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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Pauper Duel Commander | Legal |
| Pauper EDH | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Sprout
Instant
Create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
TheVectornaut on
Old Fungus Deck
1 year ago
Since you're in casual, there's a lot of heavy hitting cards you could add (budget permitting). Doubling Season improves the turnaround rate of spore counters and gets you more tokens, although it is itself expensive. Something cheaper with proliferate like Evolution Sage could accomplish a similar goal. Aura Shards is a potent alternative to single-use Naturalizes for Selesnya, with Nullmage Shepherd being a more budget pick. Skullclamp is an insane draw engine if you keep your tokens at 1 toughness. Or if you don't want to, Intangible Virtue can stack with Sporecrown Thallids to get out of hand quickly. As far as creating tokens, there's Aura Mutation, Dreampod Druid, Fungal Sprouting, Korozda Guildmage, Saproling Migration, Thelonite Hermit, and the powerful lord Tendershoot Dryad. If you want generically good Golgari removal, cards like Assassin's Trophy and Fatal Push tend to see a lot of play. Personally, I like Crippling Fear for tribal decks and Tragic Slip for decks with sacrifice synergy. Speaking of sacrifices, I know from experience in commander that both Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Ghave, Guru of Spores make for nasty combos with Mycoloth. Such a strategy would also make creatures like Tukatongue Thallid more valuable than spell counterparts like Sprout or Fungal Infection.
The cards I'd look to cut first would be Rending Vines, Wear Away, Wrap in Vigor, Wurm's Tooth, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, AEther Web, and possibly Fists of Ironwood unless you add more cards like Dreampod.
ellie-is on
Ellie's Saprolings
3 years ago
Halbrechtt: Thank you for the very detailed comment!!
Sprout is just sadly not good enough! I used to run it back when I also ran Parallel Lives and I think that's the only case where it's worth it - one mana for two creatures (making it slightly better than Tukatongue Thallid, which's that but over multiple turns). Otherwise, it's a 1/1 with flash and nothing else, which... Well, for comparison lets look at Spectral Sailor. It's blue, arguably the worst type for competitively costed creatures, and not only it has flash, but it also has flying, card draw, and two types with a lot of tribal support. And yet it's still a super cheap common that doesn't see play. So getting a card that does one third of that, in a green deck, not that great. If I'm making Saprolings I want to make more than one per card, so while Sprout is a nice card, it doesn't make the cut. (that said, I kinda wanna build a casual spirit deck with a playset of spectral sailor now)
You're right about Tukatongue Thallid's primary purpose, but it ended up not being relevant often enough to the point where I actually haven't missed it at all since I removed it! Which's why it's important that its replacement needed to be clearly doing more than it was.
I like Fists of Ironwood a lot, it's of course worse than Saproling Migration or even Krenko's Command, but it's what we have when we can get to make 2 Saprolings for 2 mana and have four migrations already, haha. Getting 2-for-1'd is definitely a risk, but I think it's worth it despite that, especially if I stick to my rule of never enchanting my own creature if I can help it. That said, as soon as they release something that can fulfill its purpose of getting as many Saprolings as possible out of a single card for a reasonable mana cost, I'll be sure to replace it.
I used to have Druid's Deliverance on the sideboard (and even the mainboard way back in the day), but it was just so rare for it to be giving me a significant enough advantage compared to other cards I could have. People tend to agree that Fogs aren't a good idea outside of casual environments and I have a hard time arguing with them (though I do love seeing a well played Fog in a kitchen table, lol). Populate is nice, but it ends up being a small bonus in a Saproling deck. You get a lot more out of it when you're doubling Rhinos or Wurms. (I do love that new art, though!)
Flash Foliage is a mix of Sprout and Druid's deliverance - but it's a weaker fog effect, and the saproling is almost always going to die. Drawing a card is nice, but the whole thing is a little too situational for me. Cards that require opponents to do a specific thing are a gamble, and they need a really good payoff to be worth it. And even if this let me make that Saproling and draw a card outside of combat, I'd probably not be sure about whether or not to run it, and that helps me realize that since it's worse than the hypothetical version I still might not run, I probably don't want to run it as it actually is.
Pallid Mycoderm is an interesting one! It's been so long since I gave spore counter fungus any consideration, that I hadn't thought about this particular card since before the deck was even white, haha. I'm going to do some serious thinking about it! I'm always wary of sacrificing tokens but it might be worth it.
Thanks again for everything! I'm always happy when people pay attention to my decks and look at them closely. And the world of Magic needs more unique builds, heh. Nothing wrong with wanting to win tournaments and play top tier decks, but... well, unique decks are a lot more fun!
Halbrechtt on
Ellie's Saprolings
3 years ago
As promised!
Honestly, I can tell you've put a lot of thought into working and reworking this deck a ton, so I don't really have much to add. I agree with your decision to avoid black, since there's only 2 maybe 3 saproling-specific cards that are worth running. I'm not sure it would actually improve the deck all that much.
I am curious, though: Perhaps I missed your reasoning in one of the archived comments (I only read through the ones currently on the page), but why aren't you running Sprout? I saw you mention it in a comment, so you've clearly already thought about it (how couldn't you have!). But you also mentioned wanting a replacement for Tukatongue Thallid, whose primary purpose I presume was to be an early blocker that resulted in the more relevant Saproling. Obviously, two creatures from one card is better than Sprout's one creature, but that one creature IS the desired creature, and you can get it at instant speed, which has its advantages in Modern. So feel free to point me to a previous comment if you've already detailed your reasoning, but if not, I'd love to hear it.
I'd personally consider trying Sprout in place of Fists of Ironwood. In the few playtests I did of this deck, the very issue you were concerned about with Fists kept happening. The target creature would get Path'd or Bolt'd in response to the aura, which was devastating tempo and card disadvantage. Getting two saprolings out of one card is better than one saproling from one card, but one saproling is better than zero saprolings. ;)
I'm also curious what your thoughts on Druid's Deliverance are as a sideboard card. I could see it being good against fast aggro decks. One issue in that matchup is having to use your early saprolings as blockers, keeping you from building up your saproling army. That also limits your ability to get ahead, since you rely on Convoke so heavily. Deliverance allows you to negate all that aggro damage (basically time walking your opponent in that style of deck) while also advancing your board. And since it doesn't prevent combat damage to creatures, you still have the option, if you decide to take it, of blocking a key creature to kill it off.
In a similar vein, there's Flash Foliage. Now, I don't actually think it's as good a card as the other options you have, but there is one niche case that's worth mentioning. If you find yourself facing decks with a lot of creatures you can't block (flyers, or outright "can't be blocked"), Foliage actually allows you to block them with the saproling (as long as they don't have hexproof/shroud, obviously). Since you're not actually declaring the saproling as a blocker, it's not illegal. It's also worth noting that if you don't want to lose the flashed-in saproling as a blocker, you can cast it in the "end of combat" step after damage has already been done, since whatever creature(s) was attacking you is still considered to be attacking. The only reason this card might even be a consideration for me is the "draw a card" clause, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Finally, one other honorable mention: 1x-2x Pallid Mycoderm (for its last ability, not the spore counters). I just like it as a finisher. Imagine you have 6 saprolings in play and one anthem effect, while your opponent has a couple blockers, then you play this dude and go to combat. Without Mycoderm, you'd get 4 2/2s through for 8 damage, but with Mycoderm out, you can sac the blocked saprolings to turn the others into 4/4s and push 16 damage through. Assuming they've fetched and shocked themselves once or twice, that's game-winning damage. At the very least, it makes combat math very difficult for your opponent, often giving them less good blocks.
Anyways, fun deck! It's cool to see unique builds like this! +1
ellie-is on
Ellie's Saprolings
3 years ago
Hi tacolover25!
I wouldn't let go of white as Intangible Virtue is pretty much mandatory for a token deck. I have considered adding black, but I think it makes the manabase a little too complicated and expensive for not that much benefit.
I like Slimefoot, the Stowaway and was so happy when it came out that there was a legendary fungus, but ultimately I feel like he's better on Aristocrat-style decks (which's the direction people usually go with GB Saprolings, with the tokens being there mostly for sacrifice rather than attacking, which's why they don't need things like Intangible Virtue. I'd probably give him more thought if splashing black didn't require such a big investment.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is a little weird here, I like her -2 but not for 3 mana (assuming I only get to do it once), and her -7 doesn't have any synergy with the rest of the deck (as I run very few lands and generate mana in other ways). If her +1 was a proper Saproling instead of a Plant I'd deeeeeefinitely be running her, though.
Sprout Swarm I really like, I ran it for years, but five mana for a Saproling, even if it can be recurred, was just a too slow for the level of performance I wanted from this deck and it couldn't keep up with newer additions. If it made 2 tokens for the same cost, it'd be amazing, but as is it doesn't make the cut.
Mycoloth is a big no-no also as I used to run it way back in the day and it was a removal magnet that took my entire board with it. Won a few games thanks to having it, but mostly it just made me lose and the wins would have been wins anyway if I had other finishers instead of it. Fungal Infection is really nice, I like that it's Sprout with removal attached to it, but it would require me to run black and I don't know how much room I can make for removal (right now I'm running white and have no Path to Exiles and some people would consider that a crime lol). Finally Korozda Guildmage isn't really a good fit regardless of color because there aren't any nontoken creatures with relevant toughness for it to sarifice.
And Aura Mutation would've been a great sideboard card, but it's sadly not Modern legal.
Either way, thanks a lot of stopping by and commenting!!
ersatz_olorin on
Poly'Torn (RUG)
5 years ago
I think that Polymorph has potential, I feel the biggest issue is how you're enabling it. On their own, the token makers aren't very good, so I propose using man lands (i.e. Mutavault and Faerie Conclave ). This would allow you to cut green and place the combo in a UR control shell. This does slow it down, but allows you to play a grindier game with less dead pieces like Sprout .
I threw together a basic list so you could see what I was talking about:
The question this change ultimately raises is if this Polymorph combo is better than Through the Breach + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn . Let me know what you think :)
NoOneOfConsequence on
Poly'M'rakrul
5 years ago
This deck sort of looks like it has consistency issues. You're only running 5 polymorph effects, 6 ways to make a creature to polymorph, and 8 cantrips (I don't really count Remand ). I guess you also have Search for Azcanta Flip, and you can flashback Faithless Looting , but one Serum Visions ? One Polymorph ? Here's how I would build this deck:
First, we go RUG. 2x Khalni Garden . 4x Sprout Swarm and 4x Sprout instead of Hordeling Outburst and Spawning Breath . 2x See Beyond , 4x Serum Visions . Ditch the Search for Azcanta Flip, Rune Snag , and Remand . Shave an Izzet Charm , a Faithless Looting , and a Lightning Bolt for 3 more Polymorph s.
You're now playing 10 polymorph-able cards instead of 6, 8 polymorph effects instead of 5, and 12 cantrips, as before. Sure, you have fewer counterspells, but Remand is not a good card no matter what people say, and Rune Snag isn't that great, either. You can even buyback Sprout Swarm if you just need to keep chump-blocking.
Is Indomitable Creativity going to be hard to cast in a 3-color deck? No, this is modern--you can play anything you want. Green would also give you access to some better sideboard options, like being able to flashback Ancient Grudge .
On an unrelated note, I feel like a deck like this could actually benefit from running an Electrodominance package that included Restore Balance due to not playing literally any creatures beyond one, but there just isn't any room for it, sadly. Still, though...you could play Wheel of Fate to pitch an emrakul you drew...you could play Ancestral Vision ...the possibilities are limitless, really.
ellie-is on
Saparooos Gonna Get You
5 years ago
I think personally I like Explore better tan Enter the Unknown despite the extra mana, since the counter doesn't necessarily help you that much. You're also running a low amount of lands, so you don't have such a high chance of getting one while exploring, but the draw from Explore will be a draw regardless.
And, I mean, with a perfect hand every deck is perfect, but it's still a good idea to prepare for when you don't get that perfect hand, or to try your best during deckbuilding to make sure most hands can be at least "good enough".
RE: Sprout. I like it, and it might be what you need, but maybe think about Tukatongue Thallid. It can't be sacrificed for mana right away, but it gives you a chump blocker to help you stay alive longer before your combo is up.
Finally, just a quick tip from someone who's played with Life and Limb before: you should always make sure you can play Sporemound on the same turn, or play it the turn before. If you allow your opponent to get a full turn in while all your forests are 1/1 saprolings, there's a very good chance you'll lose them all to some low-power boardwipe, and that's just not fun. I'm speaking from painful personal experience here.
EricMiles on
Saparooos Gonna Get You
5 years ago
Because I'm a dummie and read it as a saproling. Tearing them all out for more forest now.
A perfect hand can easily still drop the combo turn 3, If you have enough saproling to sacrifice. I shuffled things around and added Sprout to give a little more options on turn 2, though turn three all your efforts should be put into getting out Life and Limb then tapping your remaining saprolings and sacking everything for a Sporemound. If you dont draw the cards you need then turn 2/3 can also be used to to dig for them and you easily have all the mana you could need turn 4.
Also thoughts on Enter the Unknown?