MTG Salvation

As luck would have it when MTG Origins came out i picked up a Nissa, Vastwood Seer in a draft. At that point I had several Commander decks at my disposal and Nissa didn’t really fit into any of them. Being as I enjoyed the flip-walkers in general and Nissa in particular I decided to build a deck around Nissa, Vastwood Seer as a showcase to her greatness. This deck started out as just leftover green cards I had kicking around but has evolved a few times in the past several months. Though Nissa started out as more or less a throwaway deck to showcase a new card it has actually grown into a favourite in my playgroup and of all my decks Nissa is the one most likely to be picked up and played by someone else. There is still work to be done to get Nissa to the point I want but she is off to a good start.

1. Nissa ensures you’ll never run out of gas. Early on she will make sure you keep hitting land drops until you can flip her or deploy some other big spells. Later on she can draw an extra card a turn or pop out 4/4s.
2. Nissa is linear and easy to play. Our group tends to pass decks around and she has become popular in part because it is an intuitive and straight forward deck. Play lands, draw cards, play big threats. You wont lose a game because you fetched the wrong dual or anything like that.
3. Nissa basically can’t be stopped. By nature of the deck you’ll always have mana to cast her and once she flips she can always be flipped. Often people just leave nissa alone because she is so easy to re-cast.
4. You’ll never get mana screwed. Worst case scenario is you slowly get to 7-10 mana.
5. Outside of the commander the deck is quite cheap. The mana base costs a couple bucks and only a few of the rares are $10+ cards. You could get frisky and add Survival of the Fittest and Gaea's Cradle but you don’t need to.

1.You like elaborate and degenerate combos.
2.You want to win the game turn 4.
3.You want to win with general damage.
4.Your metagame is loaded with fast combo decks.
5.You like reactive control decks.


Mulliganing The early goal is to get to 7 mana by turn 5 so your hand should have 3 lands and 1-2 mana ramp cards. Don’t worry about having action in hand as once you flip Nissa you should be able to draw some threats later on. Landfall cards like Zendikar’s Roil are excellent to have in your opener so if you have one of those it can be worth it to keep an otherwise slow hand.

Early turns Ideally you want to flip Nissa on turn 5 so fire off Hunting Wilds and Explosive Vegetation early. You can afford to take some early damage as you are pretty good at gumming up the board mid game and there is some lifegain to help along. On turn 3 if you have the choice to play Niss or a say Kodama’s Reach then play the reach so you can flip Nissa earlier. Once Nissa is flipped start drawing cards unless you really need a 4/4 on D.

Mid Game Setup Once Nissa is online its time to start thinking about winning the game. If other decks have some threats out then start clogging the board to slow their attack. Hornet Queen is best in these cases and usually buys you several turns. Don’t be afraid to burn an early Beacon of Creation for blockers if you need them, with Nissa going time is your friend.

If no one really being threats then go ahead and start attacking. Feel free to pump out 4/4s as needed to keep the pressure on. Hold back on ramp spells you are drawing and save them for some Landfall cards.

If everyone is telegraphing wraths then stick landfall cards. Get yourself to 10+ lands at which point your Hydras and Token bombs become must-deal with cards and the control guys will have to trade 1 for 1 and chances are you can outlast them.

Ending The Game Most games end the same way with a bunch of tokens attacking with an overrun effect to finish people off. Less often a big Dungrove Elder or Genesis Hydra will take 10 point chunks out of people until they fold. Nissa, Sage Animist ultimates from time to time but at that point you’ll likely have other ways to get a swarm going. Some games you swing for a non-lethal alpha strike and Spore Cloud the counter attack and finish them off the following turn.

Fertilid + Retreat to Kazandu = 2 mana rampant growth on a stick. If you stick this get yourself to a dozen forests then sit back because if you get all your lands then your future landfall cards will be poor. Having instant landfall available is a big asset to this deck.
Pathbreaker Ibex + Elder of Laurels = Just a massive overrun. Nothing fancy, just potent.
Lifeblood Hydra + Elder of Laurels = Counts power not counters.


Below is the list. Like i said it is a work in progress and i appreciate all feedback.

I picked up a few commander 2015 cards to flush out the deck. Two are pseudo Overrun cards that should work pretty well with the tokens. Loreseeker's Stone is replaced with Sandstone Oracle because you want to reload quickly. Verdant Confluence just seems like a solid card and fits well with this deck. Woodland Bellower may seem odd but frankly didn't really do much. If this were a more dedicated combo deck i am sure there are pieces it would help assemble, but at six mana in this deck the Bellower is soft.

Big update just now. Laid out some more background on Nissa and am looking for suggestions.

I like the power level of the deck, mate. I have qualms about including Triumph of the Hordes myself (will probably substitute with Stampede if I build something like this for noobies or my girlfriend).

But I count 102 cards, by the way.

Triumph of the Hordes pushes the limit of fairness and was in there when the deck was real bad. Now that the rest of the deck improved it probably doesn't need this cheat-to-win card.

102 is close enough for our group.

fun story. Braids and Nissa were in a game and Braids was taking over and was able to octo-lock Nissa with a Lorthos + Haste and a couple Tidal Force. Piloting Braids i was feeling pretty good with the octo-lock in place and even a counterspell backup. Disaster struck when Nissa dropped Great Oak Guardian, untapped his team and overran me FTW. Lesson learned... never underestimate a treefolk.

Quote from Deep_Woods »

Triumph of the Hordes pushes the limit of fairness and was in there when the deck was real bad. Now that the rest of the deck improved it probably doesn't need this cheat-to-win card.

102 is close enough for our group.

fun story. Braids and Nissa were in a game and Braids was taking over and was able to octo-lock Nissa with a Lorthos + Haste and a couple Tidal Force. Piloting Braids i was feeling pretty good with the octo-lock in place and even a counterspell backup. Disaster struck when Nissa dropped Great Oak Guardian, untapped his team and overran me FTW. Lesson learned... never underestimate a treefolk.

Nicely done, I'd say. I'd been gradually gathering the pieces for a Polukranos deck that's been sitting in my build queue, but this style of Nissa sounds more fun.

You run dungrove elder and kalonian twingrove. why not complete the treefolk forest loving trio and run dauntless dourbark? He doesn't bring a buddy or is hexproof but damned if he isn't the only one with evasion and he can be the biggest among them since he also counts other treefolk.

This one is more of a niche play, but if you see any mass land destruction in your meta, timber protector might be worth a slot.

Big update with commander 2016 and conspiracy cards. Trying out the Monarch guy. Also some oldies but goodies like Berserk and Sylvan Library are added to the mix. Library is espcially good with the commander.

Hey, loving the deck right now, I'm playing a variant of it and it's great. I made a few changes that I think benefit the deck and may be worth trying to fit in.
Green sun's zenith and Dryad Arbor are great together and they let you turn 1 ramp, which is pretty great, and Green sun's zenith is great when you start getting up in mana production so you can start pulling threats right out of the deck.
Soul of the harvest is a straight upgrade to Primordial sage.
I've been liking Kamahl, fist of krosa as protection against board wipes, because you can just animate everybody's lands and set them all back, and he's an extra overrun effect
Tireless tracker has been putting in some work as an extra threat and gives some good card draw, even if the deck doesn't need it much
Courser of Kruphix is also a nice one to have, as it helps with passively gaining life and setting up draws

Might I suggest Skyshroud Claim?

Also, your sig appears to be messed up.

Yah cant seem ti figure out how to fix my sig. I put some lines in to space which messed it up. When i removed the stuff i added it was still broke.

Anyway good suggestions, claim will go in when i find one. Tracker and krufix are others i have had an eye on. The zenith arbor combo im not a fan but zenith is good for sure.