Tukatongue Thallid

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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

Tukatongue Thallid

Creature — Fungus

When Tukatongue Thallid dies, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token. (Dying is being put into the graveyard from the battlefield.)

zachz on Aren't You Getting a Little Briared?

1 year ago

More blockers huh? In that case, maybe consider Trestle Troll and Tukatongue Thallid. Some spells that serve as blockers/summoners would be Fists of Ironwood and Hindervines.

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

HalbrechtHalbrecht: 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!

HalbrechtHalbrecht 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

Okay, it's been a few weeks since my last update and since then I've been thinking about these changes and playtesting and trying alternatives, and now it's time to update the deck again!

The improved mana base and Obelisk of Urd are all performing amazingly and I'm glad to have brought them in. No changes there.

I'm removing Essence Warden as the benefit it gives to the deck, while nice, is not necessarily helping me win. It's better than Tukatongue Thallid was, but there are other things I can play instead. I'm also removing Song of Freyalise, which is not as useful now that I have more Convoke spells and that I have plenty of lands generating white, meaning I don't need the saprolings to color-fix for me anymore.

So instead I'm adding 2x Voyaging Satyr for mana, since it doesn't require other creatures in play to work. While I considered Birds of Paradise for the spot, since being only one mana might be relevant more often than untapping Utopia Sprawl, the Satyr is a lot more budget-friendly and all in all not a bad card, as I do want to be untapping those utopia-enchanted lands.

And since I found that I've too often been in a position of not having any saproling-generating plays in the early turns since Saproling Migration can only be a 4-of, I'm adding 4x Fists of Ironwood back in. Hopefully one day they'll release a better cheap Saproling spell, but it'll do for now in a pinch.

ellie-is on Ellie's Saprolings

3 years ago

@Mgalangzingme: Thanks for the comment! I agree that you always want to play Arbor Elf on Turn 1 and it should be prioritized over Essence Warden, but I added her for two reasons. One being that there's often mana left that can be used to cast her before a saproling spell (following t1 arbor elf, a t2 of Essence Warden + Saproling Migration, for example), she's a "free" card on the turn you're casting Scatter the Seeds or other convoke spells (creatures that just entered can be tapped for it, getting you back the mana you spent on them) and she turns those spells into lifegain. So I do feel like there's a time to cast her. The second reason being that as much as I'd like to, I'm not always going to have Arbor Elf in my opening hand and was looking for 1-drops more efficient than Tukatongue Thallid. Her lifegain isn't as intense as in a dedicated deck, but it's often more than the loss of life I prevent by chumping with the thallid and she can not only chump block herself as well, but might eat a removal spell that would otherwise hit some other important thing (which the thallid wouldn't do, because it's really not very scary).

That said, if you know of any 1-drops that'd be more useful, I'd love to hear them! I'm still waiting for the day Wizards will do a functional reprint of Arbor Elf even though that's probably never going to happen, lol.

ellie-is on Ellie's Saprolings

3 years ago

So I've done a pretty big update by fixing the mana base through adding fetches and shocklands (if anyone has any ideas for further tweaks I'd love to hear them!), haven't bought them yet but will do that before the next time when it's safe to play magic, whenever that may be, lol.

Also got rid of Tukatongue Thallid, which didn't really do much most of the time, and Supply which was either dead card, a strictly worse version of my other token spells, or just a win-more card.

Taking their places are Essence Warden, which turned out to be a -lot- better than I expected and can change the result of the game just by surviving a couple of turns, and Obelisk of Urd, which is surprisingly easy to cast and amazing at closing out games.

With these changes I've decided I don't like Song of Freyalise so much anymore, as with the new lands it's very rare for me to not have white mana available when I need it and a lot of my spells have Convoke anyway, and with Obelisk of Urd the song's final ability feels redundant and Urd is a better finisher most of the time.

So I'm trying to figure out a 2-drop to take its place but I don't really know what. Main contenders right now are Birds of Paradise, Voyaging Satyr, and Fists of Ironwood (though I don't really want to use the latter that much as neeeding to enchant something to use it really sucks, wish there was another 2-drop saproling maker lol). Suggestions on this dillema are most welcome!!

ellie-is on Saporling tribal

3 years ago

If you're going the spore counter route, you should definitely consider Sporesower Thallid and Thelon of Havenwood to make it more viable (but even then it's pretty weak compared to other saproling strategies). If you decide not to go the spore counter route, Tukatongue Thallid is a great one-drop to consider in place of Thallid. I'd also be really wary of Life and Limb even in casual games, as losing all your lands to something as unimpressive as Electrickery is really, really unfun.

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