"To death all must go, and so in death lies ultimate power."
This is the story of a Jekyll and Hyde scholar who in his quest to control his inner
Homicidal Brute
gets immersed in his stinkweed. He attempts to copy the examples of success around him, but becomes a Phantasmal Image of them at best. He blames his Ghost Dad, but in reality its only his Birthing Pod and the ooze that he has to blame for his current situation. He becomes a Devoted Druid of the elementals, and picks up crabs...on and on he attempts to control his situation until it all explodes into infinity.
This is my Devoted Druid/Necrotic Ooze combo deck. The goal is to throw cards in the graveyard with
Hedron Crab
and Gifts Ungiven early game, and bring out a Necrotic Ooze for the win. The combo uses infinite mana (Morselhoarder/Devoted Druid,) and the ooze copies
Myr Propagator
s ability to make infinite Ooze tokens. I can then sac those tokens using Death Cultists ability to cause infinite loss of life while I gain infinite life. It's all brought together by Civilized Scholar
on the ooze, and repeated dredging of the Stinkweed Imp. I like not having to transform into a
Homicidal Brute
.
In the unfortunate event that this doesn't work,
Thornling
is a pretty effective beater when you can make it a 7/1 indestructible trampler, it helps to add inevitability. Morselhoarder can come in as a 6/4 too. Not the most efficient but they do the job.
I'm not sure if it's quite fast enough for the format so I'm going back to the control-based shell that it was. I found the heavy ramp and dedication to throwing stuff in the yard made my deck not very resilient. If I protect my important pieces and keep what the opponent is doing under control, I have a better chance of getting the dredge engine in place. Once that happens all the hate in the world is going to have to fight through a very deep stack.
I have some concern about graveyard hate like
Rest in Peace
, legends like Geist of Saint Traft, and decks like Tron and Splinter Twin that are just so damned consistent. So, in response my sideboard packs a heavy control element using things like Surgical Extraction and Snapcaster Mage to get the most of my Thoughtseizes, Inquisitions and
Hedron Crab
s. These allow me to pick those destructive pieces out of their decks for me to walk in clean and unabated.
