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[Primer] Karametra's Short-Term Memory | V-OJT

Commander / EDH Combo GW (Selesnya) Landfall Primer Ramp Storm Tokens Value Engine

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Lands (35)

Ramp (9)

Landfall (5)

Tokens (5)

Buff (2)

Interaction (19)

Tutors (12)

Protection (7)

Reduce Cost (5)

Recursion (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Karametra, God of Harvests

Draw (12)

Stormy (10)

Engine (5)

Mana Sink (5)

Doublers (1)

Maybeboard

Interaction (15)

Tutors (11)

Land (7)

Mana Sink (7)

Recursion (7)

Tokens (13)

Stormy (12)

Landfall (8)

Other (7)

Reduce Cost (5)

Engine (1)

Buff (12)

Draw (12)

Protection (10)

Ramp (7)

Doublers (3)

Lands (1)

A primer for a delicious triggerfest that Karametra will surely forget...

Karametra: "Wow! You have cast a Whitemane Lion! Amazing!! I will reward you with a land of your choice!"

Doctor: "She doesn't seem to remember you have cast Whitemane Lion three times already. I'm sorry to say she seems to have a short term memory problem... Do you still have mana open? Try it again"

Karametra: "Wow! You have cast a Whitemane Lion! That's amazing!! Here is a land as a reward..."

enter image description here

Hello, and welcome to my Karametra, God of Harvests build,

Upvote & Support This Primer!

Origin

After several failed attempts of trying to squeeze Karametra into an existing deck, it became clear that she deserved a deck of her own. I ended up using a lot of cards I already had lying around. It feels great to put these cards to good use :).

Game Plan

This is a gimmicky Selesnya Storm triggerfest value combo deck. The goal of the deck is to be in a position where I can play a creature like Whitemane Lion over and over again, gaining a lot of lands via Karametra. Many other cards are in the deck to expand this value-engine:

  • There are a bunch of cards in here which trigger whenever you cast a creature spell. Some, like Beast Whisperer, will draw you a lot of cards. Others, like God-Eternal Oketra, net you tokens, and there are a bunch of other benefits we can reap from cards in this category.
  • Landfall cards add to the triggerfest, as we get a land with every creature cast through Karametra. Most of the landfall cards generate tokens, like Scute Swarm for example, but there are other perks in this category as well.
  • Cards that reduce the cost of Whitemane Lion, like Cloud Key, increase the amount of times you can recast it. I really like these type of cards in this deck: they both serve as ramp cards to get your commander out early (while not relying on the limited supply of lands in the library) but are also relevant late game to create a big storm count.
  • With Earthcraft we can tap the lion in response to it’s own ETB to let him generate a discount for his next cast.
  • Then there are the Mana doublers like Zendikar Resurgent that also get us more and more lion casts.
  • Lastly, Amulet of Vigor, Lotus Cobra and Tireless Provisioner make it so our karametra-granted lands generate mana right away, also helping our cause of resummoning our Whitemane Lion from its shiny yellow portal over and over again...

Show

Together, these cards lead to a delicious triggerfest value-engine that can really snowball out of control.

Long-term benefits

Eventually, the deck tries to win with an army of pumped creatures as we usually end up with a wealth of of creature tokens. Then, the deck runs a few ways to make our army bigger before swinging ftw!

enter image description here

Other way to win is to add Aetherflux Reservoir to our whitemane lion portal-loop.

I enjoy that this deck can play out as an average selesnya goodstuff deck, but with a high chance of really getting out of control, resulting into ridiculous board states. And in a few cases into a combo win via Aluren + Whitemane Lion + Aetherflux Reservoir. I really like this element of suprise in decks to keep them fun to pilot on the long run (what will happen this time..?).

Combos

These are some fun synergies/sequences I have found so far:

Card Explanation

This section covers all the cards that are in the deck and why they are included.

  • Mana Sink / Engine: Outlets to dump our mana into
  • Stormy / Landfall: Cards that trigger whenever we cast/land a lion
  • Ramp: Cards that us more mana than our land drops provide
  • Reduce Cost: Cards that reduce the cost of whitemane lion and other cards
  • Draw: Cards that draw us more cards.
  • Tokens: Cards that generate creature tokens
  • Tutors: Cards that fetch certain cards, mainly creatures, from the library
  • Doublers: Double our mana
  • Buff: Cards that buff our team
  • Hate: Cards that interact with our opponents’ plans
  • Protection: Cards that protect our board or our combo
  • Recursion: Cards that bring back cards from the graveyard

In order to get an arbitrary amount of creature casts per turn, these are the cards that at the core of assembling an engine.

  • Whitemane Lion, Kor Skyfisher and Stonecloaker: These are the 3 main engine creatures I selected. Fleetfoot Panther did not make the cut because you can never get him to cost less than 2. I opted for more creature tutors instead. Stonecloaker is nice in that it doubles as graveyard hate.
  • Cloudstone Curiofoil: I really love this card and its art. It provides alternative ways to recast your creatures, also reusing some ETB effects in the process.
  • Aluren: The easy way to go infinite with any of the engine creatures. Can be combined with something like Grand Abolisher to negate its drawback.

Although Karametra gets us a lot of lands into play, I am still running a large amount of cards that ramp into Karametra. Most of them are creatures, so they are extra valuable after Karametra hits the board.

Ramp

  • Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves: A selection of 1-cmc mana dorks. Great to get us into the game and turn into 1-mana rampant growths after Karametra is in play.
  • Finale of Devastation: A creature tutor that finds whitemane lion that can also ramp early game by fetching Dryad Arbor. Can also be a mana sink to close out the game. Great card.
  • Lotus Cobra: A creature that allows several combo’s when combined with Karametra, giving us mana of every land she fetches out for us. Being a creature also makes it easy for us to find with our tutors.
  • Sakura-Tribe Elder: besides ramping us in the early game, Steve is very nice when combined with Emeria Shepherd. I have removed shepherd for now, but still, its a nice interaction.
  • Sol Ring: Gets Karametra out on turn 3.

Reduce Cost

These cards both help to get Karametra out early, and to reduce the cost of whitemane-lion type of cards.

  • Cloud Key: This card helps us a great deal in casting more creatures a turn, regardless of color.
  • Duskwatch Recruiter  : A card that is a cloud key on one side and a great mana sink on the other, getting us more creatures to cast when we can spare the mana. Awesome fit for this deck.
  • Earthcraft: Took me a while to realize the potential of this card in this deck. Earthcraft does not require the creatures it taps to have haste, so we can use whitemane lion itself and any tokens that we spawn to generate a mana the turn they came into play. This allows for all sorts of fun stuff.
  • Oketra's Monument: A cloud key for white creatures, which is the color of all our engine creatures. It also doubles as a Genesis Chamber. This is one of the stronger enablers in this deck, as it provides us 2 of the components of the value-engine in one card.
  • The Immortal Sun: A card I really liked when it was spoiler for the sheer amount of value it provides. This deck reaps benefits of all the text on this card.
  • Thornscape Familiar: A Pearl Medallion on a stick, meaning we can easily tutor for this card and it spawns another land if Karametra is in play.

Apart from the before mentioned Duskwatch Recruiter   and The Immortal Sun I run the following draw spells:

  • Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project and Zendikar Resurgent: These 3 all make it so every lion cast or landing draws us a card. The first 2 are nice in that they can come down just before Karametra. Zendikar Resurgent is awesome in that it doubles as a mana doubler and is a prime target for Academy Rector to grab. Soul of the Harvest and Primordial Sage are omitted because of their CMC.
  • Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Mentor of the Meek: These mimic the previous trio except that they warrant a 1 mana price for each draw. But they also have upsides: they come down earlier; the PokeDex is nice that it also lets us scry every turn; and Mentor of the Meek also triggers when we spawn tokens.
  • Evolutionary Leap: turns our cheap tokens into creature cards while doubling as a sac outlet for Academy Rector and Protean Hulk.
  • Tireless Tracker: another way to turn our creature casts into cards, but this time via our lands. Nicely costed at 3 mana and is also a creature.
  • Wall of Omens: Wall of omens just brings great value in this deck. The cost reducers all hit white creatures, so often this card is W: “rampant growth, draw a card and get an 0/4 defender” which is hard to pass up.

Tokens

  • Field of the Dead, Felidar Retreat and Scute Swarm: produce one or more tokens whenever we hit a land. Great when we have Karametra out to produce a bunch of tokens. However, we only have so many lands to find, so these producers are not going to give us infinite tokens. That does not have to be an issue with Scute Swarm however ;).
  • God-Eternal Oketra, Oketra's Monument and Primeval Bounty: each produces a token on cast of a different size. Oketra's tokens can be a force to be reckoned with, even if we don't go infinite. Primeval bounty is a great enchantment in that we get all sorts of other benefits from it and can be another fine target for Academy Rector if we need a token producer. Oketra's momument gives us nice dispensable tokens.

Buff

Apart from The Immortal Sun giving our team a slight boost, I added these Overrun-type spells to win via combat:

  • Champion of Lambholt: a stormy card that synergizes well with the portal-engine, with results that can really make a difference by giving our whole team evasion. Great target to get with Finale of Devastation at 10 or more.
  • Finale of Devastation: well, enough said about this card. It does a lot of what this deck wants to do.
  • Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: turns all the mana we assemble into bigger creatures. Can also be a great board wipe deterrent if you leave open a bunch of green mana to take some lands with you as your board goes down.

Doublers

Mana Sinks

Apart from the engine creatures and the before mentioned Duskwatch Recruiter  , Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Finale of Devastation, I am also running Genesis Wave as a way to dump all the mana this deck can generate. Genesis wave is nice when combined with landfall cards, as any lands we hit are also going to trigger the landfall cards we found with Genesis Wave.

  • Aura Shards: Well, this is quite an obvious include right if the deck is a creature-based storm deck?
  • Cataclysmic Gearhulk and Tragic Arrogance: These boardwipe options are nice with a commander that is also an enchantment, as it often allows to keep more relevant permanents than our opponents. It's also another way to sacrifice either Academy Rector or Protean Hulk.
  • Collector Ouphe & Deafening Silence: great hate pieces here. Since we are a creature combo deck they are not going to hinder us at all, while any opponents will find themselves hampered a lot more.
  • Force of Vigor: A great way to deal with our opponent's plan, also when they are not expecting you to.
  • Nature's Claim and Swords to Plowshares: 2 super efficient single target creature removal options.
  • Qasali Pridemage: this is a non-ETB-based tutorable answer to a card like Torpor Orb.
  • Skyclave Apparition: a tutorable answer to a lot of problematic commander cards. Love this card.
  • Stonecloaker: except being an engine creature, it gives the deck a repeatable graveyard removal option.

Protection

  • Dragonlord Dromoka, Grand Abolisher and Veil of Summer: these are great includes when we are ready for a crazy turn or to go for a combo. Grand abolisher is nice as a 2-drop, so we can easily find it with something like Uncage the Menagerie. Dromoka allows us to combo through a counter-heavy opponent. Veil of Summer can also be a nice way to save a combo piece from spot removal while also cantripping.
  • Selfless Spirit: a nice cheap creature to have out there as a boardwipe deterrent. It is yet another hurdle for opponents who seek to knock you back down.
  • Flawless Maneuver: a new card I really like to test here.
  • Shalai, Voice of Plenty: gives us hexproof, which can be relevant with card like Leadership Vacuum being more common. Also has a nice mana-sink on there that we can use to win the game.

Recursion

  • Eternal Witness: more relevant in a deck like this, where having the right combination of cards is the goal. We can rebuy the ETB with a few cards in the deck as well.
  • Finale of Devastation: this card is probably in every category by now. What a versatile card!

Karametra Targets

Fixing

Utility Lands

enter image description here

Additional Information

These are the remaining primer topics for whoever wants some more information on the commander, my build considerations and my meta.

This deck isn’t really about the commander. It really is about the Portal-loop-experience. Karametra allows us to build this engine reliably though because of Karametra’s resilience: the indestructibility makes it so we can durdle a few turns to assemble our engine without much risk of getting one of the vital pieces removed.

This is a reason for me not to switch to Chulane, Teller of Tales who allows for a similar build. He has a much higher threat level and is much easier to remove. I also generally prefer 2-colored decks over 3-colored ones, because that usually results into picking less staples and ending up with a higher variety of cards across my decks.

This deck started as a fun triggerfest idea but has accidentally become one of my most powerful decks. It is synergistic and has a lot of different interactions, but all paths ultimately end up in a similar combo finish. It is currently a bit too strong for my playgroup, but I don't mind having one deck that's a bit more edgy ;). I do think this deck could be pushed further and enter the competitive level (check Goretast's list if you want to explore that route).

Category (Jank - Low - Mid - High - Competitive)

High

These considerations have been guiding in my card selection. They help determine priority when deciding between different cards:

Embrace the gimmick

As the description so far has made clear, the main intent is to make the value engine take off. Most card slots are dedicated to make that happen. So if a card it helps to make the engine better, it is probably in the deck.

A home for the Rector

Academy Rector is a card that I've put in several decks, but I also ended up removing it in each instance. I was looking for a place where it can really shine. With this deck I'm having another go, as it includes a few expensive key enchantments for the value engine to really take off. Zendikar Resurgent seems to be the clear winner, with Nyxbloom Ancient and Primeval Bounty being great alternatives. Then it can also grab Aluren if we can close out the game with it.

enter image description here

To enable the rector I've tried to incorporate a few cards that can sac him: like Evolutionary Leap and High Market. To this end I also really like Cataclysmic Gearhulk in this deck. With Karametra being an enchantment, you have a lot more options when picking your permanents.

ETB is not a priority

A common package in decks like this is a selection of strong ETB creatures and ways to bounce those creatures back to your hand for value. Although I run some of those cards (like Cloudstone Curio), I decided this is not a main priority for me in the deck, partially because I already run a few decks where this is a theme. This is why I am no longer running certain cards, like Temur Sabertooth.

Pick new cards if possible

Selesnya is probably my favorite color combination (this is my 4th deck with WG in it). Because of that, it’s easy to fall back on the same staples. However, this is making my decks too homogeneous which is something I try to avoid, so I try to stray away from cards I already play in other decks a lot if possible. In this deck, I did not pick Craterhoof Behemoth as a buff spell for example, but went for cards like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.

White creatures

Because of the package of cards that reduce costs of creature spells mostly affect white creatures only, I value white creatures over green ones in this list. So if I can choose between white or green options (e.g. Wall of Omens vs Wall of Blossoms, white is going to win.

I play commander with a set playgroup in a kitchentable setting. We have added one house rule: no infinite card combo's of 2 or less cards (like Tooth and Nail based combo's). We also try to keep a check on excessive stax or denial strategies. This usually enables that everyone has a chance to try out their creations and have some fun.

There are quite some graveyard-based decks and thus quite a lot of graveyard hate. This makes it so I did not want to depend on the graveyard for my strategy.

I use the updates section to share most updates. Please check there for card changes and considerations.

Currently testing:

Let me know if you have some tips! Also, feel free to upvote the deck if you liked it.

Upvote & Support This Primer!

GL & HF

Beebles

enter image description here

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Suggestions

Updates Add

ZNR changes — Sept. 18, 2020
Edit

I’ve added these new ZNR cards to the deck:

Made a bunch of other changes as well since the last update, but don’t remember what I cut for them. Added Field of the Dead, Collector Ouphe, Flawless Maneuver and Nyxbloom Ancient.

Small M20 & ELD tweaks + primer section — July 27, 2019
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War of the Spark + MH1 Update — April 28, 2019
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First plays — April 15, 2018
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Card Odds v1 Draw hand
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Revision 121 See all

(1 week ago)

Top Ranked
Date added 6 years
Last updated 2 days
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

12 - 0 Mythic Rares

54 - 0 Rares

11 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.82
Tokens Copy Clone, Food, Human Soldier 1/1 GW, Illusion */* U, Insect 1/1 G, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders EDH Decks to Try, Interesting Commander Decks, Favorites, Karametra, AAWant to try, EDH, Fellow Karametra Homies, Favorites, Karametra, Neat
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