MTG Salvation

The gro archetype for reference:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/strategy/sb20020124b

I've never really given this archetype much time as I dismissed it as having a far too shallow pool of "growers"

Then I came across this modern deck:



The delve creatures function very similarly to quirion dryad. If we move away from using threshold creatures as the growers, then maybe there's something there? We already have all of the good spells to support a gro archetype.




I suppose what makes this different from a traditional tempo deck is size of the creatures and the higher spell:creature ratio.

Misc cards that could be interesting in the archetype:



Alongside the standard tempo support like cheap/free countermagic (Daze, Force of Will), cheap removal/bounce, flash creatures, etc.

I wonder if Marang River Prowler would work alongside Moldervine Cloak or if it'd be too slow?

Are there any other creatures I'm overlooking? General thoughts?

When I've thought about trying to support gro as a peasant archetype, I've been thinking about it more as an aggro / control deck that lays a cheap threat and then answers the opponents threats. There are cards that grow if you want to specifically push the archetype, but most of them are unplayable unless you have a really slow cube. Chronomaton and Cenn's Tactician are probably the best because of their cheap cost and activation, but there is little that grows while still being able to be on the offense.

But I can see the delve creatures kind of filling that spot, by being able to play them for 1 or 2 mana while still having mana up to control the game. I'm dubious about the consistency as a tempo deck though.

Seeing the prowess guys in your list made me think about the Izzet spells matters creatures, so you could have some crossover there.

Here is a list I put together earlier that focuses on the growth cards (including the bad ones).

Cheap Growth Cards

• 1 Cenn’s Tactician
  
• 1 Chronomaton
  
• 1 Disowned Ancestor
  
• 1 Forced Adaptation
  
• 1 Predatory Hunger
  
• 1 Sadistic Glee
  
• 2 Wight of Precinct Six

More expensive growth cards

• 3 Abzan Falconer
  
• 3 Tuskguard Captain
  
• 3 Rockslide Elemental
  
• 4 Algae Gharial
  
• 4 Lumberknot

Lumberknot was in the very first iteration of my cube. It did fairly well, but green four drops are super competitive. It does seem like it could be an all star in some sort of G/B removal heavy deck, but that feels a little too niche.

The problem with low creature/high spell decks is that they want a bunch of good cantrips and enough synergistic creatures, and I think Peasant Singleton is drastically short on both.

Now, if you sleeve up 4 Ponder, 4 Brainstorm, and 20 ZEN/ONS fetchlands for your cube? That would be a different story.

Quirion Dryad at uncommon would be awesome, though I don't see it happening anytime soon.

i totally think it could be an uncommon, and would definitely cube it if it was.

It's more a question of whether or not wizards will ever print it as an uncommon. I suppose modern masters 3 could be an opportunity, or maybe if there's ever a legacy masters online. In those cases I'm not sure if would fit the limited environment, though from what I remember from M13 draft, it was pretty solid in any green deck with enough nongreen spells, but not solid enough to really feel like a rare.

A good gro creature would be lorescale coatl.

I was running prowess creatures for "gro" archetype. I would also consider Young Pyromancer as gro, in a horizontal way.