, but for the life of me I cannot find one.
Thoughts?
My EDH Decks!
BUGDamia, Combo-Control QueenBUG
RGWort, the RampmotherRG
WWWKemba, Voltron ExtraordinaireWWW
UBDralnu, Pure ControlUB
URHail to the DracogeniusUR
My EDH Decks!
BUGDamia, Combo-Control QueenBUG
RGWort, the RampmotherRG
WWWKemba, Voltron ExtraordinaireWWW
UBDralnu, Pure ControlUB
URHail to the DracogeniusUR
Tear my list a new one, Salvation members.
My EDH Decks!
BUGDamia, Combo-Control QueenBUG
RGWort, the RampmotherRG
WWWKemba, Voltron ExtraordinaireWWW
UBDralnu, Pure ControlUB
URHail to the DracogeniusUR
Destructive Force and Wildfire should probably be Ruination and Wake of Destruction
Some of the non basics you are playing are just not worth it, in Wort I would play forests over Command Tower, Rootbound Crag, Grove of the Burnwillows, Dryad Arbor, also your land count is a bit low.
It just doesn't seem like you have enough combo to fireball someone to death with this build.
Maybe I am missing something?
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Yeah, when I first posted here one list gave me the idea of what my first list should look like, and it's kind of off. I just updated my lists today, I'm planning to reformat them the next time I have a bit of free time to do so.
Wake of Destruction is a great card, but it does not do the same thing Wildfire or Destructive Force do. With those two cards I have wrecked everyone's early board position numerous times. Wake is also bad in a meta that is plagued with non-basic rife mana bases and tri-color ramp decks. I have one weird Ghave deck in the group that runs like 6 non-basics and relies on casting multiple ramp spells to mana fix. The partial paris mulligan makes it easier.
Ruination does seem kind of strong. Of your suggested cuts, I would be fine with cutting the duals, which were added sort of willy nilly. Although Grove is mostly in there for the sweet FTV: Realms art TBH. Dryad Arbor synergizes with Wort, allowing me to conspire two green spells in a turn with no other investment, or I can do the Green Sun's for it T1 if my hand warrants it.
I don't get what you think is lacking? Sure I have to draw into the right pieces at the right times, but that's a classic problem of true ramp decks, and I can thin my deck of basics fairly quickly. The mana doublers and copy spells allow for easy kills, and comet storm makes killing a table much less mana intensive. Generally explosive mana into a draw spell is enough to get the job done. Most of my removal cantrips or gives me CA in other ways, and there aren't a ton of threats I can't deal with assuming I have the cards in my hand.
My EDH Decks!
BUGDamia, Combo-Control QueenBUG
RGWort, the RampmotherRG
WWWKemba, Voltron ExtraordinaireWWW
UBDralnu, Pure ControlUB
URHail to the DracogeniusUR
Defininately more competitive than mine (you can check it out through the link in my sig if you want).
Here are some thougts:
For spot removal, red and green have enough trouble. Aftershock and Cinder Cloud have both proven themselves to be amazing, especially when conspired.
Early Harvest has turned out to be a bomb in my deck. Even if I don't get the infinite mana with Reiterate, a conspired Early Harvest is going to do significant damage.
Other than that, you've got a pretty smooth deck.
| B Erebos, God of VampiresB | GYeva SmashG | RBosh ArtifactsR | GURAnimar +1 BeatsGUR | RBVial's Secret Hot SauceRB | UBRNekusar, Draw if you DareUBR | RGBDarigaaz'z DragonsRGB | GBSlimeFEETGB | UBOn-Hit LazavUB | URBrudiclad's Artificer InventionsUR | GUBMuldrotha's ElementalsGUB | WUGKestia's EnchantmentsWUG | GUTatyova - Draw, Land, Go!GU | WGArahbo's EquipmentWG | BUWVarina's ZOMBIE HORDESBUW | WLyra's Angelic SalvationW | WBChurch of TeysaWB | UAzami...WizardsU
Vernal Bloom < Caged Sun
Shattering Pulse < Shattering Spree or Vandalblast
The new list is much easier to read =)
Might think about Artifact Mutation, I personally love it.
I wish Charmbreaker Devils would work in my meta, but when I bring it out, it either gets ganked or my graveyard gets removed, so I had to cut him.
Have you had a chance to try this list out? How is it working out?
...
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort