The set has just been fully spoiled, so let's unpack it! To be fair, I really didn't expect a ton of value from Ravnica, considering the guild setup. Nonetheless, there's value in digging through every set, so I'll run through some considerations for the deck and see what comes up.
Green: Affectionate Indrik - I...actually kinda like this. It's a mini Polukranos, World Eater, and there's plenty of targets things it could fight for value, especially if I can make it be bigger, recur it, or recur its ability. The CMC is higher than I'd like to see, but it's not without its charms. I may look at where I could squeeze it in. Beast Whisperer - This is decent. It competes for a slot with Soul of the Harvest, and it's a dead heat. Lower CMC, but no evasion. Decent stats, but only draws on cast. Not a 'may' ability, but because its only on cast the chances of decking myself are very, very slim. If this is reasonably priced, I'll likely pick up a copy and see how it plays out. Plus its an elf, so Wirewood Symbiote can protect it. Generous Stray - As a cat lover and owner, I can confirm that the flavour here is so, so good. Elvish Visionary 2.0, it's probably not quite as good as Skyscanner from M19, which I haven't tried out yet either. It's a consideration, but not a shoe in. Pelt Collector - I can see this guy getting big quickly. My creatures die, they bounce, they get cast (obviously), and a reasonable amount of them are bigger than this guy. Synergy with Panharmonicon, too. I may well try him out. Impervious Greatwurm - He's big, he's stompy, he can be cast cheap. Classic green rare monster. I'm not really interested. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is my current beater, and he is often considerably bigger than this guy. Plus, the chances of me buying a box is pretty rare.
Artifacts/Colorless/Lands:
It really is slim pickings here. There are probably only 2 artifacts that could be considered here, and neither is of any value to us. Silent Dart and Wand of Vertebrae are not for us. It's great for other decks to see shocks printed again, but we're really not interested, obviously.
So, all in all, a predictably small pile I'd like to playtest. Which my wallet is really happy about.
I pretty much only considered Beast Whisperer. I like that he's cheaper, and the 'cast' only doesn't really bother me much. I mostly cast my creatures anyways. A few things would put them into play, but the lower cmc on whisperer would justify playing him over the soul. Well, maybe I should play both for redundancy.
Pelt Collector seems like a limited vaniilla creature to me. He just grows until a certain point, and does nothing besides that. I wouldn't consider him the least.
I get what you are saying about the indrik, but man is that a steep cost. Maybe if it was lower p/t with deathtouch and cost 4, I'd play it. But for 6, nah.
I thought Indrik was 5. Well, I should read cards properly. At 5 it was a maybe, at 6 a no. Beast Whisperer I’ll definitely try, probably in place of Soul. I’ve found myself deterred by the CMC too often lately.
Pelt Collector probably does have an upper limit for growth that isn’t fantastic. To be honest I was more just interested in it for its CMC. Early game I can see it being great. Later on maybe not. Entirely possible I’ve overestimated it.
You're probably right. There's not much room in the list for vanilla at any rate, and I have my fair share of beaters, so it's probably not necessary, even early game.
I've been playing around with some changes recently. Just trying to iron out some issues I've found with the deck in terms of speed and efficiency. Here's what I've come up with recently:
In: Beast Whisperer - Lower CMC Soul of the Harvest. It doesn't trigger for tokens, but it's proved to be beneficial early game, and earlier than Soul could hit the board. Garruk Wildspeaker - The OG green planeswalker. Very strong first ability, very strong ultimate. All are relevant, and he's cheap to cast.
Out: Soul of the Harvest - The CMC is what got me. If I could have the exact same ability on a smaller creature with a smaller CMC, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Triumph of the Hordes - No one is questioning how strong this is, I've had some negative comments about it though. Infect is not popular, so Garruk is going to help me out. Instead of being a dedicated win con, Garruk is more versatile anyway.
I've been really pleased with some of the other adds recently. Burgeoning has been decent value throughout different stages of the game, and the budget fetches are absolute fire. Swiftfoot Boots has been good where it's needed, but it hasn't been needed all that often.
I had a StriRes spare, and it's a versatile tool. The extra land per turn is a little conditional, and I've found it a little underwhelming. Hopefully this change is valuable.
So these should be good upgrades. I like being able to find specifically any land I like, and Dryad Arbor should be versatile. Loaming Shaman has been good but corner tech, so I think this is likely to be a power upgrade.
Out: Temple of the False God
In all honesty, Temple is too conditional not to a terrible choice. Ghost Town is old school Tempest secret tech for landfall triggers and Nissa flips. Plus, if I have Burgeoning out I get more triggers, and makes Nissa, Vital Force's emblem a bit more saucy too.
In all seriousness, I know you probably get this a lot, but I really need to ask: no Avenger of Zendikar/Craterhoof Behemoth? The former is always useful in a Landfall deck, and the latter can outright close games. I'm really curious as to why you haven't considered them (but I didn't read all 6 pages of this topic, so apologies if you had already replied to this).
Ha!!
No, that's fine, it's a lot to read through. As far as Avengerhoof goes, I mean yeah it's an option. I kind of wanted to go off the beaten track in this build, and Avengerhoof's been done - to the point of rendering groans and eye rolls these days, mostly. Neither really fits perfectly on its own, and if they have to come as a pair I don't really want them. I've been asked about Craterhoof before, but considering this deck doesn't swarm a ton it doesn't particularly fit great. Pathbreaker Ibex has been pretty awesome for sweeping in really.
So yeah, we're now in territory I've covered in the last 6 pages. No Vigor, but I have run Archetype of Endurance and Asceticism here before. Archetype was superior in terms of giving removal options to me too, but both sort of proved unnecessary. If I were to add one of the two back, it'd likely be Archetype. Vigor seems a little conditional - it protects in combat, but not from removal, and often I have key pieces to protect moreso than watching out for full baord sweeps(I'm looking at you, Multani).
So yeah, to be fair there are probably more exclamation marks in the above line than a mono coloured primer should have. The Guilds alignment of Ravnica sets mean there's little fodder for us, but nonetheless, it's worth going over at least some of the relevant releases:
Biogenic Ooze - Creates a swarm. It's mana intensive and slow, so I'm not sold on it. It's no Avenger of Zendikar, and I don't even run that.
End-Raze Forerunners - I like this. It's a finisher. Would make a great stand in for Pathbreaker Ibex, and has an eminently abusable trigger. I may well try to make some space to try this out.
Guardian Project - Another creature ETB draw variant, I did consider this. Obviously it triggers every time for our format, but I'd definitely prefer it on a body.
Incubation Druid - A conditional mana dork that I'm really not interested in.
Rampage of the Clans - It's instant, it's well costed, and I love the flavour. It doesn't have quite the game turning impact that Wave of Vitriol does, but it's a neat trick. Holding off on this for now, but will consider it as a possibility for the future.
Regenesis - For this price, I get Nissa, Vital Force who can grab a permanent back and possibly give me an emblem. If I were considering running this, I'd still prefer Regrowth.
Silhana Wayfinder, Sylvan Brushstrider, Territorial Boar - these are all in the same boat - I consider them because they have ETB abilities, but none of the abilities are strong enough to warrant further consideration.
Wilderness Reclamation - I kind of like this. I think it's a bit conditional to be a solid shoe in, but there's a case for it in enabling me to get the most out of Temur Sabertooth, Winding Canyons, Constant Mists and so forth, while still getting the most out of my turn.
Artifacts/Lands
.....crickets.......
There really isn't anything in either of these categories I'd consider even for a second. Shocks are nice elsewhere but obviously unnecessary here, and everything else in lands seems to work around gates. The artifacts seem to be focused on making multicolored spells more feasible, which leaves me with nothing to mention here.
My quickest win to date with any deck, which is cool considering I try to avoid combo. I felt like a jerk dominating the game so early, but all the pieces came together perfectly, and I had plenty of gas in hand too - I cast Brutalizer Exarch to fetch Rampaging Baloths with a Collective Voyage in hand and there was literally no board presence.
Safe to say the deck is playing out well at the moment
Noice! I often forget that the Shaman has Biorhythm stapled onto it.
Yeah, I try not to use it that way a lot of the time, people get a little salty about it. But I couldn't help it, it was just a magical christmas land hand, and who am I to stand in the way of fate?
The Shaman is properly my main wincon in my Yeva, Nature's Herald. Flash it in eot, and ready for activation on my turn is pretty sursprising most of the times. I often have more creatures then the rest of the table, even though I'm just trying to do some durdling control.
And btw, nice win HAvn't been able to do such a quick win - yet
The Shaman is properly my main wincon in my Yeva, Nature's Herald. Flash it in eot, and ready for activation on my turn is pretty sursprising most of the times. I often have more creatures then the rest of the table, even though I'm just trying to do some durdling control.
And btw, nice win HAvn't been able to do such a quick win - yet
Thanks roger!
It is a really strong card. Even if it doesn't end the game on the spot it's usually a huge life loss for at least one person at the table. I try to use it sparingly, simply because it can be frowned upon, but this just came together perfectly. I couldn't not.
My next goal for the deck is to (somehow) commander damage with Nissa. Haven't quite figured it out yet, but there's bound to be some janky way to make it happen. Pathbreaker Ibex, Rogue's Passage, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar with a ton of lands already in play or something? Time will tell.
Deck is playing really nicely. The etb toolbox is still pretty predominant in themes for the deck, and it's playing pretty nicely. Other than a couple of upgrades it's pretty well been stable for a little while now (mostly because there really haven't too many immediate shoe ins in the new release department).
Thank you sir! My computer can finally log on to mtgsalvation again. Now, I have a question:
You're etb tribal (mostly), you have panharmonicon, but you aren't running bramble sovereign? I got a copy for my yeva deck and it's been bonkers. Granted, my yeva goes higher quicker I think (very few spells and I spiral out insanely quickly on my opponents turns). In addition, it is quite tutorable whereas strionic resonator is not.
Thank you sir! My computer can finally log on to mtgsalvation again. Now, I have a question:
You're etb tribal (mostly), you have panharmonicon, but you aren't running bramble sovereign? I got a copy for my yeva deck and it's been bonkers. Granted, my yeva goes higher quicker I think (very few spells and I spiral out insanely quickly on my opponents turns). In addition, it is quite tutorable whereas strionic resonator is not.
Yes, I had looked into Bramble Sovereign, and even playtested it online at one point. I think this was a little while ago, as I found it very mana-hungry. I think with the ramp game being a little more on point now than it has been it would be more doable. I think I was a little put off by prices too, but I could totally see adding it.
That being said, Stri hits some triggers that Sovereign can't, like landfall triggers, Pathbreaker Ibex and such. I guess the goat trigger is a bit overkill, and landfall triggers aren't the be all and end all, so it's pretty corner tech here. Besides which, more creatures = more gooder. Especially for Shamanic Revelation and Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun. And yes, being tutorable makes it a really great addition. Pretty sure I can justify the expense at some point.
edit: I'm fairly certain I could even manage to get Baru, Fist of Krosa's grandeur trigger out of it with a bit of finagling.
It was a bit of an underwhelming game for Galina and Oloro who didn't hit land drops and were feeling a bit bummed by Yuriko's savage flips. I didn't hit a ton of land either, everything just came together well for a really early advantage. I could've hit more with Wirewood/Nissa, but I didn't want her to flip, otherwise I'd lose ferocious and hideaway.
Started badly with mulling down to 4 to hit land drops. I got locked out of the first 8-10 turns with just a Mirage Mirror in play by Hokori, Dust Drinker, Norn's Annex and Iona, Shield of Emeria at various points. Windgrace finally lands a Savage Twister for 2 prior to Iona dropping to kill Hokori, then next turn cycle casts Necromantic Selection, choosing Iona with Blue as her colour. My next turn I play Karametra's Acolyte and Nacatl War-Pride, pass turn. GAAIV passes after a land drop, then Windgrace plays Sylvan Awakening for 13 lands, swinging at me for 26. I block 2, take 22 down to 14, pass turn to me. I copy War-Pride with Mirage Mirror, swing with both at Windgrace, creating 26 tokens to alpha strike him for 84. Second main, I tap Karametra's Acolyte for 84 G, cast Regal Force to draw 27, then land Glacial Chasm and cast Squall Line for 70, leaving 12 floating. Squall line gets countered, so I cast Bramble Sovereign, cast Rampaging Baloths and copy it, discarding 12 lands and sundry to 7. GAAAIV casts two clones, one of Acolyte and one of Regal, hoping to draw into an answer. Finds nothing, passes. I cast Wave of Vitriol, sac 5 nonbasics for 10 beasts, then cast Splendid Reclamation. Augustin concedes.
Funny game in that it went literally from 0-100 for me very, very quickly. It helped getting a magical christmas land hand for explosive plays, so that's probably why. In hindsight though, I could have spent a lot less on Squall Line and not had to pass turn at all - I could've ended the turn with 2 Rampaging Baloths, a Bramble Sovereign, 40 odd 3/3 beasts, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, then swung in for uber-damage win the next turn. I think Augustin would've swept to see it either way, but it's still nice to conceive of this sort of stupendous overkill win actually happening.
I take it the Bramble Sovereign has been a beautiful addition then? That also mirrors some of my shenanigans with nacatl war pride. Those two cards are beautiful!
Yeah, it's solid. This was an online game, just playtesting the Sovereign in the current build. It fits really nicely. Even just for getting chump blockers on field and additional ramp from Wood Elves et al, it's a decent addition. Gonna have to pick one up now.
At present the only other thing I'm looking for replacements for is Boundless Realms. It's....ok, but it's no Collective Voyage. The CMC is steep. I've been looking at Traverse the Outlands but it seems a bit win more.
The set has just been fully spoiled, so let's unpack it! To be fair, I really didn't expect a ton of value from Ravnica, considering the guild setup. Nonetheless, there's value in digging through every set, so I'll run through some considerations for the deck and see what comes up.
Green:
Affectionate Indrik - I...actually kinda like this. It's a mini Polukranos, World Eater, and there's plenty of targets things it could fight for value, especially if I can make it be bigger, recur it, or recur its ability. The CMC is higher than I'd like to see, but it's not without its charms. I may look at where I could squeeze it in.
Beast Whisperer - This is decent. It competes for a slot with Soul of the Harvest, and it's a dead heat. Lower CMC, but no evasion. Decent stats, but only draws on cast. Not a 'may' ability, but because its only on cast the chances of decking myself are very, very slim. If this is reasonably priced, I'll likely pick up a copy and see how it plays out. Plus its an elf, so Wirewood Symbiote can protect it.
Generous Stray - As a cat lover and owner, I can confirm that the flavour here is so, so good. Elvish Visionary 2.0, it's probably not quite as good as Skyscanner from M19, which I haven't tried out yet either. It's a consideration, but not a shoe in.
Pelt Collector - I can see this guy getting big quickly. My creatures die, they bounce, they get cast (obviously), and a reasonable amount of them are bigger than this guy. Synergy with Panharmonicon, too. I may well try him out.
Impervious Greatwurm - He's big, he's stompy, he can be cast cheap. Classic green rare monster. I'm not really interested. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar is my current beater, and he is often considerably bigger than this guy. Plus, the chances of me buying a box is pretty rare.
Artifacts/Colorless/Lands:
It really is slim pickings here. There are probably only 2 artifacts that could be considered here, and neither is of any value to us. Silent Dart and Wand of Vertebrae are not for us. It's great for other decks to see shocks printed again, but we're really not interested, obviously.
So, all in all, a predictably small pile I'd like to playtest. Which my wallet is really happy about.
Pelt Collector seems like a limited vaniilla creature to me. He just grows until a certain point, and does nothing besides that. I wouldn't consider him the least.
I get what you are saying about the indrik, but man is that a steep cost. Maybe if it was lower p/t with deathtouch and cost 4, I'd play it. But for 6, nah.
Pelt Collector probably does have an upper limit for growth that isn’t fantastic. To be honest I was more just interested in it for its CMC. Early game I can see it being great. Later on maybe not. Entirely possible I’ve overestimated it.
In:
Beast Whisperer - Lower CMC Soul of the Harvest. It doesn't trigger for tokens, but it's proved to be beneficial early game, and earlier than Soul could hit the board.
Garruk Wildspeaker - The OG green planeswalker. Very strong first ability, very strong ultimate. All are relevant, and he's cheap to cast.
Out:
Soul of the Harvest - The CMC is what got me. If I could have the exact same ability on a smaller creature with a smaller CMC, I'd take it in a heartbeat.
Triumph of the Hordes - No one is questioning how strong this is, I've had some negative comments about it though. Infect is not popular, so Garruk is going to help me out. Instead of being a dedicated win con, Garruk is more versatile anyway.
I've been really pleased with some of the other adds recently. Burgeoning has been decent value throughout different stages of the game, and the budget fetches are absolute fire. Swiftfoot Boots has been good where it's needed, but it hasn't been needed all that often.
In:
Strionic Resonator
Out:
Gaea's Touch
I had a StriRes spare, and it's a versatile tool. The extra land per turn is a little conditional, and I've found it a little underwhelming. Hopefully this change is valuable.
In:
Scapeshift
Dryad Arbor
Out:
Loaming Shaman
Forest
So these should be good upgrades. I like being able to find specifically any land I like, and Dryad Arbor should be versatile. Loaming Shaman has been good but corner tech, so I think this is likely to be a power upgrade.
In:
Ghost Town
Out:
Temple of the False God
In all honesty, Temple is too conditional not to a terrible choice. Ghost Town is old school Tempest secret tech for landfall triggers and Nissa flips. Plus, if I have Burgeoning out I get more triggers, and makes Nissa, Vital Force's emblem a bit more saucy too.
Ha!!
No, that's fine, it's a lot to read through. As far as Avengerhoof goes, I mean yeah it's an option. I kind of wanted to go off the beaten track in this build, and Avengerhoof's been done - to the point of rendering groans and eye rolls these days, mostly. Neither really fits perfectly on its own, and if they have to come as a pair I don't really want them. I've been asked about Craterhoof before, but considering this deck doesn't swarm a ton it doesn't particularly fit great. Pathbreaker Ibex has been pretty awesome for sweeping in really.
So yeah, we're now in territory I've covered in the last 6 pages. No Vigor, but I have run Archetype of Endurance and Asceticism here before. Archetype was superior in terms of giving removal options to me too, but both sort of proved unnecessary. If I were to add one of the two back, it'd likely be Archetype. Vigor seems a little conditional - it protects in combat, but not from removal, and often I have key pieces to protect moreso than watching out for full baord sweeps(I'm looking at you, Multani).
So yeah, to be fair there are probably more exclamation marks in the above line than a mono coloured primer should have. The Guilds alignment of Ravnica sets mean there's little fodder for us, but nonetheless, it's worth going over at least some of the relevant releases:
Artifacts/Lands
.....crickets.......
There really isn't anything in either of these categories I'd consider even for a second. Shocks are nice elsewhere but obviously unnecessary here, and everything else in lands seems to work around gates. The artifacts seem to be focused on making multicolored spells more feasible, which leaves me with nothing to mention here.
Playing against Emmara, Soul of the Accord, Experiment Kraj and Intet, the Dreamer.
T1 - Burgeoning with 4 lands in hand - 2 forests, Warped Landscape and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Additionally, Green Sun's Zenith and Wood Elves. Play Forest, Burgeoning, pass turn, 3 land drops for the turn cycle and sac Landscape end of last player's turn for 4 total lands.
T2 - Draw Growing Rites of Itlimoc. Cast Wood Elves, then Zenith finding Wirewood Symbiote, end of turn cycle bouncing elves. 5 lands in play.
T3 - Draw Shaman of Forgotten Ways. Cast Elves again for 6 lands, cast Nissa fetching a forest and drop to play to flip Nissa. +1 for another land, making 8. Cast Shaman. End of turn cycle bounce Elves again.
T4 - Draw Splendid Reclamation, and Collective Voyage from Nissa. Cast Itlimoc, revealing Brutalizer Exarch as the only creature. Cast Elves again. -2 Nissa to create Ashaya, the Awoken World, flipping to Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun. Cast Shaman of Forgotten Ways.
T5 - By this point, one player has 2 creatures in play, other 2 players have nothing and have been busy ramping. Activate formidable trigger on Shaman of Forgotten Ways, table sweeps.
My quickest win to date with any deck, which is cool considering I try to avoid combo. I felt like a jerk dominating the game so early, but all the pieces came together perfectly, and I had plenty of gas in hand too - I cast Brutalizer Exarch to fetch Rampaging Baloths with a Collective Voyage in hand and there was literally no board presence.
Safe to say the deck is playing out well at the moment
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Yeah, I try not to use it that way a lot of the time, people get a little salty about it. But I couldn't help it, it was just a magical christmas land hand, and who am I to stand in the way of fate?
And btw, nice win HAvn't been able to do such a quick win - yet
Thanks roger!
It is a really strong card. Even if it doesn't end the game on the spot it's usually a huge life loss for at least one person at the table. I try to use it sparingly, simply because it can be frowned upon, but this just came together perfectly. I couldn't not.
My next goal for the deck is to (somehow) commander damage with Nissa. Haven't quite figured it out yet, but there's bound to be some janky way to make it happen. Pathbreaker Ibex, Rogue's Passage, Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar with a ton of lands already in play or something? Time will tell.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Deck is playing really nicely. The etb toolbox is still pretty predominant in themes for the deck, and it's playing pretty nicely. Other than a couple of upgrades it's pretty well been stable for a little while now (mostly because there really haven't too many immediate shoe ins in the new release department).
You're etb tribal (mostly), you have panharmonicon, but you aren't running bramble sovereign? I got a copy for my yeva deck and it's been bonkers. Granted, my yeva goes higher quicker I think (very few spells and I spiral out insanely quickly on my opponents turns). In addition, it is quite tutorable whereas strionic resonator is not.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
Yes, I had looked into Bramble Sovereign, and even playtested it online at one point. I think this was a little while ago, as I found it very mana-hungry. I think with the ramp game being a little more on point now than it has been it would be more doable. I think I was a little put off by prices too, but I could totally see adding it.
That being said, Stri hits some triggers that Sovereign can't, like landfall triggers, Pathbreaker Ibex and such. I guess the goat trigger is a bit overkill, and landfall triggers aren't the be all and end all, so it's pretty corner tech here. Besides which, more creatures = more gooder. Especially for Shamanic Revelation and Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun. And yes, being tutorable makes it a really great addition. Pretty sure I can justify the expense at some point.
edit: I'm fairly certain I could even manage to get Baru, Fist of Krosa's grandeur trigger out of it with a bit of finagling.
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
Empress Galina
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
and me
T1 Mosswort Bridge hiding away Emrakul, the Promised End
T2 Forest, Play Swiftfoot Boots
T3 Forest, Play Shaman of Forgotten Ways
T4 equip Shaman, tap for GG, cast Nissa and Wirewood Symbiote
T5 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx with 3 devotion, cast Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (now have Shaman's ability online)
T6 Forest, play Eternal Witness to give Nykthos 7 devotion, tap Forest to use hideaway and bring Emrakul into play. Everyone immediately sweeps.
It was a bit of an underwhelming game for Galina and Oloro who didn't hit land drops and were feeling a bit bummed by Yuriko's savage flips. I didn't hit a ton of land either, everything just came together well for a really early advantage. I could've hit more with Wirewood/Nissa, but I didn't want her to flip, otherwise I'd lose ferocious and hideaway.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer vs Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Lord Windgrace
Started badly with mulling down to 4 to hit land drops. I got locked out of the first 8-10 turns with just a Mirage Mirror in play by Hokori, Dust Drinker, Norn's Annex and Iona, Shield of Emeria at various points. Windgrace finally lands a Savage Twister for 2 prior to Iona dropping to kill Hokori, then next turn cycle casts Necromantic Selection, choosing Iona with Blue as her colour. My next turn I play Karametra's Acolyte and Nacatl War-Pride, pass turn. GAAIV passes after a land drop, then Windgrace plays Sylvan Awakening for 13 lands, swinging at me for 26. I block 2, take 22 down to 14, pass turn to me. I copy War-Pride with Mirage Mirror, swing with both at Windgrace, creating 26 tokens to alpha strike him for 84. Second main, I tap Karametra's Acolyte for 84 G, cast Regal Force to draw 27, then land Glacial Chasm and cast Squall Line for 70, leaving 12 floating. Squall line gets countered, so I cast Bramble Sovereign, cast Rampaging Baloths and copy it, discarding 12 lands and sundry to 7. GAAAIV casts two clones, one of Acolyte and one of Regal, hoping to draw into an answer. Finds nothing, passes. I cast Wave of Vitriol, sac 5 nonbasics for 10 beasts, then cast Splendid Reclamation. Augustin concedes.
Funny game in that it went literally from 0-100 for me very, very quickly. It helped getting a magical christmas land hand for explosive plays, so that's probably why. In hindsight though, I could have spent a lot less on Squall Line and not had to pass turn at all - I could've ended the turn with 2 Rampaging Baloths, a Bramble Sovereign, 40 odd 3/3 beasts, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, then swung in for uber-damage win the next turn. I think Augustin would've swept to see it either way, but it's still nice to conceive of this sort of stupendous overkill win actually happening.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
At present the only other thing I'm looking for replacements for is Boundless Realms. It's....ok, but it's no Collective Voyage. The CMC is steep. I've been looking at Traverse the Outlands but it seems a bit win more.