In order to get any decent early game at all, you pretty much have to play black as a main color. Or blue, but that color doesn't look very enticing as a whole. The pool also is seriously lacking in evasion in general. If you don't go blue, you have to use white for evasion. Starting with W/B seems like a good idea, though neither color has something big for the late game. But you get the majority of removal in those two colors. You have a lot of equipment, that can empower your early creatures and the combined cost of casting and equipping falls nicely into mana curve. Three Adamant Wills are also a nice suite of combat tricks. You could splash red for Garna, which by itself can act as more removal due to flash, and combines nicely with Whisper. Plus, you have two of them. Or splash blue for the Sphinx and Arcane Flight to get more evasion.
I thought about going green and ramping out those Verdant Forces, an aproach for which you definitely have the tools. But B/G has too big a hole in the middle of the mana curve for me. You also lose what little evasion you have available, unless yo splash white or blue. Furthermore, cramming in those ramp cards takes up a lot of card slots, and you get mostly just vanilla fatties out of them. An early 7/7 will just eat removal, and when it comes down later, there's not much time to create a lot of saprolings with it. The game will already be closing and the damage will come mostly in the air.
Here's my W/B build. I left out Whiper, because there aren't that many creatures I'd want to sacrifice here. They are pretty much everything available. The Lances were competing with the Wills, and I went with two of each, but I'd sideboard one for the other depending on the opponent. They also work well in tandem, but the other 5 "Other" cards are a must have for me, and I need the creatures more than a third copy of either. Still wondering wether splashing blue for the Sphinx is worth it. Overall, I wouldn't expect this deck to do overly well in an event, but shouldn't do terrible either.
I find this format rewards Greed, so I would just play the Go Wide ramp deck. Shalai is also so much stronger when you have green ramp as a main color. It just wins games. If you face a bad matchup (fast deck or deck with a lot of answers to your bombs), then do a transformational sideboard to the BW aggro deck in game 2.
With 1 card that ramps you from 5 to 7 and another that ramps you from 5 to 8, it's not unreasonable to get Verdant Force out. Sure, it might eat removal, but any bomb risks that. You also have 2 sources of recursion and 1 way to give it hexproof. With no 6s or 7s, the deck doesn't have an unreasonable number of expensive cards.
With 2 equipment, kicker costs, Slimefoot and Shalai, Gilded Lotus should be good even when you're not ramping out bombs. I find decks like this are very mana hungry.
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Call the Cavalry
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Invoke the Divine
1 Dub
1 D'Avenant Trapper
1 Triumph of Gerrard
1 Seal Away
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Gideon's Reproach
3 Adamant Will
1 Tragic Poet
1 Healing Grace
Blue
1 Syncopate
1 Weight of Memory
1 Cloudreader Sphinx
1 Homarid Explorer
1 Deep Freeze
2 Relic Runner
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Rescue
1 Opt
2 Artificer's Assistant
1 Arcane Flight
1 Blessing of Belzenlok
2 Demonic Vigor
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Knight of Malice
1 Rat Colony
1 Vicious Offering
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 The Eldest Reborn
2 Drudge Sentinel
1 Cabal Paladin
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Settle the Score
Red
2 Fervent Strike
1 Run Amok
1 Keldon Overseer
1 Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
1 Goblin Warchief
1 Radiating Lightning
1 Rampaging Cyclops
2 Keldon Raider
1 Fire Elemental
Green
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Broken Bond
2 Pierce the Sky
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Gaea's Protector
1 Spore Swarm
1 Mammoth Spider
1 Baloth Gorger
2 Verdant Force
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Arvad the Cursed
2 Garna, the Bloodflame
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Colorless and Land
1 Memorial to Glory
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Memorial to War
1 Zhalfirin Void
3 Jousting Lance
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Powerstone Shard
1 Juggernaut
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Gilded Lotus
A few decks I made so far
1 Seal Away
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Gideon's Reproach
1 Triumph of Gerrard
1 D'Avenant Trapper
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Call the Cavalry
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Spore Swarm
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Verdant Force
1 Vicious Offering
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Knight of Malice
1 Jousting Lance
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 The Eldest Reborn
5 Plains
5 Swamp
6 Forest
1 Keldon Overseer
1 Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
1 Radiating Lightning
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Knight of Malice
1 Vicious Offering
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Drudge Sentinel
1 Forebear's Blade
7 Mountain
1 Settle the Score
9 Swamp
2 Jousting Lance
1 Rat Colony
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Cabal Paladin
1 Fire Elemental
2 Demonic Vigor
1 Keldon Raider
1 Blessing of Belzenlok
I thought about going green and ramping out those Verdant Forces, an aproach for which you definitely have the tools. But B/G has too big a hole in the middle of the mana curve for me. You also lose what little evasion you have available, unless yo splash white or blue. Furthermore, cramming in those ramp cards takes up a lot of card slots, and you get mostly just vanilla fatties out of them. An early 7/7 will just eat removal, and when it comes down later, there's not much time to create a lot of saprolings with it. The game will already be closing and the damage will come mostly in the air.
Here's my W/B build. I left out Whiper, because there aren't that many creatures I'd want to sacrifice here. They are pretty much everything available. The Lances were competing with the Wills, and I went with two of each, but I'd sideboard one for the other depending on the opponent. They also work well in tandem, but the other 5 "Other" cards are a must have for me, and I need the creatures more than a third copy of either. Still wondering wether splashing blue for the Sphinx is worth it. Overall, I wouldn't expect this deck to do overly well in an event, but shouldn't do terrible either.
6 Plains
8 Swamp
1 Zhalfirin Void
1 Memorial to Glory
Creatures (15)
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Knight of Malice
1 Rat Colony
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Pegasus Courser
1 D'Avenant Trapper
1 Deathbloom Thallid
2 Drudge Sentinel
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Call the Cavalry
1 Juggernaut
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Arvad the Cursed
2 Jousting Lance
1 Vicious Offering
1 Seal Away
1 Gideon's Reproach
2 Adamant Will
1 Forbear's Blade
1 Settle the Score
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Knight of Malice
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Spore Swarm
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Mammoth Spider
1 Arvad the Cursed
2 Verdant Force
1 Vicious Offering
1 Seal Away
1 Jousting Lance
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Settle the Score
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Gilded Lotus
//Lands: 17
1 Memorial to Glory
2 Plains
7 Forest
7 Swamp
1 Broken Bond
2 Pierce the Sky
1 Invoke the Divine
1 Gaea's Protector
1 Rat Colony
Curve:
1 - c
2 - ccsss
3 - ccccss
4 - ccccs
5 - ccss
6 -
7 -
8 - cc
With 1 card that ramps you from 5 to 7 and another that ramps you from 5 to 8, it's not unreasonable to get Verdant Force out. Sure, it might eat removal, but any bomb risks that. You also have 2 sources of recursion and 1 way to give it hexproof. With no 6s or 7s, the deck doesn't have an unreasonable number of expensive cards.
With 2 equipment, kicker costs, Slimefoot and Shalai, Gilded Lotus should be good even when you're not ramping out bombs. I find decks like this are very mana hungry.